Ulysses, the sagacious, answered her:
“Ah me, I should have perished utterly, By such an evil fate as overtook Atrides Agamemnon, in the halls Of my own palace, but for thee, whose words, O goddess, have revealed what I should know. Now counsel me how I may be avenged. Be ever by my side, and strengthen me With courage, as thou didst when we o’erthrew The towery crest of Ilium. Would thou wert Still my ally, as then! I would engage, O blue-eyed Pallas, with three hundred foes, If thou, dread goddess, wouldst but counsel me.”
And then the blue-eyed Pallas spake again: > “I will be present with thee. When we once Begin the work, thou shalt not leave my sight; And many a haughty suitor with his blood And brains shall stain thy spacious palace floor. Now will I change thine aspect, so that none Shall know thee. I will wither thy fair skin, And it shall hang on crooked limbs; thy locks Of auburn I will cause to fall away, And round thee fling a cloak which all shall see With loathing. I will make thy lustrous eyes Dull to the sight, and thus shalt thou appear A squalid wretch to all the suitor train, And to thy wife, and to the son whom thou Didst leave within thy palace. Then at first Repair thou to the herdsman, him who keeps Thy swine; for he