Book 1. The Gods in Council. Minerva's visit to Ithaca. The challenge from Telemachus to the suitors. Tell me, O Muse, of that ingenious hero who traveled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy. Many cities did he visit, and many were the nations with whose manners and customs he was acquainted. Moreover, he suffered much by the sea while trying to save his own life and bring his men safely home. But do what he might, he could not save his men, for they perished through their own sheer folly in eating the cattle of the sun-god Hyperion, so the god prevented them from ever reaching home. Tell me, too, about all these things, O daughter of Jove, from whatsoever source you may know them. So now all who escaped death in battle or by shipwreck had got safely home except Ulysses, and he, though he was longing to return to his wife and country, was detained by the goddess Calypso, who had got him into a large cave and wanted to marry him. But as years went by, there came a time when the gods settled that he should go back to Ithaca. Even then, however, when he was among his own people, his troubles were not yet over. Nevertheless, all the gods had now begun to pity him except Neptune, who still persecuted him without ceasing and would not let him get home. Now Neptune had gone off to the Ethiopians, who were at the world's end, and lie in two halves, one looking west and the other east. He had gone there to accept a hecatomb of sheep and oxen, and was enjoying himself at his festival. But the other gods met in the house of Olympian Jove, and the sire of gods and men spoke first. At that moment he was thinking of Aegisthus, who had been killed by Agamemnon's son Orestes, so he said to the other gods, See now how men lay blame upon us gods for what is after all nothing but their own folly. Look at Aegisthus. He must needs make love to Agamemnon's wife unrighteously and then kill Agamemnon, though he knew it would be the death of him. For I sent Mercury to warn him not to do either of these things, inasmuch as Orestes would be sure to take his revenge when he grew up and wanted to return home. Mercury told him this in all good will, but he would not listen, and now he has paid for everything in full. Then Minerva said, Father, Son of Saturn, King of Kings, it served Aegisthus right, and so it would anyone else who does as he did. But Aegisthus is neither here nor there. It is for Ulysses that my heart bleeds, when I think of his sufferings in that lonely seagirt island, far away, poor man from all his friends. It is an island covered with forest, in the very middle of the sea, and a goddess lives there, daughter of the magician Atlas, who looks after the bottom of the ocean and carries the great columns that keep heaven and earth asunder. This daughter of Atlas has got hold of poor unhappy Ulysses, and keeps trying by every kind of blanishment to make him forget his home so that he is tired of life and thinks of nothing but how he may once more see the smoke of his own chimneys. You, sir, take no heed of this. And yet, when Ulysses was before Troy, did he not propitiate you with many a burnt sacrifice? Why then should you keep on being so angry with him? And Jove said, My child, what are you talking about? How can I forget Ulysses, than whom there is no more capable man on earth, nor more liberal in his offerings to the immortal gods than live in heaven? Bear in mind, however, that Neptune is still furious with Ulysses for having blinded an eye of Polyphemus, king of the Cyclopes. Polyphemus is son to Neptune by the Nymph Thusa, daughter to the Sea-king forces.  Still, let us lay our heads together and see how we can help him to return. Neptune will then be pacified, for if we are all of a mind he can hardly stand out against us. And Minerva said, Father, Son of Saturn, King of Kings, if then the gods now mean that Ulysses should get home, we should first send Mercury to the Ogegean Island to tell Calypso that we have made up our minds and that he is to return. In the meantime I will go to Ithaca to put heart into Ulysses' son Telemachus. I will embolden him to call the Achaeans in assembly, and speak out to the suitors of his mother Penelope, who persist in eating up any number of his sheep and oxen. I will also conduct him to Sparta and to Pylos, to see if he can hear anything about the return of his dear father, for this will make people speak well of him. So, saying, she bound on her glittering golden sandals imperishable, with which she can fly like the wind over land or sea, she grasped the redoubtable bronze shod spear, so stout and sturdy and strong, wherewith she quells the ranks of heroes who have displeased her, and down she darted from the topmost summits of Olympus, whereon forthwith she was in Ithaca, at the gateway of Ulysses' house disguised as a visitor, Mentees, chief of the Tafians, and she held a bronze spear in her hand. There she found the lordly suitors seated on hides of the oxen which they had killed and eaten, and playing drafts in front of the house. Men servants and pages were bustling about to wait upon them, some mixing wine with water in the mixing bowls, some cleaning down the tables with wet sponges and laying them out again, and some cutting up great quantities of meat. Telemachus saw her long before anyone else did. He was sitting moodily among the suitors, thinking about his brave father, and how he would send them flying out of the house, if he were to come to his own again and be honoured as in days gone by. Thus brooding as he sat among them, he caught sight of Minerva and went straight to the gate, for he was vexed that a stranger should be kept waiting for admittance. He took her right hand in his own, and bade her give him her spear. Welcome, said he, to our house, and when you have partaken of food you shall tell us what you have come for. He led the way as he spoke, and Minerva followed him. When they were within, he took her spear and set it in the spear stand against a strong bearing post, along with the many other spears of his unhappy father, and he conducted her to a richly decorated seat under which he threw a cloth of damask. There was a footstool also for her feet, and he set another seat near her for himself, away from the suitors, that she might not be annoyed while eating by their noise and insolence, and that he might ask her more freely about his father. A mate-servant then brought them water in a beautiful golden ewer, and poured it into a silver basin for them to wash their hands, and she drew a clean table beside them. An upper-servant brought them bread, and offered them many good things of what there was in the house, the carver fetched them plates of all manner of meats and set cups of gold by their side, and a man-servant brought them wine and poured it out for them. Then the suitors came in and took their places on the benches and seats. Fourth with, men-servants poured water over their hands, maids went round with the bread baskets, pages filled the mixing-balls with wine and water, and they laid their hands upon the good things that were before them. As soon as they had had enough to eat and drink they wanted music and dancing, which were the crowning embellishments of a banquet.   I hope, sir, said he, that you will not be offended with what I am going to say. Singing comes cheap to those who do not pay for it, and all this is done at the cost of one whose bones lie rotting in some wilderness or grinding to powder in the surf. If these men were to see my father come back to Ithaca, they would pray for longer legs rather than a longer purse, for money would not serve them. But he, alas, has fallen on an ill fate, and even when people do sometimes say that he is coming, we no longer heed them. We shall never see him again. And now, sir, tell me and tell me true. Who are you and where do you come from? Tell me of your town and parents. What manner of ship you came in, how your crew brought you to Ithaca, and of what nation they declared themselves to be, for you cannot have come by land. Tell me also truly, for I want to know, are you a stranger to this house, or have you been here in my father's time? In the old days we had many visitors, for my father went about much himself. And Minerva answered, I will tell you truly and particularly all about it. I am Mentis, son of Ankyalis, and I am King of the Tafians. I have come here with my ship and crew on a voyage to men of a foreign tongue being bound for Tamesa with a cargo of iron, and I shall bring back copper. As for my ship, it lies over Yonder off the open country, away from the town, in the harbour Rythron, under the wooded mountain Nerotum. Our fathers were friends before us, as old deities will tell you if you will go and ask him. They say, however, that he never comes to town now, and lives by himself in the country, faring hardly, with an old woman to look after him and get his dinner for him, when he comes in tired from pottering about his vineyard. They told me your father was at home again, and that was why I came, but it seems the gods are still keeping him back, for he is not dead yet, not on the mainland. It is more likely he is on some sea-girt island in mid-ocean, or a prisoner among savages who are detaining him against his will. I am no prophet, and know very little about omens, but I speak as it is born in upon me from heaven, and assure you that he will not be away much longer, for he is a man of such resource that even though he were in chains of iron he would find some means of getting home again. But tell me, and tell me true, can Ulysses really have such a fine-looking fellow for a son? You are indeed wonderfully like him about the head and eyes, for we were close friends before he set sail for Troy where the flower of all the arch-eyes went also. Since that time we have never either of us seen the other. My mother, answered Telemachus, tells me I am son to Ulysses, but it is a wise child that knows his own father. Would that I were son to one who had grown old upon his own estates, for since you ask me, there is no more ill-starred man under heaven than he who they tell me is my father. And Minerva said, There is no fear of your race dying out yet, while Penelope has such a fine son as you are, but tell me, tell me true, what is the meaning of all this feasting, and who are these people? What is it all about? Have you some banquet, or is there a wedding in the family, for no one seems to be bringing any provisions of his own? And the guests, how atrociously they are behaving, what riot they make over the whole house? It is enough to disgust any respectable person who comes near them. Sir, said Telemachus, as regards your question, so long as my father was here it was well with us and with the house. But the gods in their displeasure have willed otherwise, and have hidden him away more closely than mortal man was ever yet hidden. I could have borne it better even though he were dead if he had fallen with his men before Troy, or had died with his friends around him when the days of his fighting were done. For then the Achaeans would have built a mound over his ashes, and I should myself have been heir to his renown. But now the storm winds have spirited him away we know not wither. He is gone without leaving so much as a trace behind him, and I inherit nothing but dismay. Nor does the matter end simply with grief for the loss of my father. Heaven has laid sorrows upon me of yet another kind. For the chiefs from all our islands, Dulicum, Sain, and the Woodland Island of Zacanthus, as also all the principal men of Ithaca itself, are eating up my house under the pretext of paying their court to my mother, who will neither point blank say that she will not marry, nor yet bring matters to an end. So they are making havoc of my estate, and before long will do so also with myself. Is that so? exclaimed Minerva. Then you indeed want Ulysses home again. Give him his helmet, shield, and a couple of lances, and if he is the man he was when I first knew him in our house, drinking and making merry, he would soon lay his hands about these rascally suitors, were he to stand once more upon his own threshold. He was then coming from Iphira, where he had been to beg poison for his arrows from Illas, son of Mermaris. Illas feared the ever-living gods and would not give him any, but my father let him have some, for he was very fond of him. If Ulysses is the man he then was, these suitors will have a short shrift and a sorry wedding. But there, it rests with heaven to determine whether he is to return, and take his revenge in his own house or no. I would, however, urge you to set about trying to get rid of these suitors at once. Take my advice, call the Achaean heroes in assembly tomorrow morning, lay your case before them, and call heaven to bear you witness. Bid the suitors take themselves off, each to his own place, and if your mother's mind is set on marrying again, let her go back to her father, who will find her a husband and provide her with all the marriage gifts that so dear a daughter may expect. As for yourself, let me prevail upon you to take the best ship you can get, with a crew of twenty men, and go in quest of your father, who has so long been missing. One may tell you something, or, and people often hear things in this way, some heaven-sent message may direct you. First, go to Pylos and ask Anester, thence go on to Sparta and visit Menelaus, for he got home last of all the Achaeans. If you hear that your father is alive and on his way home, you can put up with the waste of these suitors will make for yet another twelve months.  Then, having done all this, think it well over in your mind, how, by fair means or foul, you may kill these suitors in your own house. You are too old to plead infancy any longer. Have you not heard how people are singing arrestee's praises for having killed his father's murderer, Aegisthus?  Show your medal, then, and make yourself a name and story. Now, however, I must go back to my ship and to my crew, who will be impatient if I keep them waiting longer. Think the matter over for yourself, and remember what I have said to you. Sir, answer Telemachus. It has been very kind of you to talk to me in this way, as though I were your own son, and I will do all you tell me.   I will give you one of great beauty and value, a keepsake such as only dear friends give to one another. Minerva answered, Do not try to keep me, for I would be on my way at once. As for any present you may be disposed to make me, keep it till I come again, and I will take it home with me. You shall give me a very good one, and I will give you one of no less value in return. With these words she flew away like a bird into the air, but she had given Telemachus courage, and had made him think more than ever about his father. He felt the change, wondered at it, and knew that the stranger had been a god, so he went straight to where the suitors were sitting. Femius was still singing, and his hearer sat wrapped in silence as he told the sad tale of the return from Troy, and the ills Minerva had laid upon the Achaeans. Penelope, daughter of Vicarius, heard his song from her room upstairs, and came down by the great staircase, not alone, but attended by two of her handmaids. When she reached the suitors she stood by one of the bearing-posts that supported the roof of the cloisters, with a staid maiden on either side of her. She held a veil, moreover before her face, and was weeping bitterly. Femius, she cried. You know many another feat of gods and heroes such as poets love to celebrate. Seeing the suitors sum one of these, and let them drink their wine in silence, but cease this sad tale, for it breaks my sorrowful heart, and reminds me of my lost husband, whom I mourn ever without ceasing, and whose name was great all over Helus and Middle Argos. Mother, answered Ptolemycus, let the Bards sing what he has a mind to. Bards do not make the ills they sing of, it is Jove, not they who makes them, and who sends wheel or woe upon mankind according to his own good pleasure. This fellow means no harm by singing the ill-fated return of the Denaeans, for people always applaud the latest songs most warmly. Make up your mind to it and bear it. Ulysses is not the only man who never came back from Troy, but many another wet down as well as he.  For speech is man's matter, and mine above all others, for it is I who am master here. She went wandering back into the house, and laid her son saying in her heart. Then, going upstairs with her handmaids into her room, she mourned her dear husband till Minerva shed sweet sleep over her eyes. But the suitors were clamorous throughout the covered cloisters, and prayed each one that he might be her bed-fellow. Then Ptolemycus spoke. Shameless, he cried, and insolent suitors, let us feast at our pleasure now, and let there be no brawling, for it is a rare thing to hear a man with such a divine voice as Femius has. But in the morning meet me in full assembly that I may give you formal notice to depart, and feast at one another's houses, turn and turn about at your own cost. If, on the other hand, you choose to persist in sponging upon one man, heaven help me, but Jo shall reckon with you in full, and when you fall in my father's house there shall be no man to avenge you. The suitors bit their lips as they heard him, and marveled at the boldness of his speech. Then, Antonus, son of Eupithes, said, the gods seem to have given you lessons in bluster and tall talking. May Jove never grant you to be chief in Ithaca as your father was before you. Ptolemycus answered. Antonus, do not chide with me, but, God willing, I will be chief too if I can. Is this the worst fate you can think of for me? It is no bad thing to be a chief, for it brings both riches and honor. Still, now that Ulysses is dead, there are many great men in Ithaca, both old and young, and some other may take the lead among them. Nevertheless, I will be chief in my own house, and will rule those whom Ulysses has won for me.  No one, while there is a man in Ithaca, shall do you violence nor rob you. And now, my good fellow, I want to know about this stranger. What country does he come from? Of what family is he, and where is his estate? Has he brought you news about the return of your father, or was he on business of his own? He seemed a well to do man, but he hurried off so suddenly that he was gone in a moment before we could get to know him. My father is dead and gone, answered Telemachus, and even if some rumor reaches me, I put no more faith in it now. My mother does indeed sometimes send for a soothsayer and question him, but I give his prophesying no heed. As for the stranger, he was Mentes, son of Ankyalis, chief of the Tafians, and old friend of my father's. But in his heart he knew that it had been the goddess. The suitors then returned to their singing and dancing until the evening, but when night fell upon their pleasuring they went home to bed each in his own abode. Telemachus's room was high up in a tower that looked on to the outer court. Hither then he hid, brooding and full of thought. A good old woman, Eurycleia, daughter of Ops, the son of Pisonor, went before him with a couple of blazing torches. Laertes had bought her with his own money when she was quite young. He gave the worth of twenty oxen for her, and showed as much respect to her in his household as he did to his own wedded wife, but he did not take her to his bed for he feared his wife's resentment. She it was who now lighted Telemachus to his room, and she loved him better than any of the other women in the house did, for she had nursed him when he was a baby. He opened the door of his bedroom and sat down upon the bed. As he took off his shirt he gave it to the good old woman who folded it tidally up and hung it for him over a peg by his bedside, after which she went out, pulled the door to by a silver catch, and drew the bolt home by means of the strap. But Telemachus, as he lay covered with a woolen fleece, kept thinking all night through of his intended voyage and of the counsel that Minerva had given him. End of Book One. Book Two of the Odyssey by Homer. Translated by Samuel Butler. This Librivox recording is in the public domain. The Odyssey. Book Two. Assembly of the People of Ithaca. Speeches of Telemachus and of the suitors. Telemachus makes his preparations and starts for Pylos with Minerva disguised as mentor. Now, when the child of mourning, Rosie-finger Dawn, appeared, rose and dressed himself. He bound his sandals on to his comely feet, girded his sword about his shoulder, and left his room looking like an immortal god. He at once sent the criers around to call the people in assembly, so they called them and the people gathered thereon. Then, when they were got together, he went to the place of assembly spear in hand, not alone, for his two hounds went with him.  Egyptius, a man bent double with age and of infinite experience, was the first to speak.  He had three sons left, of whom two still worked on their father's land, while the third, Uranimus, was one of the suitors. Nevertheless, their father could not get over the loss of Antiphas, and was still weeping for him when he began his speech. Men of Ithaca, he said, hear my words. From the day Ulysses left us there has been no meeting of our counsellors until now. Who then can it be, whether old or young, that finds it so necessary to convene us? Has he got wind of some host approaching, and does he wish to warn us, or would he speak upon some other matter of public moment? I am sure he is an excellent person, and I hope Jove will grant him his heart's desire. Ptolemycus took this speech as of good omen and rose at once, for he was bursting with what he had to say. He stood in the middle of the assembly, and the good Harold Pisonor brought him his staff, then turning to Egyptius.  I have not got wind of any host approaching about which I would warn you, nor is there any matter of public moment on which I would speak. My grievance is purely personal, and turns on two great misfortunes which have fallen upon my house. The first of these is the loss of my excellent father, who is chief among all you here present, and was like a father to every one of you. The second is much more serious, and ere long will be the utter ruin of my estate. The sons of all the chief men among you are pestering my mother to marry them against her will. They are afraid to go to her father Icarius, asking him to choose the one he likes best, and to provide marriage gifts for his daughter, but day by day they keep hanging about my father's house, sacrificing our oxen, sheep, and fat goats for their banquets, and never giving so much as a thought to the quantity of wine they drink. No estate can stand such recklessness. We have now no Ulysses to ward off harm from our doors, and I cannot hold my own against them. I shall never all my days be as good a man as he was. Still I would indeed defend myself if I had power to do so, for I cannot stand such treatment any longer. My house is being disgraced and ruined. Have respect, therefore, to your own consciences, and to public opinion. Fear to the wrath of heaven, lest the God should be displeased and turn upon you. I pray you, by Jove and Themis, who is the beginning and end of counsels, do not hold back, my friends, and leave me single-handed, unless it be that my brave father Ulysses did some wrong to the Achaeans which you would now avenge on me, by aiding and abetting these suitors. Moreover, if I am to be eaten out of house and home at all, I had rather you did the eating yourselves, for I could then take action against you to some purpose, and serve you with notices from house to house till I got paid in full, whereas now I have no remedy. With this Ptolemychus dashed his staff to the ground and burst into tears. Everyone was very sorry for him, but they all sat still and no one ventured to make him an angry answer, only Antonus who spoke thus.  It is your mother's fault, but ours, for she is a very artful woman. This three years past, and close on four, she had been driving us out of our minds, by encouraging each one of us and sending him messages without meaning one word of what she says. And then there was that trick she played on us. She set up a great timbre frame in her room, and began to work on an enormous piece of fine needlework. Sweet heart, said she, Ulysses is indeed dead, still do not press me to marry again immediately. Wait, for I would not have skill in needlework perish unrecorded. Till I have completed a pall for the hero laertes, to be in readiness against the time when death shall take him. He is very rich, and the women of the place will talk if he is laid out without a pall. This was what she said, and we assented. Whereon we could see her working on her great web all day long, but at night she would unpick the stitches again by torchlight. She fooled us in this way for three years and we never found her out, but as time wore on, and she was now in her fourth year, one of her maids who knew what she was doing told us, and we caught her in the act of undoing her work, so she had to finish it whether she would or no. The suitors therefore make you this answer, that both you and the Achaeans may understand. Send your mother away, and bid her marry the men of her own and of her father's choice. For I do not know what will happen if she goes on plaguing us much longer with the air she gives herself on the score of the accomplishments Minerva has taught her, and because she is so clever. We never yet heard of such a woman. We know all about Tyro, Alcmina, Malsina, and the famous women of old, but they were nothing to your mother any one of them. It was not fair of her to treat us in that way. And as long as she continues in the mind with which heaven has now endowed her, so long shall we go on eating up your estate. And I do not see why she should change, for she gets all the honor and glory, and it is you who pay for it, not she. Understand, then, that we will not go back to our lands, neither here nor elsewhere, till she has made her choice and married some one or other of us. Telemachus answered, Antanus, how can I drive the mother who bore me from my father's house? My father is abroad, and we do not know whether he is alive or dead. It will be hard on me if I have to pay Icarus the large sum which I must give him if I insist on sending his daughter back to him. Not only will he deal rigorously with me, but heaven will also punish me. For my mother, when she leaves the house, will call on the Aranese to avenge her. Besides, it would not be a creditable thing to do, and I will have nothing to say to it. If you choose to take offense at this, leave the house and feast elsewhere at one another's houses at your own cost, turn and turn about. If, on the other hand, you elect to persist in sponging upon one man, heaven help me, but Job shall reckon with you in full, and when you fall in my father's house, there shall be no man to avenge you. As he spoke, Job sent two eagles from the top of the mountain, and they flew on and on with the wind, sailing side by side in their own lordly flight. When they were right over the middle of the assembly they wheeled and circled about, beating the air with their wings and glaring death into the eyes of them that were below. Then, fighting fiercely and tearing at one another, they flew off towards the right over the town. The people wondered as they saw them, and asked each other what all this might be. Whereon, Halathurses, who was the best prophet and reader of omens among them, spoke to them plainly and in all honestly, saying, Hear me, men of Ithaca, and I speak more particularly to the suitors, for I see mischief brewing for them. Ulysses is not going to be away much longer. Indeed, he is close at hand to deal out death and destruction, not on them alone, but on many another of us who live in Ithaca. Let us then be wise in time and put a stop to this wickedness before he comes. Let the suitors do so of their own accord. It will be better for them, for I am not prophesying without due knowledge. Everything has happened to Ulysses, as I foretold, when the Argives set out for Troy, and he with them. I said that after going through much hardship and losing all his men he should come home again in the twentieth year and that no one would know him, and now all this is coming true. Euromachus, son of Polybus, then said, Go home, old man, and prophesy to your own children, or it may be worse for them. I can read these omens myself much better than you can. Birds are always flying about in the sunshine somewhere or other, but they seldom mean anything. Ulysses has died in a far country. And it is a pity you are not dead along with him, instead of preting here about omens and adding fuel to the anger of Telemachus, which is fierce enough as it is. I suppose you think he will give you something for your family. But I tell you, and it shall surely be, when an old man like you, who should know better, talks a young one over till he becomes troublesome, in the first place his young friend will only fare so much the worse. He will take nothing by it, for the suitors will prevent this. And in the next he will lay a heavier find, sir, upon yourself than you will at all like paying, for it will bear hardly upon you. As for Telemachus, I warn him in the presence of you all to send his mother back to her father, who will find her a husband and provide her with all the marriage gifts so dear a daughter may expect.  For we fear no man, and care neither for him, with all his fine speeches, nor for any fortune telling of yours. You may preach as much as you please, but we shall only hate you the more. We shall go back and continue to eat up Telemachus' estate without paying him, till such time as his mother leaves off tormenting us by keeping us day after day on the tiptoe of expectation, each vying with the other in his suit for a prize of such rare perfection. Besides, we cannot go after the other women whom we should marry in due course but for the way in which she treats us. Then Telemachus said, Euromachus, and you other suitors, I shall say no more, and entreat you no further, for the gods and the people of Ethica now know my story. Give me, then, a ship and a crew of twenty men to take me hither and thither, and I will go to Sparta and to Pylos in quest of my father, who has so long been missing. Someone may tell me something, or, and people often hear things in this way, some heaven-sent message may direct me.  If on the other hand I hear of his death, I will return at once, celebrate his funeral rites with all due pomp, build a barrow to his memory, and make my mother marry again. With these words he sat down, and mentor, who had been a friend of Ulysses, and had been left in charge of everything with full authority over the servants rose to speak. He then, plainly and in all honesty, addressed them thus. Hear me, men of Ethica. I hope that you may never have a kind and well-disposed ruler any more, nor one who will govern you equitably. I hope that all your chiefs, henceforward, may be cruel and unjust, for there is not one of you but has forgotten Ulysses, who ruled you as though he were your father. I am not half so angry with the suitors, for if they choose to do violence in the naughtiness of their hearts and wager their heads that Ulysses will not return, they can take the high hand and eat up his estate.  Leocridas, son of Evernor, answered him, saying, Mentor, what folly is all this, that you should set the people to stay us? It is a hard thing for one man to fight with many about his victuals. Even though Ulysses himself were to set upon us while we are feasting in his house, and do his best to oust us, his wife, who wants him back so very badly, would have small cause for rejoicing, and his blood would be upon his own head if he fought against such great odds. There is no sense in what you have been saying. Now, therefore, do you people go about your business, and let his father's old friends, Mentor and Halithurces, speed this boy on his journey, if he goes at all, which I do not think he will, for he is more likely to stay where he is till someone comes and tells him something. On this he broke up the assembly, and every man went back to his own abode, while the suitors returned to the house of Ulysses. Then Telemachus went all alone by the seaside, washed his hands in the gray waves, and prayed to Minerva. Hear me, he cried. You God who visited me yesterday, and bade me sail the seas in search of my father, who has so long been missing. I would obey you, but the Achaeans, and more particularly the wicked suitors, are hindering me that I cannot do so. As thus he prayed, Minerva came close up to him in the likeness and with the voice of Mentor. Telemachus said she, If you are made of the same stuff as your father, you will be neither fool nor coward henceforward, for Ulysses never broke his word nor left his work half-done. If then you take after him, your voyage will not be fruitless, but unless you have the blood of Ulysses and a Penelope in your veins, I see no likelihood of your succeeding. Sons are seldom as good men as their fathers. They are generally worse, not better. Still, as you are not going to be either fool or coward henceforward, and are not entirely without some share of your father's wise discernment, I look with hope upon your undertaking. But, mind you, never make common cause with any of those foolish suitors, for they have neither sense nor virtue, and give no thought to death and to the doom that will shortly fall on one and all of them, so that they shall perish on the same day. As for your voyage, it shall not be long delayed. Your father was such an old friend of mine that I will find you a ship, and will come with you myself. Now, however, return home, and go about among the suitors. Begin getting provisions ready for your voyage. See everything well stowed, the wine and jars, and the barley meal, which is the staff of life in leather and bags, while I go round the town and beat up volunteers at once. There are many ships in Ithaca, both old and new. I will run my eye over them for you, and will choose the best. We will get her ready, and we'll put out to see without delay. Thus spoke Minerva, daughter of Jove, and Telemachus lost no time in doing as the goddess told him. He went moodly home, and found the suitors flaying goats and singing pigs in the outer court. Antonus came up to him at once and laughed as he took his hand in his own, saying, Telemachus, my fine fire-eater, bear no more ill blood, neither in word nor deed, but eat and drink with us as you used to do. The Achaeans will find you in everything, a ship and a picked crew to boot, so that you can set sail for Pylos at once and get news of your noble father. Antonus, answer Telemachus, I cannot eat in peace, nor take pleasure of any kind with such men as you are. Was it not enough that you should waste so much good property of mine while I was yet a boy? Now that I am older and know more about it, I am also stronger, and whether here among this people, or by going to Pylos, I will do you all the harm I can. I shall go, and my going will not be in vain, though thanks to you suitors I have neither ship nor crew of my own, and must be passenger, not captain. As he spoke he snatched his hand from that of Antonus. Meanwhile the others went on getting dinner ready about the buildings, jeering at him tauntingly as they did so. Telemachus, said one youngster, means to be the death of us. I suppose he thinks he can bring friends to help him from Pylos, or again from Sparta, where he seems bent on going.  Another said, Perhaps if Telemachus goes on board ship he will be like his father and perish far from his friends. In this case we should have plenty to do, for we could then divide up his property amongst us. As for the house we can let his mother and the man who marries her have that. This was how they talked, but Telemachus went down into the lofty and spacious storeroom where his father's treasure of gold and bronze lay heaped up upon the floor, and where the linen and spare clothes were kept in open chests. Here, too, there was a store of fragrant olive oil, while casks of old, well-ripened wine, unblended, and fit for a god to drink, were ranged against the wall in case Ulysses should come home again after all. The room was closed with well-made doors opening in the middle. Moreover, the faithful old housekeeper Eureklia, daughter of Ups, the son of Pissenor, was in charge of everything both night and day. Telemachus called her to the storeroom and said, Nurse, draw me off some of the best wine you have, after what you are keeping for my father's own drinking in case, poor man, he should escape death and find his way home again after all. Let me have twelve jars, and see that they all have lids. Also, fill me some well-sewn leather and bags with barley-meal, about twenty measures in all. Get these things put together at once, and say nothing about it. I will take everything away this evening as soon as my mother has gone upstairs for the night. I am going to Sparta and to Pylos to see if I can hear anything about the return of my dear father. When Eureklia heard this, she began to cry, and spoke fondly to him, saying, My dear child, whatever can have put such notion as that into your head. Where in the world do you want to go to? You who are the one hope of the house.  And as soon as your back is turned, these wicked ones here will be scheming to get you put out of the way, and will share all your possessions among themselves. Stay where you are among your own people, and do not go wandering and wearing your life out on the barren ocean. Fear not, nurse, answered Telemachus. My scheme is not without heaven's sanction.  The old woman swore most solemnly that she would not, and when she had completed her oath she began drawing off the wine into jars and getting the barley-meal into the bags, while Telemachus went back to the suitors. Then Minerva thought her of another matter. She took his shape and went round the town to each one of the crew, telling them to meet at the ship by sundown. She went also to Noemon, son of Fronius, and asked him to let her have a ship, which he was very ready to do. When the sun had set and darkness was over all the land, she got the ship into the water, put all the tackle on board her that ships generally carry, and stationed her at the end of the harbor. Presently the crew came up, and the goddess spoke encouragingly to each of them. Furthermore she went to the house of Ulysses, and threw the suitors into a deep slumber. She caused their drink to fuddle them, and made them drop their cups from their hands, so that instead of sitting over their wine they went back into the town to sleep, with their eyes heavy and full of drowsiness. Then she took the form and voice of Mentor, and called Telemachus to come outside. Telemachus said she, the men are on board and at their oars waiting for you to give your orders, so make haste and let us be off. On this she led the way, while Telemachus followed in her steps. When they got to the ship they found the crew waiting by the water side, and Telemachus said, Now, my men, help me to get the stores on board. They are all put together in the cloister, and my mother does not know anything about it, nor any of the maid-servants except one. With these words he led the way and the others followed after. When they had brought the things as he had told them, Telemachus went on board, Minerva going before him and taking her seat in the stern of the vessel, while Telemachus sat beside her. Then the men loosed the hausers and took their places on the benches. Minerva sent them a fair wind from the west, that whistled over the deep blue waves whereon Telemachus told them to catch hold of the ropes and hoist sail, and they did as he told them. They set the mast in its socket in the cross-plank, raised it, and made it fast with the forest days. Then they hoisted their white sails aloft with ropes of twisted ox-hide. As the sail bellied out with the wind, the ship flew through the deep blue water and the foam hissed against her bows as she sped onward. Then they made all fast throughout the ship, filled the mixing bowls to the brim, and made drink offerings to the immortal gods that are from everlasting, but more particularly to the gray-eyed daughter of Jove. END OF BOOK II BOOK III. OF THE AUDICY by Homer. TRANSLATED BY SAMUEL BUTLER. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. THE AUDICY. BOOK III. Telemachus visits Nestor at Pylos. Thus then the ship sped on her way through the watches of the night from dark till dawn. But as the sun was rising from the fair sea into the firmament of heaven to shed light on mortals and immortals, they reached Pylos the city of Nelius. Now the people of Pylos were gathered on the seashore to offer sacrifice of black bulls to Neptune, lord of the earthquake. There were nine guilds with five hundred men in each, and there were nine bulls to each guild. As they were eating the inward meats and burning the thigh bones on the embers in the name of Neptune, Telemachus and his crew arrived, furled their sails, brought their ship to anchor, and went ashore. Minerva led the way and Telemachus followed her. Presently she said, Telemachus, you must not be in the least shy or nervous. You have taken this voyage to try and find out where your father is buried and how he came by his end. So go straight up to Nestor that we may see what he has got to tell us. Beg of him to speak the truth and he will tell no lies, for he is an excellent person. But how, mentor, replied Telemachus, dare I go up to Nestor and how am I to address him? I have never been used to holding long conversations with people, and I am ashamed to begin questioning one who is so much older than myself. Some things Telemachus, answered Minerva, will be suggested to you by your own instinct, and heaven will prompt you further, for I am assured that the gods have been with you from the time of your birth until now. She then went quickly on, and Telemachus followed in her steps till they reached the place where the guilds of the pillion people were assembled. There they found Nestor sitting with his sons, while his company round him were busy getting dinner ready and putting pieces of meat onto the spits while other pieces were cooking. When they saw the strangers they crowded round them, took them by the hand and made them take their places. Nestor's son, Pizastratus, at once offered his hand to each of them and seated them on some soft sheepskins that were lying on the sands near his father and his brother Thracimides. Then he gave them their portions of the inward meats and poured wine for them into a golden cup, handing it to Minerva first and saluting her at the same time. Offer a prayer, sir, said he, to King Neptune, for it is his feast that you are joining. When you have duly prayed and made your drink offering, pass the cup to your friend that he may do so also. I doubt not that he too lifts his hands in prayer, for men cannot live without God in the world. Still, he is younger than you are, and is much of an age with myself, so I will give you the precedence. As he spoke he handed her the cup. Minerva thought it very right and proper of him to have given it to herself first, she accordingly began praying heartily to Neptune. Oh, thou, she cried, that circle is the earth, vouch safe to grant the prayers of thy servants that call upon thee. More especially, we pray thee send down thy grace on Nestor and on his sons. Thereafter, also make the rest of the pillion people some handsome return for their goodly hecatomb they are offering you. Lastly, grant Telemachus and myself a happy issue, in respect of the matter that has brought us in our ship to Pylos. When she had thus made an end of praying, she handed the cup to Telemachus and he prayed likewise. By and by, when the outer meats were roasted and had been taken off the spits, the carvers gave every man his portion, and they all made an excellent dinner. As soon as they had had enough to eat and drink, Nestor, night of Jireen, began to speak. Now, said he, that our guests have done their dinner, it will be best to ask them who they are. Who then, sir strangers, are you, and from what port have you sailed?  Telemachus answered boldly, for Minerva had given him courage to ask about his father and get himself a good name. Nestor, said he, son of Nelius, honor to the Achaean name, you ask whence we come and I will tell you. We come from Ithaca under Nerotum, and the matter about which I would speak is of private, not public import. I seek news of my unhappy father, Ulysses, who is said to have sacked the town of Troy in company with yourself. We know what fate befell each one of the other heroes who fought at Troy, but as regards Ulysses, heaven has hidden from us the knowledge even that he is dead at all, for no one can certify us in what place he perished, nor say whether he fell in battle, on the mainland, or was lost at sea, amid the waves of Amphitrite. Therefore I am suppliant at your knees, if happily you may be pleased to tell me of his melancholy end, whether you saw it with your own eyes or heard it from some other traveller, for he was a man born to trouble. Do not soften things out of any pity for me, but tell me in all plainness exactly what you saw. If my brave father Ulysses ever did you loyal service, either by word or deed, when you Achaeans were harassed among the Trojans, bear it in mind now as in my favour and tell me truly all. My friend, answered Nestor, you recall a time of much sorrow to my mind, for the brave Achaeans suffered much both at sea, while privateering under Achaeans, and when fighting before the great city of King Priam. Our best men, all of them, fell there. Ajax, Achaeans, Patroclus, peer of gods in council, and my own dear son Antillicus, a man singularly fleet afoot and in fight valiant. But we suffered much more than this. What mortal tongue indeed could tell the whole story. Though you were to stay here and question me for five years or even six, I could not tell you all that the Achaeans suffered, and you would turn homeward weary of my tale before it ended. Nine long years did we try every kind of stratagem, but the hand of heaven was against us. During all this time there was no one who could compare with your father in subtlety, if indeed you are his son, I can hardly believe my eyes, and you talk just like him too. No one would say that people of such different ages could speak so much alike. He and I never had any kind of difference from first to last, neither in camp nor council. But in singleness of heart and purpose we advised the Argives how all might be ordered for the best. When, however, we had sacked the city of Priam and were setting sail in our ships as heaven had dispersed us, then Jove saw fit to vex the Argives on their homeward voyage. For they had not all been either wise or understanding, and hence many came to a bad end through the displeasure of Jove's daughter Minerva, who brought about a quarrel between the two sons of Atreus. The sons of Atreus called a meeting, which was not as it should be, for it was sunset and the Achaeans were heavy with wine. When they explained why they had called the people together, it seemed that Menelaus was for sailing homeward at once, and this displeased Agamemnon, who thought that we should wait till we had offered hecatombs to appease the anger of Minerva. Fool that he was, he might have known that he would not prevail with her, for when the gods had made up their minds they do not change them lightly. So the two stood bandying hard words, whereon the Achaeans sprang to their feet with a cry that rent the air, and were of two minds as to what they should do. That night we rested and nursed our anger, for Jove was hatching mischief against us. But in the morning some of us drew our ships into the water and put our goods with our women on board, while the rest, about half in number, stayed behind with Agamemnon. We, the other half, embarked and sailed, and the ships went well, for heaven hath smoothed the sea. When we reached Tenedos we offered sacrifices to the gods, for we were longing to get home. Cruel Jove, however, did not yet mean that we should do so, and raised a second quarrel in the course of which some among us turned their ships back again, and sailed away under Ulysses to make their peace with Agamemnon. But I, and all the ships that were with me, pressed forward, for I saw that mischief was brewing. The son of Titius went on also with me, and his crews with him. Later on Menelaus joined us at Lesbos, and found us making up our minds about our course, for we did not know whether to go outside Chios by the island of Cyra, keeping this to our left, or inside Chios over against the stormy headland of Mimas. So we asked heaven for a sign, and were shown one to the effect that we should be soonest out of danger if we headed our ships across the open sea to Euboea. This we therefore did, and a fair wind sprang up which gave us a quick passage during the night to Jarestus, where we offered many sacrifices to Neptune for having helped us so far on our way. Four days later Deomed and his men stationed their ships in Argos, but I held on for Pylos, and the wind never fell light from the day when heaven first made it fair for me. Therefore, my dear young friend, I returned without hearing anything about the others. I know neither who got home safely, nor who were lost, but as in duty bound, I will give you without reserve the reports that have reached me since I have been here in my own house. They say the Myrmidons returned home safely under Achilles' son Neotolomus, so also did the valiant son of Poyus Philoctetes. Edominius again lost no men at sea, and all his followers who escaped death in the field got safe home with him to Crete. No matter how far out of the world you live, you will have heard of Agamemnon and the bad end he came to at the hands of Ejistus, and a fearful reckoning did Ejistus presently pay. See what a good thing it is for a man to leave a son behind him to do as Arestes did, who killed false Ejistus the murderer of his noble father.  Show your metal and make yourself a name and story. Nestor, son of Nelius, answered Telemachus. Honour to the Achaean name. The Achaeans applaud Arestes, and his name will live through all time for he has avenged his father nobly. Would that heaven might grant me to do like vengeance on the insolence of the wicked suitors who are ill-treating me and plotting my ruin. But the gods have no such happiness in store for me and my father, so we must bear it as best we may. My friend, said Nestor, now that you remind me, I remember to have heard that your mother has many suitors who are ill-disposed towards you and are making havoc of your estate. Do you submit to this tainly, or are public feeling and the voice of heaven against you? Who knows but what Ulysses may come back after all and pay these scoundrels in full, either single-handed or with a force of Achaeans behind him. If Minerva were to take as great a liking to you as she did to Ulysses when we were fighting before Troy, for I never yet saw the gods so openly fond of anyone as Minerva then was of your father. If she would take as good care of you as she did of him, these wooers would soon some of them forget their wooing. Telemachus answered, I can expect nothing of the kind. It would be far too much to hope for. I dare not let myself think of it. Even though the gods themselves willed it, no such good fortune could be follow me. On this Minerva said, Telemachus, what are you talking about? Heaven has a long arm if it is minded to save a man, and if it were me I should not care how much I suffered before getting home, provided I could be safe when I was once there. I would rather this than get home quickly and then be killed in my own house as Agamemnon was by the treachery of Agistus and his wife. Still, death is certain, and when a man's hour is come not even the gods can save him, no matter how fond they are of him. Mentor, answer Telemachus, do not let us talk about it any more. There is no chance of my father's ever coming back. The gods have long since counseled his destruction. There is something else, however, about which I should like to ask Nestor, for he knows much more than anyone else does. They say he has reigned for three generations, so that it is like talking to an immortal. Tell me therefore, Nestor, and tell me true.  What was Menelaus doing, and how came false Agistus to kill so far better a man than himself? Was Menelaus away from Achaean Argos, voyaging elsewhere among mankind, that Agistus took heart and killed Agamemnon? I will tell you truly, answered Nestor, and indeed you have yourself divine how it all happened. If Menelaus, when he got back from Troy, had found Agistus still alive in his house, there would have been no barrow heaped up for him, not even when he was dead. But he would have been thrown outside the city to dogs and vultures, and not a woman would have mourned him, for he had done a deed of great wickedness. But we were over there, fighting hard at Troy, and Agistus, who was taking his ease quietly in the heart of Argos, Cajold Agamemnon's wife Clytemnestra with incessant flattery. At first she would have nothing to do with his wicked scheme, for she was of a good natural disposition. Moreover, there was a bard with her, to whom Agamemnon had given strict orders on setting out for Troy, that he was to keep guard over his wife. But when Heaven had counseled her destruction, Agistus carried this bard off to a desert island and left him there for crows and seagulls to batten upon, after which she went willingly enough to the house of Agistus. Then he offered many burnt sacrifices to the gods, and decorated many temples with tapestries and gilding, for he had succeeded far beyond his expectations. Meanwhile, Menelaus and I were on our way home from Troy, on good terms with one another. When we got to Sunium, which is the point of Athens, Apollo, with his painless shafts, killed Francis the steersman of Menelaus' ship, and never man knew better how to handle a vessel in rough weather, so that he died then and there with the helm in his hand, and Menelaus, though very anxious to press forward, had to wait in order to bury his comrade and give him his due funeral rites. Presently, when he too could put to sea again, and had sailed on as far as the Malian heads, Jove counseled evil against him and made it blow hard till the waves ran mountains high. Here he divided his fleet and took the one half towards Crete, where the Sidonians dwell round about the waters of the river Iardinus. There is a high headland here about stretching out into the sea from a place called Gorton, and all along this part of the coast as far as Festus the sea runs high when there is a south wind blowing. But after Festus the coast is more protected, for a small headland can make a great shelter. Here this part of the fleet was driven on to the rocks and wrecked, but the crews just managed to save themselves. As for the other five ships, they were taken by winds and seas to Egypt, where Menelaus gathered much gold and substance among people of an alien speech. Meanwhile, Agistus here at home plotted his evil deed. For seven years after he had killed Agamemnon he ruled in Mycena, and the people were obedient under him, but in the eighth year Orestes came back from Athens to be his bane, and killed the murderer of his father. Then he celebrated the funeral rites of his mother and a false agistus by a banquet to the people of Argos, and on that very day Menelaus came home, with as much treasure as his ships could carry. Take my advice then, and do not go traveling about for long so far from home, nor leave your property with such dangerous people in your house. They will eat up everything you have among them, and you will have been on a fool's errand. Still, I should advise you by all means to go and visit Menelaus, who has lately come off a voyage among such distant people as no man could ever hope to get back from, when the winds had once carried him so far out of his reckoning. Even birds cannot fly the distance in a twelve-month, so vast and terrible are the seas that they must cross. Go to him, therefore, by sea, and take your own men with you. Or, if you would rather travel by land, you can have a chariot, you can have horses, and here are my sons who can escort you to Lassa-demon where Menelaus lives. Beg of him to speak the truth, and he will tell you no lies, for he is an excellent person. As he spoke, the sun set, and it came on dark, whereon Minerva said, Sir, all that you have said is well. Now, however, order the tongues of the victims to be cut, and mix wine that we may make drink offerings to Neptune, and the other immortals, and then go to bed, for it is bedtime. People should go away early and not keep late hours at a religious festival. Thus spoke the daughter of Jove, and they obeyed her saying. Men servants poured water over the hands of the guests, while Pages filled the mixing-balls with wine and water, and handed it round after giving every man his drink offering. Then they drew the tongues of the victims into the fire, and stood up to make their drink offerings. When they had made their offerings and had drunk each as much as he was minded, Minerva and Telemachus were foregoing on board their ship, but Nestor caught them up at once and stayed them.  Do you think I am so poor and short of clothes, or that I have so few cloaks as to be unable to find comfortable beds for both myself and for my guests? Let me tell you, I have stored both of rugs and cloaks, and shall not permit the sun of my old friend Ulysses to camp down on the deck of a ship, not while I live, nor yet will my sons after me, but they will keep open house as I have done. Then Minerva answered, Sir, you have spoken well, and it will be much better that Telemachus should do as you have said. He therefore shall return with you and sleep at your house, but I must go back to give orders to my crew and keep them in good heart. I am the only older person among them. The rest are all young men of Telemachus' own age who have taken this voyage out of friendship, so I must return to the ship and sleep there. Moreover, to-morrow I must go to the Coconians where I have a large sum of money long owing to me. As for Telemachus, now that he is your guest, send him to Lassidemmon in a chariot and let one of your sons go with him. Be pleased to also provide him with your best and fleet as horses. When she had thus spoken, she flew away in the form of an eagle and all marveled as they beheld it. Nestor was astonished and took Telemachus by the hand.  This can have been none other of those who dwell in heaven than Jove's redoubtable daughter, the Tritoborn, who showed such favor towards your brave father among the Argives.  In return I will offer you in sacrifice a broad-browed heifer of a year old, unbroken and never yet brought by man under the yoke. I will gild her horns and will offer her up to you in sacrifice.' Thus did he pray, and Minerva heard his prayer. He then led the way to his own house, followed by his sons and sons-in-law. When they had got there and had taken their places on the benches and seats, he mixed them a bowl of sweet wine that was eleven years old when the housekeeper took the lid off the jar that held it. As he mixed the wine, he prayed much and made drink offerings to Minerva, daughter of Aegis Bering Jove. Then when they had made their drink offerings and had drunk each as much as he was minded, the others went home to bed each in his own abode. But Nestor put Telemachus to sleep in the room that was over the gateway along with Pistratus, who was the only unmarried son now left him. As for himself, he slept in an inner room of the house with the queen his wife by his side.  Here a four-time sat Nellius, peer of gods and council, but he was now dead and had gone to the house of Hades. So Nestor sat in his seat scepter in hand as guardian of the public wheel. His sons as they left their rooms gathered round him. A Kefren, Stratius, Perseus, Eretus, and Thrasimides. The sixth son was Pistratus, and when Telemachus joined them they made him sit with them. Nestor then addressed them. My sons, said he, make haste to do as I shall bid you. I wish first and foremost to propitiate the great goddess Minerva, who manifested herself visibly to me during yesterday's festivities. Go then, one or other of you, to the plain. Tell the stockman to look meow to Heifer, and come on here with it at once. Another must go to Telemachus' ship, and invite all the crew, leaving two men only in charge of the vessel. Someone else will run and fetch Laersius, the goldsmith, to give the horns of the Heifer.  Tell the maids in the house to prepare an excellent dinner, and to fetch seats and logs of wood for a burnt offering. Tell them also to bring me some clear spring water.  The Heifer was brought in from the plain, and Telemachus' crew came from the ship. The goldsmith brought the anvil, hammer and tongs, with which he worked his gold, and Minerva herself came to accept the sacrifice. Nestor gave out the gold, and the smith gilded the horns of the Heifer that the goddess might have pleasure in their beauty. Then Stratius and a keffron brought her in by the horns. Eretus fetched water from the house in a ewer that had a flower pattern on it, and in his other hand he held a basket of barley-meal. Sturdy Thracymides stood by with a sharp axe, ready to strike the Heifer, while Perseus held a bucket. Then Nestor began with washing his hands and sprinkling the barley-meal, and he offered many a prayer to Minerva as he threw a lock from the Heifer's head upon the fire. When they had done praying and sprinkling the barley-meal, Thracymides dealt his blow, and brought the Heifer down with a stroke that cut through the tendons at the base of her neck, whereon the daughters and daughters-in-law of Nestor, and his venerable wife Eurydice, she was eldest daughter to Clemenus, screamed with delight. Then they lifted the Heifer's head from off the ground, and Pissastratus cut her throat. When she had done bleeding and was quite dead, they cut her up. They cut out the thigh-bones in all due course, wrapped them round in two layers of fat, and set some pieces of raw meat on the top of them. Then Nestor laid them upon the wood fire and poured wine over them, while the young men stood near him with five pronged spits in their hands. When the thighs were burned and they had tasted the inward meats, they cut the rest of the meat up small, put the pieces on the spits, and toasted them over the fire. Meanwhile, lovely Polycasta, Nestor's youngest daughter, washed Telemachus. When she had washed him and anointed him with oil, she brought him a fair mantle and shirt, and he looked like a god as he came from the bath and took his seat by the side of Nestor. When the outer meats were done, they drew them off the spits and sat down to dinner where they were weighted upon by some worthy henchmen, who kept pouring them out their wine in cups of gold. As soon as they had had enough to eat and drink, Nestor said, Sons, put Telemachus' horses to the chariot that he may start at once. Thus did he speak, and they did even as he had said, and yoked the fleet horses to the chariot. The housekeeper packed them up a provision of bread, wine, and sweet-meats fit for the sons of princes. Then Telemachus got into the chariot, while Pizzastratus gathered up the reins and took his seat beside him. He lashed the horses on, and they flew forward nothing loth into the open country, leaving the high citadel of Pylos behind them. All that day did they travel, swaying the yolk upon their necks till the sun went down and darkness was over all the land. Then they reached Ferry where Diocles lived, who was son to Artilicus and grandson to Alpheus. Here they passed the night and Diocles entertained them hospitably. When the child of mourning, Rosy-finger Dawn appeared, they again yoked their horses and drove out through the gateway under the echoing gate-house. Pizzastratus lashed the horses on, and they flew forward nothing loth. Presently they came to the core lands of the open country, and in the course of time completed their journey, so well did their steeds take them. End of Book 3 Book 4 of The Odyssey by Homer Translated by Samuel Butler This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Odyssey. Book 4. The visit to King Menelaus, who tells his story. Meanwhile the suitors in Ithaca plot against Telemachus. Now when the sun had set and darkness was over the land, they reached the low-lying city of Lacedaemon, where they drove straight to the abode of Menelaus, and found him in his own house, feasting with his many clansmen in honor of the wedding of his son and also of his daughter, whom he was marrying to the son of that valiant warrior Achilles. He had given his consent and promised her to him while he was still at Troy, and now the gods were bringing the marriage about. So he was sending her with chariots and horses to the city of the Mirmidens, over whom Achilles' son was reigning. For his only son he had found a bride from Sparta, the daughter of Elector. This son, Megapenthes, was born to him of a bond woman, for heaven vouchsaved Helen no more children after she had borne Hermione, who was fair as Golden Venus herself. So the neighbors and kinsmen of Menelaus were feasting and making merry in his house. There was a bard also to sing to them and play his lyre, while two tumblers went about performing in the midst of them when the man struck up with his tune. Telemachus and the son of Nestor stayed their horses at the gate, whereon Etionius' servant to Menelaus came out, and as soon as he saw them ran herring back into the house to tell his master.  What are we to do? Shall we take their horses out, or tell them to find friends elsewhere as best they can?  Take their horses out, of course, and show the strangers in that they may have supper. You and I stayed often enough at other people's houses before we got back here, where heaven grant that we may rest in peace hence forward. So Etionius bustled back and bade the other servants come with him. They took their sweating steeds from under the oak, made them fast to the majors, and gave them a feed of oats and barley mixed. Then they leaned the chariot against the end wall of the courtyard, and led the way into the house. Telemachus and Pistratus were astonished when they saw it, for its splendor was as that of the sun and moon. Then, when they had admired everything to their hearts' content, they went into the bathroom and washed themselves. When the servants had washed them and anointed them with oil, they brought them woolen cloaks and shirts, and the two took their seats by the side of Menelaus. A maidservant brought them water in a beautiful golden ure, and poured it into a silver basin for them to wash their hands, and she drew a clean table beside them. An upper servant brought them bread, and offered them many good things of what there was in the house, while the carver fetched them plates of all manner of meats and set cups of gold by their side. Menelaus then greeted them, saying, Fall too and welcome. When you have done supper I shall ask you who you are, for the lineage of such men as you cannot have been lost. You must be descended from a line of scepter-bearing kings, for poor people do not have such sons as you are.   Look, Pizzastratus, man after my own heart, see the gleam of bronze and gold, of amber, ivory and silver. Everything is so splendid that it is like seeing the palace of Olympian Jove. I am lost in admiration. Menelaus overheard him and said, No one, my sons, can hold his own with Jove, for his house and everything about him is immortal. But among mortal men, well, there may be another who has as much wealth as I have, or there may not, but at all events I have traveled much and have undergone much hardship, for it was nearly eight years before I could get home with my fleet. I went to Cyprus, Phoenicia and the Egyptians. I went also to the Ethiopians and the Sedonians, and the Arembians, and to Libya where the lambs have horns as soon as they are born, and the sheep lamb down there three times a year. Every one in that country, whether master or man, has plenty of cheese, meat, and good milk, for the youth yield all the year round. But while I was traveling and getting great riches among these people, my brother was secretly and shockingly murdered through the perfidy of his wicked wife, so that I have no pleasure in being Lord of all this wealth. Whoever your parents may be, they must have told you about all this, and of my heavy loss in the ruin of a stately mansion fully and magnificently furnished. Would that I had only a third of what I now have so that I had stayed at home, and all those were living who perished on the plain of Troy, far from Argos. I often grieve as I sit here in my house, for one and all of them. At times I cry aloud for sorrow, but presently I leave off again, for crying is cold comfort and one soon tires of it. Yet grieve for those as I may, I do so for one man more than for them all. I cannot even think of him without loathing both food and sleep, so miserable does he make me, for no one of all the Achaeans worked so hard or risked so much as he did. He took nothing by it, and has left a legacy of sorrow to myself, for he has been gone a long time, and we know not whether he is alive or dead. His old father, his long-suffering wife Penelope, and his son Ptolemycus, whom he left behind him in infinite arms, are plunged in grief on his account. Thus spoke Menelaus, and the heart of Ptolemycus yearned as he bethought him of his father. Tears fell from his eyes as he heard him thus mentioned, so that he held his cloak before his face with both hands. When Menelaus saw this, he doubted whether to let him choose his own time for speaking, or to ask him at once and find out what it was all about. While he was thus in two minds, Helen came down from her high vaulted and perfumed room, looking as lovely as Diana herself. Adrasta brought her a seat, El Sipah a soft woolen rug, while Philo fetched her the silver workbox which Alcandre, wife of Polybis, had given her. Polybis lived in Egyptian thieves, which is the richest city in the whole world. He gave Menelaus two baths, both of pure silver, two tripods, and ten talons of gold. Besides all this, his wife gave Helen some beautiful presents, to which a golden distaff and a silver workbox that ran on wheels, with a gold band round the top of it. Philo now placed this by her side, full of fine spun yarn, and a distaff charged with violet-colored wool was laid upon the top of it. Then Helen took her seat, put her feet upon the footstool, and began to question her husband. Do we know Menelaus, said she, the names of these strangers who have come to visit us? Shall I guess right or wrong? But I cannot help saying what I think. Never yet have I seen either man or woman so like somebody else. Indeed, when I look at him I hardly know what to think, as this young man is like Telemachus, whom Ulysses left as a baby behind him. When you, Achaeans, went to Troy with battle in your hearts, on account of my most shameless self. My dear wife, replied Menelaus, I see the likeness just as you do. His hands and feet are just like Ulysses.  Moreover, when I was talking about Ulysses and saying how much he had suffered on my account, tears fell from his eyes, and he hid his face in his mantle. Then Pizzastratus said, Menelaus, son of Atreus, you are right in thinking that this young man is Telemachus, but he is very modest, and is ashamed to come here and begin opening up discourse with one whose conversation is so divinely interesting as your own. My father, Nestor, sent me to escort him hither, for he wanted to know whether you could give him any counsel or suggestion. A son has always trouble at home when his father has gone away leaving him without supporters, and this is how Telemachus is now placed, for his father is absent, and there is no one among his own people to stand by him. Bless my heart, replied Menelaus, then I am receiving a visit from the son of a very dear friend who suffered much hardship for my sake. I had always hoped to entertain him with most marked distinction when Heaven had granted us a safe return from beyond the seas. I should have founded a city for him in Argos and built him a house. I should have made him leave Ithaca with his goods, his son, and all his people, and should have sacked for them some one of the neighbouring cities that are subject to me. We should thus have seen one another continually, and nothing but death could have interrupted so close and happy in intercourse. I suppose, however, that Heaven grudged us such great good fortune, for it has prevented the poor fellow from ever getting home at all. Thus did he speak, and his words set them all a-weeping. Helen wept, Telemachus wept, and so did Menelaus, nor could Pissistratus keep his eyes from filling when he remembered his dear brother Antillicus whom the son of Bright Dawn had killed. Thereon he said to Menelaus, Sir, my father Nestor, when we used to talk about you at home, told me you were a person of rare and excellent understanding. If then it be possible, do as I would urge you. I am not fond of crying while I am getting my supper. Morning will come in due course, and in the forenoon I care not how much I cry for those that are dead and gone. This is all we can do for the poor things. We can only shave our heads for them and ring the tears from our cheeks. I had a brother who died at Troy. He was by no means the worst man there. You are sure to have known him. His name was Antillicus. I never set eyes upon him myself, but they say that he was singularly fleet of foots and in fight valiant. Your discretion, my friend, answered Menelaus, is beyond your years. It is plain you take after your father. One can soon see when a man is son to one whom heaven has blessed both as regards wife and offspring, and it has blessed Nestor from first to last all his days, giving him a green old age in his own house, with sons about him who are both well-disposed and valiant. We will put an end therefore to all this weeping and attend to our supper again. Let water be poured over our hands. Telemachus and I can talk with one another fully in the morning. On this, as Faleon, one of the servants, poured water over their hands and they laid their hands on the good things that were before them. Then, Jove's daughter Helen bethought her of another matter. She drugged the wine with an herb that banishes all care, sorrow, and ill-humour. Whoever drinks wine thus drugged cannot shed a single tear all the rest of the day, not even though his father and mother, both of them, dropped down dead, or he sees a brother or a son hewn in pieces before his very eyes. This drug, of such sovereign power and virtue, had been given to Helen by Polydamna, wife of Thon, a woman of Egypt, where there grow all sorts of herbs, some good to put into the mixing-bowl and others poisonous. Moreover, every one in the whole country is a skilled physician, for they are the race of Peion. When Helen had put this drug in the bowl, and had told the servants to serve the wine round, she said, Menelaus, son of Atreus, and you, my good friends, sons of honorable men, which is as Jove wills, for he is the giver both of good and evil and can do what he chooses, feast here as you will, and listen while I tell you a tale in season. I cannot indeed name every single one of the exploits of Ulysses, but I can say what he did when he was before Troy, and you Achaeans were in all sorts of difficulties. He covered himself with wounds and bruises, dressed himself all in rags, and entered the enemy city looking like a menial or a beggar, and quite different from what he did when he was among his own people. In this disguise he entered the city of Troy, and no one said anything to him. I alone recognized him and began to question him, but he was too cunning for me. When, however, I had washed and anointed him and had given him clothes, and after I had sworn a solemn oath not to betray him to the Trojans till he had got safely back to his own camp and to the ships, he told me all that the Achaeans meant to do. He killed many Trojans and got much information before he reached the Argyve camp, for all which things the Trojan women made lamentation, but for my own part I was glad, for my heart was beginning to yearn after my home and I was unhappy about the wrong that Venus had done me in taking me over there, away from my country, my girl, my lawful wedded husband, who is indeed by no means deficient either in person or understanding. Then Manilaus said, All that you have been saying, my dear wife, is true. I have traveled much and have had much to do with heroes, but I have never seen such another man as Ulysses. What endurance, too, and what courage he displayed within the wooden horse wherein all the bravest of the Argyves were lying in wait to bring death and destruction upon the Trojans. At that moment you came up to us.  Three times did you go all round our hiding-place and pad it. You called our chiefs each by his own name and mimicked all our wives. Diomed, Ulysses and I, from our seats inside, heard what a noise you made. Diomed and I could not make up our minds whether to spring out then and there or to answer you from inside, but Ulysses held us all in check, so we sat quite still, all except Antiklus, who was beginning to answer you, when Ulysses clapped his two brawny hands over his mouth and kept them there. It was this that saved us all, for he muzzled Antiklus till Minerva took you away again. How sad, exclaimed Telemachus, that all this was of no avail to save him, nor yet his own iron courage. But now, sir, be pleased to send us all to bed, that we may lie down and enjoy the blessed boon of sleep. On this Helen told the maid-servants to set beds in the room that was in the gate-house, and to make them with good red rugs and spread coverlets on top of them with woollen cloaks for the guests to wear. So the maids went out carrying a torch and made the beds, to which a man-servant presily conducted the strangers. Thus then did Telemachus and Pissistratus sleep there in the forecourt, while the son of Atreus lay in an inner room with lovely Helen by his side. When the child of mourning, rosy-fingered dawn appeared, Menelaus rose and dressed himself. He bound his sandals on to his comely feet, girded his sword about his shoulders, and left his room looking like an immortal god. Then, taking a seat near Telemachus, he said, And what, Telemachus, has led you to take this long sea voyage to Lassidemmon? Are you on public or private business? Tell me all about it. I have come, sir,' replied Telemachus, to see if you can tell me anything about my father. I am being eaten out of house and home.  Therefore, I am supply and at your knees, if happily you may tell me about my father's melancholy end, whether you saw it with your own eyes or heard it from some other traveller, for he was a man born to trouble. Do not soften things out of any pity for myself, but tell me in all plainness exactly what you saw. If my brave father Ulysses ever did you loyal service, either by word or deed, when you Achaeans were harassed by the Trojans, bear it in mind now, as in my favour, and tell me truly all. Menelaus on hearing this was very much shocked. So, he exclaimed, these cowards would usurp a brave man's bed?  The lion, when he comes back to his lair, will make short work of the pair of them, and so will Ulysses with these suitors. By Father Jove, Minerva, and Apollo, if Ulysses is still the man that he was when he wrestled with phylo-malades and lesbos, and threw him so heavily that all the Achaeans cheered him. If he is still such and were to come near these suitors, they would have a short shrift and a sorry wedding. As regards your questions, however, I will not prevaricate nor deceive you, but will tell you without concealment all that the old man of the sea told me. I was trying to come on here, but the gods detained me in Egypt, for my hecatombs had not given them full satisfaction, and the gods are very strict about having their dues. Now off Egypt, about as far as a ship can sail in a day with a good stiff breeze behind her, there is an island called Pheros. It has a good harbour, from which vessels can get out into open sea when they have taken in water, and here the gods becalmed me twenty days without so much as a breath of fair wind to help me forward. We should have run clean out of provisions and my men would have starved, if a goddess had not taken pity upon me and saved me in the person of Eidothia, daughter to Proteus, the old man of the sea, for she had taken a great fancy to me. She came to me one day when I was by myself, as I often was, for the men used to go with their barbed hooks all over the island in the hope of catching a fish or two to save them from the pangs of hunger. Stranger said she, It seems to me that you like starving in this way, at any rate it does not greatly trouble you, for you stick here day after day, without even trying to get away though your men are dying by inches. Let me tell you, said I, whichever of the goddesses you may happen to be, that I am not staying here of my own accord, but must have offended the gods that live in heaven. Tell me, therefore, for the gods know everything, which of the immortals it is that is hindering me in this way, and tell me also how I may sail the sea so as to reach my home. Stranger replied she, I will make it all quite clear to you. There is an old immortal who lives under the sea hereabouts, and whose name is Proteus. He is an Egyptian, and people say he is my father. He is Neptune's head man and knows every inch of ground all over the bottom of the sea. If you can snare him and hold him tight, he will tell you about your voyage, what courses you are to take, and how you are to sail the sea so as to reach your home. He will also tell you, if you so will, all that has been going on at your house, both good and bad, while you have been away on your long and dangerous journey. Can you show me, said I, some stratagem by means of which I may catch this old god without his suspecting it and finding me out? For a god is not easily caught, not by a mortal man. Stranger, said she, I will make it all quite clear to you. About the time when the sun shall have reached mid-heaven, the old man of the sea comes up from under the waves, heralded by the west wind that furs the water over his head. As soon as he has come up he lies down and goes to sleep in a great sea-cave, where the seals, hello sightenies chickens as they call them, come up also from the grey sea and go to sleep in shoals all round him. And a very strong and fish-like smell do they bring with them. Early tomorrow morning I will take you to this place and will lay you in ambush. Pick out, therefore, the three best men you have in your fleet, and I will tell you all the tricks that the old man will play you. First he will look over all his seals and count them. Then, when he has seen them and tallied them on his five fingers, he will go to sleep among them, as a shepherd among his sheep. The moment you see that he is asleep sees him. Put forth all your strength and hold him fast, for he will do his very utmost to get away from you. He will turn himself into every kind of creature that goes upon earth, and will become also both fire and water. But you must hold him fast and grip him tighter and tighter, till he begins to talk to you and comes back to what he was when you saw him go to sleep. Then you may slacken your hold and let him go. You can ask him which of the gods it is that is angry with you, and what you must do to reach your home over the seas. Having so said, she dived under the waves, whereon I turned back to the place where my ships were ranged upon the shore, and my heart was clouded with care as I went along. When I reached my ship, we got supper ready, for night was falling and camp down upon the beach. When the child of morning, rosy-finger dawn appeared, I took the three men on whose prowess of all kinds I could most rely, and went along by the seaside, praying heartily to heaven. Meanwhile the goddess fetched me up four seal-skins from the bottom of the sea, all of them just skinned, for she meant playing a trick upon her father. She then dug four pits for us to lie in, and sat down to wait till we should come up. When we were close to her, she made us lie down in the pits one after the other, and threw a seal-skin over each of us. Our ambuscade would have been intolerable, for the stench of the fishy seals was most distressing, who would go to bed with a sea-monster if he could help it. But here, too, the goddess helped us, and thought of something that gave us great relief, for she put some ambrosia under each man's nostrils, which was so fragrant that it killed the smell of the seals. We waited the whole morning and made the best of it, watching the seals come up in hundreds to bask upon the seashore. Till that noon the old man of the sea came up, too, and when he found his fat seals he went over them and counted them. We were among the first he counted, and he never suspected any guile, but laid himself down to sleep as soon as he had done counting. Then we rushed upon him with a shout and seized him, on which he began at once with his old tricks, and changed himself first into a lion with a great mane. Then all of a sudden he became a dragon, a leopard, a wild boar. The next moment he was a running water, and then again directly he was a tree. But we stuck to him and never lost hold, till at last the cunning old creature became distressed, and said, Which of the gods was it, son of Atreus, that hatched this plot with you for snaring me and seizing me against my will? What do you want? You know that yourself, old man, I answered, you will gain nothing by trying to put me off. It is because I have kept so long in this island, and see no sign of my being able to get away. I am losing all heart. Tell me, then, for you gods know everything, which of the immortals it is that is hindering me, and tell me also, how I may sail the sea so as to reach my home? Then he said, If you would finish your voyage and get home quickly, you must offer sacrifices to Jove and to the rest of the gods before embarking, for it is decreed that you shall not get back to your friends and to your own house, till you have returned to the heaven-fed stream of Egypt and offered holy hecatombs to the immortal gods that reign in heaven. When you have done this, they will let you finish your voyage. I was broken hearted when I heard that I must go back all that long and terrible voyage to Egypt. Nevertheless, I answered, I will do all, old man, that you have laid upon me. But now tell me and tell me true, whether all the Achaeans whom Nestor and I left behind us when we set sail from Troy have got home safely, or whether any one of them came to a bad end, either on board his own ship or among his friends when the days of his fighting were done. Son of Atreus he answered, Why ask me? You had better not know what I can tell you, for your eyes will surely fill when you have heard my story. Many of those about whom you ask are dead and gone, but many still remain, and only two of the chief men among the Achaeans perished during their return home. As for what happened on the field of battle, you were there yourself. A third Achaean leader is still at sea alive, but hindered from returning. Ajax was wrecked, for Neptune drove him on to the great rocks of Jaira. Nevertheless he let him get safe out of the water, and in spite of all menervous hatred he would have escaped death if he had not ruined himself by boasting. He said the gods could not drown him even though they had tried to do so, and when Neptune heard this large talk he seized his trident in his two brawny hands and split the rock of Jaira in two pieces. The base remained where it was, but the part in which Ajax was sitting fell headlong into the sea and carried Ajax with it. So he drank salt water and was drowned. Your brother and his ships escaped, for Juno protected him, but when he was just about to reach the high promontory of Malia he was caught by a heavy gale which carried him out to sea again sorely against his will, and drove him to the Forland where Thyestes used to dwell, but where Ajistas was then living. By and by, however, it seemed as though he was to return safely after all, for the gods backed the wind into its old quarter and they reached home, whereon Agamemnon kissed his native soil and shed tears of joy at finding himself in his own country. Now there was a watchman whom Ajistas kept always on the watch, and to whom he had promised two talents of gold. This man had been looking out for a whole year to make sure that Agamemnon did not give him the slip and prepare war. When, therefore, this man saw Agamemnon go by, he went and told Ajistas, who had once began to lay a plot for him. He picked twenty of his bravest warriors and placed them in ambuscade on one side of the cloister, while on the opposite side he prepared a banquet. Then he sent his chariots and horsemen to Agamemnon and invited him to the feast, but he met foul play. He got him there, all unsuspicious of the doom that was awaiting him, and killed him when the banquet was over as though he were butchering an ox in the shambles. Not one of Agamemnon's followers was left alive, nor yet one of Ajistas, but they were all killed there in the cloisters. Thus spoke Proteus and I was brokenhearted as I heard him. I sat down upon the sands and wept. I felt as though I could no longer bear to live, nor look upon the light of the sun. Presently, when I had had my fill of weeping and writhing upon the ground, the old man of the sea said, Son of Atreus, do not waste any more time in crying so bitterly. It can do no manner of good. Find your way home as fast as ever you can, for Ajistas may still be alive. And even though a rest he has been beforehand with you in killing him, you may yet come in for his funeral. On this I took comfort in spite of all my sorrow, and said, I know then about these two. Tell me therefore about the third man of whom you spoke. Is he still alive but at sea and unable to get home? Or is he dead? Tell me, no matter how much it may grieve me. The third man, he answered, is Ulysses, who dwells in Ithaca. I can see him in an island, sorrowing bitterly in the house of the Nymph Calypso, who is keeping him prisoner, and he cannot reach his home, for he has no ships nor sailors to take him over the sea. As for your own end, Menelaus, you shall not die in Argos, but the gods will take you to the Elysian plain, which is at the ends of the world. There, fair hair to Radamanthus reigns, and men need an easier life than anywhere else in the world, for in Elysium there falls not rain nor hail nor snow, but Oceanus breathes ever with the west wind that sings softly from the sea, and gives fresh life to all men. This will happen to you because you have married Helen, and are Jove's son-in-law. As he spoke he dived under the waves, whereon I turned back to the ships with my companions, and my heart was clouded with care as I went along. When we reached the ships we got supper ready, for night was falling, and camped down upon the beach. When the child of mourning, rosy-fingered dawn appeared, we drew our ships into the water and put our masts and sails within them. Then we went on board ourselves, took our seats on the benches, and smote the gray sea with our oars. I again stationed my ships in the heaven-fed stream of Egypt, and offered hecatombs that were full and sufficient. When I had thus appeased Heaven's anger I raised a barrel to the memory of Agamemnon that his name might live forever, after which I had a quick passage home, for the God sent me a fair wind. And now for yourself. Stay here some ten or twelve days longer, and I will then speed you on your way. I will make you a noble present of a chariot and three horses. I will also give you a beautiful chalice, that so long as you live you may think of me whenever you make a drink offering to the immortal gods. Son of Atreus, replied Telemachus, do not press me to stay longer. I should be contented to remain with you for another twelve months. I find your conversation so delightful that I should never once wish myself at home with my parents. But my crew, whom I have left at Pylos, are already impatient, and you are detaining me from them. As for any present you may be disposed to make me, I had rather that it should be a piece of plate. I will take no horses back with me to Ithaca, but will leave them to adorn your own stables, for you have much flat ground in your kingdom where Lotus thrives, as also Meadowsweet and wheat and barley, and oats with their white and spreading ears. Whereas in Ithaca we have neither open fields nor race-courses, and the country is more fit for goats than horses, and I'd like it the better for that. None of our islands have much level ground, suitable for horses, and Ithaca least of all. Menelaus smiled and took Telemachus's hand with his own. What you say, said he, shows that you come of good family. I both can and will make this exchange for you, by giving you the finest and most precious piece of plate in all my house. It is a mixing-bowl by Vulcan's own hand, of pure silver, except the rim, which is inlaid with gold. Fadimas, king of the Sidonians, gave it me in the course of a visit which I paid him when I returned with thither on my homeward journey. I will make you a present of it. Thus did they converse, and guests kept coming to the king's house. They brought sheep and wine, while their wives had put up bread for them to take with them, so they were busy cooking their dinners in the courts. Meanwhile the suitors were throwing discs or aiming with spears at a mark on the level ground in front of Ulysses' house, and were behaving with all of their old insolence. Antonus and Eurimachus, who were their ring-leaders and much the foremost among them all, were sitting together when Naaman's son Afronius came up and said to Antonus, Have we any idea, Antonus, on what day Telemachus returns from Pylos? He has a ship of mine, and I want it to cross over to Elis. I have twelve brood-mears there with yearling mule-folds by their side, not yet broken in, and I want to bring one of them over here and break him. They were stouted when they heard this, for they had made sure that Telemachus had not gone to the city of Nelius. They thought he was only away somewhere on the farms, and was with the sheep or with the swine-herd. So Antonus said, When did he go? Tell me truly, and what young men did he take with him? Were they freemen or his own bondsmen? For he might manage that, too. Tell me also, did you let him have the ship of your own free will, because he asked you, or did he take it without your leave? I lent it him, answered Noemon. What else could I do when a man of his position said he was in a difficulty, and asked me to oblige him? I could not possibly refuse. As for those who went with him, they were the best young men we have, and I saw Mentor go on board as Captain, or some God who was exactly like him. I cannot understand it, for I saw Mentor hear myself yesterday morning, and yet he was then setting out for Pylos. Noemon then went back to his father's house, but Antonus and Eurymachus were very angry. They told the others to leave off playing and to come and sit down along with themselves. When they came, Antonus' son of Eupathie spoke in anger, his heart was black with rage, and his eyes flashed fire as he said, Good heavens, this voyage of Telemachus is a very serious matter. We had made sure that it would come to nothing, but the young fellow has got away in spite of us, and with a picked crew, too. He will be giving us trouble presently. May Jove take him before he is full grown. Find me a ship, therefore, with a crew of twenty men, and I will lie and wafer him in the straits between Ithaca and Samos. He will then rue the day that he set out to try and get news of his father. Thus did he speak, and the others applauded his saying. They then all of them went inside the buildings. It was not long ere Penelope came to know what the suitors were plotting. For a manservant, Medin, overheard them from outside the outer court as they were laying their schemes within, and by to tell his mistress. As he crossed the threshold of a room, Penelope said, Medin, what have the suitors sent you here for? Is it to tell the maids to leave their master's business and cook dinner for them? I wish they may neither woo nor dine henceforward, neither here nor anywhere else. But let this be the very last time, for the waste you all make of my son's estate. Did not your fathers tell you when you were children how good Ulysses had been to them? Never doing anything high-handed or speaking harshly to anybody. Kings may say things sometimes, and they may take fancy to one man and dislike another, but Ulysses never did an unjust thing by anybody, which shows what bad hearts you have, and that there is no such thing as gratitude left in this world. Then Medin said, I wish, madam, that this were all, but they are plotting something much more dreadful now, may heaven frustrate their design. They are going to try and murder Telemachus as he is coming home from Pylos and Lassidemmon, where he has been to get news of his father. Then Penelope's heart sank within her, and for a long time she was speechless, her eyes filled with tears, and she could find no utterance. At last, however, she said, Why did my son leave me? What business had he to go sailing off in ships that make long voyages over the ocean, like seahorses? Does he want to die without leaving anyone behind him to keep up his name? I do not know, answered Medin, whether some god set him on to it, or whether he went on his own impulse to see if he could find out if his father was dead or alive and on his way home. Then he went downstairs again, leaving Penelope in an agony of grief. There were plenty of seats in the house, but she had no heart for sitting on any one of them. She could only fling herself on the floor of her own room and cry. Whereon all the maids in the house, both old and young, gathered round her and began to cry too, till at last in a transport of sorrow, she exclaimed, My dears, heaven has been pleased to try me with more affliction than any other woman of my age and country. First I lost my brave and lion-hearted husband, who had every good quality under heaven and whose name was great over all Hellas and Middle Argos. And now my darling son is at the mercy of the winds and waves without my having heard one word about his leaving home. You hussies, there was not one of you would so much as think of giving me a call out of my bed, though you all of you very well knew what he was starting. If I had known he meant taking this voyage, he would have had to give it up, no matter how much he was bent upon it, or leave me a corpse behind him, one or other. Now, however, go some of you and call old Dullius, who has given me by my father on my marriage, and who is my gardener. Bid him go at once and tell everything to laertes, who may be able to hit on some plant for enlisting public sympathy on our side, as against those who are trying to exterminate his own race and that of Ulysses.  I knew all about it and gave him everything he wanted in the way of bread and wine, but he made me take my solemn oath that I would not tell you anything for some ten or twelve days, unless you asked or happened to hear of his having gone, for he did not want to spoil your beauty by crying. And now, madam, wash your face, change your dress, and go upstairs with your maids to offer prayers to Minerva, daughter of Aegis-Bearing Jove, for she can save him even though he be in the jaws of death. Do not trouble laertes, he has trouble enough already. Besides, I cannot think that the gods hate the race of the son of Arsaceus so much, but there will be a son left to come up after him and inherit both the house and the fair fields that lie far all around it. With these words she made her mistress leave off crying, and dried the tears from her eyes. Penelope washed her face, changed her dress, and went upstairs with her maids. She then put some bruised barley into a basket and began praying to Minerva.  She cried aloud as she spoke, and the goddess heard her prayer. Meanwhile the suitors were clamorous throughout the covered cloister, and one of them said, The queen is preparing her marriage with one or other of us, little does she dream that her son has now been doomed to die. This was what they said, but they did not show what was going to happen. Then Antinus said, Comrades, let there be no loud talking, lest some of it get carried inside. Let us be up and do that in silence, about which we are all of a mind. He then chose twenty men, and they went down to their ship and to the seaside. They drew the vessel into the water, and got her mast and sails inside her. They bound the oars to the thulpins with twisted thongs of leather all in due course, and spread the white sails aloft, while their fine servants brought them their armor. Then they made the ship fast a little way out, came on shore again, got their suppers, and waited till night should fall. But Penelope lay in her own room upstairs, unable to eat or drink, and wondering whether her brave son would escape, or be overpowered by the wicked suitors. Like a lioness caught in the toils with huntsmen hamming her in on every side, she thought and thought till she sank into a slumber, and lay on her bed bereft of thought and motion. Then Minerva bethought her of another matter, and made a vision in the likeness of Penelope's sister, Ifthime, daughter of Icarius, who had married humiless and lived in ferry.  Your son has done them no wrong, so he will yet come back to you. Penelope, who is sleeping sweetly at the gates of Dreamland, answered, Sister, why have you come here? You do not come very often, but I suppose that is because you live such a long way off. Am I then to leave off crying and refrain from all the sad thoughts that torture me? I, who have lost my brave and lion-hearted husband, who had every good quality under heaven, and whose name was great all over Hellas and Middle Argos. And now my darling son has gone off on board of a ship, a foolish fellow who has never been used to roughing it, nor to going about among gatherings of men. I am even more anxious about him than about my husband. I am all in a tremble when I think of him, lest something should happen to him, either from the people among whom he has gone, or by sea, for he has many enemies who are plotting against him, and are bent on killing him before he can return home. Then the vision said, Take heart and be not so much dismayed. There is one gone with him who many a man would be glad enough to have stand by his side. I mean Minerva. It is she who has compassion upon you, and who has sent me to bear you this image.   And the vision said, I shall not tell you for certain whether he is alive or dead, and there is no use in idle conversation. Then it vanished through the thong-hold of the door and was dissipated into thin air, but Penelope rose from her sleep refreshed and comforted, so vivid had been her dream. In time the suitors went on board and sailed their ways over the sea, intent on murdering Telemachus. Now there is a rocky islet called Astris, of no great size, in mid-channel between Ithaca and Samus, and there is a harbor on either side of it where a ship can lie. Here then the Achaeans placed themselves in ambush. BOOK FOUR BOOK FIVE OF THE AUDICY BY HOMER BOOK FIVE CULYPSO Ulysses reaches Scaria on a raft. And now, as dawn rose from her couch beside Teethanus, harbinger of light alike to mortals and immortals, the gods met in council and with them drove the Lord of Thunder, who is their king. Thereon Minerva began to tell them of the many sufferings of Ulysses, for she pitted him away there in the house of the Nymph Calypso. FATHER JOVE, said she, and all you other gods that live in everlasting bliss, I hope there may never be such a thing as a kind and well-disposed ruler any more, nor one who will govern equitably. I hope they will be all henceforth cruel and unjust, for there is not one of his subjects but has forgotten Ulysses, who rule them as though he were their father. There he is, lying in great pain in an island where dwells the Nymph Calypso, who will not let him go, and he cannot get back to his own country, for he can find neither ships nor sailors to take him over the sea. Furthermore, wicked people are now trying to murder his only son Telemachus, who is coming home from Pylos and Lassidemmon, where he has been to see if he can get news of his father. What, my dear, are you talking about? replied her father. Did you not send him there yourself, because you thought it would help Ulysses to get home and punish the suitors? Besides, you are perfectly able to protect Telemachus and to see him safely home again, while the suitors have to come hurry scurrying back without having killed him. When he had thus spoken, he said to his son, Mercury, Mercury, you are our messenger, go therefore and tell Calypso we have decreed that poor Ulysses is to return home. He is to be convoyed neither by gods nor men, but after a perilous voyage of twenty days upon a raft, he is to reach Fertil Scaria, the land of the Faetians, who are near of kin to the gods, and will honour him as though he were one of ourselves. They will send him in a ship to his own country, and will give him more bronze and gold and raiment than he would have brought back from Troy if he had had all his prize money and had got home without disaster. This is how we have settled that he shall return to his country and his friends. Thus he spoke, and Mercury, guide and guardian, slayer of Argus, did as he was told. Fourth with he bound on his glittering golden sandals with which he could fly like the wind over land and sea. He took the wand with which he seals men's eyes in sleep or wakes them just as he pleases, and flew holding it in his hand over Piaria. Then he swooped down through the firmament till he reached the level of the sea, whose waves he skimmed like a cormorant that flies fishing every hole and corner of the ocean and drenching its thick plumage in the spray. He flew and flew over many a weary wave, but when at last he got to the island which was his journey's end, he left the sea and went on by land till he came to the cave where the Nymph Calypso lived. He found her at home. There was a large fire burning on the hearth, and one could smell from far the fragrant reek of burning cedar and sandalwood. As for herself, she was busy at her loom, shooting her golden shuttle through the warp and singing beautifully. Round her cave there was a thick wood of alder, poplar, and sweet-smelling cypress trees, wherein all kinds of great birds had built their nests, owls, hawks, and chattering sea crows that occupy their business in the waters. A vine loaded with grapes was trained and grew luxuriately about the mouth of the cave. There were also four running reels of water in channels cut pretty close together, and turned hither and thither so as to irrigate the beds of violets and luscious herbage over which they flowed. Even a god could not help being charmed with such a lovely spot, so Mercury stood still and looked at it, but when he had admired it sufficiently he went inside the cave. Calypso knew him at once, for the gods all know each other no matter how far they live from one another, but Ulysses was not within. He was on the seashore as usual, looking out upon the barren ocean with tears in his eyes, groaning and breaking his heart for sorrow. Calypso gave Mercury a seat and said, Why have you come to see me, Mercury, honoured and ever welcome, for you do not visit me often? Say what you want, I will do it for you at once if I can, and if it can be done at all, but come inside and let me set refreshment before you. As she spoke she drew a table loaded with ambrosia beside him and mixed him some red nectar, some Mercury ate and drank till he had had enough, and then said, We are speaking God and God is to one another, and you ask me why I have come here, and I will tell you truly as you would have me do. Jove sent me. It was no doing of mine. Who could possibly want to come all this way over the sea where there are no cities full of people to offer me sacrifices or choice hecatombs? Nevertheless, I had to come, for none of us other gods can cross Jove nor transgress his orders. He says that you have here the most ill-starred of all those who fought nine years before the city of King Priam and sailed home in the tenth year after having sacked it. On their way home they sinned against Minerva, who raised both wind and waves against them, so that all his brave companions perished, and he alone was carried hither by wind and tide. Jove says that you are to let this man go at once, for it is decreed that he shall not perish here, far from his own people, but shall return to his house and country and see his friends again. Calypso trembled with rage when she heard this. You gods, she exclaimed, ought to be ashamed of yourselves.   So again when Ceres fell in love with the Ashen and yielded to him in a thrice-plowed fallow field, Jove came to hear of it before so very long and killed the Ashen with his thunderbolts, and now you're angry with me, too, because I have a man here. I found the poor creature sitting all alone astride of Achille, for Jove had struck his ship with lightning and sunk it in mid-ocean, so that all his crew were drowned, while he himself was driven by wind and waves on to my island. I got fond of him and cherished him, and had set my heart on making him immortal, so that he should never grow old all his days. Still, I cannot cross Jove, nor bring his councils to nothing. Therefore, if he insists upon it, let the man go beyond the seas again, but I cannot send him anywhere myself, for I have neither ships nor men who can take him. Nevertheless, I will readily give him such advice in all good faith, as will be likely to bring him safely to his own country.  On this he took his leave, and Calypso went out to look for Ulysses, for she had heard Jove's message.  For he had got tired of Calypso, and though he was forced to sleep with her in the cave by night, it was she, not he, that would have it so. As for the daytime, he spent it on the rocks and on the seashore, weeping, crying aloud for his despair and always looking out upon the sea.  I am going to send you away of my own free will. So go, cut some beams of wood, and make yourself a large raft with an upper deck that it may carry you safely over the sea. I will put bread, wine, and water on board to save you from starving. I will also give you clothes, and will send you a fair wind to take you home, if the gods in heaven so will it, for they know more about these things and can settle them better than I can. Ulysses shuddered as he heard her. Now, goddess, he answered, there is something behind all this. You cannot be really meaning to help me home, when you bid me do such a dreadful thing as put to sea on a raft. Not even a well-found ship with a fair wind could venture on such a distant voyage. Nothing that you can say or do shall make me go on board a raft, unless you first solemnly swear that you mean me no mischief. Calypso smiled at this and caressed him with her hand. You know a great deal, said she, but you are quite wrong here. May heaven above and earth below be my witness with the waters of the river Styx, and this is the most solemn oath which a blessed God can take, that I mean you no sort of harm, and only advising you to do exactly what I should do myself in your place. I am dealing with you quite straightforwardly, my heart is not made of iron, and I am very sorry for you. When she had thus spoken, she led the way rapidly before him, and Ulysses followed in her steps. So the pair, goddess and man, went on and on till they came to Calypso's cave, where Ulysses took the seat that Mercury had just left. Calypso set meat and drink before him of the food that mortals eat. Buttermades brought ambrosia and nectar for herself, and they laid their hands on the good things that were before them. When they had satisfied themselves with meat and drink, Calypso spoke, saying, Ulysses, noble son of Laertes, so you would start home to your own land at once? Good luck go with you. But if you could only know how much suffering is in store for you before you get back to your own country, you would stay where you are, keep house along with me, and let me make you immortal, no matter how anxious you may be to see this wife of yours, of whom you are thinking all the time day after day. Yet I flatter myself that I am no wit less tall or well looking than she is, for it is not to be expected that a mortal woman should compare in beauty with an immortal. Goddess replied Ulysses, do not be angry with me about this. I am quite aware that my wife Penelope is nothing like so tall or so beautiful as yourself. She is only a woman, whereas you are an immortal. Nevertheless I want to get home, and can think of nothing else. If some God wrecks me when I am on the sea, I will bear it and make the best of it. I have had infinite trouble both by land and sea already, so let this go with the rest. Presently the sun set and it became dark, whereon the pair retired into the inner part of the cave and went to bed. When the child of mourning, rosy-finger dawn appeared, Ulysses put on his shirt and cloak, while the goddess wore a dress of a light gossamer fabric, very fine and graceful, with a beautiful golden girdle about her waist and a veil to cover her head. She at once set herself to think how she could speed Ulysses on his way. So she gave him a great bronze axe that suited his hands. It was sharpened on both sides and had a beautiful olive wood handle fitted firmly onto it. She also gave him a sharp adds, and then led the way to the far end of the island where the largest trees grew, alder, poplar, and pine that reached the sky, very dry and well-seasoned, so as to sail light for him in the water. Then, when she had shown him where the best trees grew, Calypso went home, leaving him to cut them, which he soon finished doing. He cut down twenty trees in all and adds them smooth, squaring them by rule in good workmen like fashion. Meanwhile, Calypso came back with some augurs, so he bored holes with them and fitted the timbers together with bolts and rivets. He made the raft as broad as a skilled shipwright makes the beam of a large vessel, and he fixed a deck on top of the ribs and ran a gunnel all around it. He also made a mast with a yard arm and a rudder to steer with. He fenced the raft all round with wicker hurdles as a protection against the waves, and then he threw on a quantity of wood. By and by Calypso brought him some linen to make the sails, and he made these two, excellently, making them fast with braces and sheets. Last of all, with the help of levers, he drew the raft down into the water. In four days he had completed the whole work, and on the fifth Calypso sent him from the island after washing him and giving him some clean clothes.  She also gave him a wallet full of provisions, and found him in much good meat. Moreover, she made the wind fair and warm for him, and gladly did Ulysses spread his sail before it, while he sat and guided the raft skillfully by means of the rudder. He never closed his eyes, but kept them fixed on the pleats, on late-setting booties and on the bear, which men also call the wing and which turns round and round where it is, facing Orion and alone never dipping into the stream of Oceanus, for Calypso had told him to keep this to his left. Day seven and ten did he sail over the sea, and on the eighteenth the dim outlines of the mountains on the nearest part of the Faesian coast appeared, rising like a shield on the horizon. But King Neptune, who was returning from the Ethiopians, caught sight of Ulysses a long way off, from the mountains of the Solomy. He could see him sailing upon the sea, and it made him very angry, so he wagged his head and muttered to himself, saying, Good heavens, so the gods have been changing their minds about Ulysses while I was away in Ethiopia, and now he is close to the land of the Faesians, where it is decreed that he shall escape from the calamities that have befallen him. Still, he shall have plenty of hardship yet before he is done with it. Thereon he gathered his clouds together, grasped his trident, stirred it round in the sea, and roused the rage of every wind that blows, till earth, sea, and sky were hidden in cloud, and night sprang forth out of the heavens. Winds from east, south, north, and west fell upon him all at the same time, and a tremendous sea got up, so that Ulysses' heart began to fail him. Alas, he said to himself in his dismay, Whatever will become of me. I am afraid Calypso was right when she said I should have trouble by sea before I got home. It is all coming true. How black is Jove making heaven with his clouds, and what a sea the winds are raising from every quarter at once. I am now safe to perish. Blessed and thrice-blessed were those Denaeans who fell before Troy in the cause of the sons of Atreus. Would that I had been killed on the day when the Trojans were pressing me so sorely about the dead body of Achilles, for then I should have had due burial and the Achaeans would have honored my name. But now it seems that I shall come to a most pitiable end. As he spoke, a sea broke over him with such terrific fury that the raft reeled again, and he was carried overboard a long way off. He let go the helm, and the force of the hurricane was so great that it broke the mast halfway up, and both sail and yard went over into the sea. For a long time Ulysses was under water, and it was all he could do to rise to the surface again, for the close Calypso had given him weighed him down. But at last he got his head above water and spat out the bitter brine that was running down his face in streams. In spite of all this, however, he did not lose sight of his craft, but swam as fast as he could towards it, got hold of it, and climbed on board again so as to escape drowning. The sea took the raft and tossed it about, as autumn winds whirled thistle down round and round upon a road. It was as though the south, northeast and west winds were all playing battle-door and shuttle-clock with it at once. When he was in this plight, Eno, daughter of Cadmus, also called Lucothea, saw him. She had formerly been a mere mortal, but had since raised to the rank of a marine goddess. Seeing in what great distress Ulysses now was, she had compassion upon him, and, rising like a seagull from the waves, took her seat upon the raft. "'My poor good man,' said she, "'why is Neptune so fearlessly angry with you? He is giving you a great deal of trouble, but for all his bluster he will not kill you. You seem to be a sensible person. Do then as I bid you. Strip, leave your raft to drive before the wind and swim to the Faetian coast where better luck awaits you. And here take my veil and put it round your chest. It is enchanted, and you can come to no harm so long as you wear it.  With these words she took off her veil and gave it him. Then she dived down again like a seagull and vanished beneath the dark blue waters. But Ulysses did not know what to think. Alas, he said to himself in his dismay, this is only some one or other of the gods who is luring me to ruin by advising me to quit my raft. At any rate, I will not do so at present, for the land where she said I should be quit of all troubles seemed to be still a good way off. I know what I will do. I am sure it will be the best. No matter what happens I will stick to the raft as long as her timbers hold together. But when the sea breaks her up I will swim for it. I do not see how I can do any better than this. While he was thus in two minds Neptune set a terrible great wave that seemed to rear itself above his head till it broke right over the raft which then went to pieces as though it were a heap of dry chaff tossed about by a whirlwind. Ulysses got a stride of one plank and rode upon it as if he were on horseback. He then took off the clothes Calypso had given him, bound Eno's veil under his arms and plunged into the sea, meaning to swim on shore. King Neptune watched him as he did so and wagged his head, muttering to himself and saying, There now, swim up and down as best you can till you fall in with the well-to-do people. I do not think you will be able to say that I have led you off too lightly. On this he lashed his horses and drove to Aegea where his palace is. But Minerva resolved to help Ulysses, so she bound the ways of all the winds except one and made them lie quite still. But she roused a good stiff breeze from the north that should lay the waters till Ulysses reached the land of the Phoegetians where he would be safe. Thereon he floated about for two nights and two days in the water, with a heavy swell on the sea and death staring him in the face. But when the third day broke the wind fell and there was a dead calm without so much as a breath of air stirring. As he rose on the swell he looked eagerly ahead and could see land quite near. Then, as children rejoice when their dear father begins to get better, after having for a long time born sore afflictions sent him by some angry spirit but the gods delivered him from evil, so was Ulysses thankful when he again saw land and trees, and swam on with all his strength that he might once more set foot upon dry ground. When, however, he got with an earshot he began to hear the surf thundering up against the rocks, for the swell still broke against them with a terrific roar. Everything was enveloped in spray. There were no harbors where a ship might ride, nor shelter of any kind, but only headlands, low-lying rocks and mountaintops. Ulysses' heart now began to fail him, and he said, despairingly to himself, Alas, Jove has let me see land after swimming so far that I have given up all hope, but I can find no landing-place, for the coast is rocky and surf-beaten, the rocks are smooth and rise sheer from the sea, with the deep water close under them so that I cannot climb out for want of foothold. I am afraid some great wave will lift me off my legs and dash me against the rocks as I leave the water, which would give me a sorry landing. If, on the other hand, I swim further in search of some shelving beach or harbour, a hurricane may carry me out to sea again sorely against my will, or heaven may send some great monster of the deep to attack me, for amphitrite he breeds many such, and I know that Neptune is very angry with me. While he was thus in two minds, a wave caught him and took him with such force against the rocks that he would have been smashed and torn to pieces if Minerva had not shown him what to do. He caught hold of the rock with both hands and clung to it groaning with pain till the wave retired, so he was saved that time. But presently the wave came on again and carried him back with it far into the sea, tearing his hands as the suckers of apolipus are torn when someone plex it from its bed and the stones come up along with it. Even so did the rocks tear the skin from his strong hands and then the wave drew him deep down under the water. Here poor Ulysses would have certainly perished even in spite of his own destiny, if Minerva had not helped him to keep his wits about him. He swam seaward again, beyond reach of the surf that was beating against the land, and at the same time he kept looking towards the shore to see if he could find some haven, or a spit that should take the waves a slant. By and by, as he swam on, he came to the mouth of a river, and here he thought would be the best place, for there were no rocks and it afforded shelter from the wind. He felt that there was a current, so he prayed inwardly and said, Hear me, O King, whomever you may be, and save me from the anger of the sea-god Neptune, for I approach you prayerfully. Anyone who has lost his way has at all times acclaim even upon the gods, wherefore in my distress I draw near to your stream and cling to the knees of your riverhood. Have mercy upon me, O King, for I declare myself your supliant. Then the gods stayed his stream and stilled the waves, making all calm before him, and bringing him safely into the mouth of the river. Here at last Ulysses' knees and strong hands failed him, for the sea had completely broken him. His body was all swollen, and his mouth and nostrils ran down like a river with sea water, so that he could neither breathe nor speak, and lay swooning from sheer exhaustion. Presently, when he had got his breath and came to himself again, he took off the scarf that Eno had given him and threw it back into the salt stream of the river, whereon Eno received it into her hands from the wave that bore it towards her. Then he left the river, laid himself down among the rushes, and kissed the bounteous earth. Alas! he cried to himself in his dismay. Whatever will become of me, and how is it all to end? If I stay here upon the river bed through the long watches of the night, I am so exhausted that the bitter cold and damp may make an end of me, for towards sunrise there will be a keen wind blowing from off the river. If, on the other hand, I climb the hillside, find shelter in the woods and sleep in some thicket, I may escape the cold and have a good night's rest, but some savage beast may take advantage of me and devour me. In the end he deemed it best to take to the woods, and he found one upon some high ground not far from the water. There he crept beneath two shoots of olive that grew from a single stalk, the one ungrafted sucker while the other had been grafted. No wind, however squaldy, could break through the cover they afforded, nor could the sun's rays pierce them, nor the rain get through them, so closely did they grow into one another. Ulysses crept under these and began to make himself a bed to lie on, for there was a great litter of dead leaves lying about, enough to make a covering for two or three men even in hard winter weather. He was glad enough to see this, so he laid himself down and heaped the leaves all round him. Then, as one who lives alone in the country, far from any neighbor, hides a b