The Odyssey

Tell me, Muse, about the man of many twists and turns, who wandered farafter he destroyed the sacred city of Troy.He saw the cities of many peoples and learned how they think,and he suffered many pains on the sea, in his heart,fighting for his own life and his friends' journey home.But even so he could not save his friends, though he wanted to.They died through their own reckless folly,the fools, who ate the cattle of Helios the Sun,and the Sun took away their day of return.Tell us about all this too, goddess, daughter of Zeus, starting anywhere you like.Now all the others who escaped complete destructionwere home, safe from war and the sea.But him alone, longing for home and his wife,the goddess Calypso, beautiful among goddesses, keptin her hollow caves, wanting him to be her husband.But when the year came, as the seasons rolled around,the year the gods had spun for him to go home,to Ithaca, even there he was not yet free of strugglesor among his own family. All the gods felt sorry for himexcept Poseidon. He was furiously angryat godlike Odysseus, until he reached his homeland.But Poseidon had gone far away to visit the Ethiopians,the Ethiopians, who live divided in two, the most distant people,some where the sun goes down, some where it comes up,to receive a sacrifice of a hundred bulls and rams.He sat there enjoying the feast. Meanwhile the other godswere all together in the halls of Olympian Zeus.The father of gods and men spoke first,because he was thinking of blameless Aegisthus,whom famous Orestes, Agamemnon's son, had killed.Thinking of him, he said to the immortal gods:"What a thing it is, how mortals blame the gods!They say evil comes from us, but they themselvesbring suffering on themselves by their own folly, beyond what is destined,just as Aegisthus, beyond his fate, married Agamemnon's wifeand killed him when he came back,though he knew it meant destruction. We had warned him,sending Hermes, the sharp-eyed messenger,telling him not to kill the man or court his wife,because Orestes would avenge Agamemnonas soon as he grew up and wanted his own land back.That is what Hermes said, but he could not change Aegisthus's mind,good as his advice was. Now Aegisthus has paid for everything."The goddess Athena, bright-eyed, answered him:"Our Father, son of Cronus, highest of rulers,he certainly got the death he deserved.Let anyone else who does such things die the same way.But my heart aches for clever Odysseus,poor man, suffering so long far from his family,on an island washed by the sea, the center of the deep,a wooded island, and a goddess lives there,the daughter of scheming Atlas, who knows the depthsof the whole sea, and who himself holds up the long pillarsthat hold earth and sky apart.His daughter holds the poor man there, weeping,always coaxing him with soft, flattering wordsso he will forget Ithaca. But Odysseus,longing just to see the smoke risingfrom his own land, wishes he were dead. And you, Olympian,does your heart not care at all? Didn't Odysseusgive you pleasure with sacrifices by the Greek ships,in broad Troy? Why are you so angry with him, Zeus?"Zeus, the gatherer of clouds, answered her:"My child, what a word has escaped your teeth!How could I forget godlike Odysseus,who is smarter than all other men, and who gavemore offerings to the immortal gods who hold the wide sky than anyone?But Poseidon, the earth-shaker, is alwaysfuriously angry about the Cyclops, whose eye he blinded,the godlike Polyphemus, the strongestof all the Cyclopes. The nymph Thoosa bore him,the daughter of Phorcys, lord of the barren sea,in a hollow cave, after sleeping with Poseidon.That is why Poseidon, the shaker of the earth,is not killing Odysseus. He just drives him wandering away from home.Come on, let us all here plan togetherhow he can get home. Poseidon will drophis anger. He cannot fightall the immortal gods by himself, against their wishes."Athena, bright-eyed, answered him:"Our Father, son of Cronus, highest of rulers,if the blessed gods want this now,for wise Odysseus to return to his own home,then let us send Hermes, the guide and messenger,to the island of Ogygia, to hurry there and tellthe lovely-haired nymph our firm decision,that steadfast Odysseus is going home.Meanwhile I will go to Ithaca, to stir up his sonall the more, and put courage in his chest,so he will call the long-haired Greeks to a meetingand tell all the suitors off. They are alwaysbutchering his fat sheep and his lumbering, curved-horned cattle.I will send him to Sparta and to sandy Pylosto ask about his father's return, in case he hears something,and so people will speak well of him."With that, she tied her beautiful sandals under her feet,immortal golden sandals that carried her over the waterand over the endless earth as fast as the wind blows.She took up her strong spear, tipped with sharp bronze,heavy, big, and solid, the one she uses to break the ranks of heroeswhenever the daughter of a mighty father is angry.She shot down from the peaks of Olympusand stood in Ithaca, at the front gate of Odysseus' house,on the courtyard doorstep, holding her bronze spear in her hand,looking like a stranger, Mentes, chief of the Taphians.She found the arrogant suitors. They were entertainingthemselves with board games in front of the doors,sitting on the hides of cattle they had killed themselves.Heralds and quick servantswere mixing wine and water in the mixing bowls,others wiped the tables with sponges full of holesand set them out, and others carved up piles of meat.Telemachus, godlike, saw her first from far off,because he was sitting among the suitors, grieving in his heart,picturing his good father in his mind, if only he might comeand scatter the suitors out of the house,and win honor himself and rule his own home.Thinking this as he sat with the suitors, he saw Athena.He headed straight for the gate, annoyed in his heartthat a guest had stood so long at the door. He came up closeand took her right hand and took her bronze spear,and said to her, and the words flew out:"Welcome, stranger. You will be treated well here. Then, afteryou have had something to eat, you can tell us what you need."He led the way, and Pallas Athena followed.When they were inside the tall house,he carried the spear and set it against a tall pillarinside the polished spear rack, where many other spearsof patient Odysseus were standing.He brought her to a chair and seated her, spreading a linen cloth under her,a beautiful hand-carved chair, with a footstool under her feet.He set his own decorated chair beside her, away from the others,the suitors, so the guest would not be bothered by the noiseand dislike the dinner, surrounded by such arrogant men,and so he could ask her about his absent father.A maid brought a pitcher and poured water over their handsfrom a lovely gold jug, over a silver basin,so they could wash. She pulled a smooth table up beside them.The respected housekeeper brought bread and set it out,adding lots of food, generous with what they had.A carver lifted platters of every kind of meatand set them down, along with golden cups,and a herald kept coming around pouring wine.Then the arrogant suitors came in. They sat downin a row on the chairs and benches,and heralds poured water over their hands,and slave women piled bread in baskets,and young men filled the mixing bowls to the top with wine.They reached for the food laid out before them.When they had had their fill of food and drink,the suitors turned their minds to other things:music and dancing, that is what makes a feast.The herald put a beautiful lyre in the handsof Phemius, who sang for the suitors because he had to.He plucked the strings and began a lovely song.But Telemachus spoke to bright-eyed Athena,leaning his head close so the others would not hear:"Dear guest, will you be annoyed at what I am about to say?These men only care about the lyre and the singing,and they can do it easily, eating up another man's wealth for free,a man whose white bones are rotting in the rainsomewhere on land, or the sea waves roll them around.If they saw him come back to Ithaca,they would all pray to be faster on their feetrather than richer in gold and clothes.But now he has died a bad death, and there is no comfortfor us, not even if some man on earthsays he is coming home. His day of return is lost.But come, tell me this and tell me straight:who are you, where do you come from? Where is your city, who are your parents?What kind of ship did you arrive on? How did the sailorsbring you to Ithaca? Who did they say they were?I do not think you walked here anyway.And tell me this truthfully, so I know for sure:is this your first visit, or are you a family friendfrom long ago? Many men have come to our housein the old days, since he travelled a lot among people."Bright-eyed Athena answered him:"All right, I will tell you exactly.I claim to be Mentes, son of clever Anchialus,and I am king of the Taphians, who love their oars.I have come here now with my ship and crew,sailing the wine-dark sea to people who speak other languages,heading to Temesa for bronze, and I am carrying shiny iron.My ship is anchored out in the country, away from town,in the harbor of Rheithron, below wooded Mount Neion.We say our families have been friendsfrom way back, if you went and asked the old man,the hero Laertes. They say he does not come into town anymore,but stays out in the country, suffering,with an old slave woman who brings him food and drinkwhenever tiredness takes hold of his legsas he crawls along the slope of his vineyard.I have come now, because they said he was here at home,your father. But the gods are blocking his journey.Godlike Odysseus is not dead yet on this earth,he is still alive somewhere, held back on the wide sea,on an island in the water, and rough men keep him there,savages, who hold him there whether he likes it or not.But I will make a prophecy for you now, the way the immortal godsput it in my mind, and the way I think it will turn out.I am no prophet, and I do not read bird signs well.He will not be away from his own land much longer,not even if iron chains hold him.He will figure out how to get home, he is crafty.But come, tell me this and tell me straight:are you really that tall a son of Odysseus?You look amazingly like him, your head and your handsome eyes,and we used to see each other often,before he sailed to Troy, where the otherbest of the Greeks went in their hollow ships.Since then I have not seen Odysseus, and he has not seen me."Sensible Telemachus answered her:"All right, stranger, I will tell you exactly.My mother says I am his son. But I do not knowfor sure. No one really knows who his own father is.I wish I were the son of some lucky man,a man who grew old surrounded by his own wealth.But the son of the most unlucky man alive,that is who they say I am, since you are asking."Bright-eyed Athena answered him:"The gods have not made your family nameless for the future,since Penelope gave birth to a boy like you.But come, tell me this and tell me straight:what is this feast, what is this crowd? What do you need?A dinner party, or a wedding? This is not a potluck, that is for sure.It looks to me like these men are behaving outrageouslyas they feast through the house. Any decent man would be disgustedat all these shameful things, if he saw them."Sensible Telemachus answered her:"Stranger, since you are asking me about all this,this house used to be rich and respectable,back when that man was still around.But now the gods have decided otherwise, planning evil.They have made him disappear, beyond allother men. I would not grieve like this if he had diedamong his friends on Trojan ground,or in the arms of his family when the war was over.Then all the Greeks would have built him a tomb,and he would have won great fame for his son afterwards.But now the storm winds swept him off, unknown.He is gone, unseen and unheard of, and to me grief and cryinghe has left. And it is not only him I mourn and groan for,because the gods have given me other troubles.All the best men who rule the islands,Dulichium, Same, and wooded Zacynthus,and all those who are lords in rocky Ithaca,all of them are courting my mother and wearing down my house.She will not say no to the hateful marriage, and she cannotfinish it either. They are eating my house up,and soon they will destroy me as well."Pallas Athena, angry, said to him:"Oh my, how much you miss Odysseus while he is away,the man who would lay his hands on these shameless suitors!If only he would come back now and stand in the front doorway,with his helmet, shield, and two spears,the way I first saw himdrinking and enjoying himself in our house,coming back from Ephyra, from Ilus son of Mermerus.Odysseus had gone there in his fast ship,looking for a deadly poison so he couldput it on his bronze arrowheads. But Ilus would notgive it to him, he was afraid of the eternal gods.But my father gave it to him. He was very fond of him.If Odysseus came at the suitors like that,they would all die fast, and their weddings would turn bitter.But all that lies in the hands of the gods,whether he will come home and pay them back, or not,there in his own halls. And I am telling you to thinkabout how to drive the suitors out of the house.Come on, listen to me and pay attention:tomorrow, call the Greek heroes to a meetingand tell them all what you think, with the gods as witnesses.Tell the suitors to go back to their own homes,and if your mother wants to get married,let her go back to her powerful father's house.They will arrange the wedding and get the bride price ready,as much as a beloved daughter should have.And here is my careful advice for you, if you take it:get a ship ready with twenty oarsmen, the best one you have,and go find out about your father, gone so long,in case some man tells you something, or you hear a rumorfrom Zeus, which is what usually brings men news.First go to Pylos and ask godlike Nestor,then from there to Sparta, to blond Menelaus.He was the last of the bronze-armored Greeks to get home.If you hear that your father is alive and coming home,then even if you are struggling, you could last another year.But if you hear that he is dead and gone,come back to your own homeland,build him a tomb and hold a funeral,all the proper honors, and give your mother to a new husband.Then when you have finished all that,think hard, in your mind and heart,about how to kill the suitors in your halls,by trickery or out in the open. You should notact like a child anymore, you are not that young.Have you not heard what fame godlike Orestes gotamong all people, when he killed his father's killer,that scheming Aegisthus, who murdered his famous father?So you too, my friend, I can see you are handsome and strong,be brave, so that people yet to come will speak well of you.Now I will go back down to my fast shipand my crew, who must be anxious waiting for me.You take care of your business, and pay attention to what I said."Sensible Telemachus answered her:"Stranger, you are speaking to me kindly,like a father to his son, and I will not forget what you said.But come on, stay a bit, even though you are in a hurry to go,so you can bathe and refresh your spiritsand go to your ship with a gift, happy inside,something valuable and lovely, a keepsake from me,the kind of thing friends give to their guests."Bright-eyed Athena answered him:"Do not keep me here any longer. I want to be on my way.Whatever gift your heart tells you to give me,give it to me when I come back this way, to take home.Pick something really nice. You will get something just as good back."With that, bright-eyed Athena left,flying off like a bird. In his heartshe put strength and courage, and made him remember his fathereven more than before. He realized what had happenedand was amazed in his heart. He guessed she was a goddess.Right away the godlike man went back to the suitors.The famous bard was singing to them, and they satlistening in silence. He sang about the Greeks' journey homefrom Troy, the miserable return Athena had planned for them.Upstairs, Icarius' daughter, thoughtful Penelope,heard the divine song in her heart.She came down the tall staircase of her house,not alone, for two maids came with her.When the shining lady reached the suitors,she stood by the post of the sturdy roof,holding her shiny veil up in front of her face,and a loyal maid stood on each side of her.Tearfully, she spoke to the godlike bard:"Phemius, you know lots of other stories that charm people,the deeds of men and gods, the things poets sing about.Sit and sing one of those for them, and let them drinktheir wine in silence. But stop this song,this miserable song, which always wears downthe heart in my chest. It is the grief that hurts me most.I miss that kind of man, remembering him always,a man whose fame spreads through Greece and the middle of Argos."Sensible Telemachus answered her:"Mother, why are you jealous of the good bardand will not let him entertain us however he wants? Bards are notthe ones to blame. Zeus is, who hands outto each man whatever he wants to give.Nobody blames him for singing about the Greeks' bad end.People praise the newest song the most,the one that is newest to the listeners.Let your heart and spirit bear to listen.Odysseus was not the only one who lost his day of returnat Troy. Many other men died there too.Go back inside and see to your own work,the loom and the spindle, and tell your maidsto get on with their tasks. Talking is for men,all men, and especially me, since I am the man of this house."She went back into the house, astonished,because she took her son's sensible words to heart.She went up to her room with her maidsand wept for Odysseus, her dear husband, until Athenaput sweet sleep on her eyes.The suitors started shouting through the shadowy halls,and they all wished they could sleep with her.Sensible Telemachus spoke first to them:"Suitors of my mother, full of arrogant violence,let us enjoy our dinner now, and no yelling.It is a nice thing to listen to a bardlike this one, whose voice is like a god's.But at dawn let us sit down in the assembly,all of us, so I can tell you plainly:get out of my house. Go hold your dinners somewhere else,eating your own food, going from house to house.But if you think it is better and nicerto destroy one man's livelihood for free,then go ahead. But I will call on the eternal gods,in case Zeus grants that you get paid back for what you do.Then you would die inside this house and no one would pay for it."He said it. They all bit their lips,amazed at Telemachus for speaking so boldly.Antinous, son of Eupeithes, answered him:"Telemachus, the gods themselves must be teaching youto talk big and speak so boldly.I hope the son of Cronus never makes you king in sea-girt Ithaca,though it is yours by birth from your father."Sensible Telemachus answered him:"Antinous, will you be annoyed at what I say?I would gladly take that, if Zeus gave it to me.Do you think being king is the worst thing that can happen to a person?Being king is not bad at all. His house gets richfast, and he himself gets more respect.But there are plenty of other Greek kingsin sea-girt Ithaca, young and old,and one of them can have that power, since godlike Odysseus is dead.But I will be the master of my own houseand of the slaves godlike Odysseus won for me."Eurymachus, son of Polybus, answered him:"Telemachus, that is in the hands of the gods,who of the Greeks will be king in sea-girt Ithaca.But you can keep your own property, and rule your own house.I hope no man ever comes to take your propertyby force while Ithaca is still a living place.But I want to ask you, my good man, about your guest:where this man comes from, what country he sayshe is from, and where his family and homeland are.Does he bring news that your father is coming home,or did he come here for his own business?How he jumped up and left right away. He did not even waitto be introduced. He did not look like a bad person."Sensible Telemachus answered him:"Eurymachus, my father's homecoming is over.I do not believe any news anyone brings anymore,and I do not pay attention to any prophecy my mothermight ask a prophet about after calling him into the house.This guest of mine is a family friend from Taphos.He says he is Mentes, son of clever Anchialus,and he rules the Taphians, who love their oars."So Telemachus spoke, knowing in his heart she was the immortal goddess.They turned back to dancing and lovely music,and partied, waiting for evening.Dark evening came as they were enjoying themselves.Then each of them went home to bed.Telemachus went to his room, a high room builtin the beautiful courtyard, in a clear open spot,and lay in bed, turning many things over in his mind.The woman who knew what was proper carried burning torches with him,Eurycleia, daughter of Ops son of Peisenor.Laertes had bought her long ago with his own wealthwhen she was still young, paying twenty oxen for her,and treated her in the house like his own good wife,but he never slept with her, to avoid his wife's anger.She carried the torches with him, and she loved himmore than any of the other slave women. She had raised him as a baby.She opened the doors of the sturdy room,and he sat on the bed and pulled off his soft shirt,and handed it to the wise old woman.She folded the shirt and made it neat,and hung it on a peg by the bed frame,and left the room, pulling the door shut with its handleof silver, and slid the bolt shut with the leather strap.All night long he lay there, wrapped in a fleece of wool,planning in his mind the trip Athena had told him about.

When rosy-fingered Dawn, born of the morning, appeared,the dear son of Odysseus got up out of bed,put on his clothes and slung a sharp sword on his shoulder,and tied fine sandals under his shining feet,and walked out of his room looking like a god.Right away he ordered the clear-voiced heraldsto call the long-haired Greeks to a meeting.They called, and the men gathered fast.When they had gathered and come together,he went into the meeting, holding a bronze spear in his hand,not alone: two fast dogs followed him.And Athena poured wonderful grace over him.Everyone stared at him as he came,and he sat in his father's seat, and the old men moved aside.Then the hero Aigyptius began speaking among them,an old man bent with age who knew a thousand things.His own dear son had gone off with godlike Odysseusto horse-rich Troy in the hollow ships,Antiphus the spearman; the savage Cyclops killed himin a hollow cave and made him his last meal.He had three other sons: one sat with the suitors,Eurynomus, and two always worked their father's land.But even so he never forgot him, mourning and grieving.Pouring tears for him, he spoke to them:Listen to me now, men of Ithaca, to what I say.Our meeting has never been called, and nobody has sat here,since the day godlike Odysseus left in the hollow ships.So who called us this time? What need has cometo a young man, or to one of the older men?Has he heard some report of an army coming,that he could tell us clearly, now that he heard it first?Or is he announcing some other public business?He seems to me a good man, and lucky. May Zeusbring him the good thing his heart is set on.So he spoke, and Odysseus' dear son was glad at the words.He did not sit still any longer — he wanted to speak.He stood in the middle of the meeting, and a scepter was put in his handby the herald Peisenor, who knew wise advice.First he spoke to the old man, taking him up:Old man, the man who called the people is not far off — you will soon know,and grief has hit me hardest.I have heard no report of an army coming,that I could clearly tell you, once I had heard it first,and I am not announcing any other public business.It is my own need, which has fallen on my house as trouble,in two ways. First, I have lost my noble father, who once among youhere was king, and was gentle as a father.And now something far bigger, which will soonbreak up my whole house and destroy everything we live on.The suitors have attacked my mother, and she doesn't want them,the dear sons of the very men who are the best here,who refuse to go to the house of her fatherIkarios, so that he could dower his daughterand give her to whoever he liked and who pleased him.Instead they come to our house every single day,killing cattle and sheep and fat goats,feasting and drinking the fiery winefor nothing; and a lot of it is being eaten up. There is no manlike Odysseus anymore, to keep ruin away from the house.And we are not the kind to defend it; and even thenwe would be weak and know nothing of fighting.I would defend myself, if I had the strength.What they do can't be put up with any longer, and my houseis ruined, and not decently. Be ashamed yourselves,and respect the other people who live around younearby; and fear the anger of the gods,in case they turn things around, disgusted at these evil deeds.I beg you by Olympian Zeus and by Themis,who breaks up men's meetings and brings them to order:hold back, friends, and leave me alone to be worn downby this painful grief — unless somewhere my noble father Odysseusdid something bad to the Greeks, his enemies,and you are paying me back for it in your hatred,egging these men on. For me it would be betterif you ate my treasures and my livestock.If you ate them, there might be payment someday;because then we could go around town with our talk,demanding our property back until it was all given.But now you load my heart with grief that can't be acted on.He said that in anger, and threw the scepter on the groundand burst into tears; and pity took the whole crowd.Then all the others were silent, and nobody daredanswer Telemachus with harsh words,except Antinous, who alone answered and said:Telemachus, loudmouth, out of control, what a thing to say,shaming us! You would like to pin blame on us.The Greek suitors are not to blame for your troubles,your dear mother is, who knows more tricks than anyone.It is already the third year now, and soon the fourth,that she has been cheating the hearts in the Greeks' chests.She gives hope to everyone, and promises each man,sending messages, but her mind wants something else.And she thought up this other trick in her heart:she set up a big loom in the hall and wove,a fine, huge piece of cloth; and right away she told us:Young men, my suitors, since godlike Odysseus is dead,wait, eager as you are for my marriage, until I finishthis cloak, so my weaving is not wasted,a burial robe for the hero Laertes, for whendeadly fate and long-drawn death bring him down,so no Greek woman in the land can blame meif he lies without a shroud after gaining so much.That is what she said, and our proud hearts were persuaded.Then all day she wove the big cloth,and at night she undid it, once she had set the torches beside her.So for three years she fooled us with that trick and convinced us.But when the fourth year came and the seasons came round,one of the women told us — she knew for certain —and we caught her undoing the shining cloth.So she finished it, unwilling, forced to;and here is the suitors' answer to you, so you know itin your own heart, and all the Greeks know too:send your mother away, tell her to marrywhoever her father says and whoever she likes.But if she keeps annoying the Greek young men much longer,thinking the thoughts in her heart that Athena gave her beyond others,knowing beautiful crafts and having good senseand tricks no one has heard of, even from women of the old days,the Greek women of long ago with lovely hair,Tyro, and Alcmene, and Mykene with the fine crown,none of them had a mind like Penelope's —but in this one thing she did not think sensibly.Because they will eat your livelihood and your goods for as longas she keeps this mind that the gods are nowputting in her breast. She wins great fame for herself,but for you, the loss of a lot of your living.And we will not go back to our own work, or anywhere else,until she marries whichever Greek she chooses.Then wise Telemachus answered him:Antinous, there is no way to drive out of the house against her willthe woman who bore me and raised me. My father is somewhere else,alive or dead. And it would be bad for me to pay a lotto Ikarios, if I sent my mother away willingly.I would get trouble from her father, and a god would give me more,since my mother, leaving the house, would call down the hateful Furies,and people would blame me.So I will never say that word.If your own hearts are outraged,get out of my halls, and fix yourselves other dinners,eating your own property, taking turns at each other's houses.But if this seems better and preferable to you,that one man's living be destroyed with nothing paid back,go ahead, cut it up — but I will call on the gods who always exist,in hope that Zeus grants that payback happens someday.Then you would die inside my halls with nothing paid.So Telemachus spoke, and Zeus who thunders farsent two eagles flying from the top of a mountain.As long as the two flew on the blasts of the wind,close together, stretching out their wings,but when they reached the middle of the crowded meeting,there they wheeled around and shook their thick wings,and looked at everyone's heads, and glared death,and tearing their cheeks and necks with their claws,they shot off to the right through their houses and their town.The people were stunned at the birds when they saw them with their eyes,and in their hearts they wondered what was going to happen.Then the old hero Halitherses spoke to them,son of Mastor; he alone of his generation was bestat reading birds and saying what was right,and meaning well he spoke to them:Listen to me now, men of Ithaca, to what I say,and I am telling this mostly as a warning to the suitors:a huge disaster is rolling toward them. Odysseuswill not be away from his loved ones long — somewherehe is already near, and he is planting slaughter and deathfor them all; and it will be bad for many others too,who live on far-seen Ithaca. But long before thatlet us think how we can stop them; and let themstop on their own, because that is better for them right now.I am not prophesying without experience — I know well.I say that everything was fulfilled for that man,just as I told him, when the Greeks went up to Troyand Odysseus of many plans went with them.I said that after suffering many troubles and losing all his men,unknown to everyone, in the twentieth year,he would come home. And now it is all coming true.Then Eurymachus, son of Polybus, answered him:Old man, go home and prophesy to your own children,so they do not suffer some trouble later.I am much better than you at prophesying about this.Many birds fly around under the sun's rays,and not all of them mean anything. But Odysseusdied far away — and I wish you had died with him.Then you would not be making so many prophecies,and you would not be stirring up Telemachus like this in his anger,hoping for a gift for your house, if he gives one.I will tell you straight, and it will happen too:if you, knowing many old things, use your wordsto trick a younger man into getting angry,it will first of all be worse for him,and he will not be able to do anything because of it;and on you, old man, we will put a fine that you will hatepaying — and it will be painful for you.And I myself will advise Telemachus in front of everyone:let him tell his mother to go back to her father's house.They will arrange a marriage and get together the bride-gifts,a huge amount, as much as is right to go with a beloved daughter.For I do not think the Greek young men will stopthis painful courting, since we do not fear anyone,not Telemachus, for all his big talk,and we do not care about prophecy, which you, old man,tell and it never comes true — and you get more hateful for it.And the property will keep being eaten up badly, and never equal,as long as she puts off the Greeksover this marriage. And we, waiting day after day,compete over her excellence, and do not go after other womenwhom each of us could decently marry.Then wise Telemachus answered him:Eurymachus, and all you other noble suitors,I am not begging you for those things anymore, and not talking about them,the gods already know them, and so do all the Greeks.But come on, give me a fast ship and twenty companionswho can get the journey done with me there and back.I am going to Sparta and to sandy Pylosto ask about my father's return, since he has been gone so long,in case some human tells me, or I hear a voicefrom Zeus, which is what brings news to people most of all.If I hear of my father's life and his return,then, worn down though I am, I could still endure a year;but if I hear that he is dead and no longer alive,then after I come home to my dear native landI will heap up a grave mound for him and hold his funeral rites,a great many, as is fitting, and give my mother to a husband.So he spoke and sat down, and among them roseMentor, who was a companion of blameless Odysseus,and when he set out with the ships he put his whole household in his charge,to obey the old man and keep everything safe;with good will toward them he spoke and addressed them:Hear me now, men of Ithaca, whatever I say:let no sceptered king be kind and gentle any longer,nor mindful of what is right in his heart,but let him always be harsh and do reckless things;since no one remembers godlike Odysseusamong the people he ruled, and he was gentle as a father.But the proud suitors I do not begrudgefor doing violent deeds through the crooked plans in their minds;for they risk their own heads and violently devourthe house of Odysseus, and they say he will never come back.But now I am angry at the rest of the people, that all of yousit in silence, and do not, by speaking out,stop the few suitors, though you are many.Then Leocritus, son of Euenor, answered him:Mentor, troublemaker, fool in your wits, what a thing you have said,urging us to stop. It is hardfor men to fight even against more, over a dinner.For even if Odysseus of Ithaca himself cameand wanted in his heart to drive the noble suitorsout of his house while they were feasting there,his wife would not be glad at his coming, much as she longs for him,but he would meet a shameful fate right thereif he fought against more men; and you have spoken out of place.But come, let the people scatter, each to his own work,and let Mentor and Halitherses urge this journey on him,who from the beginning are companions of his father.But I think he will sit here a long timewaiting for news in Ithaca, and will never make this journey.So he spoke, and broke up the swift assembly.And they scattered, each to his own house,and the suitors went to the house of godlike Odysseus.But Telemachus went off by himself to the shore of the sea,and washed his hands in the gray salt water and prayed to Athena:Hear me, you who came yesterday to our house as a godand told me in a ship over the misty seato go and ask about my father's return, since he has been gone so long;but the Greeks put all this off,and the suitors most of all, in their wicked arrogance.So he spoke in prayer, and Athena came near him,looking like Mentor in body and in voice,and speaking she said to him:Telemachus, you will not be a coward or a fool later on,if indeed your father's good strength has dripped into you,such as he was to finish a deed and a word;then your journey will not be useless or unfinished.But if you are not his child and Penelope's,then I do not expect you to finish what you long for.For few sons are like their father;most are worse, and few are better than their father.But since you will not be a coward or a fool later on,and the cunning of Odysseus has not completely left you,there is hope that you will finish these deeds.So now let go of the plans and the minds of the suitors,the senseless ones, since they are neither thoughtful nor just;and they do not know death and black doom,which is near them, that they will all be destroyed in one day.And the journey you long for will no longer be far off;for I am such a companion of your father's line,I who will fit out a swift ship for you and go along with you myself.But you go to the house and spend time with the suitors,and get the provisions ready and stow everything in containers,wine in jars, and barley, the marrow of men,in tightly sewn skins; and I through the townwill quickly gather companions, willing men. There are shipsmany in sea-girt Ithaca, new and old;of these I will pick out for you whichever is best,and quickly fitting it out we will launch it on the wide sea.So spoke Athena, daughter of Zeus; and no longer longdid Telemachus wait, since he heard the voice of the god.He went to the house, troubled in his dear heart,and found the proud suitors in the halls,flaying goats and singeing pigs in the courtyard.And Antinous came straight at Telemachus, laughing,and clung to his hand, and spoke a word and called him by name:Telemachus, loud-talker, unrestrained in fury, let no otherevil deed or word be a care in your breast,but eat and drink with me, as before.All these things the Greeks will carry out for you,a ship and picked rowers, so you may get there sooner,to holy Pylos, for news of your noble father.Then wise Telemachus answered him:Antinous, it is not at all possible among you overbearing mento feast and enjoy yourself without being hurt.Was it not enough that before you cut down many finepossessions of mine, suitors, while I was still a child?But now that I am grown and hear other people's wordsand learn, and my spirit grows within me,I will try to bring evil deaths upon you,either by going to Pylos, or here in this land.I am going, and the journey I speak of will not be useless,as a passenger; for I am no master of a ship or rowers;so, I suppose, that seemed to you to be better.So he spoke, and easily pulled his hand from Antinous' hand;and the suitors busied themselves with the feast through the house.And they mocked him and jeered at him with words.And so one of the young overbearing men would say:Truly Telemachus is planning slaughter for us.Either he will bring defenders from sandy Pylosor even from Sparta, since he is terribly eager;or he wants to go to Ephyre, the rich farmland,to bring back from there drugs that destroy the heart,and put them in the mixing bowl and kill us all.And another of the young overbearing men would say:And who knows whether he too, going in a hollow ship,may perish far from his friends, wandering as Odysseus did?So he would bring even more trouble on us;for we would divide up all his possessions, and his housewe would give to his mother to keep, and to whoever married her.So they spoke, and he went down into his father's high-roofed chamber,the broad one, where piled gold and bronze layand clothing in chests, and plenty of sweet-smelling olive oil;and jars of old honey-sweet winestood there, holding the unmixed divine drink inside,fixed in a row against the wall, in case Odysseusshould come home after suffering many hard things.And there were close-fitting doors, tightly joined,double-folding; and inside a woman housekeeper night and daykept watch, guarding everything with the deep knowledge of her mind,Eurycleia, daughter of Ops, son of Peisenor.Then Telemachus called to her and spoke to her at the chamber:Nanny, come now, draw off wine for me in jars,the sweet kind, the best after that one which you keepin hope for that unlucky man, if he ever comes,godlike Odysseus, escaped from death and doom.Fill twelve jars, and put lids on them all.And pour barley for me into well-stitched skins;let there be twenty measures of ground barley meal.And know this by yourself alone; let everything be ready together;for in the evening I will take it, whenmy mother goes up to her upper room and thinks about bed.For I am going to Sparta and to sandy Pylosto ask about my dear father's return, in case I hear something.So he spoke, and his dear nurse Eurycleia cried out,and wailing she said to him:Why, dear child, has this thought come into your mind?And where do you want to go over the wide earth,you who are the only beloved one? And he perished far from his homeland,godlike Odysseus, among people who did not know him.And these men will plan evil things behind you as soon as you go,so you may die by a trick, and they will divide all this up themselves.But stay here, sitting among your own people; there is no need for youto suffer harm on the barren sea or to wander.Then wise Telemachus answered her:Cheer up, nanny, since this plan is not without a god.But swear that you will not tell these things to my dear mother,at least until the eleventh or the twelfth day comes,or until she misses me herself and hears that I have set out,so that she does not, by crying, spoil her beautiful skin.So he spoke, and the old woman swore the great oath of the gods.But when she had sworn and finished the oath,she straightway drew off wine for him in jars,and poured barley for him into well-stitched skins.And Telemachus went into the house and stayed with the suitors.Then the goddess, bright-eyed Athena, thought of something else.Looking like Telemachus she went all through the city everywhere,and standing beside each man she spoke a word,and told them to gather in the evening at the swift ship.And she in turn asked Noemon, the glorious son of Phronius,for a swift ship; and he gladly promised it to her.The sun set and all the streets were in shadow,and then he dragged the swift ship to the sea, and in ithe put all the gear that well-benched ships carry.He anchored it at the edge of the harbor, and around it good companionsgathered together; and the goddess urged each one on.Then the goddess, bright-eyed Athena, thought of something else.She went to the house of godlike Odysseus;there she poured sweet sleep over the suitors,and confused them as they drank, and knocked the cups from their hands.And they hurried to sleep throughout the city, and no longer longdid they sit, since sleep fell on their eyelids.But bright-eyed Athena spoke to Telemachus,calling him out of the well-built halls,looking like Mentor in body and in voice:Telemachus, your companions with fine greaves are alreadysitting at the oars, waiting for you to set out;but let us go, let us not delay the journey long.So speaking, Pallas Athena led the wayquickly; and he followed in the footsteps of the goddess.But when they came down to the ship and the sea,they found the long-haired companions on the shore.And the sacred strength of Telemachus spoke among them:Come, friends, let us bring the provisions; for everything is alreadygathered in the hall. And my mother knows nothing of it,nor the other slave women; one alone heard the word.So speaking he led the way, and they followed along.And they carried everything and on the well-benched shiplaid it down, as the dear son of Odysseus had ordered.And Telemachus stepped onto the ship, and Athena led the way,and sat down in the stern of the ship; and close beside herTelemachus sat. And they untied the stern cables,and went aboard themselves and sat down on the benches.And bright-eyed Athena sent them a favorable wind,a strong West Wind, whistling over the wine-colored sea.And Telemachus urged on his companions and told themto take hold of the gear; and they listened to him urging.And the pine mast, inside the hollow mast-boxthey raised and set upright, and tied it down with forestays,and hauled up the white sails with well-twisted oxhide ropes.The wind filled the middle of the sail, and around it the waveroared loudly, dark purple, around the stem of the moving ship;and she ran over the wave, cutting through her path.And when they had tied up the gear through the swift black ship,they set up mixing bowls full of wine,and poured libations to the immortal gods who live forever,and beyond all to the bright-eyed daughter of Zeus.All night long she kept cutting her way, right on to the dawn.

The sun rose, leaving the beautiful lake,and went into the bronze-colored sky, to shine for the immortal godsand for mortal humans on the grain-giving earth.They reached Pylos, the well-built city of Neleus,and there on the shore of the sea the people were making holy sacrifice,all-black bulls, to the Earth-Shaker with the dark blue hair.There were nine seats, and in each one five hundred menwere sitting, and nine bulls were set before them at each one.When they had tasted the inner organs and were burning the thigh pieces for the god,the others came straight in and furled the sails of the well-balanced ship,lifted them and moored the ship, and they themselves stepped out.Telemachus stepped out of the ship, and Athena led the way.The goddess, bright-eyed Athena, spoke to him first:"Telemachus, you should no longer feel any shame at all, not even a little.It was for this that you sailed the sea, so that you might learnabout your father, where the earth covers him and what kind of fate he met.But come now, go straight to Nestor, the tamer of horses.Let us find out what plan he is hiding in his chest.You must beg him yourself to tell you the truth.He will not tell a lie, because he is very wise."Then sensible Telemachus answered her:"Mentor, how should I go up to him? How should I greet him?I have no experience yet with clever words,and it is shameful for a young man to question an older one."Then the goddess, bright-eyed Athena, answered him:"Telemachus, you will think of some things yourself in your own mind,and a god will suggest other things to you, for I do not thinkyou were born and raised without the will of the gods."With these words Pallas Athena led the wayquickly, and he followed in the footsteps of the goddess.They arrived at the gathering and the seats of the men of Pylos,where Nestor was sitting with his sons, and around them his companionswere getting the meal ready, roasting meat and putting other pieces on spits.When they saw the strangers, they all came up together,greeted them with their hands, and invited them to sit down.First Pisistratus, the son of Nestor, came up closeand took both their hands, and seated them at the feaston soft fleeces on the sand of the sea,beside his brother Thrasymedes and his own father.He gave them portions of the inner organs and poured wineinto a golden cup, and speaking to her he addressedPallas Athena, the daughter of Zeus who holds the aegis:"Pray now, stranger, to lord Poseidon,because it is his feast that you have come upon here.But once you have poured the libation and prayed, as is proper,then give this man too the cup of honey-sweet wineto pour a libation, since I think that he tooprays to the immortal gods, for all people need the gods.But he is younger and is the same age as me,so I will give you the golden cup first."With these words he put the cup of sweet wine in her hand,and Athena was glad at the sensible and upright man,because he gave her the golden cup first.At once she prayed many things to lord Poseidon:"Hear me, Poseidon, holder of the earth, and do not refuseus, as we pray, that these works be completed.Give glory first of all to Nestor and his sons,and then give to all the other Pylians a gracious returntogether for this famous hecatomb.And grant that Telemachus and I return home after finishing our task,since we came here with our swift black ship."So she prayed, and she herself brought it all to pass.She gave Telemachus the beautiful two-handled cup,and in the same way the dear son of Odysseus prayed.When they had roasted the upper parts of the meat and pulled them off,they divided the portions and ate the glorious meal.But when they had set aside their desire for drink and food,then the Gerenian horseman Nestor began to speak to them:"Now it is better to question and to askthese strangers who they are, since they have enjoyed their food.Strangers, who are you? From where do you sail the watery paths?Is it on some business, or do you wander aimlesslylike pirates over the sea, who roam aboutrisking their lives and bringing trouble to foreigners?"Then sensible Telemachus answered himwith courage, for Athena herself had put courage in his mind,so that he might ask about his father who was gone,and so that he might have good fame among people:"Nestor, son of Neleus, great glory of the Achaeans,you ask where we are from, and I will tell you all of it.We have come from Ithaca beneath the wooded mountain.This business is my own, not public, that I am telling you.I am searching for the wide fame of my father, in case I may hear it somewhere,of godlike Odysseus, the enduring-hearted, who they say once,fighting along with you, sacked the city of the Trojans.About all the others, as many as fought against the Trojans,we have heard where each one died by a miserable death.But the son of Cronos made the destruction of that man alone unknown.For no one can say for certain when he died,whether he was killed on the mainland by enemy men,or in the sea among the waves of Amphitrite.So now I come to your knees, in case you are willingto tell me of that man's miserable death, if perhaps you saw itwith your own eyes, or heard the story from someone elseas he wandered, for his mother bore him to misery.And do not soften your words to me out of shame or pity,but tell me plainly how you came upon the sight.I beg you, if ever my father, noble Odysseus,promised and carried out any word or any deedamong the people of the Trojans, where you Achaeans suffered troubles,remember it for me now, and tell me the truth."Then the Gerenian horseman Nestor answered him:"Dear friend, since you have reminded me of the misery that in thatland we endured, we unrestrained sons of the Achaeans,both all that we wandered with our ships on the misty seagathering plunder, wherever Achilles led,and all that we fought around the great city of lord Priam.There all the best men were killed.There lies warlike Ajax, there lies Achilles,there lies Patroclus, a counselor equal to the gods,and there lies my own dear son, both strong and blameless,Antilochus, fast beyond all in running and a fighter.We suffered many other troubles besides those. Who among mortal humanscould tell all of that?Not even if you stayed five years, or even six, and kept askingabout all the troubles that the godlike Achaeans suffered there,would you reach your own homeland before growing weary of it.For nine years we kept weaving troubles for them,with every kind of trick, and only with difficulty did the son of Cronos bring it to an end.There no one ever wanted to be compared to him in planningface to face, since godlike Odysseus won by farwith every kind of trick, your father, if trulyyou are descended from him. Amazement holds me as I look at you.For your words are truly like his, and you would not thinkthat a younger man could speak so much like him.There, as long as I and godlike Odysseusnever once spoke differently in the assembly or in the council,but held one single spirit in mind and wise counsel,we planned how things might turn out best for the Argives.But when we had sacked the steep city of Priam,and went into the ships, and a god scattered the Achaeans,then indeed Zeus planned in his mind a miserable homecomingfor the Argives, since not all of them were sensible or just.So many of them met an evil fatefrom the deadly anger of the bright-eyed goddess born of a mighty father.She set strife between the two sons of Atreus.The two of them called an assembly of all the Achaeans,senselessly and not in proper order, at the setting of the sun.The sons of the Achaeans came weighed down with wine,and the two told their speeches, the reason they had gathered the army.There Menelaus urged all the Achaeansto remember their homecoming on the broad back of the sea,but it did not please Agamemnon at all, for he wantedto hold the army back and offer holy hecatombs,so that he might heal the terrible anger of Athena.He was a fool, for he did not know that she would not be persuaded.The mind of the ever-living gods is not quickly turned.So the two stood exchanging harsh words,and the well-greaved Achaeans jumped upwith a wonderful shout, and the plan was divided among them.All that night we stayed awake, planning hard thingsagainst each other, for Zeus was preparing a trouble of evil.At dawn we dragged some ships into the bright seaand put the possessions aboard and the deep-girdled women.But half the army was held back, waitingthere beside Agamemnon, the son of Atreus, shepherd of the people.Half of us embarked and sailed, and the shipssailed very fast, and a god smoothed the great-gulfed sea.When we came to Tenedos we made holy offerings to the gods,longing for home, but Zeus did not yet plan our return,cruel one, who stirred up wicked strife a second time.Some turned their curved ships backaround lord Odysseus, the warlike and crafty one,going back again to please Agamemnon, the son of Atreus.But I fled with my gathered ships, as many as followed me,since I knew in my heart that the god was planning evil.The warlike son of Tydeus fled too, and roused his companions.And late indeed fair-haired Menelaus came after us,and in Lesbos he found us, as we were considering the long voyage,whether we should sail above rugged Chios,past the island of Psyria, keeping it on our left,or below Chios, past windy Mimas.We asked the god to show a sign, and he showed it to us,and he ordered us to cut across the middle of the sea to Euboea,so that we might escape the trouble as fast as possible.A shrill fair wind rose up to blow, and the shipsran very quickly over the fish-filled paths, and at Geraestusthey put in at night, and to Poseidonwe set many thigh pieces of bulls, after measuring the great sea.It was the fourth day, when in Argos the companionsof the son of Tydeus, Diomedes the tamer of horses,were mooring the well-balanced ships. But I kept on toward Pylos, and neverdid the fair wind stop, once the god first sent it to blow.So I came, dear child, without news, and I know nothingabout those others, which of the Achaeans were saved and which died.But all that I have learned sitting in my own halls,as is proper, you will find out, and I will not hide it from you.They say the Myrmidons, the spearmen, came home safely,whom the glorious son of great-hearted Achilles led,and Philoctetes too, the glorious son of Poeas.Idomeneus brought all his companions back to Crete,those who escaped from the war, and the sea took none of them from him.But about the son of Atreus you yourselves hear, though you are far away,how he came home, and how Aegisthus planned his miserable death.But that man paid for it in a truly wretched way.So it is a good thing for a son to be left behind when a manhas died, since even he took revenge on his father's killer,the crafty Aegisthus, who killed his glorious father.And you, dear friend, for I see you are very handsome and tall,be brave, so that someone of later generations may speak well of you.Then sensible Telemachus answered him:"Nestor, son of Neleus, great glory of the Achaeans,that man indeed took great revenge, and the Achaeanswill carry his wide fame for people in the future to hear.If only the gods would give me such strength,to take revenge on the suitors for their painful outrage,who insolently plot reckless things against me.But the gods have not spun out such prosperity for me,either for my father or for me, and now I must endure it anyway."Then the Gerenian horseman Nestor answered him:"Dear friend, since you have reminded me of these things and spoken of them,they say that many suitors, because of your mother,in your halls against your will are plotting evil.Tell me, are you being overpowered willingly, or do the peoplehate you throughout the land, following the voice of a god?And who knows whether he might come someday and take revenge on them for their violence,either he alone, or all the Achaeans together?If only the bright-eyed Athena were willing to love youas she once cared for glorious Odysseusin the land of the Trojans, where we Achaeans suffered pains,for I never yet saw gods loving a man so openlyas Pallas Athena stood openly beside him,if she were willing to love you like that and care for you in her heart,then some of those men would forget about their marriage.Then sensible Telemachus answered her:"Old man, I do not think this word will ever be fulfilled,for you have spoken far too grandly, and amazement holds me. For methese things would not happen even as I hope for them, not even if the gods willed it."Then the goddess, bright-eyed Athena, answered him:"Telemachus, what a word has escaped the fence of your teeth!A god, if he wishes, can easily save a man even from far away.I myself would rather, after suffering many pains,come home and see the day of my return,than die at home after arriving back, the way Agamemnondied by the trick of Aegisthus and his own wife.But truly, death that is common to all, not even the godscan ward off from a man they love, oncethe deadly fate of lingering death brings him down."Then sensible Telemachus answered her:"Mentor, let us no longer talk about these things, though we care about them,for his homecoming is no longer real, but alreadythe immortal gods have planned death and black doom for him.But now I want to ask and question another matterof Nestor, since he knows about justice and the wisdom of others beyond all others.For they say he has ruled over three generations of men,so he looks to me like an immortal to look at.Nestor, son of Neleus, tell me the truth:how did the son of Atreus, wide-ruling Agamemnon, die?Where was Menelaus? And what kind of death did he plan for him,Aegisthus the crafty one, since he killed a much better man?Was he not in Argos of the Achaeans, but wandering somewhere elseamong people, and Aegisthus took courage and killed him?"Then the Gerenian horseman Nestor answered him:"Well then, my child, I will tell you all the truth.You yourself know how these things happened,if you found Aegisthus alive in his hallswhen the son of Atreus came from Troy, fair-haired Menelaus.In that case no one would have poured a mound of earth over him even in death,but the dogs and the birds of prey would have eaten himas he lay on the plain far from the city, and noneof the Achaean women would have wept for him, for he planned a very great crime.For we, while we were completing many labors there,sat still, but he, at ease in a corner of horse-pasturing Argos,kept charming Agamemnon's wife with many words.At first she refused the shameful act,the godlike Clytemnestra, for she had good sense in her mind.And there was also a singer with her, a man whom the son of Atreushad given many instructions when he went to Troy, to guard his wife.But when the fate of the gods bound her to be subdued,then he took the singer to a deserted islandand left him to become prey and a meal for the birds,and he took her away to his own house, a willing woman with a willing man.He burned many thigh pieces on the holy altars of the gods,and hung up many offerings, woven cloths and gold,after completing a great deed that he never hoped for in his heart.For we sailed together, coming from Troy,the son of Atreus and I, with friendly feelings for each other.But when we reached holy Sunium, the headland of the Athenians,there Phoebus Apollo came upon Menelaus' steersman with his gentle arrowsand killed him,as he held the steering oar in his hands on the running ship,Phrontis, the son of Onetor, who surpassed the tribes of menat steering a ship, whenever the storm winds rushed at him.So he was held there, though he was eager for the journey,to bury his companion and carry out the funeral rites.But when he too, going over the wine-dark seain his hollow ships, reached the steep mountain of Maleaas he sailed, then far-thundering Zeus planneda hateful journey for him, and poured down a blast of shrill winds,and monstrous waves swelled up, as big as mountains.There he split the fleet, and drove some ships to Crete,where the Cydonians lived around the streams of Iardanus.There is a certain smooth rock, steep down into the sea,at the edge of Gortyn in the misty sea.There the South Wind drives the great wave toward the left-hand headland,toward Phaestos, and a small stone holds back the great wave.Some of the ships came there, and the men barely escaped destruction,but the waves smashed the ships against the rocks.And the five dark-prowed ships the wind and the watercarried and drove to Egypt.So he, gathering much wealth and gold there,wandered with his ships among people of other tongues,and meanwhile Aegisthus planned these wicked things at home.For seven years he ruled over gold-rich Mycenae,after killing the son of Atreus, and the people were subdued under him.But in the eighth year godlike Orestes came to bring him evil,coming back from Athens, and he killed his father's killer,the crafty Aegisthus, who had killed his glorious father.And he, after killing him, feasted the Argives at the funeralof his hateful mother and the cowardly Aegisthus.On the same day Menelaus, good at the war cry, came to him,bringing many treasures, as many as his ships had carried as cargo.And you, dear friend, do not wander far from your halls for a long time,leaving behind your property and the men in your housewho are so arrogant, in case they eat up all yourpossessions, dividing them among themselves, and you go on a useless journey.But I urge and command you to go to Menelaus,for he has just come from somewhere else,from those people, from where no one would hope in his heartto come, whom the storm winds first swept off courseinto such a great sea, from where not even birdsgo in a year, since it is so great and terrible.But go now with your ship and your companions,or if you want to go on foot, a chariot and horses are here for you,and my sons are here, who will escort youto godlike Lacedaemon, where fair-haired Menelaus is.Beg him yourself, so that he may tell you the truth.He will not tell a lie, for he is very wise."So he spoke, and the sun set and darkness came.And among them the goddess, bright-eyed Athena, also spoke:"Old man, truly you have told all this properly.But come, cut out the tongues and mix the wine,so that after pouring libations to Poseidon and the other immortal godswe may think about sleep, for this is the right hour for it.For the light has already gone beneath the darkness, and it is not properto sit long at the feast of the gods, but to go home."So spoke the daughter of Zeus, and they listened to her as she spoke.The heralds poured water over their hands,and the young men filled the mixing bowls to the top with drink,and they served it to all, pouring the first drops into the cups.They threw the tongues into the fire, and standing up they poured libations.But when they had poured libations and drunk as much as their heart wanted,then Athena and godlike Telemachusboth wanted to go to the hollow ship.But Nestor held them back, speaking to them:"May Zeus and the other immortal gods prevent this,that you should go from me to your swift shiplike someone who is completely without clothes and poor,who has no cloaks and no many blankets in his house,to sleep softly, neither for himself nor for his guests.But I have cloaks and beautiful blankets.Surely the dear son of this man Odysseuswill not lie down on the ship's deck, as long as Ilive, and afterwards my children are left in my halls,to entertain guests, whoever comes to my house."Then the goddess, bright-eyed Athena, answered him:"You have spoken well, dear old man, and it is fittingfor Telemachus to obey you, since that way is much better.But he will now follow you, so that he may sleepin your halls, while I will go to the black ship,to encourage my companions and tell them each thing.For I claim to be the oldest among them,and the others who follow me are younger men in friendship,all the same age as great-hearted Telemachus.There I would lie down beside the hollow black shipnow, but at dawn I go to the great-hearted Cauconians,where a debt is owed to me, not a new oneand not a small one. But you, since he has come to your house,send him with a chariot and your son, and give him horses,the lightest to run and the best in strength."With these words bright-eyed Athena left,looking like a sea eagle, and wonder seized everyone who saw it.The old man was amazed as he saw it with his eyes.He took Telemachus' hand and spoke a word and called him by name:"Dear friend, I do not expect you to be a coward and a weakling,if the gods follow you as guides when you are so young.For none of the others who hold Olympian homes is like this,but this is the daughter of Zeus, the most glorious Tritogeneia,who also honored your noble father among the Argives.But, lady, be gracious, and grant me good glory,for me and my children and my respected wife.And I will sacrifice to you a yearling heifer with a broad brow,unbroken, which no man has yet led under the yoke.Her I will sacrifice to you, pouring gold over her horns."So he spoke in prayer, and Pallas Athena heard him.The Gerenian horseman Nestor led the way for them,for his sons and sons-in-law, to his beautiful house.But when they reached the famous house of that lord,they sat down in order on the benches and chairs.The old man mixed a bowl of wine for them as they came,sweet wine, which in the eleventh yearthe housekeeper opened and untied the cover from.From it the old man mixed a bowl, and he poured many libationsand prayed to Athena, the daughter of Zeus who holds the aegis.But when they had poured libations and drunk as much as their heart wanted,each of them went to his own house to lie down.The Gerenian horseman Nestor put him to bed there,Telemachus, the dear son of godlike Odysseus,in a pierced bed under the echoing portico,and beside him Pisistratus of the good spear, leader of men,who was still unmarried among the sons in the halls.He himself slept in the inner room of the lofty house,and his wife, the mistress, made ready the bed and the bedding for him.When early-born, rosy-fingered Dawn appeared,the Gerenian horseman Nestor rose from his bed.He went out and sat down on the polished stones,which were in front of the lofty doors,white and gleaming with oil. On these Neleusused to sit before, a counselor equal to the gods,but he had already been overcome by death and gone to Hades.Then Gerenian Nestor sat there, the guardian of the Achaeans,holding a staff, and his sons gathered around him in a crowd,coming out of their rooms, Echephron and Stratiusand Perseus and Aretus and godlike Thrasymedes.Sixth after them came the hero Pisistratus,and they brought godlike Telemachus and seated him beside them.The Gerenian horseman Nestor began to speak to them:"Quickly, dear children, fulfill my wish,so that first of all I may propitiate Athena among the gods,who came to me plainly, to the rich feast of the god.But come, let one man go to the plain for a cow, so that it comesas quickly as possible, and let the herdsman of the cattle drive it.And let another go to great-hearted Telemachus' black shipand bring all his companions, leaving only two behind.And let another tell the goldsmith Laerces to come here,so that he may pour gold around the cow's horns.And let the rest of you stay here together, and tell the servant womeninside the famous house to prepare the feast,and to bring seats and wood for around, and bright water."So he spoke, and they all hurried. The cow camefrom the plain, and the companions of great-hearted Telemachuscame from the swift well-balanced ship, and the smith cameholding in his hands the bronze tools, the ends of his craft,an anvil and a hammer and well-made tongs,with which he worked the gold. And Athena cameto meet the holy rites. The old charioteer Nestorgave the gold, and he then poured it around the cow's horns,working it carefully, so that the goddess might be glad to see the ornament.And Stratius and godlike Echephron led the cow by the horns.Aretus came from the room bringing water for the handsin a flowered basin, and in his other hand he held barley grainsin a basket. Thrasymedes, steadfast in battle,stood beside him holding a sharp axe in his hand, to strike the cow.Perseus held the bowl for the blood. The old charioteer Nestorbegan with the water for the hands and the barley grains, and he prayed muchto Athena, making the first offering, and threw the hairs from the head into the fire.But when they had prayed and thrown forward the barley grains,at once the high-spirited son of Nestor, Thrasymedes,struck, standing close by, and the axe cut through the tendonsof the neck, and it released the cow's strength. The women cried out,the daughters and daughters-in-law and the respected wifeof Nestor, Eurydice, the eldest of the daughters of Clymenus.Then the men lifted the cow up from the broad-wayed earthand held it, and Pisistratus, leader of men, cut its throat.When the black blood had flowed out and the spirit left the bones,at once they cut it apart, and quickly cut out the thigh pieces,all in proper order, and covered them with fat,making a double layer, and laid raw pieces on top.The old man burned them on split wood, and poured gleaming wineover them, and the young men stood beside him with five-pronged forks in their hands.But when the thighs were burned and they had tasted the inner organs,they cut up the rest and pierced it on spits,and roasted them, holding the sharp-pointed spits in their hands.Meanwhile beautiful Polycaste bathed Telemachus,the youngest daughter of Nestor, son of Neleus.When she had bathed him and anointed him richly with oil,she threw a beautiful cloak and tunic around him,and he stepped out of the bath, like the immortal gods in body.He went and sat down beside Nestor, shepherd of the people.But when they had roasted the upper parts of the meat and pulled them off,they sat and feasted, and noble men rose upto pour wine in golden cups.But when they had set aside their desire for drink and food,the Gerenian horseman Nestor began to speak to them:"My sons, come, yoke the fair-maned horses for Telemachusand bring them under the chariot, so that he may continue his journey."So he spoke, and they listened to him and obeyed,and quickly yoked the swift horses under the chariot.The housekeeper woman put in grain and wineand delicacies, such as Zeus-nurtured kings eat.Telemachus stepped up into the beautiful chariot,and beside him Pisistratus, son of Nestor, leader of men,climbed into the chariot and took the reins in his hands.He whipped them to go, and the two flew off not unwillinglyinto the plain, and they left the steep citadel of Pylos.All day long they shook the yoke, holding it on both sides.The sun set and all the streets were shadowed.They reached Pherae, to the house of Diocles,the son of Ortilochus, whom Alpheus fathered as his child.There they passed the night, and he set guest gifts before them.When early-born, rosy-fingered Dawn appeared,they yoked the horses and climbed onto the painted chariot.They drove out from the gateway and the echoing portico.He whipped them to go, and the two flew off not unwillingly.They came to the wheat-bearing plain, and therethey finished the journey, for the swift horses carried them along so well.The sun set and all the streets were shadowed.

So they came to hollow Lacedaemon, the land of deep ravines,and drove up to the house of glorious Menelaus.They found him holding a wedding feast for many relatives,for his son and his blameless daughter, in his own house.He was sending the girl to the son of Achilles, the breaker of men —because back in Troy he had promised and nodded his headto give her, and now the gods were bringing the marriage about.So he was sending her there with horses and chariotsto the famous city of the Myrmidons, where that son ruled.And for his son he was bringing a bride from Sparta, Alector's daughter,strong Megapenthes, born to him in his old agefrom a slave woman; and the gods gave Helen no more children,after she had first given birth to a lovely child,Hermione, who had the beauty of golden Aphrodite.So they feasted through the great high-roofed hall,the neighbours and the clansmen of glorious Menelaus,enjoying themselves; and among them a holy bard sangplaying the lyre, and two acrobats spunthrough the middle of them as the song began.But the other two, in the porch of the house, the two men and their horses,the hero Telemachus and Nestor's splendid son,stopped there; and lord Eteoneus came out and saw them,the quick servant of glorious Menelaus,and he went through the halls to tell the shepherd of the people,and standing beside him he spoke winged words:"Two strangers are here, Menelaus, raised by Zeus,two men, and by birth they look like sons of great Zeus.But tell me: should we unyoke their swift horses,or send them on to someone else who will welcome them?"Then, greatly upset, fair-haired Menelaus answered him:"You weren't a fool before, Eteoneus, son of Boethous,but now you talk like a child, like a senseless boy.Surely the two of us came here after eating plenty of guest-mealsat other men's tables — if ever Zeuslets us stop suffering in the future. So unyokethe strangers' horses, and bring the men in to eat."So he said, and the other ran through the hall and calledthe other quick servants to follow him.They loosed the sweating horses from under the yokeand tied them to the mangers in the stable,and threw spelt down for them and mixed white barley,and leaned the chariot against the gleaming porch,and led the men into the holy house. And when they saw it,they were amazed all through the house of the Zeus-raised king:for like the shining of the sun or the moonwas the high-roofed house of glorious Menelaus.But when they had looked their fill with their eyes,they stepped into the polished bathtubs and washed.And when the maids had washed them and rubbed them with oil,and thrown woolly cloaks and tunics around them,they sat down on chairs beside Atreus' son Menelaus.And a maid brought a pitcher and poured water overa beautiful golden basin set on top of a silver one,for them to wash; and she pulled a polished table up beside them.And the respected housekeeper brought and set out bread,adding lots of dishes, sharing freely what was there.And the carver lifted and set before them platters of meatof every kind, and put golden cups beside them.And greeting them, fair-haired Menelaus said:"Take the food and welcome. Afterwards,once you've tasted dinner, we'll ask who you areamong men; your parents' family hasn't died out,but you come from the family of Zeus-raised kingswho carry scepters — bad men couldn't father children like you."So he said, and set the fat back of an ox before them,roasted, taking it in his hands — the piece they had set aside for him.And they reached their hands out to the ready food in front of them.But when they had lost their hunger and thirst,then Telemachus spoke to Nestor's son,pulling his head close so the others wouldn't hear:"Look, son of Nestor, dear to my heart —the flashing of bronze through the echoing halls,and of gold and amber and silver and ivory.This must be what the court of Olympian Zeus is like inside,there's so much of it, more than words; awe takes hold of me as I look."And fair-haired Menelaus heard him talking,and called out and spoke winged words to them:"Dear children, no mortal could compete with Zeus —his house and his possessions are immortal.But among men, someone might compete with me in possessions, or might not.For after much suffering and much wandering,I brought them home in my ships and got back in the eighth year,driven as far as Cyprus and Phoenicia and Egypt,and I reached the Ethiopians and Sidonians and Erembi,and Libya, where the lambs are born with horns straight away.For there the flocks give birth three times in one full year.And there no master and no shepherd lackscheese or meat or sweet milk,but they always give milk to draw all year round.While I wandered there, piling up a big living,meanwhile another man killed my brother,in secret, without warning, by the trick of his cursed wife.So I don't rule over these possessions with any joy.And you've probably heard this from your fathers,whoever they are — since I suffered a lot, and lost my house,a house that was very well settled, holding many good things.If only I lived in my halls with even a third of it,and those men were safe who died back thenin wide Troy, far from horse-pasturing Argos.But still, mourning and grieving for them all,often as I sit in my halls,sometimes I cheer my heart with crying, sometimesI stop; for you get sick of cold grief quickly.For all of them I don't grieve as much, grieving as I am,as for one man, who makes sleep and food hateful to mewhen I remember him — no other Greek worked so hardas Odysseus worked and endured. And yet for himsorrows were coming, and for me grief I'll never forgetfor that man, because he's been gone so long, and we don't knowwhether he's alive or dead. And surely they mourn him,old Laertes and sensible Penelopeand Telemachus, whom he left as a newborn in his house."So he said, and stirred in the other a longing to cry for his father.He let a tear fall from his eyelids to the ground when he heard about his father,holding his purple cloak up in front of his eyeswith both hands. And Menelaus noticed him,and then wondered in his heart and mindwhether he should let him remember his father on his own,or first question him and test him on everything.While he was turning this over in his heart and mind,out of her sweet-smelling high-roofed room came Helen,looking like Artemis with the golden distaff.And with her Adreste set out a well-made chair,and Alcippe brought a rug of soft wool,and Phylo brought a silver basket, which Alcandra had given her,the wife of Polybus, who lived in Egyptian Thebes,where the greatest wealth lies in the houses;he gave Menelaus two silver bathtubs,and two tripods, and ten talents of gold.And separately Helen, his wife, gave him beautiful gifts:a golden distaff and a basket on wheels,made of silver, with the rims worked in gold.This the maid Phylo brought and set beside her,stuffed with finely made yarn; and on top of itlay the distaff, holding violet-dark wool.She sat down in the chair, and a footstool was under her feet.And right away she asked her husband about everything:"Do we know, Menelaus, raised by Zeus, who these men arewho claim to have come to our house?Should I lie, or should I tell the truth? My heart tells me to.For I say I've never seen anyone so much alike —not a man or a woman — awe takes hold of me as I look —as this man is like the son of great-hearted Odysseus,Telemachus, whom that man left as a newborn in his house,when for my sake, shameless dog that I am, the Greekscame to Troy, planning a bold war."Then fair-haired Menelaus answered her:"I think the same now, lady, as you're guessing.For his feet were like that, and his hands like that,and the look in his eyes, and his head, and the hair on top."And just now, remembering Odysseus,I was telling how much he suffered and workedfor my sake, and he let a bitter tear fall from under his brows,holding his purple cloak up in front of his eyes."Then Nestor's son Peisistratus answered him:"Menelaus, raised by Zeus, son of Atreus, leader of hosts,this really is that man's son, just as you say;but he's sensible, and he's ashamed in his heartto come here and, right at first, show off his talkingface to face with you, whose voice we enjoy like a god's.But old Gerenian Nestor, the horseman, sent meto come along with him as an escort; for he wanted to see you,so you might put some word or some plan in his mind.For many troubles come to the son of a father who's gonein his halls, when he has no other helpers,as now for Telemachus — his father is gone, and there are no othersin the district who might fend off ruin from him."Then fair-haired Menelaus answered him:"Oh! So the son of a dear man has come to my house,the man who worked through many hard trials for my sake.And I said I'd love him more than the otherGreeks if he came, if over the sea Olympian Zeus who thunders widegranted that we two got home safe in our swift ships.And I would have settled a city for him in Argos and built him a house,bringing him from Ithaca with his possessions and his sonand all his people, after sacking one cityof those that lie around me and are ruled by me.And we'd often be together here; and nothingwould have separated us, loving each other and enjoying it,until the dark cloud of death covered us over.But that, I suppose, some god was going to begrudge,the god who made that poor man, alone, never to come home."So he said, and stirred in them all a longing to cry.Argive Helen cried, the daughter of Zeus,and Telemachus cried, and Atreus' son Menelaus,and Nestor's son didn't keep his eyes dry either;for he remembered blameless Antilochus in his heart,whom the splendid son of shining Dawn had killed.Remembering him, he spoke winged words:"Son of Atreus, old Nestor used to sayyou were the wisest of mortals, above all others,whenever we talked about you in his hallsand spoke with each other.And now, if there's any way, listen to me; for I for onedon't enjoy crying after dinner, but early-borndawn will be here; and I wouldn't begrudgecrying for any mortal who dies and meets his fate.For this is the only honor for poor mortals:to cut the hair and let a tear fall from the cheeks.For my brother is dead too, and no worst manamong the Greeks — you must know him; for I for onenever met him or saw him; but they say Antilochuswas the best of the others at running and at fighting."Then fair-haired Menelaus answered him:"Dear friend, since you've said what a wise manwould say and do, even one older than you —for that's the kind of father you have, and you speak wisely —a man's child is easy to recognize, when the son of Cronusspins out wealth for him at his marriage and at his birth,as he has now given to Nestor all his days:that he himself grow sleek and old in his halls,and his sons be wise and the best with the spear.But let's drop the crying that just happened,and think about dinner again, and let them pourwater over our hands. There'll be plenty of talkat dawn for Telemachus and me to share with each other."So he said, and Asphalion poured water over their hands,the quick servant of glorious Menelaus.And they reached their hands out to the ready food in front of them.Then Helen, daughter of Zeus, thought of something else:right away she dropped a drug into the wine they were drinking,a drug that takes away grief and anger and makes you forget all troubles.Whoever swallowed it, once it was mixed in the bowl,couldn't let a tear fall down his cheeks all day,not even if his mother and father both died,or if his brother or dear son right in front of himwere cut down with bronze while he watched with his own eyes.Such were the clever drugs the daughter of Zeus had,good ones, which Polydamna gave her, the wife of Thon,an Egyptian — for there the grain-giving earth grows the mostdrugs, many good ones mixed in, and many harmful;and every man there is a doctor who knows more than allother men; for they come from the family of Paeon.But when she'd dropped it in and told them to pour the wine,again she spoke and answered them with words:"Menelaus, raised by Zeus, son of Atreus, and you here,sons of good men — Zeus gives good and evilto one man at one time, to another at another; he can do anything —come on, sit and feast in the hallsand enjoy the talk; for I'll tell you things that fit.I couldn't tell or name them all,all the hard trials that enduring Odysseus went through;but take this one thing that strong man did and enduredin the land of the Trojans, where you Greeks suffered troubles.He beat his own body with shameful blows,threw a ragged cloth over his shoulders, looking like a slave,and sneaked into the wide-streeted city of the enemy men;and hiding himself, he pretended to be a different man,a beggar, one who was nothing like that among the Greek ships.Looking like him he entered the city of the Trojans, and they allwere fooled; but I alone recognized him as he was,and questioned him; but he dodged me with his cunning.But when I had bathed him and rubbed him with oil,and dressed him in clothes and swore a strong oathnot to reveal Odysseus among the Trojans untilhe got back to the swift ships and the huts,then he told me the whole plan of the Greeks.And after killing many Trojans with the long-pointed bronzehe came back to the Greeks, bringing back a lot of news.Then the other Trojan women wailed loudly; but my own heartwas glad, because my mind had already turned to goinghome again, and I was sorry for the ruin that Aphroditegave me, when she led me there from my own dear homeland,leaving behind my child and my bedroom and my husband,who lacked nothing in brains or in looks."Then fair-haired Menelaus answered her:"Yes, lady, you've told all this the way it should be told.For I've learned the thinking and the mind of manyheroic men, and I've traveled over a lot of land;but I've never yet seen with my own eyes anyonelike the dear heart of enduring Odysseus.What a thing that strong man did and endured —inside the polished horse, where we all sat, the bestof the Greeks, bringing slaughter and death to the Trojans.Then you came there; and some god was about to send you,the spirit that wanted to give glory to the Trojans;and godlike Deiphobus came along with you as you went.Three times you walked around the hollow ambush, feeling it with your hands,and you called out by name the best of the Greeks,making your voice sound like their wives' voices.But I and the son of Tydeus and brilliant Odysseus,sitting in the middle, heard how you shouted.The two of us were hot to jump outor to answer right away from inside;but Odysseus held us back and stopped us, eager as we were.Then all the other sons of the Greeks were silent,but Anticlus alone wanted to answer you with words.But Odysseus pressed his hand over his mouthwithout letting up, with his strong hands, and saved all the Greeks;and he held him like that until Pallas Athena led you away."Then wise Telemachus answered him:"Menelaus, raised by Zeus, son of Atreus, leader of hosts,that's the worse for it; none of that stopped his cruel death,not even if his heart inside was made of iron.But come, send us to bed, so we too can right nowlie down and enjoy sweet sleep."So he said, and Argive Helen told the maidsto set up beds under the portico and throw on beautifulpurple blankets and spread rugs on top,and put woolly cloaks on top to cover themselves with.And they went out of the hall with torches in their hands,and made the beds; and a herald led the guests out.So they slept there in the front court of the house,the hero Telemachus and Nestor's splendid son;and Atreus' son slept in the inner corner of the lofty house,and beside him lay Helen of the long robes, shining among women.But when early-born, rosy-fingered Dawn appeared,Menelaus, good at the war cry, got up from his bed,put on his clothes, slung a sharp sword over his shoulder,tied beautiful sandals under his shining feet,and went out of the bedroom, looking like a god,and sat down beside Telemachus, and spoke a word and called him by name:"What need brought you here, hero Telemachus,to shining Lacedaemon, over the broad back of the sea?Public business or your own? Tell me this for certain."Then wise Telemachus answered him:"Menelaus, raised by Zeus, son of Atreus, leader of hosts,I've come, in case you can tell me some news of my father.My house is being eaten up, my rich fields are ruined,and my house is full of hostile men, who alwaysslaughter my crowding sheep and my shambling, crook-horned cattle —my mother's suitors, acting with arrogant violence.So now I come to your knees as a beggar, in case you're willingto tell me about that man's cruel death, if you've seen it anywherewith your own eyes, or heard the word from someone elseas he wandered; for his mother bore him for sorrow.And don't soothe me out of shame or pity,but tell me well how you ran into that sight.I beg you, if ever my father, noble Odysseus,promised some word or did some deed for youin the land of the Trojans, where you Greeks suffered troubles,remember that now for me, and tell me the truth."Then, greatly upset, fair-haired Menelaus answered him:"Oh no — so it's a strong-hearted man's bedthat these weaklings wanted to lie in!Like when a deer in a thicket has put her newborn, milk-fed fawnsto sleep, and roams over the slopes and grassy hollowsto graze, and then a strong lion comes to that bed of hersand brings a shameful death on both of them —so will Odysseus bring a shameful death on those men.I wish, father Zeus, and Athena, and Apollo,that he were the man he once was in well-built Lesbos,when he stood up and wrestled with Philomeleides in a contest,and threw him hard, and all the Greeks cheered —such a man might Odysseus be among the suitors!Then all of them would die fast and have bitter weddings.But as for what you're asking me and begging me for, I for onewon't say anything different, dodging sideways, and I won't trick you,but I'll tell you what the old man of the sea told me, and he tells the truth;I won't hide a single word of it from you or keep it back."The gods still held me in Egypt when I was eager to get home,because I hadn't offered them complete sacrifices.For the gods always want people to remember their commands.There's an island out in the much-surging sea,in front of Egypt, and people call it Pharos,as far away as a hollow ship can goin one whole day, when a shrill fair wind blows behind her.And it has a good harbor, where men launchtheir balanced ships into the sea after drawing dark water.The gods held me there twenty days, and no fair windsever showed up blowing, the winds thatguide ships over the broad back of the sea.And by now all my supplies would have run out and my men's strength too,if one of the gods hadn't pitied me and saved me,the daughter of mighty Proteus, the old man of the sea,Eidothea; for I stirred her heart most of all.She met me wandering alone, away from my companions;for they were always roaming around the island fishingwith bent hooks, and hunger was wearing out their bellies.And she stood near me and spoke a word and said:'You're very foolish, stranger, and weak in the head,or you're giving up willingly and enjoying your suffering.How long have you been stuck on this island, and you can'tfind any way out, and your companions' hearts are failing?'So she said, and I answered her and said:'I'll tell you, whoever of the goddesses you are,that I'm not held here willingly, but I must haveoffended the immortals who hold the wide heaven.But you tell me — the gods know everything —which of the immortals traps me and has blocked my road,and how I'll get across the fish-filled sea.'So I said, and the shining goddess answered right away:'Then I'll tell you, stranger, very exactly.An old man of the sea roams around here, and he tells the truth,an immortal Egyptian, Proteus, who knows the depthsof all the sea, and serves under Poseidon;and they say he's my father and that he fathered me.If you could somehow lie in wait and grab him,he'd tell you your route and the distances of your journey,and how you'll get across the fish-filled sea.And he'd tell you, Zeus-raised one, if you want,whatever evil and good has been done in your hallswhile you've been gone on the long, painful road.'So she said, and I answered her and said:'Now you yourself plan the ambush of this divine old man,in case he sees me coming or finds out and escapes;for it's hard for a mortal man to beat a god.'So I said, and the shining goddess answered right away:'Then I'll tell you, stranger, very exactly.When the sun has climbed to the middle of the sky,then the old man of the sea comes up out of the salt water,under the breath of the West Wind, hidden in dark rippling water,and once he's out he sleeps under the hollow caves;and around him the seals, children of the beautiful sea goddess,sleep in a herd, risen up out of the gray sea,breathing out the sharp smell of the deep salt water.There I'll lead you at dawn when it shows,and lay you down in a row; and you pick out three goodcompanions, the best ones beside your well-benched ships.And I'll tell you all the treacherous tricks of that old man.First he'll go and count the seals;and when he's counted them all by fives and looked them over,he'll lie down in the middle of them like a shepherd among his sheep.And as soon as you see him lying down asleep,then let your strength and force be ready,and hold him there while he struggles, eager as he is to escape.And he'll try every shape of everything that creepson the earth, and water and blazing fire;but you hold on without letting go, and squeeze him harder.But when at last he himself questions you with words,being just as you saw him when he lay down,then at last relax your grip and let the old man go,hero, and ask him which of the gods is angry with you,and how you'll get across the fish-filled sea."So saying that, she dove down under the surging sea.But I went to the ships, where they stood on the sand,my supplies; and my heart churned a lot inside me as I went.But when I got down to the ship and the sea,and we had made dinner ready, and immortal night came on,then we lay down to sleep on the edge of the sea.But when early-born, rosy-fingered Dawn appeared,then along the shore of the wide-pathed seaI went, praying a lot to the gods; and three of my companionsI led along, the men I trusted most in every way.Meanwhile she, diving down into the broad bay of the sea,brought up four sealskins from the deep;they were all freshly flayed; and she was planning a trick against her father.And she had dug out beds in the sands by the shore,and sat waiting; and we came very close to her.And she laid us down in a row, and threw a hide over each of us.There the ambush would have been the most awful thing; for it tortured us badly,the deadly stink of the sea-fed seals.For who would lie down to sleep next to a sea monster?But she herself saved us and thought up a big help:she brought ambrosia and put it under each man's nose,smelling very sweet, and killed the monster's stink.And all morning we waited with patient hearts;and the seals came out of the sea in crowds. Then theylay down in rows along the edge of the sea;and at noon the old man came out of the sea, and found the sealswell fed, and went along all of them, and counted their number;and he counted us first among the monsters, and nothing in his heartsuspected there was a trick; then he lay down too.But we rushed at him with a shout, and threw our armsaround him; and the old man didn't forget his crafty skill,but first of all he turned into a deep-maned lion,and then a snake and a leopard and a big boar;and he turned into wet water and a tall leafy tree;but we held on without letting go, with patient hearts.But when at last the old man, who knew treacherous things, got tired,then he questioned me with words and said:'Who of the gods, son of Atreus, planned these plans with you,so that you took me by ambush against my will? What do you want?'So he said, and I answered him and said:'You know, old man, why you're asking me these things to turn me aside.How long have I been stuck on this island, and I can'tfind any way out, and my heart fails inside me.But you tell me — the gods know everything —which of the immortals traps me and has blocked my road,and how I'll get across the fish-filled sea.'So I said, and he answered me right away and said:'Ah, but you should have offered fine sacrifices to Zeusand the other gods before you set out, so that you could comeas fast as possible to your homeland, sailing over the wine-dark sea.For it isn't your fate to see your friends and reachyour well-built home and your homeland beforeyou go back to the water of the river of Egypt, fed by rain,and offer sacred sacrificesto the immortal gods who hold the wide heaven;and then the gods will give you the journey you're longing for.'So he said, and my own dear heart broke inside me,because he told me to go back over the misty seato Egypt, a long and painful trip.But even so I answered him with words:'All that I'll do, old man, just as you tell me.But come, tell me this and relate it exactly:did all the Greeks get home unharmed in their ships,the ones Nestor and I left behind when we sailed from Troy,or did someone die a cruel death on his own shipor in the hands of friends, after he'd finished the war?'So I said, and he answered me right away and said:'Son of Atreus, why are you asking me this? It's not for youto know it, or to learn my thoughts; and I don't thinkyou'll be long without crying once you hear it all properly.For many of them died, and many were left behind;and of the leaders, only two of the bronze-clad Greeksdied on the way home; and you yourself were there at the battle.And one more is still being held alive, somewhere on the wide sea.Ajax died among his long-oared ships.First Poseidon drove him onto the Gyraeanrocks, and saved him from the sea;and he would have escaped death, though Athena hated him,if he hadn't let out a boastful word and been completely blinded;he said he'd escaped the great gulf of the sea against the gods' will.And Poseidon heard him shout it out;right away then he took his trident in his strong handsand struck the Gyraean rock and split it in two;and one part stayed there, and the piece fell into the sea,the piece Ajax had first sat on, and he was completely doomed;and it carried him over the endless surging sea.So he died there, when he drank the salt water.But your brother, I suppose, escaped death and got awayin his hollow ships; and lady Hera saved him.But when he was just about to reach the steepmountain of Malea, then a storm snatched him upand carried him over the fish-filled sea, groaning heavily,to the edge of the countryside, where Thyestes oncehad his house, but then Thyestes' son Aegisthus lived there.But when a safe homecoming even from there appeared,and the gods turned the wind around, and they got home,then he stepped gladly onto his homelandand kissed and touched his own land; and from him manyhot tears poured out, since he was glad to see the land.But a lookout saw him from the watchtower, the onecrafty Aegisthus had put there, and he promised him a payment,two talents of gold; and he watched for a year,in case he slipped past, so he could remember his fierce courage.And he went to the house to tell the shepherd of the people.Right away Aegisthus thought up a cunning plan;picking twenty of the best men in the districthe set them in ambush, and elsewhere he ordered a feast to be made ready.Then he went to invite Agamemnon, shepherd of the people,with horses and chariots, thinking shameful thoughts.And he brought him up, not knowing his death was coming, and killed himafter feeding him, the way a man kills an ox at the manger.And none of Atreus' son's companions who came with him survived,and none of Aegisthus' men either, but they were killed in the halls.So he said, and my own dear heart broke inside me,and I cried, sitting in the sand, and my heartno longer wanted to live and see the sunlight.But when I'd had enough of crying and rolling in the dust,then the truthful old man of the sea spoke to me:'Don't cry like that any longer, son of Atreus, so long and without stopping,since we see no good come of it; but as fast as you can,try to reach your homeland.For either you'll find him alive, or Oresteshas killed him first, and you'll come to his funeral.'So he said, and my heart and my proud spiritwere warmed again in my chest, even though I was grieving,and I spoke out and addressed him with winged words:'Those I already know about; but name a third man for me,whoever is still being held alive on the wide sea,or dead; and I want to hear it, grieving as I am.'So I said, and he answered me right away and said:'The son of Laertes, who has his home in Ithaca.I saw him on an island, shedding a big tear,in the halls of the nymph Calypso, who holds himby force; and he can't reach his homeland;for he has no oared ships and no companions,who could send him over the broad back of the sea.But for you, Zeus-raised Menelaus, it isn't fatedto die in horse-pasturing Argos and meet your fate,but the immortals will send you to the Elysian plain and the ends of the earth,where fair-haired Rhadamanthys is,where life is easiest for people.There's no snow, no heavy storm, no rain ever,but always the breezes of the shrilly blowing West Windthat Ocean sends up to cool people;because you have Helen, and you're Zeus's son-in-law.'So saying that, he dove down under the surging sea.But I went to the ships with my godlike companions,and my heart churned a lot inside me as I went.But when we got down to the ship and the sea,and we had made dinner ready, and immortal night came on,then we lay down to sleep on the edge of the sea.But when early-born, rosy-fingered Dawn appeared,first of all we dragged the ships into the shining salt sea,and set up masts and sails in the well-balanced ships,and we ourselves climbed aboard and sat down on the benches;and sitting in rows we struck the gray salt water with our oars.And back to the river of Egypt, fed by rain,I brought my ships to shore, and offered complete sacrifices.But when I had ended the anger of the gods who live forever,I piled up a tomb for Agamemnon, so his fame would never die out.Having finished all that, I sailed home, and the immortalsgave me a fair wind, and sent me quickly to my dear homeland.But come now, stay on in my halls,until the eleventh day and the twelfth day come;and then I'll send you off well, and give you shining gifts,three horses and a well-smoothed chariot; and after thatI'll give you a beautiful cup, so you can pour offerings to the godsimmortal, remembering me all your days."Then wise Telemachus answered him:"Son of Atreus, don't keep me here a long time.For even for a year I'd put up with staying beside you,sitting here, and no longing for home or parents would grab me;for I take great pleasure in hearing your stories and your words.But my companions are already getting upset for mein holy Pylos; and you're keeping me here a long time.Whatever gift you give me, let it be a treasure;but horses I won't take to Ithaca, but I'll leave themhere for you yourself, as a decoration; for you rule overa wide plain, with lots of clover in it, and galingale,and wheat and spelt and the broad-growing white barley.But in Ithaca there are no wide tracks and no meadow;it's goat-pasture, and nicer even than horse-pasture.For none of the islands that lean on the seais good for driving horses or rich in meadows; and Ithaca most of all."So he said, and Menelaus, good at the war cry, smiled,and stroked him with his hand, and spoke a word and called him by name:"You're from good blood, dear child, from the way you talk.So I'll change that for you; for I can.And of the gifts that lie as treasures in my house,I'll give you the one that's the most beautiful and the most valuable.I'll give you a well-made mixing bowl; it's allsilver, and the rims are worked in gold,made by Hephaestus. The hero Phaedimus,king of the Sidonians, gave it to me, when his house shelteredme on my way home there; and I want to give it to you."So the two of them said things like this to each other,and the guests went into the halls of the divine king.They brought sheep, and carried wine that makes men glad;and their pretty, head-veiled wives sent them bread.So these people busied themselves with dinner in the halls.But the suitors, in front of Odysseus' house,were enjoying themselves with quoits and throwing javelinson the leveled ground, where they'd done it before, acting arrogant.And Antinous was sitting there, and godlike Eurymachus,the leaders of the suitors, and they were far the best in bravery.And to them Noemon, son of Phronius, came up closeand questioned Antinous and said to him:'Antinous, do we know in our minds, or don't we,when Telemachus will sail back from sandy Pylos?He's gone off, taking my ship with him; and I need itto cross over to spacious Elis, where I havetwelve mares, and sturdy mules under them,unbroken; I'd like to drive one away and break it in.'So he said, and they were amazed in their hearts; for they didn't thinkhe'd gone to Neleian Pylos, but that he was somewhereout in the fields with the sheep, or with the swineherd.Then Antinous, son of Eupeithes, answered him:'Tell me the truth, when did he go, and which young menwent with him? Chosen men of Ithaca, or his ownhired workers and slaves? He could do that too.And tell me this honestly, so I know well:did he take the black ship from you by force, against your will,or did you give it willingly, since he asked you with words?'Then Noemon, son of Phronius, answered him:'I gave it to him willingly myself; what else could anyone do,when a man like that, with worries in his heart,asks? It would be hard to refuse the gift.And the young men who went with him are the ones who are bestin the district among us; and I noticed their leadergoing aboard — Mentor, or a god, and he looked exactly like him.But this I'm amazed at: I saw divine Mentor hereyesterday morning, and then he went aboard the ship for Pylos.'So saying that, he went off to his father's house,and the proud heart of both of them was upset.And they made the suitors sit down together and stopped the games.Then Antinous, son of Eupeithes, spoke among them,upset; and his dark heart was filled upwith rage, and his two eyes were like blazing fire:'Oh no, this trip of Telemachus has been pulled offin a grand and arrogant way; and we said it wouldn't happen.Against our will, the young boy has just gone off,having dragged out a ship and picked the best men in the district.He'll start being a problem even further ahead; but may Zeusdestroy his strength himself, before he reaches manhood.But come, give me a swift ship and twenty companions,so I can lie in wait for him as he comes and keep watchin the strait between Ithaca and rugged Samos,so his sailing for his father turns out miserable.'So he said, and they all agreed and told him to do it.Right away then they got up and went to Odysseus' house.And Penelope wasn't unaware for longof the words the suitors were brooding in their hearts;for the herald Medon told her, who learned their plansas he stood outside the courtyard; and they were weaving their plan inside.And he went through the halls to tell Penelope;and as he crossed the threshold Penelope spoke to him:'Herald, why did the proud suitors send you?Is it to tell the maids of divine Odysseusto stop their work and make a feast for them?May they never court again or meet together anywhere else,and may they now eat dinner here for the last and final time —they who gather here so often and cut down my big livelihood,the property of wise Telemachus; and you never heardabout your own fathers before, when you were children,what kind of man Odysseus was among your parents,never doing or saying anything outrageousin the district — which is the way divine kings act;one man he might hate, another he might love.But that man never did anything reckless to anyone.But your temper and your shameful deedsare plain, and there's no gratitude for kindness afterwards.'Then Medon, who knew wise things, answered her:'If only, my queen, this were the greatest evil.But the suitors are planning something far biggerand more painful, which may the son of Cronus not carry out:they mean to kill Telemachus with the sharp bronzeas he comes home; and he's gone to find news of his fatherto holy Pylos and to shining Lacedaemon.'So he said, and her knees and her own heart went weak beneath her,and for a long while she was speechless at his words; and her two eyesfilled with tears, and her full voice was stuck.And at last she answered him and said:'Herald, why has my son gone? He has no needto step aboard swift ships, which are horses of the seafor men, and carry them over the great wet expanse.Or is it so that not even his name will be left among people?'Then Medon, who knew wise things, answered her:'I don't know whether some god stirred him up, or whetherhis own heart pushed him to go to Pylos, so he could learnabout his father, either his homecoming or what death he met.'So saying that, he went off through Odysseus' house.And heart-destroying grief poured around her, and she no longer had the strengthto sit on a chair, though many were in the house,but she sat down on the threshold of the well-made bedroom,crying pitifully; and around her the maids murmured,all of them, as many as were young and old in the halls.And Penelope, weeping shrilly, spoke among them:'Listen, dear women; for the Olympian has given me griefbeyond all women, as many as were raised with me and born with me.I, who first lost my noble husband, a lion-hearted man,outstanding in every kind of virtue among the Greeks,a noble man, whose fame is wide through Greece and central Argos.Now again a storm has snatched away my beloved sonfrom the halls, with no one knowing, and I didn't hear he'd set out.Cruel women, none of you in your hearts thoughtto wake me from my bed, knowing clearly in your heartswhen that man went to the hollow black ship.For if I'd heard he was planning that trip,then even if he were eager to go, he would have stayed,or he would have left me dead in the halls.But let someone quickly call old Dolius,my slave, whom my father gave me before I came here,and who keeps my orchard full of trees, so that as fast as possiblehe can sit beside Laertes and tell him all this,in case that man, weaving some plan in his heart,goes out and complains to the people, who are determinedto destroy the family of him and of godlike Odysseus.'Then her dear nurse Eurycleia answered her:'Dear child, you can kill me with the pitiless bronze,or let me live in the hall; I won't hide the word from you.I knew all this, and I gave him whatever he asked for,bread and sweet wine; but he made me take a great oathnot to tell you before the twelfth day came,or before you yourself missed him and heard he'd set out,so you wouldn't cry and ruin your lovely skin.But go wash yourself, put clean clothes on your body,and go up to the upper room with your waiting women,and pray to Athena, daughter of Zeus who holds the aegis;for she may then save him even from death.And don't make the old man worse, when he's already troubled; for I don't thinkthe blessed gods hate the family of Arcesius completely,but there's still someone who will holdthe high-roofed house and the rich fields far off.'So she said, and calmed her crying, and stopped her eyes from tears.And she, washed, with clean clothes on her body,went up to the upper room with her waiting women,and put barley groats in a basket, and prayed to Athena:'Hear me, child of Zeus who holds the aegis, unwearied one,if ever Odysseus of many plans in his hallsburned for you the rich thighbones of an ox or a sheep,remember that now for me, and save my dear son,and drive away the suitors who wickedly act so proud.'So saying that, she cried out, and the goddess heard her prayer.And the suitors made a racket through the shadowy halls;and one of the proud young men would say:'The much-courted queen is surely gettinga wedding ready for us, and she doesn't know that death is ready for her son.'So one of them would say, but they didn't know how it had been arranged.Then Antinous spoke to them and said:'Strange men, avoid all your arrogant talkalike, in case someone reports it even inside.But come, let's get up in silence and carry outthe plan, which has pleased us all in our hearts.'So saying that, he picked twenty of the best men,and they went to the swift ship and the shore of the sea.First of all they dragged the ship down into the depths of the salt sea,and set up the mast and the sails in the black ship,and fitted the oars in their leather straps,all in order, and spread the white sails;and their high-hearted servants brought them their weapons.And they moored her out in the water, and went ashore themselves;and there they ate dinner, and waited for evening to come.But thoughtful Penelope lay up in her upper room,without food, without a taste of meat or drink,turning over in her mind whether her blameless son would escape death,or whether he'd be beaten down by the arrogant suitors.And as many thoughts as a lion in a crowd of menturns over in fear, when they lead him in a treacherous circle,so many thoughts came over her, and then sweet sleep came on her;and she slept, leaning back, and all her limbs went limp.Then the goddess, gray-eyed Athena, thought of something else:she made a ghost, and shaped it like a woman,Iphthime, the daughter of great-hearted Icarius,whom Eumelus married, living in Pherae.And she sent her to the house of divine Odysseus,so that she might make Penelope, mourning and wailing,stop crying and stop her tearful lament.She came into the bedroom by the strap of the door bolt,and stood above her head, and spoke a word to her:'Are you asleep, Penelope, with a heart full of grief?The gods who live at ease don't let youcry or be distressed, since your son is stillgoing to come home; for he's not guilty in the eyes of the gods.'Then thoughtful Penelope answered her,sleeping very sweetly at the gates of dreams:'Sister, why have you come here? You never came herebefore, since you live very far away.And you tell me to stop my misery and my manypains, which stir me in my heart and mind —I, who first lost my noble husband, a lion-hearted man,outstanding in every kind of virtue among the Greeks,a noble man, whose fame is wide through Greece and central Argos;now again my beloved son has gone in a hollow ship,a foolish boy, who knows nothing well of hard work or of public speaking.For him I grieve even more than for that other man;for him I tremble and fear, in case something happens to him,either among the people where he's gone, or on the sea;for many enemies are plotting against him,eager to kill him before he reaches his homeland.'Then the dim ghost answered her and said:'Take courage, and don't be too afraid in your heart;for a guide goes with him, one whom other menhave also prayed to stand beside them, and she can,Pallas Athena; and she pities you in your grief;she's the one who now sent me to tell you this.'Then thoughtful Penelope answered her:'If you're a god and have heard the voice of a god,come then, tell me too about that poor man,whether he's still alive and sees the sunlight,or whether he's already dead in the house of Hades.'Then the dim ghost answered her and said:'I won't tell you about that man at all exactly,whether he lives or is dead; and it's wrong to speak empty words.'So saying that, it slipped away past the door bolt of the hallinto the gusts of the winds. And she jumped up from sleep,the daughter of Icarius; and her own heart was warmed,because the dream had come to her clearly in the dead of night.But the suitors climbed aboard and sailed over the watery paths,planning steep slaughter for Telemachus in their hearts.There's a certain rocky island in the middle of the sea,between Ithaca and rugged Samos,Asteris, not big; and it has two harbors where ships can anchor,twin-mouthed; there the Greeks waited in ambush for him.

Dawn got up out of her bed, from beside noble Tithonus,to bring light to the gods and to people.The gods were sitting down in council, and among themwas Zeus, who thunders high above and has the greatest power.Athena started telling them how much Odysseus had suffered,because she remembered him and felt bad that he was stuck in the nymph's house."Father Zeus, and all you other gods who live forever,let no king with a scepter ever be kind and gentle again,or care about what is right in his heart.Let him always be cruel instead, and treat people badly,since nobody remembers godlike Odysseus,not the people he used to rule, though he was gentle as a father.He is stuck on an island, suffering terrible pain,in the halls of the nymph Calypso, who keeps him there by forceand will not let him go. He cannot get back to his own homeland,because he has no ships with oars, no crewto carry him over the wide back of the sea.And now they are planning to kill his sonon his way home. He went to ask about his fatherin holy Pylos and bright Sparta."Zeus, the cloud-gatherer, answered her:"My child, what kind of thing did you just say?Weren't you the one who planned this —that Odysseus would come back and pay those men back?Send Telemachus off yourself. You know how, and you can do it.Make sure he gets to his own homeland safe and sound,and let the suitors sail home againwith nothing, the way they came." Then he spoke to his dear son Hermes:"Hermes, you are our messenger for everything else too,so go tell the beautiful-haired nymph exactly what I have decided —Odysseus is going home, so that he may returnwith no escort from gods or from people.He will suffer on a well-built raft,and on the twentieth day reach fertile Scheria,the land of the Phaeacians, who are close to the gods.They will honor him from the heart as if he were a god,and they will send him home in a ship to his own country,giving him plenty of bronze, gold, and clothes,more than Odysseus ever got out of Troy,even if he had come home safe with his share of the loot.That is his fate: to see the people he loves and reachhis high-roofed house and his own homeland."He spoke, and Hermes the guide did not disobey.Right away he tied on his beautiful sandals,the immortal golden ones that carry him over the waterand over the endless land as fast as the wind blows.He picked up the wand that charms people's eyes,whoever he wants, and wakes others up again when they sleep.Holding it in his hands, strong Hermes flew.He passed over Pieria and dropped from the sky down to the sea.He skimmed the waves like a seagullthat hunts fish over the dangerous baysof the barren sea and dips its thick feathers in the salt water.Like that bird, Hermes rode over the many waves.When he reached the island far out in the sea,he stepped out of the dark water onto landand walked until he came to the big cave where the nymphwith the beautiful hair lived. He found her inside.A big fire was burning on the hearth, and the smell of burningsplit cedar and juniper drifted far across the island.Inside, she was singing with a lovely voice,walking back and forth at her loom, weaving with a gold shuttle.A lush forest grew all around the cave:alder, poplar, and sweet-smelling cypress.Long-winged birds roosted there too,owls, hawks, and long-tongued sea crows,sea birds that spend their lives on the water.A young vine grew all around the hollow cave,in full bloom, heavy with grapes.Four springs flowed side by side with clear water,close to each other, each running its own way.Soft meadows of violets and parsleybloomed all around. Even a god coming therewould stare at it and be glad in his heart.Hermes stood there and stared.When he had looked at everything he wanted,he went right into the wide cave. Calypso,the shining goddess, saw him and knew him at once,because gods always recognize each other,even if one of them lives far away.He did not find great-hearted Odysseus inside.Odysseus was sitting on the shore crying, like always,wearing his heart down with tears and groans and grief,staring out over the barren sea, crying.Calypso, the shining goddess, asked Hermes questionsafter she sat him down on a bright, gleaming throne:"Why have you come to me, Hermes with the golden wand?You are honored and welcome. You do not visit often.Tell me what you have in mind. I want to do it for youif I can, and if it can be done.Come further inside, so I can give you something to eat."The goddess said this and set a table in front of himfull of ambrosia, and mixed red nectar.Hermes, the guide, ate and drank.When he had eaten and filled his heart with food,he answered her with these words:"You are asking a god why he came, goddess. I willtell you the truth, since you asked me to.Zeus made me come here. I did not want to.Who would willingly run across so much salty water,so much you cannot measure it? There is no town of people nearby,nobody who makes sacrifices and burns offerings to the gods.But no other god can get around the mind of Zeusor avoid it.He says there is a man here, the most miserable of everyone,one of the men who fought around Priam's cityfor nine years, and in the tenth they sacked the city and wenthome. But on the way home they insulted Athena,and she stirred up a bad wind and long waves against them.Every one of his good companions died there,and the wind and the waves brought him here.Zeus says to send him away as fast as you can,because it is not his fate to die here, away from the people he loves.He is still fated to see his loved ones and reachhis high-roofed house and his own homeland."He spoke, and Calypso, the shining goddess, shuddered,and answered him with these words:"You gods are cruel, and more jealous than anyone else.You get angry when goddesses sleep with menout in the open, when a goddess makes a mortal her husband.When rosy-fingered Dawn took Orion,you gods who live easy lives were jealous of heruntil pure Artemis with the golden throne, in Ortygia,came at him with her gentle arrows and killed him.And when beautiful-haired Demeter gave inin her heart and slept with Iasion in love and in bedin a field plowed three times, Zeus found out soon enoughand struck him down with a bright thunderbolt and killed him.So now you gods are jealous of me for keeping a mortal man.I saved him. He was riding the keel aloneafter Zeus hit his fast ship with a bright thunderboltand smashed it in the middle of the wine-dark sea.Every one of his good companions died there,and the wind and the waves brought him here.I loved him and took care of him. I said I would make himimmortal and never old, for all his days.But since no other god can get around the mind of Zeusor avoid it,let him go, if Zeus is pushing him and telling him to,out over the barren sea. I will not send him myself.I have no ships with oars, no crewto carry him over the wide back of the sea.But I will gladly tell him what to do, and hide nothing,so he gets to his own homeland safe and sound."Hermes, the guide, answered her:"Send him off now, then, and watch out for Zeus's anger,so he does not get furious later and make life hard for you."He said this and left, strong Hermes.The queenly nymph went to great-hearted Odysseusafter she heard Zeus's message.She found him sitting on the shore. His eyes were neverdry of tears, and his sweet life was draining awaywhile he cried for home, because the nymph no longer pleased him.At night he slept with her, and he had no choice,in the hollow caves, unwilling next to the willing one.During the day he would sit on the rocks and the beaches,wearing his heart down with tears and groans and grief,staring out over the barren sea, crying.She stood near him and spoke to him:"You poor man, do not cry here anymore, and do not let your lifewaste away. I will send you off right now, gladly.Come on: cut some long logs and fit them togetherinto a wide raft. Build a deck on top of it,up high, so it carries you over the misty sea.I will put food and water and red wineon board, plenty to keep hunger away from you,and I will give you clothes. I will send a good wind behind you,so you reach your own homeland safe and sound,if the gods are willing, the ones who hold the wide sky,who are better than me at planning and finishing things."He heard this, and much-enduring shining Odysseus shuddered,and answered her with these words:"Goddess, you have something else in mind here, not an escort.You are telling me to cross the huge gulf of the sea on a raft,a terrible and painful thing. Even solid shipsdo not cross it, though they are fast and love a wind from Zeus.I will not step onto a raft against your will,unless you, goddess, dare to swear me a great oaththat you will not plot some other bad thing against me."He spoke, and Calypso, the shining goddess, smiledand stroked him with her hand, and said:"You are a rogue, and no fool, to have thought upa speech like that to make.Let the earth know this now, and the wide sky above,and the water of the Styx that flows down, which is the greatestand most terrible oath for the blessed gods:I will not plot any other bad thing against you.I will think and plan the same kind of thingsI would plan for myself, if I needed them that badly.My mind is fair too, and in my own chestmy heart is not made of iron. I have pity."She said this and led the wayquickly, and he followed in the goddess's footsteps.The god and the man came to the hollow cave,and he sat down on the throne Hermes had gotten up from,and the nymph set out all kinds of food in front of him,to eat and drink, the kind of food mortal men eat.She sat down facing godlike Odysseus,and her maids put ambrosia and nectar beside her.They reached out their hands to the food set in front of them.When they had had enough food and drink,Calypso, the shining goddess, started talking to them:"Son of Laertes, born of Zeus, clever Odysseus,so you really want to go home to your own countryright now? Well, good luck to you even so.If you knew in your heart how many troublesit is your fate to pile up before you reach your homeland,you would stay here with me and watch over this house,and you would be immortal, even though you long to seeyour wife, the one you want every single day.I do not claim to be worse than her at all,not in body and not in looks, since it is not rightfor mortal women to compete with immortal goddesses in body and beauty."Clever Odysseus answered her:"Goddess, do not be angry with me about this. I knowall of this very well myself: that wise Penelopeis smaller and less beautiful when you stand side by side.She is mortal, and you are immortal and never grow old.But even so I want and long every dayto go home and see the day I get back.And if some god smashes me on the wine-dark sea,I will put up with it and keep a patient heart in my chest.I have already suffered a lot and worked hardin waves and in war. Let this be added to that."He spoke, and the sun set and darkness came.The two of them went to the back of the hollow caveand enjoyed each other in love, staying side by side.When early-born, rosy-fingered Dawn appeared,right away Odysseus put on his cloak and tunic,and the nymph herself put on a big silvery robe,thin and lovely, and she put a belt around her waist,a beautiful gold one, and over her head a veil.Then she started planning how to send Odysseus off.She gave him a big axe that fit his hands,a bronze one, sharpened on both sides, and on itwas a really beautiful olive-wood handle, fitted on well.Then she gave him a polished adze, and she led the wayto the far end of the island, where tall trees grew:alder, poplar, and fir that reached up to the sky,dry long ago and seasoned through, so they would float easily for him.When she had shown him where the tall trees grew,Calypso, the shining goddess, went back to her house,and he cut the logs. He got the work done quickly.He brought out twenty of them and cut them with the bronze axe,smoothed them carefully, and straightened them with a line.Meanwhile Calypso, the shining goddess, brought him drills.He drilled all the logs through and fitted them to each other,and he hammered it tight with pegs and joints.A man who knows carpentry well shapes the bottom of a wide cargo shipjust so,and that is how Odysseus built the wide raft.He set up the deck, fitting it with close-set supports,and finished it off with long side beams.He made a mast in it and a yard that fit it,and he made a steering oar besides, so he could steer.He fenced the whole thing with woven willowto be a shield against the waves, and he piled on plenty of wood.Meanwhile Calypso, the shining goddess, brought him clothto make sails, and he made those well too.He tied braces and ropes and sheets on it,and dragged it down with levers into the shining sea.It was the fourth day, and everything was finished.On the fifth, shining Calypso sent him off the island,after bathing him and giving him sweet-smelling clothes.The goddess put a skin of dark wine on board,one of the two, and a big one of water, and a sackof grain. She set out plenty of food for him, the kind that fills you up.She sent a wind, harmless and gentle.Glad about the wind, shining Odysseus spread his sails.He steered her skillfully with the steering oar,sitting down. Sleep never fell on his eyelidswhile he watched the Pleiades and the Bear-ward, which sets late,and the Bear, which people also call the Wagon,which turns in place and watches for Orion,and is the only one that has no share in the baths of Ocean.Calypso, the shining goddess, had told himto keep it on his left side as he crossed the sea.He sailed seventeen days, crossing the sea,and on the eighteenth the shadowy mountains appeared,the land of the Phaeacians, which lay closest to him,and it looked like a shield of hide in the misty sea.The lord Earthshaker was coming back from the Ethiopiansand saw it far off, from the Solymi mountains, because he spotted itas he sailed on the sea. He got even angrier in his heart,and he shook his head and said to himself:"So then, the gods have clearly changed their plansabout Odysseus while I was away with the Ethiopians,and he is already near the land of the Phaeacians, where it is his fateto get past the great limit of the misery that has come on him.But I still think I will drive him deep into trouble."He said this and gathered the clouds and stirred up the sea,taking his trident in his hands, and he stirred up every blastof every kind of wind, and with clouds he coveredthe land and the sea together, and night rushed down from the sky.The East Wind and the South Wind fell on him, and the harsh West Windand the North Wind born in clear air, rolling up a huge wave.Then Odysseus' knees went weak, and his heart too,and troubled he said to himself:"Poor me, what is going to happen to me in the end?I am afraid the goddess told me the exact truth,the one who said that on the sea, before I get home,I would get a bellyful of trouble. Now it is all coming true.Look how Zeus wraps the wide sky in clouds,and he has stirred up the sea, and the blasts rush onfrom every kind of wind. Now my death is certain.The Greeks who died back then were lucky three and four times over,the ones who died in wide Troy, pleasing the sons of Atreus.I wish I had died there and met my fateon the day when the most Trojansthrew their bronze-tipped spears at me around the fallen son of Peleus.Then I would have gotten a funeral, and the Greeks would spread my fame.But now it is my fate to be caught by a miserable death."While he said this, a huge wave hit him on the crest,rushing on terribly, and spun the raft around.He himself fell far from the raft, and the steering oarhe let go out of his hands. The mast broke in the middlewhen the terrible squall came, with the winds all mixed together,and the sail and the yard fell far off into the sea.It held him under the water a long time, and he could notcome up fast from the rush of that huge wave,because his clothes weighed him down, the ones shining Calypso gave him.At last he came up and spat the bitter salt waterout of his mouth, and it poured off his head in streams.But even so, worn out as he was, he did not forget the raft,but he rushed back through the waves and grabbed hold of it,and sat down in the middle of it, dodging death.The huge wave carried it along the current, this way and that.Like when the North Wind in late summer carries thistledownacross a field, and the tufts stick to each other,that is how the winds carried it over the deep, this way and that.Sometimes the South Wind threw it to the North Wind to carry,and sometimes the East Wind gave way to the West Wind chasing it.The daughter of Cadmus saw him, fair-ankled Ino,Leucothea, who used to be a mortal woman with a human voice,and now in the depths of the sea has a share of the gods' honor.She felt sorry for Odysseus as he wandered, holding his sorrows,and she rose up out of the water like a diving bird in flight,and sat on the well-built raft and said:"You poor man, why is Poseidon the Earthshakerso terribly angry at you, that he keeps making so much trouble for you?He will not kill you, even though he wants to very badly.Just do exactly this, because you do not seem stupid to me:take off these clothes and leave the raft to be carried by the winds,and strike out with your hands and swim for home,for the land of the Phaeacians, where it is your fate to escape.There, spread this veil under your chest,an immortal one, and you have no need to fear suffering or dying.But once you lay hold of the mainland with your hands,loosen it again and throw it into the wine-dark sea,far from the land, and turn away yourself."She said this, and the goddess gave him the veil,and she herself dove back into the surging sealike a diving bird, and the dark wave covered her.Much-enduring shining Odysseus thought it over,and troubled he said to himself:"This is bad. What if one of the gods is weaving a trap for me again,one who tells me to get off the raft?But I will not obey, not yet, since with my own eyes I sawthe land far off, where she said escape was for me.But I will do exactly this, and it seems best to me:as long as the logs hold together in their joints,I will stay right here and put up with it, suffering pain.But when the wave shakes the raft apart for me,then I will swim, since there is nothing better at hand to plan."While he was turning this over in his mind and heart,Poseidon the Earthshaker stirred up a huge wave against him,terrible and painful and towering, and drove it at him.Like when a violent wind shakes a pile of dry chaffon a threshing floor, and scatters it all this way and that,that is how it scattered the raft's long logs. But Odysseusclimbed on top of a single log, riding it like a horse,and stripped off the clothes shining Calypso had given him.Right away he spread the veil under his chest,and he himself fell face down into the salt sea, stretching out his hands,eager to swim. The lord Earthshaker saw him,and he shook his head and said to himself:"So now, after suffering many evils, go wandering over the sea,until you mix with men who are raised by Zeus.But not even so do I think you will laugh off your trouble."He said this and whipped his beautiful-maned horses,and came to Aegae, where his famous house is.But Athena, the daughter of Zeus, thought of something else.She tied up the paths of the other windsand ordered them all to stop and go to sleep.She stirred up the swift North Wind and broke the waves in front of him,until Zeus-born Odysseus, escaping death and doom,could reach the Phaeacians who love the oar.For two nights and two days on the solid swellhe drifted, and many times his heart saw death coming.But when beautiful-haired Dawn finished the third day,then the wind stopped, and there came a windless calm,and he saw land close by,looking sharply ahead as he was lifted by the huge wave.Like when life looks welcome to children,when their father lies in sickness, suffering terrible pain,wasting away for a long time, and a hateful spirit is on him,and then the gods gladly set him free from his misery,that is how welcome the land and the woods looked to Odysseus,and he swam eagerly to set his feet on the mainland.But when he was as far off as a shout carries,he heard the sea crashing against the rocks,because the huge wave roared against the dry land,bellowing terribly, and everything was wrapped in sea foam.There were no harbors for ships, no anchorages,but jutting headlands and rocks and cliffs.Then Odysseus' knees went weak, and his heart too,and troubled he said to himself:"Poor me, Zeus has let me see land I had given up on,and I have cut across this gulf and made it through,but there is no way out of the gray sea anywhere.Outside there are sharp cliffs, and around them the waveroars with the surf, and the smooth rock rises up,and the water is deep close in, and there is no way with my feetto stand on both of them and escape this misery.If I climb out, a huge wave might grab me and throw meagainst the jagged rock, and my effort will be wasted.But if I swim further on, in the hope that I may findslanted shorelines and harbors of the sea,I am afraid a squall will snatch me up againand carry me over the fish-filled sea, groaning heavily,or a god will send some huge sea monster at meout of the sea, the kind famous Amphitrite breeds in numbers,because I know well how the famous Earthshaker hates me."While he was turning this over in his mind and heart,meanwhile a huge wave carried him toward the rough shore.There his skin would have been scraped off and his bones crushed,if the goddess, bright-eyed Athena, had not put it in his mind.He rushed forward and grabbed the rock with both hands,and he held on groaning until the huge wave passed by.So he escaped that one, but the backwash wavestruck him again as it rushed on, and threw him far out into the sea.Like when an octopus is dragged out of its hole,and the pebbles stick thick to its suckers,that is how his skin was torn off his strong handsagainst the rocks, and the huge wave covered him.Then miserable Odysseus would have died beyond his fate,if bright-eyed Athena had not given him understanding.He came up out of the wave that gushes toward the mainlandand swam along the shore, looking toward land, hoping to findslanted shorelines and harbors of the sea.Then he came swimming to the mouth of a fair-flowing river,the very spot that seemed best to him,smooth of rocks, and there was shelter from the wind.He knew the stream flowing out and prayed in his heart:"Hear me, lord, whoever you are. I come to you, much prayed to,fleeing from the sea and the rebuke of Poseidon.Any man who comes as a wanderer is respectedeven by the immortal gods, and that is how I come nowto your stream and your knees, after much hard work.But have pity, lord. I declare myself your suppliant."He said this, and the river at once stopped its stream and checked its wave,and made a calm in front of him, and saved himat the river's mouth. He bent both kneesand his strong hands, because his dear heart was overcome by the sea.His whole skin was swollen, and a lot of sea watergushed from his mouth and nostrils, and he lay there breathless and speechless,barely alive, and terrible exhaustion came over him.But when he breathed again and the spirit gathered in his chest,then he untied the goddess's veil from himselfand let it fall into the river that swells with the sea,and a huge wave carried it back down the stream, and quickly Inocaught it in her own hands. He turned aside from the riverand lay down in a bed of reeds and kissed the life-giving earth.Troubled, he said to himself:"Poor me, what do I suffer now? What will happen to me in the end?If I keep a miserable watch all night by the river,in case the wicked frost and the soft dew togetherovercome me and drain my spirit while I am weak,and a cold breeze blows from the river before dawn,but if I go up the slope and lie down in the shady woods,in the thick bushes, and if the cold and the tiredness let me goand sweet sleep comes over me,I am afraid I will become the prey and the prize of wild animals."So as he thought it over, this seemed better to him.He went into the woods, and found them near the waterin an open place, and he crawled under two bushesthat had grown from the same spot, one wild olive and one cultivated olive.The strength of the wet-blowing winds could not blow through them,and the shining sun never hit them with its rays,and rain never passed through. They were so thick,grown through each other. Under them Odysseuscrawled. Right away he piled up a bed with his own hands,a wide one, because there was a huge pile of leaves,enough to shelter two or three menin the winter season, even if it were very harsh.Seeing it, much-enduring shining Odysseus was glad,and he lay down in the middle of it and piled leaves over himself.Like when a man hides a firebrand in black ashesat the edge of a field, where there are no neighbors near,saving the seed of fire, so that it is not kindled from somewhere else,that is how Odysseus covered himself with leaves, and Athenapoured sleep over his eyes, so that she might put an end to himmost quickly, covering his dear eyelids from his toil and weariness.

So the much-enduring noble Odysseus slept there,worn out by sleep and toil; but Athenawent to the city and the district of the Phaeacian men,who once long ago lived in broad Hypereia,close to the Cyclopes, arrogant men,who kept harming them, and were stronger than they were in force.Godlike Nausithous led them away from there and settled themin Scheria, far from men who work for their bread,and he built a wall around the city, and built houses,and made temples for the gods, and divided up the farmland.But he had already gone down to Hades, overcome by death,and Alcinous ruled then, knowing counsel from the gods.The goddess, grey-eyed Athena, went to his house,planning a return home for great-hearted Odysseus.She went into the richly decorated bedroom, in which a young girlwas sleeping, like the immortal goddesses in body and in form,Nausicaa, the daughter of great-hearted Alcinous,and beside her were two maids, who had their beauty from the Graces,one on each side of the doorposts; and the shining doors were shut.She rushed to the girl's bed like a gust of wind,and stood above her head, and spoke a word to her,appearing as the daughter of Dymas, famous for his ships,who was the same age as her, and was dear to her heart.Resembling her, grey-eyed Athena spoke to her:Nausicaa, why did your mother bear you to be so careless?Your clothes lie uncared for, all of them gleaming, andyour marriage is near, when you must dress yourselfin beautiful things, and give some to those who lead you.For from these things good report rises among people,and your father and your honored mother rejoice.But let us go to wash at the appearing Dawn;and I will come along with you as a helper, so that as quickly as possibleyou may be ready, since you will not be a maiden much longer;for already the best men throughout the districtamong all the Phaeacians are courting you, where your own family is.But come, urge your famous father at daybreakto get the mules and the wagon ready, which may carryyour belts and robes and gleaming blankets.And for you yourself it is much better than goingon foot; for the washing places are far from the city.So saying, grey-eyed Athena leftfor Olympus, where they say the gods' seat is alwayssecure. It is not shaken by any winds, nor everwet with rain, nor does snow come near it, but the clear airspreads out quite cloudless, and a white gleam runs over it;in it the blessed gods take pleasure every day.There grey-eyed Athena went, when she had explained things to the girl.At once Dawn of the beautiful throne came, who wokefair-robed Nausicaa; and she at once wondered at the dream,and she went through the house to tell her parents,her dear father and mother; and she found them inside.Her mother sat at the hearth with her women servantsspinning sea-purple wool; and she met her fatheras he was going out to the famous kings,to the council, where the proud Phaeacians called him.She stood very close and spoke to her dear father:Dear papa, would you not get ready for me a wagontall and with good wheels, so that I can take the famous clothesto the river to wash, which lie dirtied for me?And it is proper for you too, when you sit among the leading men,to plan counsels wearing clean clothes on your skin.And five dear sons have been born to you in the halls,two of them married, and three flourishing young men;and they always want, with newly washed clothes,to go to the dancing place; and all this is a concern to my heart.So she spoke; for she was ashamed to name her blooming marriageto her dear father. But he understood everything and answered with a word:I do not begrudge you the mules, child, nor anything else.Go on; and the servants will get the wagon ready,tall and with good wheels, fitted with a frame on top.So saying, he called to the servants, and they obeyed.They brought out from the yard the well-wheeled mule wagonand brought up the mules and yoked them under the wagon;and the girl brought shining clothing from the bedroom.And she laid it on the well-polished wagon,and her mother put satisfying food in a basket,of every kind, and put in cooked food, and poured in winein a goatskin; and the girl climbed onto the wagon.And she gave liquid olive oil in a golden flask,so that she and her women maids could anoint themselves.And she took the whip and the gleaming reins,and struck them to drive; and there was a clatter of the two mules.They strained on without stopping, and carried the clothing and her,not her alone, for the other maids went along with her too.When they came to the beautiful stream of the river,where the washing places were always there, and plenty of waterflowed out, very good for washing even dirty things,there they unhitched the mules from the wagon.And they drove them along the swirling riverto graze on honey-sweet grass; and they from the wagontook the clothes in their hands and carried them into the dark water,and trampled them in the pits quickly, racing each other.But when they had washed and cleaned off all the dirt,they spread them out in a row along the shore of the sea, where mostthe sea washed the pebbles up onto the land.And they, after bathing and anointing themselves richly with oil,then took their meal beside the banks of the river,and the clothes waited for the sun's rays to dry them.But when the maids and she herself had enjoyed the food,they played with a ball, throwing off their headscarves;and white-armed Nausicaa began the song for them.As Artemis the arrow-pourer goes through the mountains,either along very tall Taygetus or Erymanthus,taking pleasure in boars and swift deer;and with her the nymphs, the daughters of aegis-bearing Zeus,the ones of the fields, play, and Leto rejoices in her heart;and above all of them she holds her head and forehead,and she is easily recognized, and all of them are beautiful;so the unwedded maiden stood out among her maids.But when she was about to go back home again,after yoking the mules and folding the beautiful clothes,then again the goddess, grey-eyed Athena, thought of another thing:that Odysseus might wake up, and see the fair-faced girl,who might guide him to the city of the Phaeacian men.Then the princess threw the ball at a maid;she missed the maid, and threw it into a deep whirlpool;and they screamed loudly; and noble Odysseus woke up,and sitting up he pondered in his mind and heart:Oh no, to the land of what mortals have I come now?Are they violent and savage and not just,or are they hospitable, and is their mind god-fearing?As of girls a woman's cry came around me,of nymphs, who hold the steep peaks of the mountainsand the springs of rivers and the grassy meadows.Or am I somewhere near people who speak with a human voice?But come, I will try for myself and see.So saying, noble Odysseus crept out from under the bushes,and from the thick wood he broke off a leafy branch with his thick hand,full of leaves, to wrap the man's private parts around his body.He went like a mountain-raised lion trusting in its strength,which goes on wet and blown by the wind, and in it its two eyesblaze; but it goes after cattle or sheepor wild deer; and its belly commands itto try for the flocks and come into the close-built fold;so Odysseus was about to mix with the fair-haired girls,though he was naked; for need had come upon him.He appeared terrible to them, disfigured by the salt sea,and they fled scattered to the jutting shores;but the daughter of Alcinous alone stayed; for Athenaput courage in her heart and took fear from her limbs.She stood facing him and held her ground; and Odysseus ponderedwhether he should grasp her knees and beg the fair-faced girl,or beg her from a distance with gentle words,in case she would show him the city and give him clothes.So to him thinking, it seemed the better thingto beg with gentle words from a distance,so that, if he grasped her knees, the girl would not be angry in her heart.At once he spoke a gentle and clever word:I beg you, lady: are you some god, or a mortal?If you are some god, one of those who hold the wide heaven,then to Artemis, daughter of great Zeus, Iliken you most closely in form and size and build.But if you are one of the mortals, who live on the earth,three times blessed are your father and your honored mother,three times blessed your brothers; surely their heartis always warmed with gladness because of you,as they look at such a young shoot entering the dance.But that man is beyond others the most blessed in his heart,who, loaded with bride gifts, leads you home.For never yet have I seen with my eyes such a mortal,neither a man nor a woman; awe holds me as I look.On Delos once, beside the altar of Apollo,I noticed a young shoot of a palm growing up;for I went there too, and a great crowd followed me,on the journey on which evils were going to befall me.And just so, seeing that, I marveled in my heartfor a long time, since no such tree had ever grown up from the earth,as you, lady, I wonder at and marvel at, and I fear terriblyto touch your knees; but a hard grief comes over me.Yesterday, on the twentieth day, I escaped the wine-dark sea;during that time the wave and the swift storms kept carrying mefrom the island of Ogygia. Now a god threw me down here,so that I may perhaps suffer some evil even here too; for I do not thinkit will stop, but the gods will still accomplish many things before that.But, lady, take pity; for after suffering many evilsI have come to you first, and of the others I know no oneof the men who hold this city and this land.Show me the town, and give me a rag to put around me,if perhaps you had some wrapping of cloths when you came here.May the gods give you as much as you desire in your heart:a husband and a house, and may they grant you goodagreement of mind; for nothing is better or finerthan when a man and wife keep a houseagreeing in their thoughts; great grief to their enemies,but joy to their friends, and most of all they themselves hear of it.And white-armed Nausicaa answered him in turn:Stranger, since you seem neither a bad man nor a foolish one,Zeus himself, the Olympian, hands out wealth to people,to the good and the bad, to each as he wishes;and perhaps he has given this to you, and you must endure it anyway.But now, since you have come to our city and land,you will lack neither clothing nor anything elsethat is proper for a suffering suppliant who meets one.I will show you the town, and I will tell you the name of the people.The Phaeacians hold this city and this land,and I am the daughter of great-hearted Alcinous,and from him come the strength and power of the Phaeacians.She spoke, and called to her fair-haired maids:Stand by me, maids; where are you running, seeing a man?Surely you do not think he is some hostile man?There is no such living mortal man, nor will there be,who will come to the land of the Phaeacian menbringing war; for they are very dear to the immortals.We live far away in the much-surging sea,at the very edge, and no other mortal mixes with us.But this is some wretched man wandering who has come here,whom we must now take care of; for all are from Zeus,both strangers and beggars, and the gift is small but dear.But give, maids, the stranger food and drink,and bathe him in the river, where there is shelter from the wind.So she spoke, and they stood and called to each other,and they sat Odysseus down in the shelter, as Nausicaathe daughter of great-hearted Alcinous had commanded;and beside him they laid a cloak and a tunic, clothes,and they gave liquid olive oil in a golden flask,and they told him to bathe in the streams of the river.Then noble Odysseus spoke to the maids:Maids, stand back so far away, so that I myselfmay wash the salt brine from my shoulders, and all overrub myself with oil; for the ointment has been off my skin for a long time.And I will not bathe in front of you; for I am ashamedto strip naked among fair-haired girls.So he spoke, and they went away, and told the girl.But noble Odysseus washed from his body in the riverthe brine, which covered his back and broad shoulders,and from his head he wiped off the scum of the barren sea.But when he had bathed all over and anointed himself richly with oil,and put on the clothes which the unwedded maiden gave him,then Athena, born of Zeus, made himgreater to look at and broader, and down from his headshe sent curly hair, like a hyacinth flower.As when a man pours gold over silver,a skilled man, whom Hephaestus taught and Pallas Athenaevery kind of craft, and he finishes graceful works,so she poured grace over his head and shoulders.Then he went and sat apart on the shore of the sea,shining with beauty and graces; and the girl looked at him.Then she spoke to her fair-haired maids:Listen to me, white-armed maids, so that I may say something.Not against the will of all the gods, who hold Olympus,does this man mix with the godlike Phaeacians;for before he seemed to me unseemly,but now he is like the gods, who hold the wide heaven.If only such a man might be called my husband,living here, and it might please him to stay here.But give, maids, the stranger food and drink.So she spoke, and they listened to her well and obeyed,and set beside Odysseus food and drink.And much-enduring noble Odysseus drank and ategreedily; for he had been without food for a long time.But white-armed Nausicaa thought of other things:she folded the clothes and laid them on the beautiful wagon,and yoked the strong-hoofed mules, and climbed up herself,and urged Odysseus on, and spoke a word and addressed him:Get up now, stranger, and go to the city, so that I may send youto the house of my father, the wise-hearted, where I say youwill know all the Phaeacians, as many as are the best.But do exactly as I say, and you seem to me not to be senseless.As long as we go through the fields and the works of men,for that time, with the maids, behind the mules and the wagon,walk quickly; and I will lead the way.But when we come to the city, around which there is a wallhigh, and a beautiful harbor on either side of the city,and a narrow entrance; and the curved shipsare drawn up along the road; for each has its own mooring place.And there their assembly is around a beautiful place of Poseidon,fitted with drawn stones buried in the ground.And there they busy themselves with the gear of the black ships,cables and ropes, and they sharpen oars.For the Phaeacians do not care about bow or quiver,but about masts and oars of ships and the trim ships,in which, exulting, they cross the grey sea.I avoid their harsh talk, lest someone afterwardfind fault with me; for they are very arrogant in the district.And some worse man might meet me and say this:Who is this that follows Nausicaa, handsome and tall,a stranger? Where did she find him? He will be her husband.Either she took in some wanderer from his ship,from men from far away, since none are near;or some god came, greatly prayed for, to her as she prayed,coming down from heaven, and he will have her all her days.Better that she herself had gone and found a husbandfrom elsewhere; for surely she dishonors thesePhaeacians, who court her, many and noble.So they will say, and these would be reproaches to me.And I myself blame another woman, whoever does such things,who, against the will of her dear father and mother while they live,mixes with men, before a public marriage comes.Stranger, you then understand my word quickly, so that as quickly as possibleyou may get escort and return home from my father.You will find a glorious grove of Athena near the road,of poplars; and a spring flows in it, and around it a meadow;and there is my father's precinct and a flourishing orchard,as far from the town as a man can shout.Sit there and wait for a time, until wecome to the town and reach my father's house.But when you think we have arrived at the house,then go to the city of the Phaeacians and askfor the house of my father, great-hearted Alcinous.It is easy to recognize, and even a foolish child could lead youto it; for not at all like the otherPhaeacian houses is the house of Alcinousthe hero built. But when the house and the courtyard cover you,go very quickly through the hall, until you cometo my mother; and she sits at the hearth in the light of the fire,spinning sea-purple wool, a wonder to look at,leaning against a pillar; and her maids sit behind her.And there my father's throne is set close to hers,on which he sits and drinks wine, like an immortal.Passing by him, throw your hands around my mother's knees,so that you may see your day of return,rejoicing and quickly, even if you are very far away.If she has kind thoughts for you in her heart,then there is hope for you to see your friends and cometo your well-built house and your own native land.So saying, she lashed the mules with the shining whip;and they quickly left the streams of the river.They trotted well, and turned their feet well;and she drove very well, so that on foot might followthe maids and Odysseus, and with her mind she applied the whip.And the sun set, and they came to the glorious grovesacred to Athena, where noble Odysseus sat down.At once then he prayed to the daughter of great Zeus:Hear me, child of aegis-bearing Zeus, Unwearied One;now indeed hear me, since never before did you hear mewhen I was being crushed, when the glorious Earth-shaker crushed me.Grant that I come to the Phaeacians as one dear and pitied.So he spoke praying, and Pallas Athena heard him.But she did not yet appear to him face to face; for she was ashamedbefore her father's brother; and he raged fiercelyagainst godlike Odysseus before he reached his own land.

So Odysseus, who had suffered so much, prayed there,and the mules pulled the girl toward the city.When she reached her father's famous house,she stopped in the doorway, and her brothers crowded around herlooking like gods; they unhitched the mules from the wagonand carried the clothes inside.She went to her room, and an old woman lit a fire for her,an old slave from Apeira, her maid Eurymedusa,whom ships had once brought from Apeira.They had picked her out as a gift for Alcinous, because he ruledall the Phaeacians, and the people obeyed him like a god.She was the one who raised white-armed Nausicaa in the house.She lit the fire and got supper ready inside.Then Odysseus got up to go into the city, and Athenapoured a thick mist around him, wishing him well,so that no proud Phaeacian who met himwould mock him with questions about who he was.But when he was about to enter the lovely city,the goddess met him there, bright-eyed Athena,looking like a young girl carrying a water jug.She stood in front of him, and great Odysseus asked her:"My child, could you show me the house of the manAlcinous, who is king over these people?I've come here as a stranger who's been through a lot,from a far country, and I know nobodyof the people who live in this town and land."The goddess bright-eyed Athena answered him:"Then I'll show you the house you're asking me for,stranger — it stands close to my own good father's.But come along quietly, and I'll lead the way,and don't stare at anyone or ask questions.These people don't really put up with strangers,and they don't welcome and befriend anyone who comes from elsewhere.They trust their fast shipsto cross the huge open sea, because the sea god gave them that gift.Their ships are as quick as a bird's wing, as quick as a thought."With that, Pallas Athena led the wayquickly, and he followed in the goddess's footsteps.The famous sailors of Phaeacia never noticed himwalking through the town among them, because Athenawith her lovely braids, that powerful goddess, wouldn't let them — she poureda magic mist over him, because she wished him well.Odysseus was amazed at the harbors and the balanced ships,at the meeting places of the heroes themselves, and the longhigh walls studded with sharp stakes — a wonder to look at.When they reached the king's famous house,the goddess spoke to him first, bright-eyed Athena:"Stranger, this is the house you asked meto show you. You'll find the kings raised by Zeusat their feast. Go inside, and in your heartdon't be afraid — a bold man always does betterin everything, even if he comes from some other land.First you'll meet the lady of the house.Her name is Arete, and it fits her, because she comes from the same parentsas Alcinous the king.The sea god Poseidon first fatheredNausithous with Periboea, the most beautiful of women,the youngest daughter of great-hearted Eurymedon,who was once king over the arrogant Giants.But he destroyed his reckless people, and died himself.Poseidon slept with her and had a son,great-hearted Nausithous, who ruled the Phaeacians.Nausithous had two sons, Rhexenor and Alcinous.Apollo with the silver bow struck Rhexenor downas a bridegroom in his own hall, and he left only one child,Arete. Alcinous married her,and honored her more than any other woman on earth,more than any woman who now keeps a house under her husband.That's how much she is honored, from the heart,by her own children, by Alcinous himself,and by the people, who look at her like a godand greet her when she walks through the town.She's no fool either — she has good sense.When she wants to, she can settle quarrels between men.If she feels friendly toward you in her heart,then there's hope you'll see your family and get hometo your high-roofed house and your own homeland."With that, bright-eyed Athena leftover the barren sea, leaving lovely Scheria behind.She came to Marathon and wide-streeted Athens,and went into the solid house of Erechtheus. Meanwhile Odysseuswalked toward Alcinous' famous house, and his heartturned over many things as he stood there, before he reached the bronze threshold.The house of great-hearted Alcinous gleamedthrough its high roof like the light of the sun or the moon.Bronze walls ran along it on every side,from the doorway to the back room, with a band of blue enamel around the top.Golden doors shut off the solid house inside.Silver doorposts stood on the bronze threshold,with a silver lintel above them and a gold handle.On each side were dogs of gold and silver,made by Hephaestus with his clever skillto guard the house of great-hearted Alcinous.They never die and never age, forever.Inside, seats were set along the wall on both sides,all the way from the doorway to the back room, and on themfine, tightly woven cloths were spread out, made by women.There the leaders of the Phaeacians satdrinking and eating, since they always had plenty.Golden statues of young men stood on well-built pedestals,holding blazing torches in their handsto light up the hall at night for the diners.Fifty slave women worked in the house:some ground the golden grain at the mills,others wove at the looms and spun the thread,sitting still, like leaves on a tall poplar.Oil trickles wet from the close-woven linen cloth.The Phaeacians are the best men in the worldat driving a fast ship over the sea, and the womenare just as skilled at weaving; Athena gave them that,beyond everyone — skill in beautiful work and good minds.Outside the courtyard, near the doors, is a big orchardof four acres, with a hedge running around it on both sides.Tall trees grow there, thick with life:pear trees, pomegranates, apple trees heavy with shining fruit,sweet fig trees, and blooming olive trees.Their fruit never rots or runs out,not in winter or summer — it lasts all year. And the west windblowing always makes some buds grow and ripens others.Pear grows old on pear, apple on apple,grape cluster on grape cluster, fig on fig.A rich vineyard is rooted there too.One part of it is a flat drying-floor,drying in the sun; others are being picked,others being trampled; and in front are young sour grapesjust dropping their blossom, while still others are turning dark.Neat garden beds grow along the far end,all kinds of plants, green and shining all year.Two springs run there: one waters the whole garden,the other flows out on the other side, under the courtyard wall,toward the tall house, where the townspeople drew their water.Those were the shining gifts of the gods in Alcinous' house.Odysseus, who had suffered so much, stood and stared.When he had looked at everything he wanted in his heart,he quickly stepped over the threshold into the house.He found the leaders and rulers of the Phaeacianspouring out wine from cups to sharp-eyed Hermes,to whom they always poured last, when they thought of going to bed.Odysseus, who had suffered so much, walked through the hallwearing the thick mist Athena had poured around him,until he reached Arete and King Alcinous.He threw his arms around Arete's knees,and then the magic mist poured off him again.The people went silent, seeing a man in the hall.They stared in amazement, and Odysseus prayed:"Arete, daughter of godlike Rhexenor,I come to your husband, to your knees, after much hardship,and to these diners. May the gods give them prosperityas long as they live, and may each one leave to his childrenhis property in the house and the honor the people gave him.But for me — hurry my escort home,quickly, since I've suffered for so long, far from my loved ones."Having said this, he sat down on the hearth in the ashesby the fire, and everyone fell totally silent.At last an old hero, Echeneus, spoke up.He was the oldest man among the Phaeaciansand the best speaker, and he knew many old stories.He meant well and said to them:"Alcinous, this isn't right or proper,for the stranger to sit on the ground in the asheswhile these men wait and hold back, waiting for you to speak.Come on — lift the stranger up and seat him on a silver-studded chair,and tell the heraldsto mix wine, so we can pour a drink to Zeus who loves thunder,who watches over respectful beggars.And let the housekeeper give the stranger dinner from what we have."When noble Alcinous heard this,he took crafty Odysseus by the hand,lifted him from the hearth and sat him in a bright chair,waking up his son, the blameless Laodamas,who sat closest to him and was his favorite.A maid brought a pitcher and poured water for washinginto a silver basin, from a beautiful gold jug,so he could wash, and she pulled a polished table up beside him.The honored housekeeper brought bread and set it out,piling on lots of food, giving him what they had.Odysseus, who had suffered so much, ate and drank.Then noble Alcinous spoke to a herald:"Pontonous, mix a bowl and pour the winefor everyone in the hall, so we can pour a drink to Zeus who loves thunder,who watches over respectful beggars."He spoke, and Pontonous mixed the sweet honey wineand served it out to everyone in cups, after the first offering.When they had poured their drinks and had as much as they wanted,Alcinous spoke to them and said:"Listen, leaders and rulers of the Phaeacians,and I'll say what my heart tells me.Now that we've eaten, go home and go to bed.At dawn, call more of the elders together,and we'll host the stranger in the halls and offerfine sacrifices to the gods, and then we'll thinkabout getting him home, so that the stranger, with no trouble or grief,with our escort, can reach his own homeland,happy and quickly, even if it's very far away,and so he suffers no harm or trouble on the waybefore he sets foot on his own land. After thathe'll suffer whatever fate and the heavy Fatesspun for him with their thread the day his mother bore him.But if one of the gods has come down from heaven,then the gods have something else planned.Because up to now the gods have always shown themselves clearlyto us, whenever we make fine sacrifices,and they sit and feast with us, right where we sit.And if some traveler meets one walking alone,they don't hide themselves, because we're close to the gods —not like the Cyclopes and the wild tribes of Giants.Crafty Odysseus answered him:"Alcinous, don't worry your mind about that — I'm notlike the immortal gods who hold the wide sky,not in body or in build. I'm just a mortal man.Whoever you know among men who suffers the most misery —I could be compared to them in pain.I could tell you even worse things,all that I've suffered by the will of the gods.But let me eat, sad as I am.Nothing is more shameless than a hungry belly.It forces a man to think about it, whether he wants to or not,even when he's worn out and grieving in his heart.That's how I am: I have grief in my heart, but my bellykeeps telling me to eat and drink, and it makes me forgeteverything I've been through, and tells me to fill up.You should get ready when dawn appears,so you can put me, poor wretch, back on my homeland,even though I've suffered so much. I'd gladly die once I've seenmy property, my servants, and my big high-roofed house."He spoke, and all of them agreed and told himthey'd send the stranger home, since he'd spoken fairly.When they had poured their drinks and had as much as they wanted,each one went off to his own house to sleep.But Odysseus stayed behind in the hall,with Arete beside him and godlike Alcinous.The maids cleared away the remains of the feast.White-armed Arete was the first to speak to them.She had recognized the cloak and tunic,the beautiful clothes she had made herself with her women.She spoke to him, and her words flew:"Stranger, I'll ask you this first myself:who are you, and where are you from? Who gave you those clothes?Aren't you the one who got here wandering over the sea?"Crafty Odysseus answered her:"It's hard, my queen, to tell the whole storyof my troubles, because the gods of heaven gave me many.But this I'll tell you, since you're asking.There's an island called Ogygia, far out in the sea.Atlas's daughter lives there, tricky Calypso,a beautiful woman with a powerful goddess's power, and nobodysleeps with her — no god and no mortal man.But some god led me, poor wretch, to her hearth,all alone, after Zeus struck my fast ship with a bright lightning boltand smashed it in the middle of the wine-dark sea.All my good crewmen died there,and I grabbed the keel of the curved ship in my armsand was carried for nine days. On the tenth black nightthe gods brought me to the island of Ogygia, where Calypsoof the lovely braids, a powerful goddess, lives. She took me in,cared for me kindly, and fed me, and said she'd make meimmortal and never aging, forever.But she never convinced my heart.I stayed there seven whole years, and I alwayssoaked the immortal clothes Calypso gave me with tears.But when the eighth year came around,she told me to leave — she urged me on,because Zeus had sent word, or maybe she changed her mind.She sent me off on a well-made raft and gave me lots of things:food and sweet wine, and dressed me in immortal clothes,and sent a wind, gentle and harmless.I sailed seventeen days across the sea,and on the eighteenth the shadowy mountains appeared —your land — and my heart was glad,poor wretch that I was, because I still had misery ahead,a lot of it, which Poseidon the sea god stirred up against me.He hurled winds at me and blocked my path,and whipped up a huge sea, and the waveswouldn't let my raft float. I groaned in agony.Then a storm smashed the raft apart, and Iswam and cut through the ocean, until wind and waterpushed me up close to your land.There the surf would have finished me as I came ashore,slamming me against big rocks in a joyless place.But I pulled back and swam again, until I reacheda river — that looked like the best spot to me,smooth, with no rocks, and shelter from the wind.I fell down, got my breath back, and immortal night came on.I got out of the river and away from the water,and lay down in the bushes, and heaped leavesover me, and a god poured endless sleep on me.I slept there in the leaves, sick at heart,all night, through dawn, and into the middle of the day.The sun went down, and sweet sleep let me go.I noticed your daughter's maids on the beach,playing, and she was there among them, looking like a goddess.I begged her for help, and she showed good sense —the kind of sense you wouldn't expect from a young personmeeting a stranger, since the young are usually careless.She gave me plenty of food and sparkling wine,and bathed me in the river and gave me these clothes.I've told you the truth, sad as it makes me."Then Alcinous answered him:"Stranger, my daughter didn't do the right thingwhen she didn't bring you home with her maids —since you asked her first for help."Crafty Odysseus answered him:"Hero, don't blame the innocent girl for that.She did tell me to follow along with her maids,but I didn't want to — I was afraid and ashamed,in case you got angry when you saw me.We humans on earth get jealous easily."Then Alcinous answered him:"Stranger, my heart isn't the kindto get angry over nothing. I'd rather do what's proper.I wish — father Zeus, Athena, Apollo —that you were just as you are, and thought like me.I'd have you marry my daughter and be called my son-in-law,staying right here. I'd give you a house and property,if you wanted to stay. But nobody will hold you back against your will —none of the Phaeacians. I hope father Zeus never allows that.And I'll arrange your escort, so you know for sure,for tomorrow. Then you'll lie asleep, overcome,and they'll row over the calm sea until you reachyour homeland and house, or wherever you want to be,even if it's much farther than Euboea,which they say is the farthest place away — our peoplesaw it, when they brought golden-haired Rhadamanthysto visit Tityus, the son of Earth.They went there and made the trip with no effortin a single day, and got home again.You'll find out for yourself how goodmy ships are, and my young men at rowing the salt sea."He spoke, and Odysseus, who had suffered so much, was glad,and he prayed out loud:"Father Zeus, may he bring to fulfillment everything he said —Alcinous! Then his fame across the grain-giving earthwould never die, and I would reach my homeland."So the two of them talked like this to each other.White-armed Arete told the maidsto set up a bed under the covered porch, and throw on beautifulpurple blankets, spread rugs on top,and put woolen cloaks over them for him to sleep under.The maids went out of the hall carrying torches.When they had hurried and made the solid bed,they stood next to Odysseus and told him:"Get up, stranger, come to bed — your bed is ready."They spoke, and lying down seemed welcome to him.So Odysseus, who had suffered so much, slept therein the carved bed under the echoing porch.Alcinous slept in a back room of the tall house,and his wife the queen lay beside him in the marriage bed.

When early-born rosy-fingered Dawn appeared,Alcinous rose from his bed,and god-born Odysseus, the sacker of cities, rose too.Alcinous led themto the Phaeacian assembly place, which had been built beside their ships.When they arrived they sat down on the polished stonesclose together. Meanwhile Pallas Athena went through the town,looking like the herald of warlike Alcinous,planning a homecoming for great-hearted Odysseus,and she stood beside each man and said:"Come on, leaders and counselors of the Phaeacians,go to the assembly, so you can learn about the stranger,who just now came to the house of warlike Alcinous,wandering over the sea, his body like the deathless gods."With these words she stirred the spirit of every man.Quickly the meeting places and seats filled with peoplegathering, and many were amazed when they sawthe warlike son of Laertes. Athena pouredmarvelous grace over his head and shouldersand made him look taller and broader,so that he would be dear to all the Phaeaciansand fearsome and respected, and would complete the manycontests that the Phaeacians tested Odysseus with.When they had gathered and come together,Alcinous spoke to them and said:"Listen, leaders and counselors of the Phaeacians,so I can say what my heart in my chest tells me.This stranger, I don't know who he is, came wandering to my house,either from men of the east or of the west,and he asks for an escort, and begs that it be dependable.Let us, as before, hurry the escort along.No one else either, whoever comes to my house,stays here grieving long for the sake of an escort.But come, let us drag a black ship into the shining sea,one that has never sailed, and let fifty-two young menbe picked from the district, the ones who are the best so far.When all have tied the oars well to the rowlocks,let them go aboard, and then prepare a swift feast,coming to my house, and I will provide well for all.Those are my orders for the young men, but the rest of you,the sceptered kings, come to my beautiful house,so that we can welcome the stranger in the halls,and let no one refuse. Call the divine singerDemodocus, for the god gave him song above all othersto give delight, wherever his heart urges him to sing."With these words he led the way, and they followed,the sceptered ones, and the herald went after the divine singer.The young men who were picked, fifty-two of them,went, as he ordered, to the shore of the unharvested sea.When they had come down to the ship and the sea,they dragged the black ship into the depth of the sea,and set the mast and the sails in the black ship,and fitted the oars into the leather rowlocks,all in proper order, and spread the white sails.They moored her high in the surf, and then afterwardthey went to the great house of warlike Alcinous.The porticos and courtyards and men's rooms were filledwith people gathering, and there were many, young and old.Alcinous sacrificed twelve sheep for them,and eight white-tusked boars, and two shambling oxen.They skinned them and took care of them, and made a lovely feast.The herald came near leading the trusty singer,whom the Muse loved above others and gave both good and evil:she took away his eyes and gave him sweet song.Pontonous set a silver-studded chair for himin the middle of the feasters, leaning it against a tall pillar,and he hung the clear lyre from a pegabove his head, and showed him how to take it with his hands,the herald did; and he set beside him a basket and a beautiful table,and beside him a cup of wine, to drink whenever his heart told him to.They reached out their hands to the ready food set before them.When they had put away their desire for drink and food,the Muse stirred the singer to sing of the famous deeds of men,of a song whose fame at that time reached the wide heaven:the quarrel of Odysseus and Achilles, son of Peleus,how once they quarreled at a lavish feast of the godswith terrible words, and the lord of men Agamemnonrejoiced in his heart that the best of the Achaeans were quarreling.For so Phoebus Apollo had prophesied to himin holy Pytho, when he crossed the stone thresholdto ask the oracle, for then the beginning of trouble was rolling onfor Trojans and Danaans through the will of great Zeus.These things the famous singer sang, but Odysseustook his great purple cloak in his sturdy handsand pulled it down from his head and covered his beautiful face,for he was ashamed to let the Phaeacians see tears under his brows.Each time the divine singer stopped singing,he wiped the tear from his head and took the cloak awayand picked up the two-handled cup and poured libations to the gods,but each time he began again and the best of the Phaeaciansurged him to sing, since they were enjoying his words,Odysseus covered his head again and groaned.There he went unnoticed by all the others as he shed tears,but Alcinous alone noticed him and understood,sitting near him, and he heard him groaning heavily.At once he spoke to the Phaeacians, who love the oar:"Listen, leaders and counselors of the Phaeacians.We have already satisfied our hearts with the equal feastand with the lyre, which goes with a lavish feast.But now let us go out and try allthe contests, so that the stranger can tell his own friendswhen he has gotten home how much we surpass othersin boxing and wrestling and jumping and running."With these words he led the way, and they followed.He hung the clear lyre from a peg,and the herald took Demodocus by the hand and led him from the hall,and he led him along the very same way as the others,the best of the Phaeacians, who were going to watch the contests.They went to the assembly place, and a great crowd followed with them,countless, and many young men stood up, both many and fine.Up rose Acroneos and Ocyalus and Elatreus,Nauteus and Prymneus and Anchialus and Eretmeus,Ponteus and Proreus, Thoon and Anabesineos,and Amphialus, son of Polyneus, son of Tecton,and up rose Euryalus too, like man-destroying Ares,son of Naubolus, who was the best in looks and buildof all the Phaeacians after the blameless Laodamas.Up stood the three sons of blameless Alcinous,Laodamas and Halius and godlike Clytoneus.They first tested themselves at running.A course was stretched out for them from the starting line, and all togetherthey flew swiftly, raising dust on the plain,and by far the best of them at running was blameless Clytoneus.As far as the distance of a mule's furrow in a fallow field,so far he came out ahead of the crowd, and they were left behind.They tested themselves at painful wrestling,and here again Euryalus beat all the best.In the jump Amphialus was the most outstanding of all,and in the discus again Elatreus was by far the best of all,and in boxing again Laodamas, the good son of Alcinous.When all had delighted their hearts with the contests,the son of Alcinous, Laodamas, said to them:"Come, friends, let us ask the stranger whether he knowsand has learned any contest. In build at least he is not bad,in his thighs and calves and both arms aboveand in his sturdy neck and great strength, and he is notlacking in youth either, but he has been broken down by many troubles.For I say nothing is worse than the seafor overwhelming a man, even if he is very strong."Euryalus answered him and said:"Laodamas, that was a very fitting thing to say.Go yourself now and challenge him and make your speech known."When the good son of Alcinous heard this,he went and stood in the middle and spoke to Odysseus:"Come here too, stranger and father, try the contests,if you have learned any, for it seems you know contests.For there is no greater glory for a man as long as he livesthan what he does with his feet and his hands.But come, try it, and scatter the cares from your heart.Your voyage will no longer be far off, but alreadyyour ship is drawn down and your companions are ready."In answer to him much-devising Odysseus said:"Laodamas, why do you tell me to do these things, mocking me?I have cares on my mind rather than contests,I who before have suffered very many things and toiled greatly,and now in your assembly, longing for my homecoming,I sit, begging both the king and all the people."Euryalus answered him again and rebuked him to his face:"No, stranger, I don't think you are a man who knowscontests, the many kinds there are among men,but rather one who, always aboard a many-oared ship,a leader of sailors, who are traders,is mindful of cargo and a watcher of voyagesand of grasping profits. You do not look like an athlete."Looking at him from under his brows, much-devising Odysseus said:"Stranger, you have not spoken well. You are like a reckless man.The gods do not give graceful gifts to allmen, neither build nor mind nor speaking skill.For one man is weaker in form,but the god crowns his words with beauty, and otherslook at him with delight, and he speaks firmlywith gentle modesty, and he stands out among those gathered,and as he walks through the city they look at him as at a god.Another again is like the deathless gods in form,but no grace surrounds his words,as your form is conspicuous and not otherwisecould even a god make it, but your mind is worthless.You have stirred my heart in my dear chestby speaking out of turn. But I am not ignorant of contests,as you say, but I think I am among the firstwhile I trusted in my youth and my hands.But now I am held by misery and pains, for I have endured many things,passing through wars of men and painful waves.But even so, having suffered many evils, I will try the contests,for your word bites the heart, and you stirred me by speaking."He spoke, and sprang up and took up a discus along with his cloak,one greater and thicker, much heavierthan the one the Phaeacians used to throw among themselves.He whirled it around and sent it from his sturdy hand,and the stone boomed, and down to the ground crouchedthe long-oared Phaeacians, men famous for ships,at the stone's cast, and it flew beyond the marks of all,going swiftly from his hand. Athena set the boundaries,looking in body like a man, and she spoke and called him by name:"Even a blind man, stranger, would tell that mark apartby feeling it, since it is not mixed in with the crowdbut far out in front. Be confident about this contest,no one of the Phaeacians will reach this, or surpass it."So she spoke, and much-enduring brilliant Odysseus rejoiced,glad that he saw a friendly comrade in the contest.Then he spoke more lightly to the Phaeacians:"Now reach this mark, young men. Right after, I thinkI will send another just as far or even farther.Of the rest of you, whoever his heart and spirit tells him to,come here and try, since you angered me greatly,either in boxing or wrestling or running, I don't begrudge it,of all the Phaeacians, except Laodamas himself.For this man is my host. Who would fight with a man who loves him?That man is truly foolish and worthless,whoever brings up a quarrel over contests with his hostin a foreign land. He ruins all his own chances.But of the others I refuse none and make light of none,but I want to know and to try against them.For I am not bad at all things, among men, in whatever contests there are.I know well how to handle a well-polished bow.I would be first to hit a man with an arrow in a crowdof hostile men, even if very many companionsstood close by and shot arrows at men.Philoctetes alone surpassed me with the bowin the land of the Trojans, when we Achaeans shot with bows.Of the others I say I am far better,as many mortals as now are on the earth eating grain.But with earlier men I will not want to compete,neither with Heracles nor with Eurytus of Oechalia,who used to compete with the deathless gods about bows.So great Eurytus quickly died, and he never reached old agein his halls, for Apollo in angerkilled him, because he challenged him to shoot with the bow.With the spear I throw as far as no one else with an arrow.In running I fear that one of the Phaeaciansmay run past me, for I have been terribly worn downin many waves, since there was no steadysupply on the ship. So my dear limbs are loosened."So he spoke, and they all fell silent.Alcinous alone answered him and said:"Stranger, since you do not speak without grace among us,but want to show your excellence, which stays with you,angry because this man stood beside you in the contestand rebuked you, as no mortal would belittle your excellence,not one who knew in his mind how to speak properly.But come now, listen to my word, so that you can also tellanother of the heroes, when in your hallsyou feast beside your wife and your children,remembering our excellence, and what things tooZeus lays on our works continually from our fathers' time.For we are not blameless boxers or wrestlers,but we run swiftly with our feet and are best with ships,and always dear to us are the feast and the cithara and dancesand changes of clothing and warm baths and beds.But come, all you Phaeacians who are the best dancers,play, so that the stranger can tell his own friendswhen he has gotten home how much we surpass othersin seamanship and running and dancing and song.Let someone go quickly and bring Demodocus the clear lyre,which lies somewhere in our house."So spoke godlike Alcinous, and the herald roseto bring the hollow lyre from the king's house.Nine chosen stewards all stood up,public officials, who arranged everything well at the contests,and they smoothed the dancing floor and widened the good assembly place.The herald came near bringing the clear lyreto Demodocus, and he then went to the middle, and around him young menin first youth stood, skilled in dancing,and they struck the divine dancing floor with their feet. Odysseusgazed at the flashing of their feet and marveled in his heart.The singer, playing the lyre, began to sing beautifullyof the love of Ares and of fair-crowned Aphrodite,how at first they mingled in Hephaestus' housein secret, and he gave many gifts, and shamed the bed and the couchof lord Hephaestus. Right away a messenger came to him,Helios, who noticed them mingling in love.Hephaestus, when he heard the heart-grieving word,went to his bronze forge, brooding evils in his heart,and set a great anvil on the anvil block, and hammered out bondsunbreakable, unloosable, so that they would stay fixed right there.When he had made the snare, angry at Ares,he went to the chamber, where his dear bed stood,and around the bedposts he poured bonds in a circle everywhere.Many too were spread from above, from the roof beam,like thin spider webs, which no one could even see,not even the blessed gods, for it was made cunningly all around.When he had poured all the snare around the bed,he pretended to go to Lemnos, the well-built citadel,which of all lands is far dearest to him.Golden-reined Ares did not keep a blind watch either,when he saw famous-craftsman Hephaestus gone away.He went toward the house of renowned Hephaestus,eager for the love of fair-crowned Cytherea.She had just come from her father, the mighty son of Cronus,and sat down, and he went inside the house,and clasped her hand, and spoke and called her by name:"Come, dear one, let us turn to the bed and lie together,for Hephaestus is no longer among his people, but somewhere alreadyhe has gone to Lemnos to the wild-voiced Sintians."So he spoke, and to her it seemed welcome to lie down.The two went to the bed and lay down, and around them bondsartful, made by the cunning Hephaestus, were poured,and they could not move any limb or lift it.Then indeed they knew that there was no more escape.Near them came the renowned lame god,turning back again before he reached the land of Lemnos,for Helios kept watch for him and told him the word.He went to his dear house, grieved at heart.He stood in the doorway, and wild anger seized him.He shouted terribly and called out to all the gods:"Father Zeus and other blessed gods who are forever,come here, so you can see works laughable and not to be endured,how Aphrodite, daughter of Zeus, because I am lame,always dishonors me and loves destructive Ares,because he is handsome and sound of foot, but Iwas born feeble. No one else is to blame for me,but my two parents, whom I wish had not begotten me.But you will see, where the two sleep in lovehaving gone to my bed, and I am grieved looking on.I don't expect them to lie so for even a little while,though they love each other greatly. Soon the two will not wantto sleep, but the snare and the bond will hold them,until he pays me back all the bride-gifts,as many as I gave him for the sake of the shameless girl,because his daughter is beautiful, but she is not faithful."So he spoke, and the gods gathered at the bronze-floored house.Came Poseidon the earth-holder, came the helpfulHermes, and came the lord, the far-working Apollo.But the female goddesses stayed at home, each from modesty.The gods stood in the doorway, givers of good things,and unquenchable laughter arose among the blessed godsas they looked at the crafts of the cunning Hephaestus.One would say, looking at another near him:"Evil deeds do not prosper. The slow catches the swift,as now Hephaestus, being slow, caught Ares,though he is the swiftest of the gods who hold Olympus,being lame, by his crafts. So the adulterer pays the penalty."So they spoke such things to one another.To Hermes spoke the lord, the son of Zeus, Apollo:"Hermes, son of Zeus, guide, giver of good things,would you then be willing, pressed in strong bonds,to sleep in bed beside golden Aphrodite?"The guide, the slayer of Argus, answered him then:"Would that this might happen, lord Apollo, far-shooter.May three times as many bonds, endless, hold me around,and may you gods and all the goddesses look on,and may I sleep beside golden Aphrodite."So he spoke, and laughter arose among the deathless gods.Laughter did not hold Poseidon, and he kept beggingfamous-craftsman Hephaestus to release Ares.Speaking, he addressed him with winged words:"Release him, and I promise you myself, as you bid,he will pay all that is fitting among the deathless gods."Again the renowned lame god answered him:"Do not, Poseidon the earth-holder, tell me these things,for the pledges of the wretched are wretched pledges.How could I bind you among the deathless gods,if Ares should go off, escaping his debt and the bond?"Again Poseidon the earth-shaker answered him:"Hephaestus, if indeed Ares escapes his debtand goes off in flight, I myself will pay you this."Again the renowned lame god answered him:"It is not possible nor fitting to deny your word."So speaking he loosed the bond, the strength of Hephaestus.The two, when they were loosed from the bond, strong as it was,straightaway sprang up, and he went off to Thrace,and she reached Cyprus, laughter-loving Aphrodite,to Paphos, where she has a precinct and a fragrant altar.There the Graces bathed her and anointed her with oilimmortal, such as is upon the gods who are forever,and put lovely clothing around her, a wonder to see.These things the famous singer sang, but Odysseuswas delighted in his own heart as he listened, and so were the others,the long-oared Phaeacians, men famous for ships.Alcinous told Halius and Laodamasto dance alone, since no one contended with them.When they had taken in their hands the beautiful ball,a purple one, which warlike Polybus had made for them,one of them would throw it toward the shadowy clouds,leaning backward, and the other, springing up from the ground,would easily catch it before his feet reached the floor.When they had tried the ball in a straight line,then they danced on the much-nourishing earth,swiftly changing places, and the other young men cried outstanding around the assembly place, and a great din arose.Then brilliant Odysseus said to Alcinous:"Lord Alcinous, most conspicuous of all peoples,you declared that your dancers are the best,and indeed it has been made ready. Awe holds me as I look on."So he spoke, and the sacred strength of Alcinous rejoiced,and straightaway he said to the Phaeacians, who love the oar:"Listen, leaders and counselors of the Phaeacians.This stranger seems to me to be very prudent.But come, let us give him a guest-gift, as is fitting.For twelve conspicuous kings throughout the districtrule as leaders, and I myself am the thirteenth.Of them let each bring him a well-washed cloak and tunicand a talent of precious gold.Let us quickly bring everything together, so that in his handsthe stranger may have them and go rejoicing in heart to dinner.Let Euryalus make amends to him with wordsand with a gift, since he did not speak a word in order."So he spoke, and they all approved and ordered it,and each sent a herald to bring the gifts.Again Euryalus answered him and said:"Lord Alcinous, most conspicuous of all peoples,therefore I will make amends to the stranger, as you bid.I will give him this all-bronze sword, on which the hiltis silver, and the scabbard of newly cut ivoryis fitted around it, and it will be worth much to him."So speaking he placed the silver-studded sword in his handsand speaking addressed him with winged words:"Hail, father stranger, and if any word has goneamiss, may the storm winds snatch it away at once.May the gods grant you to see your wife and reach your fatherland,since you have long suffered hardships away from your loved ones."In answer to him much-devising Odysseus said:"And you, friend, rejoice greatly, and may the gods give you prosperity.May you never afterward regret this sword,which you have given me, making amends with words."He spoke, and put the silver-studded sword over his shoulders.The sun set, and the glorious gifts were at hand.The noble heralds carried them to Alcinous' house,and receiving them the sons of blameless Alcinousplaced the very beautiful gifts beside their revered mother.The sacred strength of Alcinous led them,and when they had come they sat down on the high seats.Then indeed the strength of Alcinous said to Arete:"Come, wife, bring a conspicuous chest, the best there is,and put a well-washed cloak and tunic in it yourself.Warm a bronze vessel over the fire for him, and heat water,so that when he has bathed and seen all the giftslaid out well, which the blameless Phaeacians brought here,he may delight in the feast and hear the hymn of song.I will give him this beautiful cup of mine,golden, so that remembering me all his dayshe may pour libations in his hall to Zeus and the other gods."So he spoke, and Arete told the maidservantsto set a great tripod over the fire as quickly as possible.They set the bath-water tripod in the blazing fire,and poured water in it, and taking wood kindled it underneath.The fire surrounded the belly of the tripod, and the water heated,meanwhile Arete brought out for the stranger the very beautiful chestfrom the chamber, and placed the beautiful gifts in it,clothing and gold, which the Phaeacians had given him,and she herself put in it a cloak and a beautiful tunic,and speaking addressed him with winged words:"Now look at the lid yourself, and quickly put on the seal,lest someone harm you on the way, whenever againyou sleep a sweet sleep going in the black ship."When much-enduring brilliant Odysseus heard this,he straightaway fitted the lid, and quickly put on the cunningseal, which lady Circe once taught him in her mind.At once the housekeeper told him to bathe,entering the bath, and he gladly in his heart sawthe warm baths, since he had not often had such care,since he left the house of fair-haired Calypso.Meanwhile his care was as steady as a god's.When the maidservants had bathed him and anointed him with oil,and thrown a beautiful cloak and tunic around him,he came out of the bath and went to the wine-drinking men,and Nausicaa, who had beauty from the gods,stood beside the doorpost of the well-built roof,and marveled as she looked at Odysseus with her eyes,and speaking addressed him with winged words:"Hail, stranger, so that sometime when you are in your fatherlandyou may remember me, because you owe me first the price of your life."In answer to her much-devising Odysseus said:"Nausicaa, daughter of great-hearted Alcinous,so may Zeus bring it about, the loud-thundering husband of Hera,that you come home and see the day of your return.Then I would pray to you even there as to a godalways all my days, for you saved my life, maiden."He spoke, and sat down on a seat beside King Alcinous,and they were already serving portions and mixing wine.The herald came near leading the trusty singer,Demodocus, honored by the people, and he seated himin the middle of the feasters, leaning him against a tall pillar.Then much-devising Odysseus said to the herald,cutting off from the back, and more was left over,of a white-tusked boar, and rich fat was around it:"Herald, here, give this meat to Demodocus,so that he may eat, and I will greet him though I am grieving,for to all men upon the earth singershave a share of honor and reverence, because the Musetaught them songs, and she loved the tribe of singers."So he spoke, and the herald brought it and placed it in his hands,to the hero Demodocus, and he received it and rejoiced in his heart.They reached out their hands to the ready food set before them.When they had put away their desire for drink and food,then much-devising Odysseus said to Demodocus:"Demodocus, above all mortals I praise you exceedingly.Either the Muse taught you, child of Zeus, or Apollo,for very much in order you sing the fate of the Achaeans,all that they did and suffered and all that the Achaeans toiled,as if you had been there yourself or heard from another.But come now, change and sing the fashioning of the horseof wood, which Epeius made with Athena,which brilliant Odysseus once brought to the citadel as a trick,filling it with men who sacked Ilion.If you will recount these things to me in order,straightaway I will tell all menthat a god willingly granted you divine song."So he spoke, and the singer, starting from the god, began and revealed his song,taking it up from the point where they, on their well-benched ships,went and sailed away, having set fire to their huts,the Argives, and those others with glorious Odysseussat in the Trojans' assembly place, hidden in the horse,for the Trojans themselves had dragged it to the citadel.So it stood there, and they said many undecided things,sitting around it, and the counsel pleased them three ways:either to cut the hollow wood with pitiless bronze,or to drag it up and throw it from the rocks on the height,or to let it be a great offering, a charm for the gods,in which way indeed it was afterward going to be accomplished,for it was fated that they perish, when the city enclosedthe great wooden horse, where all the bestof the Argives sat, bringing slaughter and death to the Trojans.He sang how the sons of the Achaeans sacked the city,pouring out from the horse, leaving the hollow ambush.He sang how one man laid waste the steep city here, another there,but Odysseus went to the house of Deiphobuslike Ares together with godlike Menelaus.There indeed he said that, having dared the most terrible war,he conquered, and then through great-hearted Athena.These things the famous singer sang, but Odysseusmelted, and wet his cheeks with tears beneath his eyelids.As when a woman weeps, falling upon her dear husband,who has fallen before his city and his people,defending his town and children from the pitiless day,and she, seeing him dying and gasping,falls upon him and wails shrilly, and others behind herstriking her back and shoulders with spearslead her into slavery, to have toil and misery,and her cheeks waste away with most pitiable grief,so Odysseus shed a pitiable tear beneath his brows.There he went unnoticed by all the others as he shed tears,but Alcinous alone noticed him and understood,sitting near him, and he heard him groaning heavily.At once he spoke to the Phaeacians, who love the oar:"Listen, leaders and counselors of the Phaeacians,and let Demodocus now hold his clear lyre,for he does not sing these things pleasing to all alike.From the time we began to dine and the divine singer rose,from then the stranger has not yet stopped his woeful lamenting.Surely grief has greatly surrounded his mind.But come, let him hold it, so that we may all alike be delighted,both hosts and guest, since that is far better,for it has been done for the sake of the revered stranger,the escort and the dear gifts, which we give him in love.For a stranger and a suppliant is like a brotherto a man who touches his heart even a little.Therefore now do not hide in cunning thoughtswhatever I may ask you, and it is better for you to speak.Tell me the name that your mother and father called you there,and the others who are in the city and those who dwell around it.For no man at all is nameless among humans,neither base nor noble, once he is first born,but parents put a name on all, when they have children.And tell me your land, your district and your city,so that our ships may convey you there, aiming with their minds,for the Phaeacians have no steersmen,nor are there any rudders, which other ships have,but the ships themselves know the thoughts and minds of men,and they know all the cities and rich fieldsof men, and they cross the gulf of the sea most swiftlycovered in mist and cloud, and there is never for themany fear of being harmed or perishing.But this, as I once heard my father saying,Nausithous, who said that Poseidon was angrywith us, because we are blameless escorts for all.He said that once a well-built ship of Phaeacian men,returning from an escort in the misty sea,would be struck, and a great mountain would cover our city.So the old man spoke, and the god might either accomplishor leave unaccomplished these things, as was dear to his heart.But come, tell me this and recount it accurately,where you wandered and which landsof men you came to, both themselves and their well-inhabited cities,both those who are harsh and savage and not just,and those who are hospitable, and whose mind is god-fearing.And tell me why you weep and lament within your hearthearing the fate of the Argive Danaans and of Ilion.The gods made that, and spun destructionfor men, so that there might be song even for those to come.Did some kinsman of yours also perish before Ilion,being noble, a son-in-law or father-in-law, who are mostnear and dear after one's own blood and family?Or perhaps some companion, a man knowing gracious things,noble? Since he is in no way worse than a brother,whoever, being a companion, knows prudent things.