Into pitiless sleep have ye lulled me to bring about my bane,

  While my fellows there abiding have done a monstrous deed.’

  “Soon then to the Sun, the High Rider, did the bearer of tidings speed;

  Long-robed Lampetie told it, how we the kine did slay.

  Then wrathful of heart to the Deathless in this wise did he say:

  “‘Zeus Father, and all ye Happy, whose lifedays ne’er are done,

  Avenge me of those fellows of Odysseus, Laertes’ son,

  Who in folly have slain my beasts that I joyed in when I went

  Aloft on my ways to the heavens and the starry firmament,

  And when again from the heavens to the earth I turned away.

  Now if for my cattle’s slaying no penalty they pay,

  To the Nether Dusk will I get me and shine amidst the dead.’

  “Then Zeus, the Cloud-packs’ Herder, he answered him and said:

  ‘ O Sun, shine out as ever amidst the Deathless here,

  And shine on men that perish on the corn-kind earth and dear.

  With my white bolt of the thunder their swift ship presently

  Will I smite, and cleave it piecemeal amid the wine-dark sea.’

  “Of this talk forsooth was I learning from Calypso lovely of hair,

  Who said that Hermes the Flitter to herself did the tidings bear.

  “So when I was gotten aback to the ship’s side and the sea

  One after other I chid them, yet forsooth no remedy

  It availed us to seek, for stark dead already were the kine.

  And straight the Gods ‘gan show us a wonder and a sign;

  For the flayed-off skins crept onward, and the flesh on the spits lowed out

  Both the roast and the raw, and the voices of neat were all about

  “So for six days thereafter my fellows feasted there,

  Driving off from the herds of the Sun whatever was fairer than fair;

  But when Zeus the Son of Cronos the seventh day had made ^^

  The wind with the tempest raging to rest awhile he laid,

  Then aboard we gat us and outward to the open sea did we fare,

  And the mast in its stead we ‘stablished and hauled the sails in air.

  But when we had left that Island there opened no new land,

  And nought but the sea and the heavens we saw on either hand;

  Then over our hollow ship the Son of Cronos drew

  A coal-blue cloud, and beneath it all black the sea-waves grew;

  And no long while ran on the ship, for there came upon us at last

  The shrilly west loud piping with the rush of a mighty blast,

  And therewith did the weight of the stormwind both mainstays break and

  And the mast withal fell aftward, and huddling fell the gear [shear,

  Adown in the hold together, and in the steering-stead

  It smote the skull of the helmsman, and all the bones of his head

  It crushed at once together, and straight from the deck adown

  He dropped as dives a diver, and the soul from his body had flown;

  And therewithal Zeus thundered on the ship with a lightning stroke,

  And by his bolt sore smitten through all her frame she shook,

  And full was she of brimstone; outboard the men were thrown,

  And like unto the sea-mews round the black ship were they strown

  In the wash of the waves, and their homefare from them the God did take.

  “But for me the ship I traversed till the beat of the billows brake

  The sides from the keel, and naked the sea-waves bore it along,

  And had torn off the mast by the keel; but about it, wrought of a thong

  Well fashioned of an ox-hide, yet was the backstay cast

  So I bound the twain together therewith, both keel and mast,

  And, sitting thereon, by the blast of the baleful winds was I sped

  “But now the West wind’s fury and his stormy blast fell dead,

  And swift thereon came the South wind and brought me grief again

  Lest my way I must measure backward to Charybdis and her bane.

  Night-long thenceforth was I carried, and with the rising sun

  I came to the crags of Scylla and Charybdis the fearful one,

  And she the salt-sea water as now was swallowing in;

  But cast against her fig-tree aloft there did I win,

  And hung on as a bat hangs clinging; nor foot-hold there I found

  Whereby to make me steady, and no way to the upper ground;

  For the roots spread far below me, and o’erhead far aloof

  Were the great long boughs and lofty that Charybdis over-roof:

  So I held on steadfast, awaiting till she should vomit again

  The mast and the keel, and full late they came to make me fain.

  But just when a man ariseth from the Court to his supper and home,

  Who hath doomed in a many strifes of the young men seeking for doom,

  Just then from the maw of Charybdis those timbers twain did show;

  So I reached me downward towards them and hands and feet let go,

  And plumped adown amidmost beyond the long-wrought wood,

  And sitting there upon them with both my hands I rowed.

  And so wrought the Father of Gods and of Men that I was not seen

  Of Scylla; for then no refuge from bitter bane had been.

  ‘ Thence nine days was I carried, and on the tenth night-tide

  To Ogygia’s isle God brought me where Calypso doth abide,

  The fair-haired Goddess beworshipped, who speaketh the speech of men;

  And she took me and cherished me kindly. But hereof why tell thee then?

  Since yesterday here in thine house I told the tale to thee,

  To thee and thy goodly helpmate; and irksome ’tis to me

  To tell again of matters that told out clearly be.”

  BOOK XIII.

  ARGUMENT.

  ODYSSEUS IS CARRIED OVER TO ITHACA BY THE PH^EACIANS, AND LAID

  SLEEPING IN HIS OWN LAND AMIDST HIS GIFTS: AWAKING HE KNOWS

  NOT THE COUNTRY, TILL ATHENE, AT FIRST IN THE LIKENESS OF A

  SHEPHERD AND THEN AS A WOMAN, COMETH TO HIM: SHE BIDDETH

  HIM SEEK OCJT EUM/EUS HIS SWINEHERD, AND CHANGETH HIS ASPECT

  TO THE SIMILITUDE OF AN OLD GANGREL MAN SO THAT HE MAY

  NOT BE KNOWN.

  SO he spake, and all those people they sat in silence there,

  For the tale’s delight bound all men through the shadowy halls and

  But at last Alcinoiis answered and spake to him and said: [fair.

  “Yea, now thou art come, Odysseus, to my house high-roofed o’erhead,

  And brazen-floored, I deem not that thou shalt wander more

  And stray from thy returning for all thy troubles sore.

  But for you, a thing I tell you, and on each a charge I lay,

  All ye, who in my feast-hall are wont from day to day

  To drink the dark wine of worship, and hearken the minstrel’s song.

  Lo now for the guest the garments in the smooth chest lie along,

  And the gold all deftly fashioned, and the other gifts dear-bought:

  That the wise Phaeacian chieftains already here have brought;

  But a tripod and a caldron now give we every man,

  And thereafter mid the people shall we gather that we can

  In boot thereof; for ’tis heavy for free gifts on one to fall.”

  In suchwise spake Alcinoiis, and his word seemed good to all,

  And therewith they departed and home they went each one.

  But when the Mother of Morning, Kose-fingered Day-dawn, shone,

  Then adown to the sV they hastened with the man-delighting brass,

  And Alcinoiis holy in might about through the ship did pass

  And neath the thwarts in order laid all, lest when they drave

  The ship with oars a-speeding some hurt a man might have.

  Then they went to Alcinoiis’ house, and a fair feast there they dight,

  And for them an ox he hallowed, Alcinoiis holy in might,

  To Zeus the Son of Cronos, Black-cloudy, all men’s King:

  And they burned up the thighs and were merry in their noble banqueting;

  And amidst them the holy minstrel Demodocus sang out,

  Beloved of the folk. But Odysseus would ever turn about

  His head to the Sun to behold him, as he shone on all and o’er,

  As one who desired his setting, for he longed for his homefare sore

  — Like a man who longeth for supper for whom daylong by now

  Through the fallow two dark oxen have dragged the jointed plough,

  And fain is he of the sunset and the ending of the day

  That speedeth ‘him home to his supper; and his knees are stiffon the way:

  — E’en so fain was now Odysseus of the waning of the light,

  And unto those Phaeacians oar-fain he spake outright;

  And chief unto Alcinoiis he let the word fly forth:

  “O lord and king Alcinoiis, of the people most of worth!

  Pour now, and send me homeward in peace, and hail be ye!

  For now are all things ready that my dear heart longed to be,

  The speeders and gifts of well-wishers; and thereof may the Gods of the

  Give me all good! and at home may this to me be given, [heaven

  That there I may find my helpmate and my loved friends safe and sound!

  But may joy with you here abiding with your wedded wives abound, And with your children also! God give you health and might,

  And may no kind of evil on the folk of this land alight!”

  So he spake; and all yea-said him, and bade the-J’hing to be,

  That the guest on his way be speeded since he spake so righteously;

  And straightway unto the herald thus spake Alcinous’ might:

  “Now blend the bowl Pontonoiis, and deal the wine aright

  To all folk in the feast-hall, that to father Zeus we may pray,

  And unto the land of his fathers we may speed the guest away.”

  He spake, and Pontonoiis straightway the wine heart-soothing filled,

  And dealt it about to all men, and drink-offering then they spilled

  To the happy Gods of the Heavens, the widespread place and fair,

  From where they sat in the high-seat; but Odysseus stood up there,

  And unto the hand of Arete the double cap did he take,

  And speeding speech unto her, this winged word he spake:

  “Hail thou, O Queen, henceforward until eld come on thee,

  And death at last and at latest which unto all must be!

  I go, but be thou happy abiding in thine house

  With thy children and thy people and the King Alcinous!”

  So saying over the threshold divine Odysseus went,

  And withal the herald before him the King Alcinous sent,

  And down to the ship the speedy, and the side of the sea he led,

  And the servants of the women Arete with him sped:

  Whereof one bore a mantle and a frock well-washed and fair;

  And the weight of the strong-made coffer another woman bare;

  And yet there went another, and red wine and bread bore she.

  But when they came unto the ship and down to the side of the sea

  Therewith the noble speeders took all the gear aboard,

  And adown in the hollow ship the meat and drink they stored;

  And then they spread for Odysseus a rug and a linen sheet

  On the hollow black ship’s aft-deck, to sleep on soft and sweet

  So then he went a-shipboard and lay down silently,

  And they sat them adown on the benches, each in order as should be.

  And so they loosed the hawsers from the hole of the stone on shore.

  But as they cast them abackward and tossed up the brine with the oar,

  E’en then upon his eyelids did sleep and slumber speed,

  Sweetest, and most unbroken, most like to death indeed;

  But she, as over the plain the stallions’ fourfold yoke

  Rush, driven on together by the whip-lash and the stroke,

  And rear aloft and speed them, and easy way they make,

  So rose her stern on the sea waves, and following on her wake

  Rolled on the dark-blue billow of the tumble of the sea:

  So all unscathed and steady she sped, nor swift as she

  Might fly the stark gerfalcon, the swiftest of all fowl,

  As swiftly running onward she cleft the sea-flood’s roll,

  Bearing a man most like to the Gods for his wisdom and guile,

  Who many a sorrow had suffered, and was soul-tossed on a while

  As he went through the warfare of men and the terrible deeds of the deep;

  But slept there now unfearful, and forgat all woes in sleep.

  But when that star was arising, the brightest that cometh his way,

  With the tidings of the Day-dawn and the light of the Mother of Day,

  The ship on the sea-waves flitting drew nigh the island then.

  Know now that there lieth an haven in the land of the Ithacan men,

  Of Phorcys the salt-sea’s elder, and therein two nesses stand,

  Shear cliffs thrust toward the haven drawn down on either hand,

  That ward the swell that ariseth ‘neath the great winds’ mastery,

  So that the keels, the well-decked, unmoored within may lie,

  When unto the goal of the roadstead at last they have gotten to be.

  But there at the head of the haven is a long-leaved olive-tree,

  And nigh to the tree a rock-den, lovely and shaded all,

  Unto the Nymphs made holy whom men the Naiads call.

  And therewithin are wine-bowls and wine-jars all of stone;

  And there the bees hive honey, and therewithal are done

  Long looms of stone, whereinto the very Nymphs do weave

  Sea-purple webs more wondrous than eyes may well believe;

  And therein are the waters welling. But two ingates are to the den;

  The one to the north-side facing is meet for the going of men, no

  But that to the south more holy, and no gate for men is this,

  That they thereby should enter, but the road of the Deathless it is.

  Thereto the ship were they driving, for they knew the place of yore;

  And therewithal swift speeding she ran half-length on the shore,

  So well forsooth was she driven by oarsmen deft of hand:

  But they from the decked ship going fared up upon the land;

  And first from the hollow ship Odysseus’ self they bare,

  And he lying on the linen and the blanket glossy-fair,

  And there on the sand they laid him in slumber bound as yet.

  Then that gear from the ship they carried which he erewhile did get

  From Phaeacian lords on his homefare through Athene’s mighty soul;

  And all that in a heap together they laid by an olive bole

  And out of the road; lest some one of the land’s wayfaring men

  Should pass ere Odysseus wakened and spoil it there and then.

  Then home again they hied them, nor yet did the Shaker of Earth

  Forget his threats ‘gainst Odysseus, the peer of the Gods in worth,

  Wherewith erewhile he threatened; so the rede of Zeus he sought:

  “Zeus Father, well may my worship midst the Deathless come to nought

  When now midst men that perish no more they worship me;

  Nay not those men Phaeacian though of my blood they be.

  Lo now! I meant that Odysseus should come home safe on a day

  Through many a woe; nor his homefare would I utterly take away

  Since thou hadst first yea-said it, and promised it to be.

  But him in a swift ship sleeping have they ferried o’er the sea,

  And in Ithaca set him adown with goodly gifts and rare,

  Yea, gold and brass abundant, and raiment woven fair,

  So much that no such a deal had Odysseus borne away

  Had he come from Troy-town scathless with his own allotted prey.”

  Then Zeus, the Cloud-pack’s Herder, he answered again and said:

  “Hah, Shaker of Earth, far swaying, what a word hereof hast thou made!

  The Gods mar not thy worship; yea, this indeed were hard

  If thou, our best and our eldest, by our own hands were marred;

  But if one of mankind yield him to his might and mastery

  And mar thine honour henceforward, with thee doth the wreaking lie.

  Do thy will then, and accomplish the thing that thy soul deems dear.”

  Then Poseidon the Earth’s Shaker, he spake and answered there:

  “Nay, I had not tarried to do it, Black-cloudy, after thy word;

  But thy wrath have I ever dreaded, and fain would I shun it, lord;

  But now the lovely ship of that Phaeacian folk

  As she cometh aback from the ferry would I shatter with my stroke

  Mid the darkling deep, that henceforward they ferry men no more,

  And with a mighty mountain their burg will I shadow o’er.”

  Then Zeus, the Cloud-pack’s Herder, thus answered thereupon:

  “O friend, thuswise I deem it the meetest to be done:

  When all the folk of the city behold her hard at hand

  Swift speeding, smite her straightway to a rock anigh the land,

  And yet a swift ship’s image, that all men may wonder sore;

  And with a mighty mountain shalt thou shade their city o’er.”

  But when Poseidon had heard him, then the Shaker of the Earth

  Went on his ways to Scheria, whence Phsacians have their birth;

  And there abode: and the sea-swift, the ship, came close anigh

  Swift speeding; then Earth Shaker drew near and stood thereby,

  And into stone he turned her, and rooted her below,

  With the stroke of his hand laid flatling, and thence away did he go.

  But unto one another winged words they uttered ‘then,

  Those long-oar-wont Phaeacians, the ship-renowned men;

  And thus unto his neighbour some one of them would say:

  “O me! who then on the sea-flood hath made our ship to stay,

  E’en as she sped her homeward clear seen of every one?”

  Thuswise would they be speaking, nor knew they how ’twas done.

 

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