The Odyssey

  until she sees me in person! Here's what I want you to do:

  Take this unfortunate stranger into town, so he can

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  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."

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  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

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  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."

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  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.

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  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.

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  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:

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  "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:

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  "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,

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  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

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  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.

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  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,

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  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

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  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,

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  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

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  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

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  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,

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  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.

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  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:

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  "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

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  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

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  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.

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  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

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  what it was I'd
come in search of to lordly Lakedaimon.

  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!

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  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

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  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,

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  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

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  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

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  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.

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  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,

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  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

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  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."

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  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

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  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,

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  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,

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  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

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  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,

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  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

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  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

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  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,

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  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

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  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

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  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?

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  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!

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  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

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  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.