Then wise Telemachus answered her, and said:  ’Sir, forasmuch as thou questionest me of these things and inquirest thereof, our house was once like to have been rich and honourable, while yet that man was among his people.  But now the gods willed it otherwise, in evil purpose, who have made him pass utterly out of sight as no man ever before.  Truly I would not even for his death make so great sorrow, had he fallen among his fellows in the land of the Trojans, or in the arms of his friends when he had wound up the clew of war.  Then would the whole Achaean host have builded him a barrow, and even for his son would he have won great glory in the after days.  But now the spirits of the storm have swept him away inglorious.  He is gone, lost to sight and hearsay, but for me hath he left anguish and lamentation; nor henceforth is it for him alone that I mourn and weep, since the gods have wrought for me other sore distress.  For all the noblest that are princes in the isles, in Dulichium and Same and wooded Zacynthus, and as many as lord it in rocky Ithaca, all these woo my mother and waste my house.  But as for her she neither refuseth the hated bridal, nor hath the heart to make an end:  so they devour and minish my house, and ere long will they make havoc likewise of myself.’

Then in heavy displeasure spake unto him Pallas Athene:  ’God help thee! thou art surely sore in need of Odysseus that is afar, to stretch forth his hands upon the shameless wooers.  If he could but come now and stand at the entering in of the gate, with helmet and shield and lances twain, as mighty a man as when first I marked him in our house drinking and making merry what time he came up out of Ephyra from Ilus son of Mermerus!  For even thither had Odysseus gone on his swift ship to seek a deadly drug, that he might have wherewithal to smear his bronze-shod arrows:  but Ilus would in nowise give it to him, for he had in awe the everliving gods.  But my father gave it him, for he bare him wondrous love.  O that Odysseus might in such strength consort with the wooers:  so should they all have swift fate and bitter wedlock!  Howbeit these things surely lie on the knees of the gods, whether he shall return or not, and take vengeance in his halls.  But I charge thee to take counsel how thou mayest thrust forth the wooers from the hall.  Come now, mark and take heed unto my words.  On the morrow call the Achaean lords to the assembly, and declare thy saying to all, and take the gods to witness.  As for the wooers bid them scatter them each one to his own, and for thy mother, if her heart is moved to marriage, let her go back to the hall of that mighty man her father, and her kinsfolk will furnish a wedding feast, and array the gifts of wooing exceeding many, all that should go back with a daughter dearly beloved.  And to thyself I will give a word of wise counsel, if perchance thou wilt hearken.  Fit out a ship, the best thou hast, with twenty oarsmen, and go to