{"id":125,"date":"2021-05-26T09:19:25","date_gmt":"2021-05-26T13:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.ryerson.ca\/odyssey\/chapter\/book-xix\/"},"modified":"2022-02-01T10:54:14","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T15:54:14","slug":"19","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/chapter\/19\/","title":{"raw":"Book XIX","rendered":"Book XIX"},"content":{"raw":"

Argument<\/b><\/h2>\r\nUlysses and Telemachus remove the arms from the hall to an upper-chamber. The Hero then confers with Penelope, to whom he gives a fictitious narrative of his adventures. Euryclea, while bathing Ulysses, discovers him by a scar on his knee, but he prevents her communication of that discovery to Penelope.\r\n\r\nThey went, but left the noble Chief behind\r\nIn his own house, contriving by the aid\r\nOf Pallas, the destruction of them all,\r\nAnd thus, in accents wing\u2019d, again he said.\r\nMy son! we must remove and safe dispose\r\nAll these my well-forged implements of war;\r\nAnd should the suitors, missing them, enquire\r\nWhere are they? thou shalt answer smoothly thus\u2014\r\nI have convey\u2019d them from the reach of smoke,\r\nFor they appear no more the same which erst\r\nUlysses, going hence to Ilium, left,\r\nSo smirch\u2019d and sullied by the breath of fire.\r\nThis weightier reason (thou shalt also say)\r\nSome God suggested to me,\u2014lest, inflamed\r\nWith wine, ye wound each other in your brawls,\r\nShaming both feast and courtship; for the view\r\nItself of arms incites to their abuse.\r\nHe ceased, and, in obedience to his will,\r\nCalling the ancient Euryclea forth,\r\nHis nurse, Telemachus enjoin\u2019d her thus.\r\nGo\u2014shut the women in; make fast the doors\r\nOf their apartment, while I safe dispose\r\nElsewhere, my father\u2019s implements of war,\r\nWhich, during his long absence, here have stood\r\nTill smoke hath sullied them. For I have been\r\nAn infant hitherto, but, wiser grown,\r\nWould now remove them from the breath of fire.\r\nThen thus the gentle matron in return.\r\nYes truly\u2014and I wish that now, at length,\r\nThou would\u2019st assert the privilege of thy years,\r\nMy son, thyself assuming charge of all,\r\nBoth house and stores; but who shall bear the light?\r\nSince they, it seems, who would, are all forbidden.\r\nTo whom Telemachus discrete replied.\r\nThis guest; for no man, from my table fed,\r\nCome whence he may; shall be an idler here.\r\nHe ended, nor his words flew wing\u2019d away,\r\nBut Euryclea bolted every door.\r\nThen, starting to the task, Ulysses caught,\r\nAnd his illustrious son, the weapons thence,\r\nHelmet, and bossy shield, and pointed spear,\r\nWhile Pallas from a golden lamp illumed\r\nThe dusky way before them. At that sight\r\nAlarm\u2019d, the Prince his father thus address\u2019d.\r\nWhence\u2014whence is this, my father? I behold\r\nA prodigy! the walls of the whole house,\r\nThe arches, fir-tree beams, and pillars tall\r\nShine in my view, as with the blaze of fire!\r\nSome Pow\u2019r celestial, doubtless, is within.\r\nTo whom Ulysses, ever-wise, replied.\r\nSoft! ask no questions. Give no vent to thought,\r\nSuch is the custom of the Pow\u2019rs divine.\r\nHence, thou, to bed. I stay, that I may yet\r\nBoth in thy mother and her maidens move\r\nMore curiosity; yes\u2014she with tears\r\nShall question me of all that I have seen.\r\nHe ended, and the Prince, at his command,\r\nGuided by flaming torches, sought the couch\r\nWhere he was wont to sleep, and there he slept\r\nOn that night also, waiting the approach\r\nOf sacred dawn. Thus was Ulysses left\r\nAlone, and planning sat in solitude,\r\nBy Pallas\u2019 aid, the slaughter of his foes.\r\nAt length, Diana-like, or like herself,\r\nAll golden Venus, (her apartment left)\r\nEnter\u2019d Penelope. Beside the hearth\r\nHer women planted her accustom\u2019d seat\r\nWith silver wreathed and ivory. That throne\r\nIcmalius made, artist renown\u2019d, and join\u2019d\r\nA footstool to its splendid frame beneath,\r\nWhich ever with an ample fleece they spread.\r\nThere sat discrete Penelope; then came\r\nHer beautiful attendants from within,\r\nWho cleared the litter\u2019d bread, the board, and cups\r\nFrom which the insolent companions drank.\r\nThey also raked the embers from the hearths\r\nNow dim, and with fresh billets piled them high,\r\nBoth for illumination and for warmth.\r\nThen yet again Melantho with rude speech\r\nOpprobrious, thus, assail\u2019d Ulysses\u2019 ear.\r\nGuest\u2014wilt thou trouble us throughout the night\r\nRanging the house? and linger\u2019st thou a spy\r\nWatching the women? Hence\u2014get thee abroad\r\nGlad of such fare as thou hast found, or soon\r\nWith torches beaten we will thrust thee forth.\r\nTo whom Ulysses, frowning stern, replied.\r\nPetulant woman! wherefore thus incensed\r\nInveigh\u2019st thou against me? is it because\r\nI am not sleek? because my garb is mean?\r\nBecause I beg? thanks to necessity\u2014\r\nI would not else. But such as I appear,\r\nSuch all who beg and all who wander are.\r\nI also lived the happy owner once\r\nOf such a stately mansion, and have giv\u2019n\r\nTo num\u2019rous wand\u2019rers, whencesoe\u2019er they came,\r\nAll that they needed; I was also served\r\nBy many, and enjoy\u2019d all that denotes\r\nThe envied owner opulent and blest.\r\nBut Jove (for so it pleas\u2019d him) hath reduced\r\nMy all to nothing. Therefore well beware\r\nThou also, mistress, lest a day arrive\r\nWhen all these charms by which thou shin\u2019st among\r\nThy sister-menials, fade; fear, too, lest her\r\nThou should\u2019st perchance irritate, whom thou serv\u2019st,\r\nAnd lest Ulysses come, of whose return\r\nHope yet survives; but even though the Chief\r\nHave perish\u2019d, as ye think, and comes no more,\r\nConsider yet his son, how bright the gifts\r\nShine of Apollo in the illustrious Prince\r\nTelemachus; no woman, unobserved\r\nBy him, can now commit a trespass here;\r\nHis days of heedless infancy are past.\r\nHe ended, whom Penelope discrete\r\nO\u2019erhearing, her attendant sharp rebuked.\r\nShameless, audacious woman! known to me\r\nIs thy great wickedness, which with thy life\r\nThou shalt atone; for thou wast well aware,\r\n(Hearing it from myself) that I design\u2019d\r\nTo ask this stranger of my absent Lord,\r\nFor whose dear sake I never cease to mourn.\r\nThen to her household\u2019s governess she said.\r\nBring now a seat, and spread it with a fleece,\r\nEurynome! that, undisturb\u2019d, the guest\r\nMay hear and answer all that I shall ask.\r\nShe ended. Then the matron brought in haste\r\nA polish\u2019d seat, and spread it with a fleece,\r\nOn which the toil-accustom\u2019d Hero sat,\r\nAnd thus the chaste Penelope began.\r\nStranger! my first enquiry shall be this\u2014\r\nWho art thou? whence? where born? and sprung from whom?\r\nThen answer thus Ulysses, wise, return\u2019d.\r\nO Queen! uncensurable by the lips\r\nOf mortal man! thy glory climbs the skies\r\nUnrivall\u2019d, like the praise of some great King\r\nWho o\u2019er a num\u2019rous people and renown\u2019d\r\nPresiding like a Deity, maintains\r\nJustice and truth. The earth, under his sway,\r\nHer produce yields abundantly; the trees\r\nFruit-laden bend; the lusty flocks bring forth;\r\nThe Ocean teems with finny swarms beneath\r\nHis just controul, and all the land is blest.\r\nMe therefore, question of what else thou wilt\r\nIn thy own palace, but forbear to ask\r\nFrom whom I sprang, and of my native land,\r\nLest thou, reminding me of those sad themes,\r\nAugment my woes; for I have much endured;\r\nNor were it seemly, in another\u2019s house,\r\nTo pass the hours in sorrow and in tears,\r\nWearisome when indulg\u2019d with no regard\r\nTo time or place; thy train (perchance thyself)\r\nWould blame me, and I should reproach incur\r\nAs one tear-deluged through excess of wine.\r\nHim answer\u2019d then Penelope discrete.\r\nThe immortal Gods, O stranger, then destroy\u2019d\r\nMy form, my grace, my beauty, when the Greeks\r\nWhom my Ulysses follow\u2019d, sail\u2019d to Troy.\r\nCould he, returning, my domestic charge\r\nHimself intend, far better would my fame\r\nBe so secured, and wider far diffused.\r\nBut I am wretched now, such storms of woe\r\nThe Gods have sent me; for as many Chiefs\r\nAs hold dominion in the neighbour isles\r\nSamos, Dulichium, and the forest-crown\u2019d\r\nZacynthus; others, also, rulers here\r\nIn pleasant Ithaca, me, loth to wed,\r\nWoo ceaseless, and my household stores consume.\r\nI therefore, neither guest nor suppliant heed,\r\nNor public herald more, but with regret\r\nOf my Ulysses wear my soul away.\r\nThey, meantime, press my nuptials, which by art\r\nI still procrastinate. Some God the thought\r\nSuggested to me, to commence a robe\r\nOf amplest measure and of subtlest woof,\r\nLaborious task; which done, I thus address\u2019d them.\r\nPrinces, my suitors! since the noble Chief\r\nUlysses is no more, enforce not now\r\nMy nuptials; wait till I shall finish first\r\nA fun\u2019ral robe (lest all my threads be marr\u2019d)\r\nWhich for the ancient Hero I prepare\r\nLaertes, looking for the mournful hour\r\nWhen fate shall snatch him to eternal rest.\r\nElse, I the censure dread of all my sex,\r\nShould he, so wealthy, want at last a shroud.\r\nSuch was my speech; they, unsuspicious all,\r\nWith my request complied. Thenceforth, all day\r\nI wove the ample web, and, by the aid\r\nOf torches, ravell\u2019d it again at night.\r\nThree years by artifice I thus their suit\r\nEluded safe; but when the fourth arrived,\r\nAnd the same season after many moons\r\nAnd fleeting days return\u2019d, passing my train\r\nWho had neglected to release the dogs,\r\nThey came, surprized and reprimanded me.\r\nThus, through necessity, not choice, at last\r\nI have perform\u2019d it, in my own despight.\r\nBut no escape from marriage now remains,\r\nNor other subterfuge for me; meantime\r\nMy parents urge my nuptials, and my son\r\n(Of age to note it) with disgust observes\r\nHis wealth consumed; for he is now become\r\nAdult, and abler than myself to rule\r\nThe house, a Prince distinguish\u2019d by the Gods,\r\nYet, stranger, after all, speak thy descent;\r\nSay whence thou art; for not of fabulous birth\r\nArt thou, nor from the oak, nor from the rock.\r\nHer answer\u2019d then Ulysses, ever-wise.\r\nO spouse revered of Laertiades!\r\nResolv\u2019st thou still to learn from whom I sprang?\r\nLearn then; but know that thou shalt much augment\r\nMy present grief, natural to a man\r\nWho hath, like me, long exiled from his home\r\nThrough various cities of the sons of men\r\nWander\u2019d remote, and num\u2019rous woes endured.\r\nYet, though it pain me, I will tell thee all.\r\nThere is a land amid the sable flood\r\nCall\u2019d Crete; fair, fruitful, circled by the sea.\r\nNum\u2019rous are her inhabitants, a race\r\nNot to be summ\u2019d, and ninety towns she boasts.\r\nDiverse their language is; Achaians some,\r\nAnd some indigenous are; Cydonians there,\r\nCrest-shaking Dorians, and Pelasgians dwell.\r\nOne city in extent the rest exceeds,\r\nCnossus; the city in which Minos reign\u2019d,\r\nWho, ever at a nine years\u2019 close, conferr\u2019d\r\nWith Jove himself; from him my father sprang\r\nThe brave Deucalion; for Deucalion\u2019s sons\r\nWere two, myself and King Idomeneus.\r\nTo Ilium he, on board his gallant barks,\r\nFollow\u2019d the Atrid\u00e6. I, the youngest-born,\r\nBy my illustrious name, \u00c6thon, am known,\r\nBut he ranks foremost both in worth and years.\r\nThere I beheld Ulysses, and within\r\nMy walls receiv\u2019d him; for a violent wind\r\nHad driv\u2019n him from Malea (while he sought\r\nThe shores of Troy) to Crete. The storm his barks\r\nBore into the Amnisus, for the cave\r\nOf Ilythia known, a dang\u2019rous port,\r\nAnd which with difficulty he attain\u2019d.\r\nHe, landing, instant to the city went,\r\nSeeking Idomeneus; his friend of old,\r\nAs he affirm\u2019d, and one whom much he lov\u2019d.\r\nBut he<\/i> was far remote, ten days advanced,\r\nPerhaps eleven, on his course to Troy.\r\nHim, therefore, I conducted to my home,\r\nWhere hospitably, and with kindest care\r\nI entertain\u2019d him, (for I wanted nought)\r\nAnd for himself procured and for his band,\u2014\r\nBy public contribution, corn, and wine,\r\nAnd beeves for food, that all might be sufficed.\r\nTwelve days his noble Greecians there abode,\r\nPort-lock\u2019d by Boreas blowing with a force\r\nResistless even on the land, some God\r\nSo roused his fury; but the thirteenth day\r\nThe wind all fell, and they embark\u2019d again.\r\nWith many a fiction specious, as he sat,\r\nHe thus her ear amused; she at the sound\r\nMelting, with fluent tears her cheeks bedew\u2019d;\r\nAnd as the snow by Zephyrus diffused,\r\nMelts on the mountain tops, when Eurus breathes,\r\nAnd fills the channels of the running streams,\r\nSo melted she, and down her lovely cheeks\r\nPour\u2019d fast the tears, him mourning as remote\r\nWho sat beside her. Soft compassion touch\u2019d\r\nUlysses of his consort\u2019s silent woe;\r\nHis eyes as they had been of steel or horn,\r\nMoved not, yet artful, he suppress\u2019d his tears,\r\nAnd she, at length with overflowing grief\r\nSatiate, replied, and thus enquired again.\r\nNow, stranger, I shall prove thee, as I judge,\r\nIf thou, indeed, hast entertain\u2019d in Crete\r\nMy spouse and his brave followers, as thou say\u2019st.\r\nDescribe his raiment and himself; his own\r\nAppearance, and the appearance of his friends.\r\nThen her Ulysses answer\u2019d, ever-wise.\r\nHard is the task, O Queen! (so long a time\r\nHath since elaps\u2019d) to tell thee. Twenty years\r\nHave pass\u2019d since he forsook my native isle,\r\nYet, from my best remembrance, I will give\r\nA likeness of him, such as now I may.\r\nA double cloak, thick-piled, M\u0153onian dyed,\r\nThe noble Chief had on; two fast\u2019nings held\r\nThe golden clasp, and it display\u2019d in front\r\nA well-wrought pattern with much art design\u2019d.\r\nAn hound between his fore-feet holding fast\r\nA dappled fawn, gaped eager on his prey.\r\nAll wonder\u2019d, seeing, how in lifeless gold\r\nExpress\u2019d, the dog with open mouth her throat\r\nAttempted still, and how the fawn with hoofs\r\nThrust trembling forward, struggled to escape.\r\nThat glorious mantle much I noticed, soft\r\nTo touch, as the dried garlick\u2019s glossy film;\r\nSuch was the smoothness of it, and it shone\r\nSun-bright; full many a maiden, trust me, view\u2019d\r\nThe splendid texture with admiring eyes.\r\nBut mark me now; deep treasure in thy mind\r\nThis word. I know not if Ulysses wore\r\nThat cloak at home, or whether of his train\r\nSome warrior gave it to him on his way,\r\nOr else some host of his; for many loved\r\nUlysses, and with him might few compare.\r\nI gave to him, myself, a brazen sword,\r\nA purple cloak magnificent, and vest\r\nOf royal length, and when he sought his bark,\r\nWith princely pomp dismiss\u2019d him from the shore.\r\nAn herald also waited on the Chief,\r\nSomewhat his Senior; him I next describe.\r\nHis back was bunch\u2019d, his visage swarthy, curl\u2019d\r\nHis poll, and he was named Eurybates;\r\nA man whom most of all his followers far\r\nUlysses honour\u2019d, for their minds were one.\r\nHe ceased; she recognising all the proofs\r\nDistinctly by Ulysses named, was moved\r\nStill more to weep, till with o\u2019erflowing grief\r\nSatiate, at length she answer\u2019d him again.\r\nHenceforth, O stranger, thou who hadst before\r\nMy pity, shalt my rev\u2019rence share and love,\r\nI folded for him (with these hands<\/span> the cloak\r\nWhich thou describ\u2019st, produced it when he went,\r\nAnd gave it to him; I that splendid clasp\r\nAttach\u2019d to it myself, more to adorn\r\nMy honour\u2019d Lord, whom to his native land\r\nReturn\u2019d secure I shall receive no more.\r\nIn such an evil hour Ulysses went\r\nTo that bad city never to be named.\r\nTo whom Ulysses, ever-wise, replied.\r\nConsort revered of Laertiades!\r\nNo longer let anxiety impair\r\nThy beauteous form, nor any grief consume\r\nThy spirits more for thy Ulysses\u2019 sake.\r\nAnd yet I blame thee not; a wife deprived\r\nOf her first mate to whom she had produced\r\nFair fruit of mutual love, would mourn his loss,\r\nAlthough he were inferior far to thine,\r\nWhom fame affirms the semblance of the Gods.\r\nBut cease to mourn. Hear me. I will relate\r\nA faithful tale, nor will from thee withhold\r\nSuch tidings of Ulysses living still,\r\nAnd of his safe return, as I have heard\r\nLately, in yon neighb\u2019ring opulent land\r\nOf the Thesprotians. He returns enrich\u2019d\r\nWith many precious stores from those obtain\u2019d\r\nWhom he hath visited; but he hath lost,\r\nDeparting from Thrinacia\u2019s isle, his bark\r\nAnd all his lov\u2019d companions in the Deep,\r\nFor Jove was adverse to him, and the Sun,\r\nWhose beeves his followers slew. They perish\u2019d all\r\nAmid the billowy flood; but Him, the keel\r\nBestriding of his bark, the waves at length\r\nCast forth on the Ph\u00e6acian\u2019s land, a race\r\nAllied to heav\u2019n, who rev\u2019renced like a God\r\nThy husband, honour\u2019d him with num\u2019rous gifts,\r\nAnd willing were to have convey\u2019d him home.\r\nUlysses, therefore, had attained long since\r\nHis native shore, but that he deem\u2019d it best\r\nTo travel far, that he might still amass\r\nMore wealth; so much Ulysses all mankind\r\nExcels in policy, and hath no peer.\r\nThis information from Thesprotia\u2019s King\r\nI gain\u2019d, from Phidon; to myself he swore,\r\nLibation off\u2019ring under his own roof,\r\nThat both the bark was launch\u2019d, and the stout crew\r\nPrepared, that should conduct him to his home.\r\nBut me he first dismiss\u2019d; for, as it chanced,\r\nA ship lay there of the Thesprotians, bound\r\nTo corn-enrich\u2019d Dulichium. All the wealth\r\nHe shew\u2019d me by the Chief amass\u2019d, a store\r\nTo feed the house of yet another Prince\r\nTo the tenth generation; so immense\r\nHis treasures were within that palace lodg\u2019d.\r\nHimself he said was to Dodona gone,\r\nCounsel to ask from the oracular oaks\r\nSublime of Jove, how safest he might seek,\r\nAfter long exile thence, his native land,\r\nIf openly were best, or in disguise.\r\nThus, therefore, he is safe, and at his home\r\nWell-nigh arrived, nor shall his country long\r\nWant him. I swear it with a solemn oath.\r\nFirst Jove be witness, King and Lord of all!\r\nNext these domestic Gods of the renown\u2019d\r\nUlysses, in whose royal house I sit,\r\nThat thou shalt see my saying all fulfill\u2019d.\r\nUlysses shall this self-same year return,\r\nThis self-same month, ere yet the next begin.\r\nHim answer\u2019d then Penelope discrete.\r\nGrant heav\u2019n, my guest, that this good word of thine\r\nFail not! then, soon shalt thou such bounty share\r\nAnd friendship at my hands, that, at first sight,\r\nWhoe\u2019er shall meet thee shall pronounce thee blest.\r\nBut ah! my soul forebodes how it will prove;\r\nNeither Ulysses will return, nor thou\r\nReceive safe conduct hence; for we have here\r\nNone, such as once Ulysses was, to rule\r\nHis household with authority, and to send\r\nWith honourable convoy to his home\r\nThe worthy guest, or to regale him here.\r\nGive him the bath, my maidens; spread his couch\r\nWith linen soft, with fleecy gaberdines[footnote]A gaberdine is a shaggy cloak of coarse but warm materials. Such always make part of Homer\u2019s bed-furniture.[\/footnote]<\/sup>\r\nAnd rugs of splendid hue, that he may lie\r\nWaiting, well-warm\u2019d, the golden morn\u2019s return.\r\nAttend him also at the peep of day\r\nWith bath and unction, that, his seat resumed\r\nHere in the palace, he may be prepared\r\nFor breakfast with Telemachus; and woe\r\nTo him who shall presume to incommode\r\nOr cause him pain; that man shall be cashier\u2019d\r\nHence instant, burn his anger as it may.\r\nFor how, my honour\u2019d inmate! shalt thou learn\r\nThat I in wisdom \u0153conomic aught\r\nPass other women, if unbathed, unoiled,\r\nIll-clad, thou sojourn here? man\u2019s life is short,\r\nWhoso is cruel, and to cruel arts\r\nAddict, on him all men, while yet he lives,\r\nCall plagues and curses down, and after death\r\nScorn and proverbial mock\u2019ries hunt his name.\r\nBut men, humane themselves, and giv\u2019n by choice\r\nTo offices humane, from land to land\r\nAre rumour\u2019d honourably by their guests,\r\nAnd ev\u2019ry tongue is busy in their praise.\r\nHer answer\u2019d then, Ulysses, ever-wise.\r\nConsort revered of Laertiades!\r\nWarm gaberdines and rugs of splendid hue\r\nTo me have odious been, since first the sight\r\nOf Crete\u2019s snow-mantled mountain-tops I lost,\r\nSweeping the billows with extended oars.\r\nNo; I will pass, as I am wont to pass\r\nThe sleepless night; for on a sordid couch\r\nOutstretch\u2019d, full many a night have I reposed\r\nTill golden-charioted Aurora dawn\u2019d.\r\nNor me the foot-bath pleases more; my foot\r\nShall none of all thy ministring maidens touch,\r\nUnless there be some ancient matron grave\r\nAmong them, who hath pangs of heart endured\r\nNum\u2019rous, and keen as I have felt myself;\r\nHer I refuse not. She may touch my feet.\r\nHim answer\u2019d then prudent Penelope.\r\nDear guest! for of all trav\u2019llers here arrived\r\nFrom distant regions, I have none received\r\nDiscrete as thou, or whom I more have lov\u2019d,\r\nSo just thy matter is, and with such grace\r\nExpress\u2019d. I have an ancient maiden grave,\r\nThe nurse who at my hapless husband\u2019s birth\r\nReceiv\u2019d him in her arms, and with kind care\r\nMaternal rear\u2019d him; she shall wash thy feet,\r\nAlthough decrepid. Euryclea, rise!\r\nWash one coeval with thy Lord; for such\r\nThe feet and hands, it may be, are become\r\nOf my Ulysses now; since man beset\r\nWith sorrow once, soon wrinkled grows and old.\r\nShe said, then Euryclea with both hands\r\nCov\u2019ring her face, in tepid tears profuse\r\nDissolved, and thus in mournful strains began.\r\nAlas! my son, trouble for thy dear sake\r\nDistracts me. Jove surely of all mankind\r\nThee hated most, though ever in thy heart\r\nDevoutly giv\u2019n; for never mortal man\r\nSo many thighs of fatted victims burn\u2019d,\r\nAnd chosen hecatombs produced as thou\r\nTo Jove the Thund\u2019rer, him entreating still\r\nThat he would grant thee a serene old age,\r\nAnd to instruct, thyself, thy glorious son.\r\nYet thus the God requites thee, cutting off\r\nAll hope of thy return\u2014oh ancient sir!\r\nHim too, perchance, where\u2019er he sits a guest\r\nBeneath some foreign roof, the women taunt,\r\nAs all these shameless ones have taunted thee,\r\nFearing whose mock\u2019ry thou forbidd\u2019st their hands\r\nThis office, which Icarius\u2019 daughter wise\r\nTo me enjoins, and which I, glad perform.\r\nYes, I will wash thy feet; both for her sake\r\nAnd for thy own,\u2014for sight of thee hath raised\r\nA tempest in my mind. Hear now the cause!\r\nFull many a guest forlorn we entertain,\r\nBut never any have I seen, whose size,\r\nThe fashion of whose foot and pitch of voice,\r\nSuch likeness of Ulysses show\u2019d, as thine.\r\nTo whom Ulysses, ever-shrewd, replied.\r\nSuch close similitude, O ancient dame!\r\nAs thou observ\u2019st between thy Lord and me,\r\nAll, who have seen us both, have ever found.\r\nHe said; then taking the resplendent vase\r\nAllotted always to that use, she first\r\nInfused cold water largely, then, the warm.\r\nUlysses (for beside the hearth he sat)\r\nTurn\u2019d quick his face into the shade, alarm\u2019d\r\nLest, handling him, she should at once remark\r\nHis scar, and all his stratagem unveil.\r\nShe then, approaching, minister\u2019d the bath\r\nTo her own King, and at first touch discern\u2019d\r\nThat token, by a bright-tusk\u2019d boar of old\r\nImpress\u2019d, what time he to Parnassus went\r\nTo visit there Autolycus and his sons,\r\nHis mother\u2019s noble sire, who all mankind\r\nIn furtive arts and fraudful oaths excell\u2019d.[footnote]Homer\u2019s morals seem to allow to a good man dissimulation, and even an ambiguous oath, should they be necessary to save him from a villain. Thus in Book XX. Telemachus swears by Zeus, that he does not hinder his mother from marrying whom she pleases of the wooers, though at the same time he is plotting their destruction with his father. F.[\/footnote]<\/sup>\r\nFor such endowments he by gift receiv\u2019d\r\nFrom Hermes\u2019 self, to whom the thighs of kids\r\nHe offer\u2019d and of lambs, and, in return,\r\nThe watchful Hermes never left his side.\r\nAutolycus arriving in the isle\r\nOf pleasant Ithaca, the new-born son\r\nOf his own daughter found, whom on his knees\r\nAt close of supper Euryclea placed,\r\nAnd thus the royal visitant address\u2019d.\r\nThyself, Autolycus! devise a name\r\nFor thy own daughter\u2019s son, by num\u2019rous pray\u2019rs\r\nOf thine and fervent, from the Gods obtained.\r\nThen answer thus Autolycus return\u2019d.\r\nMy daughter and my daughter\u2019s spouse! the name\r\nWhich I shall give your boy, that let him bear.\r\nSince after provocation and offence\r\nTo numbers giv\u2019n of either sex, I come,\r\nCall him Ulysses;[footnote]In the Greek \u1f48\u0394\u03a5\u03a3\u03a3\u0395\u03a5\u03a3 from the verb \u1f40\u03b4\u03c5\u03c3\u03c3\u03c9\u2014Irascor, I am angry.[\/footnote]<\/sup> and when, grown mature,\r\nHe shall Parnassus visit, the abode\r\nMagnificent in which his mother dwelt,\r\nAnd where my treasures lie, from my own stores\r\nI will enrich and send him joyful home.\r\nUlysses, therefore, that he might obtain\r\nThose princely gifts, went thither. Him arrived,\r\nWith right-hand gratulation and with words\r\nOf welcome kind, Autolycus received,\r\nNor less his offspring; but the mother most\r\nOf his own mother clung around his neck,\r\nAmphithea; she with many a fervent kiss\r\nHis forehead press\u2019d, and his bright-beaming eyes.\r\nThen bade Autolycus his noble sons\r\nSet forth a banquet. They, at his command,\r\nLed in a fatted ox of the fifth year,\r\nWhich slaying first, they spread him carved abroad,\r\nThen scored his flesh, transfixed it with the spits,\r\nAnd roasting all with culinary skill\r\nExact, gave each his portion. Thus they sat\r\nFeasting all day, and till the sun declined,\r\nBut when the sun declined, and darkness fell,\r\nEach sought his couch, and took the gift of sleep.\r\nThen, soon as day-spring\u2019s daughter rosy-palm\u2019d\r\nAurora look\u2019d abroad, forth went the hounds,\r\nAnd, with the hounds Ulysses, and the youths,\r\nSons of Autolycus, to chase the boar.\r\nArrived at the Parnassian mount, they climb\u2019d\r\nHis bushy sides, and to his airy heights\r\nEre long attain\u2019d. It was the pleasant hour\r\nWhen from the gently-swelling flood profound\r\nThe sun, emerging, first smote on the fields.\r\nThe hunters reach\u2019d the valley; foremost ran,\r\nQuesting, the hounds; behind them, swift, the sons\r\nCame of Autolycus, with whom advanced\r\nThe illustrious Prince Ulysses, pressing close\r\nThe hounds, and brandishing his massy spear.\r\nThere, hid in thickest shades, lay an huge boar.\r\nThat covert neither rough winds blowing moist\r\nCould penetrate, nor could the noon-day sun\r\nSmite through it, or fast-falling show\u2019rs pervade,\r\nSo thick it was, and underneath the ground\r\nWith litter of dry foliage strew\u2019d profuse.\r\nHunters and dogs approaching him, his ear\r\nThe sound of feet perceived; upridging high\r\nHis bristly back and glaring fire, he sprang\r\nForth from the shrubs, and in defiance stood\r\nNear and right opposite. Ulysses, first,\r\nRush\u2019d on him, elevating his long spear\r\nArdent to wound him; but, preventing quick\r\nHis foe, the boar gash\u2019d him above the knee.\r\nMuch flesh, assailing him oblique, he tore\r\nWith his rude tusk, but to the Hero\u2019s bone\r\nPierced not; Ulysses his<\/i> right shoulder reach\u2019d;\r\nAnd with a deadly thrust impell\u2019d the point\r\nOf his bright spear through him and far beyond.\r\nLoud yell\u2019d the boar, sank in the dust, and died.\r\nAround Ulysses, then, the busy sons\r\nThrong\u2019d of Autolycus; expert they braced\r\nThe wound of the illustrious hunter bold,\r\nWith incantation staunched the sable blood,\r\nAnd sought in haste their father\u2019s house again,\r\nWhence, heal\u2019d and gratified with splendid gifts\r\nThey sent him soon rejoicing to his home,\r\nThemselves rejoicing also. Glad their son\r\nHis parents saw again, and of the scar\r\nEnquired, where giv\u2019n, and how? He told them all,\r\nHow to Parnassus with his friends he went,\r\nSons of Autolycus to hunt, and how\r\nA boar had gash\u2019d him with his iv\u2019ry tusk.\r\nThat scar, while chafing him with open palms,\r\nThe matron knew; she left his foot to fall;\r\nDown dropp\u2019d his leg into the vase; the brass\r\nRang, and o\u2019ertilted by the sudden shock,\r\nPoured forth the water, flooding wide the floor.\r\nHer<\/i> spirit joy at once and sorrow seized;\r\nTears fill\u2019d her eyes; her intercepted voice\r\nDied in her throat; but to Ulysses\u2019 beard\r\nHer hand advancing, thus, at length, she spake.\r\nThou art himself, Ulysses. Oh my son!\r\nDear to me, and my master as thou art,\r\nI knew thee not, till I had touch\u2019d the scar.\r\nShe said, and to Penelope her eyes\r\nDirected, all impatient to declare\r\nHer own Ulysses even then at home.\r\nBut she, nor eye nor ear for aught that pass\u2019d\r\nHad then, her fixt attention so entire\r\nMinerva had engaged. Then, darting forth\r\nHis arms, the Hero with his right-hand close\r\nCompress\u2019d her throat, and nearer to himself\r\nDrawing her with his left, thus caution\u2019d her.\r\nWhy would\u2019st thou ruin me? Thou gav\u2019st me milk\r\nThyself from thy own breast. See me return\u2019d\r\nAfter long suff\u2019rings, in the twentieth year,\r\nTo my own land. But since (some God the thought\r\nSuggesting to thee) thou hast learn\u2019d the truth,\r\nSilence! lest others learn it from thy lips.\r\nFor this I say, nor shall the threat be vain;\r\nIf God vouchsafe to me to overcome\r\nThe haughty suitors, when I shall inflict\r\nDeath on the other women of my house,\r\nAlthough my nurse, thyself shalt also die.\r\nHim answer\u2019d Euryclea then, discrete.\r\nMy son! oh how could so severe a word\r\nEscape thy lips? my fortitude of mind\r\nThou know\u2019st, and even now shalt prove me firm\r\nAs iron, secret as the stubborn rock.\r\nBut hear and mark me well. Should\u2019st thou prevail,\r\nAssisted by a Pow\u2019r divine, to slay\r\nThe haughty suitors, I will then, myself,\r\nGive thee to know of all the female train\r\nWho have dishonour\u2019d thee, and who respect.\r\nTo whom Ulysses, ever-wise, replied.\r\nMy nurse, it were superfluous; spare thy tongue\r\nThat needless task. I can distinguish well\r\nMyself, between them, and shall know them all;\r\nBut hold thy peace. Hush! leave it with the Gods.\r\nSo he; then went the ancient matron forth,\r\nThat she might serve him with a second bath,\r\nFor the whole first was spilt. Thus, laved at length,\r\nAnd smooth\u2019d with oil, Ulysses nearer pull\u2019d\r\nHis seat toward the glowing hearth to enjoy\r\nMore warmth, and drew his tatters o\u2019er the scar.\r\nThen, prudent, thus Penelope began.\r\nOne question, stranger, I shall yet propound,\r\nThough brief, for soon the hour of soft repose\r\nGrateful to all, and even to the sad\r\nWhom gentle sleep forsakes not, will arrive.\r\nBut heav\u2019n to me immeasurable woe\r\nAssigns,\u2014whose sole delight is to consume\r\nMy days in sighs, while here retired I sit,\r\nWatching my maidens\u2019 labours and my own;\r\nBut (night return\u2019d, and all to bed retired)\r\nI press mine also, yet with deep regret\r\nAnd anguish lacerated, even there.\r\nAs when at spring\u2019s first entrance, her sweet song\r\nThe azure-crested nightingale renews,\r\nDaughter of Pandarus; within the grove\u2019s\r\nThick foliage perch\u2019d, she pours her echoing voice\r\nNow deep, now clear, still varying the strain\r\nWith which she mourns her Itylus, her son\r\nBy royal Zethus, whom she, erring, slew,[footnote]She intended to slay the son of her husband\u2019s brother Amphion, incited to it by the envy of his wife, who had six children, while herself had only two, but through mistake she slew her own son Itylus, and for her punishment was transformed by Jupiter into a nightingale.[\/footnote]<\/sup>\r\nSo also I, by soul-distressing doubts\r\nToss\u2019d ever, muse if I shall here remain\r\nA faithful guardian of my son\u2019s affairs,\r\nMy husband\u2019s bed respecting, and not less\r\nMy own fair fame, or whether I shall him\r\nOf all my suitors follow to his home\r\nWho noblest seems, and offers richest dow\u2019r.\r\nMy son while he was infant yet, and own\u2019d\r\nAn infant\u2019s mind, could never give consent\r\nThat I should wed and leave him; but at length,\r\nSince he hath reached the stature of a man,\r\nHe wishes my departure hence, the waste\r\nViewing indignant by the suitors made.\r\nBut I have dream\u2019d. Hear, and expound my dream.\r\nMy geese are twenty, which within my walls\r\nI feed with sodden wheat; they serve to amuse\r\nSometimes my sorrow. From the mountains came\r\nAn eagle, huge, hook-beak\u2019d, brake all their necks,\r\nAnd slew them; scatter\u2019d on the palace-floor\r\nThey lay, and he soar\u2019d swift into the skies.\r\nDream only as it was, I wept aloud,\r\nTill all my maidens, gather\u2019d by my voice,\r\nArriving, found me weeping still, and still\r\nComplaining, that the eagle had at once\r\nSlain all my geese. But, to the palace-roof\r\nStooping again, he sat, and with a voice\r\nOf human sound, forbad my tears, and said\u2014\r\nCourage! O daughter of the far-renown\u2019d\r\nIcarius! no vain dream thou hast beheld,\r\nBut, in thy sleep, a truth. The slaughter\u2019d geese\r\nDenote thy suitors. I who have appear\u2019d\r\nAn eagle in thy sight, am yet indeed\r\nThy husband, who have now, at last, return\u2019d,\r\nDeath, horrid death designing for them all.\r\nHe said; then waking at the voice, I cast\r\nAn anxious look around, and saw my geese\r\nBeside their tray, all feeding as before.\r\nHer then Ulysses answer\u2019d, ever-wise.\r\nO Queen! it is not possible to miss\r\nThy dream\u2019s plain import, since Ulysses\u2019 self\r\nHath told thee the event; thy suitors all\r\nMust perish; not one suitor shall escape.\r\nTo whom Penelope discrete replied.\r\nDreams are inexplicable, O my guest!\r\nAnd oft-times mere delusions that receive\r\nNo just accomplishment. There are two gates\r\nThrough which the fleeting phantoms pass; of horn\r\nIs one, and one of ivory.[footnote]The difference of the two substances may perhaps serve to account for the preference given in this case to the gate of horn; horn being transparent, and as such emblematical of truth, while ivory, from its whiteness, promises light, but is, in fact, opaque. F.[\/footnote]<\/sup> Such dreams\r\nAs through the thin-leaf\u2019d iv\u2019ry portal come\r\nSooth, but perform not, utt\u2019ring empty sounds;\r\nBut such as through the polish\u2019d horn escape,\r\nIf, haply seen by any mortal eye,\r\nProve faithful witnesses, and are fulfill\u2019d.\r\nBut through those gates my wond\u2019rous dream, I think,\r\nCame not; thrice welcome were it else to me\r\nAnd to my son. Now mark my words; attend.\r\nThis is the hated morn that from the house\r\nRemoves me of Ulysses. I shall fix,\r\nThis day, the rings for trial to them all\r\nOf archership; Ulysses\u2019 custom was\r\nTo plant twelve spikes, all regular arranged[footnote]The translation here is somewhat pleonastic for the sake of perspicuity; the original is clear in itself, but not to us who have no such practice. Twelve stakes were fixt in the earth, each having a ring at the top; the order in which they stood was so exact, that an arrow sent with an even hand through the first ring, would pass them all.[\/footnote]<\/sup>\r\nLike galley-props, and crested with a ring,\r\nThen standing far remote, true in his aim\r\nHe with his whizzing shaft would thrid them all.\r\nThis is the contest in which now I mean\r\nTo prove the suitors; him, who with most ease\r\nShall bend the bow, and shoot through all the rings,\r\nI follow, this dear mansion of my youth\r\nLeaving, so fair, so fill\u2019d with ev\u2019ry good,\r\nThough still to love it even in my dreams.\r\n<\/span> Her answer\u2019d then Ulysses, ever-wise.\r\nConsort revered of Laertiades!\r\nPostpone not this contention, but appoint\r\nForthwith the trial; for Ulysses here\r\nWill sure arrive, ere they, (his polish\u2019d bow\r\nLong tamp\u2019ring) shall prevail to stretch the nerve,\r\nAnd speed the arrow through the iron rings.\r\nTo whom Penelope replied discrete.\r\nWould\u2019st thou with thy sweet converse, O my guest!\r\nHere sooth me still, sleep ne\u2019er should influence\r\nThese eyes the while; but always to resist\r\nSleep\u2019s pow\u2019r is not for man, to whom the Gods\r\nEach circumstance of his condition here\r\nFix universally. Myself will seek\r\nMy own apartment at the palace-top,\r\nAnd there will lay me down on my sad couch,\r\nFor such it hath been, and with tears of mine\r\nCeaseless bedew\u2019d, e\u2019er since Ulysses went\r\nTo that bad city, never to be named.\r\nThere will I sleep; but sleep thou here below,\r\nEither, thyself, preparing on the ground\r\nThy couch, or on a couch by these prepared.\r\nSo saying, she to her splendid chamber thence\r\nRetired, not sole, but by her female train\r\nAttended; there arrived, she wept her spouse,\r\nHer lov\u2019d Ulysses, till Minerva dropp\u2019d\r\nThe balm of slumber on her weary lids.","rendered":"

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

Ulysses and Telemachus remove the arms from the hall to an upper-chamber. The Hero then confers with Penelope, to whom he gives a fictitious narrative of his adventures. Euryclea, while bathing Ulysses, discovers him by a scar on his knee, but he prevents her communication of that discovery to Penelope.<\/p>\n

They went, but left the noble Chief behind
\nIn his own house, contriving by the aid
\nOf Pallas, the destruction of them all,
\nAnd thus, in accents wing\u2019d, again he said.
\nMy son! we must remove and safe dispose
\nAll these my well-forged implements of war;
\nAnd should the suitors, missing them, enquire
\nWhere are they? thou shalt answer smoothly thus\u2014
\nI have convey\u2019d them from the reach of smoke,
\nFor they appear no more the same which erst
\nUlysses, going hence to Ilium, left,
\nSo smirch\u2019d and sullied by the breath of fire.
\nThis weightier reason (thou shalt also say)
\nSome God suggested to me,\u2014lest, inflamed
\nWith wine, ye wound each other in your brawls,
\nShaming both feast and courtship; for the view
\nItself of arms incites to their abuse.
\nHe ceased, and, in obedience to his will,
\nCalling the ancient Euryclea forth,
\nHis nurse, Telemachus enjoin\u2019d her thus.
\nGo\u2014shut the women in; make fast the doors
\nOf their apartment, while I safe dispose
\nElsewhere, my father\u2019s implements of war,
\nWhich, during his long absence, here have stood
\nTill smoke hath sullied them. For I have been
\nAn infant hitherto, but, wiser grown,
\nWould now remove them from the breath of fire.
\nThen thus the gentle matron in return.
\nYes truly\u2014and I wish that now, at length,
\nThou would\u2019st assert the privilege of thy years,
\nMy son, thyself assuming charge of all,
\nBoth house and stores; but who shall bear the light?
\nSince they, it seems, who would, are all forbidden.
\nTo whom Telemachus discrete replied.
\nThis guest; for no man, from my table fed,
\nCome whence he may; shall be an idler here.
\nHe ended, nor his words flew wing\u2019d away,
\nBut Euryclea bolted every door.
\nThen, starting to the task, Ulysses caught,
\nAnd his illustrious son, the weapons thence,
\nHelmet, and bossy shield, and pointed spear,
\nWhile Pallas from a golden lamp illumed
\nThe dusky way before them. At that sight
\nAlarm\u2019d, the Prince his father thus address\u2019d.
\nWhence\u2014whence is this, my father? I behold
\nA prodigy! the walls of the whole house,
\nThe arches, fir-tree beams, and pillars tall
\nShine in my view, as with the blaze of fire!
\nSome Pow\u2019r celestial, doubtless, is within.
\nTo whom Ulysses, ever-wise, replied.
\nSoft! ask no questions. Give no vent to thought,
\nSuch is the custom of the Pow\u2019rs divine.
\nHence, thou, to bed. I stay, that I may yet
\nBoth in thy mother and her maidens move
\nMore curiosity; yes\u2014she with tears
\nShall question me of all that I have seen.
\nHe ended, and the Prince, at his command,
\nGuided by flaming torches, sought the couch
\nWhere he was wont to sleep, and there he slept
\nOn that night also, waiting the approach
\nOf sacred dawn. Thus was Ulysses left
\nAlone, and planning sat in solitude,
\nBy Pallas\u2019 aid, the slaughter of his foes.
\nAt length, Diana-like, or like herself,
\nAll golden Venus, (her apartment left)
\nEnter\u2019d Penelope. Beside the hearth
\nHer women planted her accustom\u2019d seat
\nWith silver wreathed and ivory. That throne
\nIcmalius made, artist renown\u2019d, and join\u2019d
\nA footstool to its splendid frame beneath,
\nWhich ever with an ample fleece they spread.
\nThere sat discrete Penelope; then came
\nHer beautiful attendants from within,
\nWho cleared the litter\u2019d bread, the board, and cups
\nFrom which the insolent companions drank.
\nThey also raked the embers from the hearths
\nNow dim, and with fresh billets piled them high,
\nBoth for illumination and for warmth.
\nThen yet again Melantho with rude speech
\nOpprobrious, thus, assail\u2019d Ulysses\u2019 ear.
\nGuest\u2014wilt thou trouble us throughout the night
\nRanging the house? and linger\u2019st thou a spy
\nWatching the women? Hence\u2014get thee abroad
\nGlad of such fare as thou hast found, or soon
\nWith torches beaten we will thrust thee forth.
\nTo whom Ulysses, frowning stern, replied.
\nPetulant woman! wherefore thus incensed
\nInveigh\u2019st thou against me? is it because
\nI am not sleek? because my garb is mean?
\nBecause I beg? thanks to necessity\u2014
\nI would not else. But such as I appear,
\nSuch all who beg and all who wander are.
\nI also lived the happy owner once
\nOf such a stately mansion, and have giv\u2019n
\nTo num\u2019rous wand\u2019rers, whencesoe\u2019er they came,
\nAll that they needed; I was also served
\nBy many, and enjoy\u2019d all that denotes
\nThe envied owner opulent and blest.
\nBut Jove (for so it pleas\u2019d him) hath reduced
\nMy all to nothing. Therefore well beware
\nThou also, mistress, lest a day arrive
\nWhen all these charms by which thou shin\u2019st among
\nThy sister-menials, fade; fear, too, lest her
\nThou should\u2019st perchance irritate, whom thou serv\u2019st,
\nAnd lest Ulysses come, of whose return
\nHope yet survives; but even though the Chief
\nHave perish\u2019d, as ye think, and comes no more,
\nConsider yet his son, how bright the gifts
\nShine of Apollo in the illustrious Prince
\nTelemachus; no woman, unobserved
\nBy him, can now commit a trespass here;
\nHis days of heedless infancy are past.
\nHe ended, whom Penelope discrete
\nO\u2019erhearing, her attendant sharp rebuked.
\nShameless, audacious woman! known to me
\nIs thy great wickedness, which with thy life
\nThou shalt atone; for thou wast well aware,
\n(Hearing it from myself) that I design\u2019d
\nTo ask this stranger of my absent Lord,
\nFor whose dear sake I never cease to mourn.
\nThen to her household\u2019s governess she said.
\nBring now a seat, and spread it with a fleece,
\nEurynome! that, undisturb\u2019d, the guest
\nMay hear and answer all that I shall ask.
\nShe ended. Then the matron brought in haste
\nA polish\u2019d seat, and spread it with a fleece,
\nOn which the toil-accustom\u2019d Hero sat,
\nAnd thus the chaste Penelope began.
\nStranger! my first enquiry shall be this\u2014
\nWho art thou? whence? where born? and sprung from whom?
\nThen answer thus Ulysses, wise, return\u2019d.
\nO Queen! uncensurable by the lips
\nOf mortal man! thy glory climbs the skies
\nUnrivall\u2019d, like the praise of some great King
\nWho o\u2019er a num\u2019rous people and renown\u2019d
\nPresiding like a Deity, maintains
\nJustice and truth. The earth, under his sway,
\nHer produce yields abundantly; the trees
\nFruit-laden bend; the lusty flocks bring forth;
\nThe Ocean teems with finny swarms beneath
\nHis just controul, and all the land is blest.
\nMe therefore, question of what else thou wilt
\nIn thy own palace, but forbear to ask
\nFrom whom I sprang, and of my native land,
\nLest thou, reminding me of those sad themes,
\nAugment my woes; for I have much endured;
\nNor were it seemly, in another\u2019s house,
\nTo pass the hours in sorrow and in tears,
\nWearisome when indulg\u2019d with no regard
\nTo time or place; thy train (perchance thyself)
\nWould blame me, and I should reproach incur
\nAs one tear-deluged through excess of wine.
\nHim answer\u2019d then Penelope discrete.
\nThe immortal Gods, O stranger, then destroy\u2019d
\nMy form, my grace, my beauty, when the Greeks
\nWhom my Ulysses follow\u2019d, sail\u2019d to Troy.
\nCould he, returning, my domestic charge
\nHimself intend, far better would my fame
\nBe so secured, and wider far diffused.
\nBut I am wretched now, such storms of woe
\nThe Gods have sent me; for as many Chiefs
\nAs hold dominion in the neighbour isles
\nSamos, Dulichium, and the forest-crown\u2019d
\nZacynthus; others, also, rulers here
\nIn pleasant Ithaca, me, loth to wed,
\nWoo ceaseless, and my household stores consume.
\nI therefore, neither guest nor suppliant heed,
\nNor public herald more, but with regret
\nOf my Ulysses wear my soul away.
\nThey, meantime, press my nuptials, which by art
\nI still procrastinate. Some God the thought
\nSuggested to me, to commence a robe
\nOf amplest measure and of subtlest woof,
\nLaborious task; which done, I thus address\u2019d them.
\nPrinces, my suitors! since the noble Chief
\nUlysses is no more, enforce not now
\nMy nuptials; wait till I shall finish first
\nA fun\u2019ral robe (lest all my threads be marr\u2019d)
\nWhich for the ancient Hero I prepare
\nLaertes, looking for the mournful hour
\nWhen fate shall snatch him to eternal rest.
\nElse, I the censure dread of all my sex,
\nShould he, so wealthy, want at last a shroud.
\nSuch was my speech; they, unsuspicious all,
\nWith my request complied. Thenceforth, all day
\nI wove the ample web, and, by the aid
\nOf torches, ravell\u2019d it again at night.
\nThree years by artifice I thus their suit
\nEluded safe; but when the fourth arrived,
\nAnd the same season after many moons
\nAnd fleeting days return\u2019d, passing my train
\nWho had neglected to release the dogs,
\nThey came, surprized and reprimanded me.
\nThus, through necessity, not choice, at last
\nI have perform\u2019d it, in my own despight.
\nBut no escape from marriage now remains,
\nNor other subterfuge for me; meantime
\nMy parents urge my nuptials, and my son
\n(Of age to note it) with disgust observes
\nHis wealth consumed; for he is now become
\nAdult, and abler than myself to rule
\nThe house, a Prince distinguish\u2019d by the Gods,
\nYet, stranger, after all, speak thy descent;
\nSay whence thou art; for not of fabulous birth
\nArt thou, nor from the oak, nor from the rock.
\nHer answer\u2019d then Ulysses, ever-wise.
\nO spouse revered of Laertiades!
\nResolv\u2019st thou still to learn from whom I sprang?
\nLearn then; but know that thou shalt much augment
\nMy present grief, natural to a man
\nWho hath, like me, long exiled from his home
\nThrough various cities of the sons of men
\nWander\u2019d remote, and num\u2019rous woes endured.
\nYet, though it pain me, I will tell thee all.
\nThere is a land amid the sable flood
\nCall\u2019d Crete; fair, fruitful, circled by the sea.
\nNum\u2019rous are her inhabitants, a race
\nNot to be summ\u2019d, and ninety towns she boasts.
\nDiverse their language is; Achaians some,
\nAnd some indigenous are; Cydonians there,
\nCrest-shaking Dorians, and Pelasgians dwell.
\nOne city in extent the rest exceeds,
\nCnossus; the city in which Minos reign\u2019d,
\nWho, ever at a nine years\u2019 close, conferr\u2019d
\nWith Jove himself; from him my father sprang
\nThe brave Deucalion; for Deucalion\u2019s sons
\nWere two, myself and King Idomeneus.
\nTo Ilium he, on board his gallant barks,
\nFollow\u2019d the Atrid\u00e6. I, the youngest-born,
\nBy my illustrious name, \u00c6thon, am known,
\nBut he ranks foremost both in worth and years.
\nThere I beheld Ulysses, and within
\nMy walls receiv\u2019d him; for a violent wind
\nHad driv\u2019n him from Malea (while he sought
\nThe shores of Troy) to Crete. The storm his barks
\nBore into the Amnisus, for the cave
\nOf Ilythia known, a dang\u2019rous port,
\nAnd which with difficulty he attain\u2019d.
\nHe, landing, instant to the city went,
\nSeeking Idomeneus; his friend of old,
\nAs he affirm\u2019d, and one whom much he lov\u2019d.
\nBut he<\/i> was far remote, ten days advanced,
\nPerhaps eleven, on his course to Troy.
\nHim, therefore, I conducted to my home,
\nWhere hospitably, and with kindest care
\nI entertain\u2019d him, (for I wanted nought)
\nAnd for himself procured and for his band,\u2014
\nBy public contribution, corn, and wine,
\nAnd beeves for food, that all might be sufficed.
\nTwelve days his noble Greecians there abode,
\nPort-lock\u2019d by Boreas blowing with a force
\nResistless even on the land, some God
\nSo roused his fury; but the thirteenth day
\nThe wind all fell, and they embark\u2019d again.
\nWith many a fiction specious, as he sat,
\nHe thus her ear amused; she at the sound
\nMelting, with fluent tears her cheeks bedew\u2019d;
\nAnd as the snow by Zephyrus diffused,
\nMelts on the mountain tops, when Eurus breathes,
\nAnd fills the channels of the running streams,
\nSo melted she, and down her lovely cheeks
\nPour\u2019d fast the tears, him mourning as remote
\nWho sat beside her. Soft compassion touch\u2019d
\nUlysses of his consort\u2019s silent woe;
\nHis eyes as they had been of steel or horn,
\nMoved not, yet artful, he suppress\u2019d his tears,
\nAnd she, at length with overflowing grief
\nSatiate, replied, and thus enquired again.
\nNow, stranger, I shall prove thee, as I judge,
\nIf thou, indeed, hast entertain\u2019d in Crete
\nMy spouse and his brave followers, as thou say\u2019st.
\nDescribe his raiment and himself; his own
\nAppearance, and the appearance of his friends.
\nThen her Ulysses answer\u2019d, ever-wise.
\nHard is the task, O Queen! (so long a time
\nHath since elaps\u2019d) to tell thee. Twenty years
\nHave pass\u2019d since he forsook my native isle,
\nYet, from my best remembrance, I will give
\nA likeness of him, such as now I may.
\nA double cloak, thick-piled, M\u0153onian dyed,
\nThe noble Chief had on; two fast\u2019nings held
\nThe golden clasp, and it display\u2019d in front
\nA well-wrought pattern with much art design\u2019d.
\nAn hound between his fore-feet holding fast
\nA dappled fawn, gaped eager on his prey.
\nAll wonder\u2019d, seeing, how in lifeless gold
\nExpress\u2019d, the dog with open mouth her throat
\nAttempted still, and how the fawn with hoofs
\nThrust trembling forward, struggled to escape.
\nThat glorious mantle much I noticed, soft
\nTo touch, as the dried garlick\u2019s glossy film;
\nSuch was the smoothness of it, and it shone
\nSun-bright; full many a maiden, trust me, view\u2019d
\nThe splendid texture with admiring eyes.
\nBut mark me now; deep treasure in thy mind
\nThis word. I know not if Ulysses wore
\nThat cloak at home, or whether of his train
\nSome warrior gave it to him on his way,
\nOr else some host of his; for many loved
\nUlysses, and with him might few compare.
\nI gave to him, myself, a brazen sword,
\nA purple cloak magnificent, and vest
\nOf royal length, and when he sought his bark,
\nWith princely pomp dismiss\u2019d him from the shore.
\nAn herald also waited on the Chief,
\nSomewhat his Senior; him I next describe.
\nHis back was bunch\u2019d, his visage swarthy, curl\u2019d
\nHis poll, and he was named Eurybates;
\nA man whom most of all his followers far
\nUlysses honour\u2019d, for their minds were one.
\nHe ceased; she recognising all the proofs
\nDistinctly by Ulysses named, was moved
\nStill more to weep, till with o\u2019erflowing grief
\nSatiate, at length she answer\u2019d him again.
\nHenceforth, O stranger, thou who hadst before
\nMy pity, shalt my rev\u2019rence share and love,
\nI folded for him (with these hands<\/span> the cloak
\nWhich thou describ\u2019st, produced it when he went,
\nAnd gave it to him; I that splendid clasp
\nAttach\u2019d to it myself, more to adorn
\nMy honour\u2019d Lord, whom to his native land
\nReturn\u2019d secure I shall receive no more.
\nIn such an evil hour Ulysses went
\nTo that bad city never to be named.
\nTo whom Ulysses, ever-wise, replied.
\nConsort revered of Laertiades!
\nNo longer let anxiety impair
\nThy beauteous form, nor any grief consume
\nThy spirits more for thy Ulysses\u2019 sake.
\nAnd yet I blame thee not; a wife deprived
\nOf her first mate to whom she had produced
\nFair fruit of mutual love, would mourn his loss,
\nAlthough he were inferior far to thine,
\nWhom fame affirms the semblance of the Gods.
\nBut cease to mourn. Hear me. I will relate
\nA faithful tale, nor will from thee withhold
\nSuch tidings of Ulysses living still,
\nAnd of his safe return, as I have heard
\nLately, in yon neighb\u2019ring opulent land
\nOf the Thesprotians. He returns enrich\u2019d
\nWith many precious stores from those obtain\u2019d
\nWhom he hath visited; but he hath lost,
\nDeparting from Thrinacia\u2019s isle, his bark
\nAnd all his lov\u2019d companions in the Deep,
\nFor Jove was adverse to him, and the Sun,
\nWhose beeves his followers slew. They perish\u2019d all
\nAmid the billowy flood; but Him, the keel
\nBestriding of his bark, the waves at length
\nCast forth on the Ph\u00e6acian\u2019s land, a race
\nAllied to heav\u2019n, who rev\u2019renced like a God
\nThy husband, honour\u2019d him with num\u2019rous gifts,
\nAnd willing were to have convey\u2019d him home.
\nUlysses, therefore, had attained long since
\nHis native shore, but that he deem\u2019d it best
\nTo travel far, that he might still amass
\nMore wealth; so much Ulysses all mankind
\nExcels in policy, and hath no peer.
\nThis information from Thesprotia\u2019s King
\nI gain\u2019d, from Phidon; to myself he swore,
\nLibation off\u2019ring under his own roof,
\nThat both the bark was launch\u2019d, and the stout crew
\nPrepared, that should conduct him to his home.
\nBut me he first dismiss\u2019d; for, as it chanced,
\nA ship lay there of the Thesprotians, bound
\nTo corn-enrich\u2019d Dulichium. All the wealth
\nHe shew\u2019d me by the Chief amass\u2019d, a store
\nTo feed the house of yet another Prince
\nTo the tenth generation; so immense
\nHis treasures were within that palace lodg\u2019d.
\nHimself he said was to Dodona gone,
\nCounsel to ask from the oracular oaks
\nSublime of Jove, how safest he might seek,
\nAfter long exile thence, his native land,
\nIf openly were best, or in disguise.
\nThus, therefore, he is safe, and at his home
\nWell-nigh arrived, nor shall his country long
\nWant him. I swear it with a solemn oath.
\nFirst Jove be witness, King and Lord of all!
\nNext these domestic Gods of the renown\u2019d
\nUlysses, in whose royal house I sit,
\nThat thou shalt see my saying all fulfill\u2019d.
\nUlysses shall this self-same year return,
\nThis self-same month, ere yet the next begin.
\nHim answer\u2019d then Penelope discrete.
\nGrant heav\u2019n, my guest, that this good word of thine
\nFail not! then, soon shalt thou such bounty share
\nAnd friendship at my hands, that, at first sight,
\nWhoe\u2019er shall meet thee shall pronounce thee blest.
\nBut ah! my soul forebodes how it will prove;
\nNeither Ulysses will return, nor thou
\nReceive safe conduct hence; for we have here
\nNone, such as once Ulysses was, to rule
\nHis household with authority, and to send
\nWith honourable convoy to his home
\nThe worthy guest, or to regale him here.
\nGive him the bath, my maidens; spread his couch
\nWith linen soft, with fleecy gaberdines[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/sup>
\nAnd rugs of splendid hue, that he may lie
\nWaiting, well-warm\u2019d, the golden morn\u2019s return.
\nAttend him also at the peep of day
\nWith bath and unction, that, his seat resumed
\nHere in the palace, he may be prepared
\nFor breakfast with Telemachus; and woe
\nTo him who shall presume to incommode
\nOr cause him pain; that man shall be cashier\u2019d
\nHence instant, burn his anger as it may.
\nFor how, my honour\u2019d inmate! shalt thou learn
\nThat I in wisdom \u0153conomic aught
\nPass other women, if unbathed, unoiled,
\nIll-clad, thou sojourn here? man\u2019s life is short,
\nWhoso is cruel, and to cruel arts
\nAddict, on him all men, while yet he lives,
\nCall plagues and curses down, and after death
\nScorn and proverbial mock\u2019ries hunt his name.
\nBut men, humane themselves, and giv\u2019n by choice
\nTo offices humane, from land to land
\nAre rumour\u2019d honourably by their guests,
\nAnd ev\u2019ry tongue is busy in their praise.
\nHer answer\u2019d then, Ulysses, ever-wise.
\nConsort revered of Laertiades!
\nWarm gaberdines and rugs of splendid hue
\nTo me have odious been, since first the sight
\nOf Crete\u2019s snow-mantled mountain-tops I lost,
\nSweeping the billows with extended oars.
\nNo; I will pass, as I am wont to pass
\nThe sleepless night; for on a sordid couch
\nOutstretch\u2019d, full many a night have I reposed
\nTill golden-charioted Aurora dawn\u2019d.
\nNor me the foot-bath pleases more; my foot
\nShall none of all thy ministring maidens touch,
\nUnless there be some ancient matron grave
\nAmong them, who hath pangs of heart endured
\nNum\u2019rous, and keen as I have felt myself;
\nHer I refuse not. She may touch my feet.
\nHim answer\u2019d then prudent Penelope.
\nDear guest! for of all trav\u2019llers here arrived
\nFrom distant regions, I have none received
\nDiscrete as thou, or whom I more have lov\u2019d,
\nSo just thy matter is, and with such grace
\nExpress\u2019d. I have an ancient maiden grave,
\nThe nurse who at my hapless husband\u2019s birth
\nReceiv\u2019d him in her arms, and with kind care
\nMaternal rear\u2019d him; she shall wash thy feet,
\nAlthough decrepid. Euryclea, rise!
\nWash one coeval with thy Lord; for such
\nThe feet and hands, it may be, are become
\nOf my Ulysses now; since man beset
\nWith sorrow once, soon wrinkled grows and old.
\nShe said, then Euryclea with both hands
\nCov\u2019ring her face, in tepid tears profuse
\nDissolved, and thus in mournful strains began.
\nAlas! my son, trouble for thy dear sake
\nDistracts me. Jove surely of all mankind
\nThee hated most, though ever in thy heart
\nDevoutly giv\u2019n; for never mortal man
\nSo many thighs of fatted victims burn\u2019d,
\nAnd chosen hecatombs produced as thou
\nTo Jove the Thund\u2019rer, him entreating still
\nThat he would grant thee a serene old age,
\nAnd to instruct, thyself, thy glorious son.
\nYet thus the God requites thee, cutting off
\nAll hope of thy return\u2014oh ancient sir!
\nHim too, perchance, where\u2019er he sits a guest
\nBeneath some foreign roof, the women taunt,
\nAs all these shameless ones have taunted thee,
\nFearing whose mock\u2019ry thou forbidd\u2019st their hands
\nThis office, which Icarius\u2019 daughter wise
\nTo me enjoins, and which I, glad perform.
\nYes, I will wash thy feet; both for her sake
\nAnd for thy own,\u2014for sight of thee hath raised
\nA tempest in my mind. Hear now the cause!
\nFull many a guest forlorn we entertain,
\nBut never any have I seen, whose size,
\nThe fashion of whose foot and pitch of voice,
\nSuch likeness of Ulysses show\u2019d, as thine.
\nTo whom Ulysses, ever-shrewd, replied.
\nSuch close similitude, O ancient dame!
\nAs thou observ\u2019st between thy Lord and me,
\nAll, who have seen us both, have ever found.
\nHe said; then taking the resplendent vase
\nAllotted always to that use, she first
\nInfused cold water largely, then, the warm.
\nUlysses (for beside the hearth he sat)
\nTurn\u2019d quick his face into the shade, alarm\u2019d
\nLest, handling him, she should at once remark
\nHis scar, and all his stratagem unveil.
\nShe then, approaching, minister\u2019d the bath
\nTo her own King, and at first touch discern\u2019d
\nThat token, by a bright-tusk\u2019d boar of old
\nImpress\u2019d, what time he to Parnassus went
\nTo visit there Autolycus and his sons,
\nHis mother\u2019s noble sire, who all mankind
\nIn furtive arts and fraudful oaths excell\u2019d.[2]<\/sup><\/a><\/sup>
\nFor such endowments he by gift receiv\u2019d
\nFrom Hermes\u2019 self, to whom the thighs of kids
\nHe offer\u2019d and of lambs, and, in return,
\nThe watchful Hermes never left his side.
\nAutolycus arriving in the isle
\nOf pleasant Ithaca, the new-born son
\nOf his own daughter found, whom on his knees
\nAt close of supper Euryclea placed,
\nAnd thus the royal visitant address\u2019d.
\nThyself, Autolycus! devise a name
\nFor thy own daughter\u2019s son, by num\u2019rous pray\u2019rs
\nOf thine and fervent, from the Gods obtained.
\nThen answer thus Autolycus return\u2019d.
\nMy daughter and my daughter\u2019s spouse! the name
\nWhich I shall give your boy, that let him bear.
\nSince after provocation and offence
\nTo numbers giv\u2019n of either sex, I come,
\nCall him Ulysses;[3]<\/sup><\/a><\/sup> and when, grown mature,
\nHe shall Parnassus visit, the abode
\nMagnificent in which his mother dwelt,
\nAnd where my treasures lie, from my own stores
\nI will enrich and send him joyful home.
\nUlysses, therefore, that he might obtain
\nThose princely gifts, went thither. Him arrived,
\nWith right-hand gratulation and with words
\nOf welcome kind, Autolycus received,
\nNor less his offspring; but the mother most
\nOf his own mother clung around his neck,
\nAmphithea; she with many a fervent kiss
\nHis forehead press\u2019d, and his bright-beaming eyes.
\nThen bade Autolycus his noble sons
\nSet forth a banquet. They, at his command,
\nLed in a fatted ox of the fifth year,
\nWhich slaying first, they spread him carved abroad,
\nThen scored his flesh, transfixed it with the spits,
\nAnd roasting all with culinary skill
\nExact, gave each his portion. Thus they sat
\nFeasting all day, and till the sun declined,
\nBut when the sun declined, and darkness fell,
\nEach sought his couch, and took the gift of sleep.
\nThen, soon as day-spring\u2019s daughter rosy-palm\u2019d
\nAurora look\u2019d abroad, forth went the hounds,
\nAnd, with the hounds Ulysses, and the youths,
\nSons of Autolycus, to chase the boar.
\nArrived at the Parnassian mount, they climb\u2019d
\nHis bushy sides, and to his airy heights
\nEre long attain\u2019d. It was the pleasant hour
\nWhen from the gently-swelling flood profound
\nThe sun, emerging, first smote on the fields.
\nThe hunters reach\u2019d the valley; foremost ran,
\nQuesting, the hounds; behind them, swift, the sons
\nCame of Autolycus, with whom advanced
\nThe illustrious Prince Ulysses, pressing close
\nThe hounds, and brandishing his massy spear.
\nThere, hid in thickest shades, lay an huge boar.
\nThat covert neither rough winds blowing moist
\nCould penetrate, nor could the noon-day sun
\nSmite through it, or fast-falling show\u2019rs pervade,
\nSo thick it was, and underneath the ground
\nWith litter of dry foliage strew\u2019d profuse.
\nHunters and dogs approaching him, his ear
\nThe sound of feet perceived; upridging high
\nHis bristly back and glaring fire, he sprang
\nForth from the shrubs, and in defiance stood
\nNear and right opposite. Ulysses, first,
\nRush\u2019d on him, elevating his long spear
\nArdent to wound him; but, preventing quick
\nHis foe, the boar gash\u2019d him above the knee.
\nMuch flesh, assailing him oblique, he tore
\nWith his rude tusk, but to the Hero\u2019s bone
\nPierced not; Ulysses his<\/i> right shoulder reach\u2019d;
\nAnd with a deadly thrust impell\u2019d the point
\nOf his bright spear through him and far beyond.
\nLoud yell\u2019d the boar, sank in the dust, and died.
\nAround Ulysses, then, the busy sons
\nThrong\u2019d of Autolycus; expert they braced
\nThe wound of the illustrious hunter bold,
\nWith incantation staunched the sable blood,
\nAnd sought in haste their father\u2019s house again,
\nWhence, heal\u2019d and gratified with splendid gifts
\nThey sent him soon rejoicing to his home,
\nThemselves rejoicing also. Glad their son
\nHis parents saw again, and of the scar
\nEnquired, where giv\u2019n, and how? He told them all,
\nHow to Parnassus with his friends he went,
\nSons of Autolycus to hunt, and how
\nA boar had gash\u2019d him with his iv\u2019ry tusk.
\nThat scar, while chafing him with open palms,
\nThe matron knew; she left his foot to fall;
\nDown dropp\u2019d his leg into the vase; the brass
\nRang, and o\u2019ertilted by the sudden shock,
\nPoured forth the water, flooding wide the floor.
\nHer<\/i> spirit joy at once and sorrow seized;
\nTears fill\u2019d her eyes; her intercepted voice
\nDied in her throat; but to Ulysses\u2019 beard
\nHer hand advancing, thus, at length, she spake.
\nThou art himself, Ulysses. Oh my son!
\nDear to me, and my master as thou art,
\nI knew thee not, till I had touch\u2019d the scar.
\nShe said, and to Penelope her eyes
\nDirected, all impatient to declare
\nHer own Ulysses even then at home.
\nBut she, nor eye nor ear for aught that pass\u2019d
\nHad then, her fixt attention so entire
\nMinerva had engaged. Then, darting forth
\nHis arms, the Hero with his right-hand close
\nCompress\u2019d her throat, and nearer to himself
\nDrawing her with his left, thus caution\u2019d her.
\nWhy would\u2019st thou ruin me? Thou gav\u2019st me milk
\nThyself from thy own breast. See me return\u2019d
\nAfter long suff\u2019rings, in the twentieth year,
\nTo my own land. But since (some God the thought
\nSuggesting to thee) thou hast learn\u2019d the truth,
\nSilence! lest others learn it from thy lips.
\nFor this I say, nor shall the threat be vain;
\nIf God vouchsafe to me to overcome
\nThe haughty suitors, when I shall inflict
\nDeath on the other women of my house,
\nAlthough my nurse, thyself shalt also die.
\nHim answer\u2019d Euryclea then, discrete.
\nMy son! oh how could so severe a word
\nEscape thy lips? my fortitude of mind
\nThou know\u2019st, and even now shalt prove me firm
\nAs iron, secret as the stubborn rock.
\nBut hear and mark me well. Should\u2019st thou prevail,
\nAssisted by a Pow\u2019r divine, to slay
\nThe haughty suitors, I will then, myself,
\nGive thee to know of all the female train
\nWho have dishonour\u2019d thee, and who respect.
\nTo whom Ulysses, ever-wise, replied.
\nMy nurse, it were superfluous; spare thy tongue
\nThat needless task. I can distinguish well
\nMyself, between them, and shall know them all;
\nBut hold thy peace. Hush! leave it with the Gods.
\nSo he; then went the ancient matron forth,
\nThat she might serve him with a second bath,
\nFor the whole first was spilt. Thus, laved at length,
\nAnd smooth\u2019d with oil, Ulysses nearer pull\u2019d
\nHis seat toward the glowing hearth to enjoy
\nMore warmth, and drew his tatters o\u2019er the scar.
\nThen, prudent, thus Penelope began.
\nOne question, stranger, I shall yet propound,
\nThough brief, for soon the hour of soft repose
\nGrateful to all, and even to the sad
\nWhom gentle sleep forsakes not, will arrive.
\nBut heav\u2019n to me immeasurable woe
\nAssigns,\u2014whose sole delight is to consume
\nMy days in sighs, while here retired I sit,
\nWatching my maidens\u2019 labours and my own;
\nBut (night return\u2019d, and all to bed retired)
\nI press mine also, yet with deep regret
\nAnd anguish lacerated, even there.
\nAs when at spring\u2019s first entrance, her sweet song
\nThe azure-crested nightingale renews,
\nDaughter of Pandarus; within the grove\u2019s
\nThick foliage perch\u2019d, she pours her echoing voice
\nNow deep, now clear, still varying the strain
\nWith which she mourns her Itylus, her son
\nBy royal Zethus, whom she, erring, slew,[4]<\/sup><\/a><\/sup>
\nSo also I, by soul-distressing doubts
\nToss\u2019d ever, muse if I shall here remain
\nA faithful guardian of my son\u2019s affairs,
\nMy husband\u2019s bed respecting, and not less
\nMy own fair fame, or whether I shall him
\nOf all my suitors follow to his home
\nWho noblest seems, and offers richest dow\u2019r.
\nMy son while he was infant yet, and own\u2019d
\nAn infant\u2019s mind, could never give consent
\nThat I should wed and leave him; but at length,
\nSince he hath reached the stature of a man,
\nHe wishes my departure hence, the waste
\nViewing indignant by the suitors made.
\nBut I have dream\u2019d. Hear, and expound my dream.
\nMy geese are twenty, which within my walls
\nI feed with sodden wheat; they serve to amuse
\nSometimes my sorrow. From the mountains came
\nAn eagle, huge, hook-beak\u2019d, brake all their necks,
\nAnd slew them; scatter\u2019d on the palace-floor
\nThey lay, and he soar\u2019d swift into the skies.
\nDream only as it was, I wept aloud,
\nTill all my maidens, gather\u2019d by my voice,
\nArriving, found me weeping still, and still
\nComplaining, that the eagle had at once
\nSlain all my geese. But, to the palace-roof
\nStooping again, he sat, and with a voice
\nOf human sound, forbad my tears, and said\u2014
\nCourage! O daughter of the far-renown\u2019d
\nIcarius! no vain dream thou hast beheld,
\nBut, in thy sleep, a truth. The slaughter\u2019d geese
\nDenote thy suitors. I who have appear\u2019d
\nAn eagle in thy sight, am yet indeed
\nThy husband, who have now, at last, return\u2019d,
\nDeath, horrid death designing for them all.
\nHe said; then waking at the voice, I cast
\nAn anxious look around, and saw my geese
\nBeside their tray, all feeding as before.
\nHer then Ulysses answer\u2019d, ever-wise.
\nO Queen! it is not possible to miss
\nThy dream\u2019s plain import, since Ulysses\u2019 self
\nHath told thee the event; thy suitors all
\nMust perish; not one suitor shall escape.
\nTo whom Penelope discrete replied.
\nDreams are inexplicable, O my guest!
\nAnd oft-times mere delusions that receive
\nNo just accomplishment. There are two gates
\nThrough which the fleeting phantoms pass; of horn
\nIs one, and one of ivory.[5]<\/sup><\/a><\/sup> Such dreams
\nAs through the thin-leaf\u2019d iv\u2019ry portal come
\nSooth, but perform not, utt\u2019ring empty sounds;
\nBut such as through the polish\u2019d horn escape,
\nIf, haply seen by any mortal eye,
\nProve faithful witnesses, and are fulfill\u2019d.
\nBut through those gates my wond\u2019rous dream, I think,
\nCame not; thrice welcome were it else to me
\nAnd to my son. Now mark my words; attend.
\nThis is the hated morn that from the house
\nRemoves me of Ulysses. I shall fix,
\nThis day, the rings for trial to them all
\nOf archership; Ulysses\u2019 custom was
\nTo plant twelve spikes, all regular arranged[6]<\/sup><\/a><\/sup>
\nLike galley-props, and crested with a ring,
\nThen standing far remote, true in his aim
\nHe with his whizzing shaft would thrid them all.
\nThis is the contest in which now I mean
\nTo prove the suitors; him, who with most ease
\nShall bend the bow, and shoot through all the rings,
\nI follow, this dear mansion of my youth
\nLeaving, so fair, so fill\u2019d with ev\u2019ry good,
\nThough still to love it even in my dreams.
\n<\/span> Her answer\u2019d then Ulysses, ever-wise.
\nConsort revered of Laertiades!
\nPostpone not this contention, but appoint
\nForthwith the trial; for Ulysses here
\nWill sure arrive, ere they, (his polish\u2019d bow
\nLong tamp\u2019ring) shall prevail to stretch the nerve,
\nAnd speed the arrow through the iron rings.
\nTo whom Penelope replied discrete.
\nWould\u2019st thou with thy sweet converse, O my guest!
\nHere sooth me still, sleep ne\u2019er should influence
\nThese eyes the while; but always to resist
\nSleep\u2019s pow\u2019r is not for man, to whom the Gods
\nEach circumstance of his condition here
\nFix universally. Myself will seek
\nMy own apartment at the palace-top,
\nAnd there will lay me down on my sad couch,
\nFor such it hath been, and with tears of mine
\nCeaseless bedew\u2019d, e\u2019er since Ulysses went
\nTo that bad city, never to be named.
\nThere will I sleep; but sleep thou here below,
\nEither, thyself, preparing on the ground
\nThy couch, or on a couch by these prepared.
\nSo saying, she to her splendid chamber thence
\nRetired, not sole, but by her female train
\nAttended; there arrived, she wept her spouse,
\nHer lov\u2019d Ulysses, till Minerva dropp\u2019d
\nThe balm of slumber on her weary lids.<\/p>\n

  1. A gaberdine is a shaggy cloak of coarse but warm materials. Such always make part of Homer\u2019s bed-furniture. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  2. Homer\u2019s morals seem to allow to a good man dissimulation, and even an ambiguous oath, should they be necessary to save him from a villain. Thus in Book XX. Telemachus swears by Zeus, that he does not hinder his mother from marrying whom she pleases of the wooers, though at the same time he is plotting their destruction with his father. F. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  3. In the Greek \u1f48\u0394\u03a5\u03a3\u03a3\u0395\u03a5\u03a3 from the verb \u1f40\u03b4\u03c5\u03c3\u03c3\u03c9\u2014Irascor, I am angry. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  4. She intended to slay the son of her husband\u2019s brother Amphion, incited to it by the envy of his wife, who had six children, while herself had only two, but through mistake she slew her own son Itylus, and for her punishment was transformed by Jupiter into a nightingale. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  5. The difference of the two substances may perhaps serve to account for the preference given in this case to the gate of horn; horn being transparent, and as such emblematical of truth, while ivory, from its whiteness, promises light, but is, in fact, opaque. F. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  6. The translation here is somewhat pleonastic for the sake of perspicuity; the original is clear in itself, but not to us who have no such practice. Twelve stakes were fixt in the earth, each having a ring at the top; the order in which they stood was so exact, that an arrow sent with an even hand through the first ring, would pass them all. ↵<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"author":299,"menu_order":19,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[48],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-125","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":259,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/125\/revisions\/259"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/125\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=125"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=125"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}