’Telemachus, we must needs lay by the weapons of war within, every one; and when the wooers miss them and ask thee concerning them, thou shalt beguile them with soft words, saying: 

’Out of the smoke I laid them by, since they were no longer like those that Odysseus left behind him of old, when he went to Troy, but they are wholly marred, so mightily hath passed upon them the vapour of fire.  Moreover some god hath put into my heart this other and greater care, that perchance when ye are heated with wine, ye set a quarrel between you and wound one the other, and thereby shame the feast and the wooing; for iron of itself draws a man thereto.’

Thus he spake, and Telemachus hearkened to his dear father, and called forth to him the nurse Eurycleia and spake to her, saying: 

’Nurse, come now I pray thee, shut up the women in their chambers till I shall have laid by in the armoury the goodly weapons of my father, which all uncared for the smoke dims in the hall, since my father went hence, and I was still but a child.  Now I wish to lay them by where the vapour of the fire will not reach them.’

Then the good nurse Eurycleia answered him, saying:  ’Ah, my child, if ever thou wouldest but take careful thought in such wise as to mind the house, and guard all this wealth!  But come, who shall fetch the light and bear it, if thou hast thy way, since thou wouldest not that the maidens, who might have given light, should go before thee?’

Then wise Telemachus made answer to her:  ’This stranger here, for I will keep no man in idleness who eats of my bread, even if he have come from afar.’

Thus he spake, and wingless her speech remained, and she closed the doors of the fair-lying chambers.  Then they twain sprang up, Odysseus and his renowned son, and set to carry within the helmets and the bossy shields, and the sharp-pointed spears; and before them Pallas Athene bare a golden cresset and cast a most lovely light.  Thereon Telemachus spake to his father suddenly: 

’Father, surely a great marvel is this that I behold with mine eyes; meseems, at least, that the walls of the hall and the fair main-beams of the roof and the cross-beams of pine, and the pillars that run aloft, are bright as it were with flaming fire.  Verily some god is within, of those that hold the wide heaven.’

And Odysseus of many counsels answered him and said:  ’Hold thy peace and keep thy thoughts in check and ask not hereof.  Lo, this is the wont of the gods that hold Olympus.  But do thou go and lay thee down, and I will abide here, that I may yet further provoke the maids ant thy mother to answer; and she in her sorrow will ask me concerning each thing, one by one.’

So he spake, and Telemachus passed out through the hall to his chamber to lie down, by the light of the flaming torches, even to the chamber where of old he took his rest, when sweet sleep came over him.  There now too he lay down and awaited the bright Dawn.  But goodly Odysseus was left behind in the hall, devising with Athene’s aid the slaying of the wooers.