before leaving for Troy, to be her strict bodyguard.
But when divine destiny ensnared her for destruction,
then it was that Aigisthos marooned the minstrel, left him
270
on a desert island, a tasty morsel for birds of prey.
Her then he took back--both willing--to his own home.
Many thigh pieces he burned on the gods' hallowed altars,
and hung up numerous offerings, both woven and golden,
after bringing off the vile action he never hoped to achieve.3
275
"We were sailing together on our way back from Troy,
Atreus' son and myself, close friends with one another;
but when we reached sacred Sounion, the headland of Athens,
there it was that Phoibos Apollo slew Menelaos' steersman,
assailing him with his painless shafts while in his hands
280
he still held the steering oar of the speeding vessel--
Phrontis, the son of Onetor, who excelled all tribes of mankind
at steering a ship when gale-force winds were blowing.
So Menelaos put in there, though impatient to be sailing,
to bury his comrade, perform the proper rites over him.
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But when he too in his voyage over the wine-dark deep
in his hollow ships arrived off the sheer heights of Malea,
running swiftly, then far-seeing Zeus devised a way to make
his voyage disastrous: poured blasts of shrill winds on him,
swelled the waves to vast size, till they resembled mountains.
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Then he split the flotilla in two, directed some ships to Krete,
to where the Kydonians dwelt around Iardanos' streams.
There's a certain steep headland, juts sheer out into the sea,
at the frontier of Gortyn, in the mist-shrouded deep,
where southwest gales drive great waves against the headland's
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left side, toward Phaistos, and low rocks hold back the waves'
violence. Here some ships came, their crewmen barely
escaping disaster: the ships themselves were smashed
to pieces upon the reef. But the five other dark-prowed vessels
were carried away by wind and wave to Egypt.
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So Menelaos spent time there amassing goods and gold,
going to and fro in his ships among men of alien speech.
Meanwhile Aigisthos back home enacted his grim plot:
he killed Atreus' son, had the people as his subjects.
Seven years he reigned as king over golden Mykenai
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but in the eighth evil came for him--the noble Orestes,
back home from Athens, who slew his father's slayer,
the crafty Aigisthos, who'd murdered his famous father.
After he'd killed him, he held a funeral feast for the Argives
over his hateful mother and the cowardly Aigisthos,
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and that same day there arrived Menelaos of the great war cry,
with treasure galore, as much freight as his ships could carry.
"So you too, friend, should not wander over-far from home,
leaving your wealth behind you, as well as men in your house
of such arrogance, lest they share and devour your goods,
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making your journey here a mere fool's errand! But now
the man I insist on your visiting is Menelaos, for he
has lately returned from abroad, got himself back home
from a people that no one would ever hope in his heart
to return from, once great storms had driven him off course
320
into a sea so vast that migrant birds take an entire
year to travel back from it, so vast and fearsome it is!
So be off with you now, you, your ship, and your comrades--
or go overland if you'd rather: here are chariot and horses,
and here, too, are my sons, who'll accompany you as guides
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to lordly Lakedaimon, home to fair-haired Menelaos.
Appeal to him in person, to tell you the whole truth:
He won't tell you lies, he's far too sagacious." So
he spoke, and the sun went down, and darkness came on.
Among them there then spoke the goddess, grey-eyed Athene:
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"Old sir, all this that you've told us was properly conveyed.
But come now, cut up the ox tongues, and mix the wine,
so that after libations to Poseidon and the other immortals
we may turn our minds to sleep: that time has arrived.
Light's passed under darkness already, and it's not fitting
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to sit late at a feast of the gods: best to be on one's way."
So spoke the daughter of Zeus, and they paid attention to her.
Heralds now poured out water over their hands,
while young men topped up the mixing bowls with wine
and served it to them all, with drops first in each cup.4
340
The tongues they threw in the fire, then stood, and poured
libations on them. This done, when they'd drunk as much
as they felt like, then both Athene and godlike Telemachos
were eager to be on their way to the hollow ship;
but Nestor spoke persuasively, anxious to keep them there:
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"Zeus forbid, and all the other immortal gods,
that you should go back from my house to your hollow ship
as though from some indigent wretch with no spare bedclothes,
no coverlets in his home, no abundance of blankets
on which both he and his guests could sleep in comfort!
350
Here in my house are coverlets and the finest blankets,
and never shall the dear son of that fine man Odysseus
bed down on a ship's afterdeck as long as I'm alive,
and sons survive after me, are left here in my halls
to look after whatever guest-friend may come visiting."
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Then the goddess, grey-eyed Athene, responded to him, saying:
"This was well said, old friend! And it's right that Telemachos
should listen to you, since that is by far the better way.
So he'll stay with you tonight, sleep on a bed in your house;
but I shall take myself off to our black ship,
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cheer our companions, tell them all the news.
For I think I'm the only older person among them:
the rest are younger men, who came with him as friends,
all about the same age as great-hearted Telemachos.
It's there I shall lie tonight, by the hollow black ship;
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then tomorrow morning I'll be off to the great-hearted
Kaukonians, where there's a debt owed to me, neither recent
nor small. But you send this young man, your visiting guest,
on his way in a chariot, along with your son, and give him
horses as well, your lightest runners, your best for strength."
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So saying, the grey-eyed goddess Athene went on her way
in the likeness of a sea eagle: all who saw it were astounded,
including old Nestor, who marveled at what his eyes beheld,
and he clasped Telemachos' hand, and said to him: "Friend,
I hardly think you'll turn out a mean fellow or a coward
375
if indeed when you're so young the gods act as your escorts!
For this was none other of those whose homes are on Olympos
than Zeus' own true-born daughter, maiden most glorious, who
likewise honored your noble fat
her among the Argives!
Be gracious to me, my queen, grant me high renown
380
for myself, for my sons, and for my revered bedfellow,
and to you in return I'll sacrifice a yearling heifer, broad-browed,
still unbroken, that no man has yet led under the yoke:
that's the one I shall sacrifice, and gild her horns with gold."
So he spoke in prayer, and Pallas Athene heard him.
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Now Nestor, Gerenian horseman, led them, with his sons
and his daughters' husbands, to his splendid domain,
and when they reached the renowned domain of the king,
they sat down there in order on the chairs and benches.
When all of them were settled, the old man mixed them a bowl
390
of delicious wine, which was in its eleventh year
when the housekeeper broke its seal and opened the jar.
This wine the old man mixed, with many prayers, as he poured
libations to Athene, daughter of Zeus of the aegis.
When they'd poured libations, and drunk all they'd a mind to,
395
they went to lie down and sleep, each one in his own dwelling.
But Nestor, Gerenian horseman, kept Telemachos, the dear son
of godlike Odysseus, to sleep there, settling him down
on a corded bedstead out in the echoing portico,
and with him Peisistratos, of the good ash spear, a leader
400
of men, a still unmarried son of his in the halls,
while he himself took his repose in the high house's inmost room,
and beside him his lady wife now shared their bed and marriage.
When Dawn appeared, early risen and rosy-fingered,
Nestor, Gerenian horseman, rose from his bed, went out,
405
and sat himself down on one of the polished stone blocks
that stood outside his high entrance doors, bright white
with a gleam as of oil. This was the place where in time past
Neleus would sit, a counselor as prestigious as any god;
but he'd long since succumbed to fate, gone down to Hades,
410
and now Gerenian Nestor, the Achaians' guardian, sat there,
scepter in hand, and around him a crowd of his sons gathered,
coming out from their bedrooms: Echephron, Stratios,
Perseus, Aretos, and--a match for a god--Thrasymedes;
then, sixth after these, the hero Peisistratos followed,
415
beside whom they brought in and seated godlike Telemachos.
Nestor, Gerenian horseman, was the first to speak among them:
"Quickly now, my dear children, help realize my desire--
that very first of all deities I may propitiate Athene,
who came, clearly manifest, to our rich feast for the god!
420
So let one man go to the plain for a heifer, making sure
that it comes here right away, with its cowherd driving it;
and another to the black ship of great-hearted Telemachos,
to fetch all his comrades, leaving there two men only;
and another again to send here the goldsmith Laerkes,
425
to overlay the horns of the heifer with gold. You others
are all to stay here, and issue instructions to my servants
that they should make ready a feast in my far-famed halls,
and bring in more chairs and firewood and clear bright water."
So he spoke, and they all bustled busily. The heifer arrived
430
from the plain, and, from their swift trim vessel, great-hearted
Telemachos' comrades showed up. The smith came too
bringing his bronze tools, the essentials of his trade:
anvil and hammer and finely fashioned tongs
with which he worked the gold. Athene likewise came
435
to be there at the sacrifice. Then Nestor, old chariot driver,
gave the smith gold: he prepared it, overlaid the heifer's horns,
that the goddess might rejoice at the sight of her offering.
and Aretos, bringing out water in a flower-decked basin,
440
came from the inner chamber, in his other hand a basket
of barley-grain; Thrasymedes, that doughty fighter, stood by,
a sharp axe in his hand with which to fell the heifer,
while Perseus readied the blood bowl. Nestor, old chariot driver,
began with the lustral water and sprinkling of barley, offered
445
long prayers to Athene, threw the victim's cut hairs in the fire.
When they'd prayed, and scattered the barley grains, then at once
Nestor's son, high-spirited Thrasymedes, stepped
forward and struck. His axe sheared through the neck's tendons,
undid the strength of the heifer. The women keened:
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the daughters, the sons' wives, Nestor's revered
bedfellow Eurydike, the eldest of Klymenos' daughters.
The men now raised the victim from the wide-wayed earth
and held it; Peisistratos, leader of men, cut its throat.
When the black blood had flowed from it, and life had left its bones,
455
at once they dismembered it, chopped out the thigh pieces
all in due order, then covered them with a layer of fat
folded double, laid raw bits of meat upon them. Then
the old man roasted them over split billets, drizzled with bright
wine, and young men beside him held their five-pronged forks.
460
When the thighs were properly barbecued, and they'd had a taste
of the innards, they cut up the rest and roasted it on spits
until it was done through, held the pointed spits in their hands.
Telemachos meanwhile was bathed by beautiful Polykaste,
the youngest daughter of Nestor, Neleus' son; and after
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she'd bathed him, and massaged him generously with oil,
and dressed him in a fine mantle and tunic, he came forth
from the bathtub in appearance like the immortals, and went
and seated himself by Nestor, the shepherd of his people.
When the outer flesh was well roasted they drew it off the spits,
470
and sat down and feasted; good fellows waited on them,
pouring the wine out for them into golden goblets.
But when they had satisfied their desire for food and drink,
Nestor, Gerenian horseman, was the first to speak among them:
"Come, my sons, harness up our fine-maned horses to
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the chariot for Telemachos, so he can start his journey."
So he spoke, and they hearkened promptly, and obeyed him:
at once to the chariot they harnessed the swift horses,
and the housekeeper put in the chariot bread and wine
and cooked meat, such as princes, Zeus' nurslings, feed upon.
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Then Telemachos climbed aboard the elegant chariot,
And Nestor's son Peisistratos, leader of men,
mounted beside him, took the reins in his hands, and used
the whip to start the pair: they, nothing loath, sped off
onto the plain, abandoning Pylos' steep citadel,
485
and all day shook the yoke that spanned their shoulders.
Then the sun went down, and all the ways were in shadow,
and they came to Pherai, to the dwelling of Diokles
the son of Ortilochos, whom Alpheios sired as his offspring,
and s
pent the night there; he treated them as guest-friends.
490
When Dawn appeared, early risen and rosy-fingered,
they yoked the horses, boarded the inlaid chariot,
drove out from the courtyard and echoing portico, used