Page 248 - the-odyssey

gerous people in your house; they will eat up everything
you have among them, and you will have been on a fool’s
errand. Ask Menelaus to send you home at once if you wish
to find your excellent mother still there when you get back.
Her father and brothers are already urging her to marry
Eurymachus, who has given her more than any of the oth-
ers, and has been greatly increasing his wedding presents. I
hope nothing valuable may have been taken from the house
in spite of you, but you know what women are—they always
want to do the best they can for the man who marries them,
and never give another thought to the children of their first
husband, nor to their father either when he is dead and done
with. Go home, therefore, and put everything in charge of
the most respectable woman servant that you have, until
it shall please heaven to send you a wife of your own. Let
me tell you also of another matter which you had better at-
tend to. The chief men among the suitors are lying in wait
for you in the Strait {128} between Ithaca and Samos, and
they mean to kill you before you can reach home. I do not
much think they will succeed; it is more likely that some of
those who are now eating up your property will find a grave
themselves. Sail night and day, and keep your ship well
away from the islands; the god who watches over you and
protects you will send you a fair wind. As soon as you get to
Ithaca send your ship and men on to the town, but yourself
go straight to the swineherd who has charge of your pigs; he
is well disposed towards you, stay with him, therefore, for
the night, and then send him to Penelope to tell her that you
have got back safe from Pylos.’