And Alcinous answered him, saying:  ’Odysseus, in no wise do we deem thee, we that look on thee, to be a knave or a cheat, even as the dark earth rears many such broadcast, fashioning lies whence none can even see his way therein.  But beauty crowns thy words, and wisdom is within thee; and thy tale, as when a minstrel sings, thou hast told with skill, the weary woes of all the Argives and of thine own self.  But come, declare me this and plainly tell it all.  Didst thou see any of thy godlike company who went up at the same time with thee to Ilios and there met their doom?  Behold, the night is of great length, unspeakable, and the time for sleep in the hall is not yet; tell me therefore of those wondrous deeds.  I could abide even till the bright dawn, so long as thou couldst endure to rehearse me these woes of thine in the hall.’

And Odysseus of many counsels answered him, saying:  ’My lord Alcinous, most notable of all the people, there is a time for many words and there is a time for sleep.  But if thou art eager still to listen, I would not for my part grudge to tell thee of other things more pitiful still, even the woes of my comrades, those that perished afterward, for they had escaped with their lives from the dread war-cry of the Trojans, but perished in returning by the will of an evil woman.

’Now when holy Persephone had scattered this way and that the spirits of the women folk, thereafter came the soul of Agamemnon, son of Atreus, sorrowing; and round him others were gathered, the ghosts of them who had died with him in the house of Aegisthus and met their doom.  And he knew me straightway when he had drunk the dark blood, yea, and he wept aloud, and shed big tears as he stretched forth his hands in his longing to reach me.  But it might not be, for he had now no steadfast strength nor power at all in moving, such as was aforetime in his supple limbs.

’At the sight of him I wept and was moved with compassion, and uttering my voice, spake to him winged words:  “Most renowned son of Atreus, Agamemnon, king of men, say what doom overcame thee of death that lays men at their length?  Did Poseidon smite thee in thy ships, raising the dolorous blast of contrary winds, or did unfriendly men do thee hurt upon the land, whilst thou wert cutting off their oxen and fair flocks of sheep, or fighting to win a city and the women thereof?”

’So spake I, and straightway he answered, and said unto me:  “Son of Laertes, of the seed of Zeus, Odysseus of many devices, it was not Poseidon that smote me in my ships, and raised the dolorous blast of contrary winds, nor did unfriendly men do me hurt upon the land, but Aegisthus it was that wrought me death and doom and slew me, with the aid of my accursed wife, as one slays an ox at the stall, after he had bidden me to his house, and entertained me at a feast.  Even so I died by a death most pitiful, and round me my company likewise were slain without ceasing, like swine with glittering tusks which are