Page 224 - the-odyssey
P. 224

stand to be a long way off from this Achaean country.’
            Ulysses was glad at finding himself, as Minerva told him,
         in his own country, and he began to answer, but he did not
         speak the truth, and made up a lying story in the instinctive
         wiliness of his heart.
            ‘I  heard  of  Ithaca,’  said  he,  ‘when  I  was  in  Crete  be-
         yond the seas, and now it seems I have reached it with all
         these treasures. I have left as much more behind me for my
         children, but am flying because I killed Orsilochus son of
         Idomeneus, the fleetest runner in Crete. I killed him be-
         cause he wanted to rob me of the spoils I had got from Troy
         with so much trouble and danger both on the field of battle
         and by the waves of the weary sea; he said I had not served
         his father loyally at Troy as vassal, but had set myself up as
         an independent ruler, so I lay in wait for him with one of
         my followers by the road side, and speared him as he was
         coming into town from the country. It was a very dark night
         and nobody saw us; it was not known, therefore, that I had
         killed him, but as soon as I had done so I went to a ship and
         besought the owners, who were Phoenicians, to take me on
         board and set me in Pylos or in Elis where the Epeans rule,
         giving them as much spoil as satisfied them. They meant
         no guile, but the wind drove them off their course, and we
         sailed on till we came hither by night. It was all we could do
         to get inside the harbour, and none of us said a word about
         supper though we wanted it badly, but we all went on shore
         and lay down just as we were. I was very tired and fell asleep
         directly, so they took my goods out of the ship, and placed
         them beside me where I was lying upon the sand. Then they
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