“Mentor, let not Ulysses wheedle thee To join him, and make war on us, for this Our purpose is, and it will be fulfilled: When by our hands the father and the son Are slain, thou also shalt be put to death For this attempt, and thy own head shall be The forfeit. When we shall have taken thus Thy life with our good weapons, we will seize On all thou hast, on all thy wealth within Thy dwelling or without, and, mingling it With the possessions of Ulysses, leave Within thy palaces no son of thine Or daughter living, and no virtuous wife Of thine, abiding here in Ithaca.”
He spake, and woke new anger in the heart Of Pallas, and she chid Ulysses thus:—
“Ulysses, thou art not, in might of arm And courage, what thou wert when waging war Nine years without a pause against the men Of Troy for Helen’s sake, the child of Jove, And many didst thou slay in deadly strife, And Priam’s city, with its spacious streets, Was taken through thy counsels. How is it That, coming to thy own possessions here And thy own palace, thou dost sadly find Thy ancient valor fail thee in the strife Against the suitors? Now draw near, my friend, And stand by me, and see what I shall do, And own that Mentor, son of Alcimus, Amid a press of foes requites thy love.”
She spake, but gave not to Ulysses yet The certain victory; for she meant to put To further proof the courage and the might Both of Ulysses and his emulous son. To the broad palace roof she rose, and sat In shape a swallow. Agelaüs now, Damastor’s son, cheered on with gallant words His friends; so also did Amphimedon, Eurynomus, and Demoptolemus, Polyctor’s son, Peisander, and with these Sagacious Polybus. These six excelled In valor all the suitors who survived, And they were fighting for their lives. The bow And the fleet shafts had smitten down their peers. Thus to his fellows Agelaüs spake:—