《奥德修记》-40

wheat and barley, the trees are loaded with fruit, the ewes bringforth lambs, and the sea abounds with fish by reason of his virtues,and his people do good deeds under him. Nevertheless, as I sit here inyour house, ask me some other question and do not seek to know my raceand family, or you will recall memories that will yet more increase mysorrow. I am full of heaviness, but I ought not to sit weeping andwailing in another person's house, nor is it well to be thusgrieving continually. I shall have one of the servants or evenyourself complaining of me, and saying that my eyes swim with tearsbecause I am heavy with wine."Then Penelope answered, "Stranger, heaven robbed me of all beauty,whether of face or figure, when the Argives set sail for Troy and mydear husband with them. If he were to return and look after my affairsI should be both more respected and should show a better presence tothe world. As it is, I am oppressed with care, and with theafflictions which heaven has seen fit to heap upon me. The chiefs fromall our islands- Dulichium, Same, and Zacynthus, as also from Ithacaitself, are wooing me against my will and are wasting my estate. I cantherefore show no attention to strangers, nor suppliants, nor topeople who say that they are skilled artisans, but am all the timebrokenhearted about Ulysses. They want me to marry again at once,and I have to invent stratagems in order to deceive them. In the firstplace heaven put it in my mind to set up a great tambour-frame in myroom, and to begin working upon an enormous piece of fineneedlework. Then I said to them, 'Sweethearts, Ulysses is indeed dead,still, do not press me to marry again immediately; wait- for I wouldnot have my skill in needlework perish unrecorded- till I havefinished making a pall for the hero Laertes, to be ready against thetime when death shall take him. He is very rich, and the women ofthe place will talk if he is laid out without a pall.' This was what Isaid, and they assented; whereon I used to keep working at my greatweb all day long, but at night I would unpick the stitches again bytorch light. I fooled them in this way for three years without theirfinding it out, but as time wore on and I was now in my fourth year,in the waning of moons, and many days had been accomplished, thosegood-for-nothing hussies my maids betrayed me to the suitors, whobroke in upon me and caught me; they were very angry with me, so I wasforced to finish my work whether I would or no. And now I do not seehow I can find any further shift for getting out of this marriage.My parents are putting great pressure upon me, and my son chafes atthe ravages the suitors are making upon his estate, for he is nowold enough to understand all about it and is perfectly able to lookafter his own affairs, for heaven has blessed him with an excellentdisposition. Still, notwithstanding all this, tell me who you areand where you come from- for you must have had father and mother ofsome sort; you cannot be the son of an oak or of a rock."Then Ulysses answered, "madam, wife of Ulysses, since you persist inasking me about my family, I will answer, no matter what it costsme: people must expect to be pained when they have been exiles as longas I have, and suffered as much among as many peoples. Nevertheless,as regards your question I will tell you all you ask. There is afair and fruitful island in mid-ocean called Crete; it is thicklypeopled and there are nine cities in it: the people speak manydifferent languages which overlap one another, for there are Achaeans,brave Eteocretans, Dorians of three-fold race, and noble Pelasgi.There is a great town there, Cnossus, where Minos reigned who everynine years had a conference with Jove himself. Minos was father toDeucalion, whose son I am, for Deucalion had two sons Idomeneus andmyself. Idomeneus sailed for Troy, and I, who am the younger, amcalled Aethon; my brother, however, was at once the older and the morevaliant of the two; hence it was in Crete that I saw Ulysses andshowed him hospitality, for the winds took him there as he was onhis way to Troy, carrying him out of his course from cape Malea andleaving him in Amnisus off the cave of Ilithuia, where the harboursare difficult to enter and he could hardly find shelter from the windsthat were then xaging. As soon as he got there he went into the townand asked for Idomeneus, claiming to be his old and valued friend, butIdomeneus had already set sail for Troy some ten or twelve daysearlier, so I took him to my own house and showed him every kind ofhospitality, for I had abundance of everything. Moreover, I fed themen who were with him with barley meal from the public store, andgot subscriptions of wine and oxen for them to sacrifice to theirheart's content. They stayed with me twelve days, for there was a galeblowing from the North so strong that one could hardly keep one's feeton land. I suppose some unfriendly god had raised it for them, buton the thirteenth day the wind dropped, and they got away."Many a plausible tale did Ulysses further tell her, and Penelopewept as she listened, for her heart was melted. As the snow wastesupon the mountain tops when the winds from South East and West havebreathed upon it and thawed it till the rivers run bank full withwater, even so did her cheeks overflow with tears for the husbandwho was all the time sitting by her side. Ulysses felt for her and wasfor her, but he kept his eyes as hard as or iron without lettingthem so much as quiver, so cunningly did he restrain his tears.Then, when she had relieved herself by weeping, she turned to himagain and said: "Now, stranger, I shall put you to the test and seewhether or no you really did entertain my husband and his men, asyou say you did. Tell me, then, how he was dressed, what kind of a manhe was to look at, and so also with his companions.""Madam," answered Ulysses, "it is such a long time ago that I canhardly say. Twenty years are come and gone since he left my home,and went elsewhither; but I will tell you as well as I canrecollect. Ulysses wore a mantle of purple wool, double lined, andit was fastened by a gold brooch with two catches for the pin. Onthe face of this there was a device that showed a dog holding aspotted fawn between his fore paws, and watching it as it laypanting upon the ground. Every one marvelled at the way in which thesethings had been done in gold, the dog looking at the fawn, andstrangling it, while the fawn was struggling convulsively to escape.As for the shirt that he wore next his skin, it was so soft that itfitted him like the skin of an onion, and glistened in the sunlight tothe admiration of all the women who beheld it. Furthermore I say,and lay my saying to your heart, that I do not know whether Ulysseswore these clothes when he left home, or whether one of his companionshad given them to him while he was on his voyage; or possibly some oneat whose house he was staying made him a present of them, for he was aman of many friends and had few equals among the Achaeans. I myselfgave him a sword of bronze and a beautiful purple mantle, doublelined, with a shirt that went down to his feet, and I sent him onboard his ship with every mark of honour. He had a servant with him, alittle older than himself, and I can tell you what he was like; hisshoulders were hunched, he was dark, and he had thick curly hair.His name was Eurybates, and Ulysses treated him with greaterfamiliarity than he did any of the others, as being the mostlike-minded with himself."Penelope was moved still more deeply as she heard the indisputableproofs that Ulysses laid before her; and when she had again foundrelief in tears she said to him, "Stranger, I was already disposedto pity you, but henceforth you shall be honoured and made welcomein my house. It was I who gave Ulysses the clothes you speak of. Itook them out of the store room and folded them up myself, and Igave him also the gold brooch to wear as an ornament. Alas! I shallnever welcome him home again. It was by an ill fate that he ever setout for that detested city whose very name I cannot bring myselfeven to mention."Then Ulysses answered, "Madam, wife of Ulysses, do not disfigureyourself further by grieving thus bitterly for your loss, though I canhardly blame you for doing so. A woman who has loved her husband andborne him children, would naturally be grieved at losing him, eventhough he were a worse man than Ulysses, who they say was like agod. Still, cease your tears and listen to what I can tell I will hidenothing from you, and can say with perfect truth that I have latelyheard of Ulysses as being alive and on his way home; he is among theThesprotians, and is bringing back much valuable treasure that hehas begged from one and another of them; but his ship and all his crewwere lost as they were leaving the Thrinacian island, for Jove and thesun-god were angry with him because his men had slaughtered thesun-god's cattle, and they were all drowned to a man. But Ulyssesstuck to the keel of the ship and was drifted on to the land of thePhaecians, who are near of kin to the immortals, and who treated himas though he had been a god, giving him many presents, and wishingto escort him home safe and sound. In fact Ulysses would have beenhere long ago, had he not thought better to go from land to landgathering wealth; for there is no man living who is so wily as heis; there is no one can compare with him. Pheidon king of theThesprotians told me all this, and he swore to me- makingdrink-offerings in his house as he did so- that the ship was by thewater side and the crew found who would take Ulysses to his owncountry. He sent me off first, for there happened to be aThesprotian ship sailing for the wheat-growing island of Dulichium,but he showed me all treasure Ulysses had got together, and he hadenough lying in the house of king Pheidon to keep his family for tengenerations; but the king said Ulysses had gone to Dodona that hemight learn Jove's mind from the high oak tree, and know whether afterso long an absence he should return to Ithaca openly or in secret.So you may know he is safe and will be here shortly; he is close athand and cannot remain away from home much longer; nevertheless I willconfirm my words with an oath, and call Jove who is the first andmightiest of all gods to witness, as also that hearth of Ulysses towhich I have now come, that all I have spoken shall surely come topass. Ulysses will return in this self same year; with the end of thismoon and the beginning of the next he will be here.""May it be even so," answered Penelope; "if your words come true youshall have such gifts and such good will from me that all who seeyou shall congratulate you; but I know very well how it will be.Ulysses will not return, neither will you get your escort hence, forso surely as that Ulysses ever was, there are now no longer any suchmasters in the house as he was, to receive honourable strangers orto further them on their way home. And now, you maids, wash his feetfor him, and make him a bed on a couch with rugs and blankets, that hemay be warm and quiet till morning. Then, at day break wash him andanoint him again, that he may sit in the cloister and take his mealswith Telemachus. It shall be the worse for any one of these hatefulpeople who is uncivil to him; like it or not, he shall have no more todo in this house. For how, sir, shall you be able to learn whetheror no I am superior to others of my sex both in goodness of heartand understanding, if I let you dine in my cloisters squalid and illclad? Men live but for a little season; if they are hard, and dealhardly, people wish them ill so long as they are alive, and speakcontemptuously of them when they are dead, but he that is righteousand deals righteously, the people tell of his praise among alllands, and many shall call him blessed."Ulysses answered, "Madam, I have foresworn rugs and blankets fromthe day that I left the snowy ranges of Crete to go on shipboard. Iwill lie as I have lain on many a sleepless night hitherto. Nightafter night have I passed in any rough sleeping place, and waitedfor morning. Nor, again, do I like having my feet washed; I shallnot let any of the young hussies about your house touch my feet;but, if you have any old and respectable woman who has gone through asmuch trouble as I have, I will allow her to wash them."To this Penelope said, "My dear sir, of all the guests who ever