sat down to feast.

The voyagers brought their ship to the shore and Telemachus sprang from
it. But before him went the goddess, grey-eyed Athene, in the likeness
of the old man, Mentor. And the goddess told Telemachus that Nestor, the
King whom he had come to seek, was on the shore. She bade him now go
forward with a good heart and ask Nestor for tidings of his father,
Odysseus.

But Telemachus said to her, 'Mentor, how can I bring myself to speak to
one who is so reverenced? How should I greet him? And how can I, a young
man, question such a one as Nestor, the old King?'

[Illustration]

The goddess, grey-eyed Athene, encouraged him; the right words, she
said, would come. So Telemachus went forward with his divine
companion. Nestor was seated on the shore with his sons around him. And
when they saw the two strangers approach, the sons of Nestor rose up to
greet them. One, Peisistratus, took the hand of Telemachus and the hand
of the goddess and led them both to where Nestor was.

A golden cup was put into the hand of each and wine was poured into the
cups, and Nestor's son, Peisistratus, asked Telemachus and the goddess
to pray that the sacrifice they were making to Poseidon, the god of the
sea, would bring good to them and to their people. Then the goddess
Athene in the likeness of old Mentor held the cup in her hand and
prayed:

'Hear me, Poseidon, shaker of the earth: First to Nestor and his sons