The Odyssey, Homer [book recommendations for young adults txt] 📗

'Hold your hands from fierce fighting, ye men of Ithaca, that so ye may be parted quickly, without bloodshed.'

So spake Athene, and pale fear gat hold of them all. The arms flew from their hands in their terror and fell all upon the ground, as the goddess uttered her voice. To the city they turned their steps, as men fain of life, and the steadfast goodly Odysseus with a terrible cry gathered himself together and hurled in on them, like an eagle of lofty flight. Then in that hour the son of Cronos cast forth a flaming bolt, and it fell at the feet of the grey-eyed goddess, the daughter of the mighty Sire. Then grey-eyed Athene spake to Odysseus, saying:

'Son of Laertes, of the seed of Zeus, Odysseus of many devices, refrain thee now and stay the strife of even-handed war, lest perchance the son of Cronos be angry with thee, even Zeus of the far-borne voice.'

So spake Athene, and he obeyed and was glad at heart. And thereafter Pallas Athene set a covenant between them with sacrifice, she, the daughter of Zeus lord of the aegis, in the likeness of Mentor, both in fashion and in voice.

 Homer, thy song men liken to the sea,
     With every note of music in his tone,
     With tides that wash the dim dominion
 Of Hades, and light waves that laugh in glee
 Around the isles enchanted: nay, to me
     Thy verse seems as the River of source unknown
     That glasses Egypt's temples overthrown,
 In his sky-nurtur'd stream, eternally.
 No wiser we than men of heretofore
     To find thy mystic fountains guarded fast;
 Enough—thy flood makes green our human shore
     As Nilus, Egypt, rolling down his vast,
 His fertile waters, murmuring evermore
     Of gods dethroned, and empires of the Past.

End of Project Gutenberg Etext The Odyssey, by Homer, Butcher & Lang Tr