moved toward them, wondering at the sight. The soul of Agamemnon, Atreus’ son, Knew well-renowned Amphimedon, whose birth Was from Melanthius, and by whom he once Was welcomed to his house in Ithaca; And him the son of Atreus first bespake:—
“Amphimedon, what sad mischance has brought You all, who seem like chosen men, and all Of equal age, into these drear abodes Beneath the earth? ’Twere hard indeed to find, In a whole city, nobler forms of men. Has Neptune wrecked you in your ships at sea With fierce winds and huge waves, or armed men Smitten you on the land, while carrying off Their beeves and sheep, or fighting to defend Your wives and city? Tell me, for I claim To have been once your guest. Rememberest thou I lodged in thy own palace when I came With godlike Menelaus, and besought Ulysses to unite his gallant fleet To ours, and sail for Troy. A whole month long Were we in crossing the wide sea, and hard We found the task to gain as our ally Ulysses, the destroyer of walled towns.”
The soul of dead Amphimedon replied: “Atrides Agamemnon, far renowned, And king of men, I well remember all Of which thou speakest; I will now relate, And truly, how we met our evil end. We wooed the wife of the long-absent chief Ulysses; she rejected not nor yet Granted our suit, detested as it was, But, meditating our destruction, planned This shrewd device. She laid upon the loom Within her rooms a web of delicate threads, Ample in length and breadth, and thus she said To all of us: ‘Young princes, who are come To woo me—since Ulysses is no more, My noble husband—urge me not, I pray, To marriage, till I finish in the loom— That so my threads may not be spun in vain— A funeral vesture for the hero-chief Laertes, when his fatal hour shall come, With death’s long sleep; else some Achaian dame Might blame me, should I leave without a shroud Him who in life possessed such ample wealth.’ Such were her words, and easily they won Upon our generous minds. So went she on Weaving that ample web, and every night Unravelled it by torchlight. Three full years She practised thus, and by