Verse

Odyssey

Book 23, Line 85 by Samuel Butler (English)

On this she came down from her upper room, and while doing so she considered whether she should keep at a distance from her husband and question him, or whether she should at once go up to him and embrace him. When, however, she had crossed the stone floor of the room, she sat down opposite Odysseus by the fire, against the wall at right angles to that by which she had entered, while Odysseus sat near one of the bearing-posts, looking upon the ground, and waiting to see what his wife would say to him when she saw him. For a long time she sat silent and as one lost in amazement. At one moment she looked him full in the face, but then again directly, she was misled by his shabby clothes and failed to recognize him, till Telemakhos began to reproach her and said:

OdysseyBook 23, Line 85Samuel ButlerEnglishVerse permalinkRead in Book 23

HomerProseID odyssey-odyssey-butler-en-prose-23-85

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Samuel Butler's public-domain English prose Odyssey via Perseus canonical TEI; prose segments are assigned to their source line span.