To this you answered, O swineherd
Eumaios, "If these Achaeans, my lady, would only keep quiet, you
would be charmed with the history of his adventures. I had him three
days and three nights with me in my hut, which was the first place he
reached after running away from his ship, and he has not yet
completed the story of his misfortunes. If he had been the most
heaven-taught minstrel in the whole world, on whose lips all hearers
hang entranced, I could not have been more charmed as I sat in my hut
and listened to him. He says there is an old friendship between his
house and that of Odysseus, and that he comes from Crete where the
descendants of Minos live, after having been driven here and there by
every kind of misfortune; he also declares that he has heard of
Odysseus as being alive and near at hand among the Thesprotians
[dêmos], and that he is bringing great wealth
home with him."
"Call him here, then," said
Penelope, "that I too may hear his story. As for the suitors, let
them take their pleasure indoors or out as they will, for they have
nothing to fret about. Their grain and wine remain unwasted in their
houses with none but servants to consume them, while they keep
hanging about our house day after day sacrificing our oxen, sheep,
and fat goats for their banquets, and never giving so much as a
thought to the quantity of wine they drink. No estate can stand such
recklessness, for we have now no Odysseus to protect us. If he were
to come again, he and his son would soon have their violent revenge
[biê]."
As she spoke Telemakhos sneezed
so loudly that the whole house resounded with it. Penelope laughed
when she heard this, and said to Eumaios, "Go and call the stranger;
did you not hear how my son sneezed just as I was speaking? This can
only mean that all the suitors are going to be killed, and that not
one of them shall escape. Furthermore I say, and lay my saying to
your heart: if I am satisfied that the stranger is speaking the truth
I shall give him a shirt and cloak of good wear."
When Eumaios heard this he went
straight to Odysseus and said, "Father stranger, my mistress
Penelope, mother of Telemakhos, has sent for you; she is in great
grief, but she wishes to hear anything you can tell her about her
husband, and if she is satisfied that you are speaking the truth, she
will give you a shirt and cloak, which are the very things that you
are most in want of. As for bread, you can get enough of that to fill
your belly, by begging about the dêmos, and letting
those give that will."
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