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Homer's Odyssey: Telemachus

Alcinous and the Phaeacians sent Odysseus on his way to his home at Ithaca. But his old enemy, Poseidon, turned the ship to stone, and the wanderer reached home alone, in the guise of an old beggarman, where he arrived as his son Telemachus was returning from his travels.

Then began the thrilling tale of the wiles and guiles to win his own from the suitors who had taken his place, the harbor of refuge with faithful old Eumaeus, the swineherd, the recognition by Telemachus, the death of the true old dog Argos on sight of his long-absent master, the interview with Penelope, the recognition by his old nurse who knows him by a scar upon his leg, the final great trial of strength between the old beggarman and the suitors; they cannot even bend the famous bow of Eurytus; he, however, strings it with ease and sends an arrow singing through the holes of twelve battle-axes, set up one behind another.

At that instant the beggarman throws off his disguise and, with Telemachus and only two faithful followers, slays the evil suitors, wins back his true wife who has waited patiently all these long years, and hastens to greet his old father Laertes.

Impossible romance? I dare say. Yet one of the most human stories ever told. VIRGIL PUBLIUS VIRGILIUS MARO was born 70 B.C. and lived till 19 B.C. Like so many of the great writers of Rome he was not born at the great city, but near Mantua, in a region that produced many of the great men of the empire. He was of humble stock and constantly shows in his writings his familiarity with farm life, but despite his simple origin he received an extremely liberal education on both the Latin and Greek sides; the farmer's son finally became a friend of the great men of the time and one of the cosmopolitan figures of the empire. Despite misfortunes with his ancestral property, the patronage of Moecenas and the friendship of Augustus allowed him to travel freely and to devote himself to a life of letters. The Greek literature of Alexandria made a great impression on him and shows itself in the "Eclogues," poems of pastoral life modeled largely after the charming Greek poet Theocritus, which in their turn have had a very great influence on that type of poems so popular in all ages. Somewhat in the same line are the "Georgics," which in charming form display a very profound knowledge of farming on the part of the poet. They were perhaps written with the patriotic motive of starting a movement back to the farm. The great work of Virgil was the "AEneid," which he left, however, in an unfinished state and wished to have destroyed at his death. It was to be the perfect story of his nation's origin. It has remained one of the possessions of the world's literature.

Virgil was one of the great figures of the Middle Ages. He was supposed to have foretold the birth of Christ and was regarded as the greatest pagan. It was claimed that he shared with the Bible the power of settling all difficulties; one had only to open the "AEneid"; the first passage on which one chanced gave an omen. The role he plays in Dante shows the esteem in which he was held.