Then Athena said, "Father, son of
Kronos, King of kings, it served Aigisthos right, and so it would any
one else who does as he did; but Aigisthos is neither here nor there;
it is for Odysseus that my heart bleeds, when I think of his
sufferings in that lonely sea-girt island, far away, poor man, from
all his friends. It is an island covered with forest, in the very
middle of the sea, and a goddess lives there, daughter of the
magician Atlas, who looks after the bottom of the ocean, and carries
the great columns that keep heaven and earth asunder. This daughter
of Atlas has got hold of poor unhappy Odysseus, and keeps trying by
every kind of blandishment to make him forget his home, so that he is
tired of life, and thinks of nothing but how he may once more see the
smoke of his own chimneys. You, sir, take no heed of this, and yet
when Odysseus was before Troy did he not propitiate you with many a
burnt sacrifice? Why then should you keep on being so angry with
him?"
And Zeus said, "My child, what are
you talking about? How can I forget Odysseus than whom there is no
more capable man on earth [in regard to noos], nor
more liberal in his offerings to the immortal gods that live in
heaven? Bear in mind, however, that Poseidon is still furious with
Odysseus for having blinded an eye of Polyphemus king of the
Cyclopes. Polyphemus is son to Poseidon by the nymph Thoosa, daughter
to the sea-king Phorkys; therefore though he will not kill Odysseus
outright, he torments him by preventing him from his homecoming
[nostos]. Still, let us lay our heads together and see
how we can help him to return; Poseidon will then be pacified, for if
we are all of a mind he can hardly stand out against us."
And Athena said, "Father, son of
Kronos, King of kings, if, then, the gods now mean that Odysseus
should get home, we should first send Hermes to the Ogygian island to
tell Calypso that we have made up our minds and that he is to have
his homecoming [nostos]. In the meantime I will go to
Ithaca, to put heart into Odysseus' son Telemakhos; I will
embolden him to call the Achaeans in assembly, and speak out to the
suitors of his mother Penelope, who persist in eating up any number
of his sheep and oxen; I will also conduct him to Sparta and to
Pylos, to see if he can hear anything about the return
[nostos] of his dear father - for this will give him
genuine fame [kleos] throughout humankind."
So saying she bound on her
glittering golden sandals, imperishable, with which she can fly like
the wind over land or sea; she grasped the redoubtable bronze-shod
spear, so stout and sturdy and strong, wherewith she quells the ranks
of heroes who have displeased her, and down she darted from the
topmost summits of Olympus, whereon forthwith she was in the
dêmos of Ithaca, at the gateway of Odysseus' house,
disguised as a visitor, Mentes, chief of the Taphians, and she held a
bronze spear in her hand. There she found the lordly suitors seated
on hides of the oxen which they had killed and eaten, and playing
draughts in front of the house. Men-servants and pages were bustling
about to wait upon them, some mixing wine with water in the
mixing-bowls, some cleaning down the tables with wet sponges and
laying them out again, and some cutting up great quantities of
meat.
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