Page:The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer (IA iliadodysseyofho02home).pdf/358

350 My gallant friends! set all your tackle, climb The sable bark, for I would now return. He spake; they heard him gladly, and at once All fill'd the benches. While his voyage he Thus expedited, and beside the stern To Pallas sacrifice perform'd and pray'd, A stranger, born remote, who had escaped From Argos, fugitive for blood, a seer And of Melampus' progeny, approach'd. Melampus, in old time, in Pylus dwelt, Mother of flocks, alike for wealth renown'd And the magnificence of his abode. He, flying from the far-famed Pylian King, The mighty Neleus, migrated at length Into another land, whose wealth, the while, Neleus by force possess'd a year complete. Meantime, Melampus in the house endured Of Phylacus imprisonment and woe, And burn'd with wrath for Neleus' daughter sake By fell Erynnis kindled in his heart. But, 'scaping death, he drove the lowing beeves From Phylace to Pylus, well avenged His num'rous injuries at Neleus' hands