He told the parents, “Name him this. I am
disliked by many, all across the world,
and I dislike them back. So name the child
‘Odysseus.’ And when he is a man,
let him come to his mother’s people’s house,410
by Mount Parnassus. I will give him treasure
and send him home rejoicing.” When he grew,
Odysseus came there to claim his gifts.
His cousins and Autolycus embraced him,
and greeted him with friendly words of welcome.
His grandma, Amphithea, wrapped her arms
around him like a vine and kissed his face
and shining eyes. Autolycus instructed
his sons to make the dinner. They obeyed
and brought a bull of five years old and flayed it, 420
and chopped it all in pieces, and then sliced
the meat with skill and portioned it on skewers
and roasted it with care, and shared it out,
and everybody got the same amount.
The whole day long they feasted, till the sun
went down and darkness fell. Then they lay down
and took the gift of sleep. When early Dawn,
the newborn child with rosy hands, appeared,
Autolycus went hunting with his dogs
and with his sons; Odysseus went too.430
Up the steep wooded side of Mount Parnassus
they climbed and reached its windswept folds. The sun
rose from the calmly flowing depths of Ocean
to touch the fields, just as the hunters came
into a glen. The dogs had dashed in front,
looking for tracks. Autolycus’ sons
came after, with Odysseus who kept
close to the dogs, and brandished his long spear.
A mighty boar lurked there; its lair was thick,
protected from the wind; the golden sun440
could never strike at it with shining rays,
and rain could not get in; there was a pile
of fallen leaves inside. The boar had heard
the sound of feet—the men and dogs were near.
Out of his hiding place he leapt to face them,
his bristles standing up, his eyes like fire,
and stood right next to them. Odysseus
was first to rush at him, his long spear gripped
tight in his hand. He tried to strike; the boar
struck first, above his knee, and charging sideways450
scooped a great hunk of flesh off with his tusk,
but did not reach the bone. Odysseus
wounded the boar’s right shoulder, and the spear
pierced through. The creature howled and fell to earth.
His life flew out. Autolycus’ sons
bustled around and skillfully bound up
the wound received by great Odysseus,
and stopped the black blood with a charm, and took him
back to their father’s house, and nursed him well,
then gave him splendid gifts, and promptly sent him460
back home to Ithaca, and he was glad.
His parents welcomed him and asked him questions,
wanting to know how he had got the wound.
He told them he was hunting with his cousins
on Mount Parnassus, and a boar attacked him;
the white tusk pierced his leg.
The old slave woman,
holding his leg and rubbing with flat palms,
came to that place, and recognized the scar.
She let his leg fall down into the basin.
It clattered, tilted over, and the water470
spilled out across the floor. Both joy and grief
took hold of her. Her eyes were filled with tears;
her voice was choked. She touched his beard and said,
“You are Odysseus! My darling child!
My master! I did not know it was you
until I touched you all around your leg.”
She glanced towards Penelope, to tell her
it was her husband. But Penelope
did not look back; she could not meet her eyes,
because Athena turned her mind aside.480
Odysseus grabbed her throat with his right hand
and with the left, he pulled her close and whispered,
“Nanny! Why are you trying to destroy me?
You fed me at your breast! Now after all
my twenty years of pain, I have arrived
back to my home. You have found out; a god
has put the knowledge in your mind. Be silent;
no one must know, or else I promise you,
if some god helps me bring the suitors down,
I will not spare you when I kill the rest,490
the other slave women, although you were
my nurse.”
With calculation, Eurycleia
answered, “My child! What have you said! You know
my mind is firm, unshakable; I will
remain as strong as stone or iron. Let me
promise you this: if you defeat the suitors,
I will tell you which women in the palace
dishonor you, and which are free from guilt.”
Odysseus already had a plan.
“Nanny, why do you mention them? No need.500
I will myself make my own observations
of each of them. Be quiet now; entrust
the future to the gods.”
The old nurse went
to fetch more washing water; all the rest
was spilt. She washed and oiled him, and then
he pulled his chair beside the fire again,
to warm himself, and covered up his scar
with rags. And carefully Penelope
spoke to him.
“Stranger, I have one small question
I want to ask you. It will soon be time510
to lie down comfortably—at least for those
who can enjoy sweet sleep, no matter what.
But I have been afflicted by some god
with pain beyond all measure. In the day,
I concentrate on my work and my women’s,
despite my constant grief. But when night comes,
and everybody goes to sleep, I lie
crying in bed and overwhelmed by pain;
worries and sorrows crowd into my heart.
As when the daughter of Pandareus,520
the pale gray nightingale, sings beautifully
when spring has come, and sits among the leaves
that crowd the trees, and warbles up and down
a symphony of sound, in mourning for
her son by Zethus, darling Itylus,
whom she herself had killed in ignorance,
with bronze. Just so, my mind pulls two directions—
should I stay here beside my son, and keep
things all the same—my property, my slave girls,
and my great house—to show respect towards530
my husband’s bed and what the people say?
Or should I marry one of them—whichever
is best of all the suitors and can bring
most presents? When my son was immature,
and young, I could not leave my husband’s house.
He would not let me. Now that he is big
and all grown-up, he urges me to go;
he is concerned that they are eating up
his property. Now how do you interpret
this dream of mine? I dreamed that twenty geese 540
came from the river to my house, and they
were eating grain and I was glad to see them.
Then a huge eagle with a pointed beak
swooped from the mountain, broke their necks, and killed them.
I wept and wailed, inside the dream; the women
gathered around me, and I cried because
the eagle killed my geese. Then he came back
and sitting on the jutting roof-beam, spoke
in human language, to restrain my grief.
‘Penelope, great queen, cheer up. This is550
no dream; it will come true. It is a vision.
The geese are suitors; I was once an eagle,
but now I am your husband. I have come
back home to put a cruel end to them.’
Then I woke up, looked round, and saw the geese
still eating grain beside the trough as they
had done before.”
Odysseus, well-known
for his intelligence, said, “My dear woman,
there is no way to wrest another meaning
out of the dream; Odysseus himself560
said how he will fulfill it: it means ruin
for all the suitors. No one can protect them
from death.”
But shrewd Penelope said, “Stranger,
dreams are confusing, and not all come true.
There are two gates of dreams: one pair is made
of horn and one of ivory. The dreams
from ivory are full of trickery;
their stories turn out false. The ones that come