who set out to wage war against Troy. And now,
dear son of Odysseus, you know what an immortal told of your father--how
he is still in life, but how he is held from returning to his own home.'

Thus from Menelaus the youth Telemachus got tiding 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 nymph
Calypso.

X

His ship and his fellow-voyagers 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 him of Achilles, the greatest of the heroes who had fought
against Troy, and on another day the lady Helen told him of Hector, the
noblest of all the men who defended King Priam's City.

'Achilles,' said King Menelaus, 'was sprung 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 immortals who are half men
and half horse. Cheiron it was who gave to Peleus his great spear. And
when Peleus desired to wed an immortal, Zeus, the greatest of the gods,
prevailed upon the nymph Thetis to marry him, although marriage with a
mortal was against her will. To the wedding of Thetis and Peleus all the
gods came. And for wedding gifts Zeus gave such armour as no mortal had
ever worn before--armour wonderfully bright and wonderfully strong, and
he gave also two immortal horses.

'Achilles was the child of Thetis and Peleus--of an immortal woman
married to a mortal hero. He grew up most strong and fleet of foot. When
he was grown to be a youth he was sent to Cheiron, and his father's
friend instructed him in all the ways of war. He became the greatest of
spearmen, and on the mountain with the Centaur he gained in strength and
in fleetness of foot.

'Now after he returned to his father's hall the war against Troy began
to be prepared for. Agamemnon, the king, wanted Achilles to join the
host. But Thetis, knowing that great disasters would befall those who
went to that war, feared for Achilles. She resolved to hide him so that
no word from King Agamemnon might reach him. And how did the nymph
Thetis