Page 142 - the-odyssey

there is no danger of being wrecked or coming to any harm.
Still I do remember hearing my father say that Neptune was
angry with us for being too easy-going in the matter of giv-
ing people escorts. He said that one of these days he should
wreck a ship of ours as it was returning from having escort-
ed some one, {74} and bury our city under a high mountain.
This is what my father used to say, but whether the god will
carry out his threat or no is a matter which he will decide
for himself.
‘And now, tell me and tell me true. Where have you been
wandering, and in what countries have you travelled? Tell
us of the peoples themselves, and of their cities—who were
hostile, savage and uncivilised, and who, on the other hand,
hospitable and humane. Tell us also why you are made so
unhappy on hearing about the return of the Argive Dan-
aans from Troy. The gods arranged all this, and sent them
their misfortunes in order that future generations might
have something to sing about. Did you lose some brave
kinsman of your wife’s when you were before Troy? a son-
in-law or father-in-law—which are the nearest relations a
man has outside his own flesh and blood? or was it some
brave and kindly-natured comrade—for a good friend is as
dear to a man as his own brother?’

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