Now, therefore, return home early to-morrow morning, and go about among the suitors as before. Later on the swine-herd will bring me to the city disguised as a miserable old beggar. If you see them ill-treating me, steal your heart against my sufferings. Even though they drag me feet foremost out of the house or throw things at me, look on and do nothing beyond gently trying to make them behave more reasonably. But they will not listen to you, for the day of their reckoning is at hand. Furthermore, I say, and lay my saying to your heart. When Minerva shall put it in my mind I will nod my head to you, and on seeing me do this you must collect all the armor that is in the house and hide it in the strong storeroom. Make some excuse when the suitors ask you why you are removing it. Say that you have taken it to be out of the way of the smoke, inasmuch as it is no longer what it was when Ulysses went away, but has become soiled and begrimed with soot. Add 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. But leave a sword and a spear apiece for yourself and me, and a couple of oxide shields so that we can snatch them up at any moment. Jove and Minerva will then soon quiet these people. There is also another matter. If you are indeed my son and my blood runs in your veins, let no one know that Ulysses is within the house, neither Liertes nor yet the swine herd, nor any of the servants, nor even Penelope herself. Let you and me exploit the women alone, and let us also make trial of some other of the men servants, to see who is on our side and whose hand is against us. Father, reply Telemachus, you will come to know me by and by, and when you do, you will find that I can keep your counsel. I do not think, however, the plan you propose will turn out well for either of us. Think it over. It will take us a long time to go the round of the farms and exploit the men, and all the time the suitors will be wasting your estate with impunity and without compunction. Prove the women by all means to see who are disloyal and who guiltless, but I am not in favor of going round and trying the men. We can attend to that later on if you really have some sign from Jove that he will support you. Thus did they converse, and meanwhile the ship which had brought Telemachus and his crew from Pylos had reached the town of Ithaca. When they had come inside the harbour, they drew the ship onto the land. Their servants came and took their armour from them, and they left all the presents at the house of Clidius. Then they sent a servant to tell Penelope that Telemachus had gone into the country, but had sent the ship to the town to prevent her from being alarmed and made unhappy. This servant and Eumaeus happened to meet when they were both on the same errand of going to tell Penelope. When they reached the house, the servant stood up and said to the Queen in the presence of the waiting women, Your son, Madam, is now returned from Pylos. But Eumaeus went close up to Penelope and said privately all that her son had bidden him tell her. When he had given his message, he left the house with its outbuildings and went back to his pigs again. The suitors were surprised and angry at what had happened, so they went outside the great wall that ran round the outer court and held a council near the main entrance. Eurimachus, son of Polybus, was the first to speak. My friends, said he, this voyage of Teumelachus's is a very serious matter. We had made sure that it would come to nothing. Now, however, let us draw a ship into the water and get a crew together to send after the others and tell them to come back as fast as they can. He had hardly done speaking when Amphinus turned in his place and saw the ship inside the harbor, with the crew lowering her sails and putting by her oars. So he laughed and said to the others, We need not send them any message, for they are here. Some God must have told them, or else they saw the ship go by and could not overtake her. On this they rose and went to the waterside. The crew then drew the ship on shore. Their servants took their armor from them and they went up in a body to the place of assembly. But they would not let any one, old or young, sit along with them. Good Heavens, said he, See how the gods have saved this man from destruction. We kept a succession of scouts upon the headlands all day long, and when the sun was down we never went on shore to sleep, but waited in the ship all night till morning in the hope of capturing and killing him. But some God has conveyed him home in spite of us. Let us consider how we can make an end of him. He must not escape us. Our affair is never likely to come off while he is alive, for he is very shrewd, and public feeling is by no means all on our side. We must make haste before he can call the Achaeans in assembly. He will lose no time in doing so, for he will be furious with us, and will tell all the world how we plotted to kill him, but fail to take him. The people will not like this when they come to know of it. We must see that they do us no hurt, nor drive us from our own country into exile. Let us try and lay hold of him, either on his farm away from the town, or on the road hither. Then we can divide up his property amongst us, and let his mother and the man who marries her have the house. If this does not please you, and you wish Telemachus to live on and hold his father's property, then we must not gather here and eat up his goods in this way, but must make our efforts to Penelope each from his own house, and she can marry the man who will give the most for her, and whose lot it is to win her. They all held their peace until Infinimus rose to speak. He was the son of Nisus, who was son to King Aretius, and he was the foremost among all the suitors from the wheat-growing and well-grassed island of Dolicium. His conversation, moreover, was more agreeable to Penelope than that of any of the other suitors, for he was a man of good natural disposition. My friends, said he, speaking to them plainly and in all honestly. I am not in favor of killing Telemachus. It is a heinous thing to kill one who is of noble blood. Let us first take counsel of the gods, and if the oracles of Job advise it, I will both help to kill him myself, and will urge everyone else to do so. But if they dissuade us, I would have you hold your hands. Thus did he speak, and his words pleased them well, so they rose forthwith and went to the house of Ulysses, where they took their accustomed seats. Then Penelope resolved that she would show herself to the suitors. She knew of the plot against Telemachus, for the servant Meeden had overheard their counsels and had told her. She went down therefore to the court, attended by her maidens, and 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 rebuked Antinus, saying, Antinus, insolent and wicked schemer, they say you are the best speaker and counselor of any man your own age in Ithaca, but you are nothing of the kind. Madman, why should you try to compass the death of Telemachus and take no heed of suppliance whose witness is Job himself? It is not right for you to plot thus against one another. Do you not remember how your father fled to this house in fear of the people, who were enraged against him for having gone with some taffian pirates and plundered the Thesprocians who were at peace with us?  Leave off doing so and stop the others also. To this Eurimachus, son of Polybus, answered, break heart, Queen Penelope, daughter of Icarius, and do not trouble yourself about these matters.  I say, and it shall surely be, that my spear shall be reddened with his blood, for many a time has Ulysses taken me on his knees, held wine up to my lips to drink, and put pieces of meat into my hands. Therefore Telemachus is much the dearest friend I have, and has nothing to fear from the hands of us suitors. Of course, if death comes to him from the gods he cannot escape it. He said this to quiet her, but in reality he was plotting against Telemachus. Then Penelope went upstairs again and mourned her husband till Minerva shed sleep over her eyes. In the evening you may have scut back to Ulysses and his son, who had just sacrificed a young pig of a year old and were helping one another to get supper ready. Minerva therefore came up to Ulysses, turned him into an old man with a stroke of Rwand, and clad him in his old clothes again, for fear that the swine-herd might recognize him and not keep the secret, but go and tell Penelope. Telemachus was the first to speak. So you have got back, Eumaeus, said he. What is the news of the town? Have the suitors returned, or are they still waiting over Yonder to take me on my way home? I did not think of asking about that, replied Eumaeus, when I was in the town. I thought I would give my message and come back as soon as I could. I met a man sent by those who had gone with you to Pylos, and he was the first to tell the news to your mother, but I can say what I saw with my own eyes. I had just got on to the crest of the hill of Mercury above the town when I saw a ship coming into the harbour with a number of men in her. They had many shields and spears, and I thought it was the suitors, but I cannot be sure. On hearing this, Telemachus smiled to his father, but so that Eumaeus could not see him. Then, when they had finished their work and the meal was ready, they ate it and every man had his full share so that all were satisfied.  END OF BOOK XVI. BOOK XVII. OF THE AUDICY BY HOMER. TRANSLATED BY SAMUEL BUTTLER. THIS LIBERVOX RECORDING IS IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. THE AUDICY. BOOK XVII. TELEMUCUS AND HIS MOTHER MEAT. Ulysses and Eumaeus come down to the town, and Ulysses is insulted by Melanthus. He is recognized by the dog Argos. He is insulted and presently struck by Antonus with a stool. Penelope desires that he shall be sent to her. When the child of mourning, Rosie-finger Dawn appeared, Telemachus bound on his sandals and took a strong spear that suited his hands, for he wanted to go into the city. Old friend, said he to the swine herd, I will now go to the town and show myself to my mother, for she will never leave off grieving till she has seen me. As for this unfortunate stranger, take him to the town and let him beg there of anyone who will give him a drink and a piece of bread. I have trouble enough of my own, and cannot be burdened with other people. If this makes him angry, so much the worse for him, but I like to say what I mean. Then Ulysses said, Sir, I do not want to stay here. A beggar can always do better in town than country, for anyone who likes can give him something. I am too old to care about remaining here at the beck and call of a master. Therefore, let this man do as you have just told him, and take me to the town as soon as I have had a warm by the fire, and the day has got a little heat in it. My clothes are wretchedly thin, and this frosty morning I shall be perished with cold, for you say the city is some way off. On this Ptolemyka strode off through the yards, brooding his revenge upon the suitors. When he reached home he stood his spear against a bearing-post of the cloister, crossed the stone floor of the cloister itself, and went inside. Nurse Euraclia saw him long before anyone else did. She was putting the fleeces onto the seats, and she burst out crying as she ran up to him. All the other maids came up too, and covered his head and shoulders with their kisses. Penelope came out of a room looking like Diana or Venus, and wept as she flung her arms about her son. She kissed his forehead and both his beautiful eyes. "'Light of my eyes,' she cried, as she spoke fondly to him. "'So you are come home again. I made sure I was never going to see you any more. To think of your having gone off to Pylos without saying anything about it, or obtaining my consent. But come, tell me what you saw.' "'Do not scold me, mother,' answered Telemachus, nor vex me, seeing what a narrow escape I have had.  I must now go to the place of assembly to invite a stranger who has come back with me from Pylos. I sent him on with my crew, and told Piraeus to take him home and look after him till I could come for him myself.' She heeded her son's words, washed her face, changed her dress, and vowed full and sufficient hecatombs to all the gods if they would only vouchsafe her revenge upon the suitors. Telemachus went through and out of the cloisters spear in hand, not alone, for his two-fleet dogs went with him. Minerva endowed him with a presence of such divine comeliness that all marveled at him as he went by, and the suitors gathered round him with fair words in their mouths and malice in their hearts. But he avoided them, and went to sit with Mentor, Antifas, and Helithurses, old friends of his father's house, and they made him tell them all that had happened to him. Then Piraeus came up with the Oclimanus, whom he had escorted through the town to the place of assembly, whereon Telemachus had once joined them. Piraeus was first to speak. Telemachus, said he, I wish you would send some of your women to my house to take away the presence Menelaus gave you. We do not know, Piraeus, answered Telemachus, what may happen?   With these words he took the Oclimanus to his own house. When they got there they laid their cloaks on the benches and seats, went into the baths, and washed themselves. When the maids had washed and anointed them, and had given them cloaks and shirts, they took their seats at table. A maid-servant then brought them water in a beautiful golden ure and poured it into a silver basin for them to wash their hands, and she drew a clean table beside them. An upper-servant brought them bread and offered them many good things of what there was in the house. Opposite them sat Penelope, reclining on a couch by one of the bearing posts of the cloister and spinning. Then they laid their hands on the good things that were before them, and as soon as they had had enough to eat and drink Penelope said, Telemachus, I shall go upstairs and lie down on that sad couch which I have not seized to water with my tears, from the day Ulysses set out for Troy with the sons of Atreus. You failed, however, to make it clear to me before the suitors came back to the house whether or no you had been able to hear anything about the return of your father. I will tell you then truth, replied her son. We went to Pylos and saw Nestor, who took me to his house and treated me as hospitably as though I were a son of his own who had just returned after a long absence. So also did his sons. But he said he had not heard a word from any human being about Ulysses, whether he was alive or dead. He sent me, therefore, with a chariot and horses to Menelaus. There I saw Helen, for whose sake so many, both Argives and Trojans, were in heaven's wisdom doomed to suffer. Menelaus asked me what it was that had brought me to Lassidamen, and I told him the whole truth, whereon he said, So then, these cowards would usurp a brave man's bed?  The lion, when he comes back to his lair, will make short work with a pair of them, and so will Ulysses with these suitors. By Father Jove, Minerva, and Apollo, if Ulysses is still the man that he was when he rustled with phylum ladies and lesbos, and threw him so heavily that all the Greeks cheered him. If he is still such, and were to come near these suitors, they would have a short shrift and a sorry wedding. As regards your question, however, I will not prevericate nor deceive you, but what the old man of the sea told me, so much will I tell you in full. He said he could see Ulysses on an island, sorrowing bitterly in the house of the Nymph Calypso, who was keeping him prisoner, and he could not reach his home, for he had no ships nor sailors to take him over the sea. This was what Menelaus told me, and when I had heard his story I came away, the gods then gave me a fair wind and soon brought me safe home again. With these words he moved the heart of Penelope. Then Theocliminus said to her, Madam, wife of Ulysses, Telemachus does not understand these things, listen therefore to me, for I can divine them surely, and will hide nothing from you. May Jove, the king of heaven, be my witness, and the rites of hospitality, with that hearth of Ulysses to which I now come, that Ulysses himself is even now in Ithaca, and either going about the country, or staying in one place, inquiring into all these evil deeds and preparing a day of reckoning for the suitors. I saw an omen when I was on the ship which meant this, and I told Telemachus about it. May it be even so, answered Penelope, if your words come true, you shall have such gifts and such good will will come for me, that all who see you shall congratulate you. Thus did they converse. Meanwhile the suitors were throwing discs, or aiming with spears at a mark on the level ground in front of the house, and behaving with all their old insolence. But when it was now time for dinner, and the flock of sheep and goats had come into the town from all the country round, with their shepherds as usual, then Meeden, who was their favorite servant, and waited upon them at table, said, Now then, my young masters, you have had enough sport, so come inside that we may get dinner ready. Dinner is not a bad thing at dinner time. They left their sports as he told them, and when they were within the house, they laid their cloaks on the benches and seats inside, and then sacrificed some sheep, goats, pigs, and a heifer, all of them fat and well-grown. Thus they made ready for their meal. In the meantime Ulysses and the swineherd were about starting for the town, and the swineherd said, Stranger, I suppose you still want to go to the town today, as my master said you were to do. For my own part, I should have liked you to stay here as a station hand, but I must do as my master tells me, or he will scold me later on, and a scolding from one's master is a very serious thing. Let us then be off, for it is now broad day. It will be night again directly, and then you will find it colder. I know and understand you, replied Ulysses. You need say no more. Let us be going, but if you have a stick-ready cut, let me have it to walk with, for you say the road is a very rough one. As he spoke, he threw his shabby old tattered wallet over his shoulders by the cord from which it hung, and you may escape him a stick to his liking. The two then started, leaving the station in charge of the dogs and herdsmen who remained behind. The swineherd led the way, and his master followed after, looking like some broken-down old trap as he leaned upon his staff, and his clothes were all in rags. When they had got over the rough steep ground and were nearing the city, they reached the fountain from which the citizens drew their water. This had been made by Ithicus, Neritus, and Pollictor. There was a grove of water-loving poplars planted in a circle all round it, and the clear cold water came down to it from a rock high up, while the above fountain there was an altar to the nymphs at which all wayfarers used to sacrifice. Here Melanthius, son of Dolius, overtook them as he was driving down some goats, the best in his flock for the suitor's dinner, and there were two shepherds with him. When he saw Eumaeus and Ulysses he reviled them with outrageous and unseemly language, which made Ulysses very angry. There you go, cried he, and a precious pair you are! See how heaven brings birds of the same feather to one another. Where, pray, Master Swineherd, are you taking this poor, miserable object? It would make any one sick to see such a creature at table. A fellow like this never won a prize for anything in his life, but will go about rubbing his shoulders against every man's doorpost, and begging, not for swords and cauldrons like a man, but only for a few scraps not worth begging for. If you would give him to me for a hand on my station, he might do to clean out the folds, or bring a bit of sweet feed to the kids, and he could fatten his thighs as much as he pleased on way. But he is taken to bad ways and will not go about any kind of work. He will do nothing but beg vituals all the town over to feed his insatiable belly. I say, therefore, and it shall surely be, if he goes near Ulysses' house, he will get his head broken by the stools they fling at him till they turn him out. On this, as he passed, he gave Ulysses a kick on the hip out of pure wantoness, but Ulysses stood firm and did not budge from the path. For a moment he doubted whether or not to fly at Melantheus and kill him with his staff, or fling him to the ground and beat his brains out. He resolved, however, to endure it and keep himself in check, but the swine-herd looked straight at Melantheus and rebuked him, lifting up his hands and praying to heaven as he did so. Fountain nymphs, he cried, children of Jove, if ever Ulysses burned youth thigh bones covered with fat, whether of lambs or kids, grant my prayer that heaven may send him home. He would soon put an end to the swaggering threats with which such men as you go about insulting people, gadding all over the town while your flocks are going to ruin through bad shepherding. Then Melantheus the goat-herd answered, You, ill-conditioned cur, what are you talking about? Some day or other I will put you on board ship and take you to a foreign country, where I can sell you and pocket the money you will fetch. I wish I were as sure that Apollo would strike Telemachus dead this very day, or that the suitors would kill him, as I am that Ulysses will never come home again. With this he left them to come on at their leisure, while he went quickly forward and soon reached the house of his master. When he got there he went in and took his seat among the suitors opposite Eurimachus, who liked him better than any of the others. The servants brought him a portion of meat, and an upper woman-servant set bread before him that he might eat. Presently Ulysses and the swine-herd came up to the house and stood by it amid a sound of music, for Femius was just beginning to sing to the suitors. Then Ulysses took hold of the swine-herd's hand and said, You mayas, this house of Ulysses is a very fine place. No matter how far you go you will find few like it. One building keeps falling on after another. The outer court has a wall with battlements all round it. The doors are double-folding and of good workmanship. It would be a hard matter to take it by force of arms. I perceive too that there are many people bank-witting within it, for there is a smell of roast meat, and I hear a sound of music which the gods have made to go along with feasting. Then you mayas said. You have perceived a right, as indeed you generally do. But let us think what will be our best course.  But do not wait long, or someone may see you loitering about outside and throw something at you. Consider this matter, I pray you." And Ulysses answered, I understand and heed. Go in first and leave me here where I am. I am quite used to being beaten and having things thrown at me. I have been so much buffeted about in war and by sea that I am case-hardened and this too may go with the rest. But a man cannot hide away the cravings of a hungry belly. This is an enemy which gives much trouble to all men. It is because of this that ships are fitted out to sail the seas and to make war upon other people.  This was Argos, whom Ulysses had bred before setting out for Troy, but he had never had any work out of him. In the old days he used to be taken out by the young men when they went hunting wild goats or deer or hares, but now that his master was gone he was lying neglected on the heaps of mule and cow dung that lay in front of the stable doors till the men should come and draw it away to manure the great clothes. And he was full of fleas. As soon as he saw Ulysses standing there he dropped his ears and wagged his tail, but he could not get close up to his master. When Ulysses saw the dog on the other side of the yard he dashed a tear from his eyes without Umeus seeing it and said, Umeus, what a noble hound that is over yonder on the manure heap. His build is splendid. Is he as fine a fellow as he looks? Or is he only one of those dogs that come begging about a table and are kept merely for show? This hound, answered Umeus, belonged to him who has died in a far country. If he were what he was when Ulysses left for Troy he would soon show you what he could do. There was not a wild beast in the forest that could get away from him when he was once on its tracks. But now he has fallen on evil times, for his master is dead and gone and the women take no care of him. Servants never do their work when their master's hand is no longer over them, for Jove takes half the goodness out of a man when he makes a slave of him. As he spoke he went inside the buildings to the cloister where the suitors were, but Argos died as soon as he had recognized his master. Telemachus saw Umeus long before anyone else did, and beckoned him to come and sit beside him. So he looked about and saw a seat lying near where the carver sat serving out their portions to the suitors. He picked it up, brought it to Telemachus's table, and sat down opposite him. Then the servant brought him his portion and gave him bread from the bread-basket. Slowly afterwards Ulysses came inside, looking like a poor, miserable old beggar, leaning on his staff and with his clothes all in rags. He sat down upon the threshold of Ashwood just inside the doors leading from the outer to the inner court and against a bearing-post of Cypresswood which the carpenter had skillfully planed, and had made to join truly with rule in line. Telemachus took a whole loaf from the bread-basket, with as much meat as he could hold in his two hands, and said to Umeus, Take this to the stranger, and tell him to go the round of the suitors, and beg from them. A beggar must not be shame-faced. So Umeus went up to him and said, Stranger, Telemachus sends you this, and says you are to go the round of the suitors begging, for beggars must not be shame-faced. Ulysses answered, May King jove grant all happiness to Telemachus, and fulfill the desire of his heart. Then with both hands he took what Telemachus had sent him, and laid it on the dirty old wallet at his feet. He went on eating it while the bard was singing, and had just finished his dinner as he left off. The suitors applauded the bard, whereon Minerva went up to Ulysses and prompted him to beg pieces of bread from each one of the suitors that he might see what kind of people they were, and tell the good from the bad. But come what might, she was not going to save a single one of them. Ulysses, therefore, went on his round, going from left to right, and stretched out his hands to beg as though he were a real beggar. Some of them pitied him, and were curious about him, asking one another who he was and where he came from. Whereon the goat heard Melanthia said, suitors of my noble mistress, I can tell you something about him, for I have seen him before. The swine-herd brought him here, but I know nothing about the man himself, nor where he comes from. On this, Antonus began to abuse the swine-herd.  Have we not tramps and beggars enough already to pester us as we sit at meet?  And must you needs bring this man as well? And you may have answered. Antonus, your birth is good, but your words evil. It was no doing of mine that he came here. Who is likely to invite a stranger from a foreign country, unless it be one of those who can do public service as a seer, a healer of hurts, a carpenter, or a bard who can charm us with his singing? Such men are welcome all the world over, but no one is likely to ask a beggar who will only worry him. You are always harder on Ulysses' servants than any of the other suitors are, and above all on me, but I do not care so long as Telemachus and Penelope are alive and here. But Telemachus said, Hush, do not answer him. Antonus has the bitterest tongue of all the suitors, and he makes the others worse. Then turning to Antonus he said, Antonus, you take as much care of my interests as though I were your son. Why should you want to see this stranger turned out of the house? Heaven forbid. Take something and give it him yourself. I do not grudge it. I bid you take it. Never mind my mother, nor any of the other servants in the house. But I know you will not do what I say, for you are more fond of eating things yourself than of giving them to other people. What do you mean, Telemachus? replied Antonus, by this swaggering talk. If all the suitors were to give him as much as I will, he would not come here again for another three months. As he spoke he drew the stool on which he rested his dainty feet from under the table and made as though he would throw it at Ulysses, but the other suitors all gave him something and filled his wallet with bread and meat. He was about, therefore, to go back through the threshold and eat what the suitors had given him, but he first went up to Antonus and said, Sir, give me something. You are not surely the poorest man here. You seem to be a chief, foremost among them all. Therefore you should be the better giver, and I will tell far and wide of your bounty. 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 am now, 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 Joe to take all away from me. He sent me with a band of roving robbers to Egypt. It was a long voyage and I was undone by it. I stationed my ships in the river Egyptis and bade my men stay by them and keep guard over them while I set out scouts to reconnoiter from every point of vantage. But the men disobeyed my orders, took to their own devices and ravaged the land of the Egyptians, killing the men and taking their wives and children captives. The alarm was soon carried to the city, and when they heard the war cry the people came out at daybreak till the plain was filled with soldiers, horse and foot, and with the gleam of armor. Then Joe spread panic among my men and they would no longer face the enemy, for they found themselves surrounded. The Egyptians killed many of us and took the rest alive to do forced labor for them. As for myself, they gave me to a friend who met them to take to Cyprus to meet her by name, Son of Eesus, who was a great man in Cyprus. Thence I had come hither in a state of great misery. Then Antonis said, God can have set such a pestilence to plague us during our dinner. Get out, into the open part of the court, or I will give you Egypt and Cyprus over again for your insolence and importunity. You have begged of all the others and they have given you lavishly, for they have abundance round them, and it is easy to be free with other people's property when there is plenty of it. On this Ulysses began to move off and said, Your looks, my fine sir, are better than your breeding. If you were in your own house, you would not spare a poor man so much as a pinch of salt. For though you are in another man's and surrounded with abundance, you cannot find it in you to give him even a piece of bread. This made Antonis very angry and he scowled at him, saying, You shall pay for this before you get clear of the court. With these words he threw a footstool at him and hid him on the right shoulder-blade near the top of his back.  Then he went back to the threshold and sat down there, laying his well filled wallet at his feet. Listen to me, he cried, You suitors of Queen Penelope, that I may speak even as I am minded. A man knows neither ick nor pain if he gets hit while fighting for his money, or for his sheep or his cattle. And even so, Antonis has hit me while in the service of my miserable belly, which is always getting people into trouble. Still, if the poor have gods and avenging deities at all, I pray them that Antonis may come to a bad end before his marriage.  If you say more, I will have you dragged hand and foot through the courts, and the servant shall flay you alive. The other suitors were much displeased at this, and one of the young men said, Antonis, you did ill in striking that poor wretch of a tramp. It will be worse for you if you should turn out to be some god. And we know that gods go about disguised in all sorts of ways as people from foreign countries, and travel about the world to see who do amiss and who righteously. Thus said the suitors, but Antonis paid them no heed. Meanwhile, Telemachus was furious about the blow that had been given to his father, and though no tear fell from him, he shook his head in silence and brooded on his revenge. Now, when Penelope heard that the beggar had been struck in the banquet-incluster, she said before her maids, Would that Apollo would so strike you, Antonis? And her waiting woman your enemy answered. If our prayers were answered, not one of the suitors would ever again see the sunrise.   A poor unfortunate tramp has come begging about the house for sheer want. Everyone else has given him something to put in his wallet, but Antonis has hit him on the right shoulder blade with a footstool. Thus did she talk with her maids, as she sat in her own room, and in the meantime Ulysses was getting his dinner. Then she called for the swine-herd and said, Umeas, go and tell the stranger to come here. I want to see him and ask him some questions. He seems to have traveled much, and he may have seen or heard something of my unhappy husband. To this you answered, O swine-herd Umeas. If these Achaeans, madam, would only keep quiet, you would be charmed with the history of his adventures. I had him three days and three nights with me in my hut, which was the first place he reached after running away from his ship, and he has not yet completed the story of his misfortunes. If he had been the most heaven-taught minstrel in the whole world, on whose lips all here is hang entranced, I could not have been more charmed as I sat in my hut and listened to him. He says there is an old friendship between his house and that of Ulysses, and that he comes from Crete where the descendants of Minos live, after having been driven hither and thither by every kind of misfortune. He also declares that he has heard of Ulysses as being alive and near at hand among the Thesprochians, and that he is bringing great wealth home with him. "'Call him here, then,' said Penelope, that I too may hear his story. As for the suitors, let them take their pleasure indoors or out as they will, for they have nothing to fret about. Their corn and wine remain unwasted in their houses, with none but servants to consume them, while they keep hanging about our house day after day, sacrificing our oxen, sheep, and fat goats for their banquets, and never giving so much as a thought to the quantity of wine they drink. No estate can stand such recklessness, for we have now no Ulysses to protect us. If he were to come again, he and his son would soon have their revenge.' As she spoke, Telemica sneezed so loudly that the whole house resounded with it. Penelope laughed when she heard this, and said to Yumaeus, "'Go and call the stranger. Did you not hear how my son sneezed just as I was speaking? This can only mean that all the suitors are going to be killed, and that not one of them shall escape. Furthermore, I say, and lay my saying to your servant. If I am satisfied that the stranger is speaking the truth, I shall give him a shirt and cloak of good wear.' When Yumaeus heard this, he went straight to Ulysses and said, "'Father Stranger, my mistress Penelope, mother of Telemica's, has sent for you. She is in great grief, but she wishes to hear anything you can tell her about her husband, and if she is satisfied that you are speaking the truth, she will give you a shirt and cloak, which are the very things that you are most in want of. As for bread, you can get enough of that to fill your belly by begging about the town and letting those give that will.' "'I will tell Penelope,' answered Yuleces, nothing but what is strictly true. I know all about her husband, and have been partner with him in affliction, but I am afraid of passing through this crowd of cruel suitors, for their pride and insolence reach heaven. Just now, moreover, as I was going about the house without doing any harm, a man gave me a blow that hurt me very much, but neither Telemica's nor anyone else defended me. Tell Penelope, therefore, to be patient and wait till sundown. Let her give me a seat close up to the fire, for my clothes are worn very thin. You know they are, for you have seen them ever since I first asked you to help me. She can then ask me about the return of her husband.' The swine-herd went back when he heard this, and Penelope said as she saw him cross the threshold. "'Why do you not bring him here, Yuleces? Is he afraid that someone will ill-treat him, or is he shy of coming inside the house at all? Beggar should not be shame-faced.' "'To this,' you answered, O swine-herd Yumeis. The stranger is quite reasonable. He is avoiding the suitors, and is only doing what any one else would do. He asks you to wait till sundown, and it will be much better, madam, that you should have him all to yourself when you can hear him and talk to him as you will.' "'The man is no fool,' answered Penelope. It would very likely be as he says, for there are no such abominable people in the whole world as these men are.' When she had done speaking, Yumeis went back to the suitors, before he had explained everything. Then he went up to Telemachus and said in his ear so that none could overhear him. "'My dear sir, I will now go back to the pigs to see after your property and my own business. You will look to what is going on here, but above all be careful to keep out of danger, for there are many who bear you ill-will. May Jove bring them to a bad end before they do us a mischief.' "'Very well,' replied Telemachus. Go home when you have had your dinner, and in the morning come here with the victims we are to sacrifice for the day. Leave the rest to heaven and me.' On this Yumeis took his seat again, and when he had finished his dinner he left the courts on the cloister with the men at table and went back to his pigs. As for the suitors they presently began to amuse themselves with singing and dancing, for it was now getting on towards evening. Book XVII. Book XVIII. Of the Odyssey by Homer. Translated by Samuel Butler. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Odyssey. Book XVIII. The fight with Iris. Ulysses warns and feminists. Penelope gets presents from the suitors. The braziers. Ulysses rebukes Euremachus. Now there came a certain common tramp who used to go begging all over the city of Ithaca, and was notorious as an incorrigible glutton and drunkard. This man had no strength nor stay in him, but he was a great hulking fellow to look at. His real name, the one his mother gave him, was Arneas, but the young men of the place called him Iris, because he used to run errands for anyone who would send him.  "'Be off, old man,' he cried, "'from the doorway, or you shall be dragged out neck and heels. Do you not see that they are all giving me the wink and wanting me to turn you out by force? Only, I do not like to do so. Get up then, and go of yourself, or we shall come to blows.' Ulysses frowned on him and said, "'My friend, I do you know manner of harm. People give you a great deal, but I am not jealous. There is room enough in this doorway for the pair of us, and you need not grudge me things that are not yours to give. You seem to be just such another tramp as myself, but perhaps the gods will give us better luck by and by. Do not however, talk too much about fighting, or you will incense me, and all though I am, I shall cover your mouth and chest with blood. I shall have more peace tomorrow if I do, for you will not come to the house of Ulysses any more.' Iris was very angry and answered, "'You filthy glutton! You run on trippingly like an old fish-fag! I have a good mind to lay both hands about you and knock your teeth out of your head like so many boar's tusks. Get ready, therefore, and let these people here stand by and look on. You will never be able to fight one who is much younger than yourself.' Thus roundly did they raid one another on the smooth pavement in front of the doorway, and when Antinus saw what was going on he laughed heartily and said to the others, "'This is the finest sport that you ever saw. Heaven never yet set anything like it into this house. The stranger and Iris have quarreled and are going to fight. Let us set them on to do so at once.' The suitors all came up laughing and gathered round the two ragged traps. "'Listen to me,' said Antinus. "'There are some goats-punches down at the fire, which we have filled with blood and fat, and set aside for supper. He who is victorious improves himself to be the better man shall have his pick of the lot. He shall be free of our table, and we will not allow any other beggar about the house at all.' The others all agreed, but Ulysses, to throw them off the scent, said, "'Sirs, an old man like myself, worn out with suffering, cannot hold his own against a young one. But my irrepressible belly urges me on, though I know it can only end in my getting a drubbing.  They swore, as he told them, and when they had completed their oath Telemachus put in a word and said, "'Stranger, if you have a mind to settle with this fellow, you need not be afraid of any one here. Whoever strikes you will have to fight more than one. I am host, and the other chiefs, Antinus and Eurimachus, both of them men of understanding, or of the same mind as I am.' Everyone ascended, and Ulysses girded his old rags about his loins, thus bearing his stalwart thighs, his broad chest and shoulders, and his mighty arms. But Minerva came up to him and made his limbs even stronger still. The suitors were beyond measure astonished, and one would turn towards his neighbor, saying, "'The stranger has brought such a thigh out of his old rags that there will soon be nothing left of Iris.' Iris began to be very uneasy as he heard them, but the servants girded him by force and brought him into the open part of the court in such a fright that his limbs were all of a tremble.  If he beats you and proves himself the better man, I shall pack you off on board ship to the mainland and send you to King Eccitus, who kills everyone that comes near him.  This frightened Iris still more, but they brought him into the middle of the court, and the two men raised their hands to fight. Then Ulysses considered whether he should let drive so hard at him as to make an end of him then and there, or whether he should give him a lighter blow that should only knock him down. In the end he deemed it best to give the lighter blow, for fear the Achaean should begin to suspect who he was. Then they began to fight, and Iris hit Ulysses on the right shoulder, but Ulysses gave Iris a blow on the neck under the ear that broke in the bones of his skull, and the blood came gushing out of his mouth. He fell groaning in the dust, gnashing his teeth and kicking on the ground. But the suitors threw up their hands and nearly died of laughter, as Ulysses caught hold of him by the foot and dragged him into the hour court as far as the gate-house. There he propped him up against the wall and put his staff in his hands. "'Sit here,' said he, and keep the dogs and pigs off.   But the suitors went within the cloisters, laughing and saluting him. "'May Jove and all the other gods,' said they, "'grant you whatever you want for having put an end to the importunity of this insatiable tramp. We will take him over to the mainland presently to King Eccitus, who kills everyone that comes near him.' Ulysses hailed this as of good omen, and Antonus set a great goat's paunch before him filled with blood and fat. Amphinamus took two loaves out of the bread-masket and brought them to him, pledging him as he did so in a golden goblet of wine. "'Good luck to you,' he said, Father Stranger. You are very badly off at present, but I hope you have better times by and by.' To this, Ulysses answered, "'Amphinamus, you seem to be a man of good understanding, as indeed you may well be, seeing who son you are. I have heard your father well spoken of. He is Nisus of Delicium, a man both brave and wealthy.  Listen, therefore, and take heed to what I am saying. Man is the vainest of all creatures that have their being upon earth. As long as heaven vouchsafes him health and strength he thinks that he shall come to no harm hereafter, and even when the blessed gods bring sour upon him he bears it as if he needs must and makes the best of it, for God Almighty gives men their daily minds day by day. I know all about it, for I was a rich man once, and did much wrong in the stubbornness of my pride, and in the confidence that my father and my brothers would support me. Therefore, let a man fear God in all things always, and take the good that heaven may see fit to send him without vain glory. Consider the infamy of what the suitors are doing. See how they are wasting the estate and doing dishonor to the wife, of one who is certain to return some day, and that too not long hence. Nay, he will be here soon. May heaven send you home quietly first, that you may not meet him in the day of his coming, for once he is here the suitors and he will not part bloodlessly. With these words he made a drink offering, and when he had drunk he put the gold cup into the hands of Amphiminus, who walked away serious in bowing his head, for he foreboded evil. But even so he did not escape destruction, for Minerva had doomed him to fall by the hand of Telemachus, so he took his seat again at the place from which he had come. Then Minerva put into the mind of Penelope to show herself to the suitors that she might make them still more enamored of her, and win still further honour from her son and husband. So she faint a mocking laugh and said, Your enemy, I have changed my mind, and have a fancy to show myself to the suitors although I detest them. I should like also to give my son a hint that he had better not have anything more to do with them. They speak fairly enough, but they mean mischief.  Do not go about with your cheeks all covered with tears. It is not right that you should grieve so incessantly.  I know, Your enemy, replied Penelope, that you mean well, but do not try and persuade me to wash and to anoint myself, for heaven robbed me of all my beauty on the day my husband sailed. Nevertheless, tell Atanui and Hippodamia that I want them. They must be with me when I am in the cloister. I am not going among the men alone. It would not be proper for me to do so. On this the old woman went out of the room to bid the maids go to their mistress. In the meantime Minerva bethought her of another matter and set Penelope off into a sweet slumber. So she laid down on her couch and her limbs became heavy with sleep. Then the goddess shed grace and beauty over her that all the Achaeans might admire her.  She made her taller and of a more commanding figure, while as for her complexion it was whiter than sawn ivory. When Minerva had done all this she went away, whereon the maids came in from the women's room and woke Penelope with the sound of their talking. What an exquisitely delicious sleep I have been having, said she, as she passed her hands over her face. In spite of all my misery. I wish Diana would let me die so sweetly now with this very moment that I might no longer waste in despair for the loss of my dear husband, who possessed every kind of good quality and was the most distinguished man among the Achaeans. With these words she came down from her upper room, not alone but attended by two of her maidens, and 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 a staid maid servant on either side of her. As they beheld her the suitors were so overpowered and became so desperately enamored of her that each one prayed he might win her for his own bedfellow. Telemachus, said she, addressing her son, I fear you are no longer so discreet and well-conducted as you used to be. When you were younger you had a greater sense of propriety. Now, however, that you were grown up, though a stranger to look at you would take you for the son of a well-to-do father as far as size and good looks go, your conduct is by no means what it should be. What is all this disturbance that has been going on, and how came you to allow a stranger to be so disgracefully ill-treated? What would have happened if he had suffered serious injury while a suppliant in our house? Surely this would have been very discreditable to you. I am not surprised, my dear mother, at your displeasure, replied Telemachus. I understand all about it and know when things are not as they should be, which I could not do when I was younger. I cannot, however, behave with perfect propriety at all times. First one, and then another of these wicked people here, keeps driving me out of my mind, and I have no one to stand by me. After all, however, this fight between Iris and the stranger did not turn out as the suitors meant it to do, for the stranger got the best of it. I wish Father Jove, Minerva, and Apollo would break the neck of every one of these wooers of yours, some inside the house and some out, and I wish they might all be as limp as Iris over yonder in the gate of the outer court. See how he nods his head like a drunken man. He has had such a thrashing that he cannot stand on his feet nor get back to his home, wherever that may be, for he has no strength left in him. Thus did they converse. Eurymachus then came up and said, Queen Penelope, daughter of Icarius, if all the Achaeans in the Asian Argos could see you at this moment they would have still more suitors in your house by tomorrow morning, for you were the most admirable woman in the whole world both as regards personal beauty and strength of understanding. To this Penelope replied, Eurymachus, heaven robbed me of all my 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 both be more respected and show a better presence to the world. As it is I am oppressed with care and with afflictions which heaven has seen fit to keep upon me.  Wife, he said, we shall not all of us come safe home from Troy, for the Trojans fight well both with bow and spear. They are excellent also at fighting from chariots and nothing decides the issue of a fight sooner than this. I know not, therefore, whether heaven will send me back to you or whether I shall not fall over there at Troy. In the meantime do you look after things here.  This is what he said and now it is all coming true. A night will come when I shall have to yield myself to a marriage which I detest, for Jove has taken from me all hope of happiness. This further grief, moreover, cuts me to the very heart. You suitors are not wooing me after the custom of my country. And then are courting a woman who they think will be a good wife to them and who is of noble birth, and when they are each trying to win her for himself they usually bring oxen and sheep to feast the friends of the lady, and they make their magnificent presents, instead of eating up other people's property without paying for it. This was what she said and Ulysses was glad when he heard her trying to get presents out of the suitors and flattering them with fair words which he knew she did not mean. Then Antinus said, Queen Penelope, daughter of Icarius, take as many presents as you please from anyone who will give them to you. It is not well to refuse a present, but we will not go about our business nor stir from where we are till you have married the best man among us whoever he may be. The others applauded what Antinus had said and each one sent his servant to bring his present. Antinus's man returned with a large and lovely dress, most exquisitely embroidered. It had twelve beautifully made brooch pins of pure gold with which to fasten it. Eurymachus immediately brought her a magnificent chain of gold and amber beads that gleamed like sunlight. Eurymus's two men returned with some earrings fashioned into three brilliant pendants which glistened most beautifully.  Then the Queen went back to her room upstairs, and her maids brought the presents after her. Meanwhile the suitors took to singing and dancing and stayed till evening came. They danced and sang till it grew dark. They then brought in three braziers to give light and pile them up with chopped firewood very old and dry. And they lit torches from them which the maids held up turn and turn about. Then Ulysses said, Maids, servants of Ulysses, who have so long been absent, go to the Queen inside the house, sit with her and amuse her, or spin and pick wool. I will hold the light for all these people. They may stay till morning, but shall not beat me, for I can stand a great deal. The maids looked at one another and laughed, while pretty Melantho began to jibot him contemptuously. She was daughter to Dolius, but had been brought up by Penalope, who used to give her toys to play with, and looked after her when she was a child. But in spite of all this she showed no consideration for the sorrows of her mistress, and used to misconduct herself with Eurymachus, with whom she was in love.  Go and sleep in some smithy, or place of public gossips, instead of chattering here. Are you not ashamed of opening your mouth before your bedders, so many of them too? Has the wine been getting into your head, or do you always babble in this way? You seem to have lost your wits because you beat the tramp iris. Take care that a better man than he does not come and cudger you about the head till he pack you bleeding out of the house. Vixen, replied Ulysses, scowling at her, I will go and tell Telemachus what you have been saying, and he will have you torn limb from limb. With these words he scared the women, and they went off into the body of the house. They trembled all over, for they thought he would do as he said. But Ulysses took his stand near the burning braziers, holding up torches and looking at the people, brooding the while on things that should surely come to pass. But Minerva would not let the suitors for one moment cease their insolence, for she wanted Ulysses to become even more bitter against them. She therefore set Eurymica's son Apollippus on to gybe at him, which made the others laugh. Listen to me, said he, you suitors of Queen Penelope, that I may speak even as I am minded. It is not for nothing that this man has come to the house of Ulysses. I believe the light has not been coming from the torches, but from his own head, for his hair is all gone, every bit of it. Then turning to Ulysses, he said, Stranger, will you work as a servant if I send you to the wolds and see that you are well paid? Can you build a stone fence or plant trees? I will have you fed all the year round, and we'll find you in shoes and clothing. Will you go then? Not you, for you have got into bad ways, and do not want to work. You would rather fill your belly by going around the country begging. Eurymachus, answered Ulysses, if you and I were to work one against the other in early summer, when the days are at their longest, give me a good scythe and take another yourself, and let us see which will last the longer, or mow the stronger, from dawn till dark when the mowing grass is about. Or if you will plow against me, let us each take a yoke of tawny oxen, well mated and of great strength and endurance. Turn me into a four-acre field and see whether you or I can drive the straight or furrow. If again war were to break out this day, give me a shield, a couple of spears, and a helmet fitting well upon my temples, you will find me foremost in the fray, and would seize your jibes about my belly. You are insolent and cruel, and think yourself a great man because you live in a little world, and that a bad one. If Ulysses comes to his own again, the doors of his house are wide, but you will find them narrow when you try to fly through them. Eurymachus was furious at all this. He scowled at him and cried, You wretch, I will soon pay you out for daring to say such things to me, and in public, too. Has the wine been getting into your head, or do you always babble in this way? You seem to have lost your wits because you beat the tramp virus. With this he caught hold of a footstool, but Ulysses sought protection at the knees of Amphiminus of Delicium, for he was afraid. The stool hit the cup-air on his right hand and knocked him down. The man fell with a cry flat on his back, and his wine jug fell ringing to the ground. The suitors in the covered cloister were now in an uproar, and one would turn towards his neighbor, saying, I wish the stranger had gone somewhere else. Bad luck to him, for all the trouble he gives us. We cannot permit such disturbance about a beggar. If such ill councils are to prevail, we shall have no more pleasure at our banquet. On this Telemachus came forward and said, Sirs, are you mad? Can you not carry your meat and your liquor decently?  I do not wish to drive any of you away, but you have had your suppers, and the sooner you all go home to bed, the better. The suitors bit their lips and marveled at the boldness of his speech, but Amphiminus, son of Nysus, who was son to Aretius, said, Do not let us take offence. It is reasonable, so let us make no answer. Neither let us do violence to the stranger, nor to any of Ulysses' servants. Let the cup-air go round with the drink offerings, that we may make them and go home to our rest. As for the stranger, let us leave Telemachus to deal with him, for it is to his house that he has come. Thus did he speak, and his saying pleased them well, so Milius of Delicium, servant to Amphinus, mixed them a bowl of wine and water and handed round to each of them man by man, whereon they made their drink offerings to the Blessed Gods. Then, when they had made their drink offerings and had drunk each one as he was minded, they took their several ways each of them to his own abode. END OF BOOK 18 BOOK NINETEEN OF THE AUDICY BY HOMER TRANSLATED BY SAMUEL BUTTLER THE AUDICY BOOK NINETEEN Telemachus and Ulysses removed the armor. Ulysses interviews Penelope. Eurycleia 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 begrind with soot. Add 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 Eurycleia 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 smerched with soot during my own boyhood. I want to take it down where the smoke cannot reach it. I wish, child, answered Eurycleia, 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. Eurycleia 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, crossbeams, 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 Echemelius 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 Melantho 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 scalded 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 too 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. Ipidate 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 said 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 of 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-layerties, 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 in Fruful Island in mid-ocean called Crete. It is thickly peopled, and there are nighty cities in it. The people speak many different languages, which overlap one another, for there are Achaeans, brave Etiocretans, Dorians of threefold race, and Noble Pulaski. There is a great town there, Gnosis, where Minos reigned who every nine years had a conference with Jove himself. Minos was father 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. Hence 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 Cate 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 heart's 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 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 else with her, but I will tell you as well as I can recollect. Ulysses wore 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 washing 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 in 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 Thesprocians and is bringing back much valuable treasure that he has begged from one and another of them. But his ship and all his crew were lost as they were leaving the Tharnation 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 Fiatians, 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 Thesprocians, 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 Thesprocian ship sailing for the wheat-growing island of Dalychium, 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 as 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 daybreak 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 hitherto. 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 her feet. Come here, said she, Eurycleia, 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 Jove 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 how 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, answer 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 had 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 Etholicus, who was the most accomplished thief and perjurer in the whole world and with the sons of Etholicus.  It happened once that Etholicus had gone to Ithaca and had found the child of his daughter just born. As soon as he had done supper Eurycleus set the infant upon his knees and said, Etholicus, you must find a name for your grandson. You greatly wish that you might have one. Son-in-law and daughter, replied Etholicus, 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 Etholicus, who with his sons shook hands with him and gave him welcome. His grandmother Amphithia threw her arms about him and kissed his head and both his beautiful eyes, while Etholicus 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, Rosy-finger dawn appeared, the sons of Etholicus 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 beast they were chasing, and after them came the sons of Etholicus, 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 get 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 hit 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 Etholicus 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 Etholicus 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 Etholicus and his sons on Mount Parnassus. As soon as Iroquia 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. Iroquia'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 Iroquia 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 born 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 Iroquia, 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, Iroquia left the cloister to fetch some more water, for the first had been all spilt. And when she had watched 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 seat and shadiest covert hid, and with many a plaintive trill pours out the tale how by mishap she killed her own child Itholus, son of King Zethus, 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 means 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 omen 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. Then Ulysses answered, 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 on earth 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, Umeus and Felicius arrive, the suitors dine, Tissippus throws an ox's foot at Ulysses, the occliminist 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 Urinimi 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.  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?  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 Arinnies. 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 feign 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 believed 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 confate to him by the woman's 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 sharp and 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.  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 handily 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 gatehouse, 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, Felicious, 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 Felicious made his heifer and his goats secure under the gatehouse, 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 are 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, but 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 stockmen 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 bred 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.  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 swindered gave every man his cup, while fellacious 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 marveled 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-air now. Thus spoke Antonus, but Telemachus heated him not. Meanwhile, the heralds were bringing the Holy Hecateum 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, Here what I have to say. The stranger has already had as large a portion as anyone 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 Tissippus. 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 then dragging the women 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 Jova Jelius 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 forest 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 sisals 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 Icarius, Wise Penelope, had had a rich seat placed for her facing the court and the cloisters, so that she could hear what everyone 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 AUDICY BY HOMER TRANSLATED BY SAMUEL BUTTLER THIS LIBERVOX RECORDING IS IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN THE AUDICY BOOK TWENTY-ONE THE TRIAL OF THE AXIS DURING WHICH ULYSSES REVEALS HIMSELF TO YUMEUS AND FALICIOUS 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 Eurytus. 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 foals 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 Eurytus 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 planed this duly, and had drawn a line on it so as to get it quite straight. He had then set the doorposts 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 a 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 whom soever 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 Eumaeus to set the bow and the pieces of iron before the suitors, and Eumaeus 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 my scene, nor yet in Ithaca, nor 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, let 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 Antonus 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 move and make bridal offerings to some other woman, and let Penelope marry whoever makes her the best offer and whose lot 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 Antonus 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 merely 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 herd, look sharp, light a fire in the court, and set a seat hard by with the 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. Melantheus 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 Antonus and Eurymicus, who were the ring-leaders 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 mourning if Ulysses had not checked them and said, See, sure 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, you Mayas, 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 Urymachus, 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 Ithaca 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, Urymachus, said Antonus, and you know it yourself. Today is the feast of Apollo throughout all the land. Who can string a bow on such a day as 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 bowls 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 Urymachus 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 portions 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 uritian 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 anyone here, for we shall at once ship you off to King Eccitus who kills everyone 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. Queen 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 trap 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 no. I say, and it shall surely be, that if Apollo Vought 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 Ptolemica 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. Umeus was frightened at the outcry they all raised, so he put the bow down then and there. Ptolemica shouted at him from the other side of the cloisters, and threatened him saying, Father Umeus, bring the bow on in spite of them, or 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 send 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 humour with Ptolemica's. So Umeus brought the bow on and placed it in the hands of Ulysses. When he had done this, he called Euryclea apart and said to her, Euryclea, Ptolemica 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. Euryclea 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 fibre 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 neighbour 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 colour as they heard it. At that moment, moreover, Jove thundered loudly as