The <I>Odyssey</I> Read online

  twenty measures in all, ground by the miller.

  Only you must know. When it’s all gathered and ready

  I’ll haul it away at dusk after my Mother

  goes upstairs to her room, mulling her night’s rest.

  I’m going to both Sparte and deep-sanded Pulos

  to ask of my loving Father’s return. Maybe I’ll hear news.”

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  A Woman’s Dread

  Soon as he’d spoken his loving nurse Eurukleia

  ♦ wept and called out, her words with a feathery swiftness:

  “How has this thought, my child, entered your dearest

  head? Where do you long to go on the broad earth,

  an only son, so loved? Zeus-bred Odysseus

  died in some strange country far from his homeland;

  now with you gone, these men will maneuver to harm you.

  They’ll lie and kill you in time, then split up your treasure.

  No! Stay with your own right here. There is no great

  need to suffer harm on the restless sea or to wander.”

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  A Goddess’s Help

  Telemakhos promptly gave her a sensible answer.

  “Take heart, good mother. My plan’s not lacking a God’s help.

  Just swear you won’t be telling my dear Mother of all this,

  not till eleven or twelve days are behind us

  or Mother has missed me herself, hearing I’ve gone off.

  Fewer tears must mar her face and her beauty.”

  He spoke that way and the old one swore to say nothing.

  The great oath done, when all the swearing was over,

  she quickly drew some wine into two-handled wine-jars

  and poured groats into bags, well-sewn and of leather.

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  Telemakhos went to the hall, rejoining the suitors.

  A Ship into Water

  ♦ Then the gray-eyed Goddess Athene thought of a new plan.

  She looked like Telemakhos going through all of the city,

  choosing every crewman and passing the word out:

  “Gather close to our race-fast ship in the evening.”

  She also asked for the race-fast ship of Noemon,

  Phronios’s son, the bright one. He offered her gladly.

  The sun went down. When all the roadways had darkened

  she hauled the race-fast ship into water and stockpiled

  all the gear that a vessel with strong planking will carry.

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  She moored her next at the harbor’s mouth. Plenty of good men

  gathered around her, each man roused by the Goddess.

  Drunk and Weary

  There the glow-eyed Goddess Athene thought of a new plan.

  Making her way to the house of godlike Odysseus,

  she poured a honeyed drowsiness fast on the suitors,

  muddled their drinking and knocked the cups from their weak hands.

  They all stood up to go and rest in the city.

  No one could stay for long when sleepiness fell on their eyelids.

  Down to the Seashore

  Glow-eyed Athene spoke to Telemakhos also,

  hailing him out of the hall where people had lived well,

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  taking a voice and shape that struck him like Mentor’s.

  “Telemakhos! Crewmen in well-made greaves have already

  sat by the oars. They wait for your word to begin work.

  Come on, let’s go! Don’t stall this trip any longer.”

  Pallas Athene spoke that way and she led him.

  Telemakhos briskly followed the Goddess’s footsteps.

  Soon as they came on down to the ship and the salt sea,

  finding the long-haired crew right there on the seashore,

  Telemakhos, filled with a holy power, addressed them:

  “Come on, my friends, let’s carry all of the gathered

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  stores from the great hall. Most of the maids and my Mother

  do not know: one woman alone has heard our story.”

  Sailing at Night

  He spoke that way, he led them along and they followed.

  They hauled goods on the strong-decked ship and they stowed them,

  just as the well-loved son of Odysseus ordered.

  Telemakhos went on board, Athene before him,

  taking a seat astern. Telemakhos sat down

  close to the Goddess. Crewmen untied the cables,

  boarded themselves and took their seats at the oar-locks.

  Glow-eyed Athene sent them a favoring tailwind,

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  Westwind’s gusts on the wine-dark sea as it sang by.

  Telemakhos rallied his crewmen now and he told them

  to break out line: they heard his call and obeyed him,

  ♦ hoisting the fir-wood mast to be stepped in its hollowed

  mast-block: they made it tall and braced it with forestays.

  They pulled up white sail, the lines a twisting of leather,

  and wind bellied the sail out. Darkening water

  loudly swished at the prow of the underway vessel,

  smartly cutting the waves and set on the right course.

  Prayer and Wine to the Gods

  After they lashed their gear on the black-painted, race-fast

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  ship and set out wine-filled bowls, they poured a libation,

  drops for the deathless Gods, born to be always,

  mainly for Pallas, the glow-eyed daughter of great Zeus.

  All that night, through dawn, the ship stayed on the right course.

  BOOK 3 In the Great Hall of Nestor

  Go Boldly to the King

  Helios the Sun-God, leaving beautiful sea-swells,

  rose in a sky all bronze to lighten the deathless

  Gods and death-bound men on grain-giving farmland.

  The travelers came to Pulos, Neleus’s well-built city.

  ♦ Men were offering all-black bulls on the seashore

  now to the dark-haired Earth-Shaker, Poseidon.

  Nine assemblies with five hundred in each group

  sat while nine bulls were readied before them.

  They burned thighs for the Sea-God and tasted the entrails.

  The travelers put in straight. They lowered sail on the balanced

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  ship and furled it. They moored and stepped on the beach-sand.

  Athene before him, Telemakhos walked from the vessel.

  The first to speak was the Goddess, glow-eyed Athene.

  “No need for shyness, Telemakhos, not in the least here.

  You came by sea for a good cause, to learn of your father,

  what ground might cover him now, what doom he was faced with.

  Come on then, straight to Nestor, that breaker of horses!

  Let’s see what guidance the king might store in his old chest.

  Plead with the man yourself to tell you the whole truth.

  He won’t tell lies; he’s very sensible really.”

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  Where Will the Words Come From?

  But now Telemakhos gave her a sensible answer.

  “Mentor, how will it go, how should I greet him?

  ♦ I’m not yet trained in concise talking. Moreover

  young men feel embarrassed questioning old men.”

  The glow-eyed Goddess Athene answered by saying,

  “Telemakhos, some of the words you’ll know in your own heart;

  Power will help you with others. I think you were hardly

  born and raised against the will of the great Gods.”

  Welcome to a Feast for Poseidon

  Pallas Athene spoke that way and she led him.

  The man briskly followed the Goddess’s footsteps.

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  They came to the stone seats where men of Pulos had gathered.

  Nestor sat there with friends and family around him

>   ready to dine, spitting and roasting their cutlets.

  ♦ Seeing strangers they all came crowding around them,

  taking their hands in welcome. They asked them to sit down.

  First a son of Nestor, Peisistratos, came close,

  taking them both by the hand. He sat them for dinner

  on soft wool, spread out there on the beach-sand

  close to Thrasumedes, a brother, and close to their father.

  Peisistratos offered them entrails and he poured them then

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  wine in a golden goblet to welcome them, saying

  to Pallas Athene, daughter of Zeus who carries the great shield,

  “Stranger, our guest, pray to lordly Poseidon.

  You happened to sail here now for a feast in his honor.

  Pray and offer him wine—that is the right way.

  Hand the goblet of honeyed wine to your comrade

  then to pour. I’m sure he prays to the deathless

  Gods for every man needs help from those Powers.

  He’s also a younger man, close to my own age,

  and so I offer the golden goblet to you first.”

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  He stopped and placed in her hand the goblet of sweet wine.

  Goddess Praying to God

  Athene was pleased. The man was thoughtful and proper

  to place the golden goblet first in her own hand.

  ♦ Promptly she prayed in full to lordly Poseidon:

  “Land-Upholder, Poseidon, listen! Don’t be resentful,

  scorning our prayers to bring this work to a good end.

  Lavish renown on Nestor first and his children.

  Then endow the others with gracious return-gifts—

  all these Pulos men who’ve made your hecatombs famous.

  For me and Telemakhos too, grant a return home

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  fast on our black ship as soon as we’ve ended our work here.”

  She prayed—and was bringing it all herself to a good end.

  She gave Telemakhos now the stunning, two-handled goblet.

  The well-loved son of Odysseus prayed in the same way.

  Who Are These Guests?

  After the outer flesh was cooked and unspitted

  they all took portions, enjoying a wonderful dinner.

  When all the craving for food and drink was behind them

  Nestor began to speak, the Gerenian horseman.

  “Now is the better time for raising a question,

  asking guests who they are, after they’ve dined well.

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  Who are you, strangers? From where are you sailing the sea-paths?

  Are you on business? Or maybe you recklessly wander

  over the sea like pirates, men who go roving,

  risking their lives and causing hardship for others.”

  Ithaka and Troy

  Promptly Telemakhos gave him a sensible answer,

  taking heart from Athene. The Goddess had roused him,

  making him ask for his long-gone father with boldness,

  helping him gain a good new name among people.

  “Nestor, Neleus’s son, you crowning pride of Akhaians,

  where are we from? you ask. Now I will tell you.

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  We came from below Mount Neion, Ithakan country.

  The cause is my own: I don’t speak for my townsmen.

  I came for far-off news of my Father—maybe I’ll hear some—

  godlike and steadfast Odysseus. They say that he fought once

  there by your side, storming the city of high Troy.

  Of all the others who fought that war with the Trojans,

  we know where each man died, how wretched his death was.

  But Zeus has made my Father’s ending unheard of,

  no one can say for sure where he has fallen,

  whether warlike men on land overwhelmed him

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  or Amphitrite’s waters finally drowned him.

  No Soothing, No Pity

  ♦ “So now I approach your knees. I hope you are willing

  to speak of the man’s sad death, whether you saw it

  by chance with your own eyes or heard it told by another

  roamer. Beyond all men his mother bore him to suffer.

  But don’t hold back to soothe me, held by your pity:

  tell me plainly how it came to your own sight.

  I’m pleading: if ever my Father, worthy Odysseus,

  gave his word or promised you work that he made good

  on Trojan soil, where Akhaians underwent great pain,

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  remember his word now and tell me the whole truth.”

  A Long War and Its Ending

  Nestor answered him then, the Gerenian horseman.

  “My friend, you recall the anguish and mourning we went through

  in Trojan country. Strong, unbeatable sons of Akhaians,

  we suffered greatly aboard our ships, sailing the misty

  seas roaming for booty wherever Akhilleus led us.

  In years of war at the great city of lordly Priam

  all our bravest and best warriors died there.

  Ares-like Aias lies there. Akhilleus lies there,