Book 23

So the old woman went up to the upper chamber, exulting,to tell her mistress that her dear husband was within the house;and her knees were strengthened, and her feet hurried beneath her.She stood above her head and spoke a word to her:Awake, Penelope, dear child, so that you may seewith your own eyes the things you have longed for all your days.Odysseus has come, and is here at the house, though late he came.And he has killed the proud suitors, who were devouring his houseand his possessions, and were lording it over his son.Then wise Penelope answered her again:Dear nurse, the gods have made you mad, the gods who are ableto make a fool of even one who is very wise,and to set the light-minded man upon the path of prudence;they have hurt you; before this you were of sound mind.Why do you mock me, who have a heart full of mourning,telling me these things beyond the truth, and waking me out of sleepthat was sweet, which bound my dear eyelids over my eyes?For never yet have I slept so deep, since the day Odysseuswent away to look on evil Troy, whose name should not be spoken.But come now, go down and go back to the hall.For if any other woman of those who are minehad come and told me this and woken me out of sleep,I would have sent her off swiftly to go back with a curseagain within the hall; but for you this old age will be a gain.Then her dear nurse Eurycleia answered her:I am not mocking you, dear child, but it is in truththat Odysseus has come and is here at the house, as I tell you,the stranger, whom all men in the halls dishonored.And Telemachus knew long ago that he was within,but in his prudence he hid his father's purpose,until he should exact payment for the violence of the overweening men.So she spoke, and she rejoiced, and leaping from the bedshe clung about the old woman, and from her eyelids a tear fell;and she spoke to her, addressing her with winged words:Come now, dear nurse, tell me truly,whether in truth he has come home, as you say,and how it was he laid hands on the shameless suitorsbeing alone, while they always remained within, gathered together.Then her dear nurse Eurycleia answered her:I did not see, I did not hear, but only the groaning I heardof men being killed; and we in the corner of the well-built chamberssat terrified, and the close-fitting doors held us in,until your son Telemachus called me from the hall;for his father had sent him to call me.Then I found Odysseus standing among the slain corpses;and they lay around him on the hard-beaten floor,one upon another; you would have warmed your heart to see it.But now they all lie at the courtyard doors,gathered together, while he purifies the beautiful house,having kindled a great fire; and he has sent me to call you.But follow me, so that you two may enter into joy,both of you, in your dear hearts, since you have suffered much evil.And now at last this long desire has been fulfilled;he has come home himself alive, and he has found youand your son in the halls; and the evil they did against him,the suitors, he has taken payment from them all in his own house.Then wise Penelope answered her again:Dear nurse, do not yet boast greatly in your exultation.For you know how welcome he would appear in the hallsto all, and most of all to me and to the son we bore;but this tale of yours is not true, as you tell it,but one of the immortals killed the noble suitors,angered at their heart-grieving arrogance and their evil deeds.For they honored no man upon the earth,neither bad nor good, whoever came among them;therefore through their folly they suffered evil; but Odysseushas lost his homecoming far from Achaea, and has perished himself.Then her dear nurse Eurycleia answered her:My child, what word has escaped the fence of your teeth,when you say that your husband, who is within, beside the hearth,will never come home; but your heart is always unbelieving.But come, I will tell you another very clear sign,the scar, which a boar once struck on him with its white tusk.While washing it I noticed it, and I wished to tell you yourself;but he caught me by the mouth with his handsand did not let me speak, in the wisdom of his mind.But come; and I will stake my own life,if I deceive you, that you may kill me with the most pitiable death.Then wise Penelope answered her:Dear nurse, it is hard to search out the purposes of the godswho live forever, even for one very wise.But still, let us go to my son, so that I may seethe suitors dead, and him who killed them.So she spoke, and went down from the upper chamber; and much her heartpondered whether she should question her dear husband from afar,or stand beside him and kiss his head and take his hands.And when she came in and crossed the stone threshold,she sat down opposite Odysseus, in the light of the fire,against the other wall; but he sat looking downtoward the long pillar, waiting to see whether his noble wifewould say something to him, since he had seen her with his eyes.She sat a long while in silence, and amazement came to her heart;and with her eyes she would look at him face to face at one moment,and at another she would not know him, for the evil clothes on his body.But Telemachus rebuked her and spoke a word and called her by name:Mother, my mother, harsh mother, with a heart without pity,why do you hold yourself apart from my father like this, and do notsit beside him and ask him with words and question him?No other woman at all, with such an enduring heart,would hold herself off from her husband, who after suffering much evilhad come back to his native land in the twentieth year;but your heart is forever harder than stone.Then wise Penelope answered him again:My child, the heart in my breast is stunned,and I cannot speak a word nor ask a questionnor look him in the face straight on. But if in truthit is Odysseus and he has come home, then we two surelyshall know each other the better; for we havetokens, which we two know, hidden from others.So she spoke, and much-enduring noble Odysseus smiled,and immediately spoke winged words to Telemachus:Telemachus, leave your mother in the hallsto test me; and soon she will know me the better.But as it is, because I am dirty and wear evil clothes on my body,therefore she dishonors me and says I am not that man.But let us consider how all may turn out best.For even a man who has killed one man in his country,when there are not many to avenge him afterwards,flees, leaving his kin behind and his native land;but we have killed the bulwark of the city, the very bestof the young men in Ithaca; on this I bid you take thought.Then wise Telemachus answered him face to face:Look to these things yourself, dear father; for men say your counselis the best among men, and no other manamong mortals could rival you.But we will follow eagerly along with you, and I sayI will not fall short in courage, as much strength as is in me.Then much-devising Odysseus answered him and said:Then I will speak, as it seems best to me.First wash yourselves and put on tunics,and bid the women in the halls to choose their clothing;but let the divine singer, holding his clear-toned lyre,lead us in the dance that loves play,so that one might say it is a wedding, hearing it outside,either walking along the road or among those who dwell nearby;so that the wide rumor of the killing may not spread through the cityof the suitors' men, before we go outto our field, thick with trees; and there thenwe shall consider whatever gain Olympian Zeus may put in our hands.So he spoke, and they hearkened to him and obeyed.First then they washed and put on tunics,and the women dressed themselves; and the divine singer tookthe hollow lyre, and roused in them desireof sweet song and blameless dancing.And the great house resounded with the feetof men sporting and women girt fair.And so someone would say, hearing them outside the house:Truly some man has married the much-courted queen;hard-hearted woman, she did not endure to keep her rightful husband'sgreat house to the end, until he should come home.So someone would say, but they did not know how these things were.But Odysseus of the great heart in his own housethe housekeeper Eurynome bathed and anointed with oil,and threw about him a fair mantle and a tunic;and on his head Athena poured much beauty,taller to look upon and fuller; and down from his headshe sent curling hair, like the hyacinth flower.As when a man pours gold over silver, oneskilled, whom Hephaestus taught and Pallas Athenain every craft, and he finishes graceful works;so she poured grace over his head and his shoulders.And he came from the bath, like the immortals in body;and again he sat down on the throne from which he had risen,opposite his own wife, and spoke a word to her:Strange woman, the gods who hold Olympian homes have madeyour heart unsoftening beyond all other women;no other woman at all, with an enduring heart,would hold herself off from her husband, who after suffering much evilhad come in the twentieth year to his native land.But come, nurse, make me a bed, so that I myselfmay lie down; for truly this woman has an iron heart in her breast.Then wise Penelope answered him again:Reckless man, I neither take proud airs nor make light of you,nor am I overmuch amazed; but I know very well what you were likewhen you came from Ithaca on a ship of long oars.But come, Eurycleia, make him a firm bedoutside the well-founded chamber, the one he built himself;and there, throwing down the firm bedding, put the bed upon it,of hides and blankets and shining rugs.So she spoke, testing her husband; but Odysseusvexed at heart spoke to his faithful wife:Woman, in truth this was a deeply painful word you said.Who has set my bed in another place? It would be hardeven for one very skilled, unless a god himself cameand easily, being willing, set it in another place.But among men no living mortal, not even one in his prime,could easily stir it aside, since a great sign has been madein the wrought bed; and I made it, and no other man.There grew a long-leaved olive tree within the walled court,in its prime and flourishing; and its thickness was like a pillar.Round it I built a bedroom, until I had finished it,with close-set stones, and I roofed it well above,and set in it fitted doors, closely joined.And then I cut off the foliage of the long-leaved olive,and trimmed the trunk from the root, cutting it with bronze,well and skillfully, and I straightened it to the line,working it into a bedpost, and I bored all the holes with an auger.From that beginning I fashioned the bed, until I had finished it,adorning it with gold and silver and ivory;and I stretched through it a thong of oxhide, shining with purple.So I make this sign plain to you; and I know nothingwhether my bed is still fast in place, wife, or whether some manhas set it elsewhere, cutting the base of the olive beneath it.So he spoke, and her knees and her dear heart were loosed,as she recognized the signs that Odysseus had told her plainly.Then she wept and ran straight to him, and about his neckshe threw her arms to Odysseus, and kissed his head and spoke:Do not be angry with me, Odysseus, since in all other thingsyou were the most understanding of men; the gods gave us sorrow,who begrudged us that we two, staying beside each other,should enjoy our youth and reach the threshold of old age.But do not now be angry with me for this nor resent me,because I did not welcome you like this the first moment I saw you.For always the heart in my dear breastshuddered lest some mortal should deceive me with wordsand come; for many men plan evil gains.Not even Argive Helen, born of Zeus,would have mingled in love and bed with a foreign man,if she had known that the warlike sons of the Achaeanswould bring her back home to her dear native land.But a god urged her on to do a shameful deed;that ruin she did not first lay up in her own heart,the baneful ruin from which grief first came even to us.But now, since you have told the very clear signsof our bed, which no other mortal has seen,but only you and I and one single handmaid,Actor's daughter, whom my father gave me when I came here,who guarded the doors of our firm chamber for us,you persuade my heart, though it is very hard.So she spoke, and in him she roused still more longing for lament;and he wept holding his heart's-wife, the faithful-minded woman.As when land appears welcome to men swimming,whose well-built ship Poseidon has wrecked on the sea,driven on by wind and solid wave;and few escaped the gray sea to the mainlandby swimming, with much brine crusted over their skin,and gladly they set foot on land, escaping misery;so welcome to her was her husband as she looked upon him,and from his neck she did not yet let go her white arms.And now rosy-fingered Dawn would have appeared to them as they lamented,had not the goddess, flashing-eyed Athena, thought of another thing.She held back the long night at its limit, and again Dawnshe kept away from Ocean, the golden-throned one, and did not letthe swift-footed horses be yoked, that bring light to men,Lampus and Phaethon, the colts that draw Dawn.And then much-devising Odysseus spoke to his wife:Woman, we have not yet come to the limit of all our trials,but still hereafter there will be immeasurable toil,much and hard, which I must accomplish all.For so the soul of Teiresias prophesied to meon the day when I went down into the house of Hades,seeking the homecoming for my comrades and for myself.But come, let us go to bed, woman, so that now at lastwe may enjoy sweet sleep, lying down.Then wise Penelope answered him again:The bed will be yours whenever in your heartyou wish it, since the gods have made you cometo your well-built home and your native land;but since you have thought of it and a god has put it in your mind,come, tell me the trial, since I think I shall learn of ithereafter too, and to know it at once is no worse.Then much-devising Odysseus answered her and said:Strange woman, why do you again urge me so strongly and bid metell it? But I will speak, and I will not hide it.Your heart will not be gladdened; for I myselfdo not rejoice, since he ordered me to go to many cities of men,holding in my hands a well-made oar,until I come to those who do not know the sea,men who do not eat food mixed with salt;who do not know ships with red-painted cheeks,nor well-made oars, which are wings for ships.And he told me this clear sign, and I will not hide it from you:when another wayfarer, meeting me,says that I have a winnowing-fan on my bright shoulder,then he told me to fix the oar in the earth,and after doing fair holy rites to lord Poseidon,a ram and a bull and a boar that mounts sows,to go home again, and to do holy hecatombsto the immortal gods who hold the wide heaven,all of them in order; and death will come to me from the sea,a very gentle one, such as will kill meworn with sleek old age; and about me the peopleswill be prosperous; and he said all this would be fulfilled.Then wise Penelope answered him again:If indeed the gods will fulfil a better old age,then there is hope that there will be an escape from evils.So they spoke such things to each other;and meanwhile Eurynome and the nurse prepared the bedwith soft bedding, under the light of torches.But when they had spread the firm bed, hurrying,the old woman went back to lie down in her own place,and the chambermaid Eurynome led themas they came to bed, holding a torch in her hands;and having brought them to the chamber she went away again. And then theygladly came to the ordinance of their old bed;but Telemachus and the cowherd and the swineherdstopped their feet from dancing, and stopped the women,and they themselves lay down through the shadowy halls.And when the two had enjoyed their lovely love,they delighted in stories, speaking to each other:she told all that she had endured in the halls, the shining among women,looking on the crowd of suitors, destroyers of men,who for her sake slaughtered many oxen and fat sheep,and much wine was drawn from the jars;and Zeus-born Odysseus told all the woes he had laidon men, and all that he himself had suffered in his toil;he told it all, and she delighted in hearing, and sleepdid not fall on her eyelids before he had told all.He began with how he first subdued the Cicones, and thencame to the rich farmland of the Lotus-eaters;and all that the Cyclops did, and how he exacted the penaltyfor his stout comrades, whom he ate and did not pity;and how he came to Aeolus, who received him kindlyand sent him off, but it was not yet his fate to reach his dear native land,but again a storm snatched him up and carried himover the fish-filled sea, groaning heavily;and how he came to Telepylus of the Laestrygonians,who destroyed his ships and his well-greaved comrades,all of them; and Odysseus alone escaped with his black ship;and he told of Circe's guile and her many devices,and how he came to the dank house of Hades,to consult the soul of Theban Teiresias,in his many-benched ship, and saw all his comradesand his mother, who bore him and raised him when he was small;and how he heard the voice of the clear-sounding Sirens,and how he came to the Wandering Rocks and dread Charybdisand Scylla, whom no men ever escaped unharmed;and how his comrades killed the cattle of the Sun;and how Zeus who thunders on high struck his swift ship with a smoking bolt,and his noble comrades perishedall together, and he alone escaped the evil fates;and how he came to Ogygia, the island, and the nymph Calypso,who kept him there, longing for him to be her husband,in her hollow caves, and fed him and saidshe would make him immortal and ageless all his days;but she never persuaded the heart in his breast;and how he came to the Phaeacians after much suffering,who honored him in their hearts like a godand sent him with a ship to his dear native land,giving him bronze and gold in abundance and clothing.This was the last word he spoke, when sweet sleepcame upon him, looser of limbs, loosing the cares of his heart.Then again the goddess, flashing-eyed Athena, thought of another thing:when she thought that Odysseus in his hearthad had his joy of his wife's bed and of sleep,at once she roused golden-throned early-born Dawn from Ocean,to bring light to men; and Odysseus rosefrom the soft bed, and laid a word upon his wife:Woman, we two have had our fill of many trials,both of us; you here, weeping for my homecomingwith its many cares; and me Zeus and the other godskept down with sorrows, as I yearned, away from my native land;but now, since we have both come to our much-desired bed,you must care for the possessions that are mine in the halls,and the flocks, which the overbearing suitors have ravaged;I myself will plunder much, and the Achaeanswill give more, until they fill all my farmsteads.But I will go to the tree-filled field,to see my noble father, who is sorely grieved for me;and to you, woman, I give this charge, wise as you are:for at once the report will go out with the rising sunof the suitors' men, whom I killed in the halls;go up to the upper chamber with your women attendantsand sit there, and do not look out nor ask questions.He spoke, and put about his shoulders his fair armor,and roused Telemachus and the cowherd and the swineherd,and ordered them all to take the weapons of war in their hands.They did not disobey him, but armed themselves in bronze,and opened the doors and went out; Odysseus led the way.Already there was light upon the earth, but Athenahid them in night and quickly led them out of the city.

The old woman went up to the upper room, laughing for joy,to tell her mistress that her dear husband was inside the house;her knees were strengthened and her feet hurried her along.She stood over her head and spoke to her:Wake up, Penelope, dear child, so that you can seewith your own eyes what you have wanted all your days.Odysseus has come, he is here at the house, late though he came.And he has killed the proud suitors, who were destroying his houseand eating his property and bullying his son.Then wise Penelope answered her:Dear nurse, the gods have driven you mad, the gods who canmake a fool of even a very sensible person,and can set a thoughtless person on the path of good sense;they have hurt you; before this you were in your right mind.Why do you mock me, when I have a heart full of grief,telling me this false tale and waking me from sleep,sweet sleep, which closed my dear eyelids over my eyes?I have not slept like this since the day Odysseuswent off to look at evil Troy, which should not be named.But come now, go down and go back to the hall.If any other woman among those I havehad come and told me this and woken me from sleep,I would have sent her off quickly to go back with abuseinto the hall again; but your old age will save you here.Then her dear nurse Eurycleia answered her:I am not mocking you, dear child, but trulyOdysseus has come, he is here at the house, just as I say,the stranger, whom everyone in the halls treated with contempt.Telemachus knew long ago that he was inside,but in his good sense he kept his father's plans hidden,until he could take revenge on the violence of the arrogant men.So she spoke, and Penelope was glad, and jumping from the bedshe threw her arms around the old woman, and a tear fell from her eyes;and she spoke to her and said these winged words:Come now, dear nurse, tell me the truth,whether he has really come home, as you say,and how he laid hands on the shameless suitorswhen he was alone, while they were always inside together.Then her dear nurse Eurycleia answered her:I did not see it, I did not hear it, but I only heard the groaningof men being killed; we sat in the back of the well-built roomsterrified, and the well-fitted doors kept us in,until your son Telemachus called me from the hall;his father had sent him to call me.Then I found Odysseus standing among the dead bodies;they lay around him on the hard floor,one on top of another; you would have warmed your heart to see it.But now they are all at the courtyard doors,all together, and he is purifying the beautiful house,having lit a great fire; and he sent me to call you.So come with me, so that the two of you can enter into joy,both of your dear hearts, since you have suffered so much evil.And now this long desire has been fulfilled:he has come home alive himself, and he has found youand your son in the halls; and the evil they did to him,the suitors, he has made them all pay in his own house.Then wise Penelope answered her:Dear nurse, do not boast so much in your joy.You know how welcome he would appear in the hallsto everyone, and most of all to me and to the son we bore;but this story of yours is not true, as you tell it,but one of the immortals killed the noble suitors,angry at their painful arrogance and their evil deeds.They honored no man on earth,neither bad nor good, whoever came to them;so through their own recklessness they suffered harm; but Odysseuslost his homecoming far from Achaea, and he himself is dead.Then her dear nurse Eurycleia answered her:My child, what a word has escaped the fence of your teeth,when you say that your husband, who is right here by the hearth,will never come home; your heart is always distrustful.But come, I will tell you another very clear sign,the scar, which a boar once struck on him with its white tusk.I noticed it while washing him, and I wanted to tell you yourself,but he grabbed my mouth with his handsand would not let me speak, in the cleverness of his mind.But come; and I will stake my own life on it,if I deceive you, then kill me with the most pitiful death.Then wise Penelope answered her:Dear nurse, it is hard to search out the plans of the godswho live forever, even for someone very clever.But all the same, let us go to my son, so that I can seethe suitors dead, and the man who killed them.So she spoke, and came down from the upper room; and her heartwas much stirred, whether she should question her dear husband from a distance,or stand beside him and kiss his head and take his hands.When she came in and crossed the stone threshold,she sat down opposite Odysseus, in the light of the fire,against the other wall; and he sat looking downtoward the tall pillar, waiting to see whether his noble wifewould say anything to him, now that he had seen her with his eyes.She sat a long time without a word, and amazement came over her heart;now she would look at him straight in the face,now she would not recognize him, because of the ugly clothes on his body.Then Telemachus scolded her and spoke and called her by name:Mother, my mother, hard-hearted mother,why do you hold yourself away from my father like this, and notsit beside him and ask him questions with words?No other woman with such a patient heartwould keep away from her husband, who after suffering so muchhad come back to his homeland in the twentieth year;your heart is always harder than stone.Then wise Penelope answered him:My child, my heart in my breast is stunned,and I cannot speak a word or ask a questionor look him in the face. But if it is really truethat Odysseus is here and has come home, then the two of uswill know each other better; for we havesigns that we two know, hidden from everyone else.So she spoke, and much-enduring noble Odysseus smiled,and at once he spoke winged words to Telemachus:Telemachus, let your mother test me in the halls;soon she will know me better.As it is, because I am dirty and wear ugly clothes on my body,she treats me with contempt and says I am not that man.Let us think about how things can turn out best.Even a man who has killed just one man in his country,when there are not many people to avenge him later,runs away, leaving his relatives and his homeland;but we have killed the mainstay of the city, the very bestof the young men in Ithaca; I tell you to think about this.Then sensible Telemachus answered him:You look to these things yourself, dear father; for men sayyour advice is the best in the world, and no other manamong mortals could compete with you.We will follow you eagerly, and I sayI will not lack courage, as far as my strength goes.Then resourceful Odysseus answered him and said:Then I will say what seems best to me.First wash yourselves and put on tunics,and tell the women in the halls to pick out clothes;let the divine singer, holding his clear-toned lyre,lead us in a dance that loves play,so that anyone hearing it outside might say there is a wedding,either someone walking on the road or the neighbors;so that the wide rumor of the killing does not spread through the city,the rumor about the suitors, before we get outto our field with its many trees; and therewe will plan whatever gain Olympian Zeus puts in our hands.So he spoke, and they listened to him and obeyed.First they washed and put on tunics,and the women dressed themselves; the divine singer tookthe hollow lyre and stirred in them desirefor sweet song and faultless dancing.The great house echoed with the feetof men playing and of women with fine belts.And someone outside the house would say, hearing it:Truly, someone has married the much-courted queen;cruel woman, she did not have the heart to keep her lawful husband'sgreat house to the end, until he came home.So someone would say, but they did not know how things really were.But great-hearted Odysseus in his own housewas bathed by the housekeeper Eurynome and anointed with oil,and she threw a fine cloak and tunic around him;and on his head Athena poured great beauty,making him taller to look at and more solid; and from his headshe sent down curly hair, like the hyacinth flower.Just as when a man pours gold over silver,a skilled craftsman, whom Hephaestus taught and Pallas Athenain every craft, and he turns out lovely work;so she poured grace over his head and shoulders.He came out of the bath looking like the immortals in body;and he sat down again on the throne he had risen from,opposite his wife, and spoke to her:Strange woman, the gods who hold Olympus have madeyour heart harder than any other woman's;no other woman with such a patient heartwould keep away from her husband, who after suffering so muchhad come back to his homeland in the twentieth year.But come, nurse, make up a bed for me, so that I myselfcan lie down; for this woman has an iron heart in her breast.Then wise Penelope answered him:Strange man, I am not putting on airs or making light of you,nor am I too amazed; but I know very well what you were likewhen you sailed from Ithaca in a long-oared ship.But come, Eurycleia, make him up a firm bedoutside the well-built bedroom, the one he built himself;and there put the firm bedding on it,hides and blankets and shining covers.So she spoke, testing her husband; but Odysseuswas angry and spoke to his faithful wife:Woman, truly this was a painful thing you said.Who has put my bed somewhere else? That would be hardeven for a very skilled man, unless a god came himselfand easily, if he wanted, set it in another place.But no living mortal man, not even a strong young one,could easily move it, since a great sign was madeinto that crafted bed; and I made it, and no one else.There grew a long-leaved olive tree inside the walled yard,in full bloom; it was as thick as a pillar.I built a bedroom around it, until I finished it,with closely set stones, and I roofed it well on top,and I put in fitted doors, closely joined.And then I cut off the foliage of the long-leaved olive,and I cut the trunk off at the root and trimmed it with bronze,well and skillfully, and I made it straight by the line,working it into a bedpost, and I bored all the holes with a drill.From that I began and made the bed, until I finished it,decorating it with gold and silver and ivory;and I stretched an oxhide thong through it, shining with purple.That is the sign I am showing you; and I do not knowwhether my bed is still firm in place, woman, or whether some manhas put it somewhere else, cutting away the base of the olive.So he spoke, and her knees and her dear heart gave way,as she recognized the signs that Odysseus had told her clearly.Then she burst into tears and ran straight to him, and around his neckshe threw her arms around Odysseus, and kissed his head and said:Do not be angry with me, Odysseus, since in everything elseyou were the most sensible of men; the gods gave us sorrow,they begrudged us that we two, staying beside each other,should enjoy our youth and reach the threshold of old age.But do not be angry with me now for this and do not hold it against me,because I did not welcome you like this the first time I saw you.For always my heart in my dear breastshuddered in fear that some mortal would come and deceive me with words;for many people plan evil tricks.Not even Argive Helen, born of Zeus,would have slept with a foreign man in love and bed,if she had known that the warlike sons of the Achaeanswere going to bring her back home to her dear homeland.But a god stirred her to do that shameful deed;she did not first store that ruin in her own heart,the miserable ruin from which grief first came to us too.But now, since you have told me the very clear signsof our bed, which no other mortal has seen,but only you and I and one single servant girl,Actor's daughter, whom my father gave me when I came here,who guarded the doors of our solid bedroom for us,you have persuaded my heart, hard as it is.So she spoke, and stirred in him still more longing for weeping;and he wept, holding his dear wife, the faithful woman.As when land appears welcome to men swimming,whose well-built ship Poseidon has wrecked on the sea,driven on by the wind and a solid wave;and few escaped the gray sea to the mainlandby swimming, and a lot of brine has crusted on their skin,and gladly they set foot on land, escaping their trouble;so welcome to her was her husband as she looked at him,and she did not yet let her white arms go from his neck.And rosy-fingered Dawn would have appeared to them as they wept,if the goddess, bright-eyed Athena, had not thought of something else.She held back the long night at its limit, and keptgolden-throned Dawn away at Ocean, and did not letthe swift-footed horses be yoked, that bring light to men,Lampus and Phaethon, the colts that draw Dawn.And then resourceful Odysseus spoke to his wife:Woman, we have not yet reached the end of all our trials,but there will still be immeasurable toil ahead,much and hard, which I must complete entirely.For so the spirit of Teiresias foretold to meon the day when I went down into the house of Hades,looking for a way home for my companions and for myself.But come, let us go to bed, woman, so that now at lastwe may enjoy sweet sleep, lying down.Then wise Penelope answered him:The bed will be yours whenever you want itin your heart, since the gods have made you cometo your well-built home and your homeland;but since you thought of it and a god put it in your mind,come, tell me the trial, since I think I will learn of itlater too, and knowing it right away is no worse.Then resourceful Odysseus answered her and said:Strange woman, why do you urge me so hard and tell meto say it? But I will tell you, and I will not hide anything.Your heart will not be glad; for I myselfam not glad either, since he told me to go to many cities of men,holding in my hands a well-made oar,until I reach men who do not know the sea,men who do not eat food mixed with salt;who do not know ships with red-painted cheeks,nor well-made oars, which are wings for ships.He told me this clear sign, and I will not hide it from you:when another traveler, meeting me,says that I have a winnowing fan on my bright shoulder,then he told me to fix the oar in the ground,and after making fine holy rites to lord Poseidon,a ram and a bull and a boar that mounts sows,to go back home and make holy hecatombsto the immortal gods who hold the wide heaven,all of them in order; and death will come to me from the sea,a very gentle one, such as will kill meworn out by sleek old age; and the people around mewill be prosperous; he said all this would come true.Then wise Penelope answered him:If the gods are going to bring about a better old age,then there is hope that you will escape troubles.So they talked about such things with each other;and meanwhile Eurynome and the nurse made up the bedwith soft bedding, under the light of torches.When they had spread the firm bed in their hurry,the old woman went back to lie down in her own room,and the chambermaid Eurynome led themto the bed, holding a torch in her hands;and she brought them to the bedroom and then went away. And then the twogladly came to the custom of their old bed;but Telemachus and the cowherd and the swineherdstopped their feet from dancing, and stopped the women,and they went to bed themselves through the shadowy halls.When the two had enjoyed their lovely love,they took pleasure in stories, talking to each other:she told everything she had endured in the halls, she the shining one among women,watching the crowd of suitors, those destroyers,who for her sake slaughtered many cattle and fat sheep,and lots of wine was drawn from the jars;and Zeus-born Odysseus told all the troubles he had broughton men, and all that he himself had suffered in his toil;he told everything, and she took pleasure in hearing it, and sleepdid not fall on her eyelids before he had told it all.He began with how he first subdued the Cicones, and thencame to the rich farmland of the Lotus-eaters;and all that the Cyclops did, and how he punished himfor his stout companions, whom he ate and did not pity;and how he came to Aeolus, who welcomed him kindlyand sent him on, but it was not yet his fate to reach his dear homeland,but again a storm snatched him up and carried himover the fish-filled sea, and he groaned heavily;and how he came to Telepylus of the Laestrygonians,who destroyed his ships and his well-greaved companions,all of them; and Odysseus alone escaped with his black ship;and he told of Circe's trickery and her many schemes,and how he came to the dank house of Hades,to consult the spirit of Theban Teiresias,in his many-benched ship, and he saw all his companionsand his mother, who bore him and raised him when he was small;and how he heard the voice of the clear-sounding Sirens,and how he came to the Wandering Rocks and terrible Charybdisand Scylla, whom no men ever escaped unharmed;and how his companions killed the cattle of the Sun;and how Zeus who thunders on high struck his swift ship with a smoking bolt,and his good companions perishedall together, and he alone escaped the evil fates;and how he came to Ogygia, the island, and the nymph Calypso,who kept him there, wanting him to be her husband,in her hollow caves, and fed him and saidshe would make him immortal and ageless forever;but she never persuaded the heart in his breast;and how he came to the Phaeacians after much suffering,who honored him in their hearts like a godand sent him with a ship to his dear homeland,giving him bronze and gold in abundance and clothing.This was the last thing he said, when sweet sleepcame over him, loosening his limbs, releasing the cares of his heart.Then again the goddess, bright-eyed Athena, thought of something else:as soon as she thought that Odysseus in his hearthad had his joy of his wife's bed and of sleep,she at once roused golden-throned early-born Dawn from Ocean,to bring light to men; and Odysseus rosefrom the soft bed and gave his wife a command:Woman, we have both had our fill of many trials,you here, weeping for my homecomingwith all its troubles; and Zeus and the other godskept pressing me with sorrows, as I longed to get back to my homeland;but now, since we have both come to our much-desired bed,you must take care of the property I have in the halls,and the flocks that the arrogant suitors have butchered;I myself will seize much of it, and the Achaeanswill give more, until they fill all my farmsteads.But I will go to the field with its many treesto see my noble father, who grieves deeply for me;and to you, woman, I give this command, wise as you are:for at once the news will spread with the rising sunabout the suitors, whom I killed in the halls;go up to the upper room with your women servantsand sit there, and do not look out or ask anyone anything.He spoke, and put his fine armor around his shoulders,and roused Telemachus and the cowherd and the swineherd,and ordered them all to take up the weapons of war in their hands.They did not disobey him, but armed themselves in bronze,and opened the doors and went out; Odysseus led the way.Already the light was on the earth, and Athenahid them in night and quickly led them out of the city.