“Do so, my child,” answered Eurycleia, “but first wash and anoint thyself, and go not among them with this tear-stained face.  And waste not thy life in perpetual mourning; think what a comfort thou hast in thy son.”

“Speak not to me of such vanities,” answered Penelope; “why should I wish to preserve this poor remnant of my beauty?  Foul or fair, what matters it in my widowed state?  But send two of my handmaids hither to attend me, for it is not seemly that I should go alone among the men.”

While the nurse was gone to fetch the maidens, a sudden drowsiness overpowered Penelope, and she sank back in her chair, subdued by a short but trancelike sleep.  And while she slumbered, invisible hands were busy with her person, washing away all the stains which sorrow had left on her face, and shedding upon her immortal loveliness, such as clothes the Queen of Love herself, when she joins the sister Graces in the dance.  The voices of the women entering her chamber roused her from that strange sleep, and sitting up she rubbed her cheeks and said:  “Wondrous soft was the slumber which overtook me in my sorrow!  Would that it were death which had come upon me with like softness, that I might no longer waste away in mourning for the excellence of my dear, dear lord!”

Thereupon she arose, and descending the stairs stood in the open doorway of the hall, with a handmaid on either side.  A murmur of surprise and admiration went round the whole company, for never had she seemed so wondrous fair.  Turning to Telemachus she said:  “My son, with grief I perceive that thy understanding increaseth not with thy growth, but rather becometh less.  Who would think, seeing thee thus tall and comely, like a prince’s true son, that thou wouldst suffer such deeds to be wrought upon the stranger within thy gates?  What if he had come by his death through this violence?  What shame and infamy to thee!”

“Mother,” answered Telemachus, “thou hast some reason for thine anger.  Howbeit, I have a man’s wit, and am not, as thou sayest, more foolish than a child.  But what can one do against so many?  And as to this stranger, thou wouldst know that thy fears are idle, if thou couldst see Irus as he now sits at the gate, rolling his head like a drunkard, with no strength to stand on his feet or stir from his place.  Would that all the wooers were in the same plight!”

While Telemachus was defending himself, Eurymachus had been gazing with bold eyes on that fair lady; and now he addressed her with smooth words of flattery:  “Daughter of Icarius, sage Penelope, if all the Greeks could behold thee as now thou art, this house would not contain the multitude of thy wooers.  Thou surpassest all the daughters of men in beauty, and in stature, and in thy even-balanced wit”