and a present too, for he has been rude."Thus did he speak. The others all of them applauded his saying,and sent their servants to fetch the presents. Then Euryalus said,"King Alcinous, I will give the stranger all the satisfaction yourequire. He shall have sword, which is of bronze, all but the hilt,which is of silver. I will also give him the scabbard of newly sawnivory into which it fits. It will be worth a great deal to him."As he spoke he placed the sword in the hands of Ulysses and said,"Good luck to you, father stranger; if anything has been said amissmay the winds blow it away with them, and may heaven grant you asafe return, for I understand you have been long away from home, andhave gone through much hardship."To which Ulysses answered, "Good luck to you too my friend, andmay the gods grant you every happiness. I hope you will not miss thesword you have given me along with your apology."With these words he girded the sword about his shoulders and towardssundown the presents began to make their appearance, as the servantsof the donors kept bringing them to the house of King Alcinous; herehis sons received them, and placed them under their mother's charge.Then Alcinous led the way to the house and bade his guests taketheir seats."Wife," said he, turning to Queen Arete, "Go, fetch the best chestwe have, and put a clean cloak and shirt in it. Also, set a copperon the fire and heat some water; our guest will take a warm bath;see also to the careful packing of the presents that the noblePhaeacians have made him; he will thus better enjoy both his supperand the singing that will follow. I shall myself give him thisgolden goblet- which is of exquisite workmanship- that he may bereminded of me for the rest of his life whenever he makes adrink-offering to Jove, or to any of the gods."Then Arete told her maids to set a large tripod upon the fire asfast as they could, whereon they set a tripod full of bath water on toa clear fire; they threw on sticks to make it blaze, and the waterbecame hot as the flame played about the belly of the tripod.Meanwhile Arete brought a magnificent chest her own room, and insideit she packed all the beautiful presents of gold and raiment which thePhaeacians had brought. Lastly she added a cloak and a good shirt fromAlcinous, and said to Ulysses:"See to the lid yourself, and have the whole bound round at once,for fear any one should rob you by the way when you are asleep in yourship."When Ulysses heard this he put the lid on the chest and made it fastwith a bond that Circe had taught him. He had done so before anupper servant told him to come to the bath and wash himself. He wasvery glad of a warm bath, for he had had no one to wait upon himever since he left the house of Calypso, who as long as he remainedwith her had taken as good care of him as though he had been a god.When the servants had done washing and anointing him with oil, and hadgiven him a clean cloak and shirt, he left the bath room and joinedthe guests who were sitting over their wine. Lovely Nausicaa stoodby one of the bearing-posts supporting the roof if the cloister, andadmired him as she saw him pass. "Farewell stranger," said she, "donot forget me when you are safe at home again, for it is to me firstthat you owe a ransom for having saved your life."And Ulysses said, "Nausicaa, daughter of great Alcinous, may Jovethe mighty husband of Juno, grant that I may reach my home; so shall Ibless you as my guardian angel all my days, for it was you who savedme."When he had said this, he seated himself beside Alcinous. Supper wasthen served, and the wine was mixed for drinking. A servant led in thefavourite bard Demodocus, and set him in the midst of the company,near one of the bearing-posts supporting the cloister, that he mightlean against it. Then Ulysses cut off a piece of roast pork withplenty of fat (for there was abundance left on the joint) and saidto a servant, "Take this piece of pork over to Demodocus and tellhim to eat it; for all the pain his lays may cause me I will salutehim none the less; bards are honoured and respected throughout theworld, for the muse teaches them their songs and loves them."The servant carried the pork in his fingers over to Demodocus, whotook it and was very much pleased. They then laid their hands on thegood things that were before them, and as soon as they had had toeat and drink, Ulysses said to Demodocus, "Demodocus, there is noone in the world whom I admire more than I do you. You must havestudied under the Muse, Jove's daughter, and under Apollo, soaccurately do you sing the return of the Achaeans with all theirsufferings and adventures. If you were not there yourself, you musthave heard it all from some one who was. Now, however, change yoursong and tell us of the wooden horse which Epeus made with theassistance of Minerva, and which Ulysses got by stratagem into thefort of Troy after freighting it with the men who afterwards sackedthe city. If you will sing this tale aright I will tell all theworld how magnificently heaven has endowed you."The bard inspired of heaven took up the story at the point wheresome of the Argives set fire to their tents and sailed away whileothers, hidden within the horse, were waiting with Ulysses in theTrojan place of assembly. For the Trojans themselves had drawn thehorse into their fortress, and it stood there while they sat incouncil round it, and were in three minds as to what they should do.Some were for breaking it up then and there; others would have itdragged to the top of the rock on which the fortress stood, and thenthrown down the precipice; while yet others were for letting it remainas an offering and propitiation for the gods. And this was how theysettled it in the end, for the city was doomed when it took in thathorse, within which were all the bravest of the Argives waiting tobring death and destruction on the Trojans. Anon he sang how thesons of the Achaeans issued from the horse, and sacked the town,breaking out from their ambuscade. He sang how they over ran thecity hither and thither and ravaged it, and how Ulysses went raginglike Mars along with Menelaus to the house of Deiphobus. It wasthere that the fight raged most furiously, nevertheless by Minerva'shelp he was victorious.All this he told, but Ulysses was overcome as he heard him, andhis cheeks were wet with tears. He wept as a woman weeps when shethrows herself on the body of her husband who has fallen before hisown city and people, fighting bravely in defence of his home andchildren. She screams aloud and flings her arms about him as he liesgasping for breath and dying, but her enemies beat her from behindabout the back and shoulders, and carry her off into slavery, to alife of labour and sorrow, and the beauty fades from her cheeks-even so piteously did Ulysses weep, but none of those presentperceived his tears except Alcinous, who was sitting near him, andcould hear the sobs and sighs that he was heaving. The king,therefore, at once rose and said:"Aldermen and town councillors of the Phaeacians, let Demodocuscease his song, for there are those present who do not seem to likeit. From the moment that we had done supper and Demodocus began tosing, our guest has been all the time groaning and lamenting. He isevidently in great trouble, so let the bard leave off, that we may allenjoy ourselves, hosts and guest alike. This will be much more as itshould be, for all these festivities, with the escort and the presentsthat we are making with so much good will, are wholly in his honour,and any one with even a moderate amount of right feeling knows that heought to treat a guest and a suppliant as though he were his ownbrother."Therefore, Sir, do you on your part affect no more concealmentnor reserve in the matter about which I shall ask you; it will be morepolite in you to give me a plain answer; tell me the name by whichyour father and mother over yonder used to call you, and by whichyou were known among your neighbours and fellow-citizens. There isno one, neither rich nor poor, who is absolutely without any namewhatever, for people's fathers and mothers give them names as soonas they are born. Tell me also your country, nation, and city, thatour ships may shape their purpose accordingly and take you there.For the Phaeacians have no pilots; their vessels have no rudders asthose of other nations have, but the ships themselves understandwhat it is that we are thinking about and want; they know all thecities and countries in the whole world, and can traverse the sea justas well even when it is covered with mist and cloud, so that thereis no danger of being wrecked or coming to any harm. Still I doremember hearing my father say that Neptune was angry with us forbeing too easy-going in the matter of giving people escorts. He saidthat one of these days he should wreck a ship of ours as it wasreturning from having escorted some one, and bury our city under ahigh mountain. This is what my used to say, but whether the god willcarry out his threat or no is a matter which he will decide forhimself."And now, tell me and tell me true. Where have you been wandering,and in what countries have you travelled? Tell us of the peoplesthemselves, and of their cities- who were hostile, savage anduncivilized, and who, on the other hand, hospitable and humane. Tellus also why you are made unhappy on hearing about the return of theArgive Danaans from Troy. The gods arranged all this, and sent themtheir misfortunes in order that future generations might havesomething to sing about. Did you lose some brave kinsman of yourwife's when you were before Troy? a son-in-law or father-in-law- whichare the nearest relations a man has outside his own flesh and blood?or was it some brave and kindly-natured comrade- for a good friendis as dear to a man as his own brother?"BOOK IX.AND ULYSSES answered, "King Alcinous, it is a good thing to hear abard with such a divine voice as this man has. There is nothing betteror more delightful than when a whole people make merry together,with the guests sitting orderly to listen, while the table is loadedwith bread and meats, and the cup-bearer draws wine and fills hiscup for every man. This is indeed as fair a sight as a man can see.Now, however, since you are inclined to ask the story of my sorrows,and rekindle my own sad memories in respect of them, I do not know howto begin, nor yet how to continue and conclude my tale, for the handof heaven has been laid heavily upon me."Firstly, then, I will tell you my name that you too may know it,and one day, if I outlive this time of sorrow, may become my thereguests though I live so far away from all of you. I am Ulysses sonof Laertes, reknowned among mankind for all manner of subtlety, sothat my fame ascends to heaven. I live in Ithaca, where there is ahigh mountain called Neritum, covered with forests; and not far fromit there is a group of islands very near to one another- Dulichium,Same, and the wooded island of Zacynthus. It lies squat on thehorizon, all highest up in the sea towards the sunset, while theothers lie away from it towards dawn. It is a rugged island, but itbreeds brave men, and my eyes know none that they better love tolook upon. The goddess Calypso kept me with her in her cave, andwanted me to marry her, as did also the cunning Aeaean goddessCirce; but they could neither of them persuade me, for there isnothing dearer to a man than his own country and his parents, andhowever splendid a home he may have in a foreign country, if it be farfrom father or mother, he does not care about it. Now, however, I willtell you of the many hazardous adventures which by Jove's will I metwith on my return from Troy."When I had set sail thence the wind took me first to Ismarus, which