Epic poetry, Greek -- Translations into English; Homer -- Translations into English; Odysseus, King of Ithaca (Mythological character)
“Then verily the West Wind ceased to blow with a rushing storm, and
swiftly withal the South Wind came, bringing sorrow to my soul, that so
I might again measure back that space of sea, the way to deadly
Charybdis. All the night was I borne, but with the rising of the sun I
came to the rock of Scylla, and to dread Charybdis. Now she had sucked
down her salt sea water, when I was swung up on high to the tall
fig-tree whereto I clung like a bat, and could find no sure rest for my
feet nor place to stand, for the roots spread far below and the
branches hung aloft out of reach, long and large, and overshadowed
Charybdis. Steadfast I clung till she should spew forth mast and keel
again; and late they came to my desire. At the hour when a man rises up
from the assembly and goes to supper, one who judges the many quarrels
of the young men that seek to him for law, at that same hour those
timbers came forth to view from out Charybdis. And I let myself drop
down hands and feet, and plunged heavily in the midst of the waters
beyond the long timbers, and sitting on these I rowed hard with my
hands. But the father of gods and of men suffered me no more to behold
Scylla, else I should never have escaped from utter doom.
“Thence for nine days was I borne, and on the tenth night the gods
brought me nigh to the isle of Ogygia, where dwells Calypso of the
braided tresses, an awful goddess of mortal speech, who took me in and
entreated me kindly. But why rehearse all this tale? For even yesterday
I told it to thee and to thy noble wife in thy house; and it liketh me
not twice to tell a plain-told tale.”
BOOK XIII.
Odysseus, sleeping, is set ashore at Ithaca by the Phaeacians, and
waking knows it not. Pallas, in the form of a shepherd, helps to hide
his treasure. The ship that conveyed him is turned into a rock, and
Odysseus by Pallas is instructed what to do, and transformed into an
old beggarman.
So spake he, and dead silence fell on all, and they were spell-bound
throughout the shadowy halls. Thereupon Alcinous answered him, and
spake, saying:
“Odysseus, now that thou hast come to my high house with floor of
bronze, never, methinks, shalt thou be driven from thy way ere thou
returnest, though thou hast been sore afflicted. And for each man among
you, that in these halls of mine drink evermore the dark wine of the
elders, and hearken to the minstrel, this is my word and command.
Garments for the stranger are already laid up in a polished coffer,
with gold curiously wrought, and all other such gifts as the
counsellors of the Phaeacians bare hither. Come now, let us each of us
give him a great tripod and a cauldron, and we in turn will gather
goods among the people and get us recompense; for it were hard that one
man should give without repayment.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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