Book XIX of The Odyssey by Homer. Translated by Samuel Butler. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Odyssey. Book XIX. Telemachus and Ulysses remove the armor. Ulysses interviews Penelope. Eureklia washes his feet and recognizes the scar on his leg. Penelope tells her dream to Ulysses. Ulysses was left in the cloister, pondering on the means whereby with Minerva's help he might be able to kill the suitors. Presently he said to Telemachus, Telemachus, we must get the armor together and take it down inside. Make some excuse when the suitors ask you why you have removed it. Say that you have taken it to be out of the way of the smoke, in as much as it is no longer what it was when Ulysses went away, but has become soiled and begrimed with soot. Get to this more particularly, that you are afraid Jove may set them on to quarrel over their wine, and that they may do each other some harm which may disgrace both banquet and wooing, for the sight of arms sometimes tempts people to use them. Telemachus approved of what his father had said, so he called nurse Eureklia and said, Nurse, shut the women up in their rooms while I take the armor that my father left behind him down into the storeroom. No one looks after it, now my father is gone, and it has got all smirched with soot during my own boyhood. I want to take it down where the smoke cannot reach it. I wish, child," answered Eureklia, that you would take the management of the house into your own hands altogether and look after all the property yourself. But who is to go with you and light you to the storeroom? The maids would have done so, but you would not let them. The stranger, said Telemachus, shall show me a light. When people eat my bread they must earn it, no matter where they come from. Eureklia did as she was told, and bolted the women inside their room. Then Ulysses and his son made all haste to take the helmets, shields and spears inside. And Minerva went before them with a gold lamp in her hand that shed a soft and brilliant radiance, whereon Telemachus said, Father, my eyes behold a great marvel. The walls, with the rafters, cross-beams and the supports on which they rest, are all aglow as with a flaming fire. Surely there is some God here who has come down from heaven. Hush, answered Ulysses, hold your peace and ask no questions, for this is the manner of the gods.   On this Telemachus went by torchlight to the other side of the inner court, to the room in which he always slept. There he lay in his bed till morning, while Ulysses was left in the cloister pondering on the means whereby, with Minerva's help, he might be able to kill the suitors. Then Penelope came down from her room, looking like Venus or Diana, and they set her a seat inlaid with scrolls of silver and ivory near the fire in her accustomed place. It had been made by Ickmelius and had a footstool all in one piece with the seat itself, and it was covered with a thick fleece. On this she now sat, and the maids came from the women's room to join her. They set about removing the tables at which the wicked suitors had been dining, and took away the bread that was left with the cups from which they had drunk. They emptied the embers out of the braziers and heaped much wood upon them to give both light and heat. But Malantho began to rail at Ulysses a second time, and said, Stranger, do you mean to plague us by hanging about the house all night and spying upon the women?  Ulysses scowled at her and answered, My good woman, why should you be so angry with me? Is it because I am not clean, and my clothes are all in rags, and because I am obliged to go begging about after the manner of tramps and beggars generally? I too was a rich man once, and had a fine house of my own. In those days I gave to many a tramp such as I now am, no matter who he might be nor what he wanted. I had any number of servants, and all the other things which people have who live well and are accounted wealthy, but it pleased Jov to take all away from me. Therefore, woman, beware lest you too come to lose that pride and place in which you now wanton above your fellows. Have a care lest you get out of favor with your mistress, and lest Ulysses should come home, for there is still a chance that he may do so. Moreover, though he may be dead as you think he is, yet by Apollo's will he has left a son behind him, Telemachus, who will note anything done amiss by the maids in the house, for he is now no longer in his boyhood. Penelope heard what he was saying and scolded the maid. Impudent baggage, said she. I see how abominably you are behaving, and you shall smart for it. You knew perfectly well for I told you myself that I was going to see the stranger and ask him about my husband, for whose sake I am in such continual sorrow. Then she said to her head-waiting woman, Your Enemy, bring a seat with a fleece upon it for the stranger to sit upon while he tells his story and listen to what I have to say. I wish to ask him some questions. Your Enemy brought the seat at once and set a fleece upon it, and as soon as Ulysses had sat down Penelope began by saying, Stranger, I shall first ask you who and whence are you? Tell me of your town and parents. Madam, answered Ulysses, who on the face of the whole earth can dare to chide with you? Your fame reaches the firmament of heaven itself. You are like some blameless king who upholds righteousness as the monarch over a great and valiant nation. The earth yields its wheat and barley, the trees are loaded with fruit, the ewes bring forth lambs, and the sea abounds with fish by reason of his virtues, and his people do good deeds under him. Nevertheless, as I sit here in your house, ask me some other question and do not seek to know my race and family, or you will recall memories that will yet more increase my sorrow. I am full of heaviness, but I ought not to sit weeping and wailing in another person's house, nor is it well to be thus grieving continually. I shall have one of the servants or even yourself complaining of me, and saying that my eyes swim with tears because I am heavy with wine. Then Penelope answered, Stranger, heaven robbed me of all beauty, whether a face or figure, when the Argives set sail for Troy and my dear husband with them. If he were to return and look after my affairs, I should be both more respected and should show a better presence to the world. As it is, I am oppressed with care and with the afflictions which heaven has seen fit to keep upon me. The chiefs from all our islands, Dullichium, Sámi and Zacanthus, as also from Ithaca itself, are wooing me against my will and are wasting my estate. I can therefore show no attention to strangers, nor suppliance, nor to people who say that they are skilled artisans, but am all the time broken-hearted about Ulysses. They want me to marry again at once, and I have to invent stratagems in order to deceive them. In the first place, heaven put it in my mind to set up a great timbre frame in my room and to begin working upon an enormous piece of fine needlework. Then I said to them, Sweethearts, Ulysses is indeed dead. Still, do not press me to marry again immediately. Wait, for I would not have my skill in needlework perish unrecorded till I have finished making a paul for the hero laertes, to be ready against the time when death shall take him. He is very rich, and the women of the place will talk if he is laid out without a paul. This was what I said, and they assented. Whereon I used to keep working at my great web all day long, but at night I would unpick the stitches again by torchlight. I fooled them in this way for three years without their finding it out, but as time wore on, and I was now in my fourth year, in the waning of moons and many days had been accomplished, those good for nothing hussies my maids betrayed me to the suitors, who broke in upon me and caught me. They were very angry with me, so I was forced to finish my work whether I would or no. And now I do not see how I can find another further shift for getting out of this marriage. My parents are putting great pressure upon me, and my son chafes at the ravages the suitors are making upon his estate, for he is now old enough to understand all about it and is perfectly able to look after his own affairs, for heaven has blessed him with an excellent disposition.  Then Ulysses answered, Madam wife of Ulysses, since you persist in asking me about my family I will answer, no matter what it costs me. People must expect to be pained when they have been exiles as long as I have, and suffered as much among as many peoples. Nevertheless, as regards your question, I will tell you all you ask. There is a fair and fruitful island in mid-ocean called Crete. It is thickly peopled and there are ninety cities in it. The people speak many different languages which overlap one another, for there are Achaeans, brave Etiocritans, Dorians of three-fold race and noble Pulaski. There is a great town there, Gnosis, where Minos reigned who every nine years had a conference with Jov himself. Minos was fathered to Ducalian, whose son I am, for Ducalian had two sons, Idominaeus and myself. Idominaeus sailed for Troy, and I, who am the younger, am called Aethon. My brother, however, was at once the older and the more valiant of the two. Since it was in Crete that I saw Ulysses and showed him hospitality, for the winds took him there as he was on his way to Troy, carrying him out of his course from Cape Malia and leaving him in Amnesis off the cave of Illithuia, where the harbors are difficult to enter and he could hardly find shelter from the winds that were then raging. As soon as he got there he went into the town and asked for Idominaeus, claiming to be his old and valued friend, but Idominaeus had already set sail for Troy some ten or twelve days earlier, so I took him to my own house and showed him every kind of hospitality, for I had abundance of everything. Moreover, I fed the men who were with him with barley meal from the public store, and got subscriptions of wine and oxen for them to sacrifice to their hearts' content. They stayed with me twelve days, for there was a gale blowing from the north so strong that one could hardly keep one's feet on land. I suppose some unfriendly God had raised it for them, but on the thirteenth day the wind dropped and they got away. Many a plausible tale did Ulysses further tell her, and Penelope wept as she listened, for her heart was melted. As the snow wastes upon the mountaintops when the winds from southeast and west have breathed upon it and thought it till the rivers run blank full with water, even so did her cheeks overflow with tears for the husband who was all the time sitting by her side. Ulysses felt for her and was sorry for her, but he kept his eyes as hard as horn or iron without letting them so much as quiver, so cunningly did he restrain his tears. Then, when she had relieved herself by weeping, she turned to him again and said, Now, stranger, I shall put you to the test and see whether or no you really did entertain my husband and his men as you say you did. Tell me, then, how he was dressed, what kind of a man he was to look at and so also with his companions. Madam, answered Ulysses, it is such a long time ago that I can hardly say. Twenty years are come and gone since he left my home and went elsewhere, but I will tell you as well as I can recollect. Ulysses wore a mantle of purple wool, double-lined, and it was fastened by a gold brooch with two catches for the pin. On the face of this there was a device that showed a dog holding a spotted fawn between his forepaws and watching it as it lay panting upon the ground. Everyone marveled at the way in which these things had been done in gold, the dog looking at the fawn and strangling it while the fawn was struggling convulsively to escape. As for the shirt that he wore next to his skin, it was so soft that it fitted him like the skin of an onion and glistened in the sunlight to the admiration of all the women who beheld it. Furthermore, I say, and laying my saying to your heart, that I do not know whether Ulysses wore these clothes when he left home or whether one of his companions had given them to him while he was on his voyage, or possibly someone at whose house he was staying made him a present of them, for he was a man of many friends and had few equals among the Achaeans. I myself gave him a sword of bronze and a beautiful purple mantle, double-lined with a shirt that went down to his feet, and I sent him on board his ship with every mark of honour. He had a servant with him, a little older than himself, and I can tell you what he was like. His shoulders were hunched, he was dark, and he had thick, curly hair. His name was Eurabates, and Ulysses treated him with greater familiarity than he did any of the others, as being the most like-minded with himself. Penelope was moved still more deeply as she heard the indisputable proofs that Ulysses laid before her, and when she had again found relief and tears, she said to him, Stranger, I was already disposed to pity you, but henceforth you shall be honoured and made welcome in my house.  I took them out of the storeroom and folded them up myself, and gave him also the gold brooch to wear as an ornament. Alas, I shall never welcome him home again. It was by an ill fate that he ever set out for that detested city whose very name I cannot bring myself even to mention. Then Ulysses answered, Madam wife of Ulysses, do not disfigure yourself further by grieving thus bitterly for your loss, though I can hardly blame you for doing so. A woman who has loved her husband and borne him children would naturally be grieved at losing him, even though he were a worse man than Ulysses, who they say was like a god. Still, cease your tears and listen to what I can tell you. I will hide nothing from you and can say with perfect truth that I have lately heard of Ulysses as being alive and on his way home. He is among the Thespbrosians, and is bringing back much valuable treasure that he is begged from one and another of them. But his ship and all his crew were lost as they were leaving the Threnation Island, for Jove and the Sun God were angry with him because his men had slaughtered the Sun God's cattle, and they were all drowned to a man. But Ulysses stuck to the keel of the ship and was drifted on to the land of the Phaeacians, who were near of kin to the immortals and who treated him as though he had been a god, giving him many presents and wishing to escort him home safe and sound. In fact, Ulysses would have been here long ago, had he not thought better to go from land to land gathering wealth, for there is no man living who is so wily as he is, there is no one who can compare with him. Faden, king of the Thespbrosians, told me all this and he swore to me, making drink offerings in his house as he did so, that the ship was by the waterside and the crew found who could take Ulysses to his own country. He sent me off first, for there happened to be a Thespbrosian ship sailing for the wheat-growing island of Dullichium, but he showed me all the treasure Ulysses had got together, and he had enough lying in the house of King Faden to keep his family for ten generations. But the king said Ulysses had gone to Dodona that he might learn Job's mind from the high oak tree and know whether after so long an absence he should return to Ithaca openly or in secret. So you may know he is safe and will be here shortly. He is close at hand and cannot remain away from home much longer. Nevertheless, I will confirm my words with an oath and call Job who is the first and mightiest of all gods to witness, as also that hearth of Ulysses to which I have now come, that all I have spoken shall surely come to pass. Ulysses will return in this self-same year, with the end of this moon and the beginning of the next he will be here. May it be even so, answered Penelope. If your words come true, you shall have such gifts and such good will from me that all who see you shall congratulate you. But I know very well how it will be. Ulysses will not return, neither will you get your escort hence, for so surely is that Ulysses ever was, there are now no longer any such masters in the house as he was, to receive honourable strangers or to further them on their way home. And now, you maids, wash his feet for him and make him a bed on a couch with rugs and blankets, that he may be warm and quiet till morning. Then, at day break, wash him and anoint him again, that he may sit in the cloister and take his meals with Telemachus. It shall be the worst for any one of these hateful people who is uncivil to him. Like it or not, he shall have no more to do in this house. For how, sir, shall you be able to learn whether or no I am superior to others of my sex, both in goodness of heart and understanding, if I let you dine in my cloister, squalid and ill-clad? Men live but for a little season. If they are hard and deal hardly, people wish them ill so long as they are alive and speak contemptuously of them when they are dead. But he that is righteous and deals righteously, the people tell of his praise among all lands, and many shall call him blessed. Ulysses answered, Madam, I have foresworn rugs and blankets from the day that I left the snowy ranges of Crete to go on shipboard. I will lie as I have lain on many a sleepless night hither too. Night after night have I passed in any rough sleeping place and waited for morning. Nor again do I like having my feet washed. I shall not let any of the young hussies about your house touch my feet. But if you have any old and respectable woman who has gone through as much trouble as I have, I will allow her to wash them. To this Penelope said, My dear sir, of all the guests who have ever yet come to my house, there never was one who spoke in all things with such admirable propriety as you do. There happens to be in the house a most respectable old woman, the same who received my poor dear husband in her arms the night he was born and nursed him in infancy. She is very feeble now, but she shall wash your feet. Come here, said she, Eureklia, and wash your master's age, mate. I suppose Ulysses' hands and feet are very much the same now as his are, for trouble ages all of us dreadfully fast.  She began to weep and made lamentation, saying, My dear child, I cannot think whatever I am to do with you. I am certain no one was ever more God-fearing than yourself, and yet Jov hates you. No one in the whole world ever burned him more thigh-bones, nor gave him finer hecatombs when you prayed you might come to a green old age yourself and see your son grow up to take after you. Yet see how he has prevented you alone from ever getting back to your own home. I have no doubt the women in some foreign place which Ulysses has got to are jibing at him as all these sluts here have been jibing at you. I do not wonder that you're not choosing to let them wash you, after the manner in which they have insulted you. I will wash your feet myself gladly enough, as Penelope has said that I am to do so. I will wash them both for Penelope's sake and for your own, for you have raised the most lively feelings of compassion in my mind. And let me say this, moreover, which pray attend to. We have had all kinds of strangers in distress come here before now, but I make bold to say that no one ever yet came who is so like Ulysses in figure, voice, and feet as you are. Those who have seen us both, answered Ulysses, have always said we were wonderfully like each other, and now you have noticed it too. Then the old woman took the cauldron in which she was going to wash his feet and poured plenty of cold water into it, adding hot till the bath was warm enough. Ulysses sat by the fire. But ere long he turned away from the light, for it occurred to him that when the old woman had hold of his leg she would recognize a certain scar which it bore, whereon the whole truth would come out. And indeed, as soon as she began washing her master, she at once knew the scar as one that had been given him by a wild bore, when he was hunting on Mount Pernassus with his excellent grandfather Atolicus, who was the most accomplished thief and perjurer in the whole world, and with the sons of Atolicus.  It happened once that Atolicus had gone to Ithaca and had found the child of his daughter just born. As soon as he had done supper Eureklius set the infant upon his knees and said, Atolicus, you must find a name for your grandson. You greatly wish that you might have one. Son-in-law and daughter, replied Atolicus, called the child thus, I am highly displeased with a large number of people in one place and another, both men and women, so name the child Ulysses, or the child of anger. When he grows up and comes to visit his mother's family on Mount Pernassus, where my possessions lie, I will make him a present and will send him on his way rejoicing. Ulysses, therefore, went to Pernassus to get the presence from Atolicus, who with his sons shook hands with him and gave him welcome. His grandmother empathy threw her arms about him and kissed his head and both his beautiful eyes, while Atolicus desired his sons to get dinner ready and they did as he told them. They brought in a five-year-old bull, flayed it, made it ready and divided it into joints. These they then cut carefully up into smaller pieces and spitted them. They roasted them sufficiently and served the portions round. Thus through the live-long day to the going down of the sun they feasted, and every man had his full share so that all were satisfied. But when the sun set and it came on dark they went to bed and enjoyed the boon of sleep. When the child of mourning, Rosie-finger Dawn appeared, the sons of Atolicus went out with their hounds hunting and Ulysses went too. They climbed the wooded slopes of Pernassus and soon reached its breezy upland valleys. But as the sun was beginning to beat upon the fields, fresh risen from the slow still currents of Oceanus, they came to a mountain dell. The dogs were in front searching for the tracks of the beasts they were chasing, and after them came the sons of Atolicus, among whom was Ulysses, close behind the dogs, and he had a long spear in his hand. Here was the lair of a huge boar among some thick brushwood, so dense that the wind and rain could not take it through it, nor could the sun's rays pierce it, and the ground underneath lay thick with fallen leaves. The boar heard the noise of the men's feet and the hounds baying on every side as the huntsmen came up to him, so he rushed from his lair, raised the bristles on his neck, and stood at bay with fire flashing from his eyes. Ulysses was the first to raise his spear and try to drive it into the brute, but the boar was too quick for him and charged him sideways, ripping him above the knee with a gash that tore deep though it did not reach the bone. As for the boar, Ulysses hid him on the right shoulder, and the point of the spear went right through him so that he fell groaning in the dust until the life went out of him. The sons of Atolicus busied themselves with the carcass of the boar and bound Ulysses wound. Then, after saying a spell to stop the bleeding, they went home as fast as they could. But when Atolicus and his sons had thoroughly healed Ulysses, they made him some splendid presence and sent him back to Ithaca with much mutual good will. When he got back, his father and mother were rejoiced to see him and asked him all about it, and how he had hurt himself to get the scar. So he told them how the boar had ripped him when he was out hunting with Atolicus and his sons on Mount Parnassus. As soon as Iroclia had got the scarred limb in her hands and had well hold of it, she recognized it and dropped the foot at once. The leg fell into the bath which rang out and was overturned so that all the water was spilt on the ground. Iroclia's eyes between her joy and her grief filled with tears, and she could not speak, but she caught Ulysses by the beard and said, My dear child, I am sure you must be Ulysses himself. Only I did not know you till I had actually touched and handled you. As she spoke she looked towards Penelope as though wanting to tell her that her dear husband was in the house, but Penelope was unable to look in that direction and observe what was going on, for Minerva had diverted her attention. So Ulysses caught Iroclia by the throat with his right hand and with his left drew her close to him and said, Nurse, do you wish to be the ruin of me?  Since it has been borne in upon you by heaven to recognize me, hold your tongue, and do not say a word about it to anyone else in the house, for if you do, I tell you, and it shall surely be, that if heaven grants me to take the lives of these suitors, I will not spare you, though you are my own nurse, when I am killing the other women. My child, answered Iroclia, what are you talking about? You know very well that nothing can either bend or break me.  Furthermore, let me say, and lay my saying to your heart, when heaven has delivered the suitors into your hand, I will give you a list of all the women in the house who have been ill-behaved and of those who are guiltless. And Ulysses answered, Nurse, you want not to speak in that way. I am well able to form my own opinion about one and all of them.  As he said this, Iroclia left the cloister to fetch some more water, for the first had been all spilt, and when she had washed him and anointed him with oil, Ulysses drew his seat nearer to the fire to warm himself and hid the scar under his rags. Then Penelope began talking to him and said, Stranger, I should like to speak with you briefly about another matter. It is indeed nearly bedtime, for those at least who can sleep in spite of sorrow. As for myself, heaven has given me a life of such unmeasurable woe, that even by day when I am attending to my duties and looking after the servants I am still weeping and lamenting during the whole time. Then, when night comes and we all of us go to bed, I lie awake thinking, and my heart becomes a prey to the most incessant and cruel tortures. As the done nightingale, daughter of Pandarius, sings in the early spring from her seed and shadiest covert hid, and with many a plaintive trill pours out the tale how by mishap she killed her own child Ithalus, son of King Zethas. Even so does my mind toss and turn in its uncertainty, whether I ought to stay with my son here and safeguard my substance, my bondsman and the greatness of my house, out of regard to public opinion and the memory of my late husband. Or whether it is not now time for me to go with the best of these suitors, who are wooing me and make me some magnificent presence. As long as my son was still young and unable to understand, he would not hear of my leaving my husband's house, but now that he is full grown he begs and prays me to do so, being incensed at the way in which the suitors are eating up his property. Listen then to a dream that I have had, and interpret it for me if you can. I have twenty geese about the house that eat mash out of a trough, and of which I am exceedingly fond. I dreamed that a great eagle came swooping down from a mountain and dug his curved beak into the neck of each of them till he had killed them all.   Be of good courage, he said, daughter of Vicarious. This is no dream, but a vision of good omen that shall surely come to pass. The geese are the suitors, and I am no longer an eagle but your own husband, who am come back to you and who will bring these suitors to a disgraceful end. On this I woke, and when I looked out I saw my geese at the trough eating their mash as usual. This dream, madam, replied Ulysses, can admit but of one interpretation, for had not Ulysses himself told you how it shall be fulfilled, the death of the suitors is portended, and not one single one of them will escape. And Penelope answered. Stranger, dreams are very curious and unaccountable things, and they do not by any means invariably come true. There are two gates through which these unsubstantial fancies proceed. The one is of horn and the other ivory. Those that come through the gate of ivory are fatuous, but those from the gate of horn mean something to those that see them. I do not think, however, that my own dream came through the gate of horn, though I and my son should be most thankful if it proves to have done so. Furthermore I say, and lay my saying to your heart, the coming dawn will usher in the ill-ohmen day that is to sever me from the house of Ulysses, for I am about to hold a tournament of axes. My husband used to set up twelve axes in the court, one in front of the other, like the stays upon which a ship is built. He would then go back from them and shoot an arrow through the whole twelve. I shall make the suitors try to do the same thing, and whichever of them can string the bow most easily, and send his arrow through all the twelve axes, him will I follow, and quit this house of my lawful husband, so goodly and so abounding in wealth. But even so I doubt not that I shall remember it in my dreams. Madam, wife of Ulysses, you need not defer your tournament, for Ulysses will return erever they can string the bow, handle it how they will, and send their arrows through the iron. To this Penelope said, As long, sir, as you will sit here and talk to me, I can have no desire to go to bed. Still, people cannot do permanently without sleep, and heaven has appointed us dwellers unearth a time for all things. I will therefore go upstairs and recline upon that couch, which I have never ceased to flood with my tears from the day Ulysses set out for the city with a hateful name. She then went upstairs to her own room, not alone, but attended by her maidens, and when there she lamented her dear husband till Minerva shed sweet sleep over her eyelids. End of Book 19, Book 20, of The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Samuel Butler. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Odyssey. Book 20. Ulysses cannot sleep. Penelope's prayer to Diana, the two signs from heaven. Eumaeus and Felicius arrive. The suitors dine. Tassippus throws an ox's foot at Ulysses. The occliminus foretells disaster and leaves the house. Ulysses slept in the cloister upon an undressed bullock's hide, on the top of which he threw several skins of the sheep the suitors had eaten, and urinemy threw a cloak over him after he had laid himself down.  And by and by, the women who had been in the habit of misconducting themselves with them left the house giggling and laughing with one another. This made Ulysses very angry, and he doubted whether to get up and kill every single one of them then and there, or to let them sleep one more and last time with the suitors.  But he beat his breast and said, "'Heart, be still. You had worse than this to bear on the day when the terrible cyclops ate your brave companions. Yet you bore it in silence till your cunning got you safe out of the cave, though you made sure of being killed.'" Thus he chided with his heart and checked it into endurance, but he tossed about as one who turns a punch full of blood and fat in front of a hot fire, doing it first on one side and then on the other, that he may get it cooked as soon as possible. Even so did he turn himself about from side to side, thinking all the time how single handed as he was he should contrive to kill so large a body of men as the wicked suitors. But by and by Minerva came down from heaven in the likeness of a woman, and hovered over his head saying, "'My poor unhappy man, why do you lie awake in this way? This is your house, your wife is safe inside it, and so is your son, who is just such a young man as any father may be proud of.'" "'Goddess,' answered Ulysses, "'all that you have said is true, but I am in some doubt as to how I shall be able to kill these wicked suitors single handed, seeing what a number of them there always are. And there is this further difficulty, which is still more considerable. Supposing that with Joves and your assistance I succeed in killing them, I must ask you to consider where I am to escape to from their avengers when it is all over.'" "'For shame,' replied Minerva, "'why, anyone else would trust a worse ally than myself, even though that ally were only immortal and less wise than I am. Am I not a goddess, and have I not protected you throughout in all your troubles?  But go to sleep. It is a very bad thing to lie awake all night, and you shall be out of your troubles before long.'" As she spoke, she shed sleep over his eyes and then went back to Olympus. While Ulysses was thus yielding himself to a very deep slumber that eased the burden of his sorrows, his admirable wife awoke and sitting up in her bed began to cry. When she had relieved herself by weeping, she prayed to Diana, saying, "'Great Goddess Diana, daughter of Jove, drive an arrow into my heart and slay me. Or let some whirlwind snatch me up and bear me through paths of darkness till it drop me into the mouths of overflowing Oceanus as it did the daughters of Pandarius.' The daughters of Pandarius lost their father and mother, for the gods killed them, so they were left orphans. But Venus took care of them, and fed them on cheese, honey, and sweet wine. Juno taught them to excel all women in beauty of form and understanding. Diana gave them an imposing presence, and Minerva endowed them with every kind of accomplishment. But one day, when Venus had gone up to Olympus to see Jove about getting them married, for well does he know both what shall happen and what not happen to everyone, the storm winds came and spirited them away to become handmaids to the dread Arinnis. Even so, I wished that the gods who live in heaven would hide me from mortal sight, or that fair Diana might strike me. For I would fain go even beneath the sad earth if I might do so still looking towards Ulysses only, and without having to yield myself to a worse man than he was. Besides, no matter how much people may grieve by day, they can put up with it so long as they can sleep at night, for when the eyes are closed in slumber people forget good and ill alike, whereas my misery haunts me even in my dreams. This very night me thought there was one lying by my side who was like Ulysses as he was, when he went away with his host, and I rejoiced, for I believe that it was no dream but the very truth itself. On this the day broke, but Ulysses heard the sound of her weeping, and it puzzled him, for it seemed as though she already knew him and was by his side. Then he gathered up the cloak and the fleeces on which he had lain, and set them on a seat in the cloister, but he took the bullocks hide out into the open. He lifted up his hands to heaven and prayed, saying, Father Jove, since you have seen fit to bring the overland and sea to my own home after all the afflictions you have laid upon me, give me a sign out of the mouth of some one or other of those who are now waking within the house, and let me have another sign of some kind from outside. Thus did he pray. Jove heard his prayer and forthwith thundered high up among the clouds from the splendor of Olympus, and Ulysses was glad when he heard it. At the same time, within the house, a miller woman from hard buy in the mill room lifted up her voice and gave him another sign. There were twelve miller women whose business it was to grind wheat and barley which are the staff of life. The others had ground their task and had gone to take their rest, but this one had not yet finished, for she was not so strong as they were, and when she heard the thunder she stopped grinding and gave the sign to her master. Father Jove, said she, you who rule over heaven and earth, you have thundered from a clear sky without so much as a cloud in it, and this means something for somebody. Grant the prayer, then, of me your poor servant who calls upon you, and let this be the very last day that the suitors dine in the house of Ulysses. They have worn me out with labour of grinding meal for them, and I hope they may never have another dinner anywhere at all. Ulysses was glad when he heard the omens confide to him by the woman speech and by the thunder, for he knew they meant that he should avenge himself on the suitors. Then the other maids in the house rose and lit the fire on the hearth. Telemachus also rose and put on his clothes. He girded his sword about his shoulder, bound his sandals on to his comely feet, and took a dowdy spear with a point of sharpened bronze. Then he went to the threshold of the cloister and said to Euriklia, Nurse, did you make the stranger comfortable both as regards bed and board, or did you let him shift for himself? For my mother, good woman though she is, has a way of paying great attention to second-rate people and of neglecting others who are in reality much better men. Do not find fault, child, said Euriklia. When there is no one to find fault with, the stranger sat and drank his wine as long as he liked. Your mother did ask him if he would take any more bread, and he said he would not. When he wanted to go to bed she told the servants to make one for him, but he said he was such a wretched outcast that he would not sleep on a bed and under blankets.  Then Telemachus went out of the court to the place where the Achaeans were meeting in assembly. He had his spear in his hand and he was not alone, for his two dogs went with him. But Euriklia called the maids and said, Come, wake up! Set about sweeping the cloisters and sprinkling them with water to lay the dust. Put the covers on the seats. Wipe down the table, some of you, with a wet sponge. Clean out the mixing jugs and the cups, and go for water from them fountain at once. The suitors will be here directly. They will be here early, for it is a feast day. Thus did she speak, and they did even as she had said. Twenty of them went to the fountain for water, and the others set themselves busily to work about the house. The men who were in attendance on the suitors also came up and began chopping firewood. By and by the women returned from the fountain, and the swine herd came after them with the three best pigs he could pick out. These he let feed about the premises, and then he said, good-humoredly to Ulysses. Stranger, are these suitors treating you any better now, or are they as insolent as ever? May heaven, answered Ulysses, requite to them the wickedness with which they deal high-handedly in another man's house without any sense of shame. Thus did they converse. Meanwhile, Melantheus the goat herd came up, for he too was bringing in his best goats for the suitors' dinner, and he had two shepherds with him. They tied the goats up under the gate-house, and then Melantheus began jiving at Ulysses. Are you still here, Stranger? said he, to pester people by begging about the house? Why can you not go elsewhere? You and I shall not come to an understanding before we have given each other a taste of our fists. You beg without any sense of decency. Are there not feasts elsewhere among the Achaeans as well as here? Ulysses made no answer, but bowed his head and brooded. Then a third man, Felicius, joined them, who was bringing in a barren heifer and some goats. These were brought over by the boatmen who were there to take people over when anyone comes to them. So Felicius made his heifer and his goats secure under the gate-house, and then went up to the swine-herd. Who, swine-herd, said he, is this Stranger that has lately come here? Is he one of your men? What is his family? Where does he come from? Poor fellow, he looks as if he had been some great man, but the gods give sorrow to whom they will, even to kings if it so pleases them. As he spoke he went up to Ulysses and saluted him with his right hand. Good day to you, Father Stranger, said he. You seem to be very poorly off now, but I hope you'll have better times by and by. Father Jove, of all the gods you're the most malicious. We are your own children, yet you show us no mercy in all our misery and afflictions. A sweat came over me when I saw this man and my eyes filled with tears, for he reminds me of Ulysses, who I fear is going about in just such rags as this man's are, if indeed he is still among the living. If he is already dead and in the house of Hades then, alas, for my good master, who made me his stockman when I was quite young among the Cephalinians, and now his cattle are countless. No one could have done better with them than I have, for they have bread like ears of corn. Nevertheless I have to keep bringing them in for others to eat, who take no heed to his son, though he is in the house, and fear not the wrath of heaven, but are already eager to divide Ulysses' property among them, because he has been away so long. I have often thought, only it would not be right while his son is living, of giving off with the cattle to some foreign country. Bad as this would be, it is still harder to stay here and be ill-treated about other people's herds. My position is intolerable, and I should long since have run away and put myself under the protection of some other chief, only that I believe my poor master will yet return and send all these suitors flying out of the house. "'Stockman,' answered Ulysses, "'you seem to be a very well disposed person, and I can see that you are a man of sense. Therefore I will tell you, and will confirm my words with an oath. By Jove, the chief of all gods, and by that hearth of Ulysses to which I am now come, Ulysses shall return before you leave this place, and if you are so minded, you shall see him killing the suitors who are now masters here.' "'If Jove were to bring this to pass,' replied the Stockman, "'you should see how I would do my very utmost to help him.' And in like manner you may as prayed that Ulysses might return home. Thus did they converse. Meanwhile the suitors were hatching a plot to murder Telemachus, but a bird flew near them on their left hand, an eagle with a dove in its talons. On this Amphinimus said, "'My friends, this plot of ours to murder Telemachus will not succeed. Let us go to dinner instead.' The others assented, so they went inside and laid their cloaks on the benches and seats. They sacrificed the sheep, goats, pigs, and the heifer, and when the inward meats were cooked they served them round. They mixed the wine in the mixing-balls, and the swine-herd gave every man his cup, while Phylicius handed round the bread in the bread-baskets, and Melantheus poured them out their wine. Then they laid their hands upon the good things that were before them. Telemachus purposely made Ulysses sit in the part of the cloister that was paved with stone. He gave him a shabby-looking seat at a little table to himself, and had his portion of the inward meats brought to him with his wine in a gold cup. "'Sit there,' said he, and drink your wine among the great people. I will put a stop to the jibes and blows of the suitors, for this is no public house, but belongs to Ulysses and has passed from him to me. Therefore, suitors, keep your hands and your tongues to yourselves, or there will be mischief.' The suitors bit their lips and marvelled at the boldness of his speech. Then Antonus said, "'We do not like such language, but we will put up with it, for Telemachus is threatening us in good earnest. If Jove had led us, we should have put a stop to his brave talk ere now.'" Thus spoke Antonus, but Telemachus heeded him not. Meanwhile the heralds were bringing the holy hecatum through the city, and the Achaeans gathered under the shady grove of Apollo. Then they roasted the outer meat, drew it off the spits, gave every man his portion, and feasted to their heart's content. Those who waited at table gave Ulysses exactly the same portion as the others had, for Telemachus had told them to do so. But Minerva would not let the suitors for one moment drop their insolence, for she wanted Ulysses to become still more bitter against them. Now there happened to be among them a ribbled fellow, whose name was Tissippus, and who came from Sami. This man, confident in his great wealth, was paying court to the wife of Ulysses, and said to the suitors, "'Hear what I have to say. The stranger has already had as large a portion as any one else. This is well, but it is not right nor reasonable to ill-treat any guest of Telemachus who comes here. I will, however, make him a present on my own account, that he may have something to give the bath-woman, or to some other of Ulysses' servants.' As he spoke, he picked up a heifer's foot from the meat-basket in which it lay, and threw it at Ulysses. But Ulysses turned his head a little aside and avoided it, smiling grimly sardinian fashion as he did so, and it hit the wall, not him. On this Telemachus spoke fiercely to Tysippus. "'It is a good thing for you,' said he, that the stranger turned his head so that you missed him. If you had hit him I should have run you through with my spear, and your father would have had to see about getting you buried rather than married in this house. So let me have no more unseemly behavior from any of you, for I am grown up now to the knowledge of good and evil and understand what is going on, instead of being the child that I have been here to for. I have long seen you killing my sheep and making free with my corn and wine. I have put up with this, for one man is no match for many, but do me no further violence.  I would far rather die than see such disgraceful scenes day after day. Guests insulted, and men dragging the women's servants about the house in an unseemly way."  No one should take offense at what has just been said, nor gainsay it, for it is quite reasonable. Leave off, therefore, ill-treating the stranger, or anyone else of the servants who are about the house. I would say, however, a friendly word to Telemachus and his mother, which I trust may command itself to both. As long I would say, as you had ground for hoping that Ulysses would one day come home, no one could complain of your waiting and suffering the suitors to be in your house. It would have been better that he should have returned, but it is now sufficiently clear that he will never do so. Therefore, talk all this quietly over with your mother, and tell her to marry the best man, and the one who makes her the most advantageous offer.  To this Telemachus answered. By Joe Vigelius, and by the sorrows of my unhappy father, who has either perished far from Ithaca or is wandering in some distant land, I throw no obstacles in the way of my mother's marriage. On the contrary, I urge her to choose whomesoever she will, and I will give her numberless gifts into the bargain. But I dare not insist point blank that she shall leave the house against her own wishes. Heaven forbid that I should do this. Minerva now made the suitors fall to laughing immoderately, had set their wits wandering. But they were laughing with a forced laughter. Their meat became smeared with blood, their eyes filled with tears, and their hearts were heavy with forebodings. Theocliminus saw this and said, Unhappy men, what is it that ails you? There is a shroud of darkness drawn over you from head to foot. Your cheeks are wet with tears. The air is alive with wailing voices. The walls and roof beams drip blood.  A sun is blotted out of heaven, and a blighting gloom is over all the land. Thus did he speak, and the all of them laughed heartily. Eurymachus then said, This stranger who has lately come here has lost his senses. Servants, turn him out into the streets, since he finds it so dark here. But theocliminus said, Eurymachus, you need not send any one with me. I have eyes, ears, and a pair of feet of my own, to say nothing of an understanding mind. I will take these out of the house with me, for I see mischief overhanging you, for which not one of you men who are insulting people and plotting ill deeds in the house of Ulysses will be able to escape. He left the house as he spoke, and went back to Perius, who gave him welcome, but the suitors kept looking at one another and provoking Telemachus by laughing at the strangers. One insolent fellow said to him, Telemachus, you are not happy in your guests. First you have this importunate tramp who comes begging bread and wine and has no skill for work or for hard fighting, but is perfectly useless. And now here is another fellow who is setting himself up as a prophet. Let me persuade you, for it will be much better to put them on board ship and send them off to the Cicels to sell for what they will bring. Telemachus gave him no heed, but sat silently watching his father, expecting every moment that he would begin his attack upon the suitors. Meanwhile the daughter of Vicarius, wise Penelope, had had a rich seat placed for her facing the court and the cloisters, so that she could hear what every one was saying. The dinner indeed had been prepared amid much merriment. It had been both good and abundant, for they had sacrificed many victims. But the supper was yet to come, and nothing can be conceived more gruesome than the meal which a goddess and a brave man were soon to lay before them, for they had brought their doom upon themselves. End of book twenty. Book twenty-one of the Odyssey by Homer, translated by Samuel Butler. This Librivox recording is in the public domain. The Odyssey. Book twenty-one. The trial of the Axis, during which Ulysses reveals himself to Eumaeus and Felicius. Minerva now put it in Penelope's mind to make the suitors try their skill with the bow and with the iron axes, in contest among themselves, as a means of bringing about their destruction. She went upstairs and got the storeroom key, which was made of bronze and had a handle of ivory. She then went with her maidens into the storeroom at the end of the house, where her husband's treasures of gold, bronze, and wrought iron were kept, and where was also his bow and the quiverful of deadly arrows that had been given him by a friend whom he had met in Lassidemmon, Iphidus, the son of Eurotus. The two fell in with one another in Messini at the house of Ortilicus, where Ulysses was staying in order to recover a debt that was owing from the whole people.  In quest of these Ulysses took a long journey while still quite young, for his father and the other chieftains sent him on a mission to recover them. Iphidus had gone there also to try and get back twelve brood-mares that he had lost, and the mule-falls that were running with them. These mares were the death of him in the end, for when he went to the house of Job's son, Mighty Hercules, who performed such prodigies of valor, Hercules to shame him killed him, though he was his guest, for he feared not Heaven's vengeance, nor yet respected his own table which he had set before Iphidus, but killed him in spite of everything, and kept the mares himself. It was when claiming these that Iphidus met Ulysses, and gave him the bow which Mighty Eurtus had been used to carry, and which on his death had been left by him to his son. Ulysses gave him in return a sword and a spear, and this was the beginning of a fast friendship, although they never visited at one another's houses, for Job's son, Hercules, killed Iphidus ere they could do so. This bow then, given him by Iphidus, had not been taken with him by Ulysses when he sailed for Troy. He had used it so long as he had been at home, but had left it behind as having been a keepsake from a valued friend. Penelope presently reached the oak threshold of the storeroom. The carpenter had plain this duly, and had drawn a line on it so as to get it quite straight. He had then set the door-posts into it and hung the doors. She loosed the strap from the handle of the door, put in the key, and drove it straight home to shoot back the bolts that held the doors. These flew open with a noise like a bull bellowing in a meadow, and Penelope stepped upon the raised platform, where the chest stood in which the fair linen and clothes were laid by along with fragrant herbs. Reaching thence she took down the bow with its bow-case from a peg on which it hung. She sat down with it on her knees, weeping bitterly as she took the bow out of its case, and when the tears had relieved her she went to the cloister where the suitors were, carrying the bow and the quiver with the many deadly arrows that were inside it. Along with her came her maidens, bearing a chest that contained much iron and bronze which her husband had won as prizes. When she reached the suitors she stood by one of the bearing-posts supporting the roof of the cloister, holding a veil before her face, and with the maid on either side of her. Then she said, Listen to me, you suitors, who persist in abusing the hospitality of this house, because its owner has been long absent, and without other pretext than that you want to marry me. This then being the prize that you are contending for, I will bring out the mighty bow of Ulysses, and whomesoever of you shall string it most easily and send his arrow through each one of twelve axes, him will I follow and quit this house of my lawful husband, so goodly and so abounding in wealth. But even so I doubt not that I shall remember it in my dreams. As she spoke she told Umyas to set the bow and the pieces of iron before the suitors, and Umyas wept as he took them to do so as she had bidden him. Hard by the stockman wept also when he saw his master's bow, but Antonus scolded them. You country louts, said he, silly simpletons, why should you add to the sorrows of your mistress by crying in this way? She has enough to grieve her in the loss of her husband.  We suitors shall have to contend for it with might and main, for we shall find it no light matter to string such a bow as this is. There is not man of us all who is such another as Ulysses, for I have seen him and remember him, though I was then only a child. This was what he said, but all the time he was expecting to be able to string the bow and shoot through the iron, whereas in fact he was to be the first that should taste of the arrows from the hands of Ulysses, whom he was dishonoring in his own house, egging the others on to do so also. Then Telemachus spoke. Great heavens, he exclaimed, Jove must have robbed me of my senses. Here is my dear and excellent mother saying she will quit this house and marry again, yet I am laughing and enjoying myself, as though there were nothing happening. But, suitors, as the contest has been agreed upon, let it go forward. It is for a woman whose peer is not to be found in Pylos, Argos, or Mycene, nor yet in Ithaca, or on the mainland. You know this as well as I do. What need have I to speak in praise of my mother? Come on then, make no excuses for delay, but let us see whether you can string the bow or no. I too will make trial of it, for if I can string it and shoot through the iron, I shall not suffer my mother to quit this house with a stranger, not if I can win the prizes which my father won before me. As he spoke, he sprang from his seat, threw his crimson cloak from him, and took his sword from his shoulder. First he set the axes in a row, in a long groove which he had dug for them, and had made straight by line. Then he stamped the earth tight around them, and everyone was surprised when they saw him set them up so orderly, though he had never seen anything of the kind before. This done he went on to the pavement to make trial of the bow.  He was trying for the fourth time, and would have strung it, had not Ulysses made a sign to check him in spite of all his eagerness. So he said, Alas! I shall either be always feeble and of no prowess, or I am too young, and have not reached my full strength so as to be able to hold my own if any one attacks me. You others, therefore, who are stronger than I, make trial of the bow and get this contest settled. On this he put the bow down, led it lean against the door that led into the house, with the arrow standing against the top of the bow. Then he sat down on the seat from which he had risen, and Antonis said, Come on, each of you in his turn, going towards the right from the place at which the cup-air begins when he is handing round the wine. The rest agreed, and Leody's son of Enobs was the first to rise. He was sacrificial priest to the suitors, and sat in the corner near the mixing-bowl.  He was now the first to take the bow and arrow, so he went on to the pavement to make his trial, but he could not string the bow, for his hands were weak and unused to hard work, they therefore soon grew tired and he said to the suitors, My friends, I cannot string it. Let another have it. This bow shall take the life and soul out of many a chief among us, for it is better to die than to live after having missed the prize that we have so long striven for, and which has brought us so long together. Some one of us is even now hoping and praying that he may marry Penelope, but when he has seen this bow and tried it, let him woo and make bridal offerings to some other woman, and let Penelope marry whoever makes her the best offer and whose law it is to win her. On this he put the bow down, letting it mean against the door with the arrow standing against the top of the bow. Then he took his seat again on the seat from which he had risen, and Antonis rebuked him, saying, Leodes, what are you talking about? Your words are monstrous and intolerable. It makes me angry to listen to you. Shall then this bow take the life of many a chief among us, really because you cannot bend it yourself? True, you were not born to be an archer, but there are others who will soon string it. Then he said to Melantheus the goat heard, Look sharp, light a fire in the court, and set a seat hard by with a sheepskin on it. Bring us also a large ball of lard from what they have in the house. Let us warm the bow and grease it. We will then make trial of it again and bring the contest to an end. Antonis lit the fire and set a seat covered with sheepskins beside it. He also brought a great ball of lard from what they had in the house, and the suitors warmed the bow and again made trial of it, but they were none of them nearly strong enough to string it. Nevertheless there still remained Antonis and Eurymachus, who were the ringleaders among the suitors and much the foremost among them all. Then the swineherd and the stockman left the cloisters together and Ulysses followed them. When they had got outside the gates and the outer yard, Ulysses said to them quietly, Stockman and you, swineherd, I have something in my mind which I am in doubt whether to say or know, but I think I will say it. What manner of men would you be to stand by Ulysses if some god should bring him back here all of a sudden? Say which of you are disposed to do, to side with the suitors, or with Ulysses? Father Jove, answered the Stockman, would indeed that you might so ordain it. If some god were but to bring Ulysses back you should see with what might and main I would fight for him. In like words you may as pray to all the gods that Ulysses might return. When therefore he saw for certain what mind they were of, Ulysses said, It is I, Ulysses, who am here. I have suffered much, but at last in the twentieth year I am come back to my own country. I find that you too alone of all my servants are glad that I should do so, for I have not heard any of the others praying for my return. To you too, therefore, I will unfold the truth as it shall be. If heaven shall deliver the suitors into my hands I will find wives for both of you, will give you house and holding close to my own, and you shall be to me as though you were brothers and friends of Telemachus. I will now give you convincing proofs that you may know me and be assured. See, here is the scar from the boar's tooth that ripped me when I was out hunting on Montparnassus with the sons of Autilicus. As he spoke he drew his rags aside from the great scar, and when they had examined it thoroughly they both of them wept about Ulysses, threw their arms around him and kissed his head and shoulders. While Ulysses kissed their hands and faces in return. The son would have gone down upon their morning if Ulysses had not checked them and said, Seize your weeping, lest someone should come outside and see us and tell those who are within. When you go in, do so separately, not both together. I will go first, and do you follow afterwards. Let this, moreover, be the token between us. The suitors will all of them try to prevent me from getting hold of the bow and quiver. Do you, therefore, Umeis, place it in my hands when you are carrying it about, and tell the women to close the doors of their apartment. If they hear any groaning or uproar as the men fighting about the house they must not come out. They must keep quiet and stay where they are at their work. And I charge you, Ulysses, to make fast the doors of the Outer Court and to bind them securely at once. When he had thus spoken he went back to the house and took the seat that he had left. Presently his two servants followed him inside. At this moment the bow was in the hands of Urimicus, who was warming it by the fire, but even so he could not string it, and he was greatly grieved. He heaved a deep sigh and said, I grieve for myself and for us all. I grieve that I shall have to forego the marriage, but I do not care nearly so much about this, for there are plenty of other women in Nithika and elsewhere. What I feel most is the fact of our being so inferior to Ulysses in strength that we cannot string his bow. This will disgrace us in the eyes of those who are yet unborn. It shall not be so, Urimicus, said Antonus, and you know it yourself. Today is the feast of Apollo throughout all the land. Who can string a bow when such a day is this? Put it on one side. As for the axes they can stay where they are, for no one is likely to come to the house and take them away. Let the cup bearer go round with his cups, that we may make our drink offerings and drop this matter of the bow. We will tell Melantheus to bring us in some goats to-morrow, the best he has. We can then offer thigh-bones to Apollo the mighty archer, and again make trial of the bow, so as to bring the contest to an end. The rest approved his words, and thereon men-servants poured water over the hands of the guests, while pages filled the mixing-balls with wine and water, and handed it round after giving every man his drink-offering. Then, when they had made their offerings and had drunk each as much as he desired, Ulysses craftily said, Suitors of the illustrious queen, listen that I may speak, even as I am minded. I appeal more especially to Urimicus and to Antonus who has just spoken with so much reason. See shooting for the present and leave the matter to the gods, but in the morning let heaven give victory to whom it will. For the moment, however, give me the bow that I may prove the power of my hands among you all, and see whether I still have as much strength as I used to have, or whether travel and neglect have made an end of it. This made them all very angry, for they feared he might string the bow. Antonus therefore rebuked him fiercely, saying, Wretched creature, you have not so much as a grain of sense in your whole body. You ought to think yourself lucky in being allowed to dine unharmed among your bedders, without having any smaller portion served you than we others have had, and in being allowed to hear our conversation. No other beggar or stranger has been allowed to hear what we say among ourselves.  It was wine that inflamed the centaur-jurition when he was staying with Pyrithus among the Lapathy. When the wine had got into his head he went mad and did ill deeds about the house of Pyrithus. This angered the heroes who were there assembled, so they rushed at him and cut off his ears and nostrils. Then they dragged him through the doorway out of the house so he went away crazed and bore the burden of his crime bereft of understanding. Henceforth, therefore, there was war between mankind and the centaurs, but he brought it upon himself through his own drunkenness. In like manner I can tell you that it will go hardly with you if you string the bow. You will find no mercy from any one here, for we shall at once ship you off to King Eccitus who kills every one that comes near him. You will never get away alive, so drink and keep quiet without getting into a quarrel with men younger than yourself." Penelope then spoke to him. Antonus said she, it is not right that you should ill-treat any guest of Telemachus who comes to this house. If the stranger should prove strong enough to string the mighty bow of Ulysses, can you suppose that he would take me home with him and make me his wife? Even the man himself can have no such idea in his mind. None of you need let that disturb his feasting. It would be out of all reason. King Penelope answered Eurymicus. We do not suppose that this man will take you away with him. It is impossible, but we are afraid lest some of the basers sort, men or women among the Achaeans, should go gossiping about and say, these suitors are a feeble folk. They are paying court to the wife of a brave man whose bow not one of them was able to string, and yet a beggarly tramp who came to the house strung at once and sent an arrow through the iron. This is what will be said, and it will be a scandal against us. Eurymicus, Penelope answered. People who persist in eating up the estate of a great chieftain and dishonoring his house must not expect others to think well of them. Why then should you mind if men talk as you think they will? This stranger is strong and well-built. He says, moreover, that he is of noble birth. Give him the bow, and let us see whether he can string it or know. I say, and it shall surely be, that if Apollo Vout saves him the glory of stringing it, I will give him a cloak and a shirt of good wear, with a javelin to keep off dogs and robbers and a sharp sword. I will also give him sandals, and will see him sent safely wherever he wants to go. Then Telemachus said. Mother, I am the only man either in Ithaca or in the islands that are over against Ellis, who has the right to let anyone have the bow or to refuse it. No one shall force me one way or the other, not even though I choose to make the stranger a present of the bow outright, and let him take it away with him.  This bow is a man's matter, and mine above all others, for it is I who amaster here. She went wandering back into the house, and laid her son saying in her heart. Then, going upstairs with her handmaids into her room, she mourned her dear husband till Minerva sent sweet sleep over her eyelids. The swine-herd now took up the bow and was for taking it to Ulysses, but the suitors clamored at him from all parts of the cloisters, and one of them said, �You idiot, where are you taking the bow to?  If Apollo and the other gods will grant our prayer, your own borhound shall get you into some quiet little place and worry you to death.� Umeas was frightened at the outcry they all raised, so he put the bow down then and there. Petalimica shouted at him from the other side of the cloisters, and threatened him, saying, �Father Umeas, bring the bow on in spite of them, for young as I am I will pelt you with stones back to the country, for I am the better man of the two. I wish I was as much stronger than all the other suitors in the house as I am than you. I would soon sense some of them off sick and sorry for they mean mischief.� Thus did he speak, and they all of them laughed heartily, which put them in a better humor with Telemachus. So Umeas brought the bow on and placed it in the hands of Ulysses. When he had done this, he called Eurekliia apart and said to her, �Eurekliia, Telemachus says you were to close the doors of the women's apartments. If they hear any groaning or uproar as of men fighting about the house, they are not to come out, but are to keep quiet and stay where they are at their work.� Eurekliia did as she was told, and closed the doors of the women's apartments. Meanwhile Philesius slipped quietly out and made fast the gates of the outer court. There was a ship's cable of bibless fiber lying in the gate-house, so he made the gates fast with it and then came in again, resuming the seat that he had left, and keeping an eye on Ulysses, who had now got the bow in his hands, and was turning it every way about, and proving it all over to see whether the worms had been eating into its two horns during his absence. Then would one turn towards his neighbor saying, �This is some tricky old bow fancier. Either he has got one like it at home, or he wants to make one. In such workman-like style does the old vagabond handle it.� Another said, �I hope he may be no more successful in other things than he is likely to be in stringing this bow.� But Ulysses, when he had taken it up and examined it all over, strung it as easily as a skilled bard strings a new peg of his lyre and makes the twisted gut fast at both ends. Then he took it in his right hand to prove the string, and it sang sweetly under his touch like the twittering of a swallow. The suitors were dismayed and turned color as they heard it. At that moment, moreover, Jove thundered loudly as a sign, and the heart of Ulysses rejoiced as he heard the omen that the son of scheming Saturn had sent him. He took an arrow that was lying upon the table, for those which the Achaeans were so shortly about to taste were all inside the quiver. He laid it on the centerpiece of the bow, and drew the notch of the arrow and the string toward him, still seated on his seat. When he had taken aim he led fly, and his arrow pierced every one of the handle-holes of the axes from the first onwards till it had gone right through them and into the outer courtyard. Then he said to Telemachus, Your guest has not disgraced you, Telemachus. I did not miss what I aimed at, and I was not long in stringing my bow. I am still strong, and not as the suitors twit me with being. Now, however, it is time for the Achaeans to prepare supper while there is still daylight, and then otherwise to desport themselves with song and dance which are the crowning ornaments of a banquet. As he spoke he made a sign with his eyebrows, and Telemachus girded on his sword, grasped his spear, and stood armed beside his father's seat. End of Book XXI. Book XXII. of The Odyssey by Homer. Translated by Samuel Butler. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Odyssey. Book XXII. The killing of the suitors. The maids who have misconducted themselves are made to cleanse the cloisters and are then hanged.  He shed the arrows onto the ground at his feet, and said, The mighty contest is at an end. I will now see whether Apollo will vouchsafe it to me to hit another mark which no man has yet hit. On this he aimed a deadly arrow at Antonus, who was about to take up a two-handed gold cup to drink his wine and already had it in his hands. He had no thought of death, who amongst all the revelers would think that one man, however brave, would stand alone among so many and kill him. The arrow struck Antonus in the throat, and the point went clean through his neck so that he fell over and the cup dropped from his hand while a thick stream of blood gushed from his nostrils. He kicked the table from him and upset the things on it so that the bread and roasted meats were all soiled as they fell over onto the ground. The suitors were in an uproar when they saw that a man had been hit. They sprang and dismayed one and all of them from their seats and looked everywhere toward the walls, but there was neither shield nor spear, and they rebuked Ulysses very angrily. Stranger, said they, you shall pay for shooting people in this way. You shall see no other contest.  Heem whom you have slain was the foremost youth in Ithaca, and the vulture shall devour you for having killed him. Thus they spoke, for they thought that he had killed Antonus by mistake and did not perceive that death was hanging over the head of every one of them. But Ulysses glared at them and said, Dogs, did you think that I should not come back from Troy?  You have feared neither God nor man, and now you shall die. They turned pale with fear as he spoke, and every man looked round about to see wither he might fly for safety, but Eurimachus alone spoke. If you are, Ulysses, said he, then what you have said is just. We have done much wrong on your lands and in your house.  It was all his doing. It was not that he wanted to marry Penelope. He did not so much care about that. What he wanted was something quite different, and Jove has not vouched safety to him.   We will make everything good among ourselves and pay you in full for all that we have eaten and drunk. Each one of us shall pay you a fine worth twenty oxen, and we will keep on giving you gold and bronze till your heart is softened. Until we have done this no one can complain if you're being enraged against us. Ulysses again glared at him and said, Though you should give me all that you have in the world both now and all that you ever shall have, I will not stay my hand till I have paid all of you in full. You must fight or fly for your lives, and fly not of man of you shall. Your heart sank as they heard him, but Eurymachus again spoke, saying, My friends, this man will give us no quarter.  Let us then show fight, draw your swords, and hold up the tables to shield you from his arrows. Let us have it him with a rush to drive him from the pavement and doorway. We can then get through into the town and raise such an alarm as shall soon stay his shooting. As he spoke he drew his keen blade of bronze, sharpened on both sides, and with a loud cry sprang towards Ulysses, but Ulysses instantly shot a narrow into his breast that caught him by the nipple and fixed itself in his liver. He dropped his sword and fell doubled up over his table. The cup and all the meats went over onto the ground as he smote the earth with his forehead in the agonies of death, and he kicked the stool with his feet until his eyes were closed in darkness. Then Amphinimus drew his sword and made straight at Ulysses to try and get him away from the door, but Telemachus was too quick for him and struck him from behind. The spear caught him between the shoulders and went right through his chest, so that he fell heavily to the ground and struck the earth with his forehead.  Then he said, Father, let me bring you a shield, two spears, and a brass helmet for your temples. I will arm myself as well, and will bring other armor for the swineherd and the stockman, for we had better be armed. Run and fetch them, answered Ulysses, while my arrows hold out, for when I am alone they may get me away from the door. Telemachus did, as his father said, and went off to the storeroom where the armor was kept. He chose four shields, eight spears, and four brass helmets with horsehair plumes. He brought them with all speed to his father and armed himself first while the stockman and the swineherd also put on their armor and took their places near Ulysses. Meanwhile, Ulysses, as long as his arrows lasted, had been shooting the suitors one by one, and they fell thick on one another. When his arrows gave out, he set the bow to stand against the end wall of the house by the doorpost and hung a shield four hides thick about his shoulders. On his comely head he set his helmet, well wrought with a crest of horsehair that knotted menacingly above it, and he grasped two redoubtable, bronze shod spears. Now there was a trapdoor on the wall, while at one end of the pavement there was an exit leading to a narrow passage, and this exit was closed by a well-made door. Ulysses told Felicius to stand by this door and guard it, for only one person could attack it at a time. But Agileus shouted out, Can't someone go up to the trapdoor and tell the people what is going on? Help would come at once, and we should soon make an end of this man and his shooting. This may not be Agileus, answered Melantheus. The mouth of the narrow passage is dangerously near the entrance to the outer court. One brave man could prevent any number from getting in, but I know what I will do. I will bring you arms from the storeroom, for I am sure it is there that Ulysses and his son have put them. On this the goat heard Melantheus went by back passages to the storeroom of Ulysses' house. There he chose twelve shields, with as many helmets and spears, and brought them back as fast as he could give them to the suitors. Ulysses' heart began to fail him when he saw the suitors putting on their armor and brandishing their spears. He saw the greatness of the danger and said to Telemachus, Some one of the women inside is helping the suitors against us, or it may be Melantheus. Telemachus answered, The faultfather is mine and mine only. I left the storeroom door open, and they have kept a sharper look out than I have. Go, you mayus, put the door to, and see whether it is one of the women who is doing this, or whether, as I suspect, it is Melantheus the son of Dullius. Thus did they converse. Meanwhile Melantheus was again going to the storeroom to fetch more armor, but the swine-herd saw him and said to Ulysses who was beside him, Ulysses, noble son of Laertes, it is that scoundrel Melantheus, just as we suspected, who is going to the storeroom. Say, shall I kill him, if I can get the better of him, or shall I bring him here that you may take your own revenge for all the many wrongs that he has done in your house? Ulysses answered, Telemachus and I will hold these suitors in check, no matter what they do. Go back both of you and bind Melantheus' hands and feet behind him. Throw him into the storeroom and make the door fast behind you. Then fasten a noose about his body and string him close up to the rafters from a high bearing-post that he may linger on in an agony. Thus did he speak, and they did even as he had said. They went to the storeroom which they entered before Melantheus saw them, for he was busy searching for arms in the innermost part of the room. So the two took their stand on either side of the door and waited. By and by Melantheus came out with a helmet in one hand and an old dry-rotted shield in the other which had been borne by Laertes when he was young, but which had been long since thrown aside, and the straps had become unsewn. On this the two seized him, dragged him back by the hair and threw him struggling to the ground. They bent his hands and feet well behind his back and bound them tight with a painful bond, as Ulysses had told them. Then they fastened a noose about his body and strung him up from a high pillar till he was close up to the rafters, and over him did you then vaunt Oswine heard Umeus, saying, Melantheus, you will pass the night on a soft bed as you deserve. You will know very well when morning comes from the streams of Oceanus, and it is time for you to be driving in your goats for the suitors to feast on. There then they left him in very cruel bondage, and having put on their armor they closed the door behind them and went back to take their places by the side of Ulysses. Whereon the four men stood in the cloister, fierce and full of fury. Nevertheless, those who were in the body of the court were still both brave and many. Then Joves' daughter Minerva came up to them, having assumed the voice and form of Mentor. Ulysses was glad when he saw her and said, Mentor, lend me your help, and forget not your old comrade, nor the many good turns he has done you. Besides, you are my age-mate. But all the time he felt sure it was Minerva, and the suitors from the other side raised an uproar when they saw her. Agileus was the first to approach her. Mentor, he cried, do not Ulysses beguile you into siding with him and fighting the suitors. This is what we will do.   And when we have killed you, we will take all you have, indoors or out, and bring it into Hodgepot with Ulysses' property.  This made Minerva still more furious, so she scolded Ulysses very angrily. Ulysses, said she, your strength and prowess are no longer what they were when you fought for nine long years among the Trojans about the noble Lady Helen. You killed many a man in those days, and it was through your stratagem that Priam City was taken.   But she would not give him full victory as yet, for she wished still further to prove his own prowess and that of his brave son, so she flew up to one of the rafters in the roof of the cloister and sat upon it in the form of a swallow.  Of all those who were still fighting for their lives, they were by far the most valiant, for the others had already fallen under the arrows of Ulysses.  They are standing at the doors unsupported. Do not aim at him all at once, but six of you throw your spears first and see if you cannot cover yourselves with glory by killing him. When he has fallen we need not be uneasy about the others. They threw their spears as he bade them, but Minerva made them all of no effect. One hit the doorpost, another went against the door, the pointed shaft of another struck the wall. And as soon as they had avoided all the spears of the suitor's, Ulysses said to his own men, My friends, I should say we too had better let drive into the middle of them or they will crown all the harm they have done us by killing us outright.  Ulysses killed Demetolomus, Telemachus Uryates, Yumeis, Iletus, and while the Stockman killed Pisander. These all bit the dust, and as the others drew back into a corner, Ulysses and his men rushed forward and regained their spears by drawing them from the bodies of the dead. The suitor's now aimed a second time, but again Minerva made their weapons for the most part without effect. One hit a bearing post of the cloister, another went against the door, while the pointed shaft of another struck the wall. Still, Amphimodon just took a piece of the top skin from off Telemachus' wrist, and Decipus managed to graze Yumeis' shoulder above his shield. But the spear went on and fell to the ground. Then Ulysses and his men let drive into the crowd of suitor's. Ulysses hit Urydomus, Telemachus Amphimodon, and Yumeis Pallibus. After this the Stockman hit Decipus in the breast and taunted him, saying, Foul-mouthed son of Polytherses, do not be so foolish as to talk wickedly another time, but let heaven direct your speech, for the gods are far stronger than men. I make you a present of this advice to repay you for the foot which you gave Ulysses when he was begging about in his own house. Thus spoke the Stockman, and Ulysses struck the son of Demaster with a spear in close fight, while Telemachus hit Lyocritus' son of Evinor in the belly, and the dart went clean through him, so that he fell forward full on his face upon the ground. Then Minerva, from her seat on the rafter, held up her deadly aegis, and the hearts of the suitor's quailed. They fled to the other end of the court like a herd of cattle maddened by the gadfly in early summer, when the days are at their longest. As eagle beaked, crook-talloned vultures from the mountains swoop down on the smaller birds that cower in flocks upon the ground and kill them, for they cannot either fight or fly, and lookers on enjoy the sport. Even so did Ulysses and his men fall upon the suitors and smite them on every side.  Ulysses then caught the knees of Ulysses and said, Ulysses, I beseech you have mercy upon me and spare me. I have never wronged any of the women in your house, either in word or deed, and I tried to stop the others. I saw them, but they would not listen, and now they are paying for their folly. I was their sacrificing priest. If you kill me, I shall die without having done anything to deserve it, and shall have got no thanks for all the good that I did. Ulysses looked sternly at him and answered, If you were their sacrificing priest, you must have prayed many a time that it might be long before I got home again, and that you might marry my wife and have children by her.    The minstrelfemious son of Turpies, he who had been forced by the suitors to sing to them, now tried to save his life. He was standing near towards the trap-door and held his lyre in his hand. He did not know whether to fly out of the cloister and sit down by the altar of Job that was in the outer court, and on which both Lairtes and Ulysses had offered up the thigh-bones of many an ox, or whether to go straight up to Ulysses and embrace his knees, but in the end he deemed it best to embrace Ulysses' knees. So he laid his lyre on the ground between the mixing-bowl and the silver-studded seat. Then going up to Ulysses he caught hold of his knees and said, Ulysses, I beseech you have mercy on me and spare me. You will be sorry for it afterwards if you kill a bard who can sing both for gods and men as I can. I make all my lays myself and heaven visits me with every kind of inspiration. I would sing to you as though you were a god.  Your own son Telemachus will tell you that I did not want to frequent your house and sing to the suitors after their meals, but they were too many and too strong for me, so they made me. Telemachus heard him and at once went up to his father. Hold! he cried. The man is gildous. Do him no hurt. And we will spare Meeden, too. Who was always good to me when I was a boy, unless Felicius or Eumaeus has already killed him, or he has fallen in your way when you were raging about the court? Meeden caught these words of Telemachus, for he was crouching under a seat beneath which he had hidden by covering himself up with a freshly flayed heifer's hide, so he threw off the hide, went up to Telemachus, and laid hold of his knees. Here I am, my dear sir, said he.  Ulysses smiled at him and answered, Fear not, Telemachus has saved your life, that you may know in future and tell other people how greatly better good deeds prosper than evil ones. Go therefore outside the cloister into the outer court, and be out of the way of the slaughter, you and the bard, while I finish my work here inside. The pair went into the outer court as fast as they could, and sat down by Job's great altar, looking fearfully round and still expecting that they would be killed. Then Ulysses searched the whole court carefully over, to see if anyone had managed to hide himself and was still living, but he found them all lying in the dust and weltering in their blood. They were like fishes which fishermen had netted out of the sea, and thrown upon the beach to lie gasping for water till the heat of the sun makes an end of them. Even so were the suitors lying all huddled up one against the other. Then Ulysses said to Telemachus, Call nurse Euriklia, I have something to say to her. Telemachus went and knocked at the door of the women's room.  When Euriklia heard this she unfastened the door of the women's room and came out, following Telemachus.  Even so was Ulysses besmirched from head to foot with gore. When she saw all the corpses and such a quantity of blood she was beginning to cry out for joy, for she saw that a great deed had been done. But Ulysses checked her. Old woman, said he, rejoice in silence, restrain yourself and do not make any noise about it. It is an unholy thing to vaunt over dead men. Heaven's doom and their own evil deeds have brought these men to destruction, for they respected no man in the whole world, neither rich nor poor, who came near them, and they have come to a bad end as a punishment for their wickedness and folly. Now, however, tell me which of the women in the house have misconducted themselves, and who are innocent? I will tell you the truth, my son, answered Euryclea. There are fifty women in the house whom we teach to do things, such as carding wool and all kinds of household work. Of these, twelve in all have misbehaved, and have been wanting in respect to me, and also to Penelope. They showed no disrespect to Telemachus, for he has only lately grown, and his mother never permitted him to give orders to the female servants.  Do not wake her yet, answered Ulysses, but tell the women who have misconducted themselves to come to me. Euryclea left the cloister to tell the women, and make them come to Ulysses. In the meantime he called Telemachus the Stockman and the Swineherd. Begin, said he, to remove the dead, and make the women help you. Then get sponges and clean water to swill down the tables and seats. When you have thoroughly cleansed the whole cloisters, take the women into the space between the domed room and the wall of the outer court, and run them through with your swords till they are quite dead, and have forgotten all about love and the way in which they used to lie in secret with the suitors. On this the women came down in a body, weeping and wailing bitterly. First they carried the dead bodies out, and propped them up against one another in the gate-house. Ulysses ordered them about and made them do their work quickly, so they had to carry the bodies out. When they had done this they cleaned all the tables and seats with sponges and water, while Telemachus and the two others shoveled up the blood and dirt from the ground, and the women carried it all away and put it out of doors. Then, when they had made the whole place quite clean and orderly, they took the women out and hemmed them in the narrow space between the wall of the domed room and that of the yard, so that they could not get away. And Telemachus said to the other two, I shall not let these women die a clean death, for they were insolent to me and my mother, and used to sleep with the suitors. So, saying, he made a ship's cable fast to one of the bearing-posts that supported the roof of the domed room, and secured it all around the building at a good height, lest any of the women's feet should touch the ground. And as thrushes or doves beat against a net that has been set for them in a thicket just as they were getting to their nest, and a terrible fate awaits them, even so did the women have to put their heads in nooses one after the other and die most miserably. Their feet moved convulsively for a while, but not for very long. As for Melantheus, they took him through the cloister into the inner court.  When they had done this, they washed their hands and feet and went back into the house, for all was now over. And Ulysses said to the dear old nurse Eureklia, Bring me sulfur, which cleanses all pollution, and fetch fire also that I may burn it and purify the cloisters. Go, moreover, and tell Penelope to come here with her attendance, and also all the maidservants that are in the house. All that you have said is true, answered Eureklia.  Do not keep these rags on your back any longer. It is not right. First, light me a fire, replied Ulysses. She brought the fire in sulfur, as he had bitten her, and Ulysses thoroughly purified the cloisters and both the inner and outer courts.  It made him feel as if he should like to weep, for he remembered every one of them.