Page:The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer (IA iliadodysseyofho02home).pdf/98

90 Oh Atreus' son, by what confed'rate God Instructed liest thou in wait for me, To seize and hold me? what is thy desire? So He; to whom thus answer I return'd. Old Seer! thou know'st; why, fraudful, should'st thou ask? It is because I have been prison'd long Within this isle, whence I have sought in vain Deliv'rance, till my wonted courage fails. Yet say (for the Immortals all things know) What God detains me, and my course forbids Hence to my country o'er the fishy Deep? So I; when thus the old one of the waves. But thy plain duty was to have adored Jove, first, in sacrifice, and all the Gods, That then embarking, by propitious gales Impell'd, thou might'st have reach'd thy country soon. For thou art doom'd ne'er to behold again Thy friends, thy palace, or thy native shores, Till thou have seen once more the hallow'd flood Of Ægypt, and with hecatombs adored Devout, the deathless tenants of the skies. Then will they speed thee whither thou desir'st. He ended, and my heart broke at his words, Which bade me pass again the gloomy gulph