we May not suspect them. Thou hast grace of speech And noble thoughts, and fitly hast thou told, Even as a minstrel might, the history Of all thy Argive brethren and thy own. Now say, and frankly, didst thou also see Any of those heroic men who went With thee to Troy, and in that region met Their fate? A night immeasurably long Is yet before us. Let us have thy tale Of wonders. I could listen till the break Of hallowed morning, if thou canst endure So long to speak of hardships thou hast borne.”
He spake, and wise Ulysses answered thus:— “O King Alcinoüs, eminent beyond All others of thy people. For discourse There is a time; there is a time for sleep. If more thou yet wouldst hear, I will not spare To give the story of the greater woes Of my companions, who were afterward Cut off from life; and though they had escaped The cruel Trojan war, on their return They perished by a woman’s fraud and guilt.
“When chaste Proserpina had made the ghosts Of women scatter right and left, there came The soul of Agamemnon, Atreus’ son. He came attended by a throng of those Who in the palace of Aegisthus met A fate like his and died. When he had drunk The dark red blood, he knew me at a look, And wailed aloud, and, bursting into tears, Stretched out his hands to touch me; but no power Was there of grasp or pressure, such as once Dwelt in those active limbs. I could not help But weep at sight of him, for from my heart I pitied him, and spake these winged words:—
“ ‘Most glorious son of Atreus, king of men! How, Agamemnon, has the fate that brings To man the everlasting sleep of death O’ertaken thee? Did Neptune, calling up The winds in all their fury, make thy fleet A wreck, or did thine enemies on land Smite thee, as thou wert driving off their beeves And their fair flocks, or fighting to defend Some city, and the helpless women there?’
“I spake, and Agamemnon thus replied:— ‘Son of Laertes, nobly born and wise, ’Twas not that Neptune calling up the winds In all their fury