Epic poetry, Greek -- Translations into English; Homer -- Translations into English; Odysseus, King of Ithaca (Mythological character) -- Poetry
In sacrifice; but Jove my hallow'd rites
Reck'd not, destruction purposing to all
My barks, and all my followers o'er the Deep.
Thus, feasting largely, on the shore we sat
Till even-tide, and quaffing gen'rous wine;
But when day fail'd, and night o'ershadow'd all, 660
Then, on the shore we slept; and when again
Aurora rosy daughter of the Dawn,
Look'd forth, my people, anxious, I enjoin'd
To climb their barks, and cast the hawsers loose.
They all obedient, took their seats on board
Well-ranged, and thresh'd with oars the foamy flood.
Thus, 'scaping narrowly, we roam'd the Deep
With aching hearts and with diminish'd crews.
FOOTNOTES:
[32] So the Scholium interprets in this place, the word ὑπερθιαλος.
[33] Λινως
[34] Clarke, who has preserved this name in his marginal version,
contends strenuously, and with great reason, that Outis ought not to be
translated, and in a passage which he quotes from the _Acta eruditorum_,
we see much fault found with Giphanius and other interpreters of Homer
for having translated it. It is certain that in Homer the word is
declined not as ουτις-τινος which signifies no man, but as ουτις-τιδος
making ουτιν in the accusative, consequently as a proper name. It is
sufficient that the ambiguity was such as to deceive the friends of the
Cyclops. Outis is said by some (perhaps absurdly) to have been a name
given to Ulysses on account of his having larger ears than common.
[35] Outis, as a _name_ could only denote him who bore it; but as a
_noun_, it signifies _no man_, which accounts sufficiently for the
ludicrous mistake of his brethren.
[36]
προπεσοντες
------Olli certamine summo
Procumbunt.
VIRGIL
[37] The seeming incongruity of this line with line 560, is reconciled by
supposing that Ulysses exerted his voice, naturally loud, in an
extraordinary manner on this second occasion. See Clarke.
BOOK X
ARGUMENT
Ulysses, in pursuit of his narrative, relates his arrival at the island
of Æolus, his departure thence, and the unhappy occasion of his return
thither. The monarch of the winds dismisses him at last with much
asperity. He next tells of his arrival among the Læstrygonians, by whom
his whole fleet, together with their crews, are destroyed, his own ship
and crew excepted. Thence he is driven to the island of Circe. By her the
half of his people are transformed into swine. Assisted by Mercury, he
resists her enchantments himself, and prevails with the Goddess to
recover them to their former shape. In consequence of Circe's
instructions, after having spent a complete year in her palace, he
prepares for a voyage to the infernal regions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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