Page:The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer (IA iliadodysseyofho02home).pdf/321

Book XIII. Shall leave their brains, then, on thy palace floor. But come. Behold! I will disguise thee so That none shall know thee! I will parch the skin On thy fair body; I will cause thee shed Thy wavy locks; I will enfold thee round In such a kirtle as the eyes of all Shall loath to look on; and I will deform With blurring rheums thy eyes, so vivid erst; So shall the suitors deem thee, and thy wife, And thy own son whom thou didst leave at home, Some sordid wretch obscure. But seek thou first Thy swine-herd's mansion; he, alike, intends Thy good, and loves, affectionate, thy son And thy Penelope; thou shalt find the swain Tending his herd; they feed beneath the rock Corax, at side of Arethusa's fount, On acorns dieted, nutritious food To them, and drinking of the limpid stream. There waiting, question him of thy concerns, While I from Sparta praised for women fair Call home thy son Telemachus, a guest With Menelaus now, whom to consult In spacious Lacedæmon he is gone, Anxious to learn if yet his father lives. To whom Ulysses, ever-wise, replied. And why, alas! all-knowing as thou art, Him left'st thou ignorant? was it that he, He also, wand'ring wide the barren Deep,