The Odyssey
stranger, I shall put you to the test and see whether or no you really
did entertain my husband and his men, as you say you did. Tell me,
then, how he was dressed, what kind of a man he was to look at, and so
also with his companions.”
“Madam,” answered Ulysses, “it is such a long time ago that I can
hardly say. Twenty years are come and gone since he left my home, and
went elsewhither; but I will tell you as well as I can recollect.
Ulysses wore a mantle of purple wool, double lined, and it was fastened
by a gold brooch with two catches for the pin. On the face of this
there was a device that shewed a dog holding a spotted fawn between his
fore paws, and watching it as it lay panting upon the ground. Every one
marvelled at the way in which these things had been done in gold, the
dog looking at the fawn, and strangling it, while the fawn was
struggling convulsively to escape.153 As for the shirt that he wore
next his skin, it was so soft that it fitted him like the skin of an
onion, and glistened in the sunlight to the admiration of all the women
who beheld it. Furthermore I say, and lay my saying to your heart, that
I do not know whether Ulysses wore these clothes when he left home, or
whether one of his companions had given them to him while he was on his
voyage; or possibly some one at whose house he was staying made him a
present of them, for he was a man of many friends and had few equals
among the Achaeans. I myself gave him a sword of bronze and a beautiful
purple mantle, double lined, with a shirt that went down to his feet,
and I sent him on board his ship with every mark of honour. He had a
servant with him, a little older than himself, and I can tell you what
he was like; his shoulders were hunched,154 he was dark, and he had
thick curly hair. His name was Eurybates, and Ulysses treated him with
greater familiarity than he did any of the others, as being the most
like-minded with himself.”
Penelope was moved still more deeply as she heard the indisputable
proofs that Ulysses laid before her; and when she had again found
relief in tears she said to him, “Stranger, I was already disposed to
pity you, but henceforth you shall be honoured and made welcome in my
house. It was I who gave Ulysses the clothes you speak of. I took them
out of the store room and folded them up myself, and I gave him also
the gold brooch to wear as an ornament. Alas! I shall never welcome him
home again. It was by an ill fate that he ever set out for that
detested city whose very name I cannot bring myself even to mention.”
Then Ulysses answered, “Madam, wife of Ulysses, do not disfigure
yourself further by grieving thus bitterly for your loss, though I can
hardly blame you for doing so. A woman who has loved her husband and
borne him children, would naturally be grieved at losing him, even
though he were a worse man than Ulysses, who they say was like a god.
Still, cease your tears and listen to what I can tell you. I will hide
nothing from you, and can say with perfect truth that I have lately
heard of Ulysses as being alive and on his way home; he is among the
Thesprotians, and is bringing back much valuable treasure that he has
begged from one and another of them; but his ship and all his crew were
lost as they were leaving the Thrinacian island, for Jove and the
sun-god were angry with him because his men had slaughtered the
sun-god’s cattle, and they were all drowned to a man. But Ulysses stuck
to the keel of the ship and was drifted on to the land of the
Phaeacians, who are near of kin to the immortals, and who treated him
as though he had been a god, giving him many presents, and wishing to
escort him home safe and sound. In fact Ulysses would have been here
long ago, had he not thought better to go from land to land gathering
wealth; for there is no man living who is so wily as he is; there is no
one can compare with him. Pheidon king of the Thesprotians told me all
this, and he swore to me—making drink-offerings in his house as he did
so—that the ship was by the water side and the crew found who would
take Ulysses to his own country. He sent me off first, for there
happened to be a Thesprotian ship sailing for the wheat-growing island
of Dulichium, but he showed me all the treasure Ulysses had got
together, and he had enough lying in the house of king Pheidon to keep
his family for ten generations; but the king said Ulysses had gone to
Dodona that he might learn Jove’s mind from the high oak tree, and know
whether after so long an absence he should return to Ithaca openly or
in secret. So you may know he is safe and will be here shortly; he is
close at hand and cannot remain away from home much longer;
nevertheless I will confirm my words with an oath, and call Jove who is
the first and mightiest of all gods to witness, as also that hearth of
Ulysses to which I have now come, that all I have spoken shall surely
come to pass. Ulysses will return in this self same year; with the end
of this moon and the beginning of the next he will be here.”
“May it be even so,” answered Penelope; “if your words come true you
shall have such gifts and such good will from me that all who see you
shall congratulate you; but I know very well how it will be. Ulysses
will not return, neither will you get your escort hence, for so surely
as that Ulysses ever was, there are now no longer any such masters in
the house as he was, to receive honourable strangers or to further them
on their way home. And now, you maids, wash his feet for him, and make
him a bed on a couch with rugs and blankets, that he may be warm and
quiet till morning. Then, at day break wash him and anoint him again,
that he may sit in the cloister and take his meals with Telemachus. It
shall be the worse for any one of these hateful people who is uncivil
to him; like it or not, he shall have no more to do in this house. For
how, sir, shall you be able to learn whether or no I am superior to
others of my sex both in goodness of heart and understanding, if I let
you dine in my cloisters squalid and ill clad? Men live but for a
little season; if they are hard, and deal hardly, people wish them ill
so long as they are alive, and speak contemptuously of them when they
are dead, but he that is righteous and deals righteously, the people
tell of his praise among all lands, and many shall call him blessed.”
Ulysses answered, “Madam, I have foresworn rugs and blankets from the
day that I left the snowy ranges of Crete to go on shipboard. I will
lie as I have lain on many a sleepless night hitherto. Night after
night have I passed in any rough sleeping place, and waited for
morning. Nor, again, do I like having my feet washed; I shall not let
any of the young hussies about your house touch my feet; but, if you
have any old and respectable woman who has gone through as much trouble
as I have, I will allow her to wash them.”
To this Penelope said, “My dear sir, of all the guests who ever yet
came to my house there never was one who spoke in all things with such
admirable propriety as you do. There happens to be in the house a most
respectable old woman—the same who received my poor dear husband in her
arms the night he was born, and nursed him in infancy. She is very
feeble now, but she shall wash your feet.” “Come here,” said she,
“Euryclea, and wash your master’s age-mate; I suppose Ulysses’ hands
and feet are very much the same now as his are, for trouble ages all of
us dreadfully fast.”
On these words the old woman covered her face with her hands; she began
to weep and made lamentation saying, “My dear child, I cannot think
whatever I am to do with you. I am certain no one was ever more
god-fearing than yourself, and yet Jove hates you. No one in the whole
world ever burned him more thigh bones, nor gave him finer hecatombs
when you prayed you might come to a green old age yourself and see your
son grow up to take after you: yet see how he has prevented you alone
from ever getting back to your own home. I have no doubt the women in
some foreign palace which Ulysses has got to are gibing at him as all
these sluts here have been gibing at you. I do not wonder at your not
choosing to let them wash you after the manner in which they have
insulted you; I will wash your feet myself gladly enough, as Penelope
has said that I am to do so; I will wash them both for Penelope’s sake
and for your own, for you have raised the most lively feelings of
compassion in my mind; and let me say this moreover, which pray attend
to; we have had all kinds of strangers in distress come here before
now, but I make bold to say that no one ever yet came who was so like
Ulysses in figure, voice, and feet as you are.”
“Those who have seen us both,” answered Ulysses, “have always said we
were wonderfully like each other, and now you have noticed it too.”
Then the old woman took the cauldron in which she was going to wash his
feet, and poured plenty of cold water into it, adding hot till the bath
was warm enough. Ulysses sat by the fire, but ere long he turned away
from the light, for it occurred to him that when the old woman had hold
of his leg she would recognise a certain scar which it bore, whereon
the whole truth would come out. And indeed as soon as she began washing
her master, she at once knew the scar as one that had been given him by
a wild boar when he was hunting on Mt. Parnassus with his excellent
grandfather Autolycus—who was the most accomplished thief and perjurer
in the whole world—and with the sons of Autolycus. Mercury himself had
endowed him with this gift, for he used to burn the thigh bones of
goats and kids to him, so he took pleasure in his companionship. It
happened once that Autolycus had gone to Ithaca and had found the child
of his daughter just born. As soon as he had done supper Euryclea set
the infant upon his knees and said, “Autolycus, you must find a name
for your grandson; you greatly wished that you might have one.”
“Son-in-law and daughter,” replied Autolycus, “call the child thus: I
am highly displeased with a large number of people in one place and
another, both men and women; so name the child ‘Ulysses,’ or the child
of anger. When he grows up and comes to visit his mother’s family on
Mt. Parnassus, where my possessions lie, I will make him a present and
will send him on his way rejoicing.”
Ulysses, therefore, went to Parnassus to get the presents from
Autolycus, who with his sons shook hands with him and gave him welcome.
His grandmother Amphithea threw her arms about him, and kissed his
head, and both his beautiful eyes, while Autolycus desired his sons to
get dinner ready, and they did as he told them. They brought in a five
year old bull, flayed it, made it ready and divided it into joints;
these they then cut carefully up into smaller pieces and spitted them;
they roasted them sufficiently and served the portions round. Thus
through the livelong day to the going down of the sun they feasted, and
every man had his full share so that all were satisfied; but when the
sun set and it came on dark, they went to bed and enjoyed the boon of
sleep.
When the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared, the sons of
Autolycus went out with their hounds hunting, and Ulysses went too.
They climbed the wooded slopes of Parnassus and soon reached its breezy
upland valleys; but as the sun was beginning to beat upon the fields,
fresh-risen from the slow still currents of Oceanus, they came to a
mountain dell. The dogs were in front searching for the tracks of the
beast they were chasing, and after them came the sons of Autolycus,
among whom was Ulysses, close behind the dogs, and he had a long spear
in his hand. Here was the lair of a huge boar among some thick
brushwood, so dense that the wind and rain could not get through it,