able; both can meet evil
with evil, and fight the negative with negation.

2. The main purpose of this portion of the interview is to furnish
Penelope with hope. She seems on the point of giving up the long
contest, she has played her last stratagem against the Suitors. Now she
must choose one of them, her parents urge it, her son demands it; there
seems no escape, though she hates the marriage like black Death. In
such a frame of mind, the disguised Ulysses is to divert her thoughts
with a story, to gain her confidence in his honesty, and to give a
strong promise of her husband's speedy return. The manner in which he
puts these three points in succession is worthy of study.

First, he must give some account of himself, of his lineage and of his
connections. Here he employs his old fiction, he feigns a tale, putting
the scene into Crete, and allying himself with the famous stock of
Minos, as well as with the well-known Cretan hero Idomeneus so often
celebrated in the Iliad, whose brother he claimed to be. "There I saw
Ulysses and entertained him." This story of his life has an analogy to
what he told Eumaeus (Book XIV. 199) and Antinous (Book XVII. 425). All
three differ in details, being adjusted to the person and the occasion;
still all are cast into the same general mould, with the scene placed
in the East on the borderland toward Phenicia and with the Trojan war
in the background. It is another Homeric novelette suggesting a life of
adventure on sea and land, and showing sparks of that enterprising
Greek spirit, of which the Odyssey is the best record. But the poet
adds: "So he went on fabricating lies like truth;" which indicates that
he told more than is in the text and completed his story.

In the second place, Penelope applies her test, for she is not so
credulous as to believe every wandering story-teller: "Describe me the
garments he had on." Truly a woman's test. It is needless to say that
Ulysses responds with great precision. She, however, had no suspicion,
which might arise from such a complete account. It is no wonder that
Penelope proposed to entertain this beggar guest, one who has been so
hospitable to her husband, of whom she declares in an outburst of
despair: "I never shall behold him returning home."

At this point the disguised Ulysses makes his third and principal
speech to his wife, imparting to her the hope that Ulysses will return.
This completes his story, introducing the Thesprotians agai