The Odyssey (Wisehouse Classics Edition). Homer

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      Full for the port the Ithacensians stand,

      And furl their sails, and issue on the land.

      Telemachus already press’d the shore;

      Not first, the power of wisdom march’d before,

      And ere the sacrificing throng he join’d,

      Admonish’d thus his well-attending mind:

      “Proceed, my son! this youthful shame expel;

      An honest business never blush to tell.

      To learn what fates thy wretched sire detain,

      We pass’d the wide immeasurable main.

      Meet then the senior far renown’d for sense

      With reverend awe, but decent confidence:

      Urge him with truth to frame his fair replies;

      And sure he will; for wisdom never lies.”

      “Oh tell me, Mentor! tell me, faithful guide

      (The youth with prudent modesty replied),

      How shall I meet, or how accost the sage,

      Unskill’d in speech, nor yet mature of age?

      Awful th’approach, and hard the task appears,

      To question wisely men of riper years.”

      To whom the martial goddess thus rejoin’d:

      “Search, for some thoughts, thy own suggesting mind;

      And others, dictated by heavenly power,

      Shall rise spontaneous in the needful hour.

      For nought unprosperous shall thy ways attend,

      Born with good omens, and with heaven thy friend.”

      She spoke, and led the way with swiftest speed;

      As swift, the youth pursued the way she led;

      and join’d the band before the sacred fire,

      Where sate, encompass’d with his sons, the sire.

      The youth of Pylos, some on pointed wood

      Transfix’d the fragments, some prepared the food:

      In friendly throngs they gather to embrace

      Their unknown guests, and at the banquet place,

      Pisistratus was first to grasp their hands,

      And spread soft hides upon the yellow sands;

      Along the shore the illustrious pair he led,

      Where Nestor sate with the youthful Thrasymed,

      To each a portion of the feast he bore,

      And held the golden goblet foaming o’er;

      Then first approaching to the elder guest,

      The latent goddess in these words address’d:

      “Whoe’er thou art, from fortune brings to keep

      These rites of Neptune, monarch of the deep,

      Thee first it fits, O stranger! to prepare

      The due libation and the solemn prayer;

      Then give thy friend to shed the sacred wine;

      Though much thy younger, and his years like mine,

      He too, I deem, implores the power divine;

      For all mankind alike require their grace,

      All born to want; a miserable race!”

      He spake, and to her hand preferr’d the bowl;

      A secret pleasure touch’d Athena’s soul,

      To see the preference due to sacred age

      Regarded ever by the just and sage.

      Of Ocean’s king she then implores the grace.

      “O thou! whose arms this ample globe embrace,

      Fulfil our wish, and let thy glory shine

      On Nestor first, and Nestor’s royal line;

      Next grant the Pylian states their just desires,

      Pleased with their hecatomb’s ascending fires;

      Last, deign Telemachus and me to bless,

      And crown our voyage with desired success.”

      Thus she: and having paid the rite divine,

      Gave to Ulysses’ son the rosy wine.

      Suppliant he pray’d. And now the victims dress’d

      They draw, divide, and celebrate the feast.

      The banquet done, the narrative old man,

      Thus mild, the pleasing conference began:

      “Now gentle guests! the genial banquet o’er,

      It fits to ask ye, what your native shore,

      And whence your race? on what adventure say,

      Thus far you wander through the watery way?

      Relate if business, or the thirst of gain,

      Engage your journey o’er the pathless main

      Where savage pirates seek through seas unknown

      The lives of others, venturous of their own.”

      Urged by the precepts by the goddess given,

      And fill’d with confidence infused from Heaven,

      The youth, whom Pallas destined to be wise

      And famed among the sons of men, replies:

      “Inquir’st thou, father! from what coast we came?

      (Oh grace and glory of the Grecian name!)

      From where high Ithaca o’erlooks the floods,

      Brown with o’er-arching shades and pendent woods

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