Page 45 - the-odyssey

my unhappy father Ulysses, who is said to have sacked the
town of Troy in company with yourself. We know what fate
befell each one of the other heroes who fought at Troy, but
as regards Ulysses heaven has hidden from us the knowl-
edge even that he is dead at all, for no one can certify us in
what place he perished, nor say whether he fell in battle on
the mainland, or was lost at sea amid the waves of Amphi-
trite. Therefore I am suppliant at your knees, if haply you
may be pleased to tell me of his melancholy end, whether
you saw it with your own eyes, or heard it from some other
traveller, for he was a man born to trouble. Do not soften
things out of any pity for me, but tell me in all plainness ex-
actly what you saw. If my brave father Ulysses ever did you
loyal service, either by word or deed, when you Achaeans
were harassed among the Trojans, bear it in mind now as in
my favour and tell me truly all.’
‘My friend,’ answered Nestor, ‘you recall a time of much
sorrow to my mind, for the brave Achaeans suffered much
both at sea, while privateering under Achilles, and when
fighting before the great city of king Priam. Our best men
all of them fell there—Ajax, Achilles, Patroclus peer of gods
in counsel, and my own dear son Antilochus, a man singu-
larly fleet of foot and in fight valiant. But we suffered much
more than this; what mortal tongue indeed could tell the
whole story? Though you were to stay here and question me
for five years, or even six, I could not tell you all that the
Achaeans suffered, and you would turn homeward weary
of my tale before it ended. Nine long years did we try every
kind of stratagem, but the hand of heaven was against us;

The Odyssey