where Nestor and his people were engaged in making a great sacrifice to
Neptune. "How shall I approach the chief?" he asked. "Ill am I trained in
courtly speech."

But, encouraged by Pallas, he greeted the aged Nestor, and after he and
his companion had assisted in the sacrifice and partaken of the banquet
that followed, he revealed his name and asked for tidings of his, father,
boldly and confidently, as befitted the son of Ulysses. The old king could
tell him nothing, however. After Troy had fallen, a dissension had rent
the camp, and part of the Greeks had remained with Agamemnon, part had
sailed with Menelaus. Sailing with Menelaus, Nestor had parted with Diomed
at Argos, and had sailed on to Pylos. Since his return he had heard of the
death of Agamemnon, and of the more recent return of Menelaus, but had
heard no tidings of Ulysses, who had remained with Agamemnon.
To Menelaus he advised Telemachus to go, warning him, however, not to
remain long away from Ithaca, leaving his home in the possession of rude
and lawless men.

In a car provided by Nestor and driven by his son, Pisistratus, Telemachus
reached Sparta after a day and a night's rapid travel, and found Menelaus
celebrating the nuptial feast of his daughter Hermione, betrothed at Troy
to the son of Achilles, and his son Megapenthes, wedded to the daughter of
Alector. The two young men were warmly welcomed, and were invited to
partake of the banquet without being asked their names. After the feast
they wondered at the splendor of the halls of gold, amber, and ivory, the
polished baths, and the fleecy garments in which they had been arrayed;
but Menelaus assured them that all his wealth was small compensation to
him for the loss of the warriors who had fallen before Troy, and above
all, of the great Ulysses, whose fate he knew not. Though Telemachus's
tears fell at his father's name, Menelaus did not guess to whom he spoke,