Eumaeus’s Report

61So talked they with each other where they sat
In the queen’s chamber, mid the attendant train
Of women, while meantime Odysseus took
The evening meal. The queen then bade to call
The noble swineherd, and bespoke him thus: —

62“My worthy friend Eumaeus, go and bring
The stranger hither. I would speak with him,
And ask if anywhere he saw or heard
Aught of Odysseus; for he seems like one
Whose wanderings have been in many lands.”

63And thus, Eumaeus, you did make reply:
“Would that these Greeks, O queen, would hold their peace,
Then might this stranger in your hearing speak
Words full of consolation. For three nights
I had him with me, for three days I made
My lodge his home —for at the very first
He came to me, escaping from his ship —
Nor when he left me had he told of all
That he had suffered. As a hearer looks
Upon a minstrel whom the gods have taught
To sing the poems that delight all hearts,
And, listening, longs to listen without end;
So, as the stranger sat beneath my roof,
He held me charmed. He was the ancestral friend,
He said, of your Odysseus, and his home
Was Crete, where dwells the stock of Minos yet.
From Crete he came, and much had suffered since,
Driven on from place to place. And he had heard
Some tidings of Odysseus yet alive —
So he affirmed —in a rich region near
The realm of the Thesprotians, and prepared
To bring much riches to his native isle.”

64Then spoke the sage Penelope again:
“Go, call him hither, that he may relate
His story in my presence. Let these men,
As it may please them, sitting at our gates
Or in our halls, amuse themselves, for light
Are they of heart. Unwasted in their homes
Lie their possessions, and their bread and wine
Are only for their servants, while themselves
Frequent our palace, day by day, and slay
Our beeves and sheep and fatling goats, and feast,
And drink abundantly the dark red wine,
And all with lavish waste. No man is here,
Such as Odysseus was, to drive away
This pest from our abode. Should he return
To his own land, he and his son would take
Swift vengeance on the men who do him wrong.”