Book XXIII

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Odysseus maketh himself known to Penelope, tells his

adventures briefly, and in the morning goes to Laertes and

makes himself known to him.

Then the ancient woman went up into the upper chamber

laughing aloud, to tell her mistress how her dear lord was

within, and her knees moved fast for joy, and her feet

stumbled one over the other; and she stood above the lady's

head and spake to her, saying:

'Awake, Penelope, dear child, that thou mayest see with

thine own eyes that which thou desirest day by day.

Odysseus hath come, and hath got him to his own house,

though late hath he come, and hath slain the proud wooers

that troubled his house, and devoured his substance, and

oppressed his child.'

Then wise Penelope answered her: 'Dear nurse, the gods have

made thee distraught, the gods that can make foolish even

the wisdom of the wise, and that stablish the simple in

understanding. They it is that have marred thy reason,

though heretofore thou hadst a prudent heart. Why dost thou

mock me, who have a spirit full of sorrow, to speak these

wild words, and rousest me out of sweet slumber, that had

bound me and overshadowed mine eyelids? Never yet have I

slept so sound since the day that Odysseus went forth to

see that evil Ilios, never to be named. Go to now, get thee

down and back to the women's chamber, for if any other of

the maids of my house had come and brought me such tidings,

and wakened me from sleep, straightway would I have sent

her back woefully to return within the women's chamber; but

this time thine old age shall stand thee in good stead.'

Then the good nurse Eurycleia answered her: 'I mock thee

not, dear child, but in very deed Odysseus is here, and

hath come home, even as I tell thee. He is that guest on

whom all men wrought such dishonour in the halls. But long

ago Telemachus was ware of him, that he was within the

house, yet in his prudence he hid the counsels of his

father, that he might take vengeance on the violence of the

haughty wooers.'

Thus she spake, and then was Penelope glad, and leaping

from her bed she fell on the old woman's neck, and let fall

the tears from her eyelids, and uttering her voice spake to

her winged words: 'Come, dear nurse, I pray thee, tell me

all truly--if indeed he hath come home as thou sayest--how

he hath laid his hands on the shameless wooers, he being

but one man, while they abode ever in their companies

within the house.'

Then the good nurse Eurycleia answered her: 'I saw not, I

wist not, only I heard the groaning of men slain. And we in

an inmost place of the well-builded chambers sat all

amazed, and the close-fitted doors shut in the room, till

thy son called me from the chamber, for his father sent him

out to that end. Then I found Odysseus standing among the

slain, who around him, stretched on the hard floor, lay one

upon the other; it would have comforted thy heart to see

him, all stained like a lion with blood and soil of battle.

And now are all the wooers gathered in an heap by the gates

of the court, while he is purifying his fair house with

brimstone, and hath kindled a great fire, and hath sent me

forth to call thee. So come with me, that ye may both enter

into your heart's delight, {*} for ye have suffered much

affliction. And even now hath this thy long desire been

fulfilled; thy lord hath come alive to his own hearth, and

hath found both thee and his son in the halls; and the

wooers that wrought him evil he hath slain, every man of

them in his house.'

{* Reading [Greek] . . . [Greek].}

Then wise Penelope answered her: 'Dear nurse, boast not yet

over them with laughter. Thou knowest how welcome the sight

of him would be in the halls to all, and to me in chief,

and to his son that we got between us. But this is no true

tale, as thou declarest it, nay but it is one of the

deathless gods that hath slain the proud wooers, in wrath

at their bitter insolence and evil deeds. For they honoured

none of earthly men, neither the good nor yet the bad, that

came among them. Wherefore they have suffered an evil doom

through their own infatuate deeds. But Odysseus, far away

hath lost his homeward path to the Achaean land, and

himself is lost.'

Then the good nurse Eurycleia made answer to her: 'My

child, what word hath escaped the door of thy lips, in that

thou saidest that thy lord, who is even now within, and by

his own hearthstone, would return no more? Nay, thy heart

is ever hard of belief. Go to now, and I will tell thee

besides a most manifest token, even the scar of the wound

that the boar on a time dealt him with his white tusk.

This I spied while washing his feet, and fain I would have

told it even to thee, but he laid his hand on my mouth, and

in the fulness of his wisdom suffered me not to speak. But

come with me and I will stake my life on it; and if I play

thee false, do thou slay me by a death most pitiful.'

Then wise Penelope made answer to her: 'Dear nurse, it is

hard for thee, how wise soever, to observe the purposes of

the everlasting gods. None the less let us go to my child,

that I may see the wooers dead, and him that slew them.'

With that word she went down from the upper chamber, and

much her heart debated, whether she should stand apart, and

question her dear lord or draw nigh, and clasp and kiss his

head and hands. But when she had come within and had

crossed the threshold of stone, she sat down over against

Odysseus, in the light of the fire, by the further wall.

Now he was sitting by the tall pillar, looking down and

waiting to know if perchance his noble wife would speak to

him, when her eyes beheld him. But she sat long in silence,

and amazement came upon her soul, and now she would look

upon him steadfastly with her eyes, and now again she knew

him not, for that he was clad in vile raiment. And

Telemachus rebuked her, and spake and hailed her:

'Mother mine, ill mother, of an ungentle heart, why turnest

thou thus away from my father, and dost not sit by him and

question him and ask him all? No other woman in the world

would harden her heart to stand thus aloof from her lord,

who after much travail and sore had come to her in the

twentieth year to his own country. But thy heart is ever

harder than stone.'

Then wise Penelope answered him, saying: 'Child, my mind is

amazed within me, and I have no strength to speak, nor to

ask him aught, nay nor to look on him face to face. But if

in truth this be Odysseus, and he hath indeed come home,

verily we shall be ware of each other the more surely, for

we have tokens that we twain know, even we, secret from all

others.'

So she spake, and the steadfast goodly Odysseus smiled, and

quickly he spake to Telemachus winged words: 'Telemachus,

leave now thy mother to make trial of me within the

chambers; so shall she soon come to a better knowledge than

heretofore. But now I go filthy, and am clad in vile

raiment, wherefore she has me in dishonour, and as yet will

not allow that I am he. Let us then advise us how all may

be for the very best. For whoso has slain but one man in a

land, even that one leaves not many behind him to take up

the feud for him, turns outlaw and leaves his kindred and

his own country; but we have slain the very stay of the

city, the men who were far the best of all the noble youths

in Ithaca. So this I bid thee consider.'

Then wise Telemachus answered him, saying: 'Father, see

thou to this, for they say that thy counsel is far the best

among men, nor might any other of mortal men contend with

thee. But right eagerly will we go with thee now, and I

think we shall not lack prowess, so far as might is ours.'

And Odysseus of many counsels answered him saying: 'Yea

now, I will tell on what wise methinks it is best. First,

go ye to the bath and array you in your doublets, and bid

the maidens in the chambers to take to them their garments.

Then let the divine minstrel, with his loud lyre in hand,

lead off for us the measure of the mirthful dance. So shall

any man that hears the sound from without, whether a

wayfarer or one of those that dwell around, say that it is

a wedding feast. And thus the slaughter of the wooers shall

not be noised abroad through the town before we go forth to

our well-wooded farm-land. Thereafter shall we consider

what gainful counsel the Olympian may vouchsafe us.'

So he spake, and they gave good ear and hearkened to him.

So first they went to the bath, and arrayed them in

doublets, and the women were apparelled, and the divine

minstrel took the hollow harp, and aroused in them the

desire of sweet song and of the happy dance. Then the great

hall rang round them with the sound of the feet of dancing

men and of fair-girdled women. And whoso heard it from

without would say:

'Surely some one has wedded the queen of many wooers. Hard

of heart was she, nor had she courage to keep the great

house of her wedded lord continually till his coming.'

Even so men spake, and knew not how these things were

ordained. Meanwhile, the house-dame Eurynome had bathed the

great-hearted Odysseus within his house, and anointed him

with olive-oil, and cast about him a goodly mantle and a

doublet. Moreover Athene shed great beauty from his head

downwards, and made him greater and more mighty to behold,

and from his head caused deep curling locks to flow, like

the hyacinth flower. And as when some skilful man overlays

gold upon silver, one that Hephaestus and Pallas Athene

have taught all manner of craft, and full of grace is his

handiwork, even so did Athene shed grace about his head and

shoulders, and forth from the bath he came, in form like to

the immortals. Then he sat down again on the high seat,

whence he had arisen, over against his wife, and spake to

her, saying:

'Strange lady, surely to thee above all womankind the

Olympians have given a heart that cannot be softened. No

other woman in the world would harden her heart to stand

thus aloof from her husband, who after much travail and

sore had come to her, in the twentieth year, to his own

country. Nay come, nurse, strew a bed for me to lie all

alone, for assuredly her spirit within her is as iron.'

Then wise Penelope answered him again: 'Strange man, I have

no proud thoughts nor do I think scorn of thee, nor am I

too greatly astonied, but I know right well what manner of

man thou wert, when thou wentest forth out of Ithaca, on

the long-oared galley. But come, Eurycleia, spread for him

the good bedstead outside the stablished bridal chamber

that he built himself. Thither bring ye forth the good

bedstead and cast bedding thereon, even fleeces and rugs

and shining blankets.'

So she spake and made trial of her lord, but Odysseus in

sore displeasure spake to his true wife, saying: 'Verily a

bitter word is this, lady, that thou hast spoken. Who has

set my bed otherwhere? Hard it would be for one, how

skilled so ever, unless a god were to come that might

easily set it in another place, if so he would. But of men

there is none living, howsoever strong in his youth, that

could lightly upheave it, for a great token is wrought in

the fashioning of the bed, and it was I that made it and

none other. There was growing a bush of olive, long of

leaf, and most goodly of growth, within the inner court,

and the stem as large as a pillar. Round about this I built

the chamber, till I had finished it, with stones close set,

and I roofed it over well and added thereto compacted doors

fitting well. Next I sheared off all the light wood of the

long-leaved olive, and rough-hewed the trunk upwards from

the root, and smoothed it around with the adze, well and

skilfully, and made straight the line thereto and so

fashioned it into the bedpost, and I bored it all with the

auger. Beginning from this bedpost, I wrought at the

bedstead till I had finished it, and made it fair with

inlaid work of gold and of silver and of ivory. Then I made

fast therein a bright purple band of oxhide. Even so I

declare to thee this token, and I know not, lady, if the

bedstead be yet fast in his place, or if some man has cut

away the stem of the olive tree, and set the bedstead

otherwhere.'

So he spake, and at once her knees were loosened, and her

heart melted within her, as she knew the sure tokens that

Odysseus showed her. Then she fell a weeping, and ran

straight toward him and cast her hands about his neck, and

kissed his head and spake, saying:

'Be not angry with me, Odysseus, for thou wert ever at

other times the wisest of men. It is the gods that gave us

sorrow, the gods who begrudged us that we should abide

together and have joy of our youth, and come to the

threshold of old age. So now be not wroth with me hereat

nor full of indignation, because at the first, when I saw

thee, I did not welcome thee straightway. For always my

heart within my breast shuddered, for fear lest some man

should come and deceive me with his words, for many they be

that devise gainful schemes and evil. Nay even Argive

Helen, daughter of Zeus, would not have lain with a

stranger, and taken him for a lover, had she known that the

warlike sons of the Achaeans would bring her home again to

her own dear country. Howsoever, it was the god that set

her upon this shameful deed; nor ever, ere that, did she

lay up in her heart the thought of this folly, a bitter

folly, whence on us too first came sorrow. But now that

thou hast told all the sure tokens of our bed, which never

was seen by mortal man, save by thee and me and one maiden

only, the daughter of Actor, that my father gave me ere yet

I had come hither, she who kept the doors of our strong

bridal chamber, even now dost thou bend my soul, all

ungentle as it is.'

Thus she spake, and in his heart she stirred yet a greater

longing to lament, and he wept as he embraced his beloved

wife and true. And even as when the sight of land is

welcome to swimmers, whose well-wrought ship Poseidon hath

smitten on the deep, all driven with the wind and swelling

waves, and but a remnant hath escaped the grey sea-water

and swum to the shore, and their bodies are all crusted

with the brine, and gladly have they set foot on land and

escaped an evil end; so welcome to her was the sight of her

lord, and her white arms she would never quite let go from

his neck. And now would the rosy-fingered Dawn have risen

upon their weeping, but the goddess, grey-eyed Athene, had

other thoughts. The night she held long in the utmost West,

and on the other side she stayed the golden-throned Dawn by

the stream Oceanus, and suffered her not to harness the

swift-footed steeds that bear light to men, Lampus and

Phaethon, the steeds ever young, that bring the morning.

Then at the last, Odysseus of many counsels spake to his

wife, saying: 'Lady, we have not yet come to the issue of

all our labours; but still there will be toil unmeasured,

long and difficult, that I must needs bring to a full end.

Even so the spirit of Teiresias foretold to me, on that day

when I went down into the house of Hades, to inquire after

a returning for myself and my company. Wherefore come,

lady, let us to bed, that forthwith we may take our joy of

rest beneath the spell of sweet sleep.'

Then wise Penelope answered him: 'Thy bed verily shall be

ready whensoever thy soul desires it, forasmuch as the gods

have indeed caused thee to come back to thy stablished home

and thine own country. But now that thou hast noted it and

the god has put it into thy heart, come, tell me of this

ordeal, for methinks the day will come when I must learn

it, and timely knowledge is no hurt.'

And Odysseus of many counsels answered her saying: 'Ah, why

now art thou so instant with me to declare it? Yet I will

tell thee all and hide nought. Howbeit thy heart shall have

no joy of it, as even I myself have no pleasure therein.

For Teiresias bade me fare to many cities of men, carrying

a shapen oar in my hands, till I should come to such men as

know not the sea, neither eat meat savoured with salt, nor

have they knowledge of ships of purple cheek nor of shapen

oars, which serve for wings to ships. And he told me this

with manifest token, which I will not hide from thee. In

the day when another wayfarer should meet me and say that I

had a winnowing fan on my stout shoulder, even then he bade

me make fast my shapen oar in the earth, and do goodly

sacrifice to the lord Poseidon, even with a ram and a bull

and a boar, the mate of swine, and depart for home, and

offer holy hecatombs to the deathless gods, that keep the

wide heaven, to each in order due. And from the sea shall

mine own death come, the gentlest death that may be, which

shall end me, foredone, with smooth old age, and the folk

shall dwell happily around. All this, he said, was to be

fulfilled.'

Then wise Penelope answered him saying: 'If indeed the gods

will bring about for thee a happier old age at the last,

then is there hope that thou mayest yet have an escape from

evil.'

Thus they spake one to the other. Meanwhile, Eurynome and

the nurse spread the bed with soft coverlets, by the light

of the torches burning. But when they had busied them and

spread the good bed, the ancient nurse went back to her

chamber to lie down, and Eurynome, the bower-maiden, guided

them on their way to the couch, with torches in her hands,

and when she had led them to the bridal-chamber she

departed. And so they came gladly to the rites of their

bed, as of old. But Telemachus, and the neatherd, and the

swineherd stayed their feet from dancing, and made the

women to cease, and themselves gat them to rest through the

shadowy halls.

Now when the twain had taken their fill of sweet love, they

had delight in the tales, which they told one to the other.

The fair lady spoke of all that she had endured in the

halls at the sight of the ruinous throng of wooers, who for

her sake slew many cattle, kine and goodly sheep; and many

a cask of wine was broached. And in turn, Odysseus, of the

seed of Zeus, recounted all the griefs he had wrought on

men, and all his own travail and sorrow, and she was

delighted with the story, and sweet sleep fell not upon her

eyelids till the tale was ended.

He began by setting forth how he overcame the Cicones, and

next arrived at the rich land of the Lotus-eaters, and all

that the Cyclops wrought, and what a price he got from him

for the good companions that he devoured, and showed no

pity. Then how he came to Aeolus, who received him gladly

and sent him on his way; but it was not yet ordained that

he should reach his own country, for the storm-wind seized

him again, and bare him over the teeming seas, making

grievous moan. Next how he came to Telepylus of the

Laestrygonians, who brake his ships and slew all his

goodly-greaved companions, and Odysseus only escaped with

his black ship. Then he told all the wiles and many

contrivances of Circe, and how in a benched ship he fared

to the dank house of Hades, to seek to the soul of Theban

Teiresias. There he beheld all those that had been his

companions, and his mother who bore him and nurtured him,

while yet he was a little one. Then how he heard the song

of the full-voiced Sirens, and came to the Rocks Wandering,

and to terrible Charybdis, and to Scylla, that never yet

have men avoided scatheless. Next he told how his company

slew the kine of Helios, and how Zeus, that thunders on

high, smote the swift ship with the flaming bolt, and the

good crew perished all together, and he alone escaped from

evil fates. And how he came to the isle Ogygia, and to the

nymph Calypso, who kept him there in her hollow caves,

longing to have him for her lord, and nurtured him and said

that she would make him never to know death or age all his

days: yet she never won his heart within his breast. Next

how with great toil he came to the Phaeacians, who gave him

all worship heartily, as to a god, and sent him with a ship

to his own dear country, with gifts of bronze, and of gold,

and raiment in plenty. This was the last word of the tale,

when sweet sleep came speedily upon him, sleep that loosens

the limbs of men, unknitting the cares of his soul.

Then the goddess, grey-eyed Athene, turned to new thoughts.

When she deemed that Odysseus had taken his fill of love

and sleep, straightway she aroused from out Oceanus the

golden-throned Dawn, to bear light to men. Then Odysseus

gat him from his soft bed, and laid this charge on his

wife, saying:

'Lady, already have we had enough of labours, thou and I;

thou, in weeping here, and longing for my troublous return,

I, while Zeus and the other gods bound me fast in pain,

despite my yearning after home, away from mine own country.

But now that we both have come to the bed of our desire,

take thou thought for the care of my wealth within the

halls. But as for the sheep that the proud wooers have

slain, I myself will lift many more as spoil, and others

the Achaeans will give, till they fill all my folds. But

now, behold, I go to the well-wooded farm-land, to see my

good father, who for love of me has been in sorrow

continually. And this charge I lay on thee, lady, too wise

though thou art to need it. Quickly will the bruit go forth

with the rising sun, the bruit concerning the wooers, whom

I slew in the halls. Wherefore ascend with the women thy

handmaids into the upper chamber, and sit there and look on

no man, nor ask any question.'

Therewith he girded on his shoulder his goodly armour, and

roused Telemachus and the neatherd and the swineherd, and

bade them all take weapons of war in their hands. So they

were not disobedient to his word, but clad themselves in

mail, and opened the doors and went forth, and Odysseus led

the way. And now there was light over all the earth; but

them Athene hid in night, and quickly conducted out of the

town.

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