The Odyssey

the wedding of his son, and also of his daughter, whom he was marrying to the son of that valiant warrior Achilles. He had given his consent and promised her to him while he was

n, Megapenthes, was born to him of a bondwoman, for heaven vouchsafed Helen no

ouse. There was a bard also to sing to them and play his lyre, while two tumblers

ran hurrying back into the house to tell his Master. He went close up to him and said, "Menelaus, there are some strangers come here, two

leton. Take their horses out, of course, and show the strangers in that they may have supper; you and I have stayed oft

s and barley mixed. Then they leaned the chariot against the end wall of the courtyard, and led the way into the house. Telemachus and Pisistratus were astonished when they s

brought them water in a beautiful golden ewer, and poured it into a silver basin for them to wash their hands; and she drew a clean table beside them. An upper servant broug

ask who you are, for the lineage of such men as you cannot have been lost. You must be desce

soon as they had had enough to eat and drink, Telemachus said to the son of Nestor, with his head so close that no one might hear, "Look, Pisistratus, man after my own he

eese, meat, and good milk, for the ewes yield all the year round. But while I was travelling and getting great riches among these people, my brother was secretly and shockingly murdered through the perfidy of his wicked wife, so that I have no pleasure in being lord of all this wealth. Whoever your parents may be they must have told you about all this, and of my heavy loss in the ruin of a stately mansion fully and magnificently furnished. Would that I had only a third of what I now have so that I had stayed at home, and all those were living who perished on the plain of Troy, far from Argos. I of grieve, as I sit here in my house, for one and all of them.

as he heard him thus mentioned, so that he held his cloak before his face with both hands. When Menelaus saw this h

ived in Egyptian Thebes, which is the richest city in the whole world; he gave Menelaus two baths, both of pure silver, two tripods, and ten talents of gold; besides all this, his wife gave Helen some beautiful presents, to wit, a golden distaff, and a silver work-box that ran

I think. Never yet have I seen either man or woman so like somebody else (indeed when I look at him I hardly know what to think) as this young man is l

o is his hair, with the shape of his head and the expression of his eyes. Moreover, when I was talking about Ulyss

hose conversation is so divinely interesting as your own. My father, Nestor, sent me to escort him hither, for he wanted to know whether you could give him any counsel or suggestion. A son has always tr

the seas. I should have founded a city for him in Argos, and built him a house. I should have made him leave Ithaca with his goods, his son, and all his people, and should have sacked for them some one of the neighbouring cities that are subject to me. We sho

so did Menelaus, nor could Pisistratus keep his eyes from filling, when he remembered his

rning will come in due course, and in the forenoon I care not how much I cry for those that are dead and gone. This is all we can do for the poor things. We can only shave our heads for them and wring the tears from our cheeks. I had

regards wife and offspring - and it has blessed Nestor from first to last all his days, giving him a green old age in his own house, with sons about him who are both we disposed and vali

d water over their hands and they laid their

other both of them drop down dead, or he sees a brother or a son hewn in pieces before his very eyes. This drug, of such sovereign power and virtue, had been given to Helen by Polydamna wife of Thon, a woman of Egypt, where there grow all sorts of herbs, som

d entered the enemy's city looking like a menial or a beggar. and quite different from what he did when he was among his own people. In this disguise he entered the city of Troy, and no one said anything to him. I alone recognized him and began to question him, but he was too cunning for me. When, however, I had washed and anointed him and had given him clothes, and after I had sworn a solemn oath not to betray him to the Trojans till he had got safely back to his own camp and to

. At that moment you came up to us; some god who wished well to the Trojans must have set you on to it and you had Deiphobus with you. Three times did you go all round our hiding place and pat it; you called our chiefs each by his own name, and mimicked all our wives - Diomed, Ulysses, and I from our seats inside heard what a noise you made. Diomed and I could not

him, nor yet his own iron courage. But now, sir, be pleased to send us

f them with woollen cloaks for the guests to wear. So the maids went out, carrying a torch, and made the beds, to which a man-servant presently conducted the

lf. He bound his sandals on to his comely feet, girded his sword about his shoulders, an

s long sea voyage to Lacedaemon? Are you on pu

of paying their addresses to my mother. Therefore, I am suppliant at your knees if haply you may tell me about my father's melancholy end, whether you saw it with your own eyes, or heard it from some other traveller; for he was a man born to trouble. Do not soften th

o his lair will make short work with the pair of them - and so will Ulysses with these suitors. By father Jove, Minerva, and Apollo, if Ulysses is still the man that he was when he wrestled with Philomeleides in Lesbos, and threw him so heavily that all the Achaeans cheer

iff breeze behind her, there is an island called Pharos - it has a good harbour from which vessels can get out into open sea when they have taken in water - and the gods becalmed me twenty days without so much as a breath of fair wind to help me

f catching a fish or two to save them from the pangs of hunger. 'Stranger,' said she, 'it seems to me that you like starving in this way - at a

cord, but must have offended the gods that live in heaven. Tell me, therefore, for the gods know everything. which of

e is Neptune's head man and knows every inch of ground all over the bottom of the sea. If you can snare him and hold him tight, he will tell you about your voyage, what courses you are to take, and how you

I may catch this old god without his suspecting it and finding

oon as he has come up he lies down, and goes to sleep in a great sea cave, where the seals - Halosydne's chickens as they call them - come up also from the grey sea, and go to sleep in shoals all round him; and a very strong and fish-like sm

ngth and hold him fast, for he will do his very utmost to get away from you. He will turn himself into every kind of creature that goes upon the earth, and will become also both fire and water; but you must hold him fast and grip him tighter and tighter, ti

ps were ranged upon the shore; and my heart was clouded with care as I went along. When I

eant playing a trick upon her father. Then she dug four pits for us to lie in, and sat down to wait till we should come up. When we were close to her, she made us lie down in the pits one after the other, and threw a seal skin over each of us. Our ambuscade would have been intolerable, for the stench o

ile, but laid himself down to sleep as soon as he had done counting. Then we rushed upon him with a shout and seized him; on which he began at once with his old tricks, and changed himself first into a lion with a great mane; then all of a sudden he became a dragon, a leopard, a wild boar; the next moment

so long in this island, and see no sign of my being able to get away. I am losing all heart; tell me, then, for you gods know

mbarking; for it is decreed that you shall not get back to your friends, and to your own house, till you have returned to the heaven fed strea

at you have laid upon me; but now tell me, and tell me true, whether all the Achaeans whom Nestor and I left behind us when we set sail from Troy have g

e - you were there yourself. A third Achaean leader is still at sea, alive, but hindered from returning. Ajax was wrecked, for Neptune drove him on to the great rocks of Gyrae; nevertheless, he let him get safe out of the water, and in spite of all Minerva's hatred he would have escaped death, if he had not ruined himself by boasting. He said the go

gain sorely against his will, and drove him to the foreland where Thyestes used to dwell, but where Aegisthus was then living. By and by, however, it seemed as though he was to return safe

d Aegisthus who at once began to lay a plot for him. He picked twenty of his bravest warriors and placed them in ambuscade on one side the cloister, while on the opposite side he prepared a banquet. Then he sent his chariots and horsemen to Agamemnon, and invited him to the feast, but he meant fo

sently, when I had had my fill of weeping and writhing upon the ground, the old man of the sea said, 'Son of Atreus, do not waste any more time in crying so bitterly; it can do no manne

wo; tell me, therefore, about the third man of whom you spoke; is he still alive, but at

r the sea. As for your own end, Menelaus, you shall not die in Argos, but the gods will take you to the Elysian plain, which is at the ends of the world. There fair-haired Rhadamanthus reigns, and men lead an easier life than any where else in the wor

of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn appeared, we drew our ships into the water, and put our masts and sails within them; then we went on board ourselves, took our seats on the benches, and smote the grey sea with our oars. I again stationed my ships in the heaven-fed

. I will make you a noble present of a chariot and three horses. I will also give you a beautiful chali

are detaining me from them. As for any present you may be disposed to make me, I had rather that it should he a piece of plate. I will take no horses back with me to Ithaca, but will leave them to adorn your own stables, for you have much flat ground in your kingdom where lotus thrives, as also meadowswee

by giving you the finest and most precious piece of plate in all my house. It is a mixing-bowl by Vulcan's own hand, of pure silver, except the rim, which is inlaid with g

y brought sheep and wine, while their wives had put up bread for them t

es' house, and were behaving with all their old insolence. Antinous and Eurymachus, who were their ringleaders and

, and I want it, to cross over to Elis: I have twelve brood mares there with yearling mule fo

s, and was with the sheep, or with the swineherd; so Antinous said, "When did he go? Tell me truly, and what young men did he take with him? Were they freemen or his ow

uld not possibly refuse. As for those who went with him they were the best young men we have, and I saw Mentor go on board as captain - or some

e others to leave off playing, and to come and sit down along with themselves. When they came, Antinou

f us, and with a picked crew too. He will be giving us trouble presently; may Jove take him before he is full grown. Find me a ship, therefore, with a crew of

applauded his saying; they then al

it to tell the maids to leave their master's business and cook dinner for them? I wish they may neither woo nor dine henceforward, neither here nor anywhere else, but let this be the very last time, for the waste you all make of my son's estate. Did not your fathers tell you when you were children how good Ulysses had be

dreadful now - may heaven frustrate their design. They are going to try and murder Telemachus

d no utterance. At last, however, she said, "Why did my son leave me? What business had he to go sailing off in ships that m

o it, or whether he went on his own impulse to see if he could

heart for sitting on any one of them; she could only fling herself on the floor of her own room and cry; whereon all the maids

d one word about his leaving home. You hussies, there was not one of you would so much as think of giving me a call out of my bed, though you all of you very well knew when he was starting. If I had known he meant taking this voyage, he would have had to give it up, no matter how much he was bent upon it, or leave me a corpse behind him - on

or some ten or twelve days, unless you asked or happened to hear of his having gone, for he did not want you to spoil your beauty by crying. And now, Madam, wash your face, change your dress, and go upstairs with your maids to offer prayers to Minerva, daughter of Aegis-bearing Jove, for she can save him even

her eyes. Penelope washed her face, changed her dress, and went upstairs with her

es while he was here burned you fat thigh bones of sheep or heifer, bear it in mi

her prayer; meanwhile the suitors were clamorous t

th one or other of us. Little does she drea

tinous said, "Comrades, let there be no loud talking, lest some of it get carrie

her; they bound the oars to the thole-pins with twisted thongs of leather, all in due course, and spread the white sails aloft, while their fine servan

pe, or be overpowered by the wicked suitors. Like a lioness caught in the toils with huntsmen hemming her in on

who had married Eumelus and lived in Pherae. She told the vision to go to the house of Ulysses, and to make Penelope leave off cry

ill not suffer you to weep and be so sad. Your son has

my brave and lion-hearted husband, who had every good quality under heaven, and whose name was great over all Hellas and middle Argos; and now my darling son has gone off on board of a ship - a foolish fellow who has never been used to roughing it, nor to going about among gatherings of men. I am

h him whom many a man would be glad enough to have stand by his side, I mean Minerva;

divine commission, tell me also about that other unhappy one - is

for certain whether he is alive or dead,

as dissipated into thin air; but Penelope rose from her s

is a rocky islet called Asteris, of no great size, in mid channel between Ithaca and Samos, and there is a harb