On hearing that his son Neoptolemus had won great glory in the capture
of Troy, the spirit left him, exulting with joy that his son was worthy
of him. Ajax turned from Odysseus in anger at the loss of Achilles'
armour for the possession of which they had striven. The last figure
that came was the ghost of Heracles, though the hero himself was with
the gods in Olympus.
"Round him was the whirr of the dead as of birds fleeing in panic.
Like to black night, with his bow ready and an arrow on the string,
he glared about him terribly, as ever intending to shoot. Over his
breast was flung a fearful belt, whereon were graven bears and lions
and fights, battles, murders and man-slayings."
He recognised Odysseus before he passed back to death; when a crowd of
terrifying apparitions came thronging to the trench, Odysseus fled to
his ship lest the Gorgon might be sent from the awful Queen of the dead.
Returning to Circe, he learned from her of the remaining dangers. The
first of these was the island of the Sirens, who by the marvellous
sweetness of their song charmed to their ruin all who passed. Odysseus
filled the ears of his crews with wax, bidding them to tie him to the
mast of his ship and to row hard past the temptresses in spite of his
strugglings. They then entered the dangerous strait, on one side of
which was Scylla, a dreadful monster who lived in a cave near by, on the
other was the deadly whirlpool of Charybdis. Scylla carried off six
of his men who called in vain to Odysseus to save them, stretching out
their hands to him in their last agony. From the strait they passed to
the island of Trinacria, where they found grazing the cattle of the Sun.
Odysseus had learned from both Teiresias and Circe that an evil doom
would come upon them if they touched the animals; he therefore made his
companions swear a great oath not to touch them if they landed. For
a whole month they were wind-bound in the island and ate all the
provisions which Circe had given them. At a time when Odysseus had gone
to explore the island Eurylochus persuaded his men to kill and eat; as
he returned Odysseus smelled the savour of their feast and knew that
destruction was at hand. For nine days the feasting continued. When
the ship put out to sea Zeus, in answer to the prayer of the offended
Sun-God, sent a storm which drowned all the crew and drove Odysseus back
to the dreaded strait. Escaping through it with difficulty, he drifted
helplessly over the deep and on the tenth day landed on the island of
"the dread goddess who used human speech", Calypso, who tended him and
kept him in captivity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account