round the board a herald moved, and poured Wine for the guests. The haughty suitors now Came in, and took their places on the thrones And couches; heralds poured upon their hands The water; maidens heaped the canisters With bread, and all put forth their hands to share The banquet on the board, while to the brim Boys filled the beakers. When the calls of thirst And hunger were appeased, the suitors thought Of other things that well become a feast— Song and the dance. And then a herald brought A shapely harp, and gave it to the hands Of Phemius, who had only by constraint Sung to the suitors. On the chords he struck A prelude to his lay, while, as he played, Telemachus, that others might not hear, Leaned forward, and to blue-eyed Pallas spake:—
“My friend and guest, wilt thou take no offence At what I say? These revellers enjoy The harp and song, for at no cost of theirs They waste the substance of another man, Whose white bones now are mouldering in the rain Upon some mainland, or are tossed about By ocean billows. Should they see him once In Ithaca, their prayers would rather rise For swifter feet than richer stores of gold And raiment. But an evil fate is his, And he has perished. Even should we hear From any of the dwellers upon earth That he is near at hand, we could not hope. For him is no return. But now, I pray, Tell me, and frankly tell me, who thou art, And of what race of men, and where thy home, And who thy parents; how the mariners Brought thee to Ithaca, and who they claim To be, for well I deem thou couldst not come Hither on foot. All this, I pray, relate Truly, that I may know the whole. Art thou For the first time arrived, or hast thou been My father’s guest? for many a stranger once Resorted to our palace, and he knew The way to win the kind regard of men.”
Pallas, the blue-eyed goddess, answered thus:— “I will tell all and truly. I am named Mentes; my father was the great in war Anchialus. I rule a people skilled To wield the oar, the Taphians, and I come With ship and crew across the dark blue deep To Temesè, and to a race whose speech Is different from my own, in quest of brass, And bringing bright steel with