Scroll 23
Eurykleia now went upstairs
laughing to tell her mistress that her dear husband had come home.
Her aged knees became young again and her feet were nimble for joy as
she went up to her mistress and bent over her head to speak to her.
"Wake up Penelope, my dear child," she exclaimed, "and see with your
own eyes something that you have been wanting this long time past.
Odysseus has at last indeed come home again, and has killed the
suitors who were giving so much trouble in his house, eating up his
estate and ill-treating his son."
"My good nurse," answered
Penelope, "you must be mad. The gods sometimes send some very
sensible people out of their minds, and make foolish people become
sensible. This is what they must have been doing to you; for you
always used to be a reasonable person. Why should you thus mock me
when I have trouble enough already - talking such nonsense, and
waking me up out of a sweet sleep that had taken possession of my
eyes and closed them? I have never slept so soundly from the day my
poor husband went to that city with the ill-omened name. Go back
again into the women's room; if it had been any one else, who
had woke me up to bring me such absurd news I should have sent her
away with a severe scolding. As it is, your age shall protect
you."
"My dear child," answered
Eurykleia, "I am not mocking you. It is quite true as I tell you that
Odysseus is come home again. He was the stranger whom they all kept
on treating so badly in the room. Telemakhos knew all the time that
he was come back, but kept his father's secret that he might
have his revenge on all these wicked people.
Then Penelope sprang up from her
couch, threw her arms round Eurykleia, and wept for joy. "But my dear
nurse," said she, "explain this to me; if he has really come home as
you say, how did he manage to overcome the wicked suitors single
handed, seeing what a number of them there always were?"
"I was not there," answered
Eurykleia, "and do not know; I only heard them groaning while they
were being killed. We sat crouching and huddled up in a corner of the
women's room with the doors closed, till your son came to fetch
me because his father sent him. Then I found Odysseus standing over
the corpses that were lying on the ground all round him, one on top
of the other. You would have enjoyed it if you could have seen him
standing there all bespattered with blood and filth, and looking just
like a lion. But the corpses are now all piled up in the gatehouse
that is in the outer court, and Odysseus has lit a great fire to
purify the house with sulfur. He has sent me to call you, so come
with me that you may both be happy together after all; for now at
last the desire of your heart has been fulfilled; your husband is
come home to find both wife and son alive and well, and to take his
revenge in his own house on the suitors who behaved so badly to
him."
"‘My dear nurse," said
Penelope, "do not exult too confidently over all this. You know how
delighted every one would be to see Odysseus come home - more
particularly myself, and the son who has been born to both of us; but
what you tell me cannot be really true. It is some god who is angry
with the suitors for their great wickedness [hubris],
and has made an end of them; for they respected no man in the whole
world, neither rich nor poor, who came near them, who came near them,
and they have come to a bad end in consequence of their iniquity.
Odysseus is dead far away from the Achaean land; he will never return
home again [nostos]."
Then nurse Eurykleia said, "My
child, what are you talking about? But you were all hard of belief
and have made up your mind that your husband is never coming,
although he is in the house and by his own fire side at this very
moment. Besides I can give you another proof
[sêma]; when I was washing him I perceived the
scar which the wild boar gave him, and I wanted to tell you about it,
but in his wisdom [noos] he would not let me, and
clapped his hands over my mouth; so come with me and I will make this
bargain with you - if I am deceiving you, you may have me killed by
the cruelest death you can think of."
"My dear nurse," said Penelope,
"however wise you may be you can hardly fathom the counsels of the
gods. Nevertheless, we will go in search of my son, that I may see
the corpses of the suitors, and the man who has killed
them."
On this she came down from her
upper room, and while doing so she considered whether she should keep
at a distance from her husband and question him, or whether she
should at once go up to him and embrace him. When, however, she had
crossed the stone floor of the room, she sat down opposite Odysseus
by the fire, against the wall at right angles to that by which she
had entered, while Odysseus sat near one of the bearing-posts,
looking upon the ground, and waiting to see what his wife would say
to him when she saw him. For a long time she sat silent and as one
lost in amazement. At one moment she looked him full in the face, but
then again directly, she was misled by his shabby clothes and failed
to recognize him, till Telemakhos began to reproach her and
said:
"Mother - but you are so hard that
I cannot call you by such a name - why do you keep away from my
father in this way? Why do you not sit by his side and begin talking
to him and asking him questions? No other woman could bear to keep
away from her husband when he had come back to her after twenty years
of absence, and after having gone through so much; but your heart
always was as hard as a stone."
Penelope answered, "My son, I am
so lost in astonishment that I can find no words in which either to
ask questions or to answer them. I cannot even look him straight in
the face. Still, if he really is Odysseus come back to his own home
again, we shall get to understand one another better by and by, for
there are tokens [sêmata] with which we two are
alone acquainted, and which are hidden from all others."
Odysseus smiled at this, and said
to Telemakhos, "Let your mother put me to any proof she likes; she
will make up her mind about it presently. She rejects me for the
moment and believes me to be somebody else, because I am covered with
dirt and have such bad clothes on; let us, however, consider what we
had better do next. When one man has killed another in a
dêmos, even though he was not one who would leave many
friends to take up his quarrel, the man who has killed him must still
say good bye to his friends and flee the country; whereas we have
been killing the stay of a whole city, and all the picked youth of
Ithaca. I would have you consider this matter."
"Look to it yourself, father,"
answered Telemakhos, "for they say you are the wisest counselor in
the world, and that there is no other mortal man who can compare with
you. We will follow you with right good will, nor shall you find us
fail you in so far as our strength holds out."
"I will say what I think will be
best," answered Odysseus. "First wash and put your shirts on; tell
the maids also to go to their own room and dress; Phemios shall then
strike up a dance tune on his lyre, so that if people outside hear,
or any of the neighbors, or some one going along the street happens
to notice it, they may think there is a wedding in the house, and no
rumors [kleos] about the death of the suitors will get
about in the town, before we can escape to the woods upon my own
land. Once there, we will settle which of the courses of action
[kerdos] heaven grants us shall seem
wisest."
Thus did he speak, and they did
even as he had said. First they washed and put their shirts on, while
the women got ready. Then Phemios took his lyre and set them all
longing for sweet song and stately dance. The house re-echoed with
the sound of men and women dancing, and the people outside said, "I
suppose the queen has been getting married at last. She ought to be
ashamed of herself for not continuing to protect her husband's
property until he comes home."
This was what they said, but they
did not know what it was that had been happening. The upper servant
Eurynome washed and anointed Odysseus in his own house and gave him a
shirt and cloak, while Athena made him look taller and stronger than
before; she also made the hair grow thick on the top of his head, and
flow down in curls like hyacinth blossoms; she shed kharis
about his head and shoulders just as a skillful workman who has
studied art of all kinds under Hephaistos or Athena - and his work is
full of kharis - enriches a piece of silver plate by gilding
it. He came from the bath looking like one of the immortals, and sat
down opposite his wife on the seat he had left. "My dear," said he,
"heaven has endowed you with a heart more unyielding than woman ever
yet had. No other woman could bear to keep away from her husband when
he had come back to her after twenty years of absence, and after
having gone through so much. But come, nurse, get a bed ready for me;
I will sleep alone, for this woman has a heart as hard as
iron."
"My dear," answered Penelope, "I
have no wish to set myself up, nor to depreciate you; but I am not
struck by your appearance, for I very well remember what kind of a
man you were when you set sail from
Ithaca. Nevertheless, Eurykleia,
take his bed outside the bed chamber that he himself built. Bring the
bed outside this room, and put bedding upon it with fleeces, good
coverlets, and blankets."
She said this to try him, but
Odysseus was very angry and said, "Wife, I am much displeased at what
you have just been saying. Who has been taking my bed from the place
in which I left it? He must have found it a hard task, no matter how
skilled a workman he was, unless some god came and helped him to
shift it. There is no man living, however strong and in his prime,
who could move it from its place. For it was wrought to be a great
sign [sêma]; it is a marvelous curiosity which I
made with my very own hands. There was a young olive growing within
the precincts of the house, in full vigor, and about as thick as a
bearing-post. I built my room round this with strong walls of stone
and a roof to cover them, and I made the doors strong and
well-fitting. Then I cut off the top boughs of the olive tree and
left the stump standing. This I dressed roughly from the root upwards
and then worked with carpenter's tools well and skillfully,
straightening my work by drawing a line on the wood, and making it
into a bed-prop. I then bored a hole down the middle, and made it the
center-post of my bed, at which I worked till I had finished it,
inlaying it with gold and silver; after this I stretched a hide of
crimson leather from one side of it to the other. So you see I know
all about this sign [sêma], and I desire to
learn whether it is still there, or whether any one has been removing
it by cutting down the olive tree at its roots."
When she heard the sure proofs
[sêmata] Odysseus now gave her, she fairly broke
down. She flew weeping to his side, flung her arms about his neck,
and kissed him. "Do not be angry with me Odysseus," she cried, "you,
who are the wisest of humankind. We have suffered, both of us. Heaven
has denied us the happiness of spending our youth, and of growing
old, together; do not then be aggrieved or take it amiss that I did
not embrace you thus as soon as I saw you. I have been shuddering all
the time through fear that someone might come here and deceive me
with a lying story; for there are many people who plan wicked schemes
[kerdea]. Zeus’ daughter Helen would never have
yielded herself to a man from a foreign country, if she had known
that the sons of Achaeans would come after her and bring her back.
Heaven put it in her heart to do wrong, and she gave no thought to
that transgression [atê], which has been the
source of all our sorrows [penthos]. Now, however,
that you have convinced me by showing that you know all the proofs
[sêmata] of our bed (which no human being has
ever seen but you and I and a single maid servant, the daughter of
Aktor, who was given me by my father on my marriage, and who keeps
the doors of our room), hard of belief though I have been, I can
mistrust no longer."
Then Odysseus in his turn melted,
and wept as he clasped his dear and faithful wife to his bosom. As
the sight of land is welcome to men who are swimming towards the
shore, when Poseidon has wrecked their ship with the fury of his
winds and waves - a few alone reach the land, and these, covered with
brine, are thankful when they find themselves on firm ground and out
of danger - even so was her husband welcome to her as she looked upon
him, and she could not tear her two fair arms from about his neck.
Indeed they would have gone on indulging their sorrow till
rosy-fingered morn appeared, had not Athena determined otherwise, and
held night back in the far west, while she would not suffer Dawn to
leave Okeanos, nor to yoke the two steeds Lampos and Phaethon that
bear her onward to break the day upon humankind.
At last, however, Odysseus said,
"Wife, we have not yet reached the end of our trials
[athloi]. I have an unknown amount of toil
[ponos] still to undergo. It is long and difficult,
but I must go through with it, for thus the shade
[psukhê] of Teiresias prophesied concerning me,
on the day when I went down into Hades to ask about my return
[nostos] and that of my companions. But now let us go
to bed, that we may lie down and enjoy the blessed boon of
sleep."
"You shall go to bed as soon as
you please," replied Penelope, "now that the gods have sent you home
to your own good house and to your country. But as heaven has put it
in your mind to speak of it, tell me about the task
[athlos] that lies before you. I shall have to hear
about it later, so it is better that I should be told at
once."
"My dear," answered Odysseus,
"why should you press me to tell you? Still, I will not conceal it
from you, though you will not like it. I do not like it myself, for
Teiresias bade me travel far and wide, carrying an oar, till I came
to a country where the people have never heard of the sea, and do not
even mix salt with their food. They know nothing about ships, nor
oars that are as the wings of a ship. He gave me this certain token
[sêma] which I will not hide from you. He said
that a wayfarer should meet me and ask me whether it was a winnowing
shovel that I had on my shoulder. On this, I was to fix my oar in the
ground and sacrifice a ram, a bull, and a boar to Poseidon; after
which I was to go home and offer hecatombs to all the gods in heaven,
one after the other. As for myself, he said that death should come to
me from the sea, and that my life should ebb away very gently when I
was full of years and peace of mind, and my people should be
prosperous [olbios]. All this, he said, should surely
come to pass."
And Penelope said, "If the gods
are going to grant you a happier time in your old age, you may hope
then to have some respite from misfortune."
Thus did they converse. Meanwhile
Eurynome and the nurse took torches and made the bed ready with soft
coverlets; as soon as they had laid them, the nurse went back into
the house to go to her rest, leaving the bed chamber woman Eurynome
to show Odysseus and Penelope to bed by torch light. When she had
conducted them to their room she went back, and they then came
joyfully to the rites of their own old bed. Telemakhos, Philoitios,
and the swineherd now left off dancing, and made the women leave off
also. They then laid themselves down to sleep in the
cloisters.
When Odysseus and Penelope had
had their fill of love they fell talking with one another. She told
him how much she had to bear in seeing the house filled with a crowd
of wicked suitors who had killed so many sheep and oxen on her
account, and had drunk so many casks of wine. Odysseus in his turn
told her what he had suffered, and how much trouble he had himself
given to other people. He told her everything, and she was so
delighted to listen that she never went to sleep till he had ended
his whole story.
He began with his victory over
the Kikones, and how he thence reached the fertile land of the
Lotus-eaters. He told her all about the
Cyclops and how he had
punished him for having so ruthlessly eaten his brave comrades; how
he then went on to Aeolus, who received him hospitably and furthered
him on his way, but even so he was not to reach home, for to his
great grief a gale carried him out to sea again; how he went on to
the Laestrygonian city Telepylos, where the people destroyed all his
ships with their crews, save himself and his own ship only. Then he
told of cunning Circe and her craft, and how he sailed to the chill
house of Hades, to consult the ghost [psukhê] of
the Theban seer Teiresias, and how he saw his old comrades in arms,
and his mother who bore him and brought him up when he was a child;
how he then heard the wondrous singing of the Sirens, and went on to
the wandering rocks and terrible Charybdis and to Scylla, whom no man
had ever yet passed in safety; how his men then ate the cattle of the
sun-god, and how Zeus therefore struck the ship with his
thunderbolts, so that all his men perished together, himself alone
being left alive; how at last he reached the Ogygian island and the
nymph Calypso, who kept him there in a cave, and fed him, and wanted
him to marry her, in which case she intended making him immortal so
that he should never grow old, but she could not persuade him to let
her do so; and how after much suffering he had found his way to the
Phaeacians, who had treated him as though he had been a god, and sent
him back in a ship to his own country after having given him gold,
bronze, and raiment in great abundance. This was the last thing about
which he told her, for here a deep sleep took hold upon him and eased
the burden of his sorrows.
Then Athena thought of another
matter. When she deemed that Odysseus had had enough both of his wife
and of repose, she bade gold-enthroned Dawn rise out of Okeanos that
she might shed light upon humankind. On this, Odysseus rose from his
comfortable bed and said to Penelope, "Wife, we have both of us had
our full share of trials [athlos], you, here, in
lamenting my absence, and I in being prevented from getting home
[nostos] though I was longing all the time to do so.
Now, however, that we have at last come together, take care of the
property that is in the house. As for the sheep and goats which the
wicked suitors have eaten, I will take many myself by force from
other people, and will compel the Achaeans to make good the rest till
they shall have filled all my yards. I am now going to the wooded
lands out in the country to see my father who has so long been
grieved on my account, and to yourself I will give these
instructions, though you have little need of them. At sunrise it will
at once get abroad that I have been killing the suitors; go upstairs,
therefore, and stay there with your women. See nobody and ask no
questions."
As he spoke he girded on his
armor. Then he roused Telemakhos, Philoitios, and Eumaios, and told
them all to put on their armor also. This they did, and armed
themselves. When they had done so, they opened the gates and sallied
forth, Odysseus leading the way. It was now daylight, but Athena
nevertheless concealed them in darkness and led them quickly out of
the town.
