Then said Menelaus: "Thou speakest well, as becometh the son of
thy father. Come, now, I will change the gifts. Of all the
treasures in my house, I will give thee the goodliest, especially
a bowl which the King of the Sidonians gave me. Of silver it is,
and the lips are finished with gold."

Now it had been made known meanwhile to the suitors in Ithaca that
Telemachus was gone upon this journey seeking his father, and the
thing displeased them much. And after they had held counsel about
the matter, it seemed best that they should lay an ambush against
him, and should slay him as he came back to his home. So Antinous
took twenty men and departed, purposing to lie in wait in the
strait between Ithaca and Samos.[Footnote: Sa'-mos.]

Nor was this plan unknown to Penelope, for the herald Medon
[Footnote: Me'-don.]had heard it, and he told her how Telemachus
had gone seeking news of his father, and how the suitors purposed
to slay him as he returned. And she called her women, old and
young, and rebuked them, saying: "Wicked ye were, for ye knew that
he was about to go, and did not rouse me from my bed. Surely I
would have kept him, eager though he was, from his journey!"

Then said Eurycleia: "Slay me, if thou wilt, but I will hide
nothing from thee. I knew his purpose, and I furnished him with
such things as he needed. But he made me swear that I would not
tell thee till the eleventh or the twelfth day was come. But go
with thy maidens and make thy prayer to Athene that she will save
him, from death; for this house is not altogether hated by the
gods."