<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=410315" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Odyssey: Book 10</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thence we went on to the Aeoli island where lives Aeolus son of<br>Hippotas, dear to the immortal gods. It is an island that floats (as<br>it were) upon the sea, iron bound with a wall that girds it. Now,<br>Aeolus has six daughters and six lusty sons, so he made the sons marry<br>the daughters, and they all live with their dear father and mother,<br>feasting and enjoying every conceivable kind of luxury. All day long<br>the atmosphere of the house is loaded with the savour of roasting<br>meats till it groans again, yard and all; but by night they sleep on<br>their well-made bedsteads, each with his own wife between the<br>blankets. These were the people among whom we had now come.<br>"Aeolus entertained me for a whole month asking me questions all the<br>time about Troy, the Argive fleet, and the return of the Achaeans. I<br>told him exactly how everything had happened, and when I said I must<br>go, and asked him to further me on my way, he made no sort of<br>difficulty, but set about doing so at once. Moreover, he flayed me a<br>prime ox-hide to hold the ways of the roaring winds, which he shut<br>up in the hide as in a sack- for Jove had made him captain over the<br>winds, and he could stir or still each one of them according to his<br>own pleasure. He put the sack in the ship and bound the mouth so<br>tightly with a silver thread that not even a breath of a side-wind<br>could blow from any quarter. The West wind which was fair for us did<br>he alone let blow as it chose; but it all came to nothing, for we were<br>lost through our own folly.<br>"Nine days and nine nights did we sail, and on the tenth day our<br>native land showed on the horizon. We got so close in that we could<br>see the stubble fires burning, and I, being then dead beat, fell<br>into a light sleep, for I had never let the rudder out of my own<br>hands, that we might get home the faster. On this the men fell to<br>talking among themselves, and said I was bringing back gold and silver<br>in the sack that Aeolus had given me. 'Bless my heart,' would one turn<br>to his neighbour, saying, 'how this man gets honoured and makes<br>friends to whatever city or country he may go. See what fine prizes he<br>is taking home from Troy, while we, who have travelled just as far<br>as he has, come back with hands as empty as we set out with- and now<br>Aeolus has given him ever so much more. Quick- let us see what it<br>all is, and how much gold and silver there is in the sack he gave<br>him.'<br>"Thus they talked and evil counsels prevailed. They loosed the sack,<br>whereupon the wind flew howling forth and raised a storm that<br>carried us weeping out to sea and away from our own country. Then I<br>awoke, and knew not whether to throw myself into the sea or to live on<br>and make the best of it; but I bore it, covered myself up, and lay<br>down in the ship, while the men lamented bitterly as the fierce<br>winds bore our fleet back to the Aeolian island.<br>"When we reached it we went ashore to take in water, and dined<br>hard by the ships. Immediately after dinner I took a herald and one of<br>my men and went straight to the house of Aeolus, where I found him<br>feasting with his wife and family; so we sat down as suppliants on the<br>threshold. They were astounded when they saw us and said, 'Ulysses,<br>what brings you here? What god has been ill-treating you? We took<br>great pains to further you on your way home to Ithaca, or wherever<br>it was that you wanted to go to.'<br>"Thus did they speak, but I answered sorrowfully, 'My men have<br>undone me; they, and cruel sleep, have ruined me. My friends, mend<br>me this mischief, for you can if you will.'<br>"I spoke as movingly as I could, but they said nothing, till their<br>father answered, 'Vilest of mankind, get you gone at once out of the<br>island; him whom heaven hates will I in no wise help. Be off, for<br>you come here as one abhorred of heaven. "And with these words he sent<br>me sorrowing from his door.<br>"Thence we sailed sadly on till the men were worn out with long<br>and fruitless rowing, for there was no longer any wind to help them.<br>Six days, night and day did we toil, and on the seventh day we reached<br>the rocky stronghold of Lamus- Telepylus, the city of the<br>Laestrygonians, where the shepherd who is driving in his sheep and<br>goats [to be milked] salutes him who is driving out his flock [to<br>feed] and this last answers the salute. In that country a man who<br>could do without sleep might earn double wages, one as a herdsman of<br>cattle, and another as a shepherd, for they work much the same by<br>night as they do by day.<br>"When we reached the harbour we found it land-locked under steep<br>cliffs, with a narrow entrance between two headlands. My captains took<br>all their ships inside, and made them fast close to one another, for<br>there was never so much as a breath of wind inside, but it was<br>always dead calm. I kept my own ship outside, and moored it to a<br>rock at the very end of the point; then I climbed a high rock to<br>reconnoitre, but could see no sign neither of man nor cattle, only<br>some smoke rising from the ground. So I sent two of my company with an<br>attendant to find out what sort of people the inhabitants were.<br>"The men when they got on shore followed a level road by which the<br>people draw their firewood from the mountains into the town, till<br>presently they met a young woman who had come outside to fetch<br>water, and who was daughter to a Laestrygonian named Antiphates. She<br>was going to the fountain Artacia from which the people bring in their<br>water, and when my men had come close up to her, they asked her who<br>the king of that country might be, and over what kind of people he<br>ruled; so she directed them to her father's house, but when they got<br>there they found his wife to be a giantess as huge as a mountain,<br>and they were horrified at the sight of her.<br>"She at once called her husband Antiphates from the place of<br>assembly, and forthwith he set about killing my men. He snatched up<br>one of them, and began to make his dinner off him then and there,<br>whereon the other two ran back to the ships as fast as ever they<br>could. But Antiphates raised a hue and cry after them, and thousands<br>of sturdy Laestrygonians sprang up from every quarter- ogres, not men.<br>They threw vast rocks at us from the cliffs as though they had been<br>mere stones, and I heard the horrid sound of the ships crunching up<br>against one another, and the death cries of my men, as the<br>Laestrygonians speared them like fishes and took them home to eat<br>them. While they were thus killing my men within the harbour I drew my<br>sword, cut the cable of my own ship, and told my men to row with alf<br>their might if they too would not fare like the rest; so they laid out<br>for their lives, and we were thankful enough when we got into open<br>water out of reach of the rocks they hurled at us. As for the others<br>there was not one of them left.<br>"Thence we sailed sadly on, glad to have escaped death, though we<br>had lost our comrades, and came to the Aeaean island, where Circe<br>lives a great and cunning goddess who is own sister to the magician<br>Aeetes- for they are both children of the sun by Perse, who is<br>daughter to Oceanus. We brought our ship into a safe harbour without a<br>word, for some god guided us thither, and having landed we there for<br>two days and two nights, worn out in body and mind. When the morning<br>of the third day came I took my spear and my sword, and went away from<br>the ship to reconnoitre, and see if I could discover signs of human<br>handiwork, or hear the sound of voices. Climbing to the top of a<br>high look-out I espied the smoke of Circe's house rising upwards<br>amid a dense forest of trees, and when I saw this I doubted whether,<br>having seen the smoke, I would not go on at once and find out more,<br>but in the end I deemed it best to go back to the ship, give the men<br>their dinners, and send some of them instead of going myself.<br>"When I had nearly got back to the ship some god took pity upon my<br>solitude, and sent a fine antlered stag right into the middle of my<br>path. He was coming down his pasture in the forest to drink of the<br>river, for the heat of the sun drove him, and as he passed I struck<br>him in the middle of the back; the bronze point of the spear went<br>clean through him, and he lay groaning in the dust until the life went<br>out of him. Then I set my foot upon him, drew my spear from the wound,<br>and laid it down; I also gathered rough grass and rushes and twisted<br>them into a fathom or so of good stout rope, with which I bound the<br>four feet of the noble creature together; having so done I hung him<br>round my neck and walked back to the ship leaning upon my spear, for<br>the stag was much too big for me to be able to carry him on my<br>shoulder, steadying him with one hand. As I threw him down in front of<br>the ship, I called the men and spoke cheeringly man by man to each<br>of them. 'Look here my friends,' said I, 'we are not going to die so<br>much before our time after all, and at any rate we will not starve<br>so long as we have got something to eat and drink on board.' On this<br>they uncovered their heads upon the sea shore and admired the stag,<br>for he was indeed a splendid fellow. Then, when they had feasted their<br>eyes upon him sufficiently, they washed their hands and began to<br>cook him for dinner.<br>"Thus through the livelong day to the going down of the sun we<br>stayed there eating and drinking our fill, but when the sun went<br>down and it came on dark, we camped upon the sea shore. When the child<br>of morning, fingered Dawn, appeared, I called a council and said,<br>'My friends, we are in very great difficulties; listen therefore to<br>me. We have no idea where the sun either sets or rises, so that we<br>do not even know East from West. I see no way out of it; nevertheless,<br>we must try and find one. We are certainly on an island, for I went as<br>high as I could this morning, and saw the sea reaching all round it to<br>the horizon; it lies low, but towards the middle I saw smoke rising<br>from out of a thick forest of trees.'<br>"Their hearts sank as they heard me, for they remembered how they<br>had been treated by the Laestrygonian Antiphates, and by the savage<br>ogre Polyphemus. They wept bitterly in their dismay, but there was<br>nothing to be got by crying, so I divided them into two companies<br>and set a captain over each; I gave one company to Eurylochus, while I<br>took command of the other myself. Then we cast lots in a helmet, and<br>the lot fell upon Eurylochus; so he set out with his twenty-two men,<br>and they wept, as also did we who were left behind.<br>"When they reached Circe's house they found it built of cut<br>stones, on a site that could be seen from far, in the middle of the<br>forest. There were wild mountain wolves and lions prowling all round<br>it- poor bewitched creatures whom she had tamed by her enchantments<br>and drugged into subjection. They did not attack my men, but wagged<br>their great tails, fawned upon them, and rubbed their noses lovingly<br>against them. As hounds crowd round their master when they see him<br>coming from dinner- for they know he will bring them something- even<br>so did these wolves and lions with their great claws fawn upon my men,<br>but the men were terribly frightened at seeing such strange creatures.<br>Presently they reached the gates of the goddess's house, and as they<br>stood there they could hear Circe within, singing most beautifully<br>as she worked at her loom, making a web so fine, so soft, and of<br>such dazzling colours as no one but a goddess could weave. On this<br>Polites, whom I valued and trusted more than any other of my men,<br>said, 'There is some one inside working at a loom and singing most<br>beautifully; the whole place resounds with it, let us call her and see<br>whether she is woman or goddess.'<br>"They called her and she came down, unfastened the door, and bade<br>them enter. They, thinking no evil, followed her, all except<br>Eurylochus, who suspected mischief and stayed outside. When she had<br>got them into her house, she set them upon benches and seats and mixed<br>them a mess with cheese, honey, meal, and Pramnian but she drugged<br>it with wicked poisons to make them forget their homes, and when<br>they had drunk she turned them into pigs by a stroke of her wand,<br>and shut them up in her pigsties. They were like pigs-head, hair,<br>and all, and they grunted just as pigs do; but their senses were the<br>same as before, and they remembered everything.<br>"Thus then were they shut up squealing, and Circe threw them some<br>acorns and beech masts such as pigs eat, but Eurylochus hurried back<br>to tell me about the sad fate of our comrades. He was so overcome with<br>dismay that though he tried to speak he could find no words to do<br>so; his eyes filled with tears and he could only sob and sigh, till at<br>last we forced his story out of him, and he told us what had<br>happened to the others.<br>"'We went,' said he, as you told us, through the forest, and in<br>the middle of it there was a fine house built with cut stones in a<br>place that could be seen from far. There we found a woman, or else she<br>was a goddess, working at her loom and singing sweetly; so the men<br>shouted to her and called her, whereon she at once came down, opened<br>the door, and invited us in. The others did not suspect any mischief<br>so they followed her into the house, but I stayed where I was, for I<br>thought there might be some treachery. From that moment I saw them<br>no more, for not one of them ever came out, though I sat a long time<br>watching for them.'<br>"Then I took my sword of bronze and slung it over my shoulders; I<br>also took my bow, and told Eurylochus to come back with me and show me<br>the way. But he laid hold of me with both his hands and spoke<br>piteously, saying, 'Sir, do not force me to go with you, but let me<br>stay here, for I know you will not bring one of them back with you,<br>nor even return alive yourself; let us rather see if we cannot<br>escape at any rate with the few that are left us, for we may still<br>save our lives.'<br>"'Stay where you are, then, 'answered I, 'eating and drinking at the<br>ship, but I must go, for I am most urgently bound to do so.'<br>"With this I left the ship and went up inland. When I got through<br>the charmed grove, and was near the great house of the enchantress<br>Circe, I met Mercury with his golden wand, disguised as a young man in<br>the hey-day of his youth and beauty with the down just coming upon his<br>face. He came up to me and took my hand within his own, saying, 'My<br>poor unhappy man, whither are you going over this mountain top,<br>alone and without knowing the way? Your men are shut up in Circe's<br>pigsties, like so many wild boars in their lairs. You surely do not<br>fancy that you can set them free? I can tell you that you will never<br>get back and will have to stay there with the rest of them. But<br>never mind, I will protect you and get you out of your difficulty.<br>Take this herb, which is one of great virtue, and keep it about you<br>when you go to Circe's house, it will be a talisman to you against<br>every kind of mischief.<br>"'And I will tell you of all the wicked witchcraft that Circe will<br>try to practise upon you. She will mix a mess for you to drink, and<br>she will drug the meal with which she makes it, but she will not be<br>able to charm you, for the virtue of the herb that I shall give you<br>will prevent her spells from working. I will tell you all about it.<br>When Circe strikes you with her wand, draw your sword and spring<br>upon her as though you were goings to kill her. She will then be<br>frightened and will desire you to go to bed with her; on this you must<br>not point blank refuse her, for you want her to set your companions<br>free, and to take good care also of yourself, but you make her swear<br>solemnly by all the blessed that she will plot no further mischief<br>against you, or else when she has got you naked she will unman you and<br>make you fit for nothing.'<br>"As he spoke he pulled the herb out of the ground an showed me<br>what it was like. The root was black, while the flower was as white as<br>milk; the gods call it Moly, and mortal men cannot uproot it, but<br>the gods can do whatever they like.<br>"Then Mercury went back to high Olympus passing over the wooded<br>island; but I fared onward to the house of Circe, and my heart was<br>clouded with care as I walked along. When I got to the gates I stood<br>there and called the goddess, and as soon as she heard me she came<br>down, opened the door, and asked me to come in; so I followed her-<br>much troubled in my mind. She set me on a richly decorated seat inlaid<br>with silver, there was a footstool also under my feet, and she mixed a<br>mess in a golden goblet for me to drink; but she drugged it, for she<br>meant me mischief. When she had given it me, and I had drunk it<br>without its charming me, she struck she, struck me with her wand.<br>'There now,' she cried, 'be off to the pigsty, and make your lair with<br>the rest of them.'<br>"But I rushed at her with my sword drawn as though I would kill her,<br>whereon she fell with a loud scream, clasped my knees, and spoke<br>piteously, saying, 'Who and whence are you? from what place and people<br>have you come? How can it be that my drugs have no power to charm you?<br>Never yet was any man able to stand so much as a taste of the herb I<br>gave you; you must be spell-proof; surely you can be none other than<br>the bold hero Ulysses, who Mercury always said would come here some<br>day with his ship while on his way home form Troy; so be it then;<br>sheathe your sword and let us go to bed, that we may make friends<br>and learn to trust each other.'<br>"And I answered, 'Circe, how can you expect me to be friendly with<br>you when you have just been turning all my men into pigs? And now that<br>you have got me here myself, you mean me mischief when you ask me to<br>go to bed with you, and will unman me and make me fit for nothing. I<br>shall certainly not consent to go to bed with you unless you will<br>first take your solemn oath to plot no further harm against me.'<br>"So she swore at once as I had told her, and when she had<br>completed her oath then I went to bed with her.<br>"Meanwhile her four servants, who are her housemaids, set about<br>their work. They are the children of the groves and fountains, and<br>of the holy waters that run down into the sea. One of them spread a<br>fair purple cloth over a seat, and laid a carpet underneath it.<br>Another brought tables of silver up to the seats, and set them with<br>baskets of gold. A third mixed some sweet wine with water in a<br>silver bowl and put golden cups upon the tables, while the fourth<br>she brought in water and set it to boil in a large cauldron over a<br>good fire which she had lighted. When the water in the cauldron was<br>boiling, she poured cold into it till it was just as I liked it, and<br>then she set me in a bath and began washing me from the cauldron about<br>the head and shoulders, to take the tire and stiffness out of my<br>limbs. As soon as she had done washing me and anointing me with oil,<br>she arrayed me in a good cloak and shirt and led me to a richly<br>decorated seat inlaid with silver; there was a footstool also under my<br>feet. A maid servant then brought me water in a beautiful golden<br>ewer and poured it into a silver basin for me to wash my hands, and<br>she drew a clean table beside me; an upper servant brought me bread<br>and offered me many things of what there was in the house, and then<br>Circe bade me eat, but I would not, and sat without heeding what was<br>before me, still moody and suspicious.<br>"When Circe saw me sitting there without eating, and in great grief,<br>she came to me and said, 'Ulysses, why do you sit like that as<br>though you were dumb, gnawing at your own heart, and refusing both<br>meat and drink? Is it that you are still suspicious? You ought not<br>to be, for I have already sworn solemnly that I will not hurt you.'<br>"And I said, 'Circe, no man with any sense of what is right can<br>think of either eating or drinking in your house until you have set<br>his friends free and let him see them. If you want me to eat and<br>drink, you must free my men and bring them to me that I may see them<br>with my own eyes.'<br>"When I had said this she went straight through the court with her<br>wand in her hand and opened the pigsty doors. My men came out like<br>so many prime hogs and stood looking at her, but she went about<br>among them and anointed each with a second drug, whereon the<br>bristles that the bad drug had given them fell off, and they became<br>men again, younger than they were before, and much taller and better<br>looking. They knew me at once, seized me each of them by the hand, and<br>wept for joy till the whole house was filled with the sound of their<br>hullabalooing, and Circe herself was so sorry for them that she came<br>up to me and said, 'Ulysses, noble son of Laertes, go back at once<br>to the sea where you have left your ship, and first draw it on to<br>the land. Then, hide all your ship's gear and property in some cave,<br>and come back here with your men.'<br>"I agreed to this, so I went back to the sea shore, and found the<br>men at the ship weeping and wailing most piteously. When they saw me<br>the silly blubbering fellows began frisking round me as calves break<br>out and gambol round their mothers, when they see them coming home<br>to be milked after they have been feeding all day, and the homestead<br>resounds with their lowing. They seemed as glad to see me as though<br>they had got back to their own rugged Ithaca, where they had been born<br>and bred. 'Sir,' said the affectionate creatures, 'we are as glad to<br>see you back as though we had got safe home to Ithaca; but tell us all<br>about the fate of our comrades.'<br>"I spoke comfortingly to them and said, 'We must draw our ship on to<br>the land, and hide the ship's gear with all our property in some cave;<br>then come with me all of you as fast as you can to Circe's house,<br>where you will find your comrades eating and drinking in the midst<br>of great abundance.'<br>"On this the men would have come with me at once, but Eurylochus<br>tried to hold them back and said, 'Alas, poor wretches that we are,<br>what will become of us? Rush not on your ruin by going to the house of<br>Circe, who will turn us all into pigs or wolves or lions, and we shall<br>have to keep guard over her house. Remember how the Cyclops treated us<br>when our comrades went inside his cave, and Ulysses with them. It<br>was all through his sheer folly that those men lost their lives.'<br>"When I heard him I was in two minds whether or no to draw the<br>keen blade that hung by my sturdy thigh and cut his head off in<br>spite of his being a near relation of my own; but the men interceded<br>for him and said, 'Sir, if it may so be, let this fellow stay here and<br>mind the ship, but take the rest of us with you to Circe's house.'<br>"On this we all went inland, and Eurylochus was not left behind<br>after all, but came on too, for he was frightened by the severe<br>reprimand that I had given him.<br>"Meanwhile Circe had been seeing that the men who had been left<br>behind were washed and anointed with olive oil; she had also given<br>them woollen cloaks and shirts, and when we came we found them all<br>comfortably at dinner in her house. As soon as the men saw each<br>other face to face and knew one another, they wept for joy and cried<br>aloud till the whole palace rang again. Thereon Circe came up to me<br>and said, 'Ulysses, noble son of Laertes, tell your men to leave off<br>crying; I know how much you have all of you suffered at sea, and how<br>ill you have fared among cruel savages on the mainland, but that is<br>over now, so stay here, and eat and drink till you are once more as<br>strong and hearty as you were when you left Ithaca; for at present you<br>are weakened both in body and mind; you keep all the time thinking<br>of the hardships- you have suffered during your travels, so that you<br>have no more cheerfulness left in you.'<br>"Thus did she speak and we assented. We stayed with Circe for a<br>whole twelvemonth feasting upon an untold quantity both of meat and<br>wine. But when the year had passed in the waning of moons and the long<br>days had come round, my men called me apart and said, 'Sir, it is time<br>you began to think about going home, if so be you are to be spared<br>to see your house and native country at all.'<br>"Thus did they speak and I assented. Thereon through the livelong<br>day to the going down of the sun we feasted our fill on meat and wine,<br>but when the sun went down and it came on dark the men laid themselves<br>down to sleep in the covered cloisters. I, however, after I had got<br>into bed with Circe, besought her by her knees, and the goddess<br>listened to what I had got to say. 'Circe,' said I, 'please to keep<br>the promise you made me about furthering me on my homeward voyage. I<br>want to get back and so do my men, they are always pestering me with<br>their complaints as soon as ever your back is turned.'<br>"And the goddess answered, 'Ulysses, noble son of Laertes, you shall<br>none of you stay here any longer if you do not want to, but there is<br>another journey which you have got to take before you can sail<br>homewards. You must go to the house of Hades and of dread Proserpine<br>to consult the ghost of the blind Theban prophet Teiresias whose<br>reason is still unshaken. To him alone has Proserpine left his<br>understanding even in death, but the other ghosts flit about<br>aimlessly.'<br>"I was dismayed when I heard this. I sat up in bed and wept, and<br>would gladly have lived no longer to see the light of the sun, but<br>presently when I was tired of weeping and tossing myself about, I<br>said, 'And who shall guide me upon this voyage- for the house of Hades<br>is a port that no ship can reach.'<br>"'You will want no guide,' she answered; 'raise you mast, set your<br>white sails, sit quite still, and the North Wind will blow you there<br>of itself. When your ship has traversed the waters of Oceanus, you<br>will reach the fertile shore of Proserpine's country with its groves<br>of tall poplars and willows that shed their fruit untimely; here beach<br>your ship upon the shore of Oceanus, and go straight on to the dark<br>abode of Hades. You will find it near the place where the rivers<br>Pyriphlegethon and Cocytus (which is a branch of the river Styx)<br>flow into Acheron, and you will see a rock near it, just where the two<br>roaring rivers run into one another.<br>"'When you have reached this spot, as I now tell you, dig a trench a<br>cubit or so in length, breadth, and depth, and pour into it as a<br>drink-offering to all the dead, first, honey mixed with milk, then<br>wine, and in the third place water-sprinkling white barley meal over<br>the whole. Moreover you must offer many prayers to the poor feeble<br>ghosts, and promise them that when you get back to Ithaca you will<br>sacrifice a barren heifer to them, the best you have, and will load<br>the pyre with good things. More particularly you must promise that<br>Teiresias shall have a black sheep all to himself, the finest in all<br>your flocks.<br>"'When you shall have thus besought the ghosts with your prayers,<br>offer them a ram and a black ewe, bending their heads towards<br>Erebus; but yourself turn away from them as though you would make<br>towards the river. On this, many dead men's ghosts will come to you,<br>and you must tell your men to skin the two sheep that you have just<br>killed, and offer them as a burnt sacrifice with prayers to Hades<br>and to Proserpine. Then draw your sword and sit there, so as to<br>prevent any other poor ghost from coming near the split blood before<br>Teiresias shall have answered your questions. The seer will<br>presently come to you, and will tell you about your voyage- what<br>stages you are to make, and how you are to sail the see so as to reach<br>your home.'<br>"It was day-break by the time she had done speaking, so she<br>dressed me in my shirt and cloak. As for herself she threw a beautiful<br>light gossamer fabric over her shoulders, fastening it with a golden<br>girdle round her waist, and she covered her head with a mantle. Then I<br>went about among the men everywhere all over the house, and spoke<br>kindly to each of them man by man: 'You must not lie sleeping here any<br>longer,' said I to them, 'we must be going, for Circe has told me<br>all about it.' And this they did as I bade them.<br>"Even so, however, I did not get them away without misadventure.<br>We had with us a certain youth named Elpenor, not very remarkable<br>for sense or courage, who had got drunk and was lying on the house-top<br>away from the rest of the men, to sleep off his liquor in the cool.<br>When he heard the noise of the men bustling about, he jumped up on a<br>sudden and forgot all about coming down by the main staircase, so he<br>tumbled right off the roof and broke his neck, and his soul went<br>down to the house of Hades.<br>"When I had got the men together I said to them, 'You think you<br>are about to start home again, but Circe has explained to me that<br>instead of this, we have got to go to the house of Hades and<br>Proserpine to consult the ghost of the Theban prophet Teiresias.'<br>"The men were broken-hearted as they heard me, and threw<br>themselves on the ground groaning and tearing their hair, but they did<br>not mend matters by crying. When we reached the sea shore, weeping and<br>lamenting our fate, Circe brought the ram and the ewe, and we made<br>them fast hard by the ship. She passed through the midst of us without<br>our knowing it, for who can see the comings and goings of a god, if<br>the god does not wish to be seen?</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Homer">Homer</a>, translated by Samuel Butler<div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=410315" data-title="The Odyssey: Book 10 de Homer" data-description="Thence we went on to the Aeoli island where lives Aeolus son of/Hippotas, dear to the immortal gods. It is an island that floats (as/it were) upon the sea, iron bound with a wall that girds it. Now,/Aeolus has six daughters and six lusty sons, so ..."></div> </div> </div>

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