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THE ODYSSEY OF HOMER.
BOOK I.
ARGUMENT.
In an assembly of the gods it is determined that Ulysses shall be sent to Ithaca, from the island of Calypso. Minerva then goes to Ithaca to Telemachus, assuming the figure of Mentes, king of the Taphians, an old friend of Ulysses. Entering into conversation with Telemachus, she advises him to go to Pylos, to Nestor, and to Menelaus, at Sparta, to make inquiries about his father, whether he is still alive; after which she departs, giving manifest proofs of her divinity. Telemachus rebukes his mother Penelope, and desires her to go up-stairs: and then, during a banquet, threatens the suitors that he will be revenged on them for their insolent conduct.
O Muse,[1] sing to me of the man full of resources, who wandered very much after he had destroyed the sacred city of Troy, and saw the cities of many men, and learned their manners.[2] Many griefs also in his mind did he suffer on the sea, although[3] seeking to preserve[4] his own life, and the return of his companions; but not even thus, although anxious, did he extricate[5] his companions: for they perished by their own infatuation, fools! who devoured the oxen of the Sun who jour-
- ↑ Thus rendered by Horace, A. P. 141, "Dic mihi, Musa, virum, captæ post mœnia Trojæ Qui mores hominum multorum vidit et urbes." See Schrader on Mus. p. 121, sq.
- ↑ I have translated νόον "manners," on the authority of Horace.
- ↑ πέρ quando participiis postponitur, reddi potest per quamvis. Loewe.
- ↑ ἄρνυμαι=expeto, anxie requiro. Clarke. There is a sort of zeugma, "seeking to ransom or buy off his own life, and [to procure] a return for his companions." Hor. Epist. i. 2. 18, "Dum sibi, dum socii reditum parat."
- ↑ Literally, "to draw away." See Buttmann Lexil. p. 303—308, Fishlake's Translation.
B
