Sparta,[1] the daughter of Alector. This son, Megapenthes, was born to him of a bondwoman, for heaven vouchsafed Helen no more children after she had borne Hermione, who was fair as golden Venus herself.
15So the neighbours and kinsmen of Menelaus were feasting and making merry in his house. There was a bard also to sing to them and play his lyre, while two tumblers went about performing in the midst of them when the man struck up with his tune.[2]]
20Telemachus and the son of Nestor stayed their horses at the gate, whereon Eteoneus servant to Menelaus came out, and as soon as he saw them ran hurrying back into the house to tell his Master. He went close up to him and said, "Menelaus, there are some strangers come here, two men, who look like sons of Jove. What are we to do? Shall we take their horses out, or tell them to find friends elsewhere as they best can?"
30Menelaus was very angry and said, "Eteoneus, son of Boëthous, you never used to be a fool, but now you talk like a simpleton. Take their horses out, of course, and show the strangers in that they may have supper; you and I have staid often enough at other peple's houses before we got back here, where heaven grant that we may rest in peace henceforward."
37So Eteoneus bustled back and bade the other servants come with him. They took their sweating steeds from under the yoke, made them fast to their mangers, and gave them a feed of oats and barley mixed. Then they leaned the chariot against the end wall of the courtyard, and led the way into the house. Telemachus and Pisistratus were astonished when they saw it, for its splendour was as that of the sun and moon; then, when they had admired everything to their heart's content, they went into the bath room and washed themselves.
- ↑ Sparta and Lacedæmon are here treated as two different places, though in other parts of the poem it is clear that the writer understands them as one. The catalogue in the Iliad, which the writer is here presumably following, makes the same mistake (Il. II. 581, 582).
- ↑ These last three lines are identical with Il. XVIII. 604–606.
