Penelope Recognizes Odysseus — The secret of the bed

Book 23 of The Odyssey by Homer

Eurycleia went upstairs laughing to herself to tell her mistress that her dear husband had come home at last. Her knees were failing her with excitement, and her feet stumbled as she went. She stood over Penelope's head and spoke: "Wake, Penelope, dear child, and see with your own eyes what you have been longing for all these years. Odysseus has come home. He has killed the suitors who have been plaguing the house, eating up your estate and bullying your son."

Penelope was cautious, even now. She told Eurycleia not to exult too loudly, for the old woman knew how welcome such news would be — but what if this were a trick of the gods, or some mortal pretending to be Odysseus? Many a man might take another's guise, and the gods themselves were known to practice such deception. Perhaps it was one of the immortals who had slain the suitors, angered by their insolence and evil deeds. But Odysseus himself — he had perished far from Ithaca. He would never come home.

Eurycleia insisted: she had seen the scar herself when she washed his feet, the very mark of the boar's tusk, and she would have told Penelope then, but Odysseus held her by the throat and would not let her speak. She begged Penelope to come down, staking her own life upon it. At last Penelope's heart was stirred, and she rose from the bed. She descended the staircase, her heart in a turmoil, debating whether she should stand apart and question him, or go straight to him and clasp his hands and kiss him. She entered the hall and sat down opposite Odysseus in the firelight, by the further wall. He sat by a tall pillar, looking downward, waiting to see whether his noble wife would speak to him when she saw him.