Part 4 (1/2)
CHAPTER EIGHT
The Change froar--Eu did Minerva suffer hi to hi his absence, she showed him that his way to his wife and throne did not lie so open, but that before he were reinstated in the secure possession of the its king, was become the resort of insolent and ihboring isles, who, in the confidence of Ulysses being dead, came as suitors to Penelope The queen (it was true) continued single, but was little better than a state-prisoner in the power of theseher decision, occupied the king's house rather as owners than guests, lording and do the royal substance with their feasts andthe atte son Telemachus, she herself had put it into the heart of the prince to go and seek his father in far countries; how in the shape of Mentor she had borne hi, as she meant it should fail, in its first object, had yet had this effect, that through hardshi+ps he had learned endurance, through experience he had gathered wisdom, and wherever his footsteps had been he had left such memorials of his worth as the fahout the world That it was now not reat joy of the queen hisabsence, and had begun to rief equal to that which she endured for Ulysses: the Goddess herself having so ordered the course of his adventures that the time of his return should correspond with the return of Ulysses, that they ether concert measures how to repress the power and insolence of those wicked suitors This the Goddess told him; but of the particulars of his son's adventures, of his having been detained in the Delightful Island, which his father had so lately left, of Calypso and her nye occurrences which ht in the history of the prince's adventures, she forbore to tell hireater pleasure from the lips of his son, when he should have him in an hour of stillness and safety, when their work should be done, and none of their enemies left alive to trouble theht with safety bring about his restoration_]
Then they sat down, the Goddess and Ulysses, at the foot of a wild olive-tree, consulting how theyabout his restoration And when Ulysses revolved in his le, he began to despond, and he said, ”I shall die an ill death like Agamemnon; in the threshold of my own house I shall perish, like that unfortunate ain calling to e, he secretly wished that Minerva would but breathe such a spirit into his bosom as she inflaht encounter with three hundred of those impudent suitors at once, and strew the pavements of his beautiful palace with their bloods and brains
And Minerva knew his thoughts, and she said, ”I will be strongly with thee, if thou fail not to do thy part And for a sign between us that I will perform my proe thee, that thy person may not be known of men”
Then Ulysses bowed his head to receive the divine ied his person so that it ed him to appearance into a very old ait seemed to have been some considerable person in his tiious strength Also, instead of those rich robes in which king Alcinous had clothed his as wandering beggars usually wear A staff supported his steps, and a scrip hung to his back, such as travelling iven to thear, as wise Tiresias had predicted to him in the shades
To complete his hu, she next directed hio and present himself to his old herdsman Eumaeus, who had the care of his swine and his cattle, and had been a faithful steward to hi Ulysses that he should reveal himself to no man, but to his own son, whom she would send to him when she saw occasion, the Goddess went her way
The transfore of the herdss, of which Eumaeus kept many fierce ones for the protection of the cattle, fleith open noble ani like a beggar, and would have rent him in pieces with their teeth, if Ulysses had not had the prudence to let fall his staff, which had chiefly provoked their fury, and sat hiround; but for all that so the dogs were, had not the herdss had fetched out of the house, with shouting and with throwing of stones repressed them
He said, when he saw Ulysses, ”Old father, how near you were to being torn in pieces by these rude dogs! I should never have forgiven lect of iven ht well be excused for not attending to everything: while here I lie grieving andfor the absence of that majesty which once ruled here, and am forced to fatten his swine and his cattle for food to evil men, who hate him and ish his death; when he perhaps strays up and down the world, and has not ith to appease hunger, if indeed he yet lives (which is a question) and enjoys the cheerful light of the sun” This he said, little thinking that he of whouise and beggarly obscurity was present the hidden uest into the house, and sat meat and drink before him; and Ulysses said, ”May Jove and all the other Gods requite you for the kind speeches and hospitable usage which you have shown uest, if one in ht than yourself had arrived here, it were a shame to such scantyhim to the best of my ability Poor men, and such as have no houses of their own, are by Jove himself recommended to our care But the cheer which we that are servants to other ly I give it you Indeed, there once ruled here a ainst, who, if he had been suffered to reign in peace and grow old aone; and for his sake would to God that the whole posterity of Helen ht perish with her, since in her quarrel so many worthies have perished! But such as your fare is, eat it, and be welcome--such lean beasts as are food for poor herdso to feed the voracious stomachs of the queen's suitors Shame on their unworthiness! there is no day in which two or three of the noblest of the herd are not slain to support their feasts and their surfeits”
[Illustration: '_But such as your fare is, eat it, and be welcoood ear to his words; and as he ate his meat, he even tore it and rent it with his teeth, for lut the appetites of those Godless suitors And he said, ”What chief or what ruler is this, that thou cohly, and sayest that he perished at Troy? I aer in these parts
Ittravels”
Euers that have coain credit with the queen or her son yet These travellers, to get raiment or a meal, will not stick to invent any lie Truth is not the co of theraciously, hears their stories, inquires all she can, but all ends in tears and dissatisfaction But in God's naot a tale, ain you a cloak or a coat from somebody to keep you wars and vultures long since have torn hireat fish at sea has devoured him, or he lieth with no better monument upon his bones than the sea-sand But for me past all the race of men were tears created; for I never shall find so kind a royal ain and visit me from the tomb, would ht of hi as from the dead In his last rest my soul shall love him He is not here, nor do I name him as a flatterer, but because I am thankful for his love and care which he had to me a poor man; and if I knew surely that he were past all shores that the sun shi+nes upon, I would invoke hi of Eumaeus the waters stood in Ulysses's eyes, and he said, ”My friend, to say and to affirive too much license to incredulity For, not to speak at random, but with as much solemnity as an oath comes to, I say to you that Ulysses shall return; and whenever that day shall be, then shall you give to me a cloak and a coat; but till then, I will not receive so o naked; for no less than the gates of hell do I hate that man whom poverty can force to tell an untruth Be Jove then witness to my words, that this very year, nay, ere thisvengeance in his own palace upon the wrongers of his wife and his son”
To give the better credence to his words, he a of himself that he was a Cretan born, and one that ith Idomeneus to the wars of Troy Also he said that he knew Ulysses, and related various passages which he alleged to have happened betwixt Ulysses and hi really happened between Ulysses and so with the known character and actions of Ulysses, that Eus he asserted that he had lately been entertained in the court of Thesprotia, where the king's son of the country had told hione upon a voyage to the oracle of Jove in Dodona, whence he should shortly return, and a shi+p would be ready by the bounty of the Thesprotians to convoy hiht to Ithaca ”And in token that what I tell you is true,” said Ulysses, ”if your king come not within the period which I have naive your servants co fro example by me, may fear to lie” But Eumaeus made answer that that should be small satisfaction or pleasure to hi in this manner, supper was served in, and the servants of the herdsman, who had been out all day in the fields, caht was bitter and frosty After supper, Ulysses, who had well eaten and drunken, and was refreshed with the herdsood cheer, was resolved to try whether his host's hospitality would extend to the lending hiht season; and fra a cup of Greek wine, he thus began:
”I will tell you a story of your king Ulysses and myself If there is ever a time when a man may have leave to tell his own stories, it is when he has drunken a little tooliquor driveth the fool, andand to dance, and break forth in pleasant laughters, and perchance to prefer a speech too which were better kept in When the heart is open, the tongue will be stirring But you shall hear We led our powers to ambush once under the walls of Troy”
The herds which related to their king Ulysses and the wars of Troy, and thus he went on:
”I remember, Ulysses and Menelaus had the direction of that enterprise, and they were pleased to join me with the h fortune has played me a trick since, as you may perceive But I was so Be that as it ht as this, the air cut like steel, and the sleet gathered on our shi+elds like crystal There was so the reeds and bulrushes that grew in the oes round the city The rest of us made tolerable shi+ft, for every ood cloak or mantle to wrap over his armour and keep himself warm; but I, as it chanced, had left ht would prove so cold, or rather I believe because I had at that ti a soldier, and having so should be hidden under a cloak; but I paid for ht, and the wet of the ditch in which we lay, I ell-nigh frozen to death; and when I could endure no longer, I jogged Ulysses as next to me, and had a ni him that I must inevitably perish He answered in a lohisper, 'Hush, lest any Greek should hear you, and take notice of your softness' Not a word ht I was in But he was as considerate as he was brave; and even then, as he lay with his head reposing upon his hand, he wasup his head, he made as if he had been asleep, and said, 'Friends, I have been warned in a dreaamemnon for a supply, to recruit our numbers, for we are not sufficient for this enterprise; and they believing hi, for arood warot through the night with credit This shi+ft Ulysses made for one in need, and would to heaven that I had now that strength in my limbs which made me in those days to be accounted fit to be a leader under Ulysses! I should not then want the loan of a cloak or a mantle, to wrap about ht air”
The tale pleased the herdsratified to hear tales of Ulysses, true or false, said that for his story he deserved a , which he should have; and he spread for hi beggar, as indeed the true Ulysses, lay down and slept under that poor roof, in that abject disguise to which the will of Minerva had subjected hi was co to burden his host's hospitality any longer, but said that he would go and try the humanity of the townsfolk, if any there would bestow upon him a bit of bread or a cup of drink Perhaps the queen's suitors (he said), out of their full feasts, would bestow a scrap on him; for he could wait at table, if need were, and play the ni-man; he could fetch wood (he said) or build a fire, prepare roast meat or boiled, mix the ater, or do any of those offices which recoreat uest,” said Eumaeus, ”you know not what you speak What should so poor and old a ht rave servitors Theyvests, with curled hair, like so many of Jove's cupbearers, to fill out the wine to them as they sit at table, and to shi+ft their trenchers Their gorged insolence would but despise and e Stay here Perhaps the queen, or Tele of thy arrival, may send to thee of their bounty”
As he spake these words, the steps of one crossing the front court were heard, and a noise of the dogs fawning and leaping about as for joy; by which token Eu of a traveller being arrived at Eus of his father, was come to search the truth; and Eu Ulysses” Before he could well speak the words, the prince was at the door, who to receive, Teleed a man, as he appeared, should rise to do respect to him, but he courteously and reverently took him by the hand, and inclined his head to him, as if he had surely known that it was his father indeed; but Ulysses covered his eyes with his hands, that he ht not show the waters which stood in them And Teles of the king s himself to be a Cretan born,” said Eumaeus, ”and that he has been a soldier and a traveller, but whether he speak the truth or not he alone can tell But whatsoever he has been, what he is now is apparent