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The very sight of what I bore. But I

Through strong necessity have conquered pain.

. Stay: let us understand. There come two men,

A stranger, with a shipmate of thy crew.

When ye have heard them, ye may then go in.

. Son of Achilles, my companion here,

Who with two more remained to guard thy ship,

Agreed to help me find thee where thou wert,

Since unexpectedly, through fortune’s will,

I meet thee, mooring by the self-same shore.

For like a merchantman, with no great sail,

Making my course from Ilion to my home,

Grape-clustered Peparethos, when I heard

The mariners declare that one and all

Were of thy crew, I would not launch again,

Without a word, till we had told our news.—

Methinks thou knowest nought of thine own case,

What new devices of the Argive chiefs

Surround thee; nor devices only now,

But active deeds, no longer unperformed.

. Well, stranger, for the kindness thou hast shown,—

Else were I base,—my heart must thank thee still.

But tell me what thou meanest, that I may learn

What new-laid plot thou bring’st me from the camp.

. Old Phoenix, Acamas and Demophon

Are gone in thy pursuit with ships and men.

. To bring me back with reasons or perforce?

. I know not. What I heard, I am here to tell.

. How? And is this in act? Are they set forth

To please the Atridae, Phoenix and the rest?

. The thing is not to do, but doing now.

. What kept Odysseus back, if this be so,

From going himself? Had he some cause for fear?

. He and the son of Tydeus, when our ship

Hoist sail, were gone to fetch another man.

. For whom could he himself be sailing forth?