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FATE OF THE SUITORS
Ulysses had now been away from Ithaca for twenty years, and when
he awoke he did not recognize his native land. Minerva appeared to
him in the form of a young shepherd, informed him where he was,
and told him the state of things at his palace. More than a
hundred nobles of Ithaca and of the neighboring islands had been
for years suing for the hand of Penelope, his wife, imagining him
dead, and lording it over his palace and people, as if they were
owners of both. That he might be able to take vengeance upon them,
it was important that he should not be recognized. Minerva
accordingly metamorphosed him into an unsightly beggar, and as
such he was kindly received by Eumaeus, the swine-herd, a faithful
servant of his house.
Telemachus, his son, was absent in quest of his father. He had
gone to the courts of the other kings, who had returned from the
Trojan expedition. While on the search, he received counsel from
Minerva to return home. He arrived and sought Eumaeus to learn
something of the state of affairs at the palace before presenting
himself among the suitors. Finding a stranger with Eumaeus, he
treated him courteously, though in the garb of a beggar, and
promised him assistance. Eumaeus was sent to the palace to inform
Penelope privately of her son's arrival, for caution was necessary
with regard to the suitors, who, as Telemachus had learned, were
plotting to intercept and kill him.
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