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Eurykleia, Odysseus' nurse, recognises a deep scar from a boar's tusk on his leg:
The old woman, holding him in the palm of her hands, recognised
this scar as she handled it. She let his foot go, so that
his leg, which was in the basin, fell free, and the bronze echoed.
The basin tipped over on one side, and the water spilled out
on the floor. Pain and joy seized her at once, and both eyes
filled with tears, and the springing voice was held within her.
She took the beard of Odysseus in her hands and spoke to him:
"Then, dear child, you are really Odysseus. I did not know you
before; not until I had touched my lord all over."
She spoke, and turned her eyes toward Penelope, wishing
to indicate to her her beloved husband's presence,
but Penelope was not able to look that way, or perceive him,
since Athene turned aside her perception. Odysseus
groped for her, and took her by the throat with his right hand,
while with the other he pulled her closer to him, and said to her:
"Nurse, why are you trying to kill me? You yourself suckled me
at your own breast; and now at last after suffering
much, I have come, in the twentieth year, back to my own country.
But now you have learned who I am, and the god put it into
your mind, hush, let nobody else in the palace know of it.
For so I tell you straight out, and it will be a thing accomplished.
If you do, and by my hands the god beats down the arrogant
suitors, nurse of mine though you are, I will not spare you
when I kill the rest of the serving maids in my palace." |
