“So may these impious fall, by Fate oppress’d!”

Then to Eumaeus: “Bring the stranger, fly!

And if my questions meet a true reply,

Graced with a decent robe he shall retire,

A gift in season which his wants require.”


Thus spoke Penelope. Eumaeus flies

In duteous haste, and to Ulysses cries:

“The queen invites thee, venerable guest!

A secret instinct moves her troubled breast,

Of her long absent lord from thee to gain

Some light, and soothe her soul’s eternal pain.

If true, if faithful thou, her grateful mind

Of decent robes a present has design’d:

So finding favour in the royal eye,

Thy other wants her subjects shall supply.”


“Fair truth alone (the patient man replied)

My words shall dictate, and my lips shall guide.

To him, to me, one common lot was given,

In equal woes, alas! involved by Heaven.

Much of his fates I know; but check’d by fear

I stand; the hand of violence is here:

Here boundless wrongs the starry skies invade,

And injured suppliants seek in vain for aid.

Let for a space the pensive queen attend,

Nor claim my story till the sun descend;

Then in such robes as suppliants may require,

Composed and cheerful by the genial fire,

When loud uproar and lawless riot cease,

Shall her pleased ear receive my words in peace.”


Swift to the queen returns the gentle swain:

“And say (she cries), does fear or shame detain

The cautious stranger? With the begging kind

Shame suits but ill.” Eumaeus thus rejoin’d:


“He only asks a more propitious hour,

And shuns (who would not?) wicked men in power;

At evening mild (meet season to confer)

By turns to question, and by turns to hear.”


“Whoe’er this guest (the prudent queen replies)

His every step and every thought is wise.

For men like these on earth he shall not find

In all the miscreant race of human kind.”

Thus she. Eumaeus all her words attends,

And, parting, to the suitor powers descends;

There seeks Telemachus, and thus apart