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02 - The Odyssey - Homer · Adventure Books Library

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Book two. Now, when the child of mourning, rosy fingered Dawn appeared,
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Telemachus rose and dressed himself. He bound his sandals on to his comely
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feet, girded his sword about his shoulder, and left his room looking like
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an immortal god. He at once sent the criers round to call the people
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in assembly. So they called him, and the people gathered thereon. Then,
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when they were got together, he went to the place of assembly spear
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in hand, not alone, for his two hounds went with him. Minerva
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endowed him with a presence of such divine comeliness that all marveled at him as
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he went by, And when he took his place in his father's seat,
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even the oldest counselors made way for him. Egyptius, a man bent double
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with age and of infinite experience, the first to speak. His son Antiphus,
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had gone with Ulysses to Ilius, land of noble cities, but the
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savage Cyclops had killed him when they were all shut up in the cave,
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and had cooked his last dinner for him. He had three sons left,
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of whom two still worked on their father's land, while the third, Euryymus,
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was one of the suitors. Nevertheless, their father could not get over
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the loss of Antiphus, and was still weeping for him when he began his
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speech, Men of Ithaca, he said, hear my words. From the
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day Ulysses left us, there has been no meeting of our councilors until now.
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Who then, can it be young or old that finds it so necessary
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to convene us? Has he got wind of some host approaching? And does
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he wish to warn us? Or would he speak on some other matter of
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public moment? I am sure he is an excellent person, and I hope
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Jove will grant him his heart's desire. Telemachus took this speech as of good
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omen and rose at once, for he was bursting with what he had to
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say. He stood in the middle of the assembly, and the good herald
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Pisano brought him his staff. Then, turning to Egyptius, sir said he
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it is I, as you will shortly learn, who have convened you.
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For it is I who am the most aggrieved. I have not got wind
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of any host approaching about which I would warn you, nor is there any
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matter of public moment on which I would speak. My grievance is purely personal
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and turns on two great misfortunes which have fallen upon my house. The first
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of these is the loss of my excellent father, who was chief among you
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all here present, and was like a father to every one of you.
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The second is much more serious, and ere long will be the utter ruin
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of my estate. The sons of all the chief men among you are pestering
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my mother to marry them against her will. They are afraid to go to
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her father, Ecarius, asking him to choose the one he likes best,
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and to provide marriage gifts for his daughter. But day by day they keep
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hanging about my father's house, sacrificing our oxen sheep and fat goats for their
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banquets, and never giving so much as a thought to the quantity of wine
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they drink. No estate can stand such recklessness. We have now no ulysses
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to warn off harm from our doors, and I cannot hold my own against
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them. I shall never, all my days be as good a man as
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he was. Still, I would indeed defend myself if I had power to
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do so, for I cannot stand such treatment any longer. My house is
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being disgraced and ruined. Have respect therefore to your own consciences and to public
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opinion. Fear too the wrath of heaven, lest the gods should be displeased
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and turn upon you. I pray you by Jove, and themis who is
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the beginning and the end of counsels. Do not hold back, my friends
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and leave me single handed, unless it be that my brave father Ulysses did
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some wrong to the Achaeans, which you would now avenge upon me by aiding
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and abetting these suitors. Moreover, if I am to be eaten out of
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house and home at all, I had rather you did the eating yourselves,
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for I could then take action against you to some purpose, and serve you
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with notices from house to house till I got paid in full, whereas now
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I have no remedy with this. Telemachus dashed his staff to the ground and
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burst into tears. Everyone was very sorry for him, but they all sat
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still, and no one ventured to make him an angry answer, save only
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Antinus, who spoke. Thus, Telemachus, insolent braggart that you are,
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how dare you try to throw the blame upon us suitors? It is your
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mother's fault, not ours, for she is a very artful woman. These
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three years passed and close on, for she has been driving us out of
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our minds by encouraging each one of us and sending him messages without meaning one
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word of what she says. And then there was that other trick she played
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on us. She set up a great tambour frame in her room and began
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to work on an enormous piece of fine needlework. Sweethearts, said she,
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Ulysses is indeed dead. Still do not press me to marry again immediately,
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wait, for I would not have skill and needlework perish unrecorded till I have
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completed a pall for the hero Laerties to be in readiness against the time when
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death shall take him. He is very rich, and the women of the
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place will talk if he is laid out without a pall. This was what
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she said, and we assented. Whereon we could see her working on her
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great web all day long, but at night she would unpick the stitches again
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by torchlight. She fooled us in this way for three years, and we
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never found her out. But as time wore on and she was now in
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her fourtheth one of her maids, who knew what she was doing, told
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us, and we caught her in the act of undoing her work, so
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she had to finish it, whether she would or no. The suitors therefore
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make you this answer, that both you and the Acaians may understand. Send
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your mother away and bid her marry the man of her own and of her
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father's choice. For I do not know what will happen if she goes on
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plaguing us much longer with the airs she gives herself on the score of accomplishments
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Minerva has taught her, And because she is so clever, we never yet
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heard of such a woman. We know all about Tyro Alcmena, Myceni,
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and the famous women of old, but they were nothing to your mother,
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any one of them. It was not fair of her to treat us in
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that way. And as long as she continues in the mind with which Heaven
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has now endowed her, so long shall we go on eating upon your estate.
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And I do not see why she should change, for she gets all
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the honor and glory, and it is you who pay for it. Not
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she understand then, that we will not go back to our lands, neither
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here nor elsewhere, till she has made her choice and married some one or
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other of us. Telemachus answered Antinus, how can I drive the mother who
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bore me from my father's house? My father is abroad, and we do
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not know whether he is alive or dead. It will be hard on me
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if I have to pay a carre us the large sum which I must give
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him. If I insist on sending his daughter back to him, not only
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will he deal rigorous with me, but Heaven will also punish me, for
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my mother, when she leaves the house, will calf on the Irenis to
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avenge her. Besides, it would not be a creditable thing to do,
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and I will have nothing to say to it. If you choose to take
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offense at this, leave the house and feast elsewhere at one another's houses at
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your own cost. Turn and turn about. If, on the other hand,
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you elect to persist in sponging upon one man, Heaven help me.
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But Jove shall reckon with you in full, and when you fall in my
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father's house, there shall be no man to avenge you. As he spoke,
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Jove sent two eagles from the top of the mountain, and they flew
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on and on with the wind, sailing side by side in their own lordly
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flight. When they were right over the middle of the assembly, they wheeled
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and circled about, bearing the air with their wings and glaring death into the
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eyes of them that were below. Then, fighting fiercely and tearing at one
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another, they flew off towards the right over the town. The people wondered
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as they saw them, and asked each other what this might be. Whereon
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Halethrces, who was the best prophet and reader of omens among them, spoke
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to them plainly and in all honesty, saying, hear me men of Ithaca,
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And I speak more particularly to the suitors, for I see mischief brewing
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for them. Ulysses is not going to be away much longer. Indeed,
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he is close at hand to deal out death and destruction, not on them
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alone, but on many another of us who live in Ithaca. Let us
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then be wise in time and put a stop to this wickedness before he comes.
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Let the suitors do so of their own accord. It will be better
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for them. For I am not prophesying without due knowledge. Everything has happened
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to Ulysses as I foretold. When the argive set out for Troy, and
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he with them. I said that after going through much hardship and losing all
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his men, he should come home again in the twentieth year, and that
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no one would know him. And now all this is coming true. Eurymicus,
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son of Polybus, then said, go home, old man, and
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prophesy to your own children, or it may be worse for them. I
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can read these omens myself much better than you can. Birds are always flying
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about in the sunshine somewhere or other, but they seldom mean anything. Ulysses
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has died in a far country, and it is a pity you are not
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dead along with him. Instead of prating here about omens and adding fuel to
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the anger of Telemachus, which is fierce enough as it is, I suppose
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you think he will give you something for your family. But I tell you,
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and it shall surely be. When an old man like you, who
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should know better, talks a young one over till he becomes troublesome in the
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first place, his young friend will only fare so much the worse. He
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will take nothing by it, for the suitors will prevent this, And in
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the next we will lay a heavier fine, sir, upon yourself, than
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you will at all like paying for it will bear hardly upon you As for
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Telemachus, I warn him, in the presence of you all, to send
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his mother back to her father, who will find her a husband and provide
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her with all the marriage gifts so dear a daughter may expect till we shall
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go on harassing him with our suit, for we fear no man, and
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care neither for him with all his fine speeches, nor for any fortune telling
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of yours. You may preach as much as you please, but we shall
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only hate you. The more. We shall go back and continue to eat
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up to Lemachus's estate without paying him, till such time as his mother leaves
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off tormenting us by keeping us day after day on the tiptoe of expectation,
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each vying with the other in his suit for a prize of such rare perfection.
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Besides, we cannot go after the other women whom we should marry in
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due course, but for the way in which she treats us. Then,
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Telemachus said, Eurymicus and you other suitors, I shall say no more and
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entreat you no further, for the gods and the people of Ithaca now know
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my story. Give me then a ship and a crew of twenty men to
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take me hither and thither, and I will go to Sparta and to Pylos
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in quest of my father, who has so long been missing. Some one
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may tell me something or and people often hear things in this way. Some
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heaven sent message may direct me. If I can hear of him as alive
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and on his way home, I will put up with the waist you suitors
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will make for yet another twelve months. If, on the other hand,
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I hear of his death, I will return at once, celebrate his funeral,
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rites with all do pomp, build a barrow to his memory, and
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make my mother merry again. With these words, he sat down, and
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Mentor, who had been a friend of Ulysses and had been left in charge
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of everything with full authority over the servants, rose to speak. He then,
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plainly and in all honesty, addressed them. Thus hear me, Men
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of Ithaca, I hope that you may never have a kind and well disposed
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ruler any more, nor one who will govern you equitably. I hope that
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all your chiefs henceforward may be cruel and unjust. For there is not one
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of you but has forgotten Ulysses, who ruled you as though he were your
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father. I am not half so angry with the suitors. For if they
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choose to do violence in the naughtiness of their hearts and wager their heads that
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Ulysses will not return, they can take the high hand and eat up his
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estate. But as for you others, I am shocked at the way in
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which you all sit still without even trying to stop such scandal goings on,
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which you could do if you chose, For you are many and they are
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few. Leocritus, son of Evanor, answered him, saying, Mentor,
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what folly is all this? That you should set the people to stay us.
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It is a hard thing for one man to fight with many about his
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victuals. Even though Ulysses himself were to set upon us while we are feasting
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in his house and do his best to oust us, his wife, who
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wants him back so very badly, would have small cause for rejoicing, and
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his blood would be upon his own head if he fought against such great odds.
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There is no sense in what you have been saying. Now, Therefore,
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do you people go about your business and let his father's old friends Mentor
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and hale Atharces speed this boy on his journey. If he goes at all
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which I do not think he will, for he is more likely to stay
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where he is till some one comes and tells him something. On this,
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he broke up the assembly, and every man went back to his own abode,
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while the suitors returned to the house of Ulysses. Then Telemachus went all
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alone by the sea side, washed his hands in the gray waves, and
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prayed to Minerva. Hear me, he cried, you, God, who
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visited me yesterday and bade me sail the seas in search of my father,
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who has so long been missing. I would obey you, but the Achaeans,
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and more particularly the wicked suitors, are hindering me that I cannot do
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so. As he thus prayed, Minerva came up close to him in the
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likeness and with the voice of mentor, Telemachus said, she, if you
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are made of the same stuff as your father, you will be neither fool
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nor coward. Henceforward, For Ulysses never broke his word nor left his work
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half done. If then you take after him, your voyage will not be
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fruitless. But unless you have the blood of Ulysses and of Penelope in your
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veins, I see no likelihood of your succeeding sons are seldom as good men
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as their fathers. They are generally worse, not better still, as you
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are not going to be either fool or coward henceforward, and are not entirely
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without some share of your father's wise discernment. I look with hope upon your
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undertaking. But mind you never make common cause with any of these foolish suitors,
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for they have neither sense nor virtue, and give no thought to the
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death and the doom that will shortly fall upon one and all of them,
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so that they shall perish on the same day. As for your voyage,
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it shall not be long delayed. Your father was such an old friend of
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mine that I will find you a ship, and will come with you myself.
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Now, however, return home and go about among the suitors, begin
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getting provisions ready for your journey. See everything well stowed, the wine in
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jars, and the barley meal, which is the staff of life, in
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leathern bags. While I go round the town and beat up volunteers at once.
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There are many ships in Ithaca, both old and new. I will
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run my eye over them for you, and will choose the best. We
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will get her ready and will put out to sea without delay. Thus spoke
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Minerva, daughter of Jove, and Telemachus lost no time in doing as the
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goddess told him. He went moodily and found the suitors flaying goats and singing
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pigs in the outer court. And Tyinus came up to him at once and
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laughed as he took his hand in his own, saying, Telemachus, my
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fine fire eater, bear no more ill blood, neither in word nor deed.
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But eat and drink with us as you used to do. The Achaeans
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will find you everything, a ship and a picked crew to boot, so
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that you can set sail for Pilos at once and get news of your noble
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father. And Tyinus answered Telemachus, I cannot eat in peace nor take pleasure
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of any kind with such men as you are. Was it not enough that
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you should waste so much good property of mine while I was yet a boy.
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Now that I'm older and know more about it, I am also stronger.
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And whether here among these people or by going to Pilos, I will
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do you all the harm I can. I shall go, and my going
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will not be in vain, though thanks to you suitors I have neither ship
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nor crew of my own, and must be passenger and not captain. As
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he spoke, he snatched his hand from that of Antinus. Meanwhile, the
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others went on getting dinner ready about the buildings, jeering at him tauntingly as
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they did so, Telemachus said, one youngster means to be the death of
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us. I suppose he thinks he can bring friends to help him from Pylos,
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or again from Sparta, where he seems bent on going. Or will
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he go to Ephira as well for poison to put in our wine and kill
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us? Another said, perhaps if Telemachus goes on board ship, he will
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be like his father and perish far from his friends. In this case,
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we should have plenty to do, for we could then divide up his property
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amongst us. As for the house, we can let his mother and the
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man who marries her have that. This was how they talked, But Telemachus
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went down into the lofty and spacious store room, where his father's treasure of
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gold and bronze lay heaped up upon the floor, and where the linen and
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spare clothes were kept in open chests. Here, too, there was a
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store of fragrant olive oil, while casks of old well ripened wine, unblended
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and fit for a god to drink, were ranged against the wall in case
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Ulysses should come home again. After all, the room was closed, with
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well made doors opening in the middle. Moreover, the faithful old housekeeper euryclea
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daughter of Ops, the son of Pisenor, was in charge of everything both
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night and day. Telemachus called her to the store room and said, nurse,
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draw me off some of the best wine you have, after what you
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are keeping for my father's own drinking, in case poor man he should escape
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death and find his way home again. After all, let me have twelve
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jars, and see that they all have lids. Also fill me some well
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sewn leathern bags with barleymeal, about twenty measures in all. Get these things
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put together at once, and say nothing about it. I will take everything
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away this evening as soon as my mother has gone upstairs for the night.
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I am going to Sparta and to Pylos to see if I can hear anything
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about the return of my dear father. When you are clear heard this,
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she began to cry and spoke fondly to him, saying, my dear child,
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whatever can have put such notion as that into your head. Where in
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the world do you want to go to? You, who are the one
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hope of the house. Your poor father is dead and gone in some foreign
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country, nobody knows where, And as soon as your back is turned,
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these wicked ones here will be scheming to get you put out of the way,
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and will share all your possessions among themselves. Stay where you are,
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among your own people, and do not go wandering and worrying your life out
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on the barren ocean. Fear not, Nurse answered to Lemachus, My scheme
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is not without Heaven's sanction. But swear that you will say nothing about all
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this to my mother till I have been away some ten or twelve days,
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unless she hears of my having gone and asks you, for I do not
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want her to spoil her beauty by crying. The old woman swore most solemnly
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that she would not, and when she had completed her oath, she began
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drawing off the wine into jars and getting the barley meal into the bags.
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While Telemachus went back to the suitors. Then Minerva bethought her of another matter.
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She took his shape and went round the town to each one of the
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crew, telling them to meet at the ship by sundown. She also went
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to Noemon, son of Phronius, and asked him to let her have a
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ship, which he was very ready to do. When the sun had set
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and darkness was over all the land, she got the ship into the water,
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put all the tackle on board her that ships generally carry, and stationed
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her at the end of the harbor. Presently, the crew came up,
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and the goddess spoke encouragingly to each of them. Furthermore, she went to
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the house of Ulysses and threw the suitors into a deep slumber. She caused
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their drink to fuddle them and made them drop their cups from their hands,
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so that instead of sitting over their wine, they went back into the town
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to sleep, with their eyes heavy and full of drowsiness. Then she took
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the form and voice of mentor and called to Lemachus to come outside. Telemachus
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said she, the men are on board and at their oars, waiting for
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you to give their orders. So make haste and let us be off.
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On this, she led the way, while Telemachus followed in her steps.
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When they got to the ship, they found the crew waiting by the water
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side. And Telemachus said, now, my men, help me to get
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the stores on board. They are all put together in the cloister, and
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my mother does not know anything about it, nor any of the maid servants
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except one. With these words, he led the way, and the others
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followed after. When they had brought the things as he told them, Telemachus
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went on board, Minerva going before him and taking her seat in the stern
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of the vessel, while Telemachus sat beside her. Then the men loosened the
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hawsers and took their places on the benches. Minerva sent them a fair wind
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from the west that whistled over the deep blue waves, whereon Telemachus told them
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to catch hold of the ropes and hoist sail, and they did as he
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told them. They set the mast in its socket, and the cross plank
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raised it and made it fast with the forestays. Then they hoisted their white
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sails, aloft with ropes of twisted ox hide. As the sail bellied out
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with the wind, the ship flew through the deep blue water, and the
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foam hissed against her bows as she sped onward. Then they made all fast
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throughout the ship filled the mixing bowls to the brim, and made drink offerings
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to the immortal gods that are from everlasting, but more particularly to the gray
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eyed daughter of Jove. Thus then the ship sped on her way through the
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watches of the night, from dark till dawn. End of Book two.