{"id":122,"date":"2021-05-26T09:19:25","date_gmt":"2021-05-26T13:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.ryerson.ca\/odyssey\/chapter\/book-xvi\/"},"modified":"2022-02-01T10:53:37","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T15:53:37","slug":"16","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/chapter\/16\/","title":{"raw":"Book XVI","rendered":"Book XVI"},"content":{"raw":"

Argument<\/b><\/h2>\r\nTelemachus dispatches Eum\u00e6us to the city to inform Penelope of his safe return from Pylus; during his absence, Ulysses makes himself known to his son. The suitors, having watched for Telemachus in vain, arrive again at Ithaca.\r\n\r\nIt was the hour of dawn, when in the cot\r\nKindling fresh fire, Ulysses and his friend\r\nNoble Eum\u00e6us dress\u2019d their morning fare,\r\nAnd sent the herdsmen with the swine abroad.\r\nSeeing Telemachus, the watchful dogs\r\nBark\u2019d not, but fawn\u2019d around him. At that sight,\r\nAnd at the sound of feet which now approach\u2019d,\r\nUlysses in wing\u2019d accents thus remark\u2019d.\r\nEum\u00e6us! certain, either friend of thine\r\nIs nigh at hand, or one whom well thou know\u2019st;\r\nThy dogs bark not, but fawn on his approach\r\nObsequious, and the sound of feet I hear.\r\nScarce had he ceased, when his own son himself\r\nStood in the vestibule. Upsprang at once\r\nEum\u00e6us wonder-struck, and from his hand\r\nLet fall the cups with which he was employ\u2019d\r\nMingling rich wine; to his young Lord he ran,\r\nHis forehead kiss\u2019d, kiss\u2019d his bright-beaming eyes\r\nAnd both his hands, weeping profuse the while,\r\nAs when a father folds in his embrace\r\nArrived from foreign lands in the tenth year\r\nHis darling son, the offspring of his age,\r\nHis only one, for whom he long hath mourn\u2019d,\r\nSo kiss\u2019d the noble peasant o\u2019er and o\u2019er\r\nGodlike Telemachus, as from death escaped,\r\nAnd in wing\u2019d accents plaintive thus began.\r\nLight of my eyes, thou com\u2019st; it is thyself,\r\nSweetest Telemachus! I had no hope\r\nTo see thee more, once told that o\u2019er the Deep\r\nThou hadst departed for the Pylian coast.\r\nEnter, my precious son; that I may sooth\r\nMy soul with sight of thee from far arrived,\r\nFor seldom thou thy feeders and thy farm\r\nVisitest, in the city custom\u2019d much\r\nTo make abode, that thou may\u2019st witness there\r\nThe manners of those hungry suitors proud.\r\nTo whom Telemachus, discrete, replied.\r\nIt will be so. There is great need, my friend!\r\nBut here, for thy sake, have I now arrived,\r\nThat I may look on thee, and from thy lips\r\nLearn if my mother still reside at home,\r\nOr have become spouse of some other Chief,\r\nLeaving untenanted Ulysses\u2019 bed\r\nTo be by noisome spiders webb\u2019d around.\r\nTo whom the master swine-herd in return.\r\nNot so, she, patient still as ever, dwells\r\nBeneath thy roof, but all her cheerless days\r\nDespairing wastes, and all her nights in tears.\r\nSo saying, Eum\u00e6us at his hand received\r\nHis brazen lance, and o\u2019er the step of stone\r\nEnter\u2019d Telemachus, to whom his sire\r\nRelinquish\u2019d, soon as he appear\u2019d, his seat,\r\nBut him Telemachus forbidding, said\u2014\r\nGuest, keep thy seat; our cottage will afford\r\nSome other, which Eum\u00e6us will provide.\r\nHe ceased, and he, returning at the word,\r\nReposed again; then good Eum\u00e6us spread\r\nGreen twigs beneath, which, cover\u2019d with a fleece,\r\nSupplied Ulysses\u2019 offspring with a seat.\r\nHe, next, disposed his dishes on the board\r\nWith relicts charged of yesterday; with bread,\r\nAlert, he heap\u2019d the baskets; with rich wine\r\nHis ivy cup replenish\u2019d; and a seat\r\nTook opposite to his illustrious Lord\r\nUlysses. They toward the plenteous feast\r\nStretch\u2019d forth their hands, (and hunger now and thirst\r\nBoth satisfied) Telemachus, his speech\r\nAddressing to their gen\u2019rous host, began.\r\nWhence is this guest, my father? How convey\u2019d\r\nCame he to Ithaca? What country boast\r\nThe mariners with whom he here arrived?\r\nFor, that on foot he found us not, is sure.\r\nTo whom Eum\u00e6us, thou didst thus reply.\r\nI will with truth answer thee, O my son!\r\nHe boasts him sprung from ancestry renown\u2019d\r\nIn spacious Crete, and hath the cities seen\r\nOf various lands, by fate ordain\u2019d to roam.\r\nEv\u2019n now, from a Thesprotian ship escaped,\r\nHe reach\u2019d my cottage\u2014but he is thy own;\r\nI yield him to thee; treat him as thou wilt;\r\nHe is thy suppliant, and depends on thee.\r\nThen thus, Telemachus, discrete, replied.\r\nThy words, Eum\u00e6us, pain my very soul.\r\nFor what security can I afford\r\nTo any in my house? myself am young,\r\nNor yet of strength sufficient to repel\r\nAn offer\u2019d insult, and my mother\u2019s mind\r\nIn doubtful balance hangs, if, still with me\r\nAn inmate, she shall manage my concerns,\r\nAttentive only to her absent Lord\r\nAnd her own good report, or shall espouse\r\nThe noblest of her wooers, and the best\r\nEntitled by the splendour of his gifts.\r\nBut I will give him, since I find him lodg\u2019d\r\nA guest beneath thy roof, tunic and cloak,\r\nSword double-edged, and sandals for his feet,\r\nWith convoy to the country of his choice.\r\nStill, if it please thee, keep him here thy guest,\r\nAnd I will send him raiment, with supplies\r\nOf all sorts, lest he burthen thee and thine.\r\nBut where the suitors come, there shall not he\r\nWith my consent, nor stand exposed to pride\r\nAnd petulance like theirs, lest by some sneer\r\nThey wound him, and through him, wound also me;\r\nFor little is it that the boldest can\r\nAgainst so many; numbers will prevail.\r\nHim answer\u2019d then Ulysses toil-inured.\r\nOh amiable and good! since even I\r\nAm free to answer thee, I will avow\r\nMy heart within me torn by what I hear\r\nOf those injurious suitors, who the house\r\nInfest of one noble as thou appear\u2019st.\r\nBut say\u2014submittest thou to their controul\r\nWillingly, or because the people, sway\u2019d\r\nBy some response oracular, incline\r\nAgainst thee? Thou hast brothers, it may chance,\r\nSlow to assist thee\u2014for a brother\u2019s aid\r\nIs of importance in whatever cause.\r\nFor oh that I had youth as I have will,\r\nOr that renown\u2019d Ulysses were my sire,\r\nOr that himself might wander home again.\r\nWhereof hope yet remains! then might I lose\r\nMy head, that moment, by an alien\u2019s hand,\r\nIf I would fail, ent\u2019ring Ulysses\u2019 gate,\r\nTo be the bane and mischief of them all.\r\nBut if alone to multitudes opposed\r\nI should perchance be foiled; nobler it were\r\nWith my own people, under my own roof\r\nTo perish, than to witness evermore\r\nTheir unexampled deeds, guests shoved aside,\r\nMaidens dragg\u2019d forcibly from room to room,\r\nCasks emptied of their rich contents, and them\r\nIndulging glutt\u2019nous appetite day by day\r\nEnormous, without measure, without end.\r\nTo whom, Telemachus, discrete, replied.\r\nStranger! thy questions shall from me receive\r\nTrue answer. Enmity or hatred none\r\nSubsists the people and myself between,\r\nNor have I brothers to accuse, whose aid\r\nIs of importance in whatever cause,\r\nFor Jove hath from of old with single heirs\r\nOur house supplied; Arcesias none begat\r\nExcept Laertes, and Laertes none\r\nExcept Ulysses, and Ulysses me\r\nLeft here his only one, and unenjoy\u2019d.\r\nThence comes it that our palace swarms with foes;\r\nFor all the rulers of the neighbour isles,\r\nSamos, Dulichium, and the forest-crown\u2019d\r\nZacynthus, others also rulers here\r\nIn craggy Ithaca, my mother seek\r\nIn marriage, and my household stores consume.\r\nBut neither she those nuptial rites abhorr\u2019d\r\nRefuses absolute, nor yet consents\r\nTo end them; they my patrimony waste\r\nMeantime, and will destroy me also soon,\r\nAs I expect, but heav\u2019n disposes all.\r\nEum\u00e6us! haste, my father! bear with speed\r\nNews to Penelope that I am safe,\r\nAnd have arrived from Pylus; I will wait\r\nTill thou return; and well beware that none\r\nHear thee beside, for I have many foes.\r\nTo whom Eum\u00e6us, thou didst thus reply.\r\nIt is enough. I understand. Thou speak\u2019st\r\nTo one intelligent. But say beside,\r\nShall I not also, as I go, inform\r\nDistress\u2019d Laertes? who while yet he mourn\u2019d\r\nUlysses only, could o\u2019ersee the works,\r\nAnd dieted among his menials oft\r\nAs hunger prompted him, but now, they say,\r\nSince thy departure to the Pylian shore,\r\nHe neither eats as he was wont, nor drinks,\r\nNor oversees his hinds, but sighing sits\r\nAnd weeping, wasted even to the bone.\r\nHim then Telemachus answer\u2019d discrete.\r\nHard though it be, yet to his tears and sighs\r\nHim leave we now. We cannot what we would.\r\nFor, were the ordering of all events\r\nReferr\u2019d to our own choice, our first desire\r\nShould be to see my father\u2019s glad return.\r\nBut once thy tidings told, wander not thou\r\nIn quest of Him, but hither speed again.\r\nRather request my mother that she send\r\nHer household\u2019s governess without delay\r\nPrivately to him; she shall best inform\r\nThe ancient King that I have safe arrived.\r\nHe said, and urged him forth, who binding on\r\nHis sandals, to the city bent his way.\r\nNor went Eum\u00e6us from his home unmark\u2019d\r\nBy Pallas, who in semblance of a fair\r\nDamsel, accomplish\u2019d in domestic arts,\r\nApproaching to the cottage\u2019 entrance, stood\r\nOpposite, by Ulysses plain discern\u2019d,\r\nBut to his son invisible; for the Gods\r\nAppear not manifest alike to all.\r\nThe mastiffs saw her also, and with tone\r\nQuerulous hid themselves, yet bark\u2019d they not.\r\nShe beckon\u2019d him abroad. Ulysses saw\r\nThe sign, and, issuing through the outer court,\r\nApproach\u2019d her, whom the Goddess thus bespake.\r\nLaertes\u2019 progeny, for wiles renown\u2019d!\r\nDisclose thyself to thy own son, that, death\r\nConcerting and destruction to your foes,\r\nYe may the royal city seek, nor long\r\nShall ye my presence there desire in vain,\r\nFor I am ardent to begin the fight.\r\nMinerva spake, and with her rod of gold\r\nTouch\u2019d him; his mantle, first, and vest she made\r\nPure as new-blanch\u2019d; dilating, next, his form,\r\nShe gave dimensions ampler to his limbs;\r\nSwarthy again his manly hue became,\r\nRound his full face, and black his bushy chin.\r\nThe change perform\u2019d, Minerva disappear\u2019d,\r\nAnd the illustrious Hero turn\u2019d again\r\nInto the cottage; wonder at that sight\r\nSeiz\u2019d on Telemachus; askance he look\u2019d,\r\nAwe-struck, not unsuspicious of a God,\r\nAnd in wing\u2019d accents eager thus began.\r\nThou art no longer, whom I lately saw,\r\nNor are thy cloaths, nor is thy port the same.\r\nThou art a God, I know, and dwell\u2019st in heav\u2019n.\r\nOh, smile on us, that we may yield thee rites\r\nAcceptable, and present thee golden gifts\r\nElaborate; ah spare us, Pow\u2019r divine!\r\nTo whom Ulysses, Hero toil-inured.\r\nI am no God. Why deem\u2019st thou me divine?\r\nI am thy father, for whose sake thou lead\u2019st\r\nA life of woe, by violence oppress\u2019d.\r\nSo saying, he kiss\u2019d his son, while from his cheeks\r\nTears trickled, tears till then, perforce restrained.\r\nTelemachus, (for he believed him not\r\nHis father yet) thus, wond\u2019ring, spake again.\r\nMy father, said\u2019st thou? no. Thou art not He,\r\nBut some Divinity beguiles my soul\r\nWith mock\u2019ries to afflict me still the more;\r\nFor never mortal man could so have wrought\r\nBy his own pow\u2019r; some interposing God\r\nAlone could render thee both young and old,\r\nFor old thou wast of late, and foully clad,\r\nBut wear\u2019st the semblance, now, of those in heav\u2019n!\r\nTo whom Ulysses, ever-wise, replied.\r\nTelemachus! it is not well, my son!\r\nThat thou should\u2019st greet thy father with a face\r\nOf wild astonishment, and stand aghast.\r\nUlysses, save myself, none comes, be sure.\r\nSuch as thou seest, after ten thousand woes\r\nWhich I have borne, I visit once again\r\nMy native country in the twentieth year.\r\nThis wonder Athen\u00e6an Pallas wrought,\r\nShe cloath\u2019d me even with what form she would,\r\nFor so she can. Now poor I seem and old,\r\nNow young again, and clad in fresh attire.\r\nThe Gods who dwell in yonder heav\u2019n, with ease\r\nDignify or debase a mortal man.\r\nSo saying, he sat. Then threw Telemachus\r\nHis arms around his father\u2019s neck, and wept.\r\nDesire intense of lamentation seized\r\nOn both; soft murmurs utt\u2019ring, each indulged\r\nHis grief, more frequent wailing than the bird,\r\n(Eagle, or hook-nail\u2019d vulture) from whose nest\r\nSome swain hath stol\u2019n her yet unfeather\u2019d young.\r\nSo from their eyelids they big drops distill\u2019d\r\nOf tend\u2019rest grief, nor had the setting sun\r\nCessation of their weeping seen, had not\r\nTelemachus his father thus address\u2019d.\r\nWhat ship convey\u2019d thee to thy native shore,\r\nMy father! and what country boast the crew?\r\nFor, that on foot thou not arriv\u2019dst, is sure.\r\nThen thus divine Ulysses toil-inured.\r\nMy son! I will explicit all relate.\r\nConducted by Ph\u00e6acia\u2019s maritime sons\r\nI came, a race accustom\u2019d to convey\r\nStrangers who visit them across the Deep.\r\nMe, o\u2019er the billows in a rapid bark\r\nBorne sleeping, on the shores of Ithaca\r\nThey lay\u2019d; rich gifts they gave me also, brass,\r\nGold in full bags, and beautiful attire,\r\nWhich, warn\u2019d from heav\u2019n, I have in caves conceal\u2019d.\r\nBy Pallas prompted, hither I repair\u2019d\r\nThat we might plan the slaughter of our foes,\r\nWhose numbers tell me now, that I may know\r\nHow pow\u2019rful, certainly, and who they are,\r\nAnd consultation with my dauntless heart\r\nMay hold, if we be able to contend\r\nOurselves with all, or must have aid beside.\r\nThen, answer thus his son, discrete, return\u2019d.\r\nMy father! thy renown hath ever rung\r\nIn thy son\u2019s ears, and by report thy force\r\nIn arms, and wisdom I have oft been told.\r\nBut terribly thou speak\u2019st; amazement-fixt\r\nI hear; can two a multitude oppose,\r\nAnd valiant warriors all? for neither ten\r\nAre they, nor twenty, but more num\u2019rous far.\r\nLearn, now, their numbers. Fifty youths and two\r\nCame from Dulichium; they are chosen men,\r\nAnd six attendants follow in their train;\r\nFrom Samos twenty youths and four arrive,\r\nZacynthus also of Achaia\u2019s sons\r\nSends twenty more, and our own island adds,\r\nHerself, her twelve chief rulers; Medon, too,\r\nIs there the herald, and the bard divine,\r\nWith other two, intendants of the board.\r\nShould we within the palace, we alone,\r\nAssail them all, I fear lest thy revenge\r\nUnpleasant to thyself and deadly prove,\r\nFrustrating thy return. But recollect\u2014\r\nThink, if thou canst, on whose confed\u2019rate arm\r\nStrenuous on our behalf we may rely.\r\nTo him replied his patient father bold.\r\nI will inform thee. Mark. Weigh well my words.\r\nWill Pallas and the everlasting Sire\r\nAlone suffice? or need we other aids?\r\nThen answer thus Telemachus return\u2019d.\r\nGood friends indeed are they whom thou hast named,\r\nThough throned above the clouds; for their controul\r\nIs universal both in earth and heav\u2019n.\r\nTo whom Ulysses, toil-worn Chief renown\u2019d.\r\nNot long will they from battle stand aloof,\r\nWhen once, within my palace, in the strength\r\nOf Mars, to sharp decision we shall urge\r\nThe suitors. But thyself at early dawn\r\nOur mansion seek, that thou may\u2019st mingle there\r\nWith that imperious throng; me in due time\r\nEum\u00e6us to the city shall conduct,\r\nIn form a miserable beggar old.\r\nBut should they with dishonourable scorn\r\nInsult me, thou unmov\u2019d my wrongs endure,\r\nAnd should they even drag me by the feet\r\nAbroad, or smite me with the spear, thy wrath\r\nRefraining, gently counsel them to cease\r\nFrom such extravagance; but well I know\r\nThat cease they will not, for their hour is come.\r\nAnd mark me well; treasure what now I say\r\nDeep in thy soul. When Pallas shall, herself,\r\nSuggest the measure, then, shaking my brows,\r\nI will admonish thee; thou, at the sign,\r\nRemove what arms soever in the hall\r\nRemain, and in the upper palace safe\r\nDispose them; should the suitors, missing them,\r\nPerchance interrogate thee, then reply\r\nGently\u2014I have removed them from the smoke;\r\nFor they appear no more the arms which erst\r\nUlysses, going hence to Ilium, left,\r\nBut smirch\u2019d and sullied by the breath of fire.\r\nThis weightier reason (thou shalt also say)\r\nJove taught me; lest, intoxicate with wine,\r\nYe should assault each other in your brawls,\r\nShaming both feast and courtship; for the view\r\nItself of arms incites to their abuse.\r\nYet leave two faulchions for ourselves alone,\r\nTwo spears, two bucklers, which with sudden force\r\nImpetuous we will seize, and Jove all-wise\r\nTheir valour shall, and Pallas, steal away.\r\nThis word store also in remembrance deep\u2014\r\nIf mine in truth thou art, and of my blood,\r\nThen, of Ulysses to his home returned\r\nLet none hear news from thee, no, not my sire\r\nLaertes, nor Eum\u00e6us, nor of all\r\nThe menials any, or ev\u2019n Penelope,\r\nThat thou and I, alone, may search the drift\r\nOf our domestic women, and may prove\r\nOur serving-men, who honours and reveres\r\nAnd who contemns us both, but chiefly thee\r\nSo gracious and so worthy to be loved.\r\nHim then thus answer\u2019d his illustrious son.\r\nTrust me, my father! thou shalt soon be taught\r\nThat I am not of drowsy mind obtuse.\r\nBut this I think not likely to avail\r\nOr thee or me; ponder it yet again;\r\nFor tedious were the task, farm after farm\r\nTo visit of those servants, proving each,\r\nAnd the proud suitors merciless devour\r\nMeantime thy substance, nor abstain from aught.\r\nLearn, if thou wilt, (and I that course myself\r\nAdvise) who slights thee of the female train,\r\nAnd who is guiltless; but I would not try\r\nFrom house to house the men, far better proved\r\nHereafter, if in truth by signs from heav\u2019n\r\nInform\u2019d, thou hast been taught the will of Jove.\r\nThus they conferr\u2019d. The gallant bark, meantime,\r\nReach\u2019d Ithaca, which from the Pylian shore\r\nHad brought Telemachus with all his band.\r\nWithin the many-fathom\u2019d port arrived\r\nHis lusty followers haled her far aground,\r\nThen carried thence their arms, but to the house\r\nOf Clytius the illustrious gifts convey\u2019d.\r\nNext to the royal mansion they dispatch\u2019d\r\nAn herald charg\u2019d with tidings to the Queen,\r\nThat her Telemachus had reach\u2019d the cot\r\nOf good Eum\u00e6us, and the bark had sent\r\nHome to the city; lest the matchless dame\r\nShould still deplore the absence of her son.\r\nThey, then, the herald and the swine-herd, each\r\nBearing like message to his mistress, met,\r\nAnd at the palace of the godlike Chief\r\nArriving, compass\u2019d by the female throng\r\nInquisitive, the herald thus began.\r\nThy son, O Queen! is safe; ev\u2019n now return\u2019d.\r\nThen, drawing nigh to her, Eum\u00e6us told\r\nHis message also from her son received,\r\nAnd, his commission punctually discharged,\r\nLeaving the palace, sought his home again.\r\nGrief seized and anguish, at those tidings, all\r\nThe suitors; issuing forth, on the outside\r\nOf the high wall they sat, before the gate,\r\nWhen Polybus\u2019 son, Eurymachus, began.\r\nMy friends! his arduous task, this voyage, deem\u2019d\r\nBy us impossible, in our despight\r\nTelemachus hath atchieved. Haste! launch we forth\r\nA sable bark, our best, which let us man\r\nWith mariners expert, who, rowing forth\r\nSwiftly, shall summon our companions home.\r\nScarce had he said, when turning where he sat,\r\nAmphinomus beheld a bark arrived\r\nJust then in port; he saw them furling sail,\r\nAnd seated with their oars in hand; he laugh\u2019d\r\nThrough pleasure at that sight, and thus he spake.\r\nOur message may be spared. Lo! they arrive.\r\nEither some God inform\u2019d them, or they saw,\r\nThemselves, the vessel of Telemachus\r\nToo swiftly passing to be reach\u2019d by theirs.\r\nHe spake; they, rising, hasted to the shore.\r\nAlert they drew the sable bark aground,\r\nAnd by his servant each his arms dispatch\u2019d\r\nTo his own home. Then, all, to council those\r\nAssembling, neither elder of the land\r\nNor youth allow\u2019d to join them, and the rest\r\nEupithes\u2019 son, Antino\u00fcs, thus bespake.\r\nAh! how the Gods have rescued him! all day\r\nPerch\u2019d on the airy mountain-top, our spies\r\nSuccessive watch\u2019d; and, when the sun declined,\r\nWe never slept on shore, but all night long\r\nTill sacred dawn arose, plow\u2019d the abyss,\r\nHoping Telemachus, that we might seize\r\nAnd slay him, whom some Deity hath led,\r\nIn our despight, safe to his home again.\r\nBut frame we yet again means to destroy\r\nTelemachus; ah\u2014let not Him escape!\r\nFor end of this our task, while he survives,\r\nNone shall be found, such prudence he displays\r\nAnd wisdom, neither are the people now\r\nUnanimous our friends as heretofore.\r\nCome, then\u2014prevent him, ere he call the Greeks\r\nTo council; for he will not long delay,\r\nBut will be angry, doubtless, and will tell\r\nAmid them all, how we in vain devised\r\nHis death, a deed which they will scarce applaud,\r\nBut will, perhaps, punish and drive us forth\r\nFrom our own country to a distant land.\u2014\r\nPrevent him, therefore, quickly; in the field\r\nSlay him, or on the road; so shall his wealth\r\nAnd his possessions on ourselves devolve\r\nWhich we will share equally, but his house\r\nShall be the Queen\u2019s, and his whom she shall wed.\r\nYet, if not so inclined, ye rather chuse\r\nThat he should live and occupy entire\r\nHis patrimony, then, no longer, here\r\nAssembled, let us revel at his cost,\r\nBut let us all with spousal gifts produced\r\nFrom our respective treasures, woo the Queen,\r\nLeaving her in full freedom to espouse\r\nWho proffers most, and whom the fates ordain.\r\nHe ceased; the assembly silent sat and mute.\r\nThen rose Amphinomus amid them all,\r\nOffspring renown\u2019d of Nisus, son, himself,\r\nOf King Aretias. He had thither led\r\nThe suitor train who from the pleasant isle\r\nCorn-clad of green Dulichium had arrived,\r\nAnd by his speech pleased far beyond them all\r\nPenelope, for he was just and wise,\r\nAnd thus, well-counselling the rest, began.\r\nNot I, my friends! far be the thought from me\r\nTo slay Telemachus! it were a deed\r\nMomentous, terrible, to slay a prince.\r\nFirst, therefore, let us counsel ask of heav\u2019n,\r\nAnd if Jove\u2019s oracle that course approve,\r\nI will encourage you, and will myself\r\nBe active in his death; but if the Gods\r\nForbid it, then, by my advice, forbear.\r\nSo spake Amphinomus, whom all approved.\r\nArising then, into Ulysses\u2019 house\r\nThey went, where each his splendid seat resumed.\r\nA novel purpose occupied, meantime,\r\nPenelope; she purposed to appear\r\nBefore her suitors, whose design to slay\r\nTelemachus she had from Medon learn\u2019d,\r\nThe herald, for his ear had caught the sound.\r\nToward the hall with her attendant train\r\nShe moved, and when, most graceful of her sex,\r\nWhere sat the suitors she arrived, between\r\nThe columns standing of the stately dome,\r\nAnd covering with her white veil\u2019s lucid folds\r\nHer features, to Antino\u00fcs thus she spake.\r\nAntino\u00fcs, proud, contentious, evermore\r\nTo mischief prone! the people deem thee wise\r\nPast thy compeers, and in all grace of speech\r\nPre-eminent, but such wast never thou.\r\nInhuman! why is it thy dark design\r\nTo slay Telemachus? and why with scorn\r\nRejectest thou the suppliant\u2019s pray\u2019r,[footnote]Alluding probably to entreaties made to him at some former time by herself and Telemachus, that he would not harm them. Clarke.[\/footnote]<\/sup> which Jove\r\nHimself hath witness\u2019d? Plots please not the Gods.\r\nKnow\u2019st not that thy own father refuge found\r\nHere, when he fled before the people\u2019s wrath\r\nWhom he had irritated by a wrong\r\nWhich, with a band of Taphian robbers joined,\r\nHe offer\u2019d to the Thesprots, our allies?\r\nThey would have torn his heart, and would have laid\r\nAll his delights and his possessions waste,\r\nBut my Ulysses slaked the furious heat\r\nOf their revenge, whom thou requitest now\r\nWasting his goods, soliciting his wife,\r\nSlaying his son, and filling me with woe.\r\nBut cease, I charge thee, and bid cease the rest.\r\nTo whom the son of Polybus replied,\r\nEurymachus.\u2014Icarius\u2019 daughter wise!\r\nTake courage, fair Penelope, and chace\r\nThese fears unreasonable from thy mind!\r\nThe man lives not, nor shall, who while I live,\r\nAnd faculty of sight retain, shall harm\r\nTelemachus, thy son. For thus I say,\r\nAnd thus will I perform; his blood shall stream\r\nA sable current from my lance\u2019s point\r\nThat moment; for the city-waster Chief\r\nUlysses, oft, me placing on his knees,\r\nHath fill\u2019d my infant grasp with sav\u2019ry food,\r\nAnd giv\u2019n me ruddy wine. I, therefore, hold\r\nTelemachus of all men most my friend,\r\nNor hath he death to fear from hand of ours.\r\nYet, if the Gods shall doom him, die he must.\r\nSo he encouraged her, who yet, himself,\r\nPlotted his death. She, re-ascending, sought\r\nHer stately chamber, and, arriving there,\r\nDeplored with tears her long-regretted Lord\r\nTill Athen\u00e6an Pallas azure-eyed\r\nDews of soft slumber o\u2019er her lids diffused.\r\nAnd now, at even-tide, Eum\u00e6us reach\u2019d\r\nUlysses and his son. A yearling swine\r\nJust slain they skilfully for food prepared,\r\nWhen Pallas, drawing nigh, smote with her wand\r\nUlysses, at the stroke rend\u2019ring him old,\r\nAnd his apparel sordid as before,\r\nLest, knowing him, the swain at once should seek\r\nPenelope, and let the secret forth.\r\nThen foremost him Telemachus address\u2019d.\r\nNoble Eum\u00e6us! thou art come; what news\r\nBring\u2019st from the city? Have the warrior band\r\nOf suitors, hopeless of their ambush, reach\u2019d\r\nThe port again, or wait they still for me?\r\nTo whom Eum\u00e6us, thou didst thus reply.\r\nNo time for such enquiry, nor to range,\r\nCurious, the streets had I, but anxious wish\u2019d\r\nTo make my message known, and to return.\r\nBut, as it chanced, a nimble herald sent\r\nFrom thy companions, met me on the way,\r\nWho reach\u2019d thy mother first. Yet this I know,\r\nFor this I saw. Passing above the town\r\nWhere they have piled a way-side hill of stones\r\nTo Mercury, I beheld a gallant bark\r\nEnt\u2019ring the port; a bark she was of ours,\r\nThe crew were num\u2019rous, and I mark\u2019d her deep-\r\nLaden with shields and spears of double edge.\r\nTheirs I conjectured her, and could no more.\r\nHe spake, and by Eum\u00e6us unperceived,\r\nTelemachus his father eyed and smiled.\r\nTheir task accomplish\u2019d, and the table spread,\r\nThey ate, nor any his due portion miss\u2019d,\r\nAnd hunger, now, and thirst both sated, all\r\nTo rest repair\u2019d, and took the gift of sleep.","rendered":"

Argument<\/b><\/h2>\n

Telemachus dispatches Eum\u00e6us to the city to inform Penelope of his safe return from Pylus; during his absence, Ulysses makes himself known to his son. The suitors, having watched for Telemachus in vain, arrive again at Ithaca.<\/p>\n

It was the hour of dawn, when in the cot
\nKindling fresh fire, Ulysses and his friend
\nNoble Eum\u00e6us dress\u2019d their morning fare,
\nAnd sent the herdsmen with the swine abroad.
\nSeeing Telemachus, the watchful dogs
\nBark\u2019d not, but fawn\u2019d around him. At that sight,
\nAnd at the sound of feet which now approach\u2019d,
\nUlysses in wing\u2019d accents thus remark\u2019d.
\nEum\u00e6us! certain, either friend of thine
\nIs nigh at hand, or one whom well thou know\u2019st;
\nThy dogs bark not, but fawn on his approach
\nObsequious, and the sound of feet I hear.
\nScarce had he ceased, when his own son himself
\nStood in the vestibule. Upsprang at once
\nEum\u00e6us wonder-struck, and from his hand
\nLet fall the cups with which he was employ\u2019d
\nMingling rich wine; to his young Lord he ran,
\nHis forehead kiss\u2019d, kiss\u2019d his bright-beaming eyes
\nAnd both his hands, weeping profuse the while,
\nAs when a father folds in his embrace
\nArrived from foreign lands in the tenth year
\nHis darling son, the offspring of his age,
\nHis only one, for whom he long hath mourn\u2019d,
\nSo kiss\u2019d the noble peasant o\u2019er and o\u2019er
\nGodlike Telemachus, as from death escaped,
\nAnd in wing\u2019d accents plaintive thus began.
\nLight of my eyes, thou com\u2019st; it is thyself,
\nSweetest Telemachus! I had no hope
\nTo see thee more, once told that o\u2019er the Deep
\nThou hadst departed for the Pylian coast.
\nEnter, my precious son; that I may sooth
\nMy soul with sight of thee from far arrived,
\nFor seldom thou thy feeders and thy farm
\nVisitest, in the city custom\u2019d much
\nTo make abode, that thou may\u2019st witness there
\nThe manners of those hungry suitors proud.
\nTo whom Telemachus, discrete, replied.
\nIt will be so. There is great need, my friend!
\nBut here, for thy sake, have I now arrived,
\nThat I may look on thee, and from thy lips
\nLearn if my mother still reside at home,
\nOr have become spouse of some other Chief,
\nLeaving untenanted Ulysses\u2019 bed
\nTo be by noisome spiders webb\u2019d around.
\nTo whom the master swine-herd in return.
\nNot so, she, patient still as ever, dwells
\nBeneath thy roof, but all her cheerless days
\nDespairing wastes, and all her nights in tears.
\nSo saying, Eum\u00e6us at his hand received
\nHis brazen lance, and o\u2019er the step of stone
\nEnter\u2019d Telemachus, to whom his sire
\nRelinquish\u2019d, soon as he appear\u2019d, his seat,
\nBut him Telemachus forbidding, said\u2014
\nGuest, keep thy seat; our cottage will afford
\nSome other, which Eum\u00e6us will provide.
\nHe ceased, and he, returning at the word,
\nReposed again; then good Eum\u00e6us spread
\nGreen twigs beneath, which, cover\u2019d with a fleece,
\nSupplied Ulysses\u2019 offspring with a seat.
\nHe, next, disposed his dishes on the board
\nWith relicts charged of yesterday; with bread,
\nAlert, he heap\u2019d the baskets; with rich wine
\nHis ivy cup replenish\u2019d; and a seat
\nTook opposite to his illustrious Lord
\nUlysses. They toward the plenteous feast
\nStretch\u2019d forth their hands, (and hunger now and thirst
\nBoth satisfied) Telemachus, his speech
\nAddressing to their gen\u2019rous host, began.
\nWhence is this guest, my father? How convey\u2019d
\nCame he to Ithaca? What country boast
\nThe mariners with whom he here arrived?
\nFor, that on foot he found us not, is sure.
\nTo whom Eum\u00e6us, thou didst thus reply.
\nI will with truth answer thee, O my son!
\nHe boasts him sprung from ancestry renown\u2019d
\nIn spacious Crete, and hath the cities seen
\nOf various lands, by fate ordain\u2019d to roam.
\nEv\u2019n now, from a Thesprotian ship escaped,
\nHe reach\u2019d my cottage\u2014but he is thy own;
\nI yield him to thee; treat him as thou wilt;
\nHe is thy suppliant, and depends on thee.
\nThen thus, Telemachus, discrete, replied.
\nThy words, Eum\u00e6us, pain my very soul.
\nFor what security can I afford
\nTo any in my house? myself am young,
\nNor yet of strength sufficient to repel
\nAn offer\u2019d insult, and my mother\u2019s mind
\nIn doubtful balance hangs, if, still with me
\nAn inmate, she shall manage my concerns,
\nAttentive only to her absent Lord
\nAnd her own good report, or shall espouse
\nThe noblest of her wooers, and the best
\nEntitled by the splendour of his gifts.
\nBut I will give him, since I find him lodg\u2019d
\nA guest beneath thy roof, tunic and cloak,
\nSword double-edged, and sandals for his feet,
\nWith convoy to the country of his choice.
\nStill, if it please thee, keep him here thy guest,
\nAnd I will send him raiment, with supplies
\nOf all sorts, lest he burthen thee and thine.
\nBut where the suitors come, there shall not he
\nWith my consent, nor stand exposed to pride
\nAnd petulance like theirs, lest by some sneer
\nThey wound him, and through him, wound also me;
\nFor little is it that the boldest can
\nAgainst so many; numbers will prevail.
\nHim answer\u2019d then Ulysses toil-inured.
\nOh amiable and good! since even I
\nAm free to answer thee, I will avow
\nMy heart within me torn by what I hear
\nOf those injurious suitors, who the house
\nInfest of one noble as thou appear\u2019st.
\nBut say\u2014submittest thou to their controul
\nWillingly, or because the people, sway\u2019d
\nBy some response oracular, incline
\nAgainst thee? Thou hast brothers, it may chance,
\nSlow to assist thee\u2014for a brother\u2019s aid
\nIs of importance in whatever cause.
\nFor oh that I had youth as I have will,
\nOr that renown\u2019d Ulysses were my sire,
\nOr that himself might wander home again.
\nWhereof hope yet remains! then might I lose
\nMy head, that moment, by an alien\u2019s hand,
\nIf I would fail, ent\u2019ring Ulysses\u2019 gate,
\nTo be the bane and mischief of them all.
\nBut if alone to multitudes opposed
\nI should perchance be foiled; nobler it were
\nWith my own people, under my own roof
\nTo perish, than to witness evermore
\nTheir unexampled deeds, guests shoved aside,
\nMaidens dragg\u2019d forcibly from room to room,
\nCasks emptied of their rich contents, and them
\nIndulging glutt\u2019nous appetite day by day
\nEnormous, without measure, without end.
\nTo whom, Telemachus, discrete, replied.
\nStranger! thy questions shall from me receive
\nTrue answer. Enmity or hatred none
\nSubsists the people and myself between,
\nNor have I brothers to accuse, whose aid
\nIs of importance in whatever cause,
\nFor Jove hath from of old with single heirs
\nOur house supplied; Arcesias none begat
\nExcept Laertes, and Laertes none
\nExcept Ulysses, and Ulysses me
\nLeft here his only one, and unenjoy\u2019d.
\nThence comes it that our palace swarms with foes;
\nFor all the rulers of the neighbour isles,
\nSamos, Dulichium, and the forest-crown\u2019d
\nZacynthus, others also rulers here
\nIn craggy Ithaca, my mother seek
\nIn marriage, and my household stores consume.
\nBut neither she those nuptial rites abhorr\u2019d
\nRefuses absolute, nor yet consents
\nTo end them; they my patrimony waste
\nMeantime, and will destroy me also soon,
\nAs I expect, but heav\u2019n disposes all.
\nEum\u00e6us! haste, my father! bear with speed
\nNews to Penelope that I am safe,
\nAnd have arrived from Pylus; I will wait
\nTill thou return; and well beware that none
\nHear thee beside, for I have many foes.
\nTo whom Eum\u00e6us, thou didst thus reply.
\nIt is enough. I understand. Thou speak\u2019st
\nTo one intelligent. But say beside,
\nShall I not also, as I go, inform
\nDistress\u2019d Laertes? who while yet he mourn\u2019d
\nUlysses only, could o\u2019ersee the works,
\nAnd dieted among his menials oft
\nAs hunger prompted him, but now, they say,
\nSince thy departure to the Pylian shore,
\nHe neither eats as he was wont, nor drinks,
\nNor oversees his hinds, but sighing sits
\nAnd weeping, wasted even to the bone.
\nHim then Telemachus answer\u2019d discrete.
\nHard though it be, yet to his tears and sighs
\nHim leave we now. We cannot what we would.
\nFor, were the ordering of all events
\nReferr\u2019d to our own choice, our first desire
\nShould be to see my father\u2019s glad return.
\nBut once thy tidings told, wander not thou
\nIn quest of Him, but hither speed again.
\nRather request my mother that she send
\nHer household\u2019s governess without delay
\nPrivately to him; she shall best inform
\nThe ancient King that I have safe arrived.
\nHe said, and urged him forth, who binding on
\nHis sandals, to the city bent his way.
\nNor went Eum\u00e6us from his home unmark\u2019d
\nBy Pallas, who in semblance of a fair
\nDamsel, accomplish\u2019d in domestic arts,
\nApproaching to the cottage\u2019 entrance, stood
\nOpposite, by Ulysses plain discern\u2019d,
\nBut to his son invisible; for the Gods
\nAppear not manifest alike to all.
\nThe mastiffs saw her also, and with tone
\nQuerulous hid themselves, yet bark\u2019d they not.
\nShe beckon\u2019d him abroad. Ulysses saw
\nThe sign, and, issuing through the outer court,
\nApproach\u2019d her, whom the Goddess thus bespake.
\nLaertes\u2019 progeny, for wiles renown\u2019d!
\nDisclose thyself to thy own son, that, death
\nConcerting and destruction to your foes,
\nYe may the royal city seek, nor long
\nShall ye my presence there desire in vain,
\nFor I am ardent to begin the fight.
\nMinerva spake, and with her rod of gold
\nTouch\u2019d him; his mantle, first, and vest she made
\nPure as new-blanch\u2019d; dilating, next, his form,
\nShe gave dimensions ampler to his limbs;
\nSwarthy again his manly hue became,
\nRound his full face, and black his bushy chin.
\nThe change perform\u2019d, Minerva disappear\u2019d,
\nAnd the illustrious Hero turn\u2019d again
\nInto the cottage; wonder at that sight
\nSeiz\u2019d on Telemachus; askance he look\u2019d,
\nAwe-struck, not unsuspicious of a God,
\nAnd in wing\u2019d accents eager thus began.
\nThou art no longer, whom I lately saw,
\nNor are thy cloaths, nor is thy port the same.
\nThou art a God, I know, and dwell\u2019st in heav\u2019n.
\nOh, smile on us, that we may yield thee rites
\nAcceptable, and present thee golden gifts
\nElaborate; ah spare us, Pow\u2019r divine!
\nTo whom Ulysses, Hero toil-inured.
\nI am no God. Why deem\u2019st thou me divine?
\nI am thy father, for whose sake thou lead\u2019st
\nA life of woe, by violence oppress\u2019d.
\nSo saying, he kiss\u2019d his son, while from his cheeks
\nTears trickled, tears till then, perforce restrained.
\nTelemachus, (for he believed him not
\nHis father yet) thus, wond\u2019ring, spake again.
\nMy father, said\u2019st thou? no. Thou art not He,
\nBut some Divinity beguiles my soul
\nWith mock\u2019ries to afflict me still the more;
\nFor never mortal man could so have wrought
\nBy his own pow\u2019r; some interposing God
\nAlone could render thee both young and old,
\nFor old thou wast of late, and foully clad,
\nBut wear\u2019st the semblance, now, of those in heav\u2019n!
\nTo whom Ulysses, ever-wise, replied.
\nTelemachus! it is not well, my son!
\nThat thou should\u2019st greet thy father with a face
\nOf wild astonishment, and stand aghast.
\nUlysses, save myself, none comes, be sure.
\nSuch as thou seest, after ten thousand woes
\nWhich I have borne, I visit once again
\nMy native country in the twentieth year.
\nThis wonder Athen\u00e6an Pallas wrought,
\nShe cloath\u2019d me even with what form she would,
\nFor so she can. Now poor I seem and old,
\nNow young again, and clad in fresh attire.
\nThe Gods who dwell in yonder heav\u2019n, with ease
\nDignify or debase a mortal man.
\nSo saying, he sat. Then threw Telemachus
\nHis arms around his father\u2019s neck, and wept.
\nDesire intense of lamentation seized
\nOn both; soft murmurs utt\u2019ring, each indulged
\nHis grief, more frequent wailing than the bird,
\n(Eagle, or hook-nail\u2019d vulture) from whose nest
\nSome swain hath stol\u2019n her yet unfeather\u2019d young.
\nSo from their eyelids they big drops distill\u2019d
\nOf tend\u2019rest grief, nor had the setting sun
\nCessation of their weeping seen, had not
\nTelemachus his father thus address\u2019d.
\nWhat ship convey\u2019d thee to thy native shore,
\nMy father! and what country boast the crew?
\nFor, that on foot thou not arriv\u2019dst, is sure.
\nThen thus divine Ulysses toil-inured.
\nMy son! I will explicit all relate.
\nConducted by Ph\u00e6acia\u2019s maritime sons
\nI came, a race accustom\u2019d to convey
\nStrangers who visit them across the Deep.
\nMe, o\u2019er the billows in a rapid bark
\nBorne sleeping, on the shores of Ithaca
\nThey lay\u2019d; rich gifts they gave me also, brass,
\nGold in full bags, and beautiful attire,
\nWhich, warn\u2019d from heav\u2019n, I have in caves conceal\u2019d.
\nBy Pallas prompted, hither I repair\u2019d
\nThat we might plan the slaughter of our foes,
\nWhose numbers tell me now, that I may know
\nHow pow\u2019rful, certainly, and who they are,
\nAnd consultation with my dauntless heart
\nMay hold, if we be able to contend
\nOurselves with all, or must have aid beside.
\nThen, answer thus his son, discrete, return\u2019d.
\nMy father! thy renown hath ever rung
\nIn thy son\u2019s ears, and by report thy force
\nIn arms, and wisdom I have oft been told.
\nBut terribly thou speak\u2019st; amazement-fixt
\nI hear; can two a multitude oppose,
\nAnd valiant warriors all? for neither ten
\nAre they, nor twenty, but more num\u2019rous far.
\nLearn, now, their numbers. Fifty youths and two
\nCame from Dulichium; they are chosen men,
\nAnd six attendants follow in their train;
\nFrom Samos twenty youths and four arrive,
\nZacynthus also of Achaia\u2019s sons
\nSends twenty more, and our own island adds,
\nHerself, her twelve chief rulers; Medon, too,
\nIs there the herald, and the bard divine,
\nWith other two, intendants of the board.
\nShould we within the palace, we alone,
\nAssail them all, I fear lest thy revenge
\nUnpleasant to thyself and deadly prove,
\nFrustrating thy return. But recollect\u2014
\nThink, if thou canst, on whose confed\u2019rate arm
\nStrenuous on our behalf we may rely.
\nTo him replied his patient father bold.
\nI will inform thee. Mark. Weigh well my words.
\nWill Pallas and the everlasting Sire
\nAlone suffice? or need we other aids?
\nThen answer thus Telemachus return\u2019d.
\nGood friends indeed are they whom thou hast named,
\nThough throned above the clouds; for their controul
\nIs universal both in earth and heav\u2019n.
\nTo whom Ulysses, toil-worn Chief renown\u2019d.
\nNot long will they from battle stand aloof,
\nWhen once, within my palace, in the strength
\nOf Mars, to sharp decision we shall urge
\nThe suitors. But thyself at early dawn
\nOur mansion seek, that thou may\u2019st mingle there
\nWith that imperious throng; me in due time
\nEum\u00e6us to the city shall conduct,
\nIn form a miserable beggar old.
\nBut should they with dishonourable scorn
\nInsult me, thou unmov\u2019d my wrongs endure,
\nAnd should they even drag me by the feet
\nAbroad, or smite me with the spear, thy wrath
\nRefraining, gently counsel them to cease
\nFrom such extravagance; but well I know
\nThat cease they will not, for their hour is come.
\nAnd mark me well; treasure what now I say
\nDeep in thy soul. When Pallas shall, herself,
\nSuggest the measure, then, shaking my brows,
\nI will admonish thee; thou, at the sign,
\nRemove what arms soever in the hall
\nRemain, and in the upper palace safe
\nDispose them; should the suitors, missing them,
\nPerchance interrogate thee, then reply
\nGently\u2014I have removed them from the smoke;
\nFor they appear no more the arms which erst
\nUlysses, going hence to Ilium, left,
\nBut smirch\u2019d and sullied by the breath of fire.
\nThis weightier reason (thou shalt also say)
\nJove taught me; lest, intoxicate with wine,
\nYe should assault each other in your brawls,
\nShaming both feast and courtship; for the view
\nItself of arms incites to their abuse.
\nYet leave two faulchions for ourselves alone,
\nTwo spears, two bucklers, which with sudden force
\nImpetuous we will seize, and Jove all-wise
\nTheir valour shall, and Pallas, steal away.
\nThis word store also in remembrance deep\u2014
\nIf mine in truth thou art, and of my blood,
\nThen, of Ulysses to his home returned
\nLet none hear news from thee, no, not my sire
\nLaertes, nor Eum\u00e6us, nor of all
\nThe menials any, or ev\u2019n Penelope,
\nThat thou and I, alone, may search the drift
\nOf our domestic women, and may prove
\nOur serving-men, who honours and reveres
\nAnd who contemns us both, but chiefly thee
\nSo gracious and so worthy to be loved.
\nHim then thus answer\u2019d his illustrious son.
\nTrust me, my father! thou shalt soon be taught
\nThat I am not of drowsy mind obtuse.
\nBut this I think not likely to avail
\nOr thee or me; ponder it yet again;
\nFor tedious were the task, farm after farm
\nTo visit of those servants, proving each,
\nAnd the proud suitors merciless devour
\nMeantime thy substance, nor abstain from aught.
\nLearn, if thou wilt, (and I that course myself
\nAdvise) who slights thee of the female train,
\nAnd who is guiltless; but I would not try
\nFrom house to house the men, far better proved
\nHereafter, if in truth by signs from heav\u2019n
\nInform\u2019d, thou hast been taught the will of Jove.
\nThus they conferr\u2019d. The gallant bark, meantime,
\nReach\u2019d Ithaca, which from the Pylian shore
\nHad brought Telemachus with all his band.
\nWithin the many-fathom\u2019d port arrived
\nHis lusty followers haled her far aground,
\nThen carried thence their arms, but to the house
\nOf Clytius the illustrious gifts convey\u2019d.
\nNext to the royal mansion they dispatch\u2019d
\nAn herald charg\u2019d with tidings to the Queen,
\nThat her Telemachus had reach\u2019d the cot
\nOf good Eum\u00e6us, and the bark had sent
\nHome to the city; lest the matchless dame
\nShould still deplore the absence of her son.
\nThey, then, the herald and the swine-herd, each
\nBearing like message to his mistress, met,
\nAnd at the palace of the godlike Chief
\nArriving, compass\u2019d by the female throng
\nInquisitive, the herald thus began.
\nThy son, O Queen! is safe; ev\u2019n now return\u2019d.
\nThen, drawing nigh to her, Eum\u00e6us told
\nHis message also from her son received,
\nAnd, his commission punctually discharged,
\nLeaving the palace, sought his home again.
\nGrief seized and anguish, at those tidings, all
\nThe suitors; issuing forth, on the outside
\nOf the high wall they sat, before the gate,
\nWhen Polybus\u2019 son, Eurymachus, began.
\nMy friends! his arduous task, this voyage, deem\u2019d
\nBy us impossible, in our despight
\nTelemachus hath atchieved. Haste! launch we forth
\nA sable bark, our best, which let us man
\nWith mariners expert, who, rowing forth
\nSwiftly, shall summon our companions home.
\nScarce had he said, when turning where he sat,
\nAmphinomus beheld a bark arrived
\nJust then in port; he saw them furling sail,
\nAnd seated with their oars in hand; he laugh\u2019d
\nThrough pleasure at that sight, and thus he spake.
\nOur message may be spared. Lo! they arrive.
\nEither some God inform\u2019d them, or they saw,
\nThemselves, the vessel of Telemachus
\nToo swiftly passing to be reach\u2019d by theirs.
\nHe spake; they, rising, hasted to the shore.
\nAlert they drew the sable bark aground,
\nAnd by his servant each his arms dispatch\u2019d
\nTo his own home. Then, all, to council those
\nAssembling, neither elder of the land
\nNor youth allow\u2019d to join them, and the rest
\nEupithes\u2019 son, Antino\u00fcs, thus bespake.
\nAh! how the Gods have rescued him! all day
\nPerch\u2019d on the airy mountain-top, our spies
\nSuccessive watch\u2019d; and, when the sun declined,
\nWe never slept on shore, but all night long
\nTill sacred dawn arose, plow\u2019d the abyss,
\nHoping Telemachus, that we might seize
\nAnd slay him, whom some Deity hath led,
\nIn our despight, safe to his home again.
\nBut frame we yet again means to destroy
\nTelemachus; ah\u2014let not Him escape!
\nFor end of this our task, while he survives,
\nNone shall be found, such prudence he displays
\nAnd wisdom, neither are the people now
\nUnanimous our friends as heretofore.
\nCome, then\u2014prevent him, ere he call the Greeks
\nTo council; for he will not long delay,
\nBut will be angry, doubtless, and will tell
\nAmid them all, how we in vain devised
\nHis death, a deed which they will scarce applaud,
\nBut will, perhaps, punish and drive us forth
\nFrom our own country to a distant land.\u2014
\nPrevent him, therefore, quickly; in the field
\nSlay him, or on the road; so shall his wealth
\nAnd his possessions on ourselves devolve
\nWhich we will share equally, but his house
\nShall be the Queen\u2019s, and his whom she shall wed.
\nYet, if not so inclined, ye rather chuse
\nThat he should live and occupy entire
\nHis patrimony, then, no longer, here
\nAssembled, let us revel at his cost,
\nBut let us all with spousal gifts produced
\nFrom our respective treasures, woo the Queen,
\nLeaving her in full freedom to espouse
\nWho proffers most, and whom the fates ordain.
\nHe ceased; the assembly silent sat and mute.
\nThen rose Amphinomus amid them all,
\nOffspring renown\u2019d of Nisus, son, himself,
\nOf King Aretias. He had thither led
\nThe suitor train who from the pleasant isle
\nCorn-clad of green Dulichium had arrived,
\nAnd by his speech pleased far beyond them all
\nPenelope, for he was just and wise,
\nAnd thus, well-counselling the rest, began.
\nNot I, my friends! far be the thought from me
\nTo slay Telemachus! it were a deed
\nMomentous, terrible, to slay a prince.
\nFirst, therefore, let us counsel ask of heav\u2019n,
\nAnd if Jove\u2019s oracle that course approve,
\nI will encourage you, and will myself
\nBe active in his death; but if the Gods
\nForbid it, then, by my advice, forbear.
\nSo spake Amphinomus, whom all approved.
\nArising then, into Ulysses\u2019 house
\nThey went, where each his splendid seat resumed.
\nA novel purpose occupied, meantime,
\nPenelope; she purposed to appear
\nBefore her suitors, whose design to slay
\nTelemachus she had from Medon learn\u2019d,
\nThe herald, for his ear had caught the sound.
\nToward the hall with her attendant train
\nShe moved, and when, most graceful of her sex,
\nWhere sat the suitors she arrived, between
\nThe columns standing of the stately dome,
\nAnd covering with her white veil\u2019s lucid folds
\nHer features, to Antino\u00fcs thus she spake.
\nAntino\u00fcs, proud, contentious, evermore
\nTo mischief prone! the people deem thee wise
\nPast thy compeers, and in all grace of speech
\nPre-eminent, but such wast never thou.
\nInhuman! why is it thy dark design
\nTo slay Telemachus? and why with scorn
\nRejectest thou the suppliant\u2019s pray\u2019r,[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/sup> which Jove
\nHimself hath witness\u2019d? Plots please not the Gods.
\nKnow\u2019st not that thy own father refuge found
\nHere, when he fled before the people\u2019s wrath
\nWhom he had irritated by a wrong
\nWhich, with a band of Taphian robbers joined,
\nHe offer\u2019d to the Thesprots, our allies?
\nThey would have torn his heart, and would have laid
\nAll his delights and his possessions waste,
\nBut my Ulysses slaked the furious heat
\nOf their revenge, whom thou requitest now
\nWasting his goods, soliciting his wife,
\nSlaying his son, and filling me with woe.
\nBut cease, I charge thee, and bid cease the rest.
\nTo whom the son of Polybus replied,
\nEurymachus.\u2014Icarius\u2019 daughter wise!
\nTake courage, fair Penelope, and chace
\nThese fears unreasonable from thy mind!
\nThe man lives not, nor shall, who while I live,
\nAnd faculty of sight retain, shall harm
\nTelemachus, thy son. For thus I say,
\nAnd thus will I perform; his blood shall stream
\nA sable current from my lance\u2019s point
\nThat moment; for the city-waster Chief
\nUlysses, oft, me placing on his knees,
\nHath fill\u2019d my infant grasp with sav\u2019ry food,
\nAnd giv\u2019n me ruddy wine. I, therefore, hold
\nTelemachus of all men most my friend,
\nNor hath he death to fear from hand of ours.
\nYet, if the Gods shall doom him, die he must.
\nSo he encouraged her, who yet, himself,
\nPlotted his death. She, re-ascending, sought
\nHer stately chamber, and, arriving there,
\nDeplored with tears her long-regretted Lord
\nTill Athen\u00e6an Pallas azure-eyed
\nDews of soft slumber o\u2019er her lids diffused.
\nAnd now, at even-tide, Eum\u00e6us reach\u2019d
\nUlysses and his son. A yearling swine
\nJust slain they skilfully for food prepared,
\nWhen Pallas, drawing nigh, smote with her wand
\nUlysses, at the stroke rend\u2019ring him old,
\nAnd his apparel sordid as before,
\nLest, knowing him, the swain at once should seek
\nPenelope, and let the secret forth.
\nThen foremost him Telemachus address\u2019d.
\nNoble Eum\u00e6us! thou art come; what news
\nBring\u2019st from the city? Have the warrior band
\nOf suitors, hopeless of their ambush, reach\u2019d
\nThe port again, or wait they still for me?
\nTo whom Eum\u00e6us, thou didst thus reply.
\nNo time for such enquiry, nor to range,
\nCurious, the streets had I, but anxious wish\u2019d
\nTo make my message known, and to return.
\nBut, as it chanced, a nimble herald sent
\nFrom thy companions, met me on the way,
\nWho reach\u2019d thy mother first. Yet this I know,
\nFor this I saw. Passing above the town
\nWhere they have piled a way-side hill of stones
\nTo Mercury, I beheld a gallant bark
\nEnt\u2019ring the port; a bark she was of ours,
\nThe crew were num\u2019rous, and I mark\u2019d her deep-
\nLaden with shields and spears of double edge.
\nTheirs I conjectured her, and could no more.
\nHe spake, and by Eum\u00e6us unperceived,
\nTelemachus his father eyed and smiled.
\nTheir task accomplish\u2019d, and the table spread,
\nThey ate, nor any his due portion miss\u2019d,
\nAnd hunger, now, and thirst both sated, all
\nTo rest repair\u2019d, and took the gift of sleep.<\/p>\n

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