heads that Ulysses will not return, they can take the high hand
and eat up his estate, but as for you others I am shocked at the
way in which you all sit still without even trying to stop such
scandalous goings on--which you could do if you chose, for you
are many and they are few."

Leiocritus, son of Evenor, answered him saying, "Mentor, what
folly is all this, that you should set the people to stay us? It
is a hard thing for one man to fight with many about his
victuals. Even though Ulysses himself were to set upon us while
we are feasting in his house, and do his best to oust us, his
wife, who wants him back so very badly, would have small cause
for rejoicing, and his blood would be upon his own head if he
fought against such great odds. There is no sense in what you
have been saying. Now, therefore, do you people go about your
business, and let his father's old friends, Mentor and
Halitherses, speed this boy on his journey, if he goes at
all--which I do not think he will, for he is more likely to stay
where he is till some one comes and tells him something."

On this he broke up the assembly, and every man went back to his
own abode, while the suitors returned to the house of Ulysses.

Then Telemachus went all alone by the sea side, washed his hands
in the grey waves, and prayed to Minerva.

"Hear me," he cried, "you god who visited me yesterday, and bade
me sail the seas in search of my father who has so long been
missing. I would obey you, but the Achaeans, and more
particularly the wicked suitors, are hindering me that I cannot