what two men does telemachus need to talk to?

The Visit To Male monarch Menelaus, Who Tells His Story—Meanwhile The Suitors In Ithaca Plot Confronting Telemachus.

they reached the low lying metropolis of Lacedaemon, where they collection straight to the abode of Menelaus [and found him in his own firm, feasting with his many clansmen in honour of the wedding of his son, and besides of his girl, 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 at present the gods were bringing the spousal relationship most; and then he was sending her with chariots and horses to the urban center of the Myrmidons over whom Achilles' son was reigning. For his only son he had found a bride from Sparta, the daughter of Alector. This son, Megapenthes, was born to him of a bondwoman, for heaven vouchsafed Helen no more than children after she had borne Hermione, who was off-white as golden Venus herself.

Then the neighbours 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 melody.

Telemachus and the son of Nestor stayed their horses at the gate, whereon Eteoneus servant to Menelaus came out, and as before long every bit he saw them ran hurrying back into the house to tell his Master. He went close upwardly to him and said, "Menelaus, there are some strangers come here, two men, who look like sons of Jove. What are we to do? Shall we have their horses out, or tell them to detect friends elsewhere as they best can?"

Menelaus was very aroused and said, "Eteoneus, son of Boethous, you never used to be a fool, merely now you talk like a simpleton. Take their horses out, of class, and evidence the strangers in that they may have supper; you and I accept staid often enough at other people's houses before nosotros got dorsum here, where sky grant that we may residue in peace henceforward."

So Eteoneus bustled dorsum and bade the other servants come up with him. They took their sweating steeds from under the yoke, made them fast to the mangers, and gave them a feed of oats and barley mixed. And so they leaned the chariot against the end wall of the courtyard, and led the way into the firm. Telemachus and Pisistratus were astonished when they saw it, for its splendour was every bit that of the sunday and moon; then, when they had admired everything to their heart's content, they went into the bath room and washed themselves.

When the servants had washed them and all-powerful them with oil, they brought them woollen cloaks and shirts, and the two took their seats by the side of Menelaus. A maid-servant brought them h2o in a cute golden ewer, and poured it into a silver bowl for them to wash their hands; and she drew a clean table abreast them. An upper servant brought them breadstuff, and offered them many proficient things of what there was in the business firm, while the carver fetched them plates of all manner of meats and set cups of gold past their side.

Menelaus then greeted them saying, "Fall to, and welcome; when yous accept done supper I shall ask who you are, for the lineage of such men as yous cannot have been lost. You must exist descended from a line of sceptre-bearing kings, for poor people do not take such sons as you lot are."

On this he handed them a piece of fat roast loin, which had been set near him as existence a prime function, and they laid their hands on the good things that were before them; as presently as they had had enough to eat and drinkable, Telemachus said to the son of Nestor, with his caput so close that no one might hear, "Wait, Pisistratus, man after my own heart, see the gleam of bronze and gold—of amber, ivory, and silver. Everything is and so splendid that it is like seeing the palace of Olympian Jove. I am lost in adoration."

Menelaus overheard him and said, "No one, my sons, can hold his ain with Jove, for his firm and everything almost him is immortal; merely among mortal men—well, there may be another who has as much wealth every bit I have, or there may not; but at all events I have travelled much and accept undergone much hardship, for information technology was nearly eight years before I could get home with my fleet. I went to Republic of cyprus, Phoenicia and the Egyptians; I went likewise to the Ethiopians, the Sidonians, and the Erembians, and to Libya where the lambs accept horns equally soon as they are built-in, and the sheep lamb downwards iii times a year. Every one in that country, whether primary or man, has enough of cheese, meat, and expert milk, for the ewes yield all the twelvemonth circular. Merely while I was travelling and getting great riches among these people, my brother was secretly and shockingly murdered through the perfidy of his wicked wife, and then that I take no pleasure in existence 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 simply a third of what I at present have so that I had stayed at domicile, and all those were living who perished on the evidently of Troy, far from Argos. I oft grieve, every bit I sit down here in my business firm, for one and all of them. At times I cry aloud for sorrow, but presently I exit off again, for crying is common cold comfort and 1 shortly tires of it. However grieve for these equally I may, I do so for ane man more than than for them all. I cannot even call up of him without loathing both food and sleep, and so miserable does he make me, for no one of all the Achaeans worked so hard or risked and so much every bit he did. He took cypher by information technology, 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 quondam begetter, his long-suffering wife Penelope, and his son Telemachus, whom he left behind him an infant in artillery, are plunged in grief on his account."

Thus spoke Menelaus, and the middle of Telemachus yearned as he bethought him of his father. Tears fell from his optics as he heard him thus mentioned, so that he held his cloak before his confront with both hands. When Menelaus saw this he doubted whether to allow him choose his own fourth dimension for speaking, or to ask him at one time and observe 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. Adraste brought her a seat, Alcippe a soft woollen rug while Phylo fetched her the silverish work-box which Alcandra married woman of Polybus had given her. Polybus lived in Egyptian Thebes, which is the richest city in the whole world; he gave Menelaus two baths, both of pure silver, two tripods, and ten talents of gold; besides all this, his wife gave Helen some beautiful presents, to wit, a golden distaff, and a silver work box that ran on wheels, with a gold band round the top of information technology. Phylo at present placed this by her side, full of fine spun yarn, and a distaff charged with violet coloured wool was laid upon the superlative of it. And so Helen took her seat, put her feet upon the footstool, and began to question her married man.

"Do we know, Menelaus," said she, "the names of these strangers who accept come to visit us? Shall I guess right or wrong?—only I cannot assist proverb what I recollect. Never even so accept I seen either human or adult female so like somebody else (indeed when I wait at him I hardly know what to recollect) equally this boyfriend is similar Telemachus, whom Ulysses left as a babe backside 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 come across the likeness just equally you lot do. His easily and feet are merely like Ulysses; so is his pilus, with the shape of his head and the expression of his eyes. Moreover, when I was talking nearly Ulysses, and proverb how much he had suffered on my business relationship, tears fell from his eyes, and he hid his face up in his mantle."

Then Pisistratus said, "Menelaus, son of Atreus, you are right in thinking that this immature man is Telemachus, just he is very pocket-sized, and is aback to come here and begin opening upwards discourse with 1 whose conversation is so divinely interesting as your own. My father, Nestor, sent me to escort him hither, for he wanted to know whether y'all could give him any counsel or suggestion. A son has always trouble at habitation 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 amidst his own people to stand past him."

"Anoint 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 ever hoped to entertain him with well-nigh marked distinction when heaven had granted us a safe return from beyond the seas. I should have founded a metropolis for him in Argos, and built him a house. I should take made him get out Ithaca with his appurtenances, his son, and all his people, and should take sacked for them some ane of the neighbouring cities that are subject to me. We should thus have seen one another continually, and nothing only decease could take interrupted and then shut and happy an intercourse. I suppose, however, that heaven grudged us such dandy good fortune, for information technology has prevented the poor swain from ever getting dwelling house at all."

Thus did he speak, and his words gear up them all a weeping. Helen wept, Telemachus wept, and so did Menelaus, nor could Pisistratus continue his eyes from filling, when he remembered his beloved blood brother Antilochus whom the son of brilliant Dawn had killed. Thereon he said to Menelaus,

"Sir, my father Nestor, when we used to talk most y'all at home, told me you were a person of rare and excellent understanding. If, and then, information technology be possible, do as I would urge you. I am not fond of crying while I am getting my supper. Morn will come up in due grade, and in the forenoon I care non how much I cry for those that are dead and gone. This is all we tin do for the poor things. Nosotros tin can only shave our heads for them and wring the tears from our cheeks. I had a brother who died at Troy; he was by no means the worst man there; y'all are sure to have known him—his name was Antilochus; I never set optics upon him myself, merely they say that he was singularly fleet of foot and in fight valiant."

"Your discretion, my friend," answered Menelaus, "is across your years. It is manifestly you take afterward your male parent. Ane tin soon run into when a human being is son to one whom sky has blessed both as regards wife and offspring—and information technology has blessed Nestor from first to last all his days, giving him a green erstwhile age in his ain firm, with sons about him who are both well disposed and valiant. We volition put an finish therefore to all this weeping, and attend to our supper again. Let water exist poured over our hands. Telemachus and I tin can talk with one some other fully in the morning."

On this Asphalion, one of the servants, poured water over their hands and they laid their hands on the good things that were earlier them.

Then Jove'due south daughter Helen bethought her of another matter. She drugged the wine with an herb that banishes all care, sorrow, and sick humor. Whoever drinks vino thus drugged cannot shed a single tear all the remainder of the day, not even though his father and female parent both of them drop down dead, or he sees a brother or a son hewn in pieces earlier 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 abound all sorts of herbs, some good to put into the mixing bowl and others poisonous. Moreover, every 1 in the whole country is a skilled physician, for they are of the race of Paeeon. 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 honourable men (which is every bit Jove wills, for he is the giver both of good and evil, and can do what he chooses), feast here as you volition, and mind while I tell you a tale in season. I cannot indeed proper name every single 1 of the exploits of Ulysses, but I tin say what he did when he was earlier 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'due south 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 recognised him and began to question him, but he was besides 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 data before he reached the Argive army camp, for all which things the Trojan women fabricated lamentation, but for my ain part I was glad, for my middle was offset to yearn after my home, and I was unhappy about the incorrect that Venus had done me in taking me over there, away from my land, my girl, and my lawful wedded hubby, who is indeed by no means deficient either in person or agreement."

Then Menelaus said, "All that you have been saying, my love wife, is truthful. I have travelled much, and take had much to do with heroes, but I have never seen such another man as Ulysses. What endurance too, and what courage he displayed inside the wooden horse, wherein all the bravest of the Argives were lying in wait to bring death and destruction upon the Trojans. At that moment yous came up to u.s.; some god who wished well to the Trojans must have set yous on to information technology and y'all had Deiphobus with you. Three times did you go all circular our hiding place and pat it; yous 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 usa all in check, so we sat quite notwithstanding, all except Anticlus, who was beginning to reply yous, when Ulysses clapped his two lusty hands over his oral fissure, and kept them at that place. It was this that saved us all, for he muzzled Anticlus 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. Only now, sir, be pleased to ship us all to bed, that we may lie down and enjoy the blest boon of sleep."

On this Helen told the maid servants to prepare beds in the room that was in the gatehouse, and to make them with good red rugs, and spread coverlets on the top of them with woollen cloaks for the guests to habiliment. So the maids went out, carrying a torch, and made the beds, to which a human being-servant presently conducted the strangers. Thus, then, did Telemachus and Pisistratus 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 morning, rosy-fingered Dawn appeared, Menelaus rose and dressed himself. He spring his sandals on to his comely feet, girded his sword about his shoulders, and left his room looking like an immortal god. So, taking a seat near Telemachus he said:

"And what, Telemachus, has led you lot to take this long sea voyage to Lacedaemon? Are you lot on public, or private business organisation? Tell me all about information technology."

"I have come, sir," replied Telemachus, "to see if you tin tell me anything about my begetter. I am existence eaten out of business firm and home; my fair estate is being wasted, and my house is total of miscreants who keep killing nifty numbers of my sheep and oxen, on the pretence of paying their addresses to my female parent. Therefore, I am suppliant at your knees if haply you lot may tell me about my father'due south 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 whatsoever compassion 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. "Then," he exclaimed, "these cowards would usurp a brave human being'south bed? A hind might as well lay her new born young in the lair of a lion, and then go off to feed in the woods or in some grassy dell: the lion when he comes dorsum to his lair will make short piece of work with 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 Philomeleides in Lesbos, and threw him so heavily that all the Achaeans cheered him—if he is still such and were to come virtually these suitors, they would have a brusque shrift and a sorry wedding. As regards your questions, however, I will not prevaricate nor deceive you, simply volition tell you without concealment all that the sometime human being 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 nigh having their ante. At present off Egypt, about equally far as a ship can canvass in a twenty-four hour period with a good strong breeze behind her, in that location is an isle chosen Pharos—information technology has a good harbour from which vessels tin can get out into open up sea when they accept taken in water—and here the gods becalmed me twenty days without and then much as a breath of fair wind to help me forward. We should take run make clean out of provisions and my men would have starved, if a goddess had non taken pity upon me and saved me in the person of Idothea, daughter to Proteus, the quondam human of the ocean, for she had taken a great fancy to me.

"She came to me 1 day when I was by myself, as I frequently was, for the men used to go with their spinous hooks, all over the isle in the hope of communicable a fish or ii to salve them from the pangs of hunger. 'Stranger,' said she, 'it seems to me that you like starving in this fashion—at any rate it does not greatly trouble you, for yous stick here solar day after twenty-four hour period, without even trying to get away though your men are dying past 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 sky. Tell me, therefore, for the gods know everything, which of the immortals information technology is that is hindering me in this way, and tell me too how I may sail the body of water then as to accomplish my dwelling house.'

"'Stranger,' replied she, 'I volition brand it all quite articulate to you. There is an one-time 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 footing all over the bottom of the sea. If you can snare him and hold him tight, he volition tell you nearly your voyage, what courses yous are to take, and how you are to sail the body of water so as to reach your dwelling house. He will besides tell y'all, if you so volition, all that has been going on at your house both good and bad, while you take been abroad on your long and dangerous journey.'

"'Can you lot show me,' said I, 'some stratagem by means of which I may catch this erstwhile god without his suspecting it and finding me out? For a god is non easily defenseless—not past a mortal man.'

"'Stranger,' said she, 'I will brand information technology all quite clear to yous. Well-nigh the time when the sun shall have reached mid heaven, the old human being of the sea comes up from under the waves, heralded by the West current of air that furs the water over his caput. Equally soon as he has come up upwards he lies down, and goes to sleep in a bully ocean cave, where the seals—Halosydne's chickens equally they call them—come also from the grey sea, and go to sleep in shoals all round him; and a very stiff and fish-similar odor do they bring with them. Early on to-morrow morning time I will have y'all to this identify and will lay you in ambush. Option out, therefore, the three all-time men you lot have in your armada, and I will tell you all the tricks that the old man will play you.

"'First he will wait over all his seals, and count them; and so, when he has seen them and tallied them on his 5 fingers, he will go to sleep amongst them, every bit a shepherd among his sheep. The moment you see that he is comatose seize him; put along all your forcefulness and hold him fast, for he volition do his very utmost to get away from you. He will turn himself into every kind of fauna that goes upon the earth, and will become as well both burn and water; simply you must agree him fast and grip him tighter and tighter, till he begins to talk to you lot and comes back to what he was when you lot saw him go to sleep; so yous may slacken your hold and permit him go; and you can ask him which of the gods it is that is angry with you, and what y'all must do to reach your home over the seas.'

"Having so said she dived under the waves, whereon I turned dorsum 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 send we got supper set up, for dark was falling, and camped down upon the beach.

"When the child of morn rosy-fingered Dawn appeared, I took the three men on whose prowess of all kinds I could most rely, and went along by the sea-side, praying heartily to heaven. Meanwhile the goddess fetched me up four seal skins from the bottom of the bounding main, all of them simply skinned, for she meant playing a trick upon her father. Then she dug four pits for us to prevarication in, and sat down to wait till we should come. When we were close to her, she made u.s.a. lie downwards in the pits one after the other, and threw a seal skin over each of the states. 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 assistance it?—but hither, too, the goddess helped us, and thought of something that gave us swell relief, for she put some ambrosia under each man'due south nostrils, which was so fragrant that it killed the smell of the seals.

"We waited the whole morning and made the all-time of it, watching the seals come up in hundreds to bask upon the sea shore, till at noon the old homo of the sea came up as well, and when he had found his fat seals he went over them and counted them. We were amidst the offset he counted, and he never suspected any guile, but laid himself down to sleep as shortly as he had done counting. Then we rushed upon him with a shout and seized him; on which he began at in one case 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 adjacent moment he was running water, and then again directly he was a tree, but nosotros stuck to him and never lost agree, till at final the cunning onetime 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 confronting my volition? What do yous want?'

"'You know that yourself, onetime human,' I answered, 'you volition gain cipher by trying to put me off. It is considering I have been kept then long in this island, and see no sign of my being able to get away. I am losing all middle; tell me, and so, for you lot gods know everything, which of the immortals it is that is hindering me, and tell me also how I may canvass the body of water so every bit to attain my home?'

"Then,' he said, 'if you would finish your voyage and become dwelling house quickly, you lot must offer sacrifices to Jove and to the rest of the gods before embarking; for it is decreed that you shall not go dorsum to your friends, and to your own house, till you lot take returned to the heaven-fed stream of Arab republic of egypt, and offered holy hecatombs to the immortal gods that reign in heaven. When you have washed this they will let you terminate your voyage.'

"I was broken hearted when I heard that I must go back all that long and terrible voyage to Arab republic of egypt; however, 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 united states of america when we set sail from Troy have got home safely, or whether whatsoever one of them came to a bad end either on board his own ship or amid 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, only many even so remain, and just two of the chief men amidst the Achaeans perished during their return home. Every bit for what happened on the field of battle—you lot were there yourself. A tertiary Achaean leader is still at sea, live, but hindered from returning. Ajax was wrecked, for Neptune drove him on to the great rocks of Gyrae; nevertheless, he let him get safe out of the water, and in spite of all Minerva's 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 exercise so, and when Neptune heard this large talk, he seized his trident in his two brawny easily, and carve up the rock of Gyrae in 2 pieces. The base remained where it was, but the part on which Ajax was sitting vicious 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, merely when he was just about to reach the high promontory of Malea, he was caught by a heavy gale which carried him out to body of water over again sorely against his will, and drove him to the foreland where Thyestes used to dwell, but where Aegisthus was then living. Past and by, yet, it seemed as though he was to return safely later on 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 Aegisthus kept always on the watch, and to whom he had promised two talents of gold. This man had been looking out for a whole yr to brand sure that Agamemnon did not give him the slip and prepare war; when, therefore, this man saw Agamemnon go past, he went and told Aegisthus, who at once began to lay a plot for him. He picked twenty of his bravest warriors and placed them in ambuscade on one side the cloister, while on the contrary side he prepared a banquet. Then he sent his chariots and horsemen to Agamemnon, and invited him to the feast, but he meant foul play. He got him there, all unsuspicious of the doom that was awaiting him, and killed him when the feast was over as though he were butchering an ox in the shambles; non one of Agamemnon's followers was left alive, nor yet one of Aegisthus', but they were all killed at that place in the cloisters.'

"Thus spoke Proteus, and I was broken hearted as I heard him. I saturday downwardly upon the sands and wept; I felt every bit though I could no longer bear to live nor look upon the light of the sun. Presently, when I had had my make full of weeping and writhing upon the footing, the old man of the sea said, 'Son of Atreus, practice not waste any more time in crying then bitterly; information technology can do no manner of good; find your mode home as fast as ever you tin, for Aegisthus may be still live, and even though Orestes 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, nearly the third human of whom you spoke; is he still alive, but at bounding main, and unable to become home? or is he dead? Tell me, no affair how much it may grieve me.'

"'The third man,' he answered, 'is Ulysses who dwells in Ithaca. I can encounter him in an island sorrowing bitterly in the firm of the nymph Calypso, who is keeping him prisoner, and he cannot achieve his dwelling house for he has no ships nor sailors to take him over the body of water. Every bit for your own cease, Menelaus, you shall not dice in Argos, but the gods will take you to the Elysian plain, which is at the ends of the world. At that place fair-haired Rhadamanthus reigns, and men atomic number 82 an easier life than whatever where else in the world, for in Elysium at that place falls non pelting, nor hail, nor snow, but Oceanus breathes ever with a West wind that sings softly from the ocean, and gives fresh life to all men. This will happen to yous considering yous accept 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 kid of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn appeared, we drew our ships into the water, and put our masts and sails within them; so we went on board ourselves, took our seats on the benches, and smote the grey sea with our oars. I again stationed my ships in the heaven-fed stream of Egypt, and offered hecatombs that were total and sufficient. When I had thus appeased sky's acrimony, I raised a barrow to the retentivity of Agamemnon that his name might live for always, subsequently which I had a quick passage home, for the gods sent me a fair current of air.

"And now for yourself—stay hither some ten or twelve days longer, and I will and so speed you on your fashion. I will make you a noble nowadays of a chariot and three horses. I volition also give you a cute chalice that and so long as you live you may call back of me whenever y'all make a drinkable-offer to the immortal gods."

"Son of Atreus," replied Telemachus, "practice not press me to stay longer; I should exist contented to remain with you for another twelve months; I find your conversation and then delightful that I should never once wish myself at dwelling 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 nowadays you may be disposed to make me, I had rather that information technology should be a piece of plate. I volition accept no horses back with me to Ithaca, merely volition leave them to adorn your own stables, for y'all take much apartment ground in your kingdom where lotus thrives, as also meadow-sweet and wheat and barley, and oats with their white and spreading ears; whereas in Ithaca we have neither open fields nor racecourses, and the country is more fit for goats than horses, and I like it the better for that. None of our islands have much level basis, suitable for horses, and Ithaca least of all."

Menelaus smiled and took Telemachus's manus within his own. "What you say," said he, "shows that you lot come of good family. I both can, and volition, make this exchange for you, by giving y'all the finest and nigh precious piece of plate in all my house. It is a mixing bowl by Vulcan's own hand, of pure argent, except the rim, which is inlaid with aureate. Phaedimus, king of the Sidonians, gave information technology me in the course of a visit which I paid him when I returned thither on my homeward journeying. 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 upward 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 levelled basis in front of Ulysses' firm, and were behaving with all their old insolence. Antinous and Eurymachus, who were their ringleaders and much the foremost amongst them all, were sitting together when Noemon son of Phronius came up and said to Antinous,

"Accept we any idea, Antinous, on what day Telemachus returns from Pylos? He has a send of mine, and I want it, to cross over to Elis: I have twelve breed mares there with yearling mule foals by their side not still broken in, and I desire to bring 1 of them over here and intermission him."

They were astounded when they heard this, for they had fabricated sure that Telemachus had not gone to the metropolis of Neleus. They thought he was only away somewhere on the farms, and was with the sheep, or with the swineherd; then Antinous said, "When did he get? Tell me truly, and what young men did he have with him? Were they freemen or his ain bondsmen—for he might manage that too? Tell me also, did y'all allow him have the send of your own free will because he asked you, or did he take information technology without your exit?"

"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 non mayhap refuse. As for those who went with him they were the all-time young men we have, and I saw Mentor go along board as captain—or some god who was exactly similar him. I cannot empathise it, for I saw Mentor hither myself yesterday morning, and yet he was then setting out for Pylos."

Noemon then went back to his begetter'south firm, only Antinous and Eurymachus were very angry. They told the others to leave off playing, and to come up and sit down forth with themselves. When they came, Antinous son of Eupeithes spoke in anger. His centre was black with rage, and his eyes flashed fire equally he said:

"Good heavens, this voyage of Telemachus is a very serious thing; we had fabricated sure that it would come to nothing, only the young beau has got abroad in spite of us, and with a picked coiffure too. He will be giving united states trouble presently; may Jove accept him earlier he is full grown. Detect me a transport, therefore, with a coiffure of twenty men, and I will prevarication in wait for him in the straits between Ithaca and Samos; he will then rue the solar day that he gear up out to effort and become news of his father."

Thus did he speak, and the others applauded his saying; they then all of them went within the buildings.

It was not long ere Penelope came to know what the suitors were plotting; for a man servant, Medon, overheard them from outside the outer courtroom equally they were laying their schemes within, and went to tell his mistress. Equally he crossed the threshold of her room Penelope said: "Medon, what accept the suitors sent you lot here for? Is it to tell the maids to leave their master'southward business and cook dinner for them? I wish they may neither woo nor dine henceforward, neither here nor anywhere else, but allow this be the very concluding time, for the waste you all make of my son'due south estate. Did not your fathers tell you when y'all were children, how skilful Ulysses had been to them—never doing anything loftier-handed, nor speaking harshly to everyone? Kings may say things sometimes, and they may take a fancy to one man and dislike another, just Ulysses never did an unjust affair by everyone—which shows what bad hearts you have, and that there is no such thing as gratitude left in this globe."

And so Medon said, "I wish, Madam, that this were all; only they are plotting something much more than dreadful now—may heaven frustrate their design. They are going to effort and murder Telemachus as he is coming home from Pylos and Lacedaemon, where he has been to get news of his father."

Then Penelope'due south eye sank inside 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 go out me? What business had he to go sailing off in ships that brand long voyages over the ocean like sea-horses? Does he desire to die without leaving any one behind him to keep upwards his name?"

"I do not know," answered Medon, "whether some god prepare him on to it, or whether he went on his own impulse to see if he could notice out if his male parent was dead, or alive and on his manner 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 1 of them; she could only fling herself on the flooring 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 send of sorrow she exclaimed,

"My dears, sky has been pleased to endeavor me with more affliction than whatsoever other woman of my historic period and country. Get-go I lost my brave and lion-hearted husband, who had every good quality under heaven, and whose proper name was neat over all Hellas and center Argos, and now my darling son is at the mercy of the winds and waves, without my having heard one word well-nigh his leaving dwelling. You hussies, in that location was not one of yous would so much every bit think of giving me a call out of my bed, though yous all of you very well knew when he was starting. If I had known he meant taking this voyage, he would have had to give information technology up, no matter how much he was bent upon it, or get out me a corpse behind him—1 or other. At present, however, become some of yous and telephone call old Dolius, who was given me by my male parent on my union, and who is my gardener. Bid him go at one time and tell everything to Laertes, who may be able to hit on some programme for enlisting public sympathy on our side, as against those who are trying to exterminate his own race and that of Ulysses."

And so the dear former nurse Euryclea said, "Yous may impale me, Madam, or let me live on in your house, whichever you please, simply I will tell you the real truth. I knew all nigh it, and gave him everything he wanted in the manner of bread and wine, merely he fabricated me have my solemn oath that I would not tell you annihilation for some ten or twelve days, unless y'all asked or happened to hear of his having gone, for he did not want you 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 Custodianship-begetting Jove, for she tin salvage him even though he be in the jaws of death. Do not problem Laertes: he has trouble enough already. Also, I cannot recall that the gods hate the race of the son of Arceisius so much, only there will be a son left to come later him, and inherit both the firm and the fair fields that prevarication far all round information technology."

With these words she made her mistress exit off crying, and dried the tears from her eyes. Penelope washed her face, inverse her dress, and went upstairs with her maids. She so put some bruised barley into a basket and began praying to Minerva.

"Hear me," she cried, "Daughter of Custodianship-begetting Jove, unweariable. If ever Ulysses while he was hither burned you lot fat thigh basic of sheep or heifer, bear it in mind now as in my favour, and save my darling son from the villainy of the suitors."

She cried aloud as she spoke, and the goddess heard her prayer; meanwhile the suitors were insatiable throughout the covered cloister, and one of them said:

"The queen is preparing for her marriage with one or other of the states. Little does she dream that her son has now been doomed to dice."

This was what they said, merely they did not know what was going to happen. Then Antinous said, "Comrades, let there be no loud talking, lest some of it become carried inside. Let us be up and do that in silence, well-nigh which nosotros are all of a listen."

He then chose twenty men, and they went down to their ship and to the bounding main side; they drew the vessel into the h2o and got her mast and sails inside her; they bound the oars to the thole-pins with twisted thongs of leather, all in due course, and spread the white sails aloft, while their fine servants brought them their armour. Then they fabricated the transport fast a picayune way out, came on shore again, got their suppers, and waited till night should fall.

Just Penelope lay in her ain 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 hemming her in on every side she thought and thought till she sank into a sleep, and lay on her bed bereft of idea and motion.

Then Minerva bethought her of another matter, and made a vision in the likeness of Penelope's sister Iphthime daughter of Icarius who had married Eumelus and lived in Pherae. She told the vision to go to the house of Ulysses, and to make Penelope get out off crying, and so it came into her room by the hole through which the thong went for pulling the door to, and hovered over her head saying,

"You are asleep, Penelope: the gods who live at ease will non suffer you to weep and exist so pitiful. Your son has washed them no incorrect, so he volition yet come back to you lot."

Penelope, who was sleeping sweetly at the gates of dreamland, answered, "Sister, why accept you come here? You do not come very often, but I suppose that is because you alive such a long manner off. Am I, then, to leave off crying and refrain from all the sad thoughts that torture me? I, who take lost my brave and king of beasts-hearted married man, who had every adept quality under sky, and whose proper noun was cracking over all Hellas and middle Argos; and now my darling son has gone off on board of a send—a foolish fellow who has never been used to roughing it, nor to going almost amidst gatherings of men. I am fifty-fifty more anxious nigh 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 amidst whom he has gone, or past bounding main, for he has many enemies who are plotting against him, and are bent on killing him before he tin can return home."

And so the vision said, "Take eye, and exist not and so much dismayed. There is 1 gone with him whom many a man would be glad enough to have stand by his side, I mean Minerva; information technology is she who has compassion upon you, and who has sent me to bear yous this message."

"So," said Penelope, "if y'all are a god or have been sent here by divine commission, tell me also about that other unhappy one—is he still alive, or is he already dead and in the firm of Hades?"

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."

So it vanished through the thong-hole of the door and was dissipated into thin air; but Penelope rose from her sleep refreshed and comforted, so vivid had been her dream.

Meantime the suitors went on lath and sailed their ways over the sea, intent on murdering Telemachus. Now there is a rocky islet called Asteris, of no great size, in mid channel between Ithaca and Samos, and there is a harbour on either side of information technology where a transport can prevarication. Here then the Achaeans placed themselves in ambush.

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Source: https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/odyssey/full-text/book-iv/

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