The Odyssey

and speak without disguise.”
And Nestor the Gerenian knight replied:⁠—

“My friend, since thou recallest to my mind

The sufferings borne by us the sons of Greece,

Although of peerless valor, in that land,

Both when we ranged in ships the darkling sea

For booty wheresoe’er Achilles led,

And when around King Priam’s populous town

We fought, where fell our bravest, know thou then

That there the valiant Ajax lies, and there

Achilles; there Patroclus, like the gods

In council; there my well-beloved son

Blameless and brave, Antilochus the swift

Of foot and warlike⁠—many woes beside

We bore, and who of mortal birth could give

Their history? Nay, though thou shouldst remain

Five years or six, and ask of all the griefs

Endured by the brave Greeks, thou wouldst depart

Outwearied to thy home, ere thou hadst heard

The whole. Nine years in harassing the foe

We passed, beleaguering them and planning wiles

Innumerable. Saturn’s son at last

With difficulty seemed to close the war.

Then was there none who might presume to vie

In wisdom with Ulysses; that great man

Excelled in every kind of stratagem⁠—

Thy father⁠—if indeed thou be his son.

I look on thee amazed; all thy discourse

Is just like his, and one would ne’er believe

A younger man could speak so much like him.

While we were there, Ulysses and myself

In council or assembly never spake

On different sides, but with a like intent

We thoughtfully consulted how to guide

The Achaians in the way we deemed the best;

But after we had overthrown and spoiled

King Priam’s lofty city, and set sail

For home, and by some heavenly power the Greeks

Were scattered, Jupiter ordained for them

A sad return. For all were neither wise

Nor just, and many drew upon themselves

An evil doom⁠—the fatal wrath of her,

The blue-eyed maid, who claims her birth from Jove.

’Twas she who kindled strife between the sons

Of Atreus. They had called the Achaians all

To an assembly, not with due regard

To order, at the setting of the sun,

And thither came the warriors overpowered

With wine. The brother kings set forth the cause

Of that assembly. Menelaus first

Bade all the Greeks prepare for their return

O’er the great deep. That counsel little pleased

King Agamemnon, who desired to keep

The people longer there, that he might soothe

By sacred hecatombs the fiery wrath

Of Pallas. Fool! who could not see how vain

Were such persuasion, for the eternal gods

Are not soon won to change their purposes.

They stood disputing thus, with bitter words,

Till wrangling noisily on different sides

Rose up the well-armed Greeks. The ensuing night

We rested, but we cherished in our breasts

A mutual hate; so for our punishment

Had Jove ordained. With early morn we drew

Our ships to the great deep, and put our goods

And our deep-bosomed women all on board.

Yet half the host went not, but on the shore

Remained with Agamemnon, Atreus’ son,

And shepherd of the people. All the rest

Embarked, weighed anchor, and sailed swiftly thence;

A deity made smooth the mighty deep,

And when we came to Tenedos we paid

Our offerings to the gods and longed for home⁠—

Vainly; it pleased not unpropitious Jove

To favor our return, and once again

He sent among us strife. A part of us

Led by Ulysses, that sagacious prince,

To please Atrides Agamemnon turned

Their well-oared galleys back. But I, with all

The vessels of the fleet that followed me,

Fled on my way, perceiving that some god

Was meditating evil. With us fled,

Encouraging his men, the warlike son

Of Tydeus. Fair-haired Menelaus came

Later to us in Lesbos, where we planned

For a long voyage, whether we should sail

Around the rugged Chios, toward the isle

Of Psyria, keeping that upon the left,

Or under Chios pass beside the steeps

Of windy Mimas. We besought the god

That he would show a sign, and he complied,

And bade us to Euboea cross the deep

Right in the midst, the sooner to escape

All danger. Then the wind blew strong and shrill,

And swiftly o’er the fishy gulfs our fleet

Flew on, and reached Geraestus in the night.

There, having passed the mighty deep, we made

To Neptune offerings of many a thigh

Of beeves. The fourth day dawned, and now the men

Of Diomed, the mighty horseman, son

Of Tydeus, stopped at Argos with their fleet,

While I went on to Pylos with the wind,

Which never, from the moment that the god

First sent it o’er the waters, ceased to blow.
“So, my dear child, I reached my home, nor knew

Nor heard from others who among the Greeks

Was saved, or who had perished on the way.

Yet what I since have heard while here I sit

Within my palace thou shalt duly learn.

Nor is it what I ought to keep from thee.
“ ’Tis said the Myrmidonian spearmen, led

By great Achilles’ famous son, returned

Happily home; as happily the son

Of Paeas, Philoctetes the renowned.

Idomeneus brought also back to Crete

All his companions who survived the war;

The sea took none of them. But ye have heard,

Though far away, the fate of Atreus’ son⁠—

How he came home, and how Aegisthus laid

A plot to slay him, yet on his own head

Drew heavy punishment⁠—so fortunate

It is when he who falls by murder leaves

A son; for ’twas the monarch’s son who took

Vengeance upon the crafty murderer

Aegisthus, by whose hand Atrides died.

Thou too, my friend, for thou art large of frame,

And of a noble presence, be thou brave,

That men in time to come may give thee praise.”
Then spake discreet Telemachus again:⁠—

“O Nestor, son of Neleus, pride of Greece,

Ample was his revenge, and far and wide

The Greeks will spread his fame to be the song

Of future times. O might the gods confer

On me an equal power to avenge myself

On that importunate, overbearing crew

Of suitors, who insult me, and devise

Evil against me! But the gods deny

Such fortune to my father and to me,

And all that now is left me is to bear.”
Again spake Nestor the Gerenian knight:⁠—

“Since thou, my friend, hast spoken words which bring

What I have heard to mind⁠—the rumor goes

That in thy palace many suiters wait

About thy mother, and in spite of thee

Do grievous wrong. Now tell me; dost thou yield

Willingly, or because the people, swayed

By oracles, regard thee as their foe?

Thy father yet may come again⁠—who knows?⁠—

Alone, or with the other Greeks, to take

The vengeance which these violent deeds deserve.

Should blue-eyed Pallas deign to favor thee,

As once she watched to guard the glorious chief

Ulysses in the realm of Troy, where we,

The