Page:The Odyssey of Homer, with the Hymns, Epigrams, and Battle of the Frogs and Mice (Buckley 1853).djvu/71

217—252. revenge their violence, being alone, or even all the Greeks together? For if blue-eyed Minerva was so willing to love thee, as she then took exceeding care of glorious Ulysses amongst the people of the Trojans, where we Grecians suffered griefs; (for I have never seen gods so openly loving, as Pallas Minerva openly stood by him;) if she was thus willing to love thee, and would care [for thee] in her mind, then forsooth some one of them would be forgetful of marriage."

But him prudent Telemachus answered in turn: "Old man, I do not at all think that this word will be brought to pass; for thou hast spoken an exceeding great thing; astonishment possesses me; these things would not happen to me if I hoped them, nor if the gods should so be willing."

But him the blue-eyed goddess Minerva in turn addressed: "Telemachus, what word has escaped thy lips? God, if willing, could easily save a man even from a distance. But I should rather wish, having suffered many griefs, to come home and behold the day of my return, than coming to perish at my own hearth, as Agamemnon perished by the stratagem of Ægisthus and his own wife. But indeed not even the gods are able to ward off death, which is common to all, even from a beloved man; whenever the pernicious Fate of long-slumbering death seizes him."

But her prudent Telemachus answered in turn: "Mentor, let us no longer talk of these things although grieving. For him there is no more a sure return, but already the immortals have decreed death and black Fate for him. But now I wish to inquire and ask something else of Nestor; since he above others is acquainted with justice and prudence; for they say that he has thrice ruled over generations of men; so that to me he seems like unto the immortals to behold. O Nestor, son of Neleus, do thou tell me the truth, how did wide-ruling Agamemnon, the son of Atreus, die? Where was Menelaus? What destruction did crafty Ægisthus contrive for him? since he slew one much his better. Was he not in Achæan Argos? or was he wander-