Like one o’ercome with wine, nor can he stand Upon his feet, nor go to where he dwells, If home he has, so feeble are his limbs.”
So talked the twain awhile; then interposed Eurymachus, and thus bespake the queen:—
“Sage daughter of Icarius! if all those Who in Iäsian Argos have their homes Should once behold thee, a still larger crowd Of suitors would tomorrow come and feast Within thy halls, so much dost thou excel In mind and form and face all womankind.”
To this the sage Penelope replied: “Eurymachus, the immortals took away Such grace of form and face as once was mine, What time the sons of Argos sailed for Troy, And with them went Ulysses, my espoused. Should he return, and take again in charge My household, greater would my glory be, And prized more highly. I am wretched now, Such woes the gods have heaped upon my head. He, when he left his native island, grasped My right hand at the wrist, and said to me: ‘Think not, dear wife, that all the well-armed Greeks Will come back safe from Troy. The Trojan men, They say, are brave in war, expert to cast The spear and wing the arrow, skilled to rein The rapid steeds by which the bloody strife Of battlefields is hurried to its close; And therefore whether God will bring me back, Or I shall fall in Troy, I cannot know. Take charge of all things here. I leave with thee My father and my mother in these halls. Be kind to them as now, nay, more than now, Since I shall not be here. When thou shalt see My son a bearded man, take to thyself A husband, whom thou wilt, and leave thy house.’ Such were his words, and they have been fulfilled. The night will come in which I must endure This hateful marriage, wretched that I am, To whom the will of Jupiter forbids All consolation, and this bitter thought Weighs evermore upon my heart and soul. The custom was not thus in other times; When suitors wooed a noble wife, the child Of some rich house, contending for her smile, They came with beeves and fatling sheep to feast The damsel’s friends, and gave munificent gifts, But wasted not the wealth that was not theirs.”