Penelope 卧房中的秘密

在Ulysses回来终于要与妻子相认之后，她的妻子告诉女仆说：Take his bed outside the bed chamber that he himself built. Bring the bed outside this room, and put bedding upon it with fleeces, good coverlets, and blankets. 这句话看起来很一般，但是这其实是夫妻二人之间的秘密。

Wife, I am much displeased at what you have just been saying. Who has been taking my bed from the place in which I left it? He must have found it a hard task, no matter how skilled a workman he was, unless some god came and helped him to shift it. （谁都移不动我的床）There is no man living, however strong and in his prime, who could move it from its place, for it is a marvellous curiosity which I made with my very own hands. 只有尤利西斯知道，这张床非他本人不能移动，而Penelope也深知这一点，两人就保持着这样的默契，这张床的坚固也是他们爱情的象征。

同时，Penelope用这样简单的一个问题对自己的丈夫进行测试，也是她智慧的一种体现。夫妻二人各有各的智慧。在尤利西斯见妻子之前，他对妻子进行了多次试探，这次是妻子试探他，所以，这里也是夫妻平等的体现吧。这在希腊文学中不常有。

下面是尤利西斯对自己的床具体描述：There was a young olive growing within the precincts of the house, in full vigour, and about as thick as a bearing-post. I built my room round this with strong walls of stone and a roof to cover them, and I made the doors strong and well-fitting. Then I cut off the top boughs of the olive tree and left the stump standing. This I dressed roughly from the root upwards and then worked with carpenter's tools well and skilfully, straightening my work by drawing a line on the wood, and making it into a bed-prop. I then bored a hole down the middle, and made it the centre-post of my bed, at which I worked till I had finished it, inlaying it with gold and silver; after this I stretched a hide of crimson leather from one side of it to the other.

So you see I know all about it, and I desire to learn whether it is still there, or whether any one has been removing it by cutting down the olive tree at its roots