Would'st thou with equal zeal, O Pallas! aid 470 Thy servant here, I would encounter thrice An hundred enemies, let me but perceive Thy dread divinity my prompt ally. Him answer'd then Pallas cærulean-eyed. And such I will be; not unmark'd by me, (Let once our time of enterprize arrive) Shalt thou assail them. Many, as I judge, Of those proud suitors who devour thy wealth Shall leave their brains, then, on thy palace floor. But come. Behold! I will disguise thee so 480 That none shall know thee! I will parch the skin On thy fair body; I will cause thee shed Thy wavy locks; I will enfold thee round In such a kirtle as the eyes of all Shall loath to look on; and I will deform With blurring rheums thy eyes, so vivid erst; So shall the suitors deem thee, and thy wife, And thy own son whom thou didst leave at home, Some sordid wretch obscure. But seek thou first Thy swine-herd's mansion; he, alike, intends 490 Thy good, and loves, affectionate, thy son And thy Penelope; thou shalt find the swain Tending his herd; they feed beneath the rock Corax, at side of Arethusa's fount, On acorns dieted, nutritious food To them, and drinking of the limpid stream. There waiting, question him of thy concerns, While I from Sparta praised for women fair Call home thy son Telemachus, a guest With Menelaus now, whom to consult 500 In spacious Lacedæmon he is gone, Anxious to learn if yet his father lives. To whom Ulysses, ever-wise, replied. And why, alas! all-knowing as thou art, Him left'st thou ignorant? was it that he, He also, wand'ring wide the barren Deep, Might suffer woe, while these devour his wealth? Him answer'd then Pallas cærulean-eyed. Grieve thou not much for him. I sent him forth Myself, that there arrived, he might acquire 510 Honour and fame. No suff'rings finds he there, But in Atrides' palace safe resides, Enjoying all abundance. Him, in truth, The suitors watch close ambush'd on the Deep, Intent to slay him ere he reach his home, But shall not as I judge, till of themselves The earth hide some who make thee, now, a prey. So saying, the Goddess touch'd him with a wand. At once o'er all his agile limbs she parch'd The polish'd skin; she wither'd to the root 520 His wavy locks; and cloath'd him with the hide Deform'd of wrinkled age; she charged with rheums His eyes before so vivid, and a cloak And kirtle gave him, tatter'd, both, and foul, And smutch'd with smoak; then, casting over all An huge old deer-skin bald, with a long staff She furnish'd him, and with a wallet patch'd On all sides, dangling by a twisted thong. Thus all their plan adjusted, diff'rent ways