it is not my safe passage you are planning but something else

  when you tell me to cross the great gulf of the sea on a raft—

  a dangerous and difficult enterprise. Not even swift-running175

  trim ships, exulting in a wind from Zeus, are able to cross it.

  No; without your goodwill I cannot set sail on a raft,

  unless you bring yourself, goddess, to swear a great oath

  that you are plotting no more arduous troubles for me.’

  So he spoke, and Calypso, bright among goddesses, smiled,180

  and stroking him with her hand she spoke to him, saying:

  ‘You are a real scoundrel, and crafty-witted as well,

  to think of something like this and then to say it!

  Let the earth be my witness in this, and the high sky above,

  and the waters of Styx* that flow below, which is the185

  greatest and most terrible oath for the blessed gods,

  that I shall not plot any more arduous troubles for you;

  I am thinking and planning only that which I would

  devise for myself if a need as great as yours came upon me.

  You must know that my mind is fair and just, and the heart190

  in my breast is not made of iron but is disposed to pity.’

  So she, bright among goddesses, spoke, and led the way,

  swiftly, and he followed, walking in the goddess’ footsteps.

  So they came to the hollow cavern, the goddess and the man,

  and Odysseus sat down on the chair from which Hermes195

  had risen, and the nymph put before him all kinds of fare

  for him to eat and drink, of the kind that mortals consume.

  She herself sat opposite, facing godlike Odysseus, and

  handmaids set out ambrosia and nectar before her.

  So they reached out for the good things that lay before them;200

  and when they had taken their pleasure in food and drink

  the first to speak was Calypso, bright among goddesses:

  ‘Zeus-sprung son of Laertes, Odysseus of many wiles,

  are you resolved to return home to your dear land, now,

  this moment? May you fare well, in spite of everything!205

  If you knew in your heart the many hardships it is your fate

  to suffer in full measure before you reach your native land,

  you would stay here and watch over this house with me,

  and would become immortal, however much you long

  to look on the wife for whom you yearn, day after day.210

  And yet I claim to be in no way her inferior, either in

  stature or in form, since it is not at all fitting for mortal

  women to compete with immortals in stature or in beauty.’

  Then in answer Odysseus of many wiles addressed her:

  ‘Revered goddess, do not be angry with me for this; I too215

  know well that circumspect Penelope is of less account

  than you in beauty and in stature to look upon, for

  she is a mortal, and you are immortal and do not age.

  But for all that I desire and long all my days to go back

  home and to see the day of my return. Furthermore, if220

  one of the gods wrecks me on the wine-dark sea, I shall

  endure it, since the spirit in my breast can bear suffering;

  already I have borne much hardship and many labours

  on sea and in war; so let this too come on, after all the rest.’

  So he spoke, and the sun went down and darkness came over225

  them, and they went into an inner part of the hollow cave

  and took their pleasure in lovemaking, lying side by side.

  When early-born Dawn with her rosy fingers appeared,

  Odysseus quickly clothed himself in a tunic and a cloak,

  while she, the nymph, put on a long, silvery robe,230

  finely spun and becoming, and round her waist she tied

  a beautiful golden girdle, and covered her head with a scarf.

  Then she planned the home-sending of great-hearted Odysseus.

  She gave him a great axe, one that suited his grip well,

  made of bronze, and sharp-edged on both its sides, and into235

  it was fitted a fine handle of olive-wood, snugly embedded.

  Then she gave him a well-honed adze, and set off, leading

  the way to the island’s furthest part, where trees grew tall:

  alder and black poplar, and fir that reached to the high sky,

  but long-dried and seasoned, to make his craft run lightly.240

  When Calypso had shown him where the tall trees grew,

  she, bright among goddesses, set off back to her home.

  Meanwhile Odysseus began to cut his timber, and quickly

  finished his task; twenty trees in all he felled and trimmed

  with his bronze axe, smoothed them skilfully and trued them245

  against a line. Calypso, bright among goddesses, brought him

  augers, and he bored through all the planks and matched the

  joints to each other, making them fast with pegs and dowels.

  As a shipwright, skilled in his trade, rounds out the hull

  of a ship, a broad-bottomed merchantman, to a certain width,250

  so Odysseus built his broad raft to the same dimensions.

  So he worked away, fixing a platform on to it, jointed

  into close-set ribs, and finished it off with long gunwales.

  In the vessel he set a mast, with a yard-arm fitted to it, and

  after that made a steering-oar with which to guide the raft.255

  All down its length he fenced it with osier mat-work, as a

  defence against waves, backed by a mass of brushwood.

  Then Calypso, bright among goddesses, brought cloth

  for him to make a sail, and this too he fashioned with skill.

  On the raft he made fast the stays and halyards and sheets,260

  and then levered it with crowbars down to the bright sea.

  The fourth day came and all his work was finished, and

  on the fifth glorious Calypso saw him off from the island,

  first bathing him and clothing him in fragrant garments.

  She stowed on board for him one skin of dark wine and265

  another of water, a large one, and also provisions in a bag,

  putting in it plenty of cooked meat, to satisfy his heart;

  and she sent forth a warm and constant breeze for him.

  Cheered by this breeze glorious Odysseus spread his sail,

  and sitting next to the steering oar kept the raft skilfully270

  on course; nor did sleep ever fall on his eyelids, but he

  held his gaze on the Pleiades* and late-setting Boötes,*

  and the Bear that men also call the Wain,* which turns

  always in the same place and keeps close watch on Orion,

  and alone has no share in the baths of Ocean;* for indeed275

  Calypso, bright among goddesses, had instructed him

  to keep this star on his left as he sailed across the sea.

  For seventeen days on end he sailed across the open sea,

  and on the eighteenth day the shadowy mountains of the

  Phaeacians’ land showed, where it jutted out nearest to him;280

  and it seemed to him like a shield lying on the misty sea.

  But now the lord earthshaker, returning from the Ethiopians,

  saw him from afar from the mountains of the Solymi.* When he

  spotted him sailing over the open sea he was exceedingly angry

  within, and with a shake of his head spoke to his heart:285

  ‘What is this? The gods must foolishly have changed their

  minds about Odysseus while I was away with the Ethiopians;

  and now here he is near the Phaeacians’ land, where it is

  his destiny to escape the great snare of misery that holds him.

  Nevertheless I think I can even now fill him full of torment.’290

  So he spoke, and massed the clouds; taking his trident in his

  hand he heaved the sea into confusion and roused storm-

  blasts of all the winds there are, and hid earth and sea alike in

  clouds; and night rushed down from the high sky. The East and

  South Winds and the hard-blowing West Wind crashed together,295

  and the sky-born North Wind rolled a huge wave before it.

  Then indeed Odysseus’ knees and his heart went slack,

  and, deeply troubled, he spoke to his great-hearted spirit:

  ‘How unlucky I am! What is there left that can happen to me

  now? I fear that all the goddess told me will turn out to be true:300

  she said before I reached my ancestral land I would have my full

  measure of agonies on the sea; and now it has all been fulfilled,

  with Zeus wrapping the high sky in clouds like these and churning

  the sea into confusion; and storm-blasts of all the winds there are

  come raging furiously together. Now my sheer destruction is certain.305

  O three times blessed, four times even, were those Danaans who

  died long ago in broad Troy, performing a service to Atreus’ sons!

  How I wish that I too had perished and met my death on the

  day that Trojans in great numbers hurled their bronze-tipped

  spears at me over the dead son of Peleus!* I would have had my310

  due burial rites, and the Achaeans would have spread my fame

  abroad; but now my fate is to be taken in a miserable death.’

  As he said this a huge wave smashed down from above,

  striking him with a terrible force, and spun the raft shuddering

  in a circle. He was flung from the raft, and his hands slipped315

  from the steering-oar; the winds crashed together, and a

  fearful storm-blast swept down and shattered his mast in

  two, and the sail and yard were flung far off into the sea.

  For a long time he was trapped under water, and could not

  swim upwards, thwarted as he was by the huge wave’s swell,320

  and cumbered by the clothes given him by bright Calypso.

  But at last he broke the surface, and spat from his mouth the

  bitter brine that streamed down in torrents from his head.

  For all that, though battered, he did not forget about his raft,

  but heaving himself up in the waves he seized hold of it,325

  and sitting in the middle escaped the final end of death.

  The huge swell carried the raft with the current this way and that:

  as at the time of harvest the North Wind blows thistledowns

  that cling one to another in clusters all over a plain,

  so the winds blew the raft here and there over the sea;330

  now the South Wind would fling it to the North to carry off,

  and now the East Wind would leave it to the West to pursue.

  But now Cadmus’ daughter, Ino of the lovely ankles, saw him:

  Leucotheë, who once spoke with a human voice, but now

  lives in the deep sea, sharing in the honour paid to the gods.335

  She took pity on storm-tossed Odysseus in his misery;

  like a gull she rose in flight from the water,

  and perching on his raft addressed him in these words:

  ‘Ill-fated man, how can it be that earthshaker Poseidon is

  so violently at odds with you, to cause you all this suffering?340

  For all that, he will not kill you, great though his rage is. Now—

  you do not seem a foolish man to me—do exactly as I say:

  take off all your clothes and leave the raft to be carried away

  by the winds, and then swim with your arms and strive for

  landfall on the Phaeacians’ land, where your fate is to be saved.345

  Here, take this scarf and fasten it below your chest; it is

  immortal, and so you need have no fear of injury or death.

  Then, when you feel the dry land under your hands, untie

  the scarf and throw it back into the wine-dark sea, a long

  way from the shore, and turn your face away as you do it.’350

  So the goddess spoke, and handed him the scarf, and

  plunged once again into the wave-swollen sea like

  a gull, and the dark waters closed over her.

  Glorious much-enduring Odysseus pondered what to do,

  and, deeply troubled, spoke to his great-hearted spirit:355

  ‘Ah! I am afraid that yet again one of the immortals

  is weaving a snare for me, telling me to abandon my raft.

  No—I shall not obey her, not yet, since with my own eyes

  I saw the land far off where she told me I would find refuge.

  This is what I shall do, since it seems to me the best course:360

  as long as the planks hold together at their joints I shall

  remain where I am and endure whatever hardship comes,

  and only when the waves shatter my raft in pieces shall I

  take to swimming, since I cannot think of any better plan.’

  While he was pondering this in his heart and in his mind,365

  Poseidon the earthshaker heaved up a huge wave, grim and

  terrifying, which towered over and then crashed down on him.

  As when a hard-blowing wind disturbs a heap of parched

  chaff and scatters it in all directions, so this wave

  scattered the raft’s long planks; it left Odysseus sitting370

  astride one timber, like a man riding on horseback, and

  stripped of the clothes that bright Calypso had given him.

  At once he coiled the scarf around his chest and dived head-

  first into the sea, striking out with his arms, and swimming

  as hard as he could; but the lord earthshaker saw him, and375

  with a shake of his head spoke to his heart: ‘Go on, then!

  Now drift across the open sea in terrible suffering until

  you fall in with men who are favoured by the gods. But

  even then I do not think you will find fault with your ordeal.’

  So he spoke, and touched the whip on his fine-maned horses,380

  and arrived at Aegae,* where his famous palace is situated.

  But now Athena, daughter of Zeus, had different plans:

  she tied back the paths of three of the winds, and ordered

  them all to stop blowing and go to sleep, and then roused

  the blustering North Wind to beat down the waves in his way,385

  until Zeus-sprung Odysseus should fall in with the Phaeacians

  who delight in rowing, and so escape death and destruction.

  For two days and two nights Odysseus drifted, driven by the

  heavy swell, and often his heart saw death looming over him;

  but when lovely-haired Dawn brought in the third day,390

  then at last the wind stopped blowing and a breathless calm

  broke out. Odysseus, keeping a sharp lookout, was lifted up

  on the crest of a huge wave and caught sight of the land nearby.

  As when his children see welcome signs of life in their father

  who lies ailing in bed, wasting away in the grip of a long395

  and painful illness—for some hateful divinity has assailed him—

  and then the gods send him a welcome release from his anguish,

  so the land and its woods came as a welcome sight to Odysseus,

  and he swam on, impatient to set foot upon dry land. But

  when he was as near as a man’s voice carries when he shouts,400

  and indeed could hear the sea crashing against the rocky coast—

  for the huge rollers kept breaking against the hard land with a

  fearful roar, and everything was obscured in salt spray, since

  here there were no roadsteads to offer shelter to ships, nor any

  place to anchor, but only jutting headlands, reefs, and sea-cliffs— 405

  then indeed Odysseus’ limbs and heart went slack, and,

  deeply troubled, he spoke to his great-hearted spirit:

  ‘Ah! Against expectation I managed to cleave my way

  across this watery expanse, and Zeus granted me to see land;

  but now I cannot see any way to escape from the grey sea.410

  Offshore there are sharp-edged reefs; about them the swell

  crashes and roars, and behind them a cliff runs sheer upwards,

  and inshore the sea runs deep, and there is no place where

  I can stand firm on both my feet and so escape from danger.

  If I do reach land, I am afraid a great wave may lift and415

  dash me against the jagged cliff, and my efforts will all be

  in vain; but if I swim on along the coast, in the hope of finding

  a landspit jutting aslant to offer me a haven from the sea,

  I am afraid that a squall will once again lift me up and

  carry me, groaning deeply, out on to the fish-rich sea;420

  or else some god will let loose a huge sea-monster at me,

  one of the many that renowned Amphitrite* nurtures;

  I know how the famous earthshaker is at odds with me.’

  While he was pondering this in his mind and in his heart,

  a huge wave carried him on to the jagged shore; and here the425

  skin would have been torn from him and his bones smashed,

  had not the goddess grey-eyed Athena put a thought in his mind:

  as he was swept in he caught the rock in both his hands

  and clung on to it, groaning, until the great wave passed.

  So he escaped from this wave, but the backlash once again430

  battered him with great force and flung him far out to sea.

  As when an octopus is dragged from its hiding-place, and

  pebbles cling in thick clusters to its suckers, in the same way

  pieces of skin were stripped from Odysseus’ bold hands and

  stuck to the rock; and a huge wave hid him from view. Then435

  wretched Odysseus would surely have died before his time,

  had not the goddess grey-eyed Athena given him another idea:

  he got clear of the surf where it heaved on to the shore and kept

  swimming outside it, looking towards the land, and hoping to find

 

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