So he spake, and the mighty prince Telemachus heard him and quickly spake to his father at his side:  ’Hold thy hand, and wound not this blameless man with the sword; and let us save also the henchman Medon, that ever had charge of me in our house when I was a child, unless perchance Philoetius or the swineherd have already slain him, or he hath met thee in thy raging through the house.’

So he spake, and Medon, wise of heart, heard him.  For he lay crouching beneath a high seat, clad about in the new-flayed hide of an ox and shunned black fate.  So he rose up quickly from under the seat, and cast off the ox-hide, and sprang forth and caught Telemachus by the knees, and besought him and spake winged words: 

’Friend, here am I; prithee stay thy hand and speak to thy father, lest he harm me with the sharp sword in the greatness of his strength, out of his anger for the wooers that wasted his possessions in the halls, and in their folly held thee in no honour.’

And Odysseus of many counsels smiled on him and said:  ’Take courage, for lo, he has saved thee and delivered thee, that thou mayst know in thy heart, and tell it even to another, how far more excellent are good deeds than evil.  But go forth from the halls and sit down in the court apart from the slaughter, thou and the full-voiced minstrel, till I have accomplished all that I must needs do in the house.’

Therewith the two went forth and gat them from the hall.  So they sat down by the altar of great Zeus, peering about on every side, still expecting death.  And Odysseus peered all through the house, to see if any man was yet alive and hiding away to shun black fate.  But he found all the sort of them fallen in their blood in the dust, like fishes that the fishermen have drawn forth in the meshes of the net into a hollow of the beach from out the grey sea, and all the fish, sore longing for the salt sea waves, are heaped upon the sand, and the sun shines forth and takes their life away; so now the wooers lay heaped upon each other.  Then Odysseus of many counsels spake to Telemachus: 

’Telemachus, go, call me the nurse Eurycleia, that I may tell her a word that is on my mind.’

So he spake, and Telemachus obeyed his dear father, and smote at the door, and spake to the nurse Eurycleia:  ’Up now, aged wife, that overlookest all the women servants in our halls, come hither, my father calls thee and has somewhat to say to thee.’

Even so he spake, and wingless her speech remained, and she opened the doors of the fair-lying halls, and came forth, and Telemachus led the way before her.  So she found Odysseus among the bodies of the dead, stained with blood and soil of battle, like a lion that has eaten of an ox of the homestead and goes on his way, and all his breast and his cheeks on either side are flecked with blood, and he is terrible to behold; even so was Odysseus stained, both hands and feet.  Now the nurse, when she saw the bodies of the dead and the great gore of blood, made ready to cry aloud for joy, beholding so great an adventure.  But Odysseus checked and held her in her eagerness, and uttering his voice spake to her winged words: