Page 224 - the-odyssey

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