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  DAY 5 (Book iv).

Telemachus and Peisistratus arrive at Sparta, where
Menelaus and Helen receive them kindly.

  DAY 6 (Book iv).

Menelaus tells how he himself came home in the eighth year
after the fall of Troy. He had heard from Proteus, the Old
Man of the Sea, that Odysseus was alive, and a captive on
an island of the deep. Menelaus invites Telemachus to Stay
with him for eleven days or twelve, which Telemachus
declines to do. it will later appear that he made an even
longer stay at Sparta, though whether he changed his mind,
or whether we have here an inadvertence of the poet's it is
hard to determine. This blemish has been used as an
argument against the unity of authorship, but writers of
all ages have made graver mistakes.

On this same day (the sixth) the wooers in Ithaca learned

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surely shall soon make grievous havoc of my whole house and
ruin all my livelihood. My mother did certain wooers beset
sore against her will, even the sons of those men that here
are the noblest. They are too craven to go to the house of
her father Icarius, that he may himself set the bride-price
for his daughter, and bestow her on whom he will, even on
him who finds favour in his sight. But they resorting to
our house day by day sacrifice oxen and sheep and fat
goats, and keep revel, and drink the dark wine recklessly,
and lo, our great wealth is wasted, for there is no man now
alive such as Odysseus was, to keep ruin from the house. As
for me I am nowise strong like him to ward mine own; verily
to the end of my days {*} shall I be a weakling and all
unskilled in prowess. Truly I would defend me if but
strength were mine; for deeds past sufferance have now been
wrought, and now my house is wasted utterly beyond pretence
of right. Resent it in your own hearts, and have regard to
your neighbours who dwell around, and tremble ye at the
anger of the gods, lest haply they turn upon you in wrath
at your evil deeds. {Or, lest they bring your evil deeds in
wrath on your own heads.} I pray you by Olympian Zeus and

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wooers will devour thy living and thy substance, so long as
she is steadfast in such purpose as the gods now put within
her breast: great renown for herself she winneth, but for
thee regret for thy much livelihood. But we will neither go
to our own lands, nor otherwhere, till she marry that man
whom she will of the Achaeans.'

Then wise Telemachus answered him, saying: 'Antinous, I may
in no wise thrust forth from the house, against her will,
the woman that bare me, that reared me: while as for my
father he is abroad on the earth, whether he be alive or
dead. Moreover it is hard for me to make heavy restitution
to Icarius, as needs I must, if of mine own will I send my
mother away. For I shall have evil at his hand, at the hand
of her father, and some god will give me more besides, for
my mother will call down the dire Avengers as she departs
from the house, and I shall have blame of men; surely then
I will never speak this word. Nay, if your own heart, even
yours, is indignant, quit ye my halls, and busy yourselves
with other feasts, eating your own substance, and going in
turn from house to house. But if ye deem this a likelier

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for him, in that he killed a man more valiant far than he?
Or was Menelaus not in Argos of Achaia but wandering
elsewhere among men, and that other took heart and slew
Agamemnon?'

Then Nestor of Gerenia, lord of chariots, answered him:
'Yea now, my child, I will tell thee the whole truth.
Verily thou guessest aright even of thyself how things
would have fallen out, if Menelaus of the fair hair, the
son of Atreus, when he came back from Troy, had found
Aegisthus yet alive in the halls. Then even in his death
would they not have heaped the piled earth over him, but
dogs and fowls of the air would have devoured him as he lay
on the plain far from the town. {*} Nor would any of the
Achaean women have bewailed him; so dread was the deed he
contrived. Now we sat in leaguer there, achieving many
adventures; but he the while in peace in the heart of
Argos, the pastureland of horses, spake ofttimes, tempting
her, to the wife of Agamemnon. Verily at the first she
would none of the foul deed, the fair Clytemnestra, for she
had a good understanding. Moreover there was with her a

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heart's content, Athene and godlike Telemachus were both
set on returning to the hollow ship; but Nestor would have
stayed them, and accosted them, saying: 'Zeus forfend it,
and all the other deathless gods, that ye should depart
from my house to the swift ship, as from the dwelling of
one that is utterly without raiment or a needy man, who
hath not rugs or blankets many in his house whereon to
sleep softly, he or his guests. Nay not so, I have rugs and
fair blankets by me. Never, methinks, shall the dear son of
this man, even of Odysseus, lay him down upon the ship's
deck, while as yet I am alive, and my children after me are
left in my hall to entertain strangers, whoso may chance to
come to my house.'

Then the goddess, grey-eyed Athene, spake to him again:
'Yea, herein hast thou spoken aright, dear father: and
Telemachus may well obey thee, for before all things this
is meet. Behold, he shall now depart with thee, that he may
sleep in thy halls; as for me I will go to the black ship,
that I may cheer my company and tell them all. For I avow
me to be the one elder among them; those others are but

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the pastureland of horses. Howbeit, though I bewail them
all and sorrow oftentimes as I sit in our halls,--awhile
indeed I satisfy my soul with lamentation, and then again I
cease; for soon hath man enough of chill lamentation--yet
for them all I make no such dole, despite my grief, as for
one only, who causes me to loathe both sleep and meat, when
I think upon him. For no one of the Achaeans toiled so
greatly as Odysseus toiled and adventured himself: but to
him it was to be but labour and trouble, and to me grief
ever comfortless for his sake, so long he is afar, nor know
we aught, whether he be alive or dead. Yea methinks they
lament him, even that old Laertes and the constant Penelope
and Telemachus, whom he left a child new-born in his
house.'

So spake he, and in the heart of Telemachus he stirred a
yearning to lament his father; and at his father's name he
let a tear fall from his eyelids to the ground, and held up
his purple mantle with both his hands before his eyes. And
Menelaus marked him and mused in his mind and his heart
whether he should leave him to speak of his father, or

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own ship, or in the arms of his friends, after he had wound
up the clew of war?"

'So spake I, and anon he answered me, saying: "Son of
Atreus, why dost thou straitly question me hereof? Nay, it
is not for thy good to know or learn my thought; for I tell
thee thou shalt not long be tearless, when thou hast heard
it all aright. For many of these were taken, and many were
left; but two only of the leaders of the mail-coated
Achaeans perished in returning; as for the battle, thou
thyself wast there. And one methinks is yet alive, and is
holden on the wide deep. Aias in truth was smitten in the
midst of his ships of the long oars. Poseidon at first
brought him nigh to Gyrae, to the mighty rocks, and
delivered him from the sea. And so he would have fled his
doom, albeit hated by Athene, had he not let a proud word
fall in the fatal darkening of his heart. He said that in
the gods' despite he had escaped the great gulf of the sea;
and Poseidon heard his loud boasting, and presently caught
up his trident into his strong hands, and smote the rock
Gyraean and cleft it in twain. And the one part abode in

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'So spake he, and my spirit within me was broken, and I
wept as I sat upon the sand, nor was I minded any more to
live and see the light of the sun. But when I had taken my
fill of weeping and grovelling on the ground, then spake
the ancient one of the sea, whose speech is sooth:

'"No more, son of Atreus, hold this long weeping without
cease, for we shall find no help therein. Rather with all
haste make essay that so thou mayest come to thine own
country. For either thou shalt find Aegisthus yet alive, or
it may be Orestes was beforehand with thee and slew him; so
mayest thou chance upon his funeral feast."

'So he spake, and my heart and lordly soul again were
comforted for all my sorrow, and I uttered my voice and I
spake to him winged words:

'"Their fate I now know; but tell me of the third; who is
it that is yet living and holden on the wide deep, or
perchance is dead? and fain would I hear despite my

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And the dim phantom answered her, and said: 'Take courage,
and be not so sorely afraid. For lo, such a friend goes to
guide him, as all men pray to stand by them, for that she
hath the power, even Pallas Athene. And she pitieth thee in
thy sorrow, and now hath sent me forth to speak these words
to thee.'

And wise Penelope answered her, saying: 'If thou art indeed
a god, and hast heard the word of a god, come, I pray thee,
and tell me tidings concerning that ill-fated man, whether
perchance he is yet alive and sees the light of the sun, or
hath already died, and is a dweller in the house of Hades.'

And the dim phantom answered her and said: 'Concerning him
I will not tell thee all the tale, whether he be alive or
dead; it is ill to speak words light as wind.'

Therewith the phantom slipped away by the bolt of the door
and passed into the breath of the wind. And the daughter of
Icarius started up from sleep; and her heart was cheered,
so clear was the vision that sped toward her in the dead of
the night.

Meanwhile the wooers had taken ship and were sailing over
the wet ways, pondering in their hearts sheer death for

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taken in some shipwrecked wanderer of strange men,--for no
men dwell near us; or some god has come in answer to her
instant prayer; from heaven has he descended, and will have
her to wife for evermore. Better so, if herself she has
ranged abroad and found a lord from a strange land, for
verily she holds in no regard the Phaeacians here in this
country, the many men and noble who are her wooers." So
will they speak, and this would turn to my reproach. Yea,
and I myself would think it blame of another maiden who did
such things in despite of her friends, her father and
mother being still alive, and was conversant with men
before the day of open wedlock. But, stranger, heed well
what I say, that as soon as may be thou mayest gain at my
father's hands an escort and a safe return. Thou shalt find
a fair grove of Athene, a poplar grove near the road, and a
spring wells forth therein, and a meadow lies all around.
There is my father's demesne, and his fruitful close,
within the sound of a man's shout from the city. Sit thee
down there and wait until such time as we may have come
into the city, and reached the house of my father. But when
thou deemest that we are got to the palace, then go up to

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'Even so he spake, and I answered him saying: "All this,
luckless man, will I perform for thee and do."

'Even so we twain were sitting holding sad discourse, I on
the one side, stretching forth my sword over the blood,
while on the other side the ghost of my friend told all his
tale.

'Anon came up the soul of my mother dead, Anticleia, the
daughter of Autolycus the great-hearted, whom I left alive
when I departed for sacred Ilios. At the sight of her I
wept, and was moved with compassion, yet even so, for all
my sore grief, I suffered her not to draw nigh to the
blood, ere I had word of Teiresias.

'Anon came the soul of Theban Teiresias, with a golden
sceptre in his hand, and he knew me and spake unto me: "Son
of Laertes, of the seed of Zeus, Odysseus of many devices,
what seekest thou NOW, wretched man, wherefore hast thou
left the sunlight and come hither to behold the dead and a

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it in thy heart. Put thy ship to land in secret, and not
openly, on the shore of thy dear country; for there is no
more faith in woman. But come, declare me this and plainly
tell it all, if haply ye hear of my son as yet living,
either, it may be, in Orchomenus or in sandy Pylos, or
perchance with Menelaus in wide Sparta, for goodly Orestes
hath not yet perished on the earth."

'Even so he spake, but I answered him, saying: "Son of
Atreus, wherefore dost thou ask me straitly of these
things? Nay I know not at all, whether he be alive or dead;
it is ill to speak words light as wind."

'Thus we twain stood sorrowing, holding sad discourse,
while the big tears fell fast: and therewithal came the
soul of Achilles, son of Peleus, and of Patroclus and of
noble Antilochus and of Aias, who in face and form was
goodliest of all the Danaans, after the noble son of
Peleus. And the spirit of the son of Aeacus, fleet of foot,
knew me again, and making lament spake to me winged words:

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dead man was burned and the arms of the dead, we piled a
barrow and dragged up thereon a pillar, and on the topmost
mound we set the shapen oar.

'Now all that task we finished, and our coming from out of
Hades was not unknown to Circe, but she arrayed herself and
speedily drew nigh, and her handmaids with her bare flesh
and bread in plenty and dark red wine. And the fair goddess
stood in the midst and spake in our ears, saying:

'"Men overbold, who have gone alive into the house of
Hades, to know death twice, while all men else die once for
all. Nay come, eat ye meat and drink wine here all day
long; and with the breaking of the day ye shall set sail,
and myself I will show you the path and declare each thing,
that ye may not suffer pain or hurt through any grievous
ill-contrivance by sea or on the land."

'So spake she, and our lordly souls consented thereto. Thus
for that time we sat the livelong day, until the going down
of the sun, feasting on abundant flesh and on sweet wine.

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swineherd, who tends thy swine, loyal and at one with thee,
and loves thy son and constant Penelope. Him shalt thou
find sitting by the swine, as they are feeding near the
rock of Corax and the spring Arethusa, and there they eat
abundance of acorns and drink the black water, things
whereby swine grow fat and well-liking. There do thou abide
and sit by the swine, and find out all, till I have gone to
Sparta, the land of fair women, to call Telemachus thy dear
son, Odysseus, who hath betaken himself to spacious
Lacedaemon, to the house of Menelaus to seek tidings of
thee, whether haply thou are yet alive.'

And Odysseus of many counsels answered her saying: 'Nay,
wherefore then didst thou not tell him, seeing thou hast
knowledge of all? Was it, perchance, that he too may wander
in sorrow over the unharvested seas, and that others may
consume his livelihood?'

Then the goddess, grey-eyed Athene, answered him: 'Nay, let
him not be heavy on thy heart. I myself was his guide, that
by going thither he might win a good report. Lo, he knows

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own force, and soon they fell to wasting the fields of the
Egyptians, exceeding fair, and led away their wives and
infant children and slew the men. And the cry came quickly
to the city, and the people hearing the shout came forth at
the breaking of the day, and all the plain was filled with
footmen and chariots and with the glitter of bronze. And
Zeus, whose joy is in the thunder, sent an evil panic upon
my company, and none durst stand and face the foe, for
danger encompassed us on every side. There they slew many
of us with the edge of the sword, and others they led up
with them alive to work for them perforce. But as for me,
Zeus himself put a thought into my heart; would to God that
I had rather died, and met my fate there in Egypt, for
sorrow was still mine host! Straightway I put off my
well-wrought helmet from my head, and the shield from off
my shoulders, and I cast away my spear from my hand, and I
came over against the chariots of the king, and clasped and
kissed his knees, and he saved me and delivered me, and
setting me on his own chariot took me weeping to his home.
Truly many an one made at me with their ashen spears, eager
to slay me, for verily they were sore angered. But the king

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Then the steadfast goodly Odysseus answered him: 'Oh, that
thou mayst so surely be dear to father Zeus as thou art to
me, in that thou didst make me to cease from wandering and
dread woe! For there is no other thing more mischievous to
men than roaming; yet for their cursed belly's need men
endure sore distress, to whom come wandering and
tribulation and pain. But behold now, since thou stayest me
here, and biddest me wait his coming, tell me of the mother
of divine Odysseus, and of the father whom at his departure
he left behind him on the threshold of old age; are they,
it may be, yet alive beneath the sunlight, or already dead
and within the house of Hades?'

Then spake to him the swineherd, a master of men: 'Yea now,
stranger, I will plainly tell thee all. Laertes yet lives,
and prays evermore to Zeus that his life may waste from out
his limbs within his halls. For he has wondrous sorrow for
his son that is far away, and for the wedded lady his wise
wife, whose death afflicted him in chief and brought him to
old age before his day. Now she died of very grief for her
son renowned, by an evil death, so may no man perish who

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thou hast heard thereof.'

And wise Telemachus answered her, saying: 'Yea now, mother,
I will tell thee all the truth. We went to Pylos and to
Nestor, the shepherd of the people, and he received me in
his lofty house, and was diligent to entreat me lovingly,
as a father might his son that had but newly come from
strange lands after many years; even so diligently he cared
for me with his renowned sons. Yet he said that he had
heard no word from any man on earth concerning Odysseus, of
the hardy heart, whether alive or dead. But he sent me
forward on my way with horses and a chariot, well compact,
to Menelaus, son of Atreus, spearman renowned. There I saw
Argive Helen, for whose sake the Argives and Trojans bore
much travail by the gods' designs. Then straightway
Menelaus, of the loud war-cry, asked me on what quest I had
come to goodly Lacedaemon. And I told him all the truth.
Then he made answer, and spake, saying:

'"Out upon them, for truly in the bed of a brave-hearted
man were they minded to lie, very cravens as they are! Even

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they fell to wasting the fields of the Egyptians, exceeding
fair, and carried away their wives and infant children, and
slew the men. And the cry came quickly to the city, and the
people heard the shout and came forth at the breaking of
the day; and all the plain was filled with footmen and
horsemen and with the glitter of bronze. And Zeus, whose
joy is in the thunder, sent an evil panic upon my company,
and none durst stand and face the foe: for danger
encompassed us on every side. There they slew many of us
with the edge of the sword, and others they led up with
them alive to work for them perforce. But they gave me to a
friend who met them, to take to Cyprus, even to Dmetor son
of Iasus, who ruled mightily over Cyprus; and thence,
behold, am I now come hither in sore distress.'

Then Antinous answered, and spake, saying: 'What god hath
brought this plague hither to trouble the feast? Stand
forth thus in the midst, away from my table, lest thou come
soon to a bitter Egypt and a sad Cyprus; for a bold beggar
art thou and a shameless. Thou standest by all in turn and
recklessly they give to thee, for they hold not their hand

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to me he came first when he fled from the ship, yet he had
not made an end of the tale of his affliction. Even as when
a man gazes on a singer, whom the gods have taught to sing
words of yearning joy to mortals, and they have a ceaseless
desire to hear him, so long as he will sing; even so he
charmed me, sitting by me in the halls. He says that he is
a friend of Odysseus and of his house, one that dwells in
Crete, where is the race of Minos. Thence he has come
hither even now, with sorrow by the way, onward and yet
onward wandering; and he stands to it that he has heard
tidings of Odysseus nigh at hand and yet alive in the fat
land of the men of Thesprotia; and he is bringing many
treasures to his home.'

Then wise Penelope answered him, saying: 'Go, call him
hither, that he may speak to me face to face. But let these
men sit in the doorway and take their pleasure, or even
here in the house, since their heart is glad. For their own
wealth lies unspoiled at home, bread and sweet wine, and
thereon do their servants feed. But they resorting to our
house day by day sacrifice oxen and sheep and fat goats,
and keep revel and drink the dark wine recklessly; and, lo,
our great wealth is wasted, for there is no man now alive,
such as Odysseus was, to keep ruin from the house. Oh, if
Odysseus might come again to his own country; soon would he
and his son avenge the violence of these men!'

Even so she spake, and Telemachus sneezed loudly, and
around the roof rang wondrously. And Penelope laughed, and
straightway spake to Eumaeus winged words:

'Go, call me the stranger, even so, into my presence. Dost
thou not mark how my son has sneezed a blessing on all my

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And Odysseus of many counsels answered her saying: 'Wife
revered of Odysseus, son of Laertes, destroy not now thy
fair flesh any more, nor waste thy heart with weeping for
thy lord;--not that I count it any blame in thee, for many
a woman weeps that has lost her wedded lord, to whom she
has borne children in her love,--albeit a far other man
than Odysseus, who, they say, is like the gods. Nay, cease
from thy lamenting, and lay up my word in thy heart; for I
will tell thee without fail, and will hide nought, how but
lately I heard tell of the return of Odysseus, that he is
nigh at hand, and yet alive in the fat land of the men of
Thesprotia, and is bringing with him many choice treasures,
as he begs through the land. But he has lost his dear
companions and his hollow ship on the wine-dark sea, on his
way from the isle Thrinacia: for Zeus and Helios had a
grudge against him, because his company had slain the kine
of Helios. They for their part all perished in the wash of
the sea, but the wave cast him on the keel of the ship out
upon the coast, on the land of the Phaeacians that are near
of kin to the gods, and they did him all honour heartily as
unto a god, and gave him many gifts, and themselves would

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in the land of the Cephallenians. And now these wax
numberless; in no better wise could the breed of
broad-browed cattle of any mortal increase, even as the
ears of corn. But strangers command me to be ever driving
these for themselves to devour, and they care nothing for
the heir in the house, nor tremble at the vengeance of the
gods, for they are eager even now to divide among
themselves the possessions of our lord who is long afar.
Now my heart within my breast often revolves this thing.
Truly it were an evil deed, while a son of the master is
yet alive, to get me away to the land of strangers, and go
off, with cattle and all, to alien men. But this is more
grievous still, to abide here in affliction watching over
the herds of other men. Yea, long ago I would have fled and
gone forth to some other of the proud kings, for things are
now past sufferance; but still my thought is of that
hapless one, if he might come I know not whence, and make a
scattering of the wooers in the halls.'

Then Odysseus of many counsels answered him saying:

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they leaped up and dragged him forth through the porch,
when they had shorn off his ears and nostrils with the
pitiless sword, and then with darkened mind he bare about
with him the burden of his sin in foolishness of heart.
Thence was the feud begun between the Centaurs and mankind;
but first for himself gat he hurt, being heavy with wine.
And even so I declare great mischief unto thee if thou
shalt string the bow, for thou shalt find no courtesy at
the hand of anyone in our land, and anon we will send thee
in a black ship to Echetus, the maimer of all men, and
thence thou shalt not be saved alive. Nay then, drink at
thine ease, and strive not still with men that are younger
than thou.'

Then wise Penelope answered him: 'Antinous, truly it is not
fair nor just to rob the guests of Telemachus of their due,
whosoever he may be that comes to this house. Dost thou
think if yonder stranger strings the great bow of Odysseus,
in the pride of his might and of his strength of arm, that
he will lead me to his home and make me his wife? Nay he
himself, methinks, has no such hope in his breast; so, as

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So each one spake, for indeed they thought that Odysseus
had not slain him wilfully; but they knew not in their
folly that on their own heads, each and all of them, the
bands of death had been made fast. Then Odysseus of many
counsels looked fiercely on them, and spake:

'Ye dogs, ye said in your hearts that I should never more
come home from the land of the Trojans, in that ye wasted
my house, and lay with the maidservants by force, and
traitorously wooed my wife while I was yet alive, and ye
had no fear of the gods, that hold the wide heaven, nor of
the indignation of men hereafter. But now the bands of
death have been made fast upon you one and all.'

Even so he spake, and pale fear gat hold on the limbs of
all, and each man looked about, where he might shun utter
doom. And Eurymachus alone answered him, and spake: 'If
thou art indeed Odysseus of Ithaca, come home again, with
right thou speakest thus, of all that the Achaeans have
wrought, many infatuate deeds in thy halls and many in the

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courage, for lo, he has saved thee and delivered thee, that
thou mayst know in thy heart, and tell it even to another,
how far more excellent are good deeds than evil. But go
forth from the halls and sit down in the court apart from
the slaughter, thou and the full-voiced minstrel, till I
have accomplished all that I must needs do in the house.'

Therewith the two went forth and gat them from the hall. So
they sat down by the altar of great Zeus, peering about on
every side, still expecting death. And Odysseus peered all
through the house, to see if any man was yet alive and
hiding away to shun black fate. But he found all the sort
of them fallen in their blood in the dust, like fishes that
the fishermen have drawn forth in the meshes of the net
into a hollow of the beach from out the grey sea, and all
the fish, sore longing for the salt sea waves, are heaped
upon the sand, and the sun shines forth and takes their
life away; so now the wooers lay heaped upon each other.
Then Odysseus of many counsels spake to Telemachus:

'Telemachus, go, call me the nurse Eurycleia, that I may

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out to that end. Then I found Odysseus standing among the
slain, who around him, stretched on the hard floor, lay one
upon the other; it would have comforted thy heart to see
him, all stained like a lion with blood and soil of battle.
And now are all the wooers gathered in an heap by the gates
of the court, while he is purifying his fair house with
brimstone, and hath kindled a great fire, and hath sent me
forth to call thee. So come with me, that ye may both enter
into your heart's delight, {*} for ye have suffered much
affliction. And even now hath this thy long desire been
fulfilled; thy lord hath come alive to his own hearth, and
hath found both thee and his son in the halls; and the
wooers that wrought him evil he hath slain, every man of
them in his house.'

{* Reading [Greek] . . . [Greek].}

Then wise Penelope answered her: 'Dear nurse, boast not yet
over them with laughter. Thou knowest how welcome the sight
of him would be in the halls to all, and to me in chief,
and to his son that we got between us. But this is no true

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thee; there shows nothing of the slave about thy face and
stature, for thou art like a kingly man, even like one who
should lie soft, when he has washed and eaten well, as is
the manner of the aged. But come declare me this and
plainly tell it all. Whose thrall art thou, and whose
garden dost thou tend? Tell me moreover truly, that I may
surely know, if it be indeed to Ithaca that I am now come,
as one yonder told me who met with me but now on the way
hither. He was but of little understanding, for he deigned
not to tell me all nor to heed my saying, when I questioned
him concerning my friend, whether indeed he is yet alive or
is even now dead and within the house of Hades. For I will
declare it and do thou mark and listen: once did I kindly
entreat a man in mine own dear country, who came to our
home, and never yet has any mortal been dearer of all the
strangers that have drawn to my house from afar. He
declared him to be by lineage from out of Ithaca, and said
that his own father was Laertes son of Arceisius. So I led
him to our halls and gave him good entertainment, with all
loving-kindness, out of the plenty that was within. Such
gifts too I gave him as are the due of guests; of well