“If any other girl in suchlike way
While her own parents lived, should go astray
In a man’s company.“[[12]]
But she gives him minute directions, so that he may find her father’s palace after she has left him. He will pass Athena’s grove, and the well, and the king’s park, before he comes to the town and the gate of the palace. He is to go right into the palace, and not to hesitate.
“But when the forecourt and the palace-wall
Have hidden you, pass quickly up the hall
Straight to my mother. In the firelight she
Sits by the hearth, while off her distaff fall
“The threads of dim sea-purple, strand by strand,
Marvellous; and her maids behind her stand,