Homer's Odyssey, Book 19

“Odysseus, sitting full in the firelight, suddenly swerved round to the dark, gripped by a quick misgiving — soon as she touched him she might spot the scar! The truth would all come out. Bending closer she started to bathe her master ... then, in a flash, she knew the scar — that old wound made years ago by a boar's white tusk when Odysseus went to Parnassus, out to see Autolycus and his sons.”

Art: Ulysses Recognized By Eurycleia, by Gustave Boulanger.

As the suitors sleep, a plan is set in motion… Odysseus and Telemachus remove all weapons from the hall. It’s a trap! Amidst the strategy, two deeply moving moments take place in Book 19. First, Penelope speaks openly and interacts with Odysseus in disguise in a way we’ve never seen her before—does she suspect? She reveals all: her sorrow, the painful waiting, her exhaustion at the suitors’ depravity. So Odysseus does what he does best: he spins yet another tale, that he met the lost hero long ago. Revealing herself to be his true match, she tests him by asking what Odysseus wore—and he describes it all, down to the cloak brooch of a golden dog holding a fawn. Then comes a second test, at the hands (literally) of Odysseus’s old nurse, who washes his feet and recognizes by touch her lost master’s scar. She immediately recognizes her king, but he commands her to keep his secret. The time has not yet come for revelation. Yet again, a book full of wisdom. Sometimes the truth is hidden in plain sight. And sometimes, the right words matter just as much as weapons.