Eurycleia (Ancient Greek: Εὐρύκλεια) is the trusted nurse of Odysseus' house in Homer's Odyssey, daughter of Ops and granddaughter of Peisenor. Bought in youth by Laertes and honoured in the halls, she reared Telemachus, recognised the disguised Odysseus by his boar-tusk scar, and kept the secret of his return until the suitors fell.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Eurycleia" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.In the household
As a girl Eurycleia was purchased by Laertes for twenty oxen. He treated her with the honour due a wife but never lay with her, so as not to dishonour his queen Anticleia. She nursed Odysseus and later Telemachus, and still carried torches when the prince went to his high chamber.
Before Telemachus sailed for Pylos she supplied him from the storehouse and swore not to tell Penelope of the voyage until twelve days had passed.
II.Recognition and aftermath
When Penelope ordered the stranger's feet washed, Eurycleia knew Odysseus at once by the scar he received hunting with Autolycus' sons on Parnassus. She cried out that her master had returned; Odysseus silenced her, and Athena turned Penelope's mind aside until the hour of vengeance.
After the slaughter she named the faithless servant women among the fifty housemaids, woke Penelope with news of Odysseus' return, and rejoiced when the marriage of her nursling's parents was restored.