for Troy, and now I wept to see her there, and pitied her, And yet forbade her, though with grief, to come Near to the blood till I should first accost Tiresias. He too came, the Theban seer, Tiresias, bearing in his hand a wand Of gold; he knew me and bespake me thus:—
“ ‘Why, O unhappy mortal, hast thou left The light of day to come among the dead And to this joyless land? Go from the trench And turn thy sword away, that I may drink The blood, and speak the word of prophecy.’
“He spake; withdrawing from the trench, I thrust Into its sheath my silver-studded sword, And after drinking of the dark red blood The blameless prophet turned to me and said:—
“ ‘Illustrious chief Ulysses, thy desire Is for a happy passage to thy home, Yet will a god withstand thee. Not unmarked By Neptune shalt thou, as I deem, proceed Upon thy voyage. He hath laid up wrath Against thee in his heart, for that thy hand Deprived his son of sight. Yet may ye still Return, though after many hardships borne, If thou but hold thy appetite in check, And that of thy companions, when thou bring Thy gallant barque to the Trinacrian isle, Safe from the gloomy deep. There will ye find The beeves and fading wethers of the Sun— The all-beholding and all-hearing Sun.
If these ye leave unharmed, and keep in mind The thought of your return, ye may go back, Though sufferers, to your home in Ithaca;
But if thou do them harm, the event will be Destruction to thy ship and to its crew; And thou, if thou escape it, wilt return Late to thy country, all thy comrades lost, And in a foreign barque, and thou shalt find Wrong in thy household—arrogant men who waste Thy substance, wooers of thy noble wife, And offering bridal gifts.
On thy return Thou shalt avenge thee of their violent deeds; And when thou shalt have slain them in thy halls, Whether by stratagem or by the