Book XX

So adown in the porch Odysseus the valiant had his bed,

For he strewed him an untanned oxhide, and over that he spread
Many fells of the sheep which the lordlings of Achæans there had slain,
And over him Eurynome spread a cloak when down he was lain.

There then lay Odysseus waking, with his mind on bale intent

For those Wooers; but the women now forth from the feast-hall went,
Who e'en now with the Wooers were mingled, and along with them were laid,
And each to each were they laughing, and game and glee they made.
Moved then was the heart of the man within his breast the dear,

And much in doubt was he swaying in his heart and his spirit there,
Whether falling on he should deal them, to every one, her bane,
Or suffer them to mingle with the masterful Wooers again,
E'en one last time and latest; and growled his inmost heart.
And e'en as a bitch that goeth round her tender whelps to part
The strange man from them, and bays him, and longeth for the strife,
So inly was he growling in grudge at their evil life,
And, smiting his breast, with a speech-word his heart he fell to chide:
"Yet bear it, O heart! things uglier hast thou borne upon a tide;

Yea, on the day when the Cyclops' stark fury ate thy men,
Thy goodly folk; and thou bearedst, till even out of the den
Rede led thee forth, though thou deemedst that thou shouldst die that day."

So he spake, the soul a-chiding within his breast that lay,
That abode in all obedience steadfast the thing to bear,
But he himself in meanwhile was tossing here and there.
As when a man hath gotten by a great fire blazing out
A paunch of fat and of blood, and turneth it oft about
Hither and thither, all eager to roast it speedily;
So tossed he hither and thither, and ever pondered he

What wise he might have the handling of those Wooers bare of shame,
And he but one among many. 'Then anigh him Athene came,
Come adown from the lofty heavens, and e'en as a woman was made;
So over his head was she standing, and the word to him she said:

"Why watchest thou and wakest, O man most luckless of life?
In thine own house now thou liest, and within the house is thy wife,
And thy child; such a son as all men would have their son to be."

Then the many-counselled Odysseus thus answered, and said he:
"Yea, all these things, O Goddess, aright dost thou surely say,
But one thing the mind in my breast doth turn about and weigh,
What wise on these shameless Wooers I now may lay my hand,
Being one alone, and they ever are within a gathered band.
And withal a greater matter I ponder earnestly,
In what wise, if I slay them by the will of Zeus and thee,
I myself may come off scathless: now hereof, I prithee, heed:"
But the Goddess, the Grey-eyed Athene, thus did her answer speed:
"Hard heart! a man might hearken to a friend een sorrier;
Yea if he were but a mortal, nor so wise of counsel were!
But I that am a Goddess, and through all toil and pain
Without fail ever guard thee, one thing I tell thee plain:
If fifty bands of menfolk, word-speaking wights that are,

Stood round about us, eager for our slaying in the war,
Yet their kine shouldst thou be driving and their goodly fatted sheep.
So now let slumber have thee; for 'tis grievous watch to keep,

And wake night-long; and thine evils shalt thou beguile at last."
So she spake, and over his eyelids the sleep and slumber cast,
But back again to Olympus did that Godhead's Glory depart.
But while Sleep, limb-loosener, took him, and let loose the cares of his heart,
His wife, the wont of wisdom, she wakened from her sleep,
And sat up on her bed soft-fashioned and fell therewith to weep.
But when of very weeping all satiate was her mind,
Then to Artemis of all Gods prayed that crown of womankind:
"O Artemis beworshipped, Zeus' daughter, thee I pray,
Cast thy shaft into my bosom and take my soul away,
Now, now! or let the whirlwind before the lapse of days
Catch me up, and bear me, hurried adown the dusky ways,
A waif for the outgate of Ocean that aback on his ways doth flow.
As the storm-wind bare off the daughters of Pandareus long ago,
When the Gods had slain their parents, and orphans in their hall
Were they left, and Aphrodite she nourished them withal
With cheese and with sweet honey, and joyful wine and good;
And Herd gave unto them beyond all womanhood
Fair shape and wit; and stature gave the holy Artemis;
And cunning gave Athene in the craft that goodly is.
But once, while Aphrodite to the long Olympus hied,
To pray for these same damsels a happy wedding-tide
Of Zeus, the Fain-of-the-thunder, since he knoweth utterly
All things that are doomed and undoomed for men on earth that die,
That while the Wights of the Tempest snatched them up there and then,
And gave them over for handmaids to the Wreakers loathed of men;
E'en so may Olympus' dwellers from all eyes cover me,
Or the fair-tressed Artemis smite me while Odysseus yet I see,
Yea, e'en if I needs must wend me beneath the dreadful earth
Rather than be the darling of a man of worser worth.
"But lo you, a bale to be borne with if one shall weep through the day,
And ever in ceaseless sorrow shall wear his life away,

But Slumber holds him a night-tide, for all memory then dieth out,
Both of good and of ill, when his eyelids the slumber covereth about:
But evil dreams unto me sendeth God in the sleeping tide;

Yea, e'en on this very night one like to him lay by my side,
E'en such as he was when he wended with the host; and my heart was glad,
For I thought that a dream no longer, but a vision at last I had had."

So she spake; and even therewith was the Gold-throned Dawning come.
But unto the valiant Odysseus the voice of her wailing went home,
And therewith he fell a-pondering, and it seemed to his mind and his mood
As even now she knew him, and over his bed-head stood.

So he took up the cloak and the fleeces wherein he had slept that tide,
And laid them down on a bench of the hall, but bore out the hide
Without doors; and prayed unto Zeus with hands uplifted on high:

"Zeus Father, if ye have willed it, o'er the wet ways and o'er the dry,
Unto my land to lead me after all that bale of thine,
Let one of those here wakening withinward speak me a sign,
And Zeus himself withoutward show forth a token clear."
So he spake, and Zeus the all-wise gave heed unto his prayer,
And therewithal he thundered from aloft amidst the sky,
From out of Olympus the gleaming; and Odysseus was glad. But hard by

From the house a grinding woman gave forth a sign and a word
From the place where the mills were standing, the mills of the people's herd,
And thereat twelve thralls of the women would labour yet and again,
For ever milling the barley, and wheat the marrow of men;
But the others now were sleeping since their grain they had ground and done,
But the last had not yet given over, for she was the weakest one;
So she stayed her quern and spake out for her master a boding word:

"Zeus Father, of Gods and of menfolk the very King and Lord!
Now mightily thou thunderest aloft from the starry heaven,
And no cloud is about; so to some one hereby a sign hast thou given.
So do thou for me unhappy e'en after the word that I pray,
And let this day be for the Wooers the last and the latest day,
That they in the halls of Odysseus may hold the feast full fain
Who with heart-wearying labour and the grinding of the grain
Have loosened the knees beneath me. So now may they eat their last."
So she spake; and the valiant Odysseus rejoiced in the words' forecast,
And the thunder of Zeus, and looked to it on those sinners to wreak him there.
But now waked the other handmaids in Odysseus' house the fair,
And the flame that never wearies they quickened on the hearth,
And Telemachus rose from his bed, a man like the Gods in worth,
And clad him, and over his shoulders his whetted falchion cast,
And unto his feet the sleek-skinned his sandals fair made fast.
Then a spear strong-shafted, and headed with the whetted brass, did he take,
And stayed as he went o'er the threshold, and unto Euryclea spake:

"Dear nurse, the guest in our house have ye honoured with victuals and
Or lieth he at haphazard uncared for in the stead?
For such-like is my mother, though prudent she may be, bread?

That amidst of men word-speaking, but rashly honoureth she
The worser man, while the better unhonoured she sendeth away."

But Euryclea the heart-wise to him did answer and say:
"Nay, my child, thou shouldest not blame her when she is nought to blame,
For he sat and drank of the wine while he had goodwill to the same:
And he said that meat he craved not; for thereof she asked him indeed.
But when of sleep and slumber he began to have a heed

Then bade she her handmaidens the bed to strew and dight:

But he as a man fate-baffled, and overworn outright,
Would nought of the beds; nor would he amidst of the blankets sleep,
But on an untanned oxhide and amidst the fells of sheep

He laid him adown in the porch, and a cloak we did o'er him withal."

So she spake: but Telemachus wended his ways from out the hall
With his spear in his hand, and two wood-hounds swift-footed followed
his ways,

And he went to the well-greaved Achæans, and the folk in the market- place.
But Euryclea, daughter of Ops, the son of Pisenor the Lord,
That glory of women, called out, and gave to her handmaids the word:
"Now gather, and some of you hasten to sweep the house all through,
And sprinkle it; and cast ye the carpets purple of hue
O'er the well-wrought high seats: and others wash the tables all about
With the sponges, and the wine-bowls for the blending rinse ye out,
And the double cups well fashioned: and ye others do ye fare
Unto the well for the water, and haste the same to bear.
For not long now will the Wooers be away from the feasting-hall,
But betimes will come back hither: for this is a feast-day for all."
She spake, and they hearkened; and lightly to fulfilling her word they fell.
And a twenty of them hied them to that dark-watered well,

While the others round the houses wrought deftly there and then.
Thither too came the folk of service of those Achæan men,
And the logs cleft well and deftly; and the women's company

Came from the well; and the swineherd to these now drew anigh,
Leading three swine, that the fairest of all his swine-droves were:
These then he left to pasture in the closes trim and fair,

But himself unto Odysseus he spake in gentle wise:
"Guest, do the Achæans behold thee at last with kinder eyes?
Or, as erst they did, do they mock thee about the house and hall?"
But Odysseus of many a rede thus answered and spake withal:
"Ah, may the Gods, Eumæus, avenge me of their scorn,
And these wanton fools, that fashion things nowise to be borne,
In the very house of another! for no whit of shame they have!"
But while in talk together these twain they took and gave,
Melanthius the goatherd unto them drew anear,
A-leading kids, and the flower of all the flock they were,
For the Wooers' feast, and two herdsmen were following on his ways.
So the goats he bound in the forecourt, the echoing pillared place,
And then turned upon Odysseus and spake a bitter taunt:
"So, stranger, still art thou plaguing the house, and there wilt thou haunt,
Pestering the folk, and nowise without doors wilt thou flit?

Betwixt us twain meseemeth will be ao end to it
Till we try it with hands; for thou beggest beyond all that is right and
And other feasts of Achæans belike be otherwhere." '

So he spake: but all-wise Odysseus he spake no word for his part, fair;
But shook his head in silence, and brooded bale in his heart.
But a third man came up with them, Philcetius leader of men,

And a barren cow and fat goats for the Wooers he had with him then,
And the ferrymen these had fetched over, as others they use to speed
Who may chance to come unto them and of them the ferrying need.

So the beasts he bound up duly in the echoing cloister there,
And fell to asking the swineherd, when he had drawn anear;
"What man is the stranger, O Swineherd, I would have thee tell to me,
New come to our house, and of what men doth he give himself out for
to be?
Where is the land of his fathers, and what is his kindred and seed?
Hapless! and yet of his body like a lord and king indeed.
Ah! the Gods drown men wide-wandering in enough of bale and broil,
When even for the king-folk they spin the thread of toil."
Then Odysseus' hand in greeting with his right hand did he take,
And a word he winged unto him, and in such manner spake:

"Hail, father and guest! and henceforward fair fall the luck of thee,
Although of manifold troubles thus holden now ye be!
Zeus Father! none of the Gods is more baleful a God than thou,

For the men whom thou hast begotten thou pitiest nothing now,
And thou minglest them with evil and with woeful misery.
Ah! I brake out a-sweat to behold him, and wept the eyes of me
For the memory of Odysseus; for meseems he too this tide,
Such clouts as this is clad in 'midst menfolk wandering wide,
If anywhere yet he be living and beholding the light of the sun.
But if at last he hath perished, and to Hades' House hath gone,

Woe for great Odysseus! who set me to look to his neat e'en then,
When I was but a lad in the folk-land of the Cephellenian men.
Now numberless are they waxen; nor may any race of neat

Wide-faced fare any better to wax as the ears of wheat.
But them do others bid me for their meat hereto to drive;
Nor heed they aught his man-child within the halls alive,
Nor fear the Gods' a-wreaking: and yearning now are they
To share amidst them the treasure of the King so long away.
Now this the soul within me full oft doth turn about;
For while his son yet bides here 'twere an evil thing, no doubt,

To wend to another folk-land and these beeves with me to drive
Unto alien men. Yet 'tis heavy meseemeth here to live
O'er the kine of others a-sitting, and suffering drearihead:

And long ago to some other of the high-heart kings had I fled
Since things past all endurance come in on us amain;
But my mind of that hapless bethinketh, if yet he may come again
For the scattering of those Wooers about the house of the stead."
Then Odysseus of many a rede thereto made answer and said:
"Neatherd, since like to no evil or witless one thou art,
And I myself am noting the wisdom that toucheth thine heart,

One thing I tell thee, and hereby with a great oath the same do I bind:
Bear witness, Zeus, thou King-god, and thou guest-table kind,
And thou hearth of the glorious Odysseus whereunto I have come!
That e'en while thou abidest shall Odysseus win him home;

And thou thyself shalt see it, if thou hast will to see,
The slaying of the Wooers where now the lords they be."

Thereto then answered the neatherd, the keeper of the kine:
"O guest, may the son of Cronos make good. this word of thine,
Then shouldst thou know of my might, and my hands what like they were."

And in like wise did Eumæus to all Gods make his prayer,
That Odysseus of all wisdom might get him home to his stead.

But while each unto the other such words as this they said,
For Telemachus death and the doomday shaped out the Wooers' band.
But unto them in that while came a fowl on the right hand,

An eagle lofty-flying with a faint-heart dove in his clutch:
Then Amphinomus spake amidst them, and the words he said were such:
"Friends, once more nothing cometh of our counsel and our rede
For Telemachus' bane: now rather of the high feast have we heed."
So Amphinomus spake amidst them, and good to all was his word,
And into the house they gat them of Odysseus godlike lord;
And they cast adown their mantles on the thrones and the benches there,
And the mighty sheep they slaughtered, and the fatted goats the fair,

And they slew fat boars moreover, and one of the herded kine,
And they roasted the inwards and shared them; and then they mingled
the wine

In the blending bowls, and the swineherd dealt round the beakers then,
And the bread to them was dealing Philcetius, master of men,
In baskets fair, and Melanthius the wine poured out and bare,
And they reached out their hands to the victuals that lay before them there,
But Telemachus, heedful of goodhap, Odysseus set adown
Within the well-built feast-hall upon the threshold of stone,
Having brought him a sorry settle and withal a scanty board;
And he gave him share of the inwards and the wine for him he poured
In a golden cup; and moreover a word he bespake him then:
"Sit there adown and be drinking the wine amidst the men,
And I myself will ward thee from the gibes and the hands of all
These Wooers here; since soothly this no common hall,
But the very house of Odysseus, which he gat for me and my gain.
But ye, ye Wooers, from buffets and chiding your souls refrain,
Lest contention rise amidst us and strife herein be stirred."

So he spake: but they the Wooers, they bit their lips as they heard,
And at Telemachus wondered, so boldly as he spake.
But Antinoüs, son of Eupeithes, thereon the word did take:

"Telemachus' word, Achæans, let us take; for as hard as it is,
Although forsooth against us a very threat is this.
For the Son of Cronos stayed us, or else by us had he been
Well-hushed within the feast-house, for all he speaketh keen."

So Antinoüs spake, but the other no whit his word gainsaid.
But now the hallowed hundreds of the Gods the henchmen led
Through the town, and the long-haired Achæans were gathered 'neath the

Of Apollo's shady thicket, the Shooter far aloof.
Then they roasted, and unspitted the flesh that lieth without, roof
And a glorious feast they feasted, and dealt the shares about.

And an equal share by Odysseus the swains of service laid,
Like the share to the others allotted, for so indeed he bade,
Telemachus, son beloved of Odysseus, godhead's peer.

But not wholly Athene suffered the haughty Wooers there
To refrain from mocks heart-grieving, so that yet more grief and need
Might drown the soul of Odysseus, the old Laertes' seed.

Now there was a man of the Wooers, which same Ctesippus hight,
And he had his house in Same and was wont to all unright,
And he, trusting in his riches, that were great and marvellous,
Was wooing the wife of Odysseus so long away from his house,
So now to the masterful Wooers he fell to speak, and said:
"O noble Wooers, hearken till a word of mine is sped!
This guest for long meseemeth hath had his equal share,
And surely now meseemeth 'tis nothing right nor fair
To maltreat Telemachus' guest-friends who may come to this stead on a day,
So I also will give him a guest-gift, which he may give away
As a guerdon to the bath-maid, or any one else of the thralls
Who dwell hereby, and are haunting godlike Odysseus' halls."
So saying from out of a basket the foot of an ox he took,
And cast with his sturdy hand: but Odysseus shunned the stroke,
His head but lightly swerving; and a bitter laugh and fell
His heart laughed as the ox-foot smote the wall that was builded well,
But Telemachus spake, and straightway with words Ctesippus chid:
"Tt is well for thy life, Ctesippus, that to thee it thus betid
To miss the guest; for thy bolt he shunned himself, e'en he:
Or else with the whetted spear midmost had I smitten thee,
And thy father before thy wedding should have looked to thy burial.
Therefore let none put forward such shameless deeds in the hall,
For by this time every matter I understand and know,
Both the good and also the worser: and a child was I long ago.
Forsooth there have been doings we have borne to look upon,
The slaying of flocks, and the drinking of wine, and the bread foredone,
Since for one to refrain a many is a thing right hard to do;
So now no longer do me the ill-deeds of the foe.
And yet if at last ye desire to slay me with the brass,
That would I; and far better that my death should come to pass
Than that here I sit beholding such ugly deeds played out:
Guests mauled and mocked, and men haling the women thralls about
In most unseemly fashion through all the chambers fair."
So he spake, and a while the others they sat in silence there,
But at last spake Agelaus, who was Damastor's son:
"O friends, with him who hath spoken aright there is not one
That with thwart words should chide him or to contest with him fall,
Nought now this guest let us mischieve, nor any man or thrall
That haunteth the house of Odysseus the godlike day by day.
But unto Telemachus now and his mother a word would I say,
A gentle word for the pleasure of the hearts of both the twain:
For even so long as the hope did yet in our hearts remain
That Odysseus of all wisdom should come back to his house of old,
So long, no blame of her biding in the homestead to withhold
The Wooers therein, and refrain them: for better so would it be
If Odysseus compassed his homefare, and home at his house were he.
But now 'tis as clear as it may be that he never returneth again;
So come now, sit by thy mother, and bid her straight and plain
That she wed the best amongst us, and the greatest giver of gear,
That thou thyself rejoicing may'st have thine heritage here,
And eat and drink, and thy mother another's house may heed."
But Telemachus the prudent a word to him did speed:
"Nay, nay, by Zeus, Agelaus, and by my father's woe,
Who afar from Ithaca wanders, or is dead a while ago,
My mother's wedding I let not, but bid her evermore
To wed with whom she willeth who shall give her gifts good store.
But 'twere shame that her unwilling I should thrust from out the hall
With the hard word: God forbid it that such a thing befall!"
So he spake; but Pallas Athene amidst the Wooers' crew
Awoke undying laughter, and their minds astray she drew;
For now all they were laughing with the jaws of other men,
And flesh bloodstained were they eating, and the eyes of them as then
Were filled with tears, and the thoughts of their souls into sorrow strayed.

Then the godlike Theoclymenus he spake to them and said:
"Why bear ye this bale, ye unhappy? For your heads and your faces out-
And the knees that are beneath you are wrapt about in night,

And let loose is the voice of wailing, and wetted with tears are your cheeks, right
And blood the hall-walls staineth and the goodly panels streaks;
And the porch is full of man-shapes and fulfilled is the garth of the stead,
As they wend 'neath the dusk and the darkness, and the sun from the
heavens is dead;
And lo! how the mist of evil draws up and all about!"
So he spake: but all they on him sweet laughter yet laughed out,
And Eurymachus, Polybus' offspring, then fell to speaking there:
"Now witless is this stranger new come from otherwhere!
So out a doors, ye younglings, do ye lead the man forthright,
That he wend him unto the high-place, since he deemeth us here in the night."
But the godlike Theoclymenus, thus answering, fell to say:
"Eurymachus, nought I crave thee for speeders on the way.
For verily eyes I lack not, nor ears, nor both my feet,
And the mind in my breast is fashioned in manner nought unmeet.
With these will I get me without doors; for I see the bale coming on
Which no man among you shall flee from, and no man of the Wooers

shall shun,
E'en those who about the homestead of godlike Odysseus abide,
And are mocking men, and framing the wickedness of pride."

So saying, his ways he wended from the house fast built and fair,
And came to the house of Piræus, who took him blithely there.
But all the Wooers, beholding each other face to face,

Fell to stirring Telemachus' anger, and to laugh at the guests of the place.
And some one of those masterful younglings e'en thus would be saying
"Telemachus, surely no man hath more evil guests than thou;
E'en such as is this wanderer that guesting here doth lurk, now:

The bread and the wine a-craving; and hath no skill in the work
Of the field or the fight; but goeth on earth an idle load.
And again here rose this other to foretell us and forebode.
Now if thou would'st but hearken, far gainfuller would it be
To cast these guests together in a many-banked ship of the sea,
To Sicilian men to ship them; whence thy gain were good and due."

Een such were the words of the Wooers; but he gave no heed thereto,
And in silence looked on his father, abiding the hour of the day
When he on those shameless Wooers his hands at last should lay.

But the Daughter of Icarius, wise-heart Penelope,
As now right over against them her lovely chair set she,

And she hearkened the voice of each one of the men within the hall.
And for them—they arrayed the banquet midst laughter, and withal
Sweet was it and heart-staying, for many a beast had they slain,

But no such an unblessed banquet shall ever be again
As that which the mighty man and the Goddess soon should dight
For those that first had fashioned the deeds of all unright,