Therewith the goddess plunged into the shadowy cave, searching out the chambers of the cavern.  Meanwhile Odysseus brought up his treasure, the gold and the unyielding bronze and fair woven raiment, which the Phaeacians gave him.  And these things he laid by with care, and Pallas Athene, daughter of Zeus, lord of the aegis, set a stone against the door of the cave.  Then they twain sat down by the trunk of the sacred olive tree, and devised death for the froward wooers.  And the goddess, grey-eyed Athene, spake first, saying: 

’Son of Laertes, of the seed of Zeus, Odysseus of many devices, advise thee how thou mayest stretch forth thine hands upon the shameless wooers, who now these three years lord it through thy halls, as they woo thy godlike wife and proffer the gifts of wooing.  And she, that is ever bewailing her for thy return, gives hope to all and makes promises to every man and sends them messages, but her mind is set on other things.’

And Odysseus of many counsels answered her, saying: 

’Lo now, in very truth I was like to have perished in my halls by the evil doom of Agamemnon, son of Atreus, hadst not thou, goddess, declared me each thing aright.  Come then, weave some counsel whereby I may requite them; and thyself stand by me, and put great boldness of spirit within me, even as in the day when we loosed the shining coronal of Troy.  If but thou wouldest stand by me with such eagerness, thou grey-eyed goddess, I would war even with three hundred men, with thee my lady and goddess, if thou of thy grace didst succour me the while.’

Then the goddess, grey-eyed Athene, answered him:  ’Yea, verily I will be near thee nor will I forget thee, whensoever we come to this toil:  and methinks that certain of the wooers that devour thy livelihood shall bespatter the boundless earth with blood and brains.  But come, I will make thee such-like that no man shall know thee.  Thy fair skin I will wither on thy supple limbs, and make waste thy yellow hair from off thy head, and wrap thee in a foul garment, such that one would shudder to see a man therein.  And I will dim thy two eyes, erewhile so fair, in such wise that thou mayest be unseemly in the sight of all the wooers and of thy wife and son, whom thou didst leave in thy halls.  And do thou thyself first of all go unto the swineherd, who tends thy swine, loyal and at one with thee, and loves thy son and constant Penelope.  Him shalt thou find sitting by the swine, as they are feeding near the rock of Corax and the spring Arethusa, and there they eat abundance of acorns and drink the black water, things whereby swine grow fat and well-liking.  There do thou abide and sit by the swine, and find out all, till I have gone to Sparta, the land of fair women, to call Telemachus thy dear son, Odysseus, who hath betaken himself to spacious Lacedaemon, to the house of Menelaus to seek tidings of thee, whether haply thou are yet alive.’

And Odysseus of many counsels answered her saying:  ’Nay, wherefore then didst thou not tell him, seeing thou hast knowledge of all?  Was it, perchance, that he too may wander in sorrow over the unharvested seas, and that others may consume his livelihood?’