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Odysseus was left in the room,
pondering on the means whereby with Athena's help he might be
able to kill the suitors. Presently he said to Telemakhos,
"Telemakhos, we must get the armor together and take it down inside.
Make some excuse when the suitors ask you why you have removed it.
Say that you have taken it to be out of the way of the smoke,
inasmuch as it is no longer what it was when Odysseus went away, but
has become soiled and begrimed with soot. Add to this more
particularly that you are afraid a daimôn 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."
Telemakhos approved of what his
father had said, so he called nurse Eurykleia and said, "Nurse, shut
the women up in their room, while I take the armor 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
Eurykleia, "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 Telemakhos,
"shall show me a light; when people eat my bread they must earn it,
no matter where they come from."
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