Again spake Nestor the Gerenian knight:— “Since thou, my friend, hast spoken words which bring What I have heard to mind—the rumor goes That in thy palace many suitors wait About thy mother, and in spite of thee Do grievous wrong. Now tell me; dost thou yield Willingly, or because the people, swayed By oracles, regard thee as their foe? Thy father yet may come again—who knows?— Alone, or with the other Greeks, to take The vengeance which these violent deeds deserve. Should blue-eyed Pallas deign to favor thee, As once she watched to guard the glorious chief Ulysses in the realm of Troy, where we, The Achaians, bore such hardships—for I ne’er Have seen the gods so openly befriend A man as Pallas there befriended him— Should she thus deign to favor thee and keep Watch over thee, then haply some of these Will never think of marriage rites again.”
Then spake discreet Telemachus again:— “O aged man! I cannot think thy words Will be fulfilled! for they import too much And they amaze me. What thou sayst I wish May come to pass, but know it cannot be, Not even though the gods should will it so.”
Then thus the blue-eyed goddess, Pallas, spake:— “Telemachus, what words have passed thy lips? Easily can a god, whene’er he will, In the most distant regions safely keep A man; and I would rather reach my home Securely, after many hardships borne, Than perish suddenly on my return As Agamemnon perished by the guile Of base Aegisthus and the queen. And yet The gods themselves have not the power to save Whom most they cherish from the common doom When cruel fate brings on the last long sleep.”
Discreet Telemachus made answer thus:— “Let us, O Mentor, talk no more of this, Though much we grieve; he never will return, For his is the black doom of death ordained By the great gods. Now suffer me to ask Of Nestor further, since to him are known, Beyond all other men, the rules of right And prudence. He has governed, so men say, Three