_Book II._ With dawn, Telemachus rises and betakes himself to the
market-place, where in public council he complains of the suitors'
depredations, and announces he is about to depart in quest of his
sire. In reply to his denunciations the suitors accuse Penelope of
deluding them, instancing how she promised to choose a husband as soon
as she had finished weaving a winding sheet for her father-in-law
Laertes. But, instead of completing this task as soon as possible, she
ravelled by night the work done during the day, until the suitors
discovered the trick.

"The work she plied; but, studious of delay,
By night reversed the labors of the day.
While thrice the sun his annual journey made,
The conscious lamp the midnight fraud survey'd;
Unheard, unseen, three years her arts prevail:
The fourth, her maid unfolds the amazing tale.
We saw as unperceived we took our stand,
The backward labors of her faithless hand"[3]

They now suggest that Telemachus send Penelope back to her father,
but the youth indignantly refuses, and the council closes while he
prays for vengeance. That he has not been unheard is proved by the
appearance of two eagles, which peck out the eyes of some of the
spectators. This is interpreted by an old man as an omen of Ulysses'
speedy return, and he admonishes all present to prove faithful, lest
they incur a master's wrath.

The assembly having dispersed, Telemachus hastens down to the shore,
where Minerva visits him in the guise of his tutor Mentor, and
instructs him to arrange for secret departure. Telemachus, therefore,