Book I

palace gates. Observe me, and attend to what I say: Tomorrow thou shalt call the Achaian chiefs To an assembly; speak before them all, And be the gods thy witnesses. Command The suitors all to separate for their homes; And if thy mother’s mind be bent to wed, Let her return to where her father dwells, A mighty prince, and there they will appoint Magnificent nuptials, and an ample dower Such as should honor a beloved child. And now, if thou wilt heed me, I will give A counsel for thy good. Man thy best ship With twenty rowers, and go forth to seek News of thy absent father. Thou shalt hear Haply of him from someone of the sons Of men, or else some word of rumor sent By Jove, revealing what mankind should know. First shape thy course for Pylos, and inquire Of noble Nestor; then, at Sparta, ask Of fair-haired Menelaus, for he came Last of the mailed Achaians to his home. And shouldst thou learn that yet thy father lives, And will return, have patience yet a year, However hard it seem. But shouldst thou find That he is now no more, return forthwith To thy own native land, and pile on high His monument, and let the funeral rites Be sumptuously performed as may become The dead, and let thy mother