Page 51 - the-odyssey

never man knew better how to handle a vessel in rough
weather) so that he died then and there with the helm in
his hand, and Menelaus, though very anxious to press for-
ward, had to wait in order to bury his comrade and give
him his due funeral rites. Presently, when he too could put
to sea again, and had sailed on as far as the Malean heads,
Jove counselled evil against him and made it blow hard till
the waves ran mountains high. Here he divided his fleet
and took the one half towards Crete where the Cydonians
dwell round about the waters of the river Iardanus. There is
a high headland hereabouts stretching out into the sea from
a place called Gortyn, and all along this part of the coast as
far as Phaestus the sea runs high when there is a south wind
blowing, but after Phaestus the coast is more protected, for
a small headland can make a great shelter. Here this part of
the fleet was driven on to the rocks and wrecked; but the
crews just managed to save themselves. As for the other five
ships, they were taken by winds and seas to Egypt, where
Menelaus gathered much gold and substance among peo-
ple of an alien speech. Meanwhile Aegisthus here at home
plotted his evil deed. For seven years after he had killed
Agamemnon he ruled in Mycene, and the people were obe-
dient under him, but in the eighth year Orestes came back
from Athens to be his bane, and killed the murderer of his
father. Then he celebrated the funeral rites of his mother
and of false Aegisthus by a banquet to the people of Ar-
gos, and on that very day Menelaus came home, {31} with as
much treasure as his ships could carry.
‘Take my advice then, and do not go travelling about for

0 The Odyssey