"My dear," answered Penelope, "I
have no wish to set myself up, nor to depreciate you; but I am not
struck by your appearance, for I very well remember what kind of a
man you were when you set sail from Ithaca. Nevertheless, Eurykleia,
take his bed outside the bed chamber that he himself built. Bring the
bed outside this room, and put bedding upon it with fleeces, good
coverlets, and blankets."
She said this to try him, but
Odysseus was very angry and said, "Wife, I am much displeased at what
you have just been saying. Who has been taking my bed from the place
in which I left it? He must have found it a hard task, no matter how
skilled a workman he was, unless some god came and helped him to
shift it. There is no man living, however strong and in his prime,
who could move it from its place. For it was wrought to be a great
sign [sêma]; it is a marvelous curiosity which I
made with my very own hands. There was a young olive growing within
the precincts of the house, in full vigor, and about as thick as a
bearing-post. I built my room round this with strong walls of stone
and a roof to cover them, and I made the doors strong and
well-fitting. Then I cut off the top boughs of the olive tree and
left the stump standing. This I dressed roughly from the root upwards
and then worked with carpenter's tools well and skillfully,
straightening my work by drawing a line on the wood, and making it
into a bed-prop. I then bored a hole down the middle, and made it the
center-post of my bed, at which I worked till I had finished it,
inlaying it with gold and silver; after this I stretched a hide of
crimson leather from one side of it to the other. So you see I know
all about this sign [sêma], and I desire to
learn whether it is still there, or whether any one has been removing
it by cutting down the olive tree at its roots."
When she heard the sure proofs
[sêmata] Odysseus now gave her, she fairly broke
down. She flew weeping to his side, flung her arms about his neck,
and kissed him. "Do not be angry with me Odysseus," she cried, "you,
who are the wisest of humankind. We have suffered, both of us. Heaven
has denied us the happiness of spending our youth, and of growing
old, together; do not then be aggrieved or take it amiss that I did
not embrace you thus as soon as I saw you. I have been shuddering all
the time through fear that someone might come here and deceive me
with a lying story; for there are many people who plan wicked schemes
[kerdea]. Zeus’ daughter Helen would never have
yielded herself to a man from a foreign country, if she had known
that the sons of Achaeans would come after her and bring her back.
Heaven put it in her heart to do wrong, and she gave no thought to
that transgression [atê], which has been the
source of all our sorrows [penthos]. Now, however,
that you have convinced me by showing that you know all the proofs
[sêmata] of our bed (which no human being has
ever seen but you and I and a single maid servant, the daughter of
Aktor, who was given me by my father on my marriage, and who keeps
the doors of our room), hard of belief though I have been, I can
mistrust no longer."
Then Odysseus in his turn melted,
and wept as he clasped his dear and faithful wife to his bosom. As
the sight of land is welcome to men who are swimming towards the
shore, when Poseidon has wrecked their ship with the fury of his
winds and waves - a few alone reach the land, and these, covered with
brine, are thankful when they find themselves on firm ground and out
of danger - even so was her husband welcome to her as she looked upon
him, and she could not tear her two fair arms from about his neck.
Indeed they would have gone on indulging their sorrow till
rosy-fingered morn appeared, had not Athena determined otherwise, and
held night back in the far west, while she would not suffer Dawn to
leave Okeanos, nor to yoke the two steeds Lampos and Phaethon that
bear her onward to break the day upon humankind.
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