Homer, who lived two centuries later,--1000 B.C.,--has left us a tolerably full account of the ship-building, navigation, and geography of his time. The following passage from the Odyssey, as rendered into English by Cowper, is regarded by antiquaries as important, showing, as it does, the point at which the art of ship-building had now arrived. Ulysses, having been wrecked upon an island, is enabled to build a ship by the aid of the nymph Calypso. "She gave him, fitted to the grasp, an axe Of iron, ponderous, double-edged, with haft Of olive-wood inserted firm, and wrought With curious art. Then, placing in his hand A polish'd adze, she led herself the way To her isle's utmost verge, where loftiest stood The alder, poplar, and cloud-piercing fir, Though sapless, sound, and fitted for his use As buoyant most. To that once verdant grove His steps the beauteous nymph Calypso led, And sought her home again. Then slept not he, But, swinging with both hands the axe, his task Soon finish'd: trees full twenty to the ground He cast, which dextrous with his adze he smoothed, The knotted surface chipping by a line. Meantime the lovely goddess to his aid Sharp augers brought, with which he bored the beams, Then placed them side by side, adapting each To other, and the seams with wadding closed. Broad as an artist skill'd in naval works The bottom of a ship of burthen spreads, Such breadth Ulysses to his raft assign'd. He decked her over with long planks, upborne On massy beams: he made the mast, to which He added, suitable, the yard: he framed Rudder and helm to regulate her course: With wickerwork he border'd all the length For safety, and much ballast stow'd within. Meantime Calypso brought him, for a sail, Fittest materials, which he also shaped, And to it all due furniture annex'd Of cordage strong, foot-ropes, and ropes aloft; Then heaved her down with levers to the deep." Besides the facts contained in this passage, it is worth remarking that Homer seems to regard ship-builders with no little consideration, inasmuch as he calls them "artists."