The Adventures of Odysseus and The Tales of Troy eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 196 pages of information about The Adventures of Odysseus and The Tales of Troy.

The Adventures of Odysseus and The Tales of Troy eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 196 pages of information about The Adventures of Odysseus and The Tales of Troy.

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Then were the horses yoked to the chariot and Telemachus and Peisistratus bade farewell to Menelaus and Helen who had treated them so kindly.  As they were ready to go Menelaus poured out of a golden cup wine as an offering to the gods.  And as Menelaus poured it out, Telemachus prayed that he might find Odysseus, his father, in his home.

Now as he prayed a bird flew from the right hand and over the horses’ heads.  It was an eagle, and it bore in its claws a goose that belonged to the farmyard.  Telemachus asked Menelaus was this not a sign from Zeus, the greatest of the Gods.

Then said Helen, ’Hear me now, for I will prophesy from this sign to you.  Even as yonder eagle has flown down from the mountain and killed a goose of the farmyard, so will Odysseus come from far to his home and kill the wooers who are there.’

‘May Zeus grant that it be so,’ said Telemachus.  He spoke and lashed the horses, and they sped across the plain.

When they came near the city of Pylos, Telemachus spoke to his comrade, Peisistratus, and said: 

’Do not take me past my ship, son of Nestor.  Thy good father expects me to return to his house, but I fear that if I should, he, out of friendliness, would be anxious to make me stay many days.  But I know that I should now return to Ithaka.’

The son of Nestor turned the horses towards the sea and they drove the chariot to where Telemachus’ ship was anchored.  Then Telemachus gathered his followers, and he bade them take on board the presents that Menelaus and Helen had given him.

They did this, and they raised the mast and the sails and the rowers took their seats on the benches.  A breeze came and the sails took it and Telemachus and his companions sailed towards home.  And all unknown to the youth, his father, Odysseus, was even then nearing his home.

PART II

HOW ODYSSEUS LEFT CALYPSO’S ISLAND AND CAME TO THE LAND OF THE PHAEACIANS; HOW HE TOLD HE FARED WITH THE CYCLOPES AND WENT PAST THE TERRIBLE SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS AND CAME TO THE ISLAND OF THRINACIA WHERE HIS MEN SLAUGHTERED THE CATTLE OF THE SUN; HOW HE WAS GIVEN A SHIP BY THE PHAEACIANS AND CAME TO HIS OWN LAND; HOW HE OVERTHREW THE WOOERS WHO WASTED HIS SUBSTANCE AND CAME TO REIGN AGAIN AS KING OF ITHAKA

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I

Ever mindful was Pallas Athene of Odysseus although she might not help him openly because of a wrong he had done Poseidon, the god of the sea.  But she spoke at the council of the gods, and she won from Zeus a pledge that Odysseus would now be permitted to return to his own land.  On that day she went to Ithaka, and, appearing to Telemachus, moved him, as has been told, to go on the voyage in search of his father.  And on that day, too, Hermes, by the will of Zeus, went to Ogygia—­to that Island where, as the Ancient One of the Sea had shown Menelaus, Odysseus was held by the nymph Calypso.

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The Adventures of Odysseus and The Tales of Troy from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.