The Odyssey by Homer
until she sees me in person! Here's what I want you to do:
Take this unfortunate stranger into town, so he can
10
beg there for his dinner: whoever so wishes can give him
a crust and a cupful. No way can I burden myself with
the rest of mankind, with these troubles of my own!
If this angers the stranger, so much the worse for him
will it be: it's my pleasure to speak the honest truth."
15
Resourceful Odysseus then responded to him, saying:
"Friend, neither do I myself want to be kept back here!
For a beggar it's better to beg for his dinner in town
than out in the country: whoever so wishes can feed me.
No longer am I of an age to hang on here at the farmstead
20
and do whatever some man in charge tells me I must!
Off you go: this fellow here will take me as you ordered--
when I've warmed myself at the fire, and the sun heats up!
For the clothes I have on are threadbare: I might be overcome
by the dawn frost. You say, too, it's a long way into town."
25
So he spoke. Telemachos went out through the farmstead
with rapid strides, busy thinking up trouble for the suitors.
When he reached his pleasantly sited dwelling, he stood
the spear he was carrying up against a lofty pillar,
and himself went in, stepping over the stone threshold.
30
The first to see him by far was the old nurse Eurykleia
as she spread fleeces over the richly decorated chairs.
Weeping, she rushed to greet him, and the other handmaids
of stout-hearted Odysseus now came crowding round them
and kissed his head and shoulders in loving welcome.
35
Now prudent Penelope came down from her chamber,
in appearance like Artemis, or like golden Aphrodite,1
and burst into tears as she hugged her own dear son,
and kissed his head and both his bright shining eyes,
and, between sobs, addressed him in winged words, saying:
40
"You're back, Telemachos, sweet light of my eyes! I thought
I'd never see you again when you sailed off to Pylos--
against my will, secretly, to seek news of your dear father!
So come now, tell me in detail what sightings you had of him."
Sagacious Telemachos then responded to her, saying:
45
"Mother, don't make me cry, don't stir up my emotions
when I've only just escaped sheer destruction! Instead
go upstairs to your chamber, take your handmaids with you,
and wash yourself, put on a set of clean clothes,
then pray to all the gods, with full, perfect sacrifices,
50
that Zeus may one day enact deeds of retribution for us!
I shall now go to the place of assembly, and invite home
the guest that came with me on my voyage back from Pylos.
I sent him on ahead with my godlike comrades, and told
Peiraios to take him back to his house, and give him
55
a kindly welcome, look after him till I myself arrived."
So he spoke: her own answer remained unwinged.2
She washed herself, and put on a set of clean clothes,
and vowed to make full, perfect sacrifices to all
the gods if Zeus would enact deeds of retribution for them.
60
Telemachos made his way out through the hall, his spear
grasped in one hand, two hunting dogs following at his heels,
and marvelous was the grace that Athene shed upon him,
so that all the people gazed at him in amazement as he came,
and the haughty suitors now gathered all around him,
65
speaking fair words, but privately plotting trouble.
He, however, avoided the main crowd, and went over
to where Mentor, Antiphos, and Halitherses were sitting,
men who from the start had been his father's comrades,
and sat with them, and they questioned him on every detail
70
of his trip. Peiraios, famed spearman, then came over,
bringing the stranger through the city to the assembly.
Telemachos was not slow to join his guest, but approached him.
First to speak was Peiraios, who now addressed him, saying:
"Telemachos, send women over to my house now, at once,
75
so I can deliver to you the gifts Menelaos gave you."
Sagacious Telemachos then responded to him, saying:
"Peiraios, we don't yet know how this business may turn out.
If the haughty suitors secretly slay me in my own halls,
and share out all my family goods between them, then
80
I want you, not one of them, to keep and enjoy these things;
But if I contrive death and destiny for that lot, then
bring all the stuff to my house, and I'll be glad to get it."
That said, he took the stranger, so sorely tried, back home.
When they reached his pleasantly sited dwelling, they took off
85
their cloaks and laid them on the seats and the high chairs
and went off to the polished bathtubs and had baths.
After the handmaids had washed them, massaged them with oil,
and dressed them in woolen mantles and tunics, they came
out from the bathtubs and seated themselves on the chairs,
90
and a servant brought hand-washing water in a beautiful
golden ewer and poured it over a silver basin
so they could wash, and drew up a polished table for them.
The respected housekeeper brought in bread and served it
along with many side dishes, giving freely of what there was.
95
His mother sat facing Telemachos by the hall's main pillar,
settled back in her chair, spinning fine yarn on her distaff.
So they reached out their hands to the good things ready for them.
But when they had satisfied their desire for food and drink,
it was prudent Penelope who opened the conversation, saying:
100
"Telemachos, I'm going back now to my upper chamber,
to lie down on my bed, that's become a bed of sorrow,
always damp with my tears, ever since Odysseus set out
with the sons of Atreus for Ilion. Yet you couldn't be bothered,
before the haughty suitors arrived in the house, to tell me
105
any clear news you may have about your father's return."
Sagacious Telemachos responded to her, saying:
"Very well, mother, I'll give you a true and complete account.
We traveled to Pylos, to Nestor, shepherd of the people,
who gave me a warm welcome in his lofty dwelling
110
as an honored guest, the way a father might treat his son
back home from a long spell abroad: with just such kindness
he looked after me, both he and his glorious sons.
But of steadfast-minded Odysseus, living or dead, he told me
he'd heard not one thing, from any man on earth.
115
He sent me to Atreus' son, famed spearman Menelaos,
in a carpentered chariot drawn by his own horses;
and there I saw Argive Helen, on whose account, and by
the gods' will, Argives and Trojans endured such hardship.
Then straight off Menelaos, good at the war cry, asked me
120
what it was I'd
Whereupon I then told him the whole truth of the matter.
At this he responded to me with the following statement:
'I tell you, it was indeed in the bed of a brave warrior
that these fellows, cowards themselves, hoped they might lie!
125
As when in a thicket, the lair of a powerful lion,
a doe has laid to sleep her newborn suckling fawns
and goes off, traversing foothills and grassy glens
in search of pasture, and the lion returns to his den
and on both her fawns unleashes a ghastly fate--just so
130
will Odysseus unleash a ghastly fate on these men!
How I wish--by Zeus the Father and Athene and Apollo!--
that he, as strong as he was that time in well-built Lesbos
when he stood up and wrestled a bout with Philomeleides,
and threw him down forcefully, and all the Achaians cheered,
135
might come--he, Odysseus--in such strength among these suitors!
Then they'd all get a swift end and a bitter marriage!
As regards the business you're enquiring about, I shan't
veer off onto other subjects, nor will I mislead you--
of all that I heard from that forthright Old Man of the Sea
140
not one word will I keep back or conceal from you!
He said he'd seen Odysseus on an island, much frustrated,
in the halls of the nymph Kalypso, who by constraint
detains him there, so he can't get back to his own country:
for he has no ships with oars, nor any comrades
145
to further his voyage over the broad back of the sea.'
"So spoke Atreus' son, the famed spearman Menelaos.
When I'd done all this, I set out: the immortals gave me
a following wind, and a speedy voyage to my own country."
So he spoke, and stirred the heart in her breast with his words.
150
Then the godlike Theoklymenos also addressed them, saying:
"Respected wife of Odysseus, son of Laertes, truly
your son knows nothing for certain!! Listen rather to me,
for I shall foretell the truth to you, hold back nothing!
Zeus, first of gods, be my witness, and this guest-friendly board,
155
and the hearth of peerless Odysseus, to which I have come,
that Odysseus is already here, in his own homeland, sitting
quiet or stealing about, learning of these misdeeds,
and planting the seeds of destruction for all the suitors:
such the bird portent I noted as I sat on the well-benched
160
ship of Telemachos here, and duly expounded to him."
Then prudent Penelope responded to him, saying:
"If only these words of yours, stranger, might be fulfilled!
Then would you quickly know friendship and gifts in plenty
from me, so that any who met you would call you blessed."
165
Such was the conversation they had with one another.
Meanwhile, out in front of Odysseus' house, the suitors
were amusing themselves by throwing discus and javelin
on the leveled terrace as always, in their arrogance. But when
the time for dinner arrived, and the flocks were coming home
170
from the fields on every side, led by their usual herdsmen,
then they were summoned by Medon--who pleased them best
of the heralds, and was present at their dinners--saying:
"Young men, now you've all pleasured your hearts with sport,
come on into the house, so we can get dinner ready,
175
for it's no bad thing to have meals at the proper time."
So he spoke, and they stood up and obeyed his summons.
When they entered the pleasantly sited house they took off
their cloaks and laid them down on the chairs and benches,
and set about slaughtering big sheep and fattened goats,
180
and plumped-up porkers, and a cow from the herd, as they
made ready their meal.
Now Odysseus and the noble swineherd
were preparing to leave the countryside, go in to town;
and the swineherd, leader of men, spoke first, declaring:
"Stranger, since you're so eager to go off into the city
185
today, as my master commanded--though I myself
would rather have left you here to watch over the farmstead--
nevertheless I respect him, and fear that he might
reprimand me later, and a master's rebukes can be harsh--
come on now, let's be going: the day is nearly over,
190
it will soon be evening, and a little too cold for you."
Resourceful Odysseus then responded to him, saying:
"Noted and understood. You're spelling it out for the wise.
But yes, let's be going. Be my guide all the way. And give me--
if there's one around that's been cut for your use--a strong
195
staff to support me. You said the road was uneven."
With that he slung over his shoulder his worn-out leather bag,
tattered and rent, which was held by a twisted cord,
and Eumaios gave him a staff that was to his liking,
and the two set out. Dogs and herdsmen were left behind
200
to look after the farmstead, while the swineherd led his master
into town, in the guise of a miserable aged beggar
propped on a staff, wearing mean and threadbare clothes.
But when, as they made their way along the stony path,
they'd come close to the city, and had reached a spring, from which,
205
paved and fair-flowing, the townsfolk got their water--
developed by Ithakos, Neritos, and Polyktor,
with a grove of black waterside poplars that encircled it
on every side, and the chill water came flowing down
from the rocks above, and up high there was built an altar
210
to the nymphs, where all travelers made offerings--there
Melanthios son of Dolios overtook them while driving
those she-goats that were the very best from all his herds
for the suitors' dinner; two herdsmen accompanied him.
When he saw them, he reviled them, addressing them personally
215
in aggressive, unseemly terms, that enraged Odysseus' heart:
"Now here comes a total no-good leading a no-good! As usual,
the god's bringing like and like together! Where, pray,
you wretched swineherd, are you taking this old bald pig,
this tiresome beggar, this walking blot on our feasts?
220
He'll stand and rub his shoulders at many doorposts,
begging for scraps, but never for swords or cauldrons!
If you gave me this dolt to be a guard on my farmstead,
to sweep out the pens and fetch green shoots for the kids,
then by drinking whey he could build up his thigh muscles!
225
But since all he's learned is bad stuff, he won't be willing
to do real work--he'd rather slouch his way through
this district begging, to feed his bottomless belly!
I'll tell you one thing straight, that will certainly come to pass:
if he hangs around the residence of godlike Odysseus, then
230
there'll be plenty of footstools shied by men at his head
that his ribs will splinter as he's pelted throughout the house.
So he spoke. As he passed, in his folly he kicked Odysseus
on the hip, yet failed to knock him clear of the path.