Of hallowed Lacedaemon. I replied, And truly told him all, and everything In order. Then he answered me, and
“ ‘So then! these men, unwarlike as they are, Aspire to occupy a brave man’s bed, As when a hart hath left two suckling fawns, Just born, asleep in a strong lion’s lair, And roams for pasturage the mountain slopes And grassy lawns, the lion suddenly Comes back, and makes a cruel end of both, So will Ulysses bring a sudden doom Upon the suitors. Would to Father Jove, And Pallas, and Apollo, that the chief, Returning mighty, as he was when once In well-built Lesbos, at a wrestling-match, He rose to strive with Philomelides, And threw him heavily, and all the Greeks Rejoiced—would he might come as then he was! Short-lived would then the suitors be, and taste A bitter marriage-feast. But now, to come To what thou hast inquired, I will not seek To turn from it, and talk of other things, Nor will deceive. Of all that I was told By the Ancient of the Deep, whose words are true, I will not hide a single word from thee. He saw thy father in an isle, he said, A prey to wasting sorrows, and detained, Unwilling, in the palace of the nymph Calypso. To the country of his birth He cannot come; no ships are there with oars And crew to bear him o’er the great wide sea.’
“Thus Menelaus, mighty with the spear, The son of Atreus, said. And having now Fulfilled my errand, I returned. The gods Gave favoring winds, and sent me swiftly home.”
He ended, and the queen was deeply moved. Then Theoclymenus, the godlike, said:—
“O gracious consort of Laertes’ son, King Menelaus knew not all. Hear now What I shall say—for I will prophesy, And truly, nor will keep back aught from thee. Let Jupiter, the mightiest of the gods, And this thy hospitable board, and this The hearth of great Ulysses, where I find A