ed since the taking of Troy, when
the gods looking down from Olympus behold him--sole survivor of his
troop--stranded on the Island of Calypso. After some mention of the
fate of the other Greeks, Jupiter decrees that Ulysses shall return to
Ithaca, where many suitors are besieging his wife Penelope. In
obedience with this decree, Pallas (Minerva) dons golden
sandals--which permit her to flit with equal ease over land and
sea--and visits Ithaca, where Ulysses' son, Telemachus, mournfully
views the squandering of his father's wealth. Here she is hospitably
received, and, after some conversation, urges Telemachus to visit the
courts of Nestor and Menelaus to inquire of these kings whether his
father is dead.

Telemachus has just promised to carry out this suggestion, when the
suitors' bard begins the recital of the woes which have befallen the
various Greek chiefs on their return from Troy. These sad strains
attract Penelope, who passionately beseeches the bard not to enhance
her sorrows by his songs!

Assuming a tone of authority for the first time, Telemachus bids his
mother retire and pray, then, addressing the suitors, vows that unless
they depart he will call down upon them the vengeance of the gods.
These words are resented by these men, who continue their revelry
until the night, when Telemachus retires, to dream of his projected
journey.

_Book II._ With dawn, Telemachus rises and betakes himself to the
market-place, where in public council he complains of the suitors'
depredations, and announces he is about to depart in quest of his
sire. In reply to his denunciations the suitors accuse Penelope of
deluding them, instancing how she promised to choose a husband as soon
as she had finished weaving a winding sheet for her father-in-law
Laertes. But, instead of completing this task as soon as possible, she
ravelled by night the work done during the day, until the suitors
discovered the trick.

"The work she plied; but, studious of delay,
By night reversed the labors of the day.
While thrice the sun his annual journey made,
The conscious lamp the midnight fraud survey'd;
Unheard, unseen, three years her arts prevail:
The fourth, her maid unfolds the amazing tale.
We saw as unperceived we took our stand,
The backward labors of her faithless hand"[3]

They now suggest that Telemachus send Penelope back to her father,
but the youth indignantly refuses, and the council closes while he
prays for ve