ut you must still endure in silence, and tell no one
that Ulysses has returned."

And Ulysses made answer, "It is hard, goddess, for a mortal to know you,
wise though he may be, for you come in many shapes. Truly I have known
your kindness from of old in Troy, but when we went on board the ships, I
never saw you at my side again. Tell me, I pray you, if this is Ithaca
indeed, my native land."

Then the goddess answered, "I see, Ulysses, that you keep your ready wit
and steadfast mind. I could not show myself your friend before for fear of
angering Neptune, my own father's brother. But come now, and I will show
you Ithaca; there is the haven and the olive with its slender leaves, and
the cave where you once made many an offering to the water nymphs."

And then she rolled away the mist, and the long-suffering hero rejoiced to
see his native land again. He kissed the kindly earth, and vowed to the
nymphs that he would bring them offerings as of old if he lived to see his
dear son a man.

Then the goddess bade him be of good cheer, and showed him a hiding-place
in the cavern for the gifts. And then they sat down by the trunk of the
olive-tree, and Athene told him all the misdeeds of the suitors, and how
his wife had beguiled them and kept them waiting till his return, and how
he must avenge himself and her.

Then Ulysses said, "Truly, I should have perished in my own halls, like
Agamemnon, if you had not warned me. Help me, therefore, with your wisdom,
and stand beside me again and put strength and courage within me as in the
days of Troy. For with you by my side I could fight against three hundred
men."

And Pallas Athene made answer, "I will be with you, Ulysses, when the hour
of the conflict is come, and the blood of the suitors who eat up your
substance shall be shed at last. But now I will change you into a poor
beggar, so old and so wretched that no one will know you, and in that
guise you must go and stay with the herdsman Eumaeus, who tends your swine,
until I have brought your son Telemachus from Sparta, where he has gone to
seek tidings of you."

Then she touched him with her magic wand, and the fair flesh withered on
his limbs, and the golden locks fell from his head, and he was changed
into an old man. His skin was shriveled and his bright eyes dimmed, and
for his covering she gave him a tattered wrap, begrimed with smoke, and a
worn deerskin on his shoulder, and a wallet and a staff in his hand.

Then