BOOK XXIV
Hermes of Kyllene summoned the souls of the suitors to come forth, and in
his hands he was holding the beautiful golden staff, with which he mazes
the eyes of those mortals whose eyes he would maze, or wakes again the
sleepers. Herding 5 them on with this, he led them along, and they
followed, gibbering.
BOOK XXIII
The old woman, laughing loudly, went to the upper chamber
to tell her mistress that her beloved husband was inside
the house. Her knees moved swiftly, but her feet were tottering.
She stood above Penelope's head and spoke a word to her:
5 ‘Wake, Penelope, dear child, so that, with your own eyes, you can see what
all your days you have been longing for.
BOOK XXII
Now resourceful Odysseus stripped his rags from him, and sprang up atop
the great threshold, holding his bow and the quiver
filled with arrows, and scattered out the swift shafts before him on the
ground next his feet, and spoke his word to the suitors: 5 ‘Here is a task
that has been achieved, without any deception.
BOOK XXI
But now the goddess, gray-eyed Athene, put it in the mind of the daughter
of Ikarios, circumspect Penelope,
to set the bow before the suitors, and the gray iron, in the house of
Odysseus: the contest, the beginning of the slaughter.
5 So she ascended the high staircase of her own house,
and in her solid hand took up the beautiful, brazen
and artfully curved key, with an ivory handle upon it.
BOOK XX
Then the noble Odysseus bedded down in the forecourt, and spread
beneath him the raw hide of an ox, and uppermost many fleeces of sheep
the Achaians had dedicated.
BOOK XIX
Now great Odysseus still remained in the hall, pondering how, with the
help of Athene, he would murder the suitors.
Presently he spoke in winged words to Telemachos:
‘Telemachos, we must have the weapons stored away inside 5 the high
chamber; and when the suitors miss them and ask you about them, answer
BOOK XVIII
And now there arrived a public beggar, who used to go begging through
the town of Ithaka, known to fame for his ravenous belly and appetite for
eating and drinking. There was no real strength in him, nor any force, but
his build was big to look at.
5 He had the name Arnaios, for thus the lady his mother called him from birth,
but all the young men used to call him Iros, because he would run and
give messages when anyone told him.
BOOK XVII
But when the young Dawn showed again with her rosy fingers,
Telemachos, beloved son of godlike Odysseus,
then bound underneath his feet the beautiful sandals,
and took up a powerful spear which fitted his hand's grip, 5 on his way to
the city, and going he spoke to his swineherd: ‘Father, I am going to the
city, so that my mother
BOOK XVI
These two in the shelter, Odysseus and the noble
swineherd, stirred the fire at dawn, and arranged their breakfast, and sent
the herdsmen out with the pasturing pigs. At this time the clamorous dogs
came fawning around Telemachos, nor did 5 they bark at him as he came,
and great Odysseus noticed
that the dogs were fawning; above them he heard the loud noise of
footsteps.
BOOK XV
At this time, Pallas Athene made her way into wide-spaced
Lakedaimon, to remind the shining son of great-hearted
Odysseus of his journey home, and speed his homecoming.
She found Telemachos there with the glorious son of Nestor,
5 sleeping in the forecourt of worshipful Menelaos.
BOOK XIV
But Odysseus himself left the harbor and ascended a rugged
path, through wooded country along the heights, where Athene
had indicated the noble swineherd, who beyond others
cared for the house properties acquired by noble Odysseus.
BOOK XIII
So he spoke, and all of them stayed stricken to silence, held in thrall by the
story all through the shadowy chambers.
BOOK XII
‘Now when our ship had left the stream of the Ocean river, and come back
to the wide crossing of the sea's waves, and to the island of Aiaia, where
lies the house of the early Dawn, her dancing spaces, and where Helios, the
sun, makes his uprising,
BOOK XI
‘Now when we had gone down again to the sea and our vessel,
first of all we dragged the ship down into the bright water,
and in the black hull set the mast in place, and set sails,
and took the sheep and walked them aboard, and ourselves also 5
embarked, but sorrowful, and weeping big tears.
BOOK X
‘We came next to the Aiolian island, whereAiolos
lived,Hippotas' son, beloved by the immortal gods, on a floating island, the
whole enclosed by a rampart of bronze, not to be broken, and the sheer of
the cliff runs upward 5 to it; and twelve children were born to him in his
palace,
BOOK IX
Then resourceful Odysseus spoke in turn and answered him: ‘O great
Alkinoös, pre-eminent among all people,
surely indeed it is a good thing to listen to a singer
such as this one before us, who is like the gods in his singing; 5 for I think
there is no occasion accomplished that is more pleasant than when festivity
holds sway among all the populace,
BOOK VIII
Then when the young Dawn showed again with her rosy fingers,
Alkinoös, the hallowed prince, rose up from his sleeping,
and the descendant of Zeus, Odysseus sacker of cities,
rose up, and Alkinoös, the hallowed prince, guided them
5 to the Phaiakians' place of assembly, which was built for them by the ships.
They went and took their seats on the polished stones together, but Pallas
Athene went through the city,
BOOK VII
So long-suffering great Odysseus prayed, in that place,
but the strength of the mules carried the young girl on, to the city, and
when she had arrived at the glorious house of her father, she stopped in the
forecourt, and there her brothers around her 5 came and stood, men like
immortal gods.
BOOK VI
So long-suffering great Odysseus slept in that place
in an exhaustion of sleep and weariness, and now Athene
went her way to the district and city of the Phaiakian
men, who formerly lived in the spacious land, Hypereia, 5 next to the
Cyclopes, who were men too overbearing,
BOOK V
Now Dawn rose from her bed, where she lay by haughty Tithonos,
carrying light to the immortal gods and to mortals,
and the gods came and took their places in session, and among them Zeus
who thunders on high, and it is his power that is greatest, 5 and Athene
spoke to them of the many cares of Odysseus,
remembering.