36 ODYSSEY • BOOK I [411-

him, as I should gladly have done, for to judge by his looks he
was a man of gentle birth/

'Eurymachus/ the wise young prince replied, 'it is certain
that my father will never come back. So I no longer believe any
rumours, whatever their source, nor have I any use for the skill
of such diviners as my mother may call in for consultation. As
for my guest, he is an old friend of my father's from Taphos. He
introduced himself as Mentes, the son of a wise man Anchialus,
and chieftain of the sea-faring Taphians/ In this way Tele-
machus described the visitor whom in his heart he knew for an
immortal goddess.

From then till dusk they gave themselves up to the pleasures
of dancing and the delights of song. Night fell and found them
making merry still; but at last they went offto bed, each to his
own house. Telemachus, with much to turn over in his mind,
retired to his own bedroom, a lofty chamber in the fme court-
yard with a clear view on every side. He was escorted by Eury-
cleia, who carried a blazing torch. This Eurycleia, daughter of
Ops and granddaughter ofPeisenor, was a servant of sterling
character whom Laertes had procured at his own cost long ago,
when she was still a girl, for the price of twenty oxen. He had
treated her in his home with all the deference that is paid to a
loyal wife, though for fear of his lady's displeasure he had re-
spected her bed. It was she who now served as torch-bearer to
his grandson; and she who of all the household women loved
him most, for she had nursed him as a child.

Telemachus threw open the door of his comfortable room,
sat down on the bed and took off his soft tunic, which he put in
the wise old woman's hands. After folding and smoothing it
out, she hung it on a peg by the wooden bedstead, and with-
drew from the bedroom, pulling the door to by the silver handle
and shooting the bolt home by means of its leather thong. And
there, all the night long, under his woollen blanket, Telemachus

lay planning in his mind the journey that Athene had pre-
•i i