The Odyssey, Book One PDF

05_273-611_Homer 2/Aesop 7/10/00 1:25 PM Page 273 H OMER / The Odyssey, Book One 273 THE ODYSSEY Translated by Robert Fitzgerald...

05_273-611_Homer 2/Aesop 7/10/00 1:25 PM Page 273 H OMER / The Odyssey, Book One 273 THE ODYSSEY Translated by Robert Fitzgerald The ten-year war waged by the Greeks against Troy, culminating in the overthrow of the city, is now itself ten years in the past. Helen, whose f light to Troy with the Trojan prince Paris had prompted the Greek expedition to seek revenge and reclaim her, is now home in Sparta, living harmoniously once more with her husband Meneláos (Menelaus). His brother Agamémnon, commander in chief of the Greek forces, was murdered on his return from the war by his wife and her paramour. Of the Greek chieftains who have survived both the war and the perilous homeward voyage, all have returned except Odysseus, the crafty and astute ruler of Ithaka (Ithaca), an island in the Ionian Sea off western Greece. Since he is presumed dead, suitors from Ithaka and other regions have overrun his house, paying court to his attractive wife Penélopê, endangering the position of his son, Telémakhos (Telemachus), corrupting many of the servants, and literally eating up Odysseus’ estate. Penélopê has stalled for time but is finding it increasingly difficult to deny the suitors’ demands that she marry one of them; Telémakhos, who is just approaching young manhood, is becom- ing actively resentful of the indignities suffered by his household. Many persons and places in the Odyssey are best known to readers by their Latinized names, such as Telemachus. The present translator has used forms (Telémakhos) closer to the Greek spelling and pronunciation. A slanted accent mark (´) indicates stress; thus Agamémnon is accented on the third syllable. A circumf lex accent (ˆ) indicates that the vowel sound is long; thus Kêrês is pronounced “Care-ace.” A dieresis (¨) indi- cates pronunciation as a separate syllable; thus, Thoösa has three syllables rather than two. [Editors’ headnote.] BOOK ONE: A GODDESS INTERV ENES Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story of that man skilled in all ways of contending, the wanderer, harried for years on end, after he plundered the stronghold on the proud height of Troy. 1 He saw the townlands and learned the minds of many distant men, and weathered many bitter nights and days in his deep heart at sea, while he fought only to save his life, to bring his shipmates home. But not by will nor valor could he save them, 10 for their own recklessness destroyed them all— 1 These lines contain the traditional epic “opening formula” that includes the invocation of the inspiring Muse, the statement of the theme, the identification of the hero (in this case Odysseus), and a glance at the significance of the story. 05_273-611_Homer 2/Aesop 7/10/00 1:25 PM Page 274 274 The Ancient World children and fools, they killed and feasted on the cattle of Lord Hêlios,2 the Sun, and he who moves all day through heaven took from their eyes the dawn of their return. Of these adventures, Muse, daughter of Zeus, tell us in our time, lift the great song again. Begin when all the rest who left behind them headlong death in battle or at sea had long ago returned, while he alone still hungered 20 for home and wife. Her ladyship Kalypso clung to him in her sea-hollowed caves— a nymph, immortal and most beautiful, who craved him for her own. And when long years and seasons wheeling brought around that point of time ordained for him to make his passage homeward, trials and dangers, even so, attended him even in Ithaka,3 near those he loved. Yet all the gods had pitied Lord Odysseus, all but Poseidon,4 raging cold and rough 30 against the brave king till he came ashore at last on his own land. But now that god had gone far off among the sunburnt races, most remote of men, at earth’s two verges, in sunset lands and lands of the rising sun, to be regaled by smoke of thighbones burning, haunches of rams and bulls, a hundred fold. He lingered delighted at the banquet side. In the bright hall of Zeus upon Olympos the other gods were all at home, and Zeus, 40 the father of gods and men, made conversation. For he had meditated on Aigísthos,5 dead by the hand of Agamémnon’s son, Orestês, and spoke his thought aloud before them all: “My word, how mortals take the gods to task! All their aff lictions come from us, we hear. 2 The offense against Hêlios is described in Book XII. 3 Odysseus’ island homeland, in the Ionian Sea off western Greece (sometimes the spelling is Ithaca). 4 God of the ocean and brother of the chief of the gods who dwelled on Mount Olympos (Olympus), Zeus. 5 While the Greek commander Agamémnon was away fighting against Troy, Aigísthos (Aegisthus) entered into an adulterous union with Klytaimnéstra (Clytaemnestra), Agamémnon’s wife; they murdered Agamémnon upon his return. The murder was later avenged by Orestês, son of Agamémnon and Klytaimnéstra, as is related in Aeschylus’ trilogy of plays known as the Oresteia. 05_273-611_Homer 2/Aesop 7/10/00 1:25 PM Page 275 H OMER / The Odyssey, Book One 275 And what of their own failings? Greed and folly double the suffering in the lot of man. See how Aigísthos, for his double portion, stole Agamémnon’s wife and killed the soldier 50 on his homecoming day. And yet Aigísthos knew that his own doom lay in this. We gods had warned him, sent down Hermês Argeiphontês,6 our most observant courier, to say: ‘Don’t kill the man, don’t touch his wife, or face a reckoning with Orestês the day he comes of age and wants his patrimony.’ Friendly advice—but would Aigísthos take it? Now he has paid the reckoning in full.” The grey-eyed goddess Athena replied to Zeus: 60 “O Majesty, O Father of us all, that man is in the dust indeed, and justly. So perish all who do what he had done. But my own heart is broken for Odysseus, the master mind of war, so long a castaway upon an island in the running sea; a wooded island, in the sea’s middle, and there’s a goddess in the place, the daughter of one whose baleful mind knows all the deeps of the blue sea—Atlas,7 who holds the columns 70 that bear from land the great thrust of the sky. His daughter will not let Odysseus go, poor mournful man; she keeps on coaxing him with her beguiling talk, to turn his mind from Ithaka. But such desire is in him merely to see the hearthsmoke leaping upward from his own island, that he longs to die. Are you not moved by this, Lord of Olympos? Had you no pleasure from Odysseus’ offerings beside the Argive 8 ships, on Troy’s wide seaboard? 80 O Zeus, what do you hold against him now?” To this the summoner of cloud replied: “My child, what strange remarks you let escape you. Could I forget that kingly man, Odysseus? There is no mortal half so wise; no mortal gave so much to the lords of open sky. Only the god who laps the land in water, 6 God of messengers and messenger of the gods; he was also associated sometimes with the wind. “Argeiphontês” connotes brightness or the ability to clear the sky of clouds. 7 In myth, Atlas is the titanic being who supports the sky. Here he is described as father of the nymph Kalypso, who is holding Odysseus prisoner on her island, Ogýgia. 8 The collective name for the Greek forces who fought under Agamémnon against Troy. 05_273-611_Homer 2/Aesop 7/10/00 1:25 PM Page 276 276 The Ancient World Poseidon, bears the fighter an old grudge since he poked out the eye of Polyphêmos, brawniest of the Kyklopês.9 Who bore 90 that giant lout? Thoösa, daughter of Phorkys, an offshore sea lord: for this nymph had lain with Lord Poseidon in her hollow caves. Naturally, the god, after the blinding— mind you, he does not kill the man; he only buffets him away from home. But come now, we are all at leisure here, let us take up this matter of his return, that he may sail. Poseidon must relent for being quarrelsome will get him nowhere, 100 one god, f louting the will of all the gods.” The grey-eyed goddess Athena answered him: “O Majesty, O Father of us all, if it now please the blissful gods that wise Odysseus reach his home again, let the Wayfinder, Hermês, cross the sea to the island of Ogýgia; let him tell our fixed intent to the nymph with pretty braids, and let the steadfast man depart for home. For my part, I shall visit Ithaka 110 to put more courage in the son, and rouse him to call an assembly of the islanders, Akhaian10 gentlemen with f lowing hair. He must warn off that wolf pack of the suitors who prey upon his f locks and dusky cattle. I’ll send him to the mainland then, to Sparta by the sand beach of Pylos;11 let him find news of his dear father where he may and win his own renown about the world.” She bent to tie her beautiful sandals on, 120 ambrosial, golden, that carry her over water or over endless land on the wings of the wind, and took the great haft of her spear in hand— that bronzeshod spear this child of Power can use to break in wrath long battle lines of fighters. Flashing down from Olympos’ height she went to stand in Ithaka, before the Manor, 9 The encounter with these one-eyed giants (also spelled Polyphemus and Cyclops) is described in Book IX. 10 In a general sense, “Greek”; more especially, descriptive of men living in a region not far from Ithaka. 11 A city and region of southern Greece ruled by Nestor, an aged king and counselor. 05_273-611_Homer 2/Aesop 7/10/00 1:25 PM Page 277 H OMER / The Odyssey, Book One 277 just at the doorsill of the court. She seemed a family friend, the Taphian captain, Mentês, waiting, with a light hand on her spear. 130 Before her eyes she found the lusty suitors casting dice inside the gate, at ease on hides of oxen—oxen they had killed. Their own retainers made a busy sight with houseboys, mixing bowls of water and wine, or sopping water up in sponges, wiping tables to be placed about in hall, or butchering whole carcasses for roasting. Long before anyone else, the prince Telémakhos now caught sight of Athena—for he, too, 140 was sitting there, unhappy among the suitors, a boy, daydreaming. What if his great father came from the unknown world and drove these men like dead leaves through the place, recovering honor and lordship in his own domains? Then he who dreamed in the crowd gazed out at Athena. Straight to the door he came, irked with himself to think a visitor had been kept there waiting, and took her right hand, grasping with his left her tall bronze-bladed spear. Then he said warmly: 150 “Greetings, stranger! Welcome to our feast. There will be time to tell your errand later.” He led the way, and Pallas Athena followed into the lofty hall. The boy reached up and thrust her spear high in a polished rack against a pillar, where tough spear on spear of the old soldier, his father, stood in order. Then, shaking out a splendid coverlet, he seated her on a throne with footrest—all finely carved—and drew his painted armchair 160 near her, at a distance from the rest. To be amid the din, the suitors’ riot, would ruin his guest’s appetite, he thought, and he wished privacy to ask for news about his father, gone for years. A maid brought them a silver finger bowl and filled it out of a beautiful spouting golden jug, then drew a polished table to their side. The larder mistress with her tray came by and served them generously. A carver lifted 170 cuts of each roast meat to put on trenchers 12 before the two. He gave them cups of gold, 12 Plates. 05_273-611_Homer 2/Aesop 7/10/00 1:25 PM Page 278 278 The Ancient World and these the steward as he went his rounds filled and filled again. Now came the suitors, young bloods trooping in to their own seats on thrones or easy chairs. Attendants poured water over their fingers, while the maids piled baskets full of brown loaves near at hand, and houseboys brimmed the bowls with wine. Now they laid hands upon the ready feast 180 and thought of nothing more. Not till desire for food and drink had left them were they mindful of dance and song, that are the grace of feasting. A herald gave a shapely cithern harp to Phêmios,13 whom they compelled to sing— and what a storm he plucked upon the strings for prelude! High and clear the song arose. Telémakhos now spoke to grey-eyed Athena, his head bent close, so no one else might hear: “Dear guest, will this offend you, if I speak? 190 It is easy for these men to like these things, harping and song; they have an easy life, scot free, eating the livestock of another— a man whose bones are rotting somewhere now, white in the rain on dark earth where they lie, or tumbling in the groundswell of the sea. If he returned, if these men ever saw him, faster legs they’d pray for, to a man, and not more wealth in handsome robes or gold. But he is lost; he came to grief and perished, 200 and there’s no help for us in someone’s hoping he still may come; that sun has long gone down. But tell me now, and put it for me clearly— who are you? Where do you come from? Where’s your home and family? What kind of ship is yours, and what course brought you here? Who are your sailors? I don’t suppose you walked here on the sea. Another thing—this too I ought to know— is Ithaka new to you, or were you ever a guest here in the old days? Far and near 210 friends knew this house; for he whose home it was had much acquaintance in the world.” To this the grey-eyed goddess answered: 13 The house bard, or minstrel. 05_273-611_Homer 2/Aesop 7/10/00 1:25 PM Page 279 H OMER / The Odyssey, Book One 279 “As you ask, I can account most clearly for myself. Mentês I’m called, son of the veteran Ankhíalos; I rule seafaring Taphos. I came by ship, with a ship’s company, sailing the winedark14 sea for ports of call on alien shores—to Témesê, for copper, bringing bright bars of iron in exchange. 220 My ship is moored on a wild strip of coast in Reithron Bight, under the wooded mountain. Years back, my family and yours were friends, as Lord Laërtês 15 knows; ask when you see him. I hear the old man comes to town no longer, stays up country, ailing, with only one old woman to prepare his meat and drink when pain and stiffness take him in the legs from working on his terraced plot, his vineyard. As for my sailing here— 230 the tale was that your father had come home, therefore I came. I see the gods delay him. But never in this world is Odysseus dead— only detained somewhere on the wide sea, upon some island, with wild islanders; savages, they must be, to hold him captive. Well, I will forecast for you, as the gods put the strong feeling in me—I see it all, and I’m no prophet, no adept in bird-signs. He will not, now, be long away from Ithaka, 240 his father’s dear land; though he be in chains he’ll scheme a way to come; he can do anything. But tell me this now, make it clear to me: You must be, by your looks, Odysseus’ boy? The way your head is shaped, the fine eyes—yes, how like him! We took meals like this together many a time, before he sailed for Troy with all the lords of Argos in the ships. I have not seen him since, nor has he seen me.” And thoughtfully Telémakhos replied: 250 “Friend, let me put it in the plainest way. My mother says I am his son; I know not surely. Who has known his own engendering? I wish at least I had some happy man as father, growing old in his own house— 14 This adjective is repeatedly used by Homer to describe the sea. Such “Homeric epithets” are taken as one sign that the Iliad and Odyssey were designed for oral delivery. 15 Father of Odysseus. At this point Laërtês is living in retirement on a farm. 05_273-611_Homer 2/Aesop 7/10/00 1:25 PM Page 280 280 The Ancient World but unknown death and silence are the fate of him that, since you ask, they call my father.” Then grey-eyed Athena said: “ The gods decreed no lack of honor in this generation: such is the son Penélopê bore in you. 260 But tell me now, and make this clear to me: what gathering, what feast is this? Why here? A wedding? Revel? At the expense of all? Not that, I think. How arrogant they seem, these gluttons, making free here in your house! A sensible man would blush to be among them.” To this Telémakhos answered: “Friend, now that you ask about these matters, our house was always princely, a great house, as long as he of whom we speak remained here. 270 But evil days the gods have brought upon it, making him vanish, as they have, so strangely. Were his death known, I could not feel such pain— if he had died of wounds in Trojan country or in the arms of friends, after the war. They would have made a tomb for him, the Akhaians, and I should have all honor as his son. Instead, the whirlwinds got him, and no glory. He’s gone, no sign, no word of him; and I inherit trouble and tears—and not for him alone, 280 the gods have laid such other burdens on me. For now the lords of the islands, Doulíkhion and Samê, wooded Zakynthos, and rocky Ithaka’s young lords as well, are here courting my mother; and they use our house as if it were a house to plunder. Spurn them she dare not, though she hates that marriage, nor can she bring herself to choose among them. Meanwhile they eat their way through all we have, and when they will, they can demolish me.” 290 Pallas Athena was disturbed, and said: “Ah, bitterly you need Odysseus, then! High time he came back to engage these upstarts. I wish we saw him standing helmeted there in the doorway, holding shield and spear, looking the way he did when I first knew him. That was at our house, where he drank and feasted after he left Ephyra, homeward bound from a visit to the son of Mérmeris, Ilos. 05_273-611_Homer 2/Aesop 7/10/00 1:25 PM Page 281 H OMER / The Odyssey, Book One 281 He took his fast ship down the gulf that time 300 for a fatal drug to dip his arrows in and poison the bronze points; but young Ilos turned him away, fearing the gods’ wrath. My father gave it, for he loved him well. I wish these men could meet the man of those days! They’d know their fortune quickly: a cold bed. Aye! but it lies upon the gods’ great knees whether he can return and force a reckoning in his own house, or not. If I were you, I should take steps to make these men disperse. 310 Listen, now, and attend to what I say: at daybreak call the islanders to assembly, and speak your will, and call the gods to witness: the suitors must go scattering to their homes. Then here’s a course for you, if you agree: get a sound craft af loat with twenty oars and go abroad for news of your lost father— perhaps a traveller’s tale, or rumored fame issued from Zeus abroad in the world of men. Talk to that noble sage at Pylos, Nestor, 320 then go to Meneláos,16 the red-haired king at Sparta, last man home of all the Akhaians. If you should learn your father is alive and coming home, you could hold out a year. Or if you learn that he is dead and gone, then you can come back to your own dear country and raise a mound for him, and burn his gear, with all the funeral honors due the man, and give your mother to another husband. When you have done all this, or seen it done 330 it will be time to ponder concerning these contenders17 in your house— how you should kill them, outright or by guile. You need not bear this insolence of theirs, you are a child no longer. Have you heard what glory young Orestês won when he cut down that two-faced man, Aigísthos, for killing his illustrious father? Dear friend, you are tall and well set up, I see; be brave—you, too—and men in times to come 340 will speak of you respectfully. 16 Brother of Agamémnon and husband of Helen of Troy. Also spelled Menelaus. Helen’s elopement with their Trojan guest, Paris, precipitated the Trojan War. 17 Suitors for the hand in marriage of the presumably widowed Penélopê, wife of Odysseus. 05_273-611_Homer 2/Aesop 7/10/00 1:25 PM Page 282 282 The Ancient World Now I must join my ship; my crew will grumble if I keep them waiting. Look to yourself; remember what I told you.” Telémakhos replied: “Friend, you have done me kindness, like a father to his son, and I shall not forget your counsel ever. You must get back to sea, I know, but come take a hot bath, and rest; accept a gift to make your heart lift up when you embark— some precious thing, and beautiful, from me, 350 a keepsake, such as dear friends give their friends.” But the grey-eyed goddess Athena answered him: “Do not delay me, for I love the sea ways. As for the gift your heart is set on giving, let me accept it on my passage home, and you shall have a choice gift in exchange.” With this Athena left him as a bird rustles upward, off and gone. But as she went she put new spirit in him, a new dream of his father, clearer now, 360 so that he marvelled to himself divining that a god had been his guest. Then godlike in his turn he joined the suitors. The famous minstrel still sang on before them, and they sat still and listened, while he sang that bitter song, the Homecoming of Akhaians— how by Athena’s will they fared from Troy; and in her high room careful Penélopê, Ikários’ daughter, heeded the holy song. She came, then, down the long stairs of her house, 370 this beautiful lady, with two maids in train attending her as she approached the suitors; and near a pillar of the roof she paused, her shining veil drawn over across her cheeks, the two girls close to her and still, and through her tears spoke to the noble minstrel: “Phêmios, other spells you know, high deeds of gods and heroes, as the poets tell them; let these men hear some other; let them sit silent and drink their wine. But sing no more 380 this bitter tale that wears my heart away. It opens in me again the wound of longing 05_273-611_Homer 2/Aesop 7/10/00 1:25 PM Page 283 H OMER / The Odyssey, Book One 283 for one incomparable, ever in my mind— his fame all Hellas 18 knows, and midland Argos.” But Telémakhos intervened and said to her: “Mother, why do you grudge our own dear minstrel joy of song, wherever his thought may lead? Poets are not to blame, but Zeus who gives what fate he pleases to adventurous men. Here is no reason for reproof: to sing 390 the news of the Danaans!19 Men like best a song that rings like morning on the ear. But you must nerve yourself and try to listen. Odysseus was not the only one at Troy never to know the day of his homecoming. Others, how many others, lost their lives!” The lady gazed in wonder and withdrew, her son’s clear wisdom echoing in her mind. But when she had mounted to her rooms again with her two handmaids, then she fell to weeping 400 for Odysseus, her husband. Grey-eyed Athena presently cast a sweet sleep on her eyes. Meanwhile the din grew loud in the shadowy hall as every suitor swore to lie beside her, but Telémakhos turned now and spoke to them: “ You suitors of my mother! Insolent men, now we have dined, let us have entertainment and no more shouting. There can be no pleasure so fair as giving heed to a great minstrel like ours, whose voice itself is pure delight. 410 At daybreak we shall sit down in assembly and I shall tell you—take it as you will— you are to leave this hall. Go feasting elsewhere, consume your own stores. Turn and turn about, use one another’s houses. If you choose to slaughter one man’s livestock and pay nothing, this is rapine; and by the eternal gods I beg Zeus you shall get what you deserve: a slaughter here, and nothing paid for it!” By now their teeth seemed fixed in their under-lips, 420 Telémakhos’ bold speaking stunned them so. Antínoös, Eupeithês’ son, made answer: 18 Greece. 19 The Greeks who fought against the Trojans. 05_273-611_Homer 2/Aesop 7/10/00 1:25 PM Page 284 284 The Ancient World “ Telémakhos, no doubt the gods themselves are teaching you this high and mighty manner. Zeus forbid you should be king in Ithaka,20 though you are eligible as your father’s son.” Telémakhos kept his head and answered him: “Antínoös, you may not like my answer, but I would happily be king, if Zeus conferred the prize. Or do you think it wretched? 430 I shouldn’t call it bad at all. A king will be respected, and his house will f lourish. But there are eligible men enough, heaven knows, on the island, young and old, and one of them perhaps may come to power after the death of King Odysseus. All I insist on is that I rule our house and rule the slaves my father won for me.” Eurýmakhos, Pólybos’ son, replied: “ Telémakhos, it is on the gods’ great knees 440 who will be king in sea-girt Ithaka. But keep your property, and rule your house, and let no man, against your will, make havoc of your possessions, while there’s life on Ithaka. But now, my brave young friend, a question or two about the stranger. Where did your guest come from? Of what country? Where does he say his home is, and his family? Has he some message of your father’s coming, or business of his own, asking a favor? 450 He left so quickly that one hadn’t time to meet him, but he seemed a gentleman.” Telémakhos made answer, cool enough: “Eurýmakhos, there’s no hope for my father. I would not trust a message, if one came, nor any forecaster my mother invites to tell by divination of time to come. My guest, however, was a family friend, Mentês, son of Ankhíalos. He rules the Taphian people of the sea.” 460 So said Telémakhos, though in his heart he knew his visitor had been immortal. 20 At the time of the poem’s action, the rulership of most Greek city-states was not auto- matically passed from father to son. 05_273-611_Homer 2/Aesop 7/10/00 1:25 PM Page 285 H OMER / The Odyssey, Book Two 285 But now the suitors turned to play again with dance and haunting song. They stayed till nightfall, indeed black night came on them at their pleasure, and half asleep they left, each for his home. Telémakhos’ bedroom was above the court, a kind of tower, with a view all round; here he retired to ponder in the silence, while carrying brands of pine alight beside him 470 Eurýkleia went padding, sage and old. Her father had been Ops, Peisênor’s son, and she had been a purchase of Laërtês when she was still a blossoming girl. He gave the price of twenty oxen21 for her, kept her as kindly in his house as his own wife, though, for the sake of peace, he never touched her. No servant loved Telémakhos as she did, she who had nursed him in his infancy. So now she held the light, as he swung open 480 the door of his neat freshly painted chamber. There he sat down, pulling his tunic off, and tossed it into the wise old woman’s hands. She folded it and smoothed it, and then hung it beside the inlaid bed upon a bar; then, drawing the door shut by its silver handle she slid the catch in place and went away. And all night long, wrapped in the finest f leece, he took in thought the course Athena gave him. BOOK T WO: A HERO’S SON AWAKENS When primal Dawn spread on the eastern sky her fingers of pink light, Odysseus’ true son stood up, drew on his tunic and his mantle, slung on a sword-belt and a new-edged sword, tied his smooth feet into good rawhide sandals, and left his room, a god’s brilliance upon him. He found the criers with clarion voices and told them to muster the unshorn1 Akhaians in full assembly. The call sang out, and the men came streaming in; and when they filled the assembly ground, he entered, 10 spear in hand, with two quick hounds at heel; Athena lavished on him a sunlit grace 21 In the Greek civilization of Homeric times, the ox was a common standard of value. Articles of clothing, weapons, women taken as war prizes, and servants were evaluated in terms of how many oxen they were worth. 1 Having long or f lowing hair. 05_273-611_Homer 2/Aesop 7/10/00 1:25 PM Page 286 286 The Ancient World that held the eye of the multitude. Old men made way for him as he took his father’s chair. Now Lord Aigýptios, bent down and sage with years, opened the assembly. This man’s son had served under the great Odysseus, gone in the decked ships with him to the wild horse country of Troy—a spearman, Ántiphos by name. The ravenous Kyklops in the cave destroyed him 2 20 last in his feast of men. Three other sons the old man had, and one, Eurýnomos, went with the suitors; two farmed for their father; but even so the old man pined, remembering the absent one, and a tear welled up as he spoke: “Hear me, Ithakans! Hear what I have to say. No meeting has been held here since our king, Odysseus, left port in the decked ships. Who finds occasion for assembly, now? one of the young men? one of the older lot? 30 Has he had word our fighters are returning 3— news to report if he got wind of it— or is it something else, touching the realm? The man has vigor, I should say; more power to him. Whatever he desires, may Zeus fulfill it.” The old man’s words delighted the son of Odysseus, who kept his chair no longer but stood up, eager to speak, in the midst of all the men. The crier, Peisênor, master of debate, brought him the staff 4 and placed it in his hand; 40 then the boy touched the old man’s shoulder, and said: “No need to wonder any more, Sir, who called this session. The distress is mine. As to our troops returning, I have no news— news to report if I got wind of it— nor have I public business to propose; only my need, and the trouble of my house— the troubles. My distinguished father is lost, who ruled among you once, mild as a father, and there is now this greater evil still: 50 my home and all I have are being ruined. 2 This incident is described in Book IX. 3 Except for Odysseus and his Ithakans, allthe Greek warriors against Troy had by this time returned home or were known to be dead. 4 The emblem that, placed by the herald in the speaker’s hand, gave him the right to speak as a public official. 05_273-611_Homer 2/Aesop 7/10/00 1:25 PM Page 287 H OMER / The Odyssey, Book Two 287 Mother wanted no suitors, but like a pack they came—sons of the best men here among them— lads with no stomach for an introduction to Ikários, her father across the sea; he would require a wedding gift, and give her to someone who found favor in her eyes. No; these men spend their days around our house killing our beeves and sheep and fatted goats, carousing, soaking up our good dark wine, 60 not caring what they do. They squander everything. We have no strong Odysseus to defend us, and as to putting up a fight ourselves— we’d only show our incompetence in arms. Expel them, yes, if I only had the power; the whole thing’s out of hand, insufferable. My house is being plundered: is this courtesy? Where is your indignation? Where is your shame? Think of the talk in the islands all around us, and fear the wrath of the gods, 70 or they may turn, and send you some devilry. Friends, by Olympian Zeus and holy Justice that holds men in assembly and sets them free, make an end of this! Let me lament in peace my private loss. Or did my father, Odysseus, ever do injury to the armed Akhaians? Is this your way of taking it out on me, giving free rein to these young men? I might as well—might better—see my treasure and livestock taken over by you all; 80 then, if you fed on them, I’d have some remedy, and when we met, in public, in the town, I’d press my claim; you might make restitution. This way you hurt me when my hands are tied.” And in hot anger now he threw the staff to the ground, his eyes grown bright with tears. A wave of sympathy ran through the crowd, all hushed; and no one there had the audacity to answer harshly except Antínoös, who said: “ What high and mighty talk, Telémakhos! No holding you! 90 You want to shame us, and humiliate us, but you should know the suitors are not to blame— it is your own dear, incomparably cunning mother. For three years now—and it will soon be four— she has been breaking the hearts of the Akhaians, holding out hope to all, and sending promises to each man privately—but thinking otherwise. 05_273-611_Homer 2/Aesop 7/10/00 1:25 PM Page 288 288 The Ancient World Here is an instance of her trickery: she had her great loom standing in the hall and the fine warp of some vast fabric on it; 100 we were attending her, and she said to us: ‘Young men, my suitors, now my lord is dead, let me finish my weaving before I marry, or else my thread will have been spun in vain. It is a shroud I weave for Lord Laërtês, when cold death comes to lay him on his bier. The country wives would hold me in dishonor if he, with all his fortune, lay unshrouded.’ We have men’s hearts; she touched them; we agreed. So every day she wove on the great loom— 110 but every night by torchlight she unwove it; and so for three years she deceived the Akhaians. But when the seasons brought the fourth around, one of her maids, who knew the secret, told us; we found her unraveling the splendid shroud. She had to finish then, although she hated it. Now here is the suitors’ answer— you and all the Akhaians, mark it well: dismiss your mother from the house, or make her marry the man her father names and she prefers. 120 Does she intend to keep us dangling forever? She may rely too long on Athena’s gifts— talent in handicraft and a clever mind; so cunning—history cannot show the like among the ringleted ladies of Akhaia, Mykênê with her coronet, Alkmênê, Tyro. Wits like Penélopê’s never were before, but this time—well, she made poor use of them. For here are suitors eating up your property as long as she holds out—a plan some god 130 put in her mind. She makes a name for herself, but you can feel the loss it means for you. Our own affairs can wait; we’ll never go anywhere else, until she takes an Akhaian to her liking.” But clear-headed Telémakhos replied: “Antínoös, can I banish against her will the mother who bore me and took care of me? My father is either dead or far away, but dearly I should pay for this at Ikários’ hands, if ever I sent her back. 140 The powers of darkness would requite it, too, my mother’s parting curse would call hell’s furies 5 5 In mythology, the primitive female agents of retribution for evil, especially for evil com- mitted against blood kindred. 05_273-611_Homer 2/Aesop 7/10/00 1:25 PM Page 289 H OMER / The Odyssey, Book Two 289 to punish me, along with the scorn of men. No: I can never give the word for this. But if your hearts are capable of shame, leave my great hall, and take your dinner elsewhere, consume your own stores. Turn and turn about, use one another’s houses. If you choose to slaughter one man’s livestock and pay nothing, this is rapine; and by the eternal gods 150 I beg Zeus you shall get what you deserve: a slaughter here, and nothing paid for it!” Now Zeus who views the wide world sent a sign to him, launching a pair of eagles from a mountain crest in gliding f light down the soft blowing wind, wing-tip to wing-tip quivering taut, companions, till high above the assembly of many voices they wheeled, their dense wings beating, and in havoc dropped on the heads of the crowd—a deathly omen— wielding their talons, tearing cheeks and throats; 160 then veered away on the right hand through the city. Astonished, gaping after the birds, the men felt their hearts f lood, foreboding things to come. And now they heard the old lord Halithersês, son of Mastor, keenest among the old at reading birdf light into accurate speech; in his anxiety for them, he rose and said: “Hear me, Ithakans! Hear what I have to say, and may I hope to open the suitors’ eyes to the black wave towering over them. Odysseus 170 will not be absent from his family long: he is already near, carrying in him a bloody doom for all these men, and sorrow for many more on our high seamark, Ithaka. Let us think how to stop it; let the suitors drop their suit; they had better, without delay. I am old enough to know a sign when I see one, and I say all has come to pass for Odysseus as I foretold when the Argives massed on Troy, and he, the great tactician, joined the rest. 180 My forecast was that after nineteen years,6 many blows weathered, all his shipmates lost, himself unrecognized by anyone, he would come home. I see this all fulfilled.” 6 These include the ten years of war against Troy. 05_273-611_Homer 2/Aesop 7/10/00 1:25 PM Page 290 290 The Ancient World But Pólybos’ son, Eurýmakhos, retorted: “Old man, go tell the omens for your children at home, and try to keep them out of trouble. I am more fit to interpret this than you are. Bird life aplenty is found in the sunny air, not all of it significant. As for Odysseus, 190 he perished far from home. You should have perished with him— then we’d be spared this nonsense in assembly, as good as telling Telémakhos to rage on; do you think you can gamble on a gift from him? Here is what I foretell, and it’s quite certain: if you, with what you know of ancient lore, encourage bitterness in this young man, it means, for him, only the more frustration— he can do nothing whatever with two eagles— and as for you, old man, we’ll fix a penalty 200 that you will groan to pay. Before the whole assembly I advise Telémakhos to send his mother to her father’s house; let them arrange her wedding there, and fix a portion suitable for a valued daughter. Until he does this, courtship is our business, vexing though it may be; we fear no one, certainly not Telémakhos, with his talk; and we care nothing for your divining, uncle, useless talk; you win more hatred by it. 210 We’ll share his meat, no thanks or fee to him, as long as she delays and maddens us. It is a long, long time we have been waiting in rivalry for this beauty. We could have gone elsewhere and found ourselves very decent wives.” Clear-headed Telémakhos replied to this: “Eurýmakhos, and noble suitors all, I am finished with appeals and argument. The gods know, and the Akhaians know, these things. But give me a fast ship and a crew of twenty 220 who will see me through a voyage, out and back. I’ll go to sandy Pylos, then to Sparta, for news of Father since he sailed from Troy— some traveller’s tale, perhaps, or rumored fame issued from Zeus himself into the world. If he’s alive, and beating his way home, I might hold out for another weary year; but if they tell me that he’s dead and gone, then I can come back to my own dear country and raise a mound for him, and burn his gear, 230 with all the funeral honors that befit him, and give my mother to another husband.” 05_273-611_Homer 2/Aesop 7/10/00 1:25 PM Page 291 H OMER / The Odyssey, Book Two 291 The boy sat down in silence. Next to stand was Mentor, comrade in arms of the prince Odysseus, an old man now. Odysseus left him authority over his house and slaves, to guard them well. In his concern, he spoke to the assembly: “Hear me, Ithakans! Hear what I have to say. Let no man holding scepter as a king be thoughtful, mild, kindly, or virtuous; 240 let him be cruel, and practice evil ways; it is so clear that no one here remembers how like a gentle father Odysseus ruled you. I find it less revolting that the suitors carry their malice into violent acts; at least they stake their lives when they go pillaging the house of Odysseus— their lives upon it, he will not come again. What sickens me is to see the whole community sitting still, and never a voice or a hand raised 250 against them—a mere handful compared with you.” Leókritos, Euênor’s son, replied to him: “Mentor, what mischief are you raking up? Will this crowd risk the sword’s edge over a dinner? Suppose Odysseus himself indeed came in and found the suitors at his table: he might be hot to drive them out. What then? Never would he enjoy his wife again— the wife who loves him well; he’d only bring down abject death on himself against those odds. 260 Madness, to talk of fighting in either case. Now let all present go about their business! Halithersês and Mentor will speed the traveller; they can help him: they were his father’s friends. I rather think he will be sitting here a long time yet, waiting for news on Ithaka; that seafaring he spoke of is beyond him.” On this note they were quick to end their parley. The assembly broke up; everyone went home— the suitors home to Odysseus’ house again. 270 But Telémakhos walked down along the shore and washed his hands in the foam of the grey sea, then said this prayer: “O god of yesterday, guest in our house, who told me to take ship on the hazy sea for news of my lost father, listen to me, be near me: The Akhaians only wait, or hope to hinder me, the damned insolent suitors most of all.” 05_273-611_Homer 2/Aesop 7/10/00 1:25 PM Page 292 292 The Ancient World Athena was nearby and came to him, putting on Mentor’s figure and his tone, 280 the warm voice in a lucid f light of words: “ You’ll never be fainthearted or a fool, Telémakhos, if you have your father’s spirit; he finished what he cared to say, and what he took in hand he brought to pass. The sea routes will yield their distances to his true son, Penélopê’s true son,— I doubt another’s luck would hold so far. The son is rare who measures with his father, and one in a thousand is a better man, 290 but you will have the sap and wit and prudence—for you get that from Odysseus— to give you a fair chance of winning through. So never mind the suitors and their ways, there is no judgment in them, neither do they know anything of death and the black terror close upon them—doom’s day on them all. You need not linger over going to sea. I sailed beside your father in the old days, I’ll find a ship for you, and help you sail her. 300 So go on home, as if to join the suitors, but get provisions ready in containers— wine in two-handled jugs and barley meal, the staying power of oarsmen, in skin bags, watertight. I’ll go the rounds and call a crew of volunteers together. Hundreds of ships are beached on sea-girt Ithaka; let me but choose the soundest, old or new, we’ll rig her and take her out on the broad sea.” This was the divine speech Telémakhos heard 310 from Athena, Zeus’s daughter. He stayed no longer, but took his heartache home, and found the robust suitors there at work, skinning goats and roasting pigs in the courtyard. Antínoös came straight over, laughing at him, and took him by the hand with a bold greeting: “High-handed Telémakhos, control your temper! Come on, get over it, no more grim thoughts, but feast and drink with me, the way you used to. The Akhaians will attend to all you ask for— 320 ship, crew, and crossing to the holy land of Pylos, for the news about your father.” Telémakhos replied with no confusion: “Antínoös, I cannot see myself again taking a quiet dinner in this company. 05_273-611_Homer 2/Aesop 7/10/00 1:25 PM Page 293 H OMER / The Odyssey, Book Two 293 Isn’t it enough that you could strip my house under my very nose when I was young? Now that I know, being grown, what others say, I understand it all, and my heart is full. I’ll bring black doom upon you if I can— 330 either in Pylos, if I go, or in this country. And I will go, go all the way, if only as someone’s passenger. I have no ship, no oarsmen: and it suits you that I have none.” Calmly he drew his hand from Antínoös’ hand. At this the suitors, while they dressed their meat, began to exchange loud mocking talk about him. One young toplofty gallant set the tone: “ Well, think of that! Telémakhos has a mind to murder us. He’s going to lead avengers out of Pylos, 340 or Sparta, maybe; oh, he’s wild to do it. Or else he’ll try the fat land of Ephyra— he can get poison there, and bring it home, doctor the wine jar and dispatch us all.” Another took the cue: “ Well now, who knows? He might be lost at sea, just like Odysseus, knocking around in a ship, far from his friends. And what a lot of trouble that would give us, making the right division of his things! We’d keep his house as dowry for his mother— 350 his mother and the man who marries her.” That was the drift of it. Telémakhos went on through to the storeroom of his father, a great vault where gold and bronze lay piled along with chests of clothes, and fragrant oil. And there were jars of earthenware in rows holding an old wine, mellow, unmixed, and rare; cool stood the jars against the wall, kept for whatever day Odysseus, worn by hardships, might come home. 360 The double folding doors were tightly locked and guarded, night and day, by the serving woman, Eurýkleia, grand-daughter of Peisênor, in all her duty vigilant and shrewd. Telémakhos called her to the storeroom, saying: “Nurse, get a few two-handled travelling jugs filled up with wine—the second best, not that you keep for your unlucky lord and king, 05_273-611_Homer 2/Aesop 7/10/00 1:25 PM Page 294 294 The Ancient World hoping he may have slipped away from death and may yet come again—royal Odysseus. 370 Twelve amphorai7 will do; seal them up tight. And pour out barley into leather bags— twenty bushels of barley meal ground fine. Now keep this to yourself! Collect these things, and after dark, when mother has retired and gone upstairs to bed, I’ll come for them. I sail to sandy Pylos, then to Sparta, to see what news there is of Father’s voyage.” His loving nurse Eurýkleia gave a cry, and tears sprang to her eyes as she wailed softly: 380 “Dear child, whatever put this in your head? Why do you want to go so far in the world— and you our only darling? Lord Odysseus died in some strange place, far from his homeland. Think how, when you have turned your back, these men will plot to kill you and share all your things! Stay with your own, dear, do. Why should you suffer hardship and homelessness on the wild sea?” But seeing all clear, Telémakhos replied: “ Take heart, Nurse, there’s a god behind this plan. 390 And you must swear to keep it from my mother, until the eleventh day, or twelfth, or till she misses me, or hears that I am gone. She must not tear her lovely skin lamenting.” So the old woman vowed by all the gods, and vowed again, to carry out his wishes; then she filled up the amphorai with wine and sifted barley meal into leather bags. Telémakhos rejoined the suitors. Meanwhile the goddess with grey eyes had other business: 400 disguised as Telémakhos, she roamed the town taking each likely man aside and telling him: “Meet us at nightfall at the ship!” Indeed, she asked Noêmon, Phronios’ wealthy son, to lend her a fast ship, and he complied. Now when at sundown shadows crossed the lanes she dragged the cutter to the sea and launched it, fitted out with tough seagoing gear, and tied it up, away at the harbor’s edge. 7 Plural form of “amphora,” a jar with two handles and a thin neck. 05_273-611_Homer 2/Aesop 7/10/00 1:25 PM Page 295 H OMER / The Odyssey, Book Two 295 The crewmen gathered, sent there by the goddess. 410 Then it occurred to the grey-eyed goddess Athena to pass inside the house of the hero Odysseus, showering a sweet drowsiness on the suitors, whom she had presently wandering in their wine; and soon, as they could hold their cups no longer, they straggled off to find their beds in town, eyes heavy-lidded, laden down with sleep. Then to Telémakhos the grey-eyed goddess appeared again with Mentor’s form and voice, calling him out of the lofty emptied hall: 420 “ Telémakhos, your crew of fighting men is ready at the oars, and waiting for you; come on, no point in holding up the sailing.” And Pallas Athena turned like the wind, running ahead of him. He followed in her footsteps down to the seaside, where they found the ship, and oarsmen with f lowing hair at the water’s edge. Telémakhos, now strong in the magic, cried: “Come with me, friends, and get our rations down! They are all packed at home, and my own mother 430 knows nothing!—only one maid was told.” He turned and led the way, and they came after, carried and stowed all in the well-trimmed ship as the dear son of Odysseus commanded. Telémakhos then stepped aboard; Athena took her position aft, and he sat by her. The two stroke oars cast off the stern hawsers and vaulted over the gunnels to their benches. Grey-eyed Athena stirred them a following wind, soughing from the north-west on the winedark sea, 440 and as he felt the wind, Telémakhos called to all hands to break out mast and sail. They pushed the fir mast high and stepped it firm amidships in the box, made fast the forestays, then hoisted up the white sail on its halyards until the wind caught, booming in the sail; and a f lushing wave sang backward from the bow on either side, as the ship got way upon her, holding her steady course. Now they made all secure in the fast black ship, 450 and, setting out the winebowls all a-brim, they made libation to the gods, the undying, the ever-new, most of all to the grey-eyed daughter of Zeus. And the prow sheared through the night into the dawn.