Reference

lists of translations:
[wiki] [Johnston]



Which did Joyce use? [Butler] [Butcher-Lang] [Lamb] [Pope] [Peter Parley] [Cowper] [Chapman] [TEShaw-1932!?]



Odyssey in FW

123.03 form of the semifinal; and, eighteenthly or twentyfourthly, but
–123.03+ James Joyce: Ulysses has eighteen chapters, The Odyssey has twenty-four books

123.25 keeper) a Punic admiralty report, From MacPerson's Oshean
–123.25+ V. Bérard's theory in Les Pheniciens et l'Odyssee that The Odyssey is a hellenisation of the sailing log (periplous) of a seafaring Semite

128.35 phoenix be his pyre, the cineres his sire!; piles big pelium on
–128.35+ Homer: Odyssey XI: 'to pile Ossa on Olympus, and on Ossa Pelion' (the Titans Otos and Ephialtes tried to pile Ossa on Olympus and Pelion on Ossa in order to climb to heaven and attack the gods)

192.27 boggaleesh!) those hornmade ivory dreams you reved of the
–192.27+ two gates of sleep: true dreams pass through gates of horn, false through gates of ivory (Aeneid VI.893, Odyssey XIX.562)

396.32 ledeosy, after where he had gone and polped the questioned.
–396.32+ Odyssey

419.29 just now from theodicy re'furloined notepaper and quite agree in
–419.29+ The Odyssey

504.07 — And in Cimmerian shudders.
–504.07+ Cimmerians: race fabled to live in perpetual shadows (Odyssey XI.14)

I.1 "Tell me, O Muse..."

[Murray] [Butler+] [2] [greek] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [Pope] [Cowper] [Buckley] [Lamb] [Sotheby] [Hobbes] [Worsley] [Alford] [Norgate] [Musgrave] [Edginton] [Bigg-Wither] [Bryant] [Barnard] [Butcher-Lang] [Schomberg] [Avia] [DuCane] [Palmer] [Carnarvon] [Morris] [Cordery] [Chapman] [Mackall] [Way] [Cotterill] [Caulfeild]


Butler:

Tell me, O muse, of that ingenious hero
who travelled far and wide
after he had sacked the famous town of Troy.

U3: "— Introibo ad altare Dei."

U4: "You saved men from drowning. I'm not a hero, however."

U3? Trojan horse references


Many cities did he visit,
and many were the nations
with whose manners and customs he was acquainted;
moreover he suffered much by sea
while trying to save his own life and bring his men safely home;
but do what he might he could not save his men,
for they perished through their own sheer folly
in eating the cattle of the Sun-god Hyperion;
so the god prevented them from ever reaching home.

U4: "We must go to Athens. Will you come if I can get the aunt to fork out twenty quid?"

U17? "Come out, Kinch. You have eaten all we left, I suppose."


Tell me, too, about all these things,
O daughter of Jove,
from whatsoever source you may know them.

U14? "Old and secret she had entered from a morning world, maybe a messenger."


So now all who escaped death in battle or by shipwreck
had got safely home except Ulysses,
and he, though he was longing to return to his wife and country,
was detained by the goddess Calypso,
who had got him into a large cave and wanted to marry him.

U22: "— Is she up the pole?"



But as years went by, there came a time
when the gods settled that he should go back to Ithaca;
even then, however, when he was among his own people,
his troubles were not yet over;
nevertheless all the gods had now begun to pity him
except Neptune, who still persecuted him without ceasing
and would not let him get home.

U9? "Silent with awe and pity I went to her bedside."


Now Neptune had gone off to the Ethiopians,
who are at the world's end, and lie in two halves,
the one looking West and the other East.


U7: "His old fellow made his tin by selling jalap to Zulus or some bloody swindle or other."



He had gone there to accept a hecatomb of sheep and oxen,
and was enjoying himself at his festival;
but the other gods met in the house of Olympian Jove,
and the sire of gods and men spoke first.




At that moment he was thinking of Aegisthus,
who had been killed by Agamemnon's son Orestes;
so he said to the other gods:




"See now, how men lay blame upon us gods
for what is after all nothing but their own folly.
Look at Aegisthus;
he must needs make love to Agamemnon's wife unrighteously
and then kill Agamemnon,
though he knew it would be the death of him;
for I sent Mercury to warn him not to do either of these things,
inasmuch as Orestes would be sure to take his revenge
when he grew up and wanted to return home.
Mercury told him this in all good will
but he would not listen, and now he has paid for everything in full."


U17: "Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. Mercurial Malachi."

U19: "He capered before them down towards the fortyfoot hole, fluttering his winglike hands, leaping nimbly, Mercury's hat quivering in the fresh wind that bore back to them his brief birdsweet cries."

U15: "We had better pay her, Mulligan, hadn't we?"

cf Boylan and Molly??




cf Murray:

Tell me, O Muse, of the man of many devices,
who wandered full many ways
after he had sacked the sacred citadel of Troy.
Many were the men whose cities he saw
and whose mind he learned,
aye, and many the woes he suffered in his heart upon the sea,
seeking to win his own life
and the return of his comrades.
Yet even so he saved not his comrades,
though he desired it sore,
for through their own blind folly they perished—
fools, who devoured the kine of Helios Hyperion;
but he took from them the day of their returning.
Of these things, goddess, daughter of Zeus,
beginning where thou wilt, tell thou even unto us.
Now all the rest, as many as had escaped sheer destruction,
were at home, safe from both war and sea,
but Odysseus alone, filled with longing for his return and for his wife,
did the queenly nymph Calypso, that bright goddess,
keep back in her hollow caves,
yearning that he should be her husband.
But when, as the seasons revolved, the year came
in which the gods had ordained that he should return home to Ithaca,
not even there was he free from toils,
even among his own folk.
And all the gods pitied him save Poseidon;
but he continued to rage unceasingly
against godlike Odysseus
until at length he reached his own land.
Howbeit Poseidon had gone among the far-off Ethiopians—
the Ethiopians who dwell sundered in twain,
the farthermost of men,
some where Hyperion sets and some where he rises,
there to receive a hecatomb of bulls and rams,
and there he was taking his joy, sitting at the feast;
but the other gods were gathered together
in the halls of Olympian Zeus.
Among them the father of gods and men was first to speak,
for in his heart he thought of noble Aegisthus,
whom far-famed Orestes, Agamemnon's son, had slain.
Thinking on him he spoke among the immortals, and said:
"Look you now, how ready mortals are to blame the gods.
It is from us, they say, that evils come,
but they even of themselves, through their own blind folly,
have sorrows beyond that which is ordained.
Even as now Aegisthus, beyond that which was ordained,
took to himself the wedded wife of the son of Atreus,
and slew him on his return,
though well he knew of sheer destruction,
seeing that we spake to him before,
sending Hermes, the keen-sighted Argeiphontes,
that he should neither slay the man nor woo his wife;
for from Orestes shall come vengeance for the son of Atreus
when once he has come to manhood and longs for his own land.
So Hermes spoke, but for all his good intent
he prevailed not upon the heart of Aegisthus;
and now he has paid the full price of all."

I.2 "Then Minerva said, 'Father...'"

Then Minerva said, "Father, son of Saturn, King of kings,
it served Aegisthus right,
and so it would any one else who does as he did;
but Aegisthus is neither here nor there;
it is for Ulysses that my heart bleeds,
when I think of his sufferings in that lonely sea-girt island,
far away, poor man, from all his friends.


U9? "Fergus' song: I sang it alone in the house, holding down the long dark chords. Her door was open: she wanted to hear my music. Silent with awe and pity I went to her bedside. She was crying in her wretched bed. For those words, Stephen: love's bitter mystery."


It is an island covered with forest, in the very middle of the sea,
and a goddess lives there, daughter of the magician Atlas,
who looks after the bottom of the ocean,
and carries the great columns that keep heaven and earth asunder.




This daughter of Atlas has got hold of poor unhappy Ulysses,
and keeps trying by every kind of blandishment to make him forget his home,
so that he is tired of life,
and thinks of nothing but how he may once more see the smoke of his own chimneys.




You, sir, take no heed of this,
and yet when Ulysses was before Troy
did he not propitiate you with many a burnt sacrifice?
Why then should you keep on being so angry with him?"

U12 "He hacked through the fry on the dish and slapped it out on three plates, saying: —In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti."


And Jove said, "My child, what are you talking about?
How can I forget Ulysses than whom there is no more capable man on earth,
nor more liberal in his offerings to the immortal gods that live in heaven?




Bear in mind, however, that Neptune is still furious with Ulysses
for having blinded an eye of Polyphemus king of the Cyclopes.
Polyphemus is son to Neptune by the nymph Thoosa, daughter to the sea-king Phorcys;
therefore though he will not kill Ulysses outright,
he torments him by preventing him from getting home.


U8: "— I am not thinking of the offence to my mother.
— Of what, then? Buck Mulligan asked.
— Of the offence to me, Stephen answered."


Still, let us lay our heads together and see how we can help him to return;
Neptune will then be pacified, for if we are all of a mind he can hardly stand out against us."


U7: "God, Kinch, if you and I could only work together we might do something for the island. Hellenise it."


And Minerva said, "Father, son of Saturn, King of kings,
if, then, the gods now mean that Ulysses should get home,
we should first send Mercury to the Ogygian island
to tell Calypso that we have made up our minds and that he is to return.




In the meantime I will go to Ithaca, to put heart into Ulysses' son Telemachus;
I will embolden him to call the Achaeans in assembly,
and speak out to the suitors of his mother Penelope,
who persist in eating up any number of his sheep and oxen;
I will also conduct him to Sparta and to Pylos,
to see if he can hear anything about the return of his dear father—
for this will make people speak well of him."


U9
U2?


So saying she bound on her glittering golden sandals, imperishable,
with which she can fly like the wind over land or sea;
she grasped the redoubtable bronze-shod spear, so stout and sturdy and strong,
wherewith she quells the ranks of heroes who have displeased her,
and down she darted from the topmost summits of Olympus,
whereon forthwith she was in Ithaca, at the gateway of Ulysses' house,
disguised as a visitor, Mentes, chief of the Taphians,
and she held a bronze spear in her hand.



U19: "He tugged swiftly at Stephen's ashplant in farewell and, running forward to a brow of the cliff, fluttered his hands at his sides like fins or wings of one about to rise in the air... He capered before them down towards the fortyfoot hole, fluttering his winglike hands, leaping nimbly, Mercury's hat quivering in the fresh wind that bore back to them his brief birdsweet cries."



There she found the lordly suitors
seated on hides of the oxen which they had killed and eaten,
and playing draughts in front of the house.




Men-servants and pages were bustling about to wait upon them,
some mixing wine with water in the mixing-bowls,
some cleaning down the tables with wet sponges and laying them out again,
and some cutting up great quantities of meat.


U12: "— When I makes tea I makes tea, as old mother Grogan said. And when I makes water I makes water.
— By Jove, it is tea, Haines said.
Buck Mulligan went on hewing and wheedling:
— So I do, Mrs Cahill, says she. Begob, ma'am, says Mrs Cahill, God send you don't make them in the one pot."

I.3 "Telemachus saw her..."

Telemachus saw her long before any one else did.
He was sitting moodily among the suitors thinking about his brave father,
and how he would send them flying out of the house,
if he were to come to his own again and be honoured as in days gone by.



U12: "Haines came in from the doorway and said quietly:
— That woman is coming up with the milk."




Thus brooding as he sat among them, he caught sight of Minerva and went straight to the gate,
for he was vexed that a stranger should be kept waiting for admittance.
He took her right hand in his own, and bade her give him her spear.
"Welcome," said he, "to our house, and when you have partaken of food you shall tell us what you have come for."


U14: "Would you like a cup, ma'am?"


He led the way as he spoke, and Minerva followed him.
When they were within he took her spear
and set it in the spear-stand against a strong bearing-post
along with the many other spears of his unhappy father,
and he conducted her to a richly decorated seat under which he threw a cloth of damask.


U16: "Haines laughed and, as he took his soft grey hat from the holdfast of the hammock"

U17: "Stephen, taking his ashplant from its leaningplace, followed them out"


There was a footstool also for her feet,
and he set another seat near her for himself, away from the suitors,
that she might not be annoyed while eating by their noise and insolence,
and that he might ask her more freely about his father.


U12: "Stephen haled his upended valise to the table and sat down to wait."

U12: "Buck Mulligan sat down in a sudden pet.
— What sort of a kip is this? he said."


A maid servant then 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.


U11: "So I carried the boat of incense then at Clongowes. I am another now and yet the same. A servant too. A server of a servant."


An upper servant brought them bread,
and offered them many good things of what there was in the house,
the carver fetched them plates of all manner of meats
and set cups of gold by their side,
and a man-servant brought them wine and poured it out for them.


U12: "Buck Mulligan tossed the fry on to the dish beside him. Then he carried the dish and a large teapot over to the table, set them down heavily and sighed with relief."


Then the suitors came in and took their places on the benches and seats.
Forthwith men servants poured water over their hands,
maids went round with the bread-baskets,
pages filled the mixing-bowls with wine and water,
and they laid their hands upon the good things that were before them.


U12: "— When I makes tea I makes tea, as old mother Grogan said. And when I makes water I makes water.
— By Jove, it is tea, Haines said.
Buck Mulligan went on hewing and wheedling:
— So I do, Mrs Cahill, says she. Begob, ma'am, says Mrs Cahill, God send you don't make them in the one pot."


As soon as they had had enough to eat and drink they wanted music and dancing,
which are the crowning embellishments of a banquet,
so a servant brought a lyre to Phemius,
whom they compelled perforce to sing to them.
As soon as he touched his lyre and began to sing
Telemachus spoke low to Minerva, with his head close to hers that no man might hear.


U15: "Today the bards must drink and junket."

U9: "Fergus' song: I sang it alone in the house, holding down the long dark chords. Her door was open: she wanted to hear my music. Silent with awe and pity I went to her bedside. She was crying in her wretched bed. For those words, Stephen: love's bitter mystery."

I.4 "'I hope, sir,' said he..."

"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.



U21: "The man that was drowned. A sail veering about the blank bay waiting for a swollen bundle to bob up, roll over to the sun a puffy face, salt white. Here I am."



If these men were to see my father come back to Ithaca
they would pray for longer legs rather than a longer purse,
for money 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.



U7: "Is it Haines? If he makes any noise here I'll bring down Seymour and we'll give him a ragging worse than they gave Clive Kempthorpe."



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."


U4: "— The mockery of it, he said gaily. Your absurd name, an ancient Greek."





And Minerva answered, "I will tell you truly and particularly all about it.
I am Mentes, son of Anchialus, 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 harbour Rheithron under the wooded mountain Neritum.


(she lies!)

U17: "pulled to the slow iron door and locked it"
metals motif: no copper in U1


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.



u193: "— He knows you. He knows your old fellow."




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 prophet, 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.



u18: "— O, shade of Kinch the elder! Japhet in search of a father!"

u8: "I can't remember anything. I remember only ideas and sensations."



But tell me, and tell me true, can Ulysses really have such a fine looking fellow 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."



u6: "I have a lovely pair with a hair stripe, grey. You'll look spiffing in them. I'm not joking, Kinch. You look damn well when you're dressed."





"My mother," answered Telemachus, "tells me I am son to Ulysses,
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 Minerva 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."

I.5 "'Sir,' said Telemachus, 'as regards...'"

"Sir," said Telemachus, "as regards your question,
so long as my father was here it was well with us and with the house,
but the gods in their displeasure have willed it otherwise,
and have hidden him away more closely than mortal man was ever yet hidden.







I could have borne it better even though he were dead,
if he had fallen with his men before Troy,
or had died with friends around him when the days of his fighting were done;
for then the Achaeans would have built a mound over his ashes,
and I should myself have been heir to his renown;
but now the storm-winds have spirited him away we know not wither;
he is gone without leaving so much as a trace behind him,
and I inherit nothing but dismay.







Nor does the matter end simply with grief for the loss of my father;
heaven has laid sorrows upon me of yet another kind;
for the chiefs from all our islands, Dulichium, Same, and the woodland island of Zacynthus,
as also all the principal men of Ithaca itself,
are eating up my house under the pretext of paying their court to my mother,
who will neither point blank say that she will not marry,
nor yet bring matters to an end;
so they are making havoc of my estate,
and before long will do so also with myself."








"Is that so?" exclaimed Minerva, "then you do indeed want Ulysses home again.
Give him his helmet, shield, and a couple lances,
and if he is the man he was when I first knew him in our house, drinking and making merry,
he would soon lay his hands about these rascally suitors,
were he to stand once more upon his own threshold.







He was then coming from Ephyra,
where he had been to beg poison for his arrows from Ilus, son of Mermerus.
Ilus feared the ever-living gods and would not give him any,
but my father let him have some, for he was very fond of him.
If Ulysses is the man he then was these suitors will have a short shrift and a sorry wedding.








"But there! It rests with heaven to determine whether he is to return,
and take his revenge in his own house or no;
I would, however, urge you to set about trying to get rid of these suitors at once.
Take my advice, call the Achaean heroes in assembly to-morrow —
lay your case before them, and call heaven to bear you witness.
Bid the suitors take themselves off, each to his own place,
and if your mother's mind is set on marrying again,
let her go back to her father, who will find her a husband
and provide her with all the marriage gifts that so dear a daughter may expect.







As for yourself, let me prevail upon you to take the best ship you can get, with a crew of twenty men,
and go in quest of your father who has so long been missing.
Some one may tell you something,
or (and people often hear things in this way) some heaven-sent message may direct you.







First go to Pylos and ask Nestor;
thence go on to Sparta and visit Menelaus, for he got home last of all the Achaeans;
if you hear that your father is alive and on his way home,
you can put up with the waste these suitors will make for yet another twelve months.







If on the other hand you hear of his death, come home at once,
celebrate his funeral rites with all due pomp, build a barrow to his memory,
and make your mother marry again.







Then, having done all this, think it well over in your mind
how, by fair means or foul, you may kill these suitors in your own house.
You are too old to plead infancy any longer;
have you not heard how people are singing Orestes' praises for having killed his father's murderer Aegisthus?







You are a fine, smart looking fellow; show your mettle, then, and make yourself a name in story.
Now, however, I must go back to my ship
and to my crew, who will be impatient if I keep them waiting longer;
think the matter over for yourself, and remember what I have said to you."








"Sir," answered Telemachus, "it has been very kind of you
to talk to me in this way, as though I were your own son,
and I will do all you tell me;
I know you want to be getting on with your voyage,
but stay a little longer till you have taken a bath and refreshed yourself.
I will then give you a present, and you shall go on your way rejoicing;
I will give you one of great beauty and value—
a keepsake such as only dear friends give to one another."

I.6 "Minerva answered, 'Do not try...'"

Minerva answered, "Do not try to keep me, for I would be on my way at once.
As for any present you may be disposed to make me,
keep it till I come again, and I will take it home with me.
You shall give me a very good one, and I will give you one of no less value in return."



u15: "Stephen laid the coin in her uneager hand.
— We'll owe twopence, he said.
— Time enough, sir, she said, taking the coin. Time enough. Good morning, sir."




With these words she flew away like a bird into the air,
but she had given Telemachus courage,
and had made him think more than ever about his father.
He felt the change, wondered at it, and knew that the stranger had been a god,
so he went straight to where the suitors were sitting.



u19: "What's bred in the bone cannot fail me to fly
And Olivet's breezy... Goodbye, now, goodbye."

u8: "He had spoken himself into boldness."

u13: "Old and secret she had entered from a morning world, maybe a messenger."

(the flying was a tipoff)




Phemius was still singing,
and his hearers sat rapt in silence as he told the sad tale of the return from Troy,
and the ills Minerva had laid upon the Achaeans.
Penelope, daughter of Icarius, heard his song from her room upstairs,
and came down by the great staircase,
not alone, but attended by two of her handmaids.



u6: "The aunt always keeps plainlooking servants for Malachi."



When she reached the suitors she stood
by one of the bearing posts that supported the roof of the cloisters
with a staid maiden on either side of her.
She held a veil, moreover, before her face, and was weeping bitterly.



u9: 'Fergus' song: I sang it alone in the house, holding down the long dark chords. Her door was open: she wanted to hear my music. Silent with awe and pity I went to her bedside. She was crying in her wretched bed. For those words, Stephen: love's bitter mystery.'




"Phemius," she cried, "you know many another feat of gods and heroes,
such as poets love to celebrate.
Sing the suitors some one of these, and let them drink their wine in silence,
but cease this sad tale, for it breaks my sorrowful heart,
and reminds me of my lost husband whom I mourn ever without ceasing,
and whose name was great over all Hellas and middle Argos."

I.7 "'Mother,' answered Telemachus..."

"Mother," answered Telemachus, "let the bard sing what he has a mind to;
bards do not make the ills they sing of;
it is Jove, not they, who makes them,
and who sends weal or woe upon mankind according to his own good pleasure.
This fellow means no harm by singing the ill-fated return of the Danaans,
for people always applaud the latest songs most warmly.
Make up your mind to it and bear it;


u19: "— We oughtn't to laugh, I suppose. He's rather blasphemous. I'm not a believer myself, that is to say. Still his gaiety takes the harm out of it somehow, doesn't it?"

u20: "— After all, I should think you are able to free yourself. You are your own master, it seems to me."


Ulysses is not the only man who never came back from Troy,
but many another went down as well as he.
Go, then, within the house and busy yourself with your daily duties,
your loom, your distaff, and the ordering of your servants;
for speech is man's matter, and mine above all others—
for it is I who am master here."



u18: "— And what is death, he asked, your mother's or yours or my own? You saw only your mother die. I see them pop off every day in the Mater and Richmond and cut up into tripes in the dissecting room. It's a beastly thing and nothing else. It simply doesn't matter."




She went wondering back into the house,
and laid her son's saying in her heart.
Then, going upstairs with her handmaids into her room,
she mourned her dear husband till Minerva shed sweet sleep over her eyes.
But the suitors were clamorous throughout the covered cloisters,
and prayed each one that he might be her bed fellow.








Then Telemachus spoke, "Shameless," he cried, "and insolent suitors,
let us feast at our pleasure now, and let there be no brawling,
for it is a rare thing to hear a man with such a divine voice as Phemius has;
but in the morning meet me in full assembly
that I may give you formal notice to depart,
and feast at one another's houses, turn and turn about, at your own cost.


u4: "If he stays on here I am off."




If on the other hand you choose to persist in spunging upon one man,
heaven help me, but Jove shall reckon with you in full,
and when you fall in my father's house there shall be no man to avenge you."



u16: "— To tell you the God's truth I think you're right. Damn all else they are good for. Why don't you play them as I do? To hell with them all. Let us get out of the kip."




The suitors bit their lips as they heard him,
and marvelled at the boldness of his speech.
Then, Antinous, son of Eupeithes, said,
"The gods seem to have given you lessons in bluster and tall talking;
may Jove never grant you to be chief in Ithaca as your father was before you."

I.8 "Telemachus answered, 'Antinous...'"

Telemachus answered, "Antinous, do not chide with me,
but, god willing, I will be chief too if I can.
Is this the worst fate you can think of for me?
It is no bad thing to be a chief, for it brings both riches and honour.







Still, now that Ulysses is dead there are many great men in Ithaca both old and young,
and some other may take the lead among them;
nevertheless I will be chief in my own house,
and will rule those whom Ulysses has won for me."








Then Eurymachus, son of Polybus, answered,
"It rests with heaven to decide who shall be chief among us,
but you shall be master in your own house and over your own possessions;
no one while there is a man in Ithaca shall do you violence nor rob you.







And now, my good fellow, I want to know about this stranger.
What country does he come from?
Of what family is he, and where is his estate?
Has he brought you news about the return of your father,
or was he on business of his own?
He seemed a well-to-do man, but he hurried off so suddenly
that he was gone in a moment before we could get to know him."



u14: "Is there Gaelic on you?"

u7: "He's stinking with money and thinks you're not a gentleman. His old fellow made his tin by selling jalap to Zulus or some bloody swindle or other."



"My father is dead and gone," answered Telemachus,
"and even if some rumour reaches me I put no more faith in it now.
My mother does indeed sometimes send for a soothsayer and question him,
but I give his prophecyings no heed.
As for the stranger, he was Mentes, son of Anchialus, chief of the Taphians,
an old friend of my father's." But in his heart he knew that it had been the goddess.








The suitors then returned to their singing and dancing until the evening;
but when night fell upon their pleasuring they went home to bed each in his own abode.
Telemachus's room was high up in a tower that looked on to the outer court;
hither, then, he hied, brooding and full of thought.



u5: "Stephen stood up and went over to the parapet. Leaning on it he looked down on the water and on the mailboat clearing the harbour mouth of Kingstown."



A good old woman, Euryclea, daughter of Ops, the son of Pisenor,
went before him with a couple of blazing torches.
Laertes had bought her with his own money when she was quite young;
he gave the worth of twenty oxen for her,
and shewed as much respect to her in his household as he did to his own wedded wife,
but he did not take her to his bed for he feared his wife's resentment.
She it was who now lighted Telemachus to his room,
and she loved him better than any of the other women in the house did,
for she had nursed him when he was a baby.
He opened the door of his bed room and sat down upon the bed;
as he took off his shirt he gave it to the good old woman,
who folded it tidily up, and hung it for him over a peg by his bed side,
after which she went out, pulled the door to by a silver catch,
and drew the bolt home by means of the strap.


u6: "The aunt always keeps plainlooking servants for Malachi. Lead him not into temptation."

u22: "He struggled out of his shirt and flung it behind him to where his clothes lay."

u17: "Stephen, taking his ashplant from its leaningplace, followed them out and, as they went down the ladder, pulled to the slow iron door and locked it. He put the huge key in his inner pocket."



But Telemachus as he lay covered with a woollen fleece
kept thinking all night through of his intended voyage
of the counsel that Minerva had given him.



u9: "Woodshadows floated silently by through the morning peace from the stairhead seaward where he gazed."