The Oracles of Troy (The Adventures of Odysseus)

Moments later the horseman had reached Eumaeus’s hut and was tying the reins of his mount to a post. A tall black dog came out of the hut and advanced growling towards him, followed by four black puppies yapping noisily in high voices. Then, when their mother recognised Mentor and allowed him to run a hand over her ears, the puppies turned on each other and began fighting among themselves.

‘Good morning!’ Mentor called.

Eumaeus threw a last handful of feed to the grunting pigs, then climbed the fence and went to meet him. Penelope propped her elbow on a timber post and watched them embrace. Eumaeus said something she did not catch then disappeared inside his hut. Mentor spotted his queen and strode toward her.

‘So here you are, my lady,’ he said, greeting her with a smile and a kiss on the cheek. ‘You’ve been avoiding me since the Kerosia, I think.’

‘You’ve been away.’

‘A few days in Samos, looking after the king’s business. But every time I’ve called at the palace you’ve been busy or absent.’

She shrugged apologetically, conceding the point. ‘I just knew you’d have some awkward questions, which I didn’t want to have to answer with so many servants around.’

‘Don’t you trust them?’

‘Some, but not all. And too many of them are inclined to gossip.’

‘So what don’t you want them gossiping about?’

‘My reasons for agreeing to Eupeithes’s proposal,’ she answered, turning and leaning her forearms on the fence. ‘That’s why you’ve come out here to find me, isn’t it?’

‘Of course,’ he admitted, joining her. ‘Well, are you going to tell me?’

She sighed. ‘For one thing, I want my son back here. At my side. While Telemachus stands to inherit the throne he’s in danger, but under Eupeithes’s proposal that danger is gone.’

‘Don’t you think Eupeithes might have been offering you a reason to bring him back so he could try to kill him again? With Telemachus dead there’ll be no other challengers to the throne.’

‘No, he won’t risk upsetting the balance of things. At the least he’ll wait until I remarry. And I would have thought you’d be pleased to have him back under your tutelage. You’ve taught him all he knows, Mentor, and he loves you like a –’

She faltered.

‘Like a father?’

Penelope smiled wanly. ‘Yes, I suppose so. That’s what you’ve been to him in Odysseus’s absence.’

‘Odysseus will return soon,’ Mentor said. ‘The oracle will confirm that. Antinous and I depart in the morning, you know.’

‘I know.’

Eumaeus reappeared from the hut with a cup of water in his hand. His guard dog and her puppies came leaping after him and Argus trotted out to meet them. The swineherd handed the small wooden bowl to Mentor, who drained the cool liquid in one draught and placed the cup down on top of a flat-headed fencepost. Eumaeus swung himself over the low barrier and resumed feeding his pigs, while Penelope hooked her arm through Mentor’s and led him in the opposite direction.

‘Have you already forgotten the oracle that was given to Odysseus twenty years ago? If he went to Troy, he’d be doomed not to come home again for twenty years.’

‘You know about that?’ Mentor asked, surprised.

‘He told me before he left,’ she replied. ‘It wasn’t easy to take, but he also insisted a man has the power to change his destiny if he really wants to. And I believe him.’

‘So what are you saying? You agreed to Eupeithes’s proposal on the grounds of an oracle you don’t think will come true?’

Penelope shook her head. ‘If I’d refused altogether, Eupeithes might have been tempted to force his way into power again, especially in his current mood and with that pack of wolves growling away behind him. We can’t allow that to happen. But you’re missing my point about the oracle. I don’t believe Odysseus is bound by the Pythoness’s words – I can’t afford to believe it, even though the war has already lasted ten years – but if she predicted then that he wouldn’t return for twenty years, surely she will now say he’ll be gone for another decade? By the oath we all took at the Kerosia, and which was announced publicly, that means Eupeithes can’t force me to do anything for ten more years. Not without civil war, and I’m gambling he hasn’t the courage for that if there’s a peaceful alternative.’

Mentor looked at her admiringly.

‘Odysseus chose well when he married you, Penelope. Your cunning may have bought him ten more years, and the war will never go on for that long.’

‘Find a daughter of Lacedaemon and she will keep the thieves from your house,’ she said, quoting the second half of the Pythoness’s riddle. ‘That’s one part of the oracle I’m determined will come true. And the best way I can defend Odysseus’s kingdom is to keep gaining us time until he returns.’