Book III

Now uprose the Sun, and leaving the exceeding lovely mere
Fared up to the brazen heaven, to the Deathless shining clear,
And unto deathful men on the corn-kind earth that dwell.
But they came to the Burg of Neleus, e'en Pylos builded well,
And there on the shore of the sea-flood deeds holy did men do;
To the dark-blue haired Earth-shaker bulls spotless black they slew.
Nine seats of men there were, and five hundred sat in each band,
And for every band of the men nine bulls were held in hand;
And now were they tasting the inwards, and to God were burning the thigh,
When those fellows ran on the beach and brailed the sails on high,
And moored the shapely ship and went thenceforth ashore.
So aland was Telemachus wending, and Athene went before;
And thus as they went, to him-ward the speech of the Grey-eyed came:

"Telemachus, thee it behoveth no longer, the shrinking and shame,
Since for this hast thou sailed the sea flood, that tidings thou might'st get
Of thy father, what earth may hide him, or what is the doom he hath met
So go thou straight unto Nestor, the tamer of the steed,
That we learn what his bosom hoardeth of good and helpful rede.
But do thou thyself beseech him that he speak straight words to thce;

For no lying speech will he make us, so exceeding wise is he."
But Telemachus the heedful in answer spake the word:
"What wise shall I go, O Mentor? what wise shall I greet the lord?
For as yet in all words of wisdom am I untried and weak;
And well may a youngling be shamefaced, if speech of an elder he seek."

But the Goddess, the Grey-eyed Athene, to him thus answered and spake:
"Telemachus, some words surely the thought in thine heart shall make,
And some the Gods shall give thee: for this of thee I wot,
That against the will of the Godfolk thy birth and thy life were not."

So spake Pallas Athene, and swift the way she led,
And after the feet of the Goddess his footsteps forth he sped.
And they went to the Pylian Meeting and unto the Pylian seats,
Where Nestor sat with his sons, and around were they dighting the meats,
And some deal of the flesh were they roasting, and some were they spitting through;
But when they beheld the strangers, about them thronging they drew,
And took their hands in greeting, and bade them sit thereby.
But Pisistratus, son of Nestor, it was he that first drew nigh,
And seated the twain at the feast when of each he had taken the hand,
And on soft-wooled fleeces he set them adown on the sea-washed sand,
By his brother Thrasymedes, and by his father old;
And he gave them share of the inwards, and filled the cup of gold
With wine; and with outstretched right hand he hailed Athene the Maid,
The daughter of Zeus the Shielded, and therewithal he said:
"Pour out, O guest, O stranger, to Poseidon lord and king,
For his feast it is ye have happed on thus hither wandering;
But when thou hast poured and hast prayed, as-the wont is right and meet,
Then give the cup to this other, that the good wine honey-sweet
He too may pour; for meseemeth he too with the Deathless doth deal:
For all sons of men to the Godfolk have need to crave for weal.
But whereas he is the younger, and his age is like unto mine,
Unto thee the first do I give it, the golden cup of wine."
The wine that was sweet in the cup he set in her hand as he spake,
And Athene rejoiced in the man for his wisdom and justice' sake,
Because unto her the first the golden cup he gave.
Then she prayed a great prayer to Poseidon, the king and lord of the wave:
"O Poseidon, O Earth-shaker, hearken! nor grudge unto us that pray,
Nor yet to the deeds that we crave thee fulfilling-tide gainsay!
To Nestor first and his sons give thou glory to befall;
And give good and kindly guerdon to these Pylians one and all,
For their gifts an hundred-folded all glorious with goodwill
But to me and Telemachus give it our journey's end to fulfil,
And the thing that we sailed for hither in a black ship over the sea." should be,

So she spake and she prayed; and fulfilled it, the thing that she prayed
But unto Telemachus straightway she gave the twofold cup,
And the loved son of Odysseus like her the prayer sent up.

But when they had roasted the out-flesh and drawn off from the spits the
Then round about they dealt it for a goodly feast and great,
And when yearning for meat and for drink they had utterly done away, meat,
Then the Rider, Gerenian Nestor, to the guest-folk fell to say:
"Now is the time more fitting that we ask of guests to tell
What and of whence they may be, since now they have eaten well.
What are ye, guests? whence coming o'er the wet ways do ye go?
Are ye about a business, or fare ye to and fro
As the strong thieves of the waters, that waste and wander, and stake
Their very lives on the hazard, as the aliens' bale they make?"
But Telemachus the heedful thus answered for his part:
And bold he spake, for Athene set boldness in his heart,
That he might crave him tidings of his father wandering wide,
And withal that his fame and his glory mid the sons of men might abide:
"O Nestor, O son of Neleus, great grace of Achæan men,
Thou askest of whence we are wending, and straight out will I tell thee again:
From the Ithacan land, that lieth under Neion, do we fare,
And our own and no all-folk's matter is that which I declare:
For some wide-spread tale of my father I would gather and bear away,
Of the hapless, glorious Odysseus. Time was, as all men say,
That with him ye were warring and wasting the Troy-folk's city great:
Now of them that fought with the Troy-folk, of all others we know the fate,
And where and how they perished, each man by woful weird;
But for him, the Son of Cronos hath hid his doom unheard,
Nor can any tell me clearly of the place where my father fell,
Whether it were on the mainland that the foe his life did quell,
Or by Amphitrite's billows in the deep sea drowned he lay.
So now to thy knees I betake me, if thou hast goodwill to say
What wise was his woful death-day, if thou saw'st it with thine eyes,
Or from any other wanderer hast heard the tale arise.
— This man, his mother bore him to most exceeding woe —
But have no respect of my sorrow nor be soft and soothing now,
But tell all out unto me, in what wise the man thou hast seen.
And I pray thee, if ever my father, the good Odysseus, hath been,
As good as his word unto thee of the thing that he promised to do,
Amid the Folk of the Trojans, the land of Achæan woe,
Of these things for me be mindful, and speak out straight and plain."
But the Rider of Gerenia, old Nestor, answered again:
"O friend, since thou bringest to mind the grief that we bore of old
In that Folk, we sons of Achæans, of mood unbridled and bold;
Whatever of grief in our ships on the darkling sea we won,
When after the spoil we wandered as Achilles led us on,
All the grief that about the great City of Priam the King we bare,
As there we fought and there perished all those that the doughtiest were.
For there fell Ajax the champion, and there Achilles lies,
And there Patroclus lieth as the Gods in council wise: no
And there lieth the brave and the blameless, Antilochus my son,
A warrior midst the warriors, most swift of foot to run.
And many things else most grievous to us in that land befel;
Yea, who of men that are mortal the tale thereof may tell
Nor if thou wert here abiding for five, for six years more,
Wouldst thou have out the tale of the troubles that the great Achæans bore.
Before the story's ending would'st thou hie thee sorrowing home.
"Nine years we lay hard upon them, and wove them baleful doom
With many a wile, and hardly would Zeus the deed fulfil.
But to equal himself against that man in redes none had the will,
For in every wile and cunning he had the foremost part,
Thy father, the glorious Odysseus, if indeed his son thou art.
And for me, amazement holds me as I look on thce to-day;
For thy speech is e'en as his speech, nor yet could any man say
That a youngling's speech to an elder's could be so like and nigh.
"Now all the while we abode there, the glorious Odysseus and I,
Never in meeting or council did we speak a diverse rede,
But with one mind together, with wit and wisdom indeed,
Of their matter we counselled the Argives how best to bring it about.
But when the steep city of Priam with war we had wasted out
Ashipboard we went, and the Gods the Achæans sundered apart,
And a woful return for the Argives did Zeus devise in his heart;

Since not all men amongst us were wise-heart men and true;
Ill doom from a deadly anger a many on them drew,
The wrath of the Grey-eyed Goddess, the awful Father's Maid,
Who betwixt those sons of Atreus the strife and the anger laid.

"For those twain, they called to the Meeting the Achæans every one,
Rashly and with no order at the setting of the sun,
And heavy with wine they wended, the sons of Achæans thereto.
But the twain spake a word of the summons, why the folk together they
There then spake Menelaus, who bade all men presently
To dight their journey homeward o'er the broad back of the sea. drew.
But nought it pleased Agamemnon, who would hold the people still,
The gifts an hundred-folded, and things holy to fulfil,
That the dreadful wrath of Athene and the bale they might hinder and heal;
Simple! and nothing wotting that of her he might win no weal;
For not lightly the mind of the Gods, of the Deathless, turneth again. twain;

"There they stood, and words that were bitter they bandied about, those
Till up rose the well-greaved Achæans with clamour huge indeed,
And in two ways were they minded and diverse was their rede.
So there night-long we abided, and each side on the other was fain
To speed hard things and bitter, since Zeus was devising our bane.
But down to the salt-sea holy our ships on the morn did we get,
And therein the goods we had gathered and our low-girt women we set.
But half of the folk were withholden, to abiding were they won
With the Shepherd of the People, Agamemnon, Atreus' son:
And half, we went a-shipboard and unmoored, and speedily
Sailed off; for the God was laying all smooth the whale-great sea.

"Thenceforth unto Tenedos coming, the Gods we hallowed there
Of home full fain, but not yet did Zeus the unyielding bear
Our homeward way in his heart, but raised up the strife again;
For the folk of King Odysseus, the wise-heart, shifty of men,
Went up on their rolling ships, and turned them about and went
Aback unto Atreus' son, for Agamemnon's content.
But I fled with the gathered ship-host that was wont with me to go,
For I knew of the bale and the bane that the God was devising to do.
Fled the warrior, the son of Tydeus, and egged on his fellows to flee.
But the yellow-haired Menelaus came late to our company:
At Lesbos he came upon us, as we schemed the long-drawn way,
Whether northing Chios the craggy, our ships we so should lay
Beside the island Psyria, that on our lee it lie,
Or else to the south of Chios pass windy Mimas by.
So we prayed the God for a token, and he set forth one in a while,
And bade us cleave mid ocean into Eubœa's isle,
That we at our best and swiftest might flee the bale and the bane.
Then arose the wind shrill piping and the keels sped on amain,
And ran o'er the way of the fishes, and by night and cloud we made
Geraestus; there to Poseidon the thighs of bulls we paid
A many, since thus we had measured so great a deal of sea.
But the fourth day it was ere in Argos Tydides' company,
That Diomede, Tamer of Horses, their good ships stayed by the shore.
But for me I made for Pylos, and the wind dropped never more
From the time when God first sent it across the sea to blow.
"So I came, dear child, unwitting, and nought of the others I know,
Nor who was saved of Achæans, nor what man had his bane:
But of all the knowledge that sitting within these halls I gain,
Thou shalt wot as is meet and right; I will hide nought; all will I tell.
Now men say that the Myrmidon Folk, the spear-wont, fared home well,
E'en they whom the famous son of great-heart Achilles led,
And that well the son of Poias, Philoctetes the glorious, sped;
And Idomeneus brought unto Crete his fellows, every one
Who had 'scaped the war and the battle; the sea-flood swallowed none.
But ye, though afar ye are dwelling, of the son of Atreus have heard,
How he came to his home; how Ægistheus for him wove woful weird.
But the man, e'en he who did it, in wretched wise did he pay.
It is good that the son of the murdered be left for another day.
For he, he avenged his father, and slew his father's bane,
Ægistheus guileful of rede, who his famous father had slain.
And thou friend, so great and so fair as I behold thee now,
Be stout, that good word of thy fame mid the late-born folk may grow."
But Telemachus the heedful thus spake and answered again:
"O Nestor, O son of Neleus, great grace of Achæan men,
Full well did he avenge him, and Achæans far and near
Shall make his fame to be hearkened, that those who are coming may hear.
But would that the Gods might be giving e'en me so much of might,
That I on the Wooers might wreak me for their most grievous unright!
Whereas in their pride they fashion and devise me impious ill:
But of no such happy doings the Gods for me have will,
Nay, not for me nor my father; we must bear all e'en as we may."
Then thus did Nestor, the Rider of Gerenia, answer and say:
"O friend, since the word thou speakest and hereof thou mindest me,
Men say that thy mother's wooers a many now there be
In thy house, though thou wouldest it not, who devise thee evil fate.
Say then, art thou cowed as a craven, or liest thou under the hate
Of thy land and thy people hearkening what the voice of God doth speak?
Yet who knoweth but he returning their wrong one day shall wreak,
Whether alone he returneth or with all the Achæan men.
But ah! if the Grey eyed Athene would befriend thee now, as then,
In the days that were she cherished Odysseus, the glory of war,
Mid the Troy-folk, where we, the Achæans, so many a heart-grief bore.
For never saw I the God-folk love men in such open wise

As Pallas stood beside him to help before all eyes.
And if thee in her heart she would cherish, and befriend thee such a way,
Then some of these, meseemeth, should forget their wedding-day."

But Telemachus the heedful thus answered him and said:
"O father, thy word meseemeth to its end shall never be sped,
For a mighty word hast thou spoken, and great wonder holdeth me;
Nor shall this my hope be fulfilled, though the Gods would have it to be.'
But the Goddess, the Grey-eyed Athene, thereto made answer and said:
"Telemachus, what is this word from the wall of thy teeth that hath sped?
For 'tis easy for God if he willeth, though far off, man to save.
But I for my part were fainer a many griefs to have
And come home safe in the ending, and see my returning day,
Than to come as came Agamemnon, and die on my hearth straightway;
For he fell by the wiles of Ægistheus and the woful wiles of his wife.
But not even the very God-folk, not even a loved man's life,
From the common death can deliver, when come is the fate full strong,
And the deadly doom is upon him that layeth men along."
But Telemachus the heedful thus answered thereunto:
"Let us speak hereof no further, though our hearts be full of woe.
For him there is no returning: for already, have no doubt,
Black doom and deadly ending have the Deathless meted out.
But one other word would I speak and ask of Nestor here,
Since he knoweth righteous wisdom above all that ever were;
For o'er three generations of men they say he hath been the king,
And unto mine eyes beholding he is as a deathless thing:
O Nestor, O son of Neleus, speak now true word unto me!
Agamemnon, son of Atreus, wide ruler, how died he?
Where then was Menelaus? What bale did he bring forth
For him, Ægistheus the wily, since he slew a man more worth?
Or was he not in Argos but wandering wide away,
Amid other dwellings of man-folk, when the man grew bold to slay?"
But the Rider of Gerenia, old Nestor, answered there:
"I will show thee now, O youngling, all things as they verily were.
For thou thyself hast an inkling of what deed hereof would have come
If the yellow Menelaus, from Troy returning home,
Had happed upon Ægistheus alive in the halls of his stead.
Then full surely on his body no earth had there been shed,
But the fowl and the dogs had feasted on the dead man as he lay
In the wold without the city, and no Achæan may
Would have raised the death-song o'er him; for a monstrous deed had he
Yea, there afar were we biding where many a deed we won,
While he in the nook of Argos, the horseland, sat at ease, done.
The wife of Agamemnon with wheedling words to please.
And indeed it is true that the woman for a while the foul deed spurned,
The glorious Clytemnestra, for in wisdom well was she learned.
And a minstrel was with her moreover, whom, when unto Troy he would
Was the son of Atreus bidding that well his wife he should heed,
But when the fate of the Gods had bound her that fall she must, speed,
Then into a desert island that man the minstrel thrust,
And left him there for the fowl to be a quarry and prey,
And longing he led her longing to his house and his home away.
Many thighs of beasts he burned on the altar of sacrifice,
And he hung up many adornments, both of gold and webs of price;
Whereas he had done the deed, and the thing unhoped in his heart.
"But we sailed while these things were adoing and from Troy did we depart,

We twain, Atrides and I, in goodwill and happiness.
But whenas we were making Sunium, the holy Athenian ness,
There Phoebus Apollo falling with kindly, shafts amain
On the pilot of Menelaus, thereof he had his bane;

E'en as he held the tiller of the good ship fleeting fast;
Phrontis, the son of Onetor, who all tribes of men surpassed
In steering a ship when the storm-winds drive hard across the sea.
So aback was held Menelaus, though fain of the road was he,
That he might bury his fellow with all rites of the burial bed.

"But now, as in hollow ships o'er the wine-dark sea he sped,
And, speeding, to that steep headland of Malaea now was brought,
A road and a way full loathly far-seeing Zeus for him wrought;
And the blast of the wind shrill-piping he poured upon his host,
And the billows monstrous-swollen all mountain-high uptost.
Thence he sundered the host atwain: one half unto Crete did he drive,
Where about Jardanus' streams Cydonian people live.
Now a smooth rock thereby goeth to the water, sheer and steep,
The outermost ness of Gortys thrust forth in the darkling deep.
There the south-west driveth a billow against the leftward ness
To Phæstus, and small is the rock that wardeth the great seas' stress.
Thereon drave part of the ship-host, and hardly saved were the folk,
But the ships the might of the billows against the sea-rocks broke.
But as to those five, those others, the wind and the water bore
Their coal-blue prows and brought them anigh the Ægyptian shore.

"Thus then he fared, and gathering great store of goods and of gold,
Came on with his keels to the aliens and the folk of another fold.
But amidst all this Ægistheus at home wrought deeds right grim;
For the son of Atreus he slaughtered, and the folk were in bonds to him.
Seven years did he lord it over Mycenae golden-great,

But the eighth year came Orestes the glorious, came his fate;
He betook him home from Athens and slew his father's bane,
Ægistheus, crafty of rede, who his famous father had slain.
He slew him, and then to the Argives gave the feast of the burial bed
Over his baleful mother and Ægistheus mightless and dead.
And that same day came Menelaus, the skilled in the voice of war,
And plenteous wealth was with him, the freight that his good ship bore.
"But thou, dear son, from thy homestead no longer be wandering wide,
Leaving thy wealthy and leaving such men in thine house to abide,
So utterly overweening, lest they eat up all from thee,
And share out all thy havings, and in vain shall thy wayfaring be;
But unto Menelaus I charge thee and bid thee to fare,
For he has come but newly to his home from otherwhere,
Yea, from men whence no man in his heart could have hope to win away
When once the winds and the whirlwinds had driven him far astray,
Into so mighty an ocean that not in one whole year
Could the very fowl flee from it, so great it is and drear.
So now depart with thy fellows in thy ship across the sea.
Or if of the land thou art liefer, I have twi-car and horses for thee;
And my sons are for thee moreover, and they shall bring thee there
Unto glorious Lacedæmon, and Menelaus the fair;
And thou thyself shalt beseech him that he tell thee the very truth.
And nought of lies will he tell thee, for most wise he is forsooth."
He spake, and the sun was setting and the dark came on amain,
And the Goddess, the Grey-eyed Athene, she spake and answered again:

"Yea, father, thou sayest it meetly, and good is this word of thine;
But betake ye to slicing the tongues and to blending of the wine,
That we unto Poseidon and all the Deathless may pour,

And so of our beds bethink us, for this is the rightful hour.
For the light is gone under the darkness, and no man doth it befit
To sit long at the feast of the Gods, but all of us homeward to flit."

So spake the Daughter of Zeus, and they hearkened her voice and her word;
And the water over their hands the serving-fellows poured,
And the swains to the bowls betook them, and with drink they brimmed them up,
And dealt about to all men, and poured from cup unto cup.

And then they arose and poured forth, and cast the tongues on the fire;
But when they had poured, and had drunk each man to his heart's desire,
Then therewithal did Athene and godlike Telemachus yearn
To ge,t them gone thenceforth, to their hollow ship to return:
Yet did Nestor hold them aback and with words did on them fall:

"Nay now, may Zeus forbid it, and the Deathless one and all,
That ye to your ship swift sailing should depart from me to-night,
As though from a poor man's dwelling and the house of a raimentless wight,
As from one who nothing of blankets or of rugs in his house doth keep,
That neither he nor his guest-friends full soft anights may sleep;
Whereas in my house are blankets and noble rugs good store.
Nay, ne'er shall the son beloved of the man Odysseus of yore
On the deck of his ship be lying, while I am living at least.
But thereafter my sons in my homestead shall abide the folk to feast,
Whoso may fare unto usward for the guesting of our stead."

Then the Goddess, the Grey-eyed Athene, in this wise answered and said:
"All good are thy words, dear father, and well it befitteth thee
That Telemachus do thy bidding; for fairer so shall it be;
And he with thee will be wending to sleep in thine house and thine hall.
But aboard of the coal-black ship will I be wending withal

To hearten up my fellows, and to tell them what hath betid,
For that I alone amid these men am the elder may not be hid;
And the rest they are but younglings, and for love's sake with us fare:
To Telemachus mighty of mood all equal in age they are.
So I in the black ship's hollow will sleep, and on the morn
To those great-souled Cauconians will I belike be borne,
Where owed unto me is increase; nor yet of yesterday,
Nor little it is. But this man, to thy house he hath wended his way,
Set him forth with thy sons and thy twi-car and give him horses at need
E'en such as thou hast that are stoutest and swiftest-footed to speed."

So spake the Grey-eyed Athene, and like to an eagle was gone,
And wonder and awe held all men who were gazing thereupon;,
And the old man marvelled indeed at the sight he had seen with his eyes,
And he took Telemachus' hand, and named him, and spake in such wise:

"Nought base I deem thee, O friend, and no weakling shalt thou be,
When the Gods in thine early days thus guide and further thee.
For none other was this of all those that Olympian houses hold,
Save the Daughter of Zeus, the War-glorious, the Trito-born from of old.
E'en she who honoured thy father mid the Argives in the strife.
But do thou, O Queen, be gracious! and give good glory of life
To me and to my children, and my wife of reverend grace;
And a heifer will I give thee, a yearling wide of face,
Untamed, whom no man ever beneath the yoke hath won:
E'en her to thee will I hallow, and her horns with gold shall be done."

Thus-wise he prayed, and Athene gave ear to the words he sped.
Then the Rider of Gerenia, old Nestor, these men led,
E'en his sons and his daughters' husbands, to the lovely house of his home.
But when to the house all-glorious of the king-they now were come,
They sat them down in order on bench and noble seat,

And the elder blended the bowl with wine all honey-sweet,
E'en that which the handmaid, the goodwife, in its eleventh year
Had opened at last, and loosened the jar's head-binding gear.
This then in the bowl he blended, and many things did he pray,
The old man, as he poured to Athene, Zeus the Shield-bearer's May.
But when they had poured and had drunk as their hearts desired thereto,
The others thence departed and each to his house did go;
But Telemachus, son beloved of Odysseus' godlihead,
Did Nestor, Gerenian Rider, lead off to sleep and bed,
On the framed and jointed bedstead in the echoing cloister there,
By Pisistratus, leader of war-ranks, the lord of the ashen spear,
Who.alone of his sons abided in his house and hall unwed:
But for him, he slept as his wont was, in the nook of his high-built stead,
Where his bed, and therewith his bed-gear, his queen-wife for him dight.
But when the Mother of Morning, Rose-fingered Dawn, shone bright,
The Rider, Gerenian Nestor, rose up from his bed straightway,
And gat him forth and sat him on the well-smoothed stones that lay
In the forefront of his homestead, before the high-built door,
White, polished, well-sleeked over: there in the days of yore
Would Neleus oft be sitting, as the Gods in council great;
But now to the House of Hades had he wended, tamed by fate.
And there in his turn sat Nestor, the Achæans' warder, the King,
Holding his staff; and about him were his gathered sons in a ring,
New come from their rooms. Echephron and Stratius, there they were;
Perseus was there, and Aretus, Thrasymedes, godhead's peer;
And to them came forth the sixth man, Pisistratus warfain and great
So Telemachus the godlike amidst them they led to his seat,
And Nestor, Gerenian Rider, in their midst the word began:
"Loved sons, fulfil my desire in the swiftest wise ye can,
That of all the Gods from Athene I most the grace may gain,
Who to our glorious God-feast came manifest and plain.
Now let one go to the meadow, that, as swift as it may be done,
We have a heifer hither, with the neatherd driving her on;
And let one to the black ship going of Telemachus, mighty of mind,
Fetch hither all his fellows, two only abiding behind.
And one to Laerces the goldsmith, the bidding let him say,
That he come the horns of the heifer with gold to overlay.
But here let the others be gathered, and let them bid withal
The handmaids to dight us the banquet in our glorious house and hall,
And to set forth the seats and the logs, and bear forth water fair."
He spake, and they fell to and hastened, and the heifer was speeded there
From the mead; and thither came, from the swift ship shapely wrought,
The high-souled Telemachus' fellows: and the smith came there, and he
His smithying tools in his hand, his craft's fulfilling gear,
To wit, his hammer and anvil, and his fire-tongs fashioned fair, brought
Wherewith the gold to smithy. And thither, to gather her meed
Of the hallowed gifts, came Athene. Then old Nestor of the Steed
Gave gold, and the craftsman wrought it, and therewith were the beast's horns done,
That thereof might the Goddess be glad as its fairness she looked upon.
Then Stratius and Echephron fair by the horns the heifer led;
And Aretus came from the chamber with a bowl with flowers bespread,
And therein the hand-washing water; and his other hand did hold
The barley-meal maund: and stood forth Thrasymedes, war-biding and bold,
In his hand the axe well whetted all ready the heifer to hew;
And Perseus held the blood-bowl. Then the rider Nestor 'gan do
The hand-washing and barley-sprinkling, and much prayer to Athene he sped
In the outset, and cast in the fire the forelock of the head.
But when they had prayed and cast forth the barley-meal thereon
Then drew anigh Thrasymedes the high-souled Nestor's son,

And he hewed and the beast's neck-tendons he sundered with the blade
And loosened the might of the heifer, and the whoop and the cry they made,
The daughters and the sons' wives, and the wife the reverend queen,
Eurydice, first-born daughter of Clymenus once had she been.
So they from the wide-wayed earth raised the beast and held her then,
And Pisistratus slaughtered her straightway, the leader of ranks of men.
But when the black blood had flowed forth and life the bones had left,
Then at once they sheared up the carcase, and the thighs thereof they cleft,
And all in due wise and wonted; and twofold wrapping they made
Of fat about them, and slices of the raw flesh on them laid.
On the faggots the elder burned them and poured on the gleaming wine,
But the youths stood by him and handled the forks five-fold of tyne;
But when burned up were the thighs, and the inwards were tasted aright,
They cut up the flesh, and the gobbets on spits for the roasting dight,
And they handled the spits sharp-pointed and roasted it then and there.

Meanwhile was Telemachus bathed by Polycaste the fair,
Of Nestor son of Neleus the youngest daughter and last;
And when she had washed his body and the olive oil o'er him cast,
And had done a frock upon him, and a fair cloak thereon laid,
From the bath he went, and his body as fair as a God's was made.
So he went and by Nestor's side, the shepherd of folk, did he sit.
But when they had roasted the outflesh, and drawn it off from the spit,
They sat and fell to feasting, and men of worth rose up
And poured the wine unto them in many a golden cup.
But when the yearning for meat and for drink they had put away,
Then the Rider, Gerenian Nestor, began to speak and to say:
"O sons, for Telemachus bring ye the well-maned horses fair,
And unto the chariot yoke them that he the way may wear."
He spake, and therewithal his word did they hearken and heed,
And straight the swift-foot horses to the car they yoked with speed,
And therein laid the store-maid bread and wine and dainty meat,
E'en such as kingfolk cherished of Zeus are wont to eat.
Then Telemachus went up straightway on the lovely-fashioned car,
And Pisistratus, son of Nestor, the chief of the men of war,
Went up on the car moreover, and caught in hand the rein,
And smote the steeds to be going, and unloth they sped to the plain;
And the builded burg of Pylos, and the steep they left behind,
And daylong the yoke they were swaying that both the twain did bind.
But now the sun sank under, and dark lay on every road,
When they came their ways to Pheræ and Diocles' abode,
Of Orsilochus begotten, whom Alpheus did beget.
There nightlong they abided and guest-cheer for them he set
But when the Mother of Daylight, Rose-fingered Dawn, shone clear,
They yoked their steeds and mounted the chariot painted fair.
Then they drove their ways from the forecourt, from the echoing cloister sped,
And they smote the steeds to be going, and nothing loth they fled,
Till they came to the plain wheat-bearing, and fast their way they wore,
So speedily their going the swift-foot horses bore:
And so the sun sank under, and all ways were shadowed o'er.