PENELOPE EVENTUALLY RECOGNISES HER HUSBAND—EARLY IN THE MORNING ULYSSES, TELEMACHUS, EUMAEUS, AND PHILOETIUS LEAVE THE TOWN.
Euryclea now laughing to tell her that her dear husband had come home. Her again and her were for as she up to her and over her to speak to her. “Wake up Penelope, my dear child,” she exclaimed, “and see with your own something that you have been wanting this long time past. Ulysses has at last come home again, and has killed the who were so much trouble in his house, up his and his son.”
“My good nurse,” answered Penelope, “you must be mad. The gods sometimes send some very people out of their minds, and make people sensible. This is what they must have been doing to you; for you always used to be a person. Why should you thus me when I have trouble already—talking such nonsense, and me up out of a sweet sleep that had taken of my and closed them? I have slept so from the day my husband to that city with the ill-omened name. Go again into the women’s room; if it had been any one else who had me up to me such news I should have sent her away with a scolding. As it is your age shall protect you.”
“My dear child,” answered Euryclea, “I am not you. It is true as I tell you that Ulysses is come home again. He was the they all on so in the cloister. Telemachus all the time that he was come back, but his father’s that he might have his on all these people.”
Then Penelope up from her couch, her arms Euryclea, and for joy. “But my dear nurse,” said she, “explain this to me; if he has come home as you say, how did he manage to overcome the single handed, what a number of them there always were?”
“I was not there,” answered Euryclea, “and do not know; I only them while they were being killed. We sat and up in a of the women’s room with the doors closed, till your son came to me his father sent him. Then I Ulysses over the that were on the ground all him, one on top of the other. You would have it if you have him there all with blood and filth, and looking just like a lion. But the are now all up in the that is in the court, and Ulysses has a great fire to the house with sulphur. He has sent me to call you, so come with me that you may be happy together after all; for now at last the of your has been fulfilled; your husband is come home to wife and son alive and well, and to take his in his own house on the who so to him.”
“My dear nurse,” said Penelope, “do not too over all this. You know how every one would be to see Ulysses come home—more particularly myself, and the son who has been to of us; but what you tell me cannot be true. It is some god who is angry with the for their great wickedness, and has an end of them; for they no man in the whole world, neither rich poor, who came near them, and they have come to a end in of their iniquity; Ulysses is away from the Achaean land; he will return home again.”
Then nurse Euryclea said, “My child, what are you talking about? but you were all hard of and have up your mind that your husband is coming, although he is in the house and by his own fire at this very moment. Besides I can give you another proof; when I was him I the which the wild gave him, and I wanted to tell you about it, but in his he would not let me, and his hands over my mouth; so come with me and I will make this with you—if I am you, you may have me killed by the most death you can think of.”
“My dear nurse,” said Penelope, “however wise you may be you can the of the gods. Nevertheless, we will go in search of my son, that I may see the of the suitors, and the man who has killed them.”
On this she came from her upper room, and while doing so she she should keep at a from her husband and question him, or she should at once go up to him and him. When, however, she had the of the cloister, she sat opposite Ulysses by the fire, against the at right angles180 [to that by which she had entered], while Ulysses sat near one of the bearing-posts, looking upon the ground, and waiting to see what his wife would say to him when she saw him. For a long time she sat and as one in amazement. At one moment she looked him full in the face, but then again directly, she was by his and failed to him,181 till Telemachus to her and said:
“Mother—but you are so hard that I cannot call you by such a name—why do you keep away from my father in this way? Why do you not by his and talking to him and him questions? No other woman to keep away from her husband when he had come to her after twenty years of absence, and after having gone through so much; but your always was as hard as a stone.”
Penelope answered, “My son, I am so in that I can no in which either to ask questions or to answer them. I cannot look him in the face. Still, if he is Ulysses come to his own home again, we shall to one another by and by, for there are with which we two are alone acquainted, and which are from all others.”
Ulysses at this, and said to Telemachus, “Let your mother put me to any proof she likes; she will make up her mind about it presently. She me for the moment and me to be somebody else, I am with and have such on; let us, however, what we had do next. When one man has killed another—even though he was not one who would many friends to take up his quarrel—the man who has killed him must still say good to his friends and the country; we have been killing the of a whole town, and all the of Ithaca. I would have you this matter.”
“Look to it yourself, father,” answered Telemachus, “for they say you are the in the world, and that there is no other man who can with you. We will you with right good will, shall you us fail you in so as our out.”
“I will say what I think will be best,” answered Ulysses. “First wash and put your on; tell the also to go to their own room and dress; Phemius shall then up a on his lyre, so that if people hear, or any of the neighbours, or some one going along the to notice it, they may think there is a wedding in the house, and no about the death of the will about in the town, we can to the upon my own land. Once there, we will settle which of the us shall wisest.”
Thus did he speak, and they did as he had said. First they and put their on, while the got ready. Then Phemius took his and set them all for sweet song and dance. The house re-echoed with the of men and dancing, and the people said, “I the queen has been married at last. She ought to be of herself for not to protect her husband’s property until he comes home.”182
This was what they said, but they did not know what it was that had been happening. The upper Eurynome and Ulysses in his own house and gave him a shirt and cloak, while Minerva him look and than before; she also the thick on the top of his head, and in like blossoms; she him about the and just as a who has art of all under Vulcan or Minerva—and his work is full of beauty—enriches a piece of plate by it. He came from the looking like one of the immortals, and sat opposite his wife on the seat he had left. “My dear,” said he, “heaven has you with a more than woman yet had. No other woman to keep away from her husband when he had come to her after twenty years of absence, and after having gone through so much. But come, nurse, a for me; I will sleep alone, for this woman has a as hard as iron.”
“My dear,” answered Penelope, “I have no wish to set myself up, to you; but I am not by your appearance, for I very well what of a man you were when you set sail from Ithaca. Nevertheless, Euryclea, take his the that he himself built. Bring the this room, and put upon it with fleeces, good coverlets, and blankets.”
She said this to try him, but Ulysses was very angry and said, “Wife, I am much at what you have just been saying. Who has been taking my from the place in which I left it? He must have it a hard task, no how a he was, unless some god came and helped him to shift it. There is no man living, and in his prime, who move it from its place, for it is a which I with my very own hands. There was a the of the house, in full vigour, and about as thick as a bearing-post. I my room this with of and a to them, and I the doors and well-fitting. Then I cut off the top of the tree and left the standing. This I from the and then with carpenter’s well and skilfully, my work by a line on the wood, and making it into a bed-prop. I then a the middle, and it the centre-post of my bed, at which I till I had it, it with gold and silver; after this I a of leather from one of it to the other. So you see I know all about it, and I to learn it is still there, or any one has been it by the tree at its roots.”
When she the sure proofs Ulysses now gave her, she down. She to his side, her arms about his neck, and him. “Do not be angry with me Ulysses,” she cried, “you, who are the of mankind. We have suffered, of us. Heaven has us the of our youth, and of old, together; do not then be or take it that I did not you thus as soon as I saw you. I have been all the time through that someone might come here and me with a story; for there are many very people going about. Jove’s Helen would have herself to a man from a country, if she had that the sons of Achaeans would come after her and her back. Heaven put it in her to do wrong, and she gave no to that sin, which has been the of all our sorrows. Now, however, that you have me by that you know all about our (which no being has but you and I and a single maidservant, the of Actor, who was me by my father on my marriage, and who the doors of our room) hard of though I have been I can no longer.”
Then Ulysses in his turn melted, and as he his dear and wife to his bosom. As the of land is welcome to men who are the shore, when Neptune has their ship with the of his and waves; a alone the land, and these, with brine, are when they themselves on ground and out of danger—even so was her husband welcome to her as she looked upon him, and she not tear her two arms from about his neck. Indeed they would have gone on their till rosy-fingered appeared, had not Minerva otherwise, and night in the west, while she would not Dawn to Oceanus, to the two Lampus and Phaethon that her to the day upon mankind.
At last, however, Ulysses said, “Wife, we have not yet the end of our troubles. I have an unknown amount of still to undergo. It is long and difficult, but I must go through with it, for thus the of Teiresias me, on the day when I into Hades to ask about my return and that of my companions. But now let us go to bed, that we may and the of sleep.”
“You shall go to as soon as you please,” Penelope, “now that the gods have sent you home to your own good house and to your country. But as has put it in your mind to speak of it, tell me about the that you. I shall have to about it later, so it is that I should be told at once.”
“My dear,” answered Ulysses, “why should you press me to tell you? Still, I will not it from you, though you will not like it. I do not like it myself, for Teiresias me travel and wide, an oar, till I came to a country where the people have of the sea, and do not mix salt with their food. They know nothing about ships, that are as the of a ship. He gave me this which I will not from you. He said that a should meet me and ask me it was a that I had on my shoulder. On this, I was to my in the ground and a ram, a bull, and a to Neptune; after which I was to go home and offer to all the gods in heaven, one after the other. As for myself, he said that death should come to me from the sea, and that my life should away very when I was full of years and peace of mind, and my people should me. All this, he said, should surely come to pass.”
And Penelope said, “If the gods are going to you a time in your old age, you may then to have some from misfortune.”
Thus did they converse. Meanwhile Eurynome and the nurse took and the with soft coverlets; as soon as they had them, the nurse into the house to go to her rest, the woman Eurynome183 to Ulysses and Penelope to by light. When she had them to their room she back, and they then came to the of their own old bed. Telemachus, Philoetius, and the now left off dancing, and the off also. They then themselves to sleep in the cloisters.
When Ulysses and Penelope had had their of love they talking with one another. She told him how much she had had to in the house with a of who had killed so many sheep and on her account, and had so many of wine. Ulysses in his turn told her what he had suffered, and how much trouble he had himself to other people. He told her everything, and she was so to that she to sleep till he had ended his whole story.
He with his victory over the Cicons, and how he the land of the Lotus-eaters. He told her all about the Cyclops and how he had him for having so his comrades; how he then on to Aeolus, who him and him on his way, but so he was not to home, for to his great a him out to sea again; how he on to the Laestrygonian city Telepylos, where the people all his ships with their crews, save himself and his own ship only. Then he told of Circe and her craft, and how he to the house of Hades, to the of the Theban Teiresias, and how he saw his old in arms, and his mother who him and him up when he was a child; how he then the of the Sirens, and on to the and terrible Charybdis and to Scylla, no man had yet passed in safety; how his men then ate the of the sun-god, and how Jove therefore the ship with his thunderbolts, so that all his men together, himself alone being left alive; how at last he the Ogygian and the Calypso, who him there in a cave, and him, and wanted him to her, in which case she making him so that he should old, but she not him to let her do so; and how after much he had his way to the Phaeacians, who had him as though he had been a god, and sent him in a ship to his own country after having him gold, bronze, and in great abundance. This was the last thing about which he told her, for here a sleep took upon him and the of his sorrows.
Then Minerva her of another matter. When she that Ulysses had had of his wife and of repose, she gold-enthroned Dawn out of Oceanus that she might light upon mankind. On this, Ulysses rose from his and said to Penelope, “Wife, we have of us had our full of troubles, you, here, in my absence, and I in being from home though I was all the time to do so. Now, however, that we have at last come together, take of the property that is in the house. As for the sheep and which the have eaten, I will take many myself by from other people, and will the Achaeans to make good the till they shall have all my yards. I am now going to the lands out in the country to see my father who has so long been on my account, and to I will give these instructions, though you have little need of them. At it will at once that I have been killing the suitors; go upstairs, therefore,184 and there with your women. See nobody and ask no questions.”185
As he spoke he on his armour. Then he Telemachus, Philoetius, and Eumaeus, and told them all to put on their also. This they did, and themselves. When they had done so, they opened the gates and forth, Ulysses leading the way. It was now daylight, but Minerva them in and them out of the town.
