Penelope

In the evening, Penelope interrogated me. I was still disguised as an old beggar. She said to me:
"Friend, let me ask you first of all: who are you, where do you come from, of what nation and parents were you?" So I replied:
"My lady, never a man in the wide world should have a fault to find with you. Your name has gone out under heaven like the sweet honor of some god-fearing king, who rules in equity over the strong..." I could not tell her who I was...yet. She told me that if her husband was to return, she could possibly be happy once again.
"How could I? Wasted with longing for Odysseus, while here they press for marriage." Penelope said. She also told me about how she had been stalling the suitors by weaving a shroud for Lord Laertes when cold Death comes to lay him on his bier. But she would weave during the day, and unweave what she did late at night when everyone is sleeping. One night someone caught Penelope, so she had no choice but to finish weaving. After telling me about herself, she said:
"But you too confide in me, tell me your ancestry. You were not born of mythic oak or stone."
I made up a tale that mentioned Odysseus and I declared that her husband will soon be home. I told her:
"You see, then, he is alive and well, and headed homeward now, no more to be abroad far from his island, his dear wife and son. Here is my sworn word for it. Witness this, god of the zenith, noblest of the gods, and Lord Odysseus' hearthfire, now before me: I swear these things shall turn out as I say. Between this present dark and one day's ebb, after the wane, before the crescent moon, Odysseus will come"

The Suitors

     Still disguised as a beggar, I entered my home. I was then stopped in my tracks by the suitor, Antinous. He bellowed out then, "God! What evil wind blew in this pest? Get over, stand in the passage! Nudge my table, will you? Egyptian whips are sweet to what you'll come to here, you nosing rat, making your pitch to everyone! These men have bread to throw away on you because it is not theirs. Who cares? Who spares another's food, when he has more than plenty?" 
     With disgust I backed away, and spoke,
"A pity that you have more looks than heart. You'd grudge a pinch of salt form your own larder to your own handyman. You sit here, fat on others' meat, and cannot bring yourself to rummage out a crust of bread for me!" And all the while my son, brave and strong of heart, sat there watching, fists balled in anger. 
     I could see the anger in Antinous' eyes when he answered "You think you'll shuffle off and get away after that impudence? Oh, no you don't!" The stool he let fly hit my right shoulder, on the packed muscle under my shoulder blade- it had no effect that anyone saw. I shook my head as I walked on, thinking of the bloody death I would deal to this monster of a man later. I turned to face the crowd and met eyes with all as I spoke,
"One word only, my lords, and suitors of the famous queen. One think i have to say. There is no pain, no burden for the heart when blows come to a man, and he defending his own cattle- his own cows and lambs. He it was otherwise. Antinous hit me for being driven on by hunger- how many bitter seas men cross for hunger! May Antinous meet his death before his wedding day!" 
     There were many threats made and people did take up for me, the old beggar, people with good still in their hearts. My wife, Penelope, heard the blow and knew who gave it. She murmured now: "Would god you could be hit yourself, Antinous- hit by Apollo's bow shot!" 
     Her housekeeper put in: "He and no other? If all we pray for this to pass, not one would live to dawn!"
     Her mistress spoke softly to her: "Oh, Nan they are a bad lot; they intend ruin for all of us; but Antinous appears a blacker-hearted hound than any. Here is a poor man come, a wanderer driven by want to beg his bread, and everyone in hall gave bits, to cram his bag-only Antinous threw a stool, and banged his shoulder!" 
      The mistress, thinking in her chamber among her maids, she called to the forester and said: "Go to that man on my behalf, Eumaeus, and send him here so I can greet and question him. Abroad in the great world, he may have heard rumors about Odysseus. He may have known him!" 
     My wife, still had hope in her heart that I would return, but did not know, I had already returned. We would be together soon, and forever more! 

Argus

Outside the palace, I stood there; I spotted a dog lying on a pile of dung. My dog, as I left him when I went away for war. Old and treated as rubbish he laid there and I wish to go to him, but I cannot for risk of being found out. My dog, my companion lay there in pain and I must watch him wither. I speak and as he hears my voice, he struggles to wag his tail and point his nose. The dog I left behind had no strength to move toward me. My dog can finally rest easy now that he knows that I am safe and will be happy. As I turn away I wipe a salt tear from my cheek hiding it from Eumaeus.
          "I marvel that they leave this hound to lie here on the dung pile; he would have been a fine dog, form the look of him, I can't say as to his power and speed when he was young." I say to Eumaeus. 
He replies, "A hunter owned him but the man is dead in some far place.  If this old hound could show the form he had when Lord Odysseus left him, going to Troy, you'd see him swift and strong. He never shrank from any savage thing he'd brought to bay in the deep woods; on the sent no other dog kept up with him. Now misery has him in leash. His owner died abroad, and here the women salves will take no care of him. You know how servants are: without a master they have no will to labor, or excel. For Zeus who views the wide, into the death and darkness that awaits, that instant Argus closes his eyes and after seeing his master, he dies. And I walk foward, ready to face the Suitors, to get my revenge...

      “World takes away half the manhood of a man that day, he goes into captivity and slavery."
      As we walk away, toward the death and darkness waiting for us, my dog closes his eyes and dies. And I keep walking, ready to face the suitors and my revenge that is sure to follow...

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.

The Cattle of the Sun God

In the small hours of the third watch, when stars that shone out in the first dusk of evening had gone down to their setting, a giant wind blew from heaven, and clouds driven by Zeus were visible over the land and sea. We knew a storm was arising. We sailed to a sea cave. Our ship's food was running out and my men were starving. I mustered all the crew and said,
"Shipmates, our stores are in the ship's hold, food and drink; the cattle here are not for our provision, or we pay dearly for it." I warned my men not to eat the cattle, for I remembered my fortune that Circe foretold.
It stormed nearly every day, day in and day out. Soon, all the barley on the ship was gone; hunger drove my men to scour the wild shore to search for food. One day I withdrew from the ship to pray the gods in solitude, for hope that one might show me some way of salvation. Soon I found myself in a daze, a dream almost. And I slipped off into a deep sleep, at the time I did not know was caused by the gods. Now on the shore Eurylochus made a plea. He explained to the men that all the deaths had been hateful, mortal wretches, but that famine is the most pitiful, the worst end that a man can come to. He said that they would cut out the noblest of the cattle and sacrifice it to the god and once they return home that they would build a temple in honor of the god. It would be better to die at sea, rather than starve to death. So, the men ate the cattle while I was sleeping and made sacrifices to the god. Just then, I awoke from my slumber. When I saw my men, I cried up at Zeus: ‘O father Zeus and gods in bliss forever, you made me sleep away this day of mischief!’ For, I knew what the fate of my men would be. Helios was angry at Odysseus’s men for eating his cattle. So, he requested that the men be punished or he would make the sun shine on the underworld.

        When the men got back on the ship Zeus threw lightning bolts. And by then, the rest of my men were killed. I floated off into the sea on a part of the mast of the ship. For days, I wandered the ocean, but soon winds carried me to Charybdis. The ship was sucked down in the whirlpool and I panicked as I grabbed onto a nearby tree. Waiting nearly a day for my ship to arise, it finally resurfaced. I grabbed onto the ship once it was out of the whirlpool and began my journey home…

Scylla and Charybdis

As the Sirens faded, I saw smoke and white water and the men heard a sound and it terrified them. As the men panicked and dropped their oars, I spoke gently and said "Friends, have we never been in danger before this? More fearsome, is it now, than when the Cyclops penned us in his cave? What power he had! Did I not keep my nerve, and use my wits to find a way out for us?" The men then knew I would keep us out of trouble. They had faith in me. But as I sent them on toward Scylla, I didn't tell them anything, because I knew they would panic. They would have dropped their oars again. So I took up two heavy spears and made my way along the deck of the ship, looking for the sea monster, thinking I'd see her for the first time here. I strained my eyes but nowhere could I catch sight of her. And then she vomited, all the sea was like a cauldron seething over intense fire, when the mixture suddenly heaves and rises. The waves and white water were all around and it fell like rain. When she swallowed the sea water down we saw the funnel of the storm and heard the rocks all around. My men, by then, were in a panic. And that is when Scylla made her strike, taking out six of my best men from the ship. She ate them as they shrieked my name. I suffered as I watched them. But, we rowed on, my men in sorrow, and in doubt. We traveled on. My my didn't know what was yet to come, and I awaited the evils to show... 

The Sirens

          When we return to Circe's island, the goddess reveals our course to us and gives us advice on how to avoid the dangers we will face. She warns us of the sirens that lure sailors to their destruction, and the wandering rocks that even destroy sea birds in flight, the perils of the sea monster Scylla and the whirlpool of Charybdis. She warns that we should not eat the cattle of the sun god, which Tiresias has warned us of also.
          As soon as Circe stoped speaking, my men and I headed straight for our ships. The men ran to their places and soon we were on the sea. I spoke to my men of what Circe had told me and the first peril on our course were the sirens. I then spoke to the men and told them to listen careful as I put then wax on their ears so they did not hear the songs that the sirens were surely to sing. I then had them tie me up tight as a splint, and we set out, quick as lightning. As the men rowed, I bare witness to the songs that the Sirens were begining to sing. As I listened to their beautiful voices trying to lure me to death, I was soon begging the men to let me go and untie me. But they bent seady to the oars. So on we rowed until the Sirens dropped under the sea rim, and their singing faded away. We got through our first obstacle, but there were many more to come. I wondered if my men would make it out alive and the thought chilled me to the bone...