by Homer
His talk was heartening, yet he’d joined in the death-plot.
The lady walked upstairs to her glistening bedroom.
She cried for her dear husband Odysseus till glow-eyed
450
Athene sprinkled honeyed sleep on her eyelids.
Back at the Farmhouse
The godlike swineherd approached the son and Odysseus
briskly at dusk. They’d stood there, ready for dinner:
a year-old boar had been slaughtered. However Athene,
standing close to Odysseus, the son of Laertes,
touched him again with her wand. She made him an old man:
She dressed him in ugly clothes to hinder the swineherd
from knowing the man on sight or going to thought-full
Penelopeia with news, not guarding the secret.
First Telemakhos spoke up, telling the swineherd,
460
“You’re back, godlike Eumaios: what news from the city?
Are manly suitors home from their ambush already?
Or waiting to catch me still as I sail to my own house?”
Then Eumaios the swineherd, you answered by saying,
“It never came to mind as I moved through the city
to ask those questions. My heart told me to swiftly
get back home as soon as I stated your message.
One of your own men joined me, a quick-footed herald,
telling your mother first—he gave her our message.
“I do know something else I saw with my own eyes.
470
Hiking above the city and Mound of Hermes,
by chance I spotted a nimble vessel approaching
Ithaka’s harbor. Plenty of men were aboard her,
loaded with sharp, two-edged lances and round shields.
I thought they might be suitors. Still I am not sure.”
He stopped and Telemakhos smiled—his power was holy—
catching his father’s eye but avoiding the swineherd’s.
A Hearty Meal and a Good Sleep
So now as the work was done and dinner was ready,
they sat and ate. No heart lacked a share of the good meal.
After the craving for food and drink was behind them
480
they thought about rest, the gift of sleep, and they took it.
BOOK 17 Unknown in His Own House
Off to the City
When newborn Dawn came on with her rose-fingered daylight,
Telemakhos, well-loved son of godlike Odysseus,
tied beneath his feet two beautiful sandals
and took a rugged spear fitting his hand well.
Anxious to go to the city, he said to the swineherd,
“Uncle, I’m off to the city so that my Mother
can see me there. I doubt she’ll stop crying before then—
all those tears, that joyless mourning and wailing—
not till she looks at her son. I charge you with one thing:
guide our sorry guest to the town. There he can cower
10
for food and those inclined may give him a cupful
of water and bread. There’s no way now I can burden
myself with all such beggars: my own heart is too troubled.
So if the stranger’s very annoyed it will only
make things worse. I like telling the truth here.”
An answer came from Odysseus, full of his own plans:
“My friend, I’m hardly longing myself to be left here.
Better to plead in town than beg in the farmland
for food for in town any man who wants to can help me.
I’m not at the age to stay on a farm any longer
20
the way I am, obeying all the rules of a head man.
So you go on. This man you ordered will take me
soon as I’m warmed by the fire and sunlight is warmer.
My clothes are wretchedly poor, I fear the morning
frost could break me down—you say the city’s a long way.”
After he spoke Telemakhos walked from the farmhouse,
moving fast and brooding on harm for the suitors.
Very Loving Women
In time he came to the house where people had lived well.
He stood the spear in its place: it leaned on a high post.
Then passing over the stone threshold he walked in.
30
The first to see him by far was the nurse Eurukleia,
spreading fleeces on chairs whose wood had been well-carved.
She cried out, came to him straight, and plenty of other
maids of steadfast Odysseus gathered around him,
kissing his head and shoulders. They welcomed him warmly.
Thought-full Penelopeia came from her own room,
♦ looking like Artemis, bright as the gold Aphrodite.
She threw her arms around the son she had so loved,
crying and kissing his head and both of his handsome
eyes. She wept and her words had a feathery swiftness,
40
“You came, Telemakhos! Oh, I thought I would never
see you again, sweet light, when you sailed to Pulos
against my will in secret for news of your well-loved
father who’s gone. Tell me how you met him or saw him.”
Time for the Vengeance of Zeus
But now Telemakhos gave her a sensible answer.
“Please don’t rouse the heart in my chest as you make me
mourn, Mother. I’ve run just now from a steep doom.
You should bathe and put fresh clothes on your body.
Go upstairs to your room with your women and handmaids.
Vow to all of the Gods you’ll render them flawless
50
hecatombs, praying Zeus will act in revenge now.
“I’ll go to the assembly place to welcome a stranger
myself who joined us—we came together from Pulos.
I sent the man ahead with my godlike crewmen,
telling Peiraios to take the man to his own house,
welcome and honor him gladly until I arrive there.”
He spoke that way and because her answer was wingless
she left him to bathe. She put clean clothes on her body
and vowed to all the Gods she’d render them flawless
hecatombs, praying Zeus might take his revenge now.
60
An Outward Show of Regard
Telemakhos made his way through the hall to the outdoors,
taking a spear. Two white dogs followed him closely.
Athene showered grace and awe on the young man:
everyone gazed and admired him now as he drew near.
Brash and disdainful suitors gathered around him
sounding fine, but at heart they were planning to hurt him.
Shortly he moved away from the large crowding of suitors.
where Antiphos, Mentor and Halitherses were sitting—
close friends of his father right from the outset—
Telemakhos took a chair. They asked about each thing.
70
Presents from Menelaos
Peiraios came on now, known for a spear-throw.
He’d led the stranger through town to this place of assembly.
Soon Telemakhos turned to him, walked to the stranger,
but first Peiraios wanted to speak and he asked him,
“Telemakhos, hurry and send your maids to my household.
I want to send you back the gifts Menelaos gave you.”
Still Telemakhos gave him a sensible answer.
“Peiraios, we don’t know how these doings will turn out.
Maybe the manly suitors will cut me down in the great hall
in secret and split up all the wealth of my Fathers.
80
I want you to have them with joy—not one of the suitors.
If I can seed their doom though, make for their own deaths,
you’ll carry the gifts to my house in joy and in my joy.”
A Welcome for the Stranger
He stopped and led his hard-tried guest to his own house.
After they entered the building where people had lived well,
the two men laid their cloaks on a chair and a high-backed
throne and then walked to the polished chamber to take baths.
Handmaids washed them, rubbed their bodies with rich oil,
then tossed a beautiful mantle and tunic around each.
They left the bathroom then and sat on the good chairs.
90
A handmaid brought them water: she poured from a pitcher
of stunning gold and they washed their hands in her silver
basin. She set out a polished table before them.
An honored housekeeper brought them bread and arranged it.
She laid out plenty of meat, graceful and giving.
A Woman’s Longing
Telemakhos’s mother faced them too in the great hall.
She leaned in her chair by a post, spinning her fine wool.
Their hands went out to the good things lying before them.
After the craving for wine and food was behind them,
thought-full Penelopeia started by saying,
100
“Telemakhos, soon I’ll surely go to my upstairs
room and lie on a bed that’s turned into mourning,
always wet with tears from the time that Odysseus
left me for Troy with Atreus’s sons. Still you have not yet
dared to tell me, before the brash suitors came in the palace,
about your father’s homecoming. Maybe you heard tell.”
News from Pulos and Sparte
Telemakhos promptly gave her a sensible answer.
“Well then, Mother, I’ll tell you myself what the truth is.
We went to Pulos first, to Nestor, a shepherd of people.
There in his high-built house he gave me a welcome,
110
glad as fathers for sons newly arriving from far off
after a long time gone. He cared in that joyful
way with his own dear sons, young men who are well-praised.
Yet he told me he’d heard nothing of steadfast Odysseus,
whether alive or dead. No one on earth had informed him.
“He sent me on by horse-team though, a tight-fitted chariot,
to Atreus’s son Menelaos, known for his spear-throw.
I saw Helen of Argos there, the cause of so many
Argive and Trojan struggles willed by the great Gods.
Menelaos, good at a war-cry, was quick with his questions:
120
why did I need to travel to bright Lakedaimon?
Deer in the Lion’s Den
“After I told him the whole truth of the matter,
that ruler found his words and answered me this way:
‘Look at this! Men who’d lie in the bed of a strongly
spirited man are themselves lacking in courage.
The way a doe might rest her fawns when they’re suckling,
newly born, in the lair of a powerful lion:
she goes off looking to graze on a hillside or grassy
vale but the lion’s back too soon to his own lair—
what a sorry end for both of the young deer!
130
Odysseus too will bring a sorry end to the suitors.
I pray to Zeus, our Father, Athene and Apollo:
make him the man he was in strong-founded Lesbos,
the day he stood up and faced Philomeleides wrestling.
He threw him with force and every Akhaian applauded.
If only that strong Odysseus dealt with the suitors,
they’d all be dead in a hurry—that bitter a marriage!
What Happened in Egypt
‘But on to the questions you ask. I’ll hardly mislead you,
wandering far from the point. Nor would I fool you:
I’ll tell you the tale I heard from an errorless old man
140
and lord of the sea. I won’t keep anything hidden.
He told me he saw your father in strong pain on an island,
kept in a Nymph’s hall: Kalupso had forced him
to stay. He can’t get back to the land of his fathers,
lacking a ship with oars and lacking crewmen
to send him over the broad back of the salt sea.’
“Those were the words of Atreus’s son Menelaos,
known for a spear-throw. With all that ended I sailed off.
Gods gave me a sea-wind sending me fast to my homeland.”
The Prophet’s Word
He spoke that way, stirring the heart in her bosom.
150
♦ Godlike Theoklumenos spoke to her also.
“Honored wife of Odysseus, son of Laertes,
he can’t know all the truth. Hear out my own words,
I’ll prophesy fully what’s coming. It’s not to be hidden,
Zeus be my witness, first among Gods, this table