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BOOK XXIV

Hermes of Kyllene summoned the souls of the suitors to come forth, and in

his hands he was holding the beautiful golden staff, with which he mazes

the eyes of those mortals whose eyes he would maze, or wakes again the

sleepers. Herding 5 them on with this, he led them along, and they

followed, gibbering.

BOOK XXIII

The old woman, laughing loudly, went to the upper chamber

to tell her mistress that her beloved husband was inside

the house. Her knees moved swiftly, but her feet were tottering.

She stood above Penelope's head and spoke a word to her:

5 ‘Wake, Penelope, dear child, so that, with your own eyes, you can see what

all your days you have been longing for.

BOOK XIV

But Odysseus himself left the harbor and ascended a rugged

path, through wooded country along the heights, where Athene

had indicated the noble swineherd, who beyond others

cared for the house properties acquired by noble Odysseus.

BOOK XIII

So he spoke, and all of them stayed stricken to silence, held in thrall by the

story all through the shadowy chambers.

BOOK XII

‘Now when our ship had left the stream of the Ocean river, and come back

to the wide crossing of the sea's waves, and to the island of Aiaia, where

lies the house of the early Dawn, her dancing spaces, and where Helios, the

sun, makes his uprising,

BOOK XI

‘Now when we had gone down again to the sea and our vessel,

first of all we dragged the ship down into the bright water,

and in the black hull set the mast in place, and set sails,

and took the sheep and walked them aboard, and ourselves also 5

embarked, but sorrowful, and weeping big tears.

BOOK X

‘We came next to the Aiolian island, whereAiolos

lived,Hippotas' son, beloved by the immortal gods, on a floating island, the

whole enclosed by a rampart of bronze, not to be broken, and the sheer of

the cliff runs upward 5 to it; and twelve children were born to him in his

palace,

BOOK IX

Then resourceful Odysseus spoke in turn and answered him: ‘O great

Alkinoös, pre-eminent among all people,

surely indeed it is a good thing to listen to a singer

such as this one before us, who is like the gods in his singing; 5 for I think

there is no occasion accomplished that is more pleasant than when festivity

holds sway among all the populace,

BOOK VIII

Then when the young Dawn showed again with her rosy fingers,

Alkinoös, the hallowed prince, rose up from his sleeping,

and the descendant of Zeus, Odysseus sacker of cities,

rose up, and Alkinoös, the hallowed prince, guided them

5 to the Phaiakians' place of assembly, which was built for them by the ships.

They went and took their seats on the polished stones together, but Pallas

Athene went through the city,

BOOK VII

So long-suffering great Odysseus prayed, in that place,

but the strength of the mules carried the young girl on, to the city, and

when she had arrived at the glorious house of her father, she stopped in the

forecourt, and there her brothers around her 5 came and stood, men like

immortal gods.

BOOK VI

So long-suffering great Odysseus slept in that place

in an exhaustion of sleep and weariness, and now Athene

went her way to the district and city of the Phaiakian

men, who formerly lived in the spacious land, Hypereia, 5 next to the

Cyclopes, who were men too overbearing,

BOOK V

Now Dawn rose from her bed, where she lay by haughty Tithonos,

carrying light to the immortal gods and to mortals,

and the gods came and took their places in session, and among them Zeus

who thunders on high, and it is his power that is greatest, 5 and Athene

spoke to them of the many cares of Odysseus,

remembering.

BOOK XXII

Now resourceful Odysseus stripped his rags from him, and sprang up atop

the great threshold, holding his bow and the quiver

filled with arrows, and scattered out the swift shafts before him on the

ground next his feet, and spoke his word to the suitors: 5 ‘Here is a task

that has been achieved, without any deception.

BOOK IV

They came into the cavernous hollow of Lakedaimon

and made their way to the house of glorious Menelaos.

They found him in his own house giving, for many townsmen,

a wedding feast for his son and his stately daughter. The girl 5 he was

sending to the son of Achilleus, breaker of battalions, for in Troy land first

he had nodded his head to it and promised to give her, and now the gods

were bringing to pass their marriage; so he was sending her on her way,

with horses and chariots,

BOOK III

Helios, leaving behind the lovely standing waters, rose up

into the brazen sky to shine upon the immortals

and also on mortal men across the grain-giving farmland.

They came to Pylos, Neleus' strong-founded citadel,

5 where the people on the shore of the sea were making sacrifice

of bulls who were all black to the dark-haired Earthshaker.

BOOK II

Now when the young Dawn showed again with her rosy fingers, the dear

son of Odysseus stirred from where he was sleeping, and put on his

clothes, and slung a sharp sword over his shoulder.

Underneath his shining feet he bound the fair sandals

5 and went on his way from the chamber, like a god in presence.

BOOK I

Tell me, Muse, of the man of many ways, who was driven

far journeys, after he had sacked Troy's sacred citadel.

Many were they whose cities he saw, whose minds he learned of,

many the pains he suffered in his spirit on the wide sea

The Odyssey as we have it is an epic of over twelve thousand lines. It has been

divided, like the Iliad and probably at the same time, into twenty-four books.

Book number and line number are the standard terms of reference.

BOOK XXI

But now the goddess, gray-eyed Athene, put it in the mind of the daughter

of Ikarios, circumspect Penelope,

to set the bow before the suitors, and the gray iron, in the house of

Odysseus: the contest, the beginning of the slaughter.

5 So she ascended the high staircase of her own house,

and in her solid hand took up the beautiful, brazen

and artfully curved key, with an ivory handle upon it.

BOOK XX

Then the noble Odysseus bedded down in the forecourt, and spread

beneath him the raw hide of an ox, and uppermost many fleeces of sheep

the Achaians had dedicated.

BOOK XIX

Now great Odysseus still remained in the hall, pondering how, with the

help of Athene, he would murder the suitors.

Presently he spoke in winged words to Telemachos:

‘Telemachos, we must have the weapons stored away inside 5 the high

chamber; and when the suitors miss them and ask you about them, answer

BOOK XVIII

And now there arrived a public beggar, who used to go begging through

the town of Ithaka, known to fame for his ravenous belly and appetite for

eating and drinking. There was no real strength in him, nor any force, but

his build was big to look at.

5 He had the name Arnaios, for thus the lady his mother called him from birth,

but all the young men used to call him Iros, because he would run and

give messages when anyone told him.

BOOK XVII

But when the young Dawn showed again with her rosy fingers,

Telemachos, beloved son of godlike Odysseus,

then bound underneath his feet the beautiful sandals,

and took up a powerful spear which fitted his hand's grip, 5 on his way to

the city, and going he spoke to his swineherd: ‘Father, I am going to the

city, so that my mother

BOOK XVI

These two in the shelter, Odysseus and the noble

swineherd, stirred the fire at dawn, and arranged their breakfast, and sent

the herdsmen out with the pasturing pigs. At this time the clamorous dogs

came fawning around Telemachos, nor did 5 they bark at him as he came,

and great Odysseus noticed

that the dogs were fawning; above them he heard the loud noise of

footsteps.

BOOK XV

At this time, Pallas Athene made her way into wide-spaced

Lakedaimon, to remind the shining son of great-hearted

Odysseus of his journey home, and speed his homecoming.

She found Telemachos there with the glorious son of Nestor,

5 sleeping in the forecourt of worshipful Menelaos.