And then the goddess, blue-eyed Pallas, said: “Such ever are thy thoughts, and therefore I Must not forsake thee in thy need. I know How prompt thy speech, how quick thy thought, how shrewd Thy judgment. If another man had come From such long wanderings, he had flown at once Delighted to his children and his wife In his own home. But thou desirest not To ask or hear of them till thou hast put Thy consort to the trial of her truth— Her who now sits within thy halls and waits In vain for thee, and in perpetual grief And weeping wears her nights and days away. I never doubted—well, in truth, I knew That thou, with all thy comrades lost, wouldst reach Thy country, but I dreaded to withstand My father’s brother Neptune, who was wroth, And fiercely wroth, for that thou hadst deprived His well-beloved son of sight. But now Attend, and I will show thee Ithaca By certain tokens; mark them and believe. The port of Phorcys, Ancient of the Deep, Is here; and there the spreading olive-tree, Just at the haven’s head; and, close beside, The cool dark grotto, sacred to the nymphs Called Naiads—a wide-vaulted cave where once Thou earnest oft with chosen hecatombs, An offering to the nymphs—and here thou seest The mountain Neritus with all his woods.”
So spake the goddess, and dispersed the mist, And all the scene appeared. Ulysses saw Well pleased, rejoicing in his own dear land, And, stooping, kissed the bountiful earth, and raised His hands, and thus addressed the nymphs in prayer:—
“Nymphs, Naiads, born to Jove, I did not hope To be with you again. With cheerful prayers I now salute you. We shall bring you soon Our offerings, as of yore, if graciously Jove’s daughter, huntress-queen, shall grant me yet To live, and bless my well-beloved son.”