So he
followed her to the palace of King Alcinous and Queen Arete, and abode
with them, kindly refreshed, and honored with feasting and games and
song. But it came to pass, as the minstrel sang before them of the
Trojan War and the Wooden Horse, that Odysseus wept over the story, it
was written so deep in his own heart. Then for the first time he told
them his true name and all his trials.
They would gladly have kept so great a man with them forever, but they
had no heart to keep him longer from his home; so they bade him
farewell and set him upon one of their magical ships, with many gifts
of gold and silver, and sent him on his way.
Wonderful seamen are the Phaeacians. The ocean is to them as air to the
bird,--the best path for a swift journey! Odysseus was glad enough to
trust the way to them, and no sooner had they set out than a sweet
sleep fell upon his eyelids. But the good ship sped like any bee that
knows the way home. In a marvellous short time they came even to the
shore of the kingdom of Ithaca.
While Odysseus was still sleeping, unconscious of his good fortune, the
Phaeacians lifted him from the ship with kindly joy and laid him upon
his own shore; and beside him they set the gifts of gold and silver and
fair work of the loom. So they departed; and thus it was that Odysseus
came to Ithaca after twenty years.
III. THE HOME-COMING.
Now all these twenty years, in the island of Ithaca, Penelope had
watched for her husband's return.
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