Book XV

1But Pallas Athena went her way to wide-dancing-grounded Lacedaemon

to remind the shining son of great-hearted Odysseus

of his homecoming, and to stir him to return.

She found Telemachus and Nestor's splendid son

5sleeping in the forecourt of glorious Menelaus —

Nestor's son, at least, mastered by soft sleep;

but no sweet sleep held Telemachus: through the ambrosial night¹

cares for his father kept his heart awake.

And gray-eyed Athena stood near him and spoke:

10"Telemachus, it is no longer good, this roaming far from home

with your goods abandoned, and men in your own house

of such overbearing insolence — or they will devour it all,

dividing your goods among them, and your journey come to nothing.

Rouse Menelaus of the great war-cry — quickly —

15to send you off, so you may find your blameless mother still at home.

For already her father and her brothers press her²

to marry Eurymachus: he outbids all the suitors

in gifts, and keeps raising the bride-price higher.

Take care nothing is carried from the house against your will.

20You know what kind of heart is in a woman's breast:³

she wants to swell the house of the man who marries her,

and of her former children, of the wedded husband she has lost,

she thinks no more once he is dead. She asks nothing.

No — go back yourself and put everything in the hands

25of whichever of the slave-women seems the best to you,

until the gods reveal to you your honored bride.

And another word I will tell you: lay it up in your heart.

The best men of the suitors lie in wait for you — deliberately —

in the strait between Ithaca and rugged Samos,

30hungry to kill you before you reach your fathers' land.

But I do not look for that. No: sooner will the earth close over⁴

more than one of the suitor-men who eat away your living.

Keep your well-made ship far out from the islands,

and sail by night as well as day: that one of the deathless ones

35who guards and keeps you will send a breeze behind you.

And when you reach the first shore of Ithaca,

send the ship and all the companions on to the city,

but yourself, before all else, go to the swineherd

who keeps your swine — whose heart is loyal to you all the same.

40Sleep the night there; and send him into the city

to carry the news to watchful-minded Penelope:

that you are safe, and have come home from Pylos."

So speaking, she went away to high Olympus.

And he woke Nestor's son out of his sweet sleep,

45rousing him with a kick of his heel, and said to him:⁵

"Wake up, Peisistratus, son of Nestor. Bring out the strong-hoofed

horses and yoke them under the chariot, so we can be on our road."

Then Peisistratus, Nestor's son, answered him:

"Telemachus — however we press for the road, there is no

50driving through the pitch-dark night. And it will soon be dawn.

Wait, then, until the hero Atreus' son, Menelaus

famed for the spear, brings his gifts and sets them in the chariot

and sends us on our way with kindly words.

For a guest remembers, all his days,⁶

55the host who shows him kindness."

So he spoke; and at once Dawn of the golden throne came on.

And Menelaus of the great war-cry came up to them,

fresh-risen from his bed, from beside fair-haired Helen.

When the dear son of Odysseus caught sight of him,

60he hurried the shining tunic on about his body

and threw his great mantle over his sturdy shoulders —

the young hero — and went out; and coming up beside him,

Telemachus, dear son of godlike Odysseus, said:

"Menelaus, son of Atreus, Zeus-nurtured, leader of peoples:

65send me back now, at last, to my own dear fatherland,

for now my heart is longing to go home."

Then Menelaus of the great war-cry answered him:

"Telemachus — far be it from me to hold you here for long,

when you strain for home. I would blame another man

70as much for it — a host who loved beyond measure⁷

or hated beyond measure: due measure is better in all things.

It is equal wrong to push out a guest who does not wish

to go, and to hold one back who is eager.

Cherish the guest who is with you; speed the one who would leave.

75Only wait until I bring my gifts and set them in the chariot —

beautiful gifts; your own eyes will see them — and I tell the women

to lay a meal in the hall from the plenty stored within.

It is both honors at once — the glory and the profit —

to dine before you go, over the wide and boundless earth.

80And if you care to swing through Hellas and the heart of Argos,⁸

I will go with you myself: I will yoke you horses

and guide you through the cities of men; and no one will send us

away as we came — each will give us one thing at least to carry:

some tripod of fine bronze, or a cauldron,

85or a pair of mules, or a golden cup."

Then clear-headed Telemachus answered him:

"Menelaus, son of Atreus, Zeus-nurtured, leader of peoples,

I want to go home to our own place now. For when I left

I set no guard behind me over my possessions:

90I fear I may perish myself, hunting my godlike father,

or some fine treasure vanish from my halls."

And when Menelaus of the great war-cry heard it,

at once he told his wife and her slave-women

to lay a meal in the hall from the plenty stored within.

95And Eteoneus, Boethous' son, came up to him,

just out of bed — for he lived not far away —

and Menelaus of the great war-cry bade him light the fire

and roast some of the meat. He heard, and did not disobey.

And Menelaus himself went down to his fragrant treasure-chamber —

100not alone: Helen went with him, and Megapenthes.

And when they came to where his treasures lay,

Atreus' son took up a two-handled cup,

and bade his son Megapenthes carry the mixing-bowl

of silver; and Helen stood by the chests

105where her robes lay, worked all over with figures — she had made them herself.⁹

Helen lifted one of them out, shining among women:

the one loveliest in its weaving, and the amplest,

glittering like a star; it lay lowest of all the rest.

Then they went back up through the house until they reached

110Telemachus; and fair-haired Menelaus said to him:

"Telemachus — your homecoming, as your heart desires it,

may Zeus accomplish, the loud-thundering lord of Hera.

Of all the treasures lying stored in my house

I will give you the most beautiful, the most honored:¹⁰

115I will give you a wrought mixing-bowl — all silver

it is, and its rims are finished off in gold —

the work of Hephaestus. The hero Phaedimus gave it,

king of the Sidonians, when his house sheltered me

on my way home there. This I would send with you."

120So speaking, the hero Atreus' son set the two-handled cup

in his hands; and strong Megapenthes carried in

the shining mixing-bowl of silver and set it

before him; and Helen of the lovely cheeks stood by

with the robe in her hands, and spoke a word, and named him:

125"I too have a gift for you, dear child — this:¹¹

a keepsake of Helen's hands, against the hour of the marriage

you long for, for your bride to wear. Until then let it lie

in your dear mother's keeping. And may you come rejoicing

to your well-built house and your own fatherland."

130So speaking she set it in his hands; and he received it gladly.

And the hero Peisistratus took the gifts and stowed them

in the chariot-basket, wondering at them all in his heart.

Then fair-haired Menelaus led them into the house,

and the two of them sat down on benches and high seats.

135A handmaid brought water for their hands in a pitcher,

a beautiful golden one, and poured it over a silver basin

for them to wash, and drew up a polished table beside them.

The grave housekeeper brought bread and set it before them,

laying out delicacies in plenty, giving gladly of her store;

140and close by, Boethous' son carved the meat and shared the portions,

and the son of glorious Menelaus poured the wine.

And their hands went out to the good things spread before them.

But when they had put away desire for food and drink,

then Telemachus and Nestor's splendid son

145yoked the horses and mounted the inlaid chariot

and drove out of the gateway and the echoing porch.

And after them came Atreus' son, fair-haired Menelaus,

bearing honey-hearted wine in his right hand,

in a golden cup, for them to pour before they went.

150He stood before the horses, and pledging them he spoke:

"Farewell, young men — and carry my greeting to Nestor,

shepherd of the people: truly he was gentle as a father to me

while we sons of the Achaeans made war at Troy."

Then clear-headed Telemachus answered him:

155"All this, Zeus-nurtured, just as you say,

we will tell him when we come. And would that I as surely,

arriving home in Ithaca, might find Odysseus in the house,

and tell him how I came from you, having met with every kindness,

and bring home treasures many and fine."

160And even as he spoke, a bird flew by on the right hand:¹²

an eagle, carrying in its talons a huge white goose,

a tame one, out of the yard; and men and women

streamed after it, shouting. And the eagle, closing near them,

shot off to the right, in front of the horses. At the sight

165their hearts lifted: the spirit warmed in every breast,

and among them Peisistratus, Nestor's son, began:

"Read it, Menelaus, Zeus-nurtured, leader of peoples:

is it for us two the god has shown this sign, or for yourself?"

So he spoke; and Menelaus, dear to Ares, pondered

170how he might read it rightly and reply.

But long-robed Helen was before him, and spoke out:¹³

"Hear me — and I will prophesy as the immortals

cast it in my heart, and as I think it will be accomplished.

As this eagle snatched the goose fattened in the house,

175coming out of the mountain where his kin are, and his birthplace,

so Odysseus, after much suffering and much wandering,

will come home and take his vengeance — or even now he is

home already, planting evil for all the suitors."

Then clear-headed Telemachus answered her:

180"May Zeus grant it so, the loud-thundering lord of Hera:

then even there I would pray to you as to a god."¹⁴

He spoke, and laid the whip to the horses; and they, full of fire,

sprang quickly through the city toward the plain.

All day long they shook the yoke they bore between them.

185The sun went down, and all the ways grew dark,

and they came to Pherae, to the house of Diocles,

son of Ortilochus, whom Alpheus fathered.

There they slept the night, and he set guest-gifts before them.

When Dawn appeared, the early-born, with fingers of rose,

190they yoked the horses and mounted the inlaid chariot

and drove out of the gateway and the echoing porch;

and he whipped them to a run, and the pair flew on, nothing loath.¹⁵

And soon they came to the steep citadel of Pylos.

Then Telemachus spoke to the son of Nestor:

195"Son of Nestor — will you undertake a thing for me and see it

done, as I ask? Guest-friends from of old we may call ourselves,

from our fathers' friendship — and we are of one age besides,

and this journey has set us still more of one mind.

Do not drive me past my ship, Zeus-nurtured: leave me there —

200or the old man will keep me in his house against my will,¹⁶

aching to host me. And I must get home quickly."

So he spoke; and Nestor's son debated with his heart

how he might undertake it rightly, and see it done.

And as he weighed it, this seemed to him the better way:

205he turned the horses toward the fast ship and the shore of the sea,

and in the ship's stern he unloaded the beautiful gifts,

the clothing and the gold that Menelaus gave;

and urging Telemachus on, he spoke winged words to him:

"Aboard with you now — quick — and order all your companions,

210before I reach home and bring the old man the news.

For I know this well, in my mind and in my heart:

so overpowering is his spirit, he will not let you go —

he will come down here himself to summon you, and I tell you

he will not go back empty-handed. Angry he will be, whatever happens."

215So speaking he drove the fine-maned horses back

to the city of the Pylians, and quickly reached the house.

And Telemachus called to his companions and commanded them:

"Set the tackle in order, companions, through the black ship,

and let us board ourselves, and be on our road."

220So he spoke, and they listened well and obeyed:

and they came aboard at once and took their places at the oarlocks.

So he busied himself; and by the stern of the ship he prayed

and sacrificed to Athena. And there came up beside him a man

from a far country, in flight from Argos for killing a man —

225a seer, of the lineage of Melampus,¹⁷

who once, in time past, lived in Pylos mother of flocks,

a rich man among the Pylians, in a house of great wealth;

but he fled to another people, away from his fatherland

and from great-hearted Neleus, proudest of living men,

230who held his vast estate by force a full year round;

while Melampus, all that time, in the halls of Phylacus

lay bound in bitter bonds, suffering strong pains

for the sake of Neleus' daughter, and the deep blindness of heart

that the goddess laid on him, the Fury who strikes the house.

235Yet he escaped his doom, and drove the deep-lowing cattle

from Phylace to Pylos, and paid the ugly deed

of godlike Neleus back, and led the woman home

to be his brother's wife. And he himself went to another people,

to horse-pasturing Argos: there it was fated for him

240to live from then on, ruling over many Argives.

There he married a wife and built a high-roofed house,

and fathered Antiphates and Mantius, strong sons both.

Antiphates fathered great-hearted Oicles,

and Oicles Amphiaraus, the rouser of armies,

245whom Zeus who bears the aegis and Apollo loved

in their hearts, with every kind of love; yet he never reached

the threshold of old age: he died at Thebes — a woman's bribes.¹⁸

And to him were born sons, Alcmaeon and Amphilochus.

And Mantius, in his turn, fathered Polypheides and Cleitus —

250but Cleitus golden-throned Dawn snatched away,¹⁹

for his beauty's sake, to live among the immortals;

and of high-hearted Polypheides Apollo made a seer

far the best among mortals, once Amphiaraus was dead.

He moved to Hyperesia, angry at his father,

255and dwelling there he prophesied for all men.

It was this man's son who now came up — Theoclymenus

was his name — and stood beside Telemachus.

He found him pouring wine and praying by his fast

black ship, and he raised his voice and spoke winged words:

260"Friend — since I find you burning offerings in this place,

I beg you by these offerings, and by the god, and then

by your own head, and your companions' who go with you:

tell me truly what I ask; hold nothing back.

What man are you, and from where? Where are your city and your parents?"²⁰

265Then clear-headed Telemachus answered him:

"Then I will tell you, stranger, and tell you truly.

By birth I am of Ithaca; my father is Odysseus —

if he ever was; by now he has died some grim death.

That is why I took companions and a black ship

270and came out for news of my father, so long gone."

Then godlike Theoclymenus said to him:

"So I too am out of my country: I killed a man

of my own tribe; and his brothers and kinsmen are many²¹

in horse-pasturing Argos, with great power among the Achaeans.

275It is their death I flee — the black doom of their hands —

since now it is my lot to wander among men.

Take me aboard your ship, since in my flight I have found you

begging: or they will kill me. I think they are on my track."

Then clear-headed Telemachus answered him:

280"Then I will not push you, willing as you are, from the trim ship.

Come with us: there you will be made welcome from what we have."

So he spoke, and took the man's bronze spear from him

and laid it flat along the deck of the curved ship;

and he himself stepped aboard the seagoing vessel

285and sat down in the stern, and beside him

he seated Theoclymenus. And his men cast off the stern-lines.

And Telemachus called to his companions and commanded them

to lay hands on the tackle; and they obeyed him swiftly:

they raised the fir mast and stepped it in the hollow

290mast-box, made it fast with the forestays,

and hauled the white sail up by the twisted ox-hide halyards.

And gray-eyed Athena sent them a following wind

rushing hard through the clear sky, so the ship might run

her course at speed across the salt water of the sea.

295And they ran past Crouni, and Chalcis of the lovely streams.

The sun went down, and all the ways grew dark,

and the ship bore on for Pheae, driven by the wind of Zeus,

and along bright Elis, where the Epeians hold power.

From there again he steered her for the Sharp Islands,²²

300wondering whether he would slip past death, or be taken.

And in the hut, meanwhile, Odysseus and the noble swineherd

were at supper; and the other men were at supper with them.

When they had put away desire for food and drink,

Odysseus spoke among them, making trial of the swineherd —²³

305whether he would still befriend him with all care and press him

to stay there at the farmstead, or start him toward the city:

"Hear me now, Eumaeus, and all you other companions.

At dawn I want to go off to the city and beg there,

so as not to wear you down — you and your men.

310Only advise me well, and send along a good guide

to bring me there. And through the town I will drift on my own —

I must — in hopes someone will hand me a cup and a crust.

And I would come to the house of godlike Odysseus

and give my news to watchful-minded Penelope,

315and mix with those suitors in their insolence —

they might spare me a dinner out of their endless plenty.

I would serve well among them, whatever they wanted done.

For I will tell you this — take it in, and hear me out:

by the favor of Hermes the guide, who lends the grace²⁴

320and glory to all the labor of men's hands,

no other mortal can compete with me at service:

at building up a fire, at splitting seasoned wood,

at carving and at roasting meat, at pouring wine —

all that lesser men do, waiting on the great."

325Then, greatly stirred, you answered him, Eumaeus the swineherd:²⁵

"Ah, stranger — why has such a thought come into

your mind? You must be hungry to die on the spot,

if you truly mean to walk into that crowd

of suitors, whose arrogance and violence reach the iron sky.²⁶

330Their serving-men are nothing like you:

they are young, well-dressed in cloaks and tunics,

sleek their heads always, and handsome their faces —

those are the men who wait upon the suitors' polished tables,

loaded down with bread and meat and wine.

335No — stay. Nobody is put out by your being here,

not I, and not any of my companions with me.

But when the dear son of Odysseus comes,

that man will clothe you in a cloak and a tunic,

and send you wherever your heart and spirit bid you go."²⁷

340Then much-enduring noble Odysseus answered him:

"Eumaeus — may you be as dear to father Zeus

as you are to me: for you have stopped my wandering and my grim misery.

Nothing is more wretched for mortal men than roaming:²⁸

it is for the cursed belly's sake men take hard pains,

345when wandering and sorrow and grief have come upon them.

But now, since you hold me here to wait for that young man,

come, tell me of godlike Odysseus' mother,

and his father, whom he left on the doorsill of old age:

are they still living, somewhere under the rays of the sun,

350or dead by now, and down in the house of Hades?"

Then the swineherd answered him, a leader of men:

"Then I will tell you, stranger, and tell you truly.

Laertes is living still, but praying always

to Zeus that the life may waste out of his limbs in his own halls:

355so terribly he mourns for his son who is gone,

and for the wise wife of his youth — her death above all

has broken him, and brought him raw old age before his time.

And she died of grief for her son, for her famous son —²⁹

a wretched death. May no one die so who lives here

360and is a friend to me, and has dealt with me in kindness.

While she still lived, for all her endless sorrow,

it was some pleasure to me to ask for her and after her,

because she reared me herself, with long-robed Ctimene,³⁰

her stately daughter, the youngest child she bore.

365With her I was raised, and honored little less.

But when the two of us came to the threshold of our prime,

they gave her in marriage to Same — and got a fortune for her —

while me the lady dressed in a mantle and tunic,

fine clothes, and bound good sandals on my feet,

370and sent me to the farm. But she loved me from the heart still more.

Now I go without all that. And yet the blessed gods

make the work prosper under my hand, the work I keep to:

from it I have eaten and drunk, and given to those I owe respect.

But from the mistress herself there is nothing sweet to hear,

375no word, no kindness, since that evil fell upon the house —

those overweening men. And slaves miss it greatly,³¹

speaking before the mistress, and learning all the news,

and eating and drinking, and carrying something afterward

off to the fields — the things that warm a slave's heart."

380Then Odysseus of the many designs answered him:

"Well — how small you must have been, swineherd Eumaeus,

when you were carried so far from your country and your parents.

But come, tell me this, and tell it to me truly:

was it a wide-wayed city of men that was sacked,

385the one where your father and your honored mother lived,

or were you alone with your sheep or with your cattle

when raiders took you into their ships and carried you over

to this man's house, and he paid a worthy price?"³²

Then the swineherd answered him, a leader of men:

390"Stranger, since you ask me this, and want it all —

listen in silence now, and take your ease, and sit

drinking your wine. These nights go on past telling.³³

There is time enough for sleep, and time to take joy in listening;

no need to bed down before the hour: even sleep grows a weariness.

395As for the rest of you — whoever's heart and spirit bid him,

go out and sleep; and at the showing of the dawn

eat, and follow out the swine of our master.

But we two in the hut, over our drink and food,

will take our pleasure in each other's grim sorrows,

400remembering them. For afterward a man finds pleasure even in pains,³⁴

when he has suffered much and wandered far.

So I will tell you what you ask me, what you probe for.

There is an island called Syrie — you may have heard of it —

above Ortygia, where the turnings of the sun are:³⁵

405not so crowded with people, but a good land,

rich in herds, rich in flocks, full of wine, deep in wheat.

Famine never enters that country, nor does any

hateful sickness fall on wretched mortals there:

but when the generations of men grow old in the town,

410Apollo of the silver bow comes with Artemis

and visits them with his gentle arrows, and kills them.³⁶

Two cities are there, and everything is halved between them,

and over both of them my father was the king —

Ctesius, son of Ormenus, a match for the immortals.

415There Phoenicians came — men famed for ships,

gnawers, with countless trinkets in their black vessel.³⁷

Now in my father's house there was a Phoenician woman,

beautiful and tall, and skilled in glorious handwork;³⁸

and the Phoenicians, subtle-minded, led her astray.

420Washing clothes by the hollow ship, one of them first

lay with her in love — the thing that leads astray³⁹

the minds of women, even one whose works are honest.

Then he asked her who she was, and where she came from,

and she pointed at once to my father's high-roofed house:

425'I claim my birth from Sidon, rich in bronze,

and I am the daughter of Arybas, a man of flowing wealth.

But Taphian pirates snatched me as I came in⁴⁰

from the fields, and carried me over the sea and sold me

to this man's house; and he paid a worthy price.'⁴¹

430Then the man who had lain with her in secret said:

'Then would you come home again with us, to look on

the high-roofed house of your father and mother — and on them?

For they are living still, and are called wealthy.'

Then the woman answered him and said:

435'Even that could be, if you sailors were willing

to bind yourselves by oath to bring me home unharmed.'

So she spoke, and they all swore the oath she demanded.

And when they had sworn and sealed the oath entire,

the woman spoke among them again and answered:

440'Silence, now. Let none of your company say a word

to me, meeting me in the street or at the well,

or someone may go to the house and tell the old man;

and he, suspecting, would bind me in hard bonds,

and set his mind on death for all of you.

445Keep the word in your hearts, and press the buying of your cargo.

But when your ship is full and freighted with goods,

let a message come quickly to me at the house.

For I will bring gold too — whatever comes under my hand.

And there is another thing I would gladly give for my passage:

450I nurse a child of this fine man in the halls —

such a knowing little thing, always running out beside me.⁴²

I would bring him aboard the ship, and he would fetch you

a boundless price, wherever you sell him among strange-tongued men.'

So speaking, she went off to the beautiful house.

455And they stayed among us a whole year long,

and bought and gathered goods in their hollow ship;

and when the hollow hull was freighted for their crossing,

they sent a messenger up to bring the woman word.

A man came, deep in cunning, to my father's house

460with a necklace of gold, strung here and there with amber.⁴³

And in the hall the slave-women and my honored mother

kept turning it in their hands and drinking it with their eyes,

offering him their price; and he nodded to the woman in silence.

He nodded — then went his way to the hollow ship;

465and she took me by the hand and led me out through the doors.

In the forecourt she found the cups and the tables

of the banqueters, the men who attended on my father:

they had gone out to the people's session and debate.

Quickly she hid three goblets away at her breast

470and carried them off. And I followed — in my child's witlessness.⁴⁴

The sun went down, and all the ways grew dark,

and we came at a run to the famous harbor,

where the sea-swift ship of the Phoenician men was lying.

Then they embarked, and went their way over the watery paths,

475with the two of us aboard; and Zeus sent down a wind.

Six days we sailed on, alike by day and night;

but when Zeus, the son of Cronos, brought the seventh day,

then Artemis the shooter of arrows struck the woman,

and she dropped with a thud into the bilge, like a sea-tern.⁴⁵

480They heaved her overboard, spoil for the seals and fishes,

and I was left alone, my heart aching.

Then wind and water carried them along to Ithaca,

and there Laertes bought me, with his own possessions.

So it was my eyes first looked upon this land."

485Then Odysseus, seed of Zeus, answered him with words:

"Eumaeus, you have deeply stirred the heart here in my breast,

telling all these things — the sorrows your heart has suffered.

And yet, I say, Zeus set the good beside the evil for you,⁴⁶

since after all that pain you came to the house of a kind

490man, who provides your food and drink with every care,

and you live a good life — while I come to you here

as I am: still wandering through the many cities of men."

So they spoke to each other of such things,

then lay down to sleep — no long time, a little only,

495for soon Dawn came on her fair throne. And on the shore

the companions of Telemachus were striking sail:

they took the mast down smartly and rowed her in to anchorage,

and threw the mooring-stones out, and made the stern-lines fast;

and they themselves stepped out into the breaking surf

500and readied a meal, and mixed the sparkling wine.

And when they had put away desire for food and drink,

clear-headed Telemachus began and spoke among them:

"Row the black ship on now, all of you, to the city.

I will make my way to the fields and to the herdsmen,

505and at evening, once I have looked over the farmlands, I will come down.

In the morning I will set before you the wages of the voyage:

a good feast of meats, and honey-hearted wine."

Then godlike Theoclymenus said to him:

"And where shall I go, dear child? Whose house shall I come to,

510of the men who hold power in rocky Ithaca?

Straight to your mother's house — is that where I go — and yours?"

Then clear-headed Telemachus answered him:

"At any other time I would tell you: come to our house —

there is no lack there of what a guest is given. But for you, now,

515it would be the worse way: I will be gone, and my mother

will not see you. For not often before the suitors in that house

does she appear: apart from them she weaves at her loom, upstairs.

But I will name you another man you might go to:

Eurymachus, glorious son of thoughtful Polybus,⁴⁷

520whom now the men of Ithaca look on like a god.

For he is far the best man there — and hungriest of all

to marry my mother and take the honor that was Odysseus'.

But Zeus the Olympian, who has his home in the bright sky,

knows whether before any wedding he will bring their evil day."

525And even as he spoke, a bird flew by on his right hand:

a hawk, the swift messenger of Apollo. In its talons⁴⁸

it held a dove, and was tearing it, and shook the feathers down

to the ground, midway between the ship and Telemachus himself.

And Theoclymenus called him apart from his companions,

530and pressed his hand, and spoke a word, and named him:

"Telemachus, not without a god did that bird fly past on the right:

I knew it, looking at it face-on, for a bird of omen.

There is no line more kingly than your own

in the land of Ithaca. No: yours is the power forever."⁴⁹

535Then clear-headed Telemachus answered him:

"Ah, stranger, if only that word might be accomplished:

then you would quickly know my friendship, and gifts

in plenty from me — any man who met you would call you blessed."

And he turned and spoke to Piraeus, his trusted companion:

540"Piraeus, son of Clytius — you who in other things obey me

most of all the companions who followed me to Pylos:

now too, I ask you, take this stranger to your house

and care for him kindly, and honor him, until I come."

Then Piraeus, famous for the spear, answered him:

545"Telemachus, even if you should stay out there a long while,

I will look after this man; no guest's due shall he lack."

So speaking, he went aboard the ship, and called the companions

to come aboard themselves and loose the stern-lines;

and they came aboard at once and took their places at the oarlocks.

550And Telemachus bound his beautiful sandals under his feet

and took his strong spear up from the deck of the ship,

sharp-tipped with bronze. And the men cast off the stern-lines:

they shoved out and sailed on to the city, as they were ordered

by Telemachus, dear son of godlike Odysseus.

555But his feet carried him swiftly, striding, until he reached the yard⁵⁰

where his swine past counting were; and beside them the swineherd

slept, a good man, whose heart was loyal to his masters.