Chapter 23 : The Odyssey / Rendered into English prose for…

Ulysses and Telemachus secretly remove the weapons from the hall, guided by the divine light of Minerva, while Euryclea confines the maids to their quarters. Once the preparations are complete, Telemachus retires to rest, leaving Ulysses alone in the cloister where Penelope comes to meet him. Seated by the hearth, Penelope questions the stranger about his origins, still deeply mourning her long-absent husband and recounting the clever stratagem of the shroud by which she delayed her suitors for three years until her own servants betrayed her. Ulysses fabricates a detailed false identity, claiming to be Aethon from Crete and asserting that he once hosted Ulysses on his way to Troy. As he describes the apparel and companions of her husband with striking accuracy, Penelope is overcome with grief and weeps bitterly. To console her, Ulysses shares recent news that Ulysses is alive, wealthy, and currently among the Thesprotians, predicting that he will return safely home before the end of the current month. Moved by his words, Penelope orders her nurse to provide the traveler with proper hospitality and foot-washing. Euryclea approaches the task and immediately recognizes an old scar on his leg, acquired years ago during a boar hunt on Mount Parnassus with his grandfather Autolycus. Overjoyed and astonished, she realizes the stranger is Ulysses himself, but he swiftly silences her with a stern warning to protect his disguise from the wicked suitors and the disloyal household maids. The faithful nurse promises absolute secrecy, and the chapter concludes with Penelope, still unaware of her husband's true identity, confiding her inner turmoil and debating whether she should remain with her son or finally choose a new husband.