inquire— Who art thou, from what race of men, and where Thy city lies, and who thy parents are.”
Then spake in turn discreet Telemachus:
“Stranger, to every point I answer thee. I am by race a son of Ithaca, My father was Ulysses when alive, But he has died a miserable death; Long years has he been absent, and I came With my companions here, and this black ship, To gather tidings of my father’s fate.”
Then said the godlike Theoclymenus:
“I too, like thee, am far away from home; For I have slain a man of my own tribe, And he had many brothers, many friends, In Argos famed for steeds. Great is the power Of those Achaians, and I flee from them And the black doom of death, to be henceforth A wanderer among men. O, shelter me On board thy galley! I, a fugitive, Implore thy mercy, lest they overtake And slay me; they are surely on my track.”