So Eteoneus bustled back and bade
other servants come with him. They took their sweating hands from
under the yoke, made them fast to the mangers, and gave them a feed
of oats and barley mixed. Then they leaned the chariot against the
end wall of the courtyard, and led the way into the house. Telemakhos
and Peisistratos were astonished when they saw it, for its splendor
was as that of the sun and moon; then, when they had admired
everything to their heart's content, they went into the bath
room and washed themselves.
When the servants had washed them
and anointed them with oil, they brought them woolen cloaks and
shirts, and the two took their seats by the side of Menelaos. A
maidservant brought them water in a beautiful golden ewer, and poured
it into a silver basin for them to wash their hands; and she drew a
clean table beside them. An upper servant brought them bread, and
offered them many good things of what there was in the house, while
the carver fetched them plates of all manner of meats and set cups of
gold by their side.
Menelaos then greeted them saying,
"Eat up, and welcome; when you have finished supper I shall ask who
you are, for the lineage of such men as you cannot have been lost.
You must be descended from a line of scepter-bearing kings, for poor
people do not have such sons as you are."
On this he handed them a piece of
fat roast loin, which had been set near him as being a prime part,
and they laid their hands on the good things that were before them;
as soon as they had had enough to eat and drink, Telemakhos said to
the son of Nestor, with his head so close that no one might hear,
"Look, Peisistratos, man after my own heart, see the gleam of bronze
and gold - of amber, ivory, and silver. Everything is so splendid
that it is like seeing the palace of Olympian Zeus. I am lost in
admiration."
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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