And Odysseus answered, "In good
truth, goddess, it seems I should have come to much the same bad end
in my own house as Agamemnon did, if you had not given me such timely
information. Advise me how I shall best avenge myself. Stand by my
side and put your courage into my heart as on the day when we loosed
Troy's fair diadem from her brow. Help me now as you did then,
and I will fight three hundred men, if you, goddess, will be with
me."
"Trust me for that," said she, "I
will not lose sight of you when once we set about it, and I would
imagine that some of those who are devouring your substance will then
bespatter the pavement with their blood and brains. I will begin by
disguising you so that no human being shall know you; I will cover
your body with wrinkles; you shall lose all your yellow hair; I will
clothe you in a garment that shall fill all who see it with loathing;
I will blear your fine eyes for you, and make you an unseemly object
in the sight of the suitors, of your wife, and of the son whom you
left behind you. Then go at once to the swineherd who is in charge of
your pigs; he has been always well affected towards you, and is
devoted to Penelope and your son; you will find him feeding his pigs
near the rock that is called Raven by the fountain Arethusa, where
they are fattening on beechmast and spring water after their manner.
Stay with him and find out how things are going, while I proceed to
Sparta and see your son, who is with Menelaos at Lacedaemon, where he
has gone to try and find a report [kleos] on whether
you are still alive."
"But why," said Odysseus, "did
you not tell him, for you knew all about it? Did you want him too to
go sailing about amid all kinds of hardship while others are eating
up his estate?"
Athena answered, "Never mind
about him, I sent him that he might be well spoken
[kleos] of for having gone. He is in no sort of
difficulty [ponos], but is staying quite comfortably
with Menelaos, and is surrounded with abundance of every kind. The
suitors have put out to sea and are lying in wait for him, for they
mean to kill him before he can get home. I do not much think they
will succeed, but rather that some of those who are now eating up
your estate will first find a grave themselves."
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