into a deep sleep. And as she slept, the goddess Pallas Athene bathed
her face in the Water of Beauty and took all weariness away from her
body, and restored all her youthfulness to her. The sound of the
handmaidens' voices as they came in awakened her, and Penelope rose up
to go into the hall.

Now when she came amongst them with her two handmaidens, one standing
each side of her, the wooers were amazed, for they had never seen one so
beautiful. The hearts of all were enchanted with love for her, and each
prayed that he might have her for his wife.

Penelope did not look on any of the wooers, but she went to her son,
Telemachus, and spoke to him.

'Telemachus,' she said, 'I have heard that a stranger has been
ill-treated in this house. How, my child, didst thou permit such a thing
to happen?'

Telemachus said, 'My lady mother, thou hast no right to be angered at
what took place in this hall.'

So they spoke to one another, mother and son. Now one of the wooers,
Eurymachus by name, spoke to Penelope, saying:

'Lady, if any more than we beheld thee in the beauty thou hast now, by
so many more wouldst thou have wooers to-morrow.'

'Speak not so to me, lord Eurymachus,' said Penelope, 'speak not of my
beauty, which departed in the grief I felt when my lord went to the wars
of Troy.'

[Illustration]

Odysseus stood up, and gazed upon his wife who was standing amongst her
wooers. Eurymachus noted him and going to him, said, 'Stranger, wouldst
thou be my hireling? If thou wouldst work on my upland farm, I should
give thee food and clothes. But I think thou art practised only in
shifts and dodges, and that thou wouldst prefer to go begging thy way
through the country.'

Odysseus, standing there, said to that proud wooer, 'Lord Eurymachus, if
there might be a trial of labour between us two, I know which of us
would come out the better man. I would that we two stood together, a
scythe in the hands of each, and a good swath of meadow to be mown--then
would I match with thee, fasting from dawn until evening's dark. Or
would that we were set ploughing together. Then thou shouldst see who
would plough the longest and the best furrow! Or would that we two were
in the ways of war! Then shouldst thou see who would be in the front
rank of battle. Thou dost think thyself a great man. But if Odysseus
should return, that door, wide as it is, would be too narrow for thy
flight.'

So angry was Eurymachus at this speech that he