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 armour 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, 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."
Telemachus approved of what his father had said, so he called nurse
Euryclea and said, "Nurse, shut the women up in their room, while
I take the armour that my father left behind him down into the store
room. No one looks after it now my father is gone, and it has got
all smirched with soot during my own boyhood. I want to take it down
where the smoke cannot reach it."
"I wish, child," answered Euryclea, "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
store room? The maids would have 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."
Euryclea 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. Get you to your bed, and leave me
here to talk with your mother and the maids. Your mother in her grief
will ask me all sorts of questions."
On this Telemachus went by torch-light 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 Icmalius 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? Be off, you wretch,
outside, and eat your supper there, or you shall be driven out with
a firebrand."
Ulysses scowled at her and answered, "My good woman, why should you
be so angry with me? Is it because I am not clean, and my clothes
are all in rags, and because I am obliged to go begging about after
the manner of tramps and beggars generall? I too was a rich man once,
and had a fine house of my own; in those days I gave to many a tramp
such as I now am, no matter who he might be nor what he wanted. I
had any number of servants, and all the other things which people
have who live well and are accounted wealthy, but it pleased Jove
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 favour with your mistress, and lest
Ulysses should come home, for there is still a chance that he may
do so. Moreover, though he be dead as you think he is, yet by Apollo's
will he has left a son behind him, Telemachus, who will note anything
done amiss by the maids in the house, for he is now no longer in his
boyhood."
Penelope heard what he was saying and scolded the maid, "Impudent
baggage, said she, "I see how abominably you are behaving, and you
shall smart for it. You knew perfectly well, for I told you myself,
that I was going to see the stranger and ask him about my husband,
for whose sake I am in such continual sorrow."
Then she said to her head waiting woman Eurynome, "Bring a seat with
a fleece upon it, for the stranger to sit upon while he tells his
story, and listens to what I have to say. I wish to ask him some questions."
Eurynome brought the seat at once and set a fleece upon it, and as
soon as Ulysses had sat down Penelope began by saying, "Stranger,
I shall first ask you who and whence are you? Tell me of your town
and parents."
"Madam;" answered Ulysses, "who on the face of the whole earth can
dare to chide with you? Your fame reaches the firmament of heaven
itself; you are like some blameless king, who upholds righteousness,
as the monarch over a great and valiant nation: the earth yields its
wheat and barley, the trees are loaded with fruit, the ewes bring
forth lambs, and the sea abounds with fish by reason of his virtues,
and his people do good deeds under him. Nevertheless, as I sit here
in your house, ask me some other question and do not seek to know
my race and family, or you will recall memories that will yet more
increase my sorrow. I am full of heaviness, but I ought not to sit
weeping and wailing in another person's house, nor is it well to be
thus grieving continually. I shall have one of the servants or even
yourself complaining of me, and saying that my eyes swim with tears
because I am heavy with wine."
Then Penelope answered, "Stranger, heaven robbed me of all beauty,
whether 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 heap upon me. The chiefs from all our
islands- Dulichium, Same, and Zacynthus, 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 suppliants, nor to people who
say that they are skilled artisans, but am all the time brokenhearted
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 tambour-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 pall for the hero Laertes, to be ready against the time when death
shall take him. He is very rich, and the women of the place will talk
if he is laid out without a pall.' 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 torch light. 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
any 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. Still, notwithstanding
all this, tell me who you are and where you come from- for you must
have had father and mother of some sort; you cannot be the son of
an oak or of a rock."
Then Ulysses answered, "madam, wife of Ulysses, since you persist
in asking me about my family, I will answer, no matter what it costs
me: people must expect to be pained when they have been exiles as
long as I have, and suffered as much among as many peoples. Nevertheless,
as regards your question I will tell you all you ask. There is a fair
and fruitful island in mid-ocean called Crete; it is thickly peopled
and there are nine cities in it: the people speak many different languages
which overlap one another, for there are Achaeans, brave Eteocretans,
Dorians of three-fold race, and noble Pelasgi. There is a great town
there, Cnossus, where Minos reigned who every nine years had a conference
with Jove himself. Minos was father to Deucalion, whose son I am,
for Deucalion had two sons Idomeneus and myself. Idomeneus 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 cape Malea and leaving him in Amnisus off the
cave of Ilithuia, where the harbours are difficult to enter and he
could hardly find shelter from the winds that were then xaging. As
soon as he got there he went into the town and asked for Idomeneus,
claiming to be his old and valued friend, but Idomeneus 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 mountain tops when the winds from South East and West have breathed
upon it and thawed it till the rivers run bank 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 for her,
but he kept his eyes as hard as or iron without letting them so much
as quiver, so cunningly did he restrain his tears. Then, when she
had relieved herself by weeping, she turned to him again and said:
"Now, stranger, I shall put you to the test and see whether or no
you really did entertain my husband and his men, as you say you did.
Tell me, then, how he was dressed, what kind of a man he was to look
at, and so also with his companions."
"Madam," answered Ulysses, "it is such a long time ago that I can
hardly say. Twenty years are come and gone since he left my home,
and went elsewhither; but I will tell you as well as I can recollect.
Ulysses wore a mantle of purple wool, double lined, and it was fastened
by a gold brooch with two catches for the pin. On the face of this
there was a device that showed a dog holding a spotted fawn between
his fore paws, and watching it as it lay panting upon the ground.
Every one marvelled 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 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 lay 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 some one 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 Eurybates,
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. It was I who gave Ulysses the clothes you speak of. I
took them out of the store room and folded them up myself, and I 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 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 Thesprotians,
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 Thrinacian 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 Phaecians,
who are 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
can compare with him. Pheidon king of the Thesprotians 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 water side and the crew found who
would take Ulysses to his own country. He sent me off first, for there
happened to be a Thesprotian ship sailing for the wheat-growing island
of Dulichium, but he showed me all treasure Ulysses had got together,
and he had enough lying in the house of king Pheidon to keep his family
for ten generations; but the king said Ulysses had gone to Dodona
that he might learn Jove'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 Jove 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 day break wash him and anoint
him again, that he may sit in the cloister and take his meals with
Telemachus. It shall be the worse 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 cloisters 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 ever yet
came to my house there never was one who spoke in all things with
such admirable propriety as you do. There happens to be in the house
a most respectable old woman- the same who received my poor dear husband
in her arms the night he was born, and nursed him in infancy. She
is very feeble now, but she shall wash your feet." "Come here," said
she, "Euryclea, 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."
On these words the old woman covered her face with her hands; 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 palace which Ulysses has got to are gibing at
him as all these sluts here have been gibing you. I do not wonder
at your 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 was so like Ulysses in figure, voice, and feet as you are."
"Those who have seen us both," answered Ulysses, "have always said
we were wonderfully like each other, and now you have noticed it too.
Then the old woman took the cauldron in which she was going to wash
his feet, and poured plenty of cold water into it, adding hot till
the bath was warm enough. Ulysses sat by the fire, but ere long he
turned away from the light, for it occurred to him that when the old
woman had hold of his leg she would recognize a certain scar which
it bore, whereon the whole truth would come out. And indeed as soon
as she began washing her master, she at once knew the scar as one
that had been given him by a wild boar when he was hunting on Mount
Parnassus with his excellent grandfather Autolycus- who was the most
accomplished thief and perjurer in the whole world- and with the sons
of Autolycus. Mercury himself had endowed him with this gift, for
he used to burn the thigh bones of goats and kids to him, so he took
pleasure in his companionship. It happened once that Autolycus had
gone to Ithaca and had found the child of his daughter just born.
As soon as he had done supper Euryclea set the infant upon his knees
and said, you must find a name for your grandson; you greatly wished
that you might have one."
'Son-in-law and daughter," replied Autolycus, "call 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 Parnassus, where my possessions lie, I will make him a present
and will send him on his way rejoicing."
Ulysses, therefore, went to Parnassus to get the presents from Autolycus,
who with his sons shook hands with him and gave him welcome. His grandmother
Amphithea threw her arms about him, and kissed his head, and both
his beautiful eyes, while Autolycus 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
livelong 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 morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared, the sons
of Autolycus went out with their hounds hunting, and Ulysses went
too. They climbed the wooded slopes of Parnassus 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 Autolycus, 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 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 Autolycus
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 Autolycus and his sons had thoroughly
healed Ulysses, they made him some splendid presents, 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 Autolycus and his sons
on Mount Parnassus.
As soon as Euryclea 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; Euryclea'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 Euryclea 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, you who nursed me at your
own breast, now that after twenty years of wandering I am at last
come to my own home again? Since it has been borne in upon you by
heaven to recognize me, hold your tongue, and do not say a word about
it any one 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 Euryclea, "what are you talking about? You know
very well that nothing can either bend or break me. I will hold my
tongue like a stone or a piece of iron; 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 the women in the house who
have been ill-behaved, and of those who are guiltless."
And Ulysses answered, "Nurse, you ought not to speak in that way;
I am well able to form my own opinion about one and all of them; hold
your tongue and leave everything to heaven."
As he said this Euryclea left the cloister to fetch some more water,
for the first had been all spilt; and when she had washed him and
anointed him with oil, Ulysses drew his seat nearer to the fire to
warm himself, and hid the scar under his rags. Then Penelope began
talking to him and said:
"Stranger, I should like to speak with you briefly about another matter.
It is indeed nearly bed time- 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 comes a prey to the most incessant
and cruel tortures. As the dun nightingale, daughter of Pandareus,
sings in the early spring from her seat in shadiest covert hid, and
with many a plaintive trill pours out the tale how by mishap she killed
her own child Itylus, 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 bondsmen, 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 making me such magnificent presents.
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. Presently he soared off into
the sky, and left them lying dead about the yard; whereon I wept in
my room till all my maids gathered round me, so piteously was I grieving
because the eagle had killed my geese. Then he came back again, and
perching on a projecting rafter spoke to me with human voice, and
told me to leave off crying. 'Be of good courage,' he said, 'daughter
of Icarius; this is no dream, but a vision of good omen that shall
surely come to pass. The geese are the suitors, and I am no longer
an eagle, but your own husband, who am come back to you, and who will
bring these suitors to a disgraceful end.' On this I woke, and when
I looked out I saw my geese at the trough eating their mash as usual."
"This dream, Madam," replied Ulysses, "can admit but of one interpretation,
for had not Ulysses himself told you how it shall be fulfilled? The
death of the suitors is portended, and not one single one of them
will escape."
And Penelope answered, "Stranger, dreams are very curious and unaccountable
things, and they do not by any means invariably come true. There are
two gates through which these unsubstantial fancies proceed; the one
is of horn, and the other ivory. Those that come through the gate
of ivory are fatuous, but those from the gate of horn mean something
to those that see them. I do not think, however, that my own dream
came through the gate of horn, though I and my son should be most
thankful if it proves to have done so. Furthermore I say- and lay
my saying to your heart- the coming dawn will usher in the ill-omened
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 ere ever 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.
Krystal Rap with Speaker Louis S. Luzzo, Sr. ©™ is a Christos Guardian Alliance Information Portal. Food for the Mind, Body and Soul. The beginning of a fascinating journey to discover your true Human Origins, your Human Spirit, new Revelations and Truths about your past and of the coming New Age. 🙏
Friday, January 20, 2012
, The Odessey, BOOK XVIII
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 Arnaeus, but the young men of the place called him Irus,
because he used to run errands for any one who would send him. As
soon as he came he began to insult Ulysses, and to try and drive him
out of his own house.
"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 no 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 old though I am, I shall cover your mouth and chest
with blood. I shall have more peace to-morrow if I do, for you will
not come to the house of Ulysses any more."
Irus 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 so much younger
than yourself."
Thus roundly did they rate one another on the smooth pavement in front
of the doorway, and when Antinous 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 sent anything like it into this house.
The stranger and Irus 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
tramps. "Listen to me," said Antinous, "there are some goats' paunches
down at the fire, which we have filled with blood and fat, and set
aside for supper; he who is victorious and proves 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. You must swear,
however that none of you will give me a foul blow to favour Irus and
secure him the victory."
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, Antinous and Eurymachus, both of them men of understanding,
are of the same mind as I am."
Every one assented, and Ulysses girded his old rags about his loins,
thus baring 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 neighbour saying, "The stranger has brought
such a thigh out of his old rags that there will soon be nothing left
of Irus."
Irus 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. Antinous scolded
him and said, "You swaggering bully, you ought never to have been
born at all if you are afraid of such an old broken-down creature
as this tramp is. I say, therefore- and it shall surely be- 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 Echetus, who kills
every one that comes near him. He will cut off your nose and ears,
and draw out your entrails for the dogs to eat."
This frightened Irus 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 Achaeans should begin to suspect
who he was. Then they began to fight, and Irus hit Ulysses on the
right shoulder; but Ulysses gave Irus 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 outer 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; you are a pitiful
creature, and if you try to make yourself king of the beggars any
more you shall fare still worse."
Then he threw his dirty old wallet, all tattered and torn, over his
shoulder with the cord by which it hung, and went back to sit down
upon the threshold; 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 Echetus, who kills every one that comes near him."
Ulysses hailed this as of good omen, and Antinous set a great goat's
paunch before him filled with blood and fat. Amphinomus took two loaves
out of the bread-basket 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 will have
better times by and by."
To this Ulysses answered, "Amphinomus, you seem to be a man of good
understanding, as indeed you may well be, seeing whose son you are.
I have heard your father well spoken of; he is Nisus of Dulichium,
a man both brave and wealthy. They tell me you are his son, and you
appear to be a considerable person; 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 sorrow upon him, he bears it as 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 vainglory. Consider the infamy of what these
suitors are doing; see how they are wasting the estate, and doing
dishonour 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 with 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 again into the hands of Amphinomus, who walked away
serious and bowing his head, for he foreboded evil. But even so he
did not escape destruction, for Minerva had doomed him fall by the
hand of Telemachus. So he took his seat again at the place from which
he had come.
Then Minerva put it into the mind of Penelope to show herself to the
suitors, that she might make them still more enamoured of her, and
win still further honour from her son and husband. So she feigned
a mocking laugh and said, "Eurynome, I have changed my 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."
"My dear child," answered Eurynome, "all that you have said is true,
go and tell your son about it, but first wash yourself and anoint
your face. Do not go about with your cheeks all covered with tears;
it is not right that you should grieve so incessantly; for Telemachus,
whom you always prayed that you might live to see with a beard, is
already grown up."
"I know, Eurynome," 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
Autonoe 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 sent Penelope off into a sweet slumber; so she lay 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 washed her face with the ambrosial loveliness that Venus wears
when she goes dancing with the Graces; 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 at 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 enamoured of her, that each one prayed he might
win her for his own bed fellow.
"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 are 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 Irus 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 Irus is 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 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 Iasian Argos could see
you at this moment, you would have still more suitors in your house
by tomorrow morning, for you are 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 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 both be more respected and 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 heap upon me. My husband foresaw it all,
and when he was leaving home he took my right wrist in his hand- '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 may not fall over there at Troy. In the
meantime do you look after things here. Take care of my father and
mother as at present, and even more so during my absence, but when
you see our son growing a beard, then marry whom you will, and leave
this your present home. 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. When men 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 her 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 Antinous said, "Queen Penelope, daughter of Icarius, take as
many presents as you please from any one 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 Antinous had said, and each one sent his
servant to bring his present. Antinous'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. Eurydamas's two men returned with some
earrings fashioned into three brilliant pendants which glistened most
beautifully; while king Pisander son of Polyctor gave her a necklace
of the rarest workmanship, and every one else brought her a beautiful
present of some kind.
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
piled them up with chopped firewood very 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 has 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 gibe at him contemptuously. She was daughter to Dolius, but
had been brought up by Penelope, 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.
"Poor wretch," said she, "are you gone clean out of your mind? 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 betters-
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 Irus; take care that a better man than
he does not come and cudgel 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 aver, 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 Eurymachus son of Polybus on to gibe 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 will 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 had rather fill your belly by going round 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 fast the longer or mow the stronger, from dawn till dark when
the mowing grass is about. Or if you will plough 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 straighter 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 would find me foremost in the fray, and
would cease your gibes about my belly. You are insolent and cruel,
and think yourself a great man because you live in a little world,
ind 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 Irus. With this he caught hold of a footstool,
but Ulysses sought protection at the knees of Amphinomus of Dulichium,
for he was afraid. The stool hit the cupbearer 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 neighbour, saying,
"I wish the stranger had gone somewhere else, bad luck to hide, for
all the trouble he gives us. We cannot permit such disturbance about
a beggar; if such ill counsels 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? Some evil spirit
has possessed you. 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 marvelled at the boldness of his speech;
but Amphinomus the son of Nisus, who was son to Aretias, 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 cupbearer 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 Mulius of
Dulichium, servant to Amphinomus, mixed them a bowl of wine and water
and handed it 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.
Iliad, BOOK XXII
Thus the Trojans in the city, scared like fawns, wiped the sweat
from off them and drank to quench their thirst, leaning against the
goodly battlements, while the Achaeans with their shields laid upon
their shoulders drew close up to the walls. But stern fate bade Hector
stay where he was before Ilius and the Scaean gates. Then Phoebus
Apollo spoke to the son of Peleus saying, "Why, son of Peleus, do
you, who are but man, give chase to me who am immortal? Have you not
yet found out that it is a god whom you pursue so furiously? You did
not harass the Trojans whom you had routed, and now they are within
their walls, while you have been decoyed hither away from them. Me
you cannot kill, for death can take no hold upon me."
Achilles was greatly angered and said, "You have baulked me, Far-Darter,
most malicious of all gods, and have drawn me away from the wall,
where many another man would have bitten the dust ere he got within
Ilius; you have robbed me of great glory and have saved the Trojans
at no risk to yourself, for you have nothing to fear, but I would
indeed have my revenge if it were in my power to do so."
On this, with fell intent he made towards the city, and as the winning
horse in a chariot race strains every nerve when he is flying over
the plain, even so fast and furiously did the limbs of Achilles bear
him onwards. King Priam was first to note him as he scoured the plain,
all radiant as the star which men call Orion's Hound, and whose beams
blaze forth in time of harvest more brilliantly than those of any
other that shines by night; brightest of them all though he be, he
yet bodes ill for mortals, for he brings fire and fever in his train-
even so did Achilles' armour gleam on his breast as he sped onwards.
Priam raised a cry and beat his head with his hands as he lifted them
up and shouted out to his dear son, imploring him to return; but Hector
still stayed before the gates, for his heart was set upon doing battle
with Achilles. The old man reached out his arms towards him and bade
him for pity's sake come within the walls. "Hector," he cried, "my
son, stay not to face this man alone and unsupported, or you will
meet death at the hands of the son of Peleus, for he is mightier than
you. Monster that he is; would indeed that the gods loved him no better
than I do, for so, dogs and vultures would soon devour him as he lay
stretched on earth, and a load of grief would be lifted from my heart,
for many a brave son has he reft from me, either by killing them or
selling them away in the islands that are beyond the sea: even now
I miss two sons from among the Trojans who have thronged within the
city, Lycaon and Polydorus, whom Laothoe peeress among women bore
me. Should they be still alive and in the hands of the Achaeans, we
will ransom them with gold and bronze, of which we have store, for
the old man Altes endowed his daughter richly; but if they are already
dead and in the house of Hades, sorrow will it be to us two who were
their parents; albeit the grief of others will be more short-lived
unless you too perish at the hands of Achilles. Come, then, my son,
within the city, to be the guardian of Trojan men and Trojan women,
or you will both lose your own life and afford a mighty triumph to
the son of Peleus. Have pity also on your unhappy father while life
yet remains to him- on me, whom the son of Saturn will destroy by
a terrible doom on the threshold of old age, after I have seen my
sons slain and my daughters haled away as captives, my bridal chambers
pillaged, little children dashed to earth amid the rage of battle,
and my sons' wives dragged away by the cruel hands of the Achaeans;
in the end fierce hounds will tear me in pieces at my own gates after
some one has beaten the life out of my body with sword or spear-hounds
that I myself reared and fed at my own table to guard my gates, but
who will yet lap my blood and then lie all distraught at my doors.
When a young man falls by the sword in battle, he may lie where he
is and there is nothing unseemly; let what will be seen, all is honourable
in death, but when an old man is slain there is nothing in this world
more pitiable than that dogs should defile his grey hair and beard
and all that men hide for shame."
The old man tore his grey hair as he spoke, but he moved not the heart
of Hector. His mother hard by wept and moaned aloud as she bared her
bosom and pointed to the breast which had suckled him. "Hector," she
cried, weeping bitterly the while, "Hector, my son, spurn not this
breast, but have pity upon me too: if I have ever given you comfort
from my own bosom, think on it now, dear son, and come within the
wall to protect us from this man; stand not without to meet him. Should
the wretch kill you, neither I nor your richly dowered wife shall
ever weep, dear offshoot of myself, over the bed on which you lie,
for dogs will devour you at the ships of the Achaeans."
Thus did the two with many tears implore their son, but they moved
not the heart of Hector, and he stood his ground awaiting huge Achilles
as he drew nearer towards him. As serpent in its den upon the mountains,
full fed with deadly poisons, waits for the approach of man- he is
filled with fury and his eyes glare terribly as he goes writhing round
his den- even so Hector leaned his shield against a tower that jutted
out from the wall and stood where he was, undaunted.
"Alas," said he to himself in the heaviness of his heart, "if I go
within the gates, Polydamas will be the first to heap reproach upon
me, for it was he that urged me to lead the Trojans back to the city
on that awful night when Achilles again came forth against us. I would
not listen, but it would have been indeed better if I had done so.
Now that my folly has destroyed the host, I dare not look Trojan men
and Trojan women in the face, lest a worse man should say, 'Hector
has ruined us by his self-confidence.' Surely it would be better for
me to return after having fought Achilles and slain him, or to die
gloriously here before the city. What, again, if were to lay down
my shield and helmet, lean my spear against the wall and go straight
up to noble Achilles? What if I were to promise to give up Helen,
who was the fountainhead of all this war, and all the treasure that
Alexandrus brought with him in his ships to Troy, aye, and to let
the Achaeans divide the half of everything that the city contains
among themselves? I might make the Trojans, by the mouths of their
princes, take a solemn oath that they would hide nothing, but would
divide into two shares all that is within the city- but why argue
with myself in this way? Were I to go up to him he would show me no
kind of mercy; he would kill me then and there as easily as though
I were a woman, when I had off my armour. There is no parleying with
him from some rock or oak tree as young men and maidens prattle with
one another. Better fight him at once, and learn to which of us Jove
will vouchsafe victory."
Thus did he stand and ponder, but Achilles came up to him as it were
Mars himself, plumed lord of battle. From his right shoulder he brandished
his terrible spear of Pelian ash, and the bronze gleamed around him
like flashing fire or the rays of the rising sun. Fear fell upon Hector
as he beheld him, and he dared not stay longer where he was but fled
in dismay from before the gates, while Achilles darted after him at
his utmost speed. As a mountain falcon, swiftest of all birds, swoops
down upon some cowering dove- the dove flies before him but the falcon
with a shrill scream follows close after, resolved to have her- even
so did Achilles make straight for Hector with all his might, while
Hector fled under the Trojan wall as fast as his limbs could take
him.
On they flew along the waggon-road that ran hard by under the wall,
past the lookout station, and past the weather-beaten wild fig-tree,
till they came to two fair springs which feed the river Scamander.
One of these two springs is warm, and steam rises from it as smoke
from a burning fire, but the other even in summer is as cold as hail
or snow, or the ice that forms on water. Here, hard by the springs,
are the goodly washing-troughs of stone, where in the time of peace
before the coming of the Achaeans the wives and fair daughters of
the Trojans used to wash their clothes. Past these did they fly, the
one in front and the other giving ha. behind him: good was the man
that fled, but better far was he that followed after, and swiftly
indeed did they run, for the prize was no mere beast for sacrifice
or bullock's hide, as it might be for a common foot-race, but they
ran for the life of Hector. As horses in a chariot race speed round
the turning-posts when they are running for some great prize- a tripod
or woman- at the games in honour of some dead hero, so did these two
run full speed three times round the city of Priam. All the gods watched
them, and the sire of gods and men was the first to speak.
"Alas," said he, "my eyes behold a man who is dear to me being pursued
round the walls of Troy; my heart is full of pity for Hector, who
has burned the thigh-bones of many a heifer in my honour, at one while
on the of many-valleyed Ida, and again on the citadel of Troy; and
now I see noble Achilles in full pursuit of him round the city of
Priam. What say you? Consider among yourselves and decide whether
we shall now save him or let him fall, valiant though he be, before
Achilles, son of Peleus."
Then Minerva said, "Father, wielder of the lightning, lord of cloud
and storm, what mean you? Would you pluck this mortal whose doom has
long been decreed out of the jaws of death? Do as you will, but we
others shall not be of a mind with you."
And Jove answered, "My child, Trito-born, take heart. I did not speak
in full earnest, and I will let you have your way. Do without let
or hindrance as you are minded."
Thus did he urge Minerva who was already eager, and down she darted
from the topmost summits of Olympus.
Achilles was still in full pursuit of Hector, as a hound chasing a
fawn which he has started from its covert on the mountains, and hunts
through glade and thicket. The fawn may try to elude him by crouching
under cover of a bush, but he will scent her out and follow her up
until he gets her- even so there was no escape for Hector from the
fleet son of Peleus. Whenever he made a set to get near the Dardanian
gates and under the walls, that his people might help him by showering
down weapons from above, Achilles would gain on him and head him back
towards the plain, keeping himself always on the city side. As a man
in a dream who fails to lay hands upon another whom he is pursuing-
the one cannot escape nor the other overtake- even so neither could
Achilles come up with Hector, nor Hector break away from Achilles;
nevertheless he might even yet have escaped death had not the time
come when Apollo, who thus far had sustained his strength and nerved
his running, was now no longer to stay by him. Achilles made signs
to the Achaean host, and shook his head to show that no man was to
aim a dart at Hector, lest another might win the glory of having hit
him and he might himself come in second. Then, at last, as they were
nearing the fountains for the fourth time, the father of all balanced
his golden scales and placed a doom in each of them, one for Achilles
and the other for Hector. As he held the scales by the middle, the
doom of Hector fell down deep into the house of Hades- and then Phoebus
Apollo left him. Thereon Minerva went close up to the son of Peleus
and said, "Noble Achilles, favoured of heaven, we two shall surely
take back to the ships a triumph for the Achaeans by slaying Hector,
for all his lust of battle. Do what Apollo may as he lies grovelling
before his father, aegis-bearing Jove, Hector cannot escape us longer.
Stay here and take breath, while I go up to him and persuade him to
make a stand and fight you."
Thus spoke Minerva. Achilles obeyed her gladly, and stood still, leaning
on his bronze-pointed ashen spear, while Minerva left him and went
after Hector in the form and with the voice of Deiphobus. She came
close up to him and said, "Dear brother, I see you are hard pressed
by Achilles who is chasing you at full speed round the city of Priam,
let us await his onset and stand on our defence."
And Hector answered, "Deiphobus, you have always been dearest to me
of all my brothers, children of Hecuba and Priam, but henceforth I
shall rate you yet more highly, inasmuch as you have ventured outside
the wall for my sake when all the others remain inside."
Then Minerva said, "Dear brother, my father and mother went down on
their knees and implored me, as did all my comrades, to remain inside,
so great a fear has fallen upon them all; but I was in an agony of
grief when I beheld you; now, therefore, let us two make a stand and
fight, and let there be no keeping our spears in reserve, that we
may learn whether Achilles shall kill us and bear off our spoils to
the ships, or whether he shall fall before you."
Thus did Minerva inveigle him by her cunning, and when the two were
now close to one another great Hector was first to speak. "I will-no
longer fly you, son of Peleus," said he, "as I have been doing hitherto.
Three times have I fled round the mighty city of Priam, without daring
to withstand you, but now, let me either slay or be slain, for I am
in the mind to face you. Let us, then, give pledges to one another
by our gods, who are the fittest witnesses and guardians of all covenants;
let it be agreed between us that if Jove vouchsafes me the longer
stay and I take your life, I am not to treat your dead body in any
unseemly fashion, but when I have stripped you of your armour, I am
to give up your body to the Achaeans. And do you likewise."
Achilles glared at him and answered, "Fool, prate not to me about
covenants. There can be no covenants between men and lions, wolves
and lambs can never be of one mind, but hate each other out and out
an through. Therefore there can be no understanding between you and
me, nor may there be any covenants between us, till one or other shall
fall and glut grim Mars with his life's blood. Put forth all your
strength; you have need now to prove yourself indeed a bold soldier
and man of war. You have no more chance, and Pallas Minerva will forthwith
vanquish you by my spear: you shall now pay me in full for the grief
you have caused me on account of my comrades whom you have killed
in battle."
He poised his spear as he spoke and hurled it. Hector saw it coming
and avoided it; he watched it and crouched down so that it flew over
his head and stuck in the ground beyond; Minerva then snatched it
up and gave it back to Achilles without Hector's seeing her; Hector
thereon said to the son of Peleus, "You have missed your aim, Achilles,
peer of the gods, and Jove has not yet revealed to you the hour of
my doom, though you made sure that he had done so. You were a false-tongued
liar when you deemed that I should forget my valour and quail before
you. You shall not drive spear into the back of a runaway- drive it,
should heaven so grant you power, drive it into me as I make straight
towards you; and now for your own part avoid my spear if you can-
would that you might receive the whole of it into your body; if you
were once dead the Trojans would find the war an easier matter, for
it is you who have harmed them most."
He poised his spear as he spoke and hurled it. His aim was true for
he hit the middle of Achilles' shield, but the spear rebounded from
it, and did not pierce it. Hector was angry when he saw that the weapon
had sped from his hand in vain, and stood there in dismay for he had
no second spear. With a loud cry he called Diphobus and asked him
for one, but there was no man; then he saw the truth and said to himself,
"Alas! the gods have lured me on to my destruction. I deemed that
the hero Deiphobus was by my side, but he is within the wall, and
Minerva has inveigled me; death is now indeed exceedingly near at
hand and there is no way out of it- for so Jove and his son Apollo
the far-darter have willed it, though heretofore they have been ever
ready to protect me. My doom has come upon me; let me not then die
ingloriously and without a struggle, but let me first do some great
thing that shall be told among men hereafter."
As he spoke he drew the keen blade that hung so great and strong by
his side, and gathering himself together be sprang on Achilles like
a soaring eagle which swoops down from the clouds on to some lamb
or timid hare- even so did Hector brandish his sword and spring upon
Achilles. Achilles mad with rage darted towards him, with his wondrous
shield before his breast, and his gleaming helmet, made with four
layers of metal, nodding fiercely forward. The thick tresses of gold
wi which Vulcan had crested the helmet floated round it, and as the
evening star that shines brighter than all others through the stillness
of night, even such was the gleam of the spear which Achilles poised
in his right hand, fraught with the death of noble Hector. He eyed
his fair flesh over and over to see where he could best wound it,
but all was protected by the goodly armour of which Hector had spoiled
Patroclus after he had slain him, save only the throat where the collar-bones
divide the neck from the shoulders, and this is a most deadly place:
here then did Achilles strike him as he was coming on towards him,
and the point of his spear went right through the fleshy part of the
neck, but it did not sever his windpipe so that he could still speak.
Hector fell headlong, and Achilles vaunted over him saying, "Hector,
you deemed that you should come off scatheless when you were spoiling
Patroclus, and recked not of myself who was not with him. Fool that
you were: for I, his comrade, mightier far than he, was still left
behind him at the ships, and now I have laid you low. The Achaeans
shall give him all due funeral rites, while dogs and vultures shall
work their will upon yourself."
Then Hector said, as the life ebbed out of him, "I pray you by your
life and knees, and by your parents, let not dogs devour me at the
ships of the Achaeans, but accept the rich treasure of gold and bronze
which my father and mother will offer you, and send my body home,
that the Trojans and their wives may give me my dues of fire when
I am dead."
Achilles glared at him and answered, "Dog, talk not to me neither
of knees nor parents; would that I could be as sure of being able
to cut your flesh into pieces and eat it raw, for the ill have done
me, as I am that nothing shall save you from the dogs- it shall not
be, though they bring ten or twenty-fold ransom and weigh it out for
me on the spot, with promise of yet more hereafter. Though Priam son
of Dardanus should bid them offer me your weight in gold, even so
your mother shall never lay you out and make lament over the son she
bore, but dogs and vultures shall eat you utterly up."
Hector with his dying breath then said, "I know you what you are,
and was sure that I should not move you, for your heart is hard as
iron; look to it that I bring not heaven's anger upon you on the day
when Paris and Phoebus Apollo, valiant though you be, shall slay you
at the Scaean gates."
When he had thus said the shrouds of death enfolded him, whereon his
soul went out of him and flew down to the house of Hades, lamenting
its sad fate that it should en' youth and strength no longer. But
Achilles said, speaking to the dead body, "Die; for my part I will
accept my fate whensoever Jove and the other gods see fit to send
it."
As he spoke he drew his spear from the body and set it on one side;
then he stripped the blood-stained armour from Hector's shoulders
while the other Achaeans came running up to view his wondrous strength
and beauty; and no one came near him without giving him a fresh wound.
Then would one turn to his neighbour and say, "It is easier to handle
Hector now than when he was flinging fire on to our ships" and as
he spoke he would thrust his spear into him anew.
When Achilles had done spoiling Hector of his armour, he stood among
the Argives and said, "My friends, princes and counsellors of the
Argives, now that heaven has vouchsafed us to overcome this man, who
has done us more hurt than all the others together, consider whether
we should not attack the city in force, and discover in what mind
the Trojans may be. We should thus learn whether they will desert
their city now that Hector has fallen, or will still hold out even
though he is no longer living. But why argue with myself in this way,
while Patroclus is still lying at the ships unburied, and unmourned-
he Whom I can never forget so long as I am alive and my strength fails
not? Though men forget their dead when once they are within the house
of Hades, yet not even there will I forget the comrade whom I have
lost. Now, therefore, Achaean youths, let us raise the song of victory
and go back to the ships taking this man along with us; for we have
achieved a mighty triumph and have slain noble Hector to whom the
Trojans prayed throughout their city as though he were a god."
On this he treated the body of Hector with contumely: he pierced the
sinews at the back of both his feet from heel to ancle and passed
thongs of ox-hide through the slits he had made: thus he made the
body fast to his chariot, letting the head trail upon the ground.
Then when he had put the goodly armour on the chariot and had himself
mounted, he lashed his horses on and they flew forward nothing loth.
The dust rose from Hector as he was being dragged along, his dark
hair flew all abroad, and his head once so comely was laid low on
earth, for Jove had now delivered him into the hands of his foes to
do him outrage in his own land.
Thus was the head of Hector being dishonoured in the dust. His mother
tore her hair, and flung her veil from her with a loud cry as she
looked upon her son. His father made piteous moan, and throughout
the city the people fell to weeping and wailing. It was as though
the whole of frowning Ilius was being smirched with fire. Hardly could
the people hold Priam back in his hot haste to rush without the gates
of the city. He grovelled in the mire and besought them, calling each
one of them by his name. "Let be, my friends," he cried, "and for
all your sorrow, suffer me to go single-handed to the ships of the
Achaeans. Let me beseech this cruel and terrible man, if maybe he
will respect the feeling of his fellow-men, and have compassion on
my old age. His own father is even such another as myself- Peleus,
who bred him and reared him to- be the bane of us Trojans, and of
myself more than of all others. Many a son of mine has he slain in
the flower of his youth, and yet, grieve for these as I may, I do
so for one- Hector- more than for them all, and the bitterness of
my sorrow will bring me down to the house of Hades. Would that he
had died in my arms, for so both his ill-starred mother who bore him,
and myself, should have had the comfort of weeping and mourning over
him."
Thus did he speak with many tears, and all the people of the city
joined in his lament. Hecuba then raised the cry of wailing among
the Trojans. "Alas, my son," she cried, "what have I left to live
for now that you are no more? Night and day did I glory in. you throughout
the city, for you were a tower of strength to all in Troy, and both
men and women alike hailed you as a god. So long as you lived you
were their pride, but now death and destruction have fallen upon you."
Hector's wife had as yet heard nothing, for no one had come to tell
her that her husband had remained without the gates. She was at her
loom in an inner part of the house, weaving a double purple web, and
embroidering it with many flowers. She told her maids to set a large
tripod on the fire, so as to have a warm bath ready for Hector when
he came out of battle; poor woman, she knew not that he was now beyond
the reach of baths, and that Minerva had laid him low by the hands
of Achilles. She heard the cry coming as from the wall, and trembled
in every limb; the shuttle fell from her hands, and again she spoke
to her waiting-women. "Two of you," she said, "come with me that I
may learn what it is that has befallen; I heard the voice of my husband's
honoured mother; my own heart beats as though it would come into my
mouth and my limbs refuse to carry me; some great misfortune for Priam's
children must be at hand. May I never live to hear it, but I greatly
fear that Achilles has cut off the retreat of brave Hector and has
chased him on to the plain where he was singlehanded; I fear he may
have put an end to the reckless daring which possessed my husband,
who would never remain with the body of his men, but would dash on
far in front, foremost of them all in valour."
Her heart beat fast, and as she spoke she flew from the house like
a maniac, with her waiting-women following after. When she reached
the battlements and the crowd of people, she stood looking out upon
the wall, and saw Hector being borne away in front of the city- the
horses dragging him without heed or care over the ground towards the
ships of the Achaeans. Her eyes were then shrouded as with the darkness
of night and she fell fainting backwards. She tore the tiring from
her head and flung it from her, the frontlet and net with its plaited
band, and the veil which golden Venus had given her on the day when
Hector took her with him from the house of Eetion, after having given
countless gifts of wooing for her sake. Her husband's sisters and
the wives of his brothers crowded round her and supported her, for
she was fain to die in her distraction; when she again presently breathed
and came to herself, she sobbed and made lament among the Trojans
saying, 'Woe is me, O Hector; woe, indeed, that to share a common
lot we were born, you at Troy in the house of Priam, and I at Thebes
under the wooded mountain of Placus in the house of Eetion who brought
me up when I was a child- ill-starred sire of an ill-starred daughter-
would that he had never begotten me. You are now going into the house
of Hades under the secret places of the earth, and you leave me a
sorrowing widow in your house. The child, of whom you and I are the
unhappy parents, is as yet a mere infant. Now that you are gone, O
Hector, you can do nothing for him nor he for you. Even though he
escape the horrors of this woful war with the Achaeans, yet shall
his life henceforth be one of labour and sorrow, for others will seize
his lands. The day that robs a child of his parents severs him from
his own kind; his head is bowed, his cheeks are wet with tears, and
he will go about destitute among the friends of his father, plucking
one by the cloak and another by the shirt. Some one or other of these
may so far pity him as to hold the cup for a moment towards him and
let him moisten his lips, but he must not drink enough to wet the
roof of his mouth; then one whose parents are alive will drive him
from the table with blows and angry words. 'Out with you,' he will
say, 'you have no father here,' and the child will go crying back
to his widowed mother- he, Astyanax, who erewhile would sit upon his
father's knees, and have none but the daintiest and choicest morsels
set before him. When he had played till he was tired and went to sleep,
he would lie in a bed, in the arms of his nurse, on a soft couch,
knowing neither want nor care, whereas now that he has lost his father
his lot will be full of hardship- he, whom the Trojans name Astyanax,
because you, O Hector, were the only defence of their gates and battlements.
The wriggling writhing worms will now eat you at the ships, far from
your parents, when the dogs have glutted themselves upon you. You
will lie naked, although in your house you have fine and goodly raiment
made by hands of women. This will I now burn; it is of no use to you,
for you can never again wear it, and thus you will have respect shown
you by the Trojans both men and women."
In such wise did she cry aloud amid her tears, and the women joined
in her lament.
The Odessey, BOOK XVII
When the child of morning, rosy-fingered 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 swineherd,
"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 any one 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 any one 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 Telemachus strode off through the yards, brooding his revenge
upon the 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 Euryclea saw him long before any one else did. She was putting
the fleeces on to 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 her 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, but wash your face, change your dress,
go upstairs with your maids, and promise full and sufficient hecatombs
to all the gods if Jove will only grant us our revenge upon the suitors.
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 marvelled 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, Antiphus, and Halitherses, old friends of
his father's house, and they made him tell them all that had happened
to him. Then Piraeus came up with Theoclymenus, whom he had escorted
through the town to the place of assembly, whereon Telemachus at 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 awa the
presents Menelaus gave you."
"We do not know, Piraeus," answered Telemachus, "what may happen.
If the suitors kill me in my own house and divide my property among
them, I would rather you had the presents than that any of those people
should get hold of them. If on the other hand I manage to kill them,
I shall be much obliged if you will kindly bring me my presents."
With these words he took Theoclymenus 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
ewer, 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 ceased 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 Lacedaemon, and I told him the whole truth,
whereon he said, 'So, then, these cowards would usurp a brave man's
bed? A hind might as well lay her new-born young in the lair of a
lion, and then go off to feed in the forest or in some grassy dell.
The lion, when he comes back to his lair, will make short work with
the 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 wrestled with Philomeleides in 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 prevaricate
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 Theoclymenus
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, is enquiring 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 from 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 levelled 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 Medon, who was their favourite servant, and who 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 town to-day, 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 Eumaeus gave 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 tramp
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 Ithacus, Neritus, and Polyctor. 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 above
the 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 suitors'
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 door post, 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 whey; but
he has taken to bad ways and will not go about any kind of work; he
will do nothing but beg victuals 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 will fling at
him, till they turn him out."
On this, as he passed, he gave Ulysses a kick on the hip out of pure
wantonness, but Ulysses stood firm, and did not budge from the path.
For a moment he doubted whether or no to fly at Melanthius 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 swineherd looked straight at Melanthius 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
you 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 Melanthius the goatherd 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
Eurymachus, 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 swineherd
came up to the house and stood by it, amid a sound of music, for Phemius
was just beginning to sing to the suitors. Then Ulysses took hold
of the swineherd's hand, and said:
"Eumaeus, this house of Ulysses is a very fine place. No matter how
far you go you will find few like it. One building keeps following
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 banqueting 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 Eumaeus said, "You have perceived aright, as indeed you generally
do; but let us think what will be our best course. Will you go inside
first and join the suitors, leaving me here behind you, or will you
wait here and let me go in first? But do not wait long, or some one
may 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."
As they were thus talking, a dog that had been lying asleep raised
his head and pricked up his ears. 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 close; 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, dashed a tear from
his eyes without Eumaeus seeing it, and said:
"Eumaeus, 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 Eumaeus, "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 Eumaeus long before any one 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.
Immediately 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 ash-wood just inside the doors leading
from the outer to the inner court, and against a bearing-post of cypress-wood
which the carpenter had skillfully planed, and had made to join truly
with rule and 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 Eumaeus,
"Take this to the stranger, and tell him to go the round of the suitors,
and beg from them; a beggar must not be shamefaced."
So Eumaeus 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 shamefaced."
Ulysses answered, "May King Jove grant all happiness to Telemachus,
and fulfil 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 goatherd
Melanthius said, "Suitors of my noble mistress, I can tell you something
about him, for I have seen him before. The swineherd brought him here,
but I know nothing about the man himself, nor where he comes from."
On this Antinous began to abuse the swineherd. "You precious idiot,"
he cried, "what have you brought this man to town for? Have we not
tramps and beggars enough already to pester us as we sit at meat?
Do you think it a small thing that such people gather here to waste
your master's property and must you needs bring this man as well?"
And Eumaeus answered, "Antinous, 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 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; Antinous has the bitterest
tongue of all the suitors, and he makes the others worse."
Then turning to Antinous he said, "Antinous, 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 Antinous, "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 to the threshold
and eat what the suitors had given him, but he first went up to Antinous
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 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 Jove 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 bade ships in the river Aegyptus, and bade my
men stay by them and keep guard over them, while sent out scouts to
reconnoitre 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 armour. Then Jove 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 labour for
them; as for myself, they gave me to a friend who met them, to take
to Cyprus, Dmetor by name, son of Iasus, who was a great man in Cyprus.
Thence I am come hither in a state of great misery."
Then Antinous said, "What god can have sent 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 Antinous 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 hit him on the right shoulder-blade
near the top of his back. Ulysses stood firm as a rock and the blow
did not even stagger him, but he shook his head in silence as he brooded
on his revenge. 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 ache nor pain if he
gets hit while fighting for his money, or for his sheep or his cattle;
and even so Antinous 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 Antinous
may come to a bad end before his marriage."
"Sit where you are, and eat your victuals in silence, or be off elsewhere,"
shouted Antinous. "If you say more I will have you dragged hand and
foot through the courts, and the servants shall flay you alive."
The other suitors were much displeased at this, and one of the young
men said, "Antinous, you did ill in striking that poor wretch of a
tramp: it will be worse for you if he should turn out to be some god-
and we know the 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 Antinous 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 banqueting-cloister,
she said before her maids, "Would that Apollo would so strike you,
Antinous," and her waiting woman Eurynome answered, "If our prayers
were answered not one of the suitors would ever again see the sun
rise." Then Penelope said, "Nurse, I hate every single one of them,
for they mean nothing but mischief, but I hate Antinous like the darkness
of death itself. A poor unfortunate tramp has come begging about the
house for sheer want. Every one else has given him something to put
in his wallet, but Antinous 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
swineherd and said, "Eumaeus, go and tell the stranger to come here,
I want to see him and ask him some questions. He seems to have travelled
much, and he may have seen or heard something of my unhappy husband."
To this you answered, O swineherd Eumaeus, "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 hearers 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 Thesprotians,
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 Telemachus sneezed so loudly that the whole house resounded
with it. Penelope laughed when she heard this, and said to Eumaeus,
"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 heart: if I am satisfied that the stranger
is speaking the truth I shall give him a shirt and cloak of good wear."
When Eumaeus heard this he went straight to Ulysses and said, "Father
stranger, my mistress Penelope, mother of Telemachus, 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 Ulysses, "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 Telemachus nor any one
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 swineherd went back when he heard this, and Penelope said as she
saw him cross the threshold, "Why do you not bring him here, Eumaeus?
Is he afraid that some one will ill-treat him, or is he shy of coming
inside the house at all? Beggars should not be shamefaced."
To this you answered, O swineherd Eumaeus, "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 Eumaeus went back to the suitors, for 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 Eumaeus took his seat again, and when he had finished his
dinner he left the courts and 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.
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