THE ODYSSEY

CHAPTER I

THE COUNSEL [Footnote: counsel, advice.] OF
ATHENE [Footnote: A-the'-ne.]


When the great city of Troy had been taken, all the chiefs who had
fought against it set sail for their homes. But there was wrath in
heaven against them, so that they did not find a safe and happy
return. For one was shipwrecked, and another was shamefully slain
by his false wife in his palace, and others found all things at
home troubled and changed, and were driven to seek new dwellings
elsewhere; and some were driven far and wide about the world
before they saw their native land again. Of all, the wise Ulysses
[Footnote: U-lys'-ses.] was he that wandered farthest and suffered
most, for when ten years had well-nigh passed, he was still far
away from Ithaca [Footnote: Ith'-a-ca.], his kingdom.

The gods were gathered in council in the hall of Olympus [Footnote: O-
lym'-pus.], all but Poseidon, [Footnote: Po-sei'-don.] the god of the
sea, for he had gone to feast with the Ethiopians. Now Poseidon was he
who most hated Ulysses, and kept him from his home.

Then spake Athene among the immortal gods: "My heart is rent for