Page 255 - the-odyssey

of Amphiaraus, who was dearly loved both by Jove and by
Apollo, but he did not live to old age, for he was killed in
Thebes by reason of a woman’s gifts. His sons were Alcmae-
on and Amphilochus. Mantius, the other son of Melampus,
was father to Polypheides and Cleitus. Aurora, throned in
gold, carried off Cleitus for his beauty’s sake, that he might
dwell among the immortals, but Apollo made Polypheides
the greatest seer in the whole world now that Amphiaraus
was dead. He quarrelled with his father and went to live in
Hyperesia, where he remained and prophesied for all men.
His son, Theoclymenus, it was who now came up to
Telemachus as he was making drink-offerings and praying
in his ship. ‘Friend,’ said he, ‘now that I find you sacrificing
in this place, I beseech you by your sacrifices themselves,
and by the god to whom you make them, I pray you also by
your own head and by those of your followers tell me the
truth and nothing but the truth. Who and whence are you?
Tell me also of your town and parents.’
Telemachus said, ‘I will answer you quite truly. I am from
Ithaca, and my father is Ulysses, as surely as that he ever
lived. But he has come to some miserable end. Therefore I
have taken this ship and got my crew together to see if I can
hear any news of him, for he has been away a long time.’
‘I too,’ answered Theoclymenus, ‘am an exile, for I have
killed a man of my own race. He has many brothers and
kinsmen in Argos, and they have great power among the
Argives. I am flying to escape death at their hands, and am
thus doomed to be a wanderer on the face of the earth. I am
your suppliant; take me, therefore, on board your ship that

The Odyssey