guest and friend, When on his homeward voyage. Then he showed The wealth Ulysses gathered, brass and gold, And steel divinely wrought. That store might serve To feed, until ten generations pass, Another household. But the chief himself, So Pheidon said, was at Dodona then; For he had gone to hear from the tall oak Of Jupiter the counsel of the God, Whether to land in opulent Ithaca, After long years of absence, openly Or in disguise. The monarch took an oath In his own palace, pouring to the gods Their wine, that even then the ship was launched, And the crew ready to attend him home.
But me he first dismissed. There was a ship Of the Thesprotians just about to make A voyage to Dulichium, rich in fields Of wheat. He bade them take me faithfully To King Acastus; but another thought Found favor with the crew, a wicked scheme To plunge me deeper in calamity.
And when our ship had sailed away from land, They hastened to prepare me for a life Of slavery. They took my garments off, Mantle and cloak, and clothed me in a vest And cloak, the very rags which thou dost see.