<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=410318" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Odyssey: Book 13</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thus did he speak, and they all held their peace throughout the<br>covered cloister, enthralled by the charm of his story, till presently<br>Alcinous began to speak.<br>"Ulysses," said he, "now that you have reached my house I doubt<br>not you will get home without further misadventure no matter how<br>much you have suffered in the past. To you others, however, who come<br>here night after night to drink my choicest wine and listen to my<br>bard, I would insist as follows. Our guest has already packed up the<br>clothes, wrought gold, and other valuables which you have brought<br>for his acceptance; let us now, therefore, present him further, each<br>one of us, with a large tripod and a cauldron. We will recoup<br>ourselves by the levy of a general rate; for private individuals<br>cannot be expected to bear the burden of such a handsome present."<br>Every one approved of this, and then they went home to bed each in<br>his own abode. When the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn,<br>appeared, they hurried down to the ship and brought their cauldrons<br>with them. Alcinous went on board and saw everything so securely<br>stowed under the ship's benches that nothing could break adrift and<br>injure the rowers. Then they went to the house of Alcinous to get<br>dinner, and he sacrificed a bull for them in honour of Jove who is the<br>lord of all. They set the steaks to grill and made an excellent<br>dinner, after which the inspired bard, Demodocus, who was a<br>favourite with every one, sang to them; but Ulysses kept on turning<br>his eyes towards the sun, as though to hasten his setting, for he<br>was longing to be on his way. As one who has been all day ploughing<br>a fallow field with a couple of oxen keeps thinking about his supper<br>and is glad when night comes that he may go and get it, for it is<br>all his legs can do to carry him, even so did Ulysses rejoice when the<br>sun went down, and he at once said to the Phaecians, addressing<br>himself more particularly to King Alcinous:<br>"Sir, and all of you, farewell. Make your drink-offerings and send<br>me on my way rejoicing, for you have fulfilled my heart's desire by<br>giving me an escort, and making me presents, which heaven grant that I<br>may turn to good account; may I find my admirable wife living in peace<br>among friends, and may you whom I leave behind me give satisfaction to<br>your wives and children; may heaven vouchsafe you every good grace,<br>and may no evil thing come among your people."<br>Thus did he speak. His hearers all of them approved his saying and<br>agreed that he should have his escort inasmuch as he had spoken<br>reasonably. Alcinous therefore said to his servant, "Pontonous, mix<br>some wine and hand it round to everybody, that we may offer a prayer<br>to father Jove, and speed our guest upon his way."<br>Pontonous mixed the wine and handed it to every one in turn; the<br>others each from his own seat made a drink-offering to the blessed<br>gods that live in heaven, but Ulysses rose and placed the double cup<br>in the hands of queen Arete.<br>"Farewell, queen," said he, "henceforward and for ever, till age and<br>death, the common lot of mankind, lay their hands upon you. I now take<br>my leave; be happy in this house with your children, your people,<br>and with king Alcinous."<br>As he spoke he crossed the threshold, and Alcinous sent a man to<br>conduct him to his ship and to the sea shore. Arete also sent some<br>maid servants with him- one with a clean shirt and cloak, another to<br>carry his strong-box, and a third with corn and wine. When they got to<br>the water side the crew took these things and put them on board,<br>with all the meat and drink; but for Ulysses they spread a rug and a<br>linen sheet on deck that he might sleep soundly in the stern of the<br>ship. Then he too went on board and lay down without a word, but the<br>crew took every man his place and loosed the hawser from the pierced<br>stone to which it had been bound. Thereon, when they began rowing<br>out to sea, Ulysses fell into a deep, sweet, and almost deathlike<br>slumber.<br>The ship bounded forward on her way as a four in hand chariot<br>flies over the course when the horses feel the whip. Her prow curveted<br>as it were the neck of a stallion, and a great wave of dark blue water<br>seethed in her wake. She held steadily on her course, and even a<br>falcon, swiftest of all birds, could not have kept pace with her.<br>Thus, then, she cut her way through the water. carrying one who was as<br>cunning as the gods, but who was now sleeping peacefully, forgetful of<br>all that he had suffered both on the field of battle and by the<br>waves of the weary sea.<br>When the bright star that heralds the approach of dawn began to<br>show. the ship drew near to land. Now there is in Ithaca a haven of<br>the old merman Phorcys, which lies between two points that break the<br>line of the sea and shut the harbour in. These shelter it from the<br>storms of wind and sea that rage outside, so that, when once within<br>it, a ship may lie without being even moored. At the head of this<br>harbour there is a large olive tree, and at no distance a fine<br>overarching cavern sacred to the nymphs who are called Naiads. There<br>are mixing-bowls within it and wine-jars of stone, and the bees hive<br>there. Moreover, there are great looms of stone on which the nymphs<br>weave their robes of sea purple- very curious to see- and at all times<br>there is water within it. It has two entrances, one facing North by<br>which mortals can go down into the cave, while the other comes from<br>the South and is more mysterious; mortals cannot possibly get in by<br>it, it is the way taken by the gods.<br>Into this harbour, then, they took their ship, for they knew the<br>place, She had so much way upon her that she ran half her own length<br>on to the shore; when, however, they had landed, the first thing<br>they did was to lift Ulysses with his rug and linen sheet out of the<br>ship, and lay him down upon the sand still fast asleep. Then they took<br>out the presents which Minerva had persuaded the Phaeacians to give<br>him when he was setting out on his voyage homewards. They put these<br>all together by the root of the olive tree, away from the road, for<br>fear some passer by might come and steal them before Ulysses awoke;<br>and then they made the best of their way home again.<br>But Neptune did not forget the threats with which he had already<br>threatened Ulysses, so he took counsel with Jove. "Father Jove,"<br>said he, "I shall no longer be held in any sort of respect among you<br>gods, if mortals like the Phaeacians, who are my own flesh and<br>blood, show such small regard for me. I said I would Ulysses get<br>home when he had suffered sufficiently. I did not say that he should<br>never get home at all, for I knew you had already nodded your head<br>about it, and promised that he should do so; but now they have brought<br>him in a ship fast asleep and have landed him in Ithaca after<br>loading him with more magnificent presents of bronze, gold, and<br>raiment than he would ever have brought back from Troy, if he had<br>had his share of the spoil and got home without misadventure."<br>And Jove answered, "What, O Lord of the Earthquake, are you<br>talking about? The gods are by no means wanting in respect for you. It<br>would be monstrous were they to insult one so old and honoured as<br>you are. As regards mortals, however, if any of them is indulging in<br>insolence and treating you disrespectfully, it will always rest with<br>yourself to deal with him as you may think proper, so do just as you<br>please."<br>"I should have done so at once," replied Neptune, "if I were not<br>anxious to avoid anything that might displease you; now, therefore,<br>I should like to wreck the Phaecian ship as it is returning from its<br>escort. This will stop them from escorting people in future; and I<br>should also like to bury their city under a huge mountain."<br>"My good friend," answered Jove, "I should recommend you at the very<br>moment when the people from the city are watching the ship on her way,<br>to turn it into a rock near the land and looking like a ship. This<br>will astonish everybody, and you can then bury their city under the<br>mountain."<br>When earth-encircling Neptune heard this he went to Scheria where<br>the Phaecians live, and stayed there till the ship, which was making<br>rapid way, had got close-in. Then he went up to it, turned it into<br>stone, and drove it down with the flat of his hand so as to root it in<br>the ground. After this he went away.<br>The Phaeacians then began talking among themselves, and one would<br>turn towards his neighbour, saying, "Bless my heart, who is it that<br>can have rooted the ship in the sea just as she was getting into port?<br>We could see the whole of her only moment ago."<br>This was how they talked, but they knew nothing about it; and<br>Alcinous said, "I remember now the old prophecy of my father. He<br>said that Neptune would be angry with us for taking every one so<br>safely over the sea, and would one day wreck a Phaeacian ship as it<br>was returning from an escort, and bury our city under a high mountain.<br>This was what my old father used to say, and now it is all coming<br>true. Now therefore let us all do as I say; in the first place we must<br>leave off giving people escorts when they come here, and in the next<br>let us sacrifice twelve picked bulls to Neptune that he may have mercy<br>upon us, and not bury our city under the high mountain." When the<br>people heard this they were afraid and got ready the bulls.<br>Thus did the chiefs and rulers of the Phaecians to king Neptune,<br>standing round his altar; and at the same time Ulysses woke up once<br>more upon his own soil. He had been so long away that he did not<br>know it again; moreover, Jove's daughter Minerva had made it a foggy<br>day, so that people might not know of his having come, and that she<br>might tell him everything without either his wife or his fellow<br>citizens and friends recognizing him until he had taken his revenge<br>upon the wicked suitors. Everything, therefore, seemed quite different<br>to him- the long straight tracks, the harbours, the precipices, and<br>the goodly trees, appeared all changed as he started up and looked<br>upon his native land. So he smote his thighs with the flat of his<br>hands and cried aloud despairingly.<br>"Alas," he exclaimed, "among what manner of people am I fallen?<br>Are they savage and uncivilized or hospitable and humane? Where<br>shall I put all this treasure, and which way shall I go? I wish I<br>had stayed over there with the Phaeacians; or I could have gone to<br>some other great chief who would have been good to me and given me<br>an escort. As it is I do not know where to put my treasure, and I<br>cannot leave it here for fear somebody else should get hold of it.<br>In good truth the chiefs and rulers of the Phaeacians have not been<br>dealing fairly by me, and have left me in the wrong country; they said<br>they would take me back to Ithaca and they have not done so: may<br>Jove the protector of suppliants chastise them, for he watches over<br>everybody and punishes those who do wrong. Still, I suppose I must<br>count my goods and see if the crew have gone off with any of them."<br>He counted his goodly coppers and cauldrons, his gold and all his<br>clothes, but there was nothing missing; still he kept grieving about<br>not being in his own country, and wandered up and down by the shore of<br>the sounding sea bewailing his hard fate. Then Minerva came up to<br>him disguised as a young shepherd of delicate and princely mien,<br>with a good cloak folded double about her shoulders; she had sandals<br>on her comely feet and held a javelin in her hand. Ulysses was glad<br>when he saw her, and went straight up to her.<br>"My friend," said he, "you are the first person whom I have met with<br>in this country; I salute you, therefore, and beg you to be will<br>disposed towards me. Protect these my goods, and myself too, for I<br>embrace your knees and pray to you as though you were a god. Tell<br>me, then, and tell me truly, what land and country is this? Who are<br>its inhabitants? Am I on an island, or is this the sea board of some<br>continent?"<br>Minerva answered, "Stranger, you must be very simple, or must have<br>come from somewhere a long way off, not to know what country this<br>is. It is a very celebrated place, and everybody knows it East and<br>West. It is rugged and not a good driving country, but it is by no<br>means a bid island for what there is of it. It grows any quantity of<br>corn and also wine, for it is watered both by rain and dew; it<br>breeds cattle also and goats; all kinds of timber grow here, and there<br>are watering places where the water never runs dry; so, sir, the<br>name of Ithaca is known even as far as Troy, which I understand to<br>be a long way off from this Achaean country."<br>Ulysses was glad at finding himself, as Minerva told him, in his own<br>country, and he began to answer, but he did not speak the truth, and<br>made up a lying story in the instinctive wiliness of his heart.<br>"I heard of Ithaca," said he, "when I was in Crete beyond the<br>seas, and now it seems I have reached it with all these treasures. I<br>have left as much more behind me for my children, but am flying<br>because I killed Orsilochus son of Idomeneus, the fleetest runner in<br>Crete. I killed him because he wanted to rob me of the spoils I had<br>got from Troy with so much trouble and danger both on the field of<br>battle and by the waves of the weary sea; he said I had not served his<br>father loyally at Troy as vassal, but had set myself up as an<br>independent ruler, so I lay in wait for him and with one of my<br>followers by the road side, and speared him as he was coming into town<br>from the country. my It was a very dark night and nobody saw us; it<br>was not known, therefore, that I had killed him, but as soon as I<br>had done so I went to a ship and besought the owners, who were<br>Phoenicians, to take me on board and set me in Pylos or in Elis<br>where the Epeans rule, giving them as much spoil as satisfied them.<br>They meant no guile, but the wind drove them off their course, and<br>we sailed on till we came hither by night. It was all we could do to<br>get inside the harbour, and none of us said a word about supper though<br>we wanted it badly, but we all went on shore and lay down just as we<br>were. I was very tired and fell asleep directly, so they took my goods<br>out of the ship, and placed them beside me where I was lying upon<br>the sand. Then they sailed away to Sidonia, and I was left here in<br>great distress of mind."<br>Such was his story, but Minerva smiled and caressed him with her<br>hand. Then she took the form of a woman, fair, stately, and wise,<br>"He must be indeed a shifty lying fellow," said she, "who could<br>surpass you in all manner of craft even though you had a god for<br>your antagonist. Dare-devil that you are, full of guile, unwearying in<br>deceit, can you not drop your tricks and your instinctive falsehood,<br>even now that you are in your own country again? We will say no<br>more, however, about this, for we can both of us deceive upon<br>occasion- you are the most accomplished counsellor and orator among<br>all mankind, while I for diplomacy and subtlety have no equal among<br>the gods. Did you not know Jove's daughter Minerva- me, who have<br>been ever with you, who kept watch over you in all your troubles,<br>and who made the Phaeacians take so great a liking to you? And now,<br>again, I am come here to talk things over with you, and help you to<br>hide the treasure I made the Phaeacians give you; I want to tell you<br>about the troubles that await you in your own house; you have got to<br>face them, but tell no one, neither man nor woman, that you have<br>come home again. Bear everything, and put up with every man's<br>insolence, without a word."<br>And Ulysses answered, "A man, goddess, may know a great deal, but<br>you are so constantly changing your appearance that when he meets<br>you it is a hard matter for him to know whether it is you or not. This<br>much, however, I know exceedingly well; you were very kind to me as<br>long as we Achaeans were fighting before Troy, but from the day on<br>which we went on board ship after having sacked the city of Priam, and<br>heaven dispersed us- from that day, Minerva, I saw no more of you, and<br>cannot ever remember your coming to my ship to help me in a<br>difficulty; I had to wander on sick and sorry till the gods<br>delivered me from evil and I reached the city of the Phaeacians, where<br>you encouraged me and took me into the town. And now, I beseech you in<br>your father's name, tell me the truth, for I do not believe I am<br>really back in Ithaca. I am in some other country and you are<br>mocking me and deceiving me in all you have been saying. Tell me<br>then truly, have I really got back to my own country?"<br>"You are always taking something of that sort into your head,"<br>replied Minerva, "and that is why I cannot desert you in your<br>afflictions; you are so plausible, shrewd and shifty. Any one but<br>yourself on returning from so long a voyage would at once have gone<br>home to see his wife and children, but you do not seem to care about<br>asking after them or hearing any news about them till you have<br>exploited your wife, who remains at home vainly grieving for you,<br>and having no peace night or day for the tears she sheds on your<br>behalf. As for my not coming near you, I was never uneasy about you,<br>for I was certain you would get back safely though you would lose<br>all your men, and I did not wish to quarrel with my uncle Neptune, who<br>never forgave you for having blinded his son. I will now, however,<br>point out to you the lie of the land, and you will then perhaps<br>believe me. This is the haven of the old merman Phorcys, and here is<br>the olive tree that grows at the head of it; [near it is the cave<br>sacred to the Naiads;] here too is the overarching cavern in which you<br>have offered many an acceptable hecatomb to the nymphs, and this is<br>the wooded mountain Neritum."<br>As she spoke the goddess dispersed the mist and the land appeared.<br>Then Ulysses rejoiced at finding himself again in his own land, and<br>kissed the bounteous soil; he lifted up his hands and prayed to the<br>nymphs, saying, "Naiad nymphs, daughters of Jove, I made sure that I<br>was never again to see you, now therefore I greet you with all<br>loving salutations, and I will bring you offerings as in the old days,<br>if Jove's redoubtable daughter will grant me life, and bring my son to<br>manhood."<br>"Take heart, and do not trouble yourself about that," rejoined<br>Minerva, "let us rather set about stowing your things at once in the<br>cave, where they will be quite safe. Let us see how we can best manage<br>it all."<br>Therewith she went down into the cave to look for the safest<br>hiding places, while Ulysses brought up all the treasure of gold,<br>bronze, and good clothing which the Phaecians had given him. They<br>stowed everything carefully away, and Minerva set a stone against<br>the door of the cave. Then the two sat down by the root of the great<br>olive, and consulted how to compass the destruction of the wicked<br>suitors.<br>"Ulysses," said Minerva, "noble son of Laertes, think how you can<br>lay hands on these disreputable people who have been lording it in<br>your house these three years, courting your wife and making wedding<br>presents to her, while she does nothing but lament your absence,<br>giving hope and sending your encouraging messages to every one of<br>them, but meaning the very opposite of all she says'<br>And Ulysses answered, "In good truth, goddess, it seems I should<br>have come to much the same bad end in my own house as Agamemnon did,<br>if you had not given me such timely information. Advise me how I shall<br>best avenge myself. Stand by my side and put your courage into my<br>heart as on the day when we loosed Troy's fair diadem from her brow.<br>Help me now as you did then, and I will fight three hundred men, if<br>you, goddess, will be with me."<br>"Trust me for that," said she, "I will not lose sight of you when<br>once we set about it, and I would imagine that some of those who are<br>devouring your substance will then bespatter the pavement with their<br>blood and brains. I will begin by disguising you so that no human<br>being shall know you; I will cover your body with wrinkles; you<br>shall lose all your yellow hair; I will clothe you in a garment that<br>shall fill all who see it with loathing; I will blear your fine eyes<br>for you, and make you an unseemly object in the sight of the<br>suitors, of your wife, and of the son whom you left behind you. Then<br>go at once to the swineherd who is in charge of your pigs; he has been<br>always well affected towards you, and is devoted to Penelope and<br>your son; you will find him feeding his pigs near the rock that is<br>called Raven by the fountain Arethusa, where they are fattening on<br>beechmast and spring water after their manner. Stay with him and<br>find out how things are going, while I proceed to Sparta and see<br>your son, who is with Menelaus at Lacedaemon, where he has gone to try<br>and find out whether you are still alive."<br>"But why," said Ulysses, "did you not tell him, for you knew all<br>about it? Did you want him too to go sailing about amid all kinds of<br>hardship while others are eating up his estate?"<br>Minerva answered, "Never mind about him, I sent him that he might be<br>well spoken of for having gone. He is in no sort of difficulty, but is<br>staying quite comfortably with Menelaus, and is surrounded with<br>abundance of every kind. The suitors have put out to sea and are lying<br>in wait for him, for they mean to kill him before he can get home. I<br>do not much think they will succeed, but rather that some of those who<br>are now eating up your estate will first find a grave themselves."<br>As she spoke Minerva touched him with her wand and covered him<br>with wrinkles, took away all his yellow hair, and withered the flesh<br>over his whole body; she bleared his eyes, which were naturally very<br>fine ones; she changed his clothes and threw an old rag of a wrap<br>about him, and a tunic, tattered, filthy, and begrimed with smoke; she<br>also gave him an undressed deer skin as an outer garment, and<br>furnished him with a staff and a wallet all in holes, with a twisted<br>thong for him to sling it over his shoulder.<br>When the pair had thus laid their plans they parted, and the goddess<br>went straight to Lacedaemon to fetch Telemachus.</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=410318" data-title="The Odyssey: Book 13 de Homer" data-description="Thus did he speak, and they all held their peace throughout the/covered cloister, enthralled by the charm of his story, till presently/Alcinous began to speak./"Ulysses," said he, "now that you have reached my house I doubt/not you will get home w..."></div> </div> </div>

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