<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=410321" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Odyssey: Book 16</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Meanwhile Ulysses and the swineherd had lit a fire in the hut and<br>were were getting breakfast ready at daybreak for they had sent the<br>men out with the pigs. When Telemachus came up, the dogs did not bark,<br>but fawned upon him, so Ulysses, hearing the sound of feet and<br>noticing that the dogs did not bark, said to Eumaeus:<br>"Eumaeus, I hear footsteps; I suppose one of your men or some one of<br>your acquaintance is coming here, for the dogs are fawning urn him and<br>not barking."<br>The words were hardly out of his mouth before his son stood at the<br>door. Eumaeus sprang to his feet, and the bowls in which he was mixing<br>wine fell from his hands, as he made towards his master. He kissed his<br>head and both his beautiful eyes, and wept for joy. A father could not<br>be more delighted at the return of an only son, the child of his old<br>age, after ten years' absence in a foreign country and after having<br>gone through much hardship. He embraced him, kissed him all over as<br>though he had come back from the dead, and spoke fondly to him saying:<br>"So you are come, Telemachus, light of my eyes that you are. When<br>I heard you had gone to Pylos I made sure I was never going to see you<br>any more. Come in, my dear child, and sit down, that I may have a good<br>look at you now you are home again; it is not very often you come into<br>the country to see us herdsmen; you stick pretty close to the town<br>generally. I suppose you think it better to keep an eye on what the<br>suitors are doing."<br>"So be it, old friend," answered Telemachus, "but I am come now<br>because I want to see you, and to learn whether my mother is still<br>at her old home or whether some one else has married her, so that<br>the bed of Ulysses is without bedding and covered with cobwebs."<br>"She is still at the house," replied Eumaeus, "grieving and breaking<br>her heart, and doing nothing but weep, both night and day<br>continually."<br>As spoke he took Telemachus' spear, whereon he crossed the stone<br>threshold and came inside. Ulysses rose from his seat to give him<br>place as he entered, but Telemachus checked him; "Sit down, stranger."<br>said he, "I can easily find another seat, and there is one here who<br>will lay it for me."<br>Ulysses went back to his own place, and Eumaeus strewed some green<br>brushwood on the floor and threw a sheepskin on top of it for<br>Telemachus to sit upon. Then the swineherd brought them platters of<br>cold meat, the remains from what they had eaten the day before, and he<br>filled the bread baskets with bread as fast as he could. He mixed wine<br>also in bowls of ivy-wood, and took his seat facing Ulysses. Then they<br>laid their hands on the good things that were before them, and as soon<br>as they had had enough to eat and drink Telemachus said to Eumaeus,<br>"Old friend, where does this stranger come from? How did his crew<br>bring him to Ithaca, and who were they?-for assuredly he did not<br>come here by land"'<br>To this you answered, O swineherd Eumaeus, "My son, I will tell<br>you the real truth. He says he is a Cretan, and that he has been a<br>great traveller. At this moment he is running away from a<br>Thesprotian ship, and has refuge at my station, so I will put him into<br>your hands. Do whatever you like with him, only remember that he is<br>your suppliant."<br>"I am very much distressed," said Telemachus, "by what you have just<br>told me. How can I take this stranger into my house? I am as yet<br>young, and am not strong enough to hold my own if any man attacks<br>me. My mother cannot make up her mind whether to stay where she is and<br>look after the house out of respect for public opinion and the<br>memory of her husband, or whether the time is now come for her to take<br>the best man of those who are wooing her, and the one who will make<br>her the most advantageous offer; still, as the stranger has come to<br>your station I will find him a cloak and shirt of good wear, with a<br>sword and sandals, and will send him wherever he wants to go. Or if<br>you like you can keep him here at the station, and I will send him<br>clothes and food that he may be no burden on you and on your men;<br>but I will not have him go near the suitors, for they are very<br>insolent, and are sure to ill-treat him in a way that would greatly<br>grieve me; no matter how valiant a man may be he can do nothing<br>against numbers, for they will be too strong for him."<br>Then Ulysses said, "Sir, it is right that I should say something<br>myself. I am much shocked about what you have said about the<br>insolent way in which the suitors are behaving in despite of such a<br>man as you are. Tell me, do you submit to such treatment tamely, or<br>has some god set your people against you? May you not complain of your<br>brothers- for it is to these that a man may look for support,<br>however great his quarrel may be? I wish I were as young as you are<br>and in my present mind; if I were son to Ulysses, or, indeed,<br>Ulysses himself, I would rather some one came and cut my head off, but<br>I would go to the house and be the bane of every one of these men.<br>If they were too many for me- I being single-handed- I would rather<br>die fighting in my own house than see such disgraceful sights day<br>after day, strangers grossly maltreated, and men dragging the women<br>servants about the house in an unseemly way, wine drawn recklessly,<br>and bread wasted all to no purpose for an end that shall never be<br>accomplished."<br>And Telemachus answered, "I will tell you truly everything. There is<br>no emnity between me and my people, nor can I complain of brothers, to<br>whom a man may look for support however great his quarrel may be. Jove<br>has made us a race of only sons. Laertes was the only son of<br>Arceisius, and Ulysses only son of Laertes. I am myself the only son<br>of Ulysses who left me behind him when he went away, so that I have<br>never been of any use to him. Hence it comes that my house is in the<br>hands of numberless marauders; for the chiefs from all the<br>neighbouring islands, Dulichium, Same, Zacynthus, as also all the<br>principal men of Ithaca itself, are eating up my house under the<br>pretext of paying court to my mother, who will neither say point blank<br>that she will not marry, nor yet bring matters to an end, so they<br>are making havoc of my estate, and before long will do so with<br>myself into the bargain. The issue, however, rests with heaven. But do<br>you, old friend Eumaeus, go at once and tell Penelope that I am safe<br>and have returned from Pylos. Tell it to herself alone, and then<br>come back here without letting any one else know, for there are many<br>who are plotting mischief against me."<br>"I understand and heed you," replied Eumaeus; "you need instruct<br>me no further, only I am going that way say whether I had not better<br>let poor Laertes know that you are returned. He used to superintend<br>the work on his farm in spite of his bitter sorrow about Ulysses,<br>and he would eat and drink at will along with his servants; but they<br>tell me that from the day on which you set out for Pylos he has<br>neither eaten nor drunk as he ought to do, nor does he look after<br>his farm, but sits weeping and wasting the flesh from off his bones."<br>"More's the pity," answered Telemachus, "I am sorry for him, but<br>we must leave him to himself just now. If people could have everything<br>their own way, the first thing I should choose would be the return<br>of my father; but go, and give your message; then make haste back<br>again, and do not turn out of your way to tell Laertes. Tell my mother<br>to send one of her women secretly with the news at once, and let him<br>hear it from her."<br>Thus did he urge the swineherd; Eumaeus, therefore, took his<br>sandals, bound them to his feet, and started for the town. Minerva<br>watched him well off the station, and then came up to it in the form<br>of a woman- fair, stately, and wise. She stood against the side of the<br>entry, and revealed herself to Ulysses, but Telemachus could not see<br>her, and knew not that she was there, for the gods do not let<br>themselves be seen by everybody. Ulysses saw her, and so did the dogs,<br>for they did not bark, but went scared and whining off to the other<br>side of the yards. She nodded her head and motioned to Ulysses with<br>her eyebrows; whereon he left the hut and stood before her outside the<br>main wall of the yards. Then she said to him:<br>"Ulysses, noble son of Laertes, it is now time for you to tell<br>your son: do not keep him in the dark any longer, but lay your plans<br>for the destruction of the suitors, and then make for the town. I will<br>not be long in joining you, for I too am eager for the fray."<br>As she spoke she touched him with her golden wand. First she threw a<br>fair clean shirt and cloak about his shoulders; then she made him<br>younger and of more imposing presence; she gave him back his colour,<br>filled out his cheeks, and let his beard become dark again. Then she<br>went away and Ulysses came back inside the hut. His son was<br>astounded when he saw him, and turned his eyes away for fear he<br>might be looking upon a god.<br>"Stranger," said he, "how suddenly you have changed from what you<br>were a moment or two ago. You are dressed differently and your<br>colour is not the same. Are you some one or other of the gods that<br>live in heaven? If so, be propitious to me till I can make you due<br>sacrifice and offerings of wrought gold. Have mercy upon me."<br>And Ulysses said, "I am no god, why should you take me for one? I am<br>your father, on whose account you grieve and suffer so much at the<br>hands of lawless men."<br>As he spoke he kissed his son, and a tear fell from his cheek on<br>to the ground, for he had restrained all tears till now. but<br>Telemachus could not yet believe that it was his father, and said:<br>"You are not my father, but some god is flattering me with vain<br>hopes that I may grieve the more hereafter; no mortal man could of<br>himself contrive to do as you have been doing, and make yourself old<br>and young at a moment's notice, unless a god were with him. A second<br>ago you were old and all in rags, and now you are like some god come<br>down from heaven."<br>Ulysses answered, "Telemachus, you ought not to be so immeasurably<br>astonished at my being really here. There is no other Ulysses who will<br>come hereafter. Such as I am, it is I, who after long wandering and<br>much hardship have got home in the twentieth year to my own country.<br>What you wonder at is the work of the redoubtable goddess Minerva, who<br>does with me whatever she will, for she can do what she pleases. At<br>one moment she makes me like a beggar, and the next I am a young man<br>with good clothes on my back; it is an easy matter for the gods who<br>live in heaven to make any man look either rich or poor."<br>As he spoke he sat down, and Telemachus threw his arms about his<br>father and wept. They were both so much moved that they cried aloud<br>like eagles or vultures with crooked talons that have been robbed of<br>their half fledged young by peasants. Thus piteously did they weep,<br>and the sun would have gone down upon their mourning if Telemachus had<br>not suddenly said, "In what ship, my dear father, did your crew<br>bring you to Ithaca? Of what nation did they declare themselves to be-<br>for you cannot have come by land?"<br>"I will tell you the truth, my son," replied Ulysses. "It was the<br>Phaeacians who brought me here. They are great sailors, and are in the<br>habit of giving escorts to any one who reaches their coasts. They took<br>me over the sea while I was fast asleep, and landed me in Ithaca,<br>after giving me many presents in bronze, gold, and raiment. These<br>things by heaven's mercy are lying concealed in a cave, and I am now<br>come here on the suggestion of Minerva that we may consult about<br>killing our enemies. First, therefore, give me a list of the<br>suitors, with their number, that I may learn who, and how many, they<br>are. I can then turn the matter over in my mind, and see whether we<br>two can fight the whole body of them ourselves, or whether we must<br>find others to help us."<br>To this Telemachus answered, "Father, I have always heard of your<br>renown both in the field and in council, but the task you talk of is a<br>very great one: I am awed at the mere thought of it; two men cannot<br>stand against many and brave ones. There are not ten suitors only, nor<br>twice ten, but ten many times over; you shall learn their number at<br>once. There are fifty-two chosen youths from Dulichium, and they<br>have six servants; from Same there are twenty-four; twenty young<br>Achaeans from Zacynthus, and twelve from Ithaca itself, all of them<br>well born. They have with them a servant Medon, a bard, and two men<br>who can carve at table. If we face such numbers as this, you may<br>have bitter cause to rue your coming, and your revenge. See whether<br>you cannot think of some one who would be willing to come and help<br>us."<br>"Listen to me," replied Ulysses, "and think whether Minerva and<br>her father Jove may seem sufficient, or whether I am to try and find<br>some one else as well."<br>"Those whom you have named," answered Telemachus, "are a couple of<br>good allies, for though they dwell high up among the clouds they<br>have power over both gods and men."<br>"These two," continued Ulysses, "will not keep long out of the fray,<br>when the suitors and we join fight in my house. Now, therefore, return<br>home early to-morrow morning, and go about among the suitors as<br>before. Later on the swineherd will bring me to the city disguised<br>as a miserable old beggar. If you see them ill-treating me, steel your<br>heart against my sufferings; even though they drag me feet foremost<br>out of the house, or throw things at me, look on and do nothing beyond<br>gently trying to make them behave more reasonably; but they will not<br>listen to you, for the day of their reckoning is at hand.<br>Furthermore I say, and lay my saying to your heart, when Minerva shall<br>put it in my mind, I will nod my head to you, and on seeing me do this<br>you must collect all the armour that is in the house and hide it in<br>the strong store room. Make some excuse when the suitors ask you why<br>you are removing it; say that you have taken it to be out of the way<br>of the smoke, inasmuch as it is no longer what it was when Ulysses<br>went away, but has become soiled and begrimed with soot. Add to this<br>more particularly that you are afraid Jove may set them on to<br>quarrel over their wine, and that they may do each other some harm<br>which may disgrace both banquet and wooing, for the sight of arms<br>sometimes tempts people to use them. But leave a sword and a spear<br>apiece for yourself and me, and a couple oxhide shields so that we can<br>snatch them up at any moment; Jove and Minerva will then soon quiet<br>these people. There is also another matter; if you are indeed my son<br>and my blood runs in your veins, let no one know that Ulysses is<br>within the house- neither Laertes, nor yet the swineherd, nor any of<br>the servants, nor even Penelope herself. Let you and me exploit the<br>women alone, and let us also make trial of some other of the men<br>servants, to see who is on our side and whose hand is against us."<br>"Father," replied Telemachus, "you will come to know me by and by,<br>and when you do you will find that I can keep your counsel. I do not<br>think, however, the plan you propose will turn out well for either<br>of us. Think it over. It will take us a long time to go the round of<br>the farms and exploit the men, and all the time the suitors will be<br>wasting your estate with impunity and without compunction. Prove the<br>women by all means, to see who are disloyal and who guiltless, but I<br>am not in favour of going round and trying the men. We can attend to<br>that later on, if you really have some sign from Jove that he will<br>support you."<br>Thus did they converse, and meanwhile the ship which had brought<br>Telemachus and his crew from Pylos had reached the town of Ithaca.<br>When they had come inside the harbour they drew the ship on to the<br>land; their servants came and took their armour from them, and they<br>left all the presents at the house of Clytius. Then they sent a<br>servant to tell Penelope that Telemachus had gone into the country,<br>but had sent the ship to the town to prevent her from being alarmed<br>and made unhappy. This servant and Eumaeus happened to meet when<br>they were both on the same errand of going to tell Penelope. When they<br>reached the House, the servant stood up and said to the queen in the<br>presence of the waiting women, "Your son, Madam, is now returned<br>from Pylos"; but Eumaeus went close up to Penelope, and said privately<br>that her son had given bidden him tell her. When he had given his<br>message he left the house with its outbuildings and went back to his<br>pigs again.<br>The suitors were surprised and angry at what had happened, so they<br>went outside the great wall that ran round the outer court, and held a<br>council near the main entrance. Eurymachus, son of Polybus, was the<br>first to speak.<br>"My friends," said he, "this voyage of Telemachus's is a very<br>serious matter; we had made sure that it would come to nothing. Now,<br>however, let us draw a ship into the water, and get a crew together to<br>send after the others and tell them to come back as fast as they can."<br>He had hardly done speaking when Amphinomus turned in his place<br>and saw the ship inside the harbour, with the crew lowering her sails,<br>and putting by their oars; so he laughed, and said to the others,<br>"We need not send them any message, for they are here. Some god must<br>have told them, or else they saw the ship go by, and could not<br>overtake her.<br>On this they rose and went to the water side. The crew then drew the<br>ship on shore; their servants took their armour from them, and they<br>went up in a body to the place of assembly, but they would not let any<br>one old or young sit along with them, and Antinous, son of<br>Eupeithes, spoke first.<br>"Good heavens," said he, "see how the gods have saved this man<br>from destruction. We kept a succession of scouts upon the headlands<br>all day long, and when the sun was down we never went on shore to<br>sleep, but waited in the ship all night till morning in the hope of<br>capturing and killing him; but some god has conveyed him home in spite<br>of us. Let us consider how we can make an end of him. He must not<br>escape us; our affair is never likely to come off while is alive,<br>for he is very shrewd, and public feeling is by no means all on our<br>side. We must make haste before he can call the Achaeans in<br>assembly; he will lose no time in doing so, for he will be furious<br>with us, and will tell all the world how we plotted to kill him, but<br>failed to take him. The people will not like this when they come to<br>know of it; we must see that they do us no hurt, nor drive us from our<br>own country into exile. Let us try and lay hold of him either on his<br>farm away from the town, or on the road hither. Then we can divide<br>up his property amongst us, and let his mother and the man who marries<br>her have the house. If this does not please you, and you wish<br>Telemachus to live on and hold his father's property, then we must not<br>gather here and eat up his goods in this way, but must make our offers<br>to Penelope each from his own house, and she can marry the man who<br>will give the most for her, and whose lot it is to win her."<br>They all held their peace until Amphinomus rose to speak. He was the<br>son of Nisus, who was son to king Aretias, and he was foremost among<br>all the suitors from the wheat-growing and well grassed island of<br>Dulichium; his conversation, moreover, was more agreeable to<br>Penelope than that of any of the other for he was a man of good<br>natural disposition. "My friends," said he, speaking to them plainly<br>and in all honestly, "I am not in favour of killing Telemachus. It<br>is a heinous thing to kill one who is of noble blood. Let us first<br>take counsel of the gods, and if the oracles of Jove advise it, I will<br>both help to kill him myself, and will urge everyone else to do so;<br>but if they dissuade us, I would have you hold your hands."<br>Thus did he speak, and his words pleased them well, so they rose<br>forthwith and went to the house of Ulysses where they took their<br>accustomed seats.<br>Then Penelope resolved that she would show herself to the suitors.<br>She knew of the plot against Telemachus, for the servant Medon had<br>overheard their counsels and had told her; she went down therefore<br>to the court attended by her maidens, and when she reached the suitors<br>she stood by one of the bearing-posts supporting the roof of the<br>cloister holding a veil before her face, and rebuked Antinous saying:<br>"Antinous, insolent and wicked schemer, they say you are the best<br>speaker and counsellor of any man your own age in Ithaca, but you<br>are nothing of the kind. Madman, why should you try to compass the<br>death of Telemachus, and take no heed of suppliants, whose witness<br>is Jove himself? It is not right for you to plot thus against one<br>another. Do you not remember how your father fled to this house in<br>fear of the people, who were enraged against him for having gone<br>with some Taphian pirates and plundered the Thesprotians who were at<br>peace with us? They wanted to tear him in pieces and eat up everything<br>he had, but Ulysses stayed their hands although they were<br>infuriated, and now you devour his property without paying for it, and<br>break my heart by his wooing his wife and trying to kill his son.<br>Leave off doing so, and stop the others also."<br>To this Eurymachus son of Polybus answered, "Take heart, Queen<br>Penelope daughter of Icarius, and do not trouble yourself about<br>these matters. The man is not yet born, nor never will be, who shall<br>lay hands upon your son Telemachus, while I yet live to look upon<br>the face of the earth. I say- and it shall surely be- that my spear<br>shall be reddened with his blood; for many a time has Ulysses taken me<br>on his knees, held wine up to my lips to drink, and put pieces of meat<br>into my hands. Therefore Telemachus is much the dearest friend I have,<br>and has nothing to fear from the hands of us suitors. Of course, if<br>death comes to him from the gods, he cannot escape it." He said this<br>to quiet her, but in reality he was plotting against Telemachus.<br>Then Penelope went upstairs again and mourned her husband till<br>Minerva shed sleep over her eyes. In the evening Eumaeus got back to<br>Ulysses and his son, who had just sacrificed a young pig of a year old<br>and were ready; helping one another to get supper ready; Minerva<br>therefore came up to Ulysses, turned him into an old man with a stroke<br>of her wand, and clad him in his old clothes again, for fear that<br>the swineherd might recognize him and not keep the secret, but go<br>and tell Penelope.<br>Telemachus was the first to speak. "So you have got back,<br>Eumaeus," said he. "What is the news of the town? Have the suitors<br>returned, or are they still waiting over yonder, to take me on my<br>way home?"<br>"I did not think of asking about that," replied Eumaeus, "when I was<br>in the town. I thought I would give my message and come back as soon<br>as I could. I met a man sent by those who had gone with you to<br>Pylos, and he was the first to tell the new your mother, but I can say<br>what I saw with my own eyes; I had just got on to the crest of the<br>hill of Mercury above the town when I saw a ship coming into harbour<br>with a number of men in her. They had many shields and spears, and I<br>thought it was the suitors, but I cannot be sure."<br>On hearing this Telemachus smiled to his father, but so that Eumaeus<br>could not see him.<br>Then, when they had finished their work and the meal was ready, they<br>ate it, and every man had his full share so that all were satisfied.<br>As soon as they had had enough to eat and drink, they laid down to<br>rest and enjoyed the boon of sleep.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Homer">Homer</a>, translated by Samuel Butler<div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=410321" data-title="The Odyssey: Book 16 de Homer" data-description="Meanwhile Ulysses and the swineherd had lit a fire in the hut and/were were getting breakfast ready at daybreak for they had sent the/men out with the pigs. When Telemachus came up, the dogs did not bark,/but fawned upon him, so Ulysses, hearing t..."></div> </div> </div>

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