hear her voice, and then is to advance to the deed. This process we may
look at in four different stages, as they unfold on the lines laid down
by the poet.

1. First we have quite a full picture of Ulysses before he reaches the
recognition of the Divine, and of his gradual climbing-up to that
point. At the start he is asleep, is not even conscious of the external
world about him, he has indeed entered a new realm, yet old. As long as
the Phaeacian spell is upon him, he can do nought but slumber. Then he
wakes, he sees but does not recognize his own country. He doubts, he
blames the Phaeacians wrongfully, in his distrust of them he counts over
his treasures. He is now the unwise, capricious man; he has no
perception of Pallas; not only the land is in disguise to him, he is in
disguise to himself, to his better self.

Yet the poet is careful to mark the providential purpose just in this
disguise. The Goddess threw a mist over things, that he might not know
them, or make himself known till all was in readiness for the
destruction of the Suitors, till she had told him what he had to do.
Still it is his own act or state that he cannot at first hear the voice
of the Goddess.

The next step is that he recognizes the country, it is described to him
and named by Pallas. But she is in disguise now; she has appeared, but
not in her true form; she is not yet wisdom, but simply identifies the
land, telling him: "This is Ithaca." Thus he recognizes the external
landscape, but not the Goddess, who is as yet but a simple shepherd
describing things.

Now what will he do? He also will disguise himself to the shepherd,
because he does not recognize who it is. He makes up a fable to account
for his presence and for his goods. Both are now in disguise, the man
and deity, to each other. They are doing the same thing, they are one,
with that thin veil of concealment between them.

Then comes the mutual recognition. She tears away the veil, laughs at
his artifice, and calls out her own designation: Pallas Athena. She had
previously named Ithaca, which brings the recognition of the outer
world; now she names herself, which brings the recognition of the
divine world. Thus Ulysses has rapidly passed from sleep through a
series of non-cognizant states, till he beholds the Goddess.

2. Both the deity and mortal have now reached the stage of mutual
recognition, and thrown off their mutual disguise, which was a false
relation, though it ofte