She cried aloud as she spoke, and
the goddess heard her prayer; meanwhile the suitors were clamorous
throughout the covered room, and one of them said:
"The queen is preparing for her
marriage with one or other of us. Little does she dream that her son
has now been doomed to die."
This was what they said, but they
did not know what was going to happen. Then Antinoos said, "Comrades,
let there be no loud talking, lest some of it get carried inside. Let
us be up and do that in silence, about which we are all of a
mind."
He then chose
[krînô] twenty men, and they went down to
their ship and to the sea side; they drew the vessel into the water
and got her mast and sails inside her; they bound the oars to the
thole-pins with twisted thongs of leather, all in due course, and
spread the white sails aloft, while their fine servants brought them
their armor. Then they made the ship fast a little way out, came on
shore again, got their suppers, and waited till night should
fall.
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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