Since the feast Is over, take your rest within your homes. Tomorrow shall the Senators be called In larger concourse. We will pay our guest Due honor in the palace, worshipping The gods with solemn sacrifice. And then Will we bethink us how to send him home, That with no hindrance and no hardship borne Under our escort he may come again Gladly and quickly to his native land, Though far away it lie, and that no wrong Or loss may happen to him ere he set Foot on its soil; and there must he endure Whatever, when his mother brought him forth, Fate and the unrelenting Sisters spun For the newborn. But should he prove to be One of the immortals who has come from heaven, Then have the gods a different design. For hitherto the gods have shown themselves Visibly at our solemn hecatombs, And sat with us, and feasted like ourselves, And when the traveller meets with them alone, They never hide themselves; for we to them Are near of kin, as near as is the race Of Cyclops and the savage giant brood.”
Ulysses the sagacious answered him:— “Nay, think not so, Alcinoüs. I am not In form or aspect as the immortals are, Whose habitation is the ample heaven. But I am like whomever thou mayst know, Among mankind, inured to suffering; To them shouldst thou compare me. I could tell Of bitterer sorrows yet, which I have borne; Such was the pleasure of the gods. But now Leave me, whatever have my hardships been, To take the meal before me. Naught exceeds The impatient stomach’s importunity When even the afflicted and the sorrowful Are forced to heed its call. So even now, Midst all the sorrow that is in my heart, It bids me eat and drink, and put aside The thought of my misfortunes till itself Be satiate. But, ye princes, with the dawn Provide for me, in my calamity, The means to reach again my native land. For, after all my hardships, I would die Willingly, could I look on my estates, My servants, and my lofty halls once more.”