" And still, that is not the end. "How shall I escape
afterward, if I succeed?" Wherein we may note already a hint of the
last Book of the Odyssey. Pallas reproves him, yet gives him assurance.
"If fifty bands of men should surround us," still we shall win, "for I
am a God, and I guard thee always in thy labors." Whereupon Ulysses at
once went to sleep.

The wife Penelope is also having her period of anxiety and of weeping
for her husband; she prays to Diana and wishes for death, being awake.
But when asleep, her unconscious nature asserts itself: "This very
night a man like him lay by me, my heart rejoiced, I thought it no
dream." Such is the contrast between her waking and her sleeping state;
in the one her skepticism, in the other her instinct manifests itself.

II. We now pass to quite a full survey of the servants of the
household. Female slaves have to grind the corn to make bread for the
Suitors; one of these slaves is still at her task, though past
daybreak, she being the weakest of all. Standing at her hand-mill she
utters the ominous word: "O Zeus, ruler, fulfill this wish for me
wretched: may the present feast of the Suitors be their last, they who
have loosed my limbs with painful toil in grinding their barley meal!"
Thus the prayer of the poor overworked slave-woman calls down the
vengeance of the Gods, giving the word of friendly omen to the avenger.
Certainly a most powerful motive; but again we think, how modern it
sounds! Yet ancient too the thought must have been, for here it stands
in Homer truly prophetic of many things.

Eurycleia is the controlling power among the handmaids, of whom there
was a large number; "twenty went to the spring to fetch water, while
others were busy about the house," preparing for the coming banquet.
The swineherd Eumaeus came with three fat porkers; his disloyal
counterpart, Melanthius, also appeared with goats for the feast; both
again show their character to Ulysses. The cowherd Philoetius is now
introduced, in a full account; he is one of the faithful, has charity
for the beggar, and shows his fidelity in a number of points. The
beggar assures him: "Ulysses will return, thou shalt see him slaying
those Suitors," whereupon Philoetius volunteers his aid.

Thus the forces are assembling; the two sides, loyal and disloyal, are
separating more and more, preparatory to the grand struggle. Ulysses in
his disguise has discovered those upon whom he can depend. But the
banquet