Page:The Odyssey of Homer, with the Hymns, Epigrams, and Battle of the Frogs and Mice (Buckley 1853).djvu/350

314 then wash yourselves, and put on tunics, and order the handmaidens in the palace to take their garments: and let the divine bard, having the tuneful harp, lead for us the sport-loving dance, that any one may say it is a marriage, hearing it from without, either going along the way, or [if he be of those] who dwell around: lest the wide rumour of the slaughter of the suitors should arise throughout the city, before we go out to our much-wooded farm: there then will we consider, what gain Jove will vouchsafe us."

Thus he spoke; and they heard him well, and obeyed: first then they washed themselves, and put on tunics; and the women made themselves ready, and the divine bard took the hollow harp, and stirred up amongst them the desire of the sweet song, and the harmless dance. And the great house resounded around with the feet of men and beautiful-girded women, sporting. And thus some one said, hearing it from without the dwelling:

"Of a truth, indeed, some one has married the much-wooed queen: foolish woman! nor has she endured to guard the large house of her virgin husband continually, until that he should come."

Thus indeed some one said; but they knew not these things, how they were done. And the housekeeper, Eurynome, washed magnanimous Ulysses in his own house, and anointed him with oil; and she threw a beautiful robe around him, and a tunic. But Minerva shed much beauty down from his head, [and made him] taller and larger to behold: and from his head she sent down curled hair, like unto an hyacinthine flower. As when some skilful man pours gold around silver, whom Vulcan and Pallas Minerva have taught all kinds of art, and he executes graceful works: so around his head and shoulders did she pour grace. And he went out of the bath in person like unto the immortals: and he sat down again on the throne, from whence he arose, opposite his wife, and addressed her in words:

"Honoured lady, they who possess the Olympian houses have given thee a heart hard above female women: no other woman indeed would thus, with enduring mind, have stood away from her husband, who, having suffered many ills, had reached his paternal land in the twentieth year. But