Page 55 - the-odyssey

counsel, but he was now dead, and had gone to the house of
Hades; so Nestor sat in his seat sceptre in hand, as guard-
ian of the public weal. His sons as they left their rooms
gathered round him, Echephron, Stratius, Perseus, Aretus,
and Thrasymedes; the sixth son was Pisistratus, and when
Telemachus joined them they made him sit with them.
Nestor then addressed them.
‘My sons,’ said he, ‘make haste to do as I shall bid you.
I wish first and foremost to propitiate the great goddess
Minerva, who manifested herself visibly to me during
yesterday’s festivities. Go, then, one or other of you to the
plain, tell the stockman to look me out a heifer, and come
on here with it at once. Another must go to Telemachus’
ship, and invite all the crew, leaving two men only in charge
of the vessel. Some one else will run and fetch Laerceus the
goldsmith to gild the horns of the heifer. The rest, stay all of
you where you are; tell the maids in the house to prepare an
excellent dinner, and to fetch seats, and logs of wood for a
burnt offering. Tell them also to bring me some clear spring
water.’
On this they hurried off on their several errands. The
heifer was brought in from the plain, and Telemachus’s
crew came from the ship; the goldsmith brought the anvil,
hammer, and tongs, with which he worked his gold, and
Minerva herself came to accept the sacrifice. Nestor gave
out the gold, and the smith gilded the horns of the heifer
that the goddess might have pleasure in their beauty. Then
Stratius and Echephron brought her in by the horns; Are-
tus fetched water from the house in a ewer that had a flower

The Odyssey