<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=410329" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Odyssey: Book 23</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Euryclea now went upstairs laughing to tell her mistress that her<br>dear husband had come home. Her aged knees became young again and<br>her feet were nimble for joy as she went up to her mistress and bent<br>over her head to speak to her. "Wake up Penelope, my dear child,"<br>she exclaimed, "and see with your own eyes something that you have<br>been wanting this long time past. Ulysses has at last indeed come home<br>again, and has killed the suitors who were giving so much trouble in<br>his house, eating up his estate and ill-treating his son."<br>"My good nurse," answered Penelope, "you must be mad. The gods<br>sometimes send some very sensible people out of their minds, and<br>make foolish people become sensible. This is what they must have<br>been doing to you; for you always used to be a reasonable person.<br>Why should you thus mock me when I have trouble enough already-<br>talking such nonsense, and waking me up out of a sweet sleep that<br>had taken possession of my eyes and closed them? I have never slept so<br>soundly from the day my poor husband went to that city with the<br>ill-omened name. Go back again into the women's room; if it had been<br>any one else, who had woke me up to bring me such absurd news I should<br>have sent her away with a severe scolding. As it is, your age shall<br>protect you."<br>"My dear child," answered Euryclea, "I am not mocking you. It is<br>quite true as I tell you that Ulysses is come home again. He was the<br>stranger whom they all kept on treating so badly in the cloister.<br>Telemachus knew all the time that he was come back, but kept his<br>father's secret that he might have his revenge on all these wicked<br>people.<br>Then Penelope sprang up from her couch, threw her arms round<br>Euryclea, and wept for joy. "But my dear nurse," said she, "explain<br>this to me; if he has really come home as you say, how did he manage<br>to overcome the wicked suitors single handed, seeing what a number<br>of them there always were?"<br>"I was not there," answered Euryclea, "and do not know; I only heard<br>them groaning while they were being killed. We sat crouching and<br>huddled up in a corner of the women's room with the doors closed, till<br>your son came to fetch me because his father sent him. Then I found<br>Ulysses standing over the corpses that were lying on the ground all<br>round him, one on top of the other. You would have enjoyed it if you<br>could have seen him standing there all bespattered with blood and<br>filth, and looking just like a lion. But the corpses are now all piled<br>up in the gatehouse that is in the outer court, and Ulysses has lit<br>a great fire to purify the house with sulphur. He has sent me to<br>call you, so come with me that you may both be happy together after<br>all; for now at last the desire of your heart has been fulfilled; your<br>husband is come home to find both wife and son alive and well, and<br>to take his revenge in his own house on the suitors who behaved so<br>badly to him."<br>"'My dear nurse," said Penelope, "do not exult too confidently<br>over all this. You know how delighted every one would be to see<br>Ulysses come home- more particularly myself, and the son who has<br>been born to both of us; but what you tell me cannot be really true.<br>It is some god who is angry with the suitors for their great<br>wickedness, and has made an end of them; for they respected no man<br>in the whole world, neither rich nor poor, who came near them, who<br>came near them, and they have come to a bad end in consequence of<br>their iniquity. Ulysses is dead far away from the Achaean land; he<br>will never return home again."<br>Then nurse Euryclea said, "My child, what are you talking about? but<br>you were all hard of belief and have made up your mind that your<br>husband is never coming, although he is in the house and by his own<br>fire side at this very moment. Besides I can give you another proof;<br>when I was washing him I perceived the scar which the wild boar gave<br>him, and I wanted to tell you about it, but in his wisdom he would not<br>let me, and clapped his hands over my mouth; so come with me and I<br>will make this bargain with you- if I am deceiving you, you may have<br>me killed by the most cruel death you can think of."<br>"My dear nurse," said Penelope, "however wise you may be you can<br>hardly fathom the counsels of the gods. Nevertheless, we will go in<br>search of my son, that I may see the corpses of the suitors, and the<br>man who has killed them."<br>On this she came down from her upper room, and while doing so she<br>considered whether she should keep at a distance from her husband<br>and question him, or whether she should at once go up to him and<br>embrace him. When, however, she had crossed the stone floor of the<br>cloister, she sat down opposite Ulysses by the fire, against the<br>wall at right angles [to that by which she had entered], while Ulysses<br>sat near one of the bearing-posts, looking upon the ground, and<br>waiting to see what his wife would say to him when she saw him. For<br>a long time she sat silent and as one lost in amazement. At one moment<br>she looked him full in the face, but then again directly, she was<br>misled by his shabby clothes and failed to recognize him, till<br>Telemachus began to reproach her and said:<br>"Mother- but you are so hard that I cannot call you by such a<br>name- why do you keep away from my father in this way? Why do you<br>not sit by his side and begin talking to him and asking him questions?<br>No other woman could bear to keep away from her husband when he had<br>come back to her after twenty years of absence, and after having<br>gone through so much; but your heart always was as hard as a stone."<br>Penelope answered, "My son, I am so lost in astonishment that I<br>can find no words in which either to ask questions or to answer<br>them. I cannot even look him straight in the face. Still, if he really<br>is Ulysses come back to his own home again, we shall get to understand<br>one another better by and by, for there are tokens with which we two<br>are alone acquainted, and which are hidden from all others."<br>Ulysses smiled at this, and said to Telemachus, "Let your mother put<br>me to any proof she likes; she will make up her mind about it<br>presently. She rejects me for the moment and believes me to be<br>somebody else, because I am covered with dirt and have such bad<br>clothes on; let us, however, consider what we had better do next. When<br>one man has killed another, even though he was not one who would leave<br>many friends to take up his quarrel, the man who has killed him must<br>still say good bye to his friends and fly the country; whereas we have<br>been killing the stay of a whole town, and all the picked youth of<br>Ithaca. I would have you consider this matter."<br>"Look to it yourself, father," answered Telemachus, "for they say<br>you are the wisest counsellor in the world, and that there is no other<br>mortal man who can compare with you. We will follow you with right<br>good will, nor shall you find us fail you in so far as our strength<br>holds out."<br>"I will say what I think will be best," answered Ulysses. "First<br>wash and put your shirts on; tell the maids also to go to their own<br>room and dress; Phemius shall then strike up a dance tune on his lyre,<br>so that if people outside hear, or any of the neighbours, or some<br>one going along the street happens to notice it, they may think<br>there is a wedding in the house, and no rumours about the death of the<br>suitors will get about in the town, before we can escape to the<br>woods upon my own land. Once there, we will settle which of the<br>courses heaven vouchsafes us shall seem wisest."<br>Thus did he speak, and they did even as he had said. First they<br>washed and put their shirts on, while the women got ready. Then<br>Phemius took his lyre and set them all longing for sweet song and<br>stately dance. The house re-echoed with the sound of men and women<br>dancing, and the people outside said, "I suppose the queen has been<br>getting married at last. She ought to be ashamed of herself for not<br>continuing to protect her husband's property until he comes home."<br>This was what they said, but they did not know what it was that<br>had been happening. The upper servant Eurynome washed and anointed<br>Ulysses in his own house and gave him a shirt and cloak, while Minerva<br>made him look taller and stronger than before; she also made the<br>hair grow thick on the top of his head, and flow down in curls like<br>hyacinth blossoms; she glorified him about the head and shoulders just<br>as a skilful workman who has studied art of all kinds under Vulcan<br>or Minerva- and his work is full of beauty- enriches a piece of silver<br>plate by gilding it. He came from the bath looking like one of the<br>immortals, and sat down opposite his wife on the seat he had left. "My<br>dear," said he, "heaven has endowed you with a heart more unyielding<br>than woman ever yet had. No other woman could bear to keep away from<br>her husband when he had come back to her after twenty years of<br>absence, and after having gone through so much. But come, nurse, get a<br>bed ready for me; I will sleep alone, for this woman has a heart as<br>hard as iron."<br>"My dear," answered Penelope, "I have no wish to set myself up,<br>nor to depreciate you; but I am not struck by your appearance, for I<br>very well remember what kind of a man you were when you set sail<br>from Ithaca. Nevertheless, Euryclea, take his bed outside the bed<br>chamber that he himself built. Bring the bed outside this room, and<br>put bedding upon it with fleeces, good coverlets, and blankets."<br>She said this to try him, but Ulysses was very angry and said,<br>"Wife, I am much displeased at what you have just been saying. Who has<br>been taking my bed from the place in which I left it? He must have<br>found it a hard task, no matter how skilled a workman he was, unless<br>some god came and helped him to shift it. There is no man living,<br>however strong and in his prime, who could move it from its place, for<br>it is a marvellous curiosity which I made with my very own hands.<br>There was a young olive growing within the precincts of the house,<br>in full vigour, and about as thick as a bearing-post. I built my<br>room round this with strong walls of stone and a roof to cover them,<br>and I made the doors strong and well-fitting. Then I cut off the top<br>boughs of the olive tree and left the stump standing. This I dressed<br>roughly from the root upwards and then worked with carpenter's tools<br>well and skilfully, straightening my work by drawing a line on the<br>wood, and making it into a bed-prop. I then bored a hole down the<br>middle, and made it the centre-post of my bed, at which I worked<br>till I had finished it, inlaying it with gold and silver; after this I<br>stretched a hide of crimson leather from one side of it to the<br>other. So you see I know all about it, and I desire to learn whether<br>it is still there, or whether any one has been removing it by<br>cutting down the olive tree at its roots."<br>When she heard the sure proofs Ulysses now gave her, she fairly<br>broke down. She flew weeping to his side, flung her arms about his<br>neck, and kissed him. "Do not be angry with me Ulysses," she cried,<br>"you, who are the wisest of mankind. We have suffered, both of us.<br>Heaven has denied us the happiness of spending our youth, and of<br>growing old, together; do not then be aggrieved or take it amiss<br>that I did not embrace you thus as soon as I saw you. I have been<br>shuddering all the time through fear that someone might come here<br>and deceive me with a lying story; for there are many very wicked<br>people going about. Jove's daughter Helen would never have yielded<br>herself to a man from a foreign country, if she had known that the<br>sons of Achaeans would come after her and bring her back. Heaven put<br>it in her heart to do wrong, and she gave no thought to that sin,<br>which has been the source of all our sorrows. Now, however, that you<br>have convinced me by showing that you know all about our bed (which no<br>human being has ever seen but you and I and a single maid servant, the<br>daughter of Actor, who was given me by my father on my marriage, and<br>who keeps the doors of our room) hard of belief though I have been I<br>can mistrust no longer."<br>Then Ulysses in his turn melted, and wept as he clasped his dear and<br>faithful wife to his bosom. As the sight of land is welcome to men who<br>are swimming towards the shore, when Neptune has wrecked their ship<br>with the fury of his winds and waves- a few alone reach the land,<br>and these, covered with brine, are thankful when they find<br>themselves on firm ground and out of danger- even so was her husband<br>welcome to her as she looked upon him, and she could not tear her<br>two fair arms from about his neck. Indeed they would have gone on<br>indulging their sorrow till rosy-fingered morn appeared, had not<br>Minerva determined otherwise, and held night back in the far west,<br>while she would not suffer Dawn to leave Oceanus, nor to yoke the<br>two steeds Lampus and Phaethon that bear her onward to break the day<br>upon mankind.<br>At last, however, Ulysses said, "Wife, we have not yet reached the<br>end of our troubles. I have an unknown amount of toil still to<br>undergo. It is long and difficult, but I must go through with it,<br>for thus the shade of Teiresias prophesied concerning me, on the day<br>when I went down into Hades to ask about my return and that of my<br>companions. But now let us go to bed, that we may lie down and enjoy<br>the blessed boon of sleep."<br>"You shall go to bed as soon as you please," replied Penelope,<br>"now that the gods have sent you home to your own good house and to<br>your country. But as heaven has put it in your mind to speak of it,<br>tell me about the task that lies before you. I shall have to hear<br>about it later, so it is better that I should be told at once."<br>"My dear," answered Ulysses, "why should you press me to tell you?<br>Still, I will not conceal it from you, though you will not like BOOK<br>it. I do not like it myself, for Teiresias bade me travel far and<br>wide, carrying an oar, till I came to a country where the people<br>have never heard of the sea, and do not even mix salt with their food.<br>They know nothing about ships, nor oars that are as the wings of a<br>ship. He gave me this certain token which I will not hide from you. He<br>said that a wayfarer should meet me and ask me whether it was a<br>winnowing shovel that I had on my shoulder. On this, I was to fix my<br>oar in the ground and sacrifice a ram, a bull, and a boar to<br>Neptune; after which I was to go home and offer hecatombs to all the<br>gods in heaven, one after the other. As for myself, he said that death<br>should come to me from the sea, and that my life should ebb away<br>very gently when I was full of years and peace of mind, and my<br>people should bless me. All this, he said, should surely come to<br>pass."<br>And Penelope said, "If the gods are going to vouchsafe you a happier<br>time in your old age, you may hope then to have some respite from<br>misfortune."<br>Thus did they converse. Meanwhile Eurynome and the nurse took<br>torches and made the bed ready with soft coverlets; as soon as they<br>had laid them, the nurse went back into the house to go to her rest,<br>leaving the bed chamber woman Eurynome to show Ulysses and Penelope to<br>bed by torch light. When she had conducted them to their room she went<br>back, and they then came joyfully to the rites of their own old bed.<br>Telemachus, Philoetius, and the swineherd now left off dancing, and<br>made the women leave off also. They then laid themselves down to sleep<br>in the cloisters.<br>When Ulysses and Penelope had had their fill of love they fell<br>talking with one another. She told him how much she had had to bear in<br>seeing the house filled with a crowd of wicked suitors who had<br>killed so many sheep and oxen on her account, and had drunk so many<br>casks of wine. Ulysses in his turn told her what he had suffered,<br>and how much trouble he had himself given to other people. He told her<br>everything, and she was so delighted to listen that she never went<br>to sleep till he had ended his whole story.<br>He began with his victory over the Cicons, and how he thence reached<br>the fertile land of the Lotus-eaters. He told her all about the<br>Cyclops and how he had punished him for having so ruthlessly eaten his<br>brave comrades; how he then went on to Aeolus, who received him<br>hospitably and furthered him on his way, but even so he was not to<br>reach home, for to his great grief a hurricane carried him out to<br>sea again; how he went on to the Laestrygonian city Telepylos, where<br>the people destroyed all his ships with their crews, save himself<br>and his own ship only. Then he told of cunning Circe and her craft,<br>and how he sailed to the chill house of Hades, to consult the ghost of<br>the Theban prophet Teiresias, and how he saw his old comrades in arms,<br>and his mother who bore him and brought him up when he was a child;<br>how he then heard the wondrous singing of the Sirens, and went on to<br>the wandering rocks and terrible Charybdis and to Scylla, whom no<br>man had ever yet passed in safety; how his men then ate the cattle<br>of the sun-god, and how Jove therefore struck the ship with his<br>thunderbolts, so that all his men perished together, himself alone<br>being left alive; how at last he reached the Ogygian island and the<br>nymph Calypso, who kept him there in a cave, and fed him, and wanted<br>him to marry her, in which case she intended making him immortal so<br>that he should never grow old, but she could not persuade him to let<br>her do so; and how after much suffering he had found his way to the<br>Phaeacians, who had treated him as though he had been a god, and<br>sent him back in a ship to his own country after having given him<br>gold, bronze, and raiment in great abundance. This was the last<br>thing about which he told her, for here a deep sleep took hold upon<br>him and eased the burden of his sorrows.<br>Then Minerva bethought her of another matter. When she deemed that<br>Ulysses had had both of his wife and of repose, she bade<br>gold-enthroned Dawn rise out of Oceanus that she might shed light upon<br>mankind. On this, Ulysses rose from his comfortable bed and said to<br>Penelope, "Wife, we have both of us had our full share of troubles,<br>you, here, in lamenting my absence, and I in being prevented from<br>getting home though I was longing all the time to do so. Now, however,<br>that we have at last come together, take care of the property that<br>is in the house. As for the sheep and goats which the wicked suitors<br>have eaten, I will take many myself by force from other people, and<br>will compel the Achaeans to make good the rest till they shall have<br>filled all my yards. I am now going to the wooded lands out in the<br>country to see my father who has so long been grieved on my account,<br>and to yourself I will give these instructions, though you have little<br>need of them. At sunrise it will at once get abroad that I have been<br>killing the suitors; go upstairs, therefore, and stay there with<br>your women. See nobody and ask no questions."<br>As he spoke he girded on his armour. Then he roused Telemachus,<br>Philoetius, and Eumaeus, and told them all to put on their armour<br>also. This they did, and armed themselves. When they had done so, they<br>opened the gates and sallied forth, Ulysses leading the way. It was<br>now daylight, but Minerva nevertheless concealed them in darkness<br>and led them quickly out of the town.</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=410329" data-title="The Odyssey: Book 23 de Homer" data-description="Euryclea now went upstairs laughing to tell her mistress that her/dear husband had come home. Her aged knees became young again and/her feet were nimble for joy as she went up to her mistress and bent/over her head to speak to her. "Wake up Penelo..."></div> </div> </div>

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