The Odyssey Read online

  before leaving for Troy, to be her strict bodyguard.

  But when divine destiny ensnared her for destruction,

  then it was that Aigisthos marooned the minstrel, left him

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  on a desert island, a tasty morsel for birds of prey.

  Her then he took back--both willing--to his own home.

  Many thigh pieces he burned on the gods' hallowed altars,

  and hung up numerous offerings, both woven and golden,

  after bringing off the vile action he never hoped to achieve.3

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  "We were sailing together on our way back from Troy,

  Atreus' son and myself, close friends with one another;

  but when we reached sacred Sounion, the headland of Athens,

  there it was that Phoibos Apollo slew Menelaos' steersman,

  assailing him with his painless shafts while in his hands

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  he still held the steering oar of the speeding vessel--

  Phrontis, the son of Onetor, who excelled all tribes of mankind

  at steering a ship when gale-force winds were blowing.

  So Menelaos put in there, though impatient to be sailing,

  to bury his comrade, perform the proper rites over him.

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  But when he too in his voyage over the wine-dark deep

  in his hollow ships arrived off the sheer heights of Malea,

  running swiftly, then far-seeing Zeus devised a way to make

  his voyage disastrous: poured blasts of shrill winds on him,

  swelled the waves to vast size, till they resembled mountains.

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  Then he split the flotilla in two, directed some ships to Krete,

  to where the Kydonians dwelt around Iardanos' streams.

  There's a certain steep headland, juts sheer out into the sea,

  at the frontier of Gortyn, in the mist-shrouded deep,

  where southwest gales drive great waves against the headland's

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  left side, toward Phaistos, and low rocks hold back the waves'

  violence. Here some ships came, their crewmen barely

  escaping disaster: the ships themselves were smashed

  to pieces upon the reef. But the five other dark-prowed vessels

  were carried away by wind and wave to Egypt.

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  So Menelaos spent time there amassing goods and gold,

  going to and fro in his ships among men of alien speech.

  Meanwhile Aigisthos back home enacted his grim plot:

  he killed Atreus' son, had the people as his subjects.

  Seven years he reigned as king over golden Mykenai

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  but in the eighth evil came for him--the noble Orestes,

  back home from Athens, who slew his father's slayer,

  the crafty Aigisthos, who'd murdered his famous father.

  After he'd killed him, he held a funeral feast for the Argives

  over his hateful mother and the cowardly Aigisthos,

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  and that same day there arrived Menelaos of the great war cry,

  with treasure galore, as much freight as his ships could carry.

  "So you too, friend, should not wander over-far from home,

  leaving your wealth behind you, as well as men in your house

  of such arrogance, lest they share and devour your goods,

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  making your journey here a mere fool's errand! But now

  the man I insist on your visiting is Menelaos, for he

  has lately returned from abroad, got himself back home

  from a people that no one would ever hope in his heart

  to return from, once great storms had driven him off course

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  into a sea so vast that migrant birds take an entire

  year to travel back from it, so vast and fearsome it is!

  So be off with you now, you, your ship, and your comrades--

  or go overland if you'd rather: here are chariot and horses,

  and here, too, are my sons, who'll accompany you as guides

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  to lordly Lakedaimon, home to fair-haired Menelaos.

  Appeal to him in person, to tell you the whole truth:

  He won't tell you lies, he's far too sagacious." So

  he spoke, and the sun went down, and darkness came on.

  Among them there then spoke the goddess, grey-eyed Athene:

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  "Old sir, all this that you've told us was properly conveyed.

  But come now, cut up the ox tongues, and mix the wine,

  so that after libations to Poseidon and the other immortals

  we may turn our minds to sleep: that time has arrived.

  Light's passed under darkness already, and it's not fitting

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  to sit late at a feast of the gods: best to be on one's way."

  So spoke the daughter of Zeus, and they paid attention to her.

  Heralds now poured out water over their hands,

  while young men topped up the mixing bowls with wine

  and served it to them all, with drops first in each cup.4

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  The tongues they threw in the fire, then stood, and poured

  libations on them. This done, when they'd drunk as much

  as they felt like, then both Athene and godlike Telemachos

  were eager to be on their way to the hollow ship;

  but Nestor spoke persuasively, anxious to keep them there:

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  "Zeus forbid, and all the other immortal gods,

  that you should go back from my house to your hollow ship

  as though from some indigent wretch with no spare bedclothes,

  no coverlets in his home, no abundance of blankets

  on which both he and his guests could sleep in comfort!

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  Here in my house are coverlets and the finest blankets,

  and never shall the dear son of that fine man Odysseus

  bed down on a ship's afterdeck as long as I'm alive,

  and sons survive after me, are left here in my halls

  to look after whatever guest-friend may come visiting."

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  Then the goddess, grey-eyed Athene, responded to him, saying:

  "This was well said, old friend! And it's right that Telemachos

  should listen to you, since that is by far the better way.

  So he'll stay with you tonight, sleep on a bed in your house;

  but I shall take myself off to our black ship,

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  cheer our companions, tell them all the news.

  For I think I'm the only older person among them:

  the rest are younger men, who came with him as friends,

  all about the same age as great-hearted Telemachos.

  It's there I shall lie tonight, by the hollow black ship;

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  then tomorrow morning I'll be off to the great-hearted

  Kaukonians, where there's a debt owed to me, neither recent

  nor small. But you send this young man, your visiting guest,

  on his way in a chariot, along with your son, and give him

  horses as well, your lightest runners, your best for strength."

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  So saying, the grey-eyed goddess Athene went on her way

  in the likeness of a sea eagle: all who saw it were astounded,

  including old Nestor, who marveled at what his eyes beheld,

  and he clasped Telemachos' hand, and said to him: "Friend,

  I hardly think you'll turn out a mean fellow or a coward

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  if indeed when you're so young the gods act as your escorts!

  For this was none other of those whose homes are on Olympos

  than Zeus' own true-born daughter, maiden most glorious, who

  likewise honored your noble fat
her among the Argives!

  Be gracious to me, my queen, grant me high renown

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  for myself, for my sons, and for my revered bedfellow,

  and to you in return I'll sacrifice a yearling heifer, broad-browed,

  still unbroken, that no man has yet led under the yoke:

  that's the one I shall sacrifice, and gild her horns with gold."

  So he spoke in prayer, and Pallas Athene heard him.

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  Now Nestor, Gerenian horseman, led them, with his sons

  and his daughters' husbands, to his splendid domain,

  and when they reached the renowned domain of the king,

  they sat down there in order on the chairs and benches.

  When all of them were settled, the old man mixed them a bowl

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  of delicious wine, which was in its eleventh year

  when the housekeeper broke its seal and opened the jar.

  This wine the old man mixed, with many prayers, as he poured

  libations to Athene, daughter of Zeus of the aegis.

  When they'd poured libations, and drunk all they'd a mind to,

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  they went to lie down and sleep, each one in his own dwelling.

  But Nestor, Gerenian horseman, kept Telemachos, the dear son

  of godlike Odysseus, to sleep there, settling him down

  on a corded bedstead out in the echoing portico,

  and with him Peisistratos, of the good ash spear, a leader

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  of men, a still unmarried son of his in the halls,

  while he himself took his repose in the high house's inmost room,

  and beside him his lady wife now shared their bed and marriage.

  When Dawn appeared, early risen and rosy-fingered,

  Nestor, Gerenian horseman, rose from his bed, went out,

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  and sat himself down on one of the polished stone blocks

  that stood outside his high entrance doors, bright white

  with a gleam as of oil. This was the place where in time past

  Neleus would sit, a counselor as prestigious as any god;

  but he'd long since succumbed to fate, gone down to Hades,

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  and now Gerenian Nestor, the Achaians' guardian, sat there,

  scepter in hand, and around him a crowd of his sons gathered,

  coming out from their bedrooms: Echephron, Stratios,

  Perseus, Aretos, and--a match for a god--Thrasymedes;

  then, sixth after these, the hero Peisistratos followed,

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  beside whom they brought in and seated godlike Telemachos.

  Nestor, Gerenian horseman, was the first to speak among them:

  "Quickly now, my dear children, help realize my desire--

  that very first of all deities I may propitiate Athene,

  who came, clearly manifest, to our rich feast for the god!

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  So let one man go to the plain for a heifer, making sure

  that it comes here right away, with its cowherd driving it;

  and another to the black ship of great-hearted Telemachos,

  to fetch all his comrades, leaving there two men only;

  and another again to send here the goldsmith Laerkes,

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  to overlay the horns of the heifer with gold. You others

  are all to stay here, and issue instructions to my servants

  that they should make ready a feast in my far-famed halls,

  and bring in more chairs and firewood and clear bright water."

  So he spoke, and they all bustled busily. The heifer arrived

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  from the plain, and, from their swift trim vessel, great-hearted

  Telemachos' comrades showed up. The smith came too

  bringing his bronze tools, the essentials of his trade:

  anvil and hammer and finely fashioned tongs

  with which he worked the gold. Athene likewise came

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  to be there at the sacrifice. Then Nestor, old chariot driver,

  gave the smith gold: he prepared it, overlaid the heifer's horns,

  that the goddess might rejoice at the sight of her offering.

  By its horns Stratios and noble Echephron led in the heifer,

  and Aretos, bringing out water in a flower-decked basin,

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  came from the inner chamber, in his other hand a basket

  of barley-grain; Thrasymedes, that doughty fighter, stood by,

  a sharp axe in his hand with which to fell the heifer,

  while Perseus readied the blood bowl. Nestor, old chariot driver,

  began with the lustral water and sprinkling of barley, offered

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  long prayers to Athene, threw the victim's cut hairs in the fire.

  When they'd prayed, and scattered the barley grains, then at once

  Nestor's son, high-spirited Thrasymedes, stepped

  forward and struck. His axe sheared through the neck's tendons,

  undid the strength of the heifer. The women keened:

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  the daughters, the sons' wives, Nestor's revered

  bedfellow Eurydike, the eldest of Klymenos' daughters.

  The men now raised the victim from the wide-wayed earth

  and held it; Peisistratos, leader of men, cut its throat.

  When the black blood had flowed from it, and life had left its bones,

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  at once they dismembered it, chopped out the thigh pieces

  all in due order, then covered them with a layer of fat

  folded double, laid raw bits of meat upon them. Then

  the old man roasted them over split billets, drizzled with bright

  wine, and young men beside him held their five-pronged forks.

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  When the thighs were properly barbecued, and they'd had a taste

  of the innards, they cut up the rest and roasted it on spits

  until it was done through, held the pointed spits in their hands.

  Telemachos meanwhile was bathed by beautiful Polykaste,

  the youngest daughter of Nestor, Neleus' son; and after

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  she'd bathed him, and massaged him generously with oil,

  and dressed him in a fine mantle and tunic, he came forth

  from the bathtub in appearance like the immortals, and went

  and seated himself by Nestor, the shepherd of his people.

  When the outer flesh was well roasted they drew it off the spits,

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  and sat down and feasted; good fellows waited on them,

  pouring the wine out for them into golden goblets.

  But when they had satisfied their desire for food and drink,

  Nestor, Gerenian horseman, was the first to speak among them:

  "Come, my sons, harness up our fine-maned horses to

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  the chariot for Telemachos, so he can start his journey."

  So he spoke, and they hearkened promptly, and obeyed him:

  at once to the chariot they harnessed the swift horses,

  and the housekeeper put in the chariot bread and wine

  and cooked meat, such as princes, Zeus' nurslings, feed upon.

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  Then Telemachos climbed aboard the elegant chariot,

  And Nestor's son Peisistratos, leader of men,

  mounted beside him, took the reins in his hands, and used

  the whip to start the pair: they, nothing loath, sped off

  onto the plain, abandoning Pylos' steep citadel,

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  and all day shook the yoke that spanned their shoulders.

  Then the sun went down, and all the ways were in shadow,

  and they came to Pherai, to the dwelling of Diokles

  the son of Ortilochos, whom Alpheios sired as his offspring,

  and s
pent the night there; he treated them as guest-friends.

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  When Dawn appeared, early risen and rosy-fingered,

  they yoked the horses, boarded the inlaid chariot,

  drove out from the courtyard and echoing portico, used