The Adventures of Odysseus and The Tales of Troy | Page 3

for the absence of Odysseus and ever hoping that he would return, would give
no answer to them. For three years now they were coming to the house of Odysseus to
woo the wife whom he had left behind him. 'They want to put my lady-mother between
two dread difficulties,' said Telemachus, 'either to promise to wed one of them or to see
the substance of our house wasted by them. Here they come and eat the bread of our
fields, and slay the beasts of our flocks and herds, and drink the wine that in the old days
my father laid up, and weary our servants with their orders.'
When he had told him all this Telemachus raised his head and looked at the stranger: 'O
my guest,' he said, 'wisdom and power shine out of your eyes. Speak now to me and tell
me what I should do to save the house of Odysseus from ruin. And tell me too if you
think it possible that my father should still be in life.'
The stranger looked at him with his grey, clear, wonderfully-shining eyes. 'Art thou
verily the son of Odysseus?' said he.
'Verily, I am the son of Odysseus,' said Telemachus.
'As I look at you,' said the stranger, 'I mark your head and eyes, and I know they are such
a head and such eyes as Odysseus had. Well, being the son of such a man, and of such a
woman as the lady Penelope, your spirit surely shall find a way of destroying those
wooers who would destroy your house.'
'Already,' said Telemachus, 'your gaze and your speech make me feel equal to the task of
dealing with them.'
'I think,' said the stranger, 'that Odysseus, your father, has not perished from the earth. He
may yet win home through labors and perils. But you should seek for tidings of him.
Harken to me now and I shall tell you what to do.
'To-morrow summon a council of all the chief men of the land of Ithaka, and stand up in
that council and declare that the time has come for the wooers who waste your substance
to scatter, each man to his own home. And after the council has been held I would have
you voyage to find out tidings of your father, whether he still lives and where he might be.
Go to Pylos first, to the home of Nestor, that old King who was with your father in the
war of Troy. Beg Nestor to give you whatever tidings he has of Odysseus. And from
Pylos go to Sparta, to the home of Menelaus and Helen, and beg tidings of your father
from them too. And if you get news of his being alive, return: It will be easy for you then
to endure for another year the wasting of your substance by those wooers. But if you
learn that your father, the renowned Odysseus, is indeed dead and gone, then come back,

and in your own country raise a great funeral mound to his memory, and over it pay all
funeral rites. Then let your mother choose a good man to be her husband and let her
marry him, knowing for a certainty that Odysseus will never come back to his own house.
After that something will remain for you to do: You will have to punish those wooers
who destroy the goods your father gathered and who insult his house by their presence.
And when all these things have been done, you, Telemachus, will be free to seek out your
own fortune: you will rise to fame, for I mark that you are handsome and strong and most
likely to be a wise and valiant man. But now I must fare on my journey.'
The stranger rose up from where he sat and went with Telemachus from the hall and
through the court and to the outer gate. Telemachus said: 'What you have told me I shall
not forget. I know you have spoken out of a wise and a friendly heart, and as a father to
his son.'
The stranger clasped his hands and went through the gate. And then, as he looked after
him Telemachus saw the stranger change in his form. He became first as a woman, tall,
with fair hair and a spear of bronze in her hand. And then the form of a woman changed
too. It changed into a great sea-eagle that on wide wings rose up and flew high through
the air. Telemachus knew then that his visitor was an immortal and no other than the
goddess Athene who had been his father's friend.

III
When Telemachus went back to the hall those who were feasting there had put the
wine-cups from them