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