Explore "Stories from the Odyssey" by H.L. Havell on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
After giving his orders to Telemachus, Odysseus had retired to refresh himself with the bath, and put on fresh raiment, while Penelope remained seated in her former place. After an interval of some length he re-entered the hall, and sat down face to face with his wife. But what miracle was this? The haggard, timeworn beggar was gone, and in his place sat her husband, as she had known him in the days of old, with the added dignity which he had gained by twenty years of strenuous life. But the frost which had lain upon her spirit during her long period of weary waiting was not easily to be broken, and still she doubted. After a long silence Odysseus spoke, and now for the first time his tones had a ring of reproach: "Still not a word for thy husband, who has come back to thee after twenty years? Surely the very demon of unbelief possesses thee! " Even then Penelope made no answer, for she was waiting to put the final test, and at length Odysseus gave her the opportunity.
"Go, Eurycleia," he said, "and prepare a bed for me; I will leave this iron-hearted wife and go to my rest."