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Authors of Greece by T. W. Lumb
page 42 of 260 (16%)
sue for wedlock with the daughter of a rich man and contend among
themselves. Such men offer oxen and stout cattle and glorious gifts;
they will never consume another's substance without payment."

Stung by the taunt, they gave her the accustomed presents, while
Odysseus rejoiced that she flattered their heart in soft words with a
different intent in her spirit. The insolence of the suitors was
matched by the pertness of the serving maids, of whom Melantho was the
most impudent. A threat from Odysseus drew down upon him the wrath of
the suitors who were with difficulty persuaded by Telemachus to depart
home to their beds.

That night Odysseus and his son removed the arms from the walls, the
latter being told to urge as a pretext for his action the necessity of
cleaning from them the rust and of removing a temptation to violence
when the suitors were heated with wine. At the promised interview with
his wife Odysseus again pretended he was a Cretan; describing the very
dress which Odysseus had worn, he assured her that he would soon
return with the many treasures which he had collected. Half persuaded
by the exact description of a garment she had herself made, she bade
her maids look to him, but he would not suffer any of them to approach
him save his old nurse Eurycleia. As she was washing him in the dim
light of the fireside her fingers touched the old scar above his knee,
the result of an accident in a boar-hunt during his youth.

"Dropping the basin she fell backwards; joy and grief took her
heart at once, her eyes filled with tears and her utterance was
checked. Catching him by his beard, she said: 'In very sooth thou
art Odysseus, my dear boy; and I knew thee not before I had touched
the body of my lord.' So speaking she looked at Penelope, fain to
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