The Odyssey

ULYSSES CANNOT SLEEP—PENELOPE’S PRAYER TO DIANA—THE TWO SIGNS FROM
HEAVEN—EUMAEUS AND PHILOETIUS ARRIVE—THE SUITORS DINE—CTESIPPUS THROWS
AN OX’S FOOT AT ULYSSES—THEOCLYMENUS FORETELLS DISASTER AND LEAVES THE
HOUSE.


Ulysses slept in the cloister upon an undressed bullock’s hide, on the
top of which he threw several skins of the sheep the suitors had eaten,
and Eurynome156 threw a cloak over him after he had laid himself down.
There, then, Ulysses lay wakefully brooding upon the way in which he
should kill the suitors; and by and by, the women who had been in the
habit of misconducting themselves with them, left the house giggling
and laughing with one another. This made Ulysses very angry, and he
doubted whether to get up and kill every single one of them then and
there, or to let them sleep one more and last time with the suitors.
His heart growled within him, and as a bitch with puppies growls and
shows her teeth when she sees a stranger, so did his heart growl with
anger at the evil deeds that were being done: but he beat his breast
and said, “Heart, be still, you had worse than this to bear on the day
when the terrible Cyclops ate your brave companions; yet you bore it in
silence till your cunning got you safe out of the cave, though you made
sure of being killed.”

Thus he chided with his heart, and checked it into endurance, but he
tossed about as one who turns a paunch full of blood and fat in front
of a hot fire, doing it first on one side and then on the other, that
he may get it cooked as soon as possible, even so did he turn himself
about from side to side, thinking all the time how, single handed as he
was, he should contrive to kill so large a body of men as the wicked
suitors. But by and by Minerva came down from heaven in the likeness of
a woman, and hovered over his head saying, “My poor unhappy man, why do
you lie awake in this way? This is your house: your wife is safe inside
it, and so is your son who is just such a young man as any father may
be proud of.”

“Goddess,” answered Ulysses, “all that you have said is true, but I am
in some doubt as to how I shall be able to kill these wicked suitors
single handed, seeing what a number of them there always are. And there
is this further difficulty, which is still more considerable. Supposing
that with Jove’s and your assistance I succeed in killing them, I must
ask you to consider where I am to escape to from their avengers when it
is all over.”

“For shame,” replied Minerva, “why, any one else would trust a worse
ally than myself, even though that ally were only a mortal and less
wise than I am. Am I not a goddess, and have I not protected you
throughout in all your troubles? I tell you plainly that even though
there were fifty bands of men surrounding us and eager to kill us, you
should take all their sheep and cattle, and drive them away with you.
But go to sleep; it is a very bad thing to lie awake all night, and you
shall be out of your troubles before long.”

As she spoke she shed sleep over his eyes, and then went back to
Olympus.

While Ulysses was thus yielding himself to a very deep slumber that
eased the burden of his sorrows, his admirable wife awoke, and sitting
up in her bed began to cry. When she had relieved herself by weeping
she prayed to Diana saying, “Great Goddess Diana, daughter of Jove,
drive an arrow into my heart and slay me; or let some whirlwind snatch
me up and bear me through paths of darkness till it drop me into the
mouths of over-flowing Oceanus, as it did the daughters of Pandareus.
The daughters of Pandareus lost their father and mother, for the gods
killed them, so they were left orphans. But Venus took care of them,
and fed them on cheese, honey, and sweet wine. Juno taught them to
excel all women in beauty of form and understanding; Diana gave them an
imposing presence, and Minerva endowed them with every kind of
accomplishment; but one day when Venus had gone up to Olympus to see
Jove about getting them married (for well does he know both what shall
happen and what not happen to every one) the storm winds came and
spirited them away to become handmaids to the dread Erinyes. Even so I
wish that the gods who live in heaven would hide me from mortal sight,
or that fair Diana might strike me, for I would fain go even beneath
the sad earth if I might do so still looking towards Ulysses only, and
without having to yield myself to a worse man than he was. Besides, no
matter how much people may grieve by day, they can put up with it so
long as they can sleep at night, for when the eyes are closed in
slumber people forget good and ill alike; whereas my misery haunts me
even in my dreams. This very night methought there was one lying by my
side who was like Ulysses as he was when he went away with his host,
and I rejoiced, for I believed that it was no dream, but the very truth
itself.”

On this the day broke, but Ulysses heard the sound of her weeping, and
it puzzled him, for it seemed as though she already knew him and was by
his side. Then he gathered up the cloak and the fleeces on which he had
lain, and set them on a seat in the cloister, but he took the bullock’s
hide out into the open. He lifted up his hands to heaven, and prayed,
saying “Father Jove, since you have seen fit to bring me over land and
sea to my own home after all the afflictions you have laid upon me,
give me a sign out of the mouth of some one or other of those who are
now waking within the house, and let me have another sign of some kind
from outside.”

Thus did he pray. Jove heard his prayer and forthwith thundered high up
among the clouds from the splendour of Olympus, and Ulysses was glad
when he heard it. At the same time within the house, a miller-woman
from hard by in the mill room lifted up her voice and gave him another
sign. There were twelve miller-women whose business it was to grind
wheat and barley which are the staff of life. The others had ground
their task and had gone to take their rest, but this one had not yet
finished, for she was not so strong as they were, and when she heard
the thunder she stopped grinding and gave the sign to her master.
“Father Jove,” said she, “you, who rule over heaven and earth, you have
thundered from a clear sky without so much as a cloud in it, and this
means something for somebody; grant the prayer, then, of me your poor
servant who calls upon you, and let this be the very last day that the
suitors dine in the house of Ulysses. They have worn me out with labour
of grinding meal for them, and I hope they may never have another
dinner anywhere at all.”

Ulysses was glad when he heard the omens conveyed to him by the woman’s
speech, and by the thunder, for he knew they meant that he should
avenge himself on the suitors.

Then the other maids in the house rose and lit the fire on the hearth;
Telemachus also rose and put on his clothes. He girded his sword about
his shoulder, bound his sandals on to his comely feet, and took a
doughty spear with a point of sharpened bronze; then he went to the
threshold of the cloister and said to Euryclea, “Nurse, did you make
the stranger comfortable both as regards bed and board, or did you let
him shift for himself?—for my mother, good woman though she is, has a
way of paying great attention to second-rate people, and of neglecting
others who are in reality much better men.”

“Do not find fault child,” said Euryclea, “when there is no one to find
fault with. The stranger sat and drank his wine as long as he liked:
your mother did ask him if he would take any more bread and he said he
would not. When he wanted to go to bed she told the servants to make
one for him, but he said he was such a wretched outcast that he would
not sleep on a bed and under blankets; he insisted on having an
undressed bullock’s hide and some sheepskins put for him in the
cloister and I threw a cloak over him myself.”157

Then Telemachus went out of the court to the place where the Achaeans
were meeting in assembly; he had his spear in his hand, and he was not
alone, for his two dogs went with him. But Euryclea called the maids
and said, “Come, wake up; set about sweeping the cloisters and
sprinkling them with water to lay the dust; put the covers on the
seats; wipe down the tables, some of you, with a wet sponge; clean out
the mixing-jugs and the cups, and go for water from the fountain at
once; the suitors will be here directly; they will be here early, for
it is a feast day.”

Thus did she speak, and they did even as she had said: twenty of them
went to the fountain for water, and the others set themselves busily to
work about the house. The men who were in attendance on the suitors
also came up and began chopping firewood. By and by the women returned
from the fountain, and the swineherd came after them with the three
best pigs he could pick out. These he let feed about the premises, and
then he said good-humouredly to Ulysses, “Stranger, are the suitors
treating you any better now, or are they as insolent as ever?”

“May heaven,” answered Ulysses, “requite to them the wickedness with
which they deal high-handedly in another man’s house without any sense
of shame.”

Thus did they converse; meanwhile Melanthius the goatherd came up, for
he too was bringing in his best goats for the suitors’ dinner; and he
had two shepherds with him. They tied the goats up under the gatehouse,
and then Melanthius began gibing at Ulysses. “Are you still here,
stranger,” said he, “to pester people by begging about the house? Why
can you not go elsewhere? You and I shall not come to an understanding
before we have given each other a taste of our fists. You beg without
any sense of decency: are there not feasts elsewhere among the
Achaeans, as well as here?”

Ulysses made no answer, but bowed his head and brooded. Then a third
man, Philoetius, joined them, who was bringing in a barren heifer and
some goats. These were brought over by the boatmen who are there to
take people over when any one comes to them. So Philoetius made his
heifer and his goats secure under the gatehouse, and then went up to
the swineherd. “Who, Swineherd,” said he, “is this stranger that is
lately come here? Is he one of your men? What is his family? Where does
he come from? Poor fellow, he looks as if he had been some great man,
but the gods give sorrow to whom they will—even to kings if it so
pleases them.”

As he spoke he went up to Ulysses and saluted him with his right hand;
“Good day to you, father stranger,” said he, “you seem to be very
poorly off now, but I hope you will have better times by and by. Father
Jove, of all gods you are the most malicious. We are your own children,
yet you show us no mercy in all our misery and afflictions. A sweat
came over me when I saw this man, and my eyes filled with tears, for he
reminds me of Ulysses, who I fear is going about in just such rags as
this man’s are, if indeed he is still among the living. If he is
already dead and in the house of Hades, then, alas! for my good master,
who made me his stockman when I was quite young among the
Cephallenians, and now his cattle are countless; no one could have done
better with them than I have, for they have bred like ears of corn;
nevertheless I have to keep bringing them in for others to eat, who
take no heed to his son though he is in the house, and fear not the
wrath of heaven, but are already eager to divide Ulysses’ property
among them because he has been away so long. I have often thought—only
it would not be right while his son is living—of going off with the
cattle to some foreign country; bad as this would be, it is still
harder to stay here and be ill-treated about other people’s herds. My
position is intolerable, and I should long since have run away and put
myself under the protection of some other chief, only that I believe my
poor master will yet return, and send all these suitors flying out of
the house.”

“Stockman,” answered Ulysses, “you seem to be a very well-disposed
person, and I can see that you are a man of sense. Therefore I will
tell you, and will confirm my words with an oath. By Jove, the chief of
all gods, and by that hearth of Ulysses to which I am now come, Ulysses
shall return before you leave this place, and if you are so minded you
shall see him killing the suitors who are now masters here.”

“If Jove were to bring this to pass,” replied the stockman, “you should
see how I would do my very utmost to help him.”

And in like manner Eumaeus prayed that Ulysses might return home.

Thus did they converse. Meanwhile the suitors were hatching a plot to
murder Telemachus: but a bird flew near them on their left hand—an
eagle with a dove in its talons. On this Amphinomus said, “My friends,
this plot of ours to murder Telemachus will not succeed; let us go to
dinner instead.”

The others assented, so they went inside and laid their cloaks on the
benches and seats. They sacrificed the sheep, goats, pigs, and the
heifer, and when the inward meats were cooked they served them round.
They mixed the wine in the mixing-bowls, and the swineherd gave every
man his cup, while Philoetius handed round the bread in the bread
baskets, and Melanthius poured them out their wine. Then they laid
their hands upon the good things that were before them.

Telemachus purposely made Ulysses sit in the part of the cloister that
was paved with stone;158 he gave him a shabby looking seat at a little
table to himself, and had his portion of the inward meats brought to
him, with his wine in a gold cup. “Sit there,” said he, “and drink your
wine among the great people. I will put a stop to the gibes and blows
of the suitors, for this is no public house, but belongs to Ulysses,
and has passed from him to me. Therefore, suitors, keep your hands and
your tongues to yourselves, or there will be mischief.”

The suitors bit their lips, and marvelled at the boldness of his
speech; then Antinous said, “We do not like such language but we will
put up with it, for Telemachus is threatening us in good earnest. If
Jove had let us we should have put a stop to his brave talk ere now.”

Thus spoke Antinous, but Telemachus heeded him not. Meanwhile the
heralds were bringing the holy hecatomb through the city, and the
Achaeans gathered under the shady grove of Apollo.

Then they roasted the outer meat, drew it off the spits, gave every man
his portion, and feasted to their heart’s content; those who waited at
table gave Ulysses exactly the same portion as the others had, for
Telemachus had told them to do so.

But Minerva would not let the suitors for one moment drop their
insolence, for she wanted Ulysses to become still more bitter against
them. Now there happened to be among them a ribald fellow, whose name
was Ctesippus, and who came from Same. This man, confident in his great
wealth, was paying court to the wife of Ulysses, and said to the
suitors, “Hear what I have to say. The stranger has already had as
large a portion as any one else; this is well, for it is not right nor
reasonable to ill-treat any guest of Telemachus who comes here. I will,
however, make him a present on my own account, that he may have
something to give to the bath-woman, or to some other of Ulysses’
servants.”

As he spoke he picked up a heifer’s foot from the meat-basket in which
it lay, and threw it at Ulysses, but Ulysses turned his head a little
aside, and avoided it, smiling grimly Sardinian fashion159 as he did
so, and it hit the wall, not him. On this Telemachus spoke fiercely to
Ctesippus, “It is a good thing for you,” said he, “that the stranger
turned his head so that you missed him. If you had hit him I should
have run you through with my spear, and your father would have had to
see about getting you buried rather than married in this house. So let
me have no more unseemly behaviour from any of you, for I am grown up
now to the knowledge of good and evil and understand what is going on,
instead of being the child that I have been heretofore. I have long
seen you killing my sheep and making free with my corn and wine: I have
put up with this, for one man is no match for many, but do me no
further violence. Still, if you wish to kill me, kill me; I would far
rather die than see such disgraceful scenes day after day—guests
insulted, and men dragging the women servants about the house in an
unseemly way.”

They all held their peace till at last Agelaus son of Damastor said,
“No one should take offence at what has just been said, nor gainsay it,
for it is quite reasonable. Leave off, therefore, ill-treating the
stranger, or any one else of the servants who are about the house; I
would say, however, a friendly word to Telemachus and his mother, which
I trust may commend itself to both. ‘As long,’ I would say, ‘as you had
ground for hoping that Ulysses would one day come home, no one could
complain of your waiting and suffering160 the suitors to be in your
house. It would have been better that he should have returned, but it
is now sufficiently clear that he will never do so; therefore talk all
this quietly over with your mother, and tell her to marry the best man,
and the one who makes her the most advantageous offer. Thus you will
yourself be able to manage your own inheritance, and to eat and drink
in peace, while your mother will look after some other man’s house, not
yours.’”

To this Telemachus answered, “By Jove, Agelaus, and by the sorrows of
my unhappy father, who has either perished far from Ithaca, or is
wandering in some distant land, I throw no obstacles in the way of my
mother’s marriage; on the contrary I urge her to choose whomsoever she
will, and I will give her numberless gifts into the bargain, but I dare
not insist point blank that she shall leave the house against her own
wishes. Heaven forbid that I should do this.”

Minerva now made the suitors fall to laughing immoderately, and set
their wits wandering; but they were laughing with a forced laughter.
Their meat became smeared with blood; their eyes filled with tears, and
their hearts were heavy with forebodings. Theoclymenus saw this and
said, “Unhappy men, what is it that ails you? There is a shroud of
darkness drawn over you from head to foot, your cheeks are wet with
tears; the air is alive with wailing voices; the walls and roof-beams
drip blood; the gate of the cloisters and the court beyond them are
full of ghosts trooping down into the night of hell; the sun is blotted
out of heaven, and a blighting gloom is over all the land.”

Thus did he speak, and they all of them laughed heartily. Eurymachus
then said, “This stranger who has lately come here has lost his senses.
Servants, turn him out into the streets, since he finds it so dark
here.”

But Theoclymenus said, “Eurymachus, you need not send any one with me.
I have eyes, ears, and a pair of feet of my own, to say nothing of an
understanding mind. I will take these out of the house with me, for I
see mischief overhanging you, from which not one of you men who are
insulting people and plotting ill deeds in the house of Ulysses will be
able to escape.”

He left the house as he spoke, and went back to Piraeus who gave him
welcome, but the suitors kept looking at one another and provoking
Telemachus by laughing at the strangers. One insolent fellow said to
him, “Telemachus, you are not happy in your guests; first you have this
importunate tramp, who comes begging bread and wine and has no skill
for work or for hard fighting, but is perfectly useless, and now here
is another fellow who is setting himself up as a prophet. Let me
persuade you, for it will be much better to put them on board ship and
send them off to the Sicels to sell for what they will bring.”

Telemachus gave him no heed, but sat silently watching his father,
expecting every moment that he would begin his attack upon the suitors.

Meanwhile the daughter of Icarius, wise Penelope, had had a rich seat
placed for her facing the court and cloisters, so that she could hear
what every one was saying. The dinner indeed had been prepared amid
much merriment; it had been both good and abundant, for they had
sacrificed many victims; but the supper was yet to come, and nothing
can be conceived more gruesome than the meal which a goddess and a
brave man were soon to lay before them—for they had brought their doom
upon themselves.