Part 3 (2/2)

'”When my father, the Ancient One of the Sea, comes here to sleep, lay hands upon hie hio your hold upon hies back into the shape he had at first you o your holds Question him then as to how you may leave this place, or question him as to any other matter thatthe truth”'

'We lay down in the holes she had scooped in the sand and she covered each of us with one of the skins she had brought Then the seals came out of the sea and lay all around us The smell that came from those beasts of the sea afflicted us, and it was then that our adventure became terrible We could not have endured it if Eidothee had not helped us in this also She took ambrosia and set it beneath each man's nostril, so that what came to us was not the smell of the sea-beasts but a divine savour Then the nymph went back to the sea

'We lay there with steadfast hearts ahest in the heavens The Ancient One of the Sea cast the seals and counted thereat contentment he laid himself down to sleep

'We rushed upon hith of our hands But we had no sooner grasped hied He becarasp He became a serpent, yet we still held hihty boar; he beca tree Yet still we held to hiht and our hearts were not daunted by the shapes he changed to before our eyes Then, seeing that he could not make us loose our hold, the Ancient One of the Sea, as called Proteus, ceased in his changes and became as we had seen him first

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'”Son of Atreus,” said he, speaking to me, ”as it showed you how to lay this as,” said I, ”to make answer to us

Tell me nohy it is that I am held on this island? Which of the Gods holds me here and for what reason?”'

'Then the Ancient One of the Sea answered reatest of all the Gods holds you here You neglected to make sacrifice to the Gods and for that reason you are held on this island”

'”Then,” said I, ”what must I do to win back the favor of the Gods?”'

'He toldsail for your own land,” he said, ”you yptus that flows out of Africa, and offer sacrifice there to the Gods”'

'When he said this rievous ould I have to sail toback from my own land Yet the will of the Gods would have to be done Again I was moved to question the Ancient One of the Sea, and to ask his of the men ere my companions in the wars of Troy

'Ah, son of Odysseus, rief when he told alad in his heart But his wife had hatred for hiisthus had him slain

I sat and wept on the sands, but still I questioned the Ancient One of the Sea And he toldrock after he had boasted that Poseidon, the God of the Sea, could afflict him no more And of your father, the renowned Odysseus, the Ancient One had a tale to tell

'Then, and even now it may be, Odysseus was on an island away from all mankind ”There he abides in the hall of the nymph Calypso,” the Ancient One of the Sea told o from that place But he has no shi+p and no companions and the nys to return to his own country, to the land of Ithaka” And after he had spoken to ed into the sea

'Thereafter I went back to the river aegyptus and moored my shi+ps and made pious sacrifice to the Gods A fair wind came to us and we set out for our own country Swiftly we came to it, and now you see ainst Troy And now, dear son of Odysseus, you knohat an immortal told of your father--how he is still in life, but how he is held fro to his own ho of his father When the King ceased to speak they went from the hall with torches in their hands and came to the vestibule where Helen's handmaids had prepared beds for Telemachus and Peisistratus And as he lay there under purple blankets and soft coverlets, the son of Odysseus thought upon his father, still in life, but held in that unknown island by the nyers waited at Pylos but for a while longer Telemachus bided in Sparta, for he would fain hear from Menelaus and from Helen the tale of Troy Many days he stayed, and on the first day Menelaus told hiainst Troy, and on another day the lady Helen told hi Pria of a race that was favoured by the immortals Peleus, the father of Achilles, had for his friend, Cheiron, the wisest of the Centaurs--of those iave to Peleus his great spear And when Peleus desired to wed an ireatest of the Gods, prevailed upon the nye with aof Thetis and Peleus all the Gods caave such armour as no ht and wonderfully strong, and he gave also two immortal horses

'Achilles was the child of Thetis and Peleus--of an i and fleet of foot When he was grown to be a youth he was sent to Cheiron, and his father's friend instructed hireatest of spearth and in fleetness of foot

'Now after he returned to his father's hall the war against Troy began to be prepared for Aga, wanted Achilles to join the host But Thetis, knowing that great disasters would befall those ent to that war, feared for Achilles She resolved to hide hiht reach him And how did the ny Lycohters

'So the youth Achilles was dressed as a ers of Agamemnon searched everywhere for hi Lyco's sons they went away

'Odysseus, by Agamemnon's order, cast the King's sons He saw the King's daughters in their father's orchard, but could not tell if Achilles was ast them, for all were veiled and dressed alike