The Classic Myths in English Literature and in Art (2nd ed.) (1911): Based Originally on Bulfinch's "Age of Fable" (1855) — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The Classic Myths in English Literature and in Art (2nd ed.) (1911): Based Originally on Bulfinch's "Age of Fable" (1855)
John Stuart Mill · en
Soon as he perceived
Long-lost Ulysses nigh, down fell his ears
Clapped close, and with his tail glad sign he gave
Of gratulation, impotent to rise,
And to approach his master as of old.
Ulysses, noting him, wiped off a tear
Unmarked.
... Then his destiny released
Old Argus, soon as he had lived to see
Ulysses in the twentieth year restored.[350]
[Illustration: FIG. 177. ULYSSES RECOGNIZED BY EURYCLEA]
As Ulysses sat eating his portion in the hall, the suitors soon began
to exhibit their insolence to him. When he mildly remonstrated, one of
them raised a stool and with it gave him a blow. Telemachus had hard
work to restrain his indignation at seeing his father so treated in his
own hall; but, remembering his father's injunctions, said no more than
what became him as master of the house, though young, and protector of
his guests.
Once again was the wanderer all but betrayed;--when his aged nurse
Euryclea, bathing his feet, recognized the scar of a wound dealt him
by a boar, long ago.[351] Grief and joy overwhelmed the crone, and she
would have revealed him to Penelope had not Ulysses enjoined silence
upon her.
Penelope had protracted her decision in favor of any one of her suitors
so long that there seemed to be no further pretense for delay. The
continued absence of her husband seemed to prove that his return was no
longer to be expected. Meanwhile her son had grown up and was able to
manage his own affairs. She therefore consented to submit the question
of her choice to a trial of skill among the suitors. The test selected
was shooting with the bow.[352] Twelve rings were arranged in a line,
and he whose arrow was sent through the whole twelve was to have the
queen for his prize. A bow that one of his brother heroes had given to
Ulysses in former times was brought from the armory and with its quiver
full of arrows was laid in the hall. Telemachus had taken care that all
other weapons should be removed, under pretense that in the heat of
competition there was danger, in some rash moment, of putting them to
an improper use.
[Illustration: FIG. 178. ULYSSES KILLS THE SUITORS
(Left half)]