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