And this I tell thee further, and be sure To keep my words in memory.
As soon As Pallas, goddess of wise counsel, gives The warning, I shall nod to thee, and thou, When thou perceivest it, remove at once All weapons from my halls to a recess High in an upper chamber.
With soft words Quiet the suitors when they ask thee why. Say, ‘I would take them where there comes no smoke, Since now they seem no longer like to those Left by Ulysses when he sailed for Troy, But soiled and tarnished by the breath of fire.
This graver reason, also, Saturn’s son Hath forced upon my mind—that ye by chance, When full of wine and quarrelling, may wound Each other, and disgrace the feast, and bring Shame on your wooing; for the sight of steel Draws men to bloodshed.’
Say but this, and leave Two swords for us, two spears, two oxhide shields, Against the day of combat.
Pallas then, And Jove the All-disposer, will unman Their hearts.
Moreover, let me say to thee— And keep my words in memory—if thou be My son, and of my blood, let no man hear That now Ulysses is within the isle; Let not Laertes hear of it, nor him Who keeps the swine, nor any of the train Of servants, nor Penelope herself, While thou and I alone search out and prove The women of the household, and no less The serving-men, to know who honors us, And bears us reverence in his heart, and who Contemns us, and dishonors even thee.”
Then answered his illustrious son and said: