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Updated: June 5, 2025
When she retired Eumaeus brought the bow to Odysseus, then told Eurycleia to keep the woman in their chambers while Philoetius bolted the hall door. "But already Odysseus was turning the bow this way and that testing it lest the worms had devoured it in his absence.
There they lay, stark and silent, heap upon heap, like a great draught of fishes which have been hauled to shore in a drag-net, and have gasped out their lives on the beach. Having assured himself that he had not done the work negligently, he bade Telemachus summon the nurse, Eurycleia.
For on this wise I will declare it, and it shall surely be accomplished: if the gods subdue the lordly wooers unto me, I will not hold my hand from thee, my nurse though thou art, when I slay the other handmaids in my halls. Then wise Eurycleia answered, saying: 'My child, what word hath escaped the door of thy lips?
Odysseus put his hand on Eurycleia's mouth, and with the other hand he drew her to him. 'Woman, he whispered. 'Say nothing. Be silent, lest mine enemies learn what thou knowest now. 'Silent I'll be, said the nurse Eurycleia. 'Thou knowest me. Firm and unyielding I am, and by no sign will I let anyone know that thou hast come under this roof.
It is the judgment of Heaven that has repaid them for the evil deeds they did." Then he gave orders that the bodies of the dead should be carried out and that the blood should be washed away. And when this was done he turned to Eurycleia and said, "Bring fire and sulphur now and I will purify the hall. Then bid Penelope meet me here." "Yes, my child," said the old nurse, "I will obey you.
'I did not see the slaying, Eurycleia said, 'but I heard the groaning of the men as they were slain. And then I found Odysseus standing amongst many dead men, and it comforted my heart to see him standing there like a lion aroused. Come with me now, lady, that you may both enter into your heart's delight you that have suffered so much of affliction.
And he caught up his mighty spear shod with sharp bronze, and went and stood by the threshold, and spake to Eurycleia: 'Dear nurse, have ye honoured our guest in the house with food and couch, or does he lie uncared for, as he may? For this is my mother's way, wise as she is: blindly she honours one of mortal men, even the worse, but the better she sends without honour away.
And the nurse Eurycleia saw him far before the rest, as she was strewing skin coverlets upon the carven chairs, and straightway she drew near him, weeping, and all the other maidens of Odysseus, of the hardy heart, were gathered about him, and kissed him lovingly on the head and shoulders.
He spoke, and all burst into merry laughter and laid aside their bitter anger with Telemachus. And so the swineherd, bearing the bow along the hall, drew near to wise Ulysses and put it in his hands; then calling aside nurse Eurycleia, thus he said,
And she called her women, old and young, and rebuked them, saying: "Wicked ye were, for ye knew that he was about to go, and did not rouse me from my bed. Surely I would have kept him, eager though he was, from his journey!" Then said Eurycleia: "Slay me, if thou wilt, but I will hide nothing from thee. I knew his purpose, and I furnished him with such things as he needed.
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