<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=410333" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Odyssey: Book 5</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">And now, as Dawn rose from her couch beside Tithonus- harbinger of<br>light alike to mortals and immortals- the gods met in council and with<br>them, Jove the lord of thunder, who is their king. Thereon Minerva<br>began to tell them of the many sufferings of Ulysses, for she pitied<br>him away there in the house of the nymph Calypso.<br>"Father Jove," said she, "and all you other gods that live in<br>everlasting bliss, I hope there may never be such a thing as a kind<br>and well-disposed ruler any more, nor one who will govern equitably. I<br>hope they will be all henceforth cruel and unjust, for there is not<br>one of his subjects but has forgotten Ulysses, who ruled them as<br>though he were their father. There he is, lying in great pain in an<br>island where dwells the nymph Calypso, who will not let him go; and he<br>cannot get back to his own country, for he can find neither ships<br>nor sailors to take him over the sea. Furthermore, wicked people are<br>now trying to murder his only son Telemachus, who is coming home<br>from Pylos and Lacedaemon, where he has been to see if he can get news<br>of his father."<br>"What, my dear, are you talking about?" replied her father, "did you<br>not send him there yourself, because you thought it would help Ulysses<br>to get home and punish the suitors? Besides, you are perfectly able to<br>protect Telemachus, and to see him safely home again, while the<br>suitors have to come hurry-skurrying back without having killed him."<br>When he had thus spoken, he said to his son Mercury, "Mercury, you<br>are our messenger, go therefore and tell Calypso we have decreed<br>that poor Ulysses is to return home. He is to be convoyed neither by<br>gods nor men, but after a perilous voyage of twenty days upon a raft<br>he is to reach fertile Scheria, the land of the Phaeacians, who are<br>near of kin to the gods, and will honour him as though he were one<br>of ourselves. They will send him in a ship to his own country, and<br>will give him more bronze and gold and raiment than he would have<br>brought back from Troy, if he had had had all his prize money and<br>had got home without disaster. This is how we have settled that he<br>shall return to his country and his friends."<br>Thus he spoke, and Mercury, guide and guardian, slayer of Argus, did<br>as he was told. Forthwith he bound on his glittering golden sandals<br>with which he could fly like the wind over land and sea. He took the<br>wand with which he seals men's eyes in sleep or wakes them just as<br>he pleases, and flew holding it in his hand over Pieria; then he<br>swooped down through the firmament till he reached the level of the<br>sea, whose waves he skimmed like a cormorant that flies fishing<br>every hole and corner of the ocean, and drenching its thick plumage in<br>the spray. He flew and flew over many a weary wave, but when at last<br>he got to the island which was his journey's end, he left the sea<br>and went on by land till he came to the cave where the nymph Calypso<br>lived.<br>He found her at home. There was a large fire burning on the<br>hearth, and one could smell from far the fragrant reek of burning<br>cedar and sandal wood. As for herself, she was busy at her loom,<br>shooting her golden shuttle through the warp and singing<br>beautifully. Round her cave there was a thick wood of alder, poplar,<br>and sweet smelling cypress trees, wherein all kinds of great birds had<br>built their nests- owls, hawks, and chattering sea-crows that occupy<br>their business in the waters. A vine loaded with grapes was trained<br>and grew luxuriantly about the mouth of the cave; there were also four<br>running rills of water in channels cut pretty close together, and<br>turned hither and thither so as to irrigate the beds of violets and<br>luscious herbage over which they flowed. Even a god could not help<br>being charmed with such a lovely spot, so Mercury stood still and<br>looked at it; but when he had admired it sufficiently he went inside<br>the cave.<br>Calypso knew him at once- for the gods all know each other, no<br>matter how far they live from one another- but Ulysses was not within;<br>he was on the sea-shore as usual, looking out upon the barren ocean<br>with tears in his eyes, groaning and breaking his heart for sorrow.<br>Calypso gave Mercury a seat and said: "Why have you come to see me,<br>Mercury- honoured, and ever welcome- for you do not visit me often?<br>Say what you want; I will do it for be you at once if I can, and if it<br>can be done at all; but come inside, and let me set refreshment before<br>you.<br>As she spoke she drew a table loaded with ambrosia beside him and<br>mixed him some red nectar, so Mercury ate and drank till he had had<br>enough, and then said:<br>"We are speaking god and goddess to one another, one another, and<br>you ask me why I have come here, and I will tell you truly as you<br>would have me do. Jove sent me; it was no doing of mine; who could<br>possibly want to come all this way over the sea where there are no<br>cities full of people to offer me sacrifices or choice hecatombs?<br>Nevertheless I had to come, for none of us other gods can cross<br>Jove, nor transgress his orders. He says that you have here the most<br>ill-starred of alf those who fought nine years before the city of King<br>Priam and sailed home in the tenth year after having sacked it. On<br>their way home they sinned against Minerva, who raised both wind and<br>waves against them, so that all his brave companions perished, and<br>he alone was carried hither by wind and tide. Jove says that you are<br>to let this by man go at once, for it is decreed that he shall not<br>perish here, far from his own people, but shall return to his house<br>and country and see his friends again."<br>Calypso trembled with rage when she heard this, "You gods," she<br>exclaimed, to be ashamed of yourselves. You are always jealous and<br>hate seeing a goddess take a fancy to a mortal man, and live with<br>him in open matrimony. So when rosy-fingered Dawn made love to<br>Orion, you precious gods were all of you furious till Diana went and<br>killed him in Ortygia. So again when Ceres fell in love with Iasion,<br>and yielded to him in a thrice ploughed fallow field, Jove came to<br>hear of it before so long and killed Iasion with his thunder-bolts.<br>And now you are angry with me too because I have a man here. I found<br>the poor creature sitting all alone astride of a keel, for Jove had<br>struck his ship with lightning and sunk it in mid ocean, so that all<br>his crew were drowned, while he himself was driven by wind and waves<br>on to my island. I got fond of him and cherished him, and had set my<br>heart on making him immortal, so that he should never grow old all his<br>days; still I cannot cross Jove, nor bring his counsels to nothing;<br>therefore, if he insists upon it, let the man go beyond the seas<br>again; but I cannot send him anywhere myself for I have neither<br>ships nor men who can take him. Nevertheless I will readily give him<br>such advice, in all good faith, as will be likely to bring him<br>safely to his own country."<br>"Then send him away," said Mercury, "or Jove will be angry with<br>you and punish you"'<br>On this he took his leave, and Calypso went out to look for Ulysses,<br>for she had heard Jove's message. She found him sitting upon the beach<br>with his eyes ever filled with tears, and dying of sheer<br>home-sickness; for he had got tired of Calypso, and though he was<br>forced to sleep with her in the cave by night, it was she, not he,<br>that would have it so. As for the day time, he spent it on the rocks<br>and on the sea-shore, weeping, crying aloud for his despair, and<br>always looking out upon the sea. Calypso then went close up to him<br>said:<br>"My poor fellow, you shall not stay here grieving and fretting<br>your life out any longer. I am going to send you away of my own free<br>will; so go, cut some beams of wood, and make yourself a large raft<br>with an upper deck that it may carry you safely over the sea. I will<br>put bread, wine, and water on board to save you from starving. I<br>will also give you clothes, and will send you a fair wind to take<br>you home, if the gods in heaven so will it- for they know more about<br>these things, and can settle them better than I can."<br>Ulysses shuddered as he heard her. "Now goddess," he answered,<br>"there is something behind all this; you cannot be really meaning to<br>help me home when you bid me do such a dreadful thing as put to sea on<br>a raft. Not even a well-found ship with a fair wind could venture on<br>such a distant voyage: nothing that you can say or do shall mage me go<br>on board a raft unless you first solemnly swear that you mean me no<br>mischief."<br>Calypso smiled at this and caressed him with her hand: "You know a<br>great deal," said she, "but you are quite wrong here. May heaven above<br>and earth below be my witnesses, with the waters of the river Styx-<br>and this is the most solemn oath which a blessed god can take- that<br>I mean you no sort of harm, and am only advising you to do exactly<br>what I should do myself in your place. I am dealing with you quite<br>straightforwardly; my heart is not made of iron, and I am very sorry<br>for you."<br>When she had thus spoken she led the way rapidly before him, and<br>Ulysses followed in her steps; so the pair, goddess and man, went on<br>and on till they came to Calypso's cave, where Ulysses took the seat<br>that Mercury had just left. Calypso set meat and drink before him of<br>the food that mortals eat; but her maids brought ambrosia and nectar<br>for herself, and they laid their hands on the good things that were<br>before them. When they had satisfied themselves with meat and drink,<br>Calypso spoke, saying:<br>"Ulysses, noble son of Laertes, so you would start home to your<br>own land at once? Good luck go with you, but if you could only know<br>how much suffering is in store for you before you get back to your own<br>country, you would stay where you are, keep house along with me, and<br>let me make you immortal, no matter how anxious you may be to see this<br>wife of yours, of whom you are thinking all the time day after day;<br>yet I flatter myself that at am no whit less tall or well-looking than<br>she is, for it is not to be expected that a mortal woman should<br>compare in beauty with an immortal."<br>"Goddess," replied Ulysses, "do not be angry with me about this. I<br>am quite aware that my wife Penelope is nothing like so tall or so<br>beautiful as yourself. She is only a woman, whereas you are an<br>immortal. Nevertheless, I want to get home, and can think of nothing<br>else. If some god wrecks me when I am on the sea, I will bear it and<br>make the best of it. I have had infinite trouble both by land and<br>sea already, so let this go with the rest."<br>Presently the sun set and it became dark, whereon the pair retired<br>into the inner part of the cave and went to bed.<br>When the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared, Ulysses put<br>on his shirt and cloak, while the goddess wore a dress of a light<br>gossamer fabric, very fine and graceful, with a beautiful golden<br>girdle about her waist and a veil to cover her head. She at once set<br>herself to think how she could speed Ulysses on his way. So she gave<br>him a great bronze axe that suited his hands; it was sharpened on both<br>sides, and had a beautiful olive-wood handle fitted firmly on to it.<br>She also gave him a sharp adze, and then led the way to the far end of<br>the island where the largest trees grew- alder, poplar and pine,<br>that reached the sky- very dry and well seasoned, so as to sail<br>light for him in the water. Then, when she had shown him where the<br>best trees grew, Calypso went home, leaving him to cut them, which<br>he soon finished doing. He cut down twenty trees in all and adzed them<br>smooth, squaring them by rule in good workmanlike fashion. Meanwhile<br>Calypso came back with some augers, so he bored holes with them and<br>fitted the timbers together with bolts and rivets. He made the raft as<br>broad as a skilled shipwright makes the beam of a large vessel, and he<br>filed a deck on top of the ribs, and ran a gunwale all round it. He<br>also made a mast with a yard arm, and a rudder to steer with. He<br>fenced the raft all round with wicker hurdles as a protection<br>against the waves, and then he threw on a quantity of wood. By and<br>by Calypso brought him some linen to make the sails, and he made these<br>too, excellently, making them fast with braces and sheets. Last of<br>all, with the help of levers, he drew the raft down into the water.<br>In four days he had completed the whole work, and on the fifth<br>Calypso sent him from the island after washing him and giving him some<br>clean clothes. She gave him a goat skin full of black wine, and<br>another larger one of water; she also gave him a wallet full of<br>provisions, and found him in much good meat. Moreover, she made the<br>wind fair and warm for him, and gladly did Ulysses spread his sail<br>before it, while he sat and guided the raft skilfully by means of<br>the rudder. He never closed his eyes, but kept them fixed on the<br>Pleiads, on late-setting Bootes, and on the Bear- which men also<br>call the wain, and which turns round and round where it is, facing<br>Orion, and alone never dipping into the stream of Oceanus- for Calypso<br>had told him to keep this to his left. Days seven and ten did he<br>sail over the sea, and on the eighteenth the dim outlines of the<br>mountains on the nearest part of the Phaeacian coast appeared,<br>rising like a shield on the horizon.<br>But King Neptune, who was returning from the Ethiopians, caught<br>sight of Ulysses a long way off, from the mountains of the Solymi.<br>He could see him sailing upon the sea, and it made him very angry,<br>so he wagged his head and muttered to himself, saying, heavens, so the<br>gods have been changing their minds about Ulysses while I was away<br>in Ethiopia, and now he is close to the land of the Phaeacians,<br>where it is decreed that he shall escape from the calamities that have<br>befallen him. Still, he shall have plenty of hardship yet before he<br>has done with it."<br>Thereon he gathered his clouds together, grasped his trident,<br>stirred it round in the sea, and roused the rage of every wind that<br>blows till earth, sea, and sky were hidden in cloud, and night<br>sprang forth out of the heavens. Winds from East, South, North, and<br>West fell upon him all at the same time, and a tremendous sea got<br>up, so that Ulysses' heart began to fail him. "Alas," he said to<br>himself in his dismay, "what ever will become of me? I am afraid<br>Calypso was right when she said I should have trouble by sea before<br>I got back home. It is all coming true. How black is Jove making<br>heaven with his clouds, and what a sea the winds are raising from<br>every quarter at once. I am now safe to perish. Blest and thrice blest<br>were those Danaans who fell before Troy in the cause of the sons of<br>Atreus. Would that had been killed on the day when the Trojans were<br>pressing me so sorely about the dead body of Achilles, for then I<br>should have had due burial and the Achaeans would have honoured my<br>name; but now it seems that I shall come to a most pitiable end."<br>As he spoke a sea broke over him with such terrific fury that the<br>raft reeled again, and he was carried overboard a long way off. He let<br>go the helm, and the force of the hurricane was so great that it broke<br>the mast half way up, and both sail and yard went over into the sea.<br>For a long time Ulysses was under water, and it was all he could do to<br>rise to the surface again, for the clothes Calypso had given him<br>weighed him down; but at last he got his head above water and spat out<br>the bitter brine that was running down his face in streams. In spite<br>of all this, however, he did not lose sight of his raft, but swam as<br>fast as he could towards it, got hold of it, and climbed on board<br>again so as to escape drowning. The sea took the raft and tossed it<br>about as Autumn winds whirl thistledown round and round upon a road.<br>It was as though the South, North, East, and West winds were all<br>playing battledore and shuttlecock with it at once.<br>When he was in this plight, Ino daughter of Cadmus, also called<br>Leucothea, saw him. She had formerly been a mere mortal, but had<br>been since raised to the rank of a marine goddess. Seeing in what<br>great distress Ulysses now was, she had compassion upon him, and,<br>rising like a sea-gull from the waves, took her seat upon the raft.<br>"My poor good man," said she, "why is Neptune so furiously angry<br>with you? He is giving you a great deal of trouble, but for all his<br>bluster he will not kill you. You seem to be a sensible person, do<br>then as I bid you; strip, leave your raft to drive before the wind,<br>and swim to the Phaecian coast where better luck awaits you. And here,<br>take my veil and put it round your chest; it is enchanted, and you can<br>come to no harm so long as you wear it. As soon as you touch land take<br>it off, throw it back as far as you can into the sea, and then go away<br>again." With these words she took off her veil and gave it him. Then<br>she dived down again like a sea-gull and vanished beneath the dark<br>blue waters.<br>But Ulysses did not know what to think. "Alas," he said to himself<br>in his dismay, "this is only some one or other of the gods who is<br>luring me to ruin by advising me to will quit my raft. At any rate I<br>will not do so at present, for the land where she said I should be<br>quit of all troubles seemed to be still a good way off. I know what<br>I will do- I am sure it will be best- no matter what happens I will<br>stick to the raft as long as her timbers hold together, but when the<br>sea breaks her up I will swim for it; I do not see how I can do any<br>better than this."<br>While he was thus in two minds, Neptune sent a terrible great wave<br>that seemed to rear itself above his head till it broke right over the<br>raft, which then went to pieces as though it were a heap of dry<br>chaff tossed about by a whirlwind. Ulysses got astride of one plank<br>and rode upon it as if he were on horseback; he then took off the<br>clothes Calypso had given him, bound Ino's veil under his arms, and<br>plunged into the sea- meaning to swim on shore. King Neptune watched<br>him as he did so, and wagged his head, muttering to himself and<br>saying, "'There now, swim up and down as you best can till you fall in<br>with well-to-do people. I do not think you will be able to say that<br>I have let you off too lightly." On this he lashed his horses and<br>drove to Aegae where his palace is.<br>But Minerva resolved to help Ulysses, so she bound the ways of all<br>the winds except one, and made them lie quite still; but she roused<br>a good stiff breeze from the North that should lay the waters till<br>Ulysses reached the land of the Phaeacians where he would be safe.<br>Thereon he floated about for two nights and two days in the water,<br>with a heavy swell on the sea and death staring him in the face; but<br>when the third day broke, the wind fell and there was a dead calm<br>without so much as a breath of air stirring. As he rose on the swell<br>he looked eagerly ahead, and could see land quite near. Then, as<br>children rejoice when their dear father begins to get better after<br>having for a long time borne sore affliction sent him by some angry<br>spirit, but the gods deliver him from evil, so was Ulysses thankful<br>when he again saw land and trees, and swam on with all his strength<br>that he might once more set foot upon dry ground. When, however, he<br>got within earshot, he began to hear the surf thundering up against<br>the rocks, for the swell still broke against them with a terrific<br>roar. Everything was enveloped in spray; there were no harbours<br>where a ship might ride, nor shelter of any kind, but only<br>headlands, low-lying rocks, and mountain tops.<br>Ulysses' heart now began to fail him, and he said despairingly to<br>himself, "Alas, Jove has let me see land after swimming so far that<br>I had given up all hope, but I can find no landing place, for the<br>coast is rocky and surf-beaten, the rocks are smooth and rise sheer<br>from the sea, with deep water close under them so that I cannot<br>climb out for want of foothold. I am afraid some great wave will<br>lift me off my legs and dash me against the rocks as I leave the<br>water- which would give me a sorry landing. If, on the other hand, I<br>swim further in search of some shelving beach or harbour, a<br>hurricane may carry me out to sea again sorely against my will, or<br>heaven may send some great monster of the deep to attack me; for<br>Amphitrite breeds many such, and I know that Neptune is very angry<br>with me."<br>While he was thus in two minds a wave caught him and took him with<br>such force against the rocks that he would have been smashed and<br>torn to pieces if Minerva had not shown him what to do. He caught hold<br>of the rock with both hands and clung to it groaning with pain till<br>the wave retired, so he was saved that time; but presently the wave<br>came on again and carried him back with it far into the sea-tearing<br>his hands as the suckers of a polypus are torn when some one plucks it<br>from its bed, and the stones come up along with it even so did the<br>rocks tear the skin from his strong hands, and then the wave drew<br>him deep down under the water.<br>Here poor Ulysses would have certainly perished even in spite of his<br>own destiny, if Minerva had not helped him to keep his wits about him.<br>He swam seaward again, beyond reach of the surf that was beating<br>against the land, and at the same time he kept looking towards the<br>shore to see if he could find some haven, or a spit that should take<br>the waves aslant. By and by, as he swam on, he came to the mouth of<br>a river, and here he thought would be the best place, for there were<br>no rocks, and it afforded shelter from the wind. He felt that there<br>was a current, so he prayed inwardly and said:<br>"Hear me, O King, whoever you may be, and save me from the anger<br>of the sea-god Neptune, for I approach you prayerfully. Any one who<br>has lost his way has at all times a claim even upon the gods,<br>wherefore in my distress I draw near to your stream, and cling to<br>the knees of your riverhood. Have mercy upon me, O king, for I declare<br>myself your suppliant."<br>Then the god stayed his stream and stilled the waves, making all<br>calm before him, and bringing him safely into the mouth of the<br>river. Here at last Ulysses' knees and strong hands failed him, for<br>the sea had completely broken him. His body was all swollen, and his<br>mouth and nostrils ran down like a river with sea-water, so that he<br>could neither breathe nor speak, and lay swooning from sheer<br>exhaustion; presently, when he had got his breath and came to<br>himself again, he took off the scarf that Ino had given him and<br>threw it back into the salt stream of the river, whereon Ino<br>received it into her hands from the wave that bore it towards her.<br>Then he left the river, laid himself down among the rushes, and kissed<br>the bounteous earth.<br>"Alas," he cried to himself in his dismay, "what ever will become of<br>me, and how is it all to end? If I stay here upon the river bed<br>through the long watches of the night, I am so exhausted that the<br>bitter cold and damp may make an end of me- for towards sunrise<br>there will be a keen wind blowing from off the river. If, on the other<br>hand, I climb the hill side, find shelter in the woods, and sleep in<br>some thicket, I may escape the cold and have a good night's rest,<br>but some savage beast may take advantage of me and devour me."<br>In the end he deemed it best to take to the woods, and he found<br>one upon some high ground not far from the water. There he crept<br>beneath two shoots of olive that grew from a single stock- the one<br>an ungrafted sucker, while the other had been grafted. No wind,<br>however squally, could break through the cover they afforded, nor<br>could the sun's rays pierce them, nor the rain get through them, so<br>closely did they grow into one another. Ulysses crept under these<br>and began to make himself a bed to lie on, for there was a great<br>litter of dead leaves lying about- enough to make a covering for two<br>or three men even in hard winter weather. He was glad enough to see<br>this, so he laid himself down and heaped the leaves all round him.<br>Then, as one who lives alone in the country, far from any neighbor,<br>hides a brand as fire-seed in the ashes to save himself from having to<br>get a light elsewhere, even so did Ulysses cover himself up with<br>leaves; and Minerva shed a sweet sleep upon his eyes, closed his<br>eyelids, and made him lose all memories of his sorrows.</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=410333" data-title="The Odyssey: Book 5 de Homer" data-description="And now, as Dawn rose from her couch beside Tithonus- harbinger of/light alike to mortals and immortals- the gods met in council and with/them, Jove the lord of thunder, who is their king. Thereon Minerva/began to tell them of the many sufferings ..."></div> </div> </div>

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