<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=410332" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Odyssey: Book 4</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">They reached the low lying city of Lacedaemon them where they<br>drove straight to the of abode Menelaus [and found him in his own<br>house, feasting with his many clansmen in honour of the wedding of his<br>son, and also of his daughter, whom he was marrying to the son of that<br>valiant warrior Achilles. He had given his consent and promised her to<br>him while he was still at Troy, and now the gods were bringing the<br>marriage about; so he was sending her with chariots and horses to<br>the city of the Myrmidons over whom Achilles' son was reigning. For<br>his only son he had found a bride from Sparta, daughter of Alector.<br>This son, Megapenthes, was born to him of a bondwoman, for heaven<br>vouchsafed Helen no more children after she had borne Hermione, who<br>was fair as golden Venus herself.<br>So the neighbours and kinsmen of Menelaus were feasting and making<br>merry in his house. There was a bard also to sing to them and play his<br>lyre, while two tumblers went about performing in the midst of them<br>when the man struck up with his tune.]<br>Telemachus and the son of Nestor stayed their horses at the gate,<br>whereon Eteoneus servant to Menelaus came out, and as soon as he saw<br>them ran hurrying back into the house to tell his Master. He went<br>close up to him and said, "Menelaus, there are some strangers come<br>here, two men, who look like sons of Jove. What are we to do? Shall we<br>take their horses out, or tell them to find friends elsewhere as<br>they best can?"<br>Menelaus was very angry and said, "Eteoneus, son of Boethous, you<br>never used to be a fool, but now you talk like a simpleton. Take their<br>horses out, of course, and show the strangers in that they may have<br>supper; you and I have stayed often enough at other people's houses<br>before we got back here, where heaven grant that we may rest in<br>peace henceforward."<br>So Eteoneus bustled back and bade other servants come with him. They<br>took their sweating hands from under the yoke, made them fast to the<br>mangers, and gave them a feed of oats and barley mixed. Then they<br>leaned the chariot against the end wall of the courtyard, and led<br>the way into the house. Telemachus and Pisistratus were astonished<br>when they saw it, for its splendour was as that of the sun and moon;<br>then, when they had admired everything to their heart's content,<br>they went into the bath room and washed themselves.<br>When the servants had washed them and anointed them with oil, they<br>brought them woollen cloaks and shirts, and the two took their seats<br>by the side of Menelaus. A maidservant brought them water in a<br>beautiful golden ewer, and poured it into a silver basin for them to<br>wash their hands; and she drew a clean table beside them. An upper<br>servant brought them bread, and offered them many good things of<br>what there was in the house, while the carver fetched them plates of<br>all manner of meats and set cups of gold by their side.<br>Menelaus then greeted them saying, "Fall to, and welcome; when you<br>have done supper I shall ask who you are, for the lineage of such<br>men as you cannot have been lost. You must be descended from a line of<br>sceptre-bearing kings, for poor people do not have such sons as you<br>are."<br>On this he handed them a piece of fat roast loin, which had been set<br>near him as being a prime part, and they laid their hands on the<br>good things that were before them; as soon as they had had enough to<br>eat and drink, Telemachus said to the son of Nestor, with his head<br>so close that no one might hear, "Look, Pisistratus, man after my<br>own heart, see the gleam of bronze and gold- of amber, ivory, and<br>silver. Everything is so splendid that it is like seeing the palace of<br>Olympian Jove. I am lost in admiration."<br>Menelaus overheard him and said, "No one, my sons, can hold his<br>own with Jove, for his house and everything about him is immortal; but<br>among mortal men- well, there may be another who has as much wealth as<br>I have, or there may not; but at all events I have travelled much<br>and have undergone much hardship, for it was nearly eight years before<br>I could get home with my fleet. I went to Cyprus, Phoenicia and the<br>Egyptians; I went also to the Ethiopians, the Sidonians, and the<br>Erembians, and to Libya where the lambs have horns as soon as they are<br>born, and the sheep lamb down three times a year. Every one in that<br>country, whether master or man, has plenty of cheese, meat, and good<br>milk, for the ewes yield all the year round. But while I was<br>travelling and getting great riches among these people, my brother was<br>secretly and shockingly murdered through the perfidy of his wicked<br>wife, so that I have no pleasure in being lord of all this wealth.<br>Whoever your parents may be they must have told you about all this,<br>and of my heavy loss in the ruin of a stately mansion fully and<br>magnificently furnished. Would that I had only a third of what I now<br>have so that I had stayed at home, and all those were living who<br>perished on the plain of Troy, far from Argos. I of grieve, as I sit<br>here in my house, for one and all of them. At times I cry aloud for<br>sorrow, but presently I leave off again, for crying is cold comfort<br>and one soon tires of it. Yet grieve for these as I may, I do so for<br>one man more than for them all. I cannot even think of him without<br>loathing both food and sleep, so miserable does he make me, for no one<br>of all the Achaeans worked so hard or risked so much as he did. He<br>took nothing by it, and has left a legacy of sorrow to myself, for<br>he has been gone a long time, and we know not whether he is alive or<br>dead. His old father, his long-suffering wife Penelope, and his son<br>Telemachus, whom he left behind him an infant in arms, are plunged<br>in grief on his account."<br>Thus spoke Menelaus, and the heart of Telemachus yearned as he<br>bethought him of his father. Tears fell from his eyes as he heard<br>him thus mentioned, so that he held his cloak before his face with<br>both hands. When Menelaus saw this he doubted whether to let him<br>choose his own time for speaking, or to ask him at once and find<br>what it was all about.<br>While he was thus in two minds Helen came down from her high vaulted<br>and perfumed room, looking as lovely as Diana herself. Adraste brought<br>her a seat, Alcippe a soft woollen rug while Phylo fetched her the<br>silver work-box which Alcandra wife of Polybus had given her.<br>Polybus lived in Egyptian Thebes, which is the richest city in the<br>whole world; he gave Menelaus two baths, both of pure silver, two<br>tripods, and ten talents of gold; besides all this, his wife gave<br>Helen some beautiful presents, to wit, a golden distaff, and a<br>silver work-box that ran on wheels, with a gold band round the top<br>of it. Phylo now placed this by her side, full of fine spun yarn,<br>and a distaff charged with violet coloured wool was laid upon the<br>top of it. Then Helen took her seat, put her feet upon the<br>footstool, and began to question her husband.<br>"Do we know, Menelaus," said she, "the names of these strangers<br>who have come to visit us? Shall I guess right or wrong?-but I<br>cannot help saying what I think. Never yet have I seen either man or<br>woman so like somebody else (indeed when I look at him I hardly know<br>what to think) as this young man is like Telemachus, whom Ulysses left<br>as a baby behind him, when you Achaeans went to Troy with battle in<br>your hearts, on account of my most shameless self."<br>"My dear wife," replied Menelaus, "I see the likeness just as you<br>do. His hands and feet are just like Ulysses'; so is his hair, with<br>the shape of his head and the expression of his eyes. Moreover, when I<br>was talking about Ulysses, and saying how much he had suffered on my<br>account, tears fell from his eyes, and he hid his face in his mantle."<br>Then Pisistratus said, "Menelaus, son of Atreus, you are right in<br>thinking that this young man is Telemachus, but he is very modest, and<br>is ashamed to come here and begin opening up discourse with one<br>whose conversation is so divinely interesting as your own. My<br>father, Nestor, sent me to escort him hither, for he wanted to know<br>whether you could give him any counsel or suggestion. A son has always<br>trouble at home when his father has gone away leaving him without<br>supporters; and this is how Telemachus is now placed, for his father<br>is absent, and there is no one among his own people to stand by him."<br>"Bless my heart," replied Menelaus, "then I am receiving a visit<br>from the son of a very dear friend, who suffered much hardship for<br>my sake. I had always hoped to entertain him with most marked<br>distinction when heaven had granted us a safe return from beyond the<br>seas. I should have founded a city for him in Argos, and built him a<br>house. I should have made him leave Ithaca with his goods, his son,<br>and all his people, and should have sacked for them some one of the<br>neighbouring cities that are subject to me. We should thus have seen<br>one another continually, and nothing but death could have<br>interrupted so close and happy an intercourse. I suppose, however,<br>that heaven grudged us such great good fortune, for it has prevented<br>the poor fellow from ever getting home at all."<br>Thus did he speak, and his words set them all a weeping. Helen wept,<br>Telemachus wept, and so did Menelaus, nor could Pisistratus keep his<br>eyes from filling, when he remembered his dear brother Antilochus whom<br>the son of bright Dawn had killed. Thereon he said to Menelaus,<br>"Sir, my father Nestor, when we used to talk about you at home, told<br>me you were a person of rare and excellent understanding. If, then, it<br>be possible, do as I would urge you. I am not fond of crying while I<br>am getting my supper. Morning will come in due course, and in the<br>forenoon I care not how much I cry for those that are dead and gone.<br>This is all we can do for the poor things. We can only shave our heads<br>for them and wring the tears from our cheeks. I had a brother who died<br>at Troy; he was by no means the worst man there; you are sure to<br>have known him- his name was Antilochus; I never set eyes upon him<br>myself, but they say that he was singularly fleet of foot and in fight<br>valiant."<br>"Your discretion, my friend," answered Menelaus, "is beyond your<br>years. It is plain you take after your father. One can soon see when a<br>man is son to one whom heaven has blessed both as regards wife and<br>offspring- and it has blessed Nestor from first to last all his<br>days, giving him a green old age in his own house, with sons about him<br>who are both we disposed and valiant. We will put an end therefore<br>to all this weeping, and attend to our supper again. Let water be<br>poured over our hands. Telemachus and I can talk with one another<br>fully in the morning."<br>On this Asphalion, one of the servants, poured water over their<br>hands and they laid their hands on the good things that were before<br>them.<br>Then Jove's daughter Helen bethought her of another matter. She<br>drugged the wine with an herb that banishes all care, sorrow, and<br>ill humour. Whoever drinks wine thus drugged cannot shed a single tear<br>all the rest of the day, not even though his father and mother both of<br>them drop down dead, or he sees a brother or a son hewn in pieces<br>before his very eyes. This drug, of such sovereign power and virtue,<br>had been given to Helen by Polydamna wife of Thon, a woman of Egypt,<br>where there grow all sorts of herbs, some good to put into the<br>mixing-bowl and others poisonous. Moreover, every one in the whole<br>country is a skilled physician, for they are of the race of Paeeon.<br>When Helen had put this drug in the bowl, and had told the servants to<br>serve the wine round, she said:<br>"Menelaus, son of Atreus, and you my good friends, sons of<br>honourable men (which is as Jove wills, for he is the giver both of<br>good and evil, and can do what he chooses), feast here as you will,<br>and listen while I tell you a tale in season. I cannot indeed name<br>every single one of the exploits of Ulysses, but I can say what he did<br>when he was before Troy, and you Achaeans were in all sorts of<br>difficulties. He covered himself with wounds and bruises, dressed<br>himself all in rags, and entered the enemy's city looking like a<br>menial or a beggar. and quite different from what he did when he was<br>among his own people. In this disguise he entered the city of Troy,<br>and no one said anything to him. I alone recognized him and began to<br>question him, but he was too cunning for me. When, however, I had<br>washed and anointed him and had given him clothes, and after I had<br>sworn a solemn oath not to betray him to the Trojans till he had got<br>safely back to his own camp and to the ships, he told me all that<br>the Achaeans meant to do. He killed many Trojans and got much<br>information before he reached the Argive camp, for all which things<br>the Trojan women made lamentation, but for my own part I was glad, for<br>my heart was beginning to oam after my home, and I was unhappy about<br>wrong that Venus had done me in taking me over there, away from my<br>country, my girl, and my lawful wedded husband, who is indeed by no<br>means deficient either in person or understanding."<br>Then Menelaus said, "All that you have been saying, my dear wife, is<br>true. I have travelled much, and have had much to do with heroes,<br>but I have never seen such another man as Ulysses. What endurance too,<br>and what courage he displayed within the wooden horse, wherein all the<br>bravest of the Argives were lying in wait to bring death and<br>destruction upon the Trojans. At that moment you came up to us; some<br>god who wished well to the Trojans must have set you on to it and<br>you had Deiphobus with you. Three times did you go all round our<br>hiding place and pat it; you called our chiefs each by his own name,<br>and mimicked all our wives -Diomed, Ulysses, and I from our seats<br>inside heard what a noise you made. Diomed and I could not make up our<br>minds whether to spring out then and there, or to answer you from<br>inside, but Ulysses held us all in check, so we sat quite still, all<br>except Anticlus, who was beginning to answer you, when Ulysses clapped<br>his two brawny hands over his mouth, and kept them there. It was<br>this that saved us all, for he muzzled Anticlus till Minerva took<br>you away again."<br>"How sad," exclaimed Telemachus, "that all this was of no avail to<br>save him, nor yet his own iron courage. But now, sir, be pleased to<br>send us all to bed, that we may lie down and enjoy the blessed boon of<br>sleep."<br>On this Helen told the maid servants to set beds in the room that<br>was in the gatehouse, and to make them with good red rugs, and<br>spread coverlets on the top of them with woollen cloaks for the guests<br>to wear. So the maids went out, carrying a torch, and made the beds,<br>to which a man-servant presently conducted the strangers. Thus,<br>then, did Telemachus and Pisistratus sleep there in the forecourt,<br>while the son of Atreus lay in an inner room with lovely Helen by<br>his side.<br>When the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared, Menelaus<br>rose and dressed himself. He bound his sandals on to his comely<br>feet, girded his sword about his shoulders, and left his room<br>looking like an immortal god. Then, taking a seat near Telemachus he<br>said:<br>"And what, Telemachus, has led you to take this long sea voyage to<br>Lacedaemon? Are you on public or private business? Tell me all about<br>it."<br>"I have come, sir replied Telemachus, "to see if you can tell me<br>anything about my father. I am being eaten out of house and home; my<br>fair estate is being wasted, and my house is full of miscreants who<br>keep killing great numbers of my sheep and oxen, on the pretence of<br>paying their addresses to my mother. Therefore, I am suppliant at your<br>knees if haply you may tell me about my father's melancholy end,<br>whether you saw it with your own eyes, or heard it from some other<br>traveller; for he was a man born to trouble. Do not soften things<br>out of any pity for myself, but tell me in all plainness exactly<br>what you saw. If my brave father Ulysses ever did you loyal service<br>either by word or deed, when you Achaeans were harassed by the<br>Trojans, bear it in mind now as in my favour and tell me truly all."<br>Menelaus on hearing this was very much shocked. "So," he<br>exclaimed, "these cowards would usurp a brave man's bed? A hind<br>might as well lay her new born young in the lair of a lion, and then<br>go off to feed in the forest or in some grassy dell: the lion when<br>he comes back to his lair will make short work with the pair of<br>them- and so will Ulysses with these suitors. By father Jove, Minerva,<br>and Apollo, if Ulysses is still the man that he was when he wrestled<br>with Philomeleides in Lesbos, and threw him so heavily that all the<br>Achaeans cheered him- if he is still such and were to come near<br>these suitors, they would have a short shrift and a sorry wedding.<br>As regards your questions, however, I will not prevaricate nor deceive<br>you, but will tell you without concealment all that the old man of the<br>sea told me.<br>"I was trying to come on here, but the gods detained me in Egypt,<br>for my hecatombs had not given them full satisfaction, and the gods<br>are very strict about having their dues. Now off Egypt, about as far<br>as a ship can sail in a day with a good stiff breeze behind her, there<br>is an island called Pharos- it has a good harbour from which vessels<br>can get out into open sea when they have taken in water- and the<br>gods becalmed me twenty days without so much as a breath of fair<br>wind to help me forward. We should have run clean out of provisions<br>and my men would have starved, if a goddess had not taken pity upon me<br>and saved me in the person of Idothea, daughter to Proteus, the old<br>man of the sea, for she had taken a great fancy to me.<br>"She came to me one day when I was by myself, as I often was, for<br>the men used to go with their barbed hooks, all over the island in the<br>hope of catching a fish or two to save them from the pangs of<br>hunger. 'Stranger,' said she, 'it seems to me that you like starving<br>in this way- at any rate it does not greatly trouble you, for you<br>stick here day after day, without even trying to get away though<br>your men are dying by inches.'<br>"'Let me tell you,' said I, 'whichever of the goddesses you may<br>happen to be, that I am not staying here of my own accord, but must<br>have offended the gods that live in heaven. Tell me, therefore, for<br>the gods know everything. which of the immortals it is that is<br>hindering me in this way, and tell me also how I may sail the sea so<br>as to reach my home.'<br>"'Stranger,' replied she, 'I will make it all quite clear to you.<br>There is an old immortal who lives under the sea hereabouts and<br>whose name is Proteus. He is an Egyptian, and people say he is my<br>father; he is Neptune's head man and knows every inch of ground all<br>over the bottom of the sea. If you can snare him and hold him tight,<br>he will tell you about your voyage, what courses you are to take,<br>and how you are to sail the sea so as to reach your home. He will also<br>tell you, if you so will, all that has been going on at your house<br>both good and bad, while you have been away on your long and dangerous<br>journey.'<br>"'Can you show me,' said I, 'some stratagem by means of which I<br>may catch this old god without his suspecting it and finding me out?<br>For a god is not easily caught- not by a mortal man.'<br>"'Stranger,' said she, 'I will make it all quite clear to you. About<br>the time when the sun shall have reached mid heaven, the old man of<br>the sea comes up from under the waves, heralded by the West wind<br>that furs the water over his head. As soon as he has come up he lies<br>down, and goes to sleep in a great sea cave, where the seals-<br>Halosydne's chickens as they call them- come up also from the grey<br>sea, and go to sleep in shoals all round him; and a very strong and<br>fish-like smell do they bring with them. Early to-morrow morning I<br>will take you to this place and will lay you in ambush. Pick out,<br>therefore, the three best men you have in your fleet, and I will<br>tell you all the tricks that the old man will play you.<br>"'First he will look over all his seals, and count them; then,<br>when he has seen them and tallied them on his five fingers, he will go<br>to sleep among them, as a shepherd among his sheep. The moment you see<br>that he is asleep seize him; put forth all your strength and hold<br>him fast, for he will do his very utmost to get away from you. He will<br>turn himself into every kind of creature that goes upon the earth, and<br>will become also both fire and water; but you must hold him fast and<br>grip him tighter and tighter, till he begins to talk to you and<br>comes back to what he was when you saw him go to sleep; then you may<br>slacken your hold and let him go; and you can ask him which of the<br>gods it is that is angry with you, and what you must do to reach<br>your home over the seas.'<br>"Having so said she dived under the waves, whereon I turned back<br>to the place where my ships were ranged upon the shore; and my heart<br>was clouded with care as I went along. When I reached my ship we got<br>supper ready, for night was falling, and camped down upon the beach.<br>"When the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared, I took the<br>three men on whose prowess of all kinds I could most rely, and went<br>along by the sea-side, praying heartily to heaven. Meanwhile the<br>goddess fetched me up four seal skins from the bottom of the sea,<br>all of them just skinned, for she meant playing a trick upon her<br>father. Then she dug four pits for us to lie in, and sat down to<br>wait till we should come up. When we were close to her, she made us<br>lie down in the pits one after the other, and threw a seal skin over<br>each of us. Our ambuscade would have been intolerable, for the<br>stench of the fishy seals was most distressing- who would go to bed<br>with a sea monster if he could help it?-but here, too, the goddess<br>helped us, and thought of something that gave us great relief, for she<br>put some ambrosia under each man's nostrils, which was so fragrant<br>that it killed the smell of the seals.<br>"We waited the whole morning and made the best of it, watching the<br>seals come up in hundreds to bask upon the sea shore, till at noon the<br>old man of the sea came up too, and when he had found his fat seals he<br>went over them and counted them. We were among the first he counted,<br>and he never suspected any guile, but laid himself down to sleep as<br>soon as he had done counting. Then we rushed upon him with a shout and<br>seized him; on which he began at once with his old tricks, and changed<br>himself first into a lion with a great mane; then all of a sudden he<br>became a dragon, a leopard, a wild boar; the next moment he was<br>running water, and then again directly he was a tree, but we stuck<br>to him and never lost hold, till at last the cunning old creature<br>became distressed, and said, Which of the gods was it, Son of<br>Atreus, that hatched this plot with you for snaring me and seizing<br>me against my will? What do you want?'<br>"'You know that yourself, old man,' I answered, 'you will gain<br>nothing by trying to put me off. It is because I have been kept so<br>long in this island, and see no sign of my being able to get away. I<br>am losing all heart; tell me, then, for you gods know everything,<br>which of the immortals it is that is hindering me, and tell me also<br>how I may sail the sea so as to reach my home?'<br>"Then,' he said, 'if you would finish your voyage and get home<br>quickly, you must offer sacrifices to Jove and to the rest of the gods<br>before embarking; for it is decreed that you shall not get back to<br>your friends, and to your own house, till you have returned to the<br>heaven fed stream of Egypt, and offered holy hecatombs to the immortal<br>gods that reign in heaven. When you have done this they will let you<br>finish your voyage.'<br>"I was broken hearted when I heard that I must go back all that long<br>and terrible voyage to Egypt; nevertheless, I answered, 'I will do<br>all, old man, that you have laid upon me; but now tell me, and tell me<br>true, whether all the Achaeans whom Nestor and I left behind us when<br>we set sail from Troy have got home safely, or whether any one of them<br>came to a bad end either on board his own ship or among his friends<br>when the days of his fighting were done.'<br>"'Son of Atreus,' he answered, 'why ask me? You had better not<br>know what I can tell you, for your eyes will surely fill when you have<br>heard my story. Many of those about whom you ask are dead and gone,<br>but many still remain, and only two of the chief men among the<br>Achaeans perished during their return home. As for what happened on<br>the field of battle- you were there yourself. A third Achaean leader<br>is still at sea, alive, but hindered from returning. Ajax was wrecked,<br>for Neptune drove him on to the great rocks of Gyrae; nevertheless, he<br>let him get safe out of the water, and in spite of all Minerva's<br>hatred he would have escaped death, if he had not ruined himself by<br>boasting. He said the gods could not drown him even though they had<br>tried to do so, and when Neptune heard this large talk, he seized<br>his trident in his two brawny hands, and split the rock of Gyrae in<br>two pieces. The base remained where it was, but the part on which Ajax<br>was sitting fell headlong into the sea and carried Ajax with it; so he<br>drank salt water and was drowned.<br>"'Your brother and his ships escaped, for Juno protected him, but<br>when he was just about to reach the high promontory of Malea, he was<br>caught by a heavy gale which carried him out to sea again sorely<br>against his will, and drove him to the foreland where Thyestes used to<br>dwell, but where Aegisthus was then living. By and by, however, it<br>seemed as though he was to return safely after all, for the gods<br>backed the wind into its old quarter and they reached home; whereon<br>Agamemnon kissed his native soil, and shed tears of joy at finding<br>himself in his own country.<br>"'Now there was a watchman whom Aegisthus kept always on the<br>watch, and to whom he had promised two talents of gold. This man had<br>been looking out for a whole year to make sure that Agamemnon did<br>not give him the slip and prepare war; when, therefore, this man saw<br>Agamemnon go by, he went and told Aegisthus who at once began to lay a<br>plot for him. He picked twenty of his bravest warriors and placed them<br>in ambuscade on one side the cloister, while on the opposite side he<br>prepared a banquet. Then he sent his chariots and horsemen to<br>Agamemnon, and invited him to the feast, but he meant foul play. He<br>got him there, all unsuspicious of the doom that was awaiting him, and<br>killed him when the banquet was over as though he were butchering an<br>ox in the shambles; not one of Agamemnon's followers was left alive,<br>nor yet one of Aegisthus', but they were all killed there in the<br>cloisters.'<br>"Thus spoke Proteus, and I was broken hearted as I heard him. I<br>sat down upon the sands and wept; I felt as though I could no longer<br>bear to live nor look upon the light of the sun. Presently, when I had<br>had my fill of weeping and writhing upon the ground, the old man of<br>the sea said, 'Son of Atreus, do not waste any more time in crying<br>so bitterly; it can do no manner of good; find your way home as fast<br>as ever you can, for Aegisthus be still alive, and even though Orestes<br>has beforehand with you in kilting him, you may yet come in for his<br>funeral.'<br>"On this I took comfort in spite of all my sorrow, and said, 'I<br>know, then, about these two; tell me, therefore, about the third man<br>of whom you spoke; is he still alive, but at sea, and unable to get<br>home? or is he dead? Tell me, no matter how much it may grieve me.'<br>"'The third man,' he answered, 'is Ulysses who dwells in Ithaca. I<br>can see him in an island sorrowing bitterly in the house of the<br>nymph Calypso, who is keeping him prisoner, and he cannot reach his<br>home for he has no ships nor sailors to take him over the sea. As<br>for your own end, Menelaus, you shall not die in Argos, but the gods<br>will take you to the Elysian plain, which is at the ends of the world.<br>There fair-haired Rhadamanthus reigns, and men lead an easier life<br>than any where else in the world, for in Elysium there falls not rain,<br>nor hail, nor snow, but Oceanus breathes ever with a West wind that<br>sings softly from the sea, and gives fresh life to all men. This<br>will happen to you because you have married Helen, and are Jove's<br>son-in-law.'<br>"As he spoke he dived under the waves, whereon I turned back to<br>the ships with my companions, and my heart was clouded with care as<br>I went along. When we reached the ships we got supper ready, for night<br>was falling, and camped down upon the beach. When the child of<br>morning, rosy-fingered Dawn appeared, we drew our ships into the<br>water, and put our masts and sails within them; then we went on<br>board ourselves, took our seats on the benches, and smote the grey sea<br>with our oars. I again stationed my ships in the heaven-fed stream<br>of Egypt, and offered hecatombs that were full and sufficient. When<br>I had thus appeased heaven's anger, I raised a barrow to the memory of<br>Agamemnon that his name might live for ever, after which I had a quick<br>passage home, for the gods sent me a fair wind.<br>"And now for yourself- stay here some ten or twelve days longer, and<br>I will then speed you on your way. I will make you a noble present<br>of a chariot and three horses. I will also give you a beautiful<br>chalice that so long as you live you may think of me whenever you make<br>a drink-offering to the immortal gods."<br>"Son of Atreus," replied Telemachus, "do not press me to stay<br>longer; I should be contented to remain with you for another twelve<br>months; I find your conversation so delightful that I should never<br>once wish myself at home with my parents; but my crew whom I have left<br>at Pylos are already impatient, and you are detaining me from them. As<br>for any present you may be disposed to make me, I had rather that it<br>should he a piece of plate. I will take no horses back with me to<br>Ithaca, but will leave them to adorn your own stables, for you have<br>much flat ground in your kingdom where lotus thrives, as also<br>meadowsweet and wheat and barley, and oats with their white and<br>spreading ears; whereas in Ithaca we have neither open fields nor<br>racecourses, and the country is more fit for goats than horses, and<br>I like it the better for that. None of our islands have much level<br>ground, suitable for horses, and Ithaca least of all."<br>Menelaus smiled and took Telemachus's hand within his own. "What you<br>say," said he, "shows that you come of good family. I both can, and<br>will, make this exchange for you, by giving you the finest and most<br>precious piece of plate in all my house. It is a mixing-bowl by<br>Vulcan's own hand, of pure silver, except the rim, which is inlaid<br>with gold. Phaedimus, king of the Sidonians, gave it me in the<br>course of a visit which I paid him when I returned thither on my<br>homeward journey. I will make you a present of it."<br>Thus did they converse [and guests kept coming to the king's<br>house. They brought sheep and wine, while their wives had put up bread<br>for them to take with them; so they were busy cooking their dinners in<br>the courts].<br>Meanwhile the suitors were throwing discs or aiming with spears at a<br>mark on the levelled ground in front of Ulysses' house, and were<br>behaving with all their old insolence. Antinous and Eurymachus, who<br>were their ringleaders and much the foremost among them all, were<br>sitting together when Noemon son of Phronius came up and said to<br>Antinous,<br>"Have we any idea, Antinous, on what day Telemachus returns from<br>Pylos? He has a ship of mine, and I want it, to cross over to Elis:<br>I have twelve brood mares there with yearling mule foals by their side<br>not yet broken in, and I want to bring one of them over here and break<br>him."<br>They were astounded when they heard this, for they had made sure<br>that Telemachus had not gone to the city of Neleus. They thought he<br>was only away somewhere on the farms, and was with the sheep, or<br>with the swineherd; so Antinous said, "When did he go? Tell me<br>truly, and what young men did he take with him? Were they freemen or<br>his own bondsmen- for he might manage that too? Tell me also, did<br>you let him have the ship of your own free will because he asked<br>you, or did he take it without yourleave?"<br>"I lent it him," answered Noemon, "what else could I do when a man<br>of his position said he was in a difficulty, and asked me to oblige<br>him? I could not possibly refuse. As for those who went with him<br>they were the best young men we have, and I saw Mentor go on board<br>as captain- or some god who was exactly like him. I cannot<br>understand it, for I saw Mentor here myself yesterday morning, and yet<br>he was then setting out for Pylos."<br>Noemon then went back to his father's house, but Antinous and<br>Eurymachus were very angry. They told the others to leave off playing,<br>and to come and sit down along with themselves. When they came,<br>Antinous son of Eupeithes spoke in anger. His heart was black with<br>rage, and his eyes flashed fire as he said:<br>"Good heavens, this voyage of Telemachus is a very serious matter;<br>we had made sure that it would come to nothing, but the young fellow<br>has got away in spite of us, and with a picked crew too. He will be<br>giving us trouble presently; may Jove take him before he is full<br>grown. Find me a ship, therefore, with a crew of twenty men, and I<br>will lie in wait for him in the straits between Ithaca and Samos; he<br>will then rue the day that he set out to try and get news of his<br>father."<br>Thus did he speak, and the others applauded his saying; they then<br>all of them went inside the buildings.<br>It was not long ere Penelope came to know what the suitors were<br>plotting; for a man servant, Medon, overheard them from outside the<br>outer court as they were laying their schemes within, and went to tell<br>his mistress. As he crossed the threshold of her room Penelope said:<br>"Medon, what have the suitors sent you here for? Is it to tell the<br>maids to leave their master's business and cook dinner for them? I<br>wish they may neither woo nor dine henceforward, neither here nor<br>anywhere else, but let this be the very last time, for the waste you<br>all make of my son's estate. Did not your fathers tell you when you<br>were children how good Ulysses had been to them- never doing<br>anything high-handed, nor speaking harshly to anybody? Kings may say<br>things sometimes, and they may take a fancy to one man and dislike<br>another, but Ulysses never did an unjust thing by anybody- which shows<br>what bad hearts you have, and that there is no such thing as gratitude<br>left in this world."<br>Then Medon said, "I wish, Madam, that this were all; but they are<br>plotting something much more dreadful now- may heaven frustrate<br>their design. They are going to try and murder Telemachus as he is<br>coming home from Pylos and Lacedaemon, where he has been to get news<br>of his father."<br>Then Penelope's heart sank within her, and for a long time she was<br>speechless; her eyes filled with tears, and she could find no<br>utterance. At last, however, she said, "Why did my son leave me?<br>What business had he to go sailing off in ships that make long voyages<br>over the ocean like sea-horses? Does he want to die without leaving<br>any one behind him to keep up his name?"<br>"I do not know," answered Medon, "whether some god set him on to it,<br>or whether he went on his own impulse to see if he could find out if<br>his father was dead, or alive and on his way home."<br>Then he went downstairs again, leaving Penelope in an agony of<br>grief. There were plenty of seats in the house, but she. had no<br>heart for sitting on any one of them; she could only fling herself<br>on the floor of her own room and cry; whereon all the maids in the<br>house, both old and young, gathered round her and began to cry too,<br>till at last in a transport of sorrow she exclaimed,<br>"My dears, heaven has been pleased to try me with more affliction<br>than any other woman of my age and country. First I lost my brave<br>and lion-hearted husband, who had every good quality under heaven, and<br>whose name was great over all Hellas and middle Argos, and now my<br>darling son is at the mercy of the winds and waves, without my<br>having heard one word about his leaving home. You hussies, there was<br>not one of you would so much as think of giving me a call out of my<br>bed, though you all of you very well knew when he was starting. If I<br>had known he meant taking this voyage, he would have had to give it<br>up, no matter how much he was bent upon it, or leave me a corpse<br>behind him- one or other. Now, however, go some of you and call old<br>Dolius, who was given me by my father on my marriage, and who is my<br>gardener. Bid him go at once and tell everything to Laertes, who may<br>be able to hit on some plan for enlisting public sympathy on our side,<br>as against those who are trying to exterminate his own race and that<br>of Ulysses."<br>Then the dear old nurse Euryclea said, "You may kill me, Madam, or<br>let me live on in your house, whichever you please, but I will tell<br>you the real truth. I knew all about it, and gave him everything he<br>wanted in the way of bread and wine, but he made me take my solemn<br>oath that I would not tell you anything for some ten or twelve days,<br>unless you asked or happened to hear of his having gone, for he did<br>not want you to spoil your beauty by crying. And now, Madam, wash your<br>face, change your dress, and go upstairs with your maids to offer<br>prayers to Minerva, daughter of Aegis-bearing Jove, for she can save<br>him even though he be in the jaws of death. Do not trouble Laertes: he<br>has trouble enough already. Besides, I cannot think that the gods hate<br>die race of the race of the son of Arceisius so much, but there will<br>be a son left to come up after him, and inherit both the house and the<br>fair fields that lie far all round it."<br>With these words she made her mistress leave off crying, and dried<br>the tears from her eyes. Penelope washed her face, changed her<br>dress, and went upstairs with her maids. She then put some bruised<br>barley into a basket and began praying to Minerva.<br>"Hear me," she cried, "Daughter of Aegis-bearing Jove,<br>unweariable. If ever Ulysses while he was here burned you fat thigh<br>bones of sheep or heifer, bear it in mind now as in my favour, and<br>save my darling son from the villainy of the suitors."<br>She cried aloud as she spoke, and the goddess heard her prayer;<br>meanwhile the suitors were clamorous throughout the covered<br>cloister, and one of them said:<br>"The queen is preparing for her marriage with one or other of us.<br>Little does she dream that her son has now been doomed to die."<br>This was what they said, but they did not know what was going to<br>happen. Then Antinous said, "Comrades, let there be no loud talking,<br>lest some of it get carried inside. Let us be up and do that in<br>silence, about which we are all of a mind."<br>He then chose twenty men, and they went down to their. ship and to<br>the sea side; they drew the vessel into the water and got her mast and<br>sails inside her; they bound the oars to the thole-pins with twisted<br>thongs of leather, all in due course, and spread the white sails<br>aloft, while their fine servants brought them their armour. Then<br>they made the ship fast a little way out, came on shore again, got<br>their suppers, and waited till night should fall.<br>But Penelope lay in her own room upstairs unable to eat or drink,<br>and wondering whether her brave son would escape, or be overpowered by<br>the wicked suitors. Like a lioness caught in the toils with huntsmen<br>hemming her in on every side she thought and thought till she sank<br>into a slumber, and lay on her bed bereft of thought and motion.<br>Then Minerva bethought her of another matter, and made a vision in<br>the likeness of Penelope's sister Iphthime daughter of Icarius who had<br>married Eumelus and lived in Pherae. She told the vision to go to<br>the house of Ulysses, and to make Penelope leave off crying, so it<br>came into her room by the hole through which the thong went for<br>pulling the door to, and hovered over her head, saying,<br>"You are asleep, Penelope: the gods who live at ease will not suffer<br>you to weep and be so sad. Your son has done them no wrong, so he will<br>yet come back to you."<br>Penelope, who was sleeping sweetly at the gates of dreamland,<br>answered, "Sister, why have you come here? You do not come very often,<br>but I suppose that is because you live such a long way off. Am I,<br>then, to leave off crying and refrain from all the sad thoughts that<br>torture me? I, who have lost my brave and lion-hearted husband, who<br>had every good quality under heaven, and whose name was great over all<br>Hellas and middle Argos; and now my darling son has gone off on<br>board of a ship- a foolish fellow who has never been used to<br>roughing it, nor to going about among gatherings of men. I am even<br>more anxious about him than about my husband; I am all in a tremble<br>when I think of him, lest something should happen to him, either<br>from the people among whom he has gone, or by sea, for he has many<br>enemies who are plotting against him, and are bent on killing him<br>before he can return home."<br>Then the vision said, "Take heart, and be not so much dismayed.<br>There is one gone with him whom many a man would be glad enough to<br>have stand by his side, I mean Minerva; it is she who has compassion<br>upon you, and who has sent me to bear you this message."<br>"Then," said Penelope, "if you are a god or have been sent here by<br>divine commission, tell me also about that other unhappy one- is he<br>still alive, or is he already dead and in the house of Hades?"<br>And the vision said, "I shall not tell you for certain whether he is<br>alive or dead, and there is no use in idle conversation."<br>Then it vanished through the thong-hole of the door and was<br>dissipated into thin air; but Penelope rose from her sleep refreshed<br>and comforted, so vivid had been her dream.<br>Meantime the suitors went on board and sailed their ways over the<br>sea, intent on murdering Telemachus. Now there is a rocky islet called<br>Asteris, of no great size, in mid channel between Ithaca and Samos,<br>and there is a harbour on either side of it where a ship can lie. Here<br>then the Achaeans placed themselves in ambush.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Homer">Homer</a>, translated by Samuel Butler<div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=410332" data-title="The Odyssey: Book 4 de Homer" data-description="They reached the low lying city of Lacedaemon them where they/drove straight to the of abode Menelaus [and found him in his own/house, feasting with his many clansmen in honour of the wedding of his/son, and also of his daughter, whom he was marry..."></div> </div> </div>

solid border dashed border dotted border double border groove border ridge border inset border outset border no border blue green red purple cyan gold silver black