"I hope, sir," said he, "that you
will not be offended with what I am going to say. Singing comes cheap
to those who do not pay for it, and all this is done at the cost of
one whose bones lie rotting in some wilderness or grinding to powder
in the surf. If these men were to see my father come back to Ithaca
they would pray for longer legs rather than a longer purse, for
wealth would not serve them; but he, alas, has fallen on an ill fate,
and even when people do sometimes say that he is coming, we no longer
heed them; we shall never see him again. And now, sir, tell me and
tell me true, who you are and where you come from. Tell me of your
town and parents, what manner of ship you came in, how your crew
brought you to Ithaca, and of what nation they declared themselves to
be - for you cannot have come by land. Tell me also truly, for I want
to know, are you a stranger to this house, or have you been here in
my father's time? In the old days we had many visitors for my
father went about much himself."
And Athena answered, "I will tell
you truly and particularly all about it. I am Mentes, son of
Anchialos, and I am King of the Taphians. I have come here with my
ship and crew, on a voyage to men of a foreign tongue being bound for
Temesa with a cargo of iron, and I shall bring back copper. As for my
ship, it lies over yonder off the open country away from the town, in
the harbor Rheithron under the wooded mountain Neritum. Our fathers
were friends before us, as old Laertes will tell you, if you will go
and ask him. They say, however, that he never comes to town now, and
lives by himself in the country, faring hardly, with an old woman to
look after him and get his dinner for him, when he comes in tired
from pottering about his vineyard. They told me your father was at
home again, and that was why I came, but it seems the gods are still
keeping him back, for he is not dead yet not on the mainland. It is
more likely he is on some sea-girt island in mid ocean, or a prisoner
among savages who are detaining him against his will. I am no seer
[mantis], and know very little about omens, but I
speak as it is borne in upon me from heaven, and assure you that he
will not be away much longer; for he is a man of such resource that
even though he were in chains of iron he would find some means of
getting home again. But tell me, and tell me true, can Odysseus
really have such a fine looking young man for a son? You are indeed
wonderfully like him about the head and eyes, for we were close
friends before he set sail for Troy where the flower of all the
Argives went also. Since that time we have never either of us seen
the other."
"My mother," answered Telemakhos,
"tells me I am son to Odysseus, but it is a wise child that knows his
own father. Would that I were son to one who had grown old upon his
own estates, for, since you ask me, there is no more ill-starred man
under heaven than he who they tell me is my father."
And Athena said, "There is no
fear of your race dying out yet, while Penelope has such a fine son
as you are. But tell me, and tell me true, what is the meaning of all
this feasting, and who are these people? What is it all about? Have
you some banquet, or is there a wedding in the family - for no one
seems to be bringing any provisions of his own? And the guests - how
atrociously they are behaving; what riot they make over the whole
house; it is enough to disgust any respectable person who comes near
them."
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