354 ODYSSEY • BOOK XXIV [l

overwhelm you in the heavy seas? Or did you fall to some h
tile tribe on land as you were lifting their cattle and their floe
or fighting with them for their town and women? Pray tell l
for you and I have been host and guest. Or have you forgot
the time when I came over to your house in Ithaca with Ki
Menelaus to persuade Odysseus to join forces with me in l
naval expedition against Ilium? It was a full month after d
before we had made the long sea passage, so hard did we fine
to win over the man who now is styled the Sacker of Citic

'August and imperial Agamemnon/ the soul of Amp]
medon replied,(! well remember all that your majesty has i
referred to, and will give you a full and honest account oft
events that culminated in our tragic death.

'In the prolonged absence of Odysseus we began to pay o
addresses to his wife. These proved distasteful to her, but instc;

of refusing us outright or taking the final step, she schemed
bring about our downfall and our death. Here is a sample ofti
woman's guile. On her loom at home she set up a great web ar
began weaving a large and delicate piece of work. And she sai
to us:" I should be grateful to you young lords who are courtin
me now that King Odysseus is dead, if you could restrain yoi
ardour for my hand till I have done this work, so that the threac
I have spun may not be utterly wasted. It is a winding-sheet fc
Lord Laertes. When he succumbs to the dread hand of Dead
which stretches all men out at last, I must not risk the scand^
there would be among my countrywomen here, if one who hai
amassed such wealth were put to rest without a shroud." That i
how she talked, and we, like gentlemen, let her persuade us
with the result that by day she wove at the great web, but even
night had torches set beside it and undid the work. For thrc<
years she fooled us with this trick. A fourth began, and th<
seasons were already slipping by, when one other women, whc
knew all about it, gave her mistress away. We caught her un-
xavelling her beautiful work, and she was forced reluctantly tc
complete it. But no sooner had she woven the great web, laun-
dered the robe and shown it to us gleaming like the sun or moon,