Odysseus answered, "Lady, 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, "Eurykleia, and wash your
master's age-mate; I suppose Odysseus’ 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 Zeus 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 Odysseus 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 Odysseus in figure, voice, and feet as
you are."
"Those who have seen us both,"
answered Odysseus, "have always said we were wonderfully like each
other, and now you have noticed it too.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.