The seamen gave her to be fishes' food, And I survived to mourn her. But the winds And rolling billows them bore to the coast Of Ithaca, where with his proper goods Laertes bought me. By such means it chanced That e'er I saw the isle in which I dwell. To whom Ulysses, glorious Chief, replied. Eumæus! thou hast moved me much, thy woes Enumerating thus at large. But Jove Hath neighbour'd all thy evil with this good, 590 That after num'rous sorrows thou hast reach'd The house of a kind master, at whose hands Thy sustenance is sure, and here thou lead'st A tranquil life; but I have late arrived, City after city of the world explored. Thus mutual they conferr'd, nor leisure found Save for short sleep, by morning soon surprized. Meantime the comrades of Telemachus Approaching land, cast loose the sail, and lower'd Alert the mast, then oar'd the vessel in. 600 The anchors heav'd aground,[71] and hawsers tied Secure, themselves, forth-issuing on the shore, Breakfast prepared, and charged their cups with wine. When neither hunger now, nor thirst remained Unsatisfied, Telemachus began. Push ye the sable bark without delay Home to the city. I will to the field Among my shepherds, and, (my rural works Survey'd,) at eve will to the town return. To-morrow will I set before you wine 610 And plenteous viands, wages of your toil. To whom the godlike Theoclymenus. Whither must I, my son? who, of the Chiefs Of rugged Ithaca, shall harbour me? Shall I to thine and to thy mother's house? Then thus Telemachus, discrete, replied. I would invite thee to proceed at once To our abode, since nought should fail thee there Of kind reception, but it were a course Now not adviseable; for I must myself, 620 Be absent, neither would my mother's eyes Behold thee, so unfrequent she appears Before the suitors, shunning whom, she sits Weaving continual at the palace-top. But I will name to thee another Chief Whom thou may'st seek, Eurymachus, the son Renown'd of prudent Polybus, whom all The people here reverence as a God. Far noblest of them all is he, and seeks More ardent than his rivals far, to wed 630 My mother, and to fill my father's throne. But, He who dwells above, Jove only knows If some disastrous day be not ordain'd For them, or ere those nuptials shall arrive. While thus he spake, at his right hand appear'd, Messenger of Apollo, on full wing, A falcon; in his pounces clench'd he bore A dove, which rending, down he pour'd her plumes Between the galley and Telemachus. Then, calling him apart, the prophet lock'd 640 His hand in his, and thus explain'd the sign.