But since that hour he has vanished from sight, and for ten
long years from the fall of Troy the house has been mourning its
absent lord.
During the last three years a new trouble has been present, to fill
the cup of Penelope's sorrow to the brim. A host of suitors, drawn
from the most powerful families in Ithaca and the neighbouring
islands, have beset the house of Odysseus, desiring to wed his wife
and possess her wealth. All her friends urge her to make choice of a
husband from that clamorous band; for no one now believes that there
is any hope left of Odysseus' return. Only Penelope still clings to
the belief that he is yet living, and will one day come home. So for
three years she has put them off by a cunning trick. She began to
weave a shroud for her father-in-law, Laertes, promising that, as soon
as the garment was finished, she would wed one of the suitors. Then
all day long she wove that choice web; and every night she undid the
work of the day, unravelling the threads which she had woven. So for
three years she beguiled the suitors, but at last she was betrayed by
her handmaids, and the fraud was discovered. The princes upbraided her
loudly for her deceit, and became more importunate than ever. The
substance of Odysseus was wasting away; for day after day the wooers
came thronging to the house, a hundred strong, and feasted at the
expense of its absent master, and drank up his wine.
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