“Verily, wife, this word thou hast spoken is grievously cruel.
Who hath removed it—the bed that I built? ‘Twere difficult truly
E’en for a man right skilful, unless some deity helped him.
... Great is the secret
Touching that fine-wrought bed—for I made it myself and in private.
Once was a long-leaved olive that stood inside the enclosure,
Thriving and grown to the full; and its stem was as thick as a pillar.
Round it I built me a chamber and laboured until it was finished.“[[8]]
Odysseus is indignant at the suggestion that his wonderful handiwork has been destroyed; but Penelope does not mind about his anger, for she is convinced at last that he is indeed her husband.
Then as he spake were loosened her knees and the heart in her bosom,