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80 Then the goddess, flashing-eyed Athena, answered him: “Father of us all, thou son of Cronos, high above all lords, if indeed this is now well pleasing to the blessed gods, that the wise Odysseus should return to his own home, let us send forth Hermes, the messenger, Argeiphontes, 85 to the isle Ogygia, that with all speed he may declare to the fair-tressed nymph our fixed resolve, even the return of Odysseus of the steadfast heart, that he may come home. But, as for me, I will go to Ithaca , that I may the more arouse his son, and set courage in his heart 90 to call to an assembly the long-haired Achaeans, and speak out his word to all the wooers, who are ever slaying his thronging sheep and his sleek¹ kine of shambling gait. And I will guide him to Sparta and to sandy Pylos , to seek tidings of the return of his dear father, if haply he may hear of it, 95 that good report may be his among men.” So she spoke, and bound beneath her feet her beautiful sandals, immortal,² golden, which were wont to bear her both over the waters of the sea and over the boundless land swift as the blasts of the wind. And she took her mighty spear, tipped with sharp bronze, 100 heavy and huge and strong, wherewith she vanquishes the ranks of men—of warriors, with whom she is wroth, she, the daughter of the mighty sire. Then she went darting down from the heights of Olympus , and took her stand in the land of Ithaca at the outer gate of Odysseus, on the threshold of the court. In her hand she held the spear of bronze, 105 and she was in the likeness of a stranger, Mentes, the leader of the Taphians. There she found the proud wooers. They were taking their pleasure at draughts in front of the doors, sitting on the hides of oxen which they themselves had slain; and of the heralds³ and busy squires, 110 some were mixing wine and water for them in bowls, others again were washing the tables with porous sponges and setting them forth, while still others were portioning out meats in abundance. Her the godlike Telemachus was far the first to see, for he was sitting among the wooers, sad at heart, 115 seeing in thought his noble father, should he perchance come from somewhere and make a scattering of the wooers in the palace, and himself win honor and rule over his own house. As he thought of these things, sitting among the wooers, he beheld Athena, and he went straight to the outer door; for in his heart he counted it shame 120 that a stranger should stand long at the gates. So, drawing near, he clasped her right hand, and took from her the spear of bronze; and he spoke, and addressed her with winged words:⁴ “Hail, stranger; in our house thou shalt find entertainment and then, when thou hast tasted food, thou shalt tell of what thou hast need.”

Odyssey. Homer. A. T. Murray (Translator). London. 1919.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.

Current edition Perseus

Odyssey (English) (Homer. The Odyssey, Volume 1-2. Murray, A. T. (Augustus Taber), translator. London: William Heinmann; New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1919.)

Editions (1)

Ὀδύσσεια Perseus (Homer. The Odyssey, Volume 1-2. Murray, A. T. (Augustus Taber), editor. London: William Heinmann; New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1919.) — 1.80 focus

τὸν δʼ ἠμείβετʼ ἔπειτα θεά, γλαυκῶπις Ἀθήνη·

ὦ πάτερ ἡμέτερε Κρονίδη, ὕπατε κρειόντων,

εἰ μὲν δὴ νῦν τοῦτο φίλον μακάρεσσι θεοῖσιν,

νοστῆσαι Ὀδυσῆα πολύφρονα ὅνδε δόμονδε,

Ἑρμείαν μὲν ἔπειτα διάκτορον ἀργεϊφόντην

νῆσον ἐς Ὠγυγίην ὀτρύνομεν, ὄφρα τάχιστα

νύμφῃ ἐυπλοκάμῳ εἴπῃ νημερτέα βουλήν,

νόστον Ὀδυσσῆος ταλασίφρονος, ὥς κε νέηται·

αὐτὰρ ἐγὼν Ἰθάκηνδʼ ἐσελεύσομαι, ὄφρα οἱ υἱὸν

μᾶλλον ἐποτρύνω καί οἱ μένος ἐν φρεσὶ θείω,

εἰς ἀγορὴν καλέσαντα κάρη κομόωντας Ἀχαιοὺς

πᾶσι μνηστήρεσσιν ἀπειπέμεν, οἵ τέ οἱ αἰεὶ

μῆλʼ ἁδινὰ σφάζουσι καὶ εἰλίποδας ἕλικας βοῦς.

πέμψω δʼ ἐς Σπάρτην τε καὶ ἐς Πύλον ἠμαθόεντα

νόστον πευσόμενον πατρὸς φίλου, ἤν που ἀκούσῃ,

ἠδʼ ἵνα μιν κλέος ἐσθλὸν ἐν ἀνθρώποισιν ἔχῃσιν.

ὣς εἰποῦσʼ ὑπὸ ποσσὶν ἐδήσατο καλὰ πέδιλα,

ἀμβρόσια χρύσεια, τά μιν φέρον ἠμὲν ἐφʼ ὑγρὴν

ἠδʼ ἐπʼ ἀπείρονα γαῖαν ἅμα πνοιῇς ἀνέμοιο·

εἵλετο δʼ ἄλκιμον ἔγχος, ἀκαχμένον ὀξέι χαλκῷ,

βριθὺ μέγα στιβαρόν, τῷ δάμνησι στίχας ἀνδρῶν

100

ἡρώων, τοῖσίν τε κοτέσσεται ὀβριμοπάτρη.

βῆ δὲ κατʼ Οὐλύμποιο καρήνων ἀίξασα,

στῆ δʼ Ἰθάκης ἐνὶ δήμῳ ἐπὶ προθύροις Ὀδυσῆος,

οὐδοῦ ἐπʼ αὐλείου· παλάμῃ δʼ ἔχε χάλκεον ἔγχος,

εἰδομένη ξείνῳ, Ταφίων ἡγήτορι Μέντῃ.

105

εὗρε δʼ ἄρα μνηστῆρας ἀγήνορας. οἱ μὲν ἔπειτα

πεσσοῖσι προπάροιθε θυράων θυμὸν ἔτερπον

ἥμενοι ἐν ῥινοῖσι βοῶν, οὓς ἔκτανον αὐτοί·

κήρυκες δʼ αὐτοῖσι καὶ ὀτρηροὶ θεράποντες

οἱ μὲν οἶνον ἔμισγον ἐνὶ κρητῆρσι καὶ ὕδωρ,

110

οἱ δʼ αὖτε σπόγγοισι πολυτρήτοισι τραπέζας

νίζον καὶ πρότιθεν, τοὶ δὲ κρέα πολλὰ δατεῦντο.

τὴν δὲ πολὺ πρῶτος ἴδε Τηλέμαχος θεοειδής,

ἧστο γὰρ ἐν μνηστῆρσι φίλον τετιημένος ἦτορ,

ὀσσόμενος πατέρʼ ἐσθλὸν ἐνὶ φρεσίν, εἴ ποθεν ἐλθὼν

115

μνηστήρων τῶν μὲν σκέδασιν κατὰ δώματα θείη,

τιμὴν δʼ αὐτὸς ἔχοι καὶ δώμασιν οἷσιν ἀνάσσοι.

τὰ φρονέων, μνηστῆρσι μεθήμενος, εἴσιδʼ Ἀθήνην.

βῆ δʼ ἰθὺς προθύροιο, νεμεσσήθη δʼ ἐνὶ θυμῷ

ξεῖνον δηθὰ θύρῃσιν ἐφεστάμεν· ἐγγύθι δὲ στὰς

120

χεῖρʼ ἕλε δεξιτερὴν καὶ ἐδέξατο χάλκεον ἔγχος,

καί μιν φωνήσας ἔπεα πτερόεντα προσηύδα·

χαῖρε, ξεῖνε, παρʼ ἄμμι φιλήσεαι· αὐτὰρ ἔπειτα

δείπνου πασσάμενος μυθήσεαι ὅττεό σε χρή.

Translations (8)

Odyssey Perseus (Homer. The Odyssey: rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original. Butler, Samuel, 1835-1902, translator. Revised by Timothy Power and Gregory Nagy. London: A.C. Fifield, 1900.) — 1.113 focus

113 Telemakhos saw her long before any one else did. He was sitting moodily among the suitors thinking about his brave father, and how he would send them fleeing out of the house, if he were to come to his own again and be honored as in days gone by. Thus brooding as he sat among them, he caught sight of Athena and went straight to the gate, for he was vexed that a stranger should be kept waiting for admittance. He took her right hand in his own, and bade her give him her spear. "Welcome," said he, "to our house, and when you have partaken of food you shall tell us what you have come for."

125 He led the way as he spoke, and Athena followed him. When they were within he took her spear and set it in the spear - stand against a strong bearing-post along with the many other spears of his unhappy father, and he conducted her to a richly decorated seat under which he threw a cloth of damask. There was a footstool also for her feet, and he set another seat near her for himself, away from the suitors, that she might not be annoyed while eating by their noise and insolence, and that he might ask her more freely about his father.

136 A maid servant then brought them water in a beautiful golden ewer and poured it into a silver basin for them to wash their hands, and she drew a clean table beside them. An upper servant brought them bread, and offered them many good things of what there was in the house, the carver fetched them plates of all manner of meats and set cups of gold by their side, and a man-servant brought them wine and poured it out for them.

144 Then the suitors came in and took their places on the benches and seats. Forthwith men servants poured water over their hands, maids went round with the bread-baskets, pages filled the mixing-bowls with wine and water, and they laid their hands upon the good things that were before them. As soon as they had had enough to eat and drink they wanted music and dancing, which are the crowning embellishments of a banquet, so a servant brought a lyre to Phemios, whom they compelled perforce to sing to them. As soon as he touched his lyre and began to sing Telemakhos spoke low to Athena, with his head close to hers that no man might hear.

English (Butler, rev. Nagy et al., 2020) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Butler, rev. Nagy et al., 2020)) — 1.80 focus

And owl-vision Athena said, “Father, son of Kronos, King of kings, if, then, the gods now mean that Odysseus should get home, we should first send Hermes, the guide, the slayer of Argos [85] to the Ogygian island to tell lovely-haired Kalypsō that we have made up our minds and that he is to have his homecoming [ nostos]. 88 As for me, I will go travel to Ithaca, going to his [= Odysseus’] son 89 in order to give him [= Telemachus] more encouragement and to put power [ menos] into his heart [ phrenes]. [90] He is to summon the long-haired Achaeans for a meeting in assembly, 91 and he is to speak out to all the suitors [of his mother Penelope], who persist in 92 slaughtering again and again any number of his sheep and oxen. 93 And I will conduct him to Sparta and to sandy Pylos, 94and thus he will learn the return [ nostos] of his dear [ philos] father, if by chance he [= Telemachus] hears it, [95] and thus may genuine glory [ kleos] possess him throughout humankind.”

So saying she bound on her glittering golden sandals, imperishable, with which she can fly like the wind over land or sea; she grasped the terrifying bronze-shod spear, [100] so stout and sturdy and strong, wherewith she quells the ranks of heroes who have displeased her, and down she darted from the topmost summits of Olympus, and then, right away, she was in the district [ dēmos] of Ithaca, at the gateway of Odysseus’ house, [105] disguised as a visitor, Mentes, chief of the Taphians, and she held a bronze spear in her hand. There she found the lordly suitors seated on hides of the oxen which they had killed and eaten, and diverting their hearts [ thūmos] with board games in front of the house. Men-servants and pages were bustling about to wait upon them, [110] some mixing wine with water in the mixing-bowls, some cleaning down the tables with wet sponges and laying them out again, and some cutting up great quantities of meat.

Godlike Telemachus saw her long before any one else did. He was sitting moodily among the suitors [115] thinking about his brave father, and how he would send them fleeing out of the house, if he were to come to his own again and be honored as in days gone by. Thus brooding as he sat among them, he caught sight of Athena and went straight to the gate, for he was vexed [120] that a stranger should be kept waiting for admittance. He took her right hand in his own, and bade her give him her spear. “Welcome,” said he, “to our house, and when you have partaken of food you shall tell us what you have come for.”

[125]

English (William Cullen Bryant, 1873) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (William Cullen Bryant, 1873)) — 1.80 focus

And then the blue-eyed Pallas spake again :

"O father! son of Saturn, king of kings!

If such the pleasure of the blessed gods

That now the wise Ulysses shall return

To his own land, let us at once despatch

105

Hermes, the Argicide, our messenger,

Down to Ogygia, to the bright-haired nymph,

And make our steadfast purpose known to bring

The sufferer Ulysses to his home,

And I will haste to Ithaca, and move

110

His son, that with a resolute heart he call

The long-haired Greeks together and forbid

The excesses of the suitor train, who slay

His flocks and slow-paced beeves with crooked horns.

To Sparta I will send him and the sands

115

Of Pylos, to inquire for the return

Of his dear father. So a glorious fame

Shall gather round him in the eyes of men."

She spake, and fastened underneath her feet

The fair, ambrosial golden sandals worn

120

To bear her over ocean like the wind,

And o'er the boundless land. In hand she took,

Well tipped with trenchant brass, the mighty spear,

Heavy and huge and strong, with which she bears

Whole phalanxes of heroes to the earth,

125

When she, the daughter of a mighty sire,

Is angered. From the Olympian heights she plunged,

And stood among the men of Ithaca,

Just at the porch and threshold of their chief,

Ulysses. In her hand she bore the spear,

130

And seemed the stranger Mentes, he who led

The Taphians. There before the gate she found

The haughty suitors. Some beguiled the time

With draughts, while sitting on the hides of beeves

Which they had slaughtered. Heralds were with them,

135

And busy menials: some who in the bowls

Tempered the wine with water, some who cleansed

The tables with light sponges, and who set

The banquet forth and carved the meats for all.

Telemachus the godlike was the first

140

To see the goddess as he sat among

The crowd of suitors, sad at heart, and thought

Of his illustrious father, who might come

And scatter those who filled his palace halls,

And win new honor, and regain the rule

145

Over his own. As thus he sat and mused

Among the suitors, he beheld where stood

Pallas, and forth he sprang; he could not bear

To keep a stranger waiting at his door.

He came, and taking her right hand received

150

The brazen spear, and spake these winged words : -

"Hail, stranger! thou art truly welcome here ;

First come and share our feast and be refreshed,

Then say what thou requirest at our hands."

English (Alexander Pope, 1726, ed. Watson, 1858) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Alexander Pope, 1726, ed. Watson, 1858)) — 1.80 focus

'Father and king ador'd!' Minerva cried.

'since all who in the Olympian bower reside

'Now make the wandering Greek their public care,

'Let Hermes to th' Atlantic isle¹ repair :

105

'Bid him, arriv'd in bright Calypso's court,

'The sanction of th' assembled powers report:

'That wise Ulysses to his native land

'Must speed, obedient to their high command.

'Meantime Telemachus, the blooming heir

110

'Of sea-girt Ithaca, demands my care:

'Tis mine to form his green unpractis'd years

'In sage debates, surrounded with his peers,

'To save the state, and timely to restrain

'The bold intrusion of the suitor-train;

115

'Who crowd his palace, and with lawless power

'His herds and flocks in feastful rites devour.

To distant Sparta, and the spacious waste

'Of sandy Pyle, the royal youth shall haste.

'There, warm with filial love, the cause inquire

120

'That from his realm retards his godlike sire :

'Delivering early to the voice of fame

'The promise of a great immortal name.'

She said: the sandals of celestial mould,

125

Fledged with ambrosial plumes, and rich with goid,

Surround her feet: with these sublime she sails

Th' aërial space, and mounts the winged gales:

O'er earth and ocean wide prepar'd to soar;

Her dreaded arm a beamy javelin bore,

130

Ponderous and vast; which, when her fury burns,

Proud tyrants humbles, and whole hosts o'erturns.

From high Olympus prone her flight she bends,

And in the realm of Ithaca descends.

Her lineaments divine the grave disguise

135

Of Mentes' form conceal'd from human eyes;

(Mentes, the monarch of the Taphian² land ;)

A glittering spear wav'd awful in her hand.

There in the portal placed, the heaven-born maid

Enormous riot and misrule survey'd.

140

On hides of beeves, before the palace gate,

(Sad spoils of luxury,) the suitors sate.

With rival art, and ardour in their mien,

At chess they vie, to captivate the queen;³

Divining of their loves. Attending nigh,

145

A menial train the flowing bowl supply :

Others, apart, the spacious hall prepare,

And form the costly feast with busy care.

There young Telemachus, his bloomy face

Glowing celestial sweet, with godlike grace

150

Amid the circle shines: but hope and fear

(Painful vicissitude!) his bosom tear.

Now, imaged in his mind, he sees restor'd

In peace and joy the people's rightful lord :

The proud oppressors fly the vengeful sword.

155

While his fond soul these fancied triumphs swell'd,

The stranger-guest the royal youth beheld :

Griev'd that a visitant so long should wait

Unmark'd, unhonour'd, at a monarch's gate;

Instant he flew with hospitable haste,

160

And the new friend with courteous air embrac'd.

TELEMACHUS

'Stranger, whoe'er thou art, securely rest,

'Affianced in my faith, a friendly guest :

'Approach the dome, the social banquet share,

'And then the purpose of thy soul declare.'
165

English (Thomas Hobbes, 1667, ed. Molesworth 1843) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Thomas Hobbes, 1667, ed. Molesworth 1843)) — 1.80 focus

Then Pallas said, O Jove, of kings the king,

Since the blest Gods have thought good, and decreed

Ulysses to his native soil to bring,

Let's Hermes send unto the nymph with speed,

100

In th' isle Ogygia, to let her know

Our sentence, that she may the same obey.

And I to Ithaca meanwhile will go,

And cause his son to call without delay

The common council; and to make him bold,

105

To warn his mother's suitors to be gone,

And feast no longer on his herd and fold,

As they before had insolently done.

To Sparta too I'll send him, and to Pyle

T' inquire about his father's navigation,

110

That in the world, by travel for a while,

He may acquire a greater reputation.

This said, upon her feet her shoes she binds,

Ambrosian golden shoes, that do her bear

On land and water swiftly as the winds,

115

And takes in hand her brazen-headed spear ;

A heavy, massy, and strong spear, the same

Wherewith, when angry, she the armed bands

Of mighty men of war does eas'ly tame.

That was the spear she carried in her hands.

120

Then from the high Olympus leapt she down

T' Ulysses' house, and stood in the hall-door

I' th' shape of Mentes, that possess'd the crown

O' th' Taphian people, whom he reigned o'er.

And thence beheld the suitors in the court,

125

Sitting upon the hides of beeves, which they

Themselves had kill'd, and, wanting other sport,

Playing at chess they pass'd their time away.

Meanwhile their officers and serving-men

Were busy mingling water with the wine,

130

Others the meat divide, others make clean,

Set up and rub the tables till they shine.

Telemachus now with the suitors sat,

Fancying, in case his father should appear,

Brought home by the Gods or by some lucky fate,

135

How then these knaves would slink away for fear;

And he again recover his estate,

And in his own land rule without a peer.

He was the first that spied the Goddess, and

Then presently he hastened to the door;

140

Receives her spear and takes her by the hand,

And both go in, she after, he before.

You shall, said he, stranger be welcome here :

But first let's sup, and afterwards well find

Sufficient time both for me to inquire,

145

And you to tell your business and your mind.

English (George Chapman, 1667, ed. Hooper 1857) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (George Chapman, 1667, ed. Hooper 1857)) — 1.80 focus

To this, this answer made the grey-eyed Maid:

"Supreme of rulers, since so well apaid

The blessed Gods are all then, now, in thee,

135

To limit wise Ulysses' misery,

And that you speak as you referred to me

Prescription for the means, in this sort be

Their sacred order: Let us now address

With utmost speed our swift Argicides,

140

To tell the nymph that bears the golden tress

In th' isle Ogygia, that 'tis our will

She should not stay our loved Ulysses still,

But suffer his return; and then will I

To Ithaca, to make his son apply

145

His sire's inquest the more; infusing force

Into his soul, to summon the concourse

Of curl'd-head Greeks to council, and deter

Each wooer, that hath been the slaughterer

Of his fat sheep and crooked-headed beeves,

150

From more wrong to his mother, and their leaves

Take in such terms, as fit deserts so great.

To Sparta then, and Pylos, where doth beat

Bright Amathus, the flood, and epithet

To all that kingdom, my advice shall send

155

The spirit-advanced Prince, to the pious end

Of seeking his lost father, if he may

Receive report from Fame where rests his stay,

¹²³

And make, besides, his own sucessive worth

Known to the world, and set in action forth."

160

This said, her wing'd shoes to her feet she tied,

Formed all of gold, and all eternified,

That on the round earth or the sea sustain'd

Her ravish'd substance swift as gusts of wind.

Then took she her strong lance with steel made keen,

165

Great, massy, active, that whole hosts of men,

Though all heroës, conquers, if her ire

Their wrongs inflame, back'd by so great a Sire.

Down from Olympus' tops she headlong dived,

And swift as thought in Ithaca arriv'd,

170

Close at Ulysses' gates; in whose first court

She made her stand, and, for her breast's support,

Leaned on her iron lance; her form impress'd

With Mentas' likeness, come, as being a guest.

There found she those proud wooers, that were then

175

Set on those ox-hides that themselves had slain,

Before the gates, and all at dice were playing.

To them the heralds, and the rest obeying,

Fill'd wine and water; some, still as they play'd,

And some, for solemn supper's state, purvey'd,

180

With porous sponges, cleansing tables, serv'd

With much rich feast; of which to all they kerv'd.

God-like Telemachus amongst them sat,

Griev'd much in mind; and in his heart begat

All representment of his absent sire,

185

How, come from far-off parts, his spirits would fire

With those proud wooers' sight, with slaughter parting

Their bold concourse, and to himself converting

⁴⁵

The honours they usurp'd, his own commanding.

In this discourse, he first saw Pallas standing,

190

Unbidden entry; up rose, and address'd

His pace right to her, angry that a guest

Should stand so long at gate; and, coming near,

Her right hand took, took in his own her spear,

And thus saluted: "Grace to your repair,

195

Fair guest, your welcome shall be likewise fair.

Enter, and, cheer'd with feast, disclose th' intent

That caused your coming."

English (William Cowper, 1791, ed. Southey) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (William Cowper, 1791, ed. Southey)) — 1.80 focus

To whom Minerva, Goddess azure-eyed.

Oh Jupiter! above all Kings enthroned!

If the Immortals ever-blest ordain

That wise Ulysses to his home return,

Dispatch we then Hermes the Argicide,

105

Our messenger, hence to Ogygia's isle,

Who shall inform Calypso, nymph divine,

Of this our fixt resolve, that to his home

Ulysses, toil-enduring Chief, repair.

Myself will hence to Ithaca, meantime,

110

His son to animate, and with new force

Inspire, that (the Achaians all convened

In council,) he may, instant, bid depart

The suitors from his home, who, day by day,

His numerous flocks and fatted herds consume.

115

And I will send him thence to Sparta forth,

And into sandy Pylus, there to hear

(If hear he may) some tidings of his Sire,

And to procure himself a glorious name.

This said, her golden sandals to her feet

120

She bound, ambrosial, which o'er all the earth

And o'er the moist flood waft her fleet as air;

Then, seizing her strong spear pointed with brass,

In length and bulk and weight a matchless beam,

With which the Jove-born Goddess levels ranks

125

Of Heroes, against whom her anger burns,

From the Olympian summit down she flew,

And on the threshold of Ulysses' hall

In Ithaca, and within his vestibule

Apparent stood; there, grasping her bright spear,

130

Mentes she seem'd, the hospitable Chief

Of Taphos' isle. She found the haughty throng

The suitors; they before the palace gate

With ivory cubes sported, on numerous hides

Reclined of oxen which themselves had slain.

135

The heralds and the busy menials there

Minister'd to them; these their mantling cups

With water slaked; with bibulous sponges those

Made clean the tables, set the banquet on,

And portion'd out to each his plenteous share.

140

Long ere the rest Telemachus himself

Mark'd her, for sad amid them all he sat,

Pourtraying in deep thought contemplative

His noble Sire, and questioning if yet

Perchance the Hero might return to chase

145

From all his palace that imperious herd,

To his own honour lord of his own home.

Amid them musing thus, sudden he saw

The Goddess, and sprang forth, for he abhorr'd

To see a guest's admittance long delay'd;

150

Approaching eager, her right hand he seized,

The brazen spear took from her, and in words

With welcome wing'd Minerva thus address'd.

Stranger, all hail! to share our cordial love

Thou comest; the banquet finish'd, thou shalt next

155

Inform me wherefore thou hast here arrived.

English (H. B. Cotterill, 1911) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (H. B. Cotterill, 1911)) — 1 focus

ODYSSEY BOOK I

SING, O Muse, of the man so wary and wise, who in far lands

Wandered whenas he had wasted the sacred town of the Trojans.

Many a people he saw and beheld their cities and customs,

Many a woe he endured in his heart as he tossed on the ocean,

Striving to win him his life and to bring home safely his comrades.

Ah but he rescued them not, those comrades, much as he wished it.

Ruined by their own act of infatuate madness they perished,

Fools that they were—who the cows of the sun-god, lord Hyperion,

Slaughtered and ate; and he took from the men their day of returning.

Sing—whence-ever the lay—sing, Zeus-born goddess, for us too!

Now were all of the rest of the Greeks who had 'scaped from destruction

Safely at home and secure from the dangers of war and the ocean,

All but the one, whom yearning in vain for his wife and his homeland

Still did the beautiful goddess, the sea-nymph lady Calypso,

Hold in her hollow caves, with a longing to make him her husband.

Ay and at last, when the year in the slow revolution of seasons

Came, in the which, as the gods had ordained, he returned to his country,

Ithaca's isle, e'en then was he nowise free from his troubles,

Though once more with his own; and the gods were touched with compassion,

All but Poseidaon, who was ever unceasingly angered

Raging at godlike Odysseus and keeping him far from his homeland.

Now was he gone to revisit the far-off Aethiop people—

Aethiop people that dwell wide-sundered, furthest of mortals,

Some where sinks Hyperion to rest, some where he ariseth.

Here he expected of rams and of oxen a solemn oblation,

Here he rejoiced as he sat at the feast. But the other immortals

Unto the mansion of Zeus the Olympian gathered together.

Then in the midst brake silence the Father of men and immortals,

Since in the depths of his heart he remembered the noble Aegisthus

Slaughtered by King Agamemnon's son, far-famous Orestes;

Mindful of him these words he addressed to the gods everlasting:

"Verily! how these mortals of earth give blame to the heaven!

Evil is sent by the gods, they affirm! It is they that in folly,

Ay in the madness of folly, o'erleaping their destiny, seek it.

Thus did Aegisthus, in spite of his fate predestined, in madness

Marry the wife of Atrides and murdered her lord at his coming.

Fully he knew of the doom that impended for this we foretold him,

Sending him Hermes, the keen-eyed Slayer of Argus, to warn him

Neither to murder the man nor his wife to solicit as suitor :

Else shall Orestes repay for his father a terrible vengeance

After the days of his youth, when he learneth to long for his homeland.

Such was the warning of Hermes, but nowise heeded Aegisthus

Well-meant counsel—and now he hath paid all reckonings fully."

Him forthwith gave answer the grey-eyed goddess Athene:

"Father of Gods, O mighty Cronion, the highest of Monarchs!

Truly he lies o'erwhelmed by a doom that he merited richly.

Thus too perish whoever of men such deed shall accomplish !

Ah but the heart in my bosom is rent for the wileful Odysseus.

Hard is his fate: long years doth he ceaselessly suffer affliction

Far from his home on a sea-girt isle: 'tis the navel of ocean,

Even this isle well-wooded, whereon hath dwelling a goddess,

Daughter of Atlas, the wizard of bale, who of every ocean

Knoweth the watery depths, and alone upholdeth the pillars

Soaring aloft and keeping the earth and heaven asunder.

This is the god whose daughter a wretched and sorrowing mortal

Keepeth, and ever with soft and with flattering words of endearment

Charms him, to make him forgetful of Ithaca's isle ; and Odysseus

Yearns to behold once more but the smoke rise eddying upward

Out of the land of his birth—and he longeth to die. But within thee

All unmoved is thy spirit, Olympian. What! did Odysseus

Ne'er by the ships of the Greeks do honour to thee with oblations,

There, on the Trojan plain? Then why so wroth at the man, Zeus?"

Her then in turn gave answer the Father who gathers the storm-clouds:

"Nay but my child, what word from the door of thy lips hath escaped thee !

How am I likely to cease to remember the godlike Odysseus,

Him who in mind all mortals excels and in giving oblation

Unto the gods everlasting who dwell in the infinite heaven?

No—but Poseidaon, Earth-girdler, stubbornly rageth,

Angered because of his son, by Odysseus bereft of his eyesight,

Even that equal of gods the immense Polyphemus, a Cyclops

Greater than all of the others. Thoösa the nymph was his mother,

Daughter of Phorcys the lord of the barren expanses of ocean.

She in the hollow caves of the sea held tryst with Poseidon.

Hence to Odysseus it haps that, albeit the King Earth-shaker

Slayeth him not, yet he maketh him wander afar from his homeland.

Come now, all of us here— let us straight take counsel together

How he shall once more win to his home; and Poseidon will surely

Cease from his wrath, for he ne'er will be able alone to oppose us,

Setting at nought and defying the will of the other immortals."

Him then again gave answer the grey-eyed goddess Athene:

"Father of all of us, mighty Cronion, the highest of Monarchs !

Seems it a thing well-pleasing to all of the blessed immortals

Thus to permit to return to his home wise-hearted Odysseus,

Then let us bid Hermeias the messenger, Slayer of Argus,

Speedily winging his flight to the far Ogygian island,

Bring to the fair-tressed nymph our will's immutable verdict,

Even that patient Odysseus return and arrive at his homeland.

Now for myself I shall visit the Ithacan island, if haply

Rousing his son still more I can light in his bosom the courage

Unto a meeting to summon the long-haired lords of Achaea,

Yea and a warning to utter to all of the suitors, who slaughter

Sheep of his thick-thronged folds and his shambling crook-horned cattle.

Then as his guide will I bring him to Sparta and Pylos the sandy,

Tidings to hear, if he can, of the homeward return of his father.

Hence too honour and fame shall he win in the land of the living."

These words uttered she bound to her ankles the beautiful sandals,

Golden, immortal, that carry her over the waters of ocean

Swift as the blast of a storm, and across earth's boundless expanses.

Then with her powerful spear bronze-bladed, of terrible keenness,

Weighty, enormous and strong—wherewith in the ranks of the battle

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Vanquisheth all that she hateth that daughter of Zeus the Almighty—

Flashing she fell to the earth from the glittering heights of Olympus

Down, till on Ithacan land she alit by the porch of Odysseus,

E'en by the courtyard door, with the spear in her hand, and she stood there

Likened in form to a stranger, to Mentes, Taphian chieftain.

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Then was she quickly aware of the arrogant suitors, who haply

Under the porch of the palace at draughts their minds were amusing,

Seated on skins of the cows they had slaughtered themselves for a banquet.

Busily flitting around were pages attendant and henchmen:

Some in the bowls were mixing together the wine and the water,

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Others with sponges porous and soft were washing the tables,

Setting them forth, while others apportioned the plentiful messes.

Godlike Telemachus was the first of them all to perceive her.

Grievously troubled at heart he was sitting amidst of the suitors,

Picturing how peradventure his valiant father from somewhere

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Suddenly coming and driving the suitors in rout from the palace

Honour again might win as the lord of his own possessions.

Dreaming thereon as he sat with the suitors, he noticed Athene.

Straight to the portal he went, for he felt sore vexed in his spirit

Seeing a stranger so long at the door, and, whenas he arrived there,

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Grasping her right and taking the bronzen spear from the goddess,

Opened in greeting his lips, and with swift-winged words he addressed her :

"Hail, O stranger! With us thou art sure of a welcome; and later,

After partaking of food, thou'lt tell us if aught thou art needing."

These words spoken, he turned and was followed by Pallas Athene.

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Unto the high-roofed mansion he led her, and stepping within it

Leaned on the shaft of a pillar the spear he was bearing, and fixed it

Into a stand bright-polished wherein were resting the others,

Many and many a spear of the valiant-hearted Odysseus;

Then on a chair, outspreading the cover of linen, he set her:

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Richly adorned was the chair, and below for the feet was a footstool.

Close to it set he a seat for himself rich-broidered, withdrawing

Far from the suitors, in fear that the stranger annoyed by the uproar

Loathing for food might feel, with that insolent rabble about him;

Ay and he also was fain of his long-lost father to ask him.

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Water for washing of hands by a maiden was brought in an ewer

Beautiful, golden, and over a basin of silver she poured it,

Bidding him wash; and she stationed a polished table beside him.

Then did a grave house-dame bring bread and lay it before him

Lavishly adding thereto of her stores full many a dainty.

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Carrying platters aloft came also the carver and offered

Dishes of various meats; and golden goblets he gave them,

Ofttimes filling the which passed hither and thither the henchman.

Now to the hall came crowding the arrogant suitors, and straightway

All of them sat them in order adown on the couches and armchairs.

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Soon was the water for washing of hands poured out by the henchman,

Baskets of wheaten bread up-piled were brought by the maidens

While that the youths wreathed high with the foaming liquor the wine-bowls.

Then did they stretch forth hands to the food that was lying before them

Till, when at last they had lost all longing for meat and the wine-cup,

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Came to the mind of the suitors the thought of a different pleasure,

Even of singing and dancing—for such is the crown of a banquet.

So, when a herald had handed a beautiful harp to the singer

Phemius (ever unwilling he sang, compelled by the suitors),

Unto the sounds of his harping his exquisite voice he uplifted.

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Telemachus meanwhile spake low to the goddess Athene,

Holding his head right close, to be noticed of none of the others:

"List, dear stranger!—for sure at my words thou'lt never be angered—

Such are the pleasures of such !—harp-playing and dancing! No wonder,

Seeing they eat the possessions of others, nor fear the avenger!

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Eat the possessions of him whose whitening bones peradventure

Rot in the rain on the land or roll in the waves of the ocean!

Were they to see him return some day to the Ithacan homeland,

All of them straight to the gods would pray to be lighter in running

Rather than richer endowed with the treasures of gold and of garments.

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Nay, it is vain ! he is dead of a pitiful death, nor is longer

Comfort remaining, whoever of earth-born mortals denies it

Saying he cometh again—since dead is the day of his coming.

Come now tell me a thing that I ask thee and clearly explain it :

Who art thou? Whence dost thou come? Tell too of thy city, thy parents.

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Whose is the vessel whereon thou art come? How haps it that sailors

Brought thee to Ithacan land? What folk did they boast to belong to,

Seeing, methinks, it was never on foot that thou hither arrivedst?

One thing further relate me exactly, for fain will I know it :

Art thou a traveller new to the land, or a friend of my father—

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Guest peradventure? for such came ofttimes unto his homestead,

Many a one, while yet he remained in the land of the living.”

Him then in turn gave answer the grey-eyed goddess Athene:

"Well, I will tell thee of all that thou askest and truly relate it.

Mentes such is my name. Of a wise-souled father I boast me,

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Anchialus, and myself am the prince of the Taphian sea-folk.

Now am I come to a port of thy land with my vessel and comrades

Sailing the wine-dark deep on my way to a city of strangers,

Tempsa; for copper I seek, and my cargo is glittering iron.

Yonder my ship on the side of the country afar from the city

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Lieth in Reithron's port, by the wood-clothed Neïan headland.

Yes, it is true—we can boast to be guest-friends one of another

Even from days long past. If thou doubt'st, go ask of the grandsire,

Hero Laertes. They say that he now no more to the city

Cometh, but living afar in the uplands suffers affliction

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Sole with an ancient crone who attends to his eating and drinking,

Placing before him his food when exhaustion cometh upon him

Weariedly creeping about on the sloping knoll of his vineyard.

Now I am here for they said he was home once more in his country,

Even thy father; but heaven, it seemeth, hath hindered his coming.

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Natheless never on earth has he perished, the godlike Odysseus:

Still he is living, methinks, mid the broad expanses of ocean,

Held on a sea-girt isle, where hostile people retain him,

Savages, forcing him all unwillingly still to remain there.

Nay, I will venture to speak as a prophet—for deep in my bosom

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Heaven hath planted a thought that I feel to be sure of fulfilment,

Though I am neither at all a diviner or augur unerring—

Verily not much longer afar from his well-loved homeland

Still shall he stay, not e'en though fetters of iron constrain him:

Sure he will plan his escape—such master of many devices.

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Now come tell me a thing that I ask thee and clearly explain it,

Whether indeed (as thy stature proclaims) thou art child of Odysseus.

Marvellous both of thy head and thy beautiful eyes is the likeness

Unto the man that I knew when we oft held converse together,

Ere he embarked for the land of the Trojans, whither so many

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Others, chiefs of the Argives, in hollow vessels departed.

Since then ne'er did I see him again, nor was seen by Odysseus."

Her sage Telemachus addressing in turn gave answer:

"Well, Sir stranger, the truth will I tell thee and clearly relate it.

Ever my mother hath called me the child of Odysseus. For my part

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How can I know? Not the wisest of sons can discover his father.

Would that my fortune had made me the child of a happier mortal,

Son of a man whom age finds living in peace in his homestead!

Elsewise heaven hath will'd it: the most ill-fated of all men,

He, as they say, is my sire. Thus far can I answer thy question."

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Him then again gave answer the grey-eyed goddess Athene:

"Surely for thee is the heaven no nameless race in the future

Keeping in store for a son so worthy of Penelopeia.

Now come, tell me a thing that I ask thee and clearly explain it :

What doth this banqueting mean? and this crowd? Why needful thy presence ?

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Hold they a wedding? or bout? No club-collation it seemeth:

Such is the insolent licence in which they appear to indulge them

Banqueting here in thy hall! Just cause for a man to be angered,

Were but a sensible person to see such shameful proceeding!"

Her sage Telemachus addressing in turn gave answer:

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"Since, O stranger, thou fain wouldst hear of this matter and learn it,

Once did the house of my sire seem like to be rich and be blameless, —

Like to remain what it was while here in his home he was living.

Other, alas, was the will of immortals who plotted his ruin.

Lo, they have made him to vanish—as utterly vanished hath no man

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Ever before. Nay, e'en for his death ne'er thus had I sorrowed,

Had he but met it amidst of his mates in the land of the Trojans,

Or in the arms of his friends, when he wound to an ending the warfare.

Then had the hosts of Achaea erected a tomb to his honour;

Yea and for me for his son he had left great glory behind him.

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Ah but the spirits of storm to a death inglorious swept him,

Vanished, unseen and unheard of; and nothing but mourning and anguish

Me he bequeathed! Nor now do I sorrow and make lamentation

Only for him; for the gods send other and grievous afflictions.

All of the chief of the men who as princes rule in the islands,

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Samos and Dulichium and the woodlands rich of Zacynthus,

Ay and as many besides as in rock-bound Ithaca lord it,

All come wooing my mother and wasting the wealth of the homestead.

She dares neither reject their hateful proposals of marriage,

Nor can she end it; and thus do the men, consuming, devouring,

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Ruin my home—me too will they soon o'erwhelm in its ruin."

Then in exceeding displeasure again spake Pallas Athene:

"Nay by the gods, right sorely thou need'st that the absent Odysseus

Come to thee quickly and lay strong hands on the impudent suitors!

Would that I saw him this moment in front of the door of the palace

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Suddenly stand—with his helmet and shield and a couple of lances—

Such as he was in the days when mine eyes first lighted upon him

Making him merry and quaffing his wine in the hall of my homestead,

Newly from Ephyra come—from the town of the Mermerid Ilus.

Even to such far land had he sailed in his swift-winged vessel

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Seeking a drug right deadly of which he was fain to possess him—

Poison, to smear on the tips of his bronze-shod arrows; but Ilus

Gave it him not, for he shrank from the wrath of the gods everlasting.

Yet from my father he gat it, who loved him in marvellous fashion.

O that he came—e'en such an Odysseus—to visit the suitors,

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Bringing on all of them speedy perdition and nuptials of anguish!

Nay but we know not the truth; on the knees of the gods it is lying,

Whether he ever shall come, or shall come no more, to avenge him

Here in the halls of his home; but do thou take thought, I exhort thee,

How to eject from the hall of thy palace this rabble of suitors.

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Now mark well what I say, and give it thy earnest attention.

Summon to-morrow to come to a council the princely Achaeans;

Make to them all an announcement and call on the gods to be witness.

Order the suitors from here to disperse each one to his homestead;

While for thy mother—if truly her heart be enamoured of wedlock,

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Send her again to her home—to the house of her powerful father.

There can her parents arrange for the wedding and settle the presents,

All of the wealth that is wont with a well-loved daughter to follow.

Now for thyself—such plan I suggest: 'twere wise to accept it.

Manning with twice ten rowers a vessel—thy goodliest galley—

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Start on the quest for thy sire, who so long is afar and unheard of.

Haply an earth-born man shall inform thee, or haply shall Rumour,

Daughter of Zeus, who on earth is the busiest bringer of tidings.

Firstly betake thee to Pylos, the godlike Nestor to question.

Thence seek Sparta, the court of the fair-haired prince Menelaus:

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He was the last to return of the bronzen-coated Achaeans.

Shouldst thou be told of thy father as living and homeward returning,

Surely for one year more thou'lt bear with the waste of thy substance.

Should they report him as perished and gone from the land of the living,

Quickly return, and regaining the well-loved home of thy fathers

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Straightway build him a tomb, and funeral offerings offer

Many and rich, as is meet, and thy mother bestow on a husband.

Then, when at last these things are duly fulfilled and accomplished,

Hold thou counsel at once with the thoughts and the feelings within thee

How to be quit of the suitors, and here in the hall of thy homestead

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Slay them by craft or by open assault. No more it beseems thee

Childish thoughts to indulge, for thy age no longer is childish.

Surely thou know'st of the fame that was won by the noble Orestes:

How he is praised by the nations for killing his father's assassin,

Crafty Aegisthus, who murdered his sire, great King Agamemnon.

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Also do thou, dear lad, as in form thou art comely and stalwart,

Show thee courageous and win thee a name in the age that is coming!

Now I am fain to descend once more to my swift-winged vessel,

Where are waiting my men, and, I doubt not, chafe at my absence.

Take thou thought for thyself and attend to the counsel I gave thee."

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Her sage Telemachus addressing in turn gave answer:

"Verily, stranger, with kindly intent these words thou hast uttered,

Like to a father advising his son. I shall never forget them.

Yet, I bursts, remain, though eager to haste on thy journey!

Stay till refreshed with a bath, and the heart in thy bosom contented,

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Back to thy ship thou returnest with gladness, bearing a present

Rare in its worth and its beauty—a present to keep as an heirloom;

Such will I give thee—the gift of a friend to a friend that he loveth."

Him forthwith gave answer the grey-eyed goddess Athene:

"Nay, no longer withhold me! I yearn me away on my journey.

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Touching thy present—whatever thy heart shall enjoin thee to give me—

Give it when back I am coming, to carry it straight to my homeland.

Choose it as rare as thou willst; it will gain thee another as goodly."

These words spoken, departed the grey-eyed goddess Athene,

Flitting away as a bird by the roof-hole. Deep in his bosom

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Courage and manly resolve she had planted, and roused a remembrance

Keener than erst of his sire; and he marked the emotion within him

Greatly astonied in spirit, suspecting a deity's presence.

Then to the suitors he went and the strength of a god was upon him.

Here was the minstrel beginning to sing, and the suitors in silence

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Listening sat; and he sang of the homeward return of the Grecians,

Pitiful story of woes inflicted by Pallas Athene.

Now in her upper apartment the wise-souled Penelopeia,

Daughter of Icarius, was aware of the wonderful singing.

Straightway leaving her room by the high-built stair she descended ;

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Neither alone did she go; two maidens followed behind her.

So when at last she had come to the suitors, that fairest of women

Stood by the post of the door of the massively builded apartment,

Holding in front of her cheeks soft folds of her glistering head-dress.

There as she stood, with a trusty attendant on this and on that side,

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Suddenly bursting in tears to the godlike bard she addressed her:

"Phemius, many another enrapturing story thou knowest,

Deeds of immortals and men—themes often by singers recounted.

Such be thy song as thou sitt'st with the guests. Let them listen in silence

Quaffing the wine. But desist, I beseech, from the strain thou art singing,

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Pitiful story, that ever the heart in the depths of my bosom

Woundeth—for me hath befallen an inconsolable sorrow;

Such was the well-loved lord that I mourn—nor can ever forget him—

One whose fame is abroad through Hellas and midmost Argos.”

Her sage Telemachus addressing in turn gave answer:

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"Wherefore, mother, prevent that the sweet-voiced singer delight us

E'en as his spirit is moved? It is never the singer, believe me,

Bringeth us bale; it is Zeus that is guilty thereof; he allotteth

Every mortal that liveth on bread what fortune he willeth.

Nor do I blame that he singeth the pitiful fates of the Argives,

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Seeing that ever by mortals the more extolled is a singer

Singing the song that the newest resounds in the ears of the people.

Therefore harden thy heart and thy mind with the courage to listen.

'Twas not Odysseus alone that was reft of the day of returning

Back from the Trojan land; there perished many another.

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Now to thy chamber return and attend to thine own occupation,

Even the loom and the distaff, and order thy maiden attendants

Busily keep to their tasks; we men will attend to the talking,

All of us—chiefly myself; it is I that am lord of the household."

Full of amazement she turned her to go to the women's apartment,

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Hiding the masterful words of her son deep down in her bosom.

So to her upper apartment ascending with maiden attendants

Here she lamented Odysseus her well-loved husband, till gently

Slumber was poured on her lids by the grey-eyed goddess Athene.

Now in the shadowy hall loud clamour arose of the suitors,

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Each one uttering prayers to the gods to possess her in marriage,

Till sage Telemachus spake out and began to address them:

"Hearken, my mother's suitors—outrageous and riotous brawlers!

Now let us fall to the feast and be merry—but boisterous uproar

Keep we afar! It is pleasant to list to the song of a minstrel

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Such as this singer of mine; for in voice he is like an immortal.

Early to-morrow I ask you to come to the place of the council,

All of you. There shall I make you an open and plain declaration,

Bidding you quit these halls. Ye can seek your junketings elsewhere.

Feed on your own! Go feasting in turn each one with the other!

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Should it however appear to your minds more pleasant and better

Thus to devour the possession of others, nor fear the avenger,

Waste as ye will!—but the gods everlasting I call to my succour,

Hoping that heaven will grant such deeds to receive retribution.

Then in this selfsame hall shall ye perish—and none shall avenge you."

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Thus did he speak, and the men all biting their lips in amazement

Marvelled at Telemachus and the valiant words he had spoken.

Then spake Antinous, Eupeithes' son, and addressed him:

"Verily, Telemachus, it is heaven itself that hath taught thee

Such big blustering vaunts, such impudent boldness of language.

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Never Cronion, I trust, would choose for the Ithacan island

Thee as a king—though truly thou claimest the right to inherit!"

Him sage Telemachus addressing in turn gave answer :

"Antinous—and I trust at my words thou'lt never be angered—

E'en this honour—if offered by Zeus—I am ready to bear it.

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Deemest thou ruling the worst of the evils that mortals inherit ?

Nay—to be ruler is never an evil; for quickly the homestead

Richer and richer becomes and the man held higher in honour.

Many another however among the Achaeans is chieftain

Here in the rock-bound Ithacan isle, both aged and younger.

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One of them haply will gain him the title—as dead is Odysseus.

But, for myself, I intend to be master and lord of my household,

Lord of my servants of all that the sword of Odysseus hath won me."

Forthwith Polybus' son, Prince Eurymachus, made answer :

"Telemachus, on the knees of the gods everlasting it lieth

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Who as the king of the Ithacan island shall rule the Achaeans.

Hold thou fast to thy own! be the master and lord of thy household!

Never shall any be found that shall venture with force to assail thee,

Seeking to ruin thy home—while Ithaca stands as a nation.

Now, good friend, I am fain to examine thee touching this stranger.

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Whence arrived is the man? What folk doth he boast to belong to?

Where is his land, and his kin? Where lies the domain of his homestead?

Came he perchance some tidings to bring of thy father's returning?

Travels he hither in hope some want of his own to provide for?

How of a sudden he rose and was gone! in a moment was vanished,

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Ere we had made us acquainted! yet seemed not a churl in appearance!"

Him sage Telemachus addressing in turn gave answer:

"Eurymachus, clean gone is the hope of my father's returning,

Nor do I further believe in reports, where'er they may come from,

Nor divination consider of aught—such tales as my mother

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Hears from the lips of diviners she calls to the house and examines.

This is an ancient guest of my household. He cometh from Taphos.

Mentes—such is his name. Of a wise-souled father he boasts him,

Anchialus, and himself is the prince of the Taphian sea-folk."

Thus did he speak; but he knew in his heart 'twas a goddess immortal.

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Now to the joys of the dance and the pleasures of singing they turned them,

Making them merry, and thus they awaited the coming of even;

Nor was the merriment over when come was the darkness of even;

Then at the last they departed to sleep, each one to his homestead.

Telemachus, where fronting the fair-built court was his chamber

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(Builded aloft was the room in a site with a beautiful prospect)

Thither betook him to bed, while deep in his spirit he pondered.

Thither with torches ablaze attended him also the trusty

Eurycleia, the daughter of Ops, who was son of Pisenor.

Once, long since, had Laertes expended his wealth to possess her,

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Then in her prime; and a score of his kine as the price he had given.

Honour he gave her as much as his own true wife in the household;

Nor did he make her his mistress; he shrank from the wrath of his consort.

She was the servant that carried the torches to light him; she loved him

More than the rest of the maids, and had served as the nurse to his childhood.

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Now so soon as the door of the fair-built chamber she opened,

Seating him down on the bed, of his doublet soft he disrobed him;

This to the hands of the careful and sage old dame he entrusted.

She, when at length she had folded the tunic and skilfully smoothed it,

Hanging it up on a peg at the side of his rich-carved bedstead,

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Went from the chamber, and pulling the door by the handle of silver

Shut it and fastened it, drawing the bolt well home with the latch-string.

Here for the livelong night, close covered with wrappings of sheep's wool,

Lying he thought of the journey that Pallas Athena had plann'd him.

Notes on the current edition

Odyssey

1. 2

2. 1

3. 2

4. 1

New Alexandria Commentaries

Douglas Frame

Athena announces here her plan to visit Telemachus in order to ‘arouse’ him and ‘put spirit in his mind’. These two expressions mean the same thing. When Athena carries out her plan she disguises herself, in Book 1, as Mentes, a foreign trader, and then, in Books 2 and 3, as Mentor, an old man of Ithaca, and both these names mean the same thing, ‘he who arouses, he who stirs up’. The noun menos, ‘spirit’, in Od. 1.89 contains the same verbal root men- as the names Mentēs and Mentōr, and the occurrence of the noun in Athena’s speech anticipates her two disguises. For the meaning of the name Mentōr, particularly in relation to the name Nestōr, see the essay “Nestor’s Name”. As ‘he who stirs up’ the name Mentōr implies an active verb menō, ‘stir up’, which does not occur in Greek. The active verb with the meaning ‘stir up’ is epotrunō, which is what occurs in Athena’s speech. To make the verbal connection with the names Mentēs and Mentōr the verb epotrunō is glossed in Athena’s speech by the phrase with menos. For more on the verb (ep)otrunō in relation to the name Mentōr*, see Frame 2009:25n37.

Frame, Douglas, 2009. Hippota Nestor. Cambridge, 2009

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Gregory Nagy

The comments I offer on Odyssey Rhapsody 1 through Rhapsody 24, starting here with Rhapsody 1, were based mostly on details that derive from seven books that I indicate in the Bibliography by way of these abbreviations: BA, GMP, H24H, HC, HPC, HQ, HR, MoM, PasP, PH. Each one of these books has its own index locorum. My colleague Anita Nikkanen, an Associate Editor for this online project, tracked the sequences of Homeric verses as listed in the indices for six of these books and then summarized my comments on those verses. Following up on her meticulous work, I am in the process of converting her summaries into a form of commentary. My comments on the Odyssey as I presented them in Classical Inquiries are merely samplings of the content that I hope to contribute to the overall commentary, to which a number of other colleagues are also contributing their own comments. That said, I now proceed to offer a sampling of comments on Rhapsody 1. At this point, my comments about the beginning of the Odyssey need no further introduction of their own.

draft js image error Zeus, Athena, and Hermes (1810). Drawing by John Flaxman. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

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(What follows is epitomized from H24H 9§17.) At a council of the gods, the goddess Athena declares her intention to go to Ithaca to become a mentor to the young hero Telemachus, O.01.088–089. Descending from Olympus and landing in Ithaca, the goddess assumes the human form of a fatherly hero named Méntēs, O.01.105, who proceeds to give wise advice to the young hero. In a subsequent intervention, O.02.268, the goddess will assume the human form of another fatherly hero, named Méntōr, and, as in the present intervention, this other father-substitute will likewise proceed to give wise advice to the young hero. These two names Méntēs and Méntōr are both related to the noun menos, which I translate as ‘mental power’. This word, as we can see here at O.01.089, refers to the heroic ‘power’ that the goddess Athena says she will put into Telemachus. The noun menos, usually translated as ‘power’ or ‘strength’, is derived from the verb-root mnē-, meaning ‘mentally connect’ (details in GMP 113). Likewise derived from this verb-root are the agent nouns Méntēs and Méntōr, which both mean ‘he who connects mentally’. When a divinity connects a hero to his heroic mentality, the hero will have menos, that is, ‘power’ or ‘strength’. To have heroic power or strength, you have to have a heroic mentality. See further the comment on O.01.320–322.

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|88 αὐτὰρ ἐγὼν Ἰθάκηνδε ἐλεύσομαι, ὄφρα οἱ υἱὸν |89 μᾶλλον ἐποτρύνω καί οἱ μένος ἐν φρεσὶ θείω, |90 εἰς ἀγορὴν καλέσαντα κάρη κομόωντας Ἀχαιοὺς |91 πᾶσι μνηστήρεσσιν ἀπειπέμεν, οἵ τέ οἱ αἰεὶ |92 μῆλ’ ἁδινὰ σφάζουσι καὶ εἰλίποδας ἕλικας βοῦς. |93 πέμψω δ’ ἐς Σπάρτην τε καὶ ἐς Πύλον ἠμαθόεντα |94 νόστον πευσόμενον πατρὸς φίλου, ἤν που ἀκούσῃ, |95 ἠδ’ ἵνα μιν κλέος ἐσθλὸν ἐν ἀνθρώποισιν ἔχῃσιν.

|88 As for me, I will go travel to Ithaca, going to his [= Odysseus’] son |89 in order to give him [= Telemachus] more encouragement and to put mental power [menos] into his heart [phrenes]. |90 He is to summon the long-haired Achaeans for a meeting in assembly, |91 and he is to speak out to all the suitors [of his mother Penelope], who persist in |92 slaughtering again and again any number of his sheep and oxen. |93 And I will conduct [pempein] him to Sparta and to sandy Pylos, |94 and thus he will learn [punthanesthai] the return [nostos] of his dear [philos] father, if by chance he [= Telemachus] hears [akouein] it, |95 and thus may genuine glory [kleos] possess him throughout humankind.

Here the nostos of Odysseus, O.01.094, is shown to be not only a ‘homecoming’ but also a ‘song of homecoming’. On the meaning ‘song of homecoming’, see the comment on O.01.326–327. On kleos in the sense of an overall reference to the ‘glory’ of poetry, see the comment on I.02.325. Here at O.01.088–095, we can see that nostos as a ‘song of homecoming’ is a prerequisite for the quest of Odysseus to achieve the kleos ‘glory’ of poetry. Odysseus will receive the kleos ‘glory’ of his own Odyssey only if he achieves a successful nostos ‘homecoming’, and it is the kleos ‘glory’ of poetry that turns his homecoming into a song of homecoming. What the goddess says at O.01.094 is not that Telemachus will learn about the nostos of Odysseus if he is fortunate enough to hear about it. In the original Greek text, the noun nostos is the direct object of both the verb punthanesthai, ‘learn’ and the verb akouein ‘hear’ at O.01.094 here, and that is why I chose to translate the verse this way: ‘and thus he will learn [punthanesthai] the return [nostos] of his dear [philos] father, if by chance he [= Telemachus] hears [akouein] it’. Elsewhere too in the Odyssey, we see nostos as the direct object of punthanesthai ‘learn’: O.02.215, O.02.264, O.02.360, O.04.714—as also of akouein ‘hear’: O.01.287, O.02.218, O.02.360. It is not a question of learning about a homecoming, of hearing about a homecoming. Rather, Telemachus will learn the actual song of the homecoming, the song of nostos, by hearing it. He will actually hear the song from the hero Nestor in Odyssey 3 and from the hero Menelaos along with his divine consort Helen in Odyssey 4. (This formulation is epitomized from H24H 9§20; see also Stone 2016.09.28.)

draft js image error Athena (1810). Drawing by John Flaxman. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

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The text as transmitted by Aristarchus (see the inventory of Words and Ideas) reads:

πέμψω δ’ ἐς Σπάρτην τε καὶ ἐς Πύλον ἠμαθόεντα

‘I [= Athena] will conduct [pempein]him [= Telemachus] on his way to Sparta and to sandy Pylos’

But the text as transmitted by Zenodotus (see again the inventory of Words and Ideas) reads:

πέμψω δ’ ἐς Κρήτην τε καὶ ἐς Πύλον ἠμαθόεντα

‘I [= Athena] will conduct [pempein] him [= Telemachus] on his way to Crete and to sandy Pylos’

The variant reading that we see transmitted here by Zenodotus (quoted in the scholia for O.03.313) indicates a variant epic tradition to which I will refer hereafter as a Cretan Odyssey. Further details at O.01.284–286, anchor comment on Cretan Odyssey.

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Here Ithaca is figured as one single dēmos ‘community, district’.

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The meaning of the name Méntēs, ‘he who connects mentally’, is relevant to the plot of the Odyssey: see the comments on O.01.088–089.

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Leonard Muellner

There is parallelism and overlap between Hermes and Athena (here, Athena is wearing Hermes’ sandals) as in the plotting of the narrative itself; see also the comment on O.01.1 above and the way that Athena takes on the appearance of Hermes in O.13.221-231 (also featuring sandals and a spear).

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Homer Odyssey 1.80

A. T. Murray (Translator)

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Current edition Perseus

TELEMACHUS

'Stranger, whoe'er thou art, securely rest,

'Affianced in my faith, a friendly guest :

'Approach the dome, the social banquet share,

'And then the purpose of thy soul declare.'
165

ODYSSEY BOOK I

Notes on the current edition

New Alexandria Commentaries

Stable identifiers

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Current edition Perseus

TELEMACHUS 'Stranger, whoe'er thou art, securely rest, 'Affianced in my faith, a friendly guest : 'Approach the dome, the social banquet share, 'And then the purpose of thy soul declare.' 165

ODYSSEY BOOK I

Notes on the current edition

New Alexandria Commentaries

Stable identifiers

TELEMACHUS

'Stranger, whoe'er thou art, securely rest,

'Affianced in my faith, a friendly guest :

'Approach the dome, the social banquet share,

'And then the purpose of thy soul declare.'
165