Athena took Telemachus’s likeness and went through the city, telling each man to gather by the swift ship at evening. She asked Noemon son of Phronius for a ship; he promised gladly. When the sun set and the ways grew dark, she drew the ship to the sea, put the tackle aboard, and moored her at the harbor mouth. The good companions gathered; the goddess urged each on.
Then Athena went to Odysseus’s house, shed sweet sleep on the suitors, cast confusion as they drank, and knocked the cups from their hands. They rose to sleep in the city; sleep fell on their eyelids. She called Telemachus from the hall in Mentor’s likeness: “Telemachus — your fine-greaved companions already sit at the oar waiting for you. Come, so we do not hold the journey long.”
She led; he followed. At the ship they found the long-haired companions on the shore. Telemachus said: “Come, friends — fetch the provisions. They are gathered in the hall. My mother knows nothing, nor the women — only one heard my word.” They brought everything and stowed it as he ordered.
Telemachus went aboard; Athena went before him and sat in the stern. Near her he sat. They cast off the stern cables and took their places at the oarlocks. Grey-eyed Athena sent a following west wind singing over the wine-dark sea. They stepped the mast, made it fast with forestays, and hauled up the white sails. The wind filled the belly of the sail; the purple wave hissed about the stem as she ran. When the tackle was fast they mixed wine and poured libations to the deathless gods — above all to Zeus’s grey-eyed daughter. All night long and through the dawn the ship cut her way.