Mentes

My mother does indeed sometimes send for a soothsayer and question him, but I give his prophesyings no heed.

As for the stranger, he was Mentes, son of Anchialus, chief of the Tapheans, an old friend of my father's.

But in his heart he knew it had been the goddess.

The suitors then returned to their singing and dancing until the evening.

So saying, she bound on her glittering gold sandals, imperishable, with which she can fly like the wind over land or sea.

She grasped the redoubtable bronze-shod spear, so stout and sturdy and strong, wherewith she quells the ranks of heroes who have displeased her, and down she darted from the topmost summits of Olympus, whereon forthwith she was in Ithaca, at the gateway of Ulysses' house, disguised as a visitor, Mentes, chief of the Taphian, and she held a bronze spear in her hand.

There she found the lordly suitors seated on hides of the oxen which they had killed and eaten, and playing drafts in front of the house.

Men-servants and pages were bustling about to wait upon them, some mixing wine with water in the mixing bowls, some cleaning down the tables with wet sponges and laying them out again, and some cutting up great quantities of meat.

Tell me also truly, for I want to know, are you a stranger to this house, or have you been here in my father's time? In the old days we had many visitors, for my father went about much by himself.

And Minerva answered, I will tell you truly and particularly all about it.

I am Mentes, son of Anchialus, and I am king of the Taphian.

I have come here with my ship and crew, on a voyage to men of a foreign tongue being bound for Temesa, with a cargo of iron, and I shall bring back copper.