soiled garments with a goat-skin hat on his head which but increased
his sorrow. At the sight Odysseus was moved to tears of compassion.
Yet even then he could not refrain from his wiles, for he told how he
had indeed seen Odysseus though five years before. In despair the old
man took the dust in his hands and cast it about his head in mighty
grief.

"Then Odysseus' spirit was moved and the stinging throb smote his
nostrils. Clinging to his father he kissed him and told him he was
indeed his son, returned after twenty years."

For a moment the old man doubted, but believed when Odysseus showed
the scar and told him the number and names of the trees they had
planted together in their orchard.

Meanwhile news of the death of the wooers had run through the city.
The father of Antinous raised a tumult and led a body of armed men to
demand satisfaction. The threatening uproar was stopped by the
intervention of Athena who thus completed the restoration of her
favourite as she had begun it.

* * * * *

It is strange that this poem, which is such a favourite with modern
readers, should have made a less deep impression on the Greeks. To
them, Homer is nearly always the _Iliad_, possibly because Achilles
was semi-divine, whereas Odysseus was a mere mortal. But the latter is
for that very reason of more importance to us, we feel him to be more
akin to our own life. Further, the type of character which Odysseus
stands for is really far nobler than the fervid and somewhat incalculable