ges on the way to whisper to Telemachos, that she will expect him
during the night.

Left alone, she intoxicates the guard by means of a sleeping-draught,
and so Telemachos enters the tent unobserved. At first she beguiles
him with a great show of tenderness. When he asks her from whence she
comes, she tells him, that she never knew father nor mother, but that
her nurse revealed to her that she is the daughter of Poseidon and of
Persephone. After her nurse's death she became a priestess in
Poseidon's temple, where she had seen Hyperion, with whom she had
fallen in love, and {458} whom she had followed to Ithaka. There her
lover having fallen under the spell of Penelope's beauty like all the
others, and having met with an untimely death, Despoina had sworn
vengeance on the whole house of Odysseus and to this end had married
the barbarian king of Thesprotia. At this Telemachos turns
shudderingly away from this mysterious woman and she makes use of the
opportunity to take up his sword, with which she secretly and swiftly
stabs the guard, sleeping heavily outside the tent. Then she tries
again to gain ascendency over Telemachos, by assuring him of her love,
but though full of pity for the unhappy and beautiful woman he turns
from her and flies. A short time afterwards Odysseus enters to visit
his captive, she also tries her arts on him but in vain, Odysseus
hearing the shouts of his soldiers, leaves her, and all set out for
Dodona.

The next scene shows the grove of Dodona with Jupiter's temple, bearing
the inscription: Know thyself.

The priests sacrifice to the god singing: "Zeus (Jupiter) is, Zeus was,
Zeus will be." Odysseus brings costly offerings and the three
Peleiades appear, warning Odysseus not to slay Despoina, as vengeance
belongs to Zeus alone but in vain Odysseus insists that she must die.
Then the prophetesses grow wilder in their threats and the priests in
dark words predict to Odysseus an untimely death through his own son;
the sky becomes dark, the sacred spring bubbles and steams. Odysseus
goaded to madness by Telemachos' entreaties for the life {459} of
Despoina the worst foe of his house, draws his sword upon his son. The
latter throws away his weapons and offers his bare breast to his
beloved father's stroke while the priests cry: "Woe to thee Odysseus!"
Then the unhappy father coming to his senses seizes Despoina and drags
her away, while the water quakes from the earth and the Peleiades