Sit all thy fellow-voyagers, and wait 520
Thy coming; linger not, but haste away.
This said, Minerva led him thence, whom he
With nimble steps follow'd, and on the shore
Arrived, found all his mariners prepared,
Whom thus the princely voyager address'd.
Haste, my companions! bring we down the stores
Already sorted and set forth; but nought
My mother knows, or any of her train
Of this design, one matron sole except.
He spake, and led them; they, obedient, brought 530
All down, and, as Ulysses' son enjoin'd,
Within the gallant bark the charge bestow'd.
Then, led by Pallas, went the prince on board,
Where down they sat, the Goddess in the stern,
And at her side Telemachus. The crew
Cast loose the hawsers, and embarking, fill'd
The benches. Blue-eyed Pallas from the West
Call'd forth propitious breezes; fresh they curled
The sable Deep, and, sounding, swept the waves.
He loud-exhorting them, his people bade 540
Hand, brisk, the tackle; they, obedient, reared
The pine-tree mast, which in its socket deep
They lodg'd, then strain'd the cordage, and with thongs
Well-twisted, drew the shining sail aloft.
A land-breeze fill'd the canvas, and the flood
Roar'd as she went against the steady bark
That ran with even course her liquid way.
The rigging, thus, of all the galley set,
Their beakers crowning high with wine, they hail'd
The ever-living Gods, but above all 550
Minerva, daughter azure-eyed of Jove.
Thus, all night long the galley, and till dawn
Had brighten'd into day, cleaved swift the flood.

FOOTNOTES:

[6] The reader is to be reminded that this is not an assembly of the
suitors only, but a general one, which affords Telemachus an opportunity
to apply himself to the feelings of the Ithacans at large.

BOOK III

ARGUMENT

Telemachus arriving at Pylus, enquires of Nestor concerning Ulysses.
Nestor relates to him all that he knows or has heard of the Greecians
since their departure from the siege of Troy, but not being able to give
him any satisfactory account of Ulysses, refers him to Menelaus. At
evening Minerva quits Telemachus, but discovers herself in going. Nestor
sacrifices to the Goddess, and the solemnity ended, Telemachus sets forth
for Sparta in one of Nesto