Page:Genius, and other essays.djvu/249

TREASURE TOMBS AT MYKENÆ Cutting their oxen off, and their flocks so fair, or, it may be,

While in a town's defense, or in that of women, contending?"

Thus I spake, and he, replying, said to me straightway:

"Nobly-born and wise Odysseus, son of Laertes,

Neither within my ships was I subdued by Poseidon

Rousing the dreadful blast of winds too hard to be mastered,

Nor on the firm-set land did banded foemen destroy me,—

Nay, but death and my doom were well contrived by Ægisthos,

Who, with my curséd wife, at his own house bidding me welcome.

Fed me, and slew me, as one might slay an ox at the manger!

So, by a death most wretched, I died; and all my companions

Round me were slain off-hand, like white-toothed swine that are slaughtered

Thus, when some lordly man, abounding in power and riches,

Orders a wedding-feast, or a frolic, or mighty carousal.

Thou indeed hast witnessed the slaughter of numberless heroes

Massacred, one by one, in the battle's heat; but with pity

All thy heart had been full, if thou hadst seen what I tell thee,—

How in the hall we lay among the wine-jars, and under

Tables laden with food; and how the pavement, on all sides

Swam with blood! And I heard the dolorous cry of Kassandra,

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