be so, may the god Zeus give luck to him who tells us of such good
fortune.'

Telemachus was glad because of the kindly speech of the old man. He rose
up to speak and the herald put a staff into his hands as a sign that he
was to be listened to with reverence. Telemachus then spoke, addressing
the old lord AEgyptus.

'I will tell you who it is,' he said, 'who has called the men of Ithaka
together in council, and for what purpose. Revered lord AEgyptus, I have
called you together, but not because I have had tidings of the return of
my father, the renowned Odysseus, nor because I would speak to you about
some affair of our country. No. I would speak to you all because I
suffer and because I am at a loss--I, whose father was King over you,
praised by you all. Odysseus is long away from Ithaka, and I deem that
he will never return. You have lost your King. But you can put another
King to rule over you. I have lost my father, and I can have no other
father in all my days. And that is not all my loss, as I will show you
now, men of Ithaka.

'For three years now my mother has been beset by men who come to woo her
to be wife for one of them. Day after day they come to our house and
kill and devour our beasts and waste the wine that was laid up against
my father's return. They waste our goods and our wealth. If I were
nearer manhood I would defend my house against them. But as yet I am
not able to do it, and so I have to stand by and see our house and
substance being destroyed.'

So Telemachus spoke, and when his speech was ended Antinous, who was one
of the wooers, rose up.

'Telemachus,' said he, 'why do you try to put us to shame in this way? I
tell all here that it is not we but your mother who is to blame. We,
knowing her husband Odysseus is no longer in life, have asked her to
become the wife of one of us. She gives us no honest answer. Instead she
has given her mind to a device to keep us still waiting.

'I will tell you of the council what this device is. The lady Penelope
set up a great loom in her house and began to weave a wide web of cloth.
To each of us she sent a message saying that when the web she was
working at was woven, she would choose a husband from amongst us.
"Laertes, the father of Odysseus, is alone with none to care for him
living or dead," said she to us. "I must weave a shroud for him against
the time which cannot now be far off when old Laertes dies. Trouble me
not while I do this. For if he