Book X

So we came to the isle Æolian, where Æolus doth dwell,
E'en Hippotas' son, of the Deathless, the Gods, beloved well;
In a floating isle he dwelleth, and all about it there
Is a brazen wall unbroken, and the cliff goeth up to it sheer.
But twelve children born of his body abide in his house and hall,
And six thereof are daughters and six lusty sons and tall;
And unto his sons in wedlock his daughters did he give;
And beside their father beloved and their mother dear they live
In endless feast: and by them ten thousand dainties lie.
And up from the house sweet-steaming daylong goes forth the cry ic
All round the garth; but a-night-tide amid the carpets deep
And on the well-joined bedsteads by their shamefast wives they sleep.

"So unto their burg we hied us and their high-house builded well,
And me month-long there-he cherished, and all tales would have me tell
Of the Argive ships and of Ilios, and the Achæans' journey home.

And in order due I told him whatwise the thing had come.
And when for the road I asked him, and speeding of him prayed,
In nowise he gainsaid me, but good speed for me arrayed:
For he gave me a wallet new flayed from a bull, a nine-year-old,
And all ways of the blustering winds therein did he bind and hold,
For the Son of Cronos had made him the master of the wind,
To lull the blasts or to raise them according to his mind.
So adown in the great ship's hollow with a thong had he bound it about,
All silver-bright, that no littlest of the blast might breathe thereout;
And therewith the breeze of the South-west he sent along to blow,
To waft on us and our ship-host. Yet nowise wrought it so;
For by our own stark folly were all we folk undone.
"Nine days and nights thereafter thenceforward sailed we on,
And with the tenth day's dawning showed the acres of our land,
Till we saw men lighting the beacons, so nigh we were at hand.
But on me, outworn and wearied, sweet sleep and slumber came
As I held the sheet; for never to my folk gave I the same,
That we the swiftlier speeding our fatherland might make.
Then my fellows took up the word, and each to other spake,
For they deemed that home I was bringing great store of silver and gold
By the great-heart Eolus given, son of Hippotas of old;
And thus would one be saying as he looked on his fellow anear:
"' Gods! how is this man honoured, and by all men holden dear,
To whoseso land and city he cometh on a day!
And withal from Troy-towns' treasure great wealth he bore away:
While we who with him have wandered and worn the self-same road,
Here come we empty-handed back to our old abode:
And again for his love and his honour hath Eolus given him this.
But come now, let us hasten and see what treasure it is,
What wealth of gold and silver within the bag doth lie.'
"So the evil rede of my fellows there won the victory;
For they opened the bag, and from out it forth every wind did sweep,
And the whirl-blast caught us and drave us lamenting o'er the deep,
Away from the land of our fathers. Then I awoke withal,
And within my heart the blameless twifold the thought did fall,.
Whether casting myself from a-shipboard I should die there down in the
Or abide the thing in silence, and yet mid the living to be.
So I bore and abode, and hidden adown in the ship I lay. sea,
But the ships by an evil whirl-blast of the wind were borne away,
And back to the isle Æolian; and our folk bewailed them sore.
"There then upon earth we gat us, and drew water on the shore,
And the shipmen gat to their victuals by the ships' side fair and fleet;
But thereafter when they had tasted of the drink and of the meat
Then I chose me out a herald, and one with him to go
To Æolus' house the glorious; and when we came thereto,
Still feasting by his helpmate and his children him we found.
So we went to the house and sat us 'twixt the doorposts on the ground,
And their souls were filled with wonder, and they asked how it might be.

"How comest thou here, Odysseus? What ill-God grieveth thee?
Since in heedful wise we sped thee, that thou at last might'st gain
Thy fatherland and thine homestead, if therefor thine heart were fain.'

"So they spake, and thereto I answered, though needs my heart must wail:
'Tis the scathe of evil fellows, and idle slumber's bale.
But now, O friends, do ye heal it, as ye have might to do.'

"So I spake, and with words soft-spoken besought them thereunto;

But the others sat in silence, while a word did their father give:
'Begone in haste from the island, thou wretch amongst all that live
For unrighteous it were to cherish or speed upon his way
Such a man as thou, so hated by the Gods of the happy day.
Begone! since unto the Deathless thou art so loathed a thing.'

"And with that word he sent me from the house sore sorrowing.
So there we sailed right onward with hearts oppressed with woe,
And outworn were the souls of the shipmen with the toilsome need to row,
For all our vain endeavour; since no speeding wind there came.

"Six days our way we wended, by day and night the same,
But we made the burg on the seventh of Lamos builded high,
Wide compassed, Læstrygonian; where herd to herd doth cry
As he wendeth afield, and his fellow thence coming him doth hear.
And forsooth a twofold hire might the sleepless win him there,
And one spell the neat be herding, and one the sheep-kind white;
For there anigh to each other are the ways of day and of night
"So we came unto the haven, a fair and glorious one,
Where a rock-wall high, unbroken, all round about is done;
And sheer out-thrusting nesses each other hold in face
At the mouth thereof, and narrow is the entry of the place.

"Therein laid all the others their ships, the curved and fair,
And in the hollow haven close-set they moored them there.
For thereinto no billow from the outer sea might fall,
Nay neither great nor little; white calm was over all
But I alone of all men my black ship held without,
To a rock of the outer crag-wall my hawser binding about
Then up to a peak I gat me, a craggy place and high,

And no tillage of neat or of manfolk from thence could I espy:
Nay, nought but smoke proceeding from under the earth could I see.
So I chose out two of our fellows, and a third their herald to be,
And sent them as our forerunners, that they might ask and heed
What men these were of menfolk on the earth's face eating bread.

"So they went and fared on a highway whereby the wains come down
That fetch from the lofty mountains the timber toward the town;
And they came upon a damsel drawing water nigh the gate,
Of Antiphates the Læstrygon the daughter fair and great.
For unto the well Artacia fair-flowing had she come down,
Whence folk were wont to be drawing the water for the town;
So drawing nigh unto her they asked her of the thing
What man was lord among them, and who o'er the folk was king. no
So her father's dwelling she showed them, the house high-roofed and fair.
And they came to that glorious dwelling and found a woman there,
Huge, high as the tops of the mountains; and they loathed her utterly.
Then straight she called from the market her lord and brought him anigh,
Antiphates the mighty, who devised them woeful bane;
For he snatched up one and arrayed him as meat for his dinner's gain.
But his fellows fled from before him, and gat to the ships and the sea.
Then the king sent his cry through the city, and they heard him presently,
Those Læstrygons the mighty, and flockmeal came they then
From all around, unnumbered, more giant-like than men;
And stones each one a man-load from the rocks they cast on those.
And the clamour and cry of evil from around the ship-host rose,
And the sound of men a-dying with the crashing ships was blent,
As with men like fishes spitted to their loathly feast they went
"But while within the haven and the deep place these did die,
I pulled forth the sharpened edges, and drew the sword from my thigh,
And therewith I sheared the hawser of my ship of the prow dark-blue,
And bade my fellows hasten, and egged them on to do,
And lay out over the oar-hefts that we might 'scape the bane.
So they their death-day dreading cast the salt-sea up amain,
And fain was I, as seaward to the deep from the rock-wall sheer
My ship fled: for the ship-host the others perished there.
"Forth then we sailed and onward, our hearts with evil worn,
Yet fain of the flight from the death-day; of our fellows all forlorn.
But we came to the isle Ææa, where the fair-tressed Circe dwells,
And she the awful Goddess in man-speech talks and tells.
But the very sister is she of Æetes fell and wise,
For they both of the Sun were begotten that lighteth all men's eyes
From one mother, and she was Perse", the maid that Ocean gat.
"So we made the shore in our keel, and in silence came thereat,
And into the ship-fast haven, and some God led the way.
Then on the dry land going two days and nights we lay,
Eating our hearts with labour and the burden of our ill.
But when the fair-tressed Dawning the third day did fulfil
Then, taking my spear of battle and my sword the sharp and keen,
Straight up from the ship I wended to a place whence the land might be seen,
If perchance I might see men's tillage or the voice of men might hear;
So a rocky height I clambered, and I stood on the topmost there,
And saw the reek uprising from the wide-wayed earth below,
As up from the house of Circe through the thicket did it go.
Therewith I fell to pondering, in my heart and in my mind,
If where the dark reek I was seeing I should go to seek and find:
But as I thought it over it seemed the better to me
That first aback I should hie me to the swift ship and the sea,
To give my mates their supper and send them forth to espy.
"But as my ways I wended, and the curved ship drew anigh,
Then one of the Gods had pity on me the wender apart;
For across my path he sent me a huge high-antlered hart,
Who had come to drink of the river adown from his woodland mead,
For the might of the high sun's burning compelled him with its need.
Then him as he went from the water amidst the back I smote
By the spine; and the spear brass-headed passed through and through and out,
And he cried, and his soul went from him as he fell in the dust of the ground.
And therewith did I set foot on him, and drew out the spear from the wound,
And the spear, on the earth I laid it and let it be thereby,
While I plucked me twigs and withies and twined them evenly
Into a rope well twisted throughout, a fathom long,
Wherewith I bound together the feet of the beast the strong;
Which thus on my neck a-laying to the black ship did I flit
As I steadied myself with my spear-shaft; for I might not shoulder it,
And with one hand hold it on me; for it was a mighty deer.
So I cast him adown by the ship-side, and my fellows did I stir
With words that were soft and pleasant, by each one standing anigh:

"' Not yet, O friends, shall we wend us for all our misery
Adown to the House of Hades till the fateful day befal;
So while in our ship the speedy there is meat and drink for all
Of victual be we heedful, lest our lives with hunger wear.'

"So I said, and straight they heeded what I bespake them there,
And with all their heads uncovered on the shore of the untilled sea
On the hart they looked and wondered, for a mighty deer was he;
But when their eyes they had pleasured with looking on the beast
They washed their hands and arrayed them to hold a noble feast.
So there all day were we sitting, till the sun went nigh to sink,
To eat of the flesh unfailing and of honied wine to drink.

But when the sun sank under and the night upon us crept,
Then there on the side of the salt-sea we laid us down and slept.
"But when the Mother of Morning, Rose-fingered Dawn, shone bright,
I arrayed the meeting of menfolk, and to all I spake outright:
'Hearken, O friends and fellows, who bear such weight of woe!
Of the place of the Dark and the Dawning no longer now we know,
Nor where the Sun man-lighting beneath the earth doth sink,
Nor where he riseth upward: so let us be speedy to think,
If yet there be aught of counsel, as I believe is none.
For I climbed to a craggy hill-top and looked on the isle adown,
And saw that the limitless sea-flood begirdled it all about,
And all plain it lay: but mine eyes beheld the reek rise out
From the woodland and the thicket amidmost of it there.'

"So I spake, but now all broken were their hearts beloved and dear,
When of that Antiphates' doings, the Læstrygon, they thought;
And the rage of the stark man-eater, and the deeds which the Cyclops wrought;
And plenteous tears were they weeping and loud lament they made,
Though nought availed their weeping, nor might their mourning aid.

"Then my well-greaved fellows I numbered into two companies,
And a leader I appointed to be o'er each of these;
And I led the one, and the other godlike Eurylochus led.
Then in a brazen helmet the shuffled lots we sped,
And therefrom the lot of Eurylochus the great of heart did go.
So he went his ways, and with him were fellows twenty and two;
And they wept as they went and left us, and sorrow sore we made.
"Now they came on the house of Circe well builded down in a glade,
And all of smooth stone fashioned in a place seen far and near:
And about it were wolves of the mountain, and lions haunted there;
And she herself had tamed them with the help of herbs of ill:
Nor fell they upon our fellows, though they thronged about them still,
But fawning there upon them their long tails wagged withal.
And as dogs will fawn on their master when he comes from the feastful hall,
Because he is wont to bring them things that their hearts deem good,
Round these the wolves the strong-clawed, and the lions fawning stood,
And they feared when they beheld them, the creatures fierce and great.
"But there was the house of the Goddess, and there they stood in the gate,
And Circe heard they singing in a lovely voice within,
As she wove on the web undying, such works as the Godfolk win,
Such works as are all-glorious, and delicate and fair.
"Then the chief of men, Polites, bespake his fellows there,
A man who to me was dearest, and the heedfullest of all:
'O friends, there is some wight weaving a great web there in the hall,
And singing so fair that the pavement is echoing all about
A goddess or a woman? but to her let us haste to cry out.'

"So he spake, and they cried aloud, and their voices toward her cast,
And she, straight coming outwards, through the shining doorway passed,
And called them, and they followed, so witless was their mood;
But Eurylochus dreaded treason, and without the door abode.
So she led them in and set them on bench and lordly seat,
And a mess of cheese, and meal and honey pale and sweet
With Pramnian wine she mingled; and she blended therewithal
Ill herbs, that the land of their fathers might clean from their memories fall.
But when she had given thereof, and they had drunk of the wine,
With a staff she smote them, and shut them within the sty of the swine;
And swine-shape they had, and the voice and the bristles and head of the boar;
But ever their minds abided e'en such as they were before.

So there were they styed up weeping, and Circe presently
Cast to them mast, and acorns, and nuts of the cornel tree,
Whereof the swine earth-wallowing are wont to make their meat.

"But aback Eurylochus hastened to the ship black-wrought and fleet,
To tell tidings of his fellows and their unseemly doom;
But though for speech he was striving yet never a word would come,
So sore his heart was smitten; and his eyes with tears were filled,
And nought but lamentation the soul within him willed.
But when all we in wonder were asking of his tale,
Then at last of our other fellows he told the woe and the bale.
'We wended, O noble Odysseus, the way whereas ye bade,
And came on a house through the thicket fair builded in a glade,
Of polished wall-stones fashioned in a place seen far and near;
Where a great web one was weaving and singing shrilly-clear;
A goddess or a woman? So aloud on her we cried,
And through the doorway gleaming straightway to us she hied,
And called us; and they followed because of their witless mind,
But treason I foreboded, and abided there behind.
And all they vanished together; nor ever any one
Came back again, though a long while I sat and watched alone.'

"So he spake; but the great blade brazen o'er my shoulders did I throw,
Yea, my war-sword silver-hiked, and about me did my bow.
And I bade him straightly lead me by the way he went with these:
But he caught ahold upon me, and clung to both my knees,
And amidst of lamentation sent winged words to me.
'Nay, drive me not unwilling, Zeus-bred! here let me be!
For I know that neither thou shalt come back, nor bring bark one
Of our fellows. Nay, but with these that are here let us swiftly begone

And flee; if yet mayhappen we may 'scape our evil day.'

"So he spake: but thereto I answered and spake to him straightway:
'Eurylochus, thou if thou wiliest shalt here in thy place abide,
And here be eating and drinking by the black ship's hollow side;
But for me, now am I departing for stark need is weighing on me.'

"So I spake, and my ways I wended from the ship-side and the sea;
But when through the holy glades I now was drawing anigh
The mighty house of Circe, who of herbs hath mastery,
Lo, the God of the Golden Wand, e'en Hermes, met me there,
As toward the house I wended, as a young man shapen fair
When first his beard is sprouting in the loveliest tide of youth;
Then he took my hand and named me, and spake a word of sooth:

"' Whither away, unlucky, dost thou wander through the wold,
Unwotting of the country? while Circe's house doth hold
Thy fellows in their swine-shape, and in stark lairs they lie.
And comest thou hither to loose them? then thereof thus say I,
That for thee shall be no returning but there with the rest shalt thou bide.
And yet from these ills shall I loose thee, and save thee on this tide.
Lo, here a herb full crafty! take this when thou comest thy way
Unto Circe's house, and its might shall stave off thine evil day.
But now shall I tell thee of Circe and the baleful guile she shall win,
For a potion shall she mix thee, and shall cast the venom therein,
But shall not avail to bewitch thee because of the herb of might
Which now I give unto thee; and all things shall I show thee aright.
For whenas Circe would smite thee with a staff exceeding long,
Then from thy thigh be drawing thy sword the sharp and strong,
And fall upon her fiercely as though thou wouldst have her to die,
Then shall she cower before thee and bid thee with her to lie;

And then shalt thou in nowise the bed of the Goddess gainsay,
So that she may loose thy fellows, and speed thee on thy way.
But the oath of the happy Gods, the Great Oath, shalt thou bid her to take,
That nothing more of evil against thee she shall wake,
Lest she make thee naked of might, a foul and unmanned thing.'
"So spake the Bane of Argus, and forth the herb did he bring,
Having dug it up out of the earth; and he showed me its make and its
And black was the root thereof, but the blossom milky white;
And Moly the Godfolk call it: hard is it for men that die might;
To dig it out, but all things can the Gods do easily.
And therewith from that woody island went Hermes on his road
Unto the long Olympus, but I went to Circe's abode;
And many things o'ershadowed my heart as I wended there.

"So I stayed me in the doorway of the Maid of the well-tressed hair,
And I stood and cried out loudly, and the Goddess heard, and straight
She gat her out and toward me, and came through the gleaming gate,
And called me, and I followed with the grief my heart did bear.

"So she brought me in and set me in a silver-studded chair,
In fashion fair adorned, and a footstool under my feet;
Then a drink in a golden beaker for me did she mingle and mete,
And into the cup cast venom, devising evil sore.
Yet when I had taken and drunken, it bewitched me none the more;
So then with her staff she smote me, and spake unto me and said,
'Thou, too, to the sty betake thee! with thy fellows make thy bed!'
"So she spake; but my sword keen-whetted I drew forth from my thigh,
And fell therewith on Circe, as though I would have her to die;
And she shrieked and ran under my hands and caught me about my knees,
And therewith on me fawning, spake such winged words as these:

"' What man art thou? of what kindred, of what city comest thou?
For I marvel that drinking this venom thou art nought enchanted now;
Since never hath any other borne my venom ere to-day,

When once he hath drunk, and the drink by the tooth-hedge hath taken its way.
Then proof against all witchcraft is the heart that thy bosom doth hold.
Yea, art thou that shifty Odysseus, whom the Lord of the Staff of Gold,
The Argus-bane, would tell of? the man who should come, said he,
From Troy town wending homeward in his swift black ship o'er the sea?
But set thou thy sword in the scabbard! and then how well if we went,
We twain, in one bed together! and thereafter we being blent
In love and friendly pleasure shall trust each other well.'

"She spake, and thereto I answered and said such words to tell:
'O Circe, how wilt thou bid me to be kind and courteous
When thou hast turned my fellows into swine within thine house?
And for me, thou hast holden me here, and in thy craftihead
Thou biddest me to thy chamber and to go up into thy bed,
That thou may'st strip me of manhood and make me vile and base.
Nay, never with my goodwill shall I go to thy bed and thy place,
Unless thou hast heart, O Goddess, by the Oath of all avail
To swear that from henceforward thou devisest me no bale.'
"So I spake, and straight she swore it e'en as I bade her do;
And so when that was accomplished, and the oath made steadfast and true,
Then up to the bed of Circe, the lovely bed, I went.

"But meanwhile in the halls the handmaids on service were intent,
E'en the four who are ever serving about that house and home;
And their race is of the well-springs, of the grassy groves they come,

And of the holy rivers that toward the sea flow down.
And now one of these was casting fair cloths on chair and throne,
And above she laid the purple, and beneath the linen fair;
And one the silver table drew forth before the chair,
And thereon fell to setting the baskets golden-wrought;
And the third in a bowl of silver blent wine that lulleth thought,
Sweet wine, and around was dealing the golden cups and fair:
But the fourth bore in the water and kindled much fire there,
Beneath a mighty caldron, till warm the water was.
And when it came to the boiling within the gleaming brass,
In the bath she put me and bathed me, and from the caldron led
Warm water softly tempered o'er my shoulders and my head,
And the weariness took from my body that the soul within me wore.
And so when she had washed me, and with oil had sleeked me o'er,
She set a kirtle upon me, and a cloak full fine and fair,
And led me in and set me in the silver-studded chair,
Well wrought with all adornment, and a stool beneath my feet;
And hand-water brought the damsel in a golden ewer meet,
And into a silver basin over my hands she poured,
And there beside moreover arrayed the polished board.
And therewith a reverend woman bore in the bread for me,
And stayed me with such dainties as happened there to be.

"So there to the meat she bade me, which nought my mind deemed good,
For of other things had I deeming, and on evil did I brood.
But Circe when she beheld it, that I sat and none the more
Reached out my hand to the victuals, but abode in sorrow sore,
Came nigh and stood beside me and winged words did flit:

"' How cometh it, Odysseus, that as one dumb ye sit
Eating thine heart, nor dealing with the meat and drink that is here?
Forebodest thou some evil? Nay, thereof thou need'st not fear;
For I have sworn to refrain me by the mighty Oath of dread!'

"In this wise she bespake me, but I answered her and said:
'O Circe, where is the man that in righteous wise would think,
Who would have the heart to be tasting of any meat and drink
Ere he had loosed his fellows and beheld them with his eyes?
But if unto meat and to drink thou biddest in kindly wise,
Loose them, that I with mine eyen may look on my fellows dear.'

So I spake, but forth from the guest-hall therewith did Circe fare,
Bearing her staff in her hand; and she opened the swine-stye door
And drave them out, each one in the shape of a nine-years' boar;
And there they stood before her, and she went amidst them there,
And with another venom each man thereof did she smear,
And down from their limbs fell the bristles that erewhile the venom had
The baleful herb they had taken at the hand of Circe the dread;
And men again were they gotten, yet younger than afore, bred,
And fairer folk to look on, and mightier and more.
So therewithal they knew me, and they took my hand each man,
And on them fell the wistful weeping, and the sound of their wailing ran
Through the house and the hall, and the Goddess she pitied us, e'en she.
And therewith that Godhead's Glory drew nigh and spake to me:

"' O Zeus-bred son of Laertes, Odysseus of many a shift,
Get thee down to the side of the sea-flood, and thy ship the fair and swift,
And the first thing beach thy ship on the firm land high and dry,
And stow your wealth in the rock-dens, and there let the tackling lie,
Then wend thou homeward hither, and all thy folk with thee.'

"So she spake, and thereto I hearkened and the noble soul in me.
And I went my ways to the ship and the side of the salt-sea flood.
And there on the ship I found them, my fellows trusty and good,
Sore grieving, pouring the tear-drops most plenteous on the ground.
And as when the calves of the meadows together play and bound
About the herded kine as full-fed of grass withal
They come aback to the midden, and stayed no more by the stall,
The calves run round their mothers still lowing ceaselessly,
So when their eyes beheld me, weeping they thronged on me,
And even so to my deeming did the minds within them fare,
As though they were come to their country and in the city were
Of Ithaca the craggy, where they were born and bred,
And fain midst lamentation these winged words they said: come
"' We are fain of thy coming, Zeus-nourished, as though we were verily
Unto Ithaca our country, and the ancient fathers' home.
But come now, tell us the story of our fellows' bale and bane.'
"So they spake; but sweet and softly I answered them again:
'Our ship now first of all things let us haul up high and dry,
And lay up our gear in the rock-dens and our tackling lay thereby;
Then I bid you altogether to wend along with me,
That in Circe's holy homestead your fellows ye may see
All fain, and eating and drinking, for endless store have they.'
"So I spake, and the words of my bidding in nought did they gainsay,
Save that Eurylochus only the rest was hindering.
And thus he spake unto them and set these words on the wing:
'Out, hapless! whither wend we? for what a bale ye yearn
That we go to the house of Circe, who all us shall change and turn
Into swine, or into wolf shapes, or lions of the wold,
Over her house the mighty enforced watch to hold.

E'en such were the deeds of the Cyclops, when our folk awhile ago
Came amidst his garth, and with them did o'erbold Odysseus go,
And by that one man's folly the others perished there.'

"So he spake, and awhile I pondered in what wise I should fare,
Whether, drawing my edgy long-sword from beside my sturdy thigh,
I should smite the head from off him adown in the dust to lie,
Though anigh we were of kindred. But my fellows all about
With honied words withheld me, to let my wrath die out.
'O Zeus-bred, leave we this man, if so thou wiliest it,
Beside the ship abiding and in guard thereof to sit,
But us do thou lead to Circe and her holy house and hall.'

"So they spake, and up from the sea and the ship they wended withal.
Nor yet was Eurylochus left by the hollow ship to abide,
For he dreaded my awful anger, and after us he hied.

"But meanwhile our other fellows did Circe bathe with care,
And with soft oil sleeked them over within her house the fair,
And thick cloaks and goodly kirtles did on them therewithal,
And we found them at the banquet within her feasting-hall.
But when these beheld each other, and thought o'er all the tale,
They mourned and wept together that the house rang with their wail,
And therewith that Godhead's Glory drew near to me and said:
"' Odysseus, thou the wily, Laertes' son Zeus-bred,
No more awake new wailing; for I myself, I know,
How on the sea fish-haunted ye bore a weight of woe;
And how on the land the foemen have wrought you bale and pine;
But eat your meat I bid you, fall to upon the wine,
Until within your bosoms such hardy heart shall grow

As wherewith the land of your fathers ye left a while ago,
E'en Ithaca the craggy. For your wanderings wide ye brood.
Downcast ye are and withered, nor ever of your mood
Gladsome ye are and merry, since ye bear this weight of woe.'

"She spake, and our noble spirits consented thereunto.
And there day on day we abided till the year fulfilled her round
On unfailing flesh we feasted; sweet wine did there abound:
But when it now was a year, and the seasons came about,
And the long days were accomplished by the months a dying out,
Then my trusty fellows called me, and spake to me and said:

"' Lord, wilt thou not bethink thee of the land where thou wast bred,
If of thee hath the doom been spoken that thou be saved to come
To thine house the steadfast-builded and the ancient fathers' home?'

"So my noble soul was consenting to what they would have done.
There all day long were we sitting till the going down of the sun,
Upon the flesh unfailing and the sweet wine feasting well;
But when the sun sank under, and the night upon us fell,
Then about the shadowy halls were they bedded here and there.
But I went up unto Circe and the bed exceeding fair,

And by her knees I besought her, and my prayer the Goddess heard,
As speaking there before her I uttered a winged word:

"' O Circe, now fulfil it thy word of the day bygone,
To speed me home; for my soul to departing now eggeth me on,
And the hearts of these my fellows who about me wail and cry,
Wearing the soul within me when thou art not anigh.'

"So I spake; but that Godhead's Glory thus answered to my need:
'O many-wiled Odysseus, Zeus-bred Laertes' seed!
In this my house unwilling shall ye bide for no long day,
But first another road must ye wear, and wend your way
Unto the house of Hades and dread Persephone,
To seek aid of the ghost of the Theban Tiresias, even he,
The blind-eyed, the foreseer, whose steadfast mind bides still;
Unto whom, though dead he abideth, Persephone giveth will,
And alone to have understanding, while the rest as shadows flit.'
"I hearkened her speech and my heart brake down at the weight of it.
There I sat on the bed a-weeping, and all my desire was done
To live my life-days longer and look on the light of the sun;
Till, satiate now of weeping and wallowing on the bed,
I spake a word unto Circe, and answered her and said:
"' O Circe, and what helmsman for my way fare shall I get?
For to Hades never shipman hath sped the black ship yet.'
"I spake; but the Godhead's Glory thus answered thereupon:
'Odysseus very shifty, Zeus-bred Laertes' son,
Have thou no care nor longing for one thy ship to guide,
Step the mast, and the white sails spread ye, and sit ye there beside,
And the breath of the wind of the Northward shall waft thee on thy way.
But when through the stream of Ocean thy ship hath passed on a day,
There then is Persephone's Grove in the long deserted land
Where the tall black poplars flourish and the fruitless willows stand.
There by deep-eddying Ocean haul up upon the bank,
And go thy ways unto Hades and his dwelling dark and dank,
Where the stream of Flaming Fire into Grief-River goes,
And the Water of the Wailing, a rill that from Hate-flood flows.
And thereby is a rock and the meeting of two roaring rivers wide;
Draw up thereto, O hero, and e'en as I bid thee abide.
There then a pit shalt thou dig of a cubit endlong and o'er,
And thereby the due drink-offerings to all the dead shalt thou pour.
The first of mingled honey, of sweet wine the second one,
The third of very water, and the white meal sprinkled thereon.
Then utter thou thy praying to the mightless heads of the dead,
And vow that to Ithaca coming thou wilt slay in the halls of thy stead
A barren heifer most goodly, and heaped wealth on the fire wilt lay;
But unto that Tiresias apart and alone wilt slay
A sheep of black unspeckled, of all thy flock most fair.
But when the great race of the Dead thou hast worshipped with thy prayer,
Then a black ram shalt thou offer, and a black ewe shalt thou slay,
To the Nether Dusk turning their heads; and thyself turn thou away,
And about to the streams of the river. Then many a ghost shall come
Of the dead that have departed and left the earthly home.
There then shalt thou egg on thy fellows, and bid them to bring it to pass,
That the sheep that there are lying dead-slain by the pitiless brass
They flay and burn, and be calling with prayer on the Gods of the Dead,
On Hades the almighty and Persephone the dread;
And thou shalt sit with thy sword sharp-whetted drawn from thy thigh,
To refrain the unmighty heads of the dead from drawing anigh
To the blood-pit, ere thou beholdest Tiresias the seer.
Soon then, O Prince of the People, shall the wizard draw anear,
And he of thy way shall tell thee, and the measure of thy road,
Whereby o'er the fishy sea-flood thou shalt reach thine own abode.'
"So she spake, and the gold-throned Day-dawn therewith was come at last,
And she did a kirtle on me and a cloak about me cast;

And the Goddess did upon her a wide gown shining white,
And delicate and lovely, and about her loins she dight
A fair and golden girdle, and a veil upon her head.

"But I egged on all my fellows throughout the house and stead,
And by each man stood and bespoke him with honied words and meet:
No longer now be sleeping nor sigh out slumber sweet,
But come your ways as Circe the worshipped giveth rede.'
So I spake, and their noble souls gainsayed not but gave heed.
"But not e'en so all scatheless my folk away did I bring;
There was one Elpenor, the youngest; not best in everything,
In war not over-mighty, nor of understanding strong:
Now apart from all his fellows must he needs be lying along,
Aloft on the house of Circe, wine-heavy, seeking fresh air;
But whenas the tramp and the clatter of men stirring he did hear
He leapt up hasty and hurried, and had no thought at all
To get him adown and aback by the way of the ladders tall,
But right down from the roof he tumbled, and his neck from the backbone brake,
And his soul to the house of Hades the downward way must take.
"But unto my folk now gathered a word I spake and said:
'Ye think to be wending homeward to the land that your fathers bred;
But to us a new wayfaring hath Circe showed, and we
Must wend to the House of Hades and dread Persephone,
To seek us aid of the Theban Tiresias the Seer.'

"So I spake, but all down-broken were their hearts the lieve and dear,
And they sat and moaned in their places and their very hair they tore:
Albeit all their mourning it helped them none /the more.

"But while we went in our sorrow to the swift ship and the sea,
And tear on tear as we wended dripped down unceasingly,
That while had Circe got her adown to the black ship's side,
And a ram of the sheep and a ewe all black thereby had she tied,
And lightly unseen went by us; for what man's eyes may see
A God that is loth to be looked on, whether here or there he be?"