Complete Works of William Morris, page 647
So then we sons of Achaeans thereby for nine years warred,
But the tenth the city of Priam with war we wasted out
And went home with our ships, and God the Achaeans scattered about,
But wise Zeus for me the hapless devised the bale and the bane.
“For one month only I bided at home of my children fain,
And my wealth and my wife; and thereafter my heart pressed hard on me
Unto the land of Egypt to sail across the sea,
In ships dight well and goodly with my godlike company.
Nine ships I arrayed, and in haste the people gathered thereby.
Six days my trusty fellows sat with me there at the feast,
And therewithal I gave them full many a slaughter-beast
Wherewith the Gods to worship, and wherewith to dight the board,
But the seventh day we departed on our way from Crete the broad.
We sailed on swift and softly with a north wind fresh and fair,
As though down stream we were dropping, and no ship of mine that was
Took hurt, and so all scathless and hale we sat at ease, [there
And the wind and the helmsmen bore us the right way o’er the seas.
“So to Egypt the sweet-flowing we came on the fifth fair day,
And in that river of Egypt my bowed ships did I lay;
Then I charged my trusty fellows and gave them strait command
That they by the ships should be biding and draw them high aland;
And the watchers I bade betake them to the watching steads and the height,
But they yielded to fierce folly and went after the lusts of their might.
The fair fields of the men of Egypt they fell to plunder and spoil,
And bore off the women and children and slew the men in the broil.
So speedily unto the city came the rumour and the cry,
And men heard the shout and gathered when dawn was in the sky,
And the horsemen and the footmen were over all the plain,
And the light of brass a-flashing; yea, and Zeus the Thunder-fain
Cast ill fear amidst my fellows, and no hardy heart was found
To face the play and abide it; for stark bale stood around.
So there with the whetted brass a many they slew in the stead,
And a many to live in thraldom away from the field they led.
“But for me did Zeus in my mind a rede and a counsel raise
— Though would that there I had perished and met the fate of my days
In Egypt-land, for more sorrow the time to come waylaid —
Well, there on the field from my head I doft the helm well made,
And put off the shield from my shoulders, and the spear adown did I fling,
And I went and stood over against them, the horses of the king,
And took his knees and kissed them,and he pitied and saved raefromdoom,
And set me in his chariot and brought me weeping home,
Though many an one made at me with the ashen-shafted spear,
All eager for my slaying, for exceeding wroth they were;
But he warded them off, for he dreaded the wrath of the Stranger’s Speed,
Guest-aiding Zeus, who of all Gods is wroth with the evil deed.
“There seven years I abided and gat me plenteous gear
At the hands of the men of Egypt, for all men gave to me there.
But when the eighth year’s circle came on in its due while
I met a man Phoenician, well-learned in lying guile,
A huckster, who for menfolk a many evils wrought;
And he by his wit wrought on me, and me from thence he brought
Until we came to Phoenicia, where lay his house and gear.
So there with him I abided for the full space of a year,
But when the time was fulfilled by the wane of the months and the days,
And the year came round in order, and the seasons came their ways,
For Lybia then he shipped me in a keel that plied the sea,
Under colour of lies, that I with him a shipper of wares should be;
But thither would he flit me for a great price me to sell:
So with him on the ship must I get me, though I deemed all was not well.
So she ran on under the North wind that blew fresh over the main,
And the midmost sea of the Cretans: but Zeus did their end ordain,
For when Crete was left behind us we opened no new land,
And nought but the sea and the heavens there was 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 therewithal Zeus thundered o’er the ship with a thunder-stroke,
And by his bolt sore smitten through all her frame she shook,
And filled was she of brimstone, and outboard the men were thrown,
And like unto the seamews round the black ship were they strown
In the wash of the waves; and their homefare did the God for all undo.
“But the very Zeus gave to me amidst my weary woe
The great mast, stout, unyielding, which had served the black-bowed ship;
Yea, unto my hands he gave it, that through the toils I might slip.
So thereto I clung, and drifted with the winds in their baleful might.
Nine days o’er the sea I drifted, but on the tenth black night
A mighty billow rolled me high on the Thesprotian strand;
Where Pheidon, king of Thesprotians, the hero of the land,
Did unbought guesting give me: for his dear son happed on me
Foredone with cold and labour, and brought me home from the sea.
For he lifted me up with his hand to go to his father’s hall,
And raiment he did upon me, a cloak and a kirtle withal.
“And there did I hear of Odysseus: for he gave me to understand
That him had he guested and cherished on his way to his fatherland.
And the heap of wealth he showed me that Odysseus thither had brought,
Of brass, and of gold, and of iron most fine, and deftly wrought,
Yea, unto his tenth generation would it serve for livelihood.
So heaped in the halls of King Pheidon lay that treasure great and good.
He had gone, they said, to Dodona, the counsel of Zeus to hear,
From the oak-tree of the Godhead that aloft his boughs doth bear,
As to how he might win returning, who had been so long away
From the Ithacan land the wealthy, close hid, or in face of the day.
But the King, as he poured to the Gods in his house, made oath unto me
That the ship was drawn down to the strand, and the shipmen all ready
That should ferry over Odysseus to his well-loved fatherland, [for sea,
But ere that therefrom he sped me, for a keel there came to hand
Of Thesprotian men a-wending to Dulichium’s wheat-land fair,
And he charged them straitly to bring me to King Acastus there.
But their hearts of an evil counsel were fain concerning me,
That on my grief abiding might be heaped mere misery.
“For when the ship seafaring from the land was gotten far out,
Then straight the day of my thraldom they devised to bring about:
For they stripped me of my raiment, my cloak and kirtle fair,
And did a foul clout on me, and a kirtle ill to wear;
These loathly rags which e’en now beneath thine eyes have been.
So at last they came to the acres of Ithaca clear-seen,
And there in the ship the well-decked they bound me strait and hard
With well-laid ropes; and outboard they gat them afterward,
And made haste to get their supper adown by the side of the sea.
“But meanwhile the Gods themselves undid my bonds for me
Full easily: then wrapping my head in a clout of a hood
Down the steering-oar well shaven I got me and breasted the flood,
And swimming on thenceforward I rowed with either hand,
And right soon afar was I gotten from those, and out aland;
And, coming ashore by a thicket of leafy trees well-grown,
I lay there close while they wandered about and made their moan;
But whenas they deemed it availed not to seek me further there,
To the hollow ship did they get them and thereon again did fare.
And the Gods themselves thenceforward did lightly hide me still,
And then brought me away to the homestead of a man of all goodwill,
Because forsooth it is fated that I yet shall live my day.”
Then thou, O Swineherd Eumaeus, thuswise didst answer and say:
“O hapless guest, thou hast moved me and stirred my heart with thy tale
Of all the ways thou hast wandered, and all thou hast borne of bale.
But the word thou say’st of Odysseus ’tis wrong and said athwart,
Nor wilt thou make me trow it: and thou being as thou art,
Why wilt thou lie so vainly? since for my part well I know
Of the homefare of my master, that the Gods begrudge him so,
That they brought him not to his bane down there on the Trojan ground,
Nor yet mid the hands of his fellows when the spindle of war he had
When all the host of Achaeans the tomb for him had done, [wound,
And fame he had got, and great glory had left behind for his son.
But now without fame or glory have the Snatchers whirled him away.
But for me aloof with the swine I abide, nor any day
Do I get me adown to the city, save the wise Penelope
Should stir me up to go thither when to hand some tidings may be.
Then the folk there sit about him and will have out all his say;
Both those that are grieved that the master so long abideth away,
And those that rejoice all bootless to eat up his livelihood.
But for me, to ask and to question I hold it nothing good,
Since the time when a man of ^itolia came here with a tale in hand,
And befooled me: a man had he slain, and traversed a deal of land,
And hither he came to the homestead, and I dealt with him lovingly.
Who said that amidst the Cretans with Idomeneus did he see
Odysseus mending his sh^>s by the tempest broken and tried;
And he said that he would be coming in the spring or the harvest tide,
And with him his godlike fellows, and he bringing abundant gear.
But thou Elder of many sorrows, since the God hath brought thee here
Take not delight in lying, nor flatter me thus one whit;
For I give thee not compassion, nor cherish thee for it,
But in awe of Zeus the Guest-friend, and for very pity of thee.”
Then spake the shifty Odysseus, and thuswise answered he:
“Well, well! the heart within thee is slack indeed to trow,
Since mine oath will nowise win thee, nor wilt thou trust me now.
But strike we here a bargain! For yet I say again, ,
Let the Gods who hold Olympus bear witness of us twain!
If yet thy King returneth, in his house and his home to be,
Thou shalt give me a cloak and a kirtle, and withal shalt further me
Unto Dulichium island, wherein I fain would dwell.
But if thy King return not e’en as the tale I tell,
Set on thine homemen to cast me adown from an hill-rock high,
That gangrel men henceforward look to it not to lie.”
But therewith the goodly swineherd he answered him and spake:
“Yea verily, guest, my fair fame for honour and kindness’ sake
Should be holpen among menfolk, both now and in time to come,
If, when to the stead I had brought thee and guested thee at home,
I should turn again and slay thee, and thy dear life take away!
Unto Zeus the Son of Cronos full heartily then should I pray!
But now ’tis the time for supper; soon now shall my folk come in,
That in the booth fair supper and dainty we may win.”
But while about such matters each unto each they spoke,
Lo near at hand were the swine-droves, and withal the herding-folk:
So therewithal they penned them where they were wont to abide,
And huge rose the din and the routing of the swine as they were styed.
But now the goodly swineherd fell to bid his men and say:
“The best of the swine bring hither for me to hallow and slay
For my far-come guest; and we also will make good cheer indeed,
Since for long have we been toiling the white-toothed swine to feed,
And others eat our labour, nor cometh atonement to pass.”
So he spake, and fell to cleaving the logs with the ruthless brass,
And a boar they brought withinward, a five-year-old full fat,
And on the hearth they stood him, and the swineherd nought forgat
The Deathless Gods, for his heart in righteous ways was fast
So he fell to, and into the fire the forelock first he cast
Of the white-toothed boar, and fell praying to the Godfolk one and all
For the wise Odysseus’ homefare in the end to his house and his hall.
Then with an oak-log that lay there, once cleft by his hand he smote
The boar, and life went from him; and therewith they sheared his throat,
And singed, and cut him piece-meal; and the swineherd laid the raw
On the rich fat, which in gobbets from each limb did he draw;
And some they cast into the fire besprent with barley-meal,
And the rest they sheared into gobbets and spitted every deal,
And roasted it very deftly, and then they drew off all,
And cast it heaped on the trenchers. Then rose up the swineherd withal
To carve the meat, for he wotted in his heart what was fair and fit,
And into seven portions he dealt the whole of it,
And one thereof to the Nymphs and to Hermes, Maia’s Son,
He set by with a prayer, and the others he dealt to every one.
But the long-drawn chine of the boar white-toothed for the worshipful part
He gave unto Odysseus, and the King grew glad at heart,
And the many-wiled Odysseus he spake, and thus said he:
“Eumaeus, to Zeus the Father may’st thou be e’en as dear as to me,
Since with goodly cheer dost thou honour e’en such as I am today!”
Then thou, O Swineherd Eumaeus, thereto didst answer and say:
“Eat then, O hapless of strangers! in such as is here delight
For God to one man giveth, and another gainsayeth outright,
In such wise as he will have it; for all things he doth and he may.”
So he spake, and burned the firstlings to the Gods of the deathless day.
And poured the dark wine in offering and gave it furthermore
To the hands of the City-waster, as his portion he sat before. [alone
And the bread was Mesaulios’ dealing, whom the swineherd had bought
What time the King his master was aloof and a long while gone:
And neither the Queen nor Laertes the Elder were wotting of this,
But he bought the man from the Taphians with the gear that was verily his.
So they stretched out their hands to the victual that ready before them lay.
But when the longing for meat and for drink they had done away
Mesaulios bore off the victual, and fulfilled of meat and of bread
They were gotten fain of slumber, and longed for lying abed.
But the night came foul and moonless, with Zeus to raining set,
And a mighty west wind blowing, that ever bringeth wet;
So to them then spake Odysseus the herder of swine to try
If the cloak from his back he would give him, or of his folk thereby
Would egg on one to give it, since of him he had a care:
“Now hearken ye, Eumaeus, and all our fellows here,
And a boasting word will I say; for befooling wine is strong
Within me: he who eggeth e’en the wise to raise the song
And laugh out softly, and dance for very lustihead,
And to say the word, it may be, that were better left unsaid,
Yet since I have shouted already, the speech I will not hide.
But O for the days of my youth when with me did the might abide!
When we arrayed an ambush up under Troy-town wall,
And Menelaiis Atrides, and Odysseus led, and withal
The third was I of the captains, for that charge on me they laid.
Now when round the burg high-builded and the wall our watch we made,
Then we lay about the city and adown in the thickets there,
Among the reeds of the marish, close crouching under our gear.
But the north-wind dropped and the night-tide came, afoul and an evil time,
Frosty, with snow a-falling, as bitter as the rime,
And into ice was it setting upon our shields of war.
And now for all the others, both kirtle and cloak they bore,
And with their shoulders shielded all close at ease they lay:
But I, when I went with my fellows, had left my cloak by the way,
Like a fool; for I had no deeming of such a bitter night,
And I went with nought but my target, and my war-coat gleaming bright.
So in the third hour of the night-tide, when the stars were shifting their
I spake unto Odysseus, who close beside me lay, [way,
And jogged him with my elbow, and lightly gave he heed:
“‘ O many-wiled Odysseus, Zeus-bred, Laertes’ seed,
Not long shall I be with the living, for I perish with the cold,
Whereas no cloak I have gotten, for the God hath me befooled
To go all bare in my kirtle, and now no rede may I find.’
“So I spake, but therewith straightway grew up a rede in his mind;
Such an one as he was for counsel and for fighting in the fray!
So speaking very softly this word to me did he say:
‘ Be silent, lest some other of Achaeans may have heard!’
Then he raised up his head on his elbow, and therewith spake a word:
“‘ Friends, hearken! a boding vision in my sleep hath come to me;
