Argos *v> ^ "Q> <^y <^> <^> 



(From The Odyssey of Homer, done into English Prose) 



HPHUS they spake one to the other. And lo ! 

 -*- a hound raised up his head from where he 

 lay and pricked his ears, Argos, the hound of the 

 enduring Odysseus, which of old himself had 

 bred, but had got no joy of him, for ere that he 

 went to sacred Ilios. Now in time past the 

 young men used to lead the dog against wild 

 goats and deer and hares ; but now was his 

 master gone, and he lay cast out in the deep 

 dung of mules and kine, whereof he found great 

 plenty spread before the doors, till the thralls of 

 Odysseus should carry it away to dung therewith 

 his wide demesne. There lay the dog Argos, full 

 of vermin. Yet even now when he saw Odysseus 

 standing by, he wagged his tail and dropped both 

 his ears, but nearer to his master he had not the 

 strength to draw. But Odysseus looked aside 

 and wiped away a tear that he easily hid from 

 Eumaeus, and straightway he asked him, saying : 

 " Eumaeus, verily this is a great marvel, this 

 hound lying here in the dung. Truly he is goodly 

 of limb, but I know not certainly if he have speed 

 with his beauty, or if he be comely only as are 

 men's trencher dogs that their lords keep for the 

 pleasure of the eye." 



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