A Warning on Fate

17Again spoke Nestor the Gerenian knight: —
“Since you, my friend, have spoken words which bring
What I have heard to mind —the rumor goes
That in your palace many suitors wait
About your mother, and in spite of you
Do grievous wrong. Now tell me; do you yield
Willingly, or because the people, swayed
By oracles, regard you as their foe?
Your father yet may come again —who knows? —
Alone, or with the other Greeks, to take
The vengeance which these violent deeds deserve.
Should blue-eyed Athena deign to favor you,
As once she watched to guard the glorious chief
Odysseus in the realm of Troy, where we,
The Achaians, bore such hardships —for I never
Have seen the gods so openly befriend
A man as Athena there befriended him —
Should she thus deign to favor you and keep
Watch over you, then haply some of these
Will never think of marriage rites again.”

18Then spoke discreet Telemachus again: —
“O aged man! I cannot think your words
Will be fulfilled! for they import too much
And they amaze me. What you say I wish
May come to pass, but know it cannot be,
Not even though the gods should will it so.”

19Then thus the blue-eyed goddess, Athena, spoke: —
“Telemachus, what words have passed your lips?
Easily can a god, whenever he will,
In the most distant regions safely keep
A man; and I would rather reach my home
Securely, after many hardships borne,
Than perish suddenly on my return
As Agamemnon perished by the guile
Of base Aegisthus and the queen. And yet
The gods themselves have not the power to save
Whom most they cherish from the common doom
When cruel fate brings on the last long sleep.”