The Odyssey, Page 31

I'd blocked their ears, and released me from my bonds.

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  "But after we'd left that island, then very soon I saw

  smoke, and a heavy surf, and heard a thunderous noise.

  The rowers were frightened, the oars slipped from their grasp

  and hung clattering in the riptide; the ship came to a halt

  now they were no longer plying their shapely oar blades.

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  But I went through the ship encouraging my comrades

  with kindly words, approaching each man in turn: 'My friends,

  we've not hitherto gone short on experience of trouble!

  This danger we face now is no greater than when the Kyklops

  by brute force and strength shut us up in his hollow cave--

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  even then, my courage, invention, and presence of mind

  freed us: this peril too, I think, we'll live to recall!

  So now, please all do exactly as I command: you must

  stay seated there at the rowlocks and with your oars

  strike the deep surf of the sea, so that maybe Zeus

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  will grant that we escape, steer clear of this evil fate.

  And to you, steersman, I give this command: store it well

  in your memory--you control the hollow ship's helm!

  Keep the ship well away from all this smoke and surf:

  stay close to the headland, don't let her veer unnoticed

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  across to the other side, or you'll destroy us all.'

  "So I spoke, and they promptly obeyed the commands I gave them.

  But not yet did I mention Skylle, that irremovable danger,

  for fear lest my comrades, terrified, might abandon

  their rowing, and cower together down in the hold.

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  It was now I forgot Kirke's troublesome instruction

  that for no purpose whatsoever should I now arm myself.

  I put on my battle gear, I picked out two long spears,

  and carrying them made my way to the vessel's foredeck,

  from where, I figured, this rock-based Skylle would first

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  be glimpsed as she brought disaster to my comrades.

  But nowhere could I discern her, and my eyes grew weary

  from searching every part of the murky rock face.

  "So on through the narrow strait, lamenting, we sailed--and there

  on one side was Skylle, on the other bright Charybdis

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  fearsomely sucking in the salt seawater: when she

  spewed it back out, like a cauldron over a blazing fire,

  she was all seething turbulence, and the flying spray

  was flung up so high that it rained down on the tops

  of both headlands; when she sucked the salt seawater back,

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  she exposed her wild inner turmoil, while all around

  the rock roared: beneath it the bottom was revealed,

  black with sand. Pale fear now possessed my men,

  we gazed at Charybdis in terror, fearing destruction.

  Skylle meanwhile snatched up from the hollow ship

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  six of my comrades, the strongest and most active.

  Though my eyes were on the swift ship and my company,

  I still caught a glimpse of their hands and feet above me

  as they were whirled aloft. They cried out aloud,

  called me by name one last time in their anguish. As when

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  a fisherman with his long rod on a jutting rock

  throws down bits of bait as a lure when fish are scarce,

  and lets down into the deep the horn of a country ox,

  then grabs the hooked gasping victim, flings it ashore--

  so they were carried up, gasping, toward the rocks.

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  There at her entrance she devoured them, as they screamed

  and stretched out hands to me in their dire death struggle.

  That was the most piteous sight of all that ever I endured

  throughout my whole exploration of the paths of the deep.

  "Then when we'd escaped the rocks and fearsome Charybdis

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  and Skylle, soon after that we arrived at the god's

  matchless island, where were the splendid broad-browed cattle

  and numerous well-fed flocks of Hyperion Helios.

  While still out at sea in my black ship, I could hear

  the lowing of cattle on the way back to their farmstead

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  and the bleating of sheep; and into my mind now stole

  the words of the blind seer, of Theban Teiresias,

  and of Aiaian Kirke, who most strongly advised me

  to avoid the island of Helios, bright delight of mortals;

  and then, grieved at heart, I spoke out among my comrades:

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  'Distressed though you are, my comrades, mark my words well

  while I tell you of the prophetic warning Teiresias uttered,

  he and Aiaian Kirke: they most strongly advised me

  to avoid the island of Helios, bright delight of mortals,

  for there, she told me, was our most dreadful danger.

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  So, row our black ship straight on past this island.'

  "So I spoke,

  and the spirit within them was broken. But at once

  Eurylochos responded to me in chilling language:

  'You're a hard man, Odysseus, with rare strength: your limbs

  never tire, every last bit of you is fashioned of iron:

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  you won't let your comrades, worn out by sleeplessness

  and toil, disembark, when we might indeed once more

  on this sea-girt isle find the stuff for a tasty supper! But no,

  you're making us wander on through the speeding night,

  steering away from this island over the murky deep!

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  It's night that breeds dangerous winds, the wreckers of ships--

  how indeed could we escape from utter destruction

  should some sudden tearing gale bear down upon us

  from the south or the storm-ridden west wind, which most often

  break up ships in despite of the gods, their sovereign lords?

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  No, let us now rather yield to black night, put in,

  stay close by the black ship to prepare our supper, and then

  in the morning embark, sail out over the broad sea.'

  "So Eurylochos spoke: the rest of my comrades applauded.

  I saw now what kind of trouble some god had in store for us,

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  and so I spoke and addressed him with winged words, saying:

  'Eurylochos, you force my hand: I'm one man only. But listen:

  I want all of you here present to swear me a mighty oath,

  that if we come on a herd of cattle, or a great flock

  of sheep, no man will succumb to maleficent recklessness

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  and slaughter either a steer or a sheep. Rather show restraint

  and eat the food that immortal Kirke provided for us.'

  "So I spoke. They at once swore not to, as I requested,

  and when they had sworn and completed the oath, then we

  moored our well-built ship inside the hollow harbor

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  near a freshwater spring, and my comrades disembarked

  from the ship and expertly then set about preparing supper.

  But when they'd put from them the desire for food and drink,

  then they began to weep, recalling their dear shipmates

  whom Skylle had snatched from the hollow ship and devoured,

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  and sweet sleep came upon them while they were weeping.

  But in the night's third watch, when the stars were setting,


  Zeus the cloud-gatherer raised a blustering wind against us

  with a tremendous tempest, sent storm clouds that hid

  both land and sea: from heaven there sprang forth night.

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  When Dawn appeared, early risen and rosy-fingered,

  we dragged our ship to a roomy cave and made her fast there,

  where the nymphs had their fine dance floors, held their meetings.

  Then I called an assembly and addressed my comrades, saying:

  'Friends, in our swift ship there is both food and drink:

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  so let's keep our hands off the cattle, lest we come to harm,

  for these cows and well-fed sheep belong to a dread god,

  Helios, who both sees and hears everything.

  "So I spoke:

  and their proud hearts were persuaded. But after that

  for an entire month nonstop the south wind blew,

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  and no other wind arose, apart from the east and south.

  Now so long as the men still were getting food and red wine

  they kept their hands off the cattle, being anxious to stay alive;

  but when the provisions in the ship were all exhausted,

  and they were driven by need to go in search of game--

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  fish or fowl, whatever might come to hand,

  angling with bent hooks, for hunger wore down their bellies--

  then I went off up the island, to pray to the gods:

  one of them possibly might show me the road to take.

  So when going through the island I'd left my comrades,

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  I found shelter from the wind and washed my hands,

  and prayed to all the gods that possess Olympos. But what

  they did was to shed sweet sleep upon my eyelids,

  while Eurylochos was giving bad advice to my comrades:

  'Distressed though you are, my comrades, mark my words well:

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  All kinds of death are loathsome to wretched mortals,

  but to die of starvation--that's the most pitiful of fates!

  Come, let's rather drive off the best of Helios' cattle,

  and sacrifice to the immortals who hold wide heaven!

  And if ever we get to Ithake, our native country,

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  we'll at once build a lavish temple to Hyperion Helios,

  and fill it with plenty of high-class dedications!

  And if he's angry with us because of his straight-horned cattle,

  and wants to destroy our ship, and the other gods agree,

  I'd rather gulp down seawater and get it over

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  than starve to death slowly here on this desolate island.'

  "So Eurylochos spoke, and my other comrades assented.

  At once they drove off the best cattle of Helios,

  from nearby, since it wasn't far from our dark-prowed vessel

  that his fine cows, broad of brow and crumple-horned,3

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  were grazing. Around these they stood and prayed to the gods,

  with the fresh leaves they'd plucked from a tall oak's foliage,

  since they had no white barley aboard the well-benched ship.

  When they'd prayed and slit the cows' throats and flayed them,

  they cut out the thighs, wrapped them up in a double layer

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  of fat, and placed above them cuts of raw meat. They had

  no wine left that they could pour over the blazing sacrifice,

  so they made libations with water, roasted the innards.

  But when the thighs had been burnt and they'd tasted the entrails,

  then they chopped up the rest and threaded it on spits.

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  It was now that sweet sleep retreated from my eyelids,

  and I set off back to our swift ship and the seashore.

  But when, as I went, I came close to our shapely vessel,

  the sweet aroma of roast meat filled the air around me,

  and I groaned and cried out aloud to the immortal gods:

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  'Zeus, Father, and you other blessed gods that are forever,

  it was indeed to my ruin that you lulled me with pitiless sleep

  while the comrades I'd left behind committed this monstrous act!'

  "At once to Hyperion Helios long-robed Lampetie

  came with the news that we had slaughtered his cattle.

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  Angered at heart, he at once spoke up among the immortals:

  'Zeus, Father, and you other blessed gods that are forever,

  take revenge on the crew of Odysseus, Laertes' son,

  who have wantonly slaughtered the cattle in which I took

  such pleasure each time I ascended the starry heaven

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  and when I turned back down again from heaven to earth.

  If they don't compensate me fittingly for my cattle,

  I shall go down to Hades and spread light among the dead.'

  "Then Zeus the cloud-gatherer responded to him, saying:

  'Helios, please go on shining among the immortals

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  and on mortal mankind upon the grain-giving earth!

  These men's swift ship I'll soon hit with a bright thunderbolt

  in the midst of the wine-dark deep and shatter to fragments.'

  "This exchange I learned about later from fair-haired Kalypso,

  who said she herself had heard it from Hermes the Guide.

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  "But when I came back down to the ship and the sea,

  I rebuked all my men, confronting each one of them in turn;

  but we found no solution. The cows were already dead.

  Now too for my men the gods made a show of portents:

  the hides crawled, the meat, both raw and roasted, mooed

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  on the spits, there was a sound like that of lowing cattle.

  "For six days now my oh-so-trusty comrades dined

  on Helios' best cattle that they'd driven off; but when

  Zeus son of Kronos brought the seventh day upon us,

  then the wind stopped blowing at gale force, and we promptly

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  boarded our ship and set forth into the wide sea, after

  first stepping the mast and hoisting the white sail on it.

  But once we'd left the island behind, and there was no other

  land above our horizon, nothing but sky and sea,

  then the son of Kronos conjured up a black cloud

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  over our hollow ship, and the deep beneath it darkened.

  She ran on for no long time, since suddenly there came

  a screaming west wind, a tempest blowing at full gale force.

  The blast of that wind snapped the forestays holding the mast,

  both of them--back fell the mast, and all its tackle

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  dropped pell-mell into the bilge; at the stern of the vessel

  the mast struck the steersman's head, crushing all

  the bones of his skull together. He like a diver fell

  from the deck, and clear of the bones his proud spirit fled.

  Zeus with a clap of thunder hurled his bolt at our vessel:

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  she shuddered her whole length, struck by the bolt of Zeus,

  and was filled with the reek of sulfur. The crew all fell overboard,

  and like shearwaters went bobbing around our black ship

  borne up by the waves. The god deprived them of their return.

  But I kept my foothold aboard until the surge tore sides

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  from keel. The stripped keel the waves now bore off, broke

  the mast loose at keel level. Attached to the mast

  was a backstay fashioned of oxhide. This I seized,

  and lashed the two together, the keel a
nd the mast.

  Riding on these, I let the fierce winds sweep me away.

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  "But then the tempestuous gale-force west wind ceased,

  and at once instead came the south wind, cause for alarm,