This was how they talked. But
Telemakhos went down into the lofty and spacious store-room where his
father's treasure of gold and bronze lay heaped up upon the
floor, and where the linen and spare clothes were kept in open
chests. Here, too, there was a store of fragrant olive oil, while
casks of old, well-ripened wine, unblended and fit for a god to
drink, were ranged against the wall in case Odysseus should come home
again after all. The room was closed with well-made doors opening in
the middle; moreover the faithful old house-keeper Eurykleia,
daughter of Ops the son of Pisenor, was in charge of everything both
night and day. Telemakhos called her to the store-room and
said:
"Nurse, draw me off some of the
best wine you have, after what you are keeping for my father's
own drinking, in case, poor man, he should escape death, and find his
way home again after all. Let me have twelve jars, and see that they
all have lids; also fill me some well-sewn leathern bags with barley
meal - about twenty measures in all. Get these things put together at
once, and say nothing about it. I will take everything away this
evening as soon as my mother has gone upstairs for the night. I am
going to Sparta and to Pylos to see if I can hear anything about the
nostos of my dear father.
When Eurykleia heard this she
began to cry, and spoke fondly to him, saying, "My dear child, what
ever can have put such notion as that into your head? Where in the
world do you want to go to - you, who are the one hope of the house?
Your poor father is dead and gone in some foreign country
[dêmos] nobody knows where, and as soon as your
back is turned these wicked ones here will be scheming to get you put
out of the way, and will share all your possessions among themselves;
stay where you are among your own people, and do not go wandering and
worrying your life out on the barren ocean."
"Fear not, nurse," answered
Telemakhos, "my scheme is not without heaven's sanction; but
swear that you will say nothing about all this to my mother, till I
have been away some ten or twelve days, unless she hears of my having
gone, and asks you; for I do not want her to spoil her beauty by
crying."
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