O Muse, inspire me to tell of the crafty man, who wandered very much after he had brought to destruction the sacred city of Troy, and saw the cities of many men, and became acquainted with their disposition. He suffered many griefs in his mind on the sea, to preserve his own life, and to obtain a return for his companions; but not even thus, although anxious, did he save his companions: for they perished by their own wickedness, fools! who consumed the cattle of the Sun who journeys above; but he deprived them of their return. O Goddess daughter of Jove relate even to us some of these things at least.
‘Youths, my suitors, since the divine Ulysses is dead, remain ye urging my marriage, until I shall finish this veil, that my threads may not perish in vain, a shroud for the hero Laertes, for the time when the destructive fate of long-sleeping death shall seize him. Lest some one of the Grecian women amongst the people should be angry with me, if he should lie without a garment, having possessed many things.’ Thus she spoke, and our proud minds were persuaded. Then during the day she wove the large web, but at night when she had placed the torches near her, raveled it. Thus for three years she escaped by deceit, and persuaded the Grecians; but when the fourth year came, and the hours advanced, then indeed some one of the women, who knew it well, told it; and we found her raveling the beautiful web; so she finished it of necessity, although unwilling.
“You Gods are severe, invidious above others, who envy the Goddesses sleeping openly with men, if any one has obtained a dear husband. As when the rosy-fingered Aurora took Orion, so long you Gods living easily envied her, until in Ortygia the chaste Diana with a golden throne slew him, attacking him with her mild weapons; and as when the beautiful-haired Ceres, yielding to her mind, was united in love and in the couch with Jasion, in fallow land three times ploughed; nor was Jupiter a long time without knowing it, who slew him striking him with his white thunder. So now you Gods envy a mortal man being present with me whom I saved when going alone on a keel of a ship;
But she found him sitting on the shore; nor were his eyes ever dried from tears, but the sweet life of him lamenting his return, was wasted away, since it did not please the Nymph. But, indeed, during the nights he slept even by necessity in the hollow caves, against his will, near her who was willing; but during the day sitting on the rocks and shores, wasting his mind with tears, and mourning, and grief, he looked over the barren sea, pouring forth tears;
Having thus spoke, the divine Ulysses went from under the thickets; and with his strong hand he broke a branch of leaves from the thick wood, that he might cover the indecent parts of a man round his body. And he hastened, as a lion nourished in the mountains, trusting in his strength, which goes wet with the rain, and exposed to the wind; and his eyes burn; but he comes upon the oxen or the sheep, or amongst the wild stags; for his belly excites him; to enter even a close abode to make an attempt upon the flocks: so Ulysses, although naked, was about to approach the beautiful-haired damsels; for necessity came upon him. But he appeared terrible to them, being defiled by the brine; and they fled in terror in different ways through the projecting shores; but the daughter of Alcinous alone remained; for Minerva put confidence in her mind, and took fear from her limbs;
These things the very famous bard sang; but Ulysses melted, and a tear moistened his cheeks under his eyelids. But as a woman weeps falling on her dear husband, who falls both before his own city and people, warding off the fatal day from his town and children; she indeed, gazing on him dying and gasping, spread about him, laments shrilly; but they behind striking her with spears on the back and the shoulders, lead her into captivity, to have both toil and calamity: and her cheeks fade with most pitiable grief; thus Ulysses poured a pitiable tear from under his eye-brows.
“Thus I spoke; but he did not answer me at all with his cruel mind; but rushing he threw his hands on my companions, and snatching two together, like whelps he dashed them against the earth, and the brains flowed out on the ground, and moistened the earth. And cutting these up, limb by limb, he prepared supper: and he eat like a lion nourished in the mountains, nor did he leave the entrails or flesh, and marrowy bones. But we weeping held up our hands to Jupiter, beholding cruel deeds; and doubt possessed our mind. But when the Cyclops had filled his large belly, eating man’s flesh, and drinking pure milk after it, he lay within the cave extended in the midst of the sheep.
‘O Cyclops, did you ask of me my illustrious name? But I will tell you; and do you give me a hospitable gift, as you promised; Outis is my name; my mother, and my father, and all the rest of my companions call me Outis.”
“Thus I spoke; but he again answered me with a cruel mind: ‘Outis I will eat the last after his companions, but the others first; this shall be your hospitable present.’
“‘Who are you? from whence amongst men? where are your city and parents? Astonishment possesses me, that you were not changed drinking these drugs. For not yet has any other man sustained these drugs, whoever shall have drunk them, and they shall have first passed his lips: but you have some mind in your breast which cannot be charmed. Are you the wily Ulysses, whom the golden-wanded Argicide always told me would come, as he was returning from Troy in a swift black ship? But come now, place your sword in the sheath, and then we will ascend my bed, that being mixed in the bed and in love, we may trust in one another.’
“Thus she spoke; but I, meditating in my mind, wished to lay hold of the soul of my deceased mother; three times indeed I attempted it, and my mind urged me to lay hold of it, but three times it flew from my hands, like a shadow, or even a dream: but sharp grief arose in my heart still more; and addressing her I spoke in winged words;
“‘O my mother, why do you not remain for me, who am desirous to take hold of you, that even in Orcus, throwing around our dear hands, we may both be satiated with sad grief? Has the illustrious Proserpine excited this an image for me, that I may lament still more, mourning?’
‘Do not, O illustrious Ulysses, speak to me of death; I would wish being on the earth, to serve for hire with another poor man, who had not much property, rather than rule over all the departed dead. But come tell me an account of my noble son; did he follow to the war so as to be a chief or not? and, tell me if you have heard any thing of the spotless Peleus; whether has he still honour amongst many Myrmidonians? or do they dishonour him in Greece and Phthia, because old age has laid hold of his hands and feet? for I am not an assistant to him under the beams of the sun, being such a one, as when I slew the best of the people in wide Troy, fighting for the Grecians.
“‘Come hither, O much praised Ulysses, great glory of the Grecians, stop your ship, that you may hear our voice; for no one has yet passed by here in a black ship, before he has heard the sweet voice from our mouths; but he goes away delighted, and acquainted with more things. For we know all things whatever the Grecians and Trojans suffered by the will of the Gods in spacious Troy; and we know whatever things are done in the foodful earth.’
all deaths are hateful to wretched mortals; but it is most miserable to die and draw on one’s fate through hunger. But come, having driven away the best of the oxen of the Sun, we will sacrifice to the immortals who possess the wide heaven. But if we come to Ithaca, our paternal land, we will immediately build a rich temple to the Sun who journeys above, where we may place many and excellent images. But if by any means angry for
the straight-horned oxen, he should wish to de-
stroy our ship, and the other Gods follow, I
had rather at once lose my life gaping in the
wave, than waste away any longer, remaining
in a desert island.”
Having thus spoke, he entered the well-built house: and he went straight through the palace to the illustrious suitors. And the fate of black death laid hold of Argus immediately when he saw Ulysses in the twentieth year.
As when a man, when a large fire is burning, turns a paunch, filled with fat and blood, from side to side, and he is anxious that it should be roasted very quickly. So he rolled himself on one side and the other, meditating, how he might lay his hands on the shameless suitors, being alone amongst many: and Minerva came near him, descending from heaven: and in her person she was like a woman, and she stood over his head, and addressed him;
“Why do you still watch, you who are ill-fated above all mortals?
Thus spoke the suitors; but the much-counselling Ulysses, as soon as he bore the large bow, and looked at it on all sides, as when a man skilled in the harp and in song, easily stretches a cord in a new pin, joining on both sides the well-twisted entrail of a sheep; so Ulysses bent the great bow without difficulty. But with his right he laid hold of the string and tried it; and it sang beautifully in voice like a swallow.
But the much-counselling Ulysses threw open his rags, and lept on the large threshold, holding the bow, and quiver full of arrows: and he poured out the swift arrows there before his feet; and addressed the suitors;
“This harmful contest has at length been accomplished: but now I will aim at another mark, which no man has as yet struck, if I can hit it, but may Apollo give me glory.”
Thus he spoke; and fastening a cable of an azure-prowed ship to a tall pillar, he threw it round the dome, stretching it on high, that no one might reach the ground with her feet. As when either broad-winged thrushes, or doves strike against a net, which stood in a thicket, entering their nest, but a hateful bed has received them: so they held their heads in order, and there were cords around all their necks, that they might die as miserably as possible. And they struggled with their feet for a little while, not very long.
Thus she spoke, trying her husband; but Ulysses grieving addressed his wife, who knew what was prudent;
“O my wife, you have uttered this a very grievous word. Who has placed my bed elsewhere? it would be difficult even for one who is very skilful, except God himself should come, who would easily, if he wished it, put it in another place. No mortal alive, even if he were in full vigour, would easily move it away; since a great sign is made in the well-worked bed; which I laboured, nor any one else.
As when the land has appeared welcome to men swimming, whose well-built ship Neptune has broken in the sea urged by the wind, and dark waves, but few have escaped from the hoary sea swimming to the shore, and much brine has crusted round their body, but they have gladly stepped on the land, escaping evil; so her husband was welcome to her when she beheld him: but she had not yet altogether let go her white arms from his neck.