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Odysseus. Then, when the others had roasted the outer parts
and drawn them off the spits, they divided the messes and
shared the glorious feast. But when they had put from them
the desire of meat and drink, Nestor of Gerenia, lord of
chariots, first spake among them:

'Now is the better time to enquire and ask of the strangers
who they are, now that they have had their delight of food.
Strangers, who are ye? Whence sail ye over the wet ways? On
some trading enterprise, or at adventure do ye rove, even
as sea-robbers, over the brine, for they wander at hazard
of their own lives bringing bale to alien men?'

Then wise Telemachus answered him and spake with courage,
for Athene herself had put boldness in his heart, that he
might ask about his father who was afar, and that he might
be had in good report among men:

'Nestor, son of Neleus, great glory of the Achaeans, thou
askest whence we are, and I will surely tell thee all. We
have come forth out of Ithaca that is below Neion; and this
our quest whereof I speak is a matter of mine own, and not
of the common weal. I follow after the far-spread rumour of
my father, if haply I may hear thereof, even of the goodly
steadfast Odysseus, who upon a time, men say, fought by thy
side and sacked the city of the Trojans. For of all the
others, as many as warred with the Trojans, we hear
tidings, and where each one fell by a pitiful death; but
even the death of this man Cronion hath left untold. For
none can surely declare the place where he hath perished,
whether he was smitten by foemen on the mainland, or lost
upon the deep among the waves of Amphitrite. So now am I
come hither to thy knees, if perchance thou art willing to
tell me of his pitiful death, as one that saw it with thine
own eyes, or heard the story from some other wanderer,--
for his mother bare him to exceeding sorrow. And speak me
no soft words in ruth or pity, but tell me plainly what
sight thou didst get of him. Ah! I pray thee, if ever at
all my father, noble Odysseus, made promise to thee of word
or work, and fulfilled the same in the land of the Trojans,
where ye Achaeans suffered affliction; these things, I pray
thee, now remember and tell me truth.'

Then Nestor of Gerenia, lord of chariots, answered him: 'My
friend, since thou hast brought sorrow back to mind,
behold, this is the story of the woe which we endured in
that land, we sons of the Achaeans, unrestrained in fury,
and of all that we bore in wanderings after spoil, sailing
with our ships over the misty deep, wheresoever Achilles
led; and of all our war round the mighty burg of king
Priam. Yea and there the best of us were slain. There lies
valiant Aias, and there Achilles, and there Patroclus, the
peer of the gods in counsel, and there my own dear son,
strong and noble, Antilochus, that excelled in speed of
foot and in the fight. And many other ills we suffered
beside these; who of mortal men could tell the tale? Nay
none, though thou wert to abide here for five years, ay and
for six, and ask of all the ills which the goodly Achaeans
then endured. Ere all was told thou wouldst be weary and
turn to thine own country. For nine whole years we were
busy about them, devising their ruin with all manner of
craft; and scarce did Cronion bring it to pass. There never
a man durst match with him in wisdom, for goodly Odysseus
very far outdid the rest in all manner of craft, Odysseus
thy father, if indeed thou art his son,--amazement comes
upon me as I look at thee; for verily thy speech is like
unto his; none would say that a younger man would speak so
like an elder. Now look you, all the while that myself and
goodly Odysseus were there, we never spake diversely either
in the assembly or in the council, but always were of one
mind, and advised the Argives with understanding and sound
counsel, how all might be for the very best. But after we
had sacked the steep city of Priam, and had departed in our
ships, and a god had scattered the Achaeans, even then did
Zeus devise in his heart a pitiful returning for the
Argives, for in no wise were they all discreet or just.
Wherefore many of them met with an ill faring by reason of
the deadly wrath of the grey-eyed goddess, the daughter of
the mighty sire, who set debate between the two sons of
Atreus. And they twain called to the gathering of the host
all the Achaeans, recklessly and out of order, against the
going down of the sun; and lo, the sons of the Achaeans
came heavy with wine. And the Atreidae spake out and told
the reason wherefore they had assembled the host. Then
verily Menelaus charged all the Achaeans to bethink them of
returning over the broad back of the sea, but in no sort
did he please Agamemnon, whose desire was to keep back the
host and to offer holy hecatombs, that so he might appease
that dread wrath of Athene. Fool! for he knew not this,
that she was never to be won; for the mind of the
everlasting gods is not lightly turned to repentance. So
these twain stood bandying hard words; but the
goodly-greaved Achaeans sprang up with a wondrous din, and
twofold counsels found favour among them. So that one night
we rested, thinking hard things against each other, for
Zeus was fashioning for us a ruinous doom. But in the
morning, we of the one part drew our ships to the fair salt
sea, and put aboard our wealth, and the low-girdled Trojan
women. Now one half the people abode steadfastly there with
Agamemnon, son of Atreus, shepherd of the host; and half of
us embarked and drave to sea and swiftly the ships sailed,
for a god made smooth the sea with the depths thereof. And
when we came to Tenedos, we did sacrifice to the gods,
being eager for the homeward way; but Zeus did not yet
purpose our returning, nay, hard was he, that roused once
more an evil strife among us. Then some turned back their
curved ships, and went their way, even the company of
Odysseus, the wise and manifold in counsel, once again
showing a favour to Agamemnon, son of Atreus. But I fled on
with the squadron that followed me, for I knew how now the
god imagined mischief. And the warlike son of Tydeus fled
and roused his men thereto. And late in our track came
Menelaus of the fair hair, who found us in Lesbos,
considering about the long voyage, whether we should go
sea-ward of craggy Chios, by the isle of Psyria, keeping
the isle upon our left, or inside Chios past windy Mimas.
So we asked the god to show us a sign, and a sign he
declared to us, and bade us cleave a path across the middle
sea to Euboea, that we might flee the swiftest way from
sorrow. And a shrill wind arose and blew, and the ships ran
most fleetly over the teeming ways, and in the night they