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, [by

  From out of Olympus the gleaming; and Odysseus was glad. But hard

  From the house a grinding woman gave forth a sign and a word [herd,

  From the place where the mills were standing, the mills of the people’s

  And thereat twelve thralls of the women would labour yet and again,

  For ever milling the barley, and wheat the marrow of men; [done,

  But the others now were sleeping since their grain they had ground and

  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 [take,

  Then a spear strong-shafted, and headed with the whetted brass, did he

  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? [bread?

  For such-like is my mother, though prudent she may be,

  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: [blame,

  “Nay, my child, thou shouldest not blame her when she is nought to

  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 Achaeans, and the folk in the marketplace.

  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 dork-watered well,

  While the others round the houses wrought deftly there and then.

  Thither too came the folk of service of those Achaean 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 Achaeans 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, Eumaeus, 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 no end to it

  Till we try it with hands; for thou beggest beyond all that is right and

  And other feasts of Achaeans belike be otherwhere.” [fair;

  So he spake: but all-wise Odysseus he spake no word for his part,

  But shook his head in silence, and brooded bale in his heart

  But a third man came up with them, Philoetius 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 Eumaeus 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 an.idst 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 Antinoiis, son of Eupeithes, thereon the word did take:

  “Telemachus’ word, Achaeans, 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 Antinoiis 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 Achaeans were gathered ‘neath the

  Of Apollo’s shady thicket, the Shooter far aloof. [roof

  Then they roasted, and unspitted the flesh that lieth without,

  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 Sam£ 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 maltreatTelemachus’guest-friendswho maycome 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:

  “It 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 Agelaiis, 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, Agelaiis, 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 uut-

  And the knees that are beneath you are wrapt about in night, Lngnt

  And let loose is the voice of wailing, and wetted with tears are your cheeks,

  And blood the hall-walls staineth and the goodly panels streaks;

 

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