Book XII

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Odysseus, his passage by the Sirens, and by Scylla and

Charybdis. The sacrilege committed by his men in the isle

Thrinacia. The destruction of his ships and men. How he

swam on a plank nine days together, and came to Ogygia,

where he stayed seven years with Calypso.

'Now after the ship had left the stream of the river

Oceanus, and was come to the wave of the wide sea, and the

isle Aeaean, where is the dwelling place of early Dawn and

her dancing grounds, and the land of sunrising, upon our

coming thither we beached the ship in the sand, and

ourselves too stept ashore on the sea beach. There we fell

on sound sleep and awaited the bright Dawn.

'So soon as early Dawn shone forth, the rosy-fingered, I

sent forth my fellows to the house of Circe to fetch the

body of the dead Elpenor. And speedily we cut billets of

wood and sadly we buried him, where the furthest headland

runs out into the sea, shedding big tears. But when the

dead man was burned and the arms of the dead, we piled a

barrow and dragged up thereon a pillar, and on the topmost

mound we set the shapen oar.

'Now all that task we finished, and our coming from out of

Hades was not unknown to Circe, but she arrayed herself and

speedily drew nigh, and her handmaids with her bare flesh

and bread in plenty and dark red wine. And the fair goddess

stood in the midst and spake in our ears, saying:

'"Men overbold, who have gone alive into the house of

Hades, to know death twice, while all men else die once for

all. Nay come, eat ye meat and drink wine here all day

long; and with the breaking of the day ye shall set sail,

and myself I will show you the path and declare each thing,

that ye may not suffer pain or hurt through any grievous

ill-contrivance by sea or on the land."

'So spake she, and our lordly souls consented thereto. Thus

for that time we sat the livelong day, until the going down

of the sun, feasting on abundant flesh and on sweet wine.

Now when the sun sank and darkness came on, my company laid

them to rest by the hawsers of the ship. Then she took me

by the hand and led me apart from my dear company, and made

me to sit down and laid herself at my feet, and asked all

my tale. And I told her all in order duly. Then at the last

the Lady Circe spake unto me, saying:

'"Even so, now all these things have an end; do thou then

hearken even as I tell thee, and the god himself shall

bring it back to thy mind. To the Sirens first shalt thou

come, who bewitch all men, whosoever shall come to them.

Whoso draws nigh them unwittingly and hears the sound of

the Sirens' voice, never doth he see wife or babes stand by

him on his return, nor have they joy at his coming; but the

Sirens enchant him with their clear song, sitting in the

meadow, and all about is a great heap of bones of men,

corrupt in death, and round the bones the skin is wasting.

But do thou drive thy ship past, and knead honey-sweet wax,

and anoint therewith the ears of thy company, lest any of

the rest hear the song; but if thou myself art minded to

hear, let them bind thee in the swift ship hand and foot,

upright in the mast-stead, and from the mast let rope-ends

be tied, that with delight thou mayest hear the voice of

the Sirens. And if thou shalt beseech thy company and bid

them to loose thee, then let them bind thee with yet more

bonds. But when thy friends have driven thy ship past

these, I will not tell thee fully which path shall

thenceforth be thine, but do thou thyself consider it, and

I will speak to thee of either way. On the one side there

are beetling rocks, and against them the great wave roars

of dark-eyed Amphitrite. These, ye must know, are they the

blessed gods call the Rocks Wandering. By this way even

winged things may never pass, nay, not even the cowering

doves that bear ambrosia to Father Zeus, but the sheer rock

evermore takes away one even of these, and the Father sends

in another to make up the tale. Thereby no ship of men ever

escapes that comes thither, but the planks of ships and the

bodies of men confusedly are tossed by the waves of the sea

and the storms of ruinous fire. One ship only of all that

fare by sea hath passed that way, even Argo, that is in all

men's minds, on her voyage from Aeetes. And even her the

wave would lightly have cast there upon the mighty rocks,

but Here sent her by for love of Jason.

'"On the other part are two rocks, whereof the one reaches

with sharp peak to the wide heaven, and a dark cloud

encompasses it; this never streams away, and there is no

clear air about the peak neither in summer nor in harvest

tide. No mortal man may scale it or set foot thereon, not

though he had twenty hands and feet. For the rock is

smooth, and sheer, as it were polished. And in the midst of

the cliff is a dim cave turned to Erebus, towards the place

of darkness, whereby ye shall even steer your hollow ship,

noble Odysseus. Not with an arrow from a bow might a man in

his strength reach from his hollow ship into that deep

cave. And therein dwelleth Scylla, yelping terribly. Her

voice indeed is no greater than the voice of a new-born

whelp, but a dreadful monster is she, nor would any look on

her gladly, not if it were a god that met her. Verily she

hath twelve feet all dangling down; and six necks exceeding

long, and on each a hideous head, and therein three rows of

teeth set thick and close, full of black death. Up to her

middle is she sunk far down in the hollow cave, but forth

she holds her heads from the dreadful gulf, and there she

fishes, swooping round the rock, for dolphins or sea-dogs,

or whatso greater beast she may anywhere take, whereof the

deep-voiced Amphitrite feeds countless flocks. Thereby no

sailors boast that they have fled scatheless ever with

their ship, for with each head she carries off a man, whom

she hath snatched from out the dark-prowed ship.

'"But that other cliff, Odysseus, thou shalt note, lying

lower, hard by the first: thou couldest send an arrow

across. And thereon is a great fig-tree growing, in fullest

leaf, and beneath it mighty Charybdis sucks down black

water, for thrice a day she spouts it forth, and thrice a

day she sucks it down in terrible wise. Never mayest thou

be there when she sucks the water, for none might save thee

then from thy bane, not even the Earth-Shaker! But take

heed and swiftly drawing nigh to Scylla's rock drive the

ship past, since of a truth it is far better to mourn six

of thy company in the ship, than all in the selfsame hour."

'So spake she, but I answered, and said unto her: "Come I

pray thee herein, goddess, tell me true, if there be any

means whereby I might escape from the deadly Charybdis and

avenge me on that other, when she would prey upon my

company."

'So spake I, and that fair goddess answered me: "Man

overbold, lo, now again the deeds of war are in thy mind

and the travail thereof. Wilt thou not yield thee even to

the deathless gods? As for her, she is no mortal, but an

immortal plague, dread, grievous, and fierce, and not to be

fought with; and against her there is no defence; flight is

the bravest way. For if thou tarry to do on thine armour by

the cliff, I fear lest once again she sally forth and catch

at thee with so many heads, and seize as many men as

before. So drive past with all thy force, and call on

Cratais, mother of Scylla, which bore her for a bane to

mortals. And she will then let her from darting forth

thereafter.

'"Then thou shalt come unto the isle Thrinacia; there are

the many kine of Helios and his brave flocks feeding, seven

herds of kine and as many goodly flocks of sheep, and fifty

in each flock. They have no part in birth or in corruption,

and there are goddesses to shepherd them, nymphs with fair

tresses, Phaethusa and Lampetie whom bright Neaera bare to

Helios Hyperion. Now when the lady their mother had borne

and nursed them, she carried them to the isle Thrinacia to

dwell afar, that they should guard their father's flocks

and his kine with shambling gait. If thou doest these no

hurt, being heedful of thy return, truly ye may even yet

reach Ithaca, albeit in evil case. But if thou hurtest

them, I foreshow ruin for thy ship and for thy men, and

even though thou shouldest thyself escape, late shalt thou

return in evil plight with the loss of all thy company."

'So spake she, and anon came the golden-throned Dawn. Then

the fair goddess took her way up the island. But I departed

to my ship and roused my men themselves to mount the vessel

and loose the hawsers. And speedily they went aboard and

sat upon the benches, and sitting orderly smote the grey

sea water with their oars. And in the wake of our

dark-prowed ship she sent a favouring wind that filled the

sails, a kindly escort,--even Circe of the braided tresses,

a dread goddess of human speech. And straightway we set in

order the gear throughout the ship and sat us down, and the

wind and the helmsman guided our barque.

'Then I spake among my company with a heavy heart:

"Friends, forasmuch as it is not well that one or two alone

should know of the oracles that Circe, the fair goddess,

spake unto me, therefore will I declare them, that with

foreknowledge we may die, or haply shunning death and

destiny escape. First she bade us avoid the sound of the

voice of the wondrous Sirens, and their field of flowers,

and me only she bade listen to their voices. So bind ye me

in a hard bond, that I may abide unmoved in my place,

upright in the mast-stead, and from the mast let rope-ends

be tied, and if I beseech and bid you to set me free, then

do ye straiten me with yet more bonds."

'Thus I rehearsed these things one and all, and declared

them to my company. Meanwhile our good ship quickly came to

the island of the Sirens twain, for a gentle breeze sped

her on her way. Then straightway the wind ceased, and lo,

there was a windless calm, and some god lulled the waves.

Then my company rose up and drew in the ship's sails, and

stowed them in the hold of the ship, while they sat at the

oars and whitened the water with their polished pine

blades. But I with my sharp sword cleft in pieces a great

circle of wax, and with my strong hands kneaded it. And

soon the wax grew warm, for that my great might constrained

it, and the beam of the lord Helios, son of Hyperion. And I

anointed therewith the ears of all my men in their order,

and in the ship they bound me hand and foot upright in the

mast-stead, and from the mast they fastened rope-ends and

themselves sat down, and smote the grey sea water with

their oars. But when the ship was within the sound of a

man's shout from the land, we fleeing swiftly on our way,

the Sirens espied the swift ship speeding toward them, and

they raised their clear-toned song:

'"Hither, come hither, renowned Odysseus, great glory of

the Achaeans, here stay thy barque, that thou mayest listen

to the voice of us twain. For none hath ever driven by this

way in his black ship, till he hath heard from our lips the

voice sweet as the honeycomb, and hath had joy thereof and

gone on his way the wiser. For lo, we know all things, all

the travail that in wide Troy-land the Argives and Trojans

bare by the gods' designs, yea, and we know all that shall

hereafter be upon the fruitful earth."

'So spake they uttering a sweet voice, and my heart was

fain to listen, and I bade my company unbind me, nodding at

them with a frown, but they bent to their oars and rowed

on. Then straight uprose Perimedes and Eurylochus and bound

me with more cords and straitened me yet the more. Now

when we had driven past them, nor heard we any longer the

sound of the Sirens or their song, forthwith my dear

company took away the wax wherewith I had anointed their

ears and loosed me from my bonds.

'But so soon as we left that isle, thereafter presently I

saw smoke and a great wave, and heard the sea roaring. Then

for very fear the oars flew from their hands, and down the

stream they all splashed, and the ship was holden there,

for my company no longer plied with their hands the

tapering oars. But I paced the ship and cheered on my men,

as I stood by each one and spake smooth words:

'"Friends, forasmuch as in sorrow we are not all unlearned,

truly this is no greater woe that is upon us, {*} than when

the Cyclops penned us by main might in his hollow cave; yet

even thence we made escape by my manfulness, even by my

counsel and my wit, and some day I think that this

adventure too we shall remember. Come now, therefore, let

us all give ear to do according to my word. Do ye smite the

deep surf of the sea with your oars, as ye sit on the

benches, if peradventure Zeus may grant us to escape from

and shun this death. And as for thee, helmsman, thus I

charge thee, and ponder it in thine heart seeing that thou

wieldest the helm of the hollow ship. Keep the ship well

away from this smoke and from the wave and hug the rocks,

lest the ship, ere thou art aware, start from her course to

the other side, and so thou hurl us into ruin."

{* Reading [Greek], not [Greek] with La Roche.}

'So I spake, and quickly they hearkened to my words. But of

Scylla I told them nothing more, a bane none might deal

with, lest haply my company should cease from rowing for

fear, and hide them in the hold. In that same hour I

suffered myself to forget the hard behest of Circe, in that

she bade me in nowise be armed; but I did on my glorious

harness and caught up two long lances in my hands, and went

on the decking of the prow, for thence methought that

Scylla of the rock would first be seen, who was to bring

woe on my company. Yet could I not spy her anywhere, and my

eyes waxed weary for gazing all about toward the darkness

of the rock.

"Next we began to sail up the narrow strait lamenting. For

on the one hand lay Scylla, and on the other mighty

Charybdis in terrible wise sucked down the salt sea water.

As often as she belched it forth, like a cauldron on a

great fire she would seethe up through all her troubled

deeps, and overhead the spray fell on the tops of either

cliff. But oft as she gulped down the salt sea water,

within she was all plain to see through her troubled deeps,

and the rock around roared horribly and beneath the earth

was manifest swart with sand, and pale fear gat hold on my

men. Toward her, then, we looked fearing destruction; but

Scylla meanwhile caught from out my hollow ship six of my

company, the hardiest of their hands and the chief in

might. And looking into the swift ship to find my men, even

then I marked their feet and hands as they were lifted on

high, and they cried aloud in their agony, and called me by

my name for that last time of all. Even as when as fisher

on some headland lets down with a long rod his baits for a

snare to the little fishes below, casting into the deep the

horn of an ox of the homestead, and as he catches each

flings it writhing ashore, so writhing were they borne

upward to the cliff. And there she devoured them shrieking

in her gates, they stretching forth their hands to me in

the dread death-struggle. And the most pitiful thing was

this that mine eyes have seen of all my travail in

searching out the paths of the sea.

'Now when we had escaped the Rocks and dread Charybdis and

Scylla, thereafter we soon came to the fair island of the

god; where were the goodly kine, broad of brow, and the

many brave flocks of Helios Hyperion. Then while as yet I

was in my black ship upon the deep, I heard the lowing of

the cattle being stalled and the bleating of the sheep, and

on my mind there fell the saying of the blind seer, Theban

Teiresias, and of Circe of Aia, who charged me very

straitly to shun the isle of Helios, the gladdener of the

world. Then I spake out among my company in sorrow of

heart:

'"Hear my words, my men, albeit in evil plight, that I may

declare unto you the oracles of Teiresias and of Circe of

Aia, who very straitly charged me to shun the isle of

Helios, the gladdener of the world. For there she said the

most dreadful mischief would befal us. Nay, drive ye then

the black ship beyond and past that isle."

'So spake I, and their heart was broken within them. And

Eurylochus straightway answered me sadly, saying:

'"Hardy art thou, Odysseus, of might beyond measure, and

thy limbs are never weary; verily thou art fashioned all of

iron, that sufferest not thy fellows, foredone with toil

and drowsiness, to set foot on shore, where we might

presently prepare us a good supper in this sea-girt island.

But even as we are thou biddest us fare blindly through the

sudden night, and from the isle go wandering on the misty

deep. And strong winds, the bane of ships, are born of the

night. How could a man escape from utter doom, if there

chanced to come a sudden blast of the South Wind, or of the

boisterous West, which mainly wreck ships, beyond the will

of the gods, the lords of all? Howbeit for this present let

us yield to the black night, and we will make ready our

supper abiding by the swift ship, and in the morning we

will climb on board, and put out into the broad deep."

'So spake Eurylochus, and the rest of my company consented

thereto. Then at the last I knew that some god was indeed

imagining evil, and I uttered my voice and spake unto him

winged words:

'"Eurylochus, verily ye put force upon me, being but one

among you all. But come, swear me now a mighty oath, one

and all, to the intent that if we light on a herd of kine

or a great flock of sheep, none in the evil folly of his

heart may slay any sheep or ox; but in quiet eat ye the

meat which the deathless Circe gave."

'So I spake, and straightway they swore to refrain as I

commanded them. Now after they had sworn and done that

oath, we stayed our well-builded ship in the hollow harbour

near to a well of sweet water, and my company went forth

from out the ship and deftly got ready supper. But when

they had put from them the desire of meat and drink,

thereafter they fell a weeping as they thought upon their

dear companions whom Scylla had snatched from out the

hollow ship and so devoured. And deep sleep came upon them

amid their weeping. And when it was the third watch of the

night, and the stars had crossed the zenith, Zeus the

cloud-gatherer roused against them an angry wind with

wondrous tempest, and shrouded in clouds land and sea

alike, and from heaven sped down the night. Now when early

Dawn shone forth, the rosy-fingered, we beached the ship,

and dragged it up within a hollow cave, where were the fair

dancing grounds of the nymphs and the places of their

session. Thereupon I ordered a gathering of my men and

spake in their midst, saying:

'"Friends, forasmuch as there is yet meat and drink in the

swift ship, let us keep our hands off those kine, lest some

evil thing befal us. For these are the kine and the brave

flocks of a dread god, even of Helios, who overseeth all

and overheareth all things."

'So I spake, and their lordly spirit hearkened thereto.

Then for a whole month the South Wind blew without ceasing,

and no other wind arose, save only the East and the South.

'Now so long as my company still had corn and red wine,

they refrained them from the kine, for they were fain of

life. But when the corn was now all spent from out the

ship, and they went wandering with barbed hooks in quest of

game, as needs they must, fishes and fowls, whatsoever

might come to their hand, for hunger gnawed at their belly,

then at last I departed up the isle, that I might pray to

the gods, if perchance some one of them might show me a way

of returning. And now when I had avoided my company on my

way through the island, I laved my hands where was a

shelter from the wind, and prayed to all the gods that hold

Olympus. But they shed sweet sleep upon my eyelids. And

Eurylochus the while set forth an evil counsel to my

company:

'"Hear my words, my friends, though ye be in evil case.

Truly every shape of death is hateful to wretched mortals,

but to die of hunger and so meet doom is most pitiful of

all. Nay come, we will drive off the best of the kine of

Helios and will do sacrifice to the deathless gods who keep

wide heaven. And if we may yet reach Ithaca, our own

country, forthwith will we rear a rich shrine to Helios

Hyperion, and therein would we set many a choice offering.

But if he be somewhat wroth for his cattle with straight

horns, and is fain to wreck our ship, and the other gods

follow his desire, rather with one gulp at the wave would I

cast my life away, than be slowly straitened to death in a

desert isle."

'So spake Eurylochus, and the rest of the company consented

thereto. Forthwith they drave off the best of the kine of

Helios that were nigh at hand, for the fair kine of

shambling gait and broad of brow were feeding no great way

from the dark-prowed ship. Then they stood around the

cattle and prayed to the gods, plucking the fresh leaves

from an oak of lofty boughs, for they had no white barley

on board the decked ship. Now after they had prayed and cut

the throats of the kine and flayed them, they cut out

slices of the thighs and wrapped them in the fat, making a

double fold, and thereon they laid raw flesh. Yet had they

no pure wine to pour over the flaming sacrifices, but they

made libation with water and roasted the entrails over the

fire. Now after the thighs were quite consumed and they had

tasted the inner parts, they cut the rest up small and

spitted it on spits. In the same hour deep sleep sped from

my eyelids and I sallied forth to the swift ship and the

sea-banks. But on my way as I drew near to the curved ship,

the sweet savour of the fat came all about me; and I

groaned and spake out before the deathless gods:

'"Father Zeus, and all ye other blessed gods that live for

ever, verily to my undoing ye have lulled me with a

ruthless sleep, and my company abiding behind have imagined

a monstrous deed."

'Then swiftly to Helios Hyperion came Lampetie of the long

robes, with the tidings that we had slain his kine. And

straight he spake with angry heart amid the Immortals:

'"Father Zeus, and all ye other blessed gods that live for

ever, take vengeance I pray you on the company of Odysseus,

son of Laertes, that have insolently slain my cattle,

wherein I was wont to be glad as I went toward the starry

heaven, and when I again turned earthward from the

firmament. And if they pay me not full atonement for the

cattle, I will go down to Hades and shine among the dead."

'And Zeus the cloud-gatherer answered him, saying: "Helios,

do thou, I say, shine on amidst the deathless gods, and

amid mortal men upon the earth, the grain-giver. But as for

me, I will soon smite their swift ship with my white bolt,

and cleave it in pieces in the midst of the wine-dark

deep."

'This I heard from Calypso of the fair hair; and she said

that she herself had heard it from Hermes the Messenger.

'But when I had come down to the ship and to the sea, I

went up to my companions and rebuked them one by one; but

we could find no remedy, the cattle were dead and gone. And

soon thereafter the gods showed forth signs and wonders to

my company. The skins were creeping, and the flesh

bellowing upon the spits, both the roast and raw, and there

was a sound as the voice of kine.

'Then for six days my dear company feasted on the best of

the kine of Helios which they had driven off. But when

Zeus, son of Cronos, had added the seventh day thereto,

thereafter the wind ceased to blow with a rushing storm,

and at once we climbed the ship and launched into the broad

deep, when we had set up the mast and hoisted the white

sails.

'But now when we left that isle nor any other land

appeared, but sky and sea only, even then the son of Cronos

stayed a dark cloud above the hollow ship, and beneath it

the deep darkened. And the ship ran on her way for no long

while, for of a sudden came the shrilling West, with the

rushing of a great tempest, and the blast of wind snapped

the two forestays of the mast, and the mast fell backward

and all the gear dropped into the bilge. And behold, on the

hind part of the ship the mast struck the head of the pilot

and brake all the bones of his skull together, and like a

diver he dropt down from the deck, and his brave spirit

left his bones. In that same hour Zeus thundered and cast

his bolt upon the ship, and she reeled all over being

stricken by the bolt of Zeus, and was filled with sulphur,

and lo, my company fell from out the vessel. Like sea-gulls

they were borne round the black ship upon the billows, and

the god reft them of returning.

'But I kept pacing through my ship, till the surge loosened

the sides from the keel, and the wave swept her along

stript of her tackling, and brake her mast clean off at the

keel. Now the backstay fashioned of an oxhide had been

flung thereon; therewith I lashed together both keel and

mast, and sitting thereon I was borne by the ruinous winds.

'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.'

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