TREASURE TOMBS AT MYKENÆ
Cutting their oxen off, and their flocks so fair, or, it may be,
While in a town's defense, or in that of women, contending?"
Thus I spake, and he, replying, said to me straightway:
"Nobly-born and wise Odysseus, son of Laertes,
Neither within my ships was I subdued by Poseidon
Rousing the dreadful blast of winds too hard to be mastered,
Nor on the firm-set land did banded foemen destroy
me,—
Nay, but death and my doom were well contrived by Ægisthos,
Who, with my curséd wife, at his own house bidding me welcome.
Fed me, and slew me, as one might slay an ox at the manger!
So, by a death most wretched, I died; and all my companions
Round me were slain off-hand, like white-toothed swine that are slaughtered
Thus, when some lordly man, abounding in power and
riches,
Orders a wedding-feast, or a frolic, or mighty carousal.
Thou indeed hast witnessed the slaughter of numberless heroes
Massacred, one by one, in the battle's heat; but with pity
All thy heart had been full, if thou hadst seen what I tell thee,—
How in the hall we lay among the wine-jars, and under
Tables laden with food; and how the pavement, on all sides
Swam with blood! And I heard the dolorous cry of Kassandra,
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