O Muse! inspire me to tell of [lit. tell me of] the man, skilful in expedients, 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 dispositions. And he, indeed, on the deep, endured in his mind many sufferings, whilst endeavouring to secure his own life and the return of his companions; but not even thus, although anxious, did he save his companions: for they perished by their own infatuation; foolish [men that they were], who did eat up the oxen of the Sun who journeys above; but he deprived them of their return [lit. the day of return]. Of these events, arising from whatever cause, O goddess! daughter of Jove, inform us also.
“Youths, my suitors, since the divine Ulysses is dead, remain ye urging on my marriage, until I shall have finished this veil—may my threads 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 shroud, after having possessed much property.” Thus she spoke, and our noble minds were persuaded. Then during the day she wove the large web, but at night, when she had placed the torches near her, she unravelled it. Thus for three years she escaped observation 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 clearly, informed us; and we found her unravelling the beautiful web. Accordingly, she finished it by necessity, although unwilling.
‘Ye, the 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, ye gods, living in tranquillity [lit. easily], envied her, until in Ortygia the chaste Diana, of the golden throne, slew him, attacking him with her gentle arrows; and as when the fair-tressed Ceres, yielding to her passion, was united in love and on the couch with Jasion, in the thrice-ploughed fallow land; nor was Jupiter a long time without knowing it, who slew him, striking him with his brilliantly-white lightning. Thus now again, ye gods are envious that a mortal man should be present with me. But I saved him, when going alone upon the keel;
But she found him sitting on the shore; nor were his eyes ever dried from tears, but the sweet life of him lamenting [on account of his prevented] return, was becoming wasted away, since the nymph no longer pleased him. But, indeed, during the nights he slept even by necessity in the hollow grottoes, against his will, near her who was willing; but during the day sitting on the rocks and shores, wasting away his mind with tears, and with mourning, and with grief, he looked over the unfruitful sea, pouring forth tears;
Thus having spoken, 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 around his person the genitals of manhood. And he proceeded to hasten, as a lion nourished in the mountains, trusting in his strength, which also goes forth wet with the rain, and exposed to the wind; and his two eyes burn; but he comes amongst the oxen or the sheep, or amongst the wild stags; for his appetite [lit. belly] excites him, [when] about to make an attempt on the sheep, to enter even into the closed fold. Thus Ulysses, although being naked, was about to mingle with 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 along 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 then the very famous bard sang; but Ulysses was deeply affected [lit. was 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 relentless 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 on the shoulders, lead her into captivity, to undergo both toil and sorrow; and her cheeks fade with most pitiable grief; thus Ulysses was shedding the sad tear from under his eye-brows.
‘Thus I spoke; but he, with cruel mind, did not answer me at all; but rising up, quickly he laid 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 devoured them like a lion nourished in the mountains, nor did he leave both the entrails or flesh, and marrowy bones. But we, weeping, held up our hands to Jupiter, beholding cruel deeds; and perplexity possessed my mind. But when the Cyclops had filled his large belly, eating men’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 [i.e. Nobody] 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 the gift of hospitality for you!”
‘“Who are you? from what place amongst men? Where are your city and parents? Amazement possesses me, that, drinking these drugs, you have not been charmed. For not yet has any other man been able to endure these drugs, whoever shall have drunk them, and they shall have first passed his lips [lit. the barrier of his teeth]; but there is within your breast a mind 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 for my part, meditating in my mind, wished to grasp the soul of my deceased mother; thrice indeed I rushed forward, and my mind urged me to grasp it, but thrice it fled 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 now await me, being anxious to clasp you, that even in [the mansion] of Pluto, throwing round each other our dear hands, we may both be satiated with sad grief? Has the illustrious Proserpine roused up this a phantom for me, in order that I may groan lamenting still more?”
“Do not to me, at least, speak lightly of death, O illustrious Ulysses! I would wish, being on the earth, to serve for hire with another man, destitute of inheritance, to whom there did not belong much property, rather than to rule over all the departed dead. But come, relate to 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 anything of the blameless Peleus; whether has he still honour amongst many Myrmidonians? or do they dishonour him both throughout Hellas and Phthia, because old age has laid hold of him both in his hands and in his 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 as you pass along [lit. going], O much
praised Ulysses, great glory of the Grecians! stay your ship, that you may hear our voice; for never yet has any one passed by here in a black ship, before he has heard from our lips [lit. mouths] the voice as sweet as honey; but he goes away delighted, and knowing more things. For, indeed, 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 on the multitude-feeding 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 travels above, where we may place many and noble images. But if, being at all enraged on account of the straight-horned oxen, he should wish to destroy our ship, and the other gods assent [lit. follow], once for all I would wish to lose my life, gasping in the wave, rather than to waste away any longer, being in a desert island.”
Thus, then, having spoken, he entered the well-built mansion; and he went straight through the palace to the haughty suitors. And, on the other hand, the fate of black death laid hold of Argus immediately, when he saw Ulysses in the twentieth year.
But as when a man, when a large fire is burning, turns a paunch, filled with fat and blood, from side to side, and is anxious that it should be roasted very quickly. So then he rolled himself hither and thither, deliberating how he might lay his hands on the shameless suitors, being alone amongst many. But there came near him Minerva descending from heaven: and in person she was like a woman, and she stood over his head, and addressed to him this speech:
‘Why do you still lie awake, O ill-fated one above all mortals?
Thus then spoke the suitors; but the much-planning Ulysses, as soon as he had handled the large bow, and looked at it on all sides, as when a man skilled in the harp and in song, has easily stretched a string on a new peg, joining on both sides the well-twisted gut of a sheep; so Ulysses bent the great bow without difficulty. But taking it then in his right hand, he made trial of the string; and it sang beautifully in utterance like a swallow.
But he, the much-counselling Ulysses, divested himself of his rags, and leaped upon the large platform, holding the bow, and quiver full of arrows: and he poured out the swift arrows there before his feet; and addressed the suitors :
‘This unavoidable contest has at last been accomplished: but now again I will aim at another mark, which no man has as yet struck, and I will know if I can hit it, but may Apollo grant me glory.’
Thus then 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 snare, which stood in a thicket, when anxious to enter their nest, but a hateful bed has received them: so they held their heads in order, and loops were around all their necks, that they might die as miserably as possible. And they struggled with their feet for a short time, but not very long.
Thus she spoke, making trial of her husband; but Ulysses, grieving, addressed his wife, who knew what was prudent:
O lady! you have indeed uttered this speech very grievous to the mind. Who has placed for me my bed elsewhere? It would be difficult even for one who is very skilful, except the deity himself coming, who would easily, if he wished it, put it in another place. But of men, no mortal alive, even if he were in full vigour, could easily unfasten it; since a great sign is made in the well-wrought bed; and I, and no other person, laboriously formed it.
But when the land has appeared welcome to [men] swimming, whose well-built ship Neptune has broken in the sea, urged forward by the wind and by the solid wave, but few have escaped from the hoary sea, swimming to the shore, and much brine has become encrusted around their flesh, but they have gladly stepped on the land, having escaped calamity; so her husband was welcome to her, beholding him: but she did not yet altogether let go her white arms from his neck.