Page:The Odyssey of Homer, with the Hymns, Epigrams, and Battle of the Frogs and Mice (Buckley 1853).djvu/77

431—466. then came from the plain: and the companions of magnanimous Telemachus came from the swift equal ship; and the smith came, having his brazen instruments in his hands, the implements of art, an anvil and hammer, and well-made tongs, with which he worked the gold; and Minerva came to partake of the sacred rites: and the old horseman Nestor gave the gold: but he then, having prepared it, poured it around the horns of the heifer, that the goddess might rejoice on beholding the ornament. But Stratius and divine Echephron led the heifer by the horns: and Aretus came, bringing water from the chamber in a cauldron embossed with flowers; and in the other hand he held cakes in a basket. But Thrasymedes, persevering in the fight, stood near, holding in his hand a sharp axe, to strike the heifer. And Perseus held the vessel for catching the blood; and the old horseman Nestor began with [sprinkling] the water and the cakes: and having offered the first-fruits, he prayed much to Minerva, throwing the hairs of the head in the fire. But when they had prayed and thrown forth the cakes, straightway high-minded Thrasymedes, the son of Nestor, standing near struck the blow; and the hatchet cut the tendons of the neck, and loosed the strength of the heifer. But they shouted, the daughters and daughters-in-law, and Eurydice, the venerable wife of Nestor, the eldest of the daughters of Clymenus. They then raising it up from the spacious earth held it; but Pisistratus, chieftain of men, killed it. And when the black blood flowed from it, and life had left its bones, they quickly divided it; and soon cut off all the thighs, as was right, and covered them with fat, having doubled them; and put the raw parts upon them: and the old man roasted them on the faggots, and poured glowing wine over them; and near him the young men held in their hands five-pronged spits. But when the thighs were burnt, and they had tasted the entrails, they both cut up the other parts into bits, and fixed them on spits, and roasted them, holding in their hands the sharp spits. But meanwhile beautiful Polycaste, the youngest daughter of Nestor, the son of Neleus, washed Telemachus. But when she had washed him, and anointed him with rich oil, and had thrown a beautiful