Then wise Penelope answered him:  ’Eurymachus, never can there be fair fame in the land for those that devour and dishonour the house of a prince, but why make ye this thing into a reproach?  But, behold, our guest is great of growth and well-knit, and avows him to be born the son of a good father.  Come then, give ye him the polished bow, that we may see that which is to be.  For thus will I declare my saying, and it shall surely come to pass.  If he shall string the bow and Apollo grant him renown, I will clothe him in a mantle and a doublet, goodly raiment, and I will give him a sharp javelin to defend him against dogs and men, and a two-edged sword and sandals to bind beneath his feet, and I will send him whithersoever his heart and spirit bid him go.’

Then wise Telemachus answered her, saying:  ’My mother, as for the bow, no Achaean is mightier than I to give or to deny it to whomso I will, neither as many as are lords in rocky Ithaca nor in the isles on the side of Elis, the pastureland of horses.  Not one of these shall force me in mine own despite, if I choose to give this bow, yea once and for all, to the stranger to bear away with him.  But do thou go to thine own chamber and mind thine own housewiferies, the loom and distaff, and bid thine handmaids ply their tasks.  But the bow shall be for men, for all, but for me in chief, for mine is the lordship in the house.’

Then in amaze she went back to her chamber, for she laid up the wise saying of her son in her heart.  She ascended to her upper chamber with the women her handmaids, and then was bewailing Odysseus, her dear lord, till grey-eyed Athene cast sweet sleep upon her eyelids.

Now the goodly swineherd had taken the curved bow, and was bearing it, when the wooers all cried out upon him in the halls.  And thus some one of the haughty youths would speak:  ’Whither now art thou bearing the curved bow, thou wretched swineherd, crazed in thy wits?  Lo, soon shall the swift hounds of thine own breeding eat thee hard by thy swine, alone and away from men, if Apollo will be gracious to us and the other deathless gods.’

Even so they spake, and he took and set down the bow in that very place, being affrighted because many cried out on him in the halls.  Then Telemachus from the other side spake threateningly, and called aloud: 

’Father, bring hither the bow, soon shalt thou rue it that thou servest many masters.  Take heed, lest I that am younger than thou pursue thee to the field, and pelt thee with stones, for in might I am the better.  If only I were so much mightier in strength of arm than all the wooers that are in the halls, soon would I send many an one forth on a woeful way from out our house, for they imagine mischief against us.’

So he spake, and all the wooers laughed sweetly at him, and ceased now from their cruel anger toward Telemachus.  Then the swineherd bare the bow through the hall, and went up to wise Odysseus, and set it in his hands.  And he called forth the nurse Eurycleia from the chamber and spake to her: