The Adventures of Odysseus and The Tales of Troy | Page 5

own house. Telemachus rose and went to his
chamber. Before him there went an ancient woman who had nursed him as a
child--Eurycleia was her name. She carried burning torches to light his way. And when
they were in his chamber Telemachus took off his soft doublet and put it in Eurycleia's

hands, and she smoothed it out and hung it on the pin at his bed-side. Then she went out
and she closed the door behind with its handle of silver and she pulled the thong that
bolted the door on the other side. And all night long Telemachus lay wrapped in his
fleece of wool and thought on what he would say at the council next day, and on the
goddess Athene and what she had put into his heart to do, and on the journey that was
before him to Nestor in Pylos and to Menelaus and Helen in Sparta.

IV
As soon as it was dawn Telemachus rose from his bed. He put on his raiment, bound his
sandals on his feet, hung his sharp sword across his shoulder, and took in his hand a spear
of bronze. Then he went forth to where the Council was being held in the open air, and
two swift hounds went beside him.
The chief men of the land of Ithaka had been gathered already for the council. When it
was plain that all were there, the man who was oldest amongst them, the lord Ægyptus,
rose up and spoke. He had sons, and two of them were with him yet, tending his fields.
But one, Eurynomous by name, kept company with the wooers of Telemachus' mother.
And Ægyptus had had another son; he had gone in Odysseus' ship to the war of Troy, and
Ægyptus knew he had perished on his way back. He constantly mourned for this son, and
thinking upon him as he spoke, Ægyptus had tears in his eyes.
[Illustration]
'Never since Odysseus summoned us together before he took ship for the war of Troy
have we met in council,' said he. 'Why have we been brought together now? Has someone
heard tidings of the return of Odysseus? If it be so, may the god Zeus give luck to him
who tells us of such good fortune.'
Telemachus was glad because of the kindly speech of the old man. He rose up to speak
and the herald put a staff into his hands as a sign that he was to be listened to with
reverence. Telemachus then spoke, addressing the old lord Ægyptus.
'I will tell you who it is,' he said, 'who has called the men of Ithaka together in council,
and for what purpose. Revered lord Ægyptus, I have called you together, but not because
I have had tidings of the return of my father, the renowned Odysseus, nor because I
would speak to you about some affair of our country. No. I would speak to you all
because I suffer and because I am at a loss--I, whose father was King over you, praised
by you all. Odysseus is long away from Ithaka, and I deem that he will never return. You
have lost your King. But you can put another King to rule over you. I have lost my father,
and I can have no other father in all my days. And that is not all my loss, as I will show
you now, men of Ithaka.
'For three years now my mother has been beset by men who come to woo her to be wife
for one of them. Day after day they come to our house and kill and devour our beasts and
waste the wine that was laid up against my father's return. They waste our goods and our

wealth. If I were nearer manhood I would defend my house against them. But as yet I am
not able to do it, and so I have to stand by and see our house and substance being
destroyed.'
So Telemachus spoke, and when his speech was ended Antinous, who was one of the
wooers, rose up.
'Telemachus,' said he, 'why do you try to put us to shame in this way? I tell all here that it
is not we but your mother who is to blame. We, knowing her husband Odysseus is no
longer in life, have asked her to become the wife of one of us. She gives us no honest
answer. Instead she has given her mind to a device to keep us still waiting.
'I will tell you of the council what this device is. The lady Penelope set up a great loom in
her house and began to weave a wide web of cloth. To each of us she sent a message
saying that when