{"id":118,"date":"2021-05-26T09:19:25","date_gmt":"2021-05-26T13:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.ryerson.ca\/odyssey\/chapter\/book-xii\/"},"modified":"2022-02-01T10:52:48","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T15:52:48","slug":"12","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/chapter\/12\/","title":{"raw":"Book XII","rendered":"Book XII"},"content":{"raw":"

Argument<\/b><\/h2>\r\nUlysses, pursuing his narrative, relates his return from the shades to Circe\u2019s island, the precautions given him by that Goddess, his escape from the Sirens, and from Scylla and Charybdis; his arrival in Sicily, where his companions, having slain and eaten the oxen of the Sun, are afterward shipwrecked and lost; and concludes the whole with an account of his arrival, alone, on the mast of his vessel, at the island of Calypso.\r\n\r\nAnd now, borne seaward from the river-stream\r\nOf the Oceanus, we plow\u2019d again\r\nThe spacious Deep, and reach\u2019d th\u2019 \u00c6\u00e6an isle,\r\nWhere, daughter of the dawn, Aurora takes\r\nHer choral sports, and whence the sun ascends.\r\nWe, there arriving, thrust our bark aground\r\nOn the smooth beach, then landed, and on shore\r\nReposed, expectant of the sacred dawn.\r\nBut soon as day-spring\u2019s daughter rosy-palm\u2019d\r\nLook\u2019d forth again, sending my friends before,\r\nI bade them bring Elpenor\u2019s body down\r\nFrom the abode of Circe to the beach.\r\nThen, on the utmost headland of the coast\r\nWe timber fell\u2019d, and, sorrowing o\u2019er the dead,\r\nHis fun\u2019ral rites water\u2019d with tears profuse.\r\nThe dead consumed, and with the dead his arms,\r\nWe heap\u2019d his tomb, and the sepulchral post\r\nErecting, fix\u2019d his shapely oar aloft.\r\nThus, punctual, we perform\u2019d; nor our return\r\nFrom Ades knew not Circe, but attired\r\nIn haste, ere long arrived, with whom appear\u2019d\r\nHer female train with plenteous viands charged,\r\nAnd bright wine rosy-red. Amidst us all\r\nStanding, the beauteous Goddess thus began.\r\nAh miserable! who have sought the shades\r\nAlive! while others of the human race\r\nDie only once, appointed twice to die!\r\nCome\u2014take ye food; drink wine; and on the shore\r\nAll day regale, for ye shall hence again\r\nAt day-spring o\u2019er the Deep; but I will mark\r\nMyself your future course, nor uninform\u2019d\r\nLeave you in aught, lest, through some dire mistake,\r\nBy sea or land new mis\u2019ries ye incur.\r\nThe Goddess spake, whose invitation kind\r\nWe glad accepted; thus we feasting sat\r\nTill set of sun, and quaffing richest wine;\r\nBut when the sun went down and darkness fell,\r\nMy crew beside the hawsers slept, while me\r\nThe Goddess by the hand leading apart,\r\nFirst bade me sit, then, seated opposite,\r\nEnquired, minute, of all that I had seen,\r\nAnd I, from first to last, recounted all.\r\nThen, thus the awful Goddess in return.\r\nThus far thy toils are finish\u2019d. Now attend!\r\nMark well my words, of which the Gods will sure\r\nThemselves remind thee in the needful hour.\r\nFirst shalt thou reach the Sirens; they the hearts\r\nEnchant of all who on their coast arrive.\r\nThe wretch, who unforewarn\u2019d approaching, hears\r\nThe Sirens\u2019 voice, his wife and little-ones\r\nNe\u2019er fly to gratulate his glad return,\r\nBut him the Sirens sitting in the meads\r\nCharm with mellifluous song, while all around\r\nThe bones accumulated lie of men\r\nNow putrid, and the skins mould\u2019ring away.\r\nBut, pass them thou, and, lest thy people hear\r\nThose warblings, ere thou yet approach, fill all\r\nTheir ears with wax moulded between thy palms;\r\nBut as for thee\u2014thou hear them if thou wilt.\r\nYet let thy people bind thee to the mast\r\nErect, encompassing thy feet and arms\r\nWith cordage well-secured to the mast-foot,\r\nSo shalt thou, raptur\u2019d, hear the Sirens\u2019 song.\r\nBut if thou supplicate to be released,\r\nOr give such order, then, with added cords\r\nLet thy companions bind thee still the more.\r\nWhen thus thy people shall have safely pass\u2019d\r\nThe Sirens by, think not from me to learn\r\nWhat course thou next shalt steer; two will occur;\r\nDelib\u2019rate chuse; I shall describe them both.\r\nHere vaulted rocks impend, dash\u2019d by the waves\r\nImmense of Amphitrite azure-eyed;\r\nThe blessed Gods those rocks, Erratic, call.\r\nBirds cannot pass them safe; no, not the doves\r\nWhich his ambrosia bear to Father Jove,\r\nBut even of those doves the slipp\u2019ry rock\r\nProves fatal still to one, for which the God\r\nSupplies another, lest the number fail.\r\nNo ship, what ship soever there arrives,\r\nEscapes them, but both mariners and planks\r\nWhelm\u2019d under billows of the Deep, or, caught\r\nBy fiery tempests, sudden disappear.\r\nThose rocks the billow-cleaving bark alone\r\nThe Argo, further\u2019d by the vows of all,\r\nPass\u2019d safely, sailing from \u00c6\u00e6ta\u2019s isle;\r\nNor she had pass\u2019d, but surely dash\u2019d had been\r\nOn those huge rocks, but that, propitious still\r\nTo Jason, Juno sped her safe along.\r\nThese rocks are two; one lifts his summit sharp\r\nHigh as the spacious heav\u2019ns, wrapt in dun clouds\r\nPerpetual, which nor autumn sees dispers\u2019d\r\nNor summer, for the sun shines never there;\r\nNo mortal man might climb it or descend,\r\nThough twice ten hands and twice ten feet he own\u2019d,\r\nFor it is levigated as by art.\r\nDown scoop\u2019d to Erebus, a cavern drear\r\nYawns in the centre of its western side;\r\nPass it, renown\u2019d Ulysses! but aloof\r\nSo far, that a keen arrow smartly sent\r\nForth from thy bark should fail to reach the cave.\r\nThere Scylla dwells, and thence her howl is heard\r\nTremendous; shrill her voice is as the note\r\nOf hound new-whelp\u2019d, but hideous her aspect,\r\nSuch as no mortal man, nor ev\u2019n a God\r\nEncount\u2019ring her, should with delight survey.\r\nHer feet are twelve, all fore-feet; six her necks\r\nOf hideous length, each clubb\u2019d into a head\r\nTerrific, and each head with fangs is arm\u2019d\r\nIn triple row, thick planted, stored with death.\r\nPlunged to her middle in the hollow den\r\nShe lurks, protruding from the black abyss\r\nHer heads, with which the rav\u2019ning monster dives\r\nIn quest of dolphins, dog-fish, or of prey\r\nMore bulky, such as in the roaring gulphs\r\nOf Amphitrite without end abounds.\r\nIt is no seaman\u2019s boast that e\u2019er he slipp\u2019d\r\nHer cavern by, unharm\u2019d. In ev\u2019ry mouth\r\nShe bears upcaught a mariner away.\r\nThe other rock, Ulysses, thou shalt find\r\nHumbler, a bow-shot only from the first;\r\nOn this a wild fig grows broad-leav\u2019d, and here\r\nCharybdis dire ingulphs the sable flood.\r\nEach day she thrice disgorges, and each day\r\nThrice swallows it. Ah! well forewarn\u2019d, beware\r\nWhat time she swallows, that thou come not nigh,\r\nFor not himself, Neptune, could snatch thee thence.\r\nClose passing Scylla\u2019s rock, shoot swift thy bark\r\nBeyond it, since the loss of six alone\r\nIs better far than shipwreck made of all.\r\nSo Circe spake, to whom I thus replied.\r\nTell me, O Goddess, next, and tell me true!\r\nIf, chance, from fell Charybdis I escape,\r\nMay I not also save from Scylla\u2019s force\r\nMy people; should the monster threaten them?\r\nI said, and quick the Goddess in return.\r\nUnhappy! can exploits and toils of war\r\nStill please thee? yield\u2019st not to the Gods themselves?\r\nShe is no mortal, but a deathless pest,\r\nImpracticable, savage, battle-proof.\r\nDefence is vain; flight is thy sole resource.\r\nFor should\u2019st thou linger putting on thy arms\r\nBeside the rock, beware, lest darting forth\r\nHer num\u2019rous heads, she seize with ev\u2019ry mouth\r\nA Greecian, and with others, even thee.\r\nPass therefore swift, and passing, loud invoke\r\nCratais, mother of this plague of man,\r\nWho will forbid her to assail thee more.\r\nThou, next, shalt reach Thrinacia; there, the beeves\r\nAnd fatted flocks graze num\u2019rous of the Sun;\r\nSev\u2019n herds; as many flocks of snowy fleece;\r\nFifty in each; they breed not, neither die,\r\nNor are they kept by less than Goddesses,\r\nLampetia fair, and Ph\u00e4ethusa, both\r\nBy nymph Ne\u00e6ra to Hyperion borne.\r\nThem, soon as she had train\u2019d them to an age\r\nProportion\u2019d to that charge, their mother sent\r\nInto Thrinacia, there to dwell and keep\r\nInviolate their father\u2019s flocks and herds.\r\nIf, anxious for a safe return, thou spare\r\nThose herds and flocks, though after much endured,\r\nYe may at last your Ithaca regain;\r\nBut should\u2019st thou violate them, I foretell\r\nDestruction of thy ship and of thy crew,\r\nAnd though thyself escape, thou shalt return\r\nLate, in ill plight, and all thy friends destroy\u2019d.\r\nShe ended, and the golden morning dawn\u2019d.\r\nThen, all-divine, her graceful steps she turn\u2019d\r\nBack through the isle, and, at the beach arrived,\r\nI summon\u2019d all my followers to ascend\r\nThe bark again, and cast the hawsers loose.\r\nThey, at my voice, embarking, fill\u2019d in ranks\r\nThe seats, and rowing, thresh\u2019d the hoary flood.\r\nAnd now, melodious Circe, nymph divine,\r\nSent after us a canvas-stretching breeze,\r\nPleasant companion of our course, and we\r\n(The decks and benches clear\u2019d) untoiling sat,\r\nWhile managed gales sped swift the bark along.\r\nThen, with dejected heart, thus I began.\r\nOh friends! (for it is needful that not one\r\nOr two alone the admonition hear\r\nOf Circe, beauteous prophetess divine)\r\nTo all I speak, that whether we escape\r\nOr perish, all may be, at least, forewarn\u2019d.\r\nShe bids us, first, avoid the dang\u2019rous song\r\nOf the sweet Sirens and their flow\u2019ry meads.\r\nMe only she permits those strains to hear;\r\nBut ye shall bind me with coercion strong\r\nOf cordage well-secured to the mast-foot,\r\nAnd by no struggles to be loos\u2019d of mine.\r\nBut should I supplicate to be released\r\nOr give such order, then, with added cords\r\nBe it your part to bind me still the more.\r\nThus with distinct precaution I prepared\r\nMy people; rapid in her course, meantime,\r\nMy gallant bark approach\u2019d the Sirens\u2019 isle,\r\nFor brisk and favourable blew the wind.\r\nThen fell the wind suddenly, and serene\r\nA breathless calm ensued, while all around\r\nThe billows slumber\u2019d, lull\u2019d by pow\u2019r divine.\r\nUp-sprang my people, and the folded sails\r\nBestowing in the hold, sat to their oars,\r\nWhich with their polish\u2019d blades whiten\u2019d the Deep.\r\nI, then, with edge of steel sev\u2019ring minute\r\nA waxen cake, chafed it and moulded it\r\nBetween my palms; ere long the ductile mass\r\nGrew warm, obedient to that ceaseless force,\r\nAnd to Hyperion\u2019s all-pervading beams.\r\nWith that soft liniment I fill\u2019d the ears\r\nOf my companions, man by man, and they\r\nMy feet and arms with strong coercion bound\r\nOf cordage to the mast-foot well secured.\r\nThen down they sat, and, rowing, thresh\u2019d the brine.\r\nBut when with rapid course we had arrived\r\nWithin such distance as a voice may reach,\r\nNot unperceived by them the gliding bark\r\nApproach\u2019d, and, thus, harmonious they began.\r\nUlysses, Chief by ev\u2019ry tongue extoll\u2019d,\r\nAchaia\u2019s boast, oh hither steer thy bark!\r\nHere stay thy course, and listen to our lay!\r\nThese shores none passes in his sable ship\r\nTill, first, the warblings of our voice he hear,\r\nThen, happier hence and wiser he departs.\r\nAll that the Greeks endured, and all the ills\r\nInflicted by the Gods on Troy, we know,\r\nKnow all that passes on the boundless earth.\r\nSo they with voices sweet their music poured\r\nMelodious on my ear, winning with ease\r\nMy heart\u2019s desire to listen, and by signs\r\nI bade my people, instant, set me free.\r\nBut they incumbent row\u2019d, and from their seats\r\nEurylochus and Perimedes sprang\r\nWith added cords to bind me still the more.\r\nThis danger past, and when the Sirens\u2019 voice,\r\nNow left remote, had lost its pow\u2019r to charm,\r\nThen, my companions freeing from the wax\r\nTheir ears, deliver\u2019d me from my restraint.\r\nThe island left afar, soon I discern\u2019d\r\nHuge waves, and smoke, and horrid thund\u2019rings heard.\r\nAll sat aghast; forth flew at once the oars\r\nFrom ev\u2019ry hand, and with a clash the waves\r\nSmote all together; check\u2019d, the galley stood,\r\nBy billow-sweeping oars no longer urged,\r\nAnd I, throughout the bark, man after man\r\nEncouraged all, addressing thus my crew.\r\nWe meet not, now, my friends, our first distress.\r\nThis evil is not greater than we found\r\nWhen the huge Cyclops in his hollow den\r\nImprison\u2019d us, yet even thence we \u2019scaped,\r\nMy intrepidity and fertile thought\r\nOpening the way; and we shall recollect\r\nThese dangers also, in due time, with joy.\r\nCome, then\u2014pursue my counsel. Ye your seats\r\nStill occupying, smite the furrow\u2019d flood\r\nWith well-timed strokes, that by the will of Jove\r\nWe may escape, perchance, this death, secure.\r\nTo thee the pilot thus I speak, (my words\r\nMark thou, for at thy touch the rudder moves)\r\nThis smoke, and these tumultuous waves avoid;\r\nSteer wide of both; yet with an eye intent\r\nOn yonder rock, lest unaware thou hold\r\nToo near a course, and plunge us into harm.\r\nSo I; with whose advice all, quick, complied.\r\nBut Scylla I as yet named not, (that woe\r\nWithout a cure) lest, terrified, my crew\r\nShould all renounce their oars, and crowd below.\r\nJust then, forgetful of the strict command\r\nOf Circe not to arm, I cloath\u2019d me all\r\nIn radiant armour, grasp\u2019d two quiv\u2019ring spears,\r\nAnd to the deck ascended at the prow,\r\nExpecting earliest notice there, what time\r\nThe rock-bred Scylla should annoy my friends.\r\nBut I discern\u2019d her not, nor could, although\r\nTo weariness of sight the dusky rock\r\nI vigilant explored. Thus, many a groan\r\nHeaving, we navigated sad the streight,\r\nFor here stood Scylla, while Charybdis there\r\nWith hoarse throat deep absorb\u2019d the briny flood.\r\nOft as she vomited the deluge forth,\r\nLike water cauldron\u2019d o\u2019er a furious fire\r\nThe whirling Deep all murmur\u2019d, and the spray\r\nOn both those rocky summits fell in show\u2019rs.\r\nBut when she suck\u2019d the salt wave down again,\r\nThen, all the pool appear\u2019d wheeling about\r\nWithin, the rock rebellow\u2019d, and the sea\r\nDrawn off into that gulph disclosed to view\r\nThe oozy bottom. Us pale horror seized.\r\nThus, dreading death, with fast-set eyes we watch\u2019d\r\nCharybdis; meantime, Scylla from the bark\r\nCaught six away, the bravest of my friends.\r\nWith eyes, that moment, on my ship and crew\r\nRetorted, I beheld the legs and arms\r\nOf those whom she uplifted in the air;\r\nOn me they call\u2019d, my name, the last, last time\r\nPronouncing then, in agony of heart.\r\nAs when from some bold point among the rocks\r\nThe angler, with his taper rod in hand,\r\nCasts forth his bait to snare the smaller fry,\r\nHe swings away remote his guarded line,[footnote]They passed the line through a pipe of horn, to secure it against the fishes\u2019 bite.[\/footnote]<\/sup>\r\nThen jerks his gasping prey forth from the Deep,\r\nSo Scylla them raised gasping to the rock,\r\nAnd at her cavern\u2019s mouth devour\u2019d them loud-\r\nShrieking, and stretching forth to me their arms\r\nIn sign of hopeless mis\u2019ry. Ne\u2019er beheld\r\nThese eyes in all the seas that I have roam\u2019d,\r\nA sight so piteous, nor in all my toils.\r\nFrom Scylla and Charybdis dire escaped,\r\nWe reach\u2019d the noble island of the Sun\r\nEre long, where bright Hyperion\u2019s beauteous herds\r\nBroad-fronted grazed, and his well-batten\u2019d flocks.\r\nI, in the bark and on the sea, the voice\r\nOf oxen bellowing in hovels heard,\r\nAnd of loud-bleating sheep; then dropp\u2019d the word\r\nInto my memory of the sightless Seer,\r\nTheban Tiresias, and the caution strict\r\nOf Circe, my \u00c6\u00e6an monitress,\r\nWho with such force had caution\u2019d me to avoid\r\nThe island of the Sun, joy of mankind.\r\nThus then to my companions, sad, I spake.\r\nHear ye, my friends! although long time distress\u2019d,\r\nThe words prophetic of the Theban seer\r\nAnd of \u00c6\u00e6an Circe, whose advice\r\nWas oft repeated to me to avoid\r\nThis island of the Sun, joy of mankind.\r\nThere, said the Goddess, dread your heaviest woes,\r\nPass the isle, therefore, scudding swift away.\r\nI ceased; they me with consternation heard,\r\nAnd harshly thus Eurylochus replied.\r\nUlysses, ruthless Chief! no toils impair\r\nThy strength, of senseless iron thou art form\u2019d,\r\nWho thy companions weary and o\u2019erwatch\u2019d\r\nForbidd\u2019st to disembark on this fair isle,\r\nWhere now, at last, we might with ease regale.\r\nThou, rash, command\u2019st us, leaving it afar,\r\nTo roam all night the Ocean\u2019s dreary waste;\r\nBut winds to ships injurious spring by night,\r\nAnd how shall we escape a dreadful death\r\nIf, chance, a sudden gust from South arise\r\nOr stormy West, that dash in pieces oft\r\nThe vessel, even in the Gods\u2019 despight?\r\nPrepare we rather now, as night enjoins,\r\nOur evening fare beside the sable bark,\r\nIn which at peep of day we may again\r\nLaunch forth secure into the boundless flood.\r\nHe ceas\u2019d, whom all applauded. Then I knew\r\nThat sorrow by the will of adverse heav\u2019n\r\nApproach\u2019d, and in wing\u2019d accents thus replied.\r\nI suffer force, Eurylochus! and yield\r\nO\u2019er-ruled by numbers. Come, then, swear ye all\r\nA solemn oath, that should we find an herd\r\nOr num\u2019rous flock, none here shall either sheep\r\nOr bullock slay, by appetite profane\r\nSeduced, but shall the viands eat content\r\nWhich from immortal Circe we received.\r\nI spake; they readily a solemn oath\r\nSware all, and when their oath was fully sworn,\r\nWithin a creek where a fresh fountain rose\r\nThey moor\u2019d the bark, and, issuing, began\r\nBrisk preparation of their evening cheer.\r\nBut when nor hunger now nor thirst remain\u2019d\r\nUnsated, recollecting, then, their friends\r\nBy Scylla seized and at her cave devour\u2019d,\r\nThey mourn\u2019d, nor ceased to mourn them, till they slept.\r\nThe night\u2019s third portion come, when now the stars\r\nHad travers\u2019d the mid-sky, cloud-gath\u2019rer Jove\r\nCall\u2019d forth a vehement wind with tempest charged,\r\nMenacing earth and sea with pitchy clouds\r\nTremendous, and the night fell dark from heav\u2019n.\r\nBut when Aurora, daughter of the day,\r\nLook\u2019d rosy forth, we haled, drawn inland more,\r\nOur bark into a grot, where nymphs were wont\r\nGraceful to tread the dance, or to repose.\r\nConvening there my friends, I thus began.\r\nMy friends! food fails us not, but bread is yet\r\nAnd wine on board. Abstain we from the herds,\r\nLest harm ensue; for ye behold the flocks\r\nAnd herds of a most potent God, the Sun!\r\nWhose eye and watchful ear none may elude.\r\nSo saying, I sway\u2019d the gen\u2019rous minds of all.\r\nA month complete the South wind ceaseless blew,\r\nNor other wind blew next, save East and South,\r\nYet they, while neither food nor rosy wine\r\nFail\u2019d them, the herds harm\u2019d not, through fear to die.\r\nBut, our provisions failing, they employed\r\nWhole days in search of food, snaring with hooks\r\nBirds, fishes, of what kind soe\u2019er they might.\r\nBy famine urged. I solitary roam\u2019d\r\nMeantime the isle, seeking by pray\u2019r to move\r\nSome God to shew us a deliv\u2019rance thence.\r\nWhen, roving thus the isle, I had at length\r\nLeft all my crew remote, laving my hands\r\nWhere shelter warm I found from the rude blast,\r\nI supplicated ev\u2019ry Pow\u2019r above;\r\nBut they my pray\u2019rs answer\u2019d with slumbers soft\r\nShed o\u2019er my eyes, and with pernicious art\r\nEurylochus, the while, my friends harangued.\r\nMy friends! afflicted as ye are, yet hear\r\nA fellow-suff\u2019rer. Death, however caused,\r\nAbhorrence moves in miserable man,\r\nBut death by famine is a fate of all\r\nMost to be fear\u2019d. Come\u2014let us hither drive\r\nAnd sacrifice to the Immortal Pow\u2019rs\r\nThe best of all the oxen of the Sun,\r\nResolving thus\u2014that soon as we shall reach\r\nOur native Ithaca, we will erect\r\nTo bright Hyperion an illustrious fane,\r\nWhich with magnificent and num\u2019rous gifts\r\nWe will enrich. But should he chuse to sink\r\nOur vessel, for his stately beeves incensed,\r\nAnd should, with him, all heav\u2019n conspire our death,\r\nI rather had with open mouth, at once,\r\nMeeting the billows, perish, than by slow\r\nAnd pining waste here in this desert isle.\r\nSo spake Eurylochus, whom all approved.\r\nThen, driving all the fattest of the herd\r\nFew paces only, (for the sacred beeves\r\nGrazed rarely distant from the bark) they stood\r\nCompassing them around, and, grasping each\r\nGreen foliage newly pluck\u2019d from saplings tall,\r\n(For barley none in all our bark remain\u2019d)\r\nWorshipp\u2019d the Gods in pray\u2019r. Pray\u2019r made, they slew\r\nAnd flay\u2019d them, and the thighs with double fat\r\nInvesting, spread them o\u2019er with slices crude.\r\nNo wine had they with which to consecrate\r\nThe blazing rites, but with libation poor\r\nOf water hallow\u2019d the interior parts.\r\nNow, when the thighs were burnt, and each had shared\r\nHis portion of the maw, and when the rest\r\nAll-slash\u2019d and scored hung roasting at the fire,\r\nSleep, in that moment, suddenly my eyes\r\nForsaking, to the shore I bent my way.\r\nBut ere the station of our bark I reach\u2019d,\r\nThe sav\u2019ry steam greeted me. At the scent\r\nI wept aloud, and to the Gods exclaim\u2019d.\r\nOh Jupiter, and all ye Pow\u2019rs above!\r\nWith cruel sleep and fatal ye have lull\u2019d\r\nMy cares to rest, such horrible offence\r\nMeantime my rash companions have devised.\r\nThen, flew long-stoled Lampetia to the Sun\r\nAt once with tidings of his slaughter\u2019d beeves,\r\nAnd he, incensed, the Immortals thus address\u2019d.\r\nJove, and ye everlasting Pow\u2019rs divine!\r\nAvenge me instant on the crew profane\r\nOf Laertiades; Ulysses\u2019 friends\r\nHave dared to slay my beeves, which I with joy\r\nBeheld, both when I climb\u2019d the starry heav\u2019ns,\r\nAnd when to earth I sloped my \u201cwestring wheels,\u201d\r\nBut if they yield me not amercement due\r\nAnd honourable for my loss, to Hell\r\nI will descend and give the ghosts my beams.\r\nThen, thus the cloud-assembler God replied.\r\nSun! shine thou still on the Immortal Pow\u2019rs,\r\nAnd on the teeming earth, frail man\u2019s abode.\r\nMy candent bolts can in a moment reach\r\nAnd split their flying bark in the mid-sea.\r\nThese things Calypso told me, taught, herself,\r\nBy herald Hermes, as she oft affirm\u2019d.\r\nBut when, descending to the shore, I reach\u2019d\r\nAt length my bark, with aspect stern and tone\r\nI reprimanded them, yet no redress\r\nCould frame, or remedy\u2014the beeves were dead.\r\nSoon follow\u2019d signs portentous sent from heav\u2019n.\r\nThe skins all crept, and on the spits the flesh\r\nBoth roast and raw bellow\u2019d, as with the voice\r\nOf living beeves. Thus my devoted friends\r\nDriving the fattest oxen of the Sun,\r\nFeasted six days entire; but when the sev\u2019nth\r\nBy mandate of Saturnian Jove appeared,\r\nThe storm then ceased to rage, and we, again\r\nEmbarking, launch\u2019d our galley, rear\u2019d the mast,\r\nAnd gave our unfurl\u2019d canvas to the wind.\r\nThe island left afar, and other land\r\nAppearing none, but sky alone and sea,\r\nRight o\u2019er the hollow bark Saturnian Jove\r\nHung a c\u00e6rulean cloud, dark\u2019ning the Deep.\r\nNot long my vessel ran, for, blowing wild,\r\nNow came shrill Zephyrus; a stormy gust\r\nSnapp\u2019d sheer the shrouds on both sides; backward fell\r\nThe mast, and with loose tackle strew\u2019d the hold;\r\nStriking the pilot in the stern, it crush\u2019d\r\nHis scull together; he a diver\u2019s plunge\r\nMade downward, and his noble spirit fled.\r\nMeantime, Jove thund\u2019ring, hurl\u2019d into the ship\r\nHis bolts; she, smitten by the fires of Jove,\r\nQuaked all her length; with sulphur fill\u2019d she reek\u2019d,\r\nAnd o\u2019er her sides headlong my people plunged\r\nLike sea-mews, interdicted by that stroke\r\nOf wrath divine to hope their country more.\r\nBut I, the vessel still paced to and fro,\r\nTill, fever\u2019d by the boist\u2019rous waves, her sides\r\nForsook the keel now left to float alone.\r\nSnapp\u2019d where it join\u2019d the keel the mast had fall\u2019n,\r\nBut fell encircled with a leathern brace,\r\nWhich it retain\u2019d; binding with this the mast\r\nAnd keel together, on them both I sat,\r\nBorne helpless onward by the dreadful gale.\r\nAnd now the West subsided, and the South\r\nArose instead, with mis\u2019ry charged for me,\r\nThat I might measure back my course again\r\nTo dire Charybdis. All night long I drove,\r\nAnd when the sun arose, at Scylla\u2019s rock\r\nOnce more, and at Charybdis\u2019 gulph arrived.\r\nIt was the time when she absorb\u2019d profound\r\nThe briny flood, but by a wave upborne\r\nI seized the branches fast of the wild-fig.[footnote]See line 120.[\/footnote]<\/sup>\r\nTo which, bat-like, I clung; yet where to fix\r\nMy foot secure found not, or where to ascend,\r\nFor distant lay the roots, and distant shot\r\nThe largest arms erect into the air,\r\nO\u2019ershadowing all Charybdis; therefore hard\r\nI clench\u2019d the boughs, till she disgorg\u2019d again\r\nBoth keel and mast. Not undesired by me\r\nThey came, though late; for at what hour the judge,\r\nAfter decision made of num\u2019rous strifes[footnote]He had therefore held by the fig-tree from sunrise till afternoon.[\/footnote]<\/sup>\r\nBetween young candidates for honour, leaves\r\nThe forum for refreshment\u2019 sake at home,\r\nThen was it that the mast and keel emerged.\r\nDeliver\u2019d to a voluntary fall,\r\nFast by those beams I dash\u2019d into the flood,\r\nAnd seated on them both, with oary palms\r\nImpell\u2019d them; nor the Sire of Gods and men\r\nPermitted Scylla to discern me more,\r\nElse had I perish\u2019d by her fangs at last.\r\nNine days I floated thence, and, on the tenth\r\nDark night, the Gods convey\u2019d me to the isle\r\nOgygia, habitation of divine\r\nCalypso, by whose hospitable aid\r\nAnd assiduity, my strength revived.\r\nBut wherefore this? ye have already learn\u2019d\r\nThat hist\u2019ry, thou and thy illustrious spouse;\r\nI told it yesterday, and hate a tale\r\nOnce amply told, then, needless, traced again.","rendered":"

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

Ulysses, pursuing his narrative, relates his return from the shades to Circe\u2019s island, the precautions given him by that Goddess, his escape from the Sirens, and from Scylla and Charybdis; his arrival in Sicily, where his companions, having slain and eaten the oxen of the Sun, are afterward shipwrecked and lost; and concludes the whole with an account of his arrival, alone, on the mast of his vessel, at the island of Calypso.<\/p>\n

And now, borne seaward from the river-stream
\nOf the Oceanus, we plow\u2019d again
\nThe spacious Deep, and reach\u2019d th\u2019 \u00c6\u00e6an isle,
\nWhere, daughter of the dawn, Aurora takes
\nHer choral sports, and whence the sun ascends.
\nWe, there arriving, thrust our bark aground
\nOn the smooth beach, then landed, and on shore
\nReposed, expectant of the sacred dawn.
\nBut soon as day-spring\u2019s daughter rosy-palm\u2019d
\nLook\u2019d forth again, sending my friends before,
\nI bade them bring Elpenor\u2019s body down
\nFrom the abode of Circe to the beach.
\nThen, on the utmost headland of the coast
\nWe timber fell\u2019d, and, sorrowing o\u2019er the dead,
\nHis fun\u2019ral rites water\u2019d with tears profuse.
\nThe dead consumed, and with the dead his arms,
\nWe heap\u2019d his tomb, and the sepulchral post
\nErecting, fix\u2019d his shapely oar aloft.
\nThus, punctual, we perform\u2019d; nor our return
\nFrom Ades knew not Circe, but attired
\nIn haste, ere long arrived, with whom appear\u2019d
\nHer female train with plenteous viands charged,
\nAnd bright wine rosy-red. Amidst us all
\nStanding, the beauteous Goddess thus began.
\nAh miserable! who have sought the shades
\nAlive! while others of the human race
\nDie only once, appointed twice to die!
\nCome\u2014take ye food; drink wine; and on the shore
\nAll day regale, for ye shall hence again
\nAt day-spring o\u2019er the Deep; but I will mark
\nMyself your future course, nor uninform\u2019d
\nLeave you in aught, lest, through some dire mistake,
\nBy sea or land new mis\u2019ries ye incur.
\nThe Goddess spake, whose invitation kind
\nWe glad accepted; thus we feasting sat
\nTill set of sun, and quaffing richest wine;
\nBut when the sun went down and darkness fell,
\nMy crew beside the hawsers slept, while me
\nThe Goddess by the hand leading apart,
\nFirst bade me sit, then, seated opposite,
\nEnquired, minute, of all that I had seen,
\nAnd I, from first to last, recounted all.
\nThen, thus the awful Goddess in return.
\nThus far thy toils are finish\u2019d. Now attend!
\nMark well my words, of which the Gods will sure
\nThemselves remind thee in the needful hour.
\nFirst shalt thou reach the Sirens; they the hearts
\nEnchant of all who on their coast arrive.
\nThe wretch, who unforewarn\u2019d approaching, hears
\nThe Sirens\u2019 voice, his wife and little-ones
\nNe\u2019er fly to gratulate his glad return,
\nBut him the Sirens sitting in the meads
\nCharm with mellifluous song, while all around
\nThe bones accumulated lie of men
\nNow putrid, and the skins mould\u2019ring away.
\nBut, pass them thou, and, lest thy people hear
\nThose warblings, ere thou yet approach, fill all
\nTheir ears with wax moulded between thy palms;
\nBut as for thee\u2014thou hear them if thou wilt.
\nYet let thy people bind thee to the mast
\nErect, encompassing thy feet and arms
\nWith cordage well-secured to the mast-foot,
\nSo shalt thou, raptur\u2019d, hear the Sirens\u2019 song.
\nBut if thou supplicate to be released,
\nOr give such order, then, with added cords
\nLet thy companions bind thee still the more.
\nWhen thus thy people shall have safely pass\u2019d
\nThe Sirens by, think not from me to learn
\nWhat course thou next shalt steer; two will occur;
\nDelib\u2019rate chuse; I shall describe them both.
\nHere vaulted rocks impend, dash\u2019d by the waves
\nImmense of Amphitrite azure-eyed;
\nThe blessed Gods those rocks, Erratic, call.
\nBirds cannot pass them safe; no, not the doves
\nWhich his ambrosia bear to Father Jove,
\nBut even of those doves the slipp\u2019ry rock
\nProves fatal still to one, for which the God
\nSupplies another, lest the number fail.
\nNo ship, what ship soever there arrives,
\nEscapes them, but both mariners and planks
\nWhelm\u2019d under billows of the Deep, or, caught
\nBy fiery tempests, sudden disappear.
\nThose rocks the billow-cleaving bark alone
\nThe Argo, further\u2019d by the vows of all,
\nPass\u2019d safely, sailing from \u00c6\u00e6ta\u2019s isle;
\nNor she had pass\u2019d, but surely dash\u2019d had been
\nOn those huge rocks, but that, propitious still
\nTo Jason, Juno sped her safe along.
\nThese rocks are two; one lifts his summit sharp
\nHigh as the spacious heav\u2019ns, wrapt in dun clouds
\nPerpetual, which nor autumn sees dispers\u2019d
\nNor summer, for the sun shines never there;
\nNo mortal man might climb it or descend,
\nThough twice ten hands and twice ten feet he own\u2019d,
\nFor it is levigated as by art.
\nDown scoop\u2019d to Erebus, a cavern drear
\nYawns in the centre of its western side;
\nPass it, renown\u2019d Ulysses! but aloof
\nSo far, that a keen arrow smartly sent
\nForth from thy bark should fail to reach the cave.
\nThere Scylla dwells, and thence her howl is heard
\nTremendous; shrill her voice is as the note
\nOf hound new-whelp\u2019d, but hideous her aspect,
\nSuch as no mortal man, nor ev\u2019n a God
\nEncount\u2019ring her, should with delight survey.
\nHer feet are twelve, all fore-feet; six her necks
\nOf hideous length, each clubb\u2019d into a head
\nTerrific, and each head with fangs is arm\u2019d
\nIn triple row, thick planted, stored with death.
\nPlunged to her middle in the hollow den
\nShe lurks, protruding from the black abyss
\nHer heads, with which the rav\u2019ning monster dives
\nIn quest of dolphins, dog-fish, or of prey
\nMore bulky, such as in the roaring gulphs
\nOf Amphitrite without end abounds.
\nIt is no seaman\u2019s boast that e\u2019er he slipp\u2019d
\nHer cavern by, unharm\u2019d. In ev\u2019ry mouth
\nShe bears upcaught a mariner away.
\nThe other rock, Ulysses, thou shalt find
\nHumbler, a bow-shot only from the first;
\nOn this a wild fig grows broad-leav\u2019d, and here
\nCharybdis dire ingulphs the sable flood.
\nEach day she thrice disgorges, and each day
\nThrice swallows it. Ah! well forewarn\u2019d, beware
\nWhat time she swallows, that thou come not nigh,
\nFor not himself, Neptune, could snatch thee thence.
\nClose passing Scylla\u2019s rock, shoot swift thy bark
\nBeyond it, since the loss of six alone
\nIs better far than shipwreck made of all.
\nSo Circe spake, to whom I thus replied.
\nTell me, O Goddess, next, and tell me true!
\nIf, chance, from fell Charybdis I escape,
\nMay I not also save from Scylla\u2019s force
\nMy people; should the monster threaten them?
\nI said, and quick the Goddess in return.
\nUnhappy! can exploits and toils of war
\nStill please thee? yield\u2019st not to the Gods themselves?
\nShe is no mortal, but a deathless pest,
\nImpracticable, savage, battle-proof.
\nDefence is vain; flight is thy sole resource.
\nFor should\u2019st thou linger putting on thy arms
\nBeside the rock, beware, lest darting forth
\nHer num\u2019rous heads, she seize with ev\u2019ry mouth
\nA Greecian, and with others, even thee.
\nPass therefore swift, and passing, loud invoke
\nCratais, mother of this plague of man,
\nWho will forbid her to assail thee more.
\nThou, next, shalt reach Thrinacia; there, the beeves
\nAnd fatted flocks graze num\u2019rous of the Sun;
\nSev\u2019n herds; as many flocks of snowy fleece;
\nFifty in each; they breed not, neither die,
\nNor are they kept by less than Goddesses,
\nLampetia fair, and Ph\u00e4ethusa, both
\nBy nymph Ne\u00e6ra to Hyperion borne.
\nThem, soon as she had train\u2019d them to an age
\nProportion\u2019d to that charge, their mother sent
\nInto Thrinacia, there to dwell and keep
\nInviolate their father\u2019s flocks and herds.
\nIf, anxious for a safe return, thou spare
\nThose herds and flocks, though after much endured,
\nYe may at last your Ithaca regain;
\nBut should\u2019st thou violate them, I foretell
\nDestruction of thy ship and of thy crew,
\nAnd though thyself escape, thou shalt return
\nLate, in ill plight, and all thy friends destroy\u2019d.
\nShe ended, and the golden morning dawn\u2019d.
\nThen, all-divine, her graceful steps she turn\u2019d
\nBack through the isle, and, at the beach arrived,
\nI summon\u2019d all my followers to ascend
\nThe bark again, and cast the hawsers loose.
\nThey, at my voice, embarking, fill\u2019d in ranks
\nThe seats, and rowing, thresh\u2019d the hoary flood.
\nAnd now, melodious Circe, nymph divine,
\nSent after us a canvas-stretching breeze,
\nPleasant companion of our course, and we
\n(The decks and benches clear\u2019d) untoiling sat,
\nWhile managed gales sped swift the bark along.
\nThen, with dejected heart, thus I began.
\nOh friends! (for it is needful that not one
\nOr two alone the admonition hear
\nOf Circe, beauteous prophetess divine)
\nTo all I speak, that whether we escape
\nOr perish, all may be, at least, forewarn\u2019d.
\nShe bids us, first, avoid the dang\u2019rous song
\nOf the sweet Sirens and their flow\u2019ry meads.
\nMe only she permits those strains to hear;
\nBut ye shall bind me with coercion strong
\nOf cordage well-secured to the mast-foot,
\nAnd by no struggles to be loos\u2019d of mine.
\nBut should I supplicate to be released
\nOr give such order, then, with added cords
\nBe it your part to bind me still the more.
\nThus with distinct precaution I prepared
\nMy people; rapid in her course, meantime,
\nMy gallant bark approach\u2019d the Sirens\u2019 isle,
\nFor brisk and favourable blew the wind.
\nThen fell the wind suddenly, and serene
\nA breathless calm ensued, while all around
\nThe billows slumber\u2019d, lull\u2019d by pow\u2019r divine.
\nUp-sprang my people, and the folded sails
\nBestowing in the hold, sat to their oars,
\nWhich with their polish\u2019d blades whiten\u2019d the Deep.
\nI, then, with edge of steel sev\u2019ring minute
\nA waxen cake, chafed it and moulded it
\nBetween my palms; ere long the ductile mass
\nGrew warm, obedient to that ceaseless force,
\nAnd to Hyperion\u2019s all-pervading beams.
\nWith that soft liniment I fill\u2019d the ears
\nOf my companions, man by man, and they
\nMy feet and arms with strong coercion bound
\nOf cordage to the mast-foot well secured.
\nThen down they sat, and, rowing, thresh\u2019d the brine.
\nBut when with rapid course we had arrived
\nWithin such distance as a voice may reach,
\nNot unperceived by them the gliding bark
\nApproach\u2019d, and, thus, harmonious they began.
\nUlysses, Chief by ev\u2019ry tongue extoll\u2019d,
\nAchaia\u2019s boast, oh hither steer thy bark!
\nHere stay thy course, and listen to our lay!
\nThese shores none passes in his sable ship
\nTill, first, the warblings of our voice he hear,
\nThen, happier hence and wiser he departs.
\nAll that the Greeks endured, and all the ills
\nInflicted by the Gods on Troy, we know,
\nKnow all that passes on the boundless earth.
\nSo they with voices sweet their music poured
\nMelodious on my ear, winning with ease
\nMy heart\u2019s desire to listen, and by signs
\nI bade my people, instant, set me free.
\nBut they incumbent row\u2019d, and from their seats
\nEurylochus and Perimedes sprang
\nWith added cords to bind me still the more.
\nThis danger past, and when the Sirens\u2019 voice,
\nNow left remote, had lost its pow\u2019r to charm,
\nThen, my companions freeing from the wax
\nTheir ears, deliver\u2019d me from my restraint.
\nThe island left afar, soon I discern\u2019d
\nHuge waves, and smoke, and horrid thund\u2019rings heard.
\nAll sat aghast; forth flew at once the oars
\nFrom ev\u2019ry hand, and with a clash the waves
\nSmote all together; check\u2019d, the galley stood,
\nBy billow-sweeping oars no longer urged,
\nAnd I, throughout the bark, man after man
\nEncouraged all, addressing thus my crew.
\nWe meet not, now, my friends, our first distress.
\nThis evil is not greater than we found
\nWhen the huge Cyclops in his hollow den
\nImprison\u2019d us, yet even thence we \u2019scaped,
\nMy intrepidity and fertile thought
\nOpening the way; and we shall recollect
\nThese dangers also, in due time, with joy.
\nCome, then\u2014pursue my counsel. Ye your seats
\nStill occupying, smite the furrow\u2019d flood
\nWith well-timed strokes, that by the will of Jove
\nWe may escape, perchance, this death, secure.
\nTo thee the pilot thus I speak, (my words
\nMark thou, for at thy touch the rudder moves)
\nThis smoke, and these tumultuous waves avoid;
\nSteer wide of both; yet with an eye intent
\nOn yonder rock, lest unaware thou hold
\nToo near a course, and plunge us into harm.
\nSo I; with whose advice all, quick, complied.
\nBut Scylla I as yet named not, (that woe
\nWithout a cure) lest, terrified, my crew
\nShould all renounce their oars, and crowd below.
\nJust then, forgetful of the strict command
\nOf Circe not to arm, I cloath\u2019d me all
\nIn radiant armour, grasp\u2019d two quiv\u2019ring spears,
\nAnd to the deck ascended at the prow,
\nExpecting earliest notice there, what time
\nThe rock-bred Scylla should annoy my friends.
\nBut I discern\u2019d her not, nor could, although
\nTo weariness of sight the dusky rock
\nI vigilant explored. Thus, many a groan
\nHeaving, we navigated sad the streight,
\nFor here stood Scylla, while Charybdis there
\nWith hoarse throat deep absorb\u2019d the briny flood.
\nOft as she vomited the deluge forth,
\nLike water cauldron\u2019d o\u2019er a furious fire
\nThe whirling Deep all murmur\u2019d, and the spray
\nOn both those rocky summits fell in show\u2019rs.
\nBut when she suck\u2019d the salt wave down again,
\nThen, all the pool appear\u2019d wheeling about
\nWithin, the rock rebellow\u2019d, and the sea
\nDrawn off into that gulph disclosed to view
\nThe oozy bottom. Us pale horror seized.
\nThus, dreading death, with fast-set eyes we watch\u2019d
\nCharybdis; meantime, Scylla from the bark
\nCaught six away, the bravest of my friends.
\nWith eyes, that moment, on my ship and crew
\nRetorted, I beheld the legs and arms
\nOf those whom she uplifted in the air;
\nOn me they call\u2019d, my name, the last, last time
\nPronouncing then, in agony of heart.
\nAs when from some bold point among the rocks
\nThe angler, with his taper rod in hand,
\nCasts forth his bait to snare the smaller fry,
\nHe swings away remote his guarded line,[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/sup>
\nThen jerks his gasping prey forth from the Deep,
\nSo Scylla them raised gasping to the rock,
\nAnd at her cavern\u2019s mouth devour\u2019d them loud-
\nShrieking, and stretching forth to me their arms
\nIn sign of hopeless mis\u2019ry. Ne\u2019er beheld
\nThese eyes in all the seas that I have roam\u2019d,
\nA sight so piteous, nor in all my toils.
\nFrom Scylla and Charybdis dire escaped,
\nWe reach\u2019d the noble island of the Sun
\nEre long, where bright Hyperion\u2019s beauteous herds
\nBroad-fronted grazed, and his well-batten\u2019d flocks.
\nI, in the bark and on the sea, the voice
\nOf oxen bellowing in hovels heard,
\nAnd of loud-bleating sheep; then dropp\u2019d the word
\nInto my memory of the sightless Seer,
\nTheban Tiresias, and the caution strict
\nOf Circe, my \u00c6\u00e6an monitress,
\nWho with such force had caution\u2019d me to avoid
\nThe island of the Sun, joy of mankind.
\nThus then to my companions, sad, I spake.
\nHear ye, my friends! although long time distress\u2019d,
\nThe words prophetic of the Theban seer
\nAnd of \u00c6\u00e6an Circe, whose advice
\nWas oft repeated to me to avoid
\nThis island of the Sun, joy of mankind.
\nThere, said the Goddess, dread your heaviest woes,
\nPass the isle, therefore, scudding swift away.
\nI ceased; they me with consternation heard,
\nAnd harshly thus Eurylochus replied.
\nUlysses, ruthless Chief! no toils impair
\nThy strength, of senseless iron thou art form\u2019d,
\nWho thy companions weary and o\u2019erwatch\u2019d
\nForbidd\u2019st to disembark on this fair isle,
\nWhere now, at last, we might with ease regale.
\nThou, rash, command\u2019st us, leaving it afar,
\nTo roam all night the Ocean\u2019s dreary waste;
\nBut winds to ships injurious spring by night,
\nAnd how shall we escape a dreadful death
\nIf, chance, a sudden gust from South arise
\nOr stormy West, that dash in pieces oft
\nThe vessel, even in the Gods\u2019 despight?
\nPrepare we rather now, as night enjoins,
\nOur evening fare beside the sable bark,
\nIn which at peep of day we may again
\nLaunch forth secure into the boundless flood.
\nHe ceas\u2019d, whom all applauded. Then I knew
\nThat sorrow by the will of adverse heav\u2019n
\nApproach\u2019d, and in wing\u2019d accents thus replied.
\nI suffer force, Eurylochus! and yield
\nO\u2019er-ruled by numbers. Come, then, swear ye all
\nA solemn oath, that should we find an herd
\nOr num\u2019rous flock, none here shall either sheep
\nOr bullock slay, by appetite profane
\nSeduced, but shall the viands eat content
\nWhich from immortal Circe we received.
\nI spake; they readily a solemn oath
\nSware all, and when their oath was fully sworn,
\nWithin a creek where a fresh fountain rose
\nThey moor\u2019d the bark, and, issuing, began
\nBrisk preparation of their evening cheer.
\nBut when nor hunger now nor thirst remain\u2019d
\nUnsated, recollecting, then, their friends
\nBy Scylla seized and at her cave devour\u2019d,
\nThey mourn\u2019d, nor ceased to mourn them, till they slept.
\nThe night\u2019s third portion come, when now the stars
\nHad travers\u2019d the mid-sky, cloud-gath\u2019rer Jove
\nCall\u2019d forth a vehement wind with tempest charged,
\nMenacing earth and sea with pitchy clouds
\nTremendous, and the night fell dark from heav\u2019n.
\nBut when Aurora, daughter of the day,
\nLook\u2019d rosy forth, we haled, drawn inland more,
\nOur bark into a grot, where nymphs were wont
\nGraceful to tread the dance, or to repose.
\nConvening there my friends, I thus began.
\nMy friends! food fails us not, but bread is yet
\nAnd wine on board. Abstain we from the herds,
\nLest harm ensue; for ye behold the flocks
\nAnd herds of a most potent God, the Sun!
\nWhose eye and watchful ear none may elude.
\nSo saying, I sway\u2019d the gen\u2019rous minds of all.
\nA month complete the South wind ceaseless blew,
\nNor other wind blew next, save East and South,
\nYet they, while neither food nor rosy wine
\nFail\u2019d them, the herds harm\u2019d not, through fear to die.
\nBut, our provisions failing, they employed
\nWhole days in search of food, snaring with hooks
\nBirds, fishes, of what kind soe\u2019er they might.
\nBy famine urged. I solitary roam\u2019d
\nMeantime the isle, seeking by pray\u2019r to move
\nSome God to shew us a deliv\u2019rance thence.
\nWhen, roving thus the isle, I had at length
\nLeft all my crew remote, laving my hands
\nWhere shelter warm I found from the rude blast,
\nI supplicated ev\u2019ry Pow\u2019r above;
\nBut they my pray\u2019rs answer\u2019d with slumbers soft
\nShed o\u2019er my eyes, and with pernicious art
\nEurylochus, the while, my friends harangued.
\nMy friends! afflicted as ye are, yet hear
\nA fellow-suff\u2019rer. Death, however caused,
\nAbhorrence moves in miserable man,
\nBut death by famine is a fate of all
\nMost to be fear\u2019d. Come\u2014let us hither drive
\nAnd sacrifice to the Immortal Pow\u2019rs
\nThe best of all the oxen of the Sun,
\nResolving thus\u2014that soon as we shall reach
\nOur native Ithaca, we will erect
\nTo bright Hyperion an illustrious fane,
\nWhich with magnificent and num\u2019rous gifts
\nWe will enrich. But should he chuse to sink
\nOur vessel, for his stately beeves incensed,
\nAnd should, with him, all heav\u2019n conspire our death,
\nI rather had with open mouth, at once,
\nMeeting the billows, perish, than by slow
\nAnd pining waste here in this desert isle.
\nSo spake Eurylochus, whom all approved.
\nThen, driving all the fattest of the herd
\nFew paces only, (for the sacred beeves
\nGrazed rarely distant from the bark) they stood
\nCompassing them around, and, grasping each
\nGreen foliage newly pluck\u2019d from saplings tall,
\n(For barley none in all our bark remain\u2019d)
\nWorshipp\u2019d the Gods in pray\u2019r. Pray\u2019r made, they slew
\nAnd flay\u2019d them, and the thighs with double fat
\nInvesting, spread them o\u2019er with slices crude.
\nNo wine had they with which to consecrate
\nThe blazing rites, but with libation poor
\nOf water hallow\u2019d the interior parts.
\nNow, when the thighs were burnt, and each had shared
\nHis portion of the maw, and when the rest
\nAll-slash\u2019d and scored hung roasting at the fire,
\nSleep, in that moment, suddenly my eyes
\nForsaking, to the shore I bent my way.
\nBut ere the station of our bark I reach\u2019d,
\nThe sav\u2019ry steam greeted me. At the scent
\nI wept aloud, and to the Gods exclaim\u2019d.
\nOh Jupiter, and all ye Pow\u2019rs above!
\nWith cruel sleep and fatal ye have lull\u2019d
\nMy cares to rest, such horrible offence
\nMeantime my rash companions have devised.
\nThen, flew long-stoled Lampetia to the Sun
\nAt once with tidings of his slaughter\u2019d beeves,
\nAnd he, incensed, the Immortals thus address\u2019d.
\nJove, and ye everlasting Pow\u2019rs divine!
\nAvenge me instant on the crew profane
\nOf Laertiades; Ulysses\u2019 friends
\nHave dared to slay my beeves, which I with joy
\nBeheld, both when I climb\u2019d the starry heav\u2019ns,
\nAnd when to earth I sloped my \u201cwestring wheels,\u201d
\nBut if they yield me not amercement due
\nAnd honourable for my loss, to Hell
\nI will descend and give the ghosts my beams.
\nThen, thus the cloud-assembler God replied.
\nSun! shine thou still on the Immortal Pow\u2019rs,
\nAnd on the teeming earth, frail man\u2019s abode.
\nMy candent bolts can in a moment reach
\nAnd split their flying bark in the mid-sea.
\nThese things Calypso told me, taught, herself,
\nBy herald Hermes, as she oft affirm\u2019d.
\nBut when, descending to the shore, I reach\u2019d
\nAt length my bark, with aspect stern and tone
\nI reprimanded them, yet no redress
\nCould frame, or remedy\u2014the beeves were dead.
\nSoon follow\u2019d signs portentous sent from heav\u2019n.
\nThe skins all crept, and on the spits the flesh
\nBoth roast and raw bellow\u2019d, as with the voice
\nOf living beeves. Thus my devoted friends
\nDriving the fattest oxen of the Sun,
\nFeasted six days entire; but when the sev\u2019nth
\nBy mandate of Saturnian Jove appeared,
\nThe storm then ceased to rage, and we, again
\nEmbarking, launch\u2019d our galley, rear\u2019d the mast,
\nAnd gave our unfurl\u2019d canvas to the wind.
\nThe island left afar, and other land
\nAppearing none, but sky alone and sea,
\nRight o\u2019er the hollow bark Saturnian Jove
\nHung a c\u00e6rulean cloud, dark\u2019ning the Deep.
\nNot long my vessel ran, for, blowing wild,
\nNow came shrill Zephyrus; a stormy gust
\nSnapp\u2019d sheer the shrouds on both sides; backward fell
\nThe mast, and with loose tackle strew\u2019d the hold;
\nStriking the pilot in the stern, it crush\u2019d
\nHis scull together; he a diver\u2019s plunge
\nMade downward, and his noble spirit fled.
\nMeantime, Jove thund\u2019ring, hurl\u2019d into the ship
\nHis bolts; she, smitten by the fires of Jove,
\nQuaked all her length; with sulphur fill\u2019d she reek\u2019d,
\nAnd o\u2019er her sides headlong my people plunged
\nLike sea-mews, interdicted by that stroke
\nOf wrath divine to hope their country more.
\nBut I, the vessel still paced to and fro,
\nTill, fever\u2019d by the boist\u2019rous waves, her sides
\nForsook the keel now left to float alone.
\nSnapp\u2019d where it join\u2019d the keel the mast had fall\u2019n,
\nBut fell encircled with a leathern brace,
\nWhich it retain\u2019d; binding with this the mast
\nAnd keel together, on them both I sat,
\nBorne helpless onward by the dreadful gale.
\nAnd now the West subsided, and the South
\nArose instead, with mis\u2019ry charged for me,
\nThat I might measure back my course again
\nTo dire Charybdis. All night long I drove,
\nAnd when the sun arose, at Scylla\u2019s rock
\nOnce more, and at Charybdis\u2019 gulph arrived.
\nIt was the time when she absorb\u2019d profound
\nThe briny flood, but by a wave upborne
\nI seized the branches fast of the wild-fig.[2]<\/sup><\/a><\/sup>
\nTo which, bat-like, I clung; yet where to fix
\nMy foot secure found not, or where to ascend,
\nFor distant lay the roots, and distant shot
\nThe largest arms erect into the air,
\nO\u2019ershadowing all Charybdis; therefore hard
\nI clench\u2019d the boughs, till she disgorg\u2019d again
\nBoth keel and mast. Not undesired by me
\nThey came, though late; for at what hour the judge,
\nAfter decision made of num\u2019rous strifes[3]<\/sup><\/a><\/sup>
\nBetween young candidates for honour, leaves
\nThe forum for refreshment\u2019 sake at home,
\nThen was it that the mast and keel emerged.
\nDeliver\u2019d to a voluntary fall,
\nFast by those beams I dash\u2019d into the flood,
\nAnd seated on them both, with oary palms
\nImpell\u2019d them; nor the Sire of Gods and men
\nPermitted Scylla to discern me more,
\nElse had I perish\u2019d by her fangs at last.
\nNine days I floated thence, and, on the tenth
\nDark night, the Gods convey\u2019d me to the isle
\nOgygia, habitation of divine
\nCalypso, by whose hospitable aid
\nAnd assiduity, my strength revived.
\nBut wherefore this? ye have already learn\u2019d
\nThat hist\u2019ry, thou and thy illustrious spouse;
\nI told it yesterday, and hate a tale
\nOnce amply told, then, needless, traced again.<\/p>\n

  1. They passed the line through a pipe of horn, to secure it against the fishes\u2019 bite. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  2. See line 120. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  3. He had therefore held by the fig-tree from sunrise till afternoon. ↵<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"author":299,"menu_order":12,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[48],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-118","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\/118","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\/118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":251,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/118\/revisions\/251"}],"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\/118\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=118"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=118"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}