Thus she spake, and goodly Odysseus was glad in the omen of the voice and in the thunder of Zeus; for he thought that he had gotten his vengeance on the guilty.

Now the other maidens in the fair halls of Odysseus had gathered, and were kindling on the hearth the never-resting fire.  And Telemachus rose from his bed, a godlike man, and put on his raiment, and slung a sharp sword about his shoulders, and beneath his shining feet he bound his goodly sandals.  And he caught up his mighty spear shod with sharp bronze, and went and stood by the threshold, and spake to Eurycleia: 

’Dear nurse, have ye honoured our guest in the house with food and couch, or does he lie uncared for, as he may?  For this is my mother’s way, wise as she is:  blindly she honours one of mortal men, even the worse, but the better she sends without honour away.’

Then the prudent Eurycleia answered:  ’Nay, my child, thou shouldst not now blame her where no blame is.  For the stranger sat and drank wine, so long as he would, and of food he said he was no longer fain, for thy mother asked him.  Moreover, against the hour when he should bethink him of rest and sleep, she bade the maidens strew for him a bed.  But he, as one utterly wretched and ill-fated, refused to lie on a couch and under blankets, but on an undressed hide and on the fleeces of sheep he slept in the vestibule, and we cast a mantle over him.’

So she spake, and Telemachus passed out through the hall with his lance in his hand, and two fleet dogs bare him company.  He went on his way to the assembly-place to join the goodly-greaved Achaeans.  But the good lady Eurycleia, daughter of Ops son of Peisenor, called aloud to her maidens: 

’Come hither, let some of you go busily and sweep the hall, and sprinkle it, and on the fair-fashioned seats throw purple coverlets, and others with sponges wipe all the tables clean, and cleanse the mixing bowls and well-wrought double beakers, and others again go for water to the well, and return with it right speedily.  For the wooers will not long be out of the hall but will return very early, for it is a feast day, yea for all the people.’

So she spake, and they all gave ready ear and hearkened.  Twenty of them went to the well of dark water, and the others there in the halls were busy with skilful hands.

Then in came the serving-men of the Achaeans.  Thereon they cleft the faggots well and cunningly, while, behold, the women came back from the well.  Then the swineherd joined them leading three fatted boars, the best in all the flock.  These he left to feed at large in the fair courts, but as for him he spake to Odysseus gently, saying: 

’Tell me, stranger, do the Achaeans at all look on thee with more regard, or do they dishonour thee in the halls, as heretofore?’

Then Odysseus of many counsels answered him saying: 

’Oh, that the gods, Eumaeus, may avenge the scorn wherewith these men deal insolently, and devise infatuate deeds in another’s house, and have no place for shame!’