Who She Is
Eurycleia is the old nurse of the house of Odysseus, who raised the master and now keeps the palace stores. She accompanies Telemachus to his room with torches, weeps over what she knows, and keeps what she swears. It is she who, while washing the feet of a beggar, recognizes the scar on the man she raised, and the poem makes her the first in the house to learn that he has returned. When she speaks, she speaks with the authority of one who saw him born.
Trajectory
In Book I, she is the nurse who takes Telemachus to his room with torches, after the day on which he faced Antinous and planned the journey.
In Book II, she keeps the storeroom of Telemachus's father, full of gold, bronze, clothes, oil, and old wine, kept for the day Odysseus would return. Telemachus asks her, in secret, for twelve jars and twenty measures of barley. She weeps and protests, but swears silence for eleven or twelve days, so that his mother would not spoil her face with weeping.
θάρσει, μαῖʼ, ἐπεὶ οὔ τοι ἄνευ θεοῦ ἥδε γε βουλή. / ἀλλʼ ὄμοσον μὴ μητρὶ φίλῃ τάδε μυθήσασθαι, / πρίν γʼ ὅτʼ ἂν ἑνδεκάτη τε δυωδεκάτη τε γένηται, / ἢ αὐτὴν ποθέσαι καὶ ἀφορμηθέντος ἀκοῦσαι, / ὡς ἂν μὴ κλαίουσα κατὰ χρόα καλὸν ἰάπτῃ.(2.372-376), take heart, mother, for this plan is not without a god. But swear not to tell this to my dear mother until the eleventh or twelfth day comes, or until she herself misses me and hears that I have gone, so that she will not weep and mar her beautiful skin.
In Book IV, she confesses to Penelope, who throws herself on the threshold on learning of her son's departure, that she knew it, and she advises her to bathe, put on clean clothes, pray to Athena, and spare the old Laertes.
In Book XVII, she is the first to see Telemachus when he returns; she weeps and comes to meet him with the maids.
In Book XIX, when she receives Penelope's order to wash the feet of the guest, she covers her face, weeps, and says that Zeus hated Odysseus more than all the others. She adds that she has never seen a guest so like the master in body, voice, and feet. Odysseus, when he sits down by the hearth, turns toward the shadow, and she recognizes the scar that a boar gave him on Parnassus, and the leg falls into the basin. She wants to warn Penelope, but Athena turns Penelope's mind away, and she does not notice. Odysseus seizes her by the throat and threatens that, if she speaks, he will kill her along with the other maids, and she answers that she is firm as stone or iron, and offers to say which maids dishonor him.
ἷζεν ἐπʼ ἐσχαρόφιν, ποτὶ δὲ σκότον ἐτράπετʼ αἶψα· / αὐτίκα γὰρ κατὰ θυμὸν ὀΐσατο, μή ἑ λαβοῦσα / οὐλὴν ἀμφράσσαιτο καὶ ἀμφαδὰ ἔργα γένοιτο. / νίζε δʼ ἄρʼ ἆσσον ἰοῦσα ἄναχθʼ ἑόν· αὐτίκα δʼ ἔγνω / οὐλήν, τήν ποτέ μιν σῦς ἤλασε λευκῷ ὀδόντι(19.389-393), he sat down by the hearth and quickly turned toward the dark; for at once he thought in his heart that she, taking hold of him, might feel the scar and the deeds would come to light. She came nearer to wash her lord, and at once she recognized the scar that a boar once struck him with its white tusk.
τὴν γρηῢς χείρεσσι καταπρηνέσσι λαβοῦσα / γνῶ ῥʼ ἐπιμασσαμένη, πόδα δὲ προέηκε φέρεσθαι· / ἐν δὲ λέβητι πέσε κνήμη, κανάχησε δὲ χαλκός, / ἂψ δʼ ἑτέρωσʼ ἐκλίθη· τὸ δʼ ἐπὶ χθονὸς ἐξέχυθʼ ὕδωρ.(19.467-470), the old woman, taking it with her palms spread, recognized it by touch, and let the foot fall; the leg fell into the basin, the bronze rang out, it tipped to the other side, and the water spilled onto the ground.
ὧδε γὰρ ἐξερέω, καὶ μὴν τετελεσμένον ἔσται· / εἴ χʼ ὑπʼ ἐμοί γε θεὸς δαμάσῃ μνηστῆρας ἀγαυούς, / οὐδὲ τροφοῦ οὔσης σεῦ ἀφέξομαι, ὁππότʼ ἂν ἄλλας / δμῳὰς ἐν μεγάροισιν ἐμοῖς κτείνωμι γυναῖκας.(19.487-490), for so I will say, and it will be fulfilled: if a god lets me subdue the proud suitors, I will not spare you, though you were my nurse, when I kill the other maids in my halls.
In Book XX, she gives orders to the maids to clean the hall, because it is a feast day. She contradicts Telemachus when he blames his mother for the treatment of the guest: she says that Penelope is not to blame, and tells him that the stranger was well served. In Book XXI, Eumaeus calls her to bar the doors of the hall, and she does so without a word.
In Book XXII, Odysseus has her summoned. She finds him among the dead, smeared with blood like a lion, and she is about to cry out in joy, but he restrains her: it is not lawful to exult over men who have been killed, whom the fate of the gods and their cruel deeds have subdued. Asked, she says that twelve of the fifty maids trod in shamelessness. She wants to go up and wake her mistress, and he orders her not to rouse her. He brings sulfur and fire to purify the house.
οὐχ ὁσίη κταμένοισιν ἐπʼ ἀνδράσιν εὐχετάασθαι. / τούσδε δὲ μοῖρʼ ἐδάμασσε θεῶν καὶ σχέτλια ἔργα· / οὔ τινα γὰρ τίεσκον ἐπιχθονίων ἀνθρώπων, / οὐ κακὸν οὐδὲ μὲν ἐσθλόν, ὅτις σφέας εἰσαφίκοιτο· / τῷ καὶ ἀτασθαλίῃσιν ἀεικέα πότμον ἐπέσπον.(22.412-416), it is not lawful to glory over men who have been slain. The fate of the gods and their cruel deeds subdued these men; for they honored none of the men on earth, neither bad nor good, who came to them; therefore, through their recklessness, they met an unworthy doom.
τάων δώδεκα πᾶσαι ἀναιδείης ἐπέβησαν, / οὔτʼ ἐμὲ τίουσαι οὔτʼ αὐτὴν Πηνελόπειαν.(22.424-425), of these, twelve in all trod in shamelessness, honoring neither me nor Penelope herself.
In Book XXIII, she goes up laughing to tell Penelope that Odysseus is at home. Penelope does not believe it, and Eurycleia answers with the scar of the boar and offers her own life as the wager. Then, by torchlight, she prepares with Eurynome the couple's bed.
ἦλθʼ Ὀδυσεὺς καὶ οἶκον ἱκάνεται, ὀψέ περ ἐλθών. / μνηστῆρας δʼ ἔκτεινεν ἀγήνορας, οἵ θʼ ἑὸν οἶκον / κήδεσκον καὶ κτήματʼ ἔδον βιόωντό τε παῖδα.(23.7-9), Odysseus has come and is at home, though he came late. He has killed the proud suitors, who afflicted his house and devoured his goods and did violence to his son.
ἀλλʼ ἄγε τοι καὶ σῆμα ἀριφραδὲς ἄλλο τι εἴπω, / οὐλήν, τήν ποτέ μιν σῦς ἤλασε λευκῷ ὀδόντι.(23.73-74), but come, I will tell you another clear sign: the scar that a boar once inflicted on him with its white tusk.
Themes Embodied
Eurycleia embodies Loyalty and betrayal in the register of the servant: she knows, keeps, and answers for the one she raised. She also embodies Identity, because the body she washes is the only argument of Odysseus that the disguise cannot erase, and Family in the house, because she cares for Odysseus, Telemachus, and the mistress.
Eurycleia's recognition is physical and noisy: the leg falls into the basin and the water spills, and it is she whom the poem chooses to know first. Odysseus's threat right after, to kill her if she speaks, and her answer, firm as stone, make a harsh scene between the two. The text does not say what she feels on hearing the man she raised threaten her, but it records that she kept the secret until the slaughter. The scar she recognizes does not convince Penelope in Book XXIII, and the poem lets the nurse be the first to know, and not the first to be believed.
Relationships
- Odysseus: the master she raised, washes, and recognizes by the scar, and who binds her to silence.
- Telemachus: the young man who makes her swear secrecy, and to whom she protests and yields.
- Penelope: the mistress to whom she confesses Telemachus's secret and announces the husband.
- Athena: the goddess who turns Penelope's mind away while the nurse washes the beggar's feet.
- Eumaeus: the swineherd who calls her to bar the doors.