The watery way ill-fated if thou try,

All, all must perish, and by fraud you die!

Then stay, my, child! storms beat, and rolls the main,

Oh, beat those storms, and roll the seas in vain!"

"Far hence (replied the prince) thy fears be driven:

Heaven calls me forth; these counsels are of Heaven.

But, by the powers that hate the perjured, swear,

To keep my voyage from the royal ear,

Nor uncompell'd the dangerous truth betray,

Till twice six times descends the lamp of day,

Lest the sad tale a mother's life impair,

And grief destroy what time awhile would spare."

Thus he. The matron with uplifted eyes

Attests the all-seeing sovereign of the skies.

Then studious she prepares the choicest flour,

The strength of wheat and wines an ample store.

While to the rival train the prince returns,

The martial goddess with impatience burns;

Like thee, Telemachus, in voice and size,

With speed divine from street to street she flies,

She bids the mariners prepared to stand,

When night descends, embodied on the strand.

Then to Noemon swift she runs, she flies,

And asks a bark: the chief a bark supplies.

The Odyssey of Homer