and the prudent speech Reposing of her son deep in her heart, Again with her attendant maidens sought Her upper chamber. There arrived, she wept Her lost Ulysses, till Minerva bathed Her weary lids in dewy sleep profound. Then echoed through the palace dark-bedimm’d With evening shades the suitors boist’rous roar, 460 For each the royal bed burn’d to partake, Whom thus Telemachus discrete address’d. All ye my mother’s suitors, though addict To contumacious wrangling fierce, suspend Your clamour, for a course to me it seems More decent far, when such a bard as this, Godlike, for sweetness, sings, to hear his song. To-morrow meet we in full council all, That I may plainly warn you to depart From this our mansion. Seek ye where ye may 470 Your feasts; consume your own; alternate feed Each at the other’s cost; but if it seem Wisest in your account and best, to eat Voracious thus the patrimonial goods Of one man, rend’ring no account of all,5 Bite to the roots; but know that I will cry Ceaseless to the eternal Gods, in hope That Jove, for retribution of the wrong, Shall doom you, where ye have intruded, there To bleed, and of your blood ask no account.5 480 He ended, and each gnaw’d his lip, aghast At his undaunted hardiness of speech. Then thus Antinoüs spake, Eupithes’ son. Telemachus! the Gods, methinks, themselves Teach thee sublimity, and to pronounce Thy matter fearless. Ah forbid it, Jove! That one so eloquent should with the weight Of kingly cares in Ithaca be charged, A realm, by claim hereditary, thine. Then prudent thus Telemachus replied. 490 Although my speech Antinoüs may, perchance, Provoke thee, know that I am not averse From kingly cares, if Jove appoint me such. Seems it to thee a burthen to be fear’d By men above all others? trust me, no, There is no ill in royalty; the man So station’d, waits not long ere he obtain Riches and honour. But I grant that Kings Of the Achaians may no few be found In sea-girt Ithaca both young and old, 500 Of whom since great Ulysses is no more, Reign whoso may; but King, myself, I am In my own house, and over all my own Domestics, by Ulysses gained for me. To whom Eurymachus replied, the son Of Polybus. What Grecian Chief shall reign In sea-girt Ithaca, must be referr’d To the Gods’ will, Telemachus! meantime Thou hast unquestionable right to keep Thy own, and to command in thy own house. 510 May never that man on her shores arrive, While an inhabitant shall yet be left In Ithaca, who shall by violence wrest Thine from thee. But permit me, noble Sir! To ask thee of thy guest. Whence came the man? What country claims him? Where are to be found His kindred and his patrimonial fields? Brings he glad tidings of thy Sire’s approach Homeward? or came he to receive a debt Due to himself? How swift he disappear’d! 520 Nor opportunity to know him gave To those who wish’d it; for his face and air Him speak not of Plebeian birth obscure. Whom answered thus Telemachus discrete. Eurymachus! my father comes no more. I can no longer now tidings believe, If such arrive; nor he’d I more the song Of sooth-sayers whom my mother may consult. But this my guest hath known in other days My father, and he came from Taphos, son 530 Of brave Anchialus, Mentes by name, And Chief of the sea-practis’d Taphian race. So spake Telemachus, but in his heart Knew well his guest a Goddess from the skies. Then they to dance and heart-enlivening song Turn’d joyous, waiting the approach of eve, And dusky evening found them joyous still. Then each, to his own house retiring, sought Needful repose. Meantime Telemachus To his own lofty chamber, built in view 540 Of the wide hall, retired; but with a heart In various musings occupied intense. Sage Euryclea, bearing in each hand A torch, preceded him; her sire was Ops, Pisenor’s son, and, in her early prime, At his own cost Laertes made her his, Paying with twenty beeves her purchase-price, Nor in less honour than his spotless wife He held her ever, but his consort’s wrath Fearing, at no time call’d her to his bed. 550 She bore the torches, and with truer heart Loved him than any of the female train, For she had nurs’d him in his infant years. He open’d his broad chamber-valves, and sat On his couch-side: then putting off his vest Of softest texture, placed it in the hands Of the attendant dame discrete, who first Folding it with exactest care, beside His bed suspended it, and, going forth, Drew by its silver ring the portal close, 560 And fasten’d it with bolt and brace secure. There lay Telemachus, on finest wool Reposed, contemplating all night his course Prescribed by Pallas to the Pylian shore.
1 We are told that Homer was under obligations to Mentes, who had frequently given him a passage in his ship to different countries which he wished to see, for which reason he has here immortalised him.
3 Ἔρανος, a convivial meeting, at which every man paid his proportion, at least contributed something; but it seems to have been a meeting at which strict sobriety was observed, else Pallas would not have inferred from the noise and riot of this, that it was not such a one.
4 Οσσα—a word spoken, with respect to the speaker, casually; but with reference to the inquirer supposed to be sent for his information by the especial appointment and providential favour of the Gods.
5 There is in the Original an evident stress laid on the word Νήποινοι, which is used in both places. It was a sort of Lex Talionis which Telemachus hoped might be put in force against them; and that Jove would demand no satisfaction for the lives of those who made him none for the waste of his property.
Telemachus having convened an assembly of the Greecians, publicly calls on the Suitors to relinquish the house of Ulysses. During the continuance of the Council he has much to suffer from the petulance of the Suitors, from whom, having informed them of his design to undertake a voyage in hope to obtain news of Ulysses, he asks a ship, with all things necessary for the purpose. He is refused, but is afterwards furnished with what he wants by Minerva, in the form of Mentor. He embarks in the evening without the privity of his mother, and the Goddess sails with him.
