The adventures of Odysseus (Part 2)

CHAPTER XI

HOW ODYSSEUS VISITED THE HOUSE OF DEATH

So we went on board and set sail with a favouring wind. We made the ship trim and sat down to rest, while the wind and the steersman guided us on till at night we came to that deep-tiowing stream of Ocean that circles all the world. There the Cimmerians live in mist and cloud and never see the sun, for a deadly night hangs over their land. We passed them by and went on to the place which Circe had told us of, and there I bade two of my companions take the sheep and hold them ready for the sacrifice, while I drew my sword and dug a pit a yard in length each way, and in it I poured a drink offering to the dead, honey and wine and water, and sprinkled barley over it. And I prayed to Persephone, the pure and awful Goddess of the Underworld, and took the victims and cut their throats and let the dark blood tiow forth.

Then the spirits of the dead came forth from their dwelling-place and gathered round me, but 1 drew my sword and would not let them touch the blood till I had inquired of Teiresias. My mother's spirit came to me, Anticleia, whom I left alive when I set out for Troy and I wept when I saw her; but for all my sorrow I would not let her touch the blood till I had seen Teiresias.

And then Teiresias came, the old seer of Thebes, and he held a golden sceptre in his hand, and he knew me and said, " Why have you come here, Odysseus, leaving the light of day for this cheerless land ? If you will let me draw near and taste the blood, I will tell you what you wish to know."
So I sheathed my sword and let him draw near and drink, and when he had drunk, he said, " You seek to know of your return, noble Odysseus. The lord of the sea, Poseidon, will make it hard and painful, for he is wroth with you because you blinded the Cyclops, his son. But even so you may all return after much suffering, if you can restrain yourself and your companions from touching the cattle of the Sun, when you reach the Beautiful Island where they graze. Do them no hurt and you may all reach Ithaca again; but if you harm them, your ship and your company will perish, and though you may escape yourself, you will return alone, in
wretchedness, after many years, and on a stranger's ship. And you will find trouble in your house, lawless men who devour your substance and woo your wife. Yet you will subdue them by craft, or by the sword, and slay them in your halls, and avenge their violence. And after that is done you must set out once more: you must take an oar upon your shoulder and journey through many lands, till you come to a people who have never heard of the sea, and do not know what an oar is like. And when you meet a man who asks if you have a winnowing fan on your shoulder, then you must stop and fix your oar in the ground and offer sacrifice to King Poseidon. So shall you make your peace with him and with all the Gods, and you shall have rest at last and your people shall be happy. And death will come to you at last from the sea, the gentlest death of all, when your strength is gone at the end of a calm old age."
And I answered, " Teiresias, let the Gods' will be done! But tell me, I pray you, this one thing more. I see my mother's spirit there, sitting in silence near the blood and not raising her eyes nor speaking to her son. How can I make her know me ?"
And he replied, " Let those you choose come near the blood and drink, and they will answer you truly. And those that you refuse will go away."
The House of Death
Then the spirit of Teiresias went back to tlie House of Death, and I remained there waiting till my mother came and drank the dark blood; and at once she knew me and said to me in pity:
" My child, how have you come alive into this darkness ? It is hard for living men to find the way. Is it from Troy you come, and have you wandered ever since the war ? Have you not yet been to Ithaca nor seen your wife ?"
Then I said: " Mother, I needed the counsel of Teiresias, the seer of Thebes. I have not yet come near the shores of Greece, but have wandered and suffered ever since I went with Agamemnon to fight at Troy. But tell me, mother, of yourself What death brought you here ? Was it slow disease, or the arrows of Artemis that kill and do not hurt ? And what of my father and my son whom I left behind ? Are they still masters in my home, or have they lost all hope of my return and let another take my place ? And tell me of my wife, does she still guard the house for me or has she married the best of the Grecian lords ?"
And my mother answered, " She is true and faithful, and guards your house, and sorrows for you always, day and night; and Telemachus is honoured on your lands and at the feast. But your father never comes to the city. He stays on his farm and sleeps in winter with the labourers
in the ashes by the fire. He has no rugs nor blankets, and only wretched clothing to put on, and when the warm summer comes, he has a bed of fallen leaves in a corner of the vineyard. There he lies, nursing his sorrow and longing for your return; and he ages fast with grief. It was grief like his that brought me here, and not wasting sickness nor the gentle arrows of Artemis. I longed for you, Odysseus, for your wisdom and your tenderness, and I longed for you till I died."
And as she spoke, my heart went out to her, and I sprang forward to take her in my arms. Three times I sprang towards her, and three times she flitted from my arms, like a shadow or a dream. It wrung my heart and I cried, " Mother, why will you not stay ? Let us put our arms round each other even here and weep out our hearts. Or can it be that dread Persephone has sent a phantom to mock me and make me grieve still more ? "
But my mother answered, " No, my child, all mortals when they die must be as I am now. Fire burns away the bones and flesh and sinews as soon as life is gone, and the spirit flies away and hovers like a dream. But hasten back to the light of the sun and tell your wife what you have seen."
And so we talked together, and the dread queen sent other noble women from the House of Death, the wives and daughters of the heroes, more than I

can tell of; for the night Is passing and it is time for sleep and to-morrow I must depart."
Odysseus ceased, and they all sat silent and spellbound in the shadowy hall, till Arete said: " My lords, we see now that the stranger is as wise as he is comely. He is my guest, but all of you may share in lionouring him. So do not hasten him away, but give him gifts of all the treasure you have stored at home."
Then Alcinous said, " As I am king ot the land, it shall be done. Let the stranger stay till tomorrow and I will complete his escort and his gift."
And Odysseus said, " King Alcinous, I would gladly stay a whole year long, if you would give me a safe return and splendid gifts."
And Alcinous made answer, " The grace of speech is on your lips, Odysseus, and wisdom is in your heart. We honour you and hear you gladly, and your tale is like a cunning minstrel's song. But we would fain hear one thing more. Did you not see among the spirits any of the heroes who went with you to Troy ? Tell us of these, I pray you, for the night is still young, and for myself I could listen to you till the dawn."
Then Odysseus spoke again: " King Alcinous, there is a time for tales and a time for sleep: but if you would still hear more, I will tell you of my comrades who perished after they had returned from Troy.

When Persephone had called back the spirits of the noble women, I saw the ghost of Agamemnon come forth and all his followers. He knew me at once and wept to see me and stretched out his hands to touch me. But there was no strength in his limbs. I pitied him and said, " Tell me, leader of men, wdiat death laid you low ? Did Poseidon wreck your ships, or did you fall in some raid on land ? "
And Agamemnon answered, " Not so, Odysseus : it was iEgisthus slew me, ^gisthus and my accursed wife. They slew me at a feast in my own palace, without pity, like an ox in the stall. Of all the slaughter you have ever seen, you would have sorrowed most at that. We lay dying in the hall where the tables w^ere spread and the wine mixed for the feast, and all the floor ran blood. I raised my hands to that shameless woman before I died, but she turned away and would not even close my eyes; and I had thought to come back welcome to my children and my home. So I bid you never be gentle to a woman nor tell all that is in your heart even to your wife, for there is no faith in womankind. But you, Odysseus, will not die at the hand of Penelope, for she is faithful and wise: well I remember her, a young wife with a baby at her breast, when we went away to Troy. He must be a grown man now and he will meet his father
and kiss him on his return; but my wife would not even let me see my son again before she slew me."
Then he asked me if I had heard of his son Orestes, where he was; but I could not tell him. And so we stood talking and sorrowing, till others came, Achilles the swift-footed, and Ajax, the strongest and fairest of the rest. Achilles saw me and said, " Man of many adventures, what daring enterprize is this ? How could you brave the House of Death and all the empty phantoms of the dead?"
And I replied, " I came, renowned Achilles, to take counsel of Teiresias, how I might reach my home in Ithaca again; for I have not yet touched the shores of Greece nor set my foot on my native soil. I wander and suffer still; but you have a happier fate, for we honoured you as a God in your lifetime, and now you are a prince among the dead."
But he answered, " That is vain comfort, Odysseus. I would sooner be a poor man's slave and live on earth, than rule all the kingdoms of the dead. But tell me of my son and my father, the hero Peleus. Do the people honour him still, or is he despised and neglected now that he is old ? For I am not there to fight for him as I fought for the Greeks at Troy; I cannot come back to his house for a day and drive the usurpers before me."
Then I told him all I knew: I could give him

no tidings of his father, hut I told him how I had brought his son in my own ship to Troy and how he was foremost in the battle but escaped unwounded, and how he was one of the comeliest of the chiefs and wise and ready in debate. And Achilles rejoiced to hear of his son's renown and strode away with long steps through the meadow of asphodel.
And I saw other spirits of dead heroes standing round, sorrowful but wishing to speak to me. Only Ajax stood apart and would not speak, for he was wroth with me because I had contended with him for the arms of Achilles and vanquished him and won the prize. Better that I had never won them and that the noble Ajax were still alive!. So I spoke softly to him, to turn away his wrath, but he answered not a word and went back to the other spirits in the House of Death.
And I might have seen many another famous hero and would have seen them gladly. But ere they came, a strange cry arose and the countless multitudes of the dead thronged round me, brides, and youths unmarried, and old men who had suffered long, and tender maidens with fresh grief at heart, and warriors in their blood-stained armour.
Then fear came upon me, and I hurried back to the ship and bade my men loose her and take to their oars; and we rowed across the stream of Ocean, and then a favouring wind sprang up and bore us on our way."

CHAPTER XII

HOW ODYSSEUS PASSED BY THE SIRENS AND SCYLLA

'So we left the stream of Ocean and sailed away across the open sea back to Circe's island, to the land of sunrise and the courts and palaces of Dawn. There we beached our ship on the sand and stepped ashore, and Circe came to welcome us, bringing bread and meat and red sparkling wine. We gathered round her and she said to us all:
" O daring adventurers ! Have you gone down alive to the House of Death ? Have you chosen to die twice when other men die but once ? But now you shall eat and drink and rest for to-day, and to-morrow morning you may set sail once more, when I have told you the way you must go and the dangers you have to meet."
So we sat down with her and feasted there till
sundown. And when the darkness came my
comrades went to sleep beside the ship, but Circe
took me apart and asked me what I had seen;
and I told her everything, and at the end she said :
" So that journey is accomphshed, Odysseus, and now hearken to me and remember what I say. First you will come to the Sirens, the singers who charm all men with their song. The man who goes near to listen will never see his wife and children again, gathered round to welcome his return; he will stay in the Sirens' meadow and they will sit beside him, chanting their clear-toned song, among heaps of dead men's bones and withering flesh. You must row past them steadily, and stop the ears of your crew with wax; but if you want to hear the song yourself and know the delight of it, make your comrades bind you hand and foot to the mast, and should you beg them to set you free, they must bind you tighter than before.
" But when you have left the Sirens behind you, 1 cannot tell for certain which way you are to go, for your own wit must decide, and I can only tell you the dangers on either hand. On one side are the Hanging Rocks that the Gods call the Wanderers. Storms of fire sweep round them and the waves dash and roar at their feet and dead bodies and broken spars lie heaving on the water. Only one ship has ever passed between in safety; the famous Argo of whom all men have heard, and even she would have been wrecked except for

Hera's care. But if you turn away you will reach a narrow strait, only a bowshot wide. On one hand rises a towering cliff, so steep and sheer that no mortal man can climb it. Winter and summer a dark cloud hangs overhead, and below in the western face of the cliff there is a deep and murky cave. Now there is no other way, Odysseus, and you must steer your ship close by. That cave is Scylla's lair, where she lies in wait, howling like a whelp, and a terrible monster she is that even the Gods might fear to face. She has twelve dangling feet, and six long necks and on each neck a fearful head with three rows of deadly grinning teeth. She is sunk in the cavern up to her waist, but she stretches out her heads round the cliff fishing for dolphins and sea-dogs and all the monsters of the ever-moaning sea. No crew can boast that they have escaped unhurt, for she darts out whenever a ship passes by and seizes a man in every mouth.
" But across the strait you will see another rock, lower than the first. A great branching fig-tree grows above it and underneath is Charybdis in her dark and roaring pool. Thrice a day she belches out the water and thrice a day she sucks it down again. Heaven send you are not within her reach when she sucks the water down ! Poseidon himself could not save you then. So you must keep close to Scylla's rock and row past that way, for

it is better to lose six of your crew than to perish with them all/'
Then I said to Circe, " Now tell me this, Goddess, and tell me truly: could I escape Charybdis and yet conquer Scylla too ?"
And the Goddess answered: " Rash man, will nothing stop you ? You only live to labour and to dare. Will you defy the immortal Gods themselves ? She is deathless, and no man can fight with her; you must fly, for if you wait to put on your armour she will dart out again and carry off six more of your crew. Row past her as hard as you can, and call on the mother who bore her for a curse to men, and she will hold her back.
" And after that you will come to the Beautiful Island, the pasture ground for the sheep and cows of the Sun, who were never born and never die and have fair-haired nymphs to tend them, Light-of-day and Shining-beam, the daughters of the Sun. Now if you leave the herds in peace you may all reach Ithaca again at last; but if you harm them your ship and your company will perish, and even though you should escape yourself you will return alone, in wretchedness, after many years."
Thus the night passed away, and when morning broke I went down to the ship; and we took our places on board, and Circe sent a friendly breeze to fill our sails and help us. So we sat

at ease while the ship ran on, and then I said to my crew:
" Comrades, you must all hear the counsel Circe gave me. She bade us beware of the Sirens and their magic song and the flowery meadow where they sit. I alone may listen, but you must bind me to the mast so that I cannot move, and if I beg you to set me free bind me tighter than before."
So the good ship went scudding on to the Sirens' island with the fair breeze in her wake, when suddenly the wind dropped and there was a dead calm; something had put the waves to rest. Then my crew hauled down the sails and took out the oars, and I made plugs of wax and stopped their ears with them, and they bound me hand and foot to the mast. And when we came within earshot of the shore the Sirens caught sight of the ship and began their magic song:
"Hither, come hither and hearken awhile, Odysseus, far-famed king! No sailor ever has passed this way but has paused to hear us sing. Our song is sweeter than honey, and he that can hear it knows What he never had learnt from another, and has joy before he goes; We know what the heroes bore at Troy in the ten long years of strife. We know what happens in all the world, and the secret things of life.'*
I heard the wonderful music and my heart longed to listen, and I made signs to my comrades to set me free; but the others only bent to their oars and rowed the harder, while two of them stood up and bound me tighter than before, till

at last we had left the Sirens behind us and could not hear their song, and then my comrades took out the wax from their ears and unfastened me.
But as soon as we were clear of the island we saw smoke ahead of us and breakers and heard the thunder of the surf. At that my comrades were panic-stricken and the oars dropped from their hands, splashing into the water, so that the ship stopped dead. But I went along the benches to encourage them, and said:
" My friends, we have had danger to face before. This is no worse than when the Cyclops shut us in his cave, and yet I brought you out safe at last. We shall live to look back on this adventure too. Row on steadily, all of you. Hug the cliff, steersman, and keep the ship from that smoke and surf."
So they took heart and obeyed me. But I would not tell them about Scylla, for we could not fight her, and I feared if they knew they might drop their oars and hide themselves in the hold. And then I found that one of Circe's counsels was too hard for me; she had said I must not arm myself, but I put on my harness and took a couple of spears in my hand and went up on the prow to get the first sight of the monster; but I could not see a sign of anything, though I strained my eyes till they were tired searching the face of the

shadowy cliff. Thus we sailed up througli the strait, Scylla on one side of us and the whirlpool on the other. When the water came belching out the whole pool seethed and boiled like a cauldron on the fire, and the spray dashed up, high over the top of the cliff, and as it rushed back in the ebb we could see right down the spinning sides, to the dark sand underneath, a sight to turn us pale.
But while we looked and trembled, suddenly Scylla darted out and snatched six of my crew, and I only turned in time to see their heads and feet in the air and to hear them call my name for the last time in their agony. But Scylla drew them to the rock, gasping, as a fisherman draws in the fish at the end of his line, and she devoured them at the very mouth of her den, while they cried to us and stretched out their hands in that awful struggle of death. That was the saddest sight I ever saw in all my wanderings over the sea.
But the rest of us sailed away and left the strait behind, and then we came in sight of the Sun-god's beautiful island. And while we were still some way off I could hear the lowing of the cattle and the bleating of the flocks, and I remembered the warning of Circe and Teiresias, the blind old seer. So I begged my comrades not to land, but their spirits sank at the thought and Eurylochus spoke out angrily:

" Have you no pity, Odysseus ? Are you made of iron yourself, never weak and never tired ? We are wearied to death, and you will not let us land here and take our food, but must drive us out again to wander all night long over the dim waters. What if a storm should rise and wreck the ship ? The darkness is here already, and surely it would be best to sleep on the beach to-night and to-morrow we can set sail once more."
All the crew were on his side, so that I had to yield, and we put in to shore, but I made them swear a solemn oath not to touch the sacred herds. We found a spring of sweet water on the shore and took our supper beside it, and the men lay down to rest, weeping for the comrades they had lost, till at last sleep stopped their tears. But after midnight, when the stars were sinking to the west, a terrible storm arose, and in the morning we had to draw up the ship into a hollow cave and wait for the wind to fall. But it blew without ceasing from the south or east a whole month long, and at last we had eaten everything in the ship, and we tried to catch fish and birds for ourselves, but we almost died of hunger. And one day I had gone apart by myself to ask the Gods for help, when I fell into a strange deep sleep, and while I slept Eurylochus gave evil counsel to the rest:
" Listen to me, my friends. Death is hateful in any shape, but death by famine is the worst of

all Come, let us choose the best of the herd and sacrifice to the Gods. If we reach home again we can build a stately temple to the Sun and fill it full of splendid offerings ; and even if he should be angry and wreck our ship, I would rather take one gulp of sea-water and die, than be slowly starved to death in a desolate place like this."
Thus he persuaded them, and they killed the fattest cows and made a burnt offering, roasting the flesh and eating to their heart's content; and when it was too late I woke from my heavy sleep and smelt the savoury smoke and groaned, for 1 understood it all. And while I mourned. Shining-beam, the long-robed shepherd-nymph, went up with the news to her father, the great Sun-God. And he cried to the Immortals in his anger:
" F'ather Zeus and all you Gods of Heaven! Punish the comrades of Odysseus as they deserve! They have killed my cows, the cows that were my joy whenever I went up into the starry sky or turned to the earth again. Give me vengeance, or I will go down into the House of Death and shine among the ghosts."
Then Zeus begged him to stay and shine on earth for Gods and men, and promised he would hurl his white thunder-bolt on our ship and break it in mid-sea.
Meanwhile I hurried back to my crew and upbraided them bitterly, but there was nothing to

be done; the cattle were dead. And strange signs began to show themselves: the skins crept and the flesh moaned on the spits, and we heard sounds like the lowing of cows. Six more days we waited and ate the roasted meat, but on the seventh the storm sank at last and we hoisted our white sails again and stood out to sea. But when we were out of sight of land—nothing round us but sea and sky—a black cloud gathered overhead, darkening all the waves below. For a while it hung there motionless, and then suddenly the storm burst and the west wind swooped whistling on the ship, tearing away the forestays so that the mast crashed down on the stern. It struck the helmsman in its fall, and his skull was split by the blow and he dropped from the deck like a diver into the sea. Then thunder pealed on every side, and the lightning struck the boat and sent her reeling, and my men were washed overboard. For a few moments I saw them floating round her like seagulls on the water, and then they were swept away. But I stayed by the ship till the billows stripped her sides from the naked keel, and then I lashed the mast to it and so drifted before the gale. Soon to my terror the wind veered round and blew from the south, carrying me back to Charybdis and death. All night I was blown along and as the sun rose I came to the dreadful strait. It was the hour of the ebb, but I made a spring and clutched

the topmost boughs of the fig-tree that overshadowed the pool, and there I clung Hke a bat. I could get no foothold, for the branches swung high in air and the roots stretched far away below, and so I set my face and hung on there, waiting for the whirlpool to throw out the mast and keel again, and at last, in the afternoon, I saw the long timbers below me. Down I plunged in the water and got astride them, and there I sat and paddled myself along. Nine days I drifted thus, and on the tenth I came to the island where Calypso lives, the bright-haired Goddess who took me to her home and cared for me. But I told you about that yesterday, and what need to speak of it again ? I have no love for a twice-told tale.'

CHAPTER XIII

HOW ODYSSEUS REACHED ITHACA AND MET ATHENA FACE TO FACE

When Odysseus had finished his story, there was silence in the hall till Alcinous said, " Odysseus, now that you have come to my house after all these troubles, you shall return without more wandering to your home." And then he bade the princes go home for the night and meet again in the morning to bring their gifts.
So next day the Sea-kings went down to the ship and put their gifts on board and then returned to the palace and sacrificed an ox to Zeus. And then they feasted and drank their good wine and waited till the sun went down. And the minstrel sang to them, but Odysseus kept looking at the sun impatiently, like a hungry ploughman tired out at the close of day. At last the time

arrived, and then Odysseus said, " Alcinous, let me go now, and fare you well. My escort and my gifts are all prepared and I could wish no more. May I but find my wife and my dear ones all safe and sound at home! And may Heaven grant you too happy homes and every blessing and no distress among your people!" And to Queen Arete he said, " Lady, may you live happily with your husband and children and all this people till old age comes to you and death, which must come to all!"
Then the herald led the way and Odysseus followed to the ship, and the queen sent her servants with him to carry warm clothing for the voyage and food and drink. And when they had stored the ship he lay down silently in the stern, and the rowers took their places on the benches and plied their oars, while a deep, sweet sleep fell upon him, like the sleep of death. Then the wonderful ship leapt forward on her way, like a team of chariot horses plunging beneath the whip, and the great dark wave roared round the stern. No hawk could fly so quickly as that ship flew through the waves, and the hawk is the swiftest of all birds. And as she sped, the man who had sufl^ered so much and was as wise as the Gods lay peacefully asleep and forgot his sufferings.
But when the bright star rose that tells of the approach of day, the ship drew near the island of

Ithaca. There is a haven there between two steep headlands which break the waves, so that ships can ride in safety without a mooring-rope, and at the head of it an oUve tree, and a shadowy cave where the water-fairies come and tend their bees and weave their sea-blue garments on the hanging looms and mix their wine in bowls and jars of stone. There are springs of water in the cave and two ways into it, one to the north for men to enter and one to the south where none but the Gods may pass.
The Sea-kings knew this harbour and rowed straight into it and ran their ship half a keel's length ashore. Then they lifted Odysseus out of the stern, wrapt in the rugs and coverlet, and laid him still asleep upon the sand. And the gifts they placed in a heap by the trunk of the olive tree, a little out of the road, so that no passer-by might rob him as he slept.
Then they sailed away; and after they were gone Odysseus awoke, but he could not recognize the land where he lay, for Athena had cast a mist about him so that everything looked strange, though he was the lord of it all. There were the mountain paths and the sheltering creeks, the high, steep rocks and the trees in bloom; but he could not see it aright and started up and smote his hands upon his thighs and cried aloud:
" What land have I come to now ? And what

can I do with all this treasure ? If the Sea-kings did not really mean to send me back to Ithaca they should have conveyed me to some other people who would have sent me home." And then he counted the gifts over, the golden vessels and the beautiful garments and found nothing missing, but they gave him no pleasure; and he turned sadly to walk along the shore and dream of home, when a young herdsman met him, of noble figure, with a javelin in his hand and a fine mantle in double folds upon his shoulders. Odysseus was glad to greet him and asked what country he had reached. It was Athena in disguise and she answered, " Truly, stranger, you must have come from far indeed. For this is a famous island that all men know, whether they live in the east or in the west. It is a rugged land and no place for horses and chariots, but though it is narrow, it is not so poor; for there are stores of corn and wine, plenty of water for the cattle and plenty of wood. Its name is Ithaca, and some men have heard of it even at Troy which they say is a long way off."
Then brave Odysseus rejoiced in his heart to hear that it was his native land; but he would not tell the herdsman who he was, and made up a cunning story that he had escaped as an outlaw from Crete and had been left upon the island by a Phoenician crew. And the Goddess smiled to hear him, and stood forth in her own true form,

a wise and noble woman, tall and fair, and put her hand upon his shoulder and said:
" Come, let us practise no more craft on one another, Odysseus, for we are both famous for our wit and wiles, you among mortals and I among the Gods. I am Pallas Athena, daughter of Zeus, and I have stood beside you and protected you in all your wanderings and toil. And now I have come here to tell you of the troubles that await you in your house and to help you with my counsel. But you must still endure in silence and tell no one that Odysseus has returned."
And Odysseus made answer, " It is hard. Goddess, for a mortal to know you, wise though he may be, for you come in many shapes. Truly I have known your kindness from of old in Troy, but when we went on board the ships, I never saw you at my side again. Tell me, I pray you, if this is Ithaca indeed, my native land."
Then the Goddess answered, " I see, Odysseus, that you keep your ready wit and steadfast mind. I could not show myself your friend before for fear of angering Poseidon, my own father's brother. But come now and I will show you Ithaca; there is the haven and the olive with its slender leaves, and the cave where you once made many an offering to the water-nymphs."
And then she rolled away the mist and the long-suffering hero rejoiced to see his native land again.

He kissed the kindly earth, and vowed to the nymphs that he would bring them offerings as of old if he lived to see his dear son a man.
Then the Goddess bade him be of good cheer and showed him a hiding place in the cavern for the gifts. And then they sat down by the trunk of the olive tree, and Athena told him all the misdeeds of the suitors and how his wife had beguiled them and kept them waiting till his return and how he must avenge himself and her.
Then Odysseus said, " Truly, I should have perished in my own halls, like Agamemnon, if you had not warned me. Help me therefore, with your wisdom and stand beside me again and put strength and courage within me as in the days of Troy. For with you by my side I could fight against three hundred men."
And Pallas Athena made answer, " I will be with you, Odysseus, when the hour of conflict is come, and the blood of the suitors who eat up your substance, shall be shed at last. But now I will change you into a poor beggar, so old and so wretched that no one will know you, and in that guise you must go and stay with the herdsman Eumaeus who tends your swine, until I have brought your son Telemachus from Sparta, where he is gone to seek tidings of you."
Then she touched him with her magic wand, and the fair flesh withered on his limbs and the

golden locks fell from his head and he was changed into an old man. His skin was shrivelled and his bright eyes dimmed, and for his covering she gave him a tattered wrap, begrimed with smoke, and a worn deerskin on his shoulder and a wallet and a staff in his hand.
Then she vanished, and left him to take his way alone across the hills.

CHAPTER XIV

HOW THE SWINEHERD WELCOMED ODYSSEUS

So Odysseus went up along the rough mountain path, through the forest and over the hills, till he came to the house where his faithful steward lived. It stood in an open space, and there was a large courtyard in front with a wall of heavy stones and hawthorn boughs and a stout oak palisade. Inside the yard there were twelve styes for the pigs, and the swineherd kept four watch-dogs to guard the place, great beasts and fierce as wolves, that he had reared himself. Odysseus found him at home, sitting in the porch alone and cutting himself a pair of sandals from a brown oxhide.
The dogs caught sight of the king as soon as he came up and flew at him, barking, but he had the wit to let go his staff and sit down at once on the ground. Still it might have gone hard with him there in front of his own servant's house had not Eumaeus rushed out of the porch,
dropping the leather in his haste, and scolded the dogs, driving them off with a volley of stones. Then he said to Odysseus, " A little more, old man, and the dogs v^ould have torn you in pieces and disgraced me for ever! And I have my full share of trouble as it is, for I have lost the best master in all the v^orld and must sit here to mourn for him and fatten his swine for other men, while he is wandering somewhere in foreign lands, hungry and thirsty perhaps, if he is still alive at all. But now come in yourself, and let me give you food and drink and tell me your own tale."
So he took Odysseus into the house and made a seat for him with a pile of brushwood boughs and a great thick shaggy goatskin which he used for his own bed, and all with so kind a welcome that it warmed the king's heart and made him pray the Gods to bless him for his goodness. But Eumaeus only said, " How could I neglect a stranger though he were a worse man than you ? All strangers and beggars are sent to us by Zeus. Take my gift and welcome; though it is little enough I have to give, a servant such as I, with new masters to lord it over him. For we have lost the king who would have loved me and given me house and lands and all that a faithful servant ought to have whose work is blest by the Gods

and prospers, as mine does here. Alas! he is dead and gone! he went away with Agamemnon to fight at Troy and never came home again."
So saying, the good swineherd rose and fetched what meat and wine he had, and set it before Odysseus, grieving that he had nothing better for him because the shameless suitors plundered everything.
But Odysseus ate and drank eagerly, and when his strength had come again he asked Eumaeus, " My friend, who is this master of yours you tell me of? Did you not say he was lost for Agamemnon's sake ? Perhaps I may have seen him, for I have travelled far."
But the swineherd answered, " Old man, his wife and son will believe no traveller's tale. They have heard too many such. Every wandering beggar who comes to Ithaca goes to my mistress with some empty story to get a meal for himself, and she welcomes him and treats him kindly and asks him about it all, with the tears running down her cheeks in a woman's way. Yes, even you, old man, might learn to weave such tales if you thought they would get you a cloak or a vest. No, he is dead, and dogs and birds have eaten him, or else he has fed the fishes and his bones lie somewhere on the seashore ; buried in the sand. And he has left us all to grieve for him, but no one more than me, who

can never have so kind a master again, not though I had my heart's desire and w^ent back to my native land and saw^ my father and mother and the dear home v^here I v^as born. It is Odysseus above all v^hom I long to see once more. There, stranger, I have called him by his name, and that I should not do; for he is still my dear master though he is far av^ay."
Then Odysseus said, " My friend, your hope has gone and you v^ill never believe me. But I tell you this and seal it w^ith an oath; Odysseus v^ill return! Poor as I am, I v^ill take no rev^ard for my nev^s till he comes to his ov^n again, but you shall give me a new vest and cloak that day, and I v^ill v^ear them."
But the sv^ineherd answered, "Ah, my friend, I shall never need to pay you that reward. He will never come back again. But now drink your wine in peace, and let us talk of something else; and do not call to mind the sorrow that almost breaks my heart. Tell me of yourself and your own troubles and who you are, and what ship brought you here, for you will not say you came afoot."
Then Odysseus pretended he was a Cretan and had fought at Troy, and told Eumaeus a long tale of adventures and how he had been wrecked at last on the coast of Epirus. The king of the country, he said, had rescued him, and he had

learned that Odysseus had been there a Httle while before, and was already on his way to Ithaca.
The swineherd listened eagerly to it all, but w^hen Odysseus had finished he said, " Poor friend, my heart aches to hear of all your sufferings. But there is one thing you should not have said, one thing I can never believe, and that is that Odysseus will return. And why need you lie to please me ^ I can see for myself that you are old and unhappy, a wanderer whom the Gods have sent to me. It is not for such a tale I will show you the kindness that you need, but because I pity you myself and reverence the law of Zeus."
" If I lie," Odysseus answered, " you may have me thrown from the cliff as a warning to other cheats. I swear it, and call the Gods to witness."
But the true-hearted swineherd only said, " I should get a good name by that, my friend, if I took you into my house and had you for my guest, and then murdered you brutally! Do you think I could pray to Zeus after that without a fear ? But now it is supper-time, and my men will be coming liome."
While they spoke, the herdsmen came up with the swine, and the sows were driven into the pens, grunting and squealing noisily as they settled in for the night. Then Eumaeus called out, " Bring in the fattest boar, and let us make a sacrifice in

honour of our guest, and get some reward ourselves for all the trouble we have spent upon the drove, trouble lost, since strangers take the fruit of it all."
So they brought in a big fat white-tusked boar, while Eumaeus split the wood for the fire. And he did not forget the Immortals, for he had a pious heart: he made the due offerings first and prayed for his master's return, and then he stood up at the board to carve, and gave each man his share and a special slice for his guest from the whole length of the chine. Odysseus took it and thanked him with all his heart:
"May Father Zeus be your friend, Eumaeus, and give you what I would give you for your kindness to a poor old man like me."
But the swineherd said, " Take it, my good friend, take it and enjoy it. Zeus will give or withhold as it may please him, for he can do all things."
So they sat down to the feast, and after they had had their fill the swineherd's servant cleared everything away, and then they made ready for sleep. The evening closed in black and stormy, and a west wind sprang up bringing the rain with it, and blew hard all the night: so Eumaeus made up a bed of fleeces for Odysseus by the fire and gave him a great thick cloak as well, that he kept for the roughest weather. But he could not bring

himself to stay there too, away from his herd of pigs, and he wrapped himself up warmly and went out to sleep beside them in the open. Odysseus saw, and smiled to see, what care he took of everything, while he thought his master was far away.

CHAPTER XV

HOW TELEMACHUS CAME HOME AGAIN

Meanwhile Athena had gone to the palace of Menelaus, where it stood among the wide lawns of Sparta, to bid Telemachus start on his way home. His bed was laid in the palace porch; but he could not sleep and lay there awake, thinking of his father all through the quiet night. Athena stood beside him and said:
" Telemachus, it is not wise for you to be so long away from home. You have left behind you dangerous men who may rob you of all you have; and your mother is hard pressed by her father and her kin to marry Eurymachus, for he offers her more splendid presents than all the other lords. If she listens to him she may soon forget the husband of her youth: a woman's mind is weak. But you must be on your guard as you go home: for the wooers are lying in wait for you in the strait between

Ithaca and Samos. Keep your ship away from the islands, and sail by night as well as by day; and one of the deathless Gods who loves you will send you a fair breeze. Then when you have reached Ithaca, send your ship and men to the city, but go yourself alone to the house of the swineherd Eumaeus."
So Athena went back to Olympus; and as soon as morning was come Telemachus said to Menelaus, " Send me now on my way home, son of Atreus: for I long to see Ithaca again." And Menelaus answered, " I will not keep you here, if you are longing for your home; but first I must give you a parting gift."
So he brought from his treasure chamber a cup and a silver bowl and gave them to Telemachus ; and Helen brought a wonderful robe of her own work, which shone like a star, and gave it to him and said, " Take this, dear child, in memory of Helen, and give it to your bride to wear upon her marriage day; and may joy follow you to your home."
Then Telemachus and the son of Nestor yoked the horses and drove the car out of the echoing courtyard; and Menelaus stood by the horses' heads and bade farewell to the youths, saying, " Farewell, and greet Nestor in my name: he was as kind as a father to me, when we fought with the heroes at Troy." But Telemachus thought of

his own father and said, " O that when I reach Ithaca I might find Odysseus at home and tell him of all the kindness you have shown me!"
Just as he spoke an eagle flew across in front of them with a tame goose in his claws; and the son of Nestor said, " This is a sign sent by the Gods: tell us, Menelaus, what it means." Menelaus stood in doubt, but Helen said at once, " Listen to me and I will tell you. Just as that eagle came from his home in the mountains and snatched the goose from the courtyard, so shall Odysseus return home after many wanderings and take vengeance on his foes.'^
So Telemachus and Nestor's son drove away across the plain, till the sun went down and all the roads grew dark, and on the second day they came to sandy Pylos. The ship was waiting for them and they bade farewell to one another, and Telemachus said they would be friends for ever, as their fathers had been before them.
And just as he was about to embark a man hurried up to the ship. Theoclymenus was his name, and he came of a race that had the gift of second-sight. He told Telemachus his story, how he had slain a man in his own country and was now an outlaw, and he begged that he might be taken on board; and Telemachus said to him, " Come with me, if you will, and you shall be welcome in Ithaca to all that I can give you."

So they went on board, and Athena sent them a fair wind, and the ship ran on over the wine-dark sea. They were careful not to pass by Samos, and so they escaped the suitors, and early next morning they came to the coast of Ithaca.
Then Telemachus said to the stranger, "In better days I would have bid you go to our own house, but now you would get a poor welcome there; for my mother sits apart in her own chamber and seldom shows herself, and Eury-machus is master now." Then he told the crew that he wished to land before they reached the city, and he asked one of his friends to give Theo-clymenus entertainment while he was away. So the ship put in to shore, and Telemachus landed; and the rest sailed round to the city, while he went alone across the country till he reached the swineherd's hut.

CHAPTER XVI

HOW ODYSSEUS MET HIS SON AGAIN

Now Odysseus and the swineherd were already preparing their breakfast when Telemachus came up. The dogs knew him and played round him lovingly. " Eumaeus," said Odysseus, " some friend of yours is coming, for I hear footsteps, and the dogs are pleased and do not bark."
He had hardly finished speaking, when his own dear son stood in the doorway. The swineherd started up and dropped the vessels in which he was mixing the wine. He went to meet his young master and fell on his neck and kissed him as a father would kiss an only son escaped from death. " Light of my eyes, dear son, have you come home at last ? When you sailed away to Pylos, I never thought to see you again. But come in and let me feast my eyes upon you; for you do not often visit us, but are kept at home in the town, watching that crowd of ruinous suitors."
And Telemachus answered, " Gladly, good

father: I have come to see you, and to hear tidings of my mother."
Then the swineherd told him that his mother still waited patiently at home and spent her days and nights in weeping.
Then Telemachus went into the house, and as he came up Odysseus rose to give him his seat, but he would not take it and said, " Keep your seat, stranger; this man shall make up another for me." So Odysseus sat down again, and the swineherd made a seat for Telemachus of the green brushwood and put a fleece upon it. Then he set food before them, and when they had eaten Telemachus asked who the stranger was and how he had come to Ithaca. And Eumaeus told him Odysseus' own story and begged him to protect the wanderer. But Telemachus thought of the suitors and did not wish to take him to the palace.
" I will give him a cloak and a vest," he said, '' and shoes for his feet and a two-edged sword, and I will send him on his way. But I cannot take him into the house, where the suitors would mock at him and use him ill. One man cannot restrain them, and he so young as I."
Then Odysseus said, " Sir, if I may speak, 1 would say foul wrong is done you in your house, and my heart burns at the thought. Do your people hate you, or will your brothers give you no support ? Would that 1 were as young as you are

and were Odysseus' son or Odysseus himself! I would go to the palace and fall upon all the throng, and die there, one man against a hundred, sooner than see the shameful deeds that are done in that glorious house."
And Telemachus answered, " Hear me, stranger, and I will tell you all. My people do not hate me and I have no quarrel with them. But I have no brothers to stand by me, for Zeus has never given more than one son to each generation of our line. And there are many foemen in the house, all the princes of the islands, and they woo my mother and threaten my life, and I cannot see how it will end."
Then he said to Eumaeus, " Go up to the house, old father, as quickly as you can, and tell my mother that I am come back safe from Pylos; and I will wait for you here.
And Eumaeus answered, " I hear, master, and understand. But shall I not go to Laertes on my way and tell him too ? For, since you set sail for Pylos, they say he has not eaten or drunk or gone about his work, but sits in his house sorrowing and wasting away with grief"
But Telemachus bade him go straight to the palace and return at once, and let the queen send word to Laertes by one of the maids. So Eumaeus went forth, and when Athena saw him go, she drew near and came and stood by the gateway and

showed herself to Odysseus, a tall and beautiful woman, with wisdom in her look. The dogs saw her too and were afraid and shrank away whining into the corner of the yard; but Telemachus could not see her. Then the Goddess nodded to Odysseus and he went out and stood before her, and she said, " Noble Odysseus, now is the time to reveal yourself to your son and go forth with him to the town, with death and doom for the suitors. I shall be near you in the battle and eager to fight."
Then she touched him with her golden wand and gave him his beauty and stature once more, and his old bronzed colour came back and his beard grew thick and his garments shone bright again: and so she sent him to the hut. And when Telemachus saw him, he marvelled and turned away his eyes, for he thought it must be a God.
" Stranger," he said, " you are changed since a moment ago : your colour is not the same nor your garments. If you are one of the Immortals, be gracious to us and let us offer you gifts and sacrifice."
Then Odysseus cried out, " I am no God, but your own dear father, for whose sake you are suffering cruel wrongs and the spite of men." And then he kissed his son and let his tears take their way at last.
13ut Telemachus could not believe it and said, " You cannot be my father, but a God come down to deceive me and make me grieve still

more. No mortal could do what you have done, for a moment since you were old and wretched and poorly clad, and now you seem like one of the heavenly Gods."
Then his father answered, " My son, no other Odysseus will ever come back to you. Athena has done this wonder, for she is a Goddess and can make men what she will, now poor, now rich, now old, now young: such power have the lords of heaven to exalt us or bring us low."
Then Telemachus fell on his neck and they wept aloud together. And they would have wept out their hearts till evening, had not Telemachus asked his father how he had come to Ithaca at last; and Odysseus told him that the Sea-kings had brought him and put him on shore asleep, and that Athena had sent him to the swineherd's hut. " But now tell me of the suitors. How many are they and what manner of men ? Can the two of us make head against the throng ?"
" Father," he answered, " I know well your fame, mighty and wise in war. But this we could never dare, two men against a host. They are a hundred and twenty in all, the best fighting men from Ithaca and the islands round. Think, if you can, of some champion who would befriend us and give us help."
And Odysseus made answer, " What think you, if Father Zeus and the Goddess Athena

stood by our side ? Should we still need other help ?"
" Truly they are the best of champions," said Telemachus, " though they sit on high among the clouds ; and they rule both men and Gods." " And they will be with us," said his father, " when we come to the trial of war. Now at daybreak you must go home and mix with the suitors, and later on the swineherd will bring me to the town, disguised again as the old beggarman; and if they ill-treat me or even strike me or drag me out of the house, you must look on and bear it. You may check them by speaking, but they will not listen, for the day of their doom is at hand. And tell no one that Odysseus has come home, not even Laertes nor the swineherd nor Penelope herself: we must keep the secret until we are sure of our friends."
Then Telemachus said that his father might trust him, and so they talked on together. Meanwhile Eumaeus had reached the palace with the tidings that Telemachus had returned; and the suitors who were in the hall heard it and were dismayed, for they saw that their plot had failed. They went out of the palace and sat down before the gates, and were talking of sending word to their ship that was lying in wait for Telemachus, when the ship itself came into the harbour, with the other princes on board. So they all went up

together to the pubhc square and debated what to do, and they resolved to murder Telemachus as soon as they found another chance. Then they went back and sat down again on the polished seats in the hall.
Now Medon the herald had heard them plotting together in the square and went and told Penelope all they had said, and how they had purposed putting her son to death. She went down at once to the hall with her women, and stood in the doorway with her bright veil before her face and spoke to Antinous and said, " Wicked and insolent man, can it be that they call you in Ithaca one of their wisest men ? No, it is a fool's work you are doing, plotting to kill my son. He is helpless before you now, but Zeus is the friend of the helpless and avenges their wrongs. Impious and ungrateful too! Did not Odysseus once shield your father from his enemies and save his life ? Yet you waste his substance and would murder his son!"
Then Eurymachus spoke and tried to soothe her. No one, he said, should injure Telemachus while he was alive, for he loved him more than any man on earth. Eurymachus' words were fair, and Penelope could say no more; yet all the while he was planning the death of her son.
In the evening the swineherd reached his hut again, and found Odysseus changed to the old

beggar-man once more, preparing supper with Telemachus.
" What news, good Eumaeus ?" said the young man. " Have the proud lords come home from their ambush, or are they still waiting out yonder to take me as I return ?"
And Eumaeus replied, " I did not stay, master, to go through the town and find out the news, for when I had given my message I wanted to be at home. But one thing I saw from the brow of the hill as I came along. A swift ship was entering the harbour, full of armour and armed men. They may have been the princes, but I cannot say."
As he heard this, Telemachus looked at his father and smiled, but he took good care that the swineherd should not see.

CHAPTER XVII

HOW ODYSSEUS CAME TO THE PALACE

Early next morning, when the rosy-fingered dawn was in the sky, Telemachus bound on his sandals and took his stout spear in his hand, and said to the swineherd, " Old friend, I must now be off to the city and let my mother see me, for I know she will weep and sigh until I am there myself. And as for this poor stranger, I would have you take him to the town and let him beg for bite and sup from door to door, and those who choose can give. For I cannot be host to every wanderer with all the trouble I have to bear. And if that makes him angry—well! it is only the worse for him: I am a man that speaks his mind."
Then Odysseus answered readily, " Sir, I do

not ask to stay here myself: a beggar should not beg in the fields. Nor am I young enough to work on a farm at a master's beck and call. So go your ways, and your man shall take me with him to the town. But I will wait till the sun is high, for I am afraid of the morning-frost with these threadbare rags of mine."
So Telemachus strode away until he reached the palace, and went in to the hall. The old nurse Eurycleia was there with the maids, spreading fleeces on the inlaid stools and chairs; and she saw him at once and went up to him with tears in her eyes, and then all the women gathered round and kissed him and welcomed him home again. And Penelope came down from her chamber and flung her arms round her son, and kissed his head and both his eyes, and said to him tearfully, " You have come home, Telemachus, light of my eyes! I thought I should never see you again, when you sailed away to Pylos secretly, against my will, to get tidings of your father. And now tell me all you heard."
But Telemachus said to her, " Mother, why make me think of trouble now, when I have just escaped from death ? Rather put on your fairest robes, and go and pray the Gods to grant us a day of vengeance. But I must be off to the public square to meet a guest of mine whom I brought here in my ship. I sent him on before

me with the crew, and bade one of them take him to his house until I came myself."
So Penelope went away and prayed to the Gods, while the prince went down to the public square and found Theoclymenus and brought him back to the palace, and they sat down together in the hall. Then one of the old servants brought up a polished table and spread it for them with good things for their meal, and Penelope came and sat beside the door, spinning her fine soft yarn. She did not speak till they had finished, but then she said to her son, " Telemachus, I see I must go up to my room and lie down on my bed, the bed I have watered with my tears ever since Odysseus went away to Troy; for you are determined not to talk to me and tell me the news of your father before the suitors come in to the hall."
Then Telemachus said, " Mother, I will tell you all I know. We reached Pylos and found Nestor there, and he took me into his splendid house, and welcomed me as lovingly as though I had been a long-lost son of his own. But he could tell me nothing of my father, not even if he were alive or dead, and so he sent me on to Sparta, to the house of Menelaus. There I saw Helen the fairest of women, for whom the Greeks and Trojans fought and suffered so long. Menelaus asked me why I came, and I told him about the suitors and all the wrong they did. Then he cried:

' Curse on them! The dastards in the hero's place! O that Odysseus would return ! They would soon have cause enough to hate this suit of theirs !' And then he told me how he had heard tidings of my father from Proteus, the wizard of the sea. He was living still, so the wizard said, on an island far away, in the cave of a wood-nymph called Calypso, who kept him there against his will, and he had no ship to carry him over the broad sea. That was all Menelaus could tell me; and when I had done my errand I came away, and the Gods have brought me home in safety."
And as Penelope listened her heart filled with sorrow; but Theoclymenus, the seer, said to her, " Listen to me, wife of Odysseus, and I will prophesy to you; for your son has heard nothing certain, but I have seen omens that are sure. I swear by Zeus, the ruler of the Gods, and by the board and the hearth of Odysseus himself where I am standing now, he is already here in Ithaca, he knows of all this wickedness, and is waiting to punish the suitors as they deserve."
At that moment the princes came in from their sport and flung their cloaks aside, and set about slaughtering the sheep and the fatted goats and the swine for their feast.
Meanwhile Odysseus was starting for the town, with the swineherd to show him the way. He
Odysseus comes to the Palace
had slung the tattered wallet across his shoulder, and Eumaeus had given him a staff, and everyone v^ho met them v^ould have taken the king for a poor old beggarman, hobbling along v^ith his crutch.
So they w^ent down the rocky path till they reached a running spring by the wayside where the townsfolk got their water. There was a grove of tall poplars round it, and the cool stream bubbled down from the rock overhead, and above the fountain there was an altar to the nymphs where the passers-by laid their offerings.
There they chanced to meet Melanthius, the king's goatherd, driving his fattest goats to the town for the suitors' feast. He was a favourite of theirs and did all he could to please them. Now as soon as he saw the two he broke out into scoffs and gibes, till the heart of Odysseus grew hot with anger.
" Look there ! " he shouted, " one rascal leading another! Trust a man to find his mate! A plague on you, swineherd, where are you taking that pitiful wretch ? Another beggar, I suppose, to hang about the doors and cringe for the scraps and spoil our feasts ? Now if you would only let me have him to watch my farm and sweep out my stalls and fetch fodder for my kids, he could drink as much whey as he liked and get some flesh on his bones. But no! His tricks have spoilt him for any honest work!"

So he jeered at them in his folly, and as he passed he kicked Odysseus on the thigh; hut the king stood firm, and took the blow in silence, though he could have found it in his heart to strike the man dead on the spot. But Eumaeus turned round fiercely, and cried to the Gods for vengeance:
" Nymphs of the spring," he prayed, " if ever my master honoured you, hear my prayer, and send him home again! He v^ould make a sweep of all your insolence, you good-for-nothing wretch, loitering here in the city while your Hocks are left to ruin ! "
" Oho ! " cried Melanthius, " listen to the foul-mouthed dog! I must put him on board a ship and sell him in a foreign land, and make some use of him that way ! Why, Odysseus will never see the day of his return ! He is dead and gone: I wish his son would follow him! "
With that he turned on his heel and hastened away to the palace-hall, where he sat down with the suitors at their feast. And the other two followed slowly until they reached the gate. There they paused, and Odysseus caught the swineherd by the hand, and cried:
" Eumaeus, this must be the palace of the king! No one could mistake it. See, there is room after room, and a spacious courtyard with a wall and coping-stones and solid double doors to make

It safe. And I am sure that a great company is seated there at the banquet, for I can smell the roasted meat and hear the sound of the lyre."
Then Eumaeus said, " Your wits are quick enough; it is the very place. And now tell me: would you rather go in alone and face the princes while I wait here, or will you stay behind and let me go in first ? But if you wait here, you must not wait too long, for someone might catch sight of you and strike you and drive you from the gate."
Then the hero said to him, " I understand; I knew what I had to meet. Do you go first and I will wait behind. For I have some knowlec'ge of thrusts and blows, and my heart has learned to endure; for I have suffered much in storm ai id battle, and I can bear this like the rest."
But while they were talking, a dog who was lying there lifted his head and pricked his ears. It was the hound Argus whom Odysseus had reared himself long ago before the war, but had to leave behind when he went away to Troy. Once he used to follow the hunters to the chase, but no one cared for him now when his master was away, and he lay there covered with vermin, on a dung-heap in front of the gates. Yet even so, when he felt that Odysseus was near him, he wagged his tail and dropped his ears; but he had

not strength enough to drag himself up to his master. And when Odysseus saw it, he turned away his face so that Eumaeus should not see the tears in his eyes, and said, " Eumaeus, it is strange that they let that dog lie there in the dung. He looks a noble creature, but perhaps he has never been swift enough for the chase, and they have only kept him for his beauty."
" Ah, yes! " Eumaeus answered, " it is easy to see that he has no master now. If you had been here when Odysseus went to Troy, you would have wondered at the creature's pace and strength. In the thickest depth of the forest no quarry could escape him, and no hound was ever keener-scented. But now he is old and wretched, and his lord has perished far away, and the heedless women take no care of him. Slaves can do nothing as they ought when the master is not there, for a man loses half his manhood when he falls into slavery."
Then Eumaeus went on into the palace and up to the hall where the suitors were. But Argus had seen his master again at last, and when he had seen him, he died.
As soon as the swineherd came in, Telemachus caught sight of him, and beckoned him to a stool at his side, and gave him his share of the feast. After a little while Odysseus came up too, and sat down on the threshold like a poor old beggarman. Then his son sent him meat and bread by the

swineherd, and said that a beggar should be bold, and he ought to go among the princes and ask each man for a dole. So he went round from one to the

other, stretching out his hand for a morsel in the true beggar's way. And everyone else felt some pity and gave him an alms, but Antinous mocked at them all and told them they were ready enough to be generous with another's wealth. And at last he grew angry and cursed Odysseus for a whining rascal, and hurled a footstool at his head, bidding him begone and trouble them no more. The stool struck Odysseus on the shoulder, but he stood like a

rock, motionless and silent, with black thoughts in his heart. Then he went back straight to the threshold and sat down and spoke to all the company:
" Listen to me, my lords ! No man bears any rancour for a blow in open war, but Antinous has struck me because I am a beggar and know the curse of hunger. If there be any Gods who avenge the poor man's cause, 1 pray that he may die before his marriage-day ! "
At that the others felt shame, and told Antinous he did wrong to strike the homeless wanderer.
" Who knows ? " they said, " he might be one of the heavenly Gods, and woe to you if he were! For sometimes the Immortals take upon themselves the likeness of strangers, and enter our cities, and go about among men, watching the good and evil that they do."
Thus they warned him, but he cared little for all they said. And Telemachus sat there full of rage and grief to see his father struck, but he kept back the tears and held his peace.
Now Penelope was sitting in her room behind the hall, and she saw what had happened, and was angry with Antinous and called the swineherd to her side:
" Go, good Eumaeus, and tell the stranger to come here. And I will ask him if he has ever heard of Odysseus, for he looks like a man who has wandered far."

And the swineherd said, " Yes, he is a Cretan, and has had all kinds of adventures before he was driven here, and he could tell you stories that would charm you like a minstrel's sweetest song, and you would never tire of listening. And he says that he has heard of Odysseus, near home, in the rich land of Epirus, and that he is already on his way to us bringing a store of treasures with him."
Then Penelope said, " Quick, bring the stranger here at once, and let him speak with me face to face. And if I see that he tells me the truth I will give him a vest and a cloak for himself"
So the swineherd hurried back with the message; but Odysseus said he dared not face the princes a second time and it would be better to speak with Penelope later in the evening, alone by the fireside; and when the queen heard this, she said that the stranger was right. By this time it was afternoon, and Eumaeus went up to Tele-machus and whispered that he must be off to his work again. Telemachus said he might go, but bade him have supper first and told him to come back next morning without fail. So the swineherd took his food in the hall, and then started home for his farm, to look after his pigs and everything that he had charge of there.

CHAPTER XVIII.

HOW ODYSSEUS FOUGHT WITH THE BEGGAR

Them a common beggar came up to the doors, a rascal who was known through all the island for his endless eating and drinking. His name was Irus, and he used to run errands for the young lords: he was big enough to look at, but he had no strength or spirit in him. Up he came and called insolently to Odysseus, " Back from the doorway, old man, else I will drag you out by the heels; though I am half ashamed to fight with such as you."
The king eyed him askance and said, " My friend, I have done you no harm, and this threshold has room for us both. Do not provoke me too far, or, old as I am, I wall let you feel how I can strike. Then we should have more peace tomorrow : for I reckon that you would not come back a second time to the hall of King Odysseus."
" Listen to the glutton," answered Irus, " how he gabbles on like an old wife over the fire! I

will have at him right and left and knock all the teeth from his jaws. Strip yourself, fellow, and let these lords see how we can fight."
Antinous heard them wrangling and laughed out loud. " Friends, here is the best sport the Gods have ever sent this way! Irus and the stranger are challenging one another: come, let us make a ring." Then all the princes leapt up laughing and gathered round the ragged beggars, and Antinous said again, " Look, there are the pies, which we put aside for supper, lying by the fire. Whichever shows himself the better man shall take his pick of them, and he shall dine with us every day, and we will let no one else come here to ask for alms."
Then Odysseus said craftily, " Sirs, an old man worn with trouble is no match for a younger man, but my hunger drives me to face the fight. Only I ask you all to swear that none of you will help Irus and strike me an unfair blow."
They all swore as he asked, and Telemachus said, " Stranger, if you can meet this fellow you need fear no other man. Whoever strikes you will have to reckon with more than one: for I am your host, and Antinous and Eurymachus will help to see fair play."
When Odysseus heard that, he girded up his rags, till all could see his stalwart thighs and his broad shoulders and strong arms and breast: so

that the princes stood amazed and said to one another, " What thighs the old man has under his rags! There will he little left of Irus when this fight is done/' Irus trembled in every limb, but there was no help for it: the servants girded him and dragged him into the ring. At first Odysseus meant to strike him dead on the spot; but when he thought again he judged it better not to use all his strength, for fear the suitors should discover who he was. So the two put up their hands, and at the first blow Odysseus smote Irus on the neck below the ear and crushed in the bones, and he fell moaning in the dust; while all the princes laughed till they could laugh no more.
Odysseus took the fallen man by the foot and dragged him into the courtyard: there he set him up against the wall with his staffs in his hands, and said, " Sit here and scare away the swine, but do not try again to lord it over strangers, or a worse thing will happen to you." Then he went back to the hall and sat down again in his place on the threshold.
They all shouted as he came in and said, " May Zeus give you your heart's desire, stranger, for ridding us of that hungry beggar." And Odysseus rejoiced at the good omen of their words. Then Antinous set a great pasty before him, and another of the lords, called Amphinomus, brought him bread,

and pledged him in a golden cup and wished him happiness. Now Amphinomus was good at heart, and Odysseus knew it and tried to warn him. " Let me tell you," he said, " what is in my thoughts. There is no creature upon earth frailer than man: he is what the will of Heaven makes him: and yet so long as all is well with him and he can feel his strength, he thinks that he can never come to harm. So it was with me in former days: I trusted in my wealth and my kindred, and in the pride of my strength I did many lawless deeds. And so it is now with these princes. I see them plundering the wealth and dishonouring the wife of a man whom they never think to see again: and yet he is not so far away. Heaven grant that you may not meet him at his return I Go to your house in time: for he will not part from the suitors without bloodshed, when he is once within these walls."
With that he drank, and gave back the cup to the youth, who went sadly through the hall, shaking his head and foreboding ill: yet for all that his fate found him there.
Meanwhile it came into the heart of Penelope to show herself to the wooers. She laughed a joyless laugh, and said to one of her women who stood near, " I have a wish that I never had before, to let my wooers see me, though I hate them with all my heart. Go and bid two of my

maidens come and attend me in the hall, for I cannot go alone among the men."
So the old woman went away to take the message, and meanwhile Athena sent a deep slumber on the queen. Her head fell back upon the pillow and her whole frame sank to rest: and then the Goddess gave her wonderful gifts, so that her face grew beautiful with the beauty of the Immortals and she seemed taller than before and whiter than fresh-cut ivory. Now while she slept her attendants came up from the hall, and at the sound of their voices she awoke and rubbed her eyes and said, " What a soft sleep has come over me in the midst of my troubles! O, for a death as gentle, to take me from this weary life of longing for my dear husband who is lost."
Then she went down with her attendants to the hall, and stood by the doorway, holding her veil before her face; and all the wooers wondered at her beauty, and each of them longed to win her for himself. And Eurymachus said to her, " Daughter of Icarius, if all the Greeks could see you now, there would be still more suitors in your hall, for in wisdom and loveliness you surpass all other women."
But she answered, " Eurymachus, the Immortals took away my beauty on the day when the Greeks embarked for Troy, and my husband Odysseus sailed with them. I remember how he

laid his hand upon my wrist when we parted and said, ' Wife, many of our host will never come home again. There are good warriors in Troy, they say, horsemen and spearmen and archers: and what will be my fate I cannot tell. So I leave- everything in your charge, and you must not forget my father and mother, but take more care of them than ever while I am away. But when my son is grown to manhood, you may leave this house and marry whom you please.' And now it is all happening as he said. The black day will come when I must meet this marriage that I hate. But I am ill pleased at the way in which my wooers treat me. It was the custom once for men who wooed a king's daughter to give her splendid gifts and make a feast for her friends, instead of devouring wealth that was not theirs." So she spoke, and Odysseus smiled to himself, as he saw how she drew the wooers on, while her heart was far from them.
Then Antinous made answer, " Take our gifts, daughter of Icarius: it is right that we should bring them. But here we mean to stay until you have married the best man among us." And all the rest agreed, and the heralds brought every man the present that he would give: an embroidered robe with twelve golden clasps, and a golden necklace set with amber beads, and bracelets

and glittering earrings and many another splendid gift. So Penelope went back to her chamber, and the maidens followed carrying the gifts; while the princes sang and danced and made merry until the evening came.
When it grew dark the maids brought in great braziers full of dry billets, and set light to them, and stood round to keep the fires burning. Then the king went up to his servants and said, " Servants of Odysseus, go in to your mistress and sit beside her to cheer her with your company; and I will watch the fires for these guests. If they choose to see the dawn come up, they will not tire me: I am a man who has gone through much."
The girls looked at one another and laughed, and Melantho, the fairest and most shameless of them all, said to him scornfully, " Are you out of your wits, stranger ? You should be off and sleep in the smithy or in the market-place: but here you stop and will be talking. I suppose your head is turned because you have beaten Irus. Wait till a better man than Irus comes to drive you out of doors."
But Odysseus looked at her sternly under his brows, and said, " Vixen, I will tell the prince Telemachus what you say, and he will cut you limb from limb." That scared the women, and they went trembling from the hall; and Odysseus

remained standing by the braziers, watching the feasters, and brooding all the while on the vengeance which was to come.
But it was not yet time for Athena to end his humiliation, and she let the suitors insult him at their will. First Eurymachus began to mock him, that he might make the others laugh. "The Gods," he said, " must have sent this stranger here to be our torch-bearer: his head might serve to give us light, it is so bald and shining." Then he went on, turning to Odysseus : " Would you be ready to work for me if I hired you, to build walls and plant trees on a distant farm of mine ? I would pay you a good wage and give you food and clothes. But you have learnt too many tricks for that: you would rather go begging through the country and gorge yourself all day long."
Then the hero answered him : " Eurymachus, it would please me well if we two could have a match at reaping, in the spring season when the days are long. There should be a meadow deep in grass, and a stout sickle for me and one for you, and we would work without food till sundown. Or there should be a pair of oxen for us to drive, strong tawny beasts, and four acres of land to plough, and a soil that would give before the ploughshare: you would see then if I could cut a furrow straight. Or I could wish that an enemy

might come down on us this very day, and that I had a shield, and two spears, and a helmet all of bronze set close upon my temples: you would see me among the foremost fighters and have no cause to mock my hunger then. But you are insolent and you have no mercy: you think that you are someone great and strong, because the men about you are few and weak. I tell you, if Odysseus were to come to his home again, these doors, broad as they are, would be all too narrow for your flight."
That made Eurymachus beside himself with rage, and he seized a footstool and hurled it: but Odysseus slipped aside, and the stool struck the cupbearer on the hand and felled him to the ground. Then there was a clamour in the hall and the princes cried, " Curse the vagabond ! Why did he come here to trouble us ? Now we sit wrangling over beggars and everything goes wrong, and we get no pleasure out of this good feast."
Then Telemachus spoke out boldly: " Sirs, you cannot carry your wine in peace. I will not drive any man away; but my counsel is that you make an end of the feast, and go home now for the night." And Amphinomus said that he had spoken well, and bade the herald close the feast; so they drank the last cup and went away, each man to his own house.

CHAPTER XIX

HOW ODYSSEUS WAS RECOGNISED BY THE OLD NURSE

Thus Odysseus and his son were left alone in the hall. Then Odysseus said, "We must put away all the weapons. If the suitors miss them and ask the reason, you can say you have laid them aside to keep them from the smoke."
So Telemachus called out the old nurse Eury-cleia from the room behind the hall and said to her, " Nurse, keep the women in their chambers while I stow away my father's weapons. They have been left here too long and are tarnished by the smoke." " Yes, my child," said Eurycleia, " and I wish that you would always show such care for what belongs to you. But tell me, who is to carry the light for you, if you will not let the women come ?" And Telemachus said that the stranger would carry it.

So the old woman shut the inner doors of the hall. Then Odysseus and his son sprang up and carried out the helmets and shields and spears: and Pallas Athena went before them with a golden lamp in her hand, and shed a wonderful light through the hall. Telemachus turned to his father in amazement, and said, " Father, what strange sight is this ? The walls and the pillars and the pinewood rafters are all glowing as though they were lit up with fire. Surely one of the Gods who rule in heaven is with us here."
But the wise Odysseus answered: " Hold your peace and keep the vision in your heart and ask no questions. This is the way of the Immortals. And now you must go and sleep; but I will wait here, for I must speak to your mother and the
women."
So Telemachus went to his own room and Odysseus was left alone. And presently Penelope came out of her chamber looking as fair as an Immortal. They set her chair in its place by the hearth, a chair of ivory and silver with a footstool for her feet: and the maidservants cleared away the tables and piled fresh logs upon the fire. Then Penelope made them put a stool for Odysseus at her side and spread fleece upon it. So he took his seat, and she began: " Stranger, tell me first who you are and whence you come."

And Odysseus answered warily: " Lady, there is none in the wide world who would not praise you. Your fame is spread abroad like that of a just and mighty king, whose land is fruitful and the people prosperous beneath his rule. Ask me no questions about my own country, for the thought of it would bring more sorrow to my heart: I am a man of many troubles, and it is not right that I should sit weeping and lamenting in another's house."
" Ah ! stranger," said Penelope, " all my beauty and dignity left me the day when my husband Odysseus sailed for Troy. Since then I have forgotten the claims of guests, and waste my heart in longing for him. Meanwhile all the princes of Ithaca and the islands round about make their suit to me, though it is much against my will. For a time I put them off by cunning, but now 1 cannot think of any way to escape: my father and mother would have me marry, and my son now that he is grown a man is vexed to see the ruin of his wealth. But come now, tell me of yourself and your own people."
Then Odysseus began a story, so cunning that it sounded true. He told how his home was in the rich island of Crete, and he told of its inhabitants and its cities, and of his own father and family, and how he had once entertained Odysseus, when a storm had driven him to their shore.

Penelope listened, and her tears began to fall, like snow that melts on the mountains at the breath of the first warm wind. So she wept for her own husband, who was sitting by her side. Pity filled the heart of Odysseus, but he forced back his tears and set his eyes like steel. And when she had wept out her heart she spoke to him again: "Now, stranger, I will put you to the test, and see whether you did in truth entertain my husband as you say. Tell me what were the clothes he wore, and how he looked, and who were his companions."
"Lady," said Odysseus, "it is not easy to say after so long a time, for it is twenty years by now since he left my country; but I will tell you how my mind pictures him. He wore a thick purple mantle with a brooch of gold, and on the face of the brooch was wrought a hound that held in his grip a dappled fawn. I remember too his doublet, how smooth and glossy it was; and there was a herald in his company, a little older than he; he was round-shouldered and dark-skinned and curly-haired, and Odysseus honoured him more than all his fellows."
At that Penelope wept again and said, " Stranger, I pitied you from the first, but now I shall love and honour you. It was I myself who gave him those garments and fastened the glittering brooch. But I shall never welcome him home again. It

was with an ill fate that he sailed from here to that hateful town of Troy."
And Odysseus answered, " Noble lady, do not waste your heart with weeping; for I heard tidings of Odysseus but lately, when I was in the land of Epirus. He has lost all his comrades, and his ship is sunk in the dark sea; for the Gods were angry with him. But he himself is safe and not far off: I swear to you that he will come home in this very year, yes, before the next moon is full."
" Ah! stranger," said Penelope, " my heart misgives me that he will never come home again, nor entertain you here as he would wish. But now my maids shall wash your feet and make a bed for you here; and to-morrow you shall sit by Telemachus at the feast, and none of the princes shall dare to touch you. How could you call me wise, if I let you sit uncared-for in my house ?"
" Lady," answered Odysseus, " I have lain many a night on a hard bed, waiting for the bright dawn to rise, and so I will lie to-night. Nor do I wish that any of your maids should wash my feet: only if there is some old woman in the house, true of heart, who has borne such trouble as I have known myself, I would suffer her to touch me."
Then Penelope said, " Dear stranger, none of my guests have ever been as wise as you. There is a faithful old woman with me, who used to

nurse my lord and carry him in her arms when he was a child: she shall wash your feet. Come here, good Eurycleia, and serve this man: he is your master's age, and Odysseus with all his trouble may look like him by now."
At her words the old woman covered her face with her hands, and wept and said, " O my child Odysseus, my heart aches for you. There was never any man who honoured the Gods as he did; and yet they have not let him return. Perhaps he too is a beggar in some foreign house, and the women mock him there. Yes, stranger, I will do what Penelope bids me gladly, for my heart is drawn to you; and 1 tell you this, of all the guests who have ever come to this house, none has been so like Odysseus in step and face and voice."
And Odysseus said, " May-be, old mother: so men say who have seen us both."
Then she brought a basin and filled it with water. And as she did so, Odysseus turned quickly away from the firelight; for the thought came to him that she might find the scar of an old wound where a wild boar had gashed him when he was a boy, and so the truth might be known. But she came up to him and began to wash his feet, and as she passed her hands down the leg she felt the scar and knew it by the touch. She dropped the foot suddenly, and the bronze basin was overturned and rang on the ground, and all the water

was spilt. Sorrow and joy came over her together, and her eyes filled with tears, and the voice died in her throat. Then she cried: " You are he, you are Odysseus! and I never knew you, my child, until I had felt you with my own hands."
As she spoke she looked at Penelope, longing to tell her that her husband was at home. But Penelope did not see and did not notice, for Athena had turned her thoughts away. Then Odysseus put his hand on the old woman's mouth, and said, " Nurse, would you kill me ? You carried me at your breast: and would you be my ruin, now that I have come home at last ? Be silent, and let no one else in the house know what you have seen; or I swear I will have no mercy on you, my nurse though you are, when the day of reckoning comes."
" My child," answered Eurycleia, " why need you speak to me like that ? You know the strength of my heart: I will be firm as iron." " Be silent, then," said Odysseus, " and leave the rest to Heaven."
Then the old woman brought water in place of what was spilt, and washed her master's feet and anointed him. And when it was done Odysseus covered up the scar with his rags and drew the stool nearer to the fire. Then Penelope said to him, " Stranger, there is still one small thing I wish to ask you. I am all in doubt whether I should stay here with my son or marry the best of these

lords who woo me. And now I will tell you a dream that I have had, and you shall interpret it. I have twenty geese in the courtyard: they feed on wheat out of a trough and it gladdens my heart to see them. Now in my dream 1 thought that a fierce eagle swooped from the mountains and broke the necks of my geese and killed them : and I wept over them bitterly as they lay dead on the ground. But the eagle perched on a jutting beam and spoke in a human voice : ' Daughter of Icarius, take courage; this is no dream, but a true vision of what shall come to pass. The geese are the wooers, and I, the eagle, am your husband, come back to work vengeance on them all.' At his words sleep left me, and I looked up and saw my geese picking the wheat by the trough as before."
And Odysseus answered her, " Lady, there is only one way to interpret the dream, for Odysseus himself has told you. This forebodes the death of all the suitors."
But Penelope said, " Dreams are things of doubtful meaning and hard to understand. But now listen to what I have to say. To-morrow I will make my suitors show who is the best among them. They shall take the bow of Odysseus and try to shoot an arrow through twelve axes in a row, as he used to do. And he who can do this feat shall be my husband and shall take me from this

fair house, so full of treasures, the house to which I came as a bride and which I shall remember in my dreams."
Then Odysseus said at once: " Lady, let this trial take place without delay. Odysseus will be here before they can bend that bow."
Then Penelope bade her attendants prepare a couch for Odysseus, and she herself went to her own chamber and wept till she fell asleep.

CHAPTER XX

HOW ODYSSEUS SPENT HIS FIRST NIGHT AT HOME

Odysseus lay down to sleep in the corridor outside the hall, but the anger burnt in his heart so that he could not rest; and he lay tossing from side to side, wondering how he should make head against his enemies, one against so many. Then Athena came down from heaven and stood beside him in the likeness of a mortal woman and said, "Cannot you rest at last, Odysseus? This is your own home and your wife is here, and your son, a son after a hero's heart."
" That is true," replied Odysseus, " but I cannot tell how I shall do battle with these wooers, for I am one, and they are a host. And even if by Heaven's favour I should slay them, will there not be vengeance taken for their deaths ?"
Then the grey-eyed Goddess answered, " O doubting heart! Other men can trust in their friends who are weak and mortal and know less

than I. I am a Goddess and I guard you constantly in all your perils: yes, though there were fifty companies of men about us, bent upon your death, you should overcome them all. Sleep therefore, for the end of your trouble is not far off." Then she went back to Olympus, and left Odysseus sleeping.
But Penelope's slumber was broken by sorrow, and she lay weeping for her husband and calling on death to take her from her grief And as Odysseus woke at early dawn her voice was in his ears, and it seemed to him as though she already knew him and was standing by his side. He sprang up and went to the great altar in the courtyard and lifted up his hands in prayer to Zeus: " Father Zeus, grant me a sign, so that I may know if it is thou indeed who hast led me over land and sea and brought me to my journey's end."
So he prayed and Zeus heard him from heaven, and sent a peal of thunder. And a poor maidservant, who had been grinding meal for the household all night long, and was working still, heard the crash, and stopped the millstone she was turning, and said, " Thunder from a clear sky, and no cloud in sight! That must be a sign from heaven. Perhaps the Gods will listen even to one so weak as I. These princes who feast in the house of Odysseus have made me grind for their

banquet until my strength is broken. I pray that this meal may be their last."
And Odysseus rejoiced at the thunder-peal and the woman's words, for he knew that the day of vengeance was come.
Meanwhile the other maidservants had gathered in the hall and were lighting the fire on the hearth. Presently Telemachus came out from his chamber, with his spear in his hand and his sword slung about him. He stopped at the threshold and said to Eurycleia, " Nurse, has the stranger been well cared-for ? Wise though my mother is, she does not always show favour to those who deserve it most."
" You need not blame her in this, my child," said Eurycleia. " The stranger drank wine to his heart's content, but he would not taste food, for she asked him. And though he slept on a rough bed outside the hall, that was his own desire."
Then Telemachus went out to the city with his two dogs following at his heels. Meanwhile Eurycleia and the maids prepared the hall, and the serving men brought in the logs. Presently Eumaeus joined them, driving three fat boars, the best in his herd. He let them teed about the courtyard, and spoke to Odysseus, asking how the princes had treated him, and Odysseus told him of their insolence. Then up came Melanthius with his goats, and he began to taunt Odysseus

again and tried to provoke him to a fight, but Odysseus would not answer a word.
While they stood there, another herdsman came up, driving a heifer before him: his name was Philoetius, and he was a loyal man. He gazed at Odysseus and asked the swineherd who the stranger was. " He has the look of a king, spite of his rags," he said, and he grasped Odysseus by the hand: " Welcome, old father! May your troubles have a happy end ! The tears spring to my eyes when I see you, for you put me in mind of my master Odysseus, who gave me charge of the cattle when I was a little lad. And ever since then they have thriven and increased, till now you could not see a finer herd: but I can take no joy in them, for I must drive them here to be the food of strangers. Yes, and I would have left my home long ago and taken service with some other lord, for it is past all bearing: but I still think of my master in his troubles: it may be he will yet come home and drive out the usurpers."
" That is bravely spoken, shepherd," said Odysseus. " And now hear my answer. Wait a little, and I swear Odysseus will come home, and your own eyes shall see their fall."
While they spoke the princes came in from the town and took their places at the feast. Tele-machus made Odysseus come in too, and was

careful to put liini by the great stone threshold just inside the door: he gave him a mean stool and a little table, and brought him meat and drink and said, "Sit down and do not be afraid: I will have no brawling here, for this is the house of Odysseus, and the inheritance is mine."
" Let him talk," said Antinous to the other chiefs, " but if Zeus had not hindered us, we would have shut his mouth for good." Then one of them called out, " Your guest shall have his share, Telemachus: here is a gift for him from me "; and with that he caught up a marrow-bone from the basket and hurled it at Odysseus. But the king moved aside and let it pass, smiling grimly to himself. "Well for you that you missed," said Telemachus, " or I would have run you through the body with my spear: there would have been no wedding after that, but a funeral, at your father's house. Let us have an end of this: I am a boy no longer, and will not bear it."
Then another of the suitors spoke and said he was right to protect a stranger and a guest. " But you must listen, Telemachus, to what we have to say. As long as there was hope of your father's return, it was fair that you should delay our suit and keep us waiting here. But now it is plain that he will never come back. So go, tell your mother that she must make her choice at last."

" Let her marry whom she pleases," said Tele-machus, " I will not stand in her way/'
Then a strange madness came on them all and they laughed and could not cease. And as they laughed, their faces changed, and the meat before them dripped with blood, and their eyes filled with tears, and sobs rose from the hearts of all. Then the seer Theoclymenus cried aloud, " Wretched men, what doom is come upon you ? Your heads and your knees are wrapped in darkness, and your cheeks are wet with tears, and there goes up a cry of wailing, and the walls are stained with blood. Ghosts throng in the porch and in the courtyard, hurrying downwards to the land of death; and the sun is blotted out of heaven, and a dreary mist has overspread the world."
But they only laughed the more, and Eury-machus said, " The man is mad. Lead him out of the house to the market-place, since he finds it is so dark in here."
" Eurymachus," said the seer, " I need no guides from you. I have eyes and ears and I can understand. But I will go forth from here, for I see a doom coming which none of you shall escape who riot in the house of King Odysseus."
So he spoke and went forth from the palace. But the young lords taunted Telemachus: " You are unlucky in your guests," they said. " First you have a hungry wanderer, who cannot fight or

work; and now this other fellow stands up and prophesies. Sell them for slaves: they are good for nothing else."
But Telemachus took no heed of what they said: he sat silent, looking towards his father and waiting till the time to act should come.

CHAPTER XXI

HOW THE SUITORS TRIED TO BEND THE BOW OF ODYSSEUS, AND HOW ODYSSEUS SHOT AN ARROW TO THE MARK

Now Penelope sat in the women's room behind the inner doors, listening to the laughter and the talk, until it came into her heart to fetch the bow and let the trial begin. She called her women, and went to the treasury where the wealth of the king was stored, wrought iron and bronze and gold. There hung the quiver full of deadly arrows, and the great polished bow which one of the heroes had given to Odysseus in old days. Penelope took it from the peg and drew off its shining case; and she sat down and laid it on her knees and sobbed over it. Then she went to meet the princes, and her attendants followed carrying the axes. She stood by the

doorpost holding up her veil before her face, and said:
" Listen to me, my lords. You have eaten and drunk in my house all these years while my husband v^as av^ay. You have called yourselves my suitors, and that is your only plea. Now here is the prize you ask for. I have brought the great bow of Odysseus, and I will give myself to the man who can bend it and shoot an arrow through twelve axes in a row."
Then she told Eumaeus to take it and set out the axes for the suitors to try their skill. Eumaeus shed tears as he took them, and the shepherd wept with him when he saw his master's bow. But Antinous said to them harshly, " Wretched boors, why do you whimper like cowards and distress your lady, who has grief enough already ? Hold your tongues and go and weep outside, and leave the bow to us. We shall have trouble enough before we bend it, for there is not a man among us all to match Odysseus. I saw him myself and remember him well, though I was then but a child." So he said, but all the while he believed that he could bend the bow himself.
Then Telemachus said that he would try with the rest, and that if he won his mother need not leave her home. He stood up and dug a trench straight down the middle of the earthen floor, and planted the axes in it, one behind the other, and

stamped the earth fast about them: and then he took up the bow. Three times he strained with all his force till it trembled under his hands, and three times he let it go. And at the fourth attempt he might have strung it, but Odysseus shook his head. That sign stopped him, and he said, " I am still too young for such a task, 1 fear. Come, now, those of you who are stronger than I, take the bow and end the match."
Then Antinous said that they should all try in order as they sat, and that the priest, whose place was next the wine-bowl, should begin. So the priest stood up and went to the threshold and took the bow : and he strained till his delicate hands grew weary, but he could not bend it at all. At last he laid it down and said, " Friends, I can do nothing: let the next man try his skill. But I fear this task will bring our bravest to despair. Set your hearts upon some other woman: the wife of Odysseus is for the man who is sent by fate and brings the greatest gift."
But Antinous said angrily, " This is hard news for us to hear. Is the bow to bring our bravest to despair because you cannot bend it ? You were never the man to draw a bow, but there are others here who will do the work easily enough." Then he told the goatherd Melanthius to heap up the fire and fetch a round of lard,

that they might grease the bow before they tried their skill. So this was done, and the young men tried in turn; but none of them were strong enough. Only Antinous and Eury-machus still held back, and they were the strongest of all.
Now the shepherd and the swineherd rose and left the hall, and Odysseus went out after them; and when they were beyond the gates he said to them, " Friends, there is something I would have you tell me. On whose side would you be, if some God were to bring Odysseus back this moment ? Would you fight for him or for the suitors ? Speak out and tell me the truth." Then the shepherd said, " O that he might come indeed! You should see how my arm could help him." And Eumaeus said the same.
So when Odysseus was sure of their loyalty he said, " I am he. I have come home again at last, and none of my household have welcomed me but you. I swear to you that, if I overcome the suitors, you shall be as dear to me as my son Telemachus." Then he drew aside his rags and showed them the scar, where the wild boar had gashed him in his youth. They looked and knew him, and then they threw their arms about him and kissed him and wept for joy.
But soon he checked them and said, " Do not 195

weep now, or someone may come out of the hall and see us. Let us go back, one by one, I first and you after me; and then wait for the signal which I will give. I shall ask you for the bow, and the princes will refuse it; but you must bring it down the hall, my good Eumaeus, and put it in my hands. Then tell the women that they must close the inner doors, and if they should hear groans or a sound of fighting in the hall they must not look out, but stay quietly at their work. And it shall be your duty, Philoetius, to shut the gates of the courtyard and make them fast."
Then he went back and sat down in his place by the door, and the two servants went in after him.
By this time Eurymachus had the bow in his hands and was warming it well before the fire; yet still he could not bend it, and at last he broke out in bitter rage: " Shame on us! on myself, and on us all! It is not so much that I care about the marriage: there are women enough in seagirt Ithaca and the other lands of Greece. But men will never forget that we were so much weaker than Odysseus that we could not bend his bow."
" It is not 80 bad as that," said Antinous. " Remember that this is the festival of Apollo, the Archer-God; how could anyone bend a bow

to-day ? Set it down, and we will leave the axes standing; no one is likely to enter the hall of King Odysseus and carry them away. Then early to-morrow we will tell Melanthius to hring us the best goats from his flock, and we will make a sacrifice to Apollo; and afterwards we will try our skill again and end the match."
Then Odysseus said softly, " Give me a hearing, noble sirs. Let me have the bow, I beg you, since you mean to shoot no more to-day. I should like to see whether I have still my former strength, or whether I have lost it in my wanderings and the hardships I have borne."
But they were angry at that, for they feared he might succeed. " Be silent, fool," said Antinous; " you ought to be content that you can sit among such great lords as we and listen to our talk. It will only be the worse for you if you bend that bow Hold your tongue and drink, and do not match yourself with younger men.''
But Penelope said, " Antinous, it is not fair or right for anyone here to insult the guests of Telemachus. Do you suppose, even if the stranger should be strong enough to bend the great bow of Odysseus, that he will take me home and make me his wife ? No, you need not fear that; he could not hope for it himself"
"Daughter of Icarius," answered Eurymachus,

" we do not suppose that he will carry you away. But we should not like some scurrilous rascal to tell how we wooed the wife of a hero, but were too weak to bend his bow; and how a wandering beggar came up and strung it easily. That is how they will talk, and so we shall lose our honour."
" Eurymachus," she said, " it is not in that way your honour is lost. But this stranger is tall and well set, and says he comes of a worthy stock. Give him the bow, and let us see. And if he is able to bend it, I will give him a new cloak and vest and a spear and sword and sandals for his feet, and I will send him wherever he wishes to go."
But Telemachus said, " Mother, the bow is mine, and mine alone, to give or refuse as I will. None of the Greeks should dispute my right, if I chose to give it to the stranger for his own. Go into the house and look after your own work, the loom and the distaff, and see that your maid-servants do their tasks. We men will see to the bow, and I above all; for I am master here."
Penelope wondered at him, yet she felt that he spoke wisely: and she went up to her chamber, where Athena sent sleep to close her eyes.
Meanwhile the swineherd took up the bow, but the princes raised an outcry, and he set it down

again. But Telemachus called out threateningly, " Bring the bow here, or I will turn you out of the house. I wish I could get rid of these lords as easily as I could of you." They laughed at the thought and forgot to be angry, so the swineherd brought the bow down the hall and put it in his master's hands. Then he called Eurycleia out from the women's rooms, and said to her, " Telemachus bids you shut the inner doors; and if any of the women should hear groans or a sound of fighting in the hall, they must not look out, but stay quietly at their work." So the old woman shut the doors.
Then Philoetius sprang up silently and went out, and closed the courtyard gates. There was a ship's cable lying in the porch: with this he tied the gates fast, and then went back and sat down in his place, with his eyes steady on the king. Meanwhile Odysseus was handling the bow, turning it this way and that, and testing it in every place, to see whether worms had eaten the horns while the master was away from home. And the princes looked at each other and said, " He has a good enough eye for a bow. The rascal must have the fellow to it at home." But another would say, "If he can bend this one, he is welcome to all he wants."
While they spoke Odysseus had looked to everything; and now, with as little trouble as

when a minstrel fits a new cord to his lyre, he bent and strung the mighty bow. He took it in his left hand and plucked the bowstring, and it rang beneath his touch, clear as a swallow's note. And as he did so Zeus sent a peal of thunder, and the hero's heart leapt at the sound. Fear came on all the suitors, and their faces grew pale. But Odysseus caught up an arrow from the table at his side and laid it on the centrepiece : he took a steady aim from the stool where he sat, and drew the string, and shot: and the bronze-tipped shaft went clean through all twelve axes from the first one to the last
Then he called out, " Telemachus, your guest has not disgraced you. I have not missed the mark, and I was not long at the work. The time has come: it is daylight still, but we must give these lords their evening meal, and dance and song shall not be wanting."
At the word he nodded to his son. Then Telemachus slung his sharp sword about him, and grasped his glittering spear.

CHAPTER XXII

HOW ODYSSEUS KILLED THE SUITORS

But Odysseus flung ofF his rags, and sprang to the great threshold with the bow and quiver in his hand. He poured out the arrows at his feet, and shouted to the princes: " So ends the game you could not play! Now for another mark which no man has ever hit before !"
With that he shot at Antinous. He, as it chanced, was just lifting a golden cup from the board, never dreaming that death would meet him there with all his comrades round him at the feast. But before the wine touched his lips the arrow struck him in the throat, and the cup dropped from his hand, and he fell dying to the floor. The princes sprang to their feet when they saw their comrade fallen, and looked round the walls for armour, but there was not a spear or shield to be found. Then they turned in fury on Odysseus: " Madman, are you shooting at men ? You have slain the noblest youth in

Ithaca, and you shall not live to draw bow again."
But Odysseus faced them sternly and said, " Dogs, you thought that I should never return. You have rioted in my home, and outraged the women of my household, and you have wooed my own wife while 1 was yet a living man. You took no thought for the Gods who rule in heaven, nor for the indignation of men in days hereafter. Now your time is come.''
All grew pale as he spoke, and Eurymachus alone found words: " If you are in truth King Odysseus, your words are just: there have been many shameful deeds done upon your lands and in your house. But Antinous, who was the cause of all, lies dead; it was he who led us on, hoping that he might take your kingdom for himself. Spare us now that he has met his doom, for we are your own people; and we will make you full atonement for all that has been eaten and drunk in your halls."
" Eurymachus, you might give me all you have, but even then I would not hold my hands until I had taken vengeance for every wrong. You have your choice. Fight, or fly, if you think that flight can save you."
At that their knees shook beneath them, but Eurymachus cried, " Comrades, this man will have no mercy. He has got the bow in his hands,

and he will shoot us down from the threshold, so long as there is one of us left alive. Draw your swords, and guard yourselves with the tables; and let us all set upon him at once and drive him from the doorway. If we can reach the city, we are safe."
As he spoke he drew his sword and sprang forward with a cry; and at the same moment Odysseus shot. The arrow struck him in the breast, and he dropped forward over the table, while the mist of death sank upon his eyes. Then Amphinomus made a rush on the doorway. But Telemachus was too quick for him: he hurled his spear and struck him from behind between the shoulders, and he fell crashing on the floor. Telemachus sprang back, leaving the spear, for he dared not wait to draw it out. He darted to his father's side: " Father, we ought to have armour; I will go and get weapons for us."
" Run and bring them," said Odysseus, " while I have arrows left; when these are gone I cannot hold the doorway against them all."
So Telemachus ran to the armoury and hurried back with helmets and shields and spears; and he armed himself and made the two servants do the same, and they took their stand beside the king. While the arrows lasted, Odysseus shot, and struck down the wooers man by man. And
then he leant the bow against the doorpost, and slung the shield about him and put on the helmet and took two spears in his hand.
Now there was a postern in the hall, close beside the great doorway and opening on the corridor. Odysseus had put the swineherd to guard it, and now the boldest of the suitors said to the rest, " Could not some of us force a passage there and raise the cry for rescue ? '*
" Little use in that," said Melanthius, " the great doorway is too close, and one brave man might stop us all before we reached the court. I have a better plan. Odysseus and his son have stowed away the weapons, and I think I know where they are. I will go and fetch you what you need."
With these words he clambered up through the lights of the hall and got into the armoury, and fetched out twelve shields and as many spears and helmets, and brought them to the princes. The heart of Odysseus misgave him when he saw the armour and the long spears in their hands; and he felt that the fight would go hard, and said to Telemachus, " Melanthius or one of the women has betrayed us."
"Father, it was my fault," said Telemachus, " I left the door of the armoury open, and one of them must have kept sharper watch than I did. Go, Eumaeus, make fast the door, and
see whether this is the doing of Melanthius, as I guess."
While they spoke, Melanthius went again to fetch more armour, and the swineherd spied him and said, " There is the villain going to the armoury, as we thought: tell me, shall I kill him, if I can master him, or shall I bring him here to suffer for his sins ?" " Telemachus and I will guard the doorway here," said Odysseus, " and you and the shepherd shall bind him hand and foot and leave him in the chamber to wait his doom."
So the two went up to the armoury, and stood in wait on either side of the door; and as Melanthius came out, they leapt upon him and dragged him back by the hair and flung him on the ground and bound him tightly to a pillar hand and foot. " Lie there," said Eumaeus, " and take your ease: the dawn will not find you sleeping, when it is time for you to rise and drive out your goats." With that they went back to join Odysseus, and the four stood together at the threshold, four men against a host.
Then Athena came among them in the likeness of Mentor, and Odysseus knew her and rejoiced. " Mentor," he shouted, " help me in my need, for we are comrades from of old." And the wooers sent up another shout, " Do not listen to him. Mentor: or your turn will come when he is slain." But Athena taunted Odysseus and spurred him to

the fight: " Have you lost your strength and courage, Odysseus ? It was not thus you did battle for Helen in the ten years' war at Troy. Is it so hard to face the suitors in your own house and home ? Come, stand by me, and see if Mentor forgets old friendship." Yet she left the victory still uncertain, that she might prove his courage to the full. She turned herself into a swallow and flew up into the roof and perched on a blackened rafter overhead.
Then the wooers took courage, when they saw that Mentor was gone, and that the four stood alone in the doorway. And one of them said to the rest, " Let six of us hurl our spears together at Odysseus. If once he falls, there will be little trouble with the rest." So they flung their spears as he bade them : but all of them missed the mark. Then Odysseus gave the word to his men, and they all took steady aim and threw, and each one killed his man: and the wooers fell back into the farther end of the hall, while the four dashed on together and drew out their spears from the bodies of the slain. Once more the suitors hurled, and Telemachus and the swineherd were wounded: but the other spears fell wide. Then at last Athena lifted her shield of war high overhead, the shield that brings death to men ; and panic seized the wooers, and they fied through the hall like a drove of cattle when the gadfly stings them. But

the four leapt on them like vultures swooping from the clouds; and they fled left and right through the hall, but there was no escape.
Only Phemius the minstrel, whom the wooers had forced to sing before them, sprang forward and clasped the knees of Odysseus, and said, " Have mercy on me, Odysseus: you would not slay a minstrel, who gladdens the hearts of Gods and men ? The princes forced me here against my will." And Telemachus heard and said to his father, " Do not hurt him, for he is not to blame; and let us save the herald too, if he is yet alive, for he took care of me when I was a child."
Now the herald had hidden himself under a stool and pulled an ox-hide over him, and when he heard this he crept out and clasped the knees of Telemachus and begged that he would plead for him. " Have no fear," said Odysseus, " my son has saved your life. Go out, you and the minstrel, and wait in the courtyard, for I have other work to do within." So the two went out into the courtyard, and sat down beside the altar, looking for their death each moment.
Then Odysseus searched through the hall, to see if anyone was yet lurking alive. But they all lay round him fallen in the dust and blood, heaped upon each other like fishes, on a sunny beach when the fisherman has drawn his net to land. Then he told Telemachus to call out o
the old nurse Eurycleia. She came and found Odysseus standing among the bodies of the slain, with his hands and feet all stained with blood: and she was ready to shout aloud for triumph when she saw the great work accomplished. But Odysseus checked her cry and said, " Keep your joy unspoken, old nurse; there should be no shout of triumph over the slain. It is the judgment of Heaven that has repaid them for the evil deeds they did."
Then he gave orders that the bodies of the dead should be carried out and that the blood should be washed away. And when this was done he turned to Eurycleia and said, " Bring fire and sulphur now and I will purify the hall. Then bid Penelope meet me here."
" Yes, my child," said the old nurse, " I will obey you. But let me bring you a mantle first: it is not fitting that you should stand here with only your rags to cover you." But Odysseus said that she must do his bidding at once. So she brought sulphur and lit a fire, and Odysseus purified the hall.

CHAPTER XXIII

HOW ODYSSEUS WAS RECOGNIZED BY PENELOPE AT LAST

Meanwhile the old nurse hurried upstairs to find Penelope, laughing to herself as she went and Stumbling in her haste. When she reached her lady's bed she cried, "Awake, Penelope, awake, my child, and see with your own eyes what you have longed for day and night. Odysseus has come home and has killed the proud suitors, who wasted his house and wronged his son."
But Penelope would not believe it and said, " Dear nurse, are you out of your mind ? How could you wake me with such a tale, when I was sleeping so sweetly ? It was the sweetest sleep I have ever had, since Odysseus went away to that fatal land of Troy. If it had been one of the younger servants 1 should have rated her soundly, but I cannot be angry with you."

But Eurycleia went on, " It is no wild tale, dear child, it is the sober truth. Odysseus has really come. He was that stranger whom they all mocked and ill-treated in the hall. Telemachus knew it all the time, but he kept the secret, so that his father might punish those wicked men."
Then Penelope leapt from the bed and flung her arms round the nurse's neck: " Tell me, nurse, tell me this! If he has really come, as you say, how could he fight them all alone, one man against a hundred ?"
" I did not see it," she answered, " and I do not know, but I heard the groans of the dying. We were all sitting frightened in the inner room and the doors were shut, until Telemachus summoned us into the hall, and there I found Odysseus standing among the slain. Now he has cleared the hall and is cleansing the house with brimstone, and there is a great fire on the hearth. He has sent me to fetch you that you may rejoice together, for you have suffered much."
" Dear nurse, do not laugh and boast like that. No one would rejoice so much as his son and I, if it were true. But it cannot be. It must be some God that has slain the suitors and rewarded them for all their sins. No, Odysseus is lost for ever."
" Child, will you never believe ? Listen and I will give you another proof. When I was wash-

ing the stranger's feet, I saw the scar of the wound that the wild boar gave him long ago, and I wanted to tell you, but he stopped my mouth. Come with

me now and see if I do not speak the truth, and kill me if I lie."
So they went down together, and as they went Penelope wondered what she should do when she met him. And when they entered the hall, she took her seat by the hearth in the firelight, facing Odysseus. He was sitting against a pillar, with his eyes fixed on the ground, waiting for his wife

to speak. But she sat there a long while, silent and bewildered. Sometimes she would lift her eyes and look into his face, and then again she doubted him when she saw his rags.
At last Telemachus broke out: " Mother, how can you be so cruel ? Why do you not go to my father ? No other wife in the world would refuse to speak to her husband, when he had come home at last, after wandering and suffering for twenty years."
" Child," said Penelope, " I am lost in wonder and I have no power to speak. But if it is really Odysseus, we two have secret signs between us, that no one else can know."
Then Odysseus smiled and said, " Leave her, my son, she will test me later on; for now she cannot see who I am because of this foul clothing that I wear."
Then he took Telemachus aside, and told him that they must prepare to fight against the men of Ithaca, who would come to avenge their friends and kindred, and meanwhile they should sing and dance in the hall to deceive the townsfolk. So Telemachus called the household together, and soon the courts rang with the sound of music and of dancing feet, and the passers-by all said, " So the queen is wedded at last. She could not wait any longer for her husband's
return."

Meanwhile Odysseus had bathed and anointed himself with oil and put on a splendid mantle. And Athena made him statelier than before, and his hair fell curling to his shoulders like clustering hyacinths. Then he came back to the hall and sat down again opposite Penelope and said to her, " Strange wife, the Gods have given you a harder heart than any woman alive. No other wife would sit like this apart from her husband, when he had come home to her at last after twenty years of wandering and grief. Come, nurse, make me a bed by myself, for her heart is as hard as iron."
And then Penelope spoke at last: " My lord, I am not proud or heartless, nor am I utterly bewildered. But I remember well what you were, when you set sail for Troy in your long-oared ship. Go, nurse, and bring out the good bedstead from the bridal chamber that my husband built, and spread it for him as he bids you."
She said this to try him, but he could bear it no longer and broke out: " Wife, you cut me to the heart! How could anyone move my bedstead, unless they had learnt my secret ? There was a stout olive-tree growing in the inner court, with a stem like a pillar, and I built my chamber round it. 1 cut off the branches and smoothed the trunk and shaped it into a bed-post and built the bedstead there. Does it stand there still, or has

any man cut away the stem of the oHve-tree and set it up elsewhere ?"
Then Penelope could doubt no longer, and her heart was melted when she saw that it was her husband indeed; and she ran to him weeping and threw, her arms round his neck and cried, " Do not be angry with me, Odysseus, that I did not know you at the first, as I know you now. It is the Gods who have kept us apart and given us sorrow for all these years. And I have always feared that some other man might come and deceive me for his wicked gain. But now you tell me what no one else could know, except my maid and me, and I believe you and give my heart to you." So Odysseus held in his arms the wife he loved, and wept for joy; and she clung to him, as a tired swimmer clings to the land which he has reached at last after deadly storm and wreck, and her white arms could never quite loose their hold.
And then he said, " Wife, we have not even yet reached the end of all our toils. There are still many labours left which the seer Teiresias foretold, when I went down to the House of Death. So let us now sleep together and take our rest and joy."
And Penelope replied, " The bed is ready tor you whenever you desire. But tell us what this fresh trial is, which the seer foretold, for some day I must know it, and it is better now."

So he answered, " It will give you no joy to hear it, but I will tell you all. He bade me take an oar upon my shoulder and journey through many lands and cities, till I come to a people who have never heard of the sea, and do not know what an oar is like; and when I meet a man who asks if I have a winnowing fan on my shoulder, there I must stop and fix the oar in the ground and offer sacrifice to King Poseidon. So I shall make my peace with him and with all the Gods, and I shall have rest at last, and my people shall be happy. And death will come to me at last from the sea, the gentlest death of all, when my strength is gone, at the end of a calm old age."
So they talked together, while the bower-maid and the old nurse were preparing their bed by the light of the blazing torches. And when all was ready, the bower-maid came and led them to their marriage-chamber, torch in hand, as she had led them twenty years before. There they lay down together, and the dancing ceased in the courts of the palace, and the whole house was still.

CHAPTER XXIV

HOW ODYSSEUS AND HIS FATHER MET AGAIN, AND HOW PEACE WAS MADE IN ITHACA

Next morning when Odysseus rose, he bade his wife shut herself up in the palace and speak to no one, while he went out to see his father. He girded on his armour and called Telemachus and the two herdsmen, and told them to take their weapons and follow him. So the four set out together, and no one saw them as they went through the town and out into the country. They soon reached the well-kept farm and the little house where the old man lived. He was always alone, except for his labourers and one old faithful woman who served in the house. Odysseus bade the others go indoors and prepare a feast, while he went down to the orchard to look for his father. The men had gone into the fields, and Laertes was by himself, digging round his trees, and' there his son found him as he worked in his garden and nursed his grief. He was wearing a rough goat-

skin cap and leather gloves and gaiters, and all his clothes were old and patched. Odysseus stood under a tall pear-tree and looked at him, and saw how worn he was with age and sorrow. The tears fell from his eyes, and he yearned to take his father in his arms and kiss him and tell him he had come home at last. But he thought again, and resolved to speak to him first like a stranger, until he knew what was in his heart. So he went up and stood beside him as he bent over his work, and said:
" I see you know how to look after an orchard, old man. What care you take of every single plant and tree, fig and olive and pear and vine, and all the garden herbs! But no one seems to take care of you, my friend, if I have your leave to say so. Surely your master can have no cause to neglect you thus in your old age. And yet you look too tall and noble for a slave: I should take you for a king, who ought to sleep soft at night and have ease and comfort and all the dues of age. Tell me who you are, and who your master is: and tell me if I have really come to Ithaca. For 1 had a guest once, the dearest guest that ever came to me, and he told me his home was in Ithaca and his father was called Laertes. I loved him like a brother, and when he left me I gave him splendid gifts, wrought silver and gold and raiment and four fair slaves to work for him."
Odysseus and his FatherThen Laertes looked up and said, " Yes, stranger, this is the place. But robbers and usurpers are in possession of the land, and there is no one now to welcome you as you deserve, and as he would have done had you found him here alive. But tell me, my friend, tell me this! How long is it since you saw that guest of yours ? He was my son, and I fear he must have perished now, far away from us all, without father or mother or wife to weep over him and close his eyes."
" It must be five years now," said Odysseus, " since he left me. Alas ! we parted so hopefully, and thought we should meet again and be guest and host once more."
Then darkness and sorrow fell upon Laertes, and he took dust and ashes in his hands and poured them on his grey hairs, weeping bitterly. And when Odysseus saw it, his heart smote him for pity, and he felt the sting and throb of the rising tears and could not keep them back. He flung his arms round his father and kissed him, crying, " Father, I am here, I have come back to you at last! Do not grieve any more, for 1 have won the victory and slain the suitors in my halls."
Then Laertes said, " If you are indeed my son Odysseus, give me a sign that I may know it."
" See, here is the scar of the old wound from the wild boar's tusk. And I can tell you every

tree you gave me on this very ground w^hen I v^as a little lad. I used to follow you round the orchard and ask you for them, and you would tell me their names and choose out some to be my own. Ten apple-trees you gave me and thirteen pears and forty figs, and you said I was to have fifty rows of vines just here, that would all be covered with grapes when Zeus sent the heavy showers and made them grow."
Then Laertes knew that it was true and he stretched out his hands to his son. But his knees trembled beneath him, and he sank fainting and would have fallen, had not Odysseus caught him in his arms and held him to his breast. But after a little while the old man's strength returned, and he raised himself and cried, " O Father Zeus! now I know that thou still reignest on Olympus, if vengeance has been taken on the wooers for their sins. Yet now I am afraid the men of Ithaca will set upon us here and send for help to the islanders."
" Courage, father," answered Odysseus, " there is no need for fear. But let us go in now and see Telemachus: I sent him on with the herdsmen and told them to prepare a feast."
So the two went in together. And the old dame met them at the door and took Laertes ro the bath; and he anointed himself and put on a splendid mantle and came back to the hall, and

he seemed to have grown tall and strong again and stately as an Immortal, so that Odysseus gazed at him in joy and said, " Father, one of the everlasting Gods must have touched you, and given you strength and grace."
" Oh, if they could give me back the strength of my youth ! " he answ^ered. " If I could have stood beside you yesterday, when you faced the suitors in our halls, and helped you in the work !"
So they talked and rejoiced together. Meanwhile the old woman had gone out to call the labourers; and they came up to the hall, but when they reached the threshold they stopped and stood still, dumb with wonder at what they saw. But Odysseus caught sight of them and said to the oldest, who had been his servant once, " Come in, old friend, come in. We have been waiting a long while for you." Then the old man rushed up to him and seized his hand and kissed it, blessing the Gods because they had brought his master home at last.
Meanwhile, Rumour was up and abroad through the town, flying everywhere with the tidings that the suitors had been foully slain. Their friends and kinsfolk gathered together and carried away the corpses from the palace-gate, weeping over their dead, till their hearts grew hot for vengeance. The father of Antinous, Eupeithes,

took the lead, and spoke to the people in the market-place:
" Hear what your king has done! He took your ships and sailed away with your stoutest warriors twenty years ago and brought them all to ruin, and now he has come back and slaughtered the noblest of our youth. Shall we take no vengeance for our children and our friends ? I would rather die and follow my son. Up, and kill the tyrant!''
Then the people pitied his grief; yet some of them murmured and said the suitors had deserved their death, and others told how the Gods had stood beside Odysseus and helped him in the fight. But Eupeithes won most of them to his side, and they seized their weapons and shouted that they would follow him, and he led the way to Laertes' farm.
But far above on the heights of Olympus Athena spoke to her father Zeus: " Tell me, my father, what is your will ? Shall we waken the terrible war-cry or make peace between the two ?"
And the cloud-gatherer smiled and said, " Have you not guided Odysseus from the first ? Choose yourself what should be done. Yet I would have them make a covenant together, so that they shall forget their anger and bitterness, and love each other as they did before, and there shall be peace and plenty in the land."
Meanwhile the feast was over in Laertes' haU, and Odysseus rose and said, " One of you go out and see if they are coming now." Then one of the servants went out but ran back at once, crying, " Quick, arm yourselves ! They are here already."
Upon that they seized their weapons, and even the old Laertes buckled on his armour, for their force was small; and they Hung open the doors and rushed out with Odysseus at their head. " You will bear yourself like a man, I know," he said to Telemachus, " and remember the honour of our race." And Telemachus answered, " Father, I will not shame you." And Laertes heard them and cried, "A proud day for me when my son and my son's son outdo one another in deeds of valour!"
Then he poised his spear and hurled it at Eupeithes. It struck through the helmet and down he crashed in the dust. At that Odysseus and Telemachus leapt on the foremost fighters and would have slain them all. But Athena shot down from the peaks of Olympus, and her voice rang out above the fray:
" Back, men of Ithaca! Back, and fight no more!"
At the cry of the Goddess they turned pale, and the weapons dropped from their hands, and they fled away in fear. Odysseus shouted, and dashed after in pursuit as an eagle swoops from the sky.

But Athena touched him and said, " Son of Laertes, hold your hand and shed no blood, or you will anger Father Zeus whose eyes are over all." And Odysseus heard her voice and obeyed her gladly.
Thus Athena, the grey-eyed Goddess, stopped the hght, and afterwards she made a faithful covenant between them, and they lived in peace together.