The Odyssey, Page 45

But she, bright among women, went back to her upper room,

  while her handmaids accepted these beautiful presents for her.

  The men now turned their attention to the dance and delightful song

  for their pleasure, awaiting the arrival of evening; and while

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  they were still enjoying themselves, dark evening came on.

  Then at once they set up three braziers in the hall

  to give them light, and piled seasoned firewood round them,

  dried out long since and sapless, newly split with the bronze,

  and set torches between them. The maids of steadfast-minded

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  Odysseus took turns lighting them, and he himself, Zeus-born

  resourceful Odysseus, now spoke among them, saying:

  "You maidservants of Odysseus, your long-absent lord,

  go back now up to the chamber where your revered queen is,

  ply your distaffs beside her--and keep her cheerful while

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  you're sitting there in her room--or card the wool

  with your hands: I myself will make light for all these men,

  and even if they're determined to stay up till well-throned Dawn

  they won't exhaust me, oh no: I'm a much-enduring fellow."

  So he spoke. But the handmaids tittered, and glanced at each other,

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  and fair-cheeked Melantho reproved him in shameful wise--

  she whom Dolios sired, but Penelope raised and cherished

  like a daughter, and gave her all the toys she wanted.

  Yet not even so did she share any part of Penelope's sorrow,

  but was having sex with Eurymachos, was his regular lover.

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  She now upbraided Odysseus in censorious language, saying:

  "You miserable stranger, you must be clean out of your mind!

  You're not willing to go get your sleep in a smithy, or some

  public doss-house: oh no, you're busy speaking so boldly,

  among all these gentlemen! Have you no proper respect?

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  Wine's surely fuddled your wits, or else your mind's

  always like this, you're forever spouting nonsense!

  Are you above yourself after beating that vagrant Iros?

  Another man, better than Iros, may soon stand up against you,

  beat you about the head with his powerful fists, befoul you

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  with streams of your own blood, and chase you from this house."

  With an angry glance, resourceful Odysseus retorted, saying:

  "You bitch, I'll go straight to Telemachos, tell him the way

  you talk! Very likely he'll cut you up, there and then!"

  So he spoke. His words sent the women scurrying off:

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  Away they went through the hall, the limbs of each one loosened

  beneath her by fear: they thought he'd do what he said.

  But Odysseus stood by the flaming braziers, fed them,

  one eye on the crowd of suitors, while in his mind he pondered

  other matters, not destined to go without fulfillment.

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  But these haughty suitors Athene would not permit at all

  to back off from distressing outrage: she wanted its pain to sink

  deeper still into the heart of Laertes' son Odysseus.

  Now Eurymachos, Polybos' son, began to address them,

  making fun of Odysseus, arousing laughter in his comrades:

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  "Listen to me, all you suitors of our glorious queen, while I

  say what the heart in my breast impels me to tell you!

  Not without the gods' will has this man reached Odysseus' home!

  The torchlight does indeed appear to emanate from him--

  from his head, that is, which lacks the least trace of hair upon it."

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  With that he addressed Odysseus, the city-sacker, saying:

  "Would you come and work for me, stranger, as a hired day-laborer,

  on my outlying estate--your pay would be adequate--

  collecting stones for the field walls, and planting tall trees?

  I'd provide you there with food the entire year through,

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  and keep you well clothed, and give you shoes for your feet.

  But since all you've learnt are bad habits, you won't want

  to set yourself to hard work; no, you'd rather beg your way

  through the district, to keep your insatiate belly fed."

  Then resourceful Odysseus responded to him, saying:

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  "Eurymachos, how I wish we two might have a contest

  in the season of spring, when the days are growing longer,

  out in the meadow, and I had a well-curved scythe in my hands,

  and you another one like it, for us to make trial of our work,

  going without food until evening, and the grass was thick!

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  Or again, I wish we had teams of oxen to drive--the best,

  big and tawny, both well fed on grass, both of an age,

  both equal in drawing power, and of no slight strength--

  in a four-acre field, the clods yielding to the plowshare:

  then you'd see whether I could keep my furrows straight!

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  Or again, if the son of Kronos from somewhere brought an attack

  upon us today, and I had a shield and two spears

  and a helmet made all of bronze, snug against my temples,

  then you'd see me out there among the foremost fighters,

  and wouldn't abuse me in speeches because of my belly!

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  But you're so incredibly arrogant and rigid-minded--

  I suppose you think you're a great and powerful fellow

  because those you consort with are mean and common?

  If only Odysseus might come, and return to his own country,

  then at once these doors, however wide, would be

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  all too narrow for your flight out through the entrance!"

  So he spoke. Eurymachos flared up in wrath, stared at him

  with an angry glance, then addressed him with winged words, saying:

  "You wretch, I'll soon punish you for the way you have of speaking

  so boldly, among all these gentlemen! Have you no proper respect?

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  Wine's surely fuddled your wits, or else your mind's

  always like this, you're forever spouting nonsense!

  Are you above yourself after beating that vagrant Iros?"

  So saying, he snatched up a footstool; but Odysseus

  ducked down at Doulichian Amphinomos' knees in reaction to

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  Eurymachos, whose throw instead hit the wine bearer's

  right hand, so that his pitcher fell to the ground with a clang,

  while he himself groaned, collapsed backward in the dust.

  The suitors now burst into uproar throughout the shadowy halls,

  and thus would one of them speak, with a glance at his neighbor:

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  "I wish this stranger had died somewhere else in his wanderings

  before he came here! Then he'd never have raised such a tumult!

  But now we're at odds over beggars, there'll be no pleasure

  in our privileged feasting, since meaner ways prevail."

  Telemachos, princely in power, also addressed them, saying:

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  "Foolish sirs, you are crazy! You no longer hide the effects

  of your swilling and guzzling--some god must be stirring you up!

  You've feasted well: go home now, lie down and rest--of course

  when the mood takes you: I chase no person away!"

  So he spoke. Every one of them bit his lip and marveled

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  at Telemachos because
of his bold outspoken manner.

  But Amphinomos, illustrious son of Nisos, the lord

  Aretias' son, now addressed them, saying: "Friends,

  in response to what has been fairly and justly spoken

  no man should take offense, make a hostile retort!

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  Do not abuse this stranger, or any one of the servants

  now domiciled in the household of godlike Odysseus!

  No, rather let's have the wine bearer pour drops in our cups

  so we can make libations, and then go home to rest,

  leaving the stranger behind here in the halls of Odysseus

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  for Telemachos to look after: it's to his house that he's come."

  So he spoke: what he said was acceptable to them all.

  Then a bowl was mixed up for them by the hero Moulios

  from Doulichion, a herald and the squire of Amphinomos.

  He gave it to all in due order: they made libations

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  to the blessed gods, and drank the honey-sweet wine.

  Then, libations made, when they'd drunk all they'd a mind to,

  they all departed to rest, each man to his own home.

  Book 19

  So noble Odysseus was left behind, there in the hall,

  with Athene's aid contriving a plan to kill the suitors;

  and now he addressed Telemachos with winged words, saying:

  "Telemachos, we must lay up all our weapons of war inside

  and disarm the suitors with soothing words when they note

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  their absence and ask you questions about them. Say:

  'I stored them away from the smoke, since they no longer look

  as they did when Odysseus left them on going off to Troy,

  but are blackened with all the fire's breath that's got to them.

  And there's a greater concern some god has put in my mind:

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  that when you're flushed with wine you may pick a quarrel

  among you and wound one another and so disgrace

  your feast and your wooing: for iron of itself attracts a man.'"1

  So he spoke. Telemachos obeyed his own dear father,

  and summoned his nurse Eurykleia, and addressed her, saying:

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  "Good mother, please keep the women confined to their quarters

  while I put away in the storeroom the weapons of my father--

  fine gear, left in the house uncared for, blackened with smoke

  ever since my father's departure, when I was still a child.

  But now I want to store them out of reach of the fire's breath."

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  His dear nurse Eurykleia responded to him, saying:

  "Indeed, child, I could wish you were always so concerned

  to take care of the house and to guard the possessions in it!

  But who, pray, will go get a light and carry it for you?

  The maidservants would have done it, but you won't let them."

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  Sagacious Telemachos responded to her, saying:

  "This stranger here; for I'll permit no man to be idle

  who gets my rations, however remote the place he's from."

  So he spoke; but her answer remained unwinged,

  and she barred the doors of the pleasantly sited halls.

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  Odysseus and his illustrious son now both set to work

  carrying in the helmets and the embossed shields,

  the sharp-pointed spears; and before them Pallas Athene

  went holding a golden lamp that made resplendent light.

  At once Telemachos spoke, and addressed his father, saying:

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  "Father, here's a great wonder that my eyes behold!

  Really, the walls of the hall and its elegant panels,

  the roof beams of fir and the tall posts holding them up

  are glowing bright to my eyes, like a blazing fire!

  Surely some god's in here, one of those who hold wide heaven."

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  Resourceful Odysseus responded to him, saying:

  "Hush! Keep this to yourself, and ask no questions!

  This is indeed the way of the gods who hold Olympos.

  You go get your rest now: I shall stay here and provoke

  more interest yet in the handmaids and your mother--

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  she'll weep, and question me about every detail."

  So he spoke, and Telemachos now went out through the hall,

  lit by the flaring torches, to bed down in his room,

  where he always retired when sweet sleep came upon him.

  Now once more he lay down there, to await the bright Dawn,

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  while noble Odysseus was left behind, there in the hall,

  with Athene's aid contriving a plan to kill the suitors.

  Now prudent Penelope came down from her chamber,

  in appearance like Artemis or golden Aphrodite,

  and for her they set a chair by the fire, where she always sat,

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  inlaid with spirals of silver and ivory: this was the work

  of the craftsman Ikmalios, who'd fashioned a stool for the feet

  that was part of the chair itself. A great fleece was spread on it.

  On this, then, prudent Penelope sat, while her white-armed

  handmaids came in from the women's hall, and began

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  to remove all the leftover food, as well as the tables,

  and the cups from which these haughty men had been drinking;

  they threw out the ash from the braziers, heaped them up

  with fresh firewood, to provide both light and warmth. And now

  Melantho began once again to scold Odysseus, saying:

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  "Stranger, are you still here? Are you going to annoy us

  all night, prowling round the house, spying on the women?

  Get out of here, you wretch, be content with your supper,

  or you'll soon be thrown out, and beaten with firebrands too!"

  With an angry glance, resourceful Odysseus responded:

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  "Woman, why reprimand me in so resentful a spirit?

  Is it because I'm dirty and wear mean clothes and go

  begging my way through the neighborhood? It's need compels me.

  That's the way it is with beggars and vagabonds!

  Yet I too once dwelt in my own rich house among other

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  prosperous men, and I often would give to a vagrant,

  no matter what sort he was or what he arrived in need of!

  Countless servants I had, and much else in abundance,

  owning which men live well and are known as wealthy.

  But Kronos' son Zeus wrecked it all--on some whim, I guess.

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  So take good care, woman, lest one day you lose all

  that beauty for which you stand out among the handmaids,

  lest your mistress may come to dislike you, and treat you harshly,

  or Odysseus may return--there's still hope! But even if

  he's actually dead, and will nevermore come back home,

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  yet already, thanks to Apollo,2 his son's such a man as himself--

  Telemachos! He doesn't miss it if one of the serving women

  in the hall misbehaves--he's no longer the child he was."

  So he spoke, and prudent Penelope heard what he said,

  and rebuked the maidservant, addressed her directly, saying:

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  "Bold woman, impudent bitch, none of your gross misconduct

  has escaped me--on your own head you'll wipe it off!3

  Well did you know, since it was from me you heard it,

  that I wanted to question the stranger here in my halls

  about my husband, for whom my grief is great and ceaseless."

 
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  With that she also addressed the housekeeper Eurynome, saying:

  ''Eurynome, bring a chair here, and spread a fleece upon it,