<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=410337" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Odyssey: Book 9</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">And Ulysses answered, "King Alcinous, it is a good thing to hear a<br>bard with such a divine voice as this man has. There is nothing better<br>or more delightful than when a whole people make merry together,<br>with the guests sitting orderly to listen, while the table is loaded<br>with bread and meats, and the cup-bearer draws wine and fills his<br>cup for every man. This is indeed as fair a sight as a man can see.<br>Now, however, since you are inclined to ask the story of my sorrows,<br>and rekindle my own sad memories in respect of them, I do not know how<br>to begin, nor yet how to continue and conclude my tale, for the hand<br>of heaven has been laid heavily upon me.<br>"Firstly, then, I will tell you my name that you too may know it,<br>and one day, if I outlive this time of sorrow, may become my there<br>guests though I live so far away from all of you. I am Ulysses son<br>of Laertes, reknowned among mankind for all manner of subtlety, so<br>that my fame ascends to heaven. I live in Ithaca, where there is a<br>high mountain called Neritum, covered with forests; and not far from<br>it there is a group of islands very near to one another- Dulichium,<br>Same, and the wooded island of Zacynthus. It lies squat on the<br>horizon, all highest up in the sea towards the sunset, while the<br>others lie away from it towards dawn. It is a rugged island, but it<br>breeds brave men, and my eyes know none that they better love to<br>look upon. The goddess Calypso kept me with her in her cave, and<br>wanted me to marry her, as did also the cunning Aeaean goddess<br>Circe; but they could neither of them persuade me, for there is<br>nothing dearer to a man than his own country and his parents, and<br>however splendid a home he may have in a foreign country, if it be far<br>from father or mother, he does not care about it. Now, however, I will<br>tell you of the many hazardous adventures which by Jove's will I met<br>with on my return from Troy.<br>"When I had set sail thence the wind took me first to Ismarus, which<br>is the city of the Cicons. There I sacked the town and put the<br>people to the sword. We took their wives and also much booty, which we<br>divided equitably amongst us, so that none might have reason to<br>complain. I then said that we had better make off at once, but my<br>men very foolishly would not obey me, so they stayed there drinking<br>much wine and killing great numbers of sheep and oxen on the sea<br>shore. Meanwhile the Cicons cried out for help to other Cicons who<br>lived inland. These were more in number, and stronger, and they were<br>more skilled in the art of war, for they could fight, either from<br>chariots or on foot as the occasion served; in the morning, therefore,<br>they came as thick as leaves and bloom in summer, and the hand of<br>heaven was against us, so that we were hard pressed. They set the<br>battle in array near the ships, and the hosts aimed their<br>bronze-shod spears at one another. So long as the day waxed and it was<br>still morning, we held our own against them, though they were more<br>in number than we; but as the sun went down, towards the time when men<br>loose their oxen, the Cicons got the better of us, and we lost half<br>a dozen men from every ship we had; so we got away with those that<br>were left.<br>"Thence we sailed onward with sorrow in our hearts, but glad to have<br>escaped death though we had lost our comrades, nor did we leave till<br>we had thrice invoked each one of the poor fellows who had perished by<br>the hands of the Cicons. Then Jove raised the North wind against us<br>till it blew a hurricane, so that land and sky were hidden in thick<br>clouds, and night sprang forth out of the heavens. We let the ships<br>run before the gale, but the force of the wind tore our sails to<br>tatters, so we took them down for fear of shipwreck, and rowed our<br>hardest towards the land. There we lay two days and two nights<br>suffering much alike from toil and distress of mind, but on the<br>morning of the third day we again raised our masts, set sail, and took<br>our places, letting the wind and steersmen direct our ship. I should<br>have got home at that time unharmed had not the North wind and the<br>currents been against me as I was doubling Cape Malea, and set me<br>off my course hard by the island of Cythera.<br>"I was driven thence by foul winds for a space of nine days upon the<br>sea, but on the tenth day we reached the land of the Lotus-eater,<br>who live on a food that comes from a kind of flower. Here we landed to<br>take in fresh water, and our crews got their mid-day meal on the shore<br>near the ships. When they had eaten and drunk I sent two of my company<br>to see what manner of men the people of the place might be, and they<br>had a third man under them. They started at once, and went about among<br>the Lotus-eaters, who did them no hurt, but gave them to eat of the<br>lotus, which was so delicious that those who ate of it left off caring<br>about home, and did not even want to go back and say what had happened<br>to them, but were for staying and munching lotus with the<br>Lotus-eater without thinking further of their return; nevertheless,<br>though they wept bitterly I forced them back to the ships and made<br>them fast under the benches. Then I told the rest to go on board at<br>once, lest any of them should taste of the lotus and leave off wanting<br>to get home, so they took their places and smote the grey sea with<br>their oars.<br>"We sailed hence, always in much distress, till we came to the<br>land of the lawless and inhuman Cyclopes. Now the Cyclopes neither<br>plant nor plough, but trust in providence, and live on such wheat,<br>barley, and grapes as grow wild without any kind of tillage, and their<br>wild grapes yield them wine as the sun and the rain may grow them.<br>They have no laws nor assemblies of the people, but live in caves on<br>the tops of high mountains; each is lord and master in his family, and<br>they take no account of their neighbours.<br>"Now off their harbour there lies a wooded and fertile island not<br>quite close to the land of the Cyclopes, but still not far. It is<br>overrun with wild goats, that breed there in great numbers and are<br>never disturbed by foot of man; for sportsmen- who as a rule will<br>suffer so much hardship in forest or among mountain precipices- do not<br>go there, nor yet again is it ever ploughed or fed down, but it lies a<br>wilderness untilled and unsown from year to year, and has no living<br>thing upon it but only goats. For the Cyclopes have no ships, nor<br>yet shipwrights who could make ships for them; they cannot therefore<br>go from city to city, or sail over the sea to one another's country as<br>people who have ships can do; if they had had these they would have<br>colonized the island, for it is a very good one, and would yield<br>everything in due season. There are meadows that in some places come<br>right down to the sea shore, well watered and full of luscious<br>grass; grapes would do there excellently; there is level land for<br>ploughing, and it would always yield heavily at harvest time, for<br>the soil is deep. There is a good harbour where no cables are<br>wanted, nor yet anchors, nor need a ship be moored, but all one has to<br>do is to beach one's vessel and stay there till the wind becomes<br>fair for putting out to sea again. At the head of the harbour there is<br>a spring of clear water coming out of a cave, and there are poplars<br>growing all round it.<br>"Here we entered, but so dark was the night that some god must<br>have brought us in, for there was nothing whatever to be seen. A thick<br>mist hung all round our ships; the moon was hidden behind a mass of<br>clouds so that no one could have seen the island if he had looked<br>for it, nor were there any breakers to tell us we were close in<br>shore before we found ourselves upon the land itself; when, however,<br>we had beached the ships, we took down the sails, went ashore and<br>camped upon the beach till daybreak.<br>"When the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared, we admired<br>the island and wandered all over it, while the nymphs Jove's daughters<br>roused the wild goats that we might get some meat for our dinner. On<br>this we fetched our spears and bows and arrows from the ships, and<br>dividing ourselves into three bands began to shoot the goats. Heaven<br>sent us excellent sport; I had twelve ships with me, and each ship got<br>nine goats, while my own ship had ten; thus through the livelong day<br>to the going down of the sun we ate and drank our fill,- and we had<br>plenty of wine left, for each one of us had taken many jars full<br>when we sacked the city of the Cicons, and this had not yet run out.<br>While we were feasting we kept turning our eyes towards the land of<br>the Cyclopes, which was hard by, and saw the smoke of their stubble<br>fires. We could almost fancy we heard their voices and the bleating of<br>their sheep and goats, but when the sun went down and it came on dark,<br>we camped down upon the beach, and next morning I called a council.<br>"'Stay here, my brave fellows,' said I, 'all the rest of you,<br>while I go with my ship and exploit these people myself: I want to see<br>if they are uncivilized savages, or a hospitable and humane race.'<br>"I went on board, bidding my men to do so also and loose the<br>hawsers; so they took their places and smote the grey sea with their<br>oars. When we got to the land, which was not far, there, on the face<br>of a cliff near the sea, we saw a great cave overhung with laurels. It<br>was a station for a great many sheep and goats, and outside there<br>was a large yard, with a high wall round it made of stones built<br>into the ground and of trees both pine and oak. This was the abode<br>of a huge monster who was then away from home shepherding his<br>flocks. He would have nothing to do with other people, but led the<br>life of an outlaw. He was a horrid creature, not like a human being at<br>all, but resembling rather some crag that stands out boldly against<br>the sky on the top of a high mountain.<br>"I told my men to draw the ship ashore, and stay where they were,<br>all but the twelve best among them, who were to go along with<br>myself. I also took a goatskin of sweet black wine which had been<br>given me by Maron, Apollo son of Euanthes, who was priest of Apollo<br>the patron god of Ismarus, and lived within the wooded precincts of<br>the temple. When we were sacking the city we respected him, and spared<br>his life, as also his wife and child; so he made me some presents of<br>great value- seven talents of fine gold, and a bowl of silver, with<br>twelve jars of sweet wine, unblended, and of the most exquisite<br>flavour. Not a man nor maid in the house knew about it, but only<br>himself, his wife, and one housekeeper: when he drank it he mixed<br>twenty parts of water to one of wine, and yet the fragrance from the<br>mixing-bowl was so exquisite that it was impossible to refrain from<br>drinking. I filled a large skin with this wine, and took a wallet full<br>of provisions with me, for my mind misgave me that I might have to<br>deal with some savage who would be of great strength, and would<br>respect neither right nor law.<br>"We soon reached his cave, but he was out shepherding, so we went<br>inside and took stock of all that we could see. His cheese-racks<br>were loaded with cheeses, and he had more lambs and kids than his pens<br>could hold. They were kept in separate flocks; first there were the<br>hoggets, then the oldest of the younger lambs and lastly the very<br>young ones all kept apart from one another; as for his dairy, all<br>the vessels, bowls, and milk pails into which he milked, were swimming<br>with whey. When they saw all this, my men begged me to let them<br>first steal some cheeses, and make off with them to the ship; they<br>would then return, drive down the lambs and kids, put them on board<br>and sail away with them. It would have been indeed better if we had<br>done so but I would not listen to them, for I wanted to see the<br>owner himself, in the hope that he might give me a present. When,<br>however, we saw him my poor men found him ill to deal with.<br>"We lit a fire, offered some of the cheeses in sacrifice, ate others<br>of them, and then sat waiting till the Cyclops should come in with his<br>sheep. When he came, he brought in with him a huge load of dry<br>firewood to light the fire for his supper, and this he flung with such<br>a noise on to the floor of his cave that we hid ourselves for fear<br>at the far end of the cavern. Meanwhile he drove all the ewes<br>inside, as well as the she-goats that he was going to milk, leaving<br>the males, both rams and he-goats, outside in the yards. Then he<br>rolled a huge stone to the mouth of the cave- so huge that two and<br>twenty strong four-wheeled waggons would not be enough to draw it from<br>its place against the doorway. When he had so done he sat down and<br>milked his ewes and goats, all in due course, and then let each of<br>them have her own young. He curdled half the milk and set it aside<br>in wicker strainers, but the other half he poured into bowls that he<br>might drink it for his supper. When he had got through with all his<br>work, he lit the fire, and then caught sight of us, whereon he said:<br>"'Strangers, who are you? Where do sail from? Are you traders, or do<br>you sail the as rovers, with your hands against every man, and every<br>man's hand against you?'<br>"We were frightened out of our senses by his loud voice and<br>monstrous form, but I managed to say, 'We are Achaeans on our way home<br>from Troy, but by the will of Jove, and stress of weather, we have<br>been driven far out of our course. We are the people of Agamemnon, son<br>of Atreus, who has won infinite renown throughout the whole world,<br>by sacking so great a city and killing so many people. We therefore<br>humbly pray you to show us some hospitality, and otherwise make us<br>such presents as visitors may reasonably expect. May your excellency<br>fear the wrath of heaven, for we are your suppliants, and Jove takes<br>all respectable travellers under his protection, for he is the avenger<br>of all suppliants and foreigners in distress.'<br>"To this he gave me but a pitiless answer, 'Stranger,' said he, 'you<br>are a fool, or else you know nothing of this country. Talk to me,<br>indeed, about fearing the gods or shunning their anger? We Cyclopes do<br>not care about Jove or any of your blessed gods, for we are ever so<br>much stronger than they. I shall not spare either yourself or your<br>companions out of any regard for Jove, unless I am in the humour for<br>doing so. And now tell me where you made your ship fast when you<br>came on shore. Was it round the point, or is she lying straight off<br>the land?'<br>"He said this to draw me out, but I was too cunning to be caught<br>in that way, so I answered with a lie; 'Neptune,' said I, 'sent my<br>ship on to the rocks at the far end of your country, and wrecked it.<br>We were driven on to them from the open sea, but I and those who are<br>with me escaped the jaws of death.'<br>"The cruel wretch vouchsafed me not one word of answer, but with a<br>sudden clutch he gripped up two of my men at once and dashed them down<br>upon the ground as though they had been puppies. Their brains were<br>shed upon the ground, and the earth was wet with their blood. Then<br>he tore them limb from limb and supped upon them. He gobbled them up<br>like a lion in the wilderness, flesh, bones, marrow, and entrails,<br>without leaving anything uneaten. As for us, we wept and lifted up our<br>hands to heaven on seeing such a horrid sight, for we did not know<br>what else to do; but when the Cyclops had filled his huge paunch,<br>and had washed down his meal of human flesh with a drink of neat milk,<br>he stretched himself full length upon the ground among his sheep,<br>and went to sleep. I was at first inclined to seize my sword, draw it,<br>and drive it into his vitals, but I reflected that if I did we<br>should all certainly be lost, for we should never be able to shift the<br>stone which the monster had put in front of the door. So we stayed<br>sobbing and sighing where we were till morning came.<br>"When the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared, he again<br>lit his fire, milked his goats and ewes, all quite rightly, and then<br>let each have her own young one; as soon as he had got through with<br>all his work, he clutched up two more of my men, and began eating them<br>for his morning's meal. Presently, with the utmost ease, he rolled the<br>stone away from the door and drove out his sheep, but he at once put<br>it back again- as easily as though he were merely clapping the lid<br>on to a quiver full of arrows. As soon as he had done so he shouted,<br>and cried 'Shoo, shoo,' after his sheep to drive them on to the<br>mountain; so I was left to scheme some way of taking my revenge and<br>covering myself with glory.<br>"In the end I deemed it would be the best plan to do as follows. The<br>Cyclops had a great club which was lying near one of the sheep pens;<br>it was of green olive wood, and he had cut it intending to use it<br>for a staff as soon as it should be dry. It was so huge that we<br>could only compare it to the mast of a twenty-oared merchant vessel of<br>large burden, and able to venture out into open sea. I went up to this<br>club and cut off about six feet of it; I then gave this piece to the<br>men and told them to fine it evenly off at one end, which they<br>proceeded to do, and lastly I brought it to a point myself, charring<br>the end in the fire to make it harder. When I had done this I hid it<br>under dung, which was lying about all over the cave, and told the<br>men to cast lots which of them should venture along with myself to<br>lift it and bore it into the monster's eye while he was asleep. The<br>lot fell upon the very four whom I should have chosen, and I myself<br>made five. In the evening the wretch came back from shepherding, and<br>drove his flocks into the cave- this time driving them all inside, and<br>not leaving any in the yards; I suppose some fancy must have taken<br>him, or a god must have prompted him to do so. As soon as he had put<br>the stone back to its place against the door, he sat down, milked<br>his ewes and his goats all quite rightly, and then let each have her<br>own young one; when he had got through with all this work, he<br>gripped up two more of my men, and made his supper off them. So I went<br>up to him with an ivy-wood bowl of black wine in my hands:<br>"'Look here, Cyclops,' said I, you have been eating a great deal<br>of man's flesh, so take this and drink some wine, that you may see<br>what kind of liquor we had on board my ship. I was bringing it to<br>you as a drink-offering, in the hope that you would take compassion<br>upon me and further me on my way home, whereas all you do is to go<br>on ramping and raving most intolerably. You ought to be ashamed<br>yourself; how can you expect people to come see you any more if you<br>treat them in this way?'<br>"He then took the cup and drank. He was so delighted with the<br>taste of the wine that he begged me for another bowl full. 'Be so<br>kind,' he said, 'as to give me some more, and tell me your name at<br>once. I want to make you a present that you will be glad to have. We<br>have wine even in this country, for our soil grows grapes and the<br>sun ripens them, but this drinks like nectar and ambrosia all in one.'<br>"I then gave him some more; three times did I fill the bowl for him,<br>and three times did he drain it without thought or heed; then, when<br>I saw that the wine had got into his head, I said to him as<br>plausibly as I could: 'Cyclops, you ask my name and I will tell it<br>you; give me, therefore, the present you promised me; my name is<br>Noman; this is what my father and mother and my friends have always<br>called me.'<br>"But the cruel wretch said, 'Then I will eat all Noman's comrades<br>before Noman himself, and will keep Noman for the last. This is the<br>present that I will make him.'<br>As he spoke he reeled, and fell sprawling face upwards on the<br>ground. His great neck hung heavily backwards and a deep sleep took<br>hold upon him. Presently he turned sick, and threw up both wine and<br>the gobbets of human flesh on which he had been gorging, for he was<br>very drunk. Then I thrust the beam of wood far into the embers to heat<br>it, and encouraged my men lest any of them should turn<br>faint-hearted. When the wood, green though it was, was about to blaze,<br>I drew it out of the fire glowing with heat, and my men gathered round<br>me, for heaven had filled their hearts with courage. We drove the<br>sharp end of the beam into the monster's eye, and bearing upon it with<br>all my weight I kept turning it round and round as though I were<br>boring a hole in a ship's plank with an auger, which two men with a<br>wheel and strap can keep on turning as long as they choose. Even<br>thus did we bore the red hot beam into his eye, till the boiling blood<br>bubbled all over it as we worked it round and round, so that the steam<br>from the burning eyeball scalded his eyelids and eyebrows, and the<br>roots of the eye sputtered in the fire. As a blacksmith plunges an axe<br>or hatchet into cold water to temper it- for it is this that gives<br>strength to the iron- and it makes a great hiss as he does so, even<br>thus did the Cyclops' eye hiss round the beam of olive wood, and his<br>hideous yells made the cave ring again. We ran away in a fright, but<br>he plucked the beam all besmirched with gore from his eye, and<br>hurled it from him in a frenzy of rage and pain, shouting as he did so<br>to the other Cyclopes who lived on the bleak headlands near him; so<br>they gathered from all quarters round his cave when they heard him<br>crying, and asked what was the matter with him.<br>"'What ails you, Polyphemus,' said they, 'that you make such a<br>noise, breaking the stillness of the night, and preventing us from<br>being able to sleep? Surely no man is carrying off your sheep?<br>Surely no man is trying to kill you either by fraud or by force?<br>"But Polyphemus shouted to them from inside the cave, 'Noman is<br>killing me by fraud! Noman is killing me by force!'<br>"'Then,' said they, 'if no man is attacking you, you must be ill;<br>when Jove makes people ill, there is no help for it, and you had<br>better pray to your father Neptune.'<br>"Then they went away, and I laughed inwardly at the success of my<br>clever stratagem, but the Cyclops, groaning and in an agony of pain,<br>felt about with his hands till he found the stone and took it from the<br>door; then he sat in the doorway and stretched his hands in front of<br>it to catch anyone going out with the sheep, for he thought I might be<br>foolish enough to attempt this.<br>"As for myself I kept on puzzling to think how I could best save<br>my own life and those of my companions; I schemed and schemed, as<br>one who knows that his life depends upon it, for the danger was very<br>great. In the end I deemed that this plan would be the best. The<br>male sheep were well grown, and carried a heavy black fleece, so I<br>bound them noiselessly in threes together, with some of the withies on<br>which the wicked monster used to sleep. There was to be a man under<br>the middle sheep, and the two on either side were to cover him, so<br>that there were three sheep to each man. As for myself there was a ram<br>finer than any of the others, so I caught hold of him by the back,<br>esconced myself in the thick wool under his belly, and flung on<br>patiently to his fleece, face upwards, keeping a firm hold on it all<br>the time.<br>"Thus, then, did we wait in great fear of mind till morning came,<br>but when the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared, the<br>male sheep hurried out to feed, while the ewes remained bleating about<br>the pens waiting to be milked, for their udders were full to bursting;<br>but their master in spite of all his pain felt the backs of all the<br>sheep as they stood upright, without being sharp enough to find out<br>that the men were underneath their bellies. As the ram was going<br>out, last of all, heavy with its fleece and with the weight of my<br>crafty self; Polyphemus laid hold of it and said:<br>"'My good ram, what is it that makes you the last to leave my cave<br>this morning? You are not wont to let the ewes go before you, but lead<br>the mob with a run whether to flowery mead or bubbling fountain, and<br>are the first to come home again at night; but now you lag last of<br>all. Is it because you know your master has lost his eye, and are<br>sorry because that wicked Noman and his horrid crew have got him<br>down in his drink and blinded him? But I will have his life yet. If<br>you could understand and talk, you would tell me where the wretch is<br>hiding, and I would dash his brains upon the ground till they flew all<br>over the cave. I should thus have some satisfaction for the harm a<br>this no-good Noman has done me.'<br>"As spoke he drove the ram outside, but when we were a little way<br>out from the cave and yards, I first got from under the ram's belly,<br>and then freed my comrades; as for the sheep, which were very fat,<br>by constantly heading them in the right direction we managed to<br>drive them down to the ship. The crew rejoiced greatly at seeing those<br>of us who had escaped death, but wept for the others whom the<br>Cyclops had killed. However, I made signs to them by nodding and<br>frowning that they were to hush their crying, and told them to get all<br>the sheep on board at once and put out to sea; so they went aboard,<br>took their places, and smote the grey sea with their oars. Then,<br>when I had got as far out as my voice would reach, I began to jeer<br>at the Cyclops.<br>"'Cyclops,' said I, 'you should have taken better measure of your<br>man before eating up his comrades in your cave. You wretch, eat up<br>your visitors in your own house? You might have known that your sin<br>would find you out, and now Jove and the other gods have punished<br>you.'<br>"He got more and more furious as he heard me, so he tore the top<br>from off a high mountain, and flung it just in front of my ship so<br>that it was within a little of hitting the end of the rudder. The<br>sea quaked as the rock fell into it, and the wash of the wave it<br>raised carried us back towards the mainland, and forced us towards the<br>shore. But I snatched up a long pole and kept the ship off, making<br>signs to my men by nodding my head, that they must row for their<br>lives, whereon they laid out with a will. When we had got twice as far<br>as we were before, I was for jeering at the Cyclops again, but the men<br>begged and prayed of me to hold my tongue.<br>"'Do not,' they exclaimed, 'be mad enough to provoke this savage<br>creature further; he has thrown one rock at us already which drove<br>us back again to the mainland, and we made sure it had been the<br>death of us; if he had then heard any further sound of voices he would<br>have pounded our heads and our ship's timbers into a jelly with the<br>rugged rocks he would have heaved at us, for he can throw them a<br>long way.'<br>"But I would not listen to them, and shouted out to him in my<br>rage, 'Cyclops, if any one asks you who it was that put your eye out<br>and spoiled your beauty, say it was the valiant warrior Ulysses, son<br>of Laertes, who lives in Ithaca.'<br>"On this he groaned, and cried out, 'Alas, alas, then the old<br>prophecy about me is coming true. There was a prophet here, at one<br>time, a man both brave and of great stature, Telemus son of Eurymus,<br>who was an excellent seer, and did all the prophesying for the<br>Cyclopes till he grew old; he told me that all this would happen to me<br>some day, and said I should lose my sight by the hand of Ulysses. I<br>have been all along expecting some one of imposing presence and<br>superhuman strength, whereas he turns out to be a little insignificant<br>weakling, who has managed to blind my eye by taking advantage of me in<br>my drink; come here, then, Ulysses, that I may make you presents to<br>show my hospitality, and urge Neptune to help you forward on your<br>journey- for Neptune and I are father and son. He, if he so will,<br>shall heal me, which no one else neither god nor man can do.'<br>"Then I said, 'I wish I could be as sure of killing you outright and<br>sending you down to the house of Hades, as I am that it will take more<br>than Neptune to cure that eye of yours.'<br>"On this he lifted up his hands to the firmament of heaven and<br>prayed, saying, 'Hear me, great Neptune; if I am indeed your own<br>true-begotten son, grant that Ulysses may never reach his home<br>alive; or if he must get back to his friends at last, let him do so<br>late and in sore plight after losing all his men [let him reach his<br>home in another man's ship and find trouble in his house.']<br>"Thus did he pray, and Neptune heard his prayer. Then he picked up a<br>rock much larger than the first, swung it aloft and hurled it with<br>prodigious force. It fell just short of the ship, but was within a<br>little of hitting the end of the rudder. The sea quaked as the rock<br>fell into it, and the wash of the wave it raised drove us onwards on<br>our way towards the shore of the island.<br>"When at last we got to the island where we had left the rest of our<br>ships, we found our comrades lamenting us, and anxiously awaiting<br>our return. We ran our vessel upon the sands and got out of her on<br>to the sea shore; we also landed the Cyclops' sheep, and divided<br>them equitably amongst us so that none might have reason to<br>complain. As for the ram, my companions agreed that I should have it<br>as an extra share; so I sacrificed it on the sea shore, and burned its<br>thigh bones to Jove, who is the lord of all. But he heeded not my<br>sacrifice, and only thought how he might destroy my ships and my<br>comrades.<br>"Thus through the livelong day to the going down of the sun we<br>feasted our fill on meat and drink, but when the sun went down and<br>it came on dark, we camped upon the beach. When the child of<br>morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared, I bade my men on board and<br>loose the hawsers. Then they took their places and smote the grey<br>sea with their oars; so we sailed on with sorrow in our hearts, but<br>glad to have escaped death though we had lost our comrades.</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=410337" data-title="The Odyssey: Book 9 de Homer" data-description="And Ulysses answered, "King Alcinous, it is a good thing to hear a/bard with such a divine voice as this man has. There is nothing better/or more delightful than when a whole people make merry together,/with the guests sitting orderly to listen, w..."></div> </div> </div>

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