Verse
Odyssey
Book 1, Line 44 by Samuel Butler (English)
Then Athena said, "Father, son of Kronos, King of kings, it served Aigisthos right, and so it would any one else who does as he did; but Aigisthos is neither here nor there; it is for Odysseus that my heart bleeds, when I think of his sufferings in that lonely sea-girt island, far away, poor man, from all his friends. It is an island covered with forest, in the very middle of the sea, and a goddess lives there, daughter of the magician Atlas, who looks after the bottom of the ocean, and carries the great columns that keep heaven and earth asunder. This daughter of Atlas has got hold of poor unhappy Odysseus, and keeps trying by every kind of blandishment to make him forget his home, so that he is tired of life, and thinks of nothing but how he may once more see the smoke of his own chimneys. You, sir, take no heed of this, and yet when Odysseus was before Troy did he not propitiate you with many a burnt sacrifice? Why then should you keep on being so angry with him?"
OdysseyBook 1, Line 44Samuel ButlerEnglishVerse permalinkRead in Book 1
HomerProseID odyssey-odyssey-butler-en-prose-1-44