"My sons," said he, "make haste
to do as I shall bid you. I wish first and foremost to propitiate the
great goddess Athena, 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 Telemakhos' 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
Telemakhos' crew came from the ship; the goldsmith brought the
anvil, hammer, and tongs, with which he worked his gold, and Athena
herself came to 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 Stratios and Echephron brought her in
by the horns; Aretos 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 Athena as he threw a lock from the heifer's
head upon the fire.
When they had done praying and
sprinkling the barley meal 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
Klymenos) screamed with delight. Then they lifted the heifer's
head from off the ground, and Peisistratos cut her throat. When she
had done bleeding and was quite dead, they cut her up. They cut out
the thigh bones all in due course, wrapped them round in two layers
of fat, and set some pieces of raw meat on the top of them; then
Nestor laid them upon the wood fire and poured wine over them, while
the young men stood near him with five-pronged spits in their hands.
When the thighs were burned and they had tasted the inward meats,
they cut the rest of the meat up small, put the pieces on the spits
and toasted them over the fire.
Meanwhile lovely Polykaste,
Nestor's youngest daughter, washed Telemakhos. When she had
washed him and anointed him with oil, she brought him a fair mantle
and shirt, and he looked like a god as he came from the bath and took
his seat by the side of Nestor. When the outer meats were done they
drew them off the spits and sat down to dinner where they were waited
upon by some worthy henchmen, who kept pouring them out their wine in
cups of gold. As soon as they had had enough to eat and drink Nestor
said, "Sons, put Telemakhos' horses to the chariot that he may
start at once."
Homer. The Odyssey. Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original. Samuel Butler. Based on public domain edition, revised by Timothy Power and Gregory Nagy. A. C. Fifield, London. 1900 (?).
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