Epic poetry, Greek -- Translations into English; Homer -- Translations into English; Odysseus, King of Ithaca (Mythological character)
Thither they, as having knowledge of that place, let drive their ship;
and now the vessel in full course ran ashore, half her keel’s length
high; so well was she sped by the hands of the oarsmen. Then they
alighted from the benched ship upon the land, and first they lifted
Odysseus from out the hollow ship, all as he was in the sheet of linen
and the bright rug, and laid him yet heavy with slumber on the sand.
And they took forth the goods which the lordly Phaeacians had given him
on his homeward way by grace of the great-hearted Athene. These they
set in a heap by the trunk of the olive tree, a little aside from the
road, lest some wayfaring man, before Odysseus awakened, should come
and spoil them. Then themselves departed homeward again. But the shaker
of the earth forgat not the threats, wherewith at the first he had
threatened god like Odysseus, and he inquired into the counsel of Zeus,
saying:
“Father Zeus, I for one shall no longer be of worship among the
deathless gods, when mortal men hold me in no regard, even Phaeacians,
who moreover are of mine own lineage. Lo, now I said that after much
affliction Odysseus should come home, for I had no mind to rob him
utterly of his return, when once thou hadst promised it and given
assent; but behold, in his sleep they have borne him in a swift ship
over the sea, and set him down in Ithaca, and given him gifts out of
measure, bronze and gold in plenty and woven raiment, much store, such
as never would Odysseus have won for himself out of Troy; yea, though
he had returned unhurt with the share of the spoil that fell to him.”
And Zeus, the cloud gatherer, answered him saying: “Lo, now, shaker of
the earth, of widest power, what a word hast thou spoken! The gods
nowise dishonour thee; hard would it be to assail with dishonour our
eldest and our best. But if any man, giving place to his own hardihood
and strength, holds thee not in worship, thou hast always thy revenge
for the same, even in the time to come. Do thou as thou wilt, and as
seems thee good.”
Then Poseidon, shaker of the earth, answered him: “Straightway would I
do even as thou sayest, O god of the dark clouds; but thy wrath I
always hold in awe and avoid. Howbeit, now I fain would smite a fair
ship of the Phaeacians, as she comes home from a convoy on the misty
deep, that thereby they may learn to hold their hands, and cease from
giving escort to men; and I would overshadow their city with a great
mountain.”
And Zeus the gatherer of the clouds, answered him, saying: “Friend,
learn now what seems best in my sight. At an hour when the folk are all
looking forth from the city at the ship upon her way, smite her into a
stone hard by the land; a stone in the likeness of a swift ship, that
all mankind may marvel, and do thou overshadow their city with a great
mountain.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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