BOOK 19, Penelope and Odysseus talk

Book 19 opens with Odysseus and Telemachus removing all the armor in the cloister and putting it in a storeroom, on the premise it was getting soiled with soot, and the suitors could, after drinking to much wine, use them on each other. Telemachus tells Euryclea to take the maids to their room while this is being done, this she does. Athena lights the way for them, and then Telemachus goes to bed, Odysseus talks with Penelope.

First Penelope asks Odysseus where he is from and who are his parents, then she relates to him the sadness she feels over her husband. How she had to invent stratagems to deceive the suitors, weaving a shroud for her father in-law, she was good at this till she was found out by her maids. Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, relates many convincing truths that he had seen and entertained her husband years before his the way to Troy, and tells her he is convinced Odysseus will be back home by the end of this year. Penelope has her nurse Euryclea prepare a bath for Odysseus, Euryclea recognizes a scar on Odysseus’s leg and hugs, he tells her to be quiet and not tell anyone who he is, this she promises to do. Penelope tells how she wants to set up a test for the suitors, shooting an arrow though twelve axes as her husband used to do. Odysseus tells her to set up this contest.