The Odyssey: Book 4

They found the king inside his palace, celebrating
with throngs of kinsmen a double wedding-feast
for his son and lovely daughter.

They loosed the sweating team from under the yoke,
tethered them fast by reins inside the horse-stalls,
tossing feed at their hoofs, white barley mixed with wheat,
and canted the chariot up against the polished walls...

You must be born of kings,
bred by the gods to wield the royal scepter.
No mean men could sire sons like you.

Now Phylo her servant rolled it in beside her,
heaped to the brim with yarn prepared for weaving;
the spindle swathed in violet wool lay tipped across it.

So cunning the drugs that Zeus's daughter plied,
potent gifts from Polydamna the wife of Thon,
a woman of Egypt, land where the teeming soil
bears the richest yield of herbs in all the world:
many health itself when mixed in the wine,
and many deadly poison.

So cunning the drugs that Zeus's daughter plied,
potent gifts from Polydamna the wife of Thon,
a woman of Egypt, land where the teeming soil
bears the richest yield of herbs in all the world:
many health itself when mixed in the wine,
and many deadly poison.

Surely I can't describe or even list them all,
the exploits crowding fearless Odysseus' record,
but what a feat that hero dared and carried off
in the land of Troy where you Achaeans suffered!

What a piece of work the hero dared and carried off
in the wooden horse where all our best encamped,
our champions armed with bloody death for Troy...
when along you came, Helen—roused, no doubt,
by a dark power bent on giving Troy some glory,
and dashing Prince Deiphobus squired your every step.

And Diomedes and I, crouched tight in the midst
with great Odysseus, hearing you singing out,
were both keen to spring up and sally forth
or give you a sudden answer from inside,
but, Odysseus damped our ardor, reined us back.

And Diomedes and I, crouched tight in the midst
with great Odysseus, hearing you singing out,
were both keen to spring up and sally forth
or give you a sudden answer from inside,
but, Odysseus damped our ardor, reined us back.

It was in Egypt, where the gods still marooned me,
eager as I was to voyage home...I'd failed,
you see, to render them full, flawless victims,
and gods are always keen to see their rules obeyed.

But the goddess sped to our rescue, found the cure
with ambrosia, daubing it under each man's nose—
that lovely scent, it drowned the creatures' stench.

At high noon the old man emerged from the waves
and found his fat-fed seals and made his rounds,
counting them off, counting us the first four,
but he had no inkling of all the fraud afoot.

And so he died,
having drunk his fill of brine.

But just as he came abreast of Malea's beetling cape
a hurricane snatched him up and swept him way off course—

Of all the treasures lying heaped in my palace
you shall have the finest, most esteemed.

I'll give you a mixing-bowl, forged to perfection—
it's solid silver finished off with a lip of gold.

Tell me this—be clear—I've got to know:
did he commandeer your ship against your will
or did you volunteer it once he'd won you over?

Telemachus—what insolence—and we thought his little jaunt
would come to grief.

Medon replied,
sure of his own discretion, "Ah my queen,
if only that were the worst of all you face..."

If ever, here in his halls,
resourceful King Odysseus
burned rich thighs of sheep or oxen in your honor,
oh remember it now for my sake, save my darling son,
defend him from these outrageous, overbearing suitors!

First they hauled the craft into deeper water,
stepped the mast amidships, canvas brailed,
made oars fast in the leather oarlock straps
while zealous aides-in-arms brought weapons on.

Harried so she was, when a deep kind sleep overcame her,
back she sank and slept, her limbs fell limp and still.

But the circumspect Penelope replied,
"If you are a god and have heard a god's own voice,
come, tell me about that luckless man as well.
Is he still alive? does he see the light of day?
Or is he dead already, lost in the House of Death?"

"I cannot tell you the story start to finish,
whether he's dead or alive.
It's wrong to lead you on with idle words."