BOOK XXIV

Hermes of Kyllene summoned the souls of the suitors to come forth, and in

his hands he was holding the beautiful golden staff, with which he mazes

the eyes of those mortals whose eyes he would maze, or wakes again the

sleepers. Herding 5 them on with this, he led them along, and they

followed, gibbering.

BOOK XXIII

The old woman, laughing loudly, went to the upper chamber

to tell her mistress that her beloved husband was inside

the house. Her knees moved swiftly, but her feet were tottering.

She stood above Penelope's head and spoke a word to her:

5 ‘Wake, Penelope, dear child, so that, with your own eyes, you can see what

all your days you have been longing for.

BOOK XXII

Now resourceful Odysseus stripped his rags from him, and sprang up atop

the great threshold, holding his bow and the quiver

filled with arrows, and scattered out the swift shafts before him on the

ground next his feet, and spoke his word to the suitors: 5 ‘Here is a task

that has been achieved, without any deception.

BOOK XXI

But now the goddess, gray-eyed Athene, put it in the mind of the daughter

of Ikarios, circumspect Penelope,

to set the bow before the suitors, and the gray iron, in the house of

Odysseus: the contest, the beginning of the slaughter.

5 So she ascended the high staircase of her own house,

and in her solid hand took up the beautiful, brazen

and artfully curved key, with an ivory handle upon it.

BOOK XX

Then the noble Odysseus bedded down in the forecourt, and spread

beneath him the raw hide of an ox, and uppermost many fleeces of sheep

the Achaians had dedicated.

BOOK XIX

Now great Odysseus still remained in the hall, pondering how, with the

help of Athene, he would murder the suitors.

Presently he spoke in winged words to Telemachos:

‘Telemachos, we must have the weapons stored away inside 5 the high

chamber; and when the suitors miss them and ask you about them, answer

BOOK XVIII

And now there arrived a public beggar, who used to go begging through

the town of Ithaka, known to fame for his ravenous belly and appetite for

eating and drinking. There was no real strength in him, nor any force, but

his build was big to look at.

5 He had the name Arnaios, for thus the lady his mother called him from birth,

but all the young men used to call him Iros, because he would run and

give messages when anyone told him.

BOOK XVII

But when the young Dawn showed again with her rosy fingers,

Telemachos, beloved son of godlike Odysseus,

then bound underneath his feet the beautiful sandals,

and took up a powerful spear which fitted his hand's grip, 5 on his way to

the city, and going he spoke to his swineherd: ‘Father, I am going to the

city, so that my mother