When Telemachus went to bed, Penelope came into the banquet hall with her slaves. The slaves placed an ivory chair trimmed with silver for their mistress near the hearth, and they themselves began to clear the table at which the suitors were feasting. The slave Melanto again began to revile Odysseus, drive him out of the house and threaten him that she would throw a hot brand at him if he did not leave. Odysseus looked at her gloomily and said:
- Why are you angry with me? It's true, I'm a beggar! This was my lot, and there was a time when I was rich; but I lost everything by the will of Zeus. Perhaps you too will soon lose your beauty, and your mistress will hate you. Look, Odysseus will return, and you will have to answer for your insolence. If he does not return, then Telemachus is at home, he knows how slaves behave. Nothing can be hidden from him!
I heard the words of Odysseus and Penelope and she angrily said to Melantho:
“You’re angry at everyone, like a chained dog!” Look, I know how you act! You will have to pay with your head for your behavior. Don't you know that I myself called this wanderer here?
Penelope ordered a chair to be placed near the hearth for Odysseus and, when he sat down next to her, she began to ask him about Odysseus. The wanderer told her that he himself had once received Odysseus as a guest on Crete, when he, caught in a storm, landed on the shores of Crete on the way to Troy. Penelope began to cry when she heard that the wanderer had seen Odysseus twenty years ago. Wanting to check whether he was telling the truth, Penelope asked him how Odysseus was dressed. Nothing was easier for the wanderer than to describe his own clothes. He described her in great detail, and then Penelope believed him. The wanderer began to assure her that Odysseus was alive, that he had recently been in the country of the Thesprotians, and from there he went to Dodona to ask the oracle of Zeus there.
- Odysseus will return soon! - said the wanderer, - before the year ends, before the new moon comes, Odysseus will return.
Penelope would have been glad to believe him, but she could not, because she had been waiting for Odysseus for so many years, and he still did not return. Penelope ordered the slaves to prepare a soft bed for the wanderer. Odysseus thanked her and asked old Eurycleia to wash his feet first.
Eurycleia willingly agreed to wash the wanderer’s feet: his height, his appearance, and even his voice reminded her of Odysseus, whom she herself had once nursed. Eurycleia brought water in a copper basin and bent down to wash the wanderer’s feet. Suddenly the scar on his leg caught her eye. She knew this scar well. A boar once inflicted a deep wound on Odysseus when he was hunting with the sons of Autolycus on the slopes of Parnassus. It was by this scar that Eurycleia recognized Odysseus. She knocked over a basin of water in amazement. Tears clouded her eyes, and in a voice trembling with joy she said:
- Odysseus, is it you, my dear child? How did I not recognize you before!
Eurycleia wanted to tell Penelope that her husband had finally returned, but Odysseus hastily covered her mouth with his hand and said quietly:
- Yes, I am Odysseus, whom you nursed! But be silent, do not give away my secret, otherwise you will destroy me. Be careful not to tell anyone about my return! I will subject you to severe punishment and will not spare you, although you are my nurse, when I punish the slaves for their misdeeds, if they learn from you that I have returned.
Eurycleia swore to secrecy. Rejoicing at the return of Odysseus, she brought more water and washed his feet. Penelope didn't notice what happened; The goddess Athena captured her attention.
When Odysseus sat down again by the fire, Penelope began to complain about her bitter fate and talked about the dream she had recently seen. She saw that an eagle had torn to pieces all her snow-white domestic geese, and all the women of Ithaca mourned them with her. But suddenly the eagle flew back, sat on the roof of the palace and said in a human voice: “Penelope, this is not a dream, but a sign of what will happen. The geese are the suitors, but I am Odysseus, who will return soon.”
Odysseus told Penelope that her dream, like what she herself saw, was so clear that it was not worth interpreting. But Penelope could not even believe such a dream; she did not believe that Odysseus would finally return. She told the wanderer that she decided to test the suitors the next day: take out Odysseus’s bow and invite them to pull it and hit the target; She decided to choose the one who would do this as her husband. The wanderer advised Penelope not to put off this test and added:
- Before any of the suitors draws a bow and hits the target, Odysseus will return.
This is how Penelope spoke to the wanderer, not suspecting that she was speaking to Odysseus. But it was already too late. Although Penelope was ready to talk all night long with the wanderer, it was still time for her to retire. She got up and went to her chamber with all the slaves, and there the goddess Athena plunged her into a sweet sleep.
Odysseus, having made himself a bed of bull skin and sheepskin, lay down on it, but could not sleep. He kept thinking about how to take revenge on the suitors. The goddess Athena approached his bed; she reassured him, promised her help and said that all his troubles would soon end.
Finally, the goddess Athena put Odysseus to sleep. But he did not sleep for long; he was awakened by the loud cry of Penelope, who complained that the gods were not allowing Odysseus to return. Odysseus got up, removed his bed and, going out into the courtyard, began to pray to Zeus to send him a good sign in the first words that he heard that morning. Zeus heeded Odysseus, and a thunderclap rolled across the sky. The first words Odysseus heard were the words of a slave grinding flour in a hand mill. She wanted this to be the last day that the suitors would spend feasting in Odysseus’s house. Odysseus rejoiced. Now he knew that Zeus the Thunderer would help him take revenge on the suitors.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru