Homer, Odyssey

§ 13.255 always applying the very wily mind in his chest: “I heard of Ithaca even in wide Crete, far away over the sea. Now I've even come myself with these possessions. I left just as many with my children and fled, after I killed the dear son of Idomeneus,

§ 13.260 swift-of-foot Orsilochus, who in wide Crete defeated with his fast feet men who work for bread, because he wanted to rob me of all my Trojan booty, for which I suffered sorrows in my heart, cutting through men's wars and painful waves,

§ 13.265 because I wouldn't please his father and serve as his cohort in the Trojan kingdom, but led others as my comrades. I struck him with my bronze-tipped spear as he came down from the fields, in ambush with a comrade near the road. A very dark night shrouded heaven, and no man

§ 13.270 saw us, as, unnoticed, I took away his life. Then after I killed him with sharp bronze, I went at once to a ship, begged illustrious Phoenicians, and gave booty satisfactory to them. I bid them take me aboard and set me down in Pylos

§ 13.275 or in divine Elis where the Epeians have power. But, indeed, the wind's force pushed them away from there much against their will, and they didn't want to deceive me, but, made to wander from there, we reached here at night. In haste we rowed into the harbor, and none of us had any

§ 13.280 thought of dinner, though they very much needed to take it, but getting out of the ship as we were, all of us lay down. Then sweet sleep came upon me in my weariness, and they took my possessions from the hollow ship and set them down right where I myself lay on the sand.

§ 13.285 They got aboard and went to well-inhabited Sidon, but I was left behind, grieving in my heart.” So said he, and bright-eyed goddess Athena smiled and caressed him with her hand. She appeared in the form of a beautiful tall woman skilled in splendid works.

§ 13.290 And, voicing winged words, she said to him: “He'd have to be thievish and cunning to surpass you in all your wiles, even if it were a god who met you. Reckless one, intricate plotter, insatiable in your wiles, you wouldn't, even in your own land, forgo your frauds

§ 13.295 and thievish words, that are, from the ground up, dear to you. But come, let's talk of this no longer. Both of us know cunning arts, since you're by far the best among all mortals in speeches and in counsel, while among all the gods I'm celebrated for cunning arts and wisdom. Yet you didn't recognize

§ 13.300 Pallas Athena, the daughter of Zeus, who's ever by your side, and guards you in all your labors, and made you dear to all Phaeacians. Now here I've come again, to weave a plan with you, and to hide your possessions, the ones the illustrious Phaeacians

§ 13.305 sent with you on your way homeward, by my plan and idea, and to tell you how many troubles it's your fate to endure in your well-built house. You must endure it, too, by necessity, and not speak out to any of them all, neither man nor woman, to the effect that you've come back from wandering, but you must

§ 13.310 in silence suffer many sorrows, submitting to the violence of men. Adroit Odysseus said to her in reply: It's hard for a mortal, even a very knowing one, to recognize you, goddess, when he meets you, for you make yourself look like everything. But I know this well, that you were kind to me before,

§ 13.315 when we sons of the Achaeans warred in Troy. Then after we sacked Priam's lofty city and went off in our ships, a god scattered the Achaeans. I didn't see you then, daughter of Zeus, nor did I notice you come aboard my ship to ward off some sorrow from me.

§ 13.320 Instead, I wandered, ever holding my torn heart in my mind, until the gods freed me from evil, until you, in the rich Phaeacian kingdom, encouraged me with your words and led me yourself to their city. Now I supplicate you before your father'for I don't think

§ 13.325 I've come to clear Ithaca, but find myself in another land, and I think you're making fun of me, telling me these things to beguile my mind' tell me if I've truly reached my beloved fatherland.” Then bright-eyed goddess Athena answered him:

§ 13.330 “You always have such thoughts in your chest, therefore I can't leave you, unhappy as you are, because you're well-mannered, keen-witted, and discreet. For gladly would another man, come from wandering, hasten to see his wife and children in his palace,

§ 13.335 but it's not yet dear to you to learn or to find out until you've tested your wife, who indeed sits as before in your palace, and forever for her, unhappy days and nights pass by as she sheds tears. But I never doubted it, instead, in my heart

§ 13.340 I knew that you'd return after losing all your comrades. But I didn't want to fight with Poseidon, my father's brother, who put resentment in his heart for you, enraged that you blinded his beloved son. But come, I'll show you the seat of Ithaca, so you'll believe me.

§ 13.345 This is the harbor of Phorcys, the old man of the sea, and this the long-leaved olive tree at the harbor's head and near it a pleasant dusky cave, sacred to the nymphs who are called Naiads. This is the wide cave with the vaulted roof where you offered

§ 13.350 many perfect hecatombs to nymphs, and this is Neriton, a mountain clothed in forest.” So saying, the goddess scattered the mist and the land appeared. Long-suffering divine Odysseus was glad then, rejoicing in his land, and kissed the grain-giving ground.

§ 13.355 Lifting up his arms, he prayed immediately to the nymphs: “ Naiad nymphs, daughters of Zeus, I never thought I'd see you again. I greet you now with gentle prayers. And we'll give you gifts, too, just as before, if Zeus's daughter who grants spoils graciously allows

§ 13.360 me to go on living and nurtures my dear son.” Bright-eyed goddess Athena said back to him: “Take heart, don't let these things concern your mind, instead, let's put your possessions right now in a corner of the marvelous cave so they'll stay safe for you,

§ 13.365 then let ourselves consider how things best by far may happen.” So saying, the goddess entered the shadowy cave, searching through the cave for hiding places. Then Odysseus brought everything near, the gold and indestructible bronze and the well-made raiment the Phaeacians gave him,

§ 13.370 and stowed it well away. Then Aegis-bearer Zeus's daughter Pallas Athena placed a stone as a door. The two sat down beside the base of the sacred olive tree and planned destruction for the haughty suitors. Bright-eyed goddess Athena was the first of them to speak:

§ 13.375 “ Zeus -born Laertiades, resourceful Odysseus, consider how to lay your hands upon the shameless suitors, who for the past three years have ruled throughout your hall, wooing your godlike wife, and giving her bride gifts. Yet she ever mourns in her heart for your return

§ 13.380 while she offers hope to all and makes promises to each man, sending messages, but her mind is intent on other things. Adroit Odysseus said to her in reply: “Hmmm. Very surely, I was going to perish in my palace by the evil fate of Atreides Agamemnon,

§ 13.385 if you, goddess, hadn't duly told me every thing. But come, weave a plan, how I can take revenge on them, then stand yourself beside me and put dauntless courage in me, just as when we destroyed the sleek battlements of Troy. If you'd as eagerly stand by me, bright-eyes,

§ 13.390 I'd do battle, even with three hundred men, along with you, lady goddess, if you'd help me zealously. Then bright-eyed goddess Athena answered him: “In truth, I will be with you and I won't forget you when we labor at these things. And I think some

§ 13.395 will spatter the ground unspeakably with blood and brain, some of the suitor men, who devour your substance. But come, I'll make you unrecognizable to all mortals. I'll shrivel the beautiful flesh on your supple limbs, destroy the blond hair from your head, and dress you in tatters

§ 13.400 so the man who sees you wearing them will loathe you. I'll deform your eyes, that were gorgeous before, so you'll look despicable to all the suitors and to your wife and son, whom you left in your palace. First of all, you yourself go to the swineherd

§ 13.405 who's the guardian of your pigs, thinks so kindly of you, and loves your son and discreet Penelope. You'll find him sitting by his pigs, who are feeding by the rock of Corax and at Arethusa spring, eating many tasty acorns and drinking the black water,

§ 13.410 things that, for pigs, thicken their luxuriant lard. Stay there, and sit beside him, and ask about everything, while I go to Sparta where the women are beautiful and summon Telemachus, your beloved son, Odysseus, who went to spacious Lacedaemon, to Menelaus,

§ 13.415 to find out news of you, whether you were still anywhere alive.” Adroit Odysseus said to her in reply: “Why didn't you tell him, you who in your mind know all? Perhaps it was so he'd too suffer sorrows, wandering on the barren sea, while others ate his substance?”

§ 13.420 Then bright-eyed goddess Athena answered him: “Don't let him be too much on your mind. I myself escorted him, so he win good fame by going there. So he has no hard work, but sits at ease in the house of Atreides, and abundance lies beside him.

§ 13.425 Yes, young men wait in ambush in a black ship, eager to kill him before he reaches his fatherland, but I don't expect that at all. Rather, the earth will cover some of the suitor men, who devour your substance.” So saying, Athena touched him with her wand.

§ 13.430 She shriveled the beautiful flesh on his supple limbs, destroyed the blond hair from his head, and placed about all his limbs the skin of an aged old man. She deformed his eyes, that were gorgeous before, then threw about him a rag, a different, foul one, and a tunic,

§ 13.435 tattered, filthy things, soiled with foul smoke. She dressed the hide of a swift deer, stripped of hair, about him, then gave him a staff and an unseemly pouch, full of holes. A twisted cord was on it as a strap. So the two plotted and parted. She then

§ 13.440 went to divine Lacedaemon, after the son of Odysseus.

§ 14.1 BOOK 14 Then he proceeded from the harbor along a rugged path, up wooded country, through the hilltops, where Athena had shown him the divine swineherd, who cared the most for his substance of the servants divine Odysseus had acquired.

§ 14.5 He found him sitting on the porch, where his high yard was built, in a place with a view all around, big and fine, with a walk around it. The swineherd himself had built it for the pigs of his lord who'd gone away, without help from his mistress and old man Laertes,

§ 14.10 of quarried stones, and he'd finished the top with prickly shrubs. Outside he'd driven stakes throughout, this way and that, thick and close together, by splitting the black part of oak, and inside the yard he made twelve pigpens, next to each other, as beds for the pigs. In each one

§ 14.15 fifty pigs that sleep on the ground were penned, breeding females. The males slept outside, far fewer of them, for the godlike suitors ate them and reduced their number, since the swineherd was always sending them the best of all the well-fed fattened hogs.

§ 14.20 There were three hundred and sixty of them. Four dogs that were like wild beasts always slept beside them, that the swineherd, a leader of men, had raised. He himself was fitting sandals about his feet, cutting a fine-colored oxhide. While the others, three of them,

§ 14.25 were going one place and another with the herded pigs, he'd sent the fourth off to the city to lead a pig to the haughty suitors, by necessity, so they could sacrifice it and satisfy their appetite with meat. Suddenly, the barking dogs saw Odysseus.

§ 14.30 They rushed at him with a loud cry, but Odysseus sat down with cunning and the staff fell out of his hand. Then he would have suffered mean sorrow beside his own farmhouse, but the swineherd, following quickly on swift feet, rushed through the gateway, and the hide fell out of his hand.

§ 14.35 He shouted at the dogs and shooed them one place and another with thick showers of stones. Then he said to his lord: “Old man, yes, the dogs almost tore you to pieces suddenly, and you would have poured reproaches on me! And the gods have given me other groans and sorrows.

§ 14.40 For I sit grieving and mourning my godlike lord and raise pigs, fat hogs, for others to eat, but he, perhaps, longs for food and wanders to the kingdom and city of men of another language, if he's still alive somewhere and sees the sun's light.

§ 14.45 But come, old man, let's go to my hut, so you yourself can satisfy your appetite with food and wine and tell me where you're from and what troubles you've endured.” So saying, the divine swineherd led him to his hut, brought him inside, strew bushy brushwood,

§ 14.50 and spread on it the hide of a shaggy wild goat, big and thick with hair, his own place to sleep. Odysseus was glad that he welcomed him so, and called out his name and said: “Stranger, may Zeus and the other immortal gods grant you whatever you most want, since you've earnestly welcomed me.”

§ 14.55 Swineherd Eumaeus, you said to him in reply: “Stranger, I have no right, even if one worse than you came, to dishonor a stranger, for all strangers and beggars are from Zeus, and become our gift, both small and welcome. For this is the custom of slaves,

§ 14.60 ever fearful when lords who are new rule over them. For the gods have tied down the return home of the one who would have loved me kindly and given me property, such as a generous lord gives to his servant, a house, a plot of land, and a wife wooed by many,

§ 14.65 who works hard for him and whose work god makes prosper, as even this work of mine prospers, in which I continue. So, my lord would have much blessed me, if he'd grown old right here, but he perished, as I wish the clan of Helen had perished, on its knees, since she collapsed the knees of many men.

§ 14.70 For that one went, too, for the sake of Agamemnon's honor, to well-foaled Ilium, to battle with the Trojans.” So saying, he quickly fastened his tunic together with his belt and made his way to the pigpens, where herds of young pigs were penned. Choosing two from there, he brought and slaughtered both of them,

§ 14.75 singed them, cut them up, and pierced them with spits at both ends. When he'd roasted it all, he brought it and placed it before Odysseus, hot on the spits themselves. He then sprinkled white barley groats. He mixed honey-sweet wine in a wooden cup, sat himself opposite Odysseus, and urging him on, said to him:

§ 14.80 “Eat now, stranger, what's available to slaves, young pigs. But the fattened hogs are the pigs the suitors eat, heedless in their minds to divine vengeance or even mercy. The blessed gods do not love reckless deeds, they value justice and men's righteous deeds instead.

§ 14.85 And yet, hostile men and enemies, who go to a foreign land, Zeus may grant booty even to them, when they fill their ships and make their way back home, and yet, great terror of divine vengeance falls even in their minds. These men here surely know, have heard some voice of a god,

§ 14.90 of that one's wretched destruction, so they don't want to woo the right way or go back to their own homes, but at their ease they haughtily devour our possessions, and there's no avoiding waste. For as many days and nights as there are from Zeus, they never sacrifice one victim, or even only two,

§ 14.95 and they haughtily draw out and waste the wine. For he had untold substance. No hero man had so much, neither on the black mainland nor in Ithaca itself. Not even twenty men together have wealth so great, and I'll recount it for you.

§ 14.100 Twelve herds of cattle on the mainland, as many flocks of sheep, as many herds of pigs, as many wide herds of goats. Herdsmen men, foreign and his own, tend them. Here, wide herds of goats, eleven in all, graze at the border, and good men watch over them.

§ 14.105 Each of them always brings a goat a day for the suitors, whichever of the well-fed goats seems best. But I watch over and protect these pigs, and I choose carefully the best one of the pigs and send it off to them.” So said he, and Odysseus gratefully ate meat and drank wine,

§ 14.110 ravenously in silence, as he planted evils for the suitors. Then after he'd dined and satisfied his appetite with food, Eumaeus filled the cup with which he drank and gave it to him, quite full of wine. He accepted it and was glad at heart, and, voicing winged words, he said to him:

§ 14.115 “Friend, who bought you with his own possessions, one so very rich and mighty as you say? You say he perished for the sake of Agamemnon's honor. Tell me, in case I somewhere knew such a one as he is. For Zeus, I guess, and the other gods immortal know it,

§ 14.120 if I've seen him and can give you news, as I've roamed to many places.” Then the swineherd, a leader of men, answered him: “Old man, no man that comes here as a wanderer and reports about that one would persuade his wife and beloved son, but on the contrary, vagabond men, in need of support,

§ 14.125 tell lies, and aren't even willing to tell stories that are true. Whoever in his wandering comes to the kingdom of Ithaca goes to my mistress and tells his lying tales. She receives him well, and welcomes him, and asks him every thing, and tears fall from her eyelids as she wails,

§ 14.130 which is a woman's custom when her husband dies elsewhere. You too, old man, would quickly alter your story, if someone were to give you both a cloak and tunic as clothing. By now, dogs and swift birds of prey must have pulled the skin off his bones, and his soul has left him.

§ 14.135 Or, on the sea, fish ate him, and his bones lie on the mainland, wrapped in lots of sand. So he's died there, and troubles have been prepared for his dear ones hereafter, all of them, but especially for me, for I'll never find another lord this gentle, wherever I may go,

§ 14.140 not even if I went back to the house of my father and mother, where I was first born and they themselves raised me. Yet, indeed, I don't still mourn for them, despite my longing to see them with my eyes and be in my fatherland, but longing for Odysseus seizes me, though he's gone.

§ 14.145 Even though he's not here, stranger, I'm ashamed to say his name, for he loved and cared about me with his heart, instead, I call him'master' even though he's absent.” Long-suffering divine Odysseus said back to him: “Friend, since you now completely deny it and no longer imagine

§ 14.150 that that one will come, your heart is ever untrusting. But I won't merely tell you, but with an oath, that Odysseus is coming home. Let me have a reward for good news as soon as he comes and reaches his home: dress me in fine clothing, both a cloak and tunic.

§ 14.155 I'd accept nothing before then, despite being very much in need, for that one's as hateful to me as the gates of Hades who, yielding to poverty, tells lying tales. Let Zeus now witness it first, and the guest table of the gods, and the hearth of noble Odysseus, to which I've come.

§ 14.160 Yes, indeed, all this is being done as I say. Odysseus will come here within this very year. As some month ends and one begins, he'll come home and avenge himself on whoever here dishonors his wife and brilliant son!”

§ 14.165 Swineherd Eumaeus, you said to him in reply: “Old man, neither will pay you a reward for good news nor will Odysseus ever come home. But drink at your ease, and let's think of other things, but don't remind me of these things, for, indeed, the heart in my chest

§ 14.170 grieves whenever anyone mentions my loving master. So we'll let your oath be, but would that Odysseus come, as I wish, and Penelope, and old man Laertes, and godlike Telemachus. Now I mourn again, without forgetting, the son Odysseus fathered,

§ 14.175 Telemachus. After the gods made him shoot up like a young sprout, and I imagined that among men he'd be in no way inferior to his beloved father, admirable in form and appearance, some immortal, or some man, disabled the balanced mind within him, and he went after news of his father,

§ 14.180 to sacred Pylos. The illustrious suitors wait in ambush for him as he comes home, so the clan of godlike Arceisius might perish, without a name, from Ithaca. But, yes, let's let him be. He'll either be captured or escape, should Cronion hold out his hand to him.

§ 14.185 But come, old man, tell me your own troubles, and speak this truly to me, so I may know it well. What man and from where are you? Where are your city and parents? In what kind of ship did you arrive and how did sailors bring you to Ithaca? Who did they claim to be?

§ 14.190 For I don't at all think you reached here on foot.” Adroit Odysseus said to him in reply: “Therefore, I'll tell you these things very exactly. If now the two of us had food and sweet wine, for the time while we're inside the hut,

§ 14.195 to dine on quietly, as others attended to work, then I could easily go on, even a whole year, and not at all finish telling the troubles of my heart, that I suffered, each and every one, by the will of the gods. I claim my race is from wide Crete.

§ 14.200 I'm a rich man's son, and many other sons were also born and bred in his palace, lawful ones by his wife. A bought mother gave birth to me, a concubine, but he honored me as equal to his legitimate sons, did Castor Hylacides, whose stock I claim to be,

§ 14.205 who was honored as a god then among the Cretans, for the kingdom's happiness and riches, and his gloried sons. But, yes, death's agents came and carried him to the house of Hades. His high-spirited sons divided his estate and cast lots for it,

§ 14.210 then gave me very little and allotted me a house. I married a woman, of men who had much land, on account of my virtue, since I wasn't unsagacious nor one who fled in war. All has left me by now, but nonetheless, I think you can look at the stubble

§ 14.215 and know it. For, yes, exceedingly great misery holds me. Yes, Ares and Athena gave me courage and strength to break through battle lines. Whenever I chose the best men for an ambush and planted evils for enemies, my manly heart never foresaw death for me,

§ 14.220 but by far the first of all I'd spring upon and take with my spear whoever of the enemy men yielded to my feet. Such was I in war, but farmwork was not dear to me, nor managing a house that raises splendid children, but always dear to me were ships with oars,

§ 14.225 and wars, and well-polished javelins, and arrows, wretched things, that, for others, make one shudder, but ones a god put in my heart, I guess, ones that were dear to me, for another man delights in other other deeds. For before the sons of the Achaeans set foot on Troy,

§ 14.230 I'd led men and swift-sailing ships nine times against foreign men, and very many things fell to me, from which I picked out many choice ones, and many later came to me by lot. My house soon prospered, and thereafter I became feared and revered among the Cretans.

§ 14.235 But when far-seeing Zeus at last devised that loathsome journey, that collapsed the knees of many men, at that time they ordered me and renowned Idomeneus to lead our ships to Ilium. And there was no way to refuse. The hard talk of the kingdom held fast.

§ 14.240 For nine years we sons of the Achaeans warred there, and in the tenth we sacked Priam's city and went homeward with our ships, but god scattered the Achaeans. But for wretched me Zeus the contriver contrived evils. For I stayed only a month delighting in my children,

§ 14.245 my wedded wife, and my property. Then after that my heart urged me sail to Egypt, once I'd carefully outfitted my ships, with my godlike comrades. I outfitted nine ships, and the men quickly gathered on them. For six days afterward my trusty comrades

§ 14.250 dined. Then I provided many victims, to sacrifice to the gods and for them to make a feast. On the seventh we got aboard and sailed away from wide Crete, with North Wind, a fine wind blowing strongly, sailing easily, as if downstream, nor did any of my ships

§ 14.255 suffer harm, but unscathed and without illness we sat, and wind and pilots steered them. On the fifth day we reached fair-flowing Egypt, and I moored my double-curved ships in river Egypt. Then, yes, indeed, I bid my trusty comrades

§ 14.260 to stay where they were beside the ships and protect the ships, and I sent scouts to make their way to look-outs. But yielding to wanton violence, giving in to their own fury, they very suddenly ravaged the gorgeous fields of Egyptian men, led out the women and young children,

§ 14.265 and killed them. The outcry soon reached the city. The others heard the cry and came with dawn's appearance. The entire plain was filled with infantry, and horses, and the glare of bronze. Lightning-hurler Zeus cast evil panic in my comrades, and no one dared

§ 14.270 to stay fast face-to-face, for evils from all sides surrounded them. Then they killed many of us with sharp bronze, and led away the living, to do forced labor for them. Then in this way Zeus himself made a thought in my mind'how I would have died and met my fate

§ 14.275 there in Egypt, for sorrow surely still awaited me! At once I took my well-made helmet off my head and my shield from my shoulders, and dropped the spear from my hand. Then I went to face the king at his horses, and I grasped and kissed his knees. He was merciful and saved me,

§ 14.280 sat me in his chariot, and brought me to his home as I shed tears. Yes, very many came at me with ash spears, eager to kill me, for they were now extremely angry, but he kept them off, and held in awe the wrath of Zeus, the god of strangers, who is the one most outraged at evil deeds.

§ 14.285 Then I stayed right there for seven years, and gathered much wealth among Egyptian men, for each and every one gave to me. But when at last the eighth year, in its turning, came to me, a Phoenician came then, a man expert in lying tales, a gnawer, who'd done many evils to men,

§ 14.290 who won me over with his mind and led me, so we went to Phoenicia, where his home and possessions lay. I stayed there beside him for a full year, but when at last days and months came to an end, a year came round again, and seasons arrived,

§ 14.295 he put me on a seafaring ship to Libya, falsely advising me that I'd be bringing back cargo with him, but so he could sell me there and get an untold price for me. So I went on his ship, despite my suspicions, of necessity. She ran with North Wind, a fine wind blowing strongly,

§ 14.300 above the middle of Crete, as Zeus intended their destruction. But when we'd left Crete, and no other land appeared, only sea and sky, right then Cronion set a dark cloud above our hollow ship and the sea grew dark beneath it.

§ 14.305 Zeus thundered and at the same time hurled lightning at the ship, which shook all over, struck by the thunderbolt of Zeus, and was filled with sulfur. All of them fell out of the ship, and, like sea- crows, they were borne around the ship by waves, and the god took away their return home.