Answer: At the beginning of Menelaus’ story, the men are in a bad state on the island. With vibrant language Homer describes the sailors’ “strength to have
been exhausted … whom the pangs of hunger scattered every day round the coast to angle with barbed hooks for fish”. The practical effect of the hunger is a vivid and desperate hunt for food.
Menelaus soon meets Eidothee, the daughter of Proteus; – she rather like Telemachus is not certain of her parentage (“He is my father too, as people say”). Eidothee then outlines how to speak to Proteus. Her description is twenty-five lines long, and throughout emphasises the difficulty of coming across Proteus.
Step-by-step explanation: