[Xiz]

As soon as rosy-fingered Dawn appeared, Nestor the Gerenian horseman rose from his bed: went out, and seated himself on the smooth stone bench, white and gleaming as though with oil, that stood in front of the high doors. Neleus had once sat there, as wise as a god in counsel, but he had long since been felled by fate and gone down to Hades’ Halls. Now Gerenian Nestor sat there in his turn, a Warden of the Achaeans, with the sceptre in his hand. His sons gathered round him, as they came from their rooms, Echephron and Stratius, Perseus, Aretus, and godlike Thrasymedes. The warrior Peisistratus made a sixth, and they seated godlike Telemachus beside him. Nestor, the Gerenian horseman, spoke first:
My dear sons, be quick to do my will, so that I can propitiate Athene above all, who came openly in person to the god’s rich feast. Let one of you go to the meadow for a heifer, and let the cowherd drive her swiftly: let another go to great-hearted Telemachus’ black ship and bring his friends, all but two: and let a third call Laerces the goldsmith here to tip the heifer’s horns with gold. The rest of you stay here, and tell the women to prepare a feast in the palace, and seats, and firewood, and fresh water.’
They set about their tasks, as ordered. The heifer arrived from the meadow, and great-hearted Telemachus’ crew from the fine swift ship: the smith brought bronze tools in his hands, anvil, hammer and well-wrought tongs, the instruments of his gold-working craft: and Athene too arrived to witness the sacrifice. Then old Nestor the charioteer gave the smith gold to gild the heifer’s horns, so the goddess would delight in the offering. Then Stratius and noble Echephron led the heifer by the horns, and Aretus came from the palace bringing water in a flowered bowl for them to wash with, and a basket of barley meal, in his other hand. Thrasymedes, stalwart in fighting, stood there, gripping a sharp axe to strike the heifer, and Perseus held the dish for the blood. Then old Nestor the charioteer opened the rites by washing his hands and scattering barley grains, and prayed intently to Athene, cutting hair from the victim’s head as a first offering, and throwing it into the flames.
When they had prayed, and scattered the barley grains, Thrasymedes, Nestor’s high-spirited son, approached and struck the blow. The axe severed the sinews of the heifer’s neck, and crippled her strength, and the women raised the ritual cry, all the daughters, and daughters-in-law, and Nestor’s honoured wife, Eurydice, Clymenus’ eldest daughter. Then the men raised the heifer’s head from the trampled earth, and held it while Peisistratus, that leader of men, slit its throat. When the black blood had flowed, and life had left its body, they dismembered the carcass, cut out the thigh pieces accordingly, wrapped them in layers of fat, and covered them with raw meat. Then the old king burned them on the fire, and poured glowing wine over them, while the young men waited beside him, five-pronged forks in hand. When the thigh pieces were burned, then they tasted the inner parts, carving the rest, skewering and roasting it, holding the sharpened skewers in their hands.