mind to lose its equal poise, And he is gone to Pylos the divine For tidings of his father. Meanwhile here The arrogant suitors plan to lie in wait For him as he returns, that utterly The stock of great Arcesius from our isle May perish, and its name be heard no more. Speak we no more of him, be it his fate To fall or flee; but O, may Saturn’s son Protect him with his arm! And now, old man, Relate, I pray, thy fortunes; tell me true, That I may know who thou mayst be, and whence Thou earnest, where thy city lies, and who Thy parents were, what galley landed thee Upon our coast, and how the manners Brought thee to Ithaca, and of what race They claim to be; for I may well suppose Thou hast not come to Ithaca on foot.”
Ulysses, the sagacious, answered him: “I will tell all and truly. Yet if here Were store of food, and wine for many days, And we might feast at ease within thy lodge While other labored, I should hardly end In a whole year the history of the woes Which I have borne, and of the many toils Which it hath pleased the gods to lay on me.
“It is my boast that I am of the race Who dwell in spacious Crete, a rich man’s son, Within whose palace many other sons Were born and reared, the offspring of his wife; But me a purchased mother whom he made His concubine brought forth to him. And yet Castor Hylacides, from whom I sprang, Held me in equal favor with the rest; And he himself was honored like a god Among the Cretan people, for his wealth And for his prosperous life and gallant sons. But fate and death o’ertook and bore him down To Pluto’s realm, and his magnanimous sons Divided his large riches, casting lots. Small was the portion they assigned to me; They gave a dwelling, but my valor won A bride, the daughter of a wealthy house— For I was not an idler, nor in war A coward; but all that is with the past. And thou, who seest the stubble now, mayst guess What was the harvest, ere calamities Had come so thick upon me. Once did Mars And Pallas lend me courage, and the power To break through ranks of armed men. Whene’er I formed an ambush of the bravest chiefs, And planned