Page:The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer (IA iliadodysseyofho02home).pdf/452

444 Resolv'st thou still to learn from whom I sprang? Learn then; but know that thou shalt much augment My present grief, natural to a man Who hath, like me, long exiled from his home Through various cities of the sons of men Wander'd remote, and num'rous woes endured. Yet, though it pain me, I will tell thee all. There is a land amid the sable flood Call'd Crete; fair, fruitful, circled by the sea. Num'rous are her inhabitants, a race Not to be summ'd, and ninety towns she boasts. Diverse their language is; Achaians some, And some indigenous are; Cydonians there, Crest-shaking Dorians, and Pelasgians dwell. One city in extent the rest exceeds, Cnossus; the city in which Minos reign'd, Who, ever at a nine years' close, conferr'd With Jove himself; from him my father sprang The brave Deucalion; for Deucalion's sons Were two, myself and King Idomeneus. To Ilium he, on board his gallant barks, Follow'd the Atridæ. I, the youngest-born, By my illustrious name, Æthon, am known, But he ranks foremost both in worth and years. There I beheld Ulysses, and within My walls receiv'd him; for a violent wind Had driv'n him from Malea (while he sought The shores of Troy) to Crete. The storm his barks