Page:The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer (IA iliadodysseyofho02home).pdf/102

94 So I; to whom thus Proteus in return. Laertes' son, the Lord of Ithaca— Him in an island weeping I beheld, Guest of the nymph Calypso, by constraint Her guest, and from his native land withheld By sad necessity; for ships well-oar'd, Or faithful followers hath he none, whose aid Might speed him safely o'er the spacious flood. But, Menelaus dear to Jove! thy fate Ordains not thee the stroke of death to meet In steed-fam'd Argos, but far hence the Gods Will send thee to Elysium, and the earth's Extremest bounds; (there Rhadamanthus dwells, The golden-hair'd, and there the human kind Enjoy the easiest life; no snow is there, No biting winter, and no drenching show'r, But zephyr always gently from the sea Breathes on them to refresh the happy race) For that fair Helen is by nuptial bands Thy own, and thou art son-in-law of Jove. So saying, he plunged into the billowy waste, I then, with my brave comrades to the fleet Return'd, deep-musing as I went, and sad. No sooner had I reach'd my ship beside The ocean, and we all had supp'd, than night From heav'n fell on us, and, at ease reposed Along the margin of the sea, we slept. But when Aurora, daughter of the dawn,