knees, and pray thee to relate The manner of my father’s sorrowful death As thou hast seen it with thine eyes, or heard Its story from some wandering man—for sure His mother brought him forth to wretchedness Beyond the common lot. I ask thee not To soften aught in the sad history Through tenderness to me, or kind regard, But tell me plainly all that thou dost know; And I beseech thee, if at any time My father, good Ulysses, brought to pass Aught that he undertook for thee in word Or act while ye were in the realm of Troy, Where the Greeks suffered sorely, bear it now In mind, and let me have the naked truth.”
Then Menelaus of the amber locks Drew a deep sigh, and thus in answer said:— “Heavens! they would climb into a brave man’s bed, These craven weaklings. But as when a hart Has hid her newborn suckling fawns within The lair of some fierce lion, and gone forth Herself to range the mountainsides and feed Among the grassy lawns, the lion comes Back to the place and brings them sudden death, So will Ulysses bring a bloody fate Upon the suitor crew. O father Jove, And Pallas, and Apollo! I could wish That now, with prowess such as once was his When he, of yore, in Lesbos nobly built, Rising to strive with Philomela’s son, In wrestling threw him heavily, and all The Greeks rejoiced, Ulysses might engage The suitors. Short were then their term of life, And bitter would the nuptial banquet be. Now for the questions thou hast put, and craved From me a true reply, I will not seek To pass them by with talk of other things, Nor yet deceive thee, but of all that once Was told me by the Ancient of the Deep, Whose words are truth, I shall keep nothing back.
“In Egypt still, though longing to come home, The gods detained me; for I had not paid The sacrifice of chosen hecatombs, And ever do the gods require of us Remembrance of their laws. There is an isle Within the billowy sea before you reach The coast of Egypt—Pharos is its name— At such a distance as a ship could pass In one whole day with a shrill breeze astern. A sheltered haven lies within that isle, Whence the good ships go forth with fresh supplies Of water. There the gods constrained