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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Odysseus and The Tales of
+Troy, by Padriac Colum
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Adventures of Odysseus and The Tales of Troy
+
+Author: Padriac Colum
+
+Illustrator: Willy Pogany
+
+Release Date: October 14, 2005 [EBook #16867]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF ODYSSEUS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Susan Skinner and Distributed
+Proofreaders Europe at http://dp.rastko.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE ADVENTURES
+OF ODYSSEUS AND
+THE TALE OF TROY
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+THE ADVENTURES
+OF ODYSSEUS AND
+THE TALE OF TROY
+
+BY PADRAIC COLUM
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+PRESENTED BY
+
+WILLY POGANY
+
+THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
+SET UP AND ELECTROTYPED. PUBLISHED NOVEMBER, 1918.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+REPRINTED JUNE, OCTOBER, 1919; OCTOBER, 1920; AUGUST,
+1922; MARCH, 1923; MAY, 1924; JUNE, 1925; MARCH, 1926;
+DECEMBER, 1926; AUGUST, 1927.
+
+Norwood Press: J.S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co.
+Norwood, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+
+FOR HUGHIE AND PETER
+
+THIS TELLING OF THE WORLD'S GREATEST STORY
+
+BECAUSE THEIR IMAGINATIONS
+
+RISE TO DEEDS AND WONDERS
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+PART I
+
+HOW TELEMACHUS THE SON OF ODYSSEUS WAS MOVED TO GO ON A VOYAGE
+IN SEARCH OF HIS FATHER AND HOW HE HEARD FROM MENELAUS AND HELEN
+THE TALE OF TROY                                                       1
+
+
+PART II
+
+HOW ODYSSEUS LEFT CALYPSO'S ISLAND AND CAME TO THE LAND OF THE
+PHAEACIANS; HOW HE TOLD HE FARED WITH THE CYCLÔPES AND WENT PAST
+THE TERRIBLE SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS AND CAME TO THE ISLAND OF
+THRINACIA WHERE HIS MEN SLAUGHTERED THE CATTLE OF THE SUN; HOW
+HE WAS GIVEN A SHIP BY THE PHAEACIANS AND CAME TO HIS OWN LAND;
+HOW HE OVERTHREW THE WOOERS WHO WASTED HIS SUBSTANCE AND CAME TO
+REIGN AGAIN AS KING OF ITHAKA.                                       125
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+COLOUR PLATES
+
+The Judgement of Paris                                     _Frontispiece_
+
+                                                              FACING PAGE
+The Fair Helen                                                        30
+
+Achilles Victorious                                                  106
+
+The Princess Threw the Ball                                          138
+
+The Sorrowing Odysseus                                               148
+
+Circe                                                                170
+
+The Sirens                                                           176
+
+Penelope Unravelling the Web                                         221
+
+
+
+
+PART I
+
+
+HOW TELEMACHUS THE SON OF ODYSSEUS WAS MOVED TO GO ON A VOYAGE IN SEARCH
+OF HIS FATHER AND HOW HE HEARD FROM MENELAUS AND HELEN THE TALE OF TROY
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+This is the story of Odysseus, the most renowned of all the heroes the
+Greek poets have told us of--of Odysseus, his wars and his wanderings.
+And this story of Odysseus begins with his son, the youth who was called
+Telemachus.
+
+It was when Telemachus was a child of a month old that a messenger came
+from Agamemnon, the Great King, bidding Odysseus betake himself to the
+war against Troy that the Kings and Princes of Greece were about to
+wage. The wise Odysseus, foreseeing the disasters that would befall all
+that entered that war, was loth to go. And so when Agamemnon's messenger
+came to the island of Ithaka where he was King, Odysseus pretended to be
+mad. And that the messenger, Palamedes, might believe he was mad indeed,
+he did a thing that no man ever saw being done before--he took an ass
+and an ox and yoked them together to the same plough and began to plough
+a field. And when he had ploughed a furrow he sowed it, not with seeds
+that would grow, but with salt. When Palamedes saw him doing this he was
+nearly persuaded that Odysseus was mad. But to test him he took the
+child Telemachus and laid him down in the field in the way of the
+plough. Odysseus, when he came near to where the child lay, turned the
+plough aside and thereby showed that he was not a mad man. Then had he
+to take King Agamemnon's summons. And Agamemnon's word was that Odysseus
+should go to Aulis where the ships of the Kings and Princes of Greece
+were being gathered. But first he was to go into another country to seek
+the hero Achilles and persuade him also to enter the war against Troy.
+
+And so Odysseus bade good-bye to his infant son, Telemachus, and to his
+young wife Penelope, and to his father, old Laertes. And he bade
+good-bye to his house and his lands and to the island of Ithaka where he
+was King. He summoned a council of the chief men of Ithaka and commended
+to their care his wife and his child and all his household, and
+thereafter he took his sailors and his fighting men with him and he
+sailed away. The years went by and Odysseus did not return. After ten
+years the City was taken by the Kings and Princes of Greece and the
+thread of war was wound up. But still Odysseus did not return. And now
+minstrels came to Ithaka with word of the deaths or the homecomings of
+the heroes who had fought in the war against Troy. But no minstrel
+brought any word of Odysseus, of his death or of his appearance in any
+land known to men. Ten years more went by. And now that infant son
+whom he had left behind, Telemachus, had grown up and was a young man of
+strength and purpose.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+One day, as he sat sad and disconsolate in the house of his father, the
+youth Telemachus saw a stranger come to the outer gate. There were many
+in the court outside, but no one went to receive the newcomer. Then,
+because he would never let a stranger stand at the gate without hurrying
+out to welcome him, and because, too, he had hopes that some day such a
+one would bring him tidings of his father, Telemachus rose up from where
+he was sitting and went down the hall and through the court and to the
+gate at which the stranger stood.
+
+'Welcome to the house of Odysseus,' said Telemachus giving him his hand.
+The stranger clasped it with a friendly clasp. 'I thank you,
+Telemachus,' he said, 'for your welcome, and glad I am to enter the
+house of your father, the renowned Odysseus.'
+
+The stranger looked like one who would be a captain amongst soldiers.
+His eyes were grey and clear and shone wonderfully. In his hand he
+carried a great bronze spear. He and Telemachus went together through
+the court and into the hall. And when the stranger left his spear
+within the spearstand Telemachus took him to a high chair and put a
+footstool under his feet.
+
+He had brought him to a place in the hall where the crowd would not
+come. There were many in the court outside and Telemachus would not have
+his guest disturbed by questions or clamours. A handmaid brought water
+for the washing of his hands, and poured it over them from a golden ewer
+into a silver basin. A polished table was left at his side. Then the
+house-dame brought wheaten bread and many dainties. Other servants set
+down dishes of meat with golden cups, and afterwards the maids came into
+the hall and filled up the cups with wine.
+
+But the servants who waited on Telemachus and his guest were disturbed
+by the crowd of men who now came into the hall. They seated themselves
+at tables and shouted out their orders. Great dishes of meat were
+brought to them and bowls of wine, and the men ate and drank and talked
+loudly to each other and did not refrain even from staring at the
+stranger who sat with Telemachus.
+
+'Is there a wedding-feast in the house?' the stranger asked, 'or do the
+men of your clan meet here to drink with each other?'
+
+A flush of shame came to the face of Telemachus. 'There is no
+wedding-feast here,' he said, 'nor do the men of our clan meet here to
+drink with each other. Listen to me, my guest. Because you look so wise
+and because you seem so friendly to my father's name I will tell you who
+these men are and why they trouble this house.'
+
+Thereupon, Telemachus told the stranger how his father had not returned
+from the war of Troy although it was now ten years since the City was
+taken by those with whom he went. 'Alas,' Telemachus said, 'he must have
+died on his way back to us, and I must think that his bones lie under
+some nameless strait or channel of the ocean. Would he had died in the
+fight at Troy! Then the Kings and Princes would have made him a
+burial-mound worthy of his name and his deeds. His memory would have
+been reverenced amongst men, and I, his son, would have a name, and
+would not be imposed upon by such men as you see here--men who are
+feasting and giving orders in my father's house and wasting the
+substance that he gathered.'
+
+'How come they to be here?' asked the stranger. Telemachus told him
+about this also. When seven years had gone by from the fall of Troy and
+still Odysseus did not return there were those who thought he was dead
+and would never be seen more in the land of Ithaka. Then many of the
+young lords of the land wanted Penelope, Telemachus' mother, to marry
+one of them. They came to the house to woo her for marriage. But she,
+mourning for the absence of Odysseus and ever hoping that he would
+return, would give no answer to them. For three years now they were
+coming to the house of Odysseus to woo the wife whom he had left behind
+him. 'They want to put my lady-mother between two dread difficulties,'
+said Telemachus, 'either to promise to wed one of them or to see the
+substance of our house wasted by them. Here they come and eat the bread
+of our fields, and slay the beasts of our flocks and herds, and drink
+the wine that in the old days my father laid up, and weary our servants
+with their orders.'
+
+When he had told him all this Telemachus raised his head and looked at
+the stranger: 'O my guest,' he said, 'wisdom and power shine out of your
+eyes. Speak now to me and tell me what I should do to save the house of
+Odysseus from ruin. And tell me too if you think it possible that my
+father should still be in life.'
+
+The stranger looked at him with his grey, clear, wonderfully-shining
+eyes. 'Art thou verily the son of Odysseus?' said he.
+
+'Verily, I am the son of Odysseus,' said Telemachus.
+
+'As I look at you,' said the stranger, 'I mark your head and eyes, and I
+know they are such a head and such eyes as Odysseus had. Well, being the
+son of such a man, and of such a woman as the lady Penelope, your spirit
+surely shall find a way of destroying those wooers who would destroy
+your house.'
+
+'Already,' said Telemachus, 'your gaze and your speech make me feel
+equal to the task of dealing with them.'
+
+'I think,' said the stranger, 'that Odysseus, your father, has not
+perished from the earth. He may yet win home through labors and perils.
+But you should seek for tidings of him. Harken to me now and I shall
+tell you what to do.
+
+'To-morrow summon a council of all the chief men of the land of Ithaka,
+and stand up in that council and declare that the time has come for the
+wooers who waste your substance to scatter, each man to his own home.
+And after the council has been held I would have you voyage to find out
+tidings of your father, whether he still lives and where he might be. Go
+to Pylos first, to the home of Nestor, that old King who was with your
+father in the war of Troy. Beg Nestor to give you whatever tidings he
+has of Odysseus. And from Pylos go to Sparta, to the home of Menelaus
+and Helen, and beg tidings of your father from them too. And if you get
+news of his being alive, return: It will be easy for you then to endure
+for another year the wasting of your substance by those wooers. But if
+you learn that your father, the renowned Odysseus, is indeed dead and
+gone, then come back, and in your own country raise a great funeral
+mound to his memory, and over it pay all funeral rites. Then let your
+mother choose a good man to be her husband and let her marry him,
+knowing for a certainty that Odysseus will never come back to his own
+house. After that something will remain for you to do: You will have to
+punish those wooers who destroy the goods your father gathered and who
+insult his house by their presence. And when all these things have been
+done, you, Telemachus, will be free to seek out your own fortune: you
+will rise to fame, for I mark that you are handsome and strong and most
+likely to be a wise and valiant man. But now I must fare on my journey.'
+
+The stranger rose up from where he sat and went with Telemachus from the
+hall and through the court and to the outer gate. Telemachus said: 'What
+you have told me I shall not forget. I know you have spoken out of a
+wise and a friendly heart, and as a father to his son.'
+
+The stranger clasped his hands and went through the gate. And then, as
+he looked after him Telemachus saw the stranger change in his form. He
+became first as a woman, tall, with fair hair and a spear of bronze in
+her hand. And then the form of a woman changed too. It changed into a
+great sea-eagle that on wide wings rose up and flew high through the
+air. Telemachus knew then that his visitor was an immortal and no other
+than the goddess Athene who had been his father's friend.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+When Telemachus went back to the hall those who were feasting there had
+put the wine-cups from them and were calling out for Phemius, the
+minstrel, to come and sing some tale to delight them. And as he went
+amongst them one of the wooers said to another, 'The guest who was with
+him has told Telemachus something that has changed his bearing. Never
+before did I see him hold himself so proudly. Mayhap he has spoken to
+him of the return of his father, the renowned Odysseus.'
+
+Phemius came and the wooers called upon him to sing them a tale. And the
+minstrel, in flowing verse, began the tale of the return of the Kings
+and Princes from Troy, and of how some god or goddess put a trouble upon
+them as they left the City they had taken. And as the minstrel began the
+tale, Penelope, Telemachus' lady-mother, was coming down the stairs with
+two hand-maids beside her. She heard the words he sang, and she stood
+still in her grief and drew her veil across her face. 'O Phemius,' she
+cried, 'cease from that story that ever wastes my heart--the story that
+has brought me sorrow and that leaves me comfortless all my days! O
+Phemius, do you not know other tales of men and gods that you might sing
+in this hall for the delight of my noble wooers?'
+
+The minstrel would have ceased when Penelope spoke thus to him, but
+Telemachus went to the stairway where his lady-mother stood, and
+addressed her.
+
+'My lady-mother,' said he, 'why should you not let the minstrel delight
+the company with such songs as the spirit moves him to give us? It is no
+blame to him if he sings of that which is sorrowful to us. As for you,
+my mother, you must learn to endure that story, for long will it be sung
+and far and wide. And you are not the only one who is bereaved--many
+another man besides Odysseus lost the happy day of his homecoming in
+the war of Troy.'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Penelope, his lady-mother, looked in surprise at the youth who spoke to
+her so wisely. Was this indeed Telemachus who before had hardly lifted
+his head? And as she looked at him again she saw that he carried his
+head--that head of his that was so like Odysseus'--high and proudly. She
+saw that her son was now indeed a man. Penelope spoke no word to him,
+for a new thought had come into her mind. She turned round on the stairs
+and went back with her hand-maids to the chamber where her loom and her
+distaff were. And as she went up the stairway and away from them her
+wooers muttered one to the other that she would soon have to choose one
+of them for her husband.
+
+Telemachus turned to those who were standing at the tables and addressed
+them. 'Wooers of my mother,' he said, 'I have a word to say to you.'
+
+'By the gods, youth,' said one of the wooers, 'you must tell us first
+who he is who has made you so high and proud of speech.'
+
+'Surely,' said another, 'he who has done that is the stranger who was
+with him. Who is he? Why did he come here, and of what land has he
+declared himself to be?'
+
+'Why did he not stay so that we might look at him and speak to him?'
+said another of the wooers.
+
+'These are the words I would say to you. Let us feast now in peace,
+without any brawling amongst us, and listen to the tale that the
+minstrel sings to us,' said Telemachus. 'But to-morrow let us have a
+council made up of the chief men of this land of Ithaka. I shall go to
+the council and speak there. I shall ask that you leave this house of
+mine and feast on goods that you yourselves have gathered. Let the chief
+men judge whether I speak in fairness to you or not. If you do not heed
+what I will say openly at the council, before all the chief men of our
+land, then let it be on your own heads what will befall you.'
+
+All the wooers marvelled that Telemachus spoke so boldly. And one said,
+'Because his father, Odysseus, was king, this youth thinks he should be
+king by inheritance. But may Zeus, the god, never grant that he be
+king.'
+
+Then said Telemachus, 'If the god Zeus should grant that I be King, I am
+ready to take up the Kingship of the land of Ithaka with all its toils
+and all its dangers.' And when Telemachus said that he looked like a
+young king indeed.
+
+But they sat in peace and listened to what the minstrel sang. And when
+evening came the wooers left the hall and went each to his own house.
+Telemachus rose and went to his chamber. Before him there went an
+ancient woman who had nursed him as a child--Eurycleia was her name. She
+carried burning torches to light his way. And when they were in his
+chamber Telemachus took off his soft doublet and put it in Eurycleia's
+hands, and she smoothed it out and hung it on the pin at his bed-side.
+Then she went out and she closed the door behind with its handle of
+silver and she pulled the thong that bolted the door on the other side.
+And all night long Telemachus lay wrapped in his fleece of wool and
+thought on what he would say at the council next day, and on the goddess
+Athene and what she had put into his heart to do, and on the journey
+that was before him to Nestor in Pylos and to Menelaus and Helen in
+Sparta.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+As soon as it was dawn Telemachus rose from his bed. He put on his
+raiment, bound his sandals on his feet, hung his sharp sword across his
+shoulder, and took in his hand a spear of bronze. Then he went forth to
+where the Council was being held in the open air, and two swift hounds
+went beside him.
+
+The chief men of the land of Ithaka had been gathered already for the
+council. When it was plain that all were there, the man who was oldest
+amongst them, the lord Ægyptus, rose up and spoke. He had sons, and two
+of them were with him yet, tending his fields. But one, Eurynomous by
+name, kept company with the wooers of Telemachus' mother. And Ægyptus
+had had another son; he had gone in Odysseus' ship to the war of Troy,
+and Ægyptus knew he had perished on his way back. He constantly mourned
+for this son, and thinking upon him as he spoke, Ægyptus had tears in
+his eyes.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+'Never since Odysseus summoned us together before he took ship for the
+war of Troy have we met in council,' said he. 'Why have we been brought
+together now? Has someone heard tidings of the return of Odysseus? If it
+be so, may the god Zeus give luck to him who tells us of such good
+fortune.'
+
+Telemachus was glad because of the kindly speech of the old man. He rose
+up to speak and the herald put a staff into his hands as a sign that he
+was to be listened to with reverence. Telemachus then spoke, addressing
+the old lord Ægyptus.
+
+'I will tell you who it is,' he said, 'who has called the men of Ithaka
+together in council, and for what purpose. Revered lord Ægyptus, I have
+called you together, but not because I have had tidings of the return of
+my father, the renowned Odysseus, nor because I would speak to you about
+some affair of our country. No. I would speak to you all because I
+suffer and because I am at a loss--I, whose father was King over you,
+praised by you all. Odysseus is long away from Ithaka, and I deem that
+he will never return. You have lost your King. But you can put another
+King to rule over you. I have lost my father, and I can have no other
+father in all my days. And that is not all my loss, as I will show you
+now, men of Ithaka.
+
+'For three years now my mother has been beset by men who come to woo her
+to be wife for one of them. Day after day they come to our house and
+kill and devour our beasts and waste the wine that was laid up against
+my father's return. They waste our goods and our wealth. If I were
+nearer manhood I would defend my house against them. But as yet I am
+not able to do it, and so I have to stand by and see our house and
+substance being destroyed.'
+
+So Telemachus spoke, and when his speech was ended Antinous, who was one
+of the wooers, rose up.
+
+'Telemachus,' said he, 'why do you try to put us to shame in this way? I
+tell all here that it is not we but your mother who is to blame. We,
+knowing her husband Odysseus is no longer in life, have asked her to
+become the wife of one of us. She gives us no honest answer. Instead she
+has given her mind to a device to keep us still waiting.
+
+'I will tell you of the council what this device is. The lady Penelope
+set up a great loom in her house and began to weave a wide web of cloth.
+To each of us she sent a message saying that when the web she was
+working at was woven, she would choose a husband from amongst us.
+"Laertes, the father of Odysseus, is alone with none to care for him
+living or dead," said she to us. "I must weave a shroud for him against
+the time which cannot now be far off when old Laertes dies. Trouble me
+not while I do this. For if he should die and there be no winding-sheet
+to wrap him round all the women of the land would blame me greatly."
+
+'We were not oppressive and we left the lady Penelope to weave the web,
+and the months have gone by and still the web is not woven. But even now
+we have heard from one of her maids how Penelope tries to finish her
+task. What she weaves in the daytime she unravels at night. Never, then,
+can the web be finished and so does she try to cheat us.
+
+'She has gained praise from the people for doing this. "How wise is
+Penelope," they say, "with her devices." Let her be satisfied with their
+praise then, and leave us alone. We too have our devices. We will live
+at her house and eat and drink there and give orders to her servants and
+we shall see which will satisfy her best--to give an answer or to let
+the wealth of her house be wasted.
+
+'As for you, Telemachus, I have these words to say to you. Lead your
+mother from your father's house and to the house of her father, Icarius.
+Tell Icarius to give her in marriage to the one she chooses from amongst
+us. Do this and no more goods will be wasted in the house that will be
+yours,'
+
+Then Telemachus rose and said, 'Never will I lead my mother out of a
+house that my father brought her into. Quit my father's house, or, as I
+tell you now, the day may come when a doom will fall upon you there for
+your insolence in it.'
+
+And even as Telemachus spoke, two eagles from a mountain crest flew over
+the place where the council was being held. They wheeled above and
+flapped their wings and looked down upon the crowd with destruction in
+their gaze. They tore each other with their talons, and then flew away
+across the City.
+
+An old man who was there, Halitherses by name, a man skilled in the
+signs made by birds, told those who were around what was foreshown by
+the combat of the eagles in the air. 'Odysseus,' he said, 'is not far
+from his friends. He will return, and his return will mean affliction
+for those who insult his house. Now let them make an end of their
+mischief.' But the wooers only laughed at the old man, telling him he
+should go home and prophesy to his children.
+
+Then arose another old man whose name was Mentor, and he was one who had
+been a friend and companion of Odysseus. He spoke to the council saying:
+
+'Never again need a King be gentle in his heart. For kind and gentle to
+you all was your King, Odysseus. And now his son asks you for help and
+you do not hurry to give it him. It is not so much an affliction to me
+that these wooers waste his goods as that you do not rise up to forbid
+it. But let them persist in doing it on the hazard of their own heads.
+For a doom will come on them, I say. And I say again to you of the
+council: you are many and the wooers are few: Why then do you not put
+them away from the house of Odysseus?'
+
+But no one in the council took the side of Telemachus and Halitherses
+and Mentor--so powerful were the wooers and so fearful of them were the
+men of the council. The wooers looked at Telemachus and his friends with
+mockery. Then for the last time Telemachus rose up and spoke to the
+council.
+
+'I have spoken in the council, and the men of Ithaka know, and the gods
+know, the rights and wrongs of my case. All I ask of you now is that you
+give me a swift ship with twenty youths to be my crew so that I may go
+to Pylos and to Sparta to seek tidings of my father. If I find he is
+alive and that he is returning, then I can endure to wait another year
+in the house and submit to what you do there.'
+
+Even at this speech they mocked. Said one of them, Leocritus by name,
+'Though Odysseus be alive and should one day come into his own hall,
+that would not affright us. He is one, and we are many, and if he should
+strive with those who outnumber him, why then, let his doom be on his
+own head. And now, men of the council, scatter yourselves and go each to
+his own home, and let Mentor and Halitherses help Telemachus to get a
+ship and a crew.'
+
+Leocritus said that knowing that Mentor and Halitherses were old and had
+few friends, and that they could do nothing to help Telemachus to get a
+ship. The council broke up and those who were in it scattered. But the
+wooers went together back to the house of Odysseus.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+
+Telemachus went apart, and, going by himself, came to the shore of the
+sea. He dipped his hands into the sea-water and prayed, saying, 'O
+Goddess Athene, you who did come to my father's hall yesterday, I have
+tried to do as you bade me. But still the wooers of my mother hinder me
+from taking ship to seek tidings of my father.'
+
+He spoke in prayer and then he saw one who had the likeness of the old
+man Mentor coming towards him. But by the grey, clear,
+wonderfully-shining eyes he knew that the figure was none other than the
+goddess Athene.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+'Telemachus,' said she, 'if you have indeed one drop of your father's
+blood in you or one portion of his spirit, if you are as he was--one
+ready to fulfil both word and work, your voyage shall not be in vain. If
+you are different from what he was, I have no hope that you will
+accomplish your desire. But I have seen in you something of the wisdom
+and the courage of Odysseus. Hear my counsel then, and do as I direct
+you. Go back to your father's house and be with the wooers for a time.
+And get together corn and barley-flour and wine in jars. And while you
+are doing all this I will gather together a crew for your ship. There
+are many ships in sea-girt Ithaka and I shall choose the best for you
+and we will rig her quickly and launch her on the wide deep.'
+
+When Telemachus heard her counsel he tarried no more but went back to
+the house and stood amongst the wooers, and when he had spoken with them
+he went down into the treasure-vault. It was a spacious room filled with
+gold and bronze and chests of raiment and casks of wine. The doors of
+that vault were closed night and day and Eurycleia, the dame who had
+been the nurse of Telemachus when he was little, guarded the place. She
+came to him, and he spoke to her:
+
+'My nurse,' said he, 'none but yourself must know what I would do now,
+and you must swear not to speak of it to my lady-mother until twelve
+days from this. Fill twelve jars with wine for me now, and pour twelve
+measures of barley-meal into well-sewn skins. Leave them all together
+for me, and when my mother goes into the upper chamber, I shall have
+them carried away. Lo, nurse, I go to Pylos and to Sparta to seek
+tidings from Nestor and Menelaus of Odysseus, my father.'
+
+When she heard him say this, the nurse Eurycleia lamented. 'Ah,
+wherefore, dear child,' she cried, 'has such a thought risen in your
+mind? How could you fare over wide seas and through strange lands, you
+who were never from your home? Stay here where you are well beloved. As
+for your father, he has long since perished amongst strangers why should
+you put yourself in danger to find out that he is no more? Nay, do not
+go, Telemachus, my fosterling, but stay in your own house and in your
+own well-beloved country.'
+
+Telemachus said: 'Dear nurse, it has been shown to me that I should go
+by a goddess. Is not that enough for you and for me? Now make all ready
+for me as I have asked you, and swear to me that you will say nothing of
+it to my mother until twelve days from this, or until she shall miss me
+herself.'
+
+Having sworn as he asked her, the nurse Eurycleia drew the wine into
+jars and put the barley-meal into the well-sewn skins. Telemachus left
+the vault and went back again into the hall. He sat with the wooers and
+listened to the minstrel Phemius sing about the going forth of Odysseus
+to the wars of Troy.
+
+And while these things were happening the goddess Athene went through
+the town in the likeness of Telemachus. She went to this youth and that
+youth and told them of the voyage and asked them to make ready and go
+down to the beach where the boat would be. And then she went to a man
+called Noëmon, and begged him for a swift ship, and Noëmon gave it her.
+
+When the sun sank and when the ways were darkened Athene dragged the
+ship to where it should be launched and brought the tackling to it. The
+youths whom Athene had summoned--they were all of the age of
+Telemachus--came, and Athene aroused them with talk of the voyage. And
+when the ship was ready she went to the house of Odysseus. Upon the
+wooers who were still in the hall she caused sleep to fall. They laid
+their heads upon the tables and slumbered beside the wine cups. But
+Athene sent a whisper through the hall and Telemachus heard and he rose
+up and came to where she stood. Now she had on the likeness of old
+Mentor, the friend of his father Odysseus.
+
+'Come,' said she, 'your friends are already at the oars. We must not
+delay them.'
+
+But some of the youths had come with the one whom they thought was old
+Mentor. They carried with Telemachus the skins of corn and the casks of
+wine. They came to the ship, and Telemachus with a cheer climbed into
+it. Then the youths loosed the ropes and sat down at the benches to pull
+the oars. And Athene, in the likeness of old Mentor, sat at the helm.
+
+And now they set up the mast of pine and they made it fast with
+forestays, and they hauled up the sails with ropes of twisted oxhide.
+And a wind came and filled out the sails, and the youths pulled at the
+oars, and the ship dashed away. All night long Telemachus and his
+friends sat at the oars and under the sails, and felt the ship bearing
+them swiftly onward through the dark water. Phemius, the minstrel, was
+with them, and, as the night went by, he sang to them of Troy and of the
+heroes who had waged war against it.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+
+Troy, the minstrel sang, was the greatest of the Cities of men; it had
+been built when the demi-gods walked the earth; its walls were so strong
+and so high that enemies could not break nor scale them; Troy had high
+towers and great gates; in its citadels there were strong men well
+armed, and in its treasuries there were stores of gold and silver. And
+the King of Troy was Priam. He was old now, but he had sons that were
+good Captains. The chief of them all was Hector.
+
+Hector, the minstrel sang, was a match for any warrior the nations could
+send against Troy. Because he was noble and generous as well as brave,
+the people were devoted to him. And Hector, Priam's son, was commander
+in the City.
+
+But Priam had another son who was not counted amongst the Captains.
+Paris was his name. Now when Paris was in his infancy, a soothsayer told
+King Priam that he would bring trouble upon Troy. Then King Priam had
+the child sent away from the City. Paris was reared amongst country
+people, and when he was a youth he herded sheep.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Then the minstrel sang of Peleus, the King of Phthia, and of his
+marriage to the river nymph, Thetis. All the gods and goddesses came to
+their wedding feast, Only one of the immortals was not invited--Eris,
+who is Discord. She came, however. At the games that followed the
+wedding feast she threw a golden apple amongst the guests, and on the
+apple was written "For the fairest."
+
+Each of the three goddesses who was there wished to be known as the
+fairest and each claimed the golden apple--Aphrodite who inspired love;
+Athene who gave wisdom; and Hera who was the wife of Zeus, the greatest
+of the gods. But no one at the wedding would judge between the goddesses
+and say which was the fairest. And then the shepherd Paris came by, and
+him the guests asked to give judgment.
+
+Said Hera to Paris, 'Award the apple to me and I will give you a great
+kingship.' Said Athene, 'Award the golden apple to me and I will make
+you the wisest of men.' And Aphrodite came to him and whispered, 'Paris,
+dear Paris, let me be called the fairest and I will make you beautiful,
+and the fairest woman in the world will be your wife.' Paris looked on
+Aphrodite and in his eyes she was the fairest. To her he gave the golden
+apple and ever afterwards she was his friend. But Hera and Athene
+departed from the company in wrath.
+
+The minstrel sang how Paris went back to his father's City and was made
+a prince of Troy. Through the favor of Aphrodite he was the most
+beautiful of youths. Then Paris went out of the City again. Sent by his
+father he went to Tyre. And coming back to Troy from Tyre he went
+through Greece.
+
+Now the fairest woman in the world was in Greece; she was Helen, and she
+was married to King Menelaus. Paris saw her and loved her for her
+beauty. And Aphrodite inspired Helen to fall in love with Paris. He
+stole her from the house of Menelaus and brought her into Troy.
+
+King Menelaus sent to Troy and demanded that his wife be given back to
+him. But the people of Troy, thinking no King in the world could shake
+them, and wanting to boast that the fairest woman in the world was in
+their city, were not willing that Menelaus be given back his wife. Priam
+and his son, Hector, knew that a wrong had been done, and knew that
+Helen and all that she had brought with her should be given back. But in
+the council there were vain men who went against the word of Priam and
+Hector, declaring that for no little King of Greece would they give up
+Helen, the fairest woman in all the world.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Then the minstrel sang of Agamemnon. He was King of rich Mycenæ, and his
+name was so high and his deeds were so renowned that all the Kings of
+Greece looked to him. Now Agamemnon, seeing Menelaus, his brother,
+flouted by the Trojans, vowed to injure Troy. And he spoke to the
+Kings and Princes of Greece, saying that if they all united their
+strength they would be able to take the great city of Troy and avenge
+the slight put upon Menelaus and win great glory and riches for
+themselves.
+
+And when they had come together and had taken note of their strength,
+the Kings and Princes of Greece thought well of the word of Agamemnon
+and were eager to make war upon Troy. They bound themselves by a vow to
+take the City. Then Agamemnon sent messages to the heroes whose lands
+were far away, to Odysseus, and to Achilles, who was the son of Peleus
+and Thetis, bidding them also enter the war.
+
+In two years the ships of all the Kings and Princes were gathered into
+Aulis and the Greeks, with their leaders, Agamemnon, Aias, Diomedes,
+Nestor, Idomeneus, Achilles and Odysseus, sailed for the coast of Troy.
+One hero after another subdued the cities and nations that were the
+allies of the Trojans, but Troy they did not take. And the minstrel sang
+to Telemachus and his fellow-voyagers how year after year went by, and
+how the host of Greeks still remained between their ships and the walls
+of the City, and how in the ninth year there came a plague that smote
+with death more men than the Trojans killed.
+
+So the ship went on through the dark water, very swiftly, with the
+goddess Athene, in the likeness of old Mentor, guiding it, and with the
+youths listening to the song that Phemius the minstrel sang.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+
+The sun rose and Telemachus and his fellow-voyagers drew near to the
+shore of Pylos and to the steep citadel built by Neleus, the father of
+Nestor, the famous King. They saw on the shore men in companies making
+sacrifice to Poseidon, the dark-haired god of the sea. There were nine
+companies there and each company had nine black oxen for the sacrifice,
+and the number of men in each company was five hundred. They slew the
+oxen and they laid parts to burn on the altars of the god, and the men
+sat down to feast.
+
+The voyagers brought their ship to the shore and Telemachus sprang from
+it. But before him went the goddess, grey-eyed Athene, in the likeness
+of the old man, Mentor. And the goddess told Telemachus that Nestor, the
+King whom he had come to seek, was on the shore. She bade him now go
+forward with a good heart and ask Nestor for tidings of his father,
+Odysseus.
+
+But Telemachus said to her, 'Mentor, how can I bring myself to speak to
+one who is so reverenced? How should I greet him? And how can I, a young
+man, question such a one as Nestor, the old King?'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The goddess, grey-eyed Athene, encouraged him; the right words, she
+said, would come. So Telemachus went forward with his divine
+companion. Nestor was seated on the shore with his sons around him. And
+when they saw the two strangers approach, the sons of Nestor rose up to
+greet them. One, Peisistratus, took the hand of Telemachus and the hand
+of the goddess and led them both to where Nestor was.
+
+A golden cup was put into the hand of each and wine was poured into the
+cups, and Nestor's son, Peisistratus, asked Telemachus and the goddess
+to pray that the sacrifice they were making to Poseidon, the god of the
+sea, would bring good to them and to their people. Then the goddess
+Athene in the likeness of old Mentor held the cup in her hand and
+prayed:
+
+'Hear me, Poseidon, shaker of the earth: First to Nestor and his sons
+grant renown. Then grant to the people of Pylos recompense for the
+sacrifice of oxen they have made. Grant, too, that Telemachus and I may
+return safely when what we have come in our swift ship to seek has been
+won.'
+
+Telemachus prayed in the words of the goddess and then the sons of
+Nestor made them both sit on the fleeces that were spread on the shore.
+And dishes of meat were brought to them and cups of wine, and when they
+had eaten and drunk, the old King, Nestor, spoke to them.
+
+'Until they have partaken of food and drink, it is not courteous,' he
+said, 'to ask of strangers who they are and whither they go. But now, my
+guests, I will ask of you what your land is, and what your quest, and
+what names you bear.'
+
+Then Telemachus said: 'Nestor, renowned King, glory of the Greeks, we
+have come out of Ithaka and we seek tidings of my father, of Odysseus,
+who, long ago, fought by your side in the war of Troy. With you, men
+say, he sacked the great City of the Trojans. But no further story about
+him has been told. And I have come to your knees, O King, to beg you to
+give me tidings of him--whether he died and you saw his death, or
+whether you heard of his death from another. And if you should answer
+me, speak not, I pray you, in pity for me, but tell me all you know or
+have heard. Ah, if ever my father helped you in the land of the Trojans,
+by the memory of what help he gave, I pray you speak in truth to me, his
+son.'
+
+Then said Nestor, the old King, 'Verily, my son, you bring sorrow to my
+mind. Ah, where are they who were with me in our war against the mighty
+City of Troy? Where is Aias and Achilles and Patroklos and my own dear
+son, Antilochos, who was so noble and so strong? And where is Agamemnon
+now? He returned to his own land, to be killed in his own hall by a most
+treacherous foeman. And now you ask me of Odysseus, the man who was
+dearer to me than any of the others--Odysseus, who was always of the one
+mind with me! Never did we two speak diversely in the assembly nor in
+the council.
+
+'You say to me that you are the son of Odysseus! Surely you are.
+Amazement comes over me as I look on you and listen to you, for you look
+as he looked and you speak as he spoke. But I would have you speak
+further to me and tell me of your homeland and of how things fare in
+Ithaka.'
+
+Then he told the old King of the evil deeds I worked by the wooers of
+his mother, and when he had told of them Telemachus cried out, 'Oh, that
+the gods would give me such strength that I might take vengeance on them
+for their many transgressions.'
+
+Then said old Nestor, 'Who knows but Odysseus will win home and requite
+the violence of these suitors and the insults they have offered to your
+house. The goddess Athene might bring this to pass. Well was she
+inclined to your father, and never did the gods show such favour to a
+mortal as the grey-eyed goddess showed to Odysseus, your father.'
+
+But Telemachus answered, 'In no wise can your word be accomplished,
+King.'
+
+Then Athene, in the likeness of old Mentor, spoke to him and said, 'What
+word has crossed your lips, Telemachus? If it should please them, any
+one of the gods could bring a man home from afar. Only this the gods may
+not do--avert death from a man who has been doomed to it.'
+
+Telemachus answered her and said, 'Mentor, no longer let us talk of
+these things. Nestor, the renowned King, has been very gracious to me,
+but he has nothing to tell me of my father. I deem now that Odysseus
+will never return.'
+
+'Go to Menelaus,' said Nestor. 'Go to Menelaus in Sparta. Lately he has
+come from a far and a strange country and it may be that he has heard
+of Odysseus in his wanderings. You can go to Sparta in your ship. But if
+you have a mind to fare by land then will I give you a chariot and
+horses, and my son will go with you to be a guide for you into Sparta.'
+
+Then Telemachus, with Athene, the grey-eyed goddess in the likeness of
+old Mentor, would have gone back to their ship, but Nestor the King
+said, 'Zeus forbid that you two should go back to the ship to take your
+rest while there is guest-room in my hall. Come with me to a place where
+you can lie softly. Never shall it be said that a son of Odysseus, my
+dear friend, lay on the hard deck of a ship while I am alive and while
+children of mine are left in my hall. Come with me now.'
+
+Then the goddess Athene in the likeness of old Mentor said, 'You have
+spoken as becomes you, renowned King. Telemachus should harken to your
+word and go with you. But it is meet that the young men who came for the
+love of him should have an elder with them on the ship to-night. I shall
+abide with them.'
+
+So speaking, the goddess, grey-eyed Athene, in the likeness of old
+Mentor went from the shore, and Telemachus went with Nestor and his sons
+to the high citadel of Neleus. And there he was given a bath, and the
+maiden Polycaste, the youngest daughter of King Nestor, attended him.
+She gave him new raiment to wear, a goodly mantle and doublet. He slept
+in a room with Peisistratus, the youngest of Nestor's sons.
+
+In the morning they feasted and did sacrifice, and when he had given
+judgments to the people, the old King Nestor spoke to his sons,--
+
+'Lo, now, my sons. Yoke for Telemachus the horses to the chariot that he
+may go on his way to Sparta.'
+
+The sons of Nestor gave heed and they yoked the swift horses to the
+chariot and the housedame came from the hall and placed within the
+chariot wine and dainties. Telemachus went into the chariot and
+Peisistratus sat before him. Then Peisistratus touched the horses with
+the whip and they sprang forward, and the chariot went swiftly over the
+plain. Soon they left behind them the steep citadel of Neleus and the
+land of Pylos. And when the sun sank and the ways were darkened, they
+came to Pheræ and to the house of Diocles and there they rested for the
+night.
+
+In the morning as soon as the sun rose they yoked the houses and they
+mounted the chariot, and for another day they journeyed across the
+plain. They had gone far and the ways were again darkened around them.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+
+They came to Sparta, to a country lying low amongst the hills, and they
+stayed the chariot outside the gate of the King's dwelling. Now upon
+that day Menelaus was sending his daughter into Phthia, with horses and
+chariots, as a bride for Achilles' son. And for Megapenthes, his own
+son, a bride was being brought into the house. Because of these two
+marriages there was feasting in the palace and kinsmen and neighbours
+were gathered there. A minstrel was singing to the guests and two
+tumblers were whirling round the high hall to divert them.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+To the King in his high hall came Eteoneus, the steward. 'Renowned
+Menelaus,' said Eteoneus, 'there are two strangers outside, men with the
+looks of heroes. What would you have me do with them? Shall I have their
+horses unyoked, bidding them enter the Palace, or shall I let them fare
+on to another dwelling?'
+
+'Why do you ask such a question, Eteoneus?' said Menelaus in anger.
+'Have we not eaten the bread of other men on our wanderings, and have we
+not rested ourselves in other men's houses? Knowing this you have no
+right to ask whether you should bid strangers enter or let them go past
+the gate of my dwelling. Go now and bid them enter and feast with us.'
+
+Then Eteoneus went from the hall, and while he had servants unyoke the
+horses from their chariot he led Telemachus and Peisistratus into the
+palace. First they were brought to the bath, and when they had come from
+the bath refreshed, they were given new cloaks and mantles. When they
+had dressed themselves they were led into the King's high hall. They
+seated themselves there, and a maid brought water in a golden ewer and
+poured it over their hands into a silver basin. Then a polished table
+was put beside them, and the housedame placed bread and meat and wine
+upon it so that they might eat.
+
+Menelaus came to where they sat and said to Telemachus and Peisistratus,
+'By your looks I know you to be of the line of Kings. Eat now, and when
+you have refreshed yourselves I will ask who you are and from what place
+you come.'
+
+But before they had finished their meal, and while yet Menelaus the king
+was showing them the treasures that were near, the lady Helen came into
+the high hall--Helen for whom the Kings and Princes of Greece had gone
+to war. Her maids were with her, and they set a chair for her near where
+Menelaus was and they put a rug of soft wool under her feet. Then one
+brought to her a silver basket filled with colored yarn. And Helen sat
+in her high chair and took the distaff in her hands and worked the yarn.
+She questioned Menelaus about the things that had happened during the
+day, and as she did she watched Telemachus.
+
+Then the lady Helen left the distaff down and said, 'Menelaus, I am
+minded to tell you who one of these strangers is. No one was ever more
+like another than this youth is like great-hearted Odysseus. I know that
+he is no other than Telemachus, whom Odysseus left as a child, when, for
+my sake, the Greeks began their war against Troy.'
+
+Then said Menelaus, 'I too mark his likeness to Odysseus. The shape of
+his head, the glance of his eye, remind me of Odysseus. But can it
+indeed be that Telemachus has come into my house?'
+
+'Renowned Menelaus,' said Peisistratus, 'this is indeed the son of
+Odysseus. And I avow myself to be the son of another comrade of yours,
+of Nestor, who was with you at the war of Troy. I have been sent with
+Telemachus to be his guide to your house.'
+
+Menelaus rose up and clasped the hand of Telemachus. 'Never did there
+come to my house,' said he, 'a youth more welcome. For my sake did
+Odysseus endure much toil and many adventures. Had he come to my country
+I would have given him a city to rule over, and I think that nothing
+would have parted us, one from the other. But Odysseus, I know, has not
+returned to his own land of Ithaka.'
+
+Then Telemachus, thinking upon his father, dead, or wandering through
+the world, wept. Helen, too, shed tears, remembering things that had
+happened. And Menelaus, thinking upon Odysseus and on all his toils, was
+silent and sad; and sad and silent too was Peisistratus, thinking upon
+Antilochos, his brother, who had perished in the war of Troy.
+
+But Helen, wishing to turn their minds to other thoughts, cast into the
+wine a drug that lulled pain and brought forgetfulness--a drug which had
+been given to her in Egypt by Polydamna, the wife of King Theon. And
+when they had drunk the wine their sorrowful memories went from them,
+and they spoke to each other without regretfulness. Thereafter King
+Menelaus told of his adventure with the Ancient One of the Sea--the
+adventure that had brought to him the last tidings of Odysseus.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+Said Menelaus, 'Over against the river that flows out of Egypt there is
+an Island that men call Pharos, and to that island I came with my ships
+when we, the heroes who had fought at Troy, were separated one from the
+other. There I was held, day after day, by the will of the gods. Our
+provision of corn was spent and my men were in danger of perishing of
+hunger. Then one day while my companions were striving desperately to
+get fish out of the sea, I met on the shore one who had pity for our
+plight.
+
+'She was an immortal, Eidothëe, a daughter of the Ancient One of the
+Sea. I craved of her to tell me how we might get away from that place,
+and she counselled me to take by an ambush her father, the Ancient One
+of the Sea, who is also called Proteus, "You can make him tell you,"
+said she, "for he knows all things, what you must do to get away from
+this island of Pharos. Moreover, he can declare to you what happened to
+the heroes you have been separated from, and what has taken place in
+your own hall."
+
+'Then said I to that kind nymph Eidothëe, "Show me how I may take by an
+ambush your immortal father, the Ancient One of the Sea."'
+
+'Said Eidothëe, "My father, Proteus, comes out of the sea when the sun
+is highest in the heavens. Then would he lie down to sleep in the caves
+that are along the shore. But before he goes to sleep he counts, as a
+shepherd counts his flock, the seals that come up out of the ocean and
+lie round where he lies. If there be one too many, or one less than
+there should be, he will not go to sleep in the cave. But I will show
+you how you and certain of your companions may be near without the
+Ancient One of the Sea being aware of your presence. Take three of your
+men--the three you trust above all the others--and as soon as it is dawn
+to-morrow meet me by the edge of the sea."'
+
+'So saying the nymph Eidothëe plunged into the sea and I went from that
+place anxious, but with hope in my heart.
+
+'Now as soon as the dawn had come I walked by the sea-shore and with me
+came the three that I trusted above all my companions. The daughter of
+the Ancient One of the Sea, Eidothëe, came to us. In her arms she had
+the skins of seals newly-slain, one for each of us. And at the cave
+where the seals lay she scooped holes in the sand and bade us lie there,
+covering ourselves with the skins. Then she spoke to me and said:
+
+'"When my father, the Ancient One of the Sea, comes here to sleep, lay
+hands upon him and hold him with all the strength you have. He will
+change himself into many shapes, but do not you let go your hold upon
+him. When he changes back into the shape he had at first you may let go
+your holds. Question him then as to how you may leave this place, or
+question him as to any other matter that may be on your mind, and he
+will answer you, speaking the truth."'
+
+'We lay down in the holes she had scooped in the sand and she covered
+each of us with one of the skins she had brought. Then the seals came
+out of the sea and lay all around us. The smell that came from those
+beasts of the sea afflicted us, and it was then that our adventure
+became terrible. We could not have endured it if Eidothëe had not helped
+us in this also. She took ambrosia and set it beneath each man's
+nostril, so that what came to us was not the smell of the sea-beasts but
+a divine savour. Then the nymph went back to the sea.
+
+'We lay there with steadfast hearts amongst the herd of seals until the
+sun was at its highest in the heavens. The Ancient One of the Sea came
+out of the ocean depths. He went amongst the seals and counted them, and
+us four men he reckoned amongst his herd. Then in great contentment he
+laid himself down to sleep.
+
+'We rushed upon him with a cry and laid hold on him with all the
+strength of our hands. But we had no sooner grasped him than his shape
+changed. He became a lion and faced us. Yet we did not let go of our
+grasp. He became a serpent, yet we still held him. He became a leopard
+and then a mighty boar; he became a stream of water and then a flowering
+tree. Yet still we held to him with all our might and our hearts were
+not daunted by the shapes he changed to before our eyes. Then, seeing
+that he could not make us loose our hold, the Ancient One of the Sea,
+who was called Proteus, ceased in his changes and became as we had seen
+him first.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+'"Son of Atreus," said he, speaking to me, "who was it showed you how to
+lay this ambush for me?"'
+
+'"It is for you who know all things," said I, "to make answer to us.
+Tell me now why it is that I am held on this island? Which of the gods
+holds me here and for what reason?"'
+
+'Then the Ancient One of the Sea answered me, speaking truth, "Zeus, the
+greatest of all the gods holds you here. You neglected to make sacrifice
+to the gods and for that reason you are held on this island."
+
+'"Then," said I, "what must I do to win back the favor of the gods?"'
+
+'He told me, speaking truth, "Before setting sail for your own land," he
+said, "you must return to the river Ægyptus that flows out of Africa,
+and offer sacrifice there to the gods."'
+
+'When he said this my spirit was broken with grief. A long and a
+grievous way would I have to sail to make that sacrifice, turning back
+from my own land. Yet the will of the gods would have to be done. Again
+I was moved to question the Ancient One of the Sea, and to ask him for
+tidings of the men who were my companions in the wars of Troy.
+
+'Ah, son of Odysseus, more broken than ever was my spirit with grief
+when he told me of their fates. Then I heard how my brother, great
+Agamemnon, reached his own land and was glad in his heart. But his wife
+had hatred for him, and in his own hall she and Ægisthus had him slain.
+I sat and wept on the sands, but still I questioned the Ancient One of
+the Sea. And he told me of strong Aias and how he was killed by the
+falling rock after he had boasted that Poseidon, the god of the Sea,
+could afflict him no more. And of your father, the renowned Odysseus,
+the Ancient One had a tale to tell.
+
+'Then, and even now it may be, Odysseus was on an island away from all
+mankind. "There he abides in the hall of the nymph Calypso," the Ancient
+One of the Sea told me. "I saw him shed great tears because he could not
+go from that place. But he has no ship and no companions and the nymph
+Calypso holds him there. And always he longs to return to his own
+country, to the land of Ithaka." And after he had spoken to me of
+Odysseus, he went from us and plunged into the sea.
+
+'Thereafter I went back to the river Ægyptus and moored my ships and
+made pious sacrifice to the gods. A fair wind came to us and we set out
+for our own country. Swiftly we came to it, and now you see me the
+happiest of all those who set out to wage war against Troy. And now,
+dear son of Odysseus, you know what an immortal told of your father--how
+he is still in life, but how he is held from returning to his own home.'
+
+Thus from Menelaus the youth Telemachus got tiding of his father. When
+the King ceased to speak they went from the hall with torches in their
+hands and came to the vestibule where Helen's handmaids had prepared
+beds for Telemachus and Peisistratus. And as he lay there under purple
+blankets and soft coverlets, the son of Odysseus thought upon his
+father, still in life, but held in that unknown island by the nymph
+Calypso.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+
+His ship and his fellow-voyagers waited at Pylos but for a while longer
+Telemachus bided in Sparta, for he would fain hear from Menelaus and
+from Helen the tale of Troy. Many days he stayed, and on the first day
+Menelaus told him of Achilles, the greatest of the heroes who had fought
+against Troy, and on another day the lady Helen told him of Hector, the
+noblest of all the men who defended King Priam's City.
+
+'Achilles,' said King Menelaus, 'was sprung of a race that was favoured
+by the immortals. Peleus, the father of Achilles, had for his friend,
+Cheiron, the wisest of the Centaurs--of those immortals who are half men
+and half horse. Cheiron it was who gave to Peleus his great spear. And
+when Peleus desired to wed an immortal, Zeus, the greatest of the gods,
+prevailed upon the nymph Thetis to marry him, although marriage with a
+mortal was against her will. To the wedding of Thetis and Peleus all the
+gods came. And for wedding gifts Zeus gave such armour as no mortal had
+ever worn before--armour wonderfully bright and wonderfully strong, and
+he gave also two immortal horses.
+
+'Achilles was the child of Thetis and Peleus--of an immortal woman
+married to a mortal hero. He grew up most strong and fleet of foot. When
+he was grown to be a youth he was sent to Cheiron, and his father's
+friend instructed him in all the ways of war. He became the greatest of
+spearmen, and on the mountain with the Centaur he gained in strength and
+in fleetness of foot.
+
+'Now after he returned to his father's hall the war against Troy began
+to be prepared for. Agamemnon, the king, wanted Achilles to join the
+host. But Thetis, knowing that great disasters would befall those who
+went to that war, feared for Achilles. She resolved to hide him so that
+no word from King Agamemnon might reach him. And how did the nymph
+Thetis hide her son? She sent him to King Lycomedes and prayed the King
+to hide Achilles amongst his daughters.
+
+'So the youth Achilles was dressed as a maiden and stayed with the
+daughters of the King. The messengers of Agamemnon searched everywhere
+for him. Many of them came to the court of King Lycomedes, but not
+finding one like Achilles amongst the King's sons they went away.
+
+'Odysseus, by Agamemnon's order, came to seek Achilles. He knew that the
+youth was not amongst the King's sons. He saw the King's daughters in
+their father's orchard, but could not tell if Achilles was amongst them,
+for all were veiled and dressed alike.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+'Then Odysseus went away and returned as a peddler carrying in his pack
+such things as maidens admire--veils and ornaments and brazen mirrors.
+But under the veils and ornaments and mirrors the wise Odysseus left a
+gleaming sword. When he came before the maidens in the King's orchard he
+laid down his peddler's pack. The mirrors and veils and ornaments were
+taken up and examined eagerly. But one of the company took up the
+gleaming sword and looked at it with flashing eyes. Odysseus knew that
+this was Achilles, King Peleus' son.
+
+'He gave the youth the summons of King Agamemnon, bidding him join the
+war that the Kings and Princes of Greece were about to wage against
+Troy. And Achilles was glad to get the summons and glad to go. He
+returned to Phthia, to his father's citadel. There did he make ready to
+go to Aulis where the ships were being gathered. He took with him his
+father's famous warriors, the Myrmidons who were never beaten in battle.
+And his father bestowed on him the armour and the horses that had been
+the gift of Zeus--the two immortal horses Xanthos and Balios.
+
+'But what rejoiced Achilles more than the gift of marvellous armour and
+immortal steeds was that his dear comrade, Patroklos, was to be with him
+as his mate in war. Patroklos had come into Phthia and into the hall of
+Peleus when he was a young boy. In his own country he had killed another
+boy by mischance over a game of dice. His father, to save him from the
+penalty, fled with him to King Peleus. And Achilles' father gave them
+refuge and took Patroklos into his house and reared him up with his own
+son. Later he made him squire to Achilles. These two grew up together
+and more than brothers they loved each other.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+'Achilles bade good-bye to Phthia, and to his hero-father and his
+immortal mother, and he and Patroklos with the Myrmidons went over the
+sea to Aulis and joined the host of the Kings and Princes who had made a
+vow not to refrain from war until they had taken King Priam's famous
+city.'
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+
+Achilles became the most renowned of all the heroes who strove against
+Troy in the years the fighting went on. Before the sight of him, clad in
+the flashing armour that was the gift of Zeus and standing in the
+chariot drawn by the immortal horses, the Trojan ranks would break and
+the Trojan men would flee back to the gate of their city. And many
+lesser cities and towns around Troy did the host with the help of
+Achilles take.
+
+'Now because of two maidens taken captive from some of these cities a
+quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon grew up. One of the maidens was
+called Chryseis and the other Briseis. Chryseis was given to Agamemnon
+and Briseis to Achilles.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+'The father of Chryseis was a priest of Apollo, and when the maiden, his
+daughter, was not given back to him, he went and prayed the god to
+avenge him on the host. Apollo listened to his prayer, and straightway
+the god left his mountain peak with his bow of silver in his hands. He
+stood behind the ships and shot his arrows into the host. Terrible was
+the clanging of his silver bow. He smote the beasts of the camp first,
+the dogs and the mules and the horses, and then he smote the men, and
+those whom his arrows smote were stricken by the plague.
+
+'The warriors began to die, and every day more perished by the plague
+than were killed by the spears and swords and arrows of the Trojans. Now
+a council was summoned and the chiefs debated what was to be done to
+save the host. At the council there was a soothsayer named Kalchas; he
+stood up and declared that he knew the cause of the plague, and he knew
+too how the remainder of the host might be saved from it.
+
+'It was because of the anger of Apollo, Kalchas said; and that anger
+could only be averted by Agamemnon sending back to his father, the
+priest of Apollo, the maiden Chryseis.
+
+'Then was Agamemnon wroth exceedingly. "Thou seer of things evil," said
+he to Kalchas, "never didst thou see aught of good for me or mine. The
+maiden given to me, Chryseis, I greatly prize. Yet rather than my folk
+should perish I shall let her be taken from me. But this let you all of
+the council know: some other prize must be given to me that the whole
+host may know that Agamemnon is not slighted."'
+
+'Then said Achilles: "Agamemnon, of all Kings you are the most covetous.
+The best of us toil and battle that you may come and take what part of
+the spoil may please you. Be covetous no more. Let this maiden go back
+to her father and afterwards we will give you some other prize."'
+
+'Said Agamemnon: "The council here must bind itself to give me
+recompense."'
+
+'"Still you speak of recompense, Agamemnon," answered Achilles. "No one
+gains more than you gain. I had no quarrel with the men of Troy, and yet
+I have come here, and my hands bear the brunt of the war."'
+
+'"You who are captains must give me a recompense," said Agamemnon, "or
+else I shall go to the tent of Achilles and take away the maiden given
+to him, Briseis of the Fair Cheeks."'
+
+'"I am wearied of making war for you," answered Achilles. "Though I am
+always in the strife but little of the spoil comes to my tent. Now will
+I depart to my own land, to Phthia, for I am not minded to stay here and
+be dishonoured by you, O King."'
+
+'"Go," said Agamemnon, "if your soul be set upon fleeing, go. But do not
+think that there are not captains and heroes here who can make war
+without you. Go and lord it amongst your Myrmidons. Never shall we seek
+your aid. And that all may know I am greater than you, Achilles, I shall
+go to your tent and take away the maiden Briseis."'
+
+'When he heard Agamemnon's speech the heart within Achilles' breast was
+divided, and he knew not whether he should remain still and silent in
+his anger, or, thrusting the council aside, go up to Agamemnon and slay
+him with the sword. His hand was upon the sword-hilt when an immortal
+appeared to him--the goddess Athene. No one in the company but Achilles
+was aware of her presence. "Draw not the sword upon Agamemnon," she
+said, "for equally dear to the gods are you both." Then Achilles drew
+back and thrust his heavy sword into its sheath again. But although he
+held his hand he did not refrain from angry and bitter words. He threw
+down on the ground the staff that had been put into his hands as a sign
+that he was to be listened to in the council. "By this staff that no
+more shall bear leaf or blossom," he said, "I swear that longing for
+Achilles' aid shall come upon the host of Agamemnon, but that no
+Achilles shall come to their help. I swear that I shall let Hector
+triumph over you."'
+
+'Then the council broke up and Achilles with Patroklos, his dear
+comrade, went back to their tent. A ship was launched and the maiden
+Chryseis was put aboard and Odysseus was placed in command. The ship set
+out for Chryse. There on the beach they found the priest of Apollo, and
+Odysseus placed his daughter in the old man's arms. They made sacrifice
+to Apollo, and thereafter the plague was averted from the host.
+
+'But to Achilles' tent there came the messengers of the King, and they
+took Briseis of the Fair Cheeks and led her away. Achilles, in bitter
+anger, sat by the sea, hard in his resolve not to help Agamemnon's men,
+no matter what defeat great Hector inflicted upon them.'
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+
+Such was the quarrel, dear son, between Agamemnon, King of men, and
+great Achilles. Ah, because of that quarrel many brave men and great
+captains whom I remember went down to their deaths!'
+
+'But Agamemnon before long relented and he sent three envoys to make
+friendship between himself and Achilles. The envoys were Odysseus and
+Aias and the old man Phoinix who had been a foster-father to Achilles.
+Now when these three went into his hut they found Achilles sitting with
+a lyre in his hands, singing to the music he made. His song was of what
+Thetis, his goddess-mother, had told him concerning his own fate--how,
+if he remained in the war against Troy, he should win for himself
+imperishable renown but would soon lose his life, and how, if he left
+the war, his years in his own land should be long, although no great
+renown would be his. Patroklos, his dear friend, listened to what
+Achilles sang. And Achilles sang of what royal state would be his if he
+gave up the war against the Trojans and went back to his father's
+halls--old Peleus would welcome him, and he would seek a bride for him
+from amongst the loveliest of the Greek maidens. "In three days," he
+sang, "can Poseidon, God of the Sea, bring me to my own land and to my
+father's royal castle."'
+
+'"Well dost thou sing, Achilles," said Odysseus to him, "and pleasant
+would it be to hear thy song if our hearts were not filled up with great
+griefs. But have not nine years passed away since we came here to make
+war on Troy? And now are not our ships' timbers rotted and their
+tacklings loosed, and do not many of our warriors think in their hearts
+how their wives and children have long been waiting for their return?
+And still the walls of Troy rise up before us as high and as
+unconquerable as ever! No wonder our hearts are filled up with griefs.
+And now Achilles, the greatest of our heroes, and the Myrmidons, the
+best of our warriors, have left us and gone out of the fight."'
+
+'"Even to-day did great Hector turn back our battalions that were led by
+Agamemnon and Aias and Diomedes, driving us to the wall that we have
+built around our ships. Behind that wall we halted and called one to the
+other to find out who had escaped and who had fallen in the onslaught
+Hector made. Only when he had driven us behind our wall did Hector turn
+back his chariot and draw off his men."'
+
+'"But Hector has not gone through the gates of the City. Look now,
+Achilles! His chariots remain on the plain. Lo now, his watch-fires! A
+thousand fires thou canst see and beside each sits fifty warriors with
+their horses loose beside their chariots champing barley. Eagerly they
+wait for the light of the dawn when they will come against us again,
+hoping this time to overthrow the wall we have builded, and come to our
+ships and burn them with fire, and so destroy all hope of our return."'
+
+'"We are all stricken with grief and fear. Even Agamemnon weeps. We have
+seen him standing before us like unto a dark fountain breaking from some
+beetling cliff. How else could he but weep tears? To-morrow it may be he
+shall have to bid the host draw the ships to the water and depart from
+the coast of Troy. Then will his name forever be dishonoured because of
+defeat and the loss of so many warriors."'
+
+'"Deem'st thou I grieve for Agamemnon's griefs, Odysseus?" said
+Achilles. "But although thou dost speak of Agamemnon thou art welcome,
+thou and thy companions. Even in my wrath you three are dear to me."'
+
+'He brought them within the hut and bade a feast be prepared for them.
+To Odysseus, Aias and Phoinix wine cups were handed. And when they had
+feasted and drunk wine, Odysseus turned to where Achilles sat on his
+bench in the light of the fire, and said:
+
+'"Know, Achilles, that we three are here as envoys from King Agamemnon.
+He would make a friendship with thee again. He has injured and he has
+offended thee, but all that a man can do he will do to make amends. The
+maiden Briseis he will let go back. Many gifts will he give thee too,
+Achilles. He will give thee seven tripods, and twenty cauldrons, and ten
+talents of gold. Yes, and besides, twelve royal horses, each one of
+which has triumphed in some race. He who possesses these horses will
+never lack for wealth as long as prizes are to be won by swiftness. And
+harken to what more Agamemnon bade us say to thee. If we win Troy he
+will let thee load your ship with spoil of the city--with gold and
+bronze and precious stuffs. And thereafter, if we win to our homes he
+will treat thee as his own royal son and will give thee seven cities to
+rule over. And if thou wilt wed there are three daughters in his
+hall--three of the fairest maidens of the Greeks--and the one thou wilt
+choose he will give thee for thy wife, Chrysothemis, or Laodike, or
+Iphianassa."'
+
+'So Odysseus spoke and then Aias said, "Think, Achilles, and abandon now
+thy wrath. If Agamemnon be hateful to thee and if thou despiseth his
+gifts, think upon thy friends and thy companions and have pity upon
+them. Even for our sakes, Achilles, arise now and go into battle and
+stay the onslaught of the terrible Hector."'
+
+'Achilles did not answer. His lion's eyes were fixed upon those who had
+spoken and his look did not change at all for all that was said.'
+
+'Then the old man Phoinix who had nurtured him went over to him. He
+could not speak, for tears had burst from him. But at last, holding
+Achilles' hands, he said:
+
+[Illustration]
+
+'"In thy father's house did I not rear thee to greatness--even thee,
+most noble Achilles. With me and with none other wouldst thou go into
+the feasthall, and, as a child, thou would'st stay at my knee and eat
+the morsel I gave, and drink from the cup that I put to thy lips. I
+reared thee, and I suffered and toiled much that thou mightst have
+strength and skill and quickness. Be thou merciful in thy heart,
+Achilles. Be not wrathful any more. Cast aside thine anger now and save
+the host. Come now. The gifts Agamemnon would give thee are very great,
+and no king nor prince could despise them. But if without gifts thou
+would'st enter the battle, then above all heroes the host would honour
+thee."'
+
+'Achilles answered Phoinix gently and said, "The honour the host would
+bestow upon me I have no need of, for I am honoured in the judgment of
+Zeus, the greatest of the gods, and while breath remains with me that
+honour cannot pass away. But do thou, Phoinix, stay with me, and many
+things I shall bestow upon thee, even the half of my kingdom. Ah, but
+urge me not to help Agamemnon, for if thou dost I shall look upon thee
+as a friend to Agamemnon, and I shall hate thee, my foster-father, as I
+hate him."'
+
+Then to Odysseus, Achilles spoke and said, "Son of Laertes, wisest of
+men, harken now to what I shall say to thee. Here I should have stayed
+and won that imperishable renown that my goddess-mother told me of, even
+at the cost of my young life if Agamemnon had not aroused the wrath that
+now possesses me. Know that my soul is implacable towards him. How often
+did I watch out sleepless nights, how often did I spend my days in
+bloody battle for the sake of Agamemnon's and his brother's cause! Why
+are we here if not because of lovely Helen? And yet one whom I cherished
+as Menelaus cherished Helen has been taken from me by order of this
+King! He would let her go her way now! But no, I do not desire to see
+Briseis ever again, for everything that comes from Agamemnon's hand is
+hateful to me. Hateful are all the gifts he would bestow upon me, and
+him and his treasures I hold at a straw's worth. I have chosen.
+To-morrow I shall have my Myrmidons draw my ships out to the sea, and I
+shall depart from Troy for my own land."'
+
+'Said Aias, "Have the gods, Achilles, put into your breast a spirit
+implacable and proud above all men's spirits?"'
+
+'"Yea, Aias," said Achilles. "My spirit cannot contain my wrath.
+Agamemnon has treated me, not as a leader of armies who won many battles
+for him, but as a vile sojourner in his camp. Go now and declare my will
+to him. Never again shall I take thought of his war."'
+
+'So he spoke, and each man took up a two-handled cup and poured out wine
+as an offering to the gods. Then Odysseus and Aias in sadness left the
+hut. But Phoinix remained, and for him Patroklos, the dear friend of
+Achilles, spread a couch of fleeces and rugs.'
+
+'Odysseus and Aias went along the shore of the sea and by the line of
+the ships and they came to where Agamemnon was with the greatest of the
+warriors of the host. Odysseus told them that by no means would
+Achilles join in the battle, and they all were made silent with grief.
+Then Diomedes, the great horseman, rose up and said, "Let Achilles stay
+or go, fight or not fight, as it pleases him. But it is for us who have
+made a vow to take Priam's city, to fight on. Let us take food and rest
+now, and to-morrow let us go against Hector's host, and you, Agamemnon,
+take the foremost place in the battle."'
+
+'So Diomedes spoke and the warriors applauded what he said, and they all
+poured out libations of wine to the gods, and thereafter they went to
+their huts and slept. But for Agamemnon, the King, there was no sleep
+that night. Before his eyes was the blaze of Hector's thousand
+watch-fires and in his ears were the sound of pipes and flutes that made
+war-music for the Trojan host encamped upon the plain.'
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+
+When dawn came the King arrayed himself for the battle, putting on his
+great breast-plate and his helmet that had a high plume of horse-hair;
+fastening about his legs greaves fitted with ankle-clasps of silver; and
+hanging round his shoulders a great sword that shone with studs of
+gold--a sword that had a silver scabbard fitted with golden chains. Over
+his shoulders he cast a great lion's skin, and he took upon his arm a
+shield that covered the whole of a man. Next he took in his hands two
+strong spears of bronze, and so arrayed and so armed he was ready to
+take the foremost place in the battle.'
+
+'He cried aloud and bade the Greeks arm themselves, and straightway they
+did so and poured from behind the wall that guarded their ships into the
+Trojan plain. Then the chiefs mounted their chariots, and their
+charioteers turned the horses towards the place of battle.'
+
+'Now on the high ground before them the Trojans had gathered in their
+battalions and the figure of great Hector was plain to Agamemnon and his
+men. Like a star that now and then was hidden by a cloud, so he appeared
+as he went through the battalions, all covered with shining bronze.
+Spears and arrows fell upon both sides. Footmen kept slaying footmen and
+horsemen kept slaying horsemen with the sword, and the dust of the plain
+rose up, stirred by the thundering hooves of the horses. From dawn till
+morning and from morning till noon the battle raged, but at mid-day the
+Greeks broke through the Trojan lines. Then Agamemnon in his chariot
+rushed through a gap in the line. Two men did he instantly slay, and
+dashing onward he slew two warriors who were sons of King Priam. Like
+fire falling upon a wood and burning up the underwood went King
+Agamemnon through the Trojan ranks, and when he passed many
+strong-necked horses rattled empty chariots, leaving on the earth the
+slain warriors that had been in them. And through the press of men and
+up to the high walls of Troy did Agamemnon go, slaying Trojan warriors
+with his spear. Hector did not go nigh him, for the gods had warned
+Hector not to lead any onslaught until Agamemnon had turned back from
+battle.'
+
+'But a Trojan warrior smote King Agamemnon on the mid-arm, below the
+elbow, and the point of his spear went clean through. Still he went
+through the ranks of the Trojans, slaying with spear and sword. And then
+the blood dried upon his wound and a sharp pain came upon him and he
+cried out, "O friends and captains! It is not possible for me to war for
+ever against the Trojans, but do you fight on to keep the battle from
+our ships." His charioteer turned his horses, and they, all covered with
+foam and grimed with dust, dashed back across the plain bearing the
+wounded King from that day's battle.'
+
+'Then Hector sprang to the onslaught. Leaping into his chariot he led
+the Trojans on. Nine captains of the Greeks he slew in the first onset.
+Now their ranks would have been broken, and the Greeks would have fled
+back to their ships if Odysseus had not been on that wing of the battle
+with Diomedes, the great horseman. Odysseus cried out, "Come hither,
+Diomedes, or verily Hector will sweep us across the plain and bring the
+battle down to our ships."'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+'Then these two forced themselves through the press of battle and held
+back the onset of Hector till the Greeks had their chance to rally.
+Hector spied them and swept in his chariot towards them. Diomedes lifted
+his great spear and flung it full at Hector. The bronze of the spear
+struck the bronze of his helmet, and bronze by bronze was turned. The
+blow told upon Hector. But he, springing from his chariot, stayed
+amongst the press of warriors, resting himself on his hands and knees.
+Darkness was before his eyes for a while, but he got breath again, and
+leaping back into his chariot drove away from that dangerous place.'
+
+'Then Diomedes himself received a bitterer wound, for Paris, sheltering
+himself behind a pillar on the plain, let fly an arrow at him. It went
+clean through his right foot. Odysseus put his shield before his friend
+and comrade, and Diomedes was able to draw the arrow from his flesh. But
+Diomedes was fain to get back into his chariot and to command his
+charioteer to drive from the battle.'
+
+'Now Odysseus was the only one of the captains who stayed on that side
+of the battle, and the ranks of the Trojans came on and hemmed him
+round. One warrior struck at the centre of his shield and through the
+shield the strong Trojan spear passed and wounded the flesh of Odysseus.
+He slew the warrior who had wounded him and he drew the spear from his
+flesh, but he had to give ground. But loudly as any man ever cried,
+Odysseus cried out to the other captains. And strong Aias heard him and
+drew near, bearing his famous shield that was like a tower. The Trojan
+warriors that were round him drew back at the coming of Aias and
+Odysseus went from the press of battle, and mounting his chariot drove
+away.'
+
+'Where Aias fought the Trojans gave way, and on that side of the battle
+they were being driven back towards the City. But suddenly upon Aias
+there fell an unaccountable dread. He cast behind him his great shield,
+and he stood in a maze, like a wild bull, turning this way and that, and
+slowly retreating before those who pressed towards him. But now and
+again his valour would come back and he would stand steadily and, with
+his great shield, hold at bay the Trojans who were pressing towards the
+ships. Arrows fell thick upon his shield, confusing his mind. And Aias
+might have perished beneath the arrows if his comrades had not drawn him
+to where they stood with shields sloping for a shelter, and so saved
+him.'
+
+'All this time Hector was fighting on the left wing of the battle
+against the Greeks, who were led by Nestor and Idomeneus. And on this
+side Paris let fly an arrow that brought trouble to the enemies of his
+father's City. He struck Machaon who was the most skilled healer of
+wounds in the whole of the host. And those who were around Machaon were
+fearful that the Trojans would seize the stricken man and bear him away.
+Then said Idomeneus, "Nestor, arise. Get Machaon into your chariot and
+drive swiftly from the press of battle. A healer such as he is worth the
+lives of many men. Save him alive so that we may still have him to draw
+the arrows from our flesh and put medicaments into our wounds." Then did
+Nestor lift the healer into his chariot, and the charioteer turned the
+horses and they too drove from the press of battle and towards the
+hollow ships.'
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+
+Achilles, standing by the stern of his great ship, saw the battle as it
+went this way and that way, but his heart was not at all moved with pity
+for the destruction wrought upon the Greeks. He saw the chariot of
+Nestor go dashing by, dragged by sweating horses, and he knew that a
+wounded man was in the chariot. When it had passed he spoke to his dear
+friend Patroklos.
+
+'"Go now, Patroklos," he said, "and ask of Nestor who it is that he has
+borne away from the battle."'
+
+'"I go, Achilles," Patroklos said, and even as he spoke he started to
+run along the line of the ships and to the hut of Nestor.'
+
+'He stood before the door, and when old Nestor beheld him he bade him
+enter. "Achilles sent me to you, revered Nestor," said Patroklos, "to
+ask who it was you bore out of the battle wounded. But I need not ask,
+for I see that it is none other than Machaon, the best of our healers."'
+
+'"Why should Achilles concern himself with those who are wounded in the
+fight with Hector?" said old Nestor. "He does not care at all what evils
+befall the Greeks. But thou, Patroklos, wilt be grieved to know that
+Diomedes and Odysseus have been wounded, and that sore-wounded is
+Machaon whom thou seest here. Ah, but Achilles will have cause to lament
+when the host perishes beside our burning ships and when Hector
+triumphs over all the Greeks."'
+
+'Then the old man rose up and taking Patroklos by the hand led him
+within the hut, and brought him to a bench beside which lay Machaon, the
+wounded man.'
+
+'"Patroklos," said Nestor, "speak thou to Achilles. Nay, but thy father
+bade thee spake words of counsel to thy friend. Did he not say to thee
+'turn Achilles from harsh courses by gentle words'? Remember now the
+words of thy father, Patroklos, and if ever thou did'st speak to
+Achilles with gentle wisdom speak to him now. Who knows but thy words
+might stir up his spirit to take part in the battle we have to fight
+with Hector?"'
+
+'"Nay, nay, old man," said Patroklos, "I may not speak to Achilles to
+ask for such a thing."'
+
+
+'"Then," said Nestor, "do thou thyself enter the war and bring Achilles'
+Myrmidons with thee. Then might we who are wearied with fighting take
+breath. And beg of Achilles to give you his armour that you may wear it
+in the battle. If thou would'st appear clad in Achilles' bronze the
+Trojans would think that he had entered the war again and they would not
+force the fight upon us."'
+
+'What old Nestor said seemed good to Patroklos and he left the hut and
+went back along the ships. And on his way he met Eurypylos, a sorely
+wounded man, dragging himself from the battle, and Patroklos helped him
+back to his hut and cheered him with discourse and laid healing herbs
+upon his wounds.'
+
+'And even as he left old Nestor's hut, Hector was before the wall the
+Greeks had builded to guard their ships. On came the Trojans against
+that wall, holding their shields of bulls' hides before them. From the
+towers that were along the wall the Greeks flung great stones upon the
+attackers.'
+
+'Over the host an eagle flew, holding in its talons a blood-red serpent.
+The serpent struggled with the eagle and the eagle with the serpent, and
+both had sorely wounded each other. But as they flew over the host of
+Greeks and Trojans the serpent struck at the eagle with his fangs, and
+the eagle, wounded in the breast, dropped the serpent. Then were the
+Trojans in dread, seeing the blood-red serpent across their path, for
+they thought it was an omen from Zeus. They would have turned back from
+the wall in fear for this omen had not Hector pressed them on. "One omen
+is best, I know," he cried, "to fight a good fight for our country.
+Forward then and bring the battle to those ships that came to our coast
+against the will of the gods."'
+
+'So Hector spoke. Then he lifted up a stone--such a stone as not two of
+the best of men now living could as much as raise from the ground--and
+he flung this stone full at the strongly-set gate. It broke the hinges
+and the bars, and the great gate fell under the weight of the tremendous
+stone. Then Hector leaped across it with two spears in his hands. No
+warrior could withstand him now. And as the Trojans scaled the walls
+and poured across the broken gate, the Greeks fled to their ships in
+terror and dismay.'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+'Patroklos saw the gate go down and the Trojans pour towards the ships
+in a mass that was like a great rock rolling down a cliff. Idomeneus and
+Aias led the Greeks who fought to hold them back. Hector cast a spear at
+Aias and struck him where the belt of his shield and the belt of his
+sword crossed. Aias was not wounded by the stroke. Then Aias cast at
+Hector a great stone that was used to prop a ship. He struck him on the
+breast, just over the rim of his shield. Under the weight of that blow
+great Hector spun round like a top. The spear fell from his hands and
+the bronze of his shield and helmet rang as he fell on the ground.'
+
+'Then the Greeks dashed up to where Hector lay, hoping to drag him
+amongst them. But his comrades placed their shields around him and drove
+back the warriors that were pressing round. They lifted Hector into his
+chariot, and his charioteer drove him from the place of battle groaning
+heavily from the hurt of that terrible blow.'
+
+'Now the Greeks rallied and came on with a shout, driving the Trojans
+back before them. The swift horses under Hector's chariot brought him
+out on the plain. They who were with him lifted him out, and Hector lay
+gasping for breath and with black blood gushing from him. And then as he
+lay there stricken he heard the voice of a god--even of Apollo--saying,
+"Hector, son of Priam, why dost thou lie fainting, apart from the host?
+Dost thou not know that the battle is desperate? Take up thy spirit
+again. Bid thy charioteer drive thee towards the ships of the Greeks."'
+
+'Then Hector rose and went amongst the ranks of his men and roused up
+their spirits and led them back to the wall. And when the Greeks saw
+Hector in fighting trim again, going up and down the ranks of his men,
+they were affrighted.'
+
+'He mounted his chariot and he shouted to the others, and the Trojan
+charioteers lashed their horses and they came on like a great wave. They
+crossed the broken wall again and came near the ships. Then many of the
+Greeks got into their ships and struck at those who came near with long
+pikes.'
+
+'And all around the ships companies of Greek warriors stood like rocks
+that the sea breaks against in vain. Nestor cried out to the Greeks,
+bidding them fight like heroes, or else lose in the burning ships all
+hope of return to their native land. Aias, a long pike in his hand,
+drove multitudes of Trojans back, while, in a loud voice, he put courage
+into the Greeks. Hector fought his way forward crying to the Trojans to
+bring fire to the ships that had come to their coast against the will of
+the gods,'
+
+'He came to the first of the ships and laid his hand upon its stern.
+Many fought against him there. Swords and spears and armour fell on the
+ground, some from the hands, some off the shoulders of warring men, and
+the black earth was red with blood. But Hector was not driven away from
+the ship. And he shouted "Bring fire that we may burn the ships that
+have brought the enemy to our land. The woes we have suffered were
+because of the cowardice of the elders of the City--they would not let
+me bring my warriors here and bring battle down to the ships when first
+they came to our beach. Do not let us return to the City until we have
+burned the ships with fire."'
+
+'But whoever brought fire near the ship was stricken by strong Aias who
+stood there with a long pike in his hands. Now all this time Patroklos
+sat in the hut of Eurypylos, the wounded man he had succoured, cheering
+him with discourse and laying healing herbs on his wounds. But when he
+saw fire being brought to the ships he rose up and said, "Eurypylos, no
+longer may I stay here although great is your need of attendance. I must
+get aid for our warriors." Straightway he ran from the hut and came to
+where Achilles was.'
+
+'"If thy heart, Achilles," he said, "is still hard against the Greeks,
+and if thou wilt not come to their aid, let me go into the fight and let
+me take with me thy company of Myrmidons. And O Achilles, grant me
+another thing. Let me wear thine armour and thy helmet so that the
+Trojans will believe for a while that Achilles has come back into the
+battle. Then would they flee before me and our warriors would be given a
+breathing-time."'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+'Said Achilles, "I have declared that I shall not cease from my wrath
+until the Trojans come to my own ships. But thou, Patroklos, dear
+friend, may'st go into the battle. All thou hast asked shall be freely
+given to thee--my Myrmidons to lead and my armour to wear, and even my
+chariot and my immortal horses. Drive the Trojans from the ships. But
+when thou hast driven them from the ships, return to this hut. Do not go
+near the City. Return, I bid thee, Patroklos, when the Trojans are no
+longer around the ships, and leave it to others to battle on the
+plain."'
+
+'Then Patroklos put on the armour that Zeus had given to Achilles'
+father, Peleus. Round his shoulders he cast the sword of bronze with its
+studs of silver, and upon his head he put the helmet with its high
+horse-hair crest--the terrible helmet of Achilles. Then Achilles bade
+the charioteer yoke the horses to the chariot--the horses, Xanthos and
+Balios, that were also gifts from the gods. And while all this was being
+done Achilles went amongst the Myrmidons, making them ready for the
+battle and bidding them remember all the threats they had uttered
+against the Trojans in the time when they had been kept from the fight.'
+
+'Then he went back to his hut and opening the chest that his mother,
+Thetis, had given him he took from it a four-handled cup--a cup that no
+one drank out of but Achilles himself. Then pouring wine into this cup
+and holding it towards Heaven, Achilles prayed to Zeus, the greatest of
+the gods:
+
+"My comrade I send to the war, O far-seeing Zeus:
+
+    May'st strengthen his heart, O Zeus, that all triumph be his:
+    But when from the ships he hath driven the spear of our foes,
+    Out of the turmoil of battle may he to me return
+    Scathless, with arms and his comrades who fight hand to hand."
+
+'So Achilles prayed, and the Myrmidons beside their ships shouted in
+their eagerness to join in the battle.'
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+
+Who was the first of the great Trojan Champions to go down before the
+onset of Patroklos? The first was Sarpedon who had come with an army to
+help Hector from a City beyond Troy. He saw the Myrmidons fight round
+the ships and break the ranks of the Trojans and quench the fire on the
+half-burnt ship. He saw that the warrior who had the appearance of
+Achilles affrighted the Trojans so that they turned their horses' heads
+towards the City. The Myrmidons swept on with Patroklos at their head.
+Now when he saw him rushing down from the ships Sarpedon threw a dart at
+Patroklos. The dart did not strike him. Then Patroklos flung a spear and
+struck Sarpedon even at the heart. He fell dead from his chariot and
+there began a battle for his body--the Trojans would have carried it
+into the City, so that they might bury with all honour the man who had
+helped them, and the Greeks would have carried it away, so that, having
+his body and his armour, the slaying of Sarpedon might be more of a
+triumph for them.'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+'So a battle for his body went on. Now Sarpedon's comrade, Glaukos,
+sought out Hector, who was fighting in another part of the battle-field,
+and he spoke to him reproachfully. "Hector," he said, "art thou utterly
+forgetful of those who came from their own country to help thee to
+protect thy father's City? Sarpedon has fallen, and Achilles' Myrmidons
+would strip him of his armour and bring his body to the ships that their
+triumph over him may be greater still. Disgraceful will it be to thee,
+Hector, if they win that triumph."'
+
+'Hector, when this was said to him, did not delay, but came straight to
+the spot where Sarpedon had been slain. The Greek who had laid hands
+upon the body he instantly slew. But as he fought on it suddenly seemed
+to Hector that the gods had resolved to give victory to the Greeks, and
+his spirit grew weary and hopeless within him. He turned his horses'
+heads towards the City and galloped from the press of battle. Then the
+Trojans who were fighting round it fled from the body of Sarpedon, and
+the Greeks took it and stripped it of its armour and carried the body to
+their ships.'
+
+'It was then that Patroklos forgot the command of Achilles--the command
+that he was not to bring the battle beyond the ships and that he was to
+return when the Trojans were beaten towards their City. Patroklos forgot
+all that, and he shouted to the immortal horses, Xanthos and Balios,
+that drew his chariot, and, slaying warrior after warrior he swept
+across the plain and came to the very gates of Troy.'
+
+'Now Hector was within the gates and had not yet left his chariot. Then
+there came and stood before him one who was thought to be the god
+Apollo, but who then had the likeness of a mortal man. "Hector," said
+he, "why hast thou ceased from the fight? Behold, Patroklos is without
+the gate of thy father's City. Turn thy horses against him now and
+strive to slay him, and may the gods give thee glory."'
+
+'Then Hector bade his charioteer drive his horses through the gate and
+into the press of battle. He drew near to Patroklos, and Patroklos,
+leaping down from his chariot, seized a great stone and flung it at
+Hector's charioteer. It struck him on the brow and hurled him from the
+chariot.'
+
+'Hector too leaped from the chariot and took his sword in hand. Their
+men joined Patroklos and joined Hector and the battle began beside the
+body of Hector's charioteer. Three times did Patroklos rush against the
+ranks of the Trojans and nine warriors did he slay at each onset. But
+the doom of Patroklos was nigh. A warrior smote him in the back and
+struck the helmet from his head. With its high horse-hair crest it
+rolled beneath the hooves of the horses. Who was it smote Prince
+Patroklos then? Men said it was the god Apollo who would not have the
+sacred City of Troy taken until the time the gods had willed it to
+fall.'
+
+'The spear fell from his hands, the great shield that Achilles had given
+him dropped on the ground, and all in amaze Patroklos stood. He gave
+ground and retreated towards his comrades. Then did Hector deal him the
+stroke that slew. With his great spear he struck and drove it through
+the body of Patroklos.'
+
+'Then did Hector exult crying, "Patroklos, thou didst swear that thou
+wouldst sack our sacred City and that thou wouldst take from our people
+their day of freedom. Now thou hast fallen and our City need not dread
+thee ever any more!"'
+
+'Then said Patroklos, "Thou mayst boast now, Hector, although it was not
+thy stroke that slew me. Apollo's stroke it was that sent me down. Boast
+of my slaying as thou wilt, but hear my saying and keep it in thy heart:
+Thy fate too is measured and thee Achilles will slay."'
+
+But Hector did not heed what the dying Patroklos said. He took from his
+body the armour of Achilles that had been a gift from the gods. The body
+too he would have brought within the City that his triumph might be
+greater, but now Aias came to where Patroklos had fallen and over the
+body he placed his great shield. The fight went on and Hector,
+withdrawing himself to the plain, put upon himself the armour he had
+stripped off the body of Patroklos. The armour fitted every limb and
+joint and as he put it on more courage and strength than ever yet he had
+felt came into the soul of Hector.'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+'And the immortal steeds that Patroklos had driven, having galloped from
+the battle, stood apart and would not move for all that their
+charioteer would do. They stood apart with their heads bowed, and tears
+flowed from their eyes down on the ground. And Zeus, the greatest of the
+gods, saw them and had pity upon them and spoke to himself saying, "Ah,
+immortal steeds, why did I give ye to king Peleus, whose generations die
+while ye remain young and undying? Was it that ye should know the
+sorrows that befall mortal men? Pitiful, indeed, is the lot of all men
+upon the earth. Even Hector now, who boasteth in the armour that the
+gods once gave, will shortly go down to his death and the City he
+defendeth will be burned with fire."'
+
+'So saying he put courage into the hearts of the immortal steeds and
+they went where the charioteer would have them go, and they came safely
+out of the battle.'
+
+'Now Hector, with the armour of Achilles upon him, gathered his
+companies together and brought them up to the battle to win and carry
+away the body of Patroklos. But each one who laid hands upon that body
+was instantly slain by Aias. All day the battle went on, for the Greeks
+would say to each other, "Comrades, let the earth yawn and swallow us
+rather than let the Trojans carry off the body of Patroklos." And on
+their side the Trojans would say, "Friends, rather let us all be slain
+together beside this man than let one of us go backward now."'
+
+'Now Nestor's son, Antilochos, who was fighting on the left of the
+battlefield, heard of the slaying of Patroklos. His eyes filled with
+tears and his voice was choked with grief and he dashed out of the
+battle to bring the grievous tidings to the hut of Achilles. "Fallen is
+Patroklos," he cried, "and Greeks and Trojans are fighting around his
+body. And his body is naked now, for Hector has stripped the armor from
+it."'
+
+Then Achilles fainted away and his head lay in the ashes of his hut. He
+woke again and moaned terribly. His goddess-mother heard the sound of
+his grief as she sat within the depths of the Ocean. She came to him as
+he was still moaning terribly. She took his hand and clasped it and
+said, "My child, why weep'st thou?" Achilles ceased his moaning and
+answered, "Patroklos, my dear friend, has been slain. Now I shall have
+no joy in my life save the joy of slaying Hector who slew my friend."'
+
+'Thetis, his goddess-mother, wept when she heard such speech from
+Achilles. "Short-lived you will be, my son," she said, "for it is
+appointed by the gods that after the death of Hector your death will
+come."'
+
+'"Straightway then let me die," said Achilles, "since I let my friend
+die without giving him help. O that I had not let my wrath overcome my
+spirit! Here I stayed, a useless burthen on the earth, while my comrades
+and my own dear friend fought for their country--here I stayed, I who am
+the best of all the Greeks. But now let me go into the battle and let
+the Trojans know that Achilles has come back, although he tarried
+long."'
+
+"But thine armour, my son," said Thetis. "Thou hast no armour now to
+protect thee in the battle. Go not into it until thou seest me again. In
+the morning I shall return and I shall bring thee armour that
+Hephaistos, the smith of the gods, shall make for thee."'
+
+'So she spoke, and she turned from her son, and she went to Olympus
+where the gods have their dwellings.'
+
+'Now darkness had come down on those who battled round the body of
+Patroklos, and in that darkness more Greeks than Trojans were slain. It
+seemed to the Greeks that Zeus had resolved to give the victory to the
+Trojans and not to them, and they were dismayed. But four Greek heroes
+lifted up the body and put it upon their shoulders, and Aias and his
+brother stood facing the Trojans, holding them back while the four tried
+to bear the body away. The Trojans pressed on, striking with swords and
+axes, but like a wooded ridge that stretches across a plain and holds
+back a mighty flood, Aias and his brother held their ground.'
+
+'Achilles still lay in his hut, moaning in his grief, and the servants
+raised loud lamentations outside the hut. The day wore on and the battle
+went on and Hector strove against Aias and his brother. Then the figure
+of a goddess appeared before Achilles as he lay on the ground. "Rouse
+thee, Achilles," she said, "or Hector will drag into Troy the body of
+thy friend, Patroklos."'
+
+'Said Achilles, "Goddess Iris, how may I go into the battle since the
+Trojans hold the armour that should protect me?"'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+'Said Iris, the Messenger of the gods, "Go down to the wall as thou
+art and show thyself to the men of Troy, and it may be that they will
+shrink back on seeing thee and hearing thy voice, and so give those who
+defend the body of Patroklos a breathing-spell."'
+
+'So she said and departed. Then Achilles arose and went down to the wall
+that had been built around the ships. He stood upon the wall and shouted
+across the trench, and friends and foes saw him and heard his voice.
+Around his head a flame of fire arose such as was never seen before
+around the head of a mortal man. And seeing the flame of fire around his
+head and hearing his terrible voice the Trojans were affrighted and
+stood still. Then the Greeks took up the body of Patroklos and laid it
+on a litter and bore it out of the battle.'
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+
+Now Thetis, the mother of Achilles, went to Olympus where the gods have
+their dwellings and to the house of Hephaistos, the smith of the gods.
+That house shone above all the houses on Olympus because Hephaistos
+himself had made it of shining bronze. And inside the house there were
+wonders--handmaidens that were not living but that were made out of gold
+and made with such wondrous skill that they waited upon Hephaistos and
+served and helped him as though they were living maids.'
+
+'Hephaistos was lame and crooked of foot and went limping. He and Thetis
+were friends from of old time, for, when his mother would have forsaken
+him because of his crooked foot, Thetis and her sister reared him within
+one of the Ocean's caves and it was while he was with them that he began
+to work in metals. So the lame god was pleased to see Thetis in his
+dwelling and he welcomed her and clasped her hand and asked of her what
+she would have him do for her.'
+
+'Then Thetis, weeping, told him of her son Achilles, how he had lost his
+dear friend and how he was moved to go into the battle to fight with
+Hector, and how he was without armour to protect his life, seeing that
+the armour that the gods had once given his father was now in the hands
+of his foe. And Thetis besought Hephaistos to make new armour for her
+son that he might go into the battle.'
+
+'She no sooner finished speaking than Hephaistos went to his work-bench
+and set his bellows--twenty were there--working. And the twenty bellows
+blew into the crucibles and made bright and hot fires. Then Hephaistos
+threw into the fires bronze and tin and silver and gold. He set on the
+anvil-stand a great anvil, and took in one hand his hammer and in the
+other hand his tongs.'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+'For the armour of Achilles he made first a shield and then a corselet
+that gleamed like fire. And he made a strong helmet to go on the head
+and shining greaves to wear on the ankles. The shield was made with five
+folds, one fold of metal upon the other, so that it was so strong and
+thick that no spear or arrow could pierce it. And upon this shield he
+hammered out images that were a wonder to men.'
+
+'The first were images of the sun and the moon and of the stars that the
+shepherds and the seamen watch--the Pleiades and Hyads and Orion and the
+Bear that is also called Wain. And below he hammered out the images of
+two cities: in one there were people going to feasts and playing music
+and dancing and giving judgements in the market-place: the other was a
+city besieged: there were warriors on the walls and there was an army
+marching out of the gate to give battle to those that besieged them. And
+below the images of the cities he made a picture of a ploughed field,
+with ploughmen driving their yokes of oxen along the furrows, and with
+men bringing them cups of wine. And he made a picture of another field
+where men were reaping and boys were gathering the corn, where there was
+a servant beneath an oak tree making ready a feast, and women making
+ready barley for a supper for the men who were reaping, and a King
+standing apart and watching all, holding a staff in his hands and
+rejoicing at all he saw.'
+
+'And another image he made of a vineyard, with clusters of grapes that
+showed black, and with the vines hanging from silver poles. And he
+showed maidens and youths in the vineyard, gathering the grapes into
+baskets, and one amongst them, a boy, who played on the viol. Beside the
+image of the vineyard he made images of cattle, with herdsmen, and with
+nine dogs guarding them. But he showed two lions that had come up and
+had seized the bull of the herd, and the dogs and men strove to drive
+them away but were affrighted. And beside the image of the oxen he made
+the image of a pasture land, with sheep in it, and sheepfolds and roofed
+huts.'
+
+'He made yet another picture--a dancing-place with youths and maidens
+dancing, their hands upon each others' hands. Beautiful dresses and
+wreaths of flowers the maidens had on, and the youths had daggers of
+gold hanging from their silver belts. A great company stood around those
+who were dancing, and amongst them there was a minstrel who played on
+the lyre.'
+
+'Then all around the rim of the shield Hephaistos, the lame god, set an
+image of Ocean, whose stream goes round the world. Not long was he in
+making the shield and the other wonderful pieces of armour. As soon as
+the armour was ready Thetis put her hands upon it, and flying down from
+Olympus like a hawk, brought it to the feet of Achilles, her son.'
+
+'And Achilles, when he saw the splendid armour that Hephaistos the lame
+god had made for him, rose up from where he lay and took the
+wonderfully-wrought piece in his hands. And he began to put the armour
+upon him, and none of the Myrmidons who were around could bear to look
+upon it, because it shone with such brightness and because it had all
+the marks of being the work of a god.'
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+
+Then Achilles put his shining armour upon him and it fitted him as
+though it were wings; he put the wonderful shield before him and he took
+in his hands the great spear that Cheiron the Centaur had given to
+Peleus his father--that spear that no one else but Achilles could wield.
+He bade his charioteer harness the immortal horses Xanthos and Balios.
+Then as he mounted his chariot Achilles spoke to the horses. "Xanthos
+and Balios," he said, "this time bring the hero that goes with you back
+safely to the ships, and do not leave him dead on the plain as ye left
+the hero Patroklos."'
+
+'Then Xanthos the immortal steed spoke, answering for himself and his
+comrade. "Achilles," he said, with his head bowed and his mane touching
+the ground, "Achilles, for this time we will bring thee safely back from
+the battle. But a day will come when we shall not bring thee back, when
+thou too shalt lie with the dead before the walls of Troy."'
+
+'Then was Achilles troubled and he said, "Xanthos, my steed, why dost
+thou remind me by thy prophecies of what I know already--that my death
+too is appointed, and that I am to perish here, far from my father and
+my mother and my own land."'
+
+'Then he drove his immortal horses into the battle. The Trojans were
+affrighted when they saw Achilles himself in the fight, blazing in the
+armour that Hephaistos had made for him. They went backward before his
+onset. And Achilles shouted to the captains of the Greeks, "No longer
+stand apart from the men of Troy, but go with me into the battle and let
+each man throw his whole soul into the fight."'
+
+'And on the Trojan side Hector cried to his captains and said, "Do not
+let Achilles drive you before him. Even though his hands are as
+irresistible as fire and his fierceness as terrible as flashing steel, I
+shall go against him and face him with my spear."'
+
+'But Achilles went on, and captain after captain of the Trojans went
+down before him. Now amongst the warriors whom he caught sight of in the
+fight was Polydoros, the brother of Hector and the youngest of all King
+Priam's sons. Priam forbade him ever to go into the battle because he
+loved him as he would love a little child. But Polydoros had gone in
+this day, trusting to his fleetness of foot to escape with his life.
+Achilles saw him and pursued him and slew him with the spear. Hector saw
+the death of his brother. Then he could no longer endure to stand aside
+to order the battle. He came straight up to where Achilles was
+brandishing his great spear. And when Achilles saw Hector before him he
+cried out, "Here is the man who most deeply wounded my soul, who slew my
+dear friend Patroklos. Now shall we two fight each other and Patroklos
+shall be avenged by me." And he shouted to Hector, "Now Hector, the day
+of thy triumph and the day of thy life is at its end."'
+
+'But Hector answered him without fear, "Not with words, Achilles, can
+you affright me. Yet I know that thou art a man of might and a stronger
+man than I. But the fight between us depends upon the will of the gods.
+I shall do my best against thee, and my spear before this has been found
+to have a dangerous edge."'
+
+'He spoke and lifted up his spear and flung it at Achilles. Then the
+breath of a god turned Hector's spear aside, for it was not appointed
+that either he or Achilles should be then slain. Achilles darted at
+Hector to slay him with his spear. But a god hid Hector from Achilles in
+a thick mist.'
+
+'Then in a rage Achilles drove his chariot into the ranks of the war and
+many great captains he slew. He came to Skamandros, the river that flows
+across the plain before the city of Troy. And so many men did he slay in
+it that the river rose in anger against him for choking its waters with
+the bodies of men.'
+
+'Then on towards the City, he went like a fire raging through a glen
+that had been parched with heat. Now on a tower of the walls of Troy,
+Priam the old King stood, and he saw the Trojans coming in a rout
+towards the City, and he saw Achilles in his armour blazing like a
+star--like that star that is seen at harvest time and is called Orion's
+Dog; the star that is the brightest of all stars, but yet is a sign of
+evil. And the old man Priam sorrowed greatly as he stood upon the tower
+and watched Achilles, because he knew in his heart whom this man would
+slay--Hector, his son, the protector of his City.'
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+
+So much of the story of Achilles did Telemachus, the son of Odysseus,
+hear from the lips of King Menelaus as he sat with his comrade
+Peisistratus in the King's feasting-hall. And more would Menelaus have
+told them then if Helen, his wife, had not been seen to weep. 'Why
+weepst thou, Helen?' said Menelaus. 'Ah, surely I know. It is because
+the words that tell of the death of Hector are sorrowful to thee.'
+
+And Helen, the lovely lady, said 'Never did Prince Hector speak a hard
+or a harsh word to me in all the years I was in his father's house. And
+if anyone upbraided me he would come and speak gentle words to me. Ah,
+greatly did I lament for the death of noble Hector! After his wife and
+his mother I wept the most for him. And when one speaks of his slaying I
+cannot help but weep.'
+
+Said Menelaus, 'Relieve your heart of its sorrow, Helen, by praising
+Hector to this youth and by telling your memories of him.'
+
+'To-morrow I shall do so,' said the lady Helen. She went with her maids
+from the hall and the servants took Telemachus and Peisistratus to their
+sleeping places.
+
+The next day they sat in the banqueting hall; King Menelaus and
+Telemachus and Peisistratus, and the lady Helen came amongst them. Her
+handmaidens brought into the hall her silver work-basket that had wheels
+beneath it with rims of gold, and her golden distaff that, with the
+basket, had been presents from the wife of the King of Egypt. And Helen
+sat in her chair and took the distaff in her hands and worked on the
+violet-coloured wool that was in her basket. And as she worked she told
+Telemachus of Troy and of its guardian, Hector.
+
+Said Helen, 'The old men were at the gate of the City talking over many
+things, and King Priam was amongst them. It was in the days when
+Achilles first quarrelled with King Agamemnon. "Come hither, my
+daughter," said King Priam to me, "and sit by me and tell me who the
+warriors are who now come out upon the plain. You have seen them all
+before, and I would have you tell me who such and such a one is. Who is
+yon hero who seems so mighty? I have seen men who were more tall than he
+by a head, but I have never seen a man who looked more royal."'
+
+'I said to King Priam. "The hero whom you look upon is the leader of the
+host of the Greeks. He is the renowned King Agamemnon."'
+
+'"He looks indeed a King," said Priam. "Tell me now who the other
+warrior is who is shorter by a head than King Agamemnon, but who is
+broader of chest and shoulder."'
+
+'"He is Odysseus," I said, "who was reared in rugged Ithaka, but who is
+wise above all the Kings."'
+
+'And an old man, Antenor, who was by us said, "That indeed is Odysseus.
+I remember that he and Menelaus came on an embassy to the assembly of
+the Trojans. When they both stood up, Menelaus seemed the greater man,
+but when they sat down Odysseus seemed by far the most stately. When
+they spoke in the assembly, Menelaus was ready and skilful of speech.
+Odysseus when he spoke held his staff stiffly in his hands and fixed his
+eyes on the ground. We thought by the look of him then that he was a man
+of no understanding. But when he began to speak we saw that no one could
+match Odysseus--his words came like snow-flakes in winter and his voice
+was very resonant."'
+
+'And Priam said, "Who is that huge warrior? I think he is taller and
+broader than any of the rest."'
+
+'"He is great Aias," I said, "who is as a bulwark for the Greeks. And
+beside him stands Idomeneus, who has come from the Island of Crete.
+Around him stand the Cretan captains." So I spoke, but my heart was
+searching for a sight of my own two brothers. I did not see them in any
+of the companies. Had they come with the host, I wondered, and were they
+ashamed to be seen with the warriors on account of my wrong-doing? I
+wondered as I looked for them. Ah, I did not know that even then my two
+dear brothers were dead, and that the earth of their own dear land held
+them.'
+
+'Hector came to the gate and the wives and daughters of the Trojans came
+running to him, asking for news of their husbands or sons or brothers,
+whether they were killed or whether they were coming back from the
+battle. He spoke to them all and went to his own house. But Andromache,
+his wife, was not there, and the housedame told him that she had gone to
+the great tower by the wall of the City to watch the battle and that the
+nurse had gone with her, bringing their infant child.
+
+'So Hector went down the street and came to the gate where we were, and
+Andromache his wife came to meet him. With her was the nurse who carried
+the little child that the folk of the city named Astyanax, calling him,
+'King of the City' because his father was their city's protector. Hector
+stretched out his arms to the little boy whom the nurse carried. But the
+child shrank away from him, because he was frightened of the great
+helmet on his father's head with its horse-hair crest. Then Hector
+laughed and Andromache laughed with him, and Hector took off his great
+helmet and laid it on the ground. Then he took up his little son and
+dandled him in his arms, and prayed, "O Zeus, greatest of the gods,
+grant that this son of mine may become valiant, and that, like me, he
+may be protector of the City and thereafter a great King, so that men
+may say of him as he returns from battle, 'Far greater is he than was
+Hector his father.'" Saying this he left the child back in his nurse's
+arms. And to Andromache, his wife, who that day was very fearful, he
+said "Dear one, do not be over sorrowful. You urge me not to go every
+day into the battle, but some days to stay behind the walls. But my own
+spirit forbids me to stay away from battle, for always I have taught
+myself to be valiant and to fight in the forefront."'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+'So he said and he put on his helmet again and went to order his men.
+And his wife went towards the house, looking back at him often and
+letting her tears fall down. Thou knowst from Menelaus' story what
+triumphs Hector had thereafter--how he drove the Greeks back to their
+ships and affrighted them with his thousand watch-fires upon the plain;
+how he drove back the host that Agamemnon led when Diomedes and Odysseus
+and Machaon the healer were wounded; how he broke through the wall that
+the Greeks had builded and brought fire to their ships, and how he slew
+Patroklos in the armour of Achilles.'
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+
+King Priam on his tower saw Achilles come raging across the plain and he
+cried out to Hector, "Hector, beloved son, do not await this man's onset
+but come within the City's walls. Come within that thou mayst live and
+be a protection to the men and women of Troy. And come within that thou
+mayst save thy father who must perish if thou art slain."'
+
+'But Hector would not come within the walls of the City. He stood
+holding his shield against a jutting tower in the wall. And all around
+him were the Trojans, who came pouring in through the gate without
+waiting to speak to each other to ask who were yet living and who were
+slain. And as he stood there he was saying in his heart, "The fault is
+mine that the Trojans have been defeated upon the plain. I kept them
+from entering the City last night against the counsel of a wise man, for
+in my pride I thought it would be easy to drive Achilles and the Greeks
+back again and defeat them utterly and destroy their hopes of return.
+Now are the Trojans defeated and dishonoured and many have lost their
+lives through my pride. Now the women of Troy will say, 'Hector, by
+trusting to his own might, has brought destruction upon the whole host
+and our husbands and sons and brothers have perished because of him.'
+Rather than hear them say this I shall face Achilles and slay him and
+save the City, or, if it must be, perish by his spear."'
+
+'When Achilles came near him Hector spoke to him and said "My heart bids
+me stand against thee although thou art a mightier man than I. But
+before we go into battle let us take pledges, one from the other, with
+the gods to witness, that, if I should slay thee, I shall strip thee of
+thine armour but I shall not carry thy body into the City but shall give
+it to thine own friends to treat with all honour, and that, if thou
+should slay me, thou shalt give my body to my friends."'
+
+'But Achilles said, "Between me and thee there can be no pledges. Fight,
+and fight with all thy soldiership, for now I shall strive to make thee
+pay for all the sorrow thou hast brought to me because of the slaying of
+Patroklos, my friend."'
+
+'He spoke and raised his spear and flung it. But with his quickness
+Hector avoided Achilles' spear. And he raised his own, saying, "Thou
+hast missed me, and not yet is the hour of my doom. Now it is thy turn
+to stand before my spear."'
+
+'He flung it, but the wonderful shield of Achilles turned Hector's spear
+and it fell on the ground. Then was Hector downcast, for he had no other
+spear. He drew his sword and sprang at Achilles. But the helmet and
+shield of Achilles let none of Hector's great strokes touch his body.
+And Achilles got back into his hands his own great spear, and he stood
+guarding himself with his shield and watching Hector for a spot to
+strike him on. Now in the armour that Hector wore--the armour that he
+had stripped off Patroklos--there was a point at the neck where there
+was an opening. As Hector came on Achilles drove at his neck with his
+spear and struck him and Hector fell in the dust.'
+
+'Then Achilles stripped from him the armour that Patroklos had worn. The
+other captains of the Greeks came up and looked at Hector where he lay
+and all marvelled at his size and strength and goodliness. And Achilles
+dragged the body at his chariot and drove away towards the ships.'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+'Hector's mother, standing on the tower on the wall, saw all that was
+done and she broke into a great cry. And all the women of Troy took up
+the cry and wailed for Prince Hector who had guarded them and theirs
+from the foe. Andromache, his wife, did not know the terrible thing
+that had happened. She was in an inner chamber of Hector's house,
+weaving a great web of cloth and broidering it with flowers, and she had
+ordered her handmaidens to heat water for the bath, so that Hector might
+refresh himself when he came in from the fight. But now she heard the
+wail of the women of Troy. Fear came upon her, for she knew that such
+wailing was for the best of their warriors.'
+
+'She ran from her chamber and out into the street and came to the
+battlements where the people stood watching. She saw the chariot of
+Achilles dashing off towards the ships and she knew that it dragged the
+dead body of Hector. Then darkness came before her eyes and she fainted
+away. Her husband's sisters and his brothers' wives thronged round her
+and lifted her up. And at last her life came back to her and she wailed
+for Hector, "O my husband," she cried, "for misery were we two born! Now
+thou hast been slain by Achilles and I am left husbandless! And ah, woe
+for our young child! Hard-hearted strangers shall oppress him when he
+lives amongst people that care not for him or his. And he will come
+weeping to me, his widowed mother, who will live forever sorrowful
+thinking upon where thou liest, Hector, by the ships of those who slew
+thee."'
+
+'So Andromache spoke and all the women of Troy joined in her grief and
+wept for great Hector who had protected their city.'
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+
+Now that Hector was dead, King Priam, his father, had only one thought
+in his mind, and that was to get his body from Achilles and bring it
+into the City so that it might be treated with the honour befitting the
+man who had been the guardian of Troy. And while he sat in his grief,
+thinking of his noble son lying so far from those who would have wept
+over him, behold! there appeared before him Iris, the messenger of Zeus,
+the greatest of the Gods. Iris said to him, "King, thou mayst ransom
+from Achilles the body of Hector, thy noble son. Go thou thyself to the
+hut of Achilles and bring with thee great gifts to offer him. Take with
+thee a wagon that thou mayst bring back in it the body, and let only one
+old henchman go with thee to drive the mules."'
+
+'Then Priam, when he heard this, arose and went into his treasure
+chamber and took out of his chests twelve beautiful robes; twelve
+bright-coloured cloaks; twelve soft coverlets and ten talents of gold;
+he took, too, four cauldrons and two tripods and a wonderful goblet that
+the men of Thrace had given him when they had come on an embassy to his
+city. Then he called upon his sons and he bade them make ready the wagon
+and load it with the treasures he had brought out of his
+treasure-chamber.'
+
+'When the wagon was loaded and the mules were yoked under it, and when
+Priam and his henchman had mounted the seats, Hekabe, the queen, Priam's
+wife and the mother of Hector, came with wine and with a golden cup that
+they might pour out an offering to the gods before they went on their
+journey; that they might know whether the gods indeed favoured it, or
+whether Priam himself was not going into danger. King Priam took the cup
+from his wife and he poured out wine from it, and looking towards heaven
+he prayed, "O Father Zeus, grant that I may find welcome under Achilles'
+roof, and send, if thou wilt, a bird of omen, so that seeing it with
+mine own eyes I may go on my way trusting that no harm will befall me."'
+
+'He prayed, and straightway a great eagle was seen with wide wings
+spread out above the City, and when they saw the eagle, the hearts of
+the people were glad for they knew that their King would come back
+safely and with the body of Prince Hector who had guarded Troy.'
+
+'Now Priam and his henchman drove across the plain of Troy and came to
+the river that flowed across and there they let their mules drink. They
+were greatly troubled, for dark night was coming down and they knew not
+the way to the hut of Achilles. They were in fear too that some company
+of armed men would come upon them and slay them for the sake of the
+treasures they had in the wagon.'
+
+'The henchman saw a young man coming towards them. And when he reached
+them he spoke to them kindly and offered to guide them through the camp
+and to the hut of Achilles. He mounted the wagon and took the reins in
+his hands and drove the mules. He brought them to the hut of Achilles
+and helped Priam from the wagon and carried the gifts they had brought
+within the hut. "Know, King Priam," he said, "that I am not a mortal,
+but that I am one sent by Zeus to help and companion thee upon the way.
+Go now within the hut and speak to Achilles and ask him, for his
+father's sake, to restore to thee the body of Hector, thy son."'
+
+'So he spoke and departed and King Priam went within the hut. There
+great Achilles was sitting and King Priam went to him and knelt before
+him and clasped the hands of the man who had slain his son. And Achilles
+wondered when he saw him there, for he did not know how one could have
+come to his hut and entered it without being seen. He knew then that it
+was one of the gods who had guided this man. Priam spoke to him and
+said, "Bethink thee, Achilles upon thine own father. He is now of an age
+with me, and perhaps even now, in thy far-away country, there are those
+who make him suffer pain and misery. But however great the pain and
+misery he may suffer he is happy compared to me, for he knows that thou,
+his son, art still alive. But I no longer have him who was the best of
+my sons. Now for thy father's sake have I come to thee, Achilles, to ask
+for the body of Hector, my son. I am more pitiable than thy father or
+than any man, for I have come through dangers to take in my hands the
+hands that slew my son."'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+'Achilles remembered his father and felt sorrow for the old man who
+knelt before him. He took King Priam by the hand and raised him up and
+seated him on the bench beside him. And he wept, remembering old Peleus,
+his father.'
+
+'He called his handmaids and he bade them take the body of Hector and
+wash it and wrap it in two of the robes that Priam had brought. When
+they had done all this he took up the body of Hector and laid it himself
+upon the wagon.'
+
+'Then he came and said to King Priam, "Thy son is laid upon a bier, and
+at the break of day thou mayst bring him back to the City. But now eat
+and rest here for this night."'
+
+'King Priam ate, and he looked at Achilles and he saw how great and how
+goodly he was. And Achilles looked at Priam and he saw how noble and how
+kingly he looked. And this was the first time that Achilles and Priam
+the King of Troy really saw each other.'
+
+'When they gazed on each other King Priam said, "When thou goest to lie
+down, lord Achilles, permit me to lie down also. Not once have my
+eyelids closed in sleep since my son Hector lost his life. And now I
+have tasted bread and meat and wine for the first time since, and I
+could sleep."'
+
+'Achilles ordered that a bed be made in the portico for King Priam and
+his henchman, but before they went Achilles said: "Tell me, King, and
+tell me truly, for how many days dost thou desire to make a funeral for
+Hector? For so many days space I will keep back the battle from the City
+so that thou mayst make the funeral in peace." "For nine days we would
+watch beside Hector's body and lament for him; on the tenth day we would
+have the funeral; on the eleventh day we would make the barrow over him,
+and on the twelfth day we would fight," King Priam said. "Even for
+twelve days I will hold the battle back from the City," said Achilles.'
+
+'Then Priam and his henchman went to rest. But in the middle of the
+night the young man who had guided him to the hut of Achilles--the god
+Hermes he was--appeared before his bed and bade him arise and go to the
+wagon and yoke the mules and drive back to the City with the body of
+Hector. Priam aroused his henchman and they went out and yoked the mules
+and mounted the wagon, and with Hermes to guide them they drove back to
+the City.'
+
+'And Achilles on his bed thought of his own fate--how he too would die
+in battle, and how for him there would be no father to make lament. But
+he would be laid where he had asked his friends to lay him--beside
+Patroklos--and over them both the Greeks would raise a barrow that would
+be wondered at in after times.'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+'So Achilles thought. And afterwards the arrow fired by Paris struck him
+as he fought before the gate of the City, and he was slain even on the
+place where he slew Hector. But the Greeks carried off his body and his
+armour and brought them back to the ships. And Achilles was lamented
+over, though not by old Peleus, his father. From the depths of the sea
+came Thetis, his goddess-mother, and with her came the Maidens of the
+Sea. They covered the body of Achilles with wonderful raiment and over
+it they lamented for seventeen days and seventeen nights. On the
+eighteenth day he was laid in the grave beside Patroklos, his dear
+friend, and over them both the Greeks raised a barrow that was wondered
+at in the after-times.'
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+Now Hector's sister was the first to see her father coming in the dawn
+across the plain of Troy with the wagon upon which his body was laid.
+She came down to the City and she cried through the streets, "O men and
+women of Troy, ye who often went to the gates to meet Hector coming back
+with victory, come now to the gates to receive Hector dead."'
+
+'Then every man and woman in the City took themselves outside the gate.
+And they brought in the wagon upon which Hector was laid, and all day
+from the early dawn to the going down of the sun they wailed for him who
+had been the guardian of their city.'
+
+'His father took the body to the house where Hector had lived and he
+laid it upon his bed. Then Hector's wife, Andromache, went to the bed
+and cried over the body. "Husband," she cried, "thou art gone from life,
+and thou hast left me a widow in thy house. Our child is yet little,
+and he shall not grow to manhood in the halls that were thine, for long
+before that the City will be taken and destroyed. Ah, how can it stand,
+when thou, who wert its best guardian, hast perished? The folk lament
+thee, Hector; but for me and for thy little son, doomed to grow up
+amongst strangers and men unfriendly to him, the pain for thy death will
+ever abide."'
+
+'And Hekabe, Hector's mother, went to the bed and cried "Of all my
+children thou, Hector, wert the dearest. Thou wert slain because it was
+not thy way to play the coward; ever wert thou championing the men and
+women of Troy without thought of taking shelter or flight. And for that
+thou wert slain, my son."'
+
+'And I, Helen, went to the bed too, to lament for noble Hector. "Of all
+the friends I had in Troy, thou wert the dearest, Hector," I cried.
+"Never did I hear one harsh word from thee to me who brought wars and
+troubles to thy City. In every way thou wert as a brother to me.
+Therefore I bewail thee with pain at my heart, for in all Troy there is
+no one now who is friendly to me."'
+
+'Then did the King and the folk of the City prepare for Hector's
+funeral. On the tenth day, weeping most bitter tears they bore brave
+Hector away. And they made a grave for him, and over the grave they put
+close-set stones, and over it all they raised a great barrow. On the
+eleventh day they feasted at King Priam's house, and on the twelfth day
+the battle began anew.'
+
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+
+For many days Telemachus and his comrade Peisistratus stayed in the
+house of King Menelaus. On the evening before he departed Menelaus spoke
+to him of the famous deeds of his father, Odysseus. 'Now Achilles was
+dead,' said Menelaus, 'and his glorious armour was offered as a prize
+for the warrior whom the Greeks thought the most of. Two men strove for
+the prize--Odysseus and his friend Aias. To Odysseus the armour of
+Achilles was given, but he was in no way glad of the prize, for his
+getting it had wounded the proud spirit of great Aias.'
+
+'It was fitting that Odysseus should have been given Achilles' armour,
+for no warrior in the host had done better than he. But Odysseus was to
+do still greater things for us. He knew that only one man could wield a
+bow better than Paris,--Paris who had shot with an arrow Achilles, and
+who after that had slain many of our chiefs. That man was Philoctetes.
+He had come with Agamemnon's host to Troy. But Philoctetes had been
+bitten by a water-snake, and the wound given him was so terrible that
+none of our warriors could bear to be near him. He was left on the
+Island of Lemnos and the host lost memory of him. But Odysseus
+remembered, and he took ship to Lemnos and brought Philoctetes back.
+With his great bow and with the arrows of Hercules that were his,
+Philoctetes shot at Paris upon the wall of Troy and slew him with an
+arrow.'
+
+'And then Odysseus devised the means by which we took Priam's city at
+last. He made us build a great Wooden Horse. We built it and left it
+upon the plain of Troy and the Trojans wondered at it greatly. And
+Odysseus had counselled us to bring our ships down to the water and to
+burn our stores and make it seem in every way that we were going to
+depart from Troy in weariness. This we did, and the Trojans saw the
+great host sail away from before their City. But they did not know that
+a company of the best of our warriors was within the hollow of the
+Wooden Horse, nor did they know that we had left a spy behind to make a
+signal for our return.'
+
+'The Trojans wondered why the great Wooden Horse had been left behind.
+And there were some who considered that it had been left there as an
+offering to the goddess, Pallas Athene, and they thought it should be
+brought within the city. Others were wiser and would have left the
+Wooden Horse alone. But those who considered that it should be brought
+within prevailed; and, as the Horse was too great to bring through the
+gate, they flung down part of the wall that they might bring it through.
+The Wooden Horse was brought within the walls and left upon the streets
+of the city and the darkness of the night fell.'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+'Now Helen, my wife, came down to where the Wooden Horse was, and she,
+suspecting there were armed men within, walked around it three times,
+calling to every captain of the Greeks who might be within in his own
+wife's voice. And when the sound of a voice that had not been heard for
+so many years came to him each of the captains started up to answer. But
+Odysseus put his hands across the mouth of each and so prevented them
+from being discovered.'
+
+'We had left a spy hidden between the beach and the city. Now when the
+Wooden Horse had been brought within the walls and night had fallen, the
+spy lighted a great fire that was signal to the ships that had sailed
+away. They returned with the host before the day broke. Then we who were
+within the Wooden Horse broke through the boards and came out on the
+City with our spears and swords in our hands. The guards beside the
+gates we slew and we made a citadel of the Wooden Horse and fought
+around it. The warriors from the ships crossed the wall where it was
+broken down, and we swept through the streets and came to the citadel of
+the King. Thus we took Priam's City and all its treasures, and thus I
+won back my own wife, the lovely Helen.'
+
+'But after we had taken and sacked King Priam's City, great troubles
+came upon us. Some of us sailed away, and some of us remained on the
+shore at the bidding of King Agamemnon, to make sacrifice to the gods.
+We separated, and the doom of death came to many of us. Nestor I saw at
+Lesbos, but none other of our friends have I ever since seen. Agamemnon,
+my own brother, came to his own land. But ah, it would have been happier
+for him if he had died on the plain of Troy, and if we had left a great
+barrow heaped above him! For he was slain in his own house and by one
+who had married the wife he had left behind. When the Ancient One of the
+Sea told me of my brother's doom I sat down upon the sand and wept, and
+I was minded to live no more nor to see the light of the sun.'
+
+'And of thy father, Telemachus, I have told thee what I myself know and
+what was told me of him by the Ancient One of the Sea--how he stays on
+an Island where the nymph Calypso holds him against his will: but where
+that Island lies I do not know. Odysseus is there, and he cannot win
+back to his own country, seeing that he has no ship and no companions to
+help him to make his way across the sea. But Odysseus was ever master of
+devices. And also he is favoured greatly by the goddess, Pallas Athene.
+For these reasons, Telemachus, be hopeful that your father will yet
+reach his own home and country.'
+
+
+
+
+XXIII
+
+
+Now the goddess, Pallas Athene, had thought for Telemachus, and she came
+to him where he lay in the vestibule of Menelaus' house. His comrade,
+Peisistratus was asleep, but Telemachus was wakeful, thinking upon his
+father.
+
+Athene stood before his bed and said to him, 'Telemachus, no longer
+shouldst thou wander abroad, for the time has come when thou shouldst
+return. Come. Rouse Menelaus, and let him send thee upon thy way.'
+
+Then Telemachus woke Peisistratus out of his sleep and told him that it
+was best that they should be going on their journey. But Peisistratus
+said, 'Tarry until it is dawn, Telemachus, when Menelaus will come to us
+and send us on our way.'
+
+Then when it was light King Menelaus came to them. When he heard that
+they would depart he told the lady Helen to bid the maids prepare a meal
+for them. He himself, with Helen his wife, and Megapenthes, his son,
+went down into his treasure-chamber and brought forth for gifts to
+Telemachus a two-handled cup and a great mixing bowl of silver. And
+Helen took out of a chest a beautiful robe that she herself had made and
+embroidered. They came to Telemachus where he stood by the chariot with
+Peisistratus ready to depart. Then Menelaus gave him the beautiful
+two-handled cup that had been a gift to himself from the king of the
+Sidonians. Megapenthes brought up the great bowl of silver and put it in
+the chariot, and beautiful Helen came to him holding the embroidered
+robe.
+
+'I too have a gift, dear child, for thee,' she said. 'Bring this robe
+home and leave it in thy mother's keeping. I want thee to have it to
+give to thy bride when thou bringest her into thy father's halls.'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Then were the horses yoked to the chariot and Telemachus and
+Peisistratus bade farewell to Menelaus and Helen who had treated them so
+kindly. As they were ready to go Menelaus poured out of a golden cup
+wine as an offering to the gods. And as Menelaus poured it out,
+Telemachus prayed that he might find Odysseus, his father, in his home.
+
+Now as he prayed a bird flew from the right hand and over the horses'
+heads. It was an eagle, and it bore in its claws a goose that belonged
+to the farmyard. Telemachus asked Menelaus was this not a sign from
+Zeus, the greatest of the Gods.
+
+Then said Helen, 'Hear me now, for I will prophesy from this sign to
+you. Even as yonder eagle has flown down from the mountain and killed a
+goose of the farmyard, so will Odysseus come from far to his home and
+kill the wooers who are there.'
+
+'May Zeus grant that it be so,' said Telemachus. He spoke and lashed the
+horses, and they sped across the plain.
+
+When they came near the city of Pylos, Telemachus spoke to his comrade,
+Peisistratus, and said:
+
+'Do not take me past my ship, son of Nestor. Thy good father expects me
+to return to his house, but I fear that if I should, he, out of
+friendliness, would be anxious to make me stay many days. But I know
+that I should now return to Ithaka.'
+
+The son of Nestor turned the horses towards the sea and they drove the
+chariot to where Telemachus' ship was anchored. Then Telemachus gathered
+his followers, and he bade them take on board the presents that Menelaus
+and Helen had given him.
+
+They did this, and they raised the mast and the sails and the rowers
+took their seats on the benches. A breeze came and the sails took it and
+Telemachus and his companions sailed towards home. And all unknown to
+the youth, his father, Odysseus, was even then nearing his home.
+
+
+
+
+
+PART II
+
+
+HOW ODYSSEUS LEFT CALYPSO'S ISLAND AND CAME TO THE LAND OF THE
+PHÆACIANS; HOW HE TOLD HE FARED WITH THE CYCLÔPES AND WENT PAST THE
+TERRIBLE SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS AND CAME TO THE ISLAND OF THRINACIA WHERE
+HIS MEN SLAUGHTERED THE CATTLE OF THE SUN; HOW HE WAS GIVEN A SHIP BY
+THE PHÆACIANS AND CAME TO HIS OWN LAND; HOW HE OVERTHREW THE WOOERS WHO
+WASTED HIS SUBSTANCE AND CAME TO REIGN AGAIN AS KING OF ITHAKA
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+Ever mindful was Pallas Athene of Odysseus although she might not help
+him openly because of a wrong he had done Poseidon, the god of the sea.
+But she spoke at the council of the gods, and she won from Zeus a pledge
+that Odysseus would now be permitted to return to his own land. On that
+day she went to Ithaka, and, appearing to Telemachus, moved him, as has
+been told, to go on the voyage in search of his father. And on that day,
+too, Hermes, by the will of Zeus, went to Ogygia--to that Island where,
+as the Ancient One of the Sea had shown Menelaus, Odysseus was held by
+the nymph Calypso.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Beautiful indeed was that Island. All round the cave where Calypso lived
+was a blossoming wood--alder, poplar and cypress trees were there, and
+on their branches roosted long-winged birds--falcons and owls and
+chattering sea-crows. Before the cave was a soft meadow in which
+thousands of violets bloomed, and with four fountains that gushed out of
+the ground and made clear streams through the grass. Across the cave
+grew a straggling vine, heavy with clusters of grapes. Calypso was
+within the cave, and as Hermes came near, he heard her singing one of
+her magic songs.
+
+She was before a loom weaving the threads with a golden shuttle. Now she
+knew Hermes and was pleased to see him on her Island, but as soon as he
+spoke of Odysseus and how it was the will of Zeus that he should be
+permitted to leave the Island, her song ceased and the golden shuttle
+fell from her hand.
+
+'Woe to me,' she said, 'and woe to any immortal who loves a mortal, for
+the gods are always jealous of their love. I do not hold him here
+because I hate Odysseus, but because I love him greatly, and would have
+him dwell with me here,--more than this, Hermes, I would make him an
+immortal so that he would know neither old age nor death.'
+
+'He does not desire to be freed from old age and death,' said Hermes,
+'he desires to return to his own land and to live with his dear wife,
+Penelope, and his son, Telemachus. And Zeus, the greatest of the gods,
+commands that you let him go upon his way.'
+
+'I have no ship to give him,' said Calypso, 'and I have no company of
+men to help him to cross the sea,'
+
+'He must leave the Island and cross the sea--Zeus commands it,' Hermes
+said.
+
+'I must help him to make his way across the sea if it must be so,'
+Calypso said. Then she bowed her head and Hermes went from her.
+
+Straightway Calypso left her cave and went down to the sea. By the shore
+Odysseus stayed, looking across the wide sea with tears in his eyes.
+
+She came to him and she said, 'Be not sorrowful any more, Odysseus. The
+time has come when thou mayst depart from my Island. Come now. I will
+show how I can help thee on thy way.'
+
+She brought him to the side of the Island where great trees grew and she
+put in his hands a double-edged axe and an adze. Then Odysseus started
+to hew down the timber. Twenty trees he felled with his axe of bronze,
+and he smoothed them and made straight the line. Calypso came to him at
+the dawn of the next day; she brought augers for boring and he made the
+beams fast. He built a raft, making it very broad, and set a mast upon
+it and fixed a rudder to guide it. To make it more secure, he wove out
+of osier rods a fence that went from stem to stern as a bulwark against
+the waves, and he strengthened the bulwark with wood placed behind.
+Calypso wove him a web of cloth for sails, and these he made very
+skilfully. Then he fastened the braces and the halyards and sheets, and
+he pushed the raft, with levers down to the sea.
+
+That was on the fourth day. On the fifth Calypso gave him garments for
+the journey and brought provision down to the raft--two skins of wine
+and a great skin of water; corn and many dainties. She showed Odysseus
+how to guide his course by the star that some call the Bear and others
+the Wain, and she bade farewell to him. He took his place on the raft
+and set his sail to the breeze and he sailed away from Ogygia, the
+island where Calypso had held him for so long.
+
+But not easily or safely did he make his way across the sea. The winds
+blew upon his raft and the waves dashed against it; a fierce blast came
+and broke the mast in the middle; the sail and the arm-yard fell into
+the deep. Then Odysseus was flung down on the bottom of the raft. For a
+long time he lay there overwhelmed by the water that broke over him. The
+winds drove the raft to and fro--the South wind tossed it to the North
+to bear along, and the East wind tossed it to the West to chase.
+
+In the depths of the sea there was a Nymph who saw his toils and his
+troubles and who had pity upon him. Ino was her name. She rose from the
+waves in the likeness of a seagull and she sat upon the raft and she
+spoke to Odysseus in words.
+
+'Hapless man,' she said, 'Poseidon, the god of the sea, is still wroth
+with thee. It may be that the waters will destroy the raft upon which
+thou sailest. Then there would be no hope for thee. But do what I bid
+thee and thou shalt yet escape. Strip off thy garments and take this
+veil from me and wind it around thy breast. As long as it is upon thee
+thou canst not drown. But when thou reachest the mainland loose the veil
+and cast it into the sea so that it may come back to me.'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+She gave him the veil, and then, in the likeness of a seagull she
+dived into the sea and the waves closed over her. Odysseus took the veil
+and wound it around his breast, but he would not leave the raft as long
+as its timbers held together.
+
+Then a great wave came and shattered the raft. He held himself on a
+single beam as one holds himself on a horse, and then, with the veil
+bound across his breast, he threw himself into the waves.
+
+For two nights and two days he was tossed about on the waters. When on
+the third day the dawn came and the winds fell he saw land very near. He
+swam eagerly towards it. But when he drew nearer he heard the crash of
+waves as they struck against rocks that were all covered with foam. Then
+indeed was Odysseus afraid.
+
+A great wave took hold of him and flung him towards the shore. Now would
+his bones have been broken upon the rocks if he had not been
+ready-minded enough to rush towards a rock and to cling to it with both
+hands until the wave dashed by. Its backward drag took him and carried
+him back to the deep with the skin stripped from his hands. The waves
+closed over him. When he rose again he swam round looking for a place
+where there might be, not rocks, but some easy opening into the land.
+
+At last he saw the mouth of a river. He swam towards it until he felt
+its stream flowing through the water of the sea. Then in his heart he
+prayed to the river. 'Hear me, O River,' was what he said, 'I am come to
+thee as a suppliant, fleeing from the anger of Poseidon, god of the sea.
+Even by the gods is the man pitied who comes to them as a wanderer and
+a hapless man. I am thy suppliant, O River; pity me and help me in my
+need.'
+
+Now the river water was smooth for his swimming, and he came safely to
+its mouth. He came to a place where he might land, but with his flesh
+swollen and streams of salt water gushing from his mouth and nostrils.
+He lay on the ground without breath or speech, swooning with the
+terrible weariness that was upon him. But in a while his breath came
+back to him and his courage rose. He remembered the veil that the
+Sea-nymph had given him and he loosened it and let it fall back into the
+flowing river. A wave came and bore it back to Ino who caught it in her
+hands.
+
+But Odysseus was still fearful, and he said in his heart, 'Ah me! what
+is to befall me now? Here am I, naked and forlorn, and I know not
+amongst what people I am come. And what shall I do with myself when
+night comes on? If I lie by the river in the frost and dew I may perish
+of the cold. And if I climb up yonder to the woods and seek refuge in
+the thickets I may become the prey of wild beasts.'
+
+He went from the cold of the river up to the woods, and he found two
+olive trees growing side by side, twining together so that they made a
+shelter against the winds. He went and lay between them upon a bed of
+leaves, and with leaves he covered himself over. There in that shelter,
+and with that warmth he lay, and sleep came on him, and at last he
+rested from perils and toils.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+And while he rested the goddess, Pallas Athene, went to the City of the
+Phæacians, to whose land Odysseus had now come.
+
+She came to the Palace of the King, and, passing through all the doors,
+came to the chamber where the King's daughter, Nausicaa slept. She
+entered into Nausicaa's dream, appearing to her in it as one of her
+girl-comrades. And in the dream she spoke to the Princess:
+
+'Nausicaa,' she said, 'the garments of your household are all uncared
+for, and the time is near when, more than ever, you have need to have
+much and beautiful raiment. Your marriage day will be soon. You will
+have to have many garments ready by that time--garments to bring with
+you to your husband's house, and garments to give to those who will
+attend you at your wedding. There is much to be done, Nausicaa. Be ready
+at the break of day, and take your maidens with you, and bring the
+garments of your household to the river to be washed. I will be your
+mate in the toil. Beg your father to give you a wagon with mules to
+carry all the garments that we have need to wash.'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+So in her dream Pallas Athene spoke to the Princess in the likeness of
+her girl-friend. Having put the task of washing into her mind, the
+goddess left the Palace of the King and the country of the Phæacians.
+
+Nausicaa, when she rose thought upon her dream, and she went through the
+Palace and found her father. He was going to the assembly of the
+Phæacians. She came to him, but she was shy about speaking of that which
+had been in her dream--her marriage day--since her parents had not
+spoken to her about such a thing. Saying that she was going to the river
+to wash the garments of the household, she asked for a wagon and for
+mules. 'So many garments have I lying soiled,' she said. 'Yes and thou
+too, my father, should have fresh raiment when you go forth to the
+assembly of the Phæacians. And in our house are the two unwedded youths,
+my brothers, who are always eager for new washed garments wherein to go
+to dances.'
+
+Her father smiled on her and said, 'The mules and wagon thou mayst have,
+Nausicaa, and the servants shall get them ready for thee now.'
+
+He called to the servants and bade them get ready the mules and the
+wagon. Then Nausicaa gathered her maids together and they brought the
+soiled garments of the household to the wagon. And her mother, so that
+Nausicaa and her maids might eat while they were from home, put in a
+basket filled with dainties and a skin of wine. Also she gave them a jar
+of olive-oil so that they might rub themselves with oil when bathing in
+the river.
+
+Young Nausicaa herself drove the wagon. She mounted it and took the
+whip in her hands and started the mules, and they went through fields
+and by farms and came to the river-bank.
+
+The girls brought the garments to the stream, and leaving them in the
+shallow parts trod them with their bare feet. The wagon was unharnessed
+and the mules were left to graze along the river side. Now when they had
+washed the garments they took them to the sea-shore and left them on the
+clean pebbles to dry in the sun. Then Nausicaa and her companions went
+into the river and bathed and sported in the water.
+
+When they had bathed they sat down and ate the meal that had been put on
+the wagon for them. The garments were not yet dried and Nausicaa called
+on her companions to play. Straightway they took a ball and threw it
+from one to the other, each singing a song that went with the game. And
+as they played on the meadow they made a lovely company, and the
+Princess Nausicaa was the tallest and fairest and noblest of them all.
+
+Before they left the river side to load the wagon they played a last
+game. The Princess threw the ball, and the girl whose turn it was to
+catch missed it. The ball went into the river and was carried down the
+stream. At that they all raised a cry. It was this cry that woke up
+Odysseus who, covered over with leaves, was then sleeping in the shelter
+of the two olive trees.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+He crept out from under the thicket, covering his nakedness with leafy
+boughs that he broke off the trees. And when he saw the girls in the
+meadow he wanted to go to them to beg for their help. But when they
+looked on him they were terribly frightened and they ran this way and
+that way and hid themselves. Only Nausicaa stood still, for Pallas
+Athene had taken fear from her mind.
+
+Odysseus stood a little way from her and spoke to her in a beseeching
+voice. 'I supplicate thee, lady, to help me in my bitter need. I would
+kneel to thee and clasp thy knees only I fear thine anger. Have pity
+upon me. Yesterday was the twentieth day that I was upon the sea, driven
+hither and thither by the waves and the winds.'
+
+And still Nausicaa stood, and Odysseus looking upon her was filled with
+reverence for her, so noble she seemed. 'I know not as I look upon
+thee,' he said, 'whether thou art a goddess or a mortal maiden. If thou
+art a mortal maiden, happy must thy father be and thy mother and thy
+brothers. Surely they must be proud and glad to see thee in the dance,
+for thou art the very flower of maidens. And happy above all will he be
+who will lead thee to his home as his bride. Never have my eyes beheld
+one who had such beauty and such nobleness. I think thou art like to the
+young palm-tree I once saw springing up by the altar of Apollo in
+Delos--a tree that many marvelled to look at. O lady, after many and
+sore trials, to thee, first of all the people, have I come. I know that
+thou wilt be gracious to me. Show me the way to the town. Give me an
+old garment to cast about me. And may the gods grant thee thy wish and
+heart's desire--a noble husband who will cherish thee.'
+
+She spoke to him as a Princess should, seeing that in spite of the evil
+plight he was in, he was a man of worth. 'Stranger,' she said, 'since
+thou hast come to our land, thou shalt not lack for raiment nor aught
+else that is given to a suppliant. I will show thee the way to the town
+also.'
+
+He asked what land he was in. 'This, stranger,' she said, 'is the land
+of the Phæacians, and Alcinous is King over them. And I am the King's
+daughter, Nausicaa.'
+
+Then she called to her companions. 'Do not hide yourselves,' she said.
+'This is not an enemy, but a helpless and an unfriended man. We must
+befriend him, for it is well said that the stranger and the beggar are
+from God.'
+
+The girls came back and they brought Odysseus to a sheltered place and
+they made him sit down and laid a garment beside him. One brought the
+jar of olive oil that he might clean himself when he bathed in the
+river. And Odysseus was very glad to get this oil for his back and
+shoulders were all crusted over with flakes of brine. He went into the
+river and bathed and rubbed himself with the oil. Then he put on the
+garment that had been brought him. So well he looked that when he came
+towards them again the Princess said to the maids:
+
+'Look now on the man who a while ago seemed so terrifying! He is most
+handsome and stately. Would that we might see more of him. Now, my
+maidens, bring the stranger meat and drink.'
+
+They came to him and they served him with meat and drink and he ate and
+drank eagerly, for it was long since he had tasted food. And while he
+ate, Nausicaa and her companions went down to the seashore and gathered
+the garments that were now dried, singing songs the while. They
+harnessed the mules and folded the garments and left them on the wagon.
+
+When they were ready to go Nausicaa went to Odysseus and said to him,
+'Stranger, if thou wouldst make thy way into the city come with us now,
+so that we may guide thee. But first listen to what I would say. While
+we are going through the fields and by the farms walk thou behind,
+keeping near the wagon. But when we enter the ways of the City, go no
+further with us. People might speak unkindly of me if they saw me with a
+stranger such as thou. They might say, "Who does Nausicaa bring to her
+father's house? Someone she would like to make her husband, most
+likely." So that we may not meet with such rudeness I would have thee
+come alone to my father's house. Listen now and I will tell thee how
+thou mayst do this.'
+
+'There is a grove kept for the goddess Pallas Athene within a man's
+shout of the city. In that grove is a spring, and when we come near I
+would have thee go and rest thyself by it. Then when thou dost think we
+have come to my father's house, enter the City and ask thy way to the
+palace of the King. When thou hast come to it, pass quickly through the
+court and through the great chamber and come to where my mother sits
+weaving yarn by the light of the fire. My father will be sitting near,
+drinking his wine in the evening. Pass by his seat and come to my
+mother, and clasp your hands about her knees and ask for her aid. If she
+become friendly to thee thou wilt be helped by our people and wilt be
+given the means of returning to thine own land.'
+
+So Nausicaa bade him. Then she touched the mules with the whip and the
+wagon went on. Odysseus walked with the maids behind. As the sun set
+they came to the grove that was outside the City--the grove of Pallas
+Athene. Odysseus went into it and sat by the spring. And while he was in
+her grove he prayed to the goddess, 'Hear me, Pallas Athene, and grant
+that I may come before the King of this land as one well worthy of his
+pity and his help.'
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+About the time that the maiden Nausicaa had come to her father's house,
+Odysseus rose up from where he sat by the spring in the grove of Pallas
+Athene and went into the City. There he met one who showed him the way
+to the palace of King Alcinous. The doors of that palace were golden and
+the door-posts were of silver. And there was a garden by the great door
+filled with fruitful trees--pear trees and pomegranates; apple trees and
+trees bearing figs and olives. Below it was a vineyard showing
+clusters of grapes. That orchard and that vineyard were marvels, for in
+them never fruit fell or was gathered but other fruit ripened to take
+its place; from season to season there was fruit for the gathering in
+the king's close.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Odysseus stood before the threshold of bronze and many thoughts were in
+his mind. But at last with a prayer to Zeus he crossed the threshold and
+went through the great hall. Now on that evening the Captains and the
+Councillors of the Phæacians sat drinking wine with the King. Odysseus
+passed by them, and stayed not at the King's chair, but went where
+Arete, the Queen, sat. And he knelt before her and clasped her knees
+with his hands and spoke to her in supplication:
+
+'Arete, Queen! After many toils and perils I am come to thee and to thy
+husband, and to these, thy guests! May the gods give all who are here a
+happy life and may each see his children in safe possession of his
+halls. I have come to thee to beg that thou wouldst put me on my way to
+my own land, for long have I suffered sore affliction far from my
+friends.'
+
+Then, having spoken, Odysseus went and sat down in the ashes of the
+hearth with his head bowed. No one spoke for long. Then an aged
+Councillor who was there spoke to the King.
+
+'O Alcinous,' he said, 'it is not right that a stranger should sit in
+the ashes by thy hearth. Bid the stranger rise now and let a chair be
+given him and supper set before him.'
+
+Then Alcinous took Odysseus by the hand, and raised him from where he
+sat, and bade his son Laodamas give place to him. He sat on a chair
+inlaid with silver and the housedame brought him bread and wine and
+dainties. He ate, and King Alcinous spoke to the company and said:
+
+'To-morrow I shall call you together and we will entertain this stranger
+with a feast in our halls, and we shall take counsel to see in what way
+we can convoy him to his own land.'
+
+The Captains and Councillors assented to this, and then each one arose
+and went to his own house. Odysseus was left alone in the hall with the
+King and the Queen. Now Arete, looking closely at Odysseus, recognized
+the mantle he wore, for she herself had wrought it with her handmaids.
+And when all the company had gone she spoke to Odysseus and said:
+
+'Stranger, who art thou? Didst thou not speak of coming to us from
+across the deep? And if thou didst come that way, who gave thee the
+raiment that thou hast on?'
+
+Said Odysseus, 'Lady, for seven and ten days I sailed across the deep,
+and on the eighteenth day I sighted the hills of thy land. But my woes
+were not yet ended. The storm winds shattered my raft, and when I strove
+to land the waves overwhelmed me and dashed me against great rocks in a
+desolate place. At length I came to a river, and I swam through its
+mouth and I found a shelter from the wind. There I lay amongst the
+leaves all the night long and from dawn to mid-day. Then came thy
+daughter down to the river. I was aware of her playing with her friends,
+and to her I made my supplication. She gave me bread and wine, and she
+bestowed these garments upon me, and she showed an understanding that
+was far beyond her years.'
+
+Then said Alcinous the King, 'Our daughter did not do well when she did
+not bring thee straight to our house.'
+
+Odysseus said, 'My Lord, do not blame the maiden. She bade me follow
+with her company, and she was only careful that no one should have cause
+to make ill-judged remarks upon the stranger whom she found.'
+
+Then Alcinous, the King, praised Odysseus and said that he should like
+such a man to abide in his house and that he would give him land and
+wealth, in the country of the Phæacians. 'But if it is not thy will to
+abide with us,' he said, 'I shall give thee a ship and a company of men
+to take thee to thy own land, even if that land be as far as Eubæa,
+which, our men say, is the farthest of all lands.' As he said this
+Odysseus uttered a prayer in his heart, 'O Father Zeus, grant that
+Alcinous the King may fulfil all that he has promised--and for that may
+his fame never be quenched--and that I may come to my own land.'
+
+Arete now bade the maids prepare a bed for Odysseus. This they did,
+casting warm coverlets and purple blankets upon it. And when Odysseus
+came to the bed and lay in it, after the tossing of the waves, rest in
+it seemed wonderfully good.
+
+At dawn of day he went with the King to the assembly of the Phæacians.
+When the Princes and Captains and Councillors were gathered together,
+Alcinous spoke to them saying:
+
+'Princes and Captains and Councillors of the Phæacians! This stranger
+has come to my house in his wanderings, and he desires us to give him a
+ship and a company of men, so that he may cross the sea and come to his
+own land. Let us, as in times past we have done for others, help him in
+his journey. Nay, let us even now draw down a black ship to the sea, and
+put two and fifty of our noblest youths upon it, and let us make it
+ready for the voyage. But before he departs from amongst us, come all of
+you to a feast that I shall give to this stranger in my house. And
+moreover, let us take with us the minstrel of our land, blind Demodocus,
+that his songs may make us glad at the feast.'
+
+So the King spoke, and the Princes, Captains and Councillors of the
+Phæacians went with him to the palace. And at the same time two and
+fifty youths went down to the shore of the sea, and drew down a ship and
+placed the masts and sails upon it, and left the oars in their leathern
+loops. Having done all this they went to the palace where the feast was
+being given and where many men had gathered.
+
+The henchman led in the minstrel, blind Demodocus. To him the gods had
+given a good and an evil fortune--the gift of song with the lack of
+sight. The henchman led him through the company, and placed him on a
+seat inlaid with silver, and hung his lyre on the pillar above his seat.
+When the guests and the minstrel had feasted, blind Demodocus took down
+the lyre and sang of things that were already famous--of the deeds of
+Achilles and Odysseus.
+
+Now when he heard the words that the minstrel uttered, Odysseus caught
+up his purple cloak and drew it over his head. Tears were falling down
+his cheeks and he was ashamed of their being seen. No one marked his
+weeping except the King, and the King wondered why his guest should be
+so moved by what the minstrel related.
+
+When they had feasted and the minstrel had sung to them, Alcinous said,
+'Let us go forth now and engage in games and sports so that our stranger
+guest may tell his friends when he is amongst them what our young men
+can do.'
+
+All went out from the palace to the place where the games were played.
+There was a foot-race, and there was a boxing-match, and there was
+wrestling and weight-throwing. All the youths present went into the
+games. And when the sports were ending Laodamas, the son of King
+Alcinous, said to his friends:
+
+'Come, my friends, and let us ask the stranger whether he is skilled or
+practised in any sport,' And saying this he went to Odysseus and said,
+'Friend and stranger, come now and try thy skill in the games. Cast care
+away from thee, for thy journey shall not be long delayed. Even now the
+ship is drawn down to the sea, and we have with us the company of youths
+that is ready to help thee to thine own land.'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Said Odysseus, 'Sorrow is nearer to my heart than sport, for much have I
+endured in times that are not far past'
+
+Then a youth who was with Laodamas, Euryalus, who had won in the
+wrestling bout, said insolently, 'Laodamas is surely mistaken in
+thinking that thou shouldst be proficient in sports. As I look at thee I
+think that thou art one who makes voyages for gain--a trader whose only
+thought is for his cargo and his gains,'
+
+Then said Odysseus with anger. 'Thou hast not spoken well, young man.
+Thou hast beauty surely, but thou hast not grace of manner nor speech.
+And thou hast stirred the spirit in my breast by speaking to me in such
+words.'
+
+Thereupon, clad as he was in his mantle, Odysseus sprang up and took a
+weight that was larger than any yet lifted, and with one whirl he flung
+it from his hands. Beyond all marks it flew, and one who was standing
+far off cried out, 'Even a blind man, stranger, might know that thy
+weight need not be confused with the others, but lies far beyond them.
+In this bout none of the Phæacians can surpass thee.'
+
+And Odysseus, turning to the youths, said, 'Let who will, pass that
+throw. And if any of you would try with me in boxing or wrestling or
+even in the foot-race, let him stand forward--anyone except Laodamas,
+for he is of the house that has befriended me. A rude man he would
+surely be who should strive with his host.'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+All kept silence. Then Alcinous the King said, 'So that thou shalt
+have something to tell thy friends when thou art in thine own hand, we
+shall show thee the games in which we are most skilful. For we Phæacians
+are not perfect boxers or wrestlers, but we excel all in running and in
+dancing and in pulling with the oar. Lo, now, ye dancers! Come forward
+and show your nimbleness, so that the stranger may tell his friends,
+when he is amongst them, how far we surpass all men in dancing as well
+as in seamanship and speed of foot.'
+
+A place was levelled for the dance, and the blind minstrel, Demodocus,
+took the lyre in his hands and made music, while youths skilled in the
+dance struck the ground with their feet. Odysseus as he watched them
+marvelled at their grace and their spirit. When the dance was ended he
+said to the King, 'My Lord Alcinous, thou didst boast thy dancers to be
+the best in the world, and thy word is not to be denied. I wonder as I
+look upon them.'
+
+At the end of the day Alcinous spoke to his people and said, 'This
+stranger, in all that he does and says, shows himself to be a wise and a
+mighty man. Let each of us now give him the stranger's gift. Here there
+are twelve princes of the Phæacians and I am the thirteenth. Let each of
+us give him a worthy gift, and then let us go back to my house and sit
+down to supper. As for Euryalus, let him make amends to the stranger for
+his rudeness of speech as he offers him his gift.'
+
+All assented to the King's words, and Euryalus went to Odysseus and
+said, 'Stranger, if I have spoken aught that offended thee, may the
+storm winds snatch it and bear it away. May the gods grant that thou
+shalt see thy wife and come to thine own country. Too long hast thou
+endured afflictions away from thy friends.'
+
+So saying, Euryalus gave Odysseus a sword of bronze with a silver hilt
+and a sheath of ivory. Odysseus took it and said, 'And to you, my
+friend, may the gods grant all happiness, and mayst thou never miss the
+sword that thou hast given me. Thy gracious speech hath made full
+amends.'
+
+Each of the twelve princes gave gifts to Odysseus, and the gifts were
+brought to the palace and left by the side of the Queen. And Arete
+herself gave Odysseus a beautiful coffer with raiment and gold in it,
+and Alcinous, the King, gave him a beautiful cup, all of gold.
+
+In the palace the bath was prepared for Odysseus, and he entered it and
+was glad of the warm water, for not since he had left the Island of
+Calypso did he have a warm bath. He came from the bath and put on the
+beautiful raiment that had been given him and he walked through the
+hall, looking a king amongst men.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Now the maiden, Nausicaa, stood by a pillar as he passed, and she knew
+that she had never looked upon a man who was more splendid. She had
+thought that the stranger whom she had saved would have stayed in her
+father's house, and that one day he would be her husband. But now she
+knew that by no means would he abide in the land of the Phæacians. As he
+passed by, she spoke to him and said, 'Farewell, O Stranger! And when
+thou art in thine own country, think sometimes of me, Nausicaa, who
+helped thee.' Odysseus took her hand and said to her, 'Farewell,
+daughter of King Alcinous! May Zeus grant that I may return to my own
+land. There every day shall I pay homage to my memory of thee, to whom I
+owe my life.'
+
+He passed on and he came to where the Princes and Captains and
+Councillors of the Phæacians sat. His seat was beside the King's. Then
+the henchman brought in the minstrel, blind Demodocus, and placed him on
+a seat by a pillar. And when supper was served Odysseus sent to
+Demodocus a portion of his own meat. He spoke too in praise of the
+minstrel saying, 'Right well dost thou sing of the Greeks and all they
+wrought and suffered--as well, methinks, as if thou hadst been present
+at the war of Troy. I would ask if thou canst sing of the Wooden Horse
+that brought destruction to the Trojans. If thou canst, I shall be a
+witness amongst all men how the gods have surely given thee the gift of
+song.'
+
+Demodocus took down the lyre and sang. His song told how one part of the
+Greeks sailed away in their ships and how others with Odysseus to lead
+them were now in the center of Priam's City all hidden in the great
+Wooden Horse which the Trojans themselves had dragged across their
+broken wall. So the Wooden Horse stood, and the people gathered around
+talked of what should be done with so wonderful a thing--whether to
+break open its timbers, or drag it to a steep hill and hurl it down on
+the rocks, or leave it there as an offering to the gods. As an offering
+to the gods it was left at last. Then the minstrel sang how Odysseus and
+his comrades poured forth from the hollow of the horse and took the
+City.
+
+As the minstrel sang, the heart of Odysseus melted within him and tears
+fell down his cheeks. None of the company saw him weeping except
+Alcinous the King. But the King cried out to the company saying, 'Let
+the minstrel cease, for there is one amongst us to whom his song is not
+pleasing. Ever since it began the stranger here has wept with tears
+flowing down his cheeks.'
+
+The minstrel ceased, and all the company looked in surprise at Odysseus,
+who sat with his head bowed and his mantle wrapped around his head. Why
+did he weep? each man asked. No one had asked of him his name, for each
+thought it was more noble to serve a stranger without knowing his name.
+
+Said the King, speaking again, 'In a brother's place stands the stranger
+and the suppliant, and as a brother art thou to us, O unknown guest. But
+wilt thou not be brotherly to us? Tell us by what name they call thee in
+thine own land. Tell us, too, of thy land and thy city. And tell us,
+too, where thou wert borne on thy wanderings, and to what lands and
+peoples thou earnest. And as a brother tell us why thou dost weep and
+mourn in spirit over the tale of the going forth of the Greeks to the
+war of Troy. Didst thou have a kinsman who fell before Priam's City--a
+daughter's husband, or a wife's father, or someone nearer by blood? Or
+didst thou have a loving friend who fell there--one with an
+understanding heart who wast to thee as a brother?'
+
+Such questions the King asked, and Odysseus taking the mantle from
+around his head turned round to the company.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+Then Odysseus spoke before the company and said, 'O Alcinous, famous
+King, it is good to listen to a minstrel such as Demodocus is. And as
+for me, I know of no greater delight than when men feast together with
+open hearts, when tables are plentifully spread, when wine-bearers pour
+out good wine into cups, and when a minstrel sings to them noble songs.
+This seems to me to be happiness indeed. But thou hast asked me to speak
+of my wanderings and my toils. Ah, where can I begin that tale? For the
+gods have given me more woes than a man can speak of!'
+
+'But first of all I will declare to you my name and my country. I am
+ODYSSEUS, SON OF LAERTES, and my land is Ithaka, an island around which
+many islands lie. Ithaka is a rugged isle, but a good nurse of hardy
+men, and I, for one, have found that there is no place fairer than a
+man's own land. But now I will tell thee, King, and tell the Princes
+and Captains and Councillors of the Phæacians, the tale of my
+wanderings.'
+
+'The wind bore my ships from the coast of Troy, and with our white sails
+hoisted we came to the cape that is called Malea. Now if we had been
+able to double this cape we should soon have come to our own country,
+all unhurt. But the north wind came and swept us from our course and
+drove us wandering past Cythera.'
+
+'Then for nine days we were borne onward by terrible winds, and away
+from all known lands. On the tenth day we came to a strange country.
+Many of my men landed there. The people of that land were harmless and
+friendly, but the land itself was most dangerous. For there grew there
+the honey-sweet fruit of the lotus that makes all men forgetful of their
+past and neglectful of their future. And those of my men who ate the
+lotus that the dwellers of that land offered them became forgetful of
+their country and of the way before them. They wanted to abide forever
+in the land of the lotus. They wept when they thought of all the toils
+before them and of all they had endured. I led them back to the ships,
+and I had to place them beneath the benches and leave them in bonds. And
+I commanded those who had ate of the lotus to go at once aboard the
+ships. Then, when I had got all my men upon the ships, we made haste to
+sail away.'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+'Later we came to the land of the Cyclôpes, a giant people. There is a
+waste island outside the harbour of their land, and on it there is a
+well of bright water that has poplars growing round it. We came to that
+empty island, and we beached our ships and took down our sails.'
+
+'As soon as the dawn came we went through the empty island, starting the
+wild goats that were there in flocks, and shooting them with our arrows.
+We killed so many wild goats there that we had nine for each ship.
+Afterwards we looked across to the land of the Cyclôpes, and we heard
+the sound of voices and saw the smoke of fires and heard the bleating of
+flocks of sheep and goats.'
+
+'I called my companions together and I said, "It would be well for some
+of us to go to that other island. With my own ship and with the company
+that is on it I shall go there. The rest of you abide here. I will find
+out what manner of men live there, and whether they will treat us kindly
+and give us gifts that are due to strangers--gifts of provisions for our
+voyage."' E embarked and we came to the land. There was a cave near the
+sea, and round the cave there were mighty flocks of sheep and goats. I
+took twelve men with me and I left the rest to guard the ship. We went
+into the cave and found no man there. There were baskets filled with
+cheeses, and vessels of whey, and pails and bowls of milk. My men wanted
+me to take some of the cheeses and drive off some of the lambs and kids
+and come away. But this I would not do, for I would rather that he who
+owned the stores would give us of his own free will the offerings that
+were due to strangers.'
+
+'While we were in the cave, he whose dwelling it was, returned to it. He
+carried on his shoulder a great pile of wood for his fire. Never in our
+lives did we see a creature so frightful as this Cyclops was. He was a
+giant in size, and, what made him terrible to behold, he had but one
+eye, and that single eye was in his forehead. He cast down on the ground
+the pile of wood that he carried, making such a din that we fled in
+terror into the corners and recesses of the cave. Next he drove his
+flocks into the cave and began to milk his ewes and goats. And when he
+had the flocks within, he took up a stone that not all our strengths
+could move and set it as a door to the mouth of the cave.'
+
+'The Cyclops kindled his fire, and when it blazed up he saw us in the
+corners and recesses. He spoke to us. We knew not what he said, but our
+hearts were shaken with terror at the sound of his deep voice.'
+
+'I spoke to him saying that we were Agamemnon's men on our way home from
+the taking of Priam's City, and I begged him to deal with us kindly, for
+the sake of Zeus who is ever in the company of strangers and suppliants.
+But he answered me saying, "We Cyclôpes pay no heed to Zeus, nor to any
+of thy gods. In our strength and our power we deem that we are mightier
+than they. I will not spare thee, neither will I give thee aught for the
+sake of Zeus, but only as my own spirit bids me. And first I would have
+thee tell me how you came to our laud."'
+
+'I knew it would be better not to let the Cyclops know that my ship and
+my companions were at the harbour of the island. Therefore I spoke to
+him guilefully, telling him that my ship had been broken on the rocks,
+and that I and the men with me were the only ones who had escaped utter
+doom.'
+
+'I begged again that he would deal with us as just men deal with
+strangers and suppliants, but he, without saying a word, laid hands upon
+two of my men, and swinging them by the legs, dashed their brains out on
+the earth. He cut them to pieces and ate them before our very eyes. We
+wept and we prayed to Zeus as we witnessed a deed so terrible.'
+
+'Next the Cyclops stretched himself amongst his sheep and went to sleep
+beside the fire. Then I debated whether I should take my sharp sword in
+my hand, and feeling where his heart was, stab him there. But second
+thoughts held me back from doing this. I might be able to kill him as he
+slept, but not even with my companions could I roll away the great stone
+that closed the mouth of the cave.'
+
+'Dawn came, and the Cyclops awakened, kindled his fire and milked his
+flocks. Then he seized two others of my men and made ready for his
+mid-day meal. And now he rolled away the great stone and drove his
+flocks out of the cave.'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+'I had pondered on a way of escape, and I had thought of something that
+might be done to baffle the Cyclops. I had with me a great skin of
+sweet wine, and I thought that if I could make him drunken with wine I
+and my companions might be able for him. But there were other
+preparations to be made first. On the floor of the cave there was a
+great beam of olive wood which the Cyclops had cut to make a club when
+the wood should be seasoned. It was yet green. I and my companions went
+and cut off a fathom's length of the wood, and sharpened it to a point
+and took it to the fire and hardened it in the glow. Then I hid the beam
+in a recess of the cave.'
+
+'The Cyclops came back in the evening, and opening up the cave drove in
+his flocks. Then he closed the cave again with the stone and went and
+milked his ewes and his goats. Again he seized two of my companions. I
+went to the terrible creature with a bowl of wine in my hands. He took
+it and drank it and cried out, "Give me another bowl of this, and tell
+me thy name that I may give thee gifts for bringing me this
+honey-tasting drink."'
+
+'Again I spoke to him guilefully and said, "Noman is my name. Noman my
+father and my mother call me."'
+
+'"Give me more of the drink, Noman," he shouted. "And the gift that I
+shall give to thee is that I shall make thee the last of thy fellows to
+be eaten."'
+
+'I gave him wine again, and when he had taken the third bowl he sank
+backwards with his face upturned, and sleep came upon him. Then I, with
+four companions, took that beam of olive wood, now made into a hard and
+pointed stake, and thrust it into the ashes of the fire. When the
+pointed end began to glow we drew it out of the flame. Then I and my
+companions laid hold on the great stake and, dashing at the Cyclops,
+thrust it into his eye. He raised a terrible cry that made the rocks
+ring and we dashed away into the recesses of the cave.'
+
+His cries brought other Cyclôpes to the mouth of the cave, and they,
+naming him as Polyphemus, called out and asked him what ailed him to
+cry. "Noman," he shrieked out, "Noman is slaying me by guile." They
+answered him saying, "If no man is slaying thee, there is nothing we can
+do for thee, Polyphemus. What ails thee has been sent to thee by the
+gods." Saying this, they went away from the mouth of the cave without
+attempting to move away the stone.'
+
+'Polyphemus then, groaning with pain, rolled away the stone and sat
+before the mouth of the cave with his hands outstretched, thinking that
+he would catch us as we dashed out. I showed my companions how we might
+pass by him. I laid hands on certain rams of the flock and I lashed
+three of them together with supple rods. Then on the middle ram I put a
+man of my company. Thus every three rams carried a man. As soon as the
+dawn had come the rams hastened out to the pasture, and, as they passed,
+Polyphemus laid hands on the first and the third of each three that went
+by. They passed out and Polyphemus did not guess that a ram that he did
+not touch carried out a man.'
+
+'For myself, I took a ram that was the strongest and fleeciest of the
+whole flock and I placed myself under him, clinging to the wool of his
+belly. As this ram, the best of all his flock, went by, Polyphemus,
+laying his hands upon him, said, "Would that you, the best of my flock,
+were endowed with speech, so that you might tell me where Noman, who has
+blinded me, has hidden himself." The ram went by him, and when he had
+gone a little way from the cave I loosed myself from him and went and
+set my companions free.'
+
+'We gathered together many of Polyphemus' sheep and we drove them down
+to our ship. The men we had left behind would have wept when they heard
+what had happened to six of their companions. But I bade them take on
+board the sheep we had brought and pull the ship away from that land.
+Then when we had drawn a certain distance from the shore I could not
+forbear to shout my taunts into the cave of Polyphemus. "Cyclops," I
+cried, "you thought that you had the company of a fool and a weakling to
+eat. But you have been worsted by me, and your evil deeds have been
+punished."'
+
+'So I shouted, and Polyphemus came to the mouth of the cave with great
+anger in his heart. He took up rocks and cast them at the ship and they
+fell before the prow. The men bent to the oars and pulled the ship away
+or it would have been broken by the rocks he cast. And when we were
+further away I shouted to him:
+
+'"Cyclops, if any man should ask who it was set his mark upon you, say
+that he was Odysseus, the son of Laertes."'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+'Then I heard Polyphemus cry out, "I call upon Poseidon, the god of the
+sea, whose son I am, to avenge me upon you, Odysseus. I call upon
+Poseidon to grant that you, Odysseus, may never come to your home, or if
+the gods have ordained your return, that you come to it after much toil
+and suffering, in an evil plight and in a stranger's ship, to find
+sorrow in your home."'
+
+'So Polyphemus prayed, and, to my evil fortune, Poseidon heard his
+prayer. But we went on in our ship rejoicing at our escape. We came to
+the waste island where my other ships were. All the company rejoiced to
+see us, although they had to mourn for their six companions slain by
+Polyphemus. We divided amongst the ships the sheep we had taken from
+Polyphemus' flock and we sacrificed to the gods. At the dawn of the next
+day we raised the sails on each ship and we sailed away,'
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+
+We came to the Island where Æolus, the Lord of the Winds, he who can
+give mariners a good or a bad wind, has his dwelling. With his six sons
+and his six daughters Æolus lives on a floating island that has all
+around it a wall of bronze. And when we came to his island, the Lord of
+the Winds treated us kindly and kept us at his dwelling for a month. Now
+when the time came for us to leave, Æolus did not try to hold us on the
+island. And to me, when I was going down to the ships, he gave a bag
+made from the hide of an ox, and in that bag were all the winds that
+blow. He made the mouth of the bag fast with a silver thong, so that no
+wind that might drive us from our course could escape. Then he sent the
+West Wind to blow on our sails that we might reach our own land as
+quickly as a ship might go.'
+
+'For nine days we sailed with the West Wind driving us, and on the tenth
+day we came in sight of Ithaka, our own land. We saw its coast and the
+beacon fires upon the coast and the people tending the fires. Then I
+thought that the curse of the Cyclops was vain and could bring no harm
+to us. Sleep that I had kept from me for long I let weigh me down, and I
+no longer kept watch.'
+
+'Then even as I slept, the misfortune that I had watched against fell
+upon me. For now my men spoke together and said, "There is our native
+land, and we come back to it after ten years' struggles and toils, with
+empty hands. Different it is with our lord, Odysseus. He brings gold and
+silver from Priam's treasure-chamber in Troy. And Æolus too has given
+him a treasure in an ox-hide bag. But let us take something out of that
+bag while he sleeps."'
+
+'So they spoke, and they unloosed the mouth of the bag, and behold! all
+the winds that were tied in it burst out. Then the winds drove our ship
+towards the high seas and away from our land. What became of the other
+ships I know not. I awoke and I found that we were being driven here and
+there by the winds. I did not know whether I should spring into the sea
+and so end all my troubles, or whether I should endure this terrible
+misfortune. I muffled my head in my cloak and lay on the deck of my
+ship.'
+
+'The winds brought us back again to the floating Island. We landed and I
+went to the dwelling of the Lord of the Winds. I sat by the pillars of
+his threshold and he came out and spoke to me. "How now, Odysseus?" said
+he. "How is it thou hast returned so soon? Did I not give thee a fair
+wind to take thee to thine own country, and did I not tie up all the
+winds that might be contrary to thee?"'
+
+'"My evil companions," I said, "have been my bane. They have undone all
+the good that thou didst for me, O King of the Winds. They opened the
+bag and let all the winds fly out. And now help me, O Lord Æolus, once
+again."'
+
+'But Æolus said to me, "Far be it from me to help such a man as thou--a
+man surely accursed by the gods. Go from my Island, for nothing will I
+do for thee." Then I went from his dwelling and took my way down to the
+ship.'
+
+We sailed away from the Island of Æolus with heavy hearts. Next we came
+to the Æean Island, where we met with Circe, the Enchantress. For two
+days and two nights we were on that island without seeing the sign of a
+habitation. On the third day I saw smoke rising up from some hearth. I
+spoke of it to my men, and it seemed good to us that part of our company
+should go to see were there people there who might help us. We drew lots
+to find out who should go, and it fell to the lot of Eurylochus to go
+with part of the company, while I remained with the other part.'
+
+'So Eurylochus went with two and twenty men. In the forest glades they
+came upon a house built of polished stones. All round that house wild
+beasts roamed--wolves and lions. But these beasts were not fierce. As
+Eurylochus and his men went towards the house the lions and wolves
+fawned upon them like house dogs.'
+
+'But the men were affrighted and stood round the outer gate of the
+court. They heard a voice within the house singing, and it seemed to
+them to be the voice of a woman, singing as she went to and fro before a
+web she was weaving on a loom. The men shouted, and she who had been
+singing opened the polished doors and came out of the dwelling. She was
+very fair to see. As she opened the doors of the house she asked the men
+to come within and they went into her halls.'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+'But Eurylochus tarried behind. He watched the woman and he saw her give
+food to the men. But he saw that she mixed a drug with what she gave
+them to eat and with the wine she gave them to drink. No sooner had they
+eaten the food and drunk the wine than she struck them with a wand, and
+behold! the men turned into swine. Then the woman drove them out of
+the house and put them in the swine-pens and gave them acorns and mast
+and the fruit of the cornel tree to eat.'
+
+'Eurylochus, when he saw these happenings, ran back through the forest
+and told me all. Then I cast about my shoulder my good sword of bronze,
+and, bidding Eurylochus stay by the ships, I went through the forest and
+came to the house of the enchantress. I stood at the outer court and
+called out. Then Circe the Enchantress flung wide the shining doors, and
+called to me to come within. I entered her dwelling and she brought me
+to a chair and put a footstool under my feet. Then she brought me in a
+golden cup the wine into which she had cast a harmful drug.'
+
+'As she handed me the cup I drew my sword and sprang at her as one eager
+to slay her. She shrank back from me and cried out, "Who art thou who
+art able to guess at my enchantments? Verily, thou art Odysseus, of whom
+Hermes told me. Nay, put up thy sword and let us two be friendly to each
+other. In all things I will treat thee kindly."'
+
+'But I said to her, "Nay, Circe, you must swear to me first that thou
+wilt not treat me guilefully."'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+'She swore by the gods that she would not treat me guilefully, and I put
+up my sword. Then the handmaidens of Circe prepared a bath, and I bathed
+and rubbed myself with olive oil, and Circe gave me a new mantle and
+doublet. The handmaidens brought out silver tables, and on them set
+golden baskets with bread and meat in them, and others brought cups of
+honey-tasting wine. I sat before a silver table but I had no pleasure in
+the food before me.'
+
+'When Circe saw me sitting silent and troubled she said, "Why, Odysseus,
+dost thou sit like a speechless man? Dost thou think there is a drug in
+this food? But I have sworn that I will not treat thee guilefully, and
+that oath I shall keep."'
+
+'And I said to her, "O Circe, Enchantress, what man of good heart could
+take meat and drink while his companions are as swine in swine-pens? If
+thou wouldst have me eat and drink, first let me see my companions in
+their own forms."'
+
+'Circe, when she heard me say this, went to the swine-pen and anointed
+each of the swine that was there with a charm. As she did, the bristles
+dropped away and the limbs of the man were seen. My companions became
+men again, and were even taller and handsomer than they had been
+before.'
+
+'After that we lived on Circe's island in friendship with the
+enchantress. She did not treat us guilefully again and we feasted in her
+house for a year.'
+
+'But in all of us there was a longing to return to our own land. And my
+men came to me and craved that I should ask Circe to let us go on our
+homeward way. She gave us leave to go and she told us of the many
+dangers we should meet on our voyage.'
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+
+When the sun sank and darkness came on, my men went to lie by the
+hawsers of the ship. Then Circe the Enchantress took my hand, and,
+making me sit down by her, told me of the voyage that was before us.'
+
+'"To the Sirens first you shall come," said she, "to the Sirens, who sit
+in their field of flowers and bewitch all men who come near them. He who
+comes near the Sirens without knowing their ways and hears the sound of
+their voices--never again shall that man see wife or child, or have joy
+of his home-coming. All round where the Sirens sit are great heaps of
+the bones of men. But I will tell thee, Odysseus, how thou mayst pass
+them."'
+
+'"When thou comest near put wax over the ears of thy company lest any of
+them hear the Sirens' song. But if thou thyself art minded to hear, let
+thy company bind thee hand and foot to the mast. And if thou shalt
+beseech them to loose thee, then must they bind thee with tighter bonds.
+When thy companions have driven the ship past where the Sirens sing then
+thou canst be unbound."'
+
+'"Past where the Sirens sit there is a dangerous place indeed. On one
+side there are great rocks which the gods call the Rocks Wandering. No
+ship ever escapes that goes that way. And round these rocks the planks
+of ships and the bodies of men are tossed by waves of the sea and storms
+of fire. One ship only ever passed that way, Jason's ship, the Argo, and
+that ship would have been broken on the rocks if Hera the goddess had
+not helped it to pass, because of her love for the hero Jason."'
+
+'"On the other side of the Rocks Wandering are two peaks through which
+thou wilt have to take thy ship. One peak is smooth and sheer and goes
+up to the clouds of heaven. In the middle of it there is a cave, and
+that cave is the den of a monster named Scylla. This monster has six
+necks and on each neck there is a hideous head. She holds her heads over
+the gulf, seeking for prey and yelping horribly. No ship has ever passed
+that way without Scylla seizing and carrying off in each mouth of her
+six heads the body of a man."'
+
+'"The other peak is near. Thou couldst send an arrow across to it from
+Scylla's den. Out of the peak a fig tree grows, and below that fig tree
+Charybdis has her den. She sits there sucking down the water and
+spouting it forth. Mayst thou not be near when she sucks the water down,
+for then nothing could save thee. Keep nearer to Scylla's than to
+Charybdis's rock. It is better to lose six of your company than to lose
+thy ship and all thy company. Keep near Scylla's rock and drive right
+on."'
+
+'"If thou shouldst win past the deadly rocks guarded by Scylla and
+Charybdis thou wilt come to the Island of Thrinacia. There the Cattle of
+the Sun graze with immortal nymphs to guard them. If them comest to
+that Island, do no hurt to those herds. If thou doest hurt to them I
+foresee ruin for thy ship and thy men, even though thou thyself shouldst
+escape."'
+
+'So Circe spoke to me, and having told me such things she took her way
+up the island. Then I went to the ship and roused my men. Speedily they
+went aboard, and, having taken their seats upon the benches, struck the
+water with their oars. Then the sails were hoisted and a breeze came and
+we sailed away from the Isle of Circe, the Enchantress.'
+
+'I told my companions what Circe had told me about the Sirens in their
+field of flowers. I took a great piece of wax and broke it and kneaded
+it until it was soft. Then I covered the ears of my men, and they bound
+me upright to the mast of the ship. The wind dropped and the sea became
+calm as though a god had stilled the waters. My company took their oars
+and pulled away. When the ship was within a man's shout from the land we
+had come near the Sirens espied us and raised their song.'
+
+'"Come hither, come hither, O Odysseus," the Sirens sang, "stay thy bark
+and listen to our song. None hath ever gone this way in his ship until
+he hath heard from our own lips the voice sweet as a honeycomb, and hath
+joy of it, and gone on his way a wiser man. We know all things--all the
+travail the Greeks had in the war of Troy, and we know all that
+hereafter shall be upon the earth. Odysseus, Odysseus, come to our field
+of flowers, and hear the song that we shall sing to thee."'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+'My heart was mad to listen to the Sirens. I nodded my head to the
+company commanding them to unloose me, but they bound me the tighter,
+and bent to their oars and rowed on. When we had gone past the place of
+the Sirens the men took the wax from off their ears and loosed me from
+the mast.'
+
+But no sooner had we passed the Island than I saw smoke arising and
+heard the roaring of the sea. My company threw down their oars in
+terror. I went amongst them to hearten them, and I made them remember
+how, by my device, we had escaped from the Cave of the Cyclops.
+
+I told them nothing of the monster Scylla, lest the fear of her should
+break their hearts. And now we began to drive through that narrow
+strait. On one side was Scylla and on the other Charybdis. Fear gripped
+the men when they saw Charybdis gulping down the sea. But as we drove
+by, the monster Scylla seized six of my company--the hardiest of the men
+who were with me. As they were lifted up in the mouths of her six heads
+they called to me in their agony. 'But I could do nothing to aid them.
+They were carried up to be devoured in the monster's den. Of all the
+sights I have seen on the ways of the water, that sight was the most
+pitiful.'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+'Having passed the rocks of Scylla and Charybdis we came to the Island
+of Thrinacia. While we were yet on the ship I heard the lowing of the
+Cattle of the Sun. I spoke to my company and told them that we should
+drive past that Island and not venture to go upon it.'
+
+'The hearts of my men were broken within them at that sentence, and
+Eurylochus answered me, speaking sadly.'
+
+'"It is easy for thee, O Odysseus, to speak like that, for thou art
+never weary, and thou hast strength beyond measure. But is thy heart,
+too, of iron that thou wilt not suffer thy companions to set foot upon
+shore where they may rest themselves from the sea and prepare their
+supper at their ease?"'
+
+'So Eurylochus spoke and the rest of the company joined in what he said.
+Their force was greater than mine. Then said I, "Swear to me a mighty
+oath, one and all of you, that if we go upon this Island none of you
+will slay the cattle out of any herd."'
+
+'They swore the oath that I gave them. We brought our ship to a harbour,
+and landed near a spring of fresh water, and the men got their supper
+ready. Having eaten their supper they fell to weeping for they thought
+upon their comrades that Scylla had devoured. Then they slept.'
+
+'The dawn came, but we found that we could not take our ship out of the
+harbour, for the North Wind and the East Wind blew a hurricane. So we
+stayed upon the Island and the days and the weeks went by. When the corn
+we had brought in the ship was all eaten the men went through the island
+fishing and hunting. Little they got to stay their hunger.'
+
+'One day while I slept, Eurylochus gave the men a most evil counsel.
+"Every death," he said, "is hateful to man, but death by hunger is far
+the worst. Rather than die of hunger let us drive off the best cattle
+from the herds of the Sun. Then, if the gods would wreck us on the sea
+for the deed, let them do it. I would rather perish on the waves than
+die in the pangs of hunger."'
+
+'So he spoke, and the rest of the men approved of what he said. They
+slaughtered them and roasted their flesh. It was then that I awakened
+from my sleep. As I came down to the ship the smell of the roasting
+flesh came to me. Then I knew that a terrible deed had been committed
+and that a dreadful thing would befall all of us.'
+
+'For six days my company feasted on the best of the cattle. On the
+seventh day the winds ceased to blow. Then we went to the ship and set
+up the mast and the sails and fared out again on the deep.'
+
+'But, having left that island, no other land appeared, and only sky and
+sea were to be seen. A cloud stayed always above our ship and beneath
+that cloud the sea was darkened. The West Wind came in a rush, and the
+mast broke, and, in breaking, struck off the head of the pilot, and he
+fell straight down into the sea. A thunderbolt struck the ship and the
+men were swept from the deck. Never a man of my company did I see
+again.'
+
+'The West Wind ceased to blow but the South Wind came and it drove the
+ship back on its course. It rushed towards the terrible rocks of Scylla
+and Charybdis. All night long I was borne on, and, at the rising of the
+sun? I found myself near Charybdis. My ship was sucked down. But I
+caught the branches of the fig tree that grew out of the rock and hung
+to it like a bat. There I stayed until the timbers of my ship were cast
+up again by Charybdis. I dropped down on them. Sitting on the boards I
+rowed with my hands and passed the rock of Scylla without the monster
+seeing me.'
+
+'Then for nine days I was borne along by the waves, and on the tenth day
+I came to Ogygia where the nymph Calypso dwells. She took me to her
+dwelling and treated me kindly. But why tell the remainder of my toils?
+To thee, O King, and to thy noble wife I told how I came from Calypso's
+Island, and I am not one to repeat a plain-told tale.'
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+
+Odysseus finished, and the company in the hall sat silent, like men
+enchanted. Then King Alcinous spoke and said, 'Never, as far as we
+Phæacians are concerned, wilt thou, Odysseus, be driven from thy
+homeward way. To-morrow we will give thee a ship and an escort, and we
+will land thee in Ithaka, thine own country.' The Princes, Captains and
+Councillors, marvelling that they had met the renowned Odysseus, went
+each to his own home. When the dawn had come, each carried down to the
+ship on which Odysseus was to sail, gifts for him.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+When the sun was near its setting they all came back to the King's hall
+to take farewell of him. The King poured out a great bowl of wine as an
+offering to the gods. Then Odysseus rose up and placed in the Queen's
+hands a two-handled cup, and he said, 'Farewell to thee, O Queen! Mayst
+thou long rejoice in thy house and thy children, and in thy husband,
+Alcinous, the renowned King.'
+
+He passed over the threshold of the King's house, and he went down to
+the ship. He went aboard and lay down on the deck on a sheet and rug
+that had been spread for him. Straightway the mariners took to their
+oars, and hoisted their sails, and the ship sped on like a strong
+sea-bird. Odysseus slept. And lightly the ship sped on, bearing that man
+who had suffered so much sorrow of heart in passing through wars of men
+and through troublous seas--the ship sped on, and he slept, and was
+forgetful of all he had passed through.
+
+When the dawn came the ship was near to the Island of Ithaka. The
+mariners drove to a harbour near which there was a great cave. They ran
+the ship ashore and lifted out Odysseus, wrapped in the sheet and the
+rugs, and still sleeping. They left him on the sandy shore of his own
+land. Then they took the gifts which the King and Queen, the Princes,
+Captains and Councillors of the Phæacians had given him, and they set
+them by an olive tree, a little apart from the road, so that no
+wandering person might come upon them before Odysseus had awakened. Then
+they went back to their ship and departed from Ithaka for their own
+land.
+
+Odysseus awakened on the beach of his own land. A mist lay over all, and
+he did not know what land he had come to. He thought that the Phæacians
+had left him forsaken on a strange shore. As he looked around him in his
+bewilderment he saw one who was like a King's son approaching.
+
+Now the one who came near him was not a young man, but the goddess,
+Pallas Athene, who had made herself look like a young man. Odysseus
+arose, and questioned her as to the land he had come to. The goddess
+answered him and said, 'This is Ithaka, a land good for goats and
+cattle, a land of woods and wells,'
+
+Even as she spoke she changed from the semblance of a young man and was
+seen by Odysseus as a woman tall and fair. 'Dost thou not know me,
+Pallas Athene, the daughter of Zeus, who has always helped thee?' the
+goddess said. 'I would have been more often by thy side, only I did not
+want to go openly against my brother, Poseidon, the god of the sea,
+whose son, Polyphemus, thou didst blind.'
+
+As the goddess spoke the mist that lay on the land scattered and
+Odysseus saw that he was indeed in Ithaka, his own country--he knew the
+harbour and the cave, and the hill Neriton all covered with its forest.
+And knowing them he knelt down on the ground and kissed the earth of his
+country.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Then the goddess helped him to lay his goods within the cave--the gold
+and the bronze and the woven raiment that the Phæacians had given him.
+She made him sit beside her under the olive tree while she told him of
+the things that were happening in his house.
+
+'There is trouble in thy halls, Odysseus,' she said, 'and it would be
+well for thee not to make thyself known for a time. Harden thy heart,
+that thou mayest endure for a while longer ill treatment at the hands of
+men.' She told him about the wooers of his wife, who filled his halls
+all day, and wasted his substance, and who would slay him, lest he
+should punish them for their insolence. 'So that the doom of Agamemnon
+shall not befall thee--thy slaying within thine own halls--I will change
+thine appearance that no man shall know thee,' the goddess said.
+
+Then she made a change in his appearance that would have been evil but
+that it was to last for a while only. She made his skin wither, and she
+dimmed his shining eyes. She made his yellow hair grey and scanty. Then
+she changed his raiment to a beggar's wrap, torn and stained with smoke.
+Over his shoulder she cast the hide of a deer, and she put into his
+hands a beggar's staff, with a tattered bag and a cord to hang it by.
+And when she had made this change in his appearance the goddess left
+Odysseus and went from Ithaka.
+
+It was then that she came to Telemachus in Sparta and counselled him to
+leave the house of Menelaus and Helen; and it has been told how he went
+with Peisistratus, the son of Nestor, and came to his own ship. His ship
+was hailed by a man who was flying from those who would slay him, and
+this man Telemachus took aboard. The stranger's name was Theoclymenus,
+and he was a sooth-sayer and a second-sighted man.
+
+And Telemachus, returning to Ithaka, was in peril of his life. The
+wooers of his mother had discovered that he had gone from Ithaka in a
+ship. Two of the wooers, Antinous and Eurymachus, were greatly angered
+at the daring act of the youth. 'He has gone to Sparta for help,'
+Antinous said, 'and if he finds that there are those who will help him
+we will not be able to stand against his pride. He will make us suffer
+for what we have wasted in his house. But let us too act. I will take a
+ship with twenty men, and lie in wait for him in a strait between Ithaka
+and Samos, and put an end to his search for his father.'
+
+Thereupon Antinous took twenty men to a ship, and fixing mast and sails
+they went over the sea. There is a little isle between Ithaka and
+Samos--Asteris it is called--and in the harbour of that isle he and his
+men lay in wait for Telemachus.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+
+Near the place where Odysseus had landed there lived an old man who was
+a faithful servant in his house. Eumæus was his name, and he was a
+swineherd. He had made for himself a dwelling in the wildest part of the
+island, and had built a wall round it, and had made for the swine pens
+in the courtyard--twelve pens, and in each pen there were fifty swine.
+Old Eumæus lived in this place tending the swine with three young men to
+help him. The swine-pens were guarded by four dogs that were as fierce
+as the beasts of the forest.
+
+As he came near the dogs dashed at him, yelping and snapping; and
+Odysseus might have suffered foul hurt if the swineherd had not run out
+of the courtyard and driven the fierce dogs away. Seeing before him one
+who looked an ancient beggar, Eumæus said, 'Old man, it is well that my
+dogs did not tear thee, for they might have brought upon me the shame of
+thy death. I have grief and pains enough, the gods know, without such a
+happening. Here I sit, mourning for my noble master, and fattening hogs
+for others to eat, while he, mayhap, is wandering in hunger through some
+friendless city. But come in, old man. I have bread and wine to give
+thee.'
+
+The swineherd led the seeming beggar into the courtyard, and he let him
+sit down on a heap of brushwood, and spread for him a shaggy goat-skin.
+Odysseus was glad of his servant's welcome, and he said, 'May Zeus and
+all the other gods grant thee thy heart's dearest wish for the welcome
+that thou hast given to me.'
+
+Said Eumæus the swineherd, 'A good man looks on all strangers and
+beggars as being from Zeus himself. And my heart's dearest wish is that
+my master Odysseus should return. Ah, if Odysseus were here, he would
+give me something which I could hold as mine own--a piece of ground to
+till, and a wife to comfort me. But my master will not return, and we
+thralls must go in fear when young lords come to rule it over them.'
+
+He went to the swine-pens and brought out two sucking pigs; he
+slaughtered them and cut them small and roasted the meat. When all was
+cooked, he brought portions to Odysseus sprinkled with barley meal, and
+he brought him, too, wine in a deep bowl of ivy wood. And when Odysseus
+had eaten and drunken, Eumæus the swineherd said to him:
+
+'Old man, no wanderer ever comes to this land but that our lady Penelope
+sends for him, and gives him entertainment, hoping that he will have
+something to tell her of her lord, Odysseus. They all do as thou wouldst
+do if thou earnest to her--tell her a tale of having seen or of having
+heard of her lord, to win her ear. But as for Odysseus, no matter what
+wanderers or vagrants say, he will never return--dogs, or wild birds, or
+the fishes of the deep have devoured his body ere this. Never again
+shall I find so good a lord, nor would I find one so kind even if I were
+back in my own land, and saw the faces of my father and my mother. But
+not so much for them do I mourn as for the loss of my master.'
+
+Said Odysseus, 'Thou sayst that thy master will never return, but I
+notice that thou art slow to believe thine own words. Now I tell thee
+that Odysseus will return and in this same year. And as sure as the old
+moon wanes and the young moon is born, he will take vengeance on those
+whom you have spoken of--those who eat his substance and dishonour his
+wife and son. I say that, and I swear it with an oath.'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+'I do not heed thine oath,' said Eumæus the swineherd. 'I do not listen
+to vagrant's tales about my master since a stranger came here and
+cheated us with a story. He told us that he had seen Odysseus in the
+land of the Cretans, in the house of the hero Idomeneus, mending his
+ships that had been broken by the storm, and that he would be here by
+summer or by harvest time, bringing with him much wealth.'
+
+As they were speaking the younger swineherds came back from the woods,
+bringing the drove of swine into the courtyard. There was a mighty din
+whilst the swine were being put into their pens. Supper time came on,
+and Eumæus and Odysseus and the younger swineherds sat down to a meal.
+Eumæus carved the swineflesh, giving the best portion to Odysseus whom
+he treated as the guest of honour. And Odysseus said, 'Eumæus, surely
+thou art counselled by Zeus, seeing thou dost give the best of the meat
+even to such a one as I.'
+
+And Eumæus, thinking Odysseus was praising him for treating a stranger
+kindly, said, 'Eat, stranger, and make merry with such fare as is here.'
+
+The night came on cold with rain. Then Odysseus, to test the kindliness
+of the swineherd, said, 'O that I were young and could endure this
+bitter night! O that I were better off! Then would one of you swineherds
+give me a wrap to cover myself from the wind and rain! But now, verily,
+I am an outcast because of my sorry raiment.'
+
+Then Eumæus sprang up and made a bed for Odysseus near the fire.
+Odysseus lay down, and the swineherd covered him with a mantle he kept
+for a covering when great storms should arise. Then, that he might
+better guard the swine, Eumæus, wrapping himself up in a cloak, and
+taking with him a sword and javelin, to drive off wild beasts should
+they come near, went to lie nearer to the pens.
+
+When morning came, Odysseus said, 'I am going to the town to beg, so
+that I need take nothing more from thee. Send someone with me to be a
+guide. I would go to the house of Odysseus, and see if I can earn a
+little from the wooers who are there. Right well could I serve them if
+they would take me on. There could be no better serving-man than I, when
+it comes to splitting faggots, and kindling a fire and carving meat.'
+
+'Nay, nay,' said Eumæus, 'do not go there, stranger. None here are at a
+loss by thy presence. Stay until the son of Odysseus, Telemachus,
+returns, and he will do something for thee. Go not near the wooers. It
+is not such a one as thee that they would have to serve them. Stay this
+day with us.'
+
+Odysseus did not go to the town but stayed all day with Eumæus. And at
+night, when he and Eumæus and the younger swineherds were seated at the
+fire, Odysseus said, 'Thou, too, Eumæus, hast wandered far and hast had
+many sorrows. Tell us how thou earnest to be a slave and a swineherd,'
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF EUMÆUS THE SWINEHERD
+
+
+'There is,' said Eumæus, 'a certain island over against Ortygia. That
+island has two cities, and my father was king over them both.'
+
+'There came to the city where my father dwelt, a ship with merchants
+from the land of the Phœnicians. I was a child then, and there was in my
+father's house a Phœnician slave-woman who nursed me. Once, when she was
+washing clothes, one of the sailors from the Phœnician ship spoke to her
+and asked her would she like to go back with them to their own land.'
+
+'She spoke to that sailor and told him her story. "I am from Sidon in
+the Phœnician land," she said, "and my father was named Artybas, and was
+famous for his riches. Sea robbers caught me one day as I was crossing
+the fields, and they stole me away, and brought me here, and sold me to
+the master of yonder house."'
+
+'Then the sailor said to her, "Your father and mother are still alive, I
+know, and they have lost none of their wealth. Wilt thou not come with
+us and see them again?"'
+
+'Then the woman made the sailors swear that they would bring her safely
+to the city of Sidon. She told them that when their ship was ready she
+would come down to it, and that she would bring what gold she could lay
+her hands on away from her master's house, and that she would also
+bring the child whom she nursed. "He is a wise child," she said, "and
+you can sell him for a slave when you come to a foreign land."'
+
+'When the Phœnician ship was ready to depart they sent a message to the
+woman. The sailor who brought the message brought too a chain of gold
+with amber beads strung here and there, for my mother to buy. And, while
+my mother and her handmaids were handling the chain, the sailor nodded
+to the woman, and she went out, taking with her three cups of gold, and
+leading me by the hand,'
+
+'The sun sank and all the ways were darkened. But the Phœnician woman
+went down to the harbour and came to the ship and went aboard it. And
+when the sailor who had gone to my father's house came back, they raised
+the mast and sails, and took the oars in their hands, and drew the ship
+away from our land. We sailed away and I was left stricken at heart. For
+six days we sailed over the sea, and on the seventh day the woman died
+and her body was cast into the deep. The wind and the waves bore us to
+Ithaka, and there the merchants sold me to Laertes, the father of
+Odysseus.'
+
+'The wife of Laertes reared me kindly, and I grew up with the youngest
+of her daughters, the lovely Ctimene. But Ctimene went to Same, and was
+married to one of the princes of that island. Afterwards Laertes' lady
+sent me to work in the fields. But always she treated me kindly. Now
+Laertes' lady is dead, she wasted away from grief when she heard no
+tidings of her only son, Odysseus. Laertes yet lives, but since the
+death of his noble wife he never leaves his house. All day he sits by
+his fire, they say, and thinks upon his son's doom, and how his son's
+substance is being wasted, and how his son's son will have but little to
+inherit.'
+
+So Odysseus passed part of the night, Eumæus telling him of his
+wanderings and his sorrows. And while they were speaking, Telemachus,
+the son of Odysseus, came to Ithaka in his good ship. Antinous had lain
+in wait for him, and had posted sentinels to watch for his ship;
+nevertheless Telemachus had passed by without being seen by his enemies.
+And having come to Ithaka, he bade one of his comrades bring the ship
+into the wharf of the city while he himself went to another place.
+Leaving the ship he came to the dwelling of the servant he most
+trusted--to the dwelling of Eumæus, the swineherd.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+
+On the morning of his fourth day in Ithaka, as he and the swineherd were
+eating a meal together, Odysseus heard the sound of footsteps
+approaching the hut. The fierce dogs were outside and he expected to
+hear them yelping against the stranger's approach. No sound came from
+them. Then he saw a young man come to the entrance of the courtyard, the
+swineherd's dogs fawning upon him.
+
+When Eumæus saw this young man he let fall the vessels he was carrying,
+and running to him, kissed his head and his eyes and his hands. While he
+was kissing and weeping over him, Odysseus heard the swineherd saying:
+
+'Telemachus, art thou come back to us? Like a light in the darkness thou
+hast appeared! I thought that never again should we see thee when I
+heard that thou hadst taken a ship to Pylos! Come in, dear son, come in,
+that I may see thee once again in mine house.'
+
+Odysseus raised his head and looked at his son. As a lion might look
+over his cub so he looked over Telemachus. But neither the swineherd nor
+Telemachus was aware of Odysseus' gaze.
+
+'I have come to see thee, friend Eumæus,' said Telemachus, 'for before I
+go into the City I would know whether my mother is still in the house of
+Odysseus, or whether one of the wooers has at last taken her as a wife
+to his own house.'
+
+'Thy mother is still in thy father's house,' Eumæus answered. Then
+Telemachus came within the courtyard. Odysseus in the guise of the old
+beggar rose from his seat, but the young man said to him courteously:
+'Be seated, friend. Another seat can be found for me.'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Eumæus strewed green brushwood and spread a fleece upon it, and
+Telemachus seated himself. Next Eumæus fetched a meal for him--oaten
+cakes and swine flesh and wine. While they were eating, the swineherd
+said:
+
+'We have here a stranger who has wandered through many countries, and
+who has come to my house as a suppliant. Wilt thou take him for thy man,
+Telemachus?'
+
+Said Telemachus, 'How can I support any man? I have not the strength of
+hand to defend mine own house. But for this stranger I will do what I
+can. I will give him a mantle and doublet, with shoes for his feet and a
+sword to defend himself, and I will send him on whatever way he wants to
+go. But, Eumæus, I would not have him go near my father's house. The
+wooers grow more insolent each day, and they might mock the stranger if
+he went amongst them.'
+
+Then said Odysseus, speaking for the first time, 'Young sir, what thou
+hast said seems strange to me. Dost thou willingly submit to insolence
+in thine own father's house? But perhaps it is that the people of the
+City hate thee and will not help thee against thine enemies. Ah, if I
+had such youth as I have spirit, or if I were the son of Odysseus, I
+should go amongst them this very day, and make myself the bane of each
+man of them. I would rather die in mine own halls than see such shame as
+is reported--strangers mocked at, and servants injured, and wine and
+food wasted.'
+
+Said Telemachus, 'The people of the City do not hate me, and they would
+help me if they could. But the wooers of my mother are powerful men--men
+to make the City folk afraid. And if I should oppose them I would
+assuredly be slain in my father's house, for how could I hope to
+overcome so many?'
+
+'What wouldst thou have me do for thee, Telemachus?' said the swineherd.
+
+'I would have thee go to my mother, friend Eumæus,' Telemachus said,
+'and let her know that I am safe-returned from Pylos.'
+
+Eumæus at once put sandals upon his feet and took his staff in his
+hands. He begged Telemachus to rest himself in the hut, and then he left
+the courtyard and went towards the City.
+
+Telemachus lay down on his seat and closed his eyes in weariness. He
+saw, while thinking that he only dreamt it, a woman come to the gate of
+the courtyard. She was fair and tall and splendid, and the dogs shrank
+away from her presence with a whine. She touched the beggar with a
+golden wand. As she did, the marks of age and beggary fell from him and
+the man stood up as tall and noble looking.
+
+'Who art thou?' cried Telemachus, starting up. 'Even a moment ago thou
+didst look aged and a beggar! Now thou dost look a chief of men! Art
+thou one of the divine ones?'
+
+Odysseus looked upon him and said. 'My son, do not speak so to me. I am
+Odysseus, thy father. After much suffering and much wandering I have
+come to my own country.' He kissed his son with tears flowing down his
+cheeks, and Telemachus threw his arms around his father's neck, but
+scarce believing that the father he had searched for was indeed before
+him.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+But no doubt was left as Odysseus talked to him, and told him how he had
+come to Ithaka in a ship given him by the Phæacians, and how he had
+brought with him gifts of bronze and raiment that were hidden in the
+cave, and told him, too, how Pallas Athene had changed his appearance
+into that of an old beggar.
+
+And when his own story was finished he said, 'Come, my son, tell me of
+the wooers who waste the substance of our house--tell me how many they
+number, and who they are, so that we may prepare a way of dealing with
+them.'
+
+'Even though thou art a great warrior, my father, thou and I cannot hope
+to deal with them. They have come, not from Ithaka alone, but from all
+the islands around--from Dulichium and Same and Zacynthus. We two cannot
+deal with such a throng.'
+
+Said Odysseus, 'I shall make a plan to deal with them. Go thou home, and
+keep company with the wooers. Later in the day the swineherd will lead
+me into the city, and I shall go into the house in the likeness of an
+old beggar. And if thou shouldst see any of the wooers ill-treat me,
+harden thine heart to endure it--even if they drag me by the feet to the
+door of the house, keep quiet thou. And let no one--not even thy mother,
+Penelope--nor my father Laertes--know that Odysseus hath returned.'
+
+Telemachus said, 'My father, thou shalt learn soon what spirit is in me
+and what wisdom I have.'
+
+While they talked together the ship that Antinous had taken, when he
+went to lie in wait for Telemachus, returned. The wooers assembled and
+debated whether they should kill Telemachus, for now there was danger
+that he would draw the people to his side, and so make up a force that
+could drive the wooers out of Ithaka. But they did not agree to kill him
+then, for there was one amongst them who was against the deed.
+
+Eumæus brought the news to Telemachus and Odysseus of the return of
+Antinous' ship. He came back to the hut in the afternoon. Pallas Athene
+had again given Odysseus the appearance of an ancient beggar-man and the
+swineherd saw no change in his guest.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+
+It was time for Telemachus to go into the City. He put his sandals on
+his feet, and took his spear in his hand, and then speaking to the
+swineherd he said:
+
+'Friend Eumæus, I am now going into the City to show myself to my
+mother, and to let her hear from my own lips the tale of my journey. And
+I have an order to leave with thee. Take this stranger into the City,
+that he may go about as he desires, asking alms from the people.'
+
+Odysseus in the guise of a beggar said, 'I thank thee, lord Telemachus.
+I would not stay here, for I am not of an age to wait about a hut and
+courtyard, obeying the orders of a master, even if that master be as
+good a man as thy swineherd. Go thy way, lord Telemachus, and Eumæus, as
+thou hast bidden him, will lead me into the City.'
+
+Telemachus then passed out of the courtyard and went the ways until he
+came into the City. When he went into the house, the first person he saw
+was his nurse, old Eurycleia, who welcomed him with joy. To Eurycleia he
+spoke of the guest who had come on his ship, Theoclymenus. He told her
+that this guest would be in the house that day, and that he was to be
+treated with all honour and reverence. The wooers came into the hall and
+crowded around him, with fair words in their mouths. Then all sat down
+at tables, and Eurycleia brought wheaten bread and wine and dainties.
+
+Just at that time Odysseus and Eumæus were journeying towards the City.
+Odysseus, in the guise of a beggar, had a ragged bag across his
+shoulders and he carried a staff that the swineherd had given him to
+help him over the slippery ground. They went by a rugged path and they
+came to a place where a spring flowed into a basin made for its water,
+and where there was an altar to the Nymphs, at which men made offerings.
+
+As Eumæus and Odysseus were resting at the spring, a servant from
+Odysseus' house came along. He was a goatherd, and Melanthius was his
+name. He was leading a flock of goats for the wooers to kill, and when
+he saw the swineherd with the seeming beggar he cried out:
+
+'Now we see the vile leading the vile. Say, swineherd, whither art thou
+leading this wretch? It is easy to see the sort of fellow he is! He is
+the sort to rub shoulders against many doorposts, begging for scraps.
+Nothing else is he good for. But if thou wouldst give him to me,
+swineherd, I would make him watch my fields, and sweep out my stalls,
+and carry fresh water to the kids. He'd have his dish of whey from me.
+But a fellow like this doesn't want an honest job--he wants to lounge
+through the country, filling his belly, without doing anything for the
+people who feed him up. If he goes to the house of Odysseus, I pray that
+he be pelted from the door.'
+
+He said all this as he came up to them with his flock of goats. And as
+he went by he gave a kick to Odysseus.
+
+Odysseus took thought whether he should strike the fellow with his staff
+or fling him upon the ground. But in the end he hardened his heart to
+endure the insult, and let the goatherd go on his way. But turning to
+the altar that was by the spring, he prayed:
+
+'Nymphs of the Well! If ever Odysseus made offerings to you, fulfil for
+me this wish--that he--even Odysseus--may come to his own home, and have
+power to chastise the insolence that gathers around his house.'
+
+They journeyed on, and when they came near they heard the sound of the
+lyre within the house. The wooers were now feasting, and Phemius the
+minstrel was singing to them. And when Odysseus came before his own
+house, he caught the swineherd by the hand suddenly and with a hard
+grip, and he said:
+
+'Lo now, I who have wandered in many lands and have walked in pain
+through many Cities have come at last to the house of Odysseus. There it
+is, standing as of old, with building beyond building; with its walls
+and its battlements; its courts and its doors. The house of Odysseus,
+verily! And lo! unwelcome men keep revel within it, and the smoke of
+their feast rises up and the sound of the lyre is heard playing for
+them.'
+
+Said Eumæus, 'What wilt thou have me do for thee, friend? Shall I bring
+thee into the hall and before the company of wooers, whilst I remain
+here, or wouldst thou have me go in before thee?'
+
+'I would have thee go in before me,' Odysseus said.
+
+Now as they went through the courtyard a thing happened that dashed
+Odysseus' eyes with tears. A hound lay in the dirt of the yard, a hound
+that was very old. All uncared for he lay in the dirt, old and feeble.
+But he had been a famous hound, and Odysseus himself had trained him
+before he went to the wars of Troy. Argos was his name. Now as Odysseus
+came near, the hound Argos knew him, and stood up before him and whined
+and dropped his ears, but had no strength to come near him. Odysseus
+knew the hound and stopped and gazed at him. 'A good hound lies there,'
+said he to Eumæus, 'once, I think, he was so swift that no beast in the
+deep places of the wood could flee from him.' Then he went on, and the
+hound Argos lay down in the dirt of the yard, and that same day the life
+passed from him.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Behind Eumæus, the swineherd, he came into his own hall, in the
+appearance of a beggar, wretchedly clad and leaning on an old man's
+staff. Odysseus looked upon the young lords who wooed his wife, and then
+he sat down upon the threshold and went no further into the hall.
+
+Telemachus was there. Seeing Eumæus he called to him and gave the
+swineherd bread and meat, and said, 'Take these, and give them to the
+stranger at the doorway, and tell him that he may go amongst the company
+and crave an alms from each.'
+
+Odysseus ate whilst the minstrel was finishing his song. When it was
+finished he rose up, and went into the hall, craving an alms from each
+of the wooers.
+
+Seeing him, Antinous, the most insolent of the wooers, cried out, 'O
+notorious swineherd, why didst thou bring this fellow here? Have we not
+enough vagabonds? Is it nothing to thee that worthless fellows come here
+and devour thy master's substance?'
+
+Hearing such a speech from Antinous, Telemachus had to say, 'Antinous, I
+see that thou hast good care for me and mine. I marvel that thou hast
+such good care. But wouldst thou have me drive a stranger from the door?
+The gods forbid that I should do such a thing. Nay, Antinous. Give the
+stranger something for the sake of the house.'
+
+'If all the company gives him as much as I, he will have something to
+keep him from beggary for a three months' space,' said Antinous, meaning
+by that that he would work some hurt upon the beggar.
+
+Odysseus came before him. 'They say that thou art the noblest of all the
+wooers,' he said, 'and for that reason thou shouldst give me a better
+thing than any of the others have given me. Look upon me. I too had a
+house of mine own, and was accounted wealthy amongst men, and I had
+servants to wait upon me. And many a time would I make welcome the
+wanderer and give him something from my store.'
+
+'Stand far away from my table, thou wretched fellow,' said Antinous.
+
+Then said Odysseus, 'Thou hast beauty, lord Antinous, but thou hast not
+wisdom. Out of thine own house thou wouldst not give a grain of salt to
+a suppliant. And even whilst thou dost sit at another man's table thou
+dost not find it in thy heart to give something out of the plenty that
+is before thee.'
+
+So Odysseus spoke and Antinous became terribly angered. He caught up a
+footstool, and with it he struck Odysseus in the back, at the base of
+the right shoulder. Such a blow would have knocked another man over, but
+Odysseus stood steadfast under it. He gave one look at Antinous, and
+then without a word he went over and sat down again upon the threshold.
+
+Telemachus had in his heart a mighty rage for the stroke that had been
+given his father. But he let no tear fall from his eyes and he sat very
+still, brooding in his heart evil for the wooers. Odysseus, after a
+while, lifted his head and spoke:
+
+[Illustration]
+
+'Wooers of the renowned queen,' he said, 'hear what the spirit within me
+bids me say to you. There is neither pain nor shame in the blow that a
+man may get in battle. But in the blow that Antinous has given me--a
+blow aimed at a beggar--there is pain and there is shame. And now I call
+upon that god who is the avenger of the insult to the poor, to bring,
+not a wedding to Antinous, but the issue of death.'
+
+'Sit there and eat thy meat in quiet,' Antinous called out, 'or else
+thou wilt be dragged through the house by thy heels, and the flesh will
+be stripped off thy bones,'
+
+And now the lady Penelope had come into the hall. Hearing that a
+stranger was there, she sent for Eumæus and bade the swineherd bring him
+to her, that she might question him as to what he had heard about
+Odysseus. Eumæus came and told him of Penelope's request. But Odysseus
+said, 'Eumæus, right willing am I to tell the truth about Odysseus to
+the fair and wise Penelope. But now I may not speak to her. Go to her
+and tell her that when the wooers have gone I will speak to her. And ask
+her to give me a seat near the fire, that I may sit and warm myself as I
+speak, for the clothes I wear are comfortless.'
+
+As Eumæus gave the message to the lady Penelope, one who was there,
+Theoclymenus, the guest who had come in Telemachus' ship, said, 'O wife
+of the renowned Odysseus, be sure that thy lord will return to his
+house. As I came here on the ship of Telemachus, thy son, I saw a
+happening that is an omen of the return of Odysseus. A bird flew out on
+the right, a hawk. In his talons he held a dove, and plucked her and
+shed the feathers down on the ship. By that omen I know that the lord
+of this high house will return, and strike here in his anger.'
+
+Penelope left the hall and went back to her own chamber. Next Eumæus
+went away to look after his swine. But still the wooers continued to
+feast, and still Odysseus sat in the guise of a beggar on the threshold
+of his own house.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+
+There was in Ithaka a common beggar; he was a most greedy fellow, and he
+was nicknamed Irus because he used to run errands for the servants of
+Odysseus' house. He came in the evening, and seeing a seeming beggar
+seated on the threshold, he flew into a rage and shouted at him:
+
+'Get away from here, old fellow, lest you be dragged away by the hand or
+foot. Look you! The lords within the house are giving me the wink to
+turn you out. But I can't demean myself by touching the like of you. Get
+up now and go while I'm easy with you.'
+
+Odysseus looked at the fellow and said, 'I have not harmed you in deed
+or word, and I do not grudge you anything of what you may get in this
+house. The threshold I sit on is wide enough for two of us.'
+
+'What words this fellow has!' said Irus the beggar. 'He talks like an
+old sit-by-the-fire. I'll not waste more words on him. Get up now, heavy
+paunch, and strip for the fight, for I'm going to show all the lords
+that I can keep the door for them.'
+
+'Do not provoke me,' said Odysseus. 'Old as I seem, I may be able to
+draw your blood.'
+
+But Irus kept on shouting, 'I'll knock the teeth out of your jaws.'
+'I'll trounce you.' Antinous, the most insolent of the wooers, saw the
+squabble, and he laughed to see the pair defying each other. 'Friends,'
+said he, 'the gods are good to us, and don't fail to send us amusement.
+The strange beggar and our own Irus are threatening each other. Let us
+see that they don't draw back from the fight. Let us match one against
+the other.'
+
+All the wooers trooped to the threshold and stood round the ragged men.
+Antinous thought of something to make the game more merry. 'There are
+two great puddings in the larder,' he said. 'Let us offer them for a
+prize to these pugilists. Come, Irus. Come, stranger. A choice of
+puddings for whichever of you wins the match. Aye, and more than that.
+Whoever wins shall have leave to eat every day in this hall, and no
+other beggar shall be let come near the house. Go to it now, ye mighty
+men.' All the wooers crowded round and clapped the men on to the fight.
+
+Odysseus said, 'Friends, an old man like me cannot fight one who is
+younger and abler.'
+
+But they cried to him, 'Go on, go on. Get into the fight or else take
+stripes upon your body,'
+
+Then said Odysseus, 'Swear to me, all of you, that none of you will show
+favour to Irus nor deal me a foul blow,'
+
+All the wooers cried out that none would favour Irus or deal his
+opponent a foul blow. And Telemachus, who was there, said, 'The man who
+strikes thee, stranger, will have to take reckoning from me.'
+
+Straightway Odysseus girt up his rags. When his great arms and shoulders
+and thighs were seen, the wooers were amazed and Irus was frightened. He
+would have slipped away if Antinous had not caught him and said to him,
+'You lubber, you! If you do not stand up before this man I will have you
+flung on my ship and sent over to King Echetus, who will cut off your
+nose and ears and give your flesh to his dogs to eat,' He took hold of
+Irus and dragged him into the ring.
+
+The fighters faced each other. But Odysseus with his hands upraised
+stood for long without striking, for he was pondering whether he should
+strike Irus a hard or a light blow. It seemed to him better to strike
+him lightly, so that his strength should not be made a matter for the
+wooers to note and wonder at. Irus struck first. He struck Odysseus on
+the shoulder. Then Odysseus aimed a blow at his neck, just below the
+ear, and the beggar fell to the ground, with the blood gushing from his
+mouth and nose.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The wooers were not sorry for Irus. They laughed until they were ready
+to fall backwards. Then Odysseus seized Irus by the feet, and dragged
+him out of the house, and to the gate of the courtyard. He lifted him up
+and put him standing against the wall. Placing the staff in the beggar's
+hands, he said, 6 Sit there, and scare off the dogs and swine, and do
+not let such a one as you lord it over strangers. A worse thing might
+have befallen you.'
+
+Then back he went to the hall, with his beggar's bag on his shoulder and
+his clothes more ragged than ever. Back he went, and when the wooers saw
+him they burst into peals of laughter and shouted out:
+
+'May Zeus, O stranger, give thee thy dearest wish and thy heart's
+desire. Thou only shalt be beggar in Ithaka.' They laughed and laughed
+again when Antinous brought out the great pudding that was the prize.
+Odysseus took it from him. And another of the wooers pledged him in a
+golden cup, saying, 'May you come to your own, O beggar, and may
+happiness be yours in time to come.'
+
+While these things were happening, the wife of Odysseus, the lady
+Penelope, called to Eurycleia, and said, 'This evening I will go into
+the hall of our house and speak to my son, Telemachus. Bid my two
+handmaidens make ready to come with me, for I shrink from going amongst
+the wooers alone.'
+
+Eurycleia went to tell the handmaidens and Penelope washed off her
+cheeks the traces of the tears that she had wept that day. Then she sat
+down to wait for the handmaidens to come to her. As she waited she fell
+into a deep sleep. And as she slept, the goddess Pallas Athene bathed
+her face in the Water of Beauty and took all weariness away from her
+body, and restored all her youthfulness to her. The sound of the
+handmaidens' voices as they came in awakened her, and Penelope rose up
+to go into the hall.
+
+Now when she came amongst them with her two handmaidens, one standing
+each side of her, the wooers were amazed, for they had never seen one so
+beautiful. The hearts of all were enchanted with love for her, and each
+prayed that he might have her for his wife.
+
+Penelope did not look on any of the wooers, but she went to her son,
+Telemachus, and spoke to him.
+
+'Telemachus,' she said, 'I have heard that a stranger has been
+ill-treated in this house. How, my child, didst thou permit such a thing
+to happen?'
+
+Telemachus said, 'My lady mother, thou hast no right to be angered at
+what took place in this hall.'
+
+So they spoke to one another, mother and son. Now one of the wooers,
+Eurymachus by name, spoke to Penelope, saying:
+
+'Lady, if any more than we beheld thee in the beauty thou hast now, by
+so many more wouldst thou have wooers to-morrow.'
+
+'Speak not so to me, lord Eurymachus,' said Penelope, 'speak not of my
+beauty, which departed in the grief I felt when my lord went to the wars
+of Troy.'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Odysseus stood up, and gazed upon his wife who was standing amongst her
+wooers. Eurymachus noted him and going to him, said, 'Stranger, wouldst
+thou be my hireling? If thou wouldst work on my upland farm, I should
+give thee food and clothes. But I think thou art practised only in
+shifts and dodges, and that thou wouldst prefer to go begging thy way
+through the country.'
+
+Odysseus, standing there, said to that proud wooer, 'Lord Eurymachus, if
+there might be a trial of labour between us two, I know which of us
+would come out the better man. I would that we two stood together, a
+scythe in the hands of each, and a good swath of meadow to be mown--then
+would I match with thee, fasting from dawn until evening's dark. Or
+would that we were set ploughing together. Then thou shouldst see who
+would plough the longest and the best furrow! Or would that we two were
+in the ways of war! Then shouldst thou see who would be in the front
+rank of battle. Thou dost think thyself a great man. But if Odysseus
+should return, that door, wide as it is, would be too narrow for thy
+flight.'
+
+So angry was Eurymachus at this speech that he would have struck
+Odysseus if Telemachus had not come amongst the wooers, saying, 'That
+man must not be struck again in this hall. Sirs, if you have finished
+feasting, and if the time has come for you, go to your own homes, go in
+peace I pray you.'
+
+All were astonished that Telemachus should speak so boldly. No one
+answered him back, for one said to the other, 'What he has said is
+proper. We have nothing to say against it. To misuse a stranger in the
+house of Odysseus is a shame. Now let us pour out a libation of wine to
+the gods, and then let each man go to his home.'
+
+The wine was poured out and the wooers departed. Then Penelope and her
+handmaidens went to her own chamber and Telemachus was left with his
+father, Odysseus.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+
+To Telemachus Odysseus said, 'My son, we must now get the weapons out of
+the hall. Take them down from the walls.' Telemachus and his father took
+down the helmets and shields and sharp-pointed spears. Then said
+Odysseus as they carried them out, 'To-morrow, when the wooers miss the
+weapons and say, "Why have they been taken?" answer them, saying, "The
+smoke of the fire dulled them, and they no longer looked the weapons
+that my father left behind him when he went to the wars of Troy.
+Besides, I am fearful lest some day the company in the hall come to a
+quarrel, one with the other, and snatch the weapons in anger. Strife has
+come here already. And iron draws iron, men say."'
+
+Telemachus carried the armour and weapons out of the hall and hid them
+in the women's apartment. Then when the hall was cleared he went to his
+own chamber.
+
+It was then that Penelope came back to the hall to speak to the
+stranger. One of her handmaidens, Melantho by name, was there, and she
+was speaking angrily to him. Now this Melantho was proud and hard of
+heart because Antinous often conversed with her. As Penelope came near
+she was saying:
+
+'Stranger, art thou still here, prying things out and spying on the
+servants? Be thankful for the supper thou hast gotten and betake thyself
+out of this.'
+
+Odysseus, looking fiercely at her, said, 'Why shouldst thou speak to me
+in such a way? If I go in ragged clothes and beg through the land it is
+because of my necessity. Once I had a house with servants and with much
+substance, and the stranger who came there was not abused.'
+
+The lady Penelope called to the handmaiden and said, 'Thou, Melantho,
+didst hear it from mine own lips that I was minded to speak to this
+stranger and ask him if he had tidings of my lord. Therefore, it does
+not become thee to revile him.' She spoke to the old nurse who had come
+with her, and said, 'Eurycleia, bring to the fire a bench, with a fleece
+upon it, that this stranger may sit and tell me his story.'
+
+Eurycleia brought over the bench, and Odysseus sat down near the fire.
+Then said the lady Penelope, 'First, stranger, wilt thou tell me who
+thou art, and what is thy name, and thy race and thy country?'
+
+Said Odysseus, 'Ask me all thou wilt, lady, but inquire not concerning
+my name, or race, or country, lest thou shouldst fill my heart with more
+pains than I am able to endure. Verily I am a man of grief. But hast
+thou no tale to tell me? We know of thee, Penelope, for thy fame goes up
+to heaven, and no one of mortal men can find fault with thee.'
+
+Then said Penelope, 'What excellence I had of face or form departed from
+me when my lord Odysseus went from this hall to the wars of Troy. And
+since he went a host of ills has beset me. Ah, would that he were here
+to watch over my life! The lords of all the islands around--Dulichium
+and Same and Zacynthus; and the lords of the land of Ithaka, have come
+here and are wooing me against my will. They devour the substance of
+this house and my son is being impoverished.'
+
+'Long ago a god put into my mind a device to keep marriage with any of
+them away from me. I set up a great web upon my loom and I spoke to the
+wooers, saying, "Odysseus is assuredly dead, but I crave that you be not
+eager to speed on this marriage with me. Wait until I finish the web I
+am weaving. It is a shroud for Odysseus' father, and I make it against
+the day when death shall come to him. There will be no woman to care for
+Laertes when I have left his son's house, and I would not have such a
+hero lie without a shroud, lest the women of our land should blame me
+for neglect of my husband's father in his last days.'"
+
+'So I spoke, and they agreed to wait until the web was woven. In the
+daytime I wove it, but at night I unravelled the web. So three years
+passed away. Then the fourth year came, and my wooers were hard to deal
+with. My treacherous handmaidens brought them upon me as I was
+unravelling the web. And now I cannot devise any other plan to keep the
+marriage away from me. My parents command me to marry one of my wooers.
+My son cannot long endure to see the substance of his house and field
+being wasted, and the wealth that should be his destroyed. He too would
+wish that I should marry. And there is no reason why I should not be wed
+again, for surely Odysseus, my lord, is dead.'
+
+Said Odysseus, 'Thy lord was known to me. On his way to Troy he came to
+my land, for the wind blew him out of his course, sending him wandering
+past Malea. For twelve days he stayed in my city, and I gave him good
+entertainment, and saw that he lacked for nothing in cattle, or wine, or
+barley meal.'
+
+When Odysseus was spoken of, the heart of Penelope melted, and tears ran
+down her cheeks. Odysseus had pity for his wife when he saw her weeping
+for the man who was even then sitting by her. Tears would have run down
+his own cheeks only that he was strong enough to hold them back.
+
+Said Penelope, 'Stranger, I cannot help but question thee about
+Odysseus. What raiment had he on when thou didst see him? And what men
+were with him?'
+
+Said Odysseus, 'Lady, it is hard for one so long parted from him to tell
+thee what thou hast asked. It is now twenty years since I saw Odysseus.
+He wore a purple mantle that was fastened with a brooch. And this brooch
+had on it the image of a hound holding a fawn between its fore-paws. All
+the people marvelled at this brooch, for it was of gold, and the fawn
+and the hound were done to the life. And I remember that there was a
+henchman with Odysseus--he was a man somewhat older than his master,
+round shouldered and black-skinned and curly headed. His name was
+Eurybates, and Odysseus honoured him above the rest of his company.'
+
+When he spoke, giving such tokens of Odysseus, Penelope wept again. And
+when she had wept for a long time she said:
+
+'Stranger, thou wert made welcome, but now thou shalt be honoured in
+this hall. Thou dost speak of the garments that Odysseus wore. It was I
+who gave him these garments, folding them myself and bringing them out
+of the chamber. And it was I who gave him the brooch that thou hast
+described. Ah, it was an evil fate that took him from me, bringing him
+to Troy, that place too evil to be named by me.'
+
+Odysseus leaned towards her, and said, 6 Do not waste thy heart with
+endless weeping, lady. Cease from lamentation, and lay up in thy mind
+the word I give thee. Odysseus is near. He has lost all his companions,
+and he knows not how to come into this house, whether openly or by
+stealth. I swear it. By the hearth of Odysseus to which I am come, I
+swear that Odysseus himself will stand up here before the old moon wanes
+and the new moon is born.'
+
+'Ah, no,' said Penelope. 'Often before have wanderers told me such
+comfortable things, and I believed them. I know now that thy word cannot
+be accomplished. But it is time for thee to rest thyself, stranger. My
+handmaidens will make a bed for thee in the vestibule, and then come to
+thee and bathe thy feet.'
+
+Said Odysseus, 'Thy handmaidens would be loath to touch the feet of a
+wanderer such as I. But if there is in the house some old wife who has
+borne such troubles as I have borne, I would have my feet bathed by
+her.'
+
+Said Penelope, 'Here is an ancient woman who nursed and tended that
+hapless man, Odysseus. She took him in her arms in the very hour he was
+born. Eurycleia, wash the feet of this man, who knew thy lord and mine.'
+
+Thereupon the nurse, old Eurycleia, fetched water, both hot and cold,
+and brought the bath to the hearth. And standing before Odysseus in the
+flickering light of the fire, she said, 'I will wash thy feet, both for
+Penelope's sake and for thine own. The heart within me is moved at the
+sight of thee. Many strangers have come into this hall, but I have never
+seen one that was so like as thou art to Odysseus.'
+
+Said Odysseus, 'Many people have said that Odysseus and I favour each
+other.'
+
+His feet were in the water, and she put her hand upon one of them. As
+she did so, Odysseus turned his face away to the darkness, for it
+suddenly came into his mind that his nurse, old Eurycleia, might
+recognize the scar that was upon that foot.
+
+How came it there, that scar? It had been made long ago when a boar's
+tusk had ripped up the flesh of his foot. Odysseus was then a youth, and
+he had gone to the mountain Parnassus to visit there his mother's
+father.
+
+One morning, with his uncles, young Odysseus went up the slope of the
+mountain Parnassus, to hunt with hounds. In a thick lair a mighty boar
+was lying. When the sound of the men's trampling came near him, he
+sprang up with gleaming eyes and stood before them all. Odysseus,
+holding his spear in his hands, rushed upon him. But before he could
+strike him, the boar charged, ripping deep into his flesh with his tusk.
+Then Odysseus speared him through the shoulder and the boar was slain.
+His uncles staunched the wound and he stayed with them on the mountain
+Parnassus, in his grandfather's house, until the wound was healed.
+
+And now, as Eurycleia, his old nurse, passed her hands along the leg,
+she let his foot drop suddenly. His knee struck against the bath, and
+the vessel of water was overturned. The nurse touched the chin of
+Odysseus and she said, 'Thou art Odysseus.'
+
+She looked to where Penelope was sitting, so that she might make a sign
+to her. But Penelope had her eyes turned away. Odysseus put his hand on
+Eurycleia's mouth, and with the other hand he drew her to him.
+
+'Woman,' he whispered. 'Say nothing. Be silent, lest mine enemies learn
+what thou knowest now.'
+
+'Silent I'll be,' said the nurse Eurycleia. 'Thou knowest me. Firm and
+unyielding I am, and by no sign will I let anyone know that thou hast
+come under this roof.'
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+So saying she went out of the hall to fetch water in the place of that
+which had been spilt. She came back and finished bathing his feet. Then
+Odysseus arranged the rags around his leg to hide the scar, and he drew
+the bench closer to the fire.
+
+Penelope turned to him again, 'Wise thou art, my guest,' she said, 'and
+it may be that thou art just such a man as can interpret a dream that
+comes to me constantly. I have twenty geese in the yard outside. In my
+dream I see them, and then a great eagle flies down from the mountains,
+and breaks their necks and kills them all, and lays them in a heap in
+this hall. I weep and lament for my geese, but then the eagle comes
+back, and perching on a beam of the roof speaks to me in the voice of a
+man. "Take heart, O wife of Odysseus," the eagle says, "this is no dream
+but a true vision. For the geese that thou hast seen are thy wooers, and
+I, that appeared as an eagle, am thy husband who will swiftly bring
+death to the wooers." Then the dream goes, and I waken and look out on
+the daylight and see my geese in the courtyard pecking at the wheat in
+the trough. Canst thou interpret this dream?'
+
+'Lady,' said Odysseus, 'the dream interprets itself. All will come about
+as thou hast dreamed.'
+
+'Ah,' said Penelope, 'but it cannot now, for the day of my woe is at
+hand. I am being forced by my parents to choose a husband from the
+wooers, and depart from the house of Odysseus.'
+
+'And how wilt thou choose from amongst them?' said Odysseus.
+
+'In this way will I make choice,' said Penelope. 'My husband's great bow
+is still in the house. The one who can bend that bow, and shoot an arrow
+through the holes in the backs of twelve axes set one behind the
+other--him will I choose for my husband.'
+
+Said Odysseus, 'Thy device is good, Penelope, and some god hath
+instructed thee to do this. But delay no longer the contest of the bow.
+Let it be to-morrow.'
+
+'Is that thy counsel, O stranger?' said Penelope.
+
+'It is my counsel,' said Odysseus.
+
+'I thank thee for thy counsel,' she said. 'And now farewell, for I must
+go to my rest. And do thou lie down in the vestibule, in the bed that
+has been made for thee.'
+
+So Penelope spoke, and then she went to her chamber with her
+handmaidens. And in her bed she thought over all the stranger had told
+her of Odysseus, and she wept again for him.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+
+All night Odysseus lay awake, tossing this side and that, as he pondered
+on how he might slay the wooers, and save his house from them. As soon
+as the dawn came, he went into the open air and, lifting up his hands,
+prayed to Zeus, the greatest of the gods, that he might be shown some
+sign, as to whether he would win victory or meet with defeat.
+
+And then, as he was going within the house, he heard the voice of a
+woman who ground barley-meal between stones. She was one of twelve, but
+the other women had fallen asleep by the quern-stones. She was an
+ancient, wretched woman, covered all over with the dust of the grain,
+and, as Odysseus came near her, she lifted up her hands and prayed in a
+weak voice:
+
+'O Zeus, even for miserable me, fulfil a prayer! May this be the last
+day that the wooers make their feast in the house of Odysseus! They have
+loosened my knees with the cruel toil they have made me undergo,
+grinding for them the barley for the bread they eat. O Zeus, may they
+to-day sup their last!'
+
+Thus the quern-woman spoke, as Odysseus crossed his threshold. He was
+glad of her speech, for it seemed to him her words were an omen from
+Zeus, and that vengeance would soon be wrought upon the proud and
+hard-hearted men who wasted the goods of the house and oppressed the
+servants.
+
+And now the maids came into the hall from the women's apartment, and
+some cleaned the tables and others took pitchers and went to the well
+for water. Then men-servants came in and split the fagots for the fire.
+Other servants came into the courtyard--Eumæus the swineherd, driving
+fatted swine, the best of his drove, and Philœtius the cattle-herd
+bringing a calf. The goatherd Melanthius, him whom Odysseus and Eumæus
+had met on the road the day before, also came, bringing the best goats
+of his flock to be killed for the wooers' feast.
+
+When the cattle-herd, Philœtius, saw a stranger in the guise of a
+beggar, he called out as he tethered the calf in the yard, 'Hail,
+stranger friend! My eyes fill with tears as I look on thee. For even
+now, clad as thou art in rags, thou dost make me think of my master
+Odysseus, who may be a wanderer such as thou in friendless lands. Ah,
+that he might return and make a scattering of the wooers in his hall.'
+Eumæus the swineherd came up to Philœtius and made the same prayer.
+These two, and the ancient woman at the quern, were the only ones of his
+servants whom he heard pray for his return.
+
+And now the wooers came into the hall. Philœtius the cattle-herd, and
+Melanthius the evil goatherd, went amongst them, handing them bread and
+meat and wine. Odysseus stood outside the hall until Telemachus went to
+him and brought him within.
+
+Now there was amongst the wooers a man named Ctesippus, and he was the
+rudest and the roughest of them all. When he saw Telemachus bringing
+Odysseus within he shouted out, 'Here is a guest of Telemachus to whom
+some gift is due from us. It will be unseemly if he should get nothing
+to-day. Therefore I will bestow this upon him as a token.'
+
+Saying this, Ctesippus took up the foot of a slaughtered ox and flung it
+full at Odysseus. Odysseus drew back, and the ox's foot struck the wall.
+Then did Odysseus smile grimly upon the wooers.
+
+Said Telemachus, 'Verily, Ctesippus, the cast turned out happily for
+thyself. For if thou shouldst have struck my guest, there would have
+been a funeral feast instead of a wedding banquet in thy father's house.
+Assuredly I should have driven my spear through thee.'
+
+All the wooers were silent when Telemachus spoke these bold words. But
+soon they fell laughing at something one of their number said. The guest
+from Telemachus' ship, Theoclymenus, was there, and he started up and
+went to leave the hall.
+
+'Why dost thou go, my guest?' said Telemachus.
+
+'I see the walls and the beams of the roof sprinkled with blood,' said
+Theoclymenus, the second-sighted man. 'I hear the voice of wailing. I
+see cheeks wet with tears. The men before me have shrouds upon them. The
+courtyard is filled with ghosts.'
+
+So Theoclymenus spoke, and all the wooers laughed at the second-sighted
+man, for he stumbled about the hall as if it were in darkness. Then said
+one of the wooers, 'Lead that man out of the house, for surely he cannot
+tell day from night.'
+
+'I will go from the place,' said Theoclymenus. 'I see death approaching.
+Not one of all the company before me will be able to avoid it.'
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+So saying, the second-sighted man went out of the hall. The wooers
+looking at each other laughed again, and one of them said:
+
+'Telemachus has no luck in his guests. One is a dirty beggar, who thinks
+of nothing but what he can put from his hand into his mouth, and the
+other wants to stand up here and play the seer.' So the wooers spake in
+mockery, but neither Telemachus nor Odysseus paid heed to their words,
+for their minds were bent upon the time when they should take vengeance
+upon them.
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+
+In the treasure-chamber of the house Odysseus' great bow was kept. That
+bow had been given to him by a hero named Iphitus long ago. Odysseus had
+not taken it with him when he went to the wars of Troy.
+
+To the treasure-chamber Penelope went. She carried in her hand the great
+key that opened the doors--a key all of bronze with a handle of ivory.
+Now as she thrust the key into the locks, the doors groaned as a bull
+groans. She went within, and saw the great bow upon its peg. She took it
+down and laid it upon her knees, and thought long upon the man who had
+bent it.
+
+Beside the bow was its quiver full of bronze-weighted arrows. The
+servant took the quiver and Penelope took the bow, and they went from
+the treasure-chamber and into the hall where the wooers were.
+
+When she came in she spoke to the company and said: 'Lords of Ithaka and
+of the islands around: You have come here, each desiring that I should
+wed him. Now the time has come for me to make my choice of a man from
+amongst you. Here is how I shall make choice.'
+
+'This is the bow of Odysseus, my lord who is no more. Whosoever amongst
+you who can bend this bow and shoot an arrow from it through the holes
+in the backs of twelve axes which I shall have set up, him will I wed,
+and to his house I will go, forsaking the house of my wedlock, this
+house so filled with treasure and substance, this house which I shall
+remember in my dreams.'
+
+As she spoke Telemachus took the twelve axes and set them upright in an
+even line, so that one could shoot an arrow through the hole that was in
+the back of each axe-head. Then Eumæus, the old swineherd, took the bow
+of Odysseus, and laid it before the wooers.
+
+One of the wooers took up the bow and tried to bend it. But he could not
+bend it, and he laid it down at the doorway with the arrow beside it.
+The others took up the bow, and warmed it at the fire, and rubbed it
+with lard to make it more pliable. As they were doing this, Eumæus, the
+swineherd, and Philœtius, the cattleherd, passed out of the hall.
+
+Odysseus followed them into the courtyard. He laid a hand on each and
+said, 'Swineherd and cattleherd, I have a word to say to you. But will
+you keep it to yourselves, the word I say? And first, what would you do
+to help Odysseus if he should return? Would you stand on his side, or on
+the side of the wooers? Answer me now from your hearts.'
+
+Said Philœtius the cattleherd, 'May Zeus fulfil my wish and bring
+Odysseus back! Then thou shouldst know on whose side I would stand.'
+And Eumæus said, 'If Odysseus should return I would be on his side, and
+that with all the strength that is in me.'
+
+When they said this, Odysseus declared himself. Lifting up his hand to
+heaven he said, 'I am your master, Odysseus. After twenty years I have
+come back to my own country, and I find that of all my servants, by you
+two alone is my homecoming desired. If you need see a token that I am
+indeed Odysseus, look down on my foot. See there the mark that the wild
+boar left on me in the days of my youth.'
+
+Straightway he drew the rags from, the scar, and the swineherd and the
+cattleherd saw it and marked it well. Knowing that it was indeed
+Odysseus who stood before them, they cast their arms around him and
+kissed him on the head and shoulders. And Odysseus was moved by their
+tears, and he kissed their heads and their hands.
+
+As they went back to the hall, he told Eumæus to bring the bow to him as
+he was bearing it through the hall. He told him, too, to order
+Eurycleia, the faithful nurse, to bar the doors of the women's apartment
+at the end of the hall, and to bid the women, even if they heard a
+groaning and a din, not to come into the hall. And he charged the
+cattleherd Philœtius to bar the gates of the courtyard.
+
+As he went into the hall, one of the wooers, Eurymachus, was striving to
+bend the bow. As he struggled to do so he groaned aloud:
+
+'Not because I may not marry Penelope do I groan, but because we youths
+of to-day are shown to be weaklings beside Odysseus, whose bow we can in
+no way bend.'
+
+Then Antinous, the proudest of the wooers, made answer and said, 'Why
+should we strive to bend the bow to-day? Nay, lay the bow aside,
+Eurymachus, and let the wine-bearers pour us out a cupful each. In the
+morning let us make sacrifice to the Archer-god, and pray that the bow
+be fitted to some of our hands.'
+
+Then Odysseus came forward and said, 'Sirs, you do well to lay the bow
+aside for to-day. But will you not put the bow into my hands, that I may
+try to bend it, and judge for myself whether I have any of the strength
+that once was mine?'
+
+All the wooers were angry that a seeming beggar should attempt to bend
+the bow that none of their company were able to bend; Antinous spoke to
+him sharply and said:
+
+'Thou wretched beggar! Is it not enough that thou art let into this high
+hall to pick up scraps, but thou must listen to our speech and join in
+our conversation? If thou shouldst bend that bow we will make short
+shrift of thee, I promise. We will put thee on a ship and send thee over
+to King Echetus, who will cut thee to pieces and give thy flesh to his
+hounds.'
+
+Old Eumæus had taken up the bow. As he went with it to Odysseus some of
+them shouted to him, 'Where art thou going with the bow, thou crazy
+fellow? Put it down,' Eumæus was confused by their shouts, and he put
+down the bow.
+
+Then Telemachus spoke to him and said, 'Eumæus, beware of being the man
+who served many masters.' Eumæus, hearing these words, took it up again
+and brought it to Odysseus, and put the bow into his hands.
+
+As Odysseus stood in the doorway of the hall, the bow in his hands, and
+with the arrows scattered at his feet, Eumæus went to Eurycleia, and
+told her to bar the door of the women's apartment at the back. Then
+Philœtius, the cattleherd, went out of the hall and barred the gates
+leading out of the courtyard.
+
+For long Odysseus stood with the bow in his hands, handling it as a
+minstrel handles a lyre when he stretches a cord or tightens a peg. Then
+he bent the great bow; he bent it without an effort, and at his touch
+the bow-string made a sound that was like the cry of a swallow. The
+wooers seeing him bend that mighty bow felt, every man of them, a sharp
+pain at the heart. They saw Odysseus take up an arrow and fit it to the
+string. He held the notch, and he drew the string, and he shot the
+bronze-weighted arrow straight through the holes in the back of the
+axe-heads.
+
+Then as Eumæus took up the axes, and brought them outside, he said,
+'Thou seest, lord Telemachus, that thy guest does not shame thee through
+foolish boasting. I have bent the bow of Odysseus, and I have shot the
+arrow aright. But now it is time to provide the feast for the lords who
+woo thy lady mother. While it is yet light, the feast must be served to
+them, and with the feast they must have music and the dance.'
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+Saying this he nodded to Telemachus, bending his terrible brows.
+Telemachus instantly girt his sword upon him and took his spear in his
+hand. Outside was heard the thunder of Zeus. And now Odysseus had
+stripped his rags from him and was standing upright, looking a master of
+men. The mighty bow was in his hands, and at his feet were scattered
+many bronze-weighted arrows.
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+
+It is ended,' Odysseus said, 'My trial is ended. Now will I have another
+mark.' Saying this, he put the bronze-weighted arrow against the string
+of the bow, and shot at the first of his enemies.
+
+It was at Antinous he pointed the arrow--at Antinous who was even then
+lifting up a golden cup filled with wine, and who was smiling, with
+death far from his thoughts. Odysseus aimed at him, and smote him with
+the arrow in the throat and the point passed out clean through his neck.
+The wine cup fell from his hands and Antinous fell dead across the
+table. Then did all the wooers raise a shout, threatening Odysseus for
+sending an arrow astray. It did not come into their minds that this
+stranger-beggar had aimed to kill Antinous.
+
+But Odysseus shouted back to them, 'Ye dogs, ye that said in your hearts
+that Odysseus would never return to his home, ye that wasted my
+substance, and troubled my wife, and injured my servants; ye who showed
+no fear of heaven, nor of the just judgements of men; behold Odysseus
+returned, and know what death is being loosed on you!'
+
+Then Eurymachus shouted out, 'Friends, this man will not hold his hands,
+nor cease from shooting with the bow, until all of us are slain. Now
+must we enter into the battle with him. Draw your swords and hold up the
+tables before you for shields and advance upon him.'
+
+But even as he spoke Odysseus, with a terrible cry, loosed an arrow at
+him and shot Eurymachus through the breast. He let the sword fall from
+his hand, and he too fell dead upon the floor.
+
+One of the band rushed straight at Odysseus with his sword in hand. But
+Telemachus was at hand, and he drove his spear through this man's
+shoulders. Then Telemachus ran quickly to a chamber where there were
+weapons and armour lying. The swineherd and the cattleherd joined him,
+and all three put armour upon them. Odysseus, as long as he had arrows
+to defend himself, kept shooting at and smiting the wooers. When all the
+arrows were gone, he put the helmet on his head and took up the shield
+that Telemachus had brought, and the two great spears.
+
+But now Melanthius, the goatherd--he who was the enemy of Odysseus, got
+into the chamber where the arms were kept, and brought out spears and
+shields and helmets, and gave them to the wooers. Seeing the goatherd go
+back for more arms, Telemachus and Eumæus dashed into the chamber, and
+caught him and bound him with a rope, and dragged him up near the
+roof-beams, and left him hanging there. Then they closed and bolted the
+door, and stood on guard.
+
+Many of the wooers lay dead upon the floor of the hall. Now one who was
+called Agelaus stood forward, and directed the wooers to cast spears at
+Odysseus. But not one of the spears they cast struck him, for Odysseus
+was able to avoid them all.
+
+And now he directed Telemachus and Eumæus and Philœtius to cast their
+spears. When they cast them with Odysseus, each one struck a man, and
+four of the wooers fell down. And again Odysseus directed his following
+to cast their spears, and again they cast them, and slew their men. They
+drove those who remained from one end of the hall to the other, and slew
+them all.
+
+Straightway the doors of the women's apartment were flung open, and
+Eurycleia appeared. She saw Odysseus amongst the bodies of the dead, all
+stained with blood. She would have cried out in triumph if Odysseus had
+not restrained her. 'Rejoice within thine own heart,' he said, 'but do
+not cry aloud, for it is an unholy thing to triumph over men lying dead.
+These men the gods themselves have overcome, because of their own hard
+and unjust hearts.'
+
+As he spoke the women came out of their chambers, carrying torches in
+their hands. They fell upon Odysseus and embraced him and clasped and
+kissed his hands. A longing came over him to weep, for he remembered
+them from of old--every one of the servants who were there.
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+
+Eurycleia, the old nurse, went to the upper chamber where Penelope lay
+in her bed. She bent over her and called out, 'Awake, Penelope, dear
+child. Come down and see with thine own eyes what hath happened. The
+wooers are overthrown. And he whom thou hast ever longed to see hath
+come back. Odysseus, thy husband, hath returned. He hath slain the proud
+wooers who have troubled thee for so long.'
+
+But Penelope only looked at the nurse, for she thought that her brain
+had been turned.
+
+Still Eurycleia kept on saying, 'In very deed Odysseus is here. He is
+that guest whom all the wooers dishonour in the hall.'
+
+Then hearing Eurycleia say these words, Penelope sprang out of bed and
+put her arms round the nurse's neck. 'O tell me--if what thou dost say
+be true--tell me how this stranger slew the wooers, who were so many.'
+
+'I did not see the slaying,' Eurycleia said, 'but I heard the groaning
+of the men as they were slain. And then I found Odysseus standing
+amongst many dead men, and it comforted my heart to see him standing
+there like a lion aroused. Come with me now, lady, that you may both
+enter into your heart's delight--you that have suffered so much of
+affliction. Thy lord hath come alive to his own hearth, and he hath
+found his wife and his son alive and well.'
+
+'Ah no!' said Penelope, 'ah no, Odysseus hath not returned. He who hath
+slain the wooers is one of the deathless gods, come down to punish them
+for their injustice and their hardheartedness. Odysseus long ago lost
+the way of his returning, and he is lying dead in some far-off land.'
+
+'No, no,' said Eurycleia. 'I can show thee that it is Odysseus indeed
+who is in the hall. On his foot is the scar that the tusk of a boar gave
+him in the old days. I spied it when I was washing his feet last night,
+and I would have told thee of it, but he clapped a hand across my mouth
+to stop my speech. Lo, I stake my life that it is Odysseus, and none
+other who is in the hall below.'
+
+Saying this she took Penelope by the hand and led her from the upper
+chamber into the hall. Odysseus was standing by a tall pillar. He waited
+there for his wife to come and speak to him. But Penelope stood still,
+and gazed long upon him, and made no step towards him.
+
+Then said Telemachus, 'Mother, can it be that thy heart is so hard? Here
+is my father, and thou wilt not go to him nor question him at all.'
+
+Said Penelope, 'My mind is amazed and I have no strength to speak, nor
+to ask him aught, nor even to look on him face to face. If this is
+indeed Odysseus who hath come home, a place has to be prepared for him.'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Then Odysseus spoke to Telemachus and said, 'Go now to the bath, and
+make thyself clean of the stains of battle. I will stay and speak with
+thy lady mother.'
+
+'Strange lady,' said he to Penelope, 'is thy heart indeed so hard? No
+other woman in the world, I think, would stand so aloof from her husband
+who, after so much toil and so many trials, has come back after twenty
+years to his own hearth. Is there no place for me here, and must I again
+sleep in the stranger's bed?'
+
+Said Penelope, 'In no stranger's bed wilt thou lie, my lord. Come,
+Eurycleia. Set up for him his own bedstead outside his bed-chamber.'
+
+Then Odysseus said to her, speaking in anger: 'How comes it that my bed
+can be moved to this place and that? Not a bed of that kind was the bed
+I built for myself. Knowest thou not how I built my bed? First, there
+grew up in the courtyard an olive tree. Round that olive tree I built a
+chamber, and I roofed it well and I set doors to it. Then I sheared off
+all the light wood on the growing olive tree, and I rough-hewed the
+trunk with the adze, and I made the tree into a bed post. Beginning with
+this bed post I wrought a bedstead, and when I finished it, I inlaid it
+with silver and ivory. Such was the bed I built for myself, and such a
+bed could not be moved to this place or that.'
+
+Then did Penelope know assuredly that the man who stood before her was
+indeed her husband, the steadfast Odysseus--none other knew of where the
+bed was placed, and how it had been built. Penelope fell a-weeping and
+she put her arms round his neck.
+
+'O Odysseus, my lord,' she said, 'be not angry with thy wife. Always the
+fear was in my heart that some guileful stranger should come here
+professing to be Odysseus, and that I should take him to me as my
+husband. How terrible such a thing would be! But now my heart is freed
+from all doubts. Be not angry with me, Odysseus, for not throwing myself
+on thy neck, as the women of the house did.'
+
+Then husband and wife wept together, and Penelope said, 'It was the gods
+did this to us, Odysseus--the gods who grudged that we should have joy
+of the days of our youth.'
+
+Next they told each other of things that happened in the twenty years
+they were apart; Odysseus speaking of his own toils and sorrows, and
+Penelope telling what she had endured at the hands of the wooers. And as
+they told tales, one to the other, slumber came upon them, and the dawn
+found them sleeping side by side.
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+
+And still many dangers had to be faced. The wooers whom Odysseus had
+slain were the richest and the most powerful of the lords of Ithaka and
+the Islands; all of them had fathers and brothers who would fain avenge
+them upon their slayer.
+
+Now before anyone in the City knew that he had returned, Odysseus went
+forth to the farm that Laertes, his old father, stayed at. As he drew
+near he saw an old man working in the vineyard, digging round a plant.
+When he came to him he saw that this old man was not a slave nor a
+servant, but Laertes, his own father.
+
+When he saw him, wasted with age and all uncared for, Odysseus stood
+still, leaning his hand against a pear tree and sorrowing in his heart.
+Old Laertes kept his head down as he stood digging at the plant, and he
+did not see Odysseus until he stood before him and said:
+
+'Old man, thou dost care for this garden well and all things here are
+flourishing--fig tree, and vine, and olive, and pear. But, if a stranger
+may say it, thine own self is not cared for well.'
+
+'Who art thou that dost speak to me like this?' old Laertes said,
+lifting his head.
+
+'I am a stranger in Ithaka,' said Odysseus. 'I seek a man whom I once
+kindly treated--a man whose name was Odysseus. A stranger, he came to
+me, and he declared that he was of Ithaka, and that one day he would
+give me entertainment for the entertainment I had given him. I know not
+if this man be still alive.'
+
+Old Laertes wept before Odysseus. 'Ah,' said he, 'if thou hadst been
+able to find him here, the gifts you gave him would not have been
+bestowed in vain. True hospitality thou wouldst have received from
+Odysseus, my son. But he has perished--far from his country's soil he
+has perished, the hapless man, and his mother wept not over him, nor his
+wife, nor me, his father.'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+So he spake and then with his hands he took up the dust of the ground,
+and he strewed it over his head in his sorrow. The heart of Odysseus was
+moved with grief. He sprang forward and fell on his father's neck and he
+kissed him, saying:
+
+'Behold I am here, even I, my father. I, Odysseus, have come back to
+mine own country. Cease thy lamentation until I tell thee of the things
+that have happened. I have slain the wooers in mine hall, and I have
+avenged all their injuries and all their wrongful doings. Dost thou not
+believe this, my father? Then look on what I will show thee. Behold on
+my foot the mark of the boar's tusk--there it is from the days of my
+youth.'
+
+Laertes looked down on the bare foot, and he saw the scar, but still his
+mind was clouded by doubt. But then Odysseus took him through the
+garden, and he told him of the fruit trees that Laertes had set for him
+when he, Odysseus, was a little child, following his father about the
+garden--thirteen pear trees, and ten apple trees, and forty fig trees.
+
+When Odysseus showed him these Laertes knew that it was his son indeed
+who stood before him--his son come back after twenty years' wandering.
+He cast his arms around his neck, and Odysseus caught him fainting to
+his breast, and led him into the house.
+
+Within the house were Telemachus, and Eumæus the swineherd and Philœtius
+the cattleherd. They all clasped the hand of Laertes and their words
+raised his spirits. Then he was bathed, and, when he came from the bath,
+rubbed with olive oil he looked hale and strong, Odysseus said to him,
+'Father, surely one of the gods has made thee goodlier and greater than
+thou wert a while ago.'
+
+Said the old hero Laertes: 'Ah, my son, would that I had such might as
+when, long before thou wert born, I took the Castle of Nericus there
+upon the Foreland. Would that in such might, and with such mail upon my
+shoulders, I stood with thee yesterday when thou didst fight with the
+wooers.'
+
+While they were speaking in this way the rumour of the slaying of the
+wooers went through the City. Then those who were related to the men
+slain went into the courtyard of Odysseus' house, and brought forth the
+bodies. Those who belonged to Ithaka they buried, and those who belonged
+to the Islands they put upon ships, and sent them with fisherfolk, each
+to his own home. Many were wroth with Odysseus for the slaying of a
+friend. He who was the most wroth was Eupeithes, the father of Antinous.
+
+There was an assembly of the men of the country, and Eupeithes spake in
+it, and all who were there pitied him. He told how Odysseus had led away
+the best of the men of Ithaka, and how he had lost them in his ships.
+And he told them how, when he returned, he slew the noblest of the men
+of Ithaka and the Islands in his own hall. He called upon them to slay
+Odysseus saying, 'If we avenge not ourselves on the slayer of our kin we
+will be scorned for all time as weak and cowardly men. As for me, life
+will be no more sweet to me. I would rather die straightway and be with
+the departed. Up now, and let us attack Odysseus and his followers
+before they take ship and escape across the sea.'
+
+Many in that assembly put on their armour and went out with old
+Eupeithes. And as they went through the town they met with Odysseus and
+his following as they were coming from the house of Laertes.
+
+Now as the two bands came close to each other--Odysseus with Telemachus
+and Laertes; with the swineherd and the cattleherd; with Dolius,
+Laertes' servant, and with the six sons of Dolius--and Eupeithes with
+his friends--a great figure came between. It was the figure of a tall,
+fair and splendid woman. Odysseus knew her for the goddess Pallas
+Athene.
+
+'Hold your hands from fierce fighting, ye men of Ithaka,' the goddess
+called out in a terrible voice. 'Hold your hands,' Straightway the arms
+fell from each man's hands. Then the goddess called them together, and
+she made them enter into a covenant that all bloodshed and wrong would
+be forgotten, and that Odysseus would be left to rule Ithaka as a King,
+in peace.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+So ends the story of Odysseus who went with King Agamemnon to the wars
+of Troy; who made the plan of the Wooden Horse by which Priam's City was
+taken at last; who missed the way of his return, and came to the Land of
+the Lotus-eaters; who came to the Country of the dread Cyclôpes, to the
+Island of Æolus and to the house of Circe, the Enchantress; who heard
+the song of the Sirens, and came to the Rocks Wandering, and to the
+terrible Charybdis, and to Scylla, past whom no other man had won
+scatheless; who landed on the Island where the Cattle of the Sun grazed,
+and who stayed upon Ogygia, the home of the nymph Calypso; so ends the
+story of Odysseus, who would have been made deathless and ageless by
+Calypso if he had not yearned always to come back to his own hearth and
+his own land. And spite of all his troubles and his toils he was
+fortunate, for he found a constant wife and a dutiful son and a father
+still alive to weep over him.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+
+Printed in the United States of America.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Odysseus and The
+Tales of Troy, by Padriac Colum
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