smooth and pointed rock Just on the bounds of Gortys stands amidst The dark-blue deep. The south wind thitherward Sweeps a great sea towards Phoestus, and against The headland on the left, where that small rock Meets and withstands the mighty wave. The ships Were driven on this, and scarce the crews escaped With life; the ships were dashed against the crags And wrecked, save five, and these, with their black prows, Were swept toward Egypt by the winds and waves.
“Thus adding to his wealth and gathering gold He roamed the ocean in his ships among Men of strange speech.
Aegisthus meantime planned His guilty deeds at home; he slew the king Atrides, and the people took his yoke.
Seven years in rich Mycenae he bore rule, And on the eighth, to his destruction, came The nobly-born Orestes, just returned From Athens, and cut off that man of blood, The crafty wretch Aegisthus, by whose hand Fell his illustrious father.
Then he bade The Argives to the solemn burial-feast Of his bad mother and the craven wretch Aegisthus.
Menelaus, that same day, The great in war, arrived, and brought large wealth— So large his galleys could contain no more.
“And thou, my friend, be thou not long away, Wandering from home, thy rich possessions left, And in thy palace-halls a lawless crew, Lest they devour thy substance, and divide Thy goods, and thou have crossed the sea in vain.
Yet must I counsel and enjoin on thee To visit Menelaus, who has come Just now from lands and nations of strange men, Whence one could hardly hope for a return; Whom once the tempest’s violence had driven Into that great wide sea o’er which the birds Of heaven could scarce fly hither in a year, Such is its fearful vastness.