And into the well-sewn wallets pour me the barley meal;

  And twenty measures in all of well-ground meal let there be.

  And do thou alone know this; and gather these things for me,

  And I at the nightfall will fetch them, what time my mother is sped

  Aloft to the woman’s bower, and her mind is turning to bed:

  For unto Sparta as now, and to sandy Pylos I fare,

  If perchance of my father beloved returning home I may hear.”

  Then his loved nurse Euryclea straightway into wailing brake,

  And therewithal sore weeping these winged words she spake:

  “Wherefore, O child beloved, hath this thought in thy soul had birth?

  And whither wilt thou be faring o’er so great a deal of the earth?

  Thou lonely, thou well-beloved! And Odysseus, the God-begot,

  Afar from his land hath perished mid a folk that knoweth him not

  And when thou art gone, these Wooers will devise thee evil to come,

  What wise with guile they may slay thee and deal out the goods of thine home.

  Bide here! by thine own be sitting! what needest thou to go

  And over the untilled sea-plain to wander bearing thy woe?”

  But Telemachus the heedful the answering word did speed;

  “Heart up, O mother! for surely nought godless is my rede,

  But make oath no word hereover to say to my mother dear

  Until the eleventh day, or the twelfth at least, be here;

  Or till she herself shall miss me, and shall learn that I wander afar,

  Lest she with grief and weeping her lovely body mar.”

  Then a great oath swore the old wife by the Gods to speak to none:

  And so when she had sworn it and all the oath had done,

  Then straightway into the pitchers for him the wine she drew,

  And into the well-sewn wallets the barley-meal did do.

  But Telemachus hied to the homestead and again with the Wooers was blent.

  But the Goddess, the Grey-eyed Athene, on other errand went,

  For in Telemachus’ likeness she sped the city through

  And stood by each of the shipmen, and spake a word thereto,

  That unto the ship at nightfall they should gather every one;

  Moreover of Noemon, who was Phronius’ famous son,

  She craved a ship; and blithely gave he promise of the same.

  And now the sun sank under, and on all ways darkness came.

  Then she let shove the swift ship seaward, and therein stow all the gear,

  E’en such as is well-befitting for well-benched ships to bear,

  By the haven’s head she moored her, and there were gathered the crew,

  The goodly lads, and the Goddess cheered each to dare and do.

  But the Goddess, the Grey-eyed Athene, of other things had heed,

  And unto the house of Odysseus the goodly did she speed:

  There heavy sweet o’er the Wooers the slumber and sleep she shed,

  From their hands fell the cups of the Wooers and their souls astray she led.

  Till they roused them to sleep through the town; no longer they delayed

  To sit, now the slumber was on them and the sleep on their eyelids weighed.

  But now the Grey-eyed Athene to Telemachus spake again,

  Having called him forth from the halls and the fair habitation of men,

  In the shape of Mentor’s body, and her voice as his voice to hear:

  “Telemachus, now already are thy well-greaved fellows there,

  By the oars they sit abiding till thou speed them forth on the way:

  Come now, the road and the journey no longer let us delay.”

  So spake Pallas Athene, and swiftly forth she led,

  And hard on the feet of the Goddess his footsteps forth he sped;

  But when they were come to the ship and down to the side of the sea,

  They found upon the foreshore the long-haired company.

  Then the holy might of the youngling, Telemachus, spake and said:

  “Hither now with the meal, fair fellows, for together all is laid,

  And in the hall abideth; nor thereof hath my mother heard,

  Nor hath any maid of the handmaids, save one, known any word.”

  He spake and led them thither, and they followed hard at heel,

  And they brought forth all and laid it within the well-benched keel,

  E’en so as they had been bidden by Odysseus’ well-loved son.

  Then Telemachus went a ship-board, but Athene led him on,

  And she sat, and Telemachus by her, in the hinder part of the ship,

  And therewithal the shipmen, they let the hawsers slip,

  And they also went a shipboard, and sat on the benches there;

  But Grey-eyed Athene sped them a happy wind and fair,

  The north-west piping keenly across the wine-dark sea.

  But Telemachus bade his fellows, and egged them busily,

  To gear their tackling duly, and they hearkened and so did;

  For into the mid-thwart’s hollow the pine-tree mast they slid

  When up aloft they had raised it; then with forestays it they stayed,

  And hauled the white sails upward with ox-hide ropes well laid.

  With the wind the mid-sail bellied and the purple wave began

  To roar out aloud round the keel, as forth the good ship ran.

  So her road and her way fair speeding, through the waters did she slip.

  But they made fast all the tackling throughout the swift black ship,

  And they set the bowls of wine all garlanded about,

  And poured thereof to the Godfolk whose lives shall never die out,

  And in chief to the daughter of Zeus, the Goddess, the Grey-eyed May.

  So all through the night and the dawning the good ship cleft her way.

  BOOK III.

  ARGUMENT.

  TELEMACHUS SAILS TO PYLOS, AND THERE SEES NESTOR, WHO TELLS HIM

  OF AGAMEMNON AND MENELAUS, AND SENDS HIM ON TO SPARTA IN

  THE COMPANY OF PISISTRATUS HIS SON.

  NOW uprose the Sun, and leaving the exceeding lovely mere

  Fared up to the brazen heaven, to the Deathless shining clear,

  And unto deathful men on the corn-kind earth that dwell.

  But they came to the Burg of Neleus, e’en Pylos builded well,

  And there on the shore of the sea-flood deeds holy did men do;

  To the dark-blue haired Earth-shaker bulls spotless black they slew.

  Nine seats of men there were, and five hundred sat in each band,

  And for every band of the men nine bulls were held in hand;

  And now were they tasting the inwards, and to God were burning the thigh,

  When those fellows ran on the beach and brailed the sails on high,

  And moored the shapely ship and went thenceforth ashore.

  So aland was Telemachus wending, and Athene went before;

  And thus as they went, to him-ward the speech of the Grey-eyed came:

  “Telemachus, thee it behoveth no longer, the shrinking and shame,

  Since for this hast thou sailed the sea-flood, that tidings thou might’st gel

  Of thy father, what earth may hide him, or what is the doom he hath me!

  So go thou straight unto Nestor, the tamer of the steed,

  Tnat we learn what his bosom hoardeth of good and helpful rede.

  But do thou thyself beseech him that he speak straight words to thee;

  For no lying speech will he make us, so exceeding wise is he.”

  But Telemachus the heedful in answer spake the word:

  “What wise shall I go, O Mentor? what wise shall I greet the lord?

  For as yet in all words of wisdom am I untried and weak;

  And well may a youngling be shamefaced, if speech of an elder he seek.’

  But the Goddess, the Grey-eyed Athene, to him thus answered and spake:

  “Telemachus, some words surely the thought in thine heart shall make,

  And some the Gods shall give thee: for this of thee I wot,

  That against the will of the Godfolk thy birth and thy life were not.”

  So spake Pallas Athene, and swift the way she led,

  And after the feet of the Goddess his footsteps forth he sped.

  And they went to the Pylian Meeting and unto the Pylian seats,

  Where Nestor sat with his sons, and around were they dighting the meats,

  And some deal of the flesh were they roasting, and some were they spitting through,

  But when they beheld the strangers, about them thronging they drew,

  And took their hands in greeting, and bade them sit thereby.

  But Pisistratus, son of Nestor, it was he that first drew nigh,

  And seated the twain at the feast when of each he had taken the hand,

  And on soft-wooled fleeces he set them adown on the sea-washed sand,

  By his brother Thrasymedes, and by his father old;

  And he gave them share of the inwards, and filled the cup of gold

  With wine; and with outstretched right hand he hailed Athene the Maid,

  The daughter of Zeus the Shielded, and therewithal he said:

  “Pour out, O guest, O stranger, to Poseidon lord and king,

  For his feast it is ye have happed on, thus hither wandering;

  But when thou hast poured and hast prayed, as the wont is right and meet,

  Then give the cup to this other, that the good wine honey-sweet

  He too may pour; for me.seemeth he too with the Deathless doth deal:

  For all sons of men to the Godfolk have need to crave for weal.

  But whereas he is the younger, and his age is like unto mine,

  Unto thee the first do I give it, the golden cup of wine.”

  The wine that was sweet in the cup he set in her hand as he spake,

  And Athene rejoiced in the man for his wisdom and justice’ sake,

  Because unto her the first the golden cup he gave.

  Then she prayed a great prayer to Poseidon, the king and lord of the wave:

  “O Poseidon, O Earth-shaker, hearken! nor grudge unto us that pray,

  Nor yet to the deeds that we crave thee fulfilling-tide gainsay!

  To Nestor first and his sons give thou glory to befall;

  And give good and kindly guerdon to these Pylians one and all,

  For their gifts an hundred-folded all glorious with goodwill.

  But to me and Telemachus give it our journey’s end to fulfil,

  And the thing that we sailed for hither in a black ship over the sea.”

  So she spake and she prayed; and fulfilled it, the thing that she prayed should be,

  But unto Telemachus straightway she gave the twofold cup,

  And the loved son of Odysseus like her the prayer sent up.

  But when they had roasted the out-flesh and drawn off from the spits the meat,

  Then round about they dealt it for a goodly feast and great,

  And when yearning for meat and for drink they had utterly done away,

  Then the Rider, Gerenian Nestor, to the guest-folk fell to say:

  “Now is the time more fitting that we ask of guests to tell

  What and of whence they may be, since now they have eaten well.

  What are ye, guests? whence coming o’er the wet ways do ye go?

  Are ye about a business, or fare ye to and fro

  As the strong thieves of the waters, that waste and wander, and stake

  Their very lives on the hazard, as the aliens’ bale they make?”

  But Telemachus the heedful thus answered for his part:

  And bold he spake, for Athene set boldness in his heart,

  That he might crave him tidings of his father wandering wide,

  And withal that his fame and his glory mid the sons of men might abide:

  “O Nestor, O son of Neleus, great grace of Achaean men,

  Thou askest of whence we are wending, and straight out will I tell thee again:

  From the Ithacan land, that lieth under Neion, do we fare,

  And our own and no all-folk’s matter is that which I declare:

  For some wide-spread tale of my father I would gather and bear away,

  Of the hapless, glorious Odysseus. Time was, as all men say,

  That with him ye were warring and wasting the Troy-folk’s city great:

  Now of them that fought with the Troy-folk, of all others we know the fate,

  And where and how they perished, each man by woful weird;

  But for him, the Son of Cronos hath hid his doom unheard,

  Nor can any tell me clearly of the place where my father fell,

  Whether it were on the mainland that the foe his life did quell,

  Or by Amphitrite’s billows in the deep sea drowned he lay.

  So now to thy knees I betake me, if thou hast goodwill to say

  What wise was his woful death-day, if thou saw’st it with thine eyes,

  Or from any other wanderer hast heard the tale arise.

  — This man, his mother bore him to most exceeding woe —

  But have no respect of my sorrow nor be soft and soothing now,

  But tell all out unto me, in what wise the man thou hast seen.

  And I pray thee, if ever my father, the good Odysseus, hath been,

  As good as his word unto thee of the thing that he promised to do,

  Amid the Folk of the Trojans, the land of Achaean woe,

  Of these things for me be mindful, and speak out straight and plain.”

  But the Rider of Gerenia, old Nestor, answered again:

  “O friend, since thou bringest to mind the grief that we bore of old

  In that Folk, we sons of Achaeans, of mood unbridled and bold;

  Whatever of grief in our ships on the darkling sea we won,

  When after the spoil we wandered as Achilles led us on,

  All the grief that about the great City of Priam the King we bare,

  As there we fought and there perished all those that the doughtiest were.

  For there fell Ajax the champion, and there Achilles lies,

  And there Patroclus lieth as the Gods in council wise: no

  And there lieth the brave and the blameless, Antilochus my son,

  A warrior midst the warriors, most swift of foot to run.

  And many things else most grievous to us in that land befel;

  Yea, who of men that are mortal the tale thereof may tell,

  Nor if thou wert here abiding for five, for six years more,

  Wbuldst thou have out the tale of the troubles that the great Achaeans bore.

  Before the story’s ending would’st thou hie thee sorrowing home.

  “Nine years we lay hard upon them, and wove them baleful doom

  With many a wile, and hardly would Zeus the deed fulfil.

  But to equal himself against that man in redes none had the will,

  For in every wile and cunning he had the foremost part,

  Thy father, the glorious Odysseus, if indeed his son thou art.

  And for me, amazement holds me as I look on thee to-day;

  For thy speech is e’en as his speech, nor yet could any man say

  That a youngling’s speech to an elder’s could be so like and nigh.

  “Now all the while we abode there, the glorious Odysseus and I,

  Never in meeting or council did we speak a diverse rede,

  But with one mind together, with wit and wisdom indeed,

  Of their matter we counselled the Argives how best to bring it about.

  But when the steep city of Priam with war we had wasted out,

  A-shipboard we went, and the Gods the Achaeans sundered apart,

  And a woful return for the Argives did Zeus devise in his heart;

  Since not all men amongst us were wise-heart men and true;

  Ill doom from a deadly anger a many on them drew,

  The wrath of the Grey-eyed Goddess, the awful Father’s Maid,

  Who betwixt those sons of Atreus the strife and the anger laid.

  “For those twain, they called to the Meeting the Achaeans every one,

  Rashly and with no order at the setting of the sun,

  And heavy with wine they wended, the sons of Achaeans thereto.

  But the twain spake a word of the summons, why the folk together they drew

  There then spake Menelaus, who bade all men presently.

  To dight their journey homeward o’er the broad back of the sea.

  But nought it pleased Agamemnon, who would hold the people still,

  The gifts an hundred-folded, and things holy to fulfil,

  That the dreadful wrath of Athene and the bale they might hinder and heal

  Simple! and nothing wotting that of her he might win no weal;

  For not lightly the mind of the Gods, of the Deathless, turneth again.

  “There they stood, and wbrds that were bitter they bandied about, those twain;

  Till up rose the well-greaved Achaeans with clamour huge indeed,

  And in two ways were they minded and diverse was their rede.

  So there night-long we abided, and each side on the other was fain

  To speed hard things and bitter, since Zeus was devising our bane.

  But down to the salt-sea holy our ships on the morn did we get,

  And therein the goods we had gathered and our low-girt women we set.

  But half of the folk were withholden, to abiding were they won

  With the Shepherd of the People, Agamemnon, Atreus’ son:

  And half, we went a-shipboard and unmoored, and speedily

  Sailed off; for the God was laying all smooth the whale-great sea.

  “Thenceforth unto Tenedos coming, the Gods we hallowed there

  Of home full fain, but not yet did Zeus the unyielding bear

  Our homeward way in his heart, but raised up the strife again;

  For the folk of King Odysseus, the wise-heart, shifty of men,

  Went up on their rolling ships, and turned them about and went

  Aback unto Atreus’ son, for Agamemnon’s content.

  But I fled with the gathered ship-host that was wont with me to go,

  For I knew of the bale and the bane that the God was devising to do.

  Fled the warrior, the son of Tydeus, and egged on his fellows to flee.

  But the yellow-haired Menelaus came late to our company:

 

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