“It was not long ere Penelope came to know what the suitors were plotting; for a man servant, Medon, overheard them from outside the outer court as they were laying their schemes within, and went to tell his mistress. As he crossed the threshold of her room Penelope said: ‘Medon, what have the suitors sent you here for? Is it to tell the maids to leave their master’s business and cook dinner for them? I wish they may neither woo nor dine henceforward, neither here nor anywhere else, but let this be the very last time, for the waste you all make of my son’s estate. Did not your fathers tell you when you were children, how good Ulysses had been to them—never doing anything high-handed, nor speaking harshly to anybody? Kings may say things sometimes, and they may take a fancy to one man and dislike another, but Ulysses never did an unjust thing by anybody—which shows what bad hearts you have, and that there is no such thing as gratitude left in this world.’”
Medon addressed the suitors at their sports on the levelled ground in front of the house.
See evidence text
“Thus did they converse. Meanwhile the suitors were throwing discs, or aiming with spears at a mark on the levelled ground in front of the house, and behaving with all their old insolence. But when it was now time for dinner, and the flock of sheep and goats had come into the town from all the country round, {140} with their shepherds as usual, then Medon, who was their favourite servant, and who waited upon them at table, said, ‘Now then, my young masters, you have had enough sport, so come inside that we may get dinner ready. Dinner is not a bad thing, at dinner time.’
”
Telemachus considered the possibility that Medon had fallen in Ulysses’s path in the battle court.
See evidence text
“Telemachus heard him, and at once went up to his father. ‘Hold!’ he cried, ‘the man is guiltless, do him no hurt; and we will spare Medon too, who was always good to me when I was a boy, unless Philoetius or Eumaeus has already killed him, or he has fallen in your way when you were raging about the court.’
”
Ulysses ordered Medon to go outside into the outer court.
See evidence text
“Ulysses smiled at him and answered, ‘Fear not; Telemachus has saved your life, that you may know in future, and tell other people, how greatly better good deeds prosper than evil ones. Go, therefore, outside the cloisters into the outer court, and be out of the way of the slaughter—you and the bard—while I finish my work here inside.’
”
·Direct
Medon went into the outer court and sat by Jove’s altar.
See evidence text
“The pair went into the outer court as fast as they could, and sat down by Jove’s great altar, looking fearfully round, and still expecting that they would be killed. Then Ulysses searched the whole court carefully over, to see if anyone had managed to hide himself and was still living, but he found them all lying in the dust and weltering in their blood. They were like fishes which fishermen have netted out of the sea, and thrown upon the beach to lie gasping for water till the heat of the sun makes an end of them. Even so were the suitors lying all huddled up one against the other.
”
Medon stood in the middle of the assembly and addressed the Ithacans.
See evidence text
“He wept as he spoke and every one pitied him. But Medon and the bard Phemius had now woke up, and came to them from the house of Ulysses. Every one was astonished at seeing them, but they stood in the middle of the assembly, and Medon said, ‘Hear me, men of Ithaca. Ulysses did not do these things against the will of heaven. I myself saw an immortal god take the form of Mentor and stand beside him. This god appeared, now in front of him encouraging him, and now going furiously about the court and attacking the suitors whereon they fell thick on one another.’
”
Medon overhears the suitors’ scheme from outside the court and goes to warn Penelope.
See evidence text
“Medon, overheard them from outside the outer court as they were laying their schemes within, and went to tell his mistress”
·Reported
Medon warns Penelope that the suitors are plotting to murder Telemachus.
See evidence text
“they are plotting something much more dreadful now—may heaven frustrate their design. They are going to try and murder Telemachus”
·Reported
Medon serves among the suitors’ attendants alongside a bard and two table carvers.
See evidence text
“They have with them a servant Medon, a bard, and two men who can carve at table”
·Direct
Medon overhears the suitors’ plot against Telemachus and informs Penelope.
See evidence text
“Medon had overheard their counsels and had told her”
·Direct
Medon is the suitors’ favorite servant and waits on them at table.
See evidence text
“Medon, who was their favourite servant, and who waited upon them at table”
·Remembered
Telemachus remembers Medon as always having been good to him when he was a boy.
See evidence text
“Medon too, who was always good to me when I was a boy”
·Direct
Medon hides crouched under a seat beneath a freshly flayed heifer hide, then casts it off and supplicates Telemachus at the knees.
See evidence text
“he was crouching under a seat beneath which he had hidden by covering himself up with a freshly flayed heifer’s hide, so he threw off the hide, went up to Telemachus, and laid hold of his knees”
·Reported
Medon begs Telemachus to stay Ulysses’s hand before rage over the suitors brings his death.
See evidence text
“Here I am, my dear sir,’ said he, ‘stay your hand therefore, and tell your father, or he will kill me in his rage against the suitors for having wasted his substance and been so foolishly disrespectful to yourself”
·Direct
Medon hurries to Jove’s altar with Phemius, sits fearfully looking around, and still expects death.
See evidence text
“The pair went into the outer court as fast as they could, and sat down by Jove’s great altar, looking fearfully round, and still expecting that they would be killed”
·Reported
Medon testifies that an immortal in Mentor’s form encouraged Ulysses and attacked the suitors furiously through the court.
See evidence text
“Medon said, ‘Hear me, men of Ithaca. Ulysses did not do these things against the will of heaven. I myself saw an immortal god take the form of Mentor and stand beside him. This god appeared, now in front of him encouraging him, and now going furiously about the court and attacking the suitors whereon they fell thick on one another”