The Beggar at the Gate — Odysseus enters his own palace in disguise

Book 17 of The Odyssey by Homer

When the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared, Telemachus bound on his sandals and took up his bronze-tipped spear. He told the swineherd Eumaeus that he would go ahead to the city and show himself to his mother, for she would never leave off weeping until she saw him with her own eyes. He bade Eumaeus bring the stranger to the town later in the day, that the old man might beg his bread there among the people. Telemachus walked swiftly along the path, turning over the plan he and his father had made, and his heart was steady despite all that lay ahead.

Telemachus reached the palace and set his spear against the tall pillar beside the door. Eurycleia the old nurse saw him first and came running with tears of joy, and then the other maids gathered round him, kissing his head and shoulders. His mother Penelope came down from her upper chamber looking like Artemis or golden Aphrodite, and threw her arms about him weeping. She begged him to tell everything he had seen and heard in Pylos and Sparta. But Telemachus told her gently to wash and put on fresh garments and pray to the gods, for he had business in the town and must meet a stranger who had traveled with him from Pylos.

Then Theoclymenus the prophet, who had been given a seat of honor in the hall, rose and spoke. He declared that Odysseus was not wandering in some far-off land but was already on Ithaca, already within the borders of his kingdom. He had seen it in the flight of birds as they sailed past the pointed islands, and he had proclaimed the omen to Telemachus at the time. Odysseus was learning of the suitors' evil deeds and planting the seeds of destruction for each and every one of them. Penelope answered that she prayed his words might come true, and that if they did, she would give him gifts enough to make any man who met him call him blessed.