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Then wise Telemachus answered her, saying: 'Now may Zeus
ordain it so, Zeus the thunderer and the lord of Here. Then
would I do thee worship, as to a god, even in my home
afar.'

He spake and smote the horses with the lash, and they sped
quickly towards the plain, in eager course through the
city. So all day long they swayed the yoke they bore upon
their necks. And the sun sank, and all the ways were
darkened. And they came to Pherae, to the house of Diocles,
son of Orsilochus, the child begotten of Alpheus. There
they rested for the night, and by them he set the
entertainment of strangers.

Now so soon as early Dawn shone forth, the rosy-fingered,
they yoked the horses and mounted the inlaid car. And forth
they drave from the gateway and the echoing gallery. And he
touched the horses with the whip to start them, and the
pair flew onward nothing loth. And soon thereafter they
reached the steep hold of Pylos. Then Telemachus spake unto
the son of Nestor, saying:

'Son of Nestor, in what wise mightest thou make me a
promise and fulfil my bidding? For we claim to be friends
by reason of our fathers' friendship from of old. Moreover
we are equals in age, and this journey shall turn to our
greater love. Take me not hence past my ship, O fosterling
of Zeus, but leave me there, lest that old man keep me in
his house in my despite, out of his eager kindness, for I
must go right quickly home.'

So spake he, and the some of Nestor communed with his own
heart how he might make promise, and duly fulfil the same.
So as he thought thereon, in this wise it seemed to him
best. He turned back his horses toward the swift ship and
the sea-banks, and took forth the fair gifts and set them
in the hinder part of the ship, the raiment and the gold
which Menelaus gave him. And he called to Telemachus and
spake to him winged words:

'Now climb the ship with all haste, and bid all thy company
do likewise, ere I reach home and bring the old man word.
For well I know in my mind and heart that, being so wilful
of heart, he will not let thee go, but he himself will come
hither to bid thee to his house, and methinks that he will
not go back without thee; for very wroth will he be despite
thine excuse.'

Thus he spake, and drave the horses with the flowing manes
back to the town of the Pylians, and came quickly to the
halls. And Telemachus called to his companions and
commanded them, saying:

'Set ye the gear in order, my friends, in the black ship,
and let us climb aboard that we may make way upon our
course.'

So spake he, and they gave good heed and hearkened. Then
straightway they embarked and sat upon the benches.

Thus was he busy hereat and praying and making
burnt-offering to Athene, by the stern of the ship, when
there drew nigh him one from a far country, that had slain
his man and was fleeing from out of Argos. He was a
soothsayer, and by his lineage he came of Melampus, who of
old time abode in Pylos, mother of flocks, a rich man and
one that had an exceeding goodly house among the Pylians,
but afterward he had come to the land of strangers, fleeing
from his country and from Neleus, the great-hearted, the
proudest of living men, who kept all his goods for a full
year by force. All that time Melampus lay bound with hard
bonds in the halls of Phylacus, suffering strong pains for
the sake of the daughter of Neleus, and for the dread
blindness of soul which the goddess, the Erinnys of the
dolorous stroke, had laid on him. Howsoever he escaped his
fate, and drave away the lowing kine from Phylace to Pylos,
and avenged the foul deed upon godlike Neleus, and brought
the maiden home to his own brother to wife. As for him, he
went to a country of other men, to Argos, the pastureland
of horses; for there truly it was ordained that he should
dwell, bearing rule over many of the Argives. There he
wedded a wife, and builded him a lofty house, and begat
Antiphates and Mantius, two mighty sons. Now Antiphates
begat Oicles the great-hearted, and Oicles Amphiaraus, the
rouser of the host, whom Zeus, lord of the aegis, and
Apollo loved with all manner of love. Yet he reached not
the threshold of old age, but died in Thebes by reason of a
woman's gifts. And the sons born to him were Alcmaeon and
Amphilochus. But Mantius begat Polypheides and Cleitus; but
it came to pass that the golden-throned Dawn snatched away
Cleitus for his very beauty's sake, that he might dwell
with the Immortals.

And Apollo made the high-souled Polypheides a seer, far the
chief of human kind, Amphiaraus being now dead. He removed
his dwelling to Hypheresia, being angered with his father,
and here he abode and prophesied to all men.

This man's son it was, Theoclymenus by name, that now drew
nigh and stood by Telemachus. And he found him pouring a
drink-offering and praying by the swift black ship, and
uttering his voice he spake to him winged words:

'Friend, since I find thee making burnt-offering in this
place, I pray thee, by thine offerings and by the god, and
thereafter by thine own head, and in the name of the men of
thy company answer my question truly and hide it not. Who
art thou of the sons of men and whence? Where is thy city,
where are they that begat thee?'

And wise Telemachus answered him, saying: 'Yea now,
stranger, I will plainly tell thee all. Of Ithaca am I by
lineage, and my father is Odysseus, if ever such an one
there was, but now hath he perished by an evil fate.
Wherefore I have taken my company and a black ship, and
have gone forth to hear word of my father that has been
long afar.'

Then godlike Theoclymenus spake to him again: 'Even so I
too have fled from my country, for the manslaying of one of
mine own kin. And many brethren and kinsmen of the slain