The Odyssey Read online

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  far from it: first he became a bearded lion,

  then a serpent, then a leopard, then a gigantic boar;

  then he turned into flowing water, and a tall leafy tree;

  but with resolute heart we kept him firmly pinned down,

  and when the cunning old trickster was at last exhausted

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  then he finally spoke and questioned me, saying: 'Which

  of the gods, son of Atreus, was it advised you how to ambush

  and catch me against my will? What is it that you want?'

  "So he spoke, and I then made answer to him, saying:

  'You yourself know, old man--why try to trick me with

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  this question?--how long I've been stuck here on this island,

  unable to find a way out, my inner spirit fading: so you

  tell me--since gods are all-knowing--which immortal

  is it who fetters me here, who's kept me from my journey--

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

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  "So I spoke: he at once made answer to me, saying:

  'You should have made rich sacrifices to Zeus and the other gods

  before embarking, to ensure your speedy return

  to your own country, voyaging over the wine-dark deep!

  For it isn't your fate to set eyes on your friends, or make it

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  back to your well-set home and your ancestral country

  before you've once more been to the waters of Egypt's

  heaven-fed river and offered ample sacrifices

  to the immortal gods who hold wide heaven: only

  then, at last, will they grant you the journey that you desire.'

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  "So he spoke; but the heart within me was shattered

  by his sending me back again to traverse the misty deep

  to Egypt, a lengthy and most wearisome journey.

  Yet even so I still responded to him, saying:

  'All this I shall do, old man, exactly as you bid me.

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  But come now, tell me this, give me a true report:

  Did all the Achaians get home with their ships, unharmed,

  all those Nestor and I left when we set out from Troy?

  Or did any die by some unkind fate on shipboard,

  or in their friends' arms, after winding up the war?'

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  "So I spoke: he at once made answer to me, saying:

  'Son of Atreus, why ask me this? It's not your business

  to know or search out my mind--nor do I think

  you'll long be tearless when you hear the full account!

  For many of them perished, and many were left there,

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  though only two leaders of the bronze-corseleted Achaians

  died when returning home, or in the war--you were there then!--

  and one may still be alive, held back out there on the deep.

  Aias10 was done for, along with his long-oared vessels:

  first Poseidon drove him onto the massive rocks

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  of Gyrai, yet rescued him, brought him safe from the sea;

  and he'd have escaped his fate, though hated by Athene,

  had he not, infatuate, uttered a reckless boast, asserted

  that it was in spite of the gods he'd escaped the sea's

  great gulf, so that Poseidon, hearing his noisy bragging,

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  at once took hold of the trident in his mighty fists

  and struck the rock face of Gyrai, split a part off.

  The rock held firm, but the fragment where Aias was perched

  when he made his reckless boast crashed into the sea,

  bore him down with it into the boundless surging main,

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  so he swallowed his fill of salt water, and thus perished.

  'But your brother somehow escaped, eluded the death spirits

  with his hollow ships: it was the lady Here who saved him.

  Then, when he was nearing Malea's sheer promontory,

  a strong gale took hold of him, carried him headlong

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  over the fish-rich waters, groaning disconsolately,

  to the coast of that land where in time past Thyestes

  had his abode, but now his son Aigisthos dwelt there.

  Yet from this point too an unharmed return was shown him:

  The gods changed the gale to a tailwind, and they got home.

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  Now he, Agamemnon, rejoicing, set foot on his native soil,

  laid hold of the earth and kissed it, a flood of warm tears

  streamed down his face, so glad he was to see his homeland.

  'But a watch at his lookout saw him, a man brought in

  and set there by crafty Aigisthos, who promised him a reward,

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  two talents of gold: he'd been keeping watch for a year now

  in case he slipped past unseen, fierce valor not forgotten.

  Now the watchman went to the palace, informed the people's

  shepherd: Aigisthos at once thought up a crafty scheme:

  he chose twenty men, the best fighters in the region,

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  and placed them in ambush, but across the hall laid on

  a feast, then took horses and chariots to welcome Agamemnon,

  the people's shepherd, mind set on treacherous action,

  and brought him back, unaware of his coming fate, and after

  feasting him killed him, the way you'd butcher an ox at its crib.

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  Not one of all Atreus' son's comrades remained alive there,

  not one of Aigisthos' men:11 they all died in the halls.'

  "So he spoke, and the spirit within me was shattered.

  And I wept as I sat on the sand there, my heart no longer

  wanted to live, to behold the sunlight. But after

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  I'd had my fill of weeping and groveling, then

  the forthright Old Man of the Sea addressed me, saying:

  'No longer, son of Atreus, waste time like this in ceaseless

  weeping: no good will come of it! Rather do all you can

  to get back soon to your country: there's always a chance

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  of finding that man alive still--if Orestes hasn't arrived first

  and killed him, and you only get there in time for the funeral.'

  "So he spoke, and the heart and proud spirit once again

  were cheered in my breast, despite the grief I felt,

  and I spoke, and addressed him with winged words, saying:

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  'These men I know of. But tell me, who's the third man,

  the one who may be alive still, held back out there on the main--

  or is he dead? Though it grieve me, I want to hear the truth.'

  "So I spoke: he at once made answer to me, saying:

  'That is the son of Laertes, whose dwelling is in Ithake:

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  him I saw on an island, shedding copious tears,

  in the home of the nymph Kalypso, who by constraint

  detains him there, so he can't get back to his own country,

  for he has no ships with oars, nor any comrades

  to further his voyage over the broad back of the sea.

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  But it isn't your destiny, Menelaos, Zeus' nursling,

  to die and meet your fate in horse-grazing Argos: rather

  it's to the Elysian plain and the furthest ends of the earth

  that the immortals will bring you, where fair-haired Rhadamanthys

  dwells, and where the living is easiest for mankind:

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  no snow's there, no strong storms, nor ever any rain,

  but a constant light western breeze coming up off the ocean

  to provide mankind with cooling relief; for as t
hey see it,

  since you have Helen as wife, you're a son-in-law of Zeus.'

  "That said, he plunged down into the surging deep;

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  and I returned to the ships with my godlike comrades,

  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 ambrosial 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,

  our ships first of all we hauled into the bright salt sea,

  and set up the masts and sails in these well-trimmed vessels.

  Then the men went aboard, and sat down on the benches,

  and ranged in close order struck the grey sea with their oars.

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  So back to Egypt, land of the heaven-fed river, I brought

  and moored my vessels, and offered most lavish sacrifices;

  and when I'd appeased the wrath of the gods that are forever

  I raised Agamemnon a grave mound, that his fame might be

  undying. That done, I set sail for home. The immortals

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  gave me a tailwind, conveyed me to my own dear land.

  So come now, stay on with me longer here in my halls,

  for eleven or twelve more days, and after that

  I'll arrange you a proper send-off, with some splendid gifts--

  three horses, a well-polished chariot. In addition

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  I'll give you a beautiful cup: then, when you pour libations

  to the deathless gods, you'll remember me all your days."

  Sagacious Telemachos responded to him, saying:

  "Son of Atreus, please don't invite me to stay here longer!

  Truth is, I'd be only too happy to sit on for a full year

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  in your abode here, home and parents all forgotten,

  so rare is the pleasure I get from listening to your stories

  and the way you tell them! But already my comrades are fretting

  to leave sacred Pylos, you're keeping me here so long!

  As for the present you give me, make that a keepsake:

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  horses I'll not take back to Ithake, but rather leave them

  here for your pleasure, since you are lord of a spacious

  plain with an abundance of clover and galingale,

  of wheat and millet and ample-grained white barley.

  But Ithake has no broad courses, nor any meadows; it gives

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  pasture to goats--more attractive than that for horses!

  None of the islands has meadows or space for chariots:

  each of them slopes down seaward, Ithake most of all."

  So he spoke. Menelaos of the great war cry smiled,

  caressed him with one hand, and addressed him, saying:

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  "The way you talk, dear child, reveals your good breeding!

  I'll change these presents, then, since I can: of all the gifts

  laid away in my house as personal treasures I shall

  give you the one that's most beautiful and most costly:

  a finely wrought mixing bowl, made all of silver throughout,

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  rims finished off with a golden inlay, the work

  of Hephaistos, a present from the hero Phaidimos,

  the Sidonians' king, at the time that his house gave me shelter

  when I'd got that far homeward. This I'd like you to have."

  Such were the words they exchanged between one another,

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  while the banqueters were arriving at the godlike king's domain:

  they drove up sheep, they brought beneficent wine,

  their fine-veiled wives came with them, carrying bread.

  Thus they busied themselves about the feast in the halls.

  Meanwhile the suitors gathered in front of Odysseus' abode

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  were amusing themselves, in their usual arrogant fashion,

  by throwing the discus and javelin out on a leveled terrace

  where Antinoos and godlike Eurymachos were sitting--

  the suitors' leaders, by far the best-born among them.

  They were approached now by Phronios' son Noemon,

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  who addressed Antinoos, had this question for him:

  "Antinoos, do we or don't we know for certain when

  Telemachos will get back here from sandy Pylos? He went

  taking a ship of mine, and now I have need of it

  to go over to widespread Elis, where I've a dozen

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  brood mares, now suckling young mules, unbroken, hard

  workers: I want to drive one off, break it in."

  So he spoke. They were quietly astonished, had no idea

  that Telemachos had gone to Neleian Pylos, believed him

  somewhere out in the fields, with his flocks or at the swineherd's.

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  Antinoos, Eupeithes' son, now responded to him, saying:

  "When exactly did he leave? And who were those young men

  that went with him? Select Ithakans, or just his own

  field hands and household servants? This too he could have done.

  And give me a true answer, I need to be quite certain:

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  Was it by force, against your will, that he took your black ship,

  or did you give it him freely because he asked you for it?"

  Noemon, the son of Phronios, responded to him, saying:

  "I gave it him freely myself. What would anyone do

  when a man of his sort, with the troubles he has at heart,

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  made the request? To not give it him would be hard.

  As for the youths, those gone with him are Ithake's best

  after ourselves: I noticed their leader embarking and he

  was Mentor--or else some god who looked just like him.

  It's an odd thing: I saw godlike Mentor here yesterday

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  at dawn, but in fact he'd left then in the ship to Pylos."

  This said, he took himself off to his father's house,

  leaving the proud hearts of both highly disconcerted. They

  at once made the suitors quit their games and sit down,

  and among them Antinoos, Eupeithes' son, now spoke,

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  bitterly troubled, his black heart brimming over

  with rage, while his eyes had the semblance of blazing fire.

  "An outrageous act, I swear, most high-handedly brought off,

  this trip by Telemachos! And we thought he'd never make it!

  Despite all of us here, the brat's gone, just like that--

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  got a ship, launched it, enrolled the best men we have!

  Pretty soon he'll be trouble for us: so may Zeus

  destroy his power before he ever comes to full manhood!

  Come then, give me a fast ship and twenty comrades,

  so I can set an ambush, watch for him as he steers

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  through the narrows between Ithake and sheer beetling Same,

  and give him a miserable voyage in his quest for his father!"

  So he spoke: they all assented, backed his proposal,

  got up at once, and went off to the house of Odysseus.

  Nor was Penelope left for long without knowledge

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  of the schemes that the suitors hatched in secret discussion,

  for Medon the herald told her, who, outside the courtyard,

  heard the whole plot that they, inside, were weaving,

  and went in through the hall to inform Penelope of it.

  As he set foot across the threshold Penelope addressed him:

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  "Herald, for what have the lordly suitor
s now dispatched you?

  To tell the household servants of godlike Odysseus

  to stop their appointed tasks, and cook up a feast for them?