"My sons," said he, "make haste to do as I shall bid you. I wishfirst and foremost to propitiate the great goddess Minerva, whomanifested herself visibly to me during yesterday's festivities. Go,then, one or other of you to the plain, tell the stockman to look meout a heifer, and come on here with it at once. Another must go toTelemachus's ship, and invite all the crew, leaving two men only incharge of the vessel. Some one else will run and fetch Laerceus thegoldsmith to gild the horns of the heifer. The rest, stay all of youwhere you are; tell the maids in the house to prepare an excellentdinner, and to fetch seats, and logs of wood for a burnt offering.Tell them also- to bring me some clear spring water."
Then Penelope sprang up from her couch, threw her arms roundEuryclea, and wept for joy. "But my dear nurse," said she, "explainthis to me; if he has really come home as you say, how did he manageto overcome the wicked suitors single handed, seeing what a numberof them there always were?"
As he spoke he drew his rags aside from the great scar, and whenthey had examined it thoroughly, they both of them wept about Ulysses,threw their arms round him and kissed his head and shoulders, whileUlysses kissed their hands and faces in return. The sun would havegone down upon their mourning if Ulysses had not checked them andsaid:
Phemius was still singing, and his hearers sat rapt in silence as hetold the sad tale of the return from Troy, and the ills Minerva hadlaid upon the Achaeans. Penelope, daughter of Icarius, heard hissong from her room upstairs, and came down by the great staircase, notalone, but attended by two of her handmaids. When she reached thesuitors she stood by one of the bearing posts that supported theroof of the cloisters with a staid maiden on either side of her. Sheheld a veil, moreover, before her face, and was weeping bitterly.
Telemachus approved of what his father had said, so he callednurse Euryclea and said, "Nurse, shut the women up in their room,while I take the armour that my father left behind him down into thestore room. No one looks after it now my father is gone, and it hasgot all smirched with soot during my own boyhood. I want to take itdown where the smoke cannot reach it."
Therewith she went down into the cave to look for the safesthiding places, while Ulysses brought up all the treasure of gold,bronze, and good clothing which the Phaecians had given him. Theystowed everything carefully away, and Minerva set a stone againstthe door of the cave. Then the two sat down by the root of the greatolive, and consulted how to compass the destruction of the wickedsuitors.
When she had thus made an end of praying, she handed the cup toTelemachus and he prayed likewise. By and by, when the outer meatswere roasted and had been taken off the spits, the carvers gaveevery man his portion and they all made an excellent dinner. As soonas they had had enough to eat and drink, Nestor, knight of Gerene,began to speak.
Eumaeus was frightened at the outcry they all raised, so he putthe bow down then and there, but Telemachus shouted out at him fromthe other side of the cloisters, and threatened him saying, "FatherEumaeus, bring the bow on in spite of them, or young as I am I willpelt you with stones back to the country, for I am the better man ofthe two. I wish I was as much stronger than all the other suitors inthe house as I am than you, I would soon send some of them off sickand sorry, for they mean mischief."