660
Telemachus! however long thy stay,
Punctual I will attend him, and no want
Of hospitality shall he find with me.
So saying, he climb'd the ship, then bade the crew
Embarking also, cast the hawsers loose,
And each, obedient, to his bench repair'd.
Meantime Telemachus his sandals bound,
And lifted from the deck his glitt'ring spear.
Then, as Telemachus had bidden them,
Son of divine Ulysses, casting loose 670
The hawsers, forth they push'd into the Deep
And sought the city, while with nimble pace
Proceeding thence, Telemachus attain'd
The cottage soon where good Eumaeus slept,
The swine-herd, faithful to his num'rous charge.

FOOTNOTES:

[65] Iphyclus the son of Phylacus had seized and detained cattle
belonging to Neleus; Neleus ordered his nephew Melampus to recover them,
and as security for his obedience seized on a considerable part of his
possessions. Melampus attempted the service, failed, and was cast into
prison; but at length escaping, accomplished his errand, vanquished
Neleus in battle, and carried off his daughter Pero, whom Neleus had
promised to the brother of Melampus, but had afterward refused her.

[66] His wife Eryphyle, bribed by Polynices, persuaded him, though aware
that death awaited him at that city, to go to Thebes, where he fell
accordingly.

[67] She is said to have hanged herself.

[68] Not improbably the isthmus of Syracuse, an island, perhaps, or
peninsula at that period, or at least imagined to be such by Homer. The
birth of Diana gave fame to Ortygia. F.

[69] +Hothi tropai eelioio+--The Translator has rendered the passage
according to that interpretation of it to which several of the best
expositors incline. Nothing can be so absurd as to suppose that Homer, so
correct in his geography, could mean to place a Mediterranean island
under the Tropic.

[70] A principal city of Phoenicia.

[71] The anchors were lodged on the shore, not plunged as ours.

BOOK XVI

ARGUMENT

Telemachus dispatches Eumaeus to the city to inform Penelope of his safe
return from Pylus; during his absence, Ulysses makes himself known to his
son. The suitors, having watched for Telemachus in vain, arrive again at
Ithaca.

It was the hour of dawn, when in the cot
Kindling fresh fire, Ulysses and his friend
Noble Eumaeus dress'd their morning fare,
And sent the herd