“Bring hither fire, and hither sulphur bring,

To purge the palace: then the queen attend,

And let her with her matron-train descend;

The matron-train, with all the virgin-band,

Assemble here, to learn their lord’s command.”


Then Euryclea: “Joyful I obey,

But cast those mean dishonest rags away;

Permit me first the royal robes to bring:

Ill suits this garb the shoulders of a king.”

“Bring sulphur straight, and fire” (the monarch cries).

She hears, and at the word obedient flies.

With fire and sulphur, cure of noxious fumes,

He purged the walls, and blood-polluted rooms.

Again the matron springs with eager pace,

And spreads her lord’s return from place to place.

They hear, rush forth, and instant round him stand,

A gazing throng, a torch in every hand.

They saw, they knew him, and with fond embrace

Each humbly kiss’d his knee, or hand, or face;

He knows them all, in all such truth appears,

E’en he indulges the sweet joy of tears.


BOOK XXIII.


ARGUMENT.


Euryclea awakens Penelope with the news of Ulysses’ return, and the death

of the suitors. Penelope scarcely credits her; but supposes some god has

punished them, and descends from her department in doubt. At the first

interview of Ulysses and Penelope, she is quite unsatisfied. Minerva restores

him to the beauty of his youth; but the queen continues incredulous, till by

some circumstances she is convinced, and falls into all the transports of

passion and tenderness. They recount to each other all that has passed during

their long separation. The next morning Ulysses, arming himself and his

friends, goes from the city to visit his father.


Then to the queen, as in repose she lay,

The nurse with eager rapture speeds her way:

The transports of her faithful heart supply

A sudden youth, and give her wings to fly.


“And sleeps my child? (the reverend matron cries)

Ulysses lives! arise, my child, arise!

At length appears the long-expected hour!