Odys. Ο voice, of all Divine Ones dear to me,
Athena's, clear, though Thou remain unseen,
I hear thy speech, and catch it in my soul
As though it were some bronze Tyrsenian[1] trump;
And now full clear Thou saw'st me wheeling round
My steps against a man I count my foe,
Aias, the bearer of the mighty shield.[2]
For he it is, and no one else, that I20
Long while have tracked; for he this very night
Hath wrought a work mysterious, if indeed
'Tis he hath done it, for as yet we know
Nought clearly, but are wandering in our search.
And I of my free will have yoked myself
To bear this toil; for 'twas but now we found
Our captured flocks destroyed, by man's hand slain,
And with them too the guardians of the herd;
And every one imputes the deed to him;
And then a scout, who saw him there alone,
The fields o'erleaping with a blood-stained sword,30
Told me, and showed it all. And I forthwith
Rush on his track; and now in part I guess
By signs and tokens, and in part am struck
With sore amaze, and learn not where he is.
And now Thou comest here most seasonably,
For I, in all things past or yet to come,
Am guided by the wisdom of thine hand.
Athena. I knew it, Ο Odysseus, and I came,
Long since, a ready helper in thy hunt.
Odys. And I, dear Mistress, do I toil aright?
- ↑ The Tyrsenians, or Tyrrhenians, (identified here with the Etrurians,) had the repute of being the first inventors of bronze, and the trumpet so named had a wide, bell-shaped mouth. Comp. Æsch. Eumen. 567.
- ↑ The epithet by which the son of Telamon was distinguished from the other Aias, the son of Oïleus.
