Hyginus Fabulae, 125.19-127


     125.19 ...After twenty years, having lost all his comrades, he returned alone to his homeland. When he was unrecognized by the people there and had reached his own house, he found suitors who were seeking Penelope's hand laying siege to the royal house and he disguised himself as a visitor. (20) While Eurycleia his own nurse was washing his feet, she discerned from a scar that he was Ulysses. Later under Minerva's assistance he worked with his son Telemachus and two family slaves to slay the suitors with arrows. — Scholion: Deioneus begat Cephalus, Cephalus Arcesius, Arcesius Laertes, Laertes Ulysses, Ulysses begat Telegonus from Circe and Telamachus from Penelope; Telegonus begat from Penelope, Ulysses' wife, Italus who gave his name to Italy; Latinus descended from Telemachus and gave his name to the Latin language.]
     ...126.3. When the attendants who had been sent on their usual errands to gather the sheep returned, Ulysses asked Eumaeus (the noble swineherd) who they were. "After the departure of Ulysses," Eumaeus responded, "some time intervened. But then the suitors came seeking marriage with Penelope. She put them off with with a condition that 'When I have finished my textile, I will marry.' She wove it meanwhile, but unwove it by night, and in this way she help them off. But now," he continued, "they are sleeping with Ulysses' slavewomen and eating all his livestock." (5) At that moment Minerva restored Ulysses' true form to him. In the moment the swineherd recognizes that it is Ulysses and, holding him and hugging him, he begins to weep for joy and to wonder what it was that made him change. Ulysses said to him, "Tomorrow you must escort me to my royal house and to Penelope." ... (7) Eumaeus showed Ulysses in his disguise as a beggar to Eurycleia the nurse and said that his friend was Ulysses... [NB: The text is irreparably damaged here.] for whom he wished ... But Ulysses covered [his? or] her mouth and advised her and Penelope to give the bow and arrows to the suitors with the promise that the person who could string it could marry her. (8) When she did all this ... [while] they were contending with one another and nobody could string the bow, Eumaeus said with mockery, "Finally!" ... insomuch that Melanthius who stood by could not allow ... [and] Eumaeus handed the bow over to the old man. (9) Ulysses shot all the suitors, except for Melanthius. This one he seized without the suitors' knowledge and cut off his nose and his arms and all his other body parts into tiny pieces; Thereby he took control of his home and his wife. He ordered the slavewomen to dump all the suitors' corpses into the sea; then at Penelope's request Ulysses punished the slavewomen after the death of the suitors.
     Telegonus, the son of Ulysses and Circe, was sent by his mother to look for his father. He was carried in a storm to Ithaca. And there he was driven by hunger to begin looting in the fields. Ulysses and Telemachus took up weapons against him not knowing his identity. (2) Ulysses was killed by his son Telegonus — fulfilling an oracle that he should beware of death inflicted by his son. After he recognized who he was, at Minerva's command they sent him back home to the island of Aeaea with Penelope and Telemachus. They took the dead Ulysses to Circe and gave him over for burial. (3) And under the direction of the same goddess, Minerva, Telegonus married Penelope, and Telemachus married Circe. Latinus was the son born to Circe and Telemachus; he gave his name to the Latin language. Italus was the son born to Penelope and Telegonus; he named Italy after himself.
     — translation RTMacfarlane
     

125.19-127. Odyssea, Ulyssis Cognitio, Telegonus.
      ...post uicesimum annum sociis amissis solus in patriam redit, et cum ab hominibus ignoraretur domumque suam attigisset, procos qui Penelopen in coniugium petebant obsidentes uidit regiam seque hospitem simulauit.(20) et Euryclia nutrix ipsius dum pedes ei lauat ex cicatrice Vlixem esse cognouit. postea procos Minerua adiutrice cum Telemacho filio et duobus seruis interfecit sagittis. [Scholium. Deioneus genuit Cephalum, Cephalus Arcesium, Arcesius Laertem, Laertes Vlixem, Vlixes ex Circe Telegonum, ex Penelope Telemachum; Telegonus ex Penelope Vlixis coniuge Italum, qui Italiam ex suo nomine appellauit; e Telemacho Latinus, qui Latinam linguam ex suo nomine cognominauit.]
      ...126.3.1 quo cum uenissent famuli missi solito more pecora petitum, et ille interrogasset Eumaeum qui essent, ait, Post Vlixis profectionem cum iam tempus intercederet, proci Penelopen in coniugium petentes uenerunt. 4. quos illa condicione ita differt, Cum telam detexuero, nubam: quam interdiu texebat, noctu detexebat et sic eos differebat. nunc autem illi cum ancillis Vlixis discumbunt et pecora eius consumunt. 5. tunc Minerua effigiem suam ei restituit; subito sybotes ut uidit Vlixem esse, tenens amplectensque lacrimari coepit prae gaudio et admirari quid esset quod eum immutauerat. cui Vlixes ait, Crastino die perduc me in regiam ad Penelopen. 6. quem cum duceret, Minerua ei iterum faciem mendici transformauit. ... Eumaeus in mendici persona Vlixem ad Eurycliam nutricem perduxit dicitque eum socium Vlixis fuisse, cui cum uellet . . . . Vlixes ei os compressit atque Penelopen et eam praemonuit ut arcum et sagittas eius daret procis, ut qui ex iis eum intendisset eam uxorem duceret. 8. quae cum fecit . . . inter se certarent et nemo posset intendere, Eumaeus ait deridendi gratia, Demus . . . . . . . . . non pateretur Melanthius, qui erat . . . . . . . Eumaeus arcum seni tradidit. 9. ille omnis procos confixit excepto Melanthio seruo; is clam procis . . . . deprehensus est, cui nares et bracchia et reliquas partes membrorum minutatim secuit, atque domum suam cum coniuge potitus est. ancillas autem suas iussit corpora eorum ad mare deferre, in quas rogatu Penelopes post caedem procorum Vlixes animaduertit.
      127. Telegonus Vlixis et Circes filius missus a matre ut genitorem quaereret, tempestate in Ithacam est delatus, ibique fame coactus agros depopulari coepit; cum quo Vlixes et Telemachus ignari arma contulerunt.(2) Vlixes a Telegono filio est interfectus, quod ei responsum fuerat ut a filio caueret mortem. quem postquam cognouit qui esset, iussu Mineruae cum Telemacho et Penelope in patriam redierunt, in insulam Aeaeam; ad Circen Vlixem mortuum deportauerunt ibique sepulturae tradiderunt. (3) eiusdem Mineruae monitu Telegonus Penelopen, Telemachus Circen duxerunt uxores. Circe et Telemacho natus est Latinus, qui ex suo nomine Latinae linguae nomen imposuit; ex Penelope et Telegono natus estItalus, qui Italiam ex suo nomine denominauit.