{"id":116,"date":"2021-05-26T09:19:24","date_gmt":"2021-05-26T13:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.ryerson.ca\/odyssey\/chapter\/book-x\/"},"modified":"2022-02-01T10:52:25","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T15:52:25","slug":"10","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/chapter\/10\/","title":{"raw":"Book X","rendered":"Book X"},"content":{"raw":"

Argument<\/b><\/h2>\r\nUlysses, in pursuit of his narrative, relates his arrival at the island of \u00c6olus, his departure thence, and the unhappy occasion of his return thither. The monarch of the winds dismisses him at last with much asperity. He next tells of his arrival among the L\u00e6strygonians, by whom his whole fleet, together with their crews, are destroyed, his own ship and crew excepted. Thence he is driven to the island of Circe. By her the half of his people are transformed into swine. Assisted by Mercury, he resists her enchantments himself, and prevails with the Goddess to recover them to their former shape. In consequence of Circe\u2019s instructions, after having spent a complete year in her palace, he prepares for a voyage to the infernal regions.\r\n\r\nWe came to the \u00c6olian isle; there dwells\r\n\u00c6olus, son of Hippotas, belov\u2019d\r\nBy the Immortals, in an isle afloat.\r\nA brazen wall impregnable on all sides\r\nGirds it, and smooth its rocky coast ascends.\r\nHis children, in his own fair palace born,\r\nAre twelve; six daughters, and six blooming sons.\r\nHe gave his daughters to his sons to wife;\r\nThey with their father hold perpetual feast\r\nAnd with their royal mother, still supplied\r\nWith dainties numberless; the sounding dome\r\nIs fill\u2019d with sav\u2019ry odours all the day,\r\nAnd with their consorts chaste at night they sleep\r\nOn stateliest couches with rich arras spread.\r\nTheir city and their splendid courts we reach\u2019d.\r\nA month complete he, friendly, at his board\r\nRegaled me, and enquiry made minute\r\nOf Ilium\u2019s fall, of the Achaian fleet,\r\nAnd of our voyage thence. I told him all.\r\nBut now, desirous to embark again,\r\nI ask\u2019d dismission home, which he approved,\r\nAnd well provided for my prosp\u2019rous course.\r\nHe gave me, furnish\u2019d by a bullock slay\u2019d\r\nIn his ninth year, a bag; ev\u2019ry rude blast\r\nWhich from its bottom turns the Deep, that bag\r\nImprison\u2019d held; for him Saturnian Jove\r\nHath officed arbiter of all the winds,\r\nTo rouse their force or calm them, at his will.\r\nHe gave me them on board my bark, so bound\r\nWith silver twine that not a breath escaped,\r\nThen order\u2019d gentle Zephyrus to fill\r\nOur sails propitious. Order vain, alas!\r\nSo fatal proved the folly of my friends.\r\nNine days continual, night and day we sail\u2019d,\r\nAnd on the tenth my native land appear\u2019d.\r\nNot far remote my Ithacans I saw\r\nFires kindling on the coast; but me with toil\r\nWorn, and with watching, gentle sleep subdued;\r\nFor constant I had ruled the helm, nor giv\u2019n\r\nThat charge to any, fearful of delay.\r\nThen, in close conference combined, my crew\r\nEach other thus bespake\u2014He carries home\r\nSilver and gold from \u00c6olus received,\r\nOffspring of Hippotas, illustrious Chief\u2014\r\nAnd thus a mariner the rest harangued.\r\nYe Gods! what city or what land soe\u2019er\r\nUlysses visits, how is he belov\u2019d\r\nBy all, and honour\u2019d! many precious spoils\r\nHe homeward bears from Troy; but we return,\r\n(We who the self-same voyage have perform\u2019d)\r\nWith empty hands. Now also he hath gain\u2019d\r\nThis pledge of friendship from the King of winds.\r\nBut come\u2014be quick\u2014search we the bag, and learn\r\nWhat stores of gold and silver it contains.\r\nSo he, whose mischievous advice prevailed.\r\nThey loos\u2019d the bag; forth issued all the winds,\r\nAnd, caught by tempests o\u2019er the billowy waste,\r\nWeeping they flew, far, far from Ithaca.\r\nI then, awaking, in my noble mind\r\nStood doubtful, whether from my vessel\u2019s side\r\nImmersed to perish in the flood, or calm\r\nTo endure my sorrows, and content to live.\r\nI calm endured them; but around my head\r\nWinding my mantle, lay\u2019d me down below,\r\nWhile adverse blasts bore all my fleet again\r\nTo the \u00c6olian isle; then groan\u2019d my people.\r\nWe disembark\u2019d and drew fresh water there,\r\nAnd my companions, at their galley\u2019s sides\r\nAll seated, took repast; short meal we made,\r\nWhen, with an herald and a chosen friend,\r\nI sought once more the hall of \u00c6olus.\r\nHim banqueting with all his sons we found,\r\nAnd with his spouse; we ent\u2019ring, on the floor\r\nOf his wide portal sat, whom they amazed\r\nBeheld, and of our coming thus enquired.\r\nReturn\u2019d? Ulysses! by what adverse Pow\u2019r\r\nRepuls\u2019d hast thou arrived? we sent thee hence\r\nWell-fitted forth to reach thy native isle,\r\nThy palace, or what place soe\u2019er thou would\u2019st.\r\nSo they\u2014to whom, heart-broken, I replied.\r\nMy worthless crew have wrong\u2019d me, nor alone\r\nMy worthless crew, but sleep ill-timed, as much.\r\nYet heal, O friends, my hurt; the pow\u2019r is yours!\r\nSo I their favour woo\u2019d. Mute sat the sons,\r\nBut thus their father answer\u2019d. Hence\u2014be gone\u2014\r\nLeave this our isle, thou most obnoxious wretch\r\nOf all mankind. I should, myself, transgress,\r\nReceiving here, and giving conduct hence\r\nTo one detested by the Gods as thou.\r\nAway\u2014for hated by the Gods thou com\u2019st.\r\nSo saying, he sent me from his palace forth,\r\nGroaning profound; thence, therefore, o\u2019er the Deep\r\nWe still proceeded sorrowful, our force\r\nExhausting ceaseless at the toilsome oar,\r\nAnd, through our own imprudence, hopeless now\r\nOf other furth\u2019rance to our native isle.\r\nSix days we navigated, day and night,\r\nThe briny flood, and on the seventh reach\u2019d\r\nThe city erst by Lamus built sublime,\r\nProud L\u00e6strygonia, with the distant gates.\r\nThe herdsman, there, driving his cattle home,<\/span>[footnote]It is supposed by Eustathius that the pastures being infested by gad flies and other noxious insects in the day-time, they drove their sheep a-field in the morning, which by their wool were defended from them, and their cattle in the evening, when the insects had withdrawn. It is one of the few passages in Homer that must lie at the mercy of conjecture.[\/footnote]\r\nSummons the shepherd with his flocks abroad.\r\nThe sleepless there might double wages earn,\r\nAttending, now, the herds, now, tending sheep,\r\nFor the night-pastures, and the pastures grazed\r\nBy day, close border, both, the city-walls.\r\nTo that illustrious port we came, by rocks\r\nUninterrupted flank\u2019d on either side\r\nOf tow\u2019ring height, while prominent the shores\r\nAnd bold, converging at the haven\u2019s mouth\r\nLeave narrow pass. We push\u2019d our galleys in,\r\nThen moor\u2019d them side by side; for never surge\r\nThere lifts its head, or great or small, but clear\r\nWe found, and motionless, the shelter\u2019d flood.\r\nMyself alone, staying my bark without,\r\nSecured her well with hawsers to a rock\r\nAt the land\u2019s point, then climb\u2019d the rugged steep,\r\nAnd spying stood the country. Labours none\r\nOf men or oxen in the land appear\u2019d,\r\nNor aught beside saw we, but from the earth\r\nSmoke rising; therefore of my friends I sent\r\nBefore me two, adding an herald third,\r\nTo learn what race of men that country fed.\r\nDeparting, they an even track pursued\r\nMade by the waggons bringing timber down\r\nFrom the high mountains to the town below.\r\nBefore the town a virgin bearing forth\r\nHer ew\u2019r they met, daughter of him who ruled\r\nThe L\u00e6strygonian race, Antiphatas.\r\nDescending from the gate, she sought the fount\r\nArtacia; for their custom was to draw\r\nFrom that pure fountain for the city\u2019s use.\r\nApproaching they accosted her, and ask\u2019d\r\nWhat King reign\u2019d there, and over whom he reign\u2019d.\r\nShe gave them soon to know where stood sublime\r\nThe palace of her Sire; no sooner they\r\nThe palace enter\u2019d, than within they found,\r\nIn size resembling an huge mountain-top,\r\nA woman, whom they shudder\u2019d to behold.\r\nShe forth from council summon\u2019d quick her spouse\r\nAntiphatas, who teeming came with thoughts\r\nOf carnage, and, arriving, seized at once\r\nA Greecian, whom, next moment, he devoured.\r\nWith headlong terrour the surviving two\r\nFled to the ships. Then sent Antiphatas\r\nHis voice through all the town, and on all sides,\r\nHearing that cry, the L\u00e6strygonians flock\u2019d\r\nNumberless, and in size resembling more\r\nThe giants than mankind. They from the rocks\r\nCast down into our fleet enormous stones,\r\nA strong man\u2019s burthen each; dire din arose\r\nOf shatter\u2019d galleys and of dying men,\r\nWhom spear\u2019d like fishes to their home they bore,\r\nA loathsome prey. While them within the port\r\nThey slaughter\u2019d, I, (the faulchion at my side\r\nDrawn forth) cut loose the hawser of my ship,\r\nAnd all my crew enjoin\u2019d with bosoms laid\r\nProne on their oars, to fly the threaten\u2019d woe.\r\nThey, dreading instant death tugg\u2019d resupine\r\nTogether, and the galley from beneath\r\nThose beetling[footnote]The word has the authority of Shakspeare, and signifies overhanging.[\/footnote]<\/sup> rocks into the open sea\r\nShot gladly; but the rest all perish\u2019d there.\r\nProceeding thence, we sigh\u2019d, and roamed the waves,\r\nGlad that we lived, but sorrowing for the slain.\r\nWe came to the \u00c6\u00e6an isle; there dwelt\r\nThe awful Circe, Goddess amber-hair\u2019d,\r\nDeep-skill\u2019d in magic song, sister by birth\r\nOf the all-wise \u00c6\u00e6tes; them the Sun,\r\nBright luminary of the world, begat\r\nOn Perse, daughter of Oceanus.\r\nOur vessel there, noiseless, we push\u2019d to land\r\nWithin a spacious haven, thither led\r\nBy some celestial Pow\u2019r. We disembark\u2019d,\r\nAnd on the coast two days and nights entire\r\nExtended lay, worn with long toil, and each\r\nThe victim of his heart-devouring woes.\r\nThen, with my spear and with my faulchion arm\u2019d,\r\nI left the ship to climb with hasty steps\r\nAn airy height, thence, hoping to espie\r\nSome works of man, or hear, perchance, a voice.\r\nExalted on a rough rock\u2019s craggy point\r\nI stood, and on the distant plain, beheld\r\nSmoke which from Circe\u2019s palace through the gloom\r\nOf trees and thickets rose. That smoke discern\u2019d,\r\nI ponder\u2019d next if thither I should haste,\r\nSeeking intelligence. Long time I mused,\r\nBut chose at last, as my discreter course,\r\nTo seek the sea-beach and my bark again,\r\nAnd, when my crew had eaten, to dispatch\r\nBefore me, others, who should first enquire.\r\nBut, ere I yet had reach\u2019d my gallant bark,\r\nSome God with pity viewing me alone\r\nIn that untrodden solitude, sent forth\r\nAn antler\u2019d stag, full-sized, into my path.\r\nHis woodland pastures left, he sought the stream,\r\nFor he was thirsty, and already parch\u2019d\r\nBy the sun\u2019s heat. Him issuing from his haunt,\r\nSheer through the back beneath his middle spine,\r\nI wounded, and the lance sprang forth beyond.\r\nMoaning he fell, and in the dust expired.\r\nThen, treading on his breathless trunk, I pluck\u2019d\r\nMy weapon forth, which leaving there reclined,\r\nI tore away the osiers with my hands\r\nAnd fallows green, and to a fathom\u2019s length\r\nTwisting the gather\u2019d twigs into a band,\r\nBound fast the feet of my enormous prey,\r\nAnd, flinging him athwart my neck, repair\u2019d\r\nToward my sable bark, propp\u2019d on my lance,\r\nWhich now to carry shoulder\u2019d as before\r\nSurpass\u2019d my pow\u2019r, so bulky was the load.\r\nArriving at the ship, there I let fall\r\nMy burthen, and with pleasant speech and kind,\r\nMan after man addressing, cheer\u2019d my crew.\r\nMy friends! we suffer much, but shall not seek\r\nThe shades, ere yet our destined hour arrive.\r\nBehold a feast! and we have wine on board\u2014\r\nPine not with needless famine! rise and eat.\r\nI spake; they readily obey\u2019d, and each\r\nIssuing at my word abroad, beside\r\nThe galley stood, admiring, as he lay,\r\nThe stag, for of no common bulk was he.\r\nAt length, their eyes gratified to the full\r\nWith that glad spectacle, they laved their hands,\r\nAnd preparation made of noble cheer.\r\nThat day complete, till set of sun, we spent\r\nFeasting deliciously without restraint,\r\nAnd quaffing generous wine; but when the sun\r\nWent down, and darkness overshadow\u2019d all,\r\nExtended, then, on Ocean\u2019s bank we lay;\r\nAnd when Aurora, daughter of the dawn,\r\nLook\u2019d rosy forth, convening all my crew\r\nTo council, I arose, and thus began.\r\nMy fellow-voyagers, however worn\r\nWith num\u2019rous hardships, hear! for neither West\r\nKnow ye, nor East, where rises, or where sets\r\nThe all-enlight\u2019ning sun. But let us think,\r\nIf thought perchance may profit us, of which\r\nSmall hope I see; for when I lately climb\u2019d\r\nYon craggy rock, plainly I could discern\r\nThe land encompass\u2019d by the boundless Deep.\r\nThe isle is flat, and in the midst I saw\r\nDun smoke ascending from an oaken bow\u2019r.\r\nSo I, whom hearing, they all courage lost,\r\nAnd at remembrance of Antiphatas\r\nThe L\u00e6strygonian, and the Cyclops\u2019 deeds,\r\nFerocious feeder on the flesh of man,\r\nMourn\u2019d loud and wept, but tears could nought avail.\r\nThen numb\u2019ring man by man, I parted them\r\nIn equal portions, and assign\u2019d a Chief\r\nTo either band, myself to these, to those\r\nGodlike Eurylochus. This done, we cast\r\nThe lots into the helmet, and at once\r\nForth sprang the lot of bold Eurylochus.\r\nHe went, and with him of my people march\u2019d\r\nTwenty and two, all weeping; nor ourselves\r\nWept less, at separation from our friends.\r\nLow in a vale, but on an open spot,\r\nThey found the splendid house of Circe, built\r\nWith hewn and polish\u2019d stones; compass\u2019d she dwelt\r\nBy lions on all sides and mountain-wolves\r\nTamed by herself with drugs of noxious pow\u2019rs.\r\nNor were they mischievous, but as my friends\r\nApproach\u2019d, arising on their hinder feet,\r\nPaw\u2019d them in blandishment, and wagg\u2019d the tail.\r\nAs, when from feast he rises, dogs around\r\nTheir master fawn, accustom\u2019d to receive\r\nThe sop conciliatory from his hand,\r\nAround my people, so, those talon\u2019d wolves\r\nAnd lions fawn\u2019d. They, terrified, that troop\r\nOf savage monsters horrible beheld.\r\nAnd now, before the Goddess\u2019 gates arrived,\r\nThey heard the voice of Circe singing sweet\r\nWithin, while, busied at the loom, she wove\r\nAn ample web immortal, such a work\r\nTransparent, graceful, and of bright design\r\nAs hands of Goddesses alone produce.\r\nThus then Polites, Prince of men, the friend\r\nHighest in my esteem, the rest bespake.\r\nYe hear the voice, comrades, of one who weaves\r\nAn ample web within, and at her task\r\nSo sweetly chaunts that all the marble floor\r\nRe-echoes; human be she or divine\r\nI doubt, but let us call, that we may learn.\r\nHe ceas\u2019d; they call\u2019d; soon issuing at the sound,\r\nThe Goddess open\u2019d wide her splendid gates,\r\nAnd bade them in; they, heedless, all complied,\r\nAll save Eurylochus, who fear\u2019d a snare.\r\nShe, introducing them, conducted each\r\nTo a bright throne, then gave them Pramnian wine,\r\nWith grated cheese, pure meal, and honey new,\r\nBut medicated with her pois\u2019nous drugs\r\nTheir food, that in oblivion they might lose\r\nThe wish of home. She gave them, and they drank,\u2014\r\nWhen, smiting each with her enchanting wand,\r\nShe shut them in her sties. In head, in voice,\r\nIn body, and in bristles they became\r\nAll swine, yet intellected as before,\r\nAnd at her hand were dieted alone\r\nWith acorns, chestnuts, and the cornel-fruit,\r\nFood grateful ever to the grovelling swine.\r\nBack flew Eurylochus toward the ship,\r\nTo tell the woeful tale; struggling to speak,\r\nYet speechless, there he stood, his heart transfixt\r\nWith anguish, and his eyes deluged with tears.\r\nMe boding terrours occupied. At length,\r\nWhen, gazing on him, all had oft enquired,\r\nHe thus rehearsed to us the dreadful change.\r\nRenown\u2019d Ulysses! as thou bad\u2019st, we went\r\nThrough yonder oaks; there, bosom\u2019d in a vale,\r\nBut built conspicuous on a swelling knoll\r\nWith polish\u2019d rock, we found a stately dome.\r\nWithin, some Goddess or some woman wove\r\nAn ample web, carolling sweet the while.\r\nThey call\u2019d aloud; she, issuing at the voice,\r\nUnfolded, soon, her splendid portals wide,\r\nAnd bade them in. Heedless they enter\u2019d, all,\r\nBut I remain\u2019d, suspicious of a snare.\r\nEre long the whole band vanish\u2019d, none I saw\r\nThenceforth, though, seated there, long time I watch\u2019d.\r\nHe ended; I my studded faulchion huge\r\nAthwart my shoulder cast, and seized my bow,\r\nThen bade him lead me thither by the way\r\nHimself had gone; but with both hands my knees\r\nHe clasp\u2019d, and in wing\u2019d accents sad exclaim\u2019d.\r\nMy King! ah lead me not unwilling back,\r\nBut leave me here; for confident I judge\r\nThat neither thou wilt bring another thence,\r\nNor come thyself again. Haste\u2014fly we swift\r\nWith these, for we, at least, may yet escape.\r\nSo he, to whom this answer I return\u2019d.\r\nEurylochus! abiding here, eat thou\r\nAnd drink thy fill beside the sable bark;\r\nI go; necessity forbids my stay.\r\nSo saying, I left the galley and the shore.\r\nBut ere that awful vale ent\u2019ring, I reach\u2019d\r\nThe palace of the sorceress, a God\r\nMet me, the bearer of the golden wand,\r\nHermes. He seem\u2019d a stripling in his prime,\r\nHis cheeks cloath\u2019d only with their earliest down,\r\nFor youth is then most graceful; fast he lock\u2019d\r\nHis hand in mine, and thus, familiar, spake.\r\nUnhappy! whither, wand\u2019ring o\u2019er the hills,\r\nStranger to all this region, and alone,\r\nGo\u2019st thou? Thy people\u2014they within the walls\r\nAre shut of Circe, where as swine close-pent\r\nShe keeps them. Comest thou to set them free?\r\nI tell thee, never wilt thou thence return\r\nThyself, but wilt be prison\u2019d with the rest.\r\nYet hearken\u2014I will disappoint her wiles,\r\nAnd will preserve thee. Take this precious drug;\r\nPossessing this, enter the Goddess\u2019 house\r\nBoldly, for it shall save thy life from harm.\r\nLo! I reveal to thee the cruel arts\r\nOf Circe; learn them. She will mix for thee\r\nA potion, and will also drug thy food\r\nWith noxious herbs; but she shall not prevail\r\nBy all her pow\u2019r to change thee; for the force\r\nSuperior of this noble plant, my gift,\r\nShall baffle her. Hear still what I advise.\r\nWhen she shall smite thee with her slender rod,\r\nWith faulchion drawn and with death-threat\u2019ning looks\r\nRush on her; she will bid thee to her bed\r\nAffrighted; then beware. Decline not thou\r\nHer love, that she may both release thy friends,\r\nAnd may with kindness entertain thyself.\r\nBut force her swear the dreaded oath of heav\u2019n\r\nThat she will other mischief none devise\r\nAgainst thee, lest she strip thee of thy might,\r\nAnd, quenching all thy virtue, make thee vile.\r\nSo spake the Argicide, and from the earth\r\nThat plant extracting, placed it in my hand,\r\nThen taught me all its pow\u2019rs. Black was the root,\r\nMilk-white the blossom; Moly is its name\r\nIn heav\u2019n; not easily by mortal man\r\nDug forth, but all is easy to the Gods.\r\nThen, Hermes through the island-woods repair\u2019d\r\nTo heav\u2019n, and I to Circe\u2019s dread abode,\r\nIn gloomy musings busied as I went.\r\nWithin the vestibule arrived, where dwelt\r\nThe beauteous Goddess, staying there my steps,\r\nI call\u2019d aloud; she heard me, and at once\r\nIssuing, threw her splendid portals wide,\r\nAnd bade me in. I follow\u2019d, heart-distress\u2019d.\r\nLeading me by the hand to a bright throne\r\nWith argent studs embellish\u2019d, and beneath\r\nFootstool\u2019d magnificent, she made me sit.\r\nThen mingling for me in a golden cup\r\nMy bev\u2019rage, she infused a drug, intent\r\nOn mischief; but when I had drunk the draught\r\nUnchanged, she smote me with her wand, and said.\r\nHence\u2014seek the sty. There wallow with thy friends.\r\nShe spake; I drawing from beside my thigh\r\nMy faulchion keen, with death-denouncing looks\r\nRush\u2019d on her; she with a shrill scream of fear\r\nRan under my rais\u2019d arm, seized fast my knees,\r\nAnd in wing\u2019d accents plaintive thus began.\r\nWho? whence? thy city and thy birth declare.\r\nAmazed I see thee with that potion drench\u2019d,\r\nYet uninchanted; never man before\r\nOnce pass\u2019d it through his lips, and liv\u2019d the same;\r\nBut in thy breast a mind inhabits, proof\r\nAgainst all charms. Come then\u2014I know thee well.\r\nThou art Ulysses artifice-renown\u2019d,\r\nOf whose arrival here in his return\r\nFrom Ilium, Hermes of the golden wand\r\nWas ever wont to tell me. Sheath again\r\nThy sword, and let us, on my bed reclined,\r\nMutual embrace, that we may trust thenceforth\r\nEach other, without jealousy or fear.\r\nThe Goddess spake, to whom I thus replied.\r\nO Circe! canst thou bid me meek become\r\nAnd gentle, who beneath thy roof detain\u2019st\r\nMy fellow-voyagers transform\u2019d to swine?\r\nAnd, fearing my escape, invit\u2019st thou me\r\nInto thy bed, with fraudulent pretext\r\nOf love, that there, enfeebling by thy arts\r\nMy noble spirit, thou may\u2019st make me vile?\r\nNo\u2014trust me\u2014never will I share thy bed\r\nTill first, O Goddess, thou consent to swear\r\nThe dread all-binding oath, that other harm\r\nAgainst myself thou wilt imagine none.\r\nI spake. She swearing as I bade, renounced\r\nAll evil purpose, and (her solemn oath\r\nConcluded) I ascended, next, her bed\r\nMagnificent. Meantime, four graceful nymphs\r\nAttended on the service of the house,\r\nHer menials, from the fountains sprung and groves,\r\nAnd from the sacred streams that seek the sea.\r\nOf these, one cast fine linen on the thrones,\r\nWhich, next, with purple arras rich she spread;\r\nAnother placed before the gorgeous seats\r\nBright tables, and set on baskets of gold.\r\nThe third, an argent beaker fill\u2019d with wine\r\nDelicious, which in golden cups she served;\r\nThe fourth brought water, which she warm\u2019d within\r\nAn ample vase, and when the simm\u2019ring flood\r\nSang in the tripod, led me to a bath,\r\nAnd laved me with the pleasant stream profuse\r\nPour\u2019d o\u2019er my neck and body, till my limbs\r\nRefresh\u2019d, all sense of lassitude resign\u2019d.\r\nWhen she had bathed me, and with limpid oil\r\nAnointed me, and cloathed me in a vest\r\nAnd mantle, next, she led me to a throne\r\nOf royal state, with silver studs emboss\u2019d,\r\nAnd footstool\u2019d soft beneath; then came a nymph\r\nWith golden ewer charged and silver bowl,\r\nWho pour\u2019d pure water on my hands, and placed\r\nThe polish\u2019d board before me, which with food\r\nVarious, selected from her present stores,\r\nThe cat\u2019ress spread, then, courteous, bade me eat.\r\nBut me it pleas\u2019d not; with far other thoughts\r\nMy spirit teem\u2019d, on vengeance more intent.\r\nSoon, then, as Circe mark\u2019d me on my seat\r\nFast-rooted, sullen, nor with outstretch\u2019d hands\r\nDeigning to touch the banquet, she approach\u2019d,\r\nAnd in wing\u2019d accents suasive thus began.\r\nWhy sits Ulysses like the Dumb, dark thoughts\r\nHis only food? loaths he the touch of meat,\r\nAnd taste of wine? Thou fear\u2019st, as I perceive,\r\nSome other snare, but idle is that fear,\r\nFor I have sworn the inviolable oath.\r\nShe ceas\u2019d, to whom this answer I return\u2019d.\r\nHow can I eat? what virtuous man and just,\r\nO Circe! could endure the taste of wine\r\nOr food, till he should see his prison\u2019d friends\r\nOnce more at liberty? If then thy wish\r\nThat I should eat and drink be true, produce\r\nMy captive people; let us meet again.\r\nSo I; then Circe, bearing in her hand\r\nHer potent rod, went forth, and op\u2019ning wide\r\nThe door, drove out my people from the sty,\r\nIn bulk resembling brawns of the ninth year.\r\nThey stood before me; she through all the herd\r\nProceeding, with an unctuous antidote\r\nAnointed each, and at the wholesome touch\r\nAll shed the swinish bristles by the drug\r\nDread Circe\u2019s former magic gift, produced.\r\nRestored at once to manhood, they appear\u2019d\r\nMore vig\u2019rous far, and sightlier than before.\r\nThey knew me, and with grasp affectionate\r\nHung on my hand. Tears follow\u2019d, but of joy,\r\nAnd with loud cries the vaulted palace rang.\r\nEven the awful Goddess felt, herself,\r\nCompassion, and, approaching me, began.\r\nLaertes\u2019 noble son, for wiles renown\u2019d!\r\nHence to the shore, and to thy gallant bark;\r\nFirst, hale her safe aground, then, hiding all\r\nYour arms and treasures in the caverns, come\r\nThyself again, and hither lead thy friends.\r\nSo spake the Goddess, and my gen\u2019rous mind\r\nPersuaded; thence repairing to the beach,\r\nI sought my ship; arrived, I found my crew\r\nLamenting miserably, and their cheeks\r\nWith tears bedewing ceaseless at her side.\r\nAs when the calves within some village rear\u2019d\r\nBehold, at eve, the herd returning home\r\nFrom fruitful meads where they have grazed their fill,\r\nNo longer in the stalls contain\u2019d, they rush\r\nWith many a frisk abroad, and, blaring oft,\r\nWith one consent, all dance their dams around,\r\nSo they, at sight of me, dissolved in tears\r\nOf rapt\u2019rous joy, and each his spirit felt\r\nWith like affections warm\u2019d as he had reach\u2019d\r\nJust then his country, and his city seen,\r\nFair Ithaca, where he was born and rear\u2019d.\r\nThen in wing\u2019d accents tender thus they spake.\r\nNoble Ulysses! thy appearance fills\r\nOur soul with transports, such as we should feel\r\nArrived in safety on our native shore.\r\nSpeak\u2014say how perish\u2019d our unhappy friends?\r\nSo they; to whom this answer mild I gave.\r\nHale we our vessel first ashore, and hide\r\nIn caverns all our treasures and our arms,\r\nThen, hasting hence, follow me, and ere long\r\nYe shall behold your friends, beneath the roof\r\nOf Circe banqueting and drinking wine\r\nAbundant, for no dearth attends them there.\r\nSo I; whom all with readiness obey\u2019d,\r\nAll save Eurylochus; he sought alone\r\nTo stay the rest, and, eager, interposed.\r\nAh whither tend we, miserable men?\r\nWhy covet ye this evil, to go down\r\nTo Circe\u2019s palace? she will change us all\r\nTo lions, wolves or swine, that we may guard\r\nHer palace, by necessity constrain\u2019d.\r\nSo some were pris\u2019ners of the Cyclops erst,\r\nWhen, led by rash Ulysses, our lost friends\r\nIntruded needlessly into his cave,\r\nAnd perish\u2019d by the folly of their Chief.\r\nHe spake, whom hearing, occupied I stood\r\nIn self-debate, whether, my faulchion keen\r\nForth-drawing from beside my sturdy thigh,\r\nTo tumble his lopp\u2019d head into the dust,\r\nAlthough he were my kinsman in the bonds\r\nOf close affinity; but all my friends\r\nAs with one voice, thus gently interposed.\r\nNoble Ulysses! we will leave him here\r\nOur vessel\u2019s guard, if such be thy command,\r\nBut us lead thou to Circe\u2019s dread abode.\r\nSo saying, they left the galley, and set forth\r\nClimbing the coast; nor would Eurylochus\r\nBeside the hollow bark remain, but join\u2019d\r\nHis comrades by my dreadful menace awed.\r\nMeantime the Goddess, busily employ\u2019d,\r\nBathed and refresh\u2019d my friends with limpid oil,\r\nAnd clothed them. We, arriving, found them all\r\nBanqueting in the palace; there they met;\r\nThese ask\u2019d, and those rehearsed the wond\u2019rous tale,\r\nAnd, the recital made, all wept aloud\r\nTill the wide dome resounded. Then approach\u2019d\r\nThe graceful Goddess, and address\u2019d me thus.\r\nLaertes\u2019 noble son, for wiles renown\u2019d!\r\nProvoke ye not each other, now, to tears.\r\nI am not ignorant, myself, how dread\r\nHave been your woes both on the fishy Deep,\r\nAnd on the land by force of hostile pow\u2019rs.\r\nBut come\u2014Eat now, and drink ye wine, that so\r\nYour freshen\u2019d spirit may revive, and ye\r\nCourageous grow again, as when ye left\r\nThe rugged shores of Ithaca, your home.\r\nFor now, through recollection, day by day,\r\nOf all your pains and toils, ye are become\r\nSpiritless, strengthless, and the taste forget\r\nOf pleasure, such have been your num\u2019rous woes.\r\nShe spake, whose invitation kind prevail\u2019d,\r\nAnd won us to her will. There, then, we dwelt\r\nThe year complete, fed with delicious fare\r\nDay after day, and quaffing gen\u2019rous wine.\r\nBut when (the year fulfill\u2019d) the circling hours\r\nTheir course resumed, and the successive months\r\nWith all their tedious days were spent, my friends,\r\nSummoning me abroad, thus greeted me.\r\nSir! recollect thy country, if indeed\r\nThe fates ordain thee to revisit safe\r\nThat country, and thy own glorious abode.\r\nSo they; whose admonition I receiv\u2019d\r\nWell-pleas\u2019d. Then, all the day, regaled we sat\r\nAt Circe\u2019s board with sav\u2019ry viands rare,\r\nAnd quaffing richest wine; but when, the sun\r\nDeclining, darkness overshadow\u2019d all,\r\nThen, each within the dusky palace took\r\nCustom\u2019d repose, and to the Goddess\u2019 bed\r\nMagnificent ascending, there I urged\r\nMy earnest suit, which gracious she receiv\u2019d,\r\nAnd in wing\u2019d accents earnest thus I spake.\r\nO Circe! let us prove thy promise true;\r\nDismiss us hence. My own desires, at length,\r\nTend homeward vehement, and the desires\r\nNo less of all my friends, who with complaints\r\nUnheard by thee, wear my sad heart away.\r\nSo I; to whom the Goddess in return.\r\nLaertes\u2019 noble son, Ulysses famed\r\nFor deepest wisdom! dwell not longer here,\r\nThou and thy followers, in my abode\r\nReluctant; but your next must be a course\r\nFar diff\u2019rent; hence departing, ye must seek\r\nThe dreary house of Ades and of dread\r\nPersephone there to consult the Seer\r\nTheban Tiresias, prophet blind, but blest\r\nWith faculties which death itself hath spared.\r\nTo him alone, of all the dead, Hell\u2019s Queen\r\nGives still to prophesy, while others flit\r\nMere forms, the shadows of what once they were.\r\nShe spake, and by her words dash\u2019d from my soul\r\nAll courage; weeping on the bed I sat,\r\nReckless of life and of the light of day.\r\nBut when, with tears and rolling to and fro\r\nSatiate, I felt relief, thus I replied.\r\nO Circe! with what guide shall I perform\r\nThis voyage, unperform\u2019d by living man?\r\nI spake, to whom the Goddess quick replied.\r\nBrave Laertiades! let not the fear\r\nTo want a guide distress thee. Once on board,\r\nYour mast erected, and your canvas white\r\nUnfurl\u2019d, sit thou; the breathing North shall waft\r\nThy vessel on. But when ye shall have cross\u2019d\r\nThe broad expanse of Ocean, and shall reach\r\nThe oozy shore, where grow the poplar groves\r\nAnd fruitless willows wan of Proserpine,\r\nPush thither through the gulphy Deep thy bark,\r\nAnd, landing, haste to Pluto\u2019s murky abode.\r\nThere, into Acheron runs not alone\r\nDread Pyriphlegethon, but Cocytus loud,\r\nFrom Styx derived; there also stands a rock,\r\nAt whose broad base the roaring rivers meet.\r\nThere, thrusting, as I bid, thy bark ashore,\r\nO Hero! scoop the soil, op\u2019ning a trench\r\nEll-broad on ev\u2019ry side; then pour around\r\nLibation consecrate to all the dead,\r\nFirst, milk with honey mixt, then luscious wine,\r\nThen water, sprinkling, last, meal over all.\r\nNext, supplicate the unsubstantial forms\r\nFervently of the dead, vowing to slay,\r\n(Return\u2019d to Ithaca) in thy own house,\r\nAn heifer barren yet, fairest and best\r\nOf all thy herds, and to enrich the pile\r\nWith delicacies such as please the shades;\r\nBut, in peculiar, to Tiresias vow\r\nA sable ram, noblest of all thy flocks.\r\nWhen thus thou hast propitiated with pray\u2019r\r\nAll the illustrious nations of the dead,\r\nNext, thou shalt sacrifice to them a ram\r\nAnd sable ewe, turning the face of each\r\nRight toward Erebus, and look thyself,\r\nMeantime, askance toward the river\u2019s course.\r\nSouls num\u2019rous, soon, of the departed dead\r\nWill thither flock; then, strenuous urge thy friends,\r\nFlaying the victims which thy ruthless steel\r\nHath slain, to burn them, and to sooth by pray\u2019r\r\nIllustrious Pluto and dread Proserpine.\r\nWhile thus is done, thou seated at the foss,\r\nFaulchion in hand, chace thence the airy forms\r\nAfar, nor suffer them to approach the blood,\r\nTill with Tiresias thou have first conferr\u2019d.\r\nThen, glorious Chief! the Prophet shall himself\r\nAppear, who will instruct thee, and thy course\r\nDelineate, measuring from place to place\r\nThy whole return athwart the fishy flood.\r\nWhile thus she spake, the golden dawn arose,\r\nWhen, putting on me my attire, the nymph\r\nNext, cloath\u2019d herself, and girding to her waist\r\nWith an embroider\u2019d zone her snowy robe\r\nGraceful, redundant, veil\u2019d her beauteous head.\r\nThen, ranging the wide palace, I aroused\r\nMy followers, standing at the side of each\u2014\r\nUp! sleep no longer! let us quick depart,\r\nFor thus the Goddess hath, herself, advised.\r\nSo I, whose early summons my brave friends\r\nWith readiness obey\u2019d. Yet even thence\r\nI brought not all my crew. There was a youth,\r\nYoungest of all my train, Elpenor; one\r\nNot much in estimation for desert\r\nIn arms, nor prompt in understanding more,\r\nWho overcharged with wine, and covetous\r\nOf cooler air, high on the palace-roof\r\nOf Circe slept, apart from all the rest.\r\nAwaken\u2019d by the clamour of his friends\r\nNewly arisen, he also sprang to rise,\r\nAnd in his haste, forgetful where to find\r\nThe deep-descending stairs, plunged through the roof.\r\nWith neck-bone broken from the vertebr\u00e6\r\nOutstretch\u2019d he lay; his spirit sought the shades.\r\nThen, thus to my assembling friends I spake.\r\nYe think, I doubt not, of an homeward course,\r\nBut Circe points me to the drear abode\r\nOf Proserpine and Pluto, to consult\r\nThe spirit of Tiresias, Theban seer.\r\nI ended, and the hearts of all alike\r\nFelt consternation; on the earth they sat\r\nDisconsolate, and plucking each his hair,\r\nYet profit none of all their sorrow found.\r\nBut while we sought my galley on the beach\r\nWith tepid tears bedewing, as we went,\r\nOur cheeks, meantime the Goddess to the shore\r\nDescending, bound within the bark a ram\r\nAnd sable ewe, passing us unperceived.\r\nFor who hath eyes that can discern a God\r\nGoing or coming, if he shun the view?","rendered":"

Argument<\/b><\/h2>\n

Ulysses, in pursuit of his narrative, relates his arrival at the island of \u00c6olus, his departure thence, and the unhappy occasion of his return thither. The monarch of the winds dismisses him at last with much asperity. He next tells of his arrival among the L\u00e6strygonians, by whom his whole fleet, together with their crews, are destroyed, his own ship and crew excepted. Thence he is driven to the island of Circe. By her the half of his people are transformed into swine. Assisted by Mercury, he resists her enchantments himself, and prevails with the Goddess to recover them to their former shape. In consequence of Circe\u2019s instructions, after having spent a complete year in her palace, he prepares for a voyage to the infernal regions.<\/p>\n

We came to the \u00c6olian isle; there dwells
\n\u00c6olus, son of Hippotas, belov\u2019d
\nBy the Immortals, in an isle afloat.
\nA brazen wall impregnable on all sides
\nGirds it, and smooth its rocky coast ascends.
\nHis children, in his own fair palace born,
\nAre twelve; six daughters, and six blooming sons.
\nHe gave his daughters to his sons to wife;
\nThey with their father hold perpetual feast
\nAnd with their royal mother, still supplied
\nWith dainties numberless; the sounding dome
\nIs fill\u2019d with sav\u2019ry odours all the day,
\nAnd with their consorts chaste at night they sleep
\nOn stateliest couches with rich arras spread.
\nTheir city and their splendid courts we reach\u2019d.
\nA month complete he, friendly, at his board
\nRegaled me, and enquiry made minute
\nOf Ilium\u2019s fall, of the Achaian fleet,
\nAnd of our voyage thence. I told him all.
\nBut now, desirous to embark again,
\nI ask\u2019d dismission home, which he approved,
\nAnd well provided for my prosp\u2019rous course.
\nHe gave me, furnish\u2019d by a bullock slay\u2019d
\nIn his ninth year, a bag; ev\u2019ry rude blast
\nWhich from its bottom turns the Deep, that bag
\nImprison\u2019d held; for him Saturnian Jove
\nHath officed arbiter of all the winds,
\nTo rouse their force or calm them, at his will.
\nHe gave me them on board my bark, so bound
\nWith silver twine that not a breath escaped,
\nThen order\u2019d gentle Zephyrus to fill
\nOur sails propitious. Order vain, alas!
\nSo fatal proved the folly of my friends.
\nNine days continual, night and day we sail\u2019d,
\nAnd on the tenth my native land appear\u2019d.
\nNot far remote my Ithacans I saw
\nFires kindling on the coast; but me with toil
\nWorn, and with watching, gentle sleep subdued;
\nFor constant I had ruled the helm, nor giv\u2019n
\nThat charge to any, fearful of delay.
\nThen, in close conference combined, my crew
\nEach other thus bespake\u2014He carries home
\nSilver and gold from \u00c6olus received,
\nOffspring of Hippotas, illustrious Chief\u2014
\nAnd thus a mariner the rest harangued.
\nYe Gods! what city or what land soe\u2019er
\nUlysses visits, how is he belov\u2019d
\nBy all, and honour\u2019d! many precious spoils
\nHe homeward bears from Troy; but we return,
\n(We who the self-same voyage have perform\u2019d)
\nWith empty hands. Now also he hath gain\u2019d
\nThis pledge of friendship from the King of winds.
\nBut come\u2014be quick\u2014search we the bag, and learn
\nWhat stores of gold and silver it contains.
\nSo he, whose mischievous advice prevailed.
\nThey loos\u2019d the bag; forth issued all the winds,
\nAnd, caught by tempests o\u2019er the billowy waste,
\nWeeping they flew, far, far from Ithaca.
\nI then, awaking, in my noble mind
\nStood doubtful, whether from my vessel\u2019s side
\nImmersed to perish in the flood, or calm
\nTo endure my sorrows, and content to live.
\nI calm endured them; but around my head
\nWinding my mantle, lay\u2019d me down below,
\nWhile adverse blasts bore all my fleet again
\nTo the \u00c6olian isle; then groan\u2019d my people.
\nWe disembark\u2019d and drew fresh water there,
\nAnd my companions, at their galley\u2019s sides
\nAll seated, took repast; short meal we made,
\nWhen, with an herald and a chosen friend,
\nI sought once more the hall of \u00c6olus.
\nHim banqueting with all his sons we found,
\nAnd with his spouse; we ent\u2019ring, on the floor
\nOf his wide portal sat, whom they amazed
\nBeheld, and of our coming thus enquired.
\nReturn\u2019d? Ulysses! by what adverse Pow\u2019r
\nRepuls\u2019d hast thou arrived? we sent thee hence
\nWell-fitted forth to reach thy native isle,
\nThy palace, or what place soe\u2019er thou would\u2019st.
\nSo they\u2014to whom, heart-broken, I replied.
\nMy worthless crew have wrong\u2019d me, nor alone
\nMy worthless crew, but sleep ill-timed, as much.
\nYet heal, O friends, my hurt; the pow\u2019r is yours!
\nSo I their favour woo\u2019d. Mute sat the sons,
\nBut thus their father answer\u2019d. Hence\u2014be gone\u2014
\nLeave this our isle, thou most obnoxious wretch
\nOf all mankind. I should, myself, transgress,
\nReceiving here, and giving conduct hence
\nTo one detested by the Gods as thou.
\nAway\u2014for hated by the Gods thou com\u2019st.
\nSo saying, he sent me from his palace forth,
\nGroaning profound; thence, therefore, o\u2019er the Deep
\nWe still proceeded sorrowful, our force
\nExhausting ceaseless at the toilsome oar,
\nAnd, through our own imprudence, hopeless now
\nOf other furth\u2019rance to our native isle.
\nSix days we navigated, day and night,
\nThe briny flood, and on the seventh reach\u2019d
\nThe city erst by Lamus built sublime,
\nProud L\u00e6strygonia, with the distant gates.
\nThe herdsman, there, driving his cattle home,<\/span>[1]<\/sup><\/a>
\nSummons the shepherd with his flocks abroad.
\nThe sleepless there might double wages earn,
\nAttending, now, the herds, now, tending sheep,
\nFor the night-pastures, and the pastures grazed
\nBy day, close border, both, the city-walls.
\nTo that illustrious port we came, by rocks
\nUninterrupted flank\u2019d on either side
\nOf tow\u2019ring height, while prominent the shores
\nAnd bold, converging at the haven\u2019s mouth
\nLeave narrow pass. We push\u2019d our galleys in,
\nThen moor\u2019d them side by side; for never surge
\nThere lifts its head, or great or small, but clear
\nWe found, and motionless, the shelter\u2019d flood.
\nMyself alone, staying my bark without,
\nSecured her well with hawsers to a rock
\nAt the land\u2019s point, then climb\u2019d the rugged steep,
\nAnd spying stood the country. Labours none
\nOf men or oxen in the land appear\u2019d,
\nNor aught beside saw we, but from the earth
\nSmoke rising; therefore of my friends I sent
\nBefore me two, adding an herald third,
\nTo learn what race of men that country fed.
\nDeparting, they an even track pursued
\nMade by the waggons bringing timber down
\nFrom the high mountains to the town below.
\nBefore the town a virgin bearing forth
\nHer ew\u2019r they met, daughter of him who ruled
\nThe L\u00e6strygonian race, Antiphatas.
\nDescending from the gate, she sought the fount
\nArtacia; for their custom was to draw
\nFrom that pure fountain for the city\u2019s use.
\nApproaching they accosted her, and ask\u2019d
\nWhat King reign\u2019d there, and over whom he reign\u2019d.
\nShe gave them soon to know where stood sublime
\nThe palace of her Sire; no sooner they
\nThe palace enter\u2019d, than within they found,
\nIn size resembling an huge mountain-top,
\nA woman, whom they shudder\u2019d to behold.
\nShe forth from council summon\u2019d quick her spouse
\nAntiphatas, who teeming came with thoughts
\nOf carnage, and, arriving, seized at once
\nA Greecian, whom, next moment, he devoured.
\nWith headlong terrour the surviving two
\nFled to the ships. Then sent Antiphatas
\nHis voice through all the town, and on all sides,
\nHearing that cry, the L\u00e6strygonians flock\u2019d
\nNumberless, and in size resembling more
\nThe giants than mankind. They from the rocks
\nCast down into our fleet enormous stones,
\nA strong man\u2019s burthen each; dire din arose
\nOf shatter\u2019d galleys and of dying men,
\nWhom spear\u2019d like fishes to their home they bore,
\nA loathsome prey. While them within the port
\nThey slaughter\u2019d, I, (the faulchion at my side
\nDrawn forth) cut loose the hawser of my ship,
\nAnd all my crew enjoin\u2019d with bosoms laid
\nProne on their oars, to fly the threaten\u2019d woe.
\nThey, dreading instant death tugg\u2019d resupine
\nTogether, and the galley from beneath
\nThose beetling[2]<\/sup><\/a><\/sup> rocks into the open sea
\nShot gladly; but the rest all perish\u2019d there.
\nProceeding thence, we sigh\u2019d, and roamed the waves,
\nGlad that we lived, but sorrowing for the slain.
\nWe came to the \u00c6\u00e6an isle; there dwelt
\nThe awful Circe, Goddess amber-hair\u2019d,
\nDeep-skill\u2019d in magic song, sister by birth
\nOf the all-wise \u00c6\u00e6tes; them the Sun,
\nBright luminary of the world, begat
\nOn Perse, daughter of Oceanus.
\nOur vessel there, noiseless, we push\u2019d to land
\nWithin a spacious haven, thither led
\nBy some celestial Pow\u2019r. We disembark\u2019d,
\nAnd on the coast two days and nights entire
\nExtended lay, worn with long toil, and each
\nThe victim of his heart-devouring woes.
\nThen, with my spear and with my faulchion arm\u2019d,
\nI left the ship to climb with hasty steps
\nAn airy height, thence, hoping to espie
\nSome works of man, or hear, perchance, a voice.
\nExalted on a rough rock\u2019s craggy point
\nI stood, and on the distant plain, beheld
\nSmoke which from Circe\u2019s palace through the gloom
\nOf trees and thickets rose. That smoke discern\u2019d,
\nI ponder\u2019d next if thither I should haste,
\nSeeking intelligence. Long time I mused,
\nBut chose at last, as my discreter course,
\nTo seek the sea-beach and my bark again,
\nAnd, when my crew had eaten, to dispatch
\nBefore me, others, who should first enquire.
\nBut, ere I yet had reach\u2019d my gallant bark,
\nSome God with pity viewing me alone
\nIn that untrodden solitude, sent forth
\nAn antler\u2019d stag, full-sized, into my path.
\nHis woodland pastures left, he sought the stream,
\nFor he was thirsty, and already parch\u2019d
\nBy the sun\u2019s heat. Him issuing from his haunt,
\nSheer through the back beneath his middle spine,
\nI wounded, and the lance sprang forth beyond.
\nMoaning he fell, and in the dust expired.
\nThen, treading on his breathless trunk, I pluck\u2019d
\nMy weapon forth, which leaving there reclined,
\nI tore away the osiers with my hands
\nAnd fallows green, and to a fathom\u2019s length
\nTwisting the gather\u2019d twigs into a band,
\nBound fast the feet of my enormous prey,
\nAnd, flinging him athwart my neck, repair\u2019d
\nToward my sable bark, propp\u2019d on my lance,
\nWhich now to carry shoulder\u2019d as before
\nSurpass\u2019d my pow\u2019r, so bulky was the load.
\nArriving at the ship, there I let fall
\nMy burthen, and with pleasant speech and kind,
\nMan after man addressing, cheer\u2019d my crew.
\nMy friends! we suffer much, but shall not seek
\nThe shades, ere yet our destined hour arrive.
\nBehold a feast! and we have wine on board\u2014
\nPine not with needless famine! rise and eat.
\nI spake; they readily obey\u2019d, and each
\nIssuing at my word abroad, beside
\nThe galley stood, admiring, as he lay,
\nThe stag, for of no common bulk was he.
\nAt length, their eyes gratified to the full
\nWith that glad spectacle, they laved their hands,
\nAnd preparation made of noble cheer.
\nThat day complete, till set of sun, we spent
\nFeasting deliciously without restraint,
\nAnd quaffing generous wine; but when the sun
\nWent down, and darkness overshadow\u2019d all,
\nExtended, then, on Ocean\u2019s bank we lay;
\nAnd when Aurora, daughter of the dawn,
\nLook\u2019d rosy forth, convening all my crew
\nTo council, I arose, and thus began.
\nMy fellow-voyagers, however worn
\nWith num\u2019rous hardships, hear! for neither West
\nKnow ye, nor East, where rises, or where sets
\nThe all-enlight\u2019ning sun. But let us think,
\nIf thought perchance may profit us, of which
\nSmall hope I see; for when I lately climb\u2019d
\nYon craggy rock, plainly I could discern
\nThe land encompass\u2019d by the boundless Deep.
\nThe isle is flat, and in the midst I saw
\nDun smoke ascending from an oaken bow\u2019r.
\nSo I, whom hearing, they all courage lost,
\nAnd at remembrance of Antiphatas
\nThe L\u00e6strygonian, and the Cyclops\u2019 deeds,
\nFerocious feeder on the flesh of man,
\nMourn\u2019d loud and wept, but tears could nought avail.
\nThen numb\u2019ring man by man, I parted them
\nIn equal portions, and assign\u2019d a Chief
\nTo either band, myself to these, to those
\nGodlike Eurylochus. This done, we cast
\nThe lots into the helmet, and at once
\nForth sprang the lot of bold Eurylochus.
\nHe went, and with him of my people march\u2019d
\nTwenty and two, all weeping; nor ourselves
\nWept less, at separation from our friends.
\nLow in a vale, but on an open spot,
\nThey found the splendid house of Circe, built
\nWith hewn and polish\u2019d stones; compass\u2019d she dwelt
\nBy lions on all sides and mountain-wolves
\nTamed by herself with drugs of noxious pow\u2019rs.
\nNor were they mischievous, but as my friends
\nApproach\u2019d, arising on their hinder feet,
\nPaw\u2019d them in blandishment, and wagg\u2019d the tail.
\nAs, when from feast he rises, dogs around
\nTheir master fawn, accustom\u2019d to receive
\nThe sop conciliatory from his hand,
\nAround my people, so, those talon\u2019d wolves
\nAnd lions fawn\u2019d. They, terrified, that troop
\nOf savage monsters horrible beheld.
\nAnd now, before the Goddess\u2019 gates arrived,
\nThey heard the voice of Circe singing sweet
\nWithin, while, busied at the loom, she wove
\nAn ample web immortal, such a work
\nTransparent, graceful, and of bright design
\nAs hands of Goddesses alone produce.
\nThus then Polites, Prince of men, the friend
\nHighest in my esteem, the rest bespake.
\nYe hear the voice, comrades, of one who weaves
\nAn ample web within, and at her task
\nSo sweetly chaunts that all the marble floor
\nRe-echoes; human be she or divine
\nI doubt, but let us call, that we may learn.
\nHe ceas\u2019d; they call\u2019d; soon issuing at the sound,
\nThe Goddess open\u2019d wide her splendid gates,
\nAnd bade them in; they, heedless, all complied,
\nAll save Eurylochus, who fear\u2019d a snare.
\nShe, introducing them, conducted each
\nTo a bright throne, then gave them Pramnian wine,
\nWith grated cheese, pure meal, and honey new,
\nBut medicated with her pois\u2019nous drugs
\nTheir food, that in oblivion they might lose
\nThe wish of home. She gave them, and they drank,\u2014
\nWhen, smiting each with her enchanting wand,
\nShe shut them in her sties. In head, in voice,
\nIn body, and in bristles they became
\nAll swine, yet intellected as before,
\nAnd at her hand were dieted alone
\nWith acorns, chestnuts, and the cornel-fruit,
\nFood grateful ever to the grovelling swine.
\nBack flew Eurylochus toward the ship,
\nTo tell the woeful tale; struggling to speak,
\nYet speechless, there he stood, his heart transfixt
\nWith anguish, and his eyes deluged with tears.
\nMe boding terrours occupied. At length,
\nWhen, gazing on him, all had oft enquired,
\nHe thus rehearsed to us the dreadful change.
\nRenown\u2019d Ulysses! as thou bad\u2019st, we went
\nThrough yonder oaks; there, bosom\u2019d in a vale,
\nBut built conspicuous on a swelling knoll
\nWith polish\u2019d rock, we found a stately dome.
\nWithin, some Goddess or some woman wove
\nAn ample web, carolling sweet the while.
\nThey call\u2019d aloud; she, issuing at the voice,
\nUnfolded, soon, her splendid portals wide,
\nAnd bade them in. Heedless they enter\u2019d, all,
\nBut I remain\u2019d, suspicious of a snare.
\nEre long the whole band vanish\u2019d, none I saw
\nThenceforth, though, seated there, long time I watch\u2019d.
\nHe ended; I my studded faulchion huge
\nAthwart my shoulder cast, and seized my bow,
\nThen bade him lead me thither by the way
\nHimself had gone; but with both hands my knees
\nHe clasp\u2019d, and in wing\u2019d accents sad exclaim\u2019d.
\nMy King! ah lead me not unwilling back,
\nBut leave me here; for confident I judge
\nThat neither thou wilt bring another thence,
\nNor come thyself again. Haste\u2014fly we swift
\nWith these, for we, at least, may yet escape.
\nSo he, to whom this answer I return\u2019d.
\nEurylochus! abiding here, eat thou
\nAnd drink thy fill beside the sable bark;
\nI go; necessity forbids my stay.
\nSo saying, I left the galley and the shore.
\nBut ere that awful vale ent\u2019ring, I reach\u2019d
\nThe palace of the sorceress, a God
\nMet me, the bearer of the golden wand,
\nHermes. He seem\u2019d a stripling in his prime,
\nHis cheeks cloath\u2019d only with their earliest down,
\nFor youth is then most graceful; fast he lock\u2019d
\nHis hand in mine, and thus, familiar, spake.
\nUnhappy! whither, wand\u2019ring o\u2019er the hills,
\nStranger to all this region, and alone,
\nGo\u2019st thou? Thy people\u2014they within the walls
\nAre shut of Circe, where as swine close-pent
\nShe keeps them. Comest thou to set them free?
\nI tell thee, never wilt thou thence return
\nThyself, but wilt be prison\u2019d with the rest.
\nYet hearken\u2014I will disappoint her wiles,
\nAnd will preserve thee. Take this precious drug;
\nPossessing this, enter the Goddess\u2019 house
\nBoldly, for it shall save thy life from harm.
\nLo! I reveal to thee the cruel arts
\nOf Circe; learn them. She will mix for thee
\nA potion, and will also drug thy food
\nWith noxious herbs; but she shall not prevail
\nBy all her pow\u2019r to change thee; for the force
\nSuperior of this noble plant, my gift,
\nShall baffle her. Hear still what I advise.
\nWhen she shall smite thee with her slender rod,
\nWith faulchion drawn and with death-threat\u2019ning looks
\nRush on her; she will bid thee to her bed
\nAffrighted; then beware. Decline not thou
\nHer love, that she may both release thy friends,
\nAnd may with kindness entertain thyself.
\nBut force her swear the dreaded oath of heav\u2019n
\nThat she will other mischief none devise
\nAgainst thee, lest she strip thee of thy might,
\nAnd, quenching all thy virtue, make thee vile.
\nSo spake the Argicide, and from the earth
\nThat plant extracting, placed it in my hand,
\nThen taught me all its pow\u2019rs. Black was the root,
\nMilk-white the blossom; Moly is its name
\nIn heav\u2019n; not easily by mortal man
\nDug forth, but all is easy to the Gods.
\nThen, Hermes through the island-woods repair\u2019d
\nTo heav\u2019n, and I to Circe\u2019s dread abode,
\nIn gloomy musings busied as I went.
\nWithin the vestibule arrived, where dwelt
\nThe beauteous Goddess, staying there my steps,
\nI call\u2019d aloud; she heard me, and at once
\nIssuing, threw her splendid portals wide,
\nAnd bade me in. I follow\u2019d, heart-distress\u2019d.
\nLeading me by the hand to a bright throne
\nWith argent studs embellish\u2019d, and beneath
\nFootstool\u2019d magnificent, she made me sit.
\nThen mingling for me in a golden cup
\nMy bev\u2019rage, she infused a drug, intent
\nOn mischief; but when I had drunk the draught
\nUnchanged, she smote me with her wand, and said.
\nHence\u2014seek the sty. There wallow with thy friends.
\nShe spake; I drawing from beside my thigh
\nMy faulchion keen, with death-denouncing looks
\nRush\u2019d on her; she with a shrill scream of fear
\nRan under my rais\u2019d arm, seized fast my knees,
\nAnd in wing\u2019d accents plaintive thus began.
\nWho? whence? thy city and thy birth declare.
\nAmazed I see thee with that potion drench\u2019d,
\nYet uninchanted; never man before
\nOnce pass\u2019d it through his lips, and liv\u2019d the same;
\nBut in thy breast a mind inhabits, proof
\nAgainst all charms. Come then\u2014I know thee well.
\nThou art Ulysses artifice-renown\u2019d,
\nOf whose arrival here in his return
\nFrom Ilium, Hermes of the golden wand
\nWas ever wont to tell me. Sheath again
\nThy sword, and let us, on my bed reclined,
\nMutual embrace, that we may trust thenceforth
\nEach other, without jealousy or fear.
\nThe Goddess spake, to whom I thus replied.
\nO Circe! canst thou bid me meek become
\nAnd gentle, who beneath thy roof detain\u2019st
\nMy fellow-voyagers transform\u2019d to swine?
\nAnd, fearing my escape, invit\u2019st thou me
\nInto thy bed, with fraudulent pretext
\nOf love, that there, enfeebling by thy arts
\nMy noble spirit, thou may\u2019st make me vile?
\nNo\u2014trust me\u2014never will I share thy bed
\nTill first, O Goddess, thou consent to swear
\nThe dread all-binding oath, that other harm
\nAgainst myself thou wilt imagine none.
\nI spake. She swearing as I bade, renounced
\nAll evil purpose, and (her solemn oath
\nConcluded) I ascended, next, her bed
\nMagnificent. Meantime, four graceful nymphs
\nAttended on the service of the house,
\nHer menials, from the fountains sprung and groves,
\nAnd from the sacred streams that seek the sea.
\nOf these, one cast fine linen on the thrones,
\nWhich, next, with purple arras rich she spread;
\nAnother placed before the gorgeous seats
\nBright tables, and set on baskets of gold.
\nThe third, an argent beaker fill\u2019d with wine
\nDelicious, which in golden cups she served;
\nThe fourth brought water, which she warm\u2019d within
\nAn ample vase, and when the simm\u2019ring flood
\nSang in the tripod, led me to a bath,
\nAnd laved me with the pleasant stream profuse
\nPour\u2019d o\u2019er my neck and body, till my limbs
\nRefresh\u2019d, all sense of lassitude resign\u2019d.
\nWhen she had bathed me, and with limpid oil
\nAnointed me, and cloathed me in a vest
\nAnd mantle, next, she led me to a throne
\nOf royal state, with silver studs emboss\u2019d,
\nAnd footstool\u2019d soft beneath; then came a nymph
\nWith golden ewer charged and silver bowl,
\nWho pour\u2019d pure water on my hands, and placed
\nThe polish\u2019d board before me, which with food
\nVarious, selected from her present stores,
\nThe cat\u2019ress spread, then, courteous, bade me eat.
\nBut me it pleas\u2019d not; with far other thoughts
\nMy spirit teem\u2019d, on vengeance more intent.
\nSoon, then, as Circe mark\u2019d me on my seat
\nFast-rooted, sullen, nor with outstretch\u2019d hands
\nDeigning to touch the banquet, she approach\u2019d,
\nAnd in wing\u2019d accents suasive thus began.
\nWhy sits Ulysses like the Dumb, dark thoughts
\nHis only food? loaths he the touch of meat,
\nAnd taste of wine? Thou fear\u2019st, as I perceive,
\nSome other snare, but idle is that fear,
\nFor I have sworn the inviolable oath.
\nShe ceas\u2019d, to whom this answer I return\u2019d.
\nHow can I eat? what virtuous man and just,
\nO Circe! could endure the taste of wine
\nOr food, till he should see his prison\u2019d friends
\nOnce more at liberty? If then thy wish
\nThat I should eat and drink be true, produce
\nMy captive people; let us meet again.
\nSo I; then Circe, bearing in her hand
\nHer potent rod, went forth, and op\u2019ning wide
\nThe door, drove out my people from the sty,
\nIn bulk resembling brawns of the ninth year.
\nThey stood before me; she through all the herd
\nProceeding, with an unctuous antidote
\nAnointed each, and at the wholesome touch
\nAll shed the swinish bristles by the drug
\nDread Circe\u2019s former magic gift, produced.
\nRestored at once to manhood, they appear\u2019d
\nMore vig\u2019rous far, and sightlier than before.
\nThey knew me, and with grasp affectionate
\nHung on my hand. Tears follow\u2019d, but of joy,
\nAnd with loud cries the vaulted palace rang.
\nEven the awful Goddess felt, herself,
\nCompassion, and, approaching me, began.
\nLaertes\u2019 noble son, for wiles renown\u2019d!
\nHence to the shore, and to thy gallant bark;
\nFirst, hale her safe aground, then, hiding all
\nYour arms and treasures in the caverns, come
\nThyself again, and hither lead thy friends.
\nSo spake the Goddess, and my gen\u2019rous mind
\nPersuaded; thence repairing to the beach,
\nI sought my ship; arrived, I found my crew
\nLamenting miserably, and their cheeks
\nWith tears bedewing ceaseless at her side.
\nAs when the calves within some village rear\u2019d
\nBehold, at eve, the herd returning home
\nFrom fruitful meads where they have grazed their fill,
\nNo longer in the stalls contain\u2019d, they rush
\nWith many a frisk abroad, and, blaring oft,
\nWith one consent, all dance their dams around,
\nSo they, at sight of me, dissolved in tears
\nOf rapt\u2019rous joy, and each his spirit felt
\nWith like affections warm\u2019d as he had reach\u2019d
\nJust then his country, and his city seen,
\nFair Ithaca, where he was born and rear\u2019d.
\nThen in wing\u2019d accents tender thus they spake.
\nNoble Ulysses! thy appearance fills
\nOur soul with transports, such as we should feel
\nArrived in safety on our native shore.
\nSpeak\u2014say how perish\u2019d our unhappy friends?
\nSo they; to whom this answer mild I gave.
\nHale we our vessel first ashore, and hide
\nIn caverns all our treasures and our arms,
\nThen, hasting hence, follow me, and ere long
\nYe shall behold your friends, beneath the roof
\nOf Circe banqueting and drinking wine
\nAbundant, for no dearth attends them there.
\nSo I; whom all with readiness obey\u2019d,
\nAll save Eurylochus; he sought alone
\nTo stay the rest, and, eager, interposed.
\nAh whither tend we, miserable men?
\nWhy covet ye this evil, to go down
\nTo Circe\u2019s palace? she will change us all
\nTo lions, wolves or swine, that we may guard
\nHer palace, by necessity constrain\u2019d.
\nSo some were pris\u2019ners of the Cyclops erst,
\nWhen, led by rash Ulysses, our lost friends
\nIntruded needlessly into his cave,
\nAnd perish\u2019d by the folly of their Chief.
\nHe spake, whom hearing, occupied I stood
\nIn self-debate, whether, my faulchion keen
\nForth-drawing from beside my sturdy thigh,
\nTo tumble his lopp\u2019d head into the dust,
\nAlthough he were my kinsman in the bonds
\nOf close affinity; but all my friends
\nAs with one voice, thus gently interposed.
\nNoble Ulysses! we will leave him here
\nOur vessel\u2019s guard, if such be thy command,
\nBut us lead thou to Circe\u2019s dread abode.
\nSo saying, they left the galley, and set forth
\nClimbing the coast; nor would Eurylochus
\nBeside the hollow bark remain, but join\u2019d
\nHis comrades by my dreadful menace awed.
\nMeantime the Goddess, busily employ\u2019d,
\nBathed and refresh\u2019d my friends with limpid oil,
\nAnd clothed them. We, arriving, found them all
\nBanqueting in the palace; there they met;
\nThese ask\u2019d, and those rehearsed the wond\u2019rous tale,
\nAnd, the recital made, all wept aloud
\nTill the wide dome resounded. Then approach\u2019d
\nThe graceful Goddess, and address\u2019d me thus.
\nLaertes\u2019 noble son, for wiles renown\u2019d!
\nProvoke ye not each other, now, to tears.
\nI am not ignorant, myself, how dread
\nHave been your woes both on the fishy Deep,
\nAnd on the land by force of hostile pow\u2019rs.
\nBut come\u2014Eat now, and drink ye wine, that so
\nYour freshen\u2019d spirit may revive, and ye
\nCourageous grow again, as when ye left
\nThe rugged shores of Ithaca, your home.
\nFor now, through recollection, day by day,
\nOf all your pains and toils, ye are become
\nSpiritless, strengthless, and the taste forget
\nOf pleasure, such have been your num\u2019rous woes.
\nShe spake, whose invitation kind prevail\u2019d,
\nAnd won us to her will. There, then, we dwelt
\nThe year complete, fed with delicious fare
\nDay after day, and quaffing gen\u2019rous wine.
\nBut when (the year fulfill\u2019d) the circling hours
\nTheir course resumed, and the successive months
\nWith all their tedious days were spent, my friends,
\nSummoning me abroad, thus greeted me.
\nSir! recollect thy country, if indeed
\nThe fates ordain thee to revisit safe
\nThat country, and thy own glorious abode.
\nSo they; whose admonition I receiv\u2019d
\nWell-pleas\u2019d. Then, all the day, regaled we sat
\nAt Circe\u2019s board with sav\u2019ry viands rare,
\nAnd quaffing richest wine; but when, the sun
\nDeclining, darkness overshadow\u2019d all,
\nThen, each within the dusky palace took
\nCustom\u2019d repose, and to the Goddess\u2019 bed
\nMagnificent ascending, there I urged
\nMy earnest suit, which gracious she receiv\u2019d,
\nAnd in wing\u2019d accents earnest thus I spake.
\nO Circe! let us prove thy promise true;
\nDismiss us hence. My own desires, at length,
\nTend homeward vehement, and the desires
\nNo less of all my friends, who with complaints
\nUnheard by thee, wear my sad heart away.
\nSo I; to whom the Goddess in return.
\nLaertes\u2019 noble son, Ulysses famed
\nFor deepest wisdom! dwell not longer here,
\nThou and thy followers, in my abode
\nReluctant; but your next must be a course
\nFar diff\u2019rent; hence departing, ye must seek
\nThe dreary house of Ades and of dread
\nPersephone there to consult the Seer
\nTheban Tiresias, prophet blind, but blest
\nWith faculties which death itself hath spared.
\nTo him alone, of all the dead, Hell\u2019s Queen
\nGives still to prophesy, while others flit
\nMere forms, the shadows of what once they were.
\nShe spake, and by her words dash\u2019d from my soul
\nAll courage; weeping on the bed I sat,
\nReckless of life and of the light of day.
\nBut when, with tears and rolling to and fro
\nSatiate, I felt relief, thus I replied.
\nO Circe! with what guide shall I perform
\nThis voyage, unperform\u2019d by living man?
\nI spake, to whom the Goddess quick replied.
\nBrave Laertiades! let not the fear
\nTo want a guide distress thee. Once on board,
\nYour mast erected, and your canvas white
\nUnfurl\u2019d, sit thou; the breathing North shall waft
\nThy vessel on. But when ye shall have cross\u2019d
\nThe broad expanse of Ocean, and shall reach
\nThe oozy shore, where grow the poplar groves
\nAnd fruitless willows wan of Proserpine,
\nPush thither through the gulphy Deep thy bark,
\nAnd, landing, haste to Pluto\u2019s murky abode.
\nThere, into Acheron runs not alone
\nDread Pyriphlegethon, but Cocytus loud,
\nFrom Styx derived; there also stands a rock,
\nAt whose broad base the roaring rivers meet.
\nThere, thrusting, as I bid, thy bark ashore,
\nO Hero! scoop the soil, op\u2019ning a trench
\nEll-broad on ev\u2019ry side; then pour around
\nLibation consecrate to all the dead,
\nFirst, milk with honey mixt, then luscious wine,
\nThen water, sprinkling, last, meal over all.
\nNext, supplicate the unsubstantial forms
\nFervently of the dead, vowing to slay,
\n(Return\u2019d to Ithaca) in thy own house,
\nAn heifer barren yet, fairest and best
\nOf all thy herds, and to enrich the pile
\nWith delicacies such as please the shades;
\nBut, in peculiar, to Tiresias vow
\nA sable ram, noblest of all thy flocks.
\nWhen thus thou hast propitiated with pray\u2019r
\nAll the illustrious nations of the dead,
\nNext, thou shalt sacrifice to them a ram
\nAnd sable ewe, turning the face of each
\nRight toward Erebus, and look thyself,
\nMeantime, askance toward the river\u2019s course.
\nSouls num\u2019rous, soon, of the departed dead
\nWill thither flock; then, strenuous urge thy friends,
\nFlaying the victims which thy ruthless steel
\nHath slain, to burn them, and to sooth by pray\u2019r
\nIllustrious Pluto and dread Proserpine.
\nWhile thus is done, thou seated at the foss,
\nFaulchion in hand, chace thence the airy forms
\nAfar, nor suffer them to approach the blood,
\nTill with Tiresias thou have first conferr\u2019d.
\nThen, glorious Chief! the Prophet shall himself
\nAppear, who will instruct thee, and thy course
\nDelineate, measuring from place to place
\nThy whole return athwart the fishy flood.
\nWhile thus she spake, the golden dawn arose,
\nWhen, putting on me my attire, the nymph
\nNext, cloath\u2019d herself, and girding to her waist
\nWith an embroider\u2019d zone her snowy robe
\nGraceful, redundant, veil\u2019d her beauteous head.
\nThen, ranging the wide palace, I aroused
\nMy followers, standing at the side of each\u2014
\nUp! sleep no longer! let us quick depart,
\nFor thus the Goddess hath, herself, advised.
\nSo I, whose early summons my brave friends
\nWith readiness obey\u2019d. Yet even thence
\nI brought not all my crew. There was a youth,
\nYoungest of all my train, Elpenor; one
\nNot much in estimation for desert
\nIn arms, nor prompt in understanding more,
\nWho overcharged with wine, and covetous
\nOf cooler air, high on the palace-roof
\nOf Circe slept, apart from all the rest.
\nAwaken\u2019d by the clamour of his friends
\nNewly arisen, he also sprang to rise,
\nAnd in his haste, forgetful where to find
\nThe deep-descending stairs, plunged through the roof.
\nWith neck-bone broken from the vertebr\u00e6
\nOutstretch\u2019d he lay; his spirit sought the shades.
\nThen, thus to my assembling friends I spake.
\nYe think, I doubt not, of an homeward course,
\nBut Circe points me to the drear abode
\nOf Proserpine and Pluto, to consult
\nThe spirit of Tiresias, Theban seer.
\nI ended, and the hearts of all alike
\nFelt consternation; on the earth they sat
\nDisconsolate, and plucking each his hair,
\nYet profit none of all their sorrow found.
\nBut while we sought my galley on the beach
\nWith tepid tears bedewing, as we went,
\nOur cheeks, meantime the Goddess to the shore
\nDescending, bound within the bark a ram
\nAnd sable ewe, passing us unperceived.
\nFor who hath eyes that can discern a God
\nGoing or coming, if he shun the view?<\/p>\n

  1. It is supposed by Eustathius that the pastures being infested by gad flies and other noxious insects in the day-time, they drove their sheep a-field in the morning, which by their wool were defended from them, and their cattle in the evening, when the insects had withdrawn. It is one of the few passages in Homer that must lie at the mercy of conjecture. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  2. The word has the authority of Shakspeare, and signifies overhanging. ↵<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"author":299,"menu_order":10,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[48],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-116","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/116\/revisions\/249"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/116\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=116"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=116"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}