The sacred act of friendship shall record.”


Thus he. But when the dawn bestreak’d the east,

The king from Helen rose, and sought his guest.

As soon as his approach the hero knew,

The splendid mantle round him first he threw,

Then o’er his ample shoulders whirl’d the cloak,

Respectful met the monarch, and bespoke:


“Hail, great Atrides, favour’d of high Jove!

Let not thy friends in vain for licence move.

Swift let us measure back the watery way,

Nor check our speed, impatient of delay.”


“If with desire so strong thy bosom glows,

Ill (said the king) should I thy wish oppose;

For oft in others freely I reprove

The ill-timed efforts of officious love;

Who love too much, hate in the like extreme,

And both the golden mean alike condemn.

Alike he thwarts the hospitable end,

Who drives the free, or stays the hasty friend:

True friendship’s laws are by this rule express’d,

Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest.

Yet, stay, my friends, and in your chariot take

The noblest presents that our love can make;

Meantime commit we to our women’s care

Some choice domestic viands to prepare;

The traveller, rising from the banquet gay,

Eludes the labours of the tedious way,

Then if a wider course shall rather please,

Through spacious Argos and the realms of Greece,

Atrides in his chariot shall attend;

Himself thy convoy to each royal friend.

No prince will let Ulysses’ heir remove

Without some pledge, some monument of love:

These will the caldron, these the tripod give;

From those the well-pair’d mules we shall receive,

Or bowl emboss’d whose golden figures live.”


To whom the youth, for prudence famed, replied:

“O monarch, care of heaven! thy people’s pride!

No friend in Ithaca my place supplies,

No powerful hands are there, no watchful eyes:

My stores exposed and fenceless house demand

The speediest succour from my guardian hand;

Lest, in a search too anxious and too vain,