While Odysseus was greeted by all his household, Eurycleia ran to Penelope's chambers, woke her up and told her the good news that her husband had finally returned and took revenge on the suitors by killing them all. Penelope didn't want to believe it. She thought Eurycleia was laughing at her. For a long time Eurycleia assured her mistress that Odysseus had indeed returned, that the wanderer with whom Penelope had been talking for so long was Odysseus, that she recognized him by the scar on his leg, but he ordered even Penelope to keep the news of his return secret. Despite Eurycleia's convictions, it seemed incredible to Penelope that Odysseus alone could kill all the suitors. Finally, Penelope agreed to go to the banquet hall. Arriving there, she could not immediately decide whether to throw herself into the arms of Odysseus or first question him in order to finally make sure that the wanderer was really her husband. Penelope sat down next to the wanderer. She began to peer at him intently - it seemed to her that it was Odysseus, then again she began to doubt. Seeing her hesitation, Telemachus began to reproach her.
“Oh, beloved mother,” said Telemachus, “do you really have a heart like a stone in your chest?” Your husband has finally returned, and you sit there and don’t even say a word. There is hardly another wife in the whole world who would greet her husband so unfriendly when he returned to her after a long separation.
“My son, you see that from excitement I cannot utter a single word,” Penelope answered Telemachus, “if the wanderer is really Odysseus, that is, Odysseus and I have such a secret, when we open it, we will always recognize each other.”
Odysseus smiled and said to Telemachus:
- My son! Don't worry mother. After questioning me, she will be convinced that I am Odysseus. It's hard for her to recognize me in this rags. Now we need to decide how to keep the death of the suitors secret from the citizens of the city for a while, so that a rebellion does not arise. After all, we killed the most noble young men, and their relatives will want to take revenge on us.
Odysseus ordered all the male and female slaves to start singing and dancing joyfully to the sounds of Phemius’s cithara, so that everyone would think that a celebration was taking place in the palace. They immediately carried out his order and, indeed, everyone passing by the palace thought that Penelope’s wedding feast with one of the suitors was being celebrated there.
Odysseus, having washed himself and put on rich robes, entered the palace again and sat down opposite Penelope. Athena endowed him with divine beauty. Odysseus, in order to convince Penelope, decided to tell her a secret known only to the two of them. Calling Eurycleia, he ordered her to prepare a bed for herself, and Penelope said to Eurycleia:
“Okay, prepare a bed for him, Eurycleia, but not in the bedchamber that Odysseus himself built.” Pull out the rich bed from the bedchamber and prepare a bed on it.
“Oh, queen,” Odysseus exclaimed, “who can move the bed that I made myself?” After all, you know that it was made from a huge olive stump that grew near the palace. I myself cut it down and, surrounding it with a wall, made a bed out of the stump, then decorated it with gold and silver and ivory. But maybe during my absence someone cut down the stump and moved the bed?
Now Penelope knew that Odysseus was in front of her. Only the two of them knew the secret of how the bed was made. Penelope began to sob, threw herself into the arms of Odysseus and began to kiss him tenderly. Crying, Odysseus hugged his faithful wife, pressed her to his heart and covered her with kisses - just like a swimmer who has escaped from a storm, washed ashore, kisses the ground. Odysseus and Penelope cried for a long time, hugging each other. So the morning dawn would have found them if the goddess Athena had not lengthened the nights and forbidden the goddess of the dawn, the rose-fingered Eos, to fly into the sky.
Odysseus and Penelope left the banquet hall and went to their bedchamber. Telemachus ordered the male and female slaves to stop singing and dancing, and the entire palace fell into sleep. Only Odysseus and Penelope did not send. Odysseus told her about his adventures, and faithful Penelope eagerly listened to him. She also told her husband about everything that she had to endure from her suitors during his absence.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru