Page 317 - the-odyssey

all aglow as with a flaming fire. Surely there is some god
here who has come down from heaven.’
‘Hush,’ answered Ulysses, ‘hold your peace and ask no
questions, for this is the manner of the gods. Get you to
your bed, and leave me here to talk with your mother and
the maids. Your mother in her grief will ask me all sorts of
questions.’
On this Telemachus went by torch-light to the other side
of the inner court, to the room in which he always slept.
There he lay in his bed till morning, while Ulysses was left
in the cloister pondering on the means whereby with Mi-
nerva’s help he might be able to kill the suitors.
Then Penelope came down from her room looking like
Venus or Diana, and they set her a seat inlaid with scrolls of
silver and ivory near the fire in her accustomed place. It had
been made by Icmalius and had a footstool all in one piece
with the seat itself; and it was covered with a thick fleece:
on this she now sat, and the maids came from the wom-
en’s room to join her. They set about removing the tables at
which the wicked suitors had been dining, and took away
the bread that was left, with the cups from which they had
drunk. They emptied the embers out of the braziers, and
heaped much wood upon them to give both light and heat;
but Melantho began to rail at Ulysses a second time and
said, ‘Stranger, do you mean to plague us by hanging about
the house all night and spying upon the women? Be off, you
wretch, outside, and eat your supper there, or you shall be
driven out with a firebrand.’
Ulysses scowled at her and answered, ‘My good woman,

1 The Odyssey