So they spake, and goodly Odysseus rejoiced in the omen of the words.  And Antinous set by him the great pudding, stuffed with fat and blood, and Amphinomus took up two loaves from the basket, and set them by him and pledged him in a golden cup, and spake saying: 

’Father and stranger, hail! may happiness be thine in the time to come; but as now, thou art fast holden in many sorrows.’

And Odysseus of many counsels answered him saying:  ’Amphinomus, verily thou seemest to me a prudent man enough; for such too was the father of whom thou art sprung, for I have heard the fair fame of him, how that Nisus of Dulichium was a good man and a rich, and his son they say thou art, and thou seemest a man of understanding.  Wherefore I will tell thee, and do thou mark and listen to me.  Nought feebler doth the earth nurture than man, of all the creatures that breathe and move upon the face of the earth.  Lo, he thinks that he shall never suffer evil in time to come, while the gods give him happiness, and his limbs move lightly.  But when again the blessed gods have wrought for him sorrow, even so he bears it, as he must, with a steadfast heart.  For the spirit of men upon the earth is even as their day, that comes upon them from the father of gods and men.  Yea, and I too once was like to have been prosperous among men, but many an infatuate deed I did, giving place to mine own hardihood and strength, and trusting to my father and my brethren.  Wherefore let no man for ever be lawless any more, but keep quietly the gifts of the gods, whatsoever they may give.  Such infatuate deeds do I see the wooers devising, as they waste the wealth, and hold in no regard the wife of a man, who, methinks, will not much longer be far from his friends and his own land; nay he is very near.  But for thee, may some god withdraw thee hence to thy home, and mayst thou not meet him in the day when he returns to his own dear country!  For not without blood, as I deem, will they be sundered, the wooers and Odysseus, when once he shall have come beneath his own roof.’

Thus he spake, and poured an offering and then drank of the honey-sweet wine, and again set the cup in the hands of the arrayer of the people.  But the other went back through the hall, sad at heart and bowing his head; for verily his soul boded evil.  Yet even so he avoided not his fate, for Athene had bound him likewise to be slain outright at the hands and by the spear of Telemachus.  So he sat down again on the high seat whence he had arisen.

Now the goddess, grey-eyed Athene, put it into the heart of the daughter of Icarius, wise Penelope, to show herself to the wooers, that she might make their heart all flutter with hope, and that she might win yet more worship from her lord and her son than heretofore.  To she laughed an idle laugh, and spake to the nurse, and hailed her, saying: 

’Eurynome, my heart yearns, though before I had no such desire, to show myself to the wooers, hateful as they are.  I would also say a word to my son, that will be for his weal, namely, that he should not for ever consort with the proud wooers, who speak friendly with their lips, but imagine evil in the latter end.’