Even of godlike Odysseus the brave, who, they tell me, aforetime

Stood at thy side in the battle and plundered the Ilian city.
Now of the rest of the heroes, as many as warred with the Trojans,

Tidings we hear, where any a pitiful doom hath encountered.
While for the fate of my sire — it is kept untold by Cronion :

None hath the power to say quite certainly where he is perished,

Whether by hostile tribes overwhelmed he was slain on the dry land.
Whether he lies in the depths mid the billows of Amphitrite.
Wherefore now to thy knees I am come, in the hope thou art willing

News of his pitiful death to impart, if perchance thou beheldst it

Even with thine own eyes, or hast heard some tale from another.
One who has wandered — for destined to ill from his birth was Odysseus.
Nor do thou shrink to offend, nor speak soft words in compassion ;

Tell me exactly the truth — how far thou hast chanced to behold him.
Lo, I entreat thee— if ever my father, the noble Odysseus,

Either by word or by action accomplished the thing that he promised

Where in the Trojan land ye Achaeans suffered affliction.
This, I beseech thee, remember, and tell me the whole as it happened."

Him gave answer the warrior-knight Gerenian Nestor :

" Ah, dear friend, thou recallest the sorrows that once in the distant

Trojan land we endured, the invincible sons of Achaea —

All those toils that we suffered in ships on the mist-bound ocean.
Seeking for spoil wherever Achilles was wishful to lead us.
