TELEMACHUS AND ULYSSES REMOVE THE ARMOUR—ULYSSES INTERVIEWS PENELOPE—EURYCLEA WASHES HIS FEET AND RECOGNISES THE SCAR ON HIS LEG—PENELOPE TELLS HER DREAM TO ULYSSES.
Ulysses was left in the cloister, on the means with Minerva’s help he might be able to kill the suitors. Presently he said to Telemachus, “Telemachus, we must the together and take it inside. Make some when the ask you why you have it. Say that you have taken it to be out of the way of the smoke, as it is no longer what it was when Ulysses away, but has and with soot. Add to this more particularly that you are Jove may set them on to over their wine, and that they may do each other some which may and wooing, for the of arms sometimes people to use them.”
Telemachus of what his father had said, so he called nurse Euryclea and said, “Nurse, the up in their room, while I take the that my father left him into the store room. No one looks after it now my father is gone, and it has got all with my own boyhood. I want to take it where the cannot it.”
“I wish, child,” answered Euryclea, “that you would take the management of the house into your own hands altogether, and look after all the property yourself. But who is to go with you and light you to the store-room? The would have done so, but you would not let them.”
“The stranger,” said Telemachus, “shall me a light; when people eat my they must earn it, no where they come from.”
Euryclea did as she was told, and the their room. Then Ulysses and his son all to take the helmets, shields, and inside; and Minerva them with a gold lamp in her hand that a soft and radiance, Telemachus said, “Father, my a great marvel: the walls, with the rafters, crossbeams, and the supports on which they are all as with a fire. Surely there is some god here who has come from heaven.”
“Hush,” answered Ulysses, “hold your peace and ask no questions, for this is the manner of the gods. Get you to your bed, and me here to talk with your mother and the maids. Your mother in her will ask me all of questions.”
On this Telemachus by torch-light to the other of the court, to the room in which he always slept. There he in his till morning, while Ulysses was left in the on the means with Minerva’s help he might be able to kill the suitors.
Then Penelope came from her room looking like Venus or Diana, and they set her a seat with of and near the fire in her place. It had been by Icmalius and had a all in one piece with the seat itself; and it was with a thick fleece: on this she now sat, and the came from the women’s room to join her. They set about the tables at which the had been dining, and took away the that was left, with the cups from which they had drunk. They the out of the braziers, and much upon them to give light and heat; but Melantho to rail at Ulysses a second time and said, “Stranger, do you to us by about the house all night and upon the women? Be off, you wretch, outside, and eat your supper there, or you shall be out with a firebrand.”
Ulysses at her and answered, “My good woman, why should you be so angry with me? Is it I am not clean, and my are all in rags, and I am to go about after the manner of and generally? I too was a rich man once, and had a house of my own; in those days I gave to many a such as I now am, no who he might be what he wanted. I had any number of servants, and all the other which people have who live well and are wealthy, but it pleased Jove to take all away from me; therefore, woman, you too come to that and place in which you now above your fellows; have a you out of with your mistress, and Ulysses should come home, for there is still a that he may do so. Moreover, though he be as you think he is, yet by Apollo’s will he has left a son him, Telemachus, who will note anything done by the in the house, for he is now no longer in his boyhood.”
Penelope what he was saying and the maid, “Impudent baggage,” said she, “I see how you are behaving, and you shall for it. You perfectly well, for I told you myself, that I was going to see the and ask him about my husband, for I am in such sorrow.”
Then she said to her waiting woman Eurynome, “Bring a seat with a upon it, for the to upon while he tells his story, and to what I have to say. I wish to ask him some questions.”
Eurynome the seat at once and set a upon it, and as soon as Ulysses had sat Penelope by saying, “Stranger, I shall ask you who and are you? Tell me of your town and parents.”
“Madam,” answered Ulysses, “who on the of the whole earth can to with you? Your the of itself; you are like some king, who righteousness, as the over a great and nation: the earth its and barley, the trees are with fruit, the lambs, and the sea with fish by of his virtues, and his people do good under him. Nevertheless, as I here in your house, ask me some other question and do not to know my and family, or you will memories that will yet more my sorrow. I am full of heaviness, but I ought not to and in another person’s house, is it well to be thus continually. I shall have one of the or of me, and saying that my swim with I am with wine.”
Then Penelope answered, “Stranger, me of all beauty, of or figure, when the Argives set sail for Troy and my dear husband with them. If he were to return and look after my I should be more and should a presence to the world. As it is, I am with care, and with the which has fit to upon me. The from all our islands—Dulichium, Same, and Zacynthus, as also from Ithaca itself, are me against my will and are my estate. I can therefore no attention to strangers, suppliants, to people who say that they are artisans, but am all the time broken-hearted about Ulysses. They want me to again at once, and I have to in order to them. In the place put it in my mind to set up a great tambour-frame in my room, and to upon an piece of needlework. Then I said to them, ‘Sweethearts, Ulysses is dead, still, do not press me to again immediately; wait—for I would not have my skill in unrecorded—till I have making a for the hero Laertes, to be against the time when death shall take him. He is very rich, and the of the place will talk if he is out without a pall.’ This was what I said, and they assented; I used to keep at my great all day long, but at night I would the again by light. I them in this way for three years without their it out, but as time on and I was now in my fourth year, in the of moons, and many days had been accomplished, those good for nothing my me to the suitors, who in upon me and me; they were very angry with me, so I was to my work I would or no. And now I do not see how I can any shift for out of this marriage. My are great pressure upon me, and my son at the the are making upon his estate, for he is now old to all about it and is perfectly able to look after his own affairs, for has him with an excellent disposition. Still, all this, tell me who you are and where you come from—for you must have had father and mother of some sort; you cannot be the son of an or of a rock.”
Then Ulysses answered, “Madam, wife of Ulysses, since you in me about my family, I will answer, no what it me: people must to be when they have been as long as I have, and as much among as many peoples. Nevertheless, as your question I will tell you all you ask. There is a and in mid-ocean called Crete; it is and there are ninety in it: the people speak many different which one another, for there are Achaeans, Eteocretans, Dorians of three-fold race, and Pelasgi. There is a great town there, Cnossus, where Minos who every nine years had a with Jove himself.152 Minos was father to Deucalion, son I am, for Deucalion had two sons Idomeneus and myself. Idomeneus for Troy, and I, who am the younger, am called Aethon; my brother, however, was at once the older and the more of the two; hence it was in Crete that I saw Ulysses and him hospitality, for the took him there as he was on his way to Troy, him out of his from Malea and him in Amnisus off the of Ilithuia, where the are difficult to enter and he from the that were then raging. As soon as he got there he into the town and asked for Idomeneus, to be his old and valued friend, but Idomeneus had already set sail for Troy some ten or twelve days earlier, so I took him to my own house and him every of hospitality, for I had of everything. Moreover, I the men who were with him with from the public store, and got of and for them to to their heart’s content. They with me twelve days, for there was a from the North so that one keep one’s on land. I some god had it for them, but on the thirteenth day the wind dropped, and they got away.”
Many a did Ulysses tell her, and Penelope as she listened, for her was melted. As the upon the when the from South East and West have upon it and it till the bank full with water, so did her overflow with for the husband who was all the time by her side. Ulysses for her and was sorry for her, but he his as hard as or iron without them so much as quiver, so did he his tears. Then, when she had herself by weeping, she to him again and said: “Now, stranger, I shall put you to the test and see or no you did my husband and his men, as you say you did. Tell me, then, how he was dressed, what of a man he was to look at, and so also with his companions.”
“Madam,” answered Ulysses, “it is such a long time ago that I can say. Twenty years are come and gone since he left my home, and elsewhither; but I will tell you as well as I can recollect. Ulysses a of wool, lined, and it was by a gold with two for the pin. On the of this there was a device that a dog a his paws, and it as it upon the ground. Every one at the way in which these had been done in gold, the dog looking at the fawn, and it, while the was to escape.153 As for the shirt that he next his skin, it was so soft that it him like the skin of an onion, and in the to the of all the who it. Furthermore I say, and my saying to your heart, that I do not know Ulysses these when he left home, or one of his had them to him while he was on his voyage; or possibly some one at house he was him a present of them, for he was a man of many friends and had equals among the Achaeans. I myself gave him a of and a mantle, lined, with a shirt that to his feet, and I sent him on his ship with every mark of honour. He had a with him, a little older than himself, and I can tell you what he was like; his were hunched,154 he was dark, and he had thick hair. His name was Eurybates, and Ulysses him with than he did any of the others, as being the most like-minded with himself.”
Penelope was moved still more as she the proofs that Ulysses her; and when she had again in she said to him, “Stranger, I was already to you, but you shall be and welcome in my house. It was I who gave Ulysses the you speak of. I took them out of the store room and them up myself, and I gave him also the gold to wear as an ornament. Alas! I shall welcome him home again. It was by an that he set out for that city very name I cannot myself to mention.”
Then Ulysses answered, “Madam, wife of Ulysses, do not by thus for your loss, though I can you for doing so. A woman who has loved her husband and him children, would naturally be at him, though he were a man than Ulysses, who they say was like a god. Still, your and to what I can tell you. I will nothing from you, and can say with perfect truth that I have of Ulysses as being alive and on his way home; he is among the Thesprotians, and is much valuable that he has from one and another of them; but his ship and all his were as they were the Thrinacian island, for Jove and the sun-god were angry with him his men had the sun-god’s cattle, and they were all to a man. But Ulysses to the of the ship and was on to the land of the Phaeacians, who are near of to the immortals, and who him as though he had been a god, him many presents, and to him home safe and sound. In Ulysses would have been here long ago, had he not to go from land to land wealth; for there is no man who is so as he is; there is no one can with him. Pheidon king of the Thesprotians told me all this, and he to me—making drink-offerings in his house as he did so—that the ship was by the water and the who would take Ulysses to his own country. He sent me off first, for there to be a Thesprotian ship for the wheat-growing of Dulichium, but he me all the Ulysses had got together, and he had in the house of king Pheidon to keep his family for ten generations; but the king said Ulysses had gone to Dodona that he might learn Jove’s mind from the high tree, and know after so long an he should return to Ithaca openly or in secret. So you may know he is safe and will be here shortly; he is close at hand and cannot away from home much longer; I will my with an oath, and call Jove who is the and of all gods to witness, as also that of Ulysses to which I have now come, that all I have spoken shall surely come to pass. Ulysses will return in this self same year; with the end of this moon and the of the next he will be here.”
“May it be so,” answered Penelope; “if your come true you shall have such gifts and such good will from me that all who see you shall you; but I know very well how it will be. Ulysses will not return, neither will you your hence, for so surely as that Ulysses was, there are now no longer any such masters in the house as he was, to or to them on their way home. And now, you maids, wash his for him, and make him a on a with and blankets, that he may be warm and till morning. Then, at day wash him and him again, that he may in the and take his with Telemachus. It shall be the for any one of these people who is to him; like it or not, he shall have no more to do in this house. For how, sir, shall you be able to learn or no I am to others of my in of and understanding, if I let you in my and clad? Men live but for a little season; if they are hard, and hardly, people wish them so long as they are alive, and speak of them when they are dead, but he that is and righteously, the people tell of his among all lands, and many shall call him blessed.”
Ulysses answered, “Madam, I have and from the day that I left the of Crete to go on shipboard. I will as I have on many a night hitherto. Night after night have I passed in any sleeping place, and waited for morning. Nor, again, do I like having my washed; I shall not let any of the about your house touch my feet; but, if you have any old and woman who has gone through as much trouble as I have, I will allow her to wash them.”
To this Penelope said, “My dear sir, of all the guests who yet came to my house there was one who spoke in all with such as you do. There to be in the house a most old woman—the same who my dear husband in her arms the night he was born, and nursed him in infancy. She is very now, but she shall wash your feet.” “Come here,” said she, “Euryclea, and wash your master’s age-mate; I Ulysses’ hands and are very much the same now as his are, for trouble all of us fast.”
On these the old woman her with her hands; she to and saying, “My dear child, I cannot think I am to do with you. I am no one was more god-fearing than yourself, and yet Jove you. No one in the whole world him more bones, gave him when you prayed you might come to a green old age and see your son up to take after you: yet see how he has you alone from to your own home. I have no the in some which Ulysses has got to are at him as all these here have been at you. I do not wonder at your not to let them wash you after the manner in which they have you; I will wash your myself enough, as Penelope has said that I am to do so; I will wash them for Penelope’s and for your own, for you have the most of in my mind; and let me say this moreover, which pray to; we have had all of in come here now, but I make to say that no one yet came who was so like Ulysses in figure, voice, and as you are.”
“Those who have us both,” answered Ulysses, “have always said we were like each other, and now you have noticed it too.”
Then the old woman took the in which she was going to wash his feet, and of cold water into it, adding till the was warm enough. Ulysses sat by the fire, but long he away from the light, for it to him that when the old woman had of his leg she would a which it bore, the whole truth would come out. And as soon as she her master, she at once the as one that had been him by a wild when he was on Mt. Parnassus with his excellent Autolycus—who was the most and in the whole world—and with the sons of Autolycus. Mercury himself had him with this gift, for he used to the of and to him, so he took in his companionship. It once that Autolycus had gone to Ithaca and had the child of his just born. As soon as he had done supper Euryclea set the upon his and said, “Autolycus, you must a name for your grandson; you that you might have one.”
“Son-in-law and daughter,” Autolycus, “call the child thus: I am with a large number of people in one place and another, men and women; so name the child ‘Ulysses,’ or the child of anger. When he up and comes to visit his mother’s family on Mt. Parnassus, where my lie, I will make him a present and will send him on his way rejoicing.”
Ulysses, therefore, to Parnassus to the presents from Autolycus, who with his sons hands with him and gave him welcome. His Amphithea her arms about him, and his head, and his eyes, while Autolycus his sons to dinner ready, and they did as he told them. They in a five year old bull, it, it and it into joints; these they then cut up into smaller pieces and them; they them and the round. Thus through the day to the going of the sun they feasted, and every man had his full so that all were satisfied; but when the sun set and it came on dark, they to and the of sleep.
When the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared, the sons of Autolycus out with their hunting, and Ulysses too. They the of Parnassus and soon its valleys; but as the sun was to upon the fields, fresh-risen from the slow still of Oceanus, they came to a dell. The dogs were in for the of the they were chasing, and after them came the sons of Autolycus, among was Ulysses, close the dogs, and he had a long in his hand. Here was the of a among some thick brushwood, so that the wind and rain not through it, the sun’s it, and the ground thick with leaves. The the noise of the men’s feet, and the on every as the came up to him, so he from his lair, the on his neck, and at with fire from his eyes. Ulysses was the to his and try to drive it into the brute, but the was too quick for him, and him sideways, him above the with a that though it did not the bone. As for the boar, Ulysses him on the right shoulder, and the point of the right through him, so that he in the until the life out of him. The sons of Autolycus themselves with the of the boar, and Ulysses’ wound; then, after saying a spell to stop the bleeding, they home as fast as they could. But when Autolycus and his sons had Ulysses, they him some presents, and sent him to Ithaca with much good will. When he got back, his father and mother were to see him, and asked him all about it, and how he had himself to the scar; so he told them how the had him when he was out with Autolycus and his sons on Mt. Parnassus.
As soon as Euryclea had got the in her hands and had well of it, she it and the at once. The leg into the bath, which out and was overturned, so that all the water was on the ground; Euryclea’s her and her with tears, and she not speak, but she Ulysses by the and said, “My dear child, I am sure you must be Ulysses himself, only I did not know you till I had actually touched and you.”
As she spoke she looked Penelope, as though wanting to tell her that her dear husband was in the house, but Penelope was unable to look in that direction and what was going on, for Minerva had her attention; so Ulysses Euryclea by the with his right hand and with his left her close to him, and said, “Nurse, do you wish to be the of me, you who nursed me at your own breast, now that after twenty years of I am at last come to my own home again? Since it has been in upon you by to me, your tongue, and do not say a word about it to any one else in the house, for if you do I tell you—and it shall surely be—that if me to take the of these suitors, I will not you, though you are my own nurse, when I am killing the other women.”
“My child,” answered Euryclea, “what are you talking about? You know very well that nothing can either or me. I will my like a or a piece of iron; let me say, and my saying to your heart, when has delivered the into your hand, I will give you a list of the in the house who have been ill-behaved, and of those who are guiltless.”
And Ulysses answered, “Nurse, you ought not to speak in that way; I am well able to my own opinion about one and all of them; your and to heaven.”
As he said this Euryclea left the to some more water, for the had been all spilt; and when she had him and him with oil, Ulysses his seat nearer to the fire to warm himself, and the under his rags. Then Penelope talking to him and said:
“Stranger, I should like to speak with you about another matter. It is nearly time—for those, at least, who can sleep in of sorrow. As for myself, has me a life of such woe, that by day when I am to my and looking after the servants, I am still and the whole time; then, when night comes, and we all of us go to bed, I thinking, and my a to the most and tortures. As the nightingale, of Pandareus, in the early from her seat in hid, and with many a pours out the how by she killed her own child Itylus, son of king Zethus, so my mind and turn in its I ought to with my son here, and safeguard my substance, my bondsmen, and the of my house, out of to public opinion and the memory of my late husband, or it is not now time for me to go with the best of these who are me and making me such presents. As long as my son was still young, and unable to understand, he would not of my my husband’s house, but now that he is full he and prays me to do so, being at the way in which the are up his property. Listen, then, to a that I have had and it for me if you can. I have twenty about the house that eat out of a trough,155 and of which I am fond. I that a great came from a mountain, and his into the of each of them till he had killed them all. Presently he off into the sky, and left them about the yard; I in my till all my me, so was I the had killed my geese. Then he came again, and perching on a spoke to me with voice, and told me to off crying. ‘Be of good courage,’ he said, ‘daughter of Icarius; this is no dream, but a of good that shall surely come to pass. The are the suitors, and I am no longer an eagle, but your own husband, who am come to you, and who will these to a end.’ On this I woke, and when I looked out I saw my at the their as usual.”
“This dream, Madam,” Ulysses, “can admit but of one interpretation, for had not Ulysses himself told you how it shall be fulfilled? The death of the is portended, and not one single one of them will escape.”
And Penelope answered, “Stranger, are very and things, and they do not by any means come true. There are two gates through which these proceed; the one is of horn, and the other ivory. Those that come through the gate of are fatuous, but those from the gate of something to those that see them. I do not think, however, that my own came through the gate of horn, though I and my son should be most if it proves to have done so. Furthermore I say—and my saying to your heart—the will in the ill-omened day that is to me from the house of Ulysses, for I am about to a of axes. My husband used to set up twelve in the court, one in of the other, like the upon which a ship is built; he would then go from them and shoot an through the whole twelve. I shall make the try to do the same thing, and of them can the most easily, and send his through all the twelve axes, him will I follow, and this house of my husband, so and so in wealth. But so, I not that I shall it in my dreams.”
Then Ulysses answered, “Madam, wife of Ulysses, you need not your tournament, for Ulysses will return they can the bow, it how they will, and send their through the iron.”
To this Penelope said, “As long, sir, as you will here and talk to me, I can have no to go to bed. Still, people cannot do without sleep, and has us on earth a time for all things. I will therefore go and upon that which I have to with my from the day Ulysses set out for the city with a name.”
She then to her own room, not alone, but by her maidens, and when there, she her dear husband till Minerva sweet sleep over her eyelids.
