Hear now this that she did. She set up a great web for weaving,
and said to us: 'Listen, ye that are my suitors. Hasten not my
marriage till I finish this web to be a burial cloth for Laertes
[Footnote: La-er'-tes.], the father of Ulysses, for indeed it
would be foul shame if he who has won great possessions should
lack this honour.' So she spake, and for three years she cheated
us, for what she wove in the day she unravelled at night. But when
the fourth year was come, one of her maidens told us of the
matter, and we came upon her by night and found her unravelling
what she had woven in the day. Then did she finish it, much
against her will. Send away, therefore, thy mother, and bid her
marry whom she will. But till this be done we will not depart."

Then answered Telemachus: "How can I send away against her will
her who bare me and brought me up? I cannot do this thing."

So he spake; and there came two eagles, which flew abreast till
they came over the assembly. Then did they wheel in the air, and
shook out from each many feathers, and tare each other, and so
departed.

Then cried Alitherses [Footnote: A-li-ther'-ses.], the prophet:
"Beware, ye suitors, for great trouble is coming to you, and to
others also. And as for Ulysses, I said when he went to Troy that
he should return after twenty years; and so it shall be."

And when the suitors would not listen, Telemachus said: "Give me a
ship and twenty rowers, that I may go to Pylos and to Sparta;
perhaps I may hear news of my father. And if I hear that he is
dead, then will I come back hither and raise up a mound for him