And he answered, “Every day in my native country will I remember thee, for indeed, fair maiden, thou didst save my life.”
And when they were set down to the feast, Ulysses sent a portion of the meat which the king had caused to be set before him to the minstrel Demodocus, with a message that he should sing to them of the horse of wood which Epeius made, Minerva helping him, and how Ulysses brought it into Troy, full of men of war who should destroy the city.
Then the minstrel sang how that some of the Greeks sailed away, having set fire to their tents, and some hid themselves in the horse with Ulysses, and how the men of Troy sat around, taking counsel what they should do with it, and some judged that they should rip it open, and some that they should throw it from the hill-top, and others again that they should leave it to be a peace-offering to the gods; and how the Greeks issued forth from their lurking-place and spoiled the city, and how Ulysses and Menelaus went to the house of Deïphobus.
So he sang, and Ulysses wept to hear the tale. And when Alcinoüs perceived that he wept, he bade Demodocus cease from his song, for some that were there liked it not. And to Ulysses he said that he should tell them who was his father and his mother, and from what land he came, and what was his name. All these things Ulysses told them, and all that he had done and suffered, down to the time when the Princess Nausicaa found him on the river shore. And when he had ended, King Alcinoüs bade that the princess should give Ulysses yet other gifts; and after that they went each man to his house to sleep.
The next day King Alcinoüs put all the gifts into the ship. And when the evening was come Ulysses bade farewell to the king and to the queen, and departed.
ULYSSES AND THE SWINEHERD
By Alfred J. Church
Now Ulysses slept while the ship was sailing to Ithaca. And when it was come to the shore he yet slept. Wherefore the men lifted him out, and put him on the shore with all his goods, and so left him. After a while he awoke, and knew not the land, for there was a great mist about him, Minerva having contrived that it should be so, for good ends, as will be seen. Very wroth was he with the men of Phæacia, thinking that they had cheated him; nor did it comfort him when he counted his goods to find that of these he had lost nothing.
But as he walked by the sea, lamenting his fate, Minerva met him, having the shape of a young shepherd; and Ulysses, when he saw him, was glad, and asked him how men called the country wherein he was.