The Odyssey
would take as good care of you as she did of him, these wooers would
soon some of them forget their wooing.”
Telemachus answered, “I can expect nothing of the kind; it would be far
too much to hope for. I dare not let myself think of it. Even though
the gods themselves willed it no such good fortune could befall me.”
On this Minerva said, “Telemachus, what are you talking about? Heaven
has a long arm if it is minded to save a man; and if it were me, I
should not care how much I suffered before getting home, provided I
could be safe when I was once there. I would rather this, than get home
quickly, and then be killed in my own house as Agamemnon was by the
treachery of Aegisthus and his wife. Still, death is certain, and when
a man’s hour is come, not even the gods can save him, no matter how
fond they are of him.”
“Mentor,” answered Telemachus, “do not let us talk about it any more.
There is no chance of my father’s ever coming back; the gods have long
since counselled his destruction. There is something else, however,
about which I should like to ask Nestor, for he knows much more than
any one else does. They say he has reigned for three generations so
that it is like talking to an immortal. Tell me, therefore, Nestor, and
tell me true; how did Agamemnon come to die in that way? What was
Menelaus doing? And how came false Aegisthus to kill so far better a
man than himself? Was Menelaus away from Achaean Argos, voyaging
elsewhither among mankind, that Aegisthus took heart and killed
Agamemnon?”
“I will tell you truly,” answered Nestor, “and indeed you have yourself
divined how it all happened. If Menelaus when he got back from Troy had
found Aegisthus still alive in his house, there would have been no
barrow heaped up for him, not even when he was dead, but he would have
been thrown outside the city to dogs and vultures, and not a woman
would have mourned him, for he had done a deed of great wickedness; but
we were over there, fighting hard at Troy, and Aegisthus, who was
taking his ease quietly in the heart of Argos, cajoled Agamemnon’s wife
Clytemnestra with incessant flattery.
“At first she would have nothing to do with his wicked scheme, for she
was of a good natural disposition;30 moreover there was a bard with
her, to whom Agamemnon had given strict orders on setting out for Troy,
that he was to keep guard over his wife; but when heaven had counselled
her destruction, Aegisthus carried this bard off to a desert island and
left him there for crows and seagulls to batten upon—after which she
went willingly enough to the house of Aegisthus. Then he offered many
burnt sacrifices to the gods, and decorated many temples with
tapestries and gilding, for he had succeeded far beyond his
expectations.
“Meanwhile Menelaus and I were on our way home from Troy, on good terms
with one another. When we got to Sunium, which is the point of Athens,
Apollo with his painless shafts killed Phrontis the steersman of
Menelaus’ ship (and never man knew better how to handle a vessel in
rough weather) so that he died then and there with the helm in his
hand, and Menelaus, though very anxious to press forward, had to wait
in order to bury his comrade and give him his due funeral rites.
Presently, when he too could put to sea again, and had sailed on as far
as the Malean heads, Jove counselled evil against him and made it blow
hard till the waves ran mountains high. Here he divided his fleet and
took the one half towards Crete where the Cydonians dwell round about
the waters of the river Iardanus. There is a high headland hereabouts
stretching out into the sea from a place called Gortyn, and all along
this part of the coast as far as Phaestus the sea runs high when there
is a south wind blowing, but after Phaestus the coast is more
protected, for a small headland can make a great shelter. Here this
part of the fleet was driven on to the rocks and wrecked; but the crews
just managed to save themselves. As for the other five ships, they were
taken by winds and seas to Egypt, where Menelaus gathered much gold and
substance among people of an alien speech. Meanwhile Aegisthus here at
home plotted his evil deed. For seven years after he had killed
Agamemnon he ruled in Mycene, and the people were obedient under him,
but in the eighth year Orestes came back from Athens to be his bane,
and killed the murderer of his father. Then he celebrated the funeral
rites of his mother and of false Aegisthus by a banquet to the people
of Argos, and on that very day Menelaus came home,31 with as much
treasure as his ships could carry.
“Take my advice then, and do not go travelling about for long so far
from home, nor leave your property with such dangerous people in your
house; they will eat up everything you have among them, and you will
have been on a fool’s errand. Still, I should advise you by all means
to go and visit Menelaus, who has lately come off a voyage among such
distant peoples as no man could ever hope to get back from, when the
winds had once carried him so far out of his reckoning; even birds
cannot fly the distance in a twelve-month, so vast and terrible are the
seas that they must cross. Go to him, therefore, by sea, and take your
own men with you; or if you would rather travel by land you can have a
chariot, you can have horses, and here are my sons who can escort you
to Lacedaemon where Menelaus lives. Beg of him to speak the truth, and
he will tell you no lies, for he is an excellent person.”
As he spoke the sun set and it came on dark, whereon Minerva said,
“Sir, all that you have said is well; now, however, order the tongues
of the victims to be cut, and mix wine that we may make drink-offerings
to Neptune, and the other immortals, and then go to bed, for it is bed
time. People should go away early and not keep late hours at a
religious festival.”
Thus spoke the daughter of Jove, and they obeyed her saying. Men
servants poured water over the hands of the guests, while pages filled
the mixing-bowls with wine and water, and handed it round after giving
every man his drink offering; then they threw the tongues of the
victims into the fire, and stood up to make their drink offerings. When
they had made their offerings and had drunk each as much as he was
minded, Minerva and Telemachus were for going on board their ship, but
Nestor caught them up at once and stayed them.
“Heaven and the immortal gods,” he exclaimed, “forbid that you should
leave my house to go on board of a ship. Do you think I am so poor and
short of clothes, or that I have so few cloaks and as to be unable to
find comfortable beds both for myself and for my guests? Let me tell
you I have store both of rugs and cloaks, and shall not permit the son
of my old friend Ulysses to camp down on the deck of a ship—not while I
live—nor yet will my sons after me, but they will keep open house as I
have done.”
Then Minerva answered, “Sir, you have spoken well, and it will be much
better that Telemachus should do as you have said; he, therefore, shall
return with you and sleep at your house, but I must go back to give
orders to my crew, and keep them in good heart. I am the only older
person among them; the rest are all young men of Telemachus’ own age,
who have taken this voyage out of friendship; so I must return to the
ship and sleep there. Moreover to-morrow I must go to the Cauconians
where I have a large sum of money long owing to me. As for Telemachus,
now that he is your guest, send him to Lacedaemon in a chariot, and let
one of your sons go with him. Be pleased to also provide him with your
best and fleetest horses.”
When she had thus spoken, she flew away in the form of an eagle, and
all marvelled as they beheld it. Nestor was astonished, and took
Telemachus by the hand. “My friend,” said he, “I see that you are going
to be a great hero some day, since the gods wait upon you thus while
you are still so young. This can have been none other of those who
dwell in heaven than Jove’s redoubtable daughter, the Trito-born, who
shewed such favour towards your brave father among the Argives. Holy
queen,” he continued, “vouchsafe to send down thy grace upon myself, my
good wife, and my children. In return, I will offer you in sacrifice a
broad-browed heifer of a year old, unbroken, and never yet brought by
man under the yoke. I will gild her horns, and will offer her up to you
in sacrifice.”
Thus did he pray, and Minerva heard his prayer. He then led the way to
his own house, followed by his sons and sons in law. When they had got
there and had taken their places on the benches and seats, he mixed
them a bowl of sweet wine that was eleven years old when the
housekeeper took the lid off the jar that held it. As he mixed the
wine, he prayed much and made drink offerings to Minerva, daughter of
Aegis-bearing Jove. Then, when they had made their drink offerings and
had drunk each as much as he was minded, the others went home to bed
each in his own abode; but Nestor put Telemachus to sleep in the room
that was over the gateway along with Pisistratus, who was the only
unmarried son now left him. As for himself, he slept in an inner room
of the house, with the queen his wife by his side.
Now when the child of morning rosy-fingered Dawn appeared, Nestor left
his couch and took his seat on the benches of white and polished marble
that stood in front of his house. Here aforetime sat Neleus, peer of
gods in counsel, but he was now dead, and had gone to the house of
Hades; so Nestor sat in his seat sceptre in hand, as guardian of the
public weal. His sons as they left their rooms gathered round him,
Echephron, Stratius, Perseus, Aretus, and Thrasymedes; the sixth son
was Pisistratus, and when Telemachus joined them they made him sit with
them. Nestor then addressed them.
“My sons,” said he, “make haste to do as I shall bid you. I wish first
and foremost to propitiate the great goddess Minerva, who manifested
herself visibly to me during yesterday’s festivities. Go, then, one or
other of you to the plain, tell the stockman to look me out a heifer,
and come on here with it at once. Another must go to Telemachus’ ship,
and invite all the crew, leaving two men only in charge of the vessel.
Some one else will run and fetch Laerceus the goldsmith to gild the
horns of the heifer. The rest, stay all of you where you are; tell the
maids in the house to prepare an excellent dinner, and to fetch seats,
and logs of wood for a burnt offering. Tell them also to bring me some
clear spring water.”
On this they hurried off on their several errands. The heifer was
brought in from the plain, and Telemachus’s crew came from the ship;
the goldsmith brought the anvil, hammer, and tongs, with which he
worked his gold, and Minerva herself came to accept the sacrifice.
Nestor gave out the gold, and the smith gilded the horns of the heifer
that the goddess might have pleasure in their beauty. Then Stratius and
Echephron brought her in by the horns; Aretus fetched water from the
house in a ewer that had a flower pattern on it, and in his other hand
he held a basket of barley meal; sturdy Thrasymedes stood by with a
sharp axe, ready to strike the heifer, while Perseus held a bucket.
Then Nestor began with washing his hands and sprinkling the barley
meal, and he offered many a prayer to Minerva as he threw a lock from
the heifer’s head upon the fire.
When they had done praying and sprinkling the barley meal32 Thrasymedes
dealt his blow, and brought the heifer down with a stroke that cut
through the tendons at the base of her neck, whereon the daughters and
daughters in law of Nestor, and his venerable wife Eurydice (she was
eldest daughter to Clymenus) screamed with delight. Then they lifted
the heifer’s head from off the ground, and Pisistratus cut her throat.