The Story of the Odyssey | Page 2

bore them to many strange lands--lands of
giants, man-eating monsters, and wondrous enchantments of which you
will delight to read. Through countless perils the resolute wanderer
forced his way, losing ship after ship from his little fleet, and
companion after companion from his own band, until he reached home
friendless and alone, and found his palace, his property, and his family
all in the power of a band of greedy princes. These he overcame by his
cunning and his strength, and his long trials were ended.
As you read these ancient tales, you must forget what knowledge you
have of the world, and think of it as the Greeks did. It was only a little
part of the world that they knew at all,--the eastern end of the
Mediterranean,--but even that seemed to them a great and marvellous
region. Beyond its borders were strange and mysterious lands, in which
wonders of all kinds were found, and round all ran the great world-river,
the encircling stream of Ocean.
In the mountains of Olympus, to the northward, lived the gods. There
was Zeus, greatest of all, the god of thunder and the wide heavens;
Hera, his wife; Apollo, the archer god; Athene, the wise and clever
goddess; Poseidon, who ruled the sea; Aphrodite, the goddess of love;
Hephaestus, the cunning workman; Ares, the god of war; Hermes, the
swift messenger; and others still, whom you will learn to know as you
read. All these were worshipped by men with prayer and sacrifice; and,
as in the early legends of many races, the gods often took the shape of
men and women; they had their favourites and those whom they hated;
and they ruled the fate of mortals as they chose.
If you let yourselves be beguiled into this old, simple way of regarding
earth and heaven, you will not only love these ancient tales yourself,
but you will see why, for century after century, they have been the
longest loved and the best loved of all tales-- beloved by old and young,
by men and women and children. For they are hero-tales,--tales of war
and adventure, tales of bravery and nobility, tales of the heroes that
mankind, almost since the beginning of time, have looked to as ideals
of wisdom and strength and beauty.

THE ODYSSEY

CHAPTER I
THE COUNSEL [Footnote: counsel, advice.] OF ATHENE [Footnote:
A-the'-ne.]
When the great city of Troy had been taken, all the chiefs who had
fought against it set sail for their homes. But there was wrath in heaven
against them, so that they did not find a safe and happy return. For one
was shipwrecked, and another was shamefully slain by his false wife in
his palace, and others found all things at home troubled and changed,
and were driven to seek new dwellings elsewhere; and some were
driven far and wide about the world before they saw their native land
again. Of all, the wise Ulysses [Footnote: U-lys'-ses.] was he that
wandered farthest and suffered most, for when ten years had well-nigh
passed, he was still far away from Ithaca [Footnote: Ith'-a-ca.], his
kingdom.
The gods were gathered in council in the hall of Olympus [Footnote: O-
lym'-pus.], all but Poseidon, [Footnote: Po-sei'-don.] the god of the sea,
for he had gone to feast with the Ethiopians. Now Poseidon was he who
most hated Ulysses, and kept him from his home.
Then spake Athene among the immortal gods: "My heart is rent for
Ulysses. Sore affliction doth he suffer in an island of the sea, where the
daughter of Atlas keepeth him, seeking to make him forget his native
land. And he yearns to see even the smoke rising up from the land of
his birth, and is fain [Footnote: is fain, wishes to] to die. And thou
regardest it not at all. Did he not offer thee many sacrifices in the land
of Troy? Wherefore hast thou such wrath against him?" To her Zeus,
the father of the gods, made reply: "What is this that thou sayest, my
daughter? It is Poseidon that hath great wrath against Ulysses, because
he blinded his son Polyphemus [Footnote: Pol-y-phe'-mus.] the
Cyclops. [Footnote: Cy'-clops.] But come, let us take counsel together
that he may return to his home, for Poseidon will not be able to contend
against us all."

Then said Athene: "If this be thy will, then let us speed Hermes
[Footnote: Her'-mes.] the messenger to the island of Calypso [Footnote:
Ca-lyp'-so.], and let him declare to the goddess our purpose that
Ulysses shall return to his home. And I will go to Ithaca, and stir up the
spirit of his son Telemachus [Footnote: Te-lem'-a-chus.], that first he
speak out his mind to the suitors of his mother who waste his substance,
[Footnote: substance, property.] and next