Book XVII

But when the Mother of Morning, Rose-fingered Day-dawn, shone,
Then Telemachus, beloved, godlike Odysseus' son,
His sandals fairly fashioned bound underneath his feet,
And he took a mighty war-spear for his own hand shapen meet,
As townward he turned, and, going to the swineherd, thus spake he:

"Father, I go to the city that my mother may look on me;
For I deem that ere she behold me she will cease not to lament,
No stay her woeful wailing with tearful weeping blent.
But, for this guest unhappy, a charge on thee I lay,
That thou lead him adown to the city that he may beg and pray,
And earn him a meal; and whoso hath will shall give him there
The morsel of bread and the cup; but for me I may not bear

All manner of men to uphold them, for sore trouble weigheth on me;
And if wroth thereat be the stranger, then more grievous to him shall it be;
But verily on my part of speaking the truth am I fain."

But Odysseus of many a rede he spake and answered again:
"O friend, and I myself to be stayed here nowise yearn;
For handier 'tis for a beggar his meat by begging to earn
In the town than afield; and whoso hath will thereto, let him give!
I am nought of an age meseemeth by field and fold to live
In all wise heeding a master, who biddeth me to and fro:
Go then, and this man shall lead me as thou biddest him to do
When I am warmed by the fire, and hot is waxen the sun,
For exceeding ill is my raiment, and I fear lest I be undone
By the morning rime; and the town is afar off as ye say."
So he spake; and Telemachus thereon from the homestead went on his way,
With brisk feet hastening onward as ill for the Wooers he sowed;
But when he was come to the houses of that well-builded abode,
Gainst a tall-shafted pillar he leaned his battle-spear,
And he himself strode over the stony threshold there.
But the nurse, e'en Euryclea, beheld him first of all
As the fleecy fells she was spreading o'er the painted seats of the hall,
And weeping went straight toward him; and the other maids thereto
Of Odysseus hardy-hearted all round about him drew,
And they kissed him and caressed him, his shoulders and his head,
Then Penelope the wise-heart from her chamber forth she sped,
Like to golden Aphrodite or Artemis the fair,
And she cast her arms amidst weeping round her son beloved and dear;
And therewithal she kissed him, his head and his lovely eyes,
And ever she moaned about him as she spake the word that flies:

"Thou art come, sweet light of mine eyen! and I, I said of thee,
That I never again should behold thee when thou sailedst privily
In my despite unto Pylos, of thy loved father to hear.

Come, tell me what was the sight that thou haddest of him there."
But Telemachus the heedful made answer for his part:
"Wake not my grief, O mother, and harry not my heart
Within my breast, who but hardly from the bitter bane have won.
But wash thy body with water, and fresh raiment do thereon,
And unto thine upper chamber with these thy women go,

For the gifts an hundred-folded, full told, the vows to do
To all Gods; that Zeus may grant it that the wreaking-day may come.
But I will go forth to the High-Place to bid a stranger home,

Who as I journeyed hither came with me over-sea;
But him did I send forward with my godlike company,
Giving charge unto Piræus with him to his house to go,
And cherish him in honour till I might come thereto."
So he spake, and with her abided wingless the word he said,
And she washed her body with water, and thereon fresh raiment laid;
And to all the Gods she promised gifts an hundredfold to do,
Full tale, if the day of wreaking Zeus yet would bring thereto. out,
But Telemachus turned him, and thence from the hall of the stead strode
With his spear in his hand, and followed by two hounds full fleet of foot;
And Athene shed upon him a holy, wondrous grace,
So that all the people marvelled that he happed on in the place.
But thereabout were gathered those Wooers high of fame,
With good words in their mouths; but evil in the deep of their hearts did they frame;
So from their crowd he drew him, and the great entanglement,
And where Mentor and Antiphus sat, and Halitherses, he went,
Since his father's friends had they been from old time and the early days:
So he sat him adown by these men, and they asked him of all his ways.
But to them drew near Piræus, spear-famous lord, who led
His guest throughout the city unto the meeting-stead;
Nor long aloof from his guest was Telemachus, but drew near;
Unto whom thus spake Piræus a word for him to hear:
"Telemachus, bid the women unto my house to wend,
That the gifts of Menelaus to thee I straight may send."
But Telemachus the heedful he answered him and spake:
"Piræus, nay: for we know not what turn the thing may take,
If the haughty Wooers should slay me by stealth within my hall,
And should deal out the goods of my father, and my chattels one and all.
Then better that thou have them, and use them, than one of these.
But if of the seed of their deathday and their doom I may reap the increase,
Then to me, made glad in my house, shalt thou bring them glad on a day."
So saying he led to the homestead the stranger worn by the way;
But when to the place well builded and into the hall they win,

They cast their cloaks on the benches and the high-seats therewithin,
And wend to the well-smoothed bath-vats, and wash their bodies there.
But when the maids had washed them, and with oil had sleeked them fair,
Good cloaks they did upon them, and kirtles therewithal,

And they went theirways from the bath-vats, and sat down in the seats of the
And the water for washing the hands thereto the maiden bore
In a goodly golden ewer o'er a silver bowl to pour; hall.
And the table polished smoothly beside them there she spread;
And thereto the reverend goodwife bare in and set the bread,
And made them cheer of the dainties that were to hand withal.
But his mother sat over against him by the doorpost of the hall,
'Gainst the high-seat leaning, and twining the distaff fine and fair:
So they reached out their hands to the victual that lay before them there.
But when the desire for meat and for drink they had done away,
Then Penelope the wiseheart began to speak and say:
"Telemachus, unto my chamber aloft now will I go
And lie on the bed that knoweth the wailing of my woe,
With many a tear bewatered since the day Odysseus fared
With Atreus' sons to Ilios. For neither hast thou dared,
Before the Wooers get them unto the house, to tell
True tale of thy father's homefare, if thereof thou knowest well."
Then Telemachus the heedful he answered and 'gan say:
"The truth will I tell thee, O mother, as plainly as I may:
To Pylos unto Nestor the folk-herd did we come,
And he took me unto guesting in the high-built hall of his home, xro
And cherished me kind and closely as a father might his son
New come from other countries: so did that kingly one
Amidst his sons renowned heed me carefully and well,
But he of the toilworn Odysseus had never a tale to tell,
Nor dead nor alive: nor of any on earth had he hearkened a word.
But unto the Son of Atreus, Menelaus spear-famed lord,
He sent me away with horses, and a jointed well-wrought car;
And there saw I Argive Helen, for whom such toils of war
On the Argives and the Trojans the will of God did lay.
And then asked me Menelaus, loud-voiced in the battle-play,
What need had brought me thither to Lacedæmon divine;
And therewith I told him truly straight out that tale of mine,
And therewithal he answered, and thus in words he said:
"Hah, surely are they minded to lay them adown in the bed
Of a man that is a great-heart, and they the puny men:
As when a hind hath been laying in a mighty lion's den,

Her fawns new born, yet suckling, and pasturing then doth pass
O'er the slopes and the dales of the mountains all plentiful of grass:
But in a while thereafter he cometh aback to his lair,

And the doom of death unseemly on those twain he layeth there:
E'en so the death unseemly on these men shall Odysseus bring.
Would to Father Zeus and Athene, and would to Apollo the king,
That, being as he was in Lesbos well-builded on a day,
When he rose against Philomeleides to strive in the wrestling-play,
And heavily threw him, rejoicing Achæan men thereby—
Ah, might he, e'en such as he was, meet that Wooers' company,
Then were they fleeting-fated and bitterly wedded indeed.

But of that whereof thou seekest, and askest me at need,
Nought crooked shall I tell thee, and in nought shall I cozen thee,
But all that the Elder told me, the soothfast Wight of the Sea,
No word thereof will I hide it, or aught from thee withhold.
He said that he saw thy father mid stark grief manifold

In the halls of the Nymph Calypso, who held him in her home
Perforce, that no might had he to his fatherland to come.
For no oar-dight ships were with him, nor any folk had he,
E'en such as might speed him homeward o'er the broad back of the sea."

"Then Atreus' son, Menelaus spear-famed, spake words like these,
And these things I did and departed, and the Deathless sent me a breeze,
And swiftly sped me homeward to my fatherland the dear."

So he spake, and the soul of his mother within her breast did stir;
But godlike Theoclymenus to them the word 'gan speed:
"Beworshipped wife of Odysseus Laertes' very seed!

Forsooth he wotteth not clearly; but my word, give heed to it!
For all sooth will I foretell thee, nor hide from thee one whit;
Zeus, God of the Gods, bear witness, and this table of the guest,
And this hearth of the blameless Odysseus whereto I am come to my rest,
That even now is Odysseus within his fatherland,
Sitting or wending, with tidings of these evil deeds to hand,

And the bane of all the Wooers is he planting to flourish and grow.
This I saw in the fowl-flight's token, as I sat awhile ago
On the well-decked ship, and declared it for Telemachus to heed."

Then Penelope the wise-heart a word to him did speed:

"Ah, stranger, and well were it if thy word accomplished were!
Then wouldst thou wot of my kindness, and my many gifts and fair;
And whosoever met thee, a happy man should hail."

Thus one unto the other they gave and took the tale,
But before the hall of Odysseus meanwhile the Wooers were,
And with the quoits made merry, and with casting of the spear,
Upon the fashioned pavement where they used to show their pride.
But now when it was supper, and up from the country-side
All round the flocks came, driven by those whose wont it was,
'Then unto them spake Medon, who to them all did pass
As the handiest of all henchmen, and with them at the board would be:

"O youths, ye have now been merry with the strife and mastery,
So unto the house now wend you, and dight the banqueting,
For supper in due season is nought so ill a thing."

So he spake, and his word they hearkened and wended on their way,
But when they came to the homestead, where builded well it lay,

They cast their cloaks on the benches and the high-seats of the hall,
And the great sheep fell to slaying, and the fatted goats withal,
And the sleek swine: yea, and a heifer of the herd they slaughtered there,
Their feast thereby to furnish.

But meanwhile busked them to fare
From the field to the town Odysseus, and that most goodly herd,
And therewith the leader of menfolk, Eumæus, took up the word:
"O guest, since today on the wending to the town thou hast set thine heart,
And the master biddeth, so be it: albeit for my part
At home I fain had left thee the field and the fold to guard;
But I worship him, and I fear him lest he chide me afterward;
And forsooth the blame of the master is a grievous thing to bear.
But come now and let us be going, for late the day doth wear,
And soon shalt thou find it chilly toward the birth of the eventide."
But the many-wiled Odysseus made answer on his side:
"I know it, and I note it, thou biddest a man of wit;

So wend we; and lead thou the way throughout, for thou knowest it.
But if thou hast cut some cudgel, then give me the same, I pray,
That I lean me thereon, for thou saidest that slippery was the way."

He spake, and about his shoulders the foul scrip did he sling,
That was but a bunch of tatters hung on to a twisted string;

And withal Eumæus gave him a staff cut after his mind,
And the twain passed on; and the herdsmen and the hounds were left behind
To guard the stead: but Eumæus led on the King to the town;
And like to a wretched beggar, a staff-carle, is he grown,

And woeful is the raiment that the body of him hath.
But now whereas they wend them adown the rugged path,
Anigh to the town, they come on the fountain flowing fair,
Wrought so by men; and the townsfolk do draw their water there.
And Ithacus, and Meritus, and Polyctor wrought it out:
There the water-nourished poplars make a grove all round about,
In a ring around it standing, and the fresh cold waters fall
From the rocks above, and an altar of the Nymphs is built o'er all.
And ever the folk wayfaring make their offerings thereupon.
Thereby as now did meet them Melanthius, Dolius' son,
Driving his goats, and the flower of all the flock they were,

Unto the Wooers' banquet, and two herdsmen followed him there;
And he saw them, and fell a-chiding, and spake in unseemly wise,
With big words fiercely stirring Odysseus' heart to arise:

"Yea, yea! and thus full surely the base man leadeth the base,
And the like to the like God bringeth: where then, to what a place
Dost thou, O hapless swineherd, lead this hungry wallowing beast,
This grievous gangrel beggar, this spoiler of the feast?
Who shouldering many a door-post a-begging there will stand,
And seek reward of the morsel, and not of the bowl nor the brand;
But if unto me thou wouldst give him to guard my stead and stall,
To sweep out the folds and to carry to the kids their twigs withal,
There then the whey a-drinking he might get him a sturdy thigh.
But since ill deeds he is learned in, the toil he will not try,
Nor the work afield; but rather midst the folk will he cower still,
And ever be craving somewhat his ravening maw to fill.
But now a thing will I tell thee which shall come to pass one day,
If to the house of Odysseus the godlike he cometh his way,"
About his head shall the footstools from the hands of men fly fast,
And his ribs shall wear out a many as about the house they cast."
So saying, in his folly a kick on his haunch he gave
As he passed him by: yet in nowise the King from the path he drave,
Who steadfast there abided: but the thought did Odysseus weigh,
Whether he with his club on-falling the life of him should slay,
Or to earth should dash him headlong, having lifted him up in his place:
But his wrath he withheld and forbore him. Then the swineherd looked
in his face
And chid him, and hove up his hands, and prayed a mighty prayer:

"O Nymphs of the wells, Zeus' Daughters, if on thine altars here
Hath Odysseus folded the buttocks in fat for the altar fire,
And hath offered of lambs or of kids, fulfil ye now my desire!

May that man at last come hither by God to usward brought!
Then quickly thy vain-glory would he scatter unto nought
Which thou in thy pride upholdest, as thou wanderest to and fro
Through the town. Yea, evil shepherds, the sheep they soon undo."

But Melanthius the goatherd made answer to his tale:
"Gods-help! what a word he sayeth, this dog well-learned in bale!
Him on the black ship well-decked belike on a day shall I take

Aloof from the Ithacan land, that much living for me he may make.
Might but silver-bowed Apollo smite Telemachus to-day
In his halls, or 'neath the Wooers his life as surely lay,
As the homefaring day of Odysseus aloof is dead and gone!
So saying there he left them, but slowly wending on,
But himself he hastened, and quickly to the house of the King he gat,
And hied him in, and withinward amidst of the Wooers sat:
In face of Eurymachus sat he, for he was his friend above all,
And his share of the flesh those brought him who were serving in the hall,
And thereto the reverend housewife the bread for his eating bare.
But Odysseus and the swineherd now drew exceeding near;
And on the road they stayed them, for about them came along
The voice of the hollow lyre, as Phemius sent forth the song.
Then Odysseus caught the swineherd oy the hand and spake out there:

"Eumæus, this is the house of Odysseus, the dwelling fair;
And 'twere easy to see and to mark, yea e'en midst many an one.
There chamber riseth on chamber, and the garth is deftly done

With a wall, and all embattled, and every double door
Is well fenced from the foeman; no man could win it by war.
And a many men meseemeth therein are feasting well,
For the savour of fat goeth upward, and the lyre her tale doth tell,
E'en she whom the God ordaineth for the feast's own sister fair."

Then thou, O swineherd Eumæus, didst speak and answer there:
"Thou art right, and herein, as ever, thou art of those that know:
But let us now take counsel how all is like to go.

Either be first to enter the well-built house and fair,
And mingle with the Wooers, and I will abide thee here:
Or if thou wilt, abide here, and forth before will I.
But no long while be lingering, lest some one thee espy
And drive thee off or smite thee: lay now these things to heart."
But the toil-stout goodly Odysseus thus answered on his part:
"I know and I note; thou biddest a man that hath wit to know,
Do thou go on before me, and I will abide while ye go.
Forsooth in stripes and in peltings I am not unlearned to-day,

For I have a heart that is hardy, and have borne many griefs by the way,
Of the waves of the sea and of battle; and let this be numbered with those;
Since forsooth the ravening belly may not be hidden close,

'The forger of bale, that giveth to menfolk many an ill,
For whose sake the ships well thwarted will men array them still,
To carry woe for the hapless o'er the sea unharvested."
But while each unto the other such things as this they said,
Lo a hound his head was uplifting and pricking his ears as he lay,
Een Argus, the hound of Odysseus, whom he bred in the earlier day;
But no joy of him had he gotten ere to Ilios' holy land
He went. In days aforetime would the young men take him in hand,
The goats of the wold and the roe-deer and the hares to follow fast
But aloof had been his master, and there he lay outcast
Amongst the dung of oxen and of mules, whereof there lay
A plenty about the garth-gate till folk should have it away,
The thralls of the lord Odysseus, to dung his acres wide.
There then did the woodhound Argus all full of ticks abide;
But now so soon as he noted Odysseus drawing anear
He wagged his tail, and fawning he laid down either ear,
But had no might to drag him nigher from where he lay
To his master, who beheld him and wiped a tear away
That he lightly hid from Eumæus, unto whom he spake and said:
"Eumæus, much I marvel at the dog on the dung-heap laid;
Fair-shapen is his body, but nought I know indeed
If unto this his fairness he hath had good running speed,
Or is but like unto some; men's table-dogs I mean,
Which but because of their fairness lords cherish to be seen."
Then thou, O swineherd Eumæus, didst speak and answer thus:
"Yea, this is the hound of the man that hath died aloof from us;
And if yet to do and to look on he were even such an one
As Odysseus left behind him when to Troy he gat him gone,
Then wouldest thou wonder beholding his speed and hardihood,

For no monster that he followed through the depths of the tangled wood
Would he blench from, and well he wotted of their trail and where it led.
But now ill he hath, since his master in an alien land is dead,

And no care of him have the women, that are heedless here and light;
Since thralls whenso they are missing their masters' rule and might
No longer are they willing to do the thing that should be;

For Zeus the loud-voiced taketh half a man's valiancy
Whenso the day of thraldom hath hold of him at last."

So saying into the homestead of the happy place he passed,
And straight to the hall he wended 'mid the Wooers overbold.
But the murky doom of the death-day of Argus now took hold
When he had looked on Odysseus in this the twentieth year.

But Telemachus the godlike, the first of all men there,
Saw the swineherd come through the house, and he nodded to him straightway,
And called him; who looked around him and took a bench that lay
Near-hand, and thereon the carver was wont to sit withal,
Dealing much flesh to the Wooers as they feasted in the hall.

This then to Telemachus' table as now Eumæus drew,
And thereon sat over against him, and the henchman came thereto,
And took and dealt him his share, and bread from the basket withal.
But hard on his heels was Odysseus, and he entered his house and his hall
Most like to a wretched beggar, and a staff-carle bent and old,
And woeful was the raiment that his body did enfold.

There he sat on the ashen threshold within the feast-hall's door,
Leaned against a cypress pillar, which the wright in days of yore
Had smoothed by dint of cunning and straightened by the Use.

Then Telemachus called to Eumæus, and spake to the herder of swine
When a whole loaf he had taken from out the basket fair,
And of the flesh moreover as much as his hands might bear:
"Go take and give to the stranger, and bid him now to wend
From Wooer unto Wooer, and beg from end to end,
For nothing good, meseemeth, to a needy man is shame."

So the swineherd when he had hearkened straight unto Odysseus came,
And standing close anigh him a winged word spake he:
"Telemachus giveth thee this, O guest, and biddeth thee

To beg of all the Wooers, and from end to end to speed,
For he saith that shame avails not the man that lives by bede,"
Then the many-wiled Odysseus he spake and answered again:
"King Zeus, Telemachus make me a happy man of men!
And may all things befal him as his soul would have them to be!"
So he spake, and in both hands took it, and set it presently
Before his feet and laid it on the scrip, that ugly thing;
And he ate the while the minstrel in the hall ceased not to sing.
But when his meat was ended and the holy singing ceased,
And uprose the din of the Wooers throughout the hall of feast,
Then Athene stood by Odysseus, Laertes' son of yore,
And egged him on of the Wooers to gather cakes good store,
That he might know the righteous from the reckless midst of these;
Albeit no man among them from his bane would she release.
So on from the right he started, and forth his hand did he hold
To each man there, as he had been a beggar from of old;

And they had compassion and gave him, and wondered at him there,
And were asking of each other what the man, and whence he were.
Then spake to them Melanthius, who the goatherd long had been:

"Hearken to me, O Wooers of our most renowned Queen,
Concerning this man, for I saw him but a little while ago;
And forsooth it was the swineherd that hath led him hereunto,
But himself I know not clearly nor of whom he boasts him to be."

So he spake; but Antinoüs thereon chid the swineherd, and quoth he:
"O thou most ill-famed swineherd, why broughtst thou this man to the
Have we nought enough of bedesmen that wander up and down, town?
And grievous irksome beggars, the spoil-feasts of the land?

And deemest thou this so gainful that they gather here their band,
And eat up thy master's life-store, that him too for a guest ye must take?"
Thereon Eumæus the swineherd in this wise answered and spake:
"Antinoüs, though thou be noble, yet ye say things nothing fair,
For who would a guest be bidding, when himself from otherwhere
He cometh: save he should happen on a craftsman of the folk
As a seer, or a healer of sickness, or a woodwright deft of stroke?
Yea, or a holy singer, whose song shall please us well?
For welcome are these to all men on the limitless earth that dwell.
But none would bid a beggar himself to waste and wear.
Yet hard art thou for ever amidst these Wooers here
To the homemen of Odysseus, and to me the most of all.
Though I heed not, while yet with the living within this house and hall
Dwell Telemachus the godlike and the sage Penelope."
Him then Telemachus answered, and in this wise spake he:
"Nay, peace! nor answer this man with many words I pray.
'Tis the wont of Antinoüs ever the strife on us to lay
With bitter words; and the others to like things oft hath he stirred."
So he spake and to Antinoüs put forth a winged word:
"Thou carest for me, Antinoüs, as a father cares for a son!

Since thou biddest bid the guest here with a hard word to begone
From out of the house and the hall; and may God forbid it to be!
Take somewhat and give him! I grudge not, nay rather I pray it thee.
And herein heed not my mother, nor any within the house
Of the thralls or any other of Odysseus the glorious!

Yet within thy breast meseemeth no such a thought there came;
Yea, rather than give to another thyself wouldst thou eat the same."
So therewithal Antinoüs he saith and answereth now:

"Telemachus, wordy, unbridled in anger! and what sayest thou?
If all the Wooers should give him a gift as bounteous
As I, for three months henceforward should we stave him off from the

And he took up and showed a footstool which lay 'neath the table there,
Whereon he was wont to be resting his feet the sleek and fair;

But gifts gave all the others, and with flesh and bread good store
They filled his scrip; and Odysseus would get him back once more
To the threshold, there to be tasting of the gifts of the Achæan lords:
But he stayed him by Antinoüs and spake in such-like words:

"Give, friend! since thou nowise seemest of Achæans in this hall
To be the worst: nay, rather the best and the king of all.
So thou forsooth shouldest give me a greater deal of bread,
That I the fame of thy bounty o'er the boundless earth may spread.
For I indeed aforetime midst men a house did have;

And rich was I and happy, and oft to the wanderer gave,
Whatso he were, and what errand to my homestead drew him anigh.
And thralls had I out of number, and all other things whereby

Men hold a plenteous living and rich are held to be;
But Zeus the son of Cronos he willed the waste of me:
For with wide-wandering sea-thieves he sent me forth to go
A long road unto Ægypt, that my life he might undo.
So in the River of Ægypt my shapen ships I stayed,
And there my trusty fellows e'en one and all I bade

That they by the ships should be biding and draw them up a-land:
And the watchers I bade to betake them to the heights and there to stand.
But they yielded to fierce folly, and went after the lusts of their might;
The fair fields of the men of Ægypt they fell to wasting forthright,

And they drave away their women and their children, and thereby
The men they slew: but quickly to the city came the cry,
And men heard the shout and gathered when the day dawn shone again,
And the footmen and the horsemen were over all the plain,
And the light of brass a-flashing; and Zeus the thunder-glad
Cast ill fear amidst of my fellows, and no heart any had
To outface the host in battle, for the bale all round us drew.
There many a man of my fellows with the whetted brass they slew,
And some alive they led them to toil as thralls in need;
But me to a guest that happed there they gave to Cyprus to lead,
E'en Dmetor, son of Iasus, in Cyprus rich and great.'
And thence now come I hither bearing my sorrows' weight."
Him then Antinoüs answered, and spake unto him thus:
"What God this plague, this mar-feast, hath hither sent to us?
Stand clear! stand out amidmost, aloof from my board and me!
Lest thou come to a bitter Ægypt and a Cyprus ill for thee,
Thou shameless among beggars! thou sturdy one to stand
And in turn to beg from all men, and they give thee out of hand,
Reckless and nought close-fisted, nor knowing any ruth
In bestowing the wealth of another: when much lies by each forsooth."
But to him the wily Odysseus thus spake as he drew aback:

"Woe worth! that thou with thy fairness the mind of wit shouldest lack,
Not a grain of salt hadst thou given in thine house to the wanderer,
Who now in another's sitting hast no heart to take from the cheer

A crust of bread to give me; and abundance by thee lies."

But the wrath the more for his speaking in Antinoüs' heart did arise,
And therewith scowling upon him a winged word he spake:
"Now deem I that nought happy thy way through the house shalt thou make
As thou goest aback, since forsooth thou babblest blame in the hall."

Then he caught up the stool and cast it, and struck his right shoulder withal
At the nethermost part of the back: yet stark he stood, rockfast,
And nothing there he tottered for all Antinoüs' cast;
But in silence his head he nodded, in his deep heart deeming of ill.
So he sat down again on the threshold, and the scrip that had gotten its fill
He took and spake to the Wooers, as there he set it down:
"Hearken to me, O Wooers of the Queen of great renown,

While I speak what the heart in my bosom is bidding me now tell out:
Nothing there is of anguish, and nought is the trouble no doubt
When a man is smitten a-warring, and about his goods is the fight,
Whether it be o'er the oxen, or the sheep-flock woolly white.

But me hath Antinoüs smitten for my miserable maw,
The ravening thing that such evil on the folk of men doth draw.
But if there be Gods and Wreakers of them that beg their bread,
Then may Antinoüs hap on death's ending ere he wed."
But to him then spake Antinoüs, the lord Eupeithes' son:
"Eat thou and be quiet, O stranger, or otherwhere begone,
Lest hand and foot through the homestead the young men thee shall hale,
And strip the skin from off thee, for thy tongue that telleth of bale."
So he spake; but great wrath gathered about them at his words,
And thus would one be saying of those high-hearted lords:
"Antinoüs, ill thou diddest, the wretched guest to smite,
And if God yet dwelleth in heaven, then doomed art thou outright.
Yea, too, the Gods in the likeness of guests from far away,
Since all-wise are they shapen, through men's cities oft will stray,
And look on the wrong and well-doing that midst of men are wrought."
In thuswise spake the Wooers, but their words he heeded nought.

But Telemachus, great in his heart grew the grief for the smitten man,
And therewith from under his eyelids adown the teardrops ran,
And he shook his head in silence, and bale in his heart did brood.

But hereof moreover hearkened Penelope wise of mood,
How the man in her halls had been smitten, and she spake to her maids forthright:
"May Apollo, the glory of bowmen, thee too Antinoüs smite!"

But Eurynome the goodwife a word thereto she said:
"Yea, if our prayers' fulfilment might anywise be sped,
Not one of these should come to the fair-throned Dawn of Day."

Then Penelope the prudent thuswise thereto did say:
"Yea, nurse, all these are hateful, since they devise but ill,
But Antinoüs, he seemeth to the Black Doom likest still.
Lo you, a hapless stranger, a-begging at men's hands,
Strays through the house, since suchwise his utter lack commands,
And his scrip were the others filling, and giving to the wight,
While he his back and shoulder with the footstool needs must smite."
So, sitting in her chamber to her women thus she spake,
While Odysseus the most goodly in the hall his meal did make.
But she called to the goodly swineherd, and him she spake unto:
"Hither now, O good Eumæus! to the guest with the bidding go
To come hither, that I may hail him, and ask of him a word,
If he perchance of Odysseus toil-laden may have heard,
Or seen him with eyes, for meseemeth he hath wandered by many a way."

Then thou, O swineherd Eumæus, didst answer her and say:
"Ah, Queen, and if those Achæans would hold their peace awhile,
And he might speak, full surely thine heart should he beguile;

For three nights at my booth I held him, and three days I kept him at home,
And first from a ship a-fleeing unto meward did he come.
But the tale of all his sorrows not yet to an end hath he brought.
—Lo, as a man looks ona minstrel, and a man whom the Gods have taught,
And sweet are the words of his singing, and therefor mortals long,

And ceaseless him would they hearken whenever he wakeneth the song;
E'en so did this man soothe me as he sat in the stead with me;
And the house-friend of Odysseus he tells himself to be,

In Crete erewhile a dweller, whence cometh Minos' race,
Who now with woe beladen, drifting from place to place,
Is come here; and he saith he hath tidings of Odysseus alive and anigh
In the fat land of Thesprotians, and stands by it steadfastly;
And how that abundant treasure he hath for his home and his stead."
But Penelope the heart-wise to him made answer and said:
"Go call him, that he may tell it to me e'en face to face:
But for these let them sit merry about the doors of the place,
Or up and down through the chambers, since with their hearts 'tis well!
For untouched the gear is lying in the halls where they should dwell,
Sweet wine and bread, and their homemen they live upon all this,
While they our house are haunting all days, and no day there is
But they slaughter the sheep and the oxen, and the fatted goats of the
And there they hold the revel, and drink the wine dark-red
In wanton wise: wealth waneth, and no man now we have, stead,
E'en such as was Odysseus, the bane from the house to stave.
Ah, were but Odysseus come, to his fatherland would he haste!
Soon then with his son would he wreak him on these men and their wrong and their waste."
As she spake did Telemachus sneeze a great sneeze, and through the hall
It rang with a terrible sound, and Penelope laughed withal,
And straightway unto Eumæus she set a word on the wing:

"Go, speed thee, Eumæus, and call him, and the guest before me bring.
What! heedest thou not how my son hath sneezed to all words that I said?
So the death of all these Wooers shall not be a thing unsped,

Nor shall any thereof escape it, his death and his doomful day.
But one thing now do I tell thee, and the same to thy heart do thou lay,
Whenas I shall wot of this man that he speaketh all truth indeed
I will do on him cloak and kirtle and fair shall be that weed."
So she spake, and the swineherd hearkened and on his errand went,
And standing anigh to Odysseus a winged word he sent:
"O thou, my guest and father, the wise Penelope,
Telemachus' mother, calleth; for her heart will have it to be
That she ask some tale of her husband despite the weight of her woe;
And if of thy soothfast telling she come hereafter to know
She shall do on thee cloak and kirtle, whereof thou art most in need.
So begging thy bread midst the people thy belly shalt thou feed,
And they shall give unto thee whose hearts thereof be fain."
Then the toil-stout goodly Odysseus thuswise he answered again:
"Eumæus, e'en now straightway to the wise Penelope,
The Daughter of Icarius, would I tell all things as they be,
For true tale of him am I wotting, and we twain have borne one toil:
But this fierce folk of the Wooers, full sore I fear their broil,
For the pride of them and their riot to the iron heaven doth fare.
And look you, when he smote me and gave me grief to bear,
As about the house I wended and doing hurt to none,
Telemachus did not save me, nor he, nor any one.
So Penelope go bid ye in the hall to tarry as yet,
For all that she may be eager, until that the sun he set,
And then let her ask of the day of her husband's coming aback,
When she by the fire hath set me; for my raiment's woeful lack
Thereof full well thou wottest, since thee did I first beseech. his speech:
So he spake, and departed the swineherd, having hearkened the word of
But as he went over the threshold unto him Penelope spake;
"Thou bringest him not? What matter doth the mind of this beggar-man make?
Doth he fear some man out of measure, or is he shamefast still,
About the house as he wendeth? Shame fitteth a beggar but ill."

Then thou, O swineherd Eumæus, didst answer even so:
"He speaketh according to reason, as many a man might do,
Because the pride and the riot of masterful men doth he shun.
But he biddeth thee abide him till the going down of the sun,
And this, O Queen, meseemeth, shall be meeter for thee forsooth,
That alone thou speak with the stranger and hearken the word of his
But unto him then answered all-wise Penelope:

"Nought witless is the stranger whatsoever man he be,
For no men are there certes 'mid all men born to die
So masterful as these men to work so wickedly."

In suchwise was she speaking: but the swineherd thereupon
To the Wooers' throng betook him now his errand was all done,
And unto Telemachus straightway a winged word he spake,

Head laid unto head, that the others thereof might nothing make:
"Dear lord, my ways am I wending to guard my swine and the gear,
Thy living, and mine also: but do thou heed all things here.

And first thyself do thou safe-guard, and look thou to it still
Lest thou take a hurt; for a many of Achæans wish thee ill,
Whom may Zeus undo for ever ere they become our bane!"
But Telemachus the heedful he spake and answered again:

"Well so shall it be, O father. Go, after thine evening cheer,
But come betimes on the morrow, and bring slaughter-beasts full fair.
But the rest, e'en I and the Deathless all that will heed and meet."

So he spake, but the other straightway on the smooth bench took his seat;
But when to his mind both of meat and of drink he was filled withal
He went on his way to the swine-droves, and left the garth and the hall
Fulfilled with folk a-feasting, and merry now were they

With the song and the dance, for at hand was the eventide of the day.