“Is it among us known, or is it not, Antinoüs, when Telemachus returns From sandy Pylos? Thither he is gone And in my galley, which I need to cross To spacious Elis. There I have twelve mares And hardy mule-colts with them yet untamed, And some I must subdue to take the yoke.”
He spake, and they were both amazed; for they Had never thought of him as visiting Neleian Pylos, deeming that the youth Was somewhere in his fields, among the flocks, Or haply with the keeper of the swine.
Then did Antinoüs, Eupeithes’ son, Make answer: “Tell me truly when he sailed, And what young men of Ithaca he chose To go with him. Were they his slaves, or hired To be his followers? Tell, for I would know The whole. Took he thy ship against thy will? Or didst thou yield it at his first request?”
Noëmon, son of Phornius, thus replied:— “Most willingly I gave it, for what else Would anyone have done when such a man Desired it in his need? It would have been Hard to deny it. For the band of youths Who followed him, they are the