PALLAS AT ITHACA.

So ending, underneath her feet she bound
Her faery sandals of ambrosial gold,
Which o'er the waters and the solid ground
Swifter than wind have borne her from of old;
Then on the iron-pointed spear laid hold,
Heavy and tall, wherewith she smites the brood
Of heroes till her anger waxes cold;
Then from Olympus swept in eager mood,
And with the island-people in the court she stood,
Fast by the threshold of the outer gate

Of brave Ulysses; in her hand she bore
The iron-plated spear, heavy and great,
And waiting as a guest-friend at the door,
Of Mentes, Taphian chief, the likeness, wore;
There found the suitors, who beguiled with play
The hours, and sat the palace gates before
On hides of oxen which themselves did slay :
Haughty of mien they sat, and girt with proud array.
-Translation of WORSLEY.

Here ensue various scenes of insolence on the part of the unruly suitors. At length Telemachus asks the supposed Mentes about the fate of his father. Of this he professes to know nothing; but he believes that Ulysses is still alive; perhaps some of his old comrades - Nestor of Pylos, or Menelaus of Sparta - could furnish some information. It is finally decided that Telemachus should fit out a vessel, and go in search of information about his father. Penelope had put off the suitors by declaring that she could not think of marrying until she had completed the weaving of a splendid web which should serve as a winding-sheet for Laertes, the aged father of Ulysses, whose end could not be far distant. She and her handmaidens weave diligently all the

after the expiration of the truce, Achilles was slain by an arrow shot by Paris; and a little later Ilium was taken through a stratagem, the work of Ulysses, sacked and laid in ashes; its very site being uncertain for wellnigh a hundred generations, until in our own days it was identified by Schliemann.

The Odyssey purports to be a narrative of the adventures of Odysseus (whose name has been softened by the Latins into "Ulysses") during his ten years' wanderings after the destruction of Troy, until he finally gets back to his native Ithaca. Like the Iliad, it consists of twenty-four Books. The narrative properly begins in the seventh year after the fall of Troy, the events of the preceding years after that time being related by Ulysses himself at one time or another.

The Odyssey opens with a council of the gods held on Olympus. Pallas reminds Zeus of the hard fate of Ulysses, who has for seven years been detained by the nymph Calypso in her enchanted island. It is decided that Mercury shall proceed to the island to announce to Ulysses that the period of his detention by Calypso is drawing to a close; while Pallas shall go to Ithaca in order to inspire Telemachus, the son of Ulysses, now growing into manhood, with a resolve to rid his mother, Penelope, of a swarm of suitors who have quartered themselves in her palace, demanding that she shall marry one of them in place of her husband, Ulysses, who is presumed to be dead, nothing having been heard of him for seven years and more; though Penelope cherishes the belief that he still lives, and will in time get back to Ithaca.

tells them many tales of his old comrades at the siege of Troy.

From Pylos, Telemachus, accompanied by a son of Nestor, rode to Sparta, where they arrived on the evening of the second day; the season being autumn, for, we are incidentally told that "the sun had set upon the yellow harvest-fields." Menelaus had got back to Sparta not many months before, and was living there in great state of contentment with Helen, quite unmindful of her old escapade with Paris.

HELEN AT SPARTA.

Forth from her fragrant chamber Helen passed
Like gold-bowed Dian; and Adraste came
The bearer of her throne's majestic frame;
Her carpet's fine-wrought fleece Alcippe bore;
Phylo her basket bright with silver ore,

Gift of the wife of Polybus, who swayed

When Thebes-the Egyptian Thebes-scant wealth displayed:

His wife, Alcandra, from her treasured store,

A golden spindle to fair Helen bore,

And a bright silver basket, on whose round

A rim of burnished gold was closely bound.

-Translation of SOTHEBY,

Before Helen made her appearance, Menelaus had been relating to Telemachus some of the incidents of his long and wide wanderings since the fall of Troy.

It is at this moment, when Menelaus is thus unbosoming himself to his as yet unknown guest, that Helen enters the hall, and the personality of Telemachus is disclosed. She perceives their look of sadness; but she has the means of remedying it for one day. While in Egypt she had learned some of the secrets of that land of ancient wis

dom-among them was that of the concoction of

Nepenthes.

THE VIRTUES OF NEPENTHES.

Which so cures heartache and the inward stings
That men forget all sorrows wherein they pine.
He who hath tasted of the draught divine
Weeps not that day although his mother die
Or father, or cut off before his eyen
Mother or child beloved fall miserably,

Hewn by the pitiless sword, he sitting silent by.
-Translation of WORSLEY.

While abiding in Egypt some years before, Menelaus had received a mysterious intimation that Ulysses was then alive, but was detained by the nymph Calypso on her enchanted island, from which he was longing to make his escape. Thus much learned, Telemachus, after a month's stay, rides back to Pylos, where his vessel was lying, and embarks upon his return voyage to Ithaca. All this occupies four Books of the Odyssey. But in the meantime other events have been transpiring. At the same time that Pallas set out from Olympus for Ithaca, Mercury, at the bidding of Zeus, started for the island of Calypso.

MERCURY ON CALYPSO'S ISLAND.

Thus charged he nor Argicides denied,
But to his feet his fair-winged shoes he tied,
Ambrosian, golden; that in his command
Put either sea, or the unmeasured land,
With pace as easy as a puff of wind.

Then up his rod went, with which he declined
The eyes of any waker, when he pleased,
And any sleeper, when he wish'd, diseased.
This took, he stoop'd Pieria, and thence
Glid through the air, and Neptune's confluence
Kissed as he flew, and check'd the waves as light
As any sea-mew in her fishing flight,

tells them many tales of his old comrades at the siege of Troy.

From Pylos, Telemachus, accompanied by a son of Nestor, rode to Sparta, where they arrived on the evening of the second day; the season being autumn, for, we are incidentally told that "the sun had set upon the yellow harvest-fields." Menelaus had got back to Sparta not many months before, and was living there in great state of contentment with Helen, quite unmindful of her old escapade with Paris.

HELEN AT SPARTA.

Forth from her fragrant chamber Helen passed
Like gold-bowed Dian; and Adraste came
The bearer of her throne's majestic frame;
Her carpet's fine-wrought fleece Alcippe bore ;
Phylo her basket bright with silver ore,

Gift of the wife of Polybus, who swayed

When Thebes-the Egyptian Thebes-scant wealth displayed:

His wife, Alcandra, from her treasured store,

A golden spindle to fair Helen bore,

And a bright silver basket, on whose round

A rim of burnished gold was closely bound.

-Translation of SOTHEBY.

Before Helen made her appearance, Menelaus had been relating to Telemachus some of the incidents of his long and wide wanderings since the fall of Troy.

It is at this moment, when Menelaus is thus unbosoming himself to his as yet unknown guest, that Helen enters the hall, and the personality of Telemachus is disclosed. She perceives their look of sadness; but she has the means of remedying it for one day. While in Egypt she had learned some of the secrets of that land of ancient wis