By daybreak on the morning after I had been reunited with Odysseus my father, I was ready and eager to get to the city and tell my mother I was alive. I put on my sandals and grabbed my spear and told Eumaeus my mother would only be satisfied when she saw me in the flesh and instructed him to take Odysseus, my father, to the city and let him beg for food. I quickly strode to the city, all the time consumed by thought of the dreaded suitors and the justice that my father would soon bring about.
The first person to spot me was Eurycleia, and once she had seen me and started crying loudly, all the maids came out to greet me. Mother must have heard the commotion because she came out too and was, naturally, very relieved and delighted to see me. But it was not the time for emotions to run high, so I simply instructed her to go and wash and dress nicely (knowing, of course that father was back) and went to find Theoclemenus. We went and washed and ate together and then mother, who was there too, asked me if I had heard anything of father. O I told her everything I had learned on my travels, including what Menelaus had said about father being trapped with Calypso. Mother was moved to hear this, but then Theoclemenus gave us a very heartfelt prophecy that father was in Ithaca right then, plotting revenge. I had to conceal my smile at this, having spent the night before talking with my long-lost father and being the sole owner of the knowledge that he was definitely in the country. While all this was going on, our unwelcome houseguests naturally continued acting how they liked and killing our animals for their banquets.
Father later told me that meanwhile, he and Eumaeus were making their way to the town and they met up with an unfortunate goatherd named Melanthius who hurled much abuse at them and even tried to kick father and curse me, but father did not retaliate. Eumaeus cursed him and eventually they were left to continue on their ay. But father remembered the goatherd who had treated him so badly and swore vengeance. They were standing outside the palace considering how they should go in, when father saw Argus the hound. That dog was as old as me, and had been raised by father. Odysseus told me it was very moving for him to see Argus again after so long, but as soon as the dog saw its master again, it died.
All this apparently happened while we were feasting with the suitors and when Eumaeus entered the palace after the meeting with the dog, I was the first to spot him. I invited him to our table and he was given food. My father entered soon after, looking like a filthy beggar. I gave Eumaeus a loaf of bread and told him to give it to father and tell him to go and beg off every suitor in the room so that he would be able to see for himself which ones were the good and the bad. Father went round egging and they gave him food, but then Melanthius the goatherd revealed that Eumaeus had brought father to town and Antinous turned to Eumaeus, shouting at him for bring more unwanted people to the town when there were too many beggars already. Antinous loves to get people angry, as I well know and so when Eumaeus responded angrily, I reprimanded him and told Antinous what I thought of him and accused him of being so greedy that he begrudged a beggar a little bit of bread. Obviously, Antinous did not like that and everything escalated from there and after father had told a fake story of his misfortune and accused Antinous of greed and selfishness. So Antinous threw the stool he was holding at father. I was shocked and felt very sorry for my father, because he is such a brave and strong warrior who has seen so much but could not yet reveal his true identity and so had to suffer that terrible indignity. Maybe a younger me might have cried, but I knew I had to be strong so my thoughts turned instead to revenge. Even the other suitors were shocked by Antinous' actions and told him he may live to regret what he did, as I knew he would.
A bit later, mother summoned Eumaeus to go and get my father, "the beggar" to tell her his story, when suddenly, I felt compelled to sneeze. I sneezed very loudly, which mother heard and took to mean that I had sneezed a blessing on all she said. But Eumaeus returned alone, reporting that the beggar did not want to meet with her until after sundown because he was unwilling to face the suitors again. Eumaeus took me aside and told me quietly that he was returning to the farm, that everything at the palace was up to me now and to make sure I looked after myself. I was very glad for all the help and support he'd offered my father and I in our hour of need and I promised to look after the palace while he was gone with the assistance of the gods, of course.
The next morning, there was a commotion out on the porch, so the suitors and I went to look. My father Odysseus was there, arguing with Irus, the beggar who has begged in Ithaca as long as I can remember. They were threatening to fight each other for the right to beg there. The suitors all found this hilarious and egged them on, Antinous even offering a reward to the winner of stuffed goats' paunches. I must admit it was quite amusing to watch as I was the only person there who was aware of exactly who "the stranger" was, and that he would easily be able to win in a fight with a weak beggar, even if the beggar had the advantage of youth. Father made everyone present promise not to get involved in the fight and let them fight it themselves, fairly, which everyone did. I played my part, speaking as if I did not know my father, reassuring him that no one would interfere in the fight. Then both the contestants tucked up their rags in preparation for the fight, Odysseus revealing his immense muscles and great power and Irus revealing that he really was not prepared to fight a man of such obvious strength. All the suitors were surprised to see such powerful muscles on the man they had looked down on and commented on how badly Irus was going to lose. Antinous, being the sympathetic and kind man he is shouted at Irus for being scared, threatening him with a certain and cruel death at the hands of King Echetus the Destroyer if he lost the fight.
So Irus was terrified and the fight started. It was a very swift bout, as Irus attempted to hit my father and he dodged it and hit Irus hard on the neck, causing him to fall to the floor screaming and bleeding from the mouth. Father dragged him out to the portico gate and he said something we could not quite hear to him. All the suitors found the whole thing very funny and congratulated my father and wished him all his heart's desires, which make me smile as they were unwittingly wishing their own horrible deaths. I caught my father's eye and we shared this moment of gladness.
After dinner, mother came to speak to me, looking particularly beautiful, a fact duly noted by all of the noble suitors. She told me that my sense and judgement were not as good as they had been when I was just a boy because I allowed the fight between Irus and the beggar. I accepted her criticism, because she was not aware of the true identity of the beggar and I could understand her reasons. I also told her I was tired of always being "sensible Telemachus", always having to do the right and thoughtful thing. Then mother did something that made me quite proud. She stood up there and reprimanded the suitors for their actions and demanded that they bring her gifts. Although she may have been encouraging them by saying she was nearly willing to marry, she was at least finally getting something back from the scroungers who had been living off us for decades. They immediately sent off their squire to fetch gifts for my mother, and she went off to look at them with her maids.
Father, the suitors and I were left in the hall along with some of Odysseus' maids, who were feeding the fire. I overheard my father offer to do that job for them so that they could sleep. But Melantho, who is pretty, but treacherous (she is Eurymachus' mistress) simply mocked him, telling him to go and find lodgings somewhere else. Then father threatened to tell me what she had said, which pleased me because it showed he thought of me as a man and the master of the house, which is much more than the suitors ever did. After this, the maids all ran away and the suitors began abusing my father more, mocking him cruelly. Father responded equally, which angered them and Eurymachus attempted to do what Antinous had before him and grabbed a stool to hurl at my father. Father ducked and the stool hit the wine porter, who dropped the goblet with a clang. All at once the hall was once again in uproar, with all the suitors shouting at my father and blaming him for the commotion. So I, emboldened by my father's previous words stood up and politely suggested that the suitors might want to leave the palace for the night. Amazingly, they actually complied and once they had completed their libations, each returned to their own home.
My father and I were left alone in the hall and the cunning Odysseus seized the opportunity to work on the plan. He told me to remove all the weapons and had even come up with a plausible reason to give the suitors. So I called Eurycleia and instructed her to keep all the women inside while we carried out this task. As we were stowing away the weapons, the walls and alcoves were lit up by some divine light, but when I commented on this in awe, my father told me to be quiet and sent me to bed. So, of course I obeyed his wishes, leaving him alone to talk to my mother.
While I was lying in my bedchamber, my thoughts filled with revenge, but also joy at my father's homecoming, there was much activity downstairs, according to the servant girls' gossip. Melantho resumed her abuse once my threatening presence had been removed and this time mother told her off too, threatening her with a terrible fate. Then my father and my mother, reunited after twenty years, sat together and talked long into the night. He fabricated some story to tell her, as the time was not right to reveal his true identity. And she in turn told him (truthfully) of all the events right here in Ithaca. Father's lies were so good that he moved his wife to tears. Seeing her tears, he then apparently told her Odysseus was definitely returning soon to Ithaca and was close by. If only she had known quite how close! Mother was so delighted by his news that she invited father to accept a warm and cosy bed for the night as well as a bath. However, he declined the offer of a bed, and a bath but accepted a foot wash, requesting that Eurycleia be the one to do it. But as they were preparing, Eurycleia noted the striking similarities between Odysseus and "the stranger". My cunning father dodged this, saying he gets that a lot, but later, once she was bathing his feet and legs, she noticed something that almost unmistakably signalled the stranger to be Odysseus, king of Ithaca. She noticed a scar that he has above his right knee, which he acquired many years ago out hunting before I was even born. Having been his nurse and maid for so long, she knows him as well as anyone, so she knew when she saw that scar that her master had returned.
My father knew that she had worked out his true identity, and saw her glace at my mother across the room. Anticipating her intention, her grabbed her by the throat and made her promise not to tell. Had his identity been revealed at that point, he would never have been able to overthrow the suitors.
My mother then called to father and asked him to interpret a dream she had had in which Odysseus returned and killed all the suitors. He told her Odysseus was close and would return soon. She told him about her plans for contests to decide between the suitors. It was getting very late and I had been in my chamber for hours, so the party retired to bed, but I was still awake, unable to sleep because I was thinking of the excitement that was soon to come.