Then they came back again into the hall, while the merchant kings rose up to do them honour.

And each man said to his neighbour, 'No wonder that these men won fame.

How they stand now like Giants, or Titans, or Immortals come down from Olympus, though many a winter has worn them, and many a fearful storm.

What must they have been when they sailed from Iolcos, in the bloom of their youth, long ago ?' Then they went out to the garden; and the merchant princes said, 'Heroes, run races with us.

Let us see whose feet are nimblest.' 'We cannot race against you, for our limbs are stiff from sea; and we have lost our two swift comrades, the sons of the north wind.