yet came to my house there never was one who spoke in all thingswith such admirable propriety as you do. There happens to be in thehouse a most respectable old woman- the same who received my poor dearhusband in her arms the night he was born, and nursed him ininfancy. She is very feeble now, but she shall wash your feet.""Come here," said she, "Euryclea, and wash your master's age-mate; Isuppose Ulysses' hands and feet are very much the same now as his are,for trouble ages all of us dreadfully fast."On these words the old woman covered her face with her hands; shebegan to weep and made lamentation saying, "My dear child, I cannotthink whatever I am to do with you. I am certain no one was evermore god-fearing than yourself, and yet Jove hates you. No one inthe whole world ever burned him more thigh bones, nor gave him finerhecatombs when you prayed you might come to a green old age yourselfand see your son grow up to take after you; yet see how he hasprevented you alone from ever getting back to your own home. I have nodoubt the women in some foreign palace which Ulysses has got to aregibing at him as all these sluts here have been gibing you. I do notwonder at your not choosing to let them wash you after the manner inwhich they have insulted you; I will wash your feet myself gladlyenough, as Penelope has said that I am to do so; I will wash them bothfor Penelope's sake and for your own, for you have raised the mostlively feelings of compassion in my mind; and let me say thismoreover, which pray attend to; we have had all kinds of strangersin distress come here before now, but I make bold to say that no oneever yet came who was so like Ulysses in figure, voice, and feet asyou are.""Those who have seen us both," answered Ulysses, "have always saidwe were wonderfully like each other, and now you have noticed it too.Then the old woman took the cauldron in which she was going towash his feet, and poured plenty of cold water into it, adding hottill the bath was warm enough. Ulysses sat by the fire, but ere longhe turned away from the light, for it occurred to him that when theold woman had hold of his leg she would recognize a certain scar whichit bore, whereon the whole truth would come out. And indeed as soon asshe began washing her master, she at once knew the scar as one thathad been given him by a wild boar when he was hunting on MountParnassus with his excellent grandfather Autolycus- who was the mostaccomplished thief and perjurer in the whole world- and with thesons of Autolycus. Mercury himself had endowed him with this gift, forhe used to burn the thigh bones of goats and kids to him, so he tookpleasure in his companionship. It happened once that Autolycus hadgone to Ithaca and had found the child of his daughter just born. Assoon as he had done supper Euryclea set the infant upon his kneesand said, you must find a name for your grandson; you greatly wishedthat you might have one."'Son-in-law and daughter," replied Autolycus, "call the childthus: I am highly displeased with a large number of people in oneplace and another, both men and women; so name the child 'Ulysses,' orthe child of anger. When he grows up and comes to visit his mother'sfamily on Mount Parnassus, where my possessions lie, I will make him apresent and will send him on his way rejoicing."Ulysses, therefore, went to Parnassus to get the presents fromAutolycus, who with his sons shook hands with him and gave himwelcome. His grandmother Amphithea threw her arms about him, andkissed his head, and both his beautiful eyes, while Autolycusdesired his sons to get dinner ready, and they did as he told them.They brought in a five year old bull, flayed it, made it ready anddivided it into joints; these they then cut carefully up intosmaller pieces and spitted them; they roasted them sufficiently andserved the portions round. Thus through the livelong day to thegoing down of the sun they feasted, and every man had his full shareso that all were satisfied; but when the sun set and it came ondark, they went to bed and enjoyed the boon of sleep.When the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared, the sons ofAutolycus went out with their hounds hunting, and Ulysses went too.They climbed the wooded slopes of Parnassus and soon reached itsbreezy upland valleys; but as the sun was beginning to beat upon thefields, fresh-risen from the slow still currents of Oceanus, they cameto a mountain dell. The dogs were in front searching for the tracks ofthe beast they were chasing, and after them came the sons ofAutolycus, among whom was Ulysses, close behind the dogs, and he had along spear in his hand. Here was the lair of a huge boar among somethick brushwood, so dense that the wind and rain could not get throughit, nor could the sun's rays pierce it, and the ground underneathlay thick with fallen leaves. The boar heard the noise of the men'sfeet, and the hounds baying on every side as the huntsmen came up tohim, so rushed from his lair, raised the bristles on his neck, andstood at bay with fire flashing from his eyes. Ulysses was the firstto raise his spear and try to drive it into the brute, but the boarwas too quick for him, and charged him sideways, ripping him above theknee with a gash that tore deep though it did not reach the bone. Asfor the boar, Ulysses hit him on the right shoulder, and the pointof the spear went right through him, so that he fell groaning in thedust until the life went out of him. The sons of Autolycus busiedthemselves with the carcass of the boar, and bound Ulysses' wound;then, after saying a spell to stop the bleeding, they went home asfast as they could. But when Autolycus and his sons had thoroughlyhealed Ulysses, they made him some splendid presents, and sent himback to Ithaca with much mutual good will. When he got back, hisfather and mother were rejoiced to see him, and asked him all aboutit, and how he had hurt himself to get the scar; so he told them howthe boar had ripped him when he was out hunting with Autolycus and hissons on Mount Parnassus.As soon as Euryclea had got the scarred limb in her hands and hadwell hold of it, she recognized it and dropped the foot at once. Theleg fell into the bath, which rang out and was overturned, so that allthe water was spilt on the ground; Euryclea's eyes between her joy andher grief filled with tears, and she could not speak, but she caughtUlysses by the beard and said, "My dear child, I am sure you must beUlysses himself, only I did not know you till I had actually touchedand handled you."As she spoke she looked towards Penelope, as though wanting totell her that her dear husband was in the house, but Penelope wasunable to look in that direction and observe what was going on, forMinerva had diverted her attention; so Ulysses caught Euryclea bythe throat with his right hand and with his left drew her close tohim, and said, "Nurse, do you wish to be the ruin of me, you whonursed me at your own breast, now that after twenty years of wanderingI am at last come to my own home again? Since it has been borne inupon you by heaven to recognize me, hold your tongue, and do not say aword about it any one else in the house, for if you do I tell you- andit shall surely be- that if heaven grants me to take the lives ofthese suitors, I will not spare you, though you are my own nurse, whenI am killing the other women.""My child," answered Euryclea, "what are you talking about? You knowvery well that nothing can either bend or break me. I will hold mytongue like a stone or a piece of iron; furthermore let me say, andlay my saying to your heart, when heaven has delivered the suitorsinto your hand, I will give you a list of the women in the house whohave been ill-behaved, and of those who are guiltless."And Ulysses answered, "Nurse, you ought not to speak in that way;I am well able to form my own opinion about one and all of them;hold your tongue and leave everything to heaven."As he said this Euryclea left the cloister to fetch some more water,for the first had been all spilt; and when she had washed him andanointed him with oil, Ulysses drew his seat nearer to the fire towarm himself, and hid the scar under his rags. Then Penelope begantalking to him and said:"Stranger, I should like to speak with you briefly about anothermatter. It is indeed nearly bed time- for those, at least, who cansleep in spite of sorrow. As for myself, heaven has given me a life ofsuch unmeasurable woe, that even by day when I am attending to myduties and looking after the servants, I am still weeping andlamenting during the whole time; then, when night comes, and we all ofus go to bed, I lie awake thinking, and my heart comes a prey to themost incessant and cruel tortures. As the dun nightingale, daughter ofPandareus, sings in the early spring from her seat in shadiestcovert hid, and with many a plaintive trill pours out the tale howby mishap she killed her own child Itylus, son of king Zethus, even sodoes my mind toss and turn in its uncertainty whether I ought tostay with my son here, and safeguard my substance, my bondsmen, andthe greatness of my house, out of regard to public opinion and thememory of my late husband, or whether it is not now time for me togo with the best of these suitors who are wooing me and making me suchmagnificent presents. As long as my son was still young, and unable tounderstand, he would not hear of my leaving my husband's house, butnow that he is full grown he begs and prays me to do so, beingincensed at the way in which the suitors are eating up his property.Listen, then, to a dream that I have had and interpret it for me ifyou can. I have twenty geese about the house that eat mash out of atrough, and of which I am exceedingly fond. I dreamed that a greateagle came swooping down from a mountain, and dug his curved beak intothe neck of each of them till he had killed them all. Presently hesoared off into the sky, and left them lying dead about the yard;whereon I wept in my room till all my maids gathered round me, sopiteously was I grieving because the eagle had killed my geese. Thenhe came back again, and perching on a projecting rafter spoke to mewith human voice, and told me to leave off crying. 'Be of goodcourage,' he said, 'daughter of Icarius; this is no dream, but avision of good omen that shall surely come to pass. The geese arethe suitors, and I am no longer an eagle, but your own husband, who amcome back to you, and who will bring these suitors to a disgracefulend.' On this I woke, and when I looked out I saw my geese at thetrough eating their mash as usual.""This dream, Madam," replied Ulysses, "can admit but of oneinterpretation, for had not Ulysses himself told you how it shall befulfilled? The death of the suitors is portended, and not one singleone of them will escape."And Penelope answered, "Stranger, dreams are very curious andunaccountable things, and they do not by any means invariably cometrue. There are two gates through which these unsubstantial fanciesproceed; the one is of horn, and the other ivory. Those that comethrough the gate of ivory are fatuous, but those from the gate of hornmean something to those that see them. I do not think, however, thatmy own dream came through the gate of horn, though I and my son shouldbe most thankful if it proves to have done so. Furthermore I say-and lay my saying to your heart- the coming dawn will usher in theill-omened day that is to sever me from the house of Ulysses, for I amabout to hold a tournament of axes. My husband used to set up twelveaxes in the court, one in front of the other, like the stays uponwhich a ship is built; he would then go back from them and shoot anarrow through the whole twelve. I shall make the suitors try to do thesame thing, and whichever of them can string the bow most easily,and send his arrow through all the twelve axes, him will I follow, andquit this house of my lawful husband, so goodly and so abounding inwealth. But even so, I doubt not that I shall remember it in mydreams."Then Ulysses answered, "Madam wife of Ulysses, you need not deferyour tournament, for Ulysses will return ere ever they can stringthe bow, handle it how they will, and send their arrows through theiron."To this Penelope said, "As long, sir, as you will sit here and