When the suitors retire for the night, Telemakhos and I remove and hide the arms just like we planned. Athena helps us by giving us light so that we could see as we work. My loyal, but curious maid, Eurycleia questions why we are doing this and we tell her that we are storing the arms to keep them from being damaged. After we quickly hide the arms, Telemakhos retires and Penelope joins me, seeking answers about me. Please note that I am still disguised as a beggar and that Penelope has no idea who I am. She knows that I as a beggar have claimed to have met Odysseus, and she tests me honestly by asking me to describe her husband Odysseus. Then, at her wish, I describe myself, capturing each detail so perfectly that Penelope begins to cry. Then, I tell the story of how I met Odysseus and eventually came to Ithaca. In many aspects, this story relates to those that I told to Athena and Eumaeus while out on my journey, even though it is identical to neither. Next, I tell Penelope that Odysseus has had a long battle. but is alive and freely traveling around Also, I predict that Odysseus will be back within a month, which pleases Penelope. Then, as we retire, Penelope offers me a bed to sleep in, but I decline by saying that I am used to the floor. Then, she asks if I would like my feet washed by a maid. I tell her that I will only have an old maid wash my feet who has felt pain and misery, just like I have. As Eurycleia is washing my feet in the bucket of water, she notices a scar on my feet that I received as a child from a boar I was trying to kill. Unfortunately, she immediately recognizes my scar as the one that Odysseus received when I went Boar hunting with my grandfather many years ago. She is overjoyed and beside herself, but I quieted her while my loyal friend Athena kept Penelope distracted so that my secret wouldn't be revealed. The loyal, kind Eurycleia pulled herself together and promised to keep my secret. before she retires, Penelope describes to me a dream that she has had where an Eagle swoops down upon her twenty pet Geese and kills them all. Then, the Eagle sits on the roof and says in a human voice that it is her husband who has just put her lovers to death. What a strange and horrid dream, I thought. Then, Penelope claims that she has no idea what that dream was about. I explain it to her with the best of my knowledge. Then, I hear shocking news. Penelope told me that she is going to choose a new husband anyway. She told me that she will marry the first man who can shoot an arrow through the holes of twelve axes set in a line. This made me feel awful and I knew that if I didn't act fast, the suitors would take over my palace and take by beautiful wife away from me.
