A Sworn Silence

43“Nurse, would you ruin me, who drew long since
Milk from your bosom, and who now return,
After much suffering borne for twenty years,
To mine own land? Now then, since you have learned
The truth —by prompting of some god, no doubt —
Keep silence, lest some others in the house
Should learn it also. Else —I tell you this,
And will perform my word —if God permit
That I overcome the arrogant suitor-crew,
Nurse as you are, I spare not even you,
When in these halls the other maidens die.”

44Then thus the prudent Eurycleia said:
“What words, my son, have passed your lips? for well
You know my firm mind; it never yields.
Like solid rock or steel I keep my trust.
This let me tell you, and, I pray you, keep
My words in mind. If, by the aid of God,
You overcome the arrogant suitor-crew,
Then will I name the handmaids that disgrace
Your household, and point out the innocent.”

45Odysseus, the sagacious, thus rejoined:
“Why name them, nurse? It needs not. I myself
Shall watch them, and shall know them all. Hold you
Your peace, and leave the issue with the gods.”