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Summary
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Eurycleia runs to Penelope and tells her that Odysseus has returned. Penelope is cautious: she has been deceived before and does not trust the report.
She goes down to the hall and tests Odysseus by ordering the bed to be moved out of the chamber. Odysseus protests that he built it around a living olive tree and that no one else could move it. Penelope recognizes him, and they embrace. The reunion is passionate, but the poem also keeps its guard up: the next day will bring the suitors’ families.
Opening lines
Then the old dame went up to the upper chamber, laughing aloud, to tell her mistress that her dear husband was in the house. Her knees moved nimbly, but her feet trotted along beneath her; and she stood above her lady's head, and spoke to her, and said: [5] “Awake, Penelope, dear child, that with thine own eyes thou mayest see what thou desirest all thy days. — Homer, Odyssey XXIII.1ff., trans. A. T. Murray (Loeb; Perseus Digital Library, CC BY-SA 4.0).
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