mass, A glorious work; so did the goddess shed Grace o’er his face and form. So from the bath He stepped, like one of the immortals, took The seat from which he rose, right opposite Penelope, and thus addressed the queen:—
“Lady, the dwellers of the Olympian heights Have given thee an impenetrable heart Beyond all other women. Sure I am No other wife could bring herself to bear Such distance from a husband just returned After long hardships, in the twentieth year Of absence, to his native land and her. Come, nurse, prepare a bed, where by myself I may lie down; an iron heart is hers.”
To this the sage Penelope replied: “Nay, sir, ’tis not through pride or disregard, Or through excess of wonder, that I act Thus toward thee. Well do I remember thee As thou wert in the day when thy good ship Bore thee from Ithaca. Bestir thyself, Dame Eurycleia, and make up with care A bed without the chamber, which he framed With his own hands; bear out the massive bed, And lay upon it seemly coverings, Fleeces and mantles for his nightly rest.”