Of that wide cave, a marvel to be heard Of men unborn. Beside his stony bed Lay a long quiver full of arrows, some For hunting, some to smite his foes withal; With deadly venom of that fell water-snake Were these besmeared. Before it, nigh to his hand, Lay the great bow, with curving tips of horn, Wrought by the mighty hands of Hercules. Now when that solitary spied these twain Draw nigh his cave, he sprang to his bow, he laid The deadly arrow on the string; for now Fierce memory of his wrongs awoke against These, who had left him years agone, in pain Groaning upon the desolate sea-shore. Yea, and his heart's stem will he had swiftly wrought, But, even as upon that godlike twain He gazed, Athena caused his bitter wrath To melt away. Then drew they nigh to him With looks of sad compassion, and sat down On either hand beside him in the cave, And of his deadly wound and grievous pangs Asked; and he told them all his sufferings. And they spake hope and comfort; and they said: "Thy woeful wound, thine anguish, shall be healed, If thou but come with us to Achaea's host-- The host that now is sorrowing after thee With all its kings. And no man of them all Was cause of thine affliction, but the Fates, The cruel ones, whom none that walk the earth Escape, but aye they visit hapless men Unseen; and day by day with pitiless hearts Now they afflict men, now again exalt To honour--none knows why; for all the woes And all the joys of men do these devise After their pleasure." Hearkening he sat To Odysseus and to godlike Diomede; And all the hoarded wrath for olden wrongs And all the torturing rage, melted away. Straight to the strand dull-thundering and the ship, Laughing for joy, they bare him with his bow. There washed they all his body and that foul wound With sponges, and with plenteous water bathed: So was his soul refreshed. Then hasted they And made meat ready for the famished man, And in the galley supped with him. Then came The balmy night, and sleep slid down on them. Till rose the dawn they tarried by the strand Of sea-girt Lemnos, but with dayspring cast The hawsers loose, and heaved the anchor-stones Out of the deep. Athena sent a breeze Blowing behind the galley taper-prowed. They strained the sail with either stern-sheet taut; Seaward they pointed the stout-girdered ship; O'er the broad flood she leapt before the wind; Broken to right and left the dark wave sighed, And seething all around was hoary foam, While thronging dolphins raced on either hand Flashing along the paths of silver sea.