g people, and
the fifty-two sailors who are to man Ulysses' ship, to come up to
his own house, and he will give them a banquet--for which he kills a
dozen sheep, eight pigs, and two oxen. Immediately after gorging
themselves at the banquet they have a series of athletic
competitions, and from this I gather the poem to have been written
by one who saw nothing very odd in letting people compete in sports
requiring very violent exercise immediately after a heavy meal.
Such a course may have been usual in those days, but certainly is
not generally adopted in our own.

At the games Alcinous makes himself as ridiculous as he always does,
and Ulysses behaves much as the hero of the preceding afternoon
might be expected to do--but on his praising the Phaeacians towards
the close of the proceedings Alcinous says he is a person of such
singular judgment that they really must all of them make him a very
handsome present. "Twelve of you," he exclaims, "are magistrates,
and there is myself--that makes thirteen; suppose we give him each
one of us a clean cloak, a tunic, and a talent of gold,"--which in
those days was worth about two hundred and fifty pounds.

This is unanimously agreed to, and in the evening, towards sundown,
the presents began to make their appearance at the palace of King
Alcinous, and the king's sons, perhaps prudently as you will
presently see, place them in the keeping of their mother Arete.

When the presents have all arrived, Alcinous says to Arete, "Wife,
go and fetch the best chest we have, and put a clean cloak and a
tunic in it. In the meantime Ulysses will take a bath."

Arete orders the maids to heat a bath, brings the chest, packs up
the raiment and gold which the Phaeacians have brought, and adds a
cloak and a good tunic as King Alcinous's own contribution.

Yes, but where--and that is what we are never told--is the 250
pounds which he ought to have contributed as well as the cloak and
tunic? And where is the beautiful gold goblet which he had also
promised?

"See to the fastening yourself," says Queen Arete to Ulysses, "for
fear anyone should rob you while you are asleep in the ship."

Ulysses, we may be sure, was well aware that Alcinous's 250 pounds
was not in the box, nor yet the goblet, but he took the hint at once
and made the chest fast without the delay of a moment, with a bond
which the cunning goddess Circe had taught him.

He does not seem to have thought his chance of getting