Plot Against the Suitors

38“O nobly born, and versed in many wiles,
Son of Laertes! now the hour is come
To think how you shall lay avenging hands
Upon the shameless crew who, in your house,
For three years past have made themselves its lords,
And wooed your noble wife and brought her gifts,
While, pining still for your return, she gave
Hopes to each suitor, and by messages
Made promises to all, though cherishing
A different purpose in her secret heart.”

39Odysseus, the sagacious, answered her:
“Ah me, I should have perished utterly,
By such an evil fate as overtook
Atrides Agamemnon, in the halls
Of my own palace, but for you, whose words,
O goddess, have revealed what I should know.
Now counsel me how I may be avenged.
Be ever by my side, and strengthen me
With courage, as you did when we overthrew
The towery crest of Ilium. Would you were
Still my ally, as then! I would engage,
O blue-eyed Athena, with three hundred foes,
If you, dread goddess, would but counsel me.”

40And then the blue-eyed Athena spoke again:
“I will be present with you. When we once
Begin the work, you shall not leave my sight;
And many a haughty suitor with his blood
And brains shall stain your spacious palace floor.
Now will I change your aspect, so that none
Shall know you. I will wither your fair skin,
And it shall hang on crooked limbs; your locks
Of auburn I will cause to fall away,
And round you fling a cloak which all shall see
With loathing. I will make your lustrous eyes
Dull to the sight, and thus shall you appear
A squalid wretch to all the suitor train,
And to your wife, and to the son whom you
Did leave within your palace. Then at first
Repair you to the herdsman, him who keeps
Your swine; for he is loyal, and he loves
Your son and the discreet Penelope.
There will you find him as he tends his swine,
That find their pasturage beside the rock
Of Corax, and by Arethusa’s fount.
On nourishing acorns they are fed, and drink
The dark clear water, whence the flesh of swine
Is fattened. There remain, and carefully
Inquire of all that you would know, while I,
Taking my way to Sparta, the abode
Of lovely women, call Telemachus,
Your son, Odysseus, who has visited
King Menelaus in his broad domain,
To learn if haply you are living yet.”

41Odysseus, the sagacious, answered her:
“Why did not you, to whom all things are known,
Tell him concerning me? Must he too roam
And suffer on the barren deep, and leave
To others his estates, to be their spoil?”

42And then the blue-eyed goddess spoke again:
“Let not that thought distress you. It was I
Who sent him thither, that he might deserve
The praise of men. No evil meets him there;
But in the halls of Atreus’ son he sits,
Safe mid the abounding luxuries. It is true
That even now the suitors lie in wait,
In their black ship, to slay him ere he reach
His native land; but that will hardly be
Before the earth shall cover many a one
Of the proud suitors who consume your wealth.”

43So Athena spoke, and touched him with her wand,
And caused the blooming skin to shrivel up
On his slow limbs, and the fair hair to fall,
And with an old man’s wrinkles covered all
His frame, and dimmed his lately glorious eyes.
Another garb she gave —a squalid vest;
A ragged, dirty cloak, all stained with smoke;
And over all the huge hide of a stag,
From which the hair was worn. A staff, beside,
She gave, and shabby scrip with many a rent,
Tied with a twisted thong. This said and done,
They parted; and the goddess flew to seek
Telemachus in Sparta’s sacred town.