Page:The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer (IA iliadodysseyofho02home).pdf/117

V. Rule merciless, and deal in wrong alone, Since none of all his people whom he sway’d With such paternal gentleness and love Remembers, now, divine Ulysses more. He, in yon distant isle a suff’rer lies Of hopeless sorrow, through constraint the guest Still of the nymph Calypso, without means Or pow’r to reach his native shores again, Alike of gallant barks and friends depriv’d, Who might conduct him o’er the spacious Deep. Nor is this all, but enemies combine To slay his son ere yet he can return From Pylus, whither he hath gone to learn There, or in Sparta, tidings of his Sire. To whom the cloud-assembler God replied. What word hath pass’d thy lips, daughter belov’d? Hast thou not purpos’d that arriving soon At home, Ulysses shall destroy his foes? Guide thou, Telemachus, (for well thou canst) That he may reach secure his native coast, And that the suitors baffled may return. He ceas’d, and thus to Hermes spake, his son. Hermes! (for thou art herald of our will At all times) to yon bright-hair’d nymph convey Our fix’d resolve, that brave Ulysses thence Depart, uncompanied by God or man. Borne on a corded raft, and suff’ring woe Extreme, he on the twentieth day shall reach,