[478] When they had done this they
washed their hands and feet and went back into the house, for all was
now over; and Odysseus said to the dear old nurse Eurykleia, "Bring
me sulfur, which cleanses all pollution, and fetch fire also that I
may burn it, and purify the cloisters. Go, moreover, and tell
Penelope to come here with her attendants, and also all the maid
servants that are in the house."
[485] "All that you have said is true,"
answered Eurykleia, "but let me bring you some clean clothes - a
shirt and cloak. Do not keep these rags on your back any longer. It
is not right."
[490] "First light me a fire," replied
Odysseus.
[492] She brought the fire and sulfur,
as he had bidden her, and Odysseus thoroughly purified the cloisters
and both the inner and outer courts. Then she went inside to call the
women and tell them what had happened; whereon they came from their
apartment with torches in their hands, and pressed round Odysseus to
embrace him, kissing his head and shoulders and taking hold of his
hands. It made him feel as if he should like to weep, for he
remembered every one of them. [501]
Book 23
Scroll 23
[1] Eurykleia now went upstairs
laughing to tell her mistress that her dear husband had come home.
Her aged knees became young again and her feet were nimble for joy as
she went up to her mistress and bent over her head to speak to her.
"Wake up Penelope, my dear child," she exclaimed, "and see with your
own eyes something that you have been wanting this long time past.
Odysseus has at last indeed come home again, and has killed the
suitors who were giving so much trouble in his house, eating up his
estate and ill-treating his son."
[10] "My good nurse," answered
Penelope, "you must be mad. The gods sometimes send some very
sensible people out of their minds, and make foolish people become
sensible. This is what they must have been doing to you; for you
always used to be a reasonable person. Why should you thus mock me
when I have trouble enough already - talking such nonsense, and
waking me up out of a sweet sleep that had taken possession of my
eyes and closed them? I have never slept so soundly from the day my
poor husband went to that city with the ill-omened name. Go back
again into the women's room; if it had been any one else, who
had woke me up to bring me such absurd news I should have sent her
away with a severe scolding. As it is, your age shall protect
you."
[25] "My dear child," answered
Eurykleia, "I am not mocking you. It is quite true as I tell you that
Odysseus is come home again. He was the stranger whom they all kept
on treating so badly in the room. Telemakhos knew all the time that
he was come back, but kept his father's secret that he might
have his revenge on all these wicked people.
[32] Then Penelope sprang up from her
couch, threw her arms round Eurykleia, and wept for joy. "But my dear
nurse," said she, "explain this to me; if he has really come home as
you say, how did he manage to overcome the wicked suitors single
handed, seeing what a number of them there always were?"