Homer

“ If a man have slain
One only citizen, who leaves behind
Few interested to avenge his death,
Yet, flying, he forsakes both friends and home;
But we have slain the noblest Princes far
Of Ithaca, on whom our city most
Depended; therefore, I advise thee, think!
Him, prudent, then answer’d Telemachus.
Be that thy care, my father! for report
Proclaims thee shrewdest of mankind, with whom
In ingenuity may none compare.
Lead thou; to follow thee shall be our part
With prompt alacrity; nor shall, I judge,
Courage be wanting to our utmost force.
Thus then replied Ulysses, ever-wise. ”

“ The frame throughout, and from the olive-stump
Beginning, fashion’d the whole bed above
Till all was finish’d, plated o’er with gold,
With silver, and with ivory, and beneath
Close interlaced with purple cordage strong.
Such sign I give thee. But if still it stand
Unmoved, or if some other, sev’ring sheer
The olive from its bottom, have displaced
My bed—that matter is best known to thee.
He ceas’d; she, conscious of the sign so plain
Giv’n by Ulysses, heard with flutt’ring heart
And fault’ring knees that proof. ”

“ She stepp’d, and at her ear, her thus bespake.
Arise, Penelope! dear daughter, see
With thy own eyes thy daily wish fulfill’d.
Ulysses is arrived; hath reach’d at last
His native home, and all those suitors proud
Hath slaughter’d, who his family distress’d,
His substance wasted, and controul’d his son.
To whom Penelope discrete replied.
Dear nurse! the Gods have surely ta’en away
Thy judgment; they transform the wise to fools,
And fools conduct to wisdom, and have marr’d
Thy intellect, who wast discrete before. ”