Telemachus himself, "and I am bound to believe her. Would that it were
otherwise! I have little cause to bless my birth."

"Yet shalt thou surely be blest," said Mentes; "thou art not unmarked
of the eye of Heaven. But answer me once more, what means this lawless
riot in the house? And what cause has brought all these men hither?"

"This also thou shalt know," replied Telemachus. "These are the
princes who have come to woo my mother; and while she keeps them
waiting for her answer they eat up my father's goods. Ere long,
methinks, they will make an end of me also."

"Fit wooers indeed for the wife of such a man!" said Mentes with a
bitter smile. "Would that he were standing among them now as I saw him
once in my father's house, armed with helmet and shield and spear! He
would soon wed them to another bride. But whether it be God's will
that he return or not, 'tis for thee to devise means to drive these
men from thy house. Take heed, therefore, to my words, and do as I bid
thee. To-morrow thou shalt summon the suitors to the place of
assembly, and charge them that they depart to their homes. And do thou
thyself fit out a ship, with twenty rowers, and get thee to Pylos,
where the aged Nestor dwells, and inquire of him concerning thy
father. From Pylos proceed to Sparta, the kingdom of Menelaus; he was
the last of the Greeks to reach home, after the fall of Troy; and
perchance thou mayest learn something from him. And if thou hearest
sure tidings of thy father's death, then get thee home, and raise a
tomb to his memory, and keep his funeral feast. Then let thy mother
wed whom she will; and if these men still beset thee, thou must devise
means to slay them, either by guile or openly. Thou art now a man, and
must play a man's part. Hast thou not heard of the fame which Orestes