August 23, 2025 • 26 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Book twenty three. Euryclea now went upstairs, laughing to tell
her mistress that her dear husband had come home. Her
aged knees became young again, and her feet were nimble
for joy as she went up to her mistress and
bent over her head to speak with her. Wake up, Penelope,
(00:24):
my dear child, she exclaimed, and see with your own
eyes something that you have been wanting this long time. Past.
Ulysses has at last indeed come home again, and has
killed the suitors who were giving so much trouble in
his house, eating up his estate, and ill treating his son.
(00:48):
My good nurse answered, Penelope, you must be mad. The
gods sometimes send some very sensible people out of their
minds and make foolish people be come sensible. This is
what they must have been doing with you, for you
always used to be a reasonable person. Why should you
(01:09):
thus mock me when I have trouble enough already, talking
such nonsense, and waking me up out of a sweet
sleep that had taken possession of my eyes and closed them.
I have never slept so soundly from the day my
poor husband went to that city with the ill omened name,
(01:30):
go back again into the woman's room. If it had
been any one else who had woke me to bring
such absurd news, I should have sent her away with
a severe scolding. As it is your age shall protect you,
my dear child, answered Eurycleia, I am not mocking you.
(01:51):
It is quite true as I tell you, that Ulysses
is come home again. He was the stranger whom they
all kept entreating so badly in the cloister Telemachus knew
all the time that he has come back, but kept
his father's secret that he might have his revenge on
all these wicked people. Then Penelope sprang up from her couch,
(02:18):
threw her arms round Euryclea, and wept for joy. But
my dear nurse said, she explain this to me. If
he has really come home as you say, how did
he manage to overcome the wicked suitors single handed, seeing
what a number of them there always were. I was
(02:39):
not here, answered Euryclea, and do not know. I only
heard them groaning while they were being killed. We sat
huddled and crouching in a corner of the women's room
with the doors closed, till your son came to fetch
me because his father sent him. Then I found Ulysses
(03:00):
standing over the corpses that were lying on the ground
all round him, one on top of the other. You
would have enjoyed it if you could have seen him
standing there, all be spattered with blood and filth, and
looking just like a lion. But the corpses are now
all piled up in the gatehouse, that is in the
(03:21):
outer court, and Ulysses has lit a great fire to
purify the house with sulfur. He has sent me to
call you, so come with me, that you may both
be happy together after all, For now, at last the
desire of your heart has been fulfilled. Your husband is
(03:44):
come home to find both wife and son alive and well,
and to take his revenge in his own house on
the suitors who behaved so badly to him. My dear nurse,
said Penelope, do not exult too confidently over all this.
You know how delighted every one would be to see
(04:07):
Ulysses come home, more particularly myself and the son who
has been born to both of us. But what you
tell me cannot be really true. It is some God
who is angry with the suitors for their great wickedness,
and has made an end of them, for they respected
no man in the world, neither rich nor poor, who
(04:30):
came near them, who came near them, and they have
come to a bad end in consequence of their iniquity.
Ulysses is dead, far away from the Yechean land, and
he will never return home again. Then, Nurse Euryclea said,
(04:52):
my child, what are you talking about? But you were
all hard of belief and have made up your mind
that your husband is never coming, although he is in
the house and by his own fireside at this very moment. Besides,
I can give you another proof. When I was washing him,
(05:15):
I perceived the scar which the wild boar gave him,
and I wanted to tell you about it, but in
his wisdom he would not let me and clapped his
hands over my mouth. So come with me, and I
will make this bargain with you. If I am deceiving you,
(05:35):
you may have me killed by the most cruel death
you can think of. My dear nurse, said Penelope. However
wise you may be, you can hardly fathom the counsels
of the gods. Nevertheless, we will go in search of
my son, that I may see the corpses of the
(05:56):
suitors and the man who has killed them. On this
she came down from her upper room, and while doing so,
she considered whether she should keep at a distance from
her husband and question him, or whether she should at
once go up to him and embrace him. When, however,
(06:18):
she had crossed the stone floor of the cloister, she
sat down opposite Ulysses by the fire, against the wall
at right angles to that by which she had entered,
while Ulysses sat near one of the bearing posts, looking
upon the ground and waiting to see what his wife
would say to him. When she saw him, for a
(06:40):
long time, she sat silent and as one lost in amazement.
At one moment she looked him full in the face,
but then again directly she was misled by his shabby
clothes and failed to recognize him till tell Lamachus began
(07:01):
to reproach her, and said, mother, but you are so
hard that I cannot call you by such a name.
Why do you keep away from my father in this way?
Why do you not sit by his side and begin
talking to him and asking him questions? No other women
could bear to keep away from her husband when he
(07:24):
had come back to her after twenty years of absence,
and after having gone through so much, but your heart
was always as hard as a stone. Penelope answered, my son,
I am so lost in astonishment that I can find
no words in which either to ask questions or to
(07:46):
answer them. I cannot even look him straight in the face. Still,
if he really is Ulysses, come back to his own
home again. We shall get to understand one another better
by and by, For there are tokens with which we
two are alone acquainted, and which are hidden from all others.
(08:09):
Ulysses smiled at this and said to Telemachus, let your
mother put me to any proof she likes. She will
make up her mind about it. Presently she rejects me
for the moment, and believes me to be somebody else,
because I am covered with dirt and have such bad
(08:29):
clothes on. Let us, however, consider what we had better
do next. When one man has killed another, even though
he was not one who would leave many friends to
take up his quarrel, the man who has killed him
must still say good bye to his friends and fly
the country, whereas we have been killing the stay of
(08:53):
a whole town and all the picked youth of Ithaca.
I would have you consider matter, look to it yourself.
Father answered Telemachus, For they say you are the wisest
counselor in the world, and that there is no other
mortal man who can compare with you. We will follow
(09:15):
you with right good will, nor shall you find us
to fail you. In so far as our strength holds out.
I will say what I think will be best answered, Ulysses. First,
wash and put your shirts on. Tell the maids also
to go to their own room and dress. Femius shall
(09:37):
then strike up a dance tune on his lyre, so
that if people outside here, or any of the neighbors,
or someone going along the street happens to notice it,
they may think there is a wedding in the house,
and no rumors about the death of the suitors will
get about in the town before we can escape to
(09:58):
the woods upon my own land. Once there we will
settle which of the courses Heaven vouchsafes us shall seem wisest.
Thus did he speak, and they did even as he
had said. First they washed and put their shirts on,
while the women got ready. Then Femius took his lyre
(10:21):
and set them all longing for sweet song and stately dance.
The house re echoed with the sound of men and
women dancing, and the people outside said, I suppose the
queen has been getting married at last. She ought to
be ashamed of herself for not continuing to protect her
husband's property until he comes home. This was what they said,
(10:46):
but they did not know what it was that had
been happening. The upper servant Urinomi washed and anointed Ulysses
in his own house, and gave him a shirt and cloak,
while Minerva made him look taller and stronger than before.
She also made the hair grow thick on the top
(11:07):
of his head and flow down in curls like hyacinthe blossoms.
She glorified him about the head and shoulders, just as
a skillful workman who has studied art of all kinds
under Vulcan or Minerva, and his work is full of beauty.
In enriches a piece of silver plate by gilding it.
(11:31):
He came from the bath, looking like one of the immortals,
and sat down opposite his wife on the seat he
had left. My dear said he Heaven has endowed you
with a heart more unyielding than woman ever yet had
no other woman could bear to keep away from her husband.
(11:53):
When he had come back to her after twenty years
of absence, and after having gone through so much. But come, nurse,
get a bed ready for me. I will sleep alone,
for this woman has a heart as hard as iron.
My dear, said Penelope. I have no wish to set
(12:15):
myself up, nor to depreciate you, but I am not
struck by your appearance, for I very well remember what
kind of a man you were when you set sail
from Ithaca. Nevertheless, Euryclara, take his bed outside the bed
chamber that he himself built. Bring the bed outside this room,
(12:39):
and put bedding upon it, with fleeces, good coverlets and blankets.
She said this to try him, But Ulysses was very
angry and said, wife, I am much displeased at what
you have just been saying. Who has been taking my
bed from the place in which I left it? He
(13:01):
must have found it a hard task, no matter how
skilled a workman he was, unless some god came and
helped him to shift it. There is no man living,
however strong and in his prime, who could move it
from its place. For it is a marvelous curiosity which
I made with my very own hands. There was a
(13:24):
young olive growing within the precincts of the house in
full vigor, and about as thick as a bearing post.
I built my room round this with strong walls of
stone and a roof to cover them, and I made
the doors strong and well fitting. Then I cut off
the top boughs of the olive tree and left the
(13:46):
stump standing. This I dressed roughly from the root upwards,
and then worked with carpenter's tools well and skillfully, straightening
my work by drawing a line in the world wood
and making it into a bed prop. I then bored
a hole down the middle and made it the sector
(14:07):
post of my bed, at which I worked till I
had finished it in laying it with gold and silver.
After this I stretched a hide of crimson leather from
one side of it to the other. So you shall
see I know all about it, and I desire to
learn whether it is still there, or whether anyone has
(14:29):
been removing it by cutting down the olive tree at
its roots. When she heard the sure proofs Ulysses now
gave her, she fairly broke down. She flew weeping to
his side, flung her arms about his neck, and kissed him.
Do not be angry with me Ulysses, she cried, you,
(14:53):
who are the wisest of mankind. We have suffered both
of us. Heaven has denied us the happiness of spending
our youth and of growing old together. Do not then
be aggrieved or take it amiss that I did not
embrace you. Thus as soon as I saw you, I
(15:15):
have been shuddering all the time through fear that someone
might come here and deceive me with a lying story.
For there are many very wicked people going about. Jove's
daughter Helen would never have yielded herself to a man
from a foreign country if she had known that the
(15:35):
sons of a Chean's would come after her and bring
her back. Heaven put it in her heart to do wrong,
and she gave no thought to that sin which has
been the source of all our sorrows. Now, however, that
you have convinced me by showing that you know all
(15:56):
about our bed, which no human being has ever seen
but you and I and this single maid servant, the
daughter of Actor, who was given me by my father
on my marriage, and who keeps the doors of our room.
Hard of belief. Though I have been, I can mistrust
(16:17):
no longer. Then, Ulysses, in his turn, melted and wept
as he clasped his dear and faithful wife to his bosom.
As the sight of land is welcome to men who
are swimming towards the shore. When Neptune has wrecked their
ship with the fury of his winds and waves. A
(16:40):
few alone reach the land, and these covered with brine
are thankful when they find themselves on firm ground and
out of danger. Even so was her husband welcome to
her as she looked upon him, and she could not
tear her too fair arms from about his neck. Indeed,
(17:04):
they would have gone on indulging their sorrow till rosy
fingered morn appeared. Had not Minerva determined otherwise, and held
night back in the far west, while she would not
suffer dawn to leave Osianus, nor to yoke the two steeds,
Lampis and Phaeton, that bear her onward to break the
(17:27):
day upon mankind. At last, However, Ulysses said, wife, we
have not yet reached the end of our troubles. I
have an unknown amount of toil still to undergo. It
is long and difficult, but I must go through with it.
For thus the shade of Tyrasaeus prophesied concerning me on
(17:52):
the day when I went down into Hades to ask
about my return and that of my companions. But now
let us go to bed, that we may lie down
and enjoyed the blessed boon of sleep. You shall go
to bed as soon as you please, replied Penelope, now
that the gods have sent you home to your own
(18:14):
good house and to your country. But as Heaven has
put it in your mind to speak of it, tell
me about the task that lies before you. I shall
have to hear about it later, So it is better
I should be told at once, my dear, answered Ulysses,
Why should you press me to tell you? Still? I
(18:37):
will not conceal it from you. Though you will not
like it, I do not like it myself. For Tyresayus
bade me travel far and wide, carrying and ore, till
I came to a country where the people have never
heard of the sea, and do not even mix salt
with their food. They know nothing about ships, nor oars
(19:01):
that are as the wings of a ship. He gave
me this certain token, which I will not hide from you.
He said that a wayfarer should meet me and ask
me whether it was a winnowing shovel that I had
on my shoulder. On this I was to fix my
oar in the ground and sacrifice a ram, a bull,
(19:24):
and a boar to Neptune, after which I was to
go home and offer hecatombs to all the gods in heaven,
one after the other. As for myself, he said that
death should come to me from the sea, and that
my life should ebb away very gently when I was
(19:45):
full of years and peace of mind, and my people
should bless me. All this, he said, should surely come
to pass. And Penelope said, if the gods are going
to vouchsafe you a happier time in your old age,
you may hope then to have some respite from misfortune.
(20:11):
Thus did they converse. Meanwhile, Uryinem and the nurse took
torches and made the bed ready with soft coverlets. As
soon as they had laid them, the nurse went back
into the house to go to her rest, leaving the
bedchamber woman Uryinymee to show Ulysses and Penelope to bed
(20:31):
by torchlight. When she had conducted them to their room,
she went back, and they then came joyfully to the
rights of their own old bed. Telemachus, Philotius and the
swineherd now left off dancing, and made the women leave
off also. They then laid themselves down to sleep in
(20:54):
the cloisters. When Ulysses and Penelope had had their fill
of love, they fell talking with one another. She told
him how much she had had to bear in seeing
the house filled with a crowd of wicked suitors, who
had killed so many sheep and oxen on her account,
(21:16):
and had drunk so many casts of wine. Ulysses, in
his turn, told her what he had suffered and how
much trouble he had given to other people. He told
her everything, and she was so delighted to listen that
she never went to sleep till he had ended his
(21:37):
whole story. He began with the victory over Sichons, and
how he thence reached the fertile land of the lotus eaters.
He told her all about the Cyclops and how he
had punished him for having so ruthlessly eaten his brave comrades.
How he then went on to Aeolus, who received him
(22:00):
hospitably and furthered him on his way, And even so
he was not to reach home, for to his grief
a hurricane carried him out to sea again. How he
went to the Lastragonian city, Telepylus, where the people destroyed
all his ships with their crews, save himself and his
(22:21):
own ship. Only then he told of cunning Circe and
her craft, And how he sailed to the chill house
of Hades to consult the ghost of the theban prophet Teresaeus.
And how he saw his old comrade in arms, and
his mother, who bore him and brought him up when
(22:42):
he was a child. How he then heard the wondrous
singing of the sirens, and went on to the wandering
rocks and terrible Charybdis, and to Scilla, whom no man
had ever yet passed in safety. How his men then
ate the cattle of the sun God, And how Jove
(23:04):
therefore struck the ship with his thunderbolts, so that all
his men perished together, himself alone being left alive. How
at last he reached the Ogigean island and the nymph Calypso,
who kept him there in a cave and fed him
and wanted him to marry her, in which case she
(23:28):
had tended making him immortal, so that he should never
grow old. But she could not persuade him to let
her do so. And how after much suffering, he had
found his way to the Facians, who had treated him
as though he had been a god, and sent him
back in a ship to his own country, after having
(23:51):
given him gold, bronze, and raiment in great abundance. This
was the last thing about which he told her, or
hear a deep sleep took hold upon him and eased
the burden of his sorrows. Then Minerva bethought her of
(24:11):
another matter. When she deemed that Ulysses had had both
of his wife and of repose, she bade gold and
thrown dawn rise out of oceanus, that she might shed
light upon mankind. On this Ulysses rose from his comfortable
bed and said to Penelope, wife, we have both of
(24:36):
us had our full share of troubles. You hear in
lamenting my absence, and I in being prevented from getting home,
though I was longing all the time to do so. Now, however,
that we have at last come together, take care of
the property that is in this house. As for the
(24:59):
sheep and goats which the wicked suitors have eaten, I
will take many myself by force from other people, and
will compel thee chains to make good the rest till
they shall have filled all my yards. I am now
going to the wooded lands out in the country to
see my father, who has so long been grieved on
(25:22):
my account. And to yourself. I will give these instructions,
though you have little need of them. At sunrise, it
will at once get abroad that I have been killing
the suitors. Go upstairs, therefore, and stay there with your women.
See nobody, and ask no questions. As he spoke, he
(25:46):
girded on his armor. Then he roused Telemachus, Phelotius, and Eumaeus,
and told them all to put on their armor as well.
This they did, and armed themselves. When they had done so,
they opened the gates and sallied forth, Ulysses leading the way.
(26:07):
It was now daylight, but Minerva nevertheless concealed them in
darkness and led them quickly out of the town. End
of Book twenty three.
Book twenty three. Euryclea now went upstairs, laughing to tell
her mistress that her dear husband had come home. Her
aged knees became young again, and her feet were nimble
for joy as she went up to her mistress and
bent over her head to speak with her. Wake up, Penelope,
(00:24):
my dear child, she exclaimed, and see with your own
eyes something that you have been wanting this long time. Past.
Ulysses has at last indeed come home again, and has
killed the suitors who were giving so much trouble in
his house, eating up his estate, and ill treating his son.
(00:48):
My good nurse answered, Penelope, you must be mad. The
gods sometimes send some very sensible people out of their
minds and make foolish people be come sensible. This is
what they must have been doing with you, for you
always used to be a reasonable person. Why should you
(01:09):
thus mock me when I have trouble enough already, talking
such nonsense, and waking me up out of a sweet
sleep that had taken possession of my eyes and closed them.
I have never slept so soundly from the day my
poor husband went to that city with the ill omened name,
(01:30):
go back again into the woman's room. If it had
been any one else who had woke me to bring
such absurd news, I should have sent her away with
a severe scolding. As it is your age shall protect you,
my dear child, answered Eurycleia, I am not mocking you.
(01:51):
It is quite true as I tell you, that Ulysses
is come home again. He was the stranger whom they
all kept entreating so badly in the cloister Telemachus knew
all the time that he has come back, but kept
his father's secret that he might have his revenge on
all these wicked people. Then Penelope sprang up from her couch,
(02:18):
threw her arms round Euryclea, and wept for joy. But
my dear nurse said, she explain this to me. If
he has really come home as you say, how did
he manage to overcome the wicked suitors single handed, seeing
what a number of them there always were. I was
(02:39):
not here, answered Euryclea, and do not know. I only
heard them groaning while they were being killed. We sat
huddled and crouching in a corner of the women's room
with the doors closed, till your son came to fetch
me because his father sent him. Then I found Ulysses
(03:00):
standing over the corpses that were lying on the ground
all round him, one on top of the other. You
would have enjoyed it if you could have seen him
standing there, all be spattered with blood and filth, and
looking just like a lion. But the corpses are now
all piled up in the gatehouse, that is in the
(03:21):
outer court, and Ulysses has lit a great fire to
purify the house with sulfur. He has sent me to
call you, so come with me, that you may both
be happy together after all, For now, at last the
desire of your heart has been fulfilled. Your husband is
(03:44):
come home to find both wife and son alive and well,
and to take his revenge in his own house on
the suitors who behaved so badly to him. My dear nurse,
said Penelope, do not exult too confidently over all this.
You know how delighted every one would be to see
(04:07):
Ulysses come home, more particularly myself and the son who
has been born to both of us. But what you
tell me cannot be really true. It is some God
who is angry with the suitors for their great wickedness,
and has made an end of them, for they respected
no man in the world, neither rich nor poor, who
(04:30):
came near them, who came near them, and they have
come to a bad end in consequence of their iniquity.
Ulysses is dead, far away from the Yechean land, and
he will never return home again. Then, Nurse Euryclea said,
(04:52):
my child, what are you talking about? But you were
all hard of belief and have made up your mind
that your husband is never coming, although he is in
the house and by his own fireside at this very moment. Besides,
I can give you another proof. When I was washing him,
(05:15):
I perceived the scar which the wild boar gave him,
and I wanted to tell you about it, but in
his wisdom he would not let me and clapped his
hands over my mouth. So come with me, and I
will make this bargain with you. If I am deceiving you,
(05:35):
you may have me killed by the most cruel death
you can think of. My dear nurse, said Penelope. However
wise you may be, you can hardly fathom the counsels
of the gods. Nevertheless, we will go in search of
my son, that I may see the corpses of the
(05:56):
suitors and the man who has killed them. On this
she came down from her upper room, and while doing so,
she considered whether she should keep at a distance from
her husband and question him, or whether she should at
once go up to him and embrace him. When, however,
(06:18):
she had crossed the stone floor of the cloister, she
sat down opposite Ulysses by the fire, against the wall
at right angles to that by which she had entered,
while Ulysses sat near one of the bearing posts, looking
upon the ground and waiting to see what his wife
would say to him. When she saw him, for a
(06:40):
long time, she sat silent and as one lost in amazement.
At one moment she looked him full in the face,
but then again directly she was misled by his shabby
clothes and failed to recognize him till tell Lamachus began
(07:01):
to reproach her, and said, mother, but you are so
hard that I cannot call you by such a name.
Why do you keep away from my father in this way?
Why do you not sit by his side and begin
talking to him and asking him questions? No other women
could bear to keep away from her husband when he
(07:24):
had come back to her after twenty years of absence,
and after having gone through so much, but your heart
was always as hard as a stone. Penelope answered, my son,
I am so lost in astonishment that I can find
no words in which either to ask questions or to
(07:46):
answer them. I cannot even look him straight in the face. Still,
if he really is Ulysses, come back to his own
home again. We shall get to understand one another better
by and by, For there are tokens with which we
two are alone acquainted, and which are hidden from all others.
(08:09):
Ulysses smiled at this and said to Telemachus, let your
mother put me to any proof she likes. She will
make up her mind about it. Presently she rejects me
for the moment, and believes me to be somebody else,
because I am covered with dirt and have such bad
(08:29):
clothes on. Let us, however, consider what we had better
do next. When one man has killed another, even though
he was not one who would leave many friends to
take up his quarrel, the man who has killed him
must still say good bye to his friends and fly
the country, whereas we have been killing the stay of
(08:53):
a whole town and all the picked youth of Ithaca.
I would have you consider matter, look to it yourself.
Father answered Telemachus, For they say you are the wisest
counselor in the world, and that there is no other
mortal man who can compare with you. We will follow
(09:15):
you with right good will, nor shall you find us
to fail you. In so far as our strength holds out.
I will say what I think will be best answered, Ulysses. First,
wash and put your shirts on. Tell the maids also
to go to their own room and dress. Femius shall
(09:37):
then strike up a dance tune on his lyre, so
that if people outside here, or any of the neighbors,
or someone going along the street happens to notice it,
they may think there is a wedding in the house,
and no rumors about the death of the suitors will
get about in the town before we can escape to
(09:58):
the woods upon my own land. Once there we will
settle which of the courses Heaven vouchsafes us shall seem wisest.
Thus did he speak, and they did even as he
had said. First they washed and put their shirts on,
while the women got ready. Then Femius took his lyre
(10:21):
and set them all longing for sweet song and stately dance.
The house re echoed with the sound of men and
women dancing, and the people outside said, I suppose the
queen has been getting married at last. She ought to
be ashamed of herself for not continuing to protect her
husband's property until he comes home. This was what they said,
(10:46):
but they did not know what it was that had
been happening. The upper servant Urinomi washed and anointed Ulysses
in his own house, and gave him a shirt and cloak,
while Minerva made him look taller and stronger than before.
She also made the hair grow thick on the top
(11:07):
of his head and flow down in curls like hyacinthe blossoms.
She glorified him about the head and shoulders, just as
a skillful workman who has studied art of all kinds
under Vulcan or Minerva, and his work is full of beauty.
In enriches a piece of silver plate by gilding it.
(11:31):
He came from the bath, looking like one of the immortals,
and sat down opposite his wife on the seat he
had left. My dear said he Heaven has endowed you
with a heart more unyielding than woman ever yet had
no other woman could bear to keep away from her husband.
(11:53):
When he had come back to her after twenty years
of absence, and after having gone through so much. But come, nurse,
get a bed ready for me. I will sleep alone,
for this woman has a heart as hard as iron.
My dear, said Penelope. I have no wish to set
(12:15):
myself up, nor to depreciate you, but I am not
struck by your appearance, for I very well remember what
kind of a man you were when you set sail
from Ithaca. Nevertheless, Euryclara, take his bed outside the bed
chamber that he himself built. Bring the bed outside this room,
(12:39):
and put bedding upon it, with fleeces, good coverlets and blankets.
She said this to try him, But Ulysses was very
angry and said, wife, I am much displeased at what
you have just been saying. Who has been taking my
bed from the place in which I left it? He
(13:01):
must have found it a hard task, no matter how
skilled a workman he was, unless some god came and
helped him to shift it. There is no man living,
however strong and in his prime, who could move it
from its place. For it is a marvelous curiosity which
I made with my very own hands. There was a
(13:24):
young olive growing within the precincts of the house in
full vigor, and about as thick as a bearing post.
I built my room round this with strong walls of
stone and a roof to cover them, and I made
the doors strong and well fitting. Then I cut off
the top boughs of the olive tree and left the
(13:46):
stump standing. This I dressed roughly from the root upwards,
and then worked with carpenter's tools well and skillfully, straightening
my work by drawing a line in the world wood
and making it into a bed prop. I then bored
a hole down the middle and made it the sector
(14:07):
post of my bed, at which I worked till I
had finished it in laying it with gold and silver.
After this I stretched a hide of crimson leather from
one side of it to the other. So you shall
see I know all about it, and I desire to
learn whether it is still there, or whether anyone has
(14:29):
been removing it by cutting down the olive tree at
its roots. When she heard the sure proofs Ulysses now
gave her, she fairly broke down. She flew weeping to
his side, flung her arms about his neck, and kissed him.
Do not be angry with me Ulysses, she cried, you,
(14:53):
who are the wisest of mankind. We have suffered both
of us. Heaven has denied us the happiness of spending
our youth and of growing old together. Do not then
be aggrieved or take it amiss that I did not
embrace you. Thus as soon as I saw you, I
(15:15):
have been shuddering all the time through fear that someone
might come here and deceive me with a lying story.
For there are many very wicked people going about. Jove's
daughter Helen would never have yielded herself to a man
from a foreign country if she had known that the
(15:35):
sons of a Chean's would come after her and bring
her back. Heaven put it in her heart to do wrong,
and she gave no thought to that sin which has
been the source of all our sorrows. Now, however, that
you have convinced me by showing that you know all
(15:56):
about our bed, which no human being has ever seen
but you and I and this single maid servant, the
daughter of Actor, who was given me by my father
on my marriage, and who keeps the doors of our room.
Hard of belief. Though I have been, I can mistrust
(16:17):
no longer. Then, Ulysses, in his turn, melted and wept
as he clasped his dear and faithful wife to his bosom.
As the sight of land is welcome to men who
are swimming towards the shore. When Neptune has wrecked their
ship with the fury of his winds and waves. A
(16:40):
few alone reach the land, and these covered with brine
are thankful when they find themselves on firm ground and
out of danger. Even so was her husband welcome to
her as she looked upon him, and she could not
tear her too fair arms from about his neck. Indeed,
(17:04):
they would have gone on indulging their sorrow till rosy
fingered morn appeared. Had not Minerva determined otherwise, and held
night back in the far west, while she would not
suffer dawn to leave Osianus, nor to yoke the two steeds,
Lampis and Phaeton, that bear her onward to break the
(17:27):
day upon mankind. At last, However, Ulysses said, wife, we
have not yet reached the end of our troubles. I
have an unknown amount of toil still to undergo. It
is long and difficult, but I must go through with it.
For thus the shade of Tyrasaeus prophesied concerning me on
(17:52):
the day when I went down into Hades to ask
about my return and that of my companions. But now
let us go to bed, that we may lie down
and enjoyed the blessed boon of sleep. You shall go
to bed as soon as you please, replied Penelope, now
that the gods have sent you home to your own
(18:14):
good house and to your country. But as Heaven has
put it in your mind to speak of it, tell
me about the task that lies before you. I shall
have to hear about it later, So it is better
I should be told at once, my dear, answered Ulysses,
Why should you press me to tell you? Still? I
(18:37):
will not conceal it from you. Though you will not
like it, I do not like it myself. For Tyresayus
bade me travel far and wide, carrying and ore, till
I came to a country where the people have never
heard of the sea, and do not even mix salt
with their food. They know nothing about ships, nor oars
(19:01):
that are as the wings of a ship. He gave
me this certain token, which I will not hide from you.
He said that a wayfarer should meet me and ask
me whether it was a winnowing shovel that I had
on my shoulder. On this I was to fix my
oar in the ground and sacrifice a ram, a bull,
(19:24):
and a boar to Neptune, after which I was to
go home and offer hecatombs to all the gods in heaven,
one after the other. As for myself, he said that
death should come to me from the sea, and that
my life should ebb away very gently when I was
(19:45):
full of years and peace of mind, and my people
should bless me. All this, he said, should surely come
to pass. And Penelope said, if the gods are going
to vouchsafe you a happier time in your old age,
you may hope then to have some respite from misfortune.
(20:11):
Thus did they converse. Meanwhile, Uryinem and the nurse took
torches and made the bed ready with soft coverlets. As
soon as they had laid them, the nurse went back
into the house to go to her rest, leaving the
bedchamber woman Uryinymee to show Ulysses and Penelope to bed
(20:31):
by torchlight. When she had conducted them to their room,
she went back, and they then came joyfully to the
rights of their own old bed. Telemachus, Philotius and the
swineherd now left off dancing, and made the women leave
off also. They then laid themselves down to sleep in
(20:54):
the cloisters. When Ulysses and Penelope had had their fill
of love, they fell talking with one another. She told
him how much she had had to bear in seeing
the house filled with a crowd of wicked suitors, who
had killed so many sheep and oxen on her account,
(21:16):
and had drunk so many casts of wine. Ulysses, in
his turn, told her what he had suffered and how
much trouble he had given to other people. He told
her everything, and she was so delighted to listen that
she never went to sleep till he had ended his
(21:37):
whole story. He began with the victory over Sichons, and
how he thence reached the fertile land of the lotus eaters.
He told her all about the Cyclops and how he
had punished him for having so ruthlessly eaten his brave comrades.
How he then went on to Aeolus, who received him
(22:00):
hospitably and furthered him on his way, And even so
he was not to reach home, for to his grief
a hurricane carried him out to sea again. How he
went to the Lastragonian city, Telepylus, where the people destroyed
all his ships with their crews, save himself and his
(22:21):
own ship. Only then he told of cunning Circe and
her craft, And how he sailed to the chill house
of Hades to consult the ghost of the theban prophet Teresaeus.
And how he saw his old comrade in arms, and
his mother, who bore him and brought him up when
(22:42):
he was a child. How he then heard the wondrous
singing of the sirens, and went on to the wandering
rocks and terrible Charybdis, and to Scilla, whom no man
had ever yet passed in safety. How his men then
ate the cattle of the sun God, And how Jove
(23:04):
therefore struck the ship with his thunderbolts, so that all
his men perished together, himself alone being left alive. How
at last he reached the Ogigean island and the nymph Calypso,
who kept him there in a cave and fed him
and wanted him to marry her, in which case she
(23:28):
had tended making him immortal, so that he should never
grow old. But she could not persuade him to let
her do so. And how after much suffering, he had
found his way to the Facians, who had treated him
as though he had been a god, and sent him
back in a ship to his own country, after having
(23:51):
given him gold, bronze, and raiment in great abundance. This
was the last thing about which he told her, or
hear a deep sleep took hold upon him and eased
the burden of his sorrows. Then Minerva bethought her of
(24:11):
another matter. When she deemed that Ulysses had had both
of his wife and of repose, she bade gold and
thrown dawn rise out of oceanus, that she might shed
light upon mankind. On this Ulysses rose from his comfortable
bed and said to Penelope, wife, we have both of
(24:36):
us had our full share of troubles. You hear in
lamenting my absence, and I in being prevented from getting home,
though I was longing all the time to do so. Now, however,
that we have at last come together, take care of
the property that is in this house. As for the
(24:59):
sheep and goats which the wicked suitors have eaten, I
will take many myself by force from other people, and
will compel thee chains to make good the rest till
they shall have filled all my yards. I am now
going to the wooded lands out in the country to
see my father, who has so long been grieved on
(25:22):
my account. And to yourself. I will give these instructions,
though you have little need of them. At sunrise, it
will at once get abroad that I have been killing
the suitors. Go upstairs, therefore, and stay there with your women.
See nobody, and ask no questions. As he spoke, he
(25:46):
girded on his armor. Then he roused Telemachus, Phelotius, and Eumaeus,
and told them all to put on their armor as well.
This they did, and armed themselves. When they had done so,
they opened the gates and sallied forth, Ulysses leading the way.
(26:07):
It was now daylight, but Minerva nevertheless concealed them in
darkness and led them quickly out of the town. End
of Book twenty three.
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