THE ODYSSEY OF HOMER

BOOK I

ARGUMENT.

MINERVA'S DESCENT TO ITHACA.

The poem opens within forty eight days of the arrival of Ulysses

in his dominions. He had now remained seven years in the Island of

Calypso, when the gods assembled in council, proposed the method

of his departure from thence and his return to his native country.

For this purpose it is concluded to send Mercury to Calypso, and

Pallas immediately descends to Ithaca. She holds a conference with

Telemachus, in the shape of Mantes, king of Taphians; in which she

advises him to take a journey in quest of his father Ulysses, to

Pylos and Sparta, where Nestor and Menelaus yet reigned; then,

after having visibly displayed her divinity, disappears. The

suitors of Penelope make great entertainments, and riot in her

palace till night. Phemius sings to them the return of the

Grecians, till Penelope puts a stop to the song. Some words arise

between the suitors and Telemachus, who summons the council to

meet the day following.

The Odyssey of Homer