| Homer, Odyssey (English) (XML Header) [genre: poetry; hexameter] [word count] [lemma count] [Hom. Od.]. | ||
| <<Hom. Od. 14.109 | Hom. Od. 14.199 (Greek English(2)) | >>Hom. Od. 14.321 |
14.165To this you answered, O swineherd
Eumaios, "Old man, you will neither get paid for bringing good news,
nor will Odysseus ever come home; drink you wine in peace, and let us
talk about something else. Do not keep on reminding me of all this;
it always pains me when any one speaks about my honored master. As
for your oath we will let it alone, but I only wish he may come, as
do Penelope, his old father Laertes , and his son Telemakhos. I am
terribly unhappy too about this same boy of his; he was running up
fast into manhood, and bade fare to be no worse man, face and figure,
than his father, but some one, either god or man, has been unsettling
his mind, so he has gone off to Pylos to try and get news of his
father, and the suitors are lying in wait for him as he is coming
home, in the hope of leaving the house of Arceisius without a name in
Ithaca . But let us say no more about him, and leave him to be taken,
or else to escape if the son of Kronos holds his hand over him to
protect him. And now, old man, tell me your own story; tell me also,
for I want to know, who you are and where you come from. Tell me of
your town and parents, what manner of ship you came in, what crew
brought you to Ithaca , and from what country they professed to come -
for you cannot have come by land."
dêmos of the Cretans for his wealth, prosperity
[olbos ], and the valor of his sons) put me on the same
level with my brothers who had been born in wedlock. When, however,
death took him to the house of Hades, his sons divided his estate and
cast lots for their shares, but to me they gave a holding and little
else; nevertheless, my valor [aretê ] enabled me
to marry into a rich family, for I was not given to bragging, or
shirking on the field of battle. It is all over now; still, if you
look at the straw you can see what the ear was, for I have had
trouble enough and to spare. Ares and Athena made me doughty in war;
when I had picked [krinô ] my men to surprise the
enemy with an ambuscade I never gave death so much as a thought, but
was the first to leap forward and spear all whom I could overtake.
Such was I in battle, but I did not care about farm work, nor the
frugal home life of those who would bring up children. My delight was
in ships, fighting, javelins, and arrows - things that most men
shudder to think of; but one man likes one thing and another another,
and this was what I was most naturally inclined to. Before the
Achaeans went to Troy , nine times was I in command of men and ships
on foreign service, and I amassed much wealth. I had my pick of the
spoil in the first instance, and much more was allotted to me later
on.
Troy , and there was no way out of
it, for the judgment of the dêmos insisted on our doing
so. There we fought for nine whole years, but in the tenth we sacked
the city of Priam and sailed home again as heaven dispersed us. Then
it was that Zeus devised evil against me. I spent but one month
happily with my children, wife, and property, and then I conceived
the idea of making a descent on Egypt , so I fitted out a fine fleet
and manned it. I had nine ships, and the people flocked to fill them.
For six days I and my men made feast, and I found them many victims
both for sacrifice to the gods and for themselves, but on the seventh
day we went on board and set sail from Crete with a fair North wind
behind us though we were going down a river. Nothing went ill with
any of our ships, and we had no sickness on board, but sat where we
were and let the ships go as the wind and steersmen took them. On the
fifth day we reached the river Aigyptos; there I stationed my ships
in the river, bidding my men stay by them and keep guard over them
while I sent out scouts to reconnoiter from every point of
vantage.
hubris ] disobeyed my orders, took to their own
devices, and ravaged the land of the Egyptians, killing the men, and
taking their wives and children captive. The alarm was soon carried
to the city, and when they heard the war cry, the people came out at
daybreak till the plain was filled with horsemen and foot soldiers
and with the gleam of armor. Then Zeus spread panic among my men, and
they would no longer face the enemy, for they found themselves
surrounded. The Egyptians killed many of us, and took the rest alive
to do forced labor for them. Zeus, however, put it in my mind to do
thus - and I wish I had died then and there in Egypt instead, for
there was much sorrow in store for me - I took off my helmet and
shield and dropped my spear from my hand; then I went straight up to
the king's chariot, clasped his knees and kissed them, whereon
he spared my life, bade me get into his chariot, and took me weeping
to his own home. Many made at me with their ashen spears and tried to
kill me in their fury, but the king protected me, for he feared the
mênis of Zeus the protector of strangers, who punishes
those who do evil.
14.191And Odysseus answered, "I will tell you all about it. If there were meat and wine enough, and we could stay here in the hut with nothing to do but to eat and drink while the others go to their work, I could easily talk on for a whole twelve months without ever finishing the story of the sorrows with which it has pleased heaven to visit me.
14.199"I am by birth a Cretan; my father was a well-to-do man, who had many sons born in marriage, whereas I was the son of a slave whom he had purchased for a concubine; nevertheless, my father Castor son of Hylax (whose lineage I claim, and who was held in the highest honor in the
14.233"My house grew apace and I became a great man among the Cretans, but when Zeus counseled that terrible expedition, in which so many perished, the people required me and Idomeneus to lead their ships to
14.262"But the men in their insolence [
| Homer, Odyssey (English) (XML Header) [genre: poetry; hexameter] [word count] [lemma count] [Hom. Od.]. | ||
| <<Hom. Od. 14.109 | Hom. Od. 14.199 (Greek English(2)) | >>Hom. Od. 14.321 |
