for our own country. Swiftly we came to it, and now you see me the
happiest of all those who set out to wage war against Troy. And now,
dear son of Odysseus, you know what an immortal told of your father--how
he is still in life, but how he is held from returning to his own home.'

Thus from Menelaus the youth Telemachus got tiding of his father. When
the King ceased to speak they went from the hall with torches in their
hands and came to the vestibule where Helen's handmaids had prepared
beds for Telemachus and Peisistratus. And as he lay there under purple
blankets and soft coverlets, the son of Odysseus thought upon his
father, still in life, but held in that unknown island by the nymph
Calypso.




X


His ship and his fellow-voyagers waited at Pylos but for a while longer
Telemachus bided in Sparta, for he would fain hear from Menelaus and
from Helen the tale of Troy. Many days he stayed, and on the first day
Menelaus told him of Achilles, the greatest of the heroes who had fought
against Troy, and on another day the lady Helen told him of Hector, the
noblest of all the men who defended King Priam's City.

'Achilles,' said King Menelaus, 'was sprung of a race that was favoured
by the immortals. Peleus, the father of Achilles, had for his friend,
Cheiron, the wisest of the Centaurs--of those immortals who are half men
and half horse. Cheiron it was who gave to Peleus his great spear. And