Page:The Odyssey of Homer, with the Hymns, Epigrams, and Battle of the Frogs and Mice (Buckley 1853).djvu/301

249—289. Thus he spoke, and still more encouraged the desire of grief in her, recognising the signs, which Ulysses told her plainly. She therefore, after she was satiated with tearful mourning, then indeed addressed him in answer:

"Now indeed, O stranger, although thou wast before an object of pity in my palace, thou shalt be dear and revered: for I myself gave him these garments, which thou dost mention, having folded them up from my chamber: and I put the shining clasp upon them, to be an ornament for him: but him I shall not receive again, returning home to his dear country. Therefore Ulysses went by evil fate in the hollow ship, to see that ill-Troy, not to be named."

But her much-planning Ulysses addressed in answer: "O venerable wife of Ulysses, son of Laertes, now no longer waste thy beauteous person, nor consume thy mind, mourning for thy husband: however, I could not be angry with thee at all: for any woman, having lost her lawful husband, (to whom she has borne children, and having been mingled with him in love,) though inferior to Ulysses, whom they say is like unto the gods, laments for him. But cease from thy grief, and attend to what I say: for I will tell thee truly, nor will I conceal it, that I lately heard of the return of Ulysses, of his being alive, in a rich people near the Thesprotians: but he brings much and excellent treasure, begging it through the people: but he has lost his beloved companions and his hollow ship, in the dark sea, as he was going from the island of Trinacria: for Jove and the Sun were wrath with him, for his companions slew the oxen [of the Sun]. All of them perished in the boisterous sea; but the wave drove him up on the keel of the ship to the shore, to the land of the Phæacians, who are near to the gods. But him they honoured exceedingly, like as a god, and gave him many things, and themselves wished to escort him home unharmed; and Ulysses would have been here some time ago; but it seemed to him in his mind to be better to go over much land and collect possessions; since Ulysses knew many means of gain above mortal men: nor would any other mortal contend with him, as Pheidon, king of the Thesprotians, told me. And he swore to me myself, pouring out a libation in the house, that the ship was drawn down, and that companions were ready, who