The Odyssey Page 0,25

Athene:

“Telemachus, no shyness now! For to accomplish this you crossed the sea, to make inquiry for your father and to learn where he lies buried and what fate he met. Go then straight forward to the horseman Nestor, and let us know what is the wisdom hidden in his breast. Beg him yourself to tell the very truth. Falsehood he will not speak, for just and wise is he.”

Then answered her discreet Telemachus: “Mentor, how can I go? How importune him? In subtleties of speech I am not practised. Shyness befits a youth when questioning his elders.”

Then said to him the goddess, clear-eyed Athene: “Telemachus, some promptings you will find in your own breast, and Heaven will send still more; for, certainly, not unbefriended of the gods have you been born and bred.”

Saying this, Pallas Athene led the way in haste, he following in the footsteps of the goddess. So they approached the gathering of the men of Pylos and the group where Nestor sat among his sons. Round him his people, making the banquet ready, were roasting meats and putting pieces on the spits. But as they saw the strangers, all the men crowded near, gave hands in welcome, and asked them to sit down; and Nestor’s son Peisistratus,12 approaching first, took each one by the hand and placed them at the feast on some soft fleeces laid upon the sands, beside his brother Thrasymedes and his father. He gave them portions of the inward parts, poured out some wine into a golden cup, and, offering welcome, said to Pallas Athene, daughter of aegis-bearing Zeus:

“Here, stranger, make a prayer to lord Poseidon. It is his feast you find at this your coming. Then, after you have poured and prayed as is befitting, give this man too the cup of honeyed wine for him to pour; for I suppose he also prays to the immortals. All men have need of gods. But he is the younger, young as I myself; so I will give you first the golden cup.”

Saying this, he placed the cup of sweet wine in her hand. And Athene was pleased to find the man so wise and courteous, pleased that he gave her first the golden cup. Forthwith she prayed a fervent prayer to lord Poseidon:

“Listen, Poseidon, you who encompass the land, and count it not too much to give thy suppliants these blessings. First upon Nestor and his sons bestow all honor; then to the rest grant gracious recompense, to all the men of Pylos, for their splendid sacrifice; and grant still further that Telemachus and I may sail away having accomplished that for which we came upon our swift black ship.”

Thus did she pray, and was herself fulfilling all. To Telemachus she passed the goodly double cup, and in like manner also prayed the dear son of Odysseus. But when the rest had roasted the outer flesh and drawn it off, they divided out the portions and held a glorious feast. And after they had stayed desire for drink and food, then thus began the Gereniani horseman Nestor:

“Now, then, it is more suitable to prove our guests and ask them who they are, now they are refreshed with food. Strangers, who are you? Where do you come from, sailing the watery ways? Are you upon some business? Or do you rove at random, as the pirates roam the seas, risking their lives and bringing ill to strangers?”13

Then answered him discreet Telemachus, plucking up courage; for Athene herself put courage in his heart to ask about his absent father and to win a good report among mankind:

“O Nestor, son of Neleus, great glory of the Achaeans, you ask me whence we are, and I will tell you. We are of Ithaca, under Mount Neäïon. Our business is our own, no public thing, as I will show. I come afar to seek some tidings of my father, royal hardy Odysseus, who once, they say, fought side by side with you and sacked the Trojan town. For as to all the others who were in the war at Troy we have already learned where each man met his sorry death; but this man’s death the son of Kronos left unknown. No one can surely say where he has died; whether borne down on land by foes, or on the sea among the waves of Amphitrite.j Therefore I now come here to your knees to ask if you will tell me of my father’s sorry death, whether you