Telemachus knelt also. “Oh, Divine stranger, a boon! Tell me of my dear father, if indeed he lives and knows of the peril of his house. And will he ever come back to sit in his own chair and rule?”
Then Ulysses stepped to his son and caught him in his arms and kissed him.
“Telemachus! Telemachus!” he said, “no god am I, but your own dear father come home at last, and I am come with doom and death for the insolent ones about my board!”
And when they had all three mingled their happy tears, Telemachus said, “Father, I know how great a warrior you are, and all the world rings with the wisdom and valour of your deeds. But we two can never fight against so many. In all, the princes number a hundred and a score of men; and they are all trained fighting men, the best from Ithaca and all the neighbouring islands. We must have other aid.”
“Comfort yourself, son,” said Ulysses. “Aid we have, and the mightiest of all. Athene herself watches over my fortunes and will come in the hour of need. She has brought me hither and given me this disguise, and in all the coming contest her voice will help and her arm be for us. Should we need more aid than that?”
“Truly, my father,” said the boy, “we are well favoured, and my heart leaps within me at what is to come.”
As he finished speaking, once more the manhood of Ulysses left him and only a poor old beggar man stood before the swineherd and the prince.
“Now will we go to the palace,” said Ulysses. “I shall seem but a poor old beggar man, and however the princes may ill-use me I shall do nothing till the time has come and we are ready, and I charge you, my son, and my good friend Eumæus, that you do nothing to protect me however I am treated. You may check them by words if you can, but no more. And not even the queen herself must know that the king has come home again.
“And now let us go. The judge is set, the doom begun; none shall stay it!”
And the three went out from the hut over the mountain paths towards the palace.