Homer

c.800 BC

THE ODYSSEY

translated by Samuel Butler

Book XXIII

Odysseus maketh himself known to Penelope, tells his adventures briefly, and
in the morning goes to Laertes and makes himself known to him.

—-Ulysses And Penelope: The meeting of Ulysses and Penelope.]

Then the ancient woman went up into the upper chamber laughing aloud, to tell
her mistress how her dear lord was within, and her knees moved fast for joy, and
her feet stumbled one over the other; and she stood above the lady’s head and spake
to her, saying:

‘Awake, Penelope, dear child, that thou mayest see with thine own eyes that which
thou desirest day by day. Odysseus hath come, and hath got him to his own house,
though late hath he come, and hath slain the proud wooers that troubled his house,
and devoured his substance, and oppressed his child.’

Then wise Penelope answered her: ‘Dear nurse, the gods have made thee distraught,
the gods that can make foolish even the wisdom of the wise, and that stablish the
simple in understanding. They it is that have marred thy reason, though heretofore
thou hadst a prudent heart. Why dost thou mock me, who have a spirit full of sorrow,
to speak these wild words, and rousest me out of sweet slumber, that had bound me
and overshadowed mine eyelids? Never yet have I slept so sound since the day that
Odysseus went forth to see that evil Ilios, never to be named. Go to now, get thee
down and back to the women’s chamber, for if any other of the maids of my house
had come and brought me such tidings, and wakened me from sleep, straightway would
I have sent her back woefully to return within the women’s chamber; but this time
thine old age shall stand thee in good stead.’

Then the good nurse Eurycleia answered her: ‘I mock thee not, dear child, but
in very deed Odysseus is here, and hath come home, even as I tell thee. He is that
guest on whom all men wrought such dishonour in the halls. But long ago Telemachus
was ware of him, that he was within the house, yet in his prudence he hid the counsels
of his father, that he might take vengeance on the violence of the haughty wooers.’

Thus she spake, and then was Penelope glad, and leaping from her bed she fell
on the old woman’s neck, and let fall the tears from her eyelids, and uttering her
voice spake to her winged words: ‘Come, dear nurse, I pray thee, tell me all truly
– if indeed he hath come home as thou sayest – how he hath laid his hands on the
shameless wooers, he being but one man, while they abode ever in their companies
within the house.’

Then the good nurse Eurycleia answered her: ‘I saw not, I wist not, only I heard
the groaning of men slain. And we in an inmost place of the well builded chambers
sat all amazed, and the closefitted doors shut in the room, till thy son called
me from the chamber, for his father sent him out to that end. Then I found Odysseus
standing among the slain, who around him, stretched on the hard floor, lay one upon
the other; it would have comforted thy heart to see him, all stained like a lion
with blood and soil of battle. And now are all the wooers gathered in an heap by
the gates of the court, while he is purifying his fair house with brimstone, and
hath kindled a great fire, and hath sent me forth to call thee. So come with me,
that ye may both enter into your heart’s delight,1 for ye have suffered much affliction.
And even now hath this thy long desire been fulfilled; thy lord hath come alive
to his own hearth, and hath found both thee and his son in the halls; and the wooers
that wrought him evil he hath slain, every man of them, in his house.’

[Footnote 1: Reading bpwlv . . . amporePw.]

Then wise Penelope answered her: ‘Dear nurse, boast not yet over them with laughter.
Thou knowest how welcome the sight of him would be in the halls to all, and to me
in chief, and to his son that we got between us. But this is no true tale, as thou
declarest it, nay but it is one of the deathless gods that hath slain the proud
wooers, in wrath at their bitter insolence and evil deeds. For they honoured none
of earthly men, neither the good nor yet the bad, that came among them. Wherefore
they have suffered an evil doom through their own infatuate deeds. But Odysseus,
far away hath lost his homeward path to the Achaean land, and himself is lost.’

Then the good nurse Eurycleia made answer to her: ‘My child, what word hath escaped
the door of thy lips, in that thou saidest that thy lord, who is even now within,
and by his own hearthstone, would return no more? Nay, thy heart is ever hard of
belief. Go to now, and I will tell these besides a most manifest token, even the
scar of the wound that the boar on a time dealt him with his white tusk. This I
spied while washing his feet, and fain I would have told it even to thee, but he
laid his hand on my mouth, and in the fulness of his wisdom suffered me not to speak.
But come with me and I will stake my life on it; and if I play thee false, do thou
slay me by a death most pitiful.’

Then wise Penelope made answer to her: ‘Dear nurse, it is hard for thee, how
wise soever, to observe the purposes of the everlasting gods. None the less let
us go to my child, that I may see the wooers dead, and him that slew them.’

With that word she went down from the upper chamber, and much her heart debated,
whether she should stand apart, and question her dear lord or draw nigh, and clasp
and kiss his head and hands. But when she had come within and had crossed the threshold
of stone, she sat down over against Odysseus, in the light of the fire, by the further
wall. Now he was sitting by the tall pillar, looking down and waiting to know if
perchance his noble wife would speak to him, when her eyes beheld him. But she sat
long in silence, and amazement came upon her soul, and now she would look upon him
steadfastly with her eyes, and now again she knew him not, for that he was clad
in vile raiment. And Telemachus rebuked her, and spake and hailed her:
‘Mother mine, ill mother, of an ungentle heart, why turnest thou thus away from
my father, and dost not sit by and question him and ask him all? No other woman
in the world would harden her heart to stand thus aloof from her lord, who after
much travail and sore had come to her in the twentieth year to his own country.
But thy heart is ever harder than stone.’

Then wise Penelope answered him, saying: ‘Child, my mind is amazed within me,
and I have no strength to speak, nor to ask him aught, nay nor to look on him face
to face. But if in truth this be Odysseus, and he hath indeed come home, verily
we shall be ware of each other the more surely, for we have tokens that we twain
know, even we, secret from all others.’

So she spake, and the steadfast goodly Odysseus smiled, and quickly he spake
to Telemachus winged words” ‘Telemachus, leave now thy mother to make trial of me
within the chambers; so shall she soon come to a better knowledge than heretofore.
But now I go filthy, and am clad in vile raiment, wherefore she has me in dishonour,
and as yet will not allow that I am he. Let us then advise us how all may be for
the very best. For whoso has slain but one man in a land, even that one leaves not
many behind him to take up the feud for him, turns outlaw and leaves his kindred
and his own country; but we have slain the very stay of the city, the men who were
far the best of all the noble youths in Ithaca. So this I bid thee consider.’

Then wise Telemachus answered him, saying: ‘Father, see thou to this, for they
say that thy counsel is far the best among men, nor might any other of mortal men
contend with thee. But right eagerly will we go with thee now, and I think we shall
not lack prowess, so far as might is ours.’

And Odysseus of many counsels answered him saying: ‘Yea now, I will tell on what
wise methinks it is best. First go ye to the bath and array you in your doublets,
and bid the maidens in the chambers to take to them their garments. Then let the
divine minstrel, with his loud lyre in hand, lead off for us the measure of the
measure of the mirthful dance. So shall any man that hears the sound from without,
whether a wayfarer or one of those that dwell around, say that it is a wedding feast.
And thus the slaughter of the wooers shall not be noised abroad through the town
before we go forth to our well wooded farm-land. Thereafter shall we consider what
gainful counsel the Olympian may vouchasafe for us.’

So he spake, and they gave good ear and hearkened to him. So first they went
to the bath, and arrayed them in doublets, and the women were apparelled, and the
divine minstrel took the hollow harp, and aroused in them the desire of sweet song
and of the happy dance. Then the great hall rang round them with the sound of the
feet of dancing men and of fair-girdled women. And whoso heard it from without would
say:

‘Surely some one has wedded the queen of many wooers. Hard of heart was she,
nor had she courage to keep the great house of her wedded lord continually till
his coming.’

Even so men spake, and knew not how these things were ordained. Meanwhile, the
house-dame Eurynome had bathed the great-hearted Odysseus within his house, and
anointed him with olive-oil, and cast about him a goodly mantle and a doublet. Moreover
Athene shed great beauty from his head downwards, and made him greater and more
mighty to behold, and from his head caused deep curling locks to flow, like the
hyacinth flower. And as when some skilful man overlays gold upon silver, one that
Hephaestus and Pallas Athene have taught all manner of craft, and full of grace
is his handiwork, even so did Athene shed grace about his head and shoulders, and
forth from the bath he came, in form like to the immortals. Then he sat down again
on the high seat, whence he had arisen, over against his wife, and spake to her,
saying:

‘Strange lady, surely to thee above all womankind the Olympians have given a
heart that cannot be softened. No other woman in the world would harden her heart
to stand thus aloof from her husband, who after much travail and sore had come to
her, in the twentieth year, to his own country. Nay come, nurse, strew a bed for
me to lie all alone, for assuredly her spirit within her is as iron.’

Then wise Penelope answered him again: ‘Strange man, I have no proud thoughts
nor do I think scorn of thee, nor am I too greatly astonied, but I know right well
what manner of man thou wert, when thou wentest forth out of Ithaca, on the long-oared
galley. But come Eurycleia, spread for him the good bedstead outside the stablished
bridal chamber that he built himself. Thither bring ye forth the good bedstead and
cast bedding thereon, even fleeces and rugs and shining blankets.’

So she spake and made trial of her lord, but Odysseus in sore displeasure spake
to his true wife, saying: ‘Verily a bitter word is this, lady, that thou hast spoken.
Who has set my bed otherwhere? Hard it would be for one, how skilled so ever, unless
a god were to come that might easily set it in another place, if so he would. But
of men there is none living, howsoever strong in his youth, that could lightly upheave
it, for a great token is wrought in the fashioning of the bed, and it was I that
made it and none other. There was growing a bush of alive, long of leaf, and most
goodly of growth, within the inner court, and the stem as large as a pillar. Round
about this I built the chamber, till I had finished it, with stones close set, and
I rooted it over well and added thereto compacted doors fitting well. Next I sheared
off all the light wood of the long-leaved olive, and rough-hewed the trunk upwards
from the root, and smoothed it around with the adze, well and skilfully, and made
straight the line thereto and so fashioned it into the bedpost, and bored it all
with the auger. Beginning from this bedpost, I wrought at the bedstead till I had
finished it, and made it fair with inlaid work of gold and of silver and of ivory.
Then I made fast therein a bright purple band of oxhide. Even so I declare to thee
this token, and I know not, lady, if the bedstead be yet fast in his place, or if
some man has cut away the stem of the olive tree, and set the bedstead otherwhere.’

So he spake, and at once her knees were loosened, and her heart melted within
her, as she knew the sure tokens that Odysseus showed her. Then she fell a weeping,
and ran straight toward him and cast her hands about his neck, and kissed his head
and spake, saying:

‘Be not angry with me, Odysseus, for thou wert ever at other times the wisest
of men. It is the gods that gave us sorrow, the gods who begrudged us that we should
abide together and have joy of our youth, and come to the threshold of old age.
So now be not wroth with me hereat nor full of indignation, because at the first,
when I saw thee, I did not welcome thee straightway. For always my heart within
my breast shuddered, for fear lest some man should come and deceive me with his
words, for many they be that devise gainful schemes and evil. Nay even Argive Helen,
daughter of Zeus, would not have lain with a stranger, and taken him for a lover,
had she known that the warlike sons of the Achaeans would bring her home again to
her own dear country. Howsoever, it was the god that set her upon this shameful
deed; nor ever, ere that, did she lay up in her heart the thought of this folly,
a bitter folly, whence on us too first came sorrow. But now that thou hast told
all the sure tokens of our bed, which never was seen by mortal man, save by thee
and me and one maiden only, the daughter of Actor, that my father gave me ere yet
I had come hither, she who kept the doors of our strong bridal chamber, even now
dost thou bend my soul, all ungentle as it is.’

Thus she spake, and in his heart she stirred yet a greater longing to lament,
and he wept as he embraced his beloved wife and true. And even as when the sight
of land is welcome to swimmers, whose well-wrought ship Poseidon hath smitten on
the deep, all driven with the wind and swelling waves, and but a remnant hath escaped
the grey sea-water and swum to the shore, and their bodies are all crusted with
the brine, and gladly have they set foot on land and escaped an evil end; so welcome
to her was the sight of her lord, and her white arms she would never quite let go
from his neck. And now would the rosy – fingered Dawn have risen upon their weeping,
but the goddess, grey-eyed Athene, had other thoughts. The night she held long in
the utmost West, and on the other side she stayed the golden-throned Dawn by the
stream Oceanus, and suffered her not to harness the swift-footed steeds that bear
light to men, Lampus and Phaethon, the steeds ever young, that bring the morning.

Then at the last, Odysseus of many counsels spake to his wife, saying: ‘Lady,
we have not yet come to the issue of all our labours; but still there will be toil
unmeasured, long and difficult, that I must needs bring to a full end. Even so the
spirit of Teiresias foretold to me, on that day when I went down into the house
of Hades, to inquire after a returning for myself and my company. Wherefore come,
lady, let us to bed, that forthwith we may take our joy or rest beneath the spell
of sweet sleep.’

Then wise Penelope answered him: ‘Thy bed verily shall be ready whensoever thy
soul desires it, forasmuch as the gods have indeed caused thee to come back to thy
stablished home and thine own country. But now that thou hast noted it and the god
has put it into thy heart, come, tell me of this ordeal, for methinks the day will
come when I must learn it, and timely knowledge is no hurt.’

And Odysseus of many counsels answered her saying: ‘Ah, why now art thou so instant
with me to declare it? Yet I will tell thee all and hide nought. Howbeit thy heart
shall have no joy of it, as even I myself have no pleasure therein. For Teiresias
bade me fare to many cities of men, carrying a shapen oar in my hands, till I should
come to such men as know not the sea, neither eat meat savoured with salt, nor have
they knowledge of ships of purple cheek nor of shapen oars, which serve for wings
to ships. And he told me this with manifest token, which I will not hide from thee.
In the day when another wayfarer should meet me and say that I had a winnowing fan
on my stout shoulder, even then he bade me make fast my shapen oar in the earth,
and do goodly sacrifice to the lord Poseidon, even with a ram and a bull and a boar,
the mate of swine, and depart for home, and offer holy hecatombs to the deathless
gods, that keep the wide heaven, to each in order due. And from the sea shall mine
own death come, the gentlest death that may be, which shall end me, foredone, with
smooth old age, and the folk shall dwell happily around. All this, he said, was
to be fulfilled.’

Then wise Penelope answered him saying: ‘If indeed the gods will bring about
for thee a happier old age at the last, then is there hope that thou mayest yet
have an escape from evil.’

Thus they spake one to the other. Meanwhile, Eurynome and the nurse spread the
bed with soft coverlets, by the light of the torches burning. But when they had
busied them and spread the good bed, the ancient nurse went back to her chamber
to lie down, and Eurynome, the bower-maiden, guided them on their way to the couch,
with torches in her hands, and when she had led them to the bridal-chamber she departed.
And so they came gladly to the rites of their bed, as of old. But Telemachus, and
the neatherd, and the swineherd stayed their feet from dancing, and made the women
to cease, and themselves gat them to rest through the shadowy halls.

Now when the twain had taken their fill of sweet love, they had delight in the
tales, which they told one to the other. The fair lady spoke of all that she had
endured in the halls at the sight of the ruinous throng of wooers, who for her sake
slew many cattle, kine and goodly sheep; and many a cask of wine was broached. And
in turn, Odysseus, of the seed of Zeus, recounted all the griefs he had wrought
on men, and all his own travail and sorrow, and she was delighted with the story,
and sweet sleep fell not upon her eyelids till the tale was ended.

He began by setting forth how he overcame the Cicones, and next arrived at the
rich land of the Lotus-eaters, and all that the Cyclops wrought, and what a price
he got from him for the good companions that he devoured, and showed no pity. Then
how he came to Aeolus, who received him gladly and sent him on his way; but it was
not yet ordained that he should reach his own country, for the storm-wind seized
him again, and bare him over the teeming seas, making grievous moan. Next how he
came to Telepylus of the Laestrygonians, who brake his ships and slew all his goodly-greaved
companions, and Odysseus only escaped with his black ship. Then he told all the
wiles and many contrivances of Circe, and how in a benched ship he fared to the
dank house of Hades, to seek to the soul of Theban Teiresias. There he beheld all
those that had been his companions, and his mother who bore him and nurtured him,
while yet he was a little one. Then how he heard the song of the full-voiced Sirens,
and came to the Rocks Wandering, and to terrible Charybdis, and to Scylla, that
never yet have men avoided scatheless. Next he told how his company slew the kine
of Helios, and how Zeus, that thunders on high, smote the swift ship with the flaming
bolt, and the good crew perished all together, and he alone escaped from evil fates.
And how he came to the isle Ogygia, and to the nymph Calypso, who kept him there
in her hollow caves, longing to have him for her lord, and nurtured him and said
that she would make him never to know death or age all his days: yet she never won
his heart within his breast. Next how with great toil he came to the Phaeacians,
who gave him all worship heartily, as to a god, and sent him with a ship to his
own dear country, with gifts of bronze, and of gold, and raiment in plenty. This
was the last word of the tale, when sweet sleep came speedily upon him, sleep that
loosens the limbs of men, unknitting the cares of his soul.

Then the goddess, grey-eyed Athene, turned to new thoughts. When she deemed that
Odysseus had taken his fill of love and sleep, straightway she aroused from out
Oceanus the golden-throned Dawn, to bear light to men. Then Odysseus gat him from
his soft bed, and laid this charge on his wife, saying:

‘Lady, already have we had enough of labours, thou and I; thou, in weeping here,
and longing for my troublous return, I, while Zeus and the other gods bound me fast
in pain, despite my yearning after home, away from mine own country. But now that
we both have come to the bed of our desire, take thou thought for the care of my
wealth within the halls. But as for the sheep that the proud wooers have slain,
I myself will lift many more as spoil, and others the Achaeans will give, till they
fill all my folds. But now, behold, I go to the well-wooded farm-land, to see my
good father, who for love of me has been in sorrow continually. And this charge
I lay on thee, lady, too wise though thou art to need it. Quickly will the bruit
go forth with the rising sun, the bruit concerning the wooers, whom I slew in the
halls. Wherefore ascend with the women thy handmaids into the upper chamber, and
sit there and look on no man, nor ask any question.’

Therewith he girded on his shoulder his goodly armour, and roused Telemachus
and the neatherd and the swineherd, and bade them all take weapons of war in their
hands. So they were not disobedient to his word, but clad themselves in mail, and
opened the doors and went forth, and Odysseus led the way. And now there was light
over all the earth; but them Athene hid in night, and quickly conducted out of the
town.