protect this man From evil! All day long spy after spy Has sat and watched upon the airy heights, And when the sun was set we never slept On land, but ever in our gallant ship Sailed, waiting for the holy morn, and lay In constant ambush for Telemachus, To seize and to destroy him. Yet behold, Some deity has brought him home.
And now Frame we a plan to cut off utterly Telemachus, and leave him no escape; For certainly I think that while he lives The end we aim at cannot be attained.
Shrewd is the youth in counsel and device, And we no longer have, as once we had, The people’s favor.
Let us quickly act, Ere he can call a council of the Greeks. That he will do without delay, and there Will rise in wrath to tell them how we planned His death by violence, and failed; and they Who hear assuredly will not approve The plotted mischief. They may drive us forth With outrage from our country to a land Of strangers.