The three male figures in the background may represent the suitors.
Size, 23 inches high; diameter, 11 inches. Perfect, except for a
restoration in one of the handles."
'Have you got that?'
'Yes.'
'Go on please. "This vase is of course an illustration of the
well-known passage in the _Odyssey_, Book 21. 103. I take Mr. Samuel
Butler's translation, which is lively and modern and much to be
preferred to the heavy archaisms of the other fellows."'
Elizabeth gave a slight cough. The Squire looked at her sharply.
'Oh, you think that's not dignified? Well, have it as you like.'
Elizabeth altered the phrase to 'other translators.' The Squire
resumed. '"Antinous, one of the suitors, is speaking: 'We could see
her working on her great web all day long, but at night she would
unpick the stitches again by torchlight. She fooled us in this way
for three years, and we never found her out, but as time wore on,
and she was now in her fourth year, one of her maids, who knew what
she was doing, told us, and we caught her in the act of undoing her
work, so she had to finish it, whether she would or no.
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