INTRODUCTION.

her bower. After Penelope retires to her chambers, the insults of the Suitors begin again, deepening Odysseus's desire for vengeance.

That same night (Book 19), the father and son remove all the weapons from the hall, and Athena accompanies them, torch in hand, as they store them away in an upper chamber. Then Penelope returns to the hall to question the stranger. In reply to her, he claims to be Aethon, the brother of Idomeneus of Crete. He says that he once hosted Odysseus and describes Odysseus's clothing in such vivid detail that Penelope is moved to tears. "In fact," he says, "Odysseus is already on his way home and will soon stand in his own halls once more." The old nurse Eurycleia—the only one Odysseus will allow to wash his feet—is startled into recognizing him when she sees a familiar scar. He had been gashed by the tusk of a boar while hunting on Mount Parnassus with the sons of his grandfather Autolycus. Odysseus quickly silences the outcry she would have raised and forces her—under threat of death—to keep his secret. However, Penelope noticed none of this, nor did she hear when Eurycleia dropped her master’s foot and knocked over the basin original: "overset the bath". Her eyes and ears were diverted original: "holden". But soon after, she tells the stranger of a dream she had which seems to predict the destruction of the Suitors, though she cannot bring herself to believe it is true. She intends to test the bravery of her suitors original: "gallants" the next day through the ordeal of Odysseus's bow. The man who can string it and shoot an arrow through the holes original: "horns"; referring to the rings or handle-sockets of the axe heads of twelve double-bladed axes shall be her husband.

Throughout the night, Odysseus tosses restlessly on the rough bed he made for himself in the porch. He plots his schemes of vengeance (Book 20), but he worries about the terrible odds against him until Athena strengthens his heart and he falls asleep. When he wakes, he prays to Zeus for a sign of deliverance, and the god answers him with a peal of thunder. The day is to be kept as a high festival of Apollo. Eurycleia prepares the house, while Eumaeus, Melanthius, and Philoetius arrive, bringing their swine, goats, and oxen for the feast. In the presence of the stranger, Philoetius loudly expresses his loyal love for his master and his desire to see the downfall of the Suitors, who are even now plotting...