“‘Can you show me,’ said I, ‘some stratagem by as a shepherd among his sheep. The moment you means of which I may catch this old god without see that he is asleep seize him; put forth all your his suspecting it and finding me out? For a god is strength and hold him fast, for he will do his very not easily caught- not by a mortal man.’
utmost to get away from you. He will turn himself
“‘Stranger,’ said she, ‘I will make it all quite clear into every kind of creature that goes upon the earth, to you. About the time when the sun shall have and will become also both fire and water; but you reached mid heaven, the old man of the sea comes must hold him fast and grip him tighter and tighter, up from under the waves, heralded by the West wind till he begins to talk to you and comes back to what that furs the water over his head. As soon as he has he was when you saw him go to sleep; then you come up he lies down, and goes to sleep in a great may slacken your hold and let him go; and you can sea cave, where the seals—Halosydne’s chickens as ask him which of the gods it is that is angry with they call them- come up also from the grey sea, and you, and what you must do to reach your home go to sleep in shoals all round him; and a very strong over the seas.’
and fish-like smell do they bring with them. Early
“Having so said she dived under the waves, to-morrow morning I will take you to this place whereon I turned back to the place where my ships 46
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were ranged upon the shore; and my heart was fragrant that it killed the smell of the seals.
clouded with care as I went along. When I reached
“We waited the whole morning and made the best my ship we got supper ready, for night was falling, of it, watching the seals come up in hundreds to and camped down upon the beach.
bask upon the sea shore, till at noon the old man of
“When the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, the sea came up too, and when he had found his fat appeared, I took the three men on whose prowess seals he went over them and counted them. We were of all kinds I could most rely, and went along by the among the first he counted, and he never suspected sea-side, praying heartily to heaven. Meanwhile the any guile, but laid himself down to sleep as soon as goddess fetched me up four seal skins from the bot-he had done counting. Then we rushed upon him tom of the sea, all of them just skinned, for she with a shout and seized him; on which he began at meant playing a trick upon her father. Then she once with his old tricks, and changed himself first dug four pits for us to lie in, and sat down to wait into a lion with a great mane; then all of a sudden till we should come up. When we were close to her, he became a dragon, a leopard, a wild boar; the next she made us lie down in the pits one after the other, moment he was running water, and then again di-and threw a seal skin over each of us. Our ambus-rectly he was a tree, but we stuck to him and never cade would have been intolerable, for the stench of lost hold, till at last the cunning old creature be-the fishy seals was most distressing—who would go came distressed, and said, Which of the gods was to bed with a sea monster if he could help it?-but it, Son of Atreus, that hatched this plot with you here, too, the goddess helped us, and thought of for snaring me and seizing me against my will? What something that gave us great relief, for she put some do you want?’
ambrosia under each man’s nostrils, which was so
“‘You know that yourself, old man,’ I answered, 47
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‘you will gain nothing by trying to put me off. It is and I left behind us when we set sail from Troy because I have been kept so long in this island, and have got home safely, or whether any one of them see no sign of my being able to get away. I am los-came to a bad end either on board his own ship or ing all heart; tell me, then, for you gods know ev-among his friends when the days of his fighting were erything, which of the immortals it is that is hin-done.’
dering me, and tell me also how I may sail the sea
“‘Son of Atreus,’ he answered, ‘why ask me? You so as to reach my home?’
had better not know what I can tell you, for your
“Then,’ he said, ‘if you would finish your voyage eyes will surely fill when you have heard my story.
and get home quickly, you must offer sacrifices to Many of those about whom you ask are dead and Jove and to the rest of the gods before embarking; gone, but many still remain, and only two of the for it is decreed that you shall not get back to your chief men among the Achaeans perished during their friends, and to your own house, till you have re-return home. As for what happened on the field of turned to the heaven fed stream of Egypt, and of-battle- you were there yourself. A third Achaean fered holy hecatombs to the immortal gods that leader is still at sea, alive, but hindered from re-reign in heaven. When you have done this they will turning. Ajax was wrecked, for Neptune drove him let you finish your voyage.’
on to the great rocks of Gyrae; nevertheless, he let
“I was broken hearted when I heard that I must him get safe out of the water, and in spite of all go back all that long and terrible voyage to Egypt; Minerva’s hatred he would have escaped death, if nevertheless, I answered, ‘I will do all, old man, that he had not ruined himself by boasting. He said the you have laid upon me; but now tell me, and tell gods could not drown him even though they had me true, whether all the Achaeans whom Nestor tried to do so, and when Neptune heard this large 48
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talk, he seized his trident in his two brawny hands, Agamemnon did not give him the slip and prepare and split the rock of Gyrae in two pieces. The base war; when, therefore, this man saw Agamemnon go remained where it was, but the part on which Ajax by, he went and told Aegisthus who at once began was sitting fell headlong into the sea and carried to lay a plot for him. He picked twenty of his brav-Ajax with it; so he drank salt water and was drowned.
est warriors and placed them in ambuscade on one
“‘Your brother and his ships escaped, for Juno pro-side the cloister, while on the opposite side he pretected him, but when he was just about to reach pared a banquet. Then he sent his chariots and the high promontory of Malea, he was caught by a horsemen to Agamemnon, and invited him to the heavy gale which carried him out to sea again sorely feast, but he meant foul play. He got him there, all against his will, and drove him to the foreland where unsuspicious of the doom that was awaiting him, Thyestes used to dwell, but where Aegisthus was and killed him when the banquet was over as though then living. By and by, however, it seemed as though he were butchering an ox in the shambles; not one he was to return safely after all, for the gods backed of Agamemnon’s followers was left alive, nor yet the wind into its old quarter and they reached home; one of Aegisthus’, but they were all killed there in whereon Agamemnon kissed his native soil, and the cloisters.’
shed tears of joy at finding himself in his own coun-
“Thus spoke Proteus, and I was broken hearted try.
as I heard him. I sat down upon the sands and wept;
“‘Now there was a watchman whom Aegisthus I felt as though I could no longer bear to live nor kept always on the watch, and to whom he had look upon the light of the sun. Presently, when I promised two talents of gold. This man had been had had my fill of weeping and writhing upon the looking out for a whole year to make sure that ground, the old man of the sea said, ‘Son of Atreus, 49
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do not waste any more time in crying so bitterly; it for in Elysium there falls not rain, nor hail, nor snow, can do no manner of good; find your way home as but Oceanus breathes ever with a West wind that fast as ever you can, for Aegisthus be still alive, and sings softly from the sea, and gives fresh life to all even though Orestes has beforehand with you in men. This will happen to you because you have kilting him, you may yet come in for his funeral.’
married Helen, and are Jove’s son-in-law.’
“On this I took comfort in spite of all my sorrow,
“As he spoke he dived under the waves, whereon I and said, ‘I know, then, about these two; tell me, turned back to the ships with my companions, and therefore, about the third man of whom you spoke; my heart was clouded with care as I went along.
is he still alive, but at sea, and unable to get home?
When we reached the ships we got supper ready, for or is he dead? Tell me, no matter how much it may night was falling, and camped down upon the beach.
grieve me.’
When the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn
“‘The third man,’ he answered, ‘is Ulysses who appeared, we drew our ships into the water, and put dwells in Ithaca. I can see him in an island sorrow-our masts and sails within them; then we went on ing bitterly in the house of the nymph Calypso, board ourselves, took our seats on the benches, and who is keeping him prisoner, and he cannot reach smote the grey sea with our oars. I again stationed his home for he has no ships nor sailors to take him my ships in the heaven-fed stream of Egypt, and of-over the sea. As for your own end, Menelaus, you fered hecatombs that were full and sufficient. When shall not die in Argos, but the gods will take you to I had thus appeased heaven’s anger, I raised a bar-the Elysian plain, which is at the ends of the world.
row to the memory of Agamemnon that his name There fair-haired Rhadamanthus reigns, and men might live for ever, after which I had a quick passage lead an easier life than any where else in the world, home, for the gods sent me a fair wind.
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“And now for yourself- stay here some ten or Ithaca we have neither open fields nor racecourses, twelve days longer, and I will then speed you on and the country is more fit for goats than horses, your way. I will make you a noble present of a chariot and I like it the better for that. None of our islands and three horses. I will also give you a beautiful have much level ground, suitable for horses, and chalice that so long as you live you may think of Ithaca least of all.”
me whenever you make a drink-offering to the im-Menelaus smiled and took Telemachus’s hand mortal gods.”
within his own. “What you say,” said he, “shows
“Son of Atreus,” replied Telemachus, “do not press that you come of good family. I both can, and will, me to stay longer; I should be contented to remain make this exchange for you, by giving you the fin-with you for another twelve months; I find your est and most precious piece of plate in all my house.
conversation so delightful that I should never once It is a mixing-bowl by Vulcan’s own hand, of pure wish myself at home with my parents; but my crew silver, except the rim, which is inlaid with gold.
whom I have left at Pylos are already impatient, Phaedimus, king of the Sidonians, gave it me in the and you are detaining me from them. As for any course of a visit which I paid him when I returned present you may be disposed to make me, I had thither on my homeward journey. I will make you a rather that it should he a piece of plate. I will take present of it.”
no horses back with me to Ithaca, but will leave Thus did they converse [and guests kept coming them to adorn your own stables, for you have much to the king’s house. They brought sheep and wine, flat ground in your kingdom where lotus thrives, as while their wives had put up bread for them to take also meadowsweet and wheat and barley, and oats with them; so they were busy cooking their dinners with their white and spreading ears; whereas in in the courts].
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Meanwhile the suitors were throwing discs or aim-Tell me also, did you let him have the ship of your ing with spears at a mark on the levelled ground in own free will because he asked you, or did he take front of Ulysses’ house, and were behaving with all it without yourleave?”
their old insolence. Antinous and Eurymachus, who
“I lent it him,” answered Noemon, “what else were their ringleaders and much the foremost among could I do when a man of his position said he was them all, were sitting together when Noemon son in a difficulty, and asked me to oblige him? I could of Phronius came up and said to Antinous, not possibly refuse. As for those who went with him
“Have we any idea, Antinous, on what day they were the best young men we have, and I saw Telemachus returns from Pylos? He has a ship of Mentor go on board as captain—or some god who mine, and I want it, to cross over to Elis: I have was exactly like him. I cannot understand it, for I twelve brood mares there with yearling mule foals saw Mentor here myself yesterday morning, and yet by their side not yet broken in, and I want to bring he was then setting out for Pylos.” one of them over here and break him.” Noemon then went back to his father’s house, They were astounded when they heard this, for but Antinous and Eurymachus were very angry.
they had made sure that Telemachus had not gone They told the others to leave off playing, and to to the city of Neleus. They thought he was only come and sit down along with themselves. When away somewhere on the farms, and was with the they came, Antinous son of Eupeithes spoke in an-sheep, or with the swineherd; so Antinous said, ger. His heart was black with rage, and his eyes
“When did he go? Tell me truly, and what young flashed fire as he said:
men did he take with him? Were they freemen or
“Good heavens, this voyage of Telemachus is a his own bondsmen—for he might manage that too?
very serious matter; we had made sure that it would 52
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come to nothing, but the young fellow has got away Did not your fathers tell you when you were children in spite of us, and with a picked crew too. He will how good Ulysses had been to them—never doing be giving us trouble presently; may Jove take him anything high-handed, nor speaking harshly to any-before he is full grown. Find me a ship, therefore, body? Kings may say things sometimes, and they may with a crew of twenty men, and I will lie in wait for take a fancy to one man and dislike another, but him in the straits between Ithaca and Samos; he Ulysses never did an unjust thing by anybody—which will then rue the day that he set out to try and get shows what bad hearts you have, and that there is no news of his father.”
such thing as gratitude left in this world.” Thus did he speak, and the others applauded his Then Medon said, “I wish, Madam, that this were saying; they then all of them went inside the buildings.
all; but they are plotting something much more It was not long ere Penelope came to know what dreadful now- may heaven frustrate their design.
the suitors were plotting; for a man servant, Medon, They are going to try and murder Telemachus as he overheard them from outside the outer court as they is coming home from Pylos and Lacedaemon, where were laying their schemes within, and went to tell his he has been to get news of his father.” mistress. As he crossed the threshold of her room Then Penelope’s heart sank within her, and for a long Penelope said: “Medon, what have the suitors sent time she was speechless; her eyes filled with tears, and you here for? Is it to tell the maids to leave their she could find no utterance. At last, however, she said, master’s business and cook dinner for them? I wish
“Why did my son leave me? What business had he to they may neither woo nor dine henceforward, neither go sailing off in ships that make long voyages over the here nor anywhere else, but let this be the very last ocean like sea-horses? Does he want to die without time, for the waste you all make of my son’s estate.
leaving any one behind him to keep up his name?” 53
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“I do not know,” answered Medon, “whether some think of giving me a call out of my bed, though you god set him on to it, or whether he went on his own all of you very well knew when he was starting. If I impulse to see if he could find out if his father was had known he meant taking this voyage, he would dead, or alive and on his way home.” have had to give it up, no matter how much he was Then he went downstairs again, leaving Penelope bent upon it, or leave me a corpse behind him- one in an agony of grief. There were plenty of seats in or other. Now, however, go some of you and call old the house, but she. had no heart for sitting on any Dolius, who was given me by my father on my one of them; she could only fling herself on the marriage, and who is my gardener. Bid him go at floor of her own room and cry; whereon all the maids once and tell everything to Laertes, who may be in the house, both old and young, gathered round able to hit on some plan for enlisting public sympa-her and began to cry too, till at last in a transport thy on our side, as against those who are trying to of sorrow she exclaimed,
exterminate his own race and that of Ulysses.”
“My dears, heaven has been pleased to try me Then the dear old nurse Euryclea said, “You may with more affliction than any other woman of my kill me, Madam, or let me live on in your house, which-age and country. First I lost my brave and lion-ever you please, but I will tell you the real truth. I hearted husband, who had every good quality un-knew all about it, and gave him everything he wanted der heaven, and whose name was great over all in the way of bread and wine, but he made me take Hellas and middle Argos, and now my darling son my solemn oath that I would not tell you anything is at the mercy of the winds and waves, without my for some ten or twelve days, unless you asked or hap-having heard one word about his leaving home. You pened to hear of his having gone, for he did not want hussies, there was not one of you would so much as you to spoil your beauty by crying. And now, Madam, 54
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wash your face, change your dress, and go upstairs orous throughout the covered cloister, and one of with your maids to offer prayers to Minerva, daugh-them said:
ter of Aegis-bearing Jove, for she can save him even
“The queen is preparing for her marriage with though he be in the jaws of death. Do not trouble one or other of us. Little does she dream that her Laertes: he has trouble enough already. Besides, I can-son has now been doomed to die.” not think that the gods hate die race of the race of the This was what they said, but they did not know son of Arceisius so much, but there will be a son left what was going to happen. Then Antinous said, to come up after him, and inherit both the house and
“Comrades, let there be no loud talking, lest some the fair fields that lie far all round it.” of it get carried inside. Let us be up and do that in With these words she made her mistress leave off silence, about which we are all of a mind.” crying, and dried the tears from her eyes. Penelope He then chose twenty men, and they went down washed her face, changed her dress, and went up-to their. ship and to the sea side; they drew the stairs with her maids. She then put some bruised vessel into the water and got her mast and sails barley into a basket and began praying to Minerva.
inside her; they bound the oars to the thole-pins
“Hear me,” she cried, “Daughter of Aegis-bearing with twisted thongs of leather, all in due course, Jove, unweariable. If ever Ulysses while he was here and spread the white sails aloft, while their fine ser-burned you fat thigh bones of sheep or heifer, bear vants brought them their armour. Then they made it in mind now as in my favour, and save my dar-the ship fast a little way out, came on shore again, ling son from the villainy of the suitors.” got their suppers, and waited till night should fall.
She cried aloud as she spoke, and the goddess But Penelope lay in her own room upstairs un-heard her prayer; meanwhile the suitors were clam-able to eat or drink, and wondering whether her 55
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brave son would escape, or be overpowered by the then, to leave off crying and refrain from all the sad wicked suitors. Like a lioness caught in the toils thoughts that torture me? I, who have lost my brave with huntsmen hemming her in on every side she and lion-hearted husband, who had every good thought and thought till she sank into a slumber, quality under heaven, and whose name was great and lay on her bed bereft of thought and motion.
over all Hellas and middle Argos; and now my dar-Then Minerva bethought her of another matter, ling son has gone off on board of a ship—a foolish and made a vision in the likeness of Penelope’s sis-fellow who has never been used to roughing it, nor ter Iphthime daughter of Icarius who had married to going about among gatherings of men. I am even Eumelus and lived in Pherae. She told the vision to more anxious about him than about my husband; I go to the house of Ulysses, and to make Penelope am all in a tremble when I think of him, lest some-leave off crying, so it came into her room by the thing should happen to him, either from the people hole through which the thong went for pulling the among whom he has gone, or by sea, for he has door to, and hovered over her head, saying, many enemies who are plotting against him, and
“You are asleep, Penelope: the gods who live at are bent on killing him before he can return home.” ease will not suffer you to weep and be so sad. Your Then the vision said, “Take heart, and be not so son has done them no wrong, so he will yet come much dismayed. There is one gone with him whom back to you.”
many a man would be glad enough to have stand Penelope, who was sleeping sweetly at the gates by his side, I mean Minerva; it is she who has com-of dreamland, answered, “Sister, why have you come passion upon you, and who has sent me to bear here? You do not come very often, but I suppose you this message.”
that is because you live such a long way off. Am I,
“Then,” said Penelope, “if you are a god or have 56
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been sent here by divine commission, tell me also BOOK V
about that other unhappy one—is he still alive, or is he already dead and in the house of Hades?” AND NOW, AS DAWN ROSE from her couch beside And the vision said, “I shall not tell you for certain Tithonus—harbinger of light alike to mortals and whether he is alive or dead, and there is no use in immortals—the gods met in council and with them, idle conversation.”
Jove the lord of thunder, who is their king. Thereon Then it vanished through the thong-hole of the Minerva began to tell them of the many sufferings door and was dissipated into thin air; but Penelope of Ulysses, for she pitied him away there in the rose from her sleep refreshed and comforted, so vivid house of the nymph Calypso.
had been her dream.
“Father Jove,” said she, “and all you other gods Meantime the suitors went on board and sailed that live in everlasting bliss, I hope there may never their ways over the sea, intent on murdering be such a thing as a kind and well-disposed ruler Telemachus. Now there is a rocky islet called Asteris, any more, nor one who will govern equitably. I hope of no great size, in mid channel between Ithaca and they will be all henceforth cruel and unjust, for there Samos, and there is a harbour on either side of it is not one of his subjects but has forgotten Ulysses, where a ship can lie. Here then the Achaeans placed who ruled them as though he were their father.
themselves in ambush.
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 57
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to murder his only son Telemachus, who is coming from Troy, if he had had had all his prize money home from Pylos and Lacedaemon, where he has and had got home without disaster. This is how we been to see if he can get news of his father.” have settled that he shall return to his country and
“What, my dear, are you talking about?” replied his friends.”
her father, “did you not send him there yourself, Thus he spoke, and Mercury, guide and guard-because you thought it would help Ulysses to get ian, slayer of Argus, did as he was told. Forthwith home and punish the suitors? Besides, you are per-he bound on his glittering golden sandals with which fectly able to protect Telemachus, and to see him he could fly like the wind over land and sea. He safely home again, while the suitors have to come took the wand with which he seals men’s eyes in hurry-skurrying back without having killed him.” sleep or wakes them just as he pleases, and flew When he had thus spoken, he said to his son Mer-holding it in his hand over Pieria; then he swooped cury, “Mercury, you are our messenger, go therefore down through the firmament till he reached the level and tell Calypso we have decreed that poor Ulysses of the sea, whose waves he skimmed like a cormo-is to return home. He is to be convoyed neither by rant that flies fishing every hole and corner of the gods nor men, but after a perilous voyage of twenty ocean, and drenching its thick plumage in the spray.
days upon a raft he is to reach fertile Scheria, the He flew and flew over many a weary wave, but when land of the Phaeacians, who are near of kin to the at last he got to the island which was his journey’s gods, and will honour him as though he were one end, he left the sea and went on by land till he of ourselves. They will send him in a ship to his came to the cave where the nymph Calypso lived.
own country, and will give him more bronze and He found her at home. There was a large fire burn-gold and raiment than he would have brought back ing on the hearth, and one could smell from far the 58
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fragrant reek of burning cedar and sandal wood. As ocean with tears in his eyes, groaning and breaking for herself, she was busy at her loom, shooting her his heart for sorrow. Calypso gave Mercury a seat golden shuttle through the warp and singing beau-and said: “Why have you come to see me, Mer-tifully. Round her cave there was a thick wood of cury—honoured, and ever welcome—for you do not alder, poplar, and sweet smelling cypress trees, visit me often? Say what you want; I will do it for wherein all kinds of great birds had built their nests-be you at once if I can, and if it can be done at all; owls, hawks, and chattering sea-crows that occupy but come inside, and let me set refreshment before their business in the waters. A vine loaded with you.
grapes was trained and grew luxuriantly about the As she spoke she drew a table loaded with am-mouth of the cave; there were also four running brosia beside him and mixed him some red nectar, rills of water in channels cut pretty close together, so Mercury ate and drank till he had had enough, and turned hither and thither so as to irrigate the and then said:
beds of violets and luscious herbage over which they
“We are speaking god and goddess to one another, flowed. Even a god could not help being charmed one another, and you ask me why I have come here, with such a lovely spot, so Mercury stood still and and I will tell you truly as you would have me do.
looked at it; but when he had admired it sufficiently Jove sent me; it was no doing of mine; who could he went inside the cave.
possibly want to come all this way over the sea where Calypso knew him at once- for the gods all know there are no cities full of people to offer me sacri-each other, no matter how far they live from one fices or choice hecatombs? Nevertheless I had to another- but Ulysses was not within; he was on the come, for none of us other gods can cross Jove, nor sea-shore as usual, looking out upon the barren transgress his orders. He says that you have here 59
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the most ill-starred of alf those who fought nine Iasion with his thunder-bolts. And now you are years before the city of King Priam and sailed home angry with me too because I have a man here. I in the tenth year after having sacked it. On their found the poor creature sitting all alone astride of a way home they sinned against Minerva, who raised keel, for Jove had struck his ship with lightning and both wind and waves against them, so that all his sunk it in mid ocean, so that all his crew were brave companions perished, and he alone was car-drowned, while he himself was driven by wind and ried hither by wind and tide. Jove says that you are waves on to my island. I got fond of him and cher-to let this by man go at once, for it is decreed that ished him, and had set my heart on making him he shall not perish here, far from his own people, immortal, so that he should never grow old all his but shall return to his house and country and see days; still I cannot cross Jove, nor bring his coun-his friends again.”
sels to nothing; therefore, if he insists upon it, let Calypso trembled with r