Then wise Telemachus answered him, saying:  ’All the more grievous it is! yet will we let him be, though we sorrow thereat.  For if men might in any wise have all their will, we should before ought else choose the day of my father’s returning.  But do thou when thou hast told the tidings come straight back, and go not wandering through the fields after Laertes.  But speak to my mother that with all speed she send forth the house-dame her handmaid, secretly, for she might bear tidings to the old man.’

With that word he roused the swineherd, who took his sandals in his hands and bound them beneath his feet and departed for the city.  Now Athene noted Eumaeus the swineherd pass from the steading, and she drew nigh in the semblance of a woman fair and tall, and skilled in splendid handiwork.  And she stood in presence manifest to Odysseus over against the doorway of the hut; but it was so that Telemachus saw her not before him and marked her not; for the gods in no wise appear visibly to all.  But Odysseus was ware of her and the dogs likewise, which barked not, but with a low whine shrank cowering to the far side of the steading.  Then she nodded at him with bent brows, and goodly Odysseus perceived it, and came forth from the room, past the great wall of the yard, and stood before her, and Athene spake to him, saying: 

’Son of Laertes, of the seed of Zeus, Odysseus of many devices, now is the hour to reveal thy word to thy son, and hide it not, that ye twain having framed death and doom for the wooers, may fare to the famous town.  Nor will I, even I, be long away from you, being right eager for battle.’

Therewith Athene touched him with her golden wand.  First she cast about his breast a fresh linen robe and a doublet, and she increased his bulk and bloom.  Dark his colour grew again, and his cheeks filled out, and the black beard spread thick around his chin.

Now she, when she had so wrought, withdrew again, but Odysseus went into the hut, and his dear son marvelled at him and looked away for very fear lest it should be a god, and he uttered his voice and spake to him winged words: 

’Even now, stranger, thou art other in my sight than that thou wert a moment since, and other garments thou hast, and the colour of thy skin is no longer the same.  Surely thou art a god of those that keep the wide heaven.  Nay then, be gracious, that we may offer to thee well-pleasing sacrifices and golden gifts, beautifully wrought; and spare us I pray thee.’

Then the steadfast goodly Odysseus answered him, saying:  ’Behold, no god am I; why likenest thou me to the immortals? nay, thy father am I, for whose sake thou sufferest many pains and groanest sore, and submittest thee to the despite of men,’

At the word he kissed his son, and from his cheeks let a tear fall to earth:  before, he had stayed the tears continually.  But Telemachus (for as yet he believed not that it was his father) answered in turn and spake, saying: