1 Then they lifted the heifer's head from off the ground, and Pisistratus cut her throat.
2 Some one else will run and fetch Laerceus the goldsmith to gild the horns of the heifer.
3 Then a third man, Philoetius, joined them, who was bringing in a barren heifer and some goats.
4 So Philoetius made his heifer and his goats secure under the gatehouse, and then went up to the swineherd.
5 They sacrificed the sheep, goats, pigs, and the heifer, and when the inward meats were cooked they served them round.
6 Go, then, one or other of you to the plain, tell the stockman to look me out a heifer, and come on here with it at once.
7 Nestor gave out the gold, and the smith gilded the horns of the heifer that the goddess might have pleasure in their beauty.
8 In return, I will offer you in sacrifice a broad-browed heifer of a year old, unbroken, and never yet brought by man under the yoke.
9 Then Nestor began with washing his hands and sprinkling the barley meal, and he offered many a prayer to Minerva as he threw a lock from the heifer's head upon the fire.
10 The heifer was brought in from the plain, and Telemachus's crew came from the ship; the goldsmith brought the anvil, hammer, and tongs, with which he worked his gold, and Minerva herself came to accept the sacrifice.
11 Moreover you must offer many prayers to the poor feeble ghosts, and promise them that when you get back to Ithaca you will sacrifice a barren heifer to them, the best you have, and will load the pyre with good things.
12 They left their sports as he told them, and when they were within the house, they laid their cloaks on the benches and seats inside, and then sacrificed some sheep, goats, pigs, and a heifer, all of them fat and well grown.
13 Medon caught these words of Telemachus, for he was crouching under a seat beneath which he had hidden by covering himself up with a freshly flayed heifer's hide, so he threw off the hide, went up to Telemachus, and laid hold of his knees.
14 Then Stratius and Echephron brought her in by the horns; Aretus fetched water from the house in a ewer that had a flower pattern on it, and in his other hand he held a basket of barley meal; sturdy Thrasymedes stood by with a sharp axe, ready to strike the heifer, while Perseus held a bucket.
15 I made a drink-offering to all the dead, first with honey and milk, then with wine, and thirdly with water, and I sprinkled white barley meal over the whole, praying earnestly to the poor feckless ghosts, and promising them that when I got back to Ithaca I would sacrifice a barren heifer for them, the best I had, and would load the pyre with good things.