commerce. I am now even more grieved for his sake, than for that one. For him I tremble and fear, lest he should suffer something, either from those amongst the people where he is gone, or on the sea: for many enemies are devising snares against him, desiring to kill him before he comes to his paternal land."
The obscure image answering addressed her: "Be of good cheer, nor be too fearful in thy mind: for such a guide has accompanied him, whom others also have desired to be with them, (for she is able,) Pallas Minerva: and she pities thee lamenting; who now sent me forward, to tell these things to thee."
But her prudent Penelope addressed in turn: "If indeed thou art a goddess, and hast heard the voice of a goddess, come tell me of him in a sea calamitous,[1] whether he is still some where alive, and beholds the light of the sun, or is already dead, and in the dwellings of Pluto."
The obscure image answering addressed her: "I will not tell thee of him altogether, whether he is alive or dead, but it is base to speak vain things." Having thus spoken, she vanished by the bolt[2] of the entrance into the gales of the winds. But the daughter of Icarus started from her sleep, and her dear heart was rejoiced, so manifest had the dream come upon her in depth of night.[3]
But the suitors, having embarked, sailed over the watery ways [of the sea], meditating in their minds a severe death for Telemachus. Now there is a certain rocky island in the middle of the sea, between Ithaca and rugged Samos, Asteris, not large; and in it there are havens fit for ships, with two entrances; there the Grecians waited in ambush for him.
- ↑ i. e. Ulysses.
- ↑ My friend, Mr. G. Burges, well compares the lines in Gay's Fables;
"Just as she spoke, a faery sprite
Popp'd through the key-hole swift as light." - ↑ I have followed Buttmann, Lexil. p. 89, sqq. His admirable remarks are too copious for the limits of a note, but will amply repay the trouble of perusal.
