Page 263 - the-odyssey

shore, mixed their wine, and got dinner ready. As soon as
they had had enough to eat and drink Telemachus said,
‘Take the ship on to the town, but leave me here, for I want
to look after the herdsmen on one of my farms. In the eve-
ning, when I have seen all I want, I will come down to the
city, and to-morrow morning in return for your trouble I
will give you all a good dinner with meat and wine.’ {137}
Then Theoclymenus said, ‘And what, my dear young
friend, is to become of me? To whose house, among all your
chief men, am I to repair? or shall I go straight to your own
house and to your mother?’
‘At any other time,’ replied Telemachus, ‘I should have
bidden you go to my own house, for you would find no want
of hospitality; at the present moment, however, you would
not be comfortable there, for I shall be away, and my mother
will not see you; she does not often show herself even to the
suitors, but sits at her loom weaving in an upper chamber,
out of their way; but I can tell you a man whose house you
can go to—I mean Eurymachus the son of Polybus, who is
held in the highest estimation by every one in Ithaca. He
is much the best man and the most persistent wooer, of all
those who are paying court to my mother and trying to
take Ulysses’ place. Jove, however, in heaven alone knows
whether or no they will come to a bad end before the mar-
riage takes place.’
As he was speaking a bird flew by upon his right hand—a
hawk, Apollo’s messenger. It held a dove in its talons, and the
feathers, as it tore them off, {138} fell to the ground midway
between Telemachus and the ship. On this Theoclymenus

The Odyssey