The Odyssey Read online

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  cut down by the sword, and his own eyes witnessed it--

  so powerful were the drugs that this daughter of Zeus possessed,

  benign ones, a present from Thon's wife Polydamna,

  a native of Egypt; for there the grain-giving earth bears most

  drugs--many healing in mixture, and many malignant:

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  each man there's a physician, more knowledgeable than all

  mankind elsewhere, for indeed they are of Paieon's race.

  So when she'd added the drug and had the wine poured out,

  at once she spoke again, and responded to them, saying:

  "Atreus' son Menelaos, Zeus' nursling, and you other sons

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  of excellent sires! Now to one man, now to another

  the god, Zeus, gives good or ill, for he can do anything; so

  feast on, sitting here in our halls at your ease, and enjoy

  listening to tales: I'll tell one that fits this occasion well!

  I can't rehearse or enumerate all the many trials

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  of steadfast-minded Odysseus, but there is this one exploit,

  performed and endured by the mighty warrior in

  the Trojans' land, where you Achaians endured troubles!

  He scourged his own person with harsh unseemly blows,

  flung rags about his shoulders to look like a menial,

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  and slipped into the enemy's wide-wayed city,

  concealing himself in the likeness of another, a beggar,

  quite different from the real man at the Achaians' ships.

  Thus disguised he entered the Trojans' city, unrecognized

  by them all: I alone perceived who he really was,

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  and questioned him; he in his cunning dodged my enquiries.

  But after I'd bathed him and rubbed him down with oil,

  and put good clothes on him, and swore a mighty oath

  not to reveal him as Odysseus among the Trojans

  until he was safely back to the swift ships and the huts,

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  then at last he told me all the plans of the Achaians;

  and--after he'd killed many Trojans with the keen-edged bronze--

  got back to the Argives, brought them much information.

  The other Trojan women wailed in grief, but my own

  spirit rejoiced, since already my heart was set to return

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  back home, and I groaned for the blindness that Aphrodite

  had inflicted in leading me there, away from my dear country,

  abandoning my own child, my bedchamber, my husband--

  who was lacking in nothing, either brains or looks."

  Then fair-haired Menelaos responded to her, saying:

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  "All this indeed, my wife, you have stated correctly.

  Long since have I come to know the minds and counsel

  of many heroic men, and have traveled widely,

  but never yet have I met and studied such a person

  as steadfast Odysseus was at heart; nor have I known

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  so striking a deed as that great man devised and achieved

  in the carpentered Horse, where we--all the very best

  of the Argives--sat, bringing death and destiny

  to the Trojans. You came then--maybe impelled

  by a god determined to grant the Trojans some glory--

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  and godlike Deiphobos along with you. Three times

  you circled the hollow ambush, tapping its surface,

  calling out to all the Danaan leaders by name,

  imitating the voice of each of the Argives' wives.

  Now I and the son of Tydeus, with noble Odysseus,

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  were sitting inside, and could hear the way you were calling.

  Diomedes and I were both eager to jump from our seats

  and emerge, or at least to answer you from inside;

  but Odysseus, despite our longing, held us back in place.

  Then all the Achaians' sons kept silent except for

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  Antiklos, who was still determined to answer you,

  had not Odysseus kept his mouth firmly shut

  with his great powerful hands, and saved all us Achaians

  by holding firm until Pallas Athene led you from us."

  Then sagacious Telemachos responded to him, saying:

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  "Atreus' son Menelaos, Zeus' nursling, leader of troops,

  so much the worse, for this didn't ward off grim destruction

  from him, nor would have done, had his heart within been of iron!

  So come now, dispatch us to bed, so that we without delay

  may settle down and enjoy the pleasures of sweet sleep."

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  So he spoke, and Argive Helen gave orders to her handmaids

  to set bedsteads under the colonnade, and lay upon them

  fine purple wool throws, and over these to spread blankets,

  topped off with fleecy mantles that would serve as coverlets.

  Out from the hall went the handmaids, each holding a torch,

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  and made up the beds. A herald escorted the guests.

  They then lay down to sleep there, in the dwelling's forecourt,

  the hero Telemachos and Nestor's splendid son;

  but Atreus' son slept in a back room of the high house,

  and by him lay long-robed Helen, resplendent among women.

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  When Dawn appeared, early risen and rosy-fingered,

  Menelaos of the great war cry rose from the bed he'd slept in,

  put on his clothes, slung a sharp sword from one shoulder,

  tied on a pair of sandals under his sleek feet,

  sallied forth from his chamber, in appearance like a god,

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  sat down beside Telemachos, and addressed him as follows:

  'What need was it brought you here, heroic Telemachos,

  to sunny Lakedaimon, over the broad back of the sea?

  Something public, or personal? Tell me the truth of this."

  Sagacious Telemachos answered him: "Atreus' son,

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  Menelaos, Zeus' nursling, leader of troops, I came

  in the hope you might be able to tell me news of my father.

  My estate is being eaten up and my rich farms ruined,

  my house is crowded with foes who continue to slaughter

  my flocks of sheep and my crumple-horned shambling cattle--

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  these arrogant, overweening suitors of my mother!

  That's why I'm here at your knees now--you might be willing

  to tell me about his grim death, if you maybe saw it

  yourself, or heard an account of it from some other

  wanderer: to unmatched misery his mother bore him!

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  And don't, from concern or pity, speak false comfort to me,

  but tell me exactly whatever you may have witnessed!

  I beseech you, if ever my father, noble Odysseus, made you

  any promise, by word or action, and delivered on it

  in the land of the Trojans, where you Achaians met grief,

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  remember it now, and tell me the unerring truth of it."

  Deeply troubled, fair-haired Menelaos now addressed him:

  "I tell you, it was indeed in the bed of a brave warrior

  that these fellows, cowards themselves, hoped they might lie!

  As when in a thicket, the lair of a powerful lion,

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  a doe has laid to sleep her newborn suckling fawns,

  and goes off, traversing foothills and grassy glens

  in search of pasture, and the lion returns to his den

  and on both her fawns unleashes a ghastly fate--just so

&nbs
p; will Odysseus unleash a ghastly fate on these men!

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  How I wish--by Zeus the Father and Athene and Apollo!--

  that he, as strong as he was that time in well-built Lesbos

  when he stood up and wrestled a bout with Philomeleides,

  and threw him down forcefully, and all the Achaians cheered,

  might come--he, Odysseus--in such strength among these suitors!

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  Then they'd all get a swift end and a bitter marriage!

  As regards the business you're enquiring about, I shan't

  veer off onto other subjects, nor will I mislead you--

  of all that I heard from the forthright Old Man of the Sea

  not one word will I keep back or conceal from you!

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  "Though I longed to return here, the gods still held me back

  in Egypt, since I'd not offered them adequate sacrifices--

  gods always want mortals to bear their behests in mind!

  Well, there exists an island set in the surging sea,

  offshore from Egypt: Pharos, they call it, as far out

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  as a hollow ship can cover in one whole day

  with a tailwind strong and constant blowing behind it;

  there's a harbor there with good anchorage, where men

  take on water before sailing out in their trim ships.

  There for twenty days the gods stayed me, nor ever did

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  those maritime tailwinds show up that escort ships

  safely across the sea's broad back; so all my stores

  would have been eaten up, and my crew's strength with them,

  had not one of the gods shown compassion and rescued me--

  the daughter of mighty Proteus, the Old Man of the Sea,

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  Eidothee: it was her heart I'd stirred in particular when

  she encountered me straying alone, far away from my comrades,

  who'd gone out round the island, engaged in fishing

  with bent hooks, since starvation was crimping their bellies.

  She it was who approached now, and addressed me, saying:

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  'Are you just childish, stranger, excessively dim-witted,

  or deliberately acting the fool, out of pleasure in suffering?

  The way you're stuck on this island, unable to discover

  any way out, and your men near to despairing!'

  "So she spoke; and I then responded to her, saying:

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  'Let me tell you--whichever goddess it is that you are--

  that no way am I stuck here by choice: it must be that

  I've trespassed against the immortals who hold wide heaven!

  So tell me--for you gods have knowledge of everything--

  which immortal is keeping me here, holding up my journey,

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  and how I'm to get back home, across the fish-rich sea.'

  "So I spoke, and at once she, bright among goddesses, said:

  'Well, stranger, I'll give you a full and accurate answer.

  There's a certain Old Man of the Sea--he often comes here--

  immortal and truthful--Proteus of Egypt, who knows

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  the depths of every sea, a servant of Poseidon:

  they say he's my father, that he begot me. Now if

  you could somehow lie in wait and get hold of him, then

  he could tell you about your return, the details of your journey,

  all your long voyage homeward across the fish-rich sea.

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  What's more, Zeus' nursling, if you wanted, he could relate

  what's been done in your halls, for both good and evil,

  while you were away on your long and arduous journey.'

  "So she spoke, and I then made answer to her, saying:

  'Show me yourself now how to ambush this old immortal--

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  he might see me beforehand, be alerted, avoid me:

  it's hard for a mere mortal to overpower a god.'

  "So I spoke, and at once she, bright among goddesses, said:

  'Well, stranger, I'll give you a full and accurate answer.

  At the time that the sun has risen to span mid-heaven

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  this truthful Old Man of the Sea emerges from the waves

  with the breath of the west wind, concealed by a dark ripple.

  When he's out, he lies down to sleep in the hollow caves,

  and around him the seals,7 the sweet sea daughter's brood,8

  come up out of the grey sea water, fall asleep together,

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  exhaling a pungent reek of the sea's far-reaching depths.

  I'll take you there tomorrow as dawn is breaking

  and settle you down in a row--you must carefully choose

  three of your comrades, the best in your strong-benched ships--

  and tell you about all the tricks of the old man. First,

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  he'll count the number of seals, go over them all;

  but when he's totted them up and reviewed them, then

  he'll bed down in the midst of them, like a shepherd among his flock.

  Now as soon as you see him settled, then will be the time

  to muster up every last drop of your strength and vigor,

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  and hold him firm, though he'll struggle mightily to escape.

  He'll test you by turning into every creature that comes forth

  and moves on the earth, into water, into devouring fire;

  yet keep him pinned down, hold on to him all the harder!

  But when at last he questions you in his own person,

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  in that shape he had when you watched him settling down,

  then, hero, cease your violence, set the old man free,

  ask him which of the gods it is that's angry with you

  and your homecoming, how you're to traverse the fish-rich sea.'

  "That said, she dived down into the surging deep,

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  and I returned to my ships, drawn up on the beach,

  my heart brooding darkly on many things as I went.

  Then, after we'd gone on down to our ship and the sea,

  and made ready our meal, and ambrosial9 night came on,

  we lay down to sleep there, beside the breaking surf.

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  When Dawn appeared, early risen and rosy-fingered,

  then indeed along the strand of the broad-wayed sea

  I went, praying much to the gods, and taking with me

  the three comrades I most trusted for every venture.

  "She meanwhile had plunged down into the sea's broad gulf

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  and fetched up from the deep the skins of four seals, all

  recently flayed: she'd thought up a trick against her father.

  She dug out hollow forms in the sandy beach, and sat there,

  waiting. So we came right up to her, and she made us

  lie down in a row, threw a skin over each of us. Now

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  our ambush would have been torture, for most horribly

  did the vile stench of these brine-bred seals revolt us--

  who'd choose to bed down beside a beast from the sea?--

  had she herself not rescued us, devised a great remedy:

  she brought and positioned ambrosia under each man's nose,

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  that breathed sweet fragrance, destroying the sea beast's stink.

  So all that morning we waited, with enduring patience,

  till the seals came crowding up from the water and then

  settled themselves in lines along the seashore. At noon

  the old man emerged from the sea, to find his well-nourished

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  seals: he inspected them all and checked their number,

  counting us first among the beasts,
never once suspecting

  the trick we'd played. Then he too lay down to rest.

  So we with a shout sprang on him, locked him in our arms;

  But the old man hadn't forgotten his own elusive arts,