Twenty years gone, and I am back again...

I finished telling my story to the Phaeacians. The next day, young Phaeacian noblemen conducted me home by ship. I arrived in Ithaca after being gone for twenty years. Athena appeared and told me of the situation at home. Numerous suitors, who thought I was dead, have been continually seeking the hand of Penelope, my wife, in marriage. They also had been eating my livestock. The suitors were planning to kill Telemachus, my son, because he would inherit my lands. Both Penelope and Telemachus still hoped I would return. Telemachus journeyed to Pylos and Sparta to learn about my fate. Athena disguised me as an old beggar and I went to see my old swine herder, Eumaeus. While Eumaeus and I were eating breakfast, Telemachus arrived.

I told Telemachus that I was his father. When I told him he shouted out and refused to believe that I was his father. I told him about my plan to kill the suitors and how Athena had changed me into an old beggar to disguise myself so that I could surprise the suitors.  I asked Telemachus how many suitors were in the home so that we could be prepared for the attack. He said that there were ten or even twice ten men. From Dulichium alone there were fifty-two picked men, with armorers, a half a dozen; twenty-four came from Same, twenty from Zacynthus; our own island accounts for twelve. Around 108 men were in my home, hoping for my wife’s hand in marriage and eating my livestock. No one could know who I was when we arrived at the house. So I said to my son: “Now one thing more. If son of mine you are and blood of mine, let no one hear Odysseus is about. Neither Laertes, nor the swineherd here, nor any slave, nor even Penelope. But you and I alone must learn how far the women are corrupted; we should know how to locate good men among our hands, the loyal and respectful, and the shirkers who take you lightly, as alone and young.” I could not for tell what was to come, however, I hoped for the best.