book one of the odyssey this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org recording by mark nelson the odyssey by homer translated by samuel butler book one the gods and council minerva's visit to ithaca the challenge from telemachus to the suitors tell me o muse of that ingenious hero who traveled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of troy many cities did he visit and many were the nations with whose manners and customs he was acquainted moreover he suffered much by the sea while trying to save his own life and bring his men safely home but do what he might he could not save his men for they perished through their own sheer folly in eating the cattle of the sun god hyperion so the god prevented them from ever reaching home tell me too about all these things o daughter of jove from whatsoever source you may know them so now all who escaped death in battle or by shipwreck had got safely home except ulysses and he though he was longing to return to his wife and country was detained by the goddess calypso who had got him into a large cave and wanted to marry him but as years went by there came a time when the gods settled that he should go back to ithaca even then however when he was among his own people his troubles were not yet over nevertheless all the gods had now begun to pity him except neptune who still persecuted him without ceasing and would not let him get home now neptune had gone off to the ethiopians who were at the world's end and lie in two halves one looking west and the other east he had gone there to accept a heck of tomb of sheep and oxen and was enjoying himself at his festival but the other gods met in the house of olympian jove and the sire of gods and men spoke first at that moment he was thinking of aegistas who had been killed by agamemnon's son arrestees so he said to the other gods see now how men lay blame upon us gods for what is after all nothing but their own folly look at a justice he must needs make love to agamemnon's wife unrighteously and then kill agamemnon though he knew it would be the death of him for i said mercury to warn him not to do either of these things inasmuch as arrestees would be sure to take his revenge when he grew up and wanted to return home mercury told him this in all good will but he would not listen and now he has paid for everything in full then minerva said father son of saturn king of kings it served it just this right and so it would anyone else who does as he did but egystas is neither here nor there it is for ulysses that my heart believes when i think of his sufferings in that lonely sea girt island far away poor man from all his friends it is an island covered with forest in the very middle of the sea and a goddess lives there daughter of the magician atlas who looks after the bottom of the ocean and carries the great columns that keep heaven and earth asunder this daughter of atlas has got hold of poor unhappy ulysses and keeps trying by every kind of blanishment to make him forget his home so that he is tired of life and thinks of nothing but how he may once more see the smoke of his own chimneys you sir take no heed of this and yet when ulysses was before troy did he not propitiate you with many a burnt sacrifice why then should you keep on being so angry with him and job said my child what are you talking about how can i forget ulysses then whom there is no more capable man on earth nor more liberal in his offerings to the immortal gods that live in heaven bear in mind however that neptune is still furious with ulysses for having blinded an eye of polyphemus king of the cyclops polyphemus is sun to neptune by the nymphusa daughter to the sea king forces therefore though he will not kill ulysses outright he torments him by preventing him from getting home still let us lay our heads together and see how we can help him to return neptune will then be pacified for if we are all of a mind he can hardly stand out against us and minerva said father son of saturn king of kings if then the gods now mean that ulysses should get home we should first send mercury to the ogen island to tell calypso that we have made up our minds and that he is to return in the meantime i will go to ithaca to put heart into ulysses son telemachus i will embolden him to call the akians in assembly and speak out to the suitors of his mother penelope who persist in eating up any number of ishiba and oxen i will also conduct him to sparta and to pilos to see if he can hear anything about the return of his dear father for this will make people speak well of him so saying she bound on her glittering golden sandals imperishable with which she can fly like the wind over land or sea she grasped their redoubtable bronze shod spear so stout and sturdy and strong wherewith she quells the ranks of heroes who have displeased her and down she darted from the topmost summits of olympus where on forthwith she was in ithaca at the gateway of ulysses house disguised as a visitor mentis chief of the tafians and she held a bronze spear in her hand there she found the lordly suitors seated on hides of the oxen which they had killed and eaten and playing drafts in front of the house men servants and pages were bustling about to wait upon them some mixing wine with water in the mixing bowls some cleaning down the tables with wet sponges and laying them out again and some cutting up great quantities of meat telemachus saw her long before anyone else did he was sitting moodily among the suitors thinking about his brave father and how he would send them flying out of the house if he were to come to his own again and be honored as in days gone by thus brooding as he sat among them he caught sight of minerva and went straight to the gate for he was vexed that a stranger should be kept waiting for admittance he took her right hand in his own and bad her give him her spear welcome said he to our house and when you have partaken of food you shall tell us what you have come for he led the way as he spoke and minerva followed him when they were within he took her spear and set it in the spear stand against a strong bearing post along with the many other spears of his unhappy father and he conducted her to a richly decorated seat under which he threw a cloth of damask there was a footstool also for her feet and he set another seat near her for himself away from the suitors that she might not be annoyed while eating by their noise and insolence and that he might ask her more freely about his father a maidservant then brought them water in a beautiful golden ewer and poured it into a silver basin for them to wash their hands and she drew a clean table beside them an upper servant brought them bread and offered them many good things of what there was in the house the carver fetched them plates of all manner of meats and set cups of gold by their side and a manservant brought them wine and poured it out for them then the suitors came in and took their places on the benches and seats forthwith men servants poured water over their hands maids went round with the bread baskets pages filled the mixing bowls with wine and water and they laid their hands upon the good things that were before them as soon as they had had enough to eat and drink they wanted music and dancing which were the crowning embellishments of a banquet so a servant brought a liar to femius whom they compelled per force to sing to them as soon as he touched his lyre and began to sing telemachus spoke low to minerva with his head close to hers that no man might hear i hope sir said he that you will not be offended with what i am going to say singing comes cheap to those who do not pay for it and all this is done at the cost of one whose bones lie rotting in some wilderness or grinding to powder in the surf if these men were to see my father come back to ithaca they would pray for longer legs rather than a longer purse for money would not serve them but he alas has fallen on an ill fate and even when people do sometimes say that he is coming we no longer heed them we shall never see him again and now sir tell me and tell me true who are you and where do you come from tell me of your town and parents what manner of ship you came in how your crew brought you to ithaca and of what nation they declared themselves to be for you cannot have come by land tell me also truly for i want to know are you a stranger to this house or have you been here in my father's time in the old days we had many visitors for my father went about much himself and minerva answered i will tell you truly and particularly all about it i am mentes son of ankialis and i am king of the tapians i have come here with my ship and crew on a voyage to men of a foreign tongue being bound for te messa with a cargo of iron and i shall bring back copper as for my ship it lies over yonder off the open country away from the town in the harbor wrythron under the wooded mountain narutum our fathers were friends before us as old laertes will tell you if you will go and ask him they say however that he never comes to town now and lives by himself in the country faring hardly with an old woman to look after him and get his dinner for him when he comes in tired from pottering about his vineyard they told me your father was at home again and that was why i came but it seems the gods are still keeping him back for he is not dead yet not on the mainland it is more likely he is on some siegert island in mid-ocean or a prisoner among savages who are detaining him against his will i am no prophet and know very little about omens but i speak as it is born in upon me from heaven and assure you that he will not be away much longer for he is a man of such resource that even though he were in chains of iron he would find some means of getting home again but tell me and tell me true can ulysses really have such a fine looking fellow for a son you are indeed wonderfully like him about the head and eyes for we were close friends before he set sail for troy where the flower of all the archives went also since that time we have never either of a seen the other my mother answered telemachus tells me i am son to ulysses but it is a wise child that knows his own father would that i were son to one who had grown old upon his own estates for since you asked me there is no more ill-starred man under heaven than he who they tell me is my father and minerva said there is no fear of your race dying out yet while penelope has such a fine son as you are but tell me and tell me true what is the meaning of all this feasting and who are these people what is it all about have you some banquet or is there a wedding in the family for no one seems to be bringing any provisions of his own and the guests how atrociously they are behaving what riot they make over the whole house it is enough to disgust any respectable person who comes near them sir said telemachus as regards your question so long as my father was here it was well with us and with the house but the gods in their displeasure have wielded otherwise and have hidden him away more closely than mortal man was ever yet hidden i could have borne it better even though he were dead if he had fallen with his men before troy or had died with his friends around him when the days of his fighting were done for then the achaeans would have built a mound over his ashes and i should myself have been heir to his renown but now the stormwinds have spirited him away we know not wither he is gone without leaving so much as a trace behind him and i inherit nothing but dismay nor does the matter end simply with grief for the loss of my father heaven has laid sorrows upon me of yet another kind for the chiefs from all our islands deuliqum same and the woodland island of zekenthus as also all the principal men of ithaca itself are eating up my house under the pretext of paying their court to my mother who will neither point blank say that she will not marry nor yet bring matters to an end so they are making havoc of my estate and before long will do so also with myself is that so exclaimed minerva then you indeed want ulysses home again give him his helmet shield and a couple of lances and if he is the man he was when i first knew him in our house drinking and making mary he would soon lay his hands about these rascally suitors were he to stand once more upon his own threshold he was then coming from ephyrah where he had been to beg poison for his arrows from illus son of murmurs illest feared the ever-living gods and would not give him any but my father let him have some for he was very fond of him if ulysses is the man he then was these suitors will have a short shrift and a sorry wedding but there it rests with heaven to determine whether he is to return and take his revenge in his own house or no i would however urge you to set about trying to get rid of these suitors at once take my advice call the akian heroes in assembly tomorrow morning lay your case before them and call heaven to bear you witness bid the suitors take themselves off each to his own place and if your mother's mind is set on marrying again let her go back to her father who will find her a husband and provide her with all the marriage gifts that so dear a daughter may expect as for yourself let me prevail upon you to take the best ship you can get with a crew of 20 men and go in quest of your father who has so long been missing someone may tell you something or and people often hear things in this way some heaven-sent message may direct you first go to pilos and ask nestor thence go on to sparta and visit menelaus for he got home last of all the achaeans if you hear that your father is alive and on his way home you can put up with the waste of these suitors will make for yet another twelve months if on the other hand you hear of his death come home at once celebrate his funeral rights with all due pop build a burrow to his memory and make your mother merry again then having done all this think it well over in your mind how by fair means or foul you may kill these suitors in your own house you are too old to plead infancy any longer have you not heard how people are singing orestes praises for having killed his father's murderer egyptus you are a fine smart looking fellow show your metal then and make yourself a name and story now however i must go back to my ship and to my crew who will be impatient if i keep them waiting longer think the matter over for yourself and remember what i have said to you sir answer telemachus it has been very kind of you to talk to me in this way as though i were your own son and i will do all you tell me i know you want to be getting on with your voyage but stay a little longer till you have taken a bath and refreshed yourself i will then give you a present and you shall go on your way rejoicing i will give you one of great beauty and value a keepsake such as only dear friends give to one another minerva answered do not try to keep me for i would be on my way at once as for any present you may be disposed to make me keep it till i come again and i will take it home with me you shall give me a very good one and i will give you one of no less value in return with these words she flew away like a bird into the air but she had given telemachus courage and had made him think more than ever about his father he felt the change wondered at it and knew that the stranger had been a god so he went straight to where the suitors were sitting femius was still singing and his hearer sat wrapped in silence as he told the sad tale of the return from troy and the ills minerva had laid upon the achaeans penelope daughter of vicarius heard his song from her room upstairs and came down by the great staircase not alone but attended by two of her handmaids when she reached the suitors she stood by one of the bearing posts that supported the roof of the cloisters with a stayed maiden on either side of her she held a veil moreover before her face and was weeping bitterly femius she cried you know many another feet of gods and heroes such as poets love to celebrate seeing the suitor some one of these and let them drink their wine in silence but cease this sad tale for it breaks my sorrowful heart and reminds me of my lost husband whom i mourn ever without ceasing and whose name was great all over helles and middle argos mother answered telemachus let the bard sing what he has a mind to bards do not make the ills they sing of it is jove not they who makes them and who sends wheel or woe upon mankind according to his own good pleasure this fellow means no harm by singing the ill-fated return of the dinaians for people always applaud the latest songs most warmly make up your mind to it and bear it ulysses is not the only man who never came back from troy but many another went down as well as he go then within the house and busy yourself with your daily duties your loom your distaff and the ordering of your servants for speech is man's matter and mine above all others for it is i who am master here she went wandering back into the house and laid her son saying in her heart then going upstairs with her handmaids into her room she mourned her dear husband till minerva shed sweet sleep over her eyes but the suitors were clamorous throughout the covered cloisters and prayed each one that he might be her bed fellow then telemachus spoke shameless he cried and insolent suitors let us feast at our pleasure now and let there be no brawling for it is a rare thing to hear a man with such a divine voice as femius has but in the morning meet me in full assembly that i may give you formal notice to depart and feast at one another's houses turn and turn about at your own cost if on the other hand you choose to persist in sponging upon one man heaven help me but job shall reckon with you in full and when you fall in my father's house there shall be no man to avenge you the suitors bit their lips as they heard him and marveled at the boldness of his speech then antonus son of eupythes said the gods seem to have given you lessons in bluster and tall talking may job never grant you to be chief in ithaca as your father was before you telemachus answered antonis do not shide with me but god willing i will be chief too if i can is this the worst fate you can think of for me it is no bad thing to be a chief for it brings both riches and honor still now that ulysses is dead there are many great men in ithaca both old and young and some other may take the lead among them nevertheless i will be chief in my own house and will rule those whom ulysses has won for me then urimicus son of polybus answered it rests with heaven to decide who shall be chief among us but you shall be master in your own house and over your own possessions no one while there is a man in ithaca shall do you violence nor rob you and now my good fellow i want to know about this stranger what country does he come from of what family is he and where is his estate has he brought you news about the return of your father or was he on business of his own he seemed a well-to-do man but he hurried off so suddenly that he was gone in a moment before we could get to know him my father is dead and gone answered telemachus and even if some rumor reaches me i put no more faith in it now. my mother does indeed sometimes send for a soothsayer and question him but i give his prophesyings no heed as for the stranger he was mentis son of ankialis chief of the an old friend of my father's but in his heart he knew that it had been the goddess the suitors then returned to their singing and dancing until the evening but when night fell upon their pleasuring they went home to bed each in his own abode tamellicus's room was high up in a tower that looked on to the outer court hither then he hide brooding and full of thought a good old woman eureka daughter of ops the son of pisanor went before him with a couple of blazing torches laertes had bought her with his own money when she was quite young he gave the worth of 20 oxen for her and showed as much respect to her in his household as he did to his own wedded wife but he did not take her to his bed for he feared his wife's resentment she it was who now lighted telemachus to his room and she loved him better than any of the other women in the house did for she had nursed him when he was a baby he opened the door of his bedroom and sat down upon the bed as he took off his shirt he gave it to the good old woman who folded it tidily up and hung it for him over a peg by his bedside after which she went out pulled the door too by a silver catch and drew the bolt home by means of the strap but telemachus as he lay covered with a woolen fleece kept thinking all night through of his intended voyage and of the council that minerva had given him end of book one you