Page:The Odyssey of Homer, with the Hymns, Epigrams, and Battle of the Frogs and Mice (Buckley 1853).djvu/88

52 be gentle, nor pitying me, but tell me plainly as thou hast met with the sight [of it]; I beseech thee, if ever my father, good Ulysses, has accomplished any word or deed for you, having undertaken it amongst the people of the Trojans, where ye Greeks suffered losses, be mindful of these things now, and tell me true."

And auburn-haired Menelaus mourning greatly addressed him: "O gods! indeed they have sought to lie in the bed of a stout-hearted man, themselves being weak. As when a hart, having laid her new-born suckling fawns in the den of a strong lion, feeding, searches the thickets and grassy valleys, but he then has entered his lair, and on them both has brought a severe fate; so Ulysses will bring a severe fate upon those men. I wish, O father Jupiter, and Minerva and Apollo, being such formerly, in well-built Lesbos, rising he wrestled in contention with the son of Philomela, and threw him with violence, and all the Greeks rejoiced. Should Ulysses, being such a one, engage with the suitors, [all would be quick fated, and would have a bitter marriage.] But as to these things, which thou inquirest and beseechest of me, I would not tell thee other things besides, indirectly, nor will I deceive thee: but as to the things which the true old man of the sea told me, of these I will by no means hide or conceal a word from you.

"The gods detained me in Egypt, desiring to return hither, since I did not offer up to them perfect hecatombs: [but the gods always wish that we should be mindful of their commands.] There is a certain island then in a boisterous sea, before Egypt,—they call it Pharos,—so far distant as a hollow ship would make in a whole day, when a whistling wind should blow on from behind. But in it there is a haven with good mooring, from whence they take equal ships into the sea, having drawn black water. There for twenty days the gods detained me, nor did favourable winds ever appear blowing on the sea, which are the conveyers of ships over the wide back of the ocean. And now all my provisions would have been consumed, and the strength of my men [would have failed], had not one of the goddesses taken pity on me, and preserved me, Idothea, daughter of illustrious Proteus, the old man of the