Epic poetry, Greek -- Translations into English; Homer -- Translations into English; Odysseus, King of Ithaca (Mythological character)
On this same day (the sixth) the wooers in Ithaca learned that
Telemachus had really set out to “cruise after his father.” They sent
some of their number to lie in ambush for him, in a certain strait
which he was likely to pass on his return to Ithaca. Penelope also
heard of her son’s departure, but was consoled by a dream.
DAY 7 (Book v).
The seventh day finds us again in Olympus. Athene again urges the
release of Odysseus; and Hermes is sent to bid Calypso let the hero go.
Zeus prophecies that after twenty days sailing, Odysseus will reach
Scheria, and the hospitable Phaeacians, a people akin to the Gods, who
will convey him to Ithaca. Hermes accomplishes the message to Calypso.
DAYS 8-12-32 (Book v).
These days are occupied by Odysseus in making and launching a raft; on
the twelfth day from the beginning of the action he leaves Calypso’s
isle. He sails for eighteen days, and on the eighteenth day of his
voyage (the twenty-ninth from the beginning of the action), he sees
Scheria. Poseidon raises a storm against him, and it is not till the
thirty-second day from that in which Athene visited Telemachus, that he
lands in Scheria, the country of the Phaeacians. Here he is again in
fairy land. A rough, but perfectly recognisable form of the Phaeacian
myth, is found in an Indian collection of _märchen_ (already referred
to) of the twelfth century A.D. Here the Phaeacians are the
Vidyâdhâris, and their old enemies the Cyclôpes, are the Rakshashas, a
sort of giants. The Indian Odysseus, who seeks the city of gold, passes
by the home of an Indian Aeolus, Satyavrata. His later adventures are
confused, and the Greek version retains only the more graceful fancies
of the _märchen_.
DAY 33 (Book vi).
Odysseus meets Nausicaa, daughter of Alcinous, the Phaeacian King, and
by her aid, and that of Athene, is favourably received at the palace,
and tells how he came from Calypso’s island. His name is still unknown
to his hosts.
DAY 34 (Books vii, viii, ix, x, xi, xii).
The Phaeacians and Odysseus display their skill in sports. Nausicaa
bids Odysseus farewell. Odysseus recounts to Alcinous, and Arete, the
Queen, those adventures in the two years between the fall of Troy and
his captivity in the island of Calypso, which we have already described
(pp. xiii-xvii).
DAY 35 (Book xiii).
Odysseus is conveyed to Ithaca, in the evening, on one of the magical
barques of the Phaeacians.
DAY 36 (Books xiii, xiv, xv).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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