His scar, and all his stratagem unveil.
She then, approaching, minister'd the bath
To her own King, and at first touch discern'd
That token, by a bright-tusk'd boar of old
Impress'd, what time he to Parnassus went 490
To visit there Autolycus and his sons,
His mother's noble sire, who all mankind
In [1]furtive arts and fraudful oaths excell'd.
For such endowments he by gift receiv'd
From Hermes' self, to whom the thighs of kids 495
He offer'd and of lambs, and, in return,
The watchful Hermes never left his side.
Autolycus arriving in the isle
Of pleasant Ithaca, the new-born son
Of his own daughter found, whom on his knees 500
At close of supper Euryclea placed,
And thus the royal visitant address'd.
Thyself, Autolycus! devise a name
For thy own daughter's son, by num'rous pray'rs
Of thine and fervent, from the Gods obtained. 500
Then answer thus Autolycus return'd.
My daughter and my daughter's spouse! the name
Which I shall give your boy, that let him bear.
Since after provocation and offence
- ↑ Homer’s morals seem to allow to a good man dissimulation, and even an ambiguous oath, should they be necessary to save him from a villain. Thus in Book XX. Telemachus swears by Zeus, that he does not hinder his mother from marrying whom she pleases of the wooers, though at the same time he is plotting their destruction with his father. F.
