All Crete jounced over them and swayed with upright teats,
till Helen suddenly shuddered and grew pale as wax,
for as she watched the famous island gleam on the waves
there rose high in her memory ancient dragon tales
that her old nurse had crooned to make her fall asleep: 340
“Far, in the far strands of Crete—may she be cursed!—
a hornéd dragon roars and feeds on mortal men.
Crete like a lamia sits on the all-sucking waves,
laughs lightly, braids her hair, then sinks all passing ships.
Ah, may your foam-feet, Helen, never tread on Crete.” 345
Now she was rushing headlong—who could stay his fate?—
in the man-eating mouth of the bull-snouted god.
But you, O Captain Clam, pulled on your oars like wings,
nor were you seized with fear, nor with old midwives’ tales,
and if fate doomed your salt-caked flesh to be devoured 350
by this world-famous island where you plunge full sail,
you neither broke in sweat, nor gave a salt-tar’s damn!
You pulled the toughest oar, your lips gave you no rest,
until you decked the sea’s Dame with a thousand gems:
“The sea is a huge loom where Crete sits down and weaves; 355
lucky those eyes who’ve seen her shuttling on the waves.
If you’re sick, you sprout wings, if sluggish, you grow wild,
and if cares crush you, your dazed mind glows like the moon,
and you forget black pain and raise your arms on high
and bless your happy parents who once gave you birth.” 360
Odysseus opened his brains wide, his eyes and ears,
till odors, Crete, and castles plunged in his deep wells.
A sentry from the headland yelled: “A ship, ahoy!”
A sentry from the seashore yelled: “It’s made the harbor!”
The archer leapt on shore and cried: “Well met, O longed-for Crete!” 365
Upon the summit of great joy Dread holds his throne,
and comrades, masts and oars, women, and high waves,
unshaven lips and laughing eyes and gaudy wings
pass by as though they swam through harsh nightmarish dreams,
A stout coastguard approached to ask about their tribe, 370
and his mouth gurgled in the sun like a tipped jug;
he held a wax plaque and bronze style to etch their words,
but the bold archer laughed and stroked his curly beard:
“Let us alone to sleep a while, and when our souls
distill once more, well tell you from what land we come; 375
now set us down as tattered sails and seals of the sea.”
He spoke, and all slid through a shadowy cool arcade,
fell on the tiles as dead, while from the fragrant earth
sleep rose like moss and covered up their curly brows.
Night fell, and the green bellies of the glowworms shone, 380
the high stars leapt, the breasts of Helen swayed and burned
within the lustrous night like two matched crystal pears,
and sleep crouched like a fisherman on the crew’s eyes,
patched up their tattered nets, stitched all their fishing hooks,
and calked again the battered planking of their bodies. 385
But that beast, Hunger, conquered sleep at drop of noon,
and first to raise his eyes and cluck his tongue was glutton:
“I’m starved! O for a bite of meat, a hunk of bread!”
And then the whistling voice of cricket-face piped up:
“Glutton, rise up and shine with health! You’ll eat, don’t fear! 390
Friends, are my eyes flickering, or do I see, even now,
the crown of Crete shine on the locks of our brave smith?
Rise up, great King, command us women, food, and wine!”
Then Granite stretched his haughty body above the ground:
“By God, my soul has longed to stroll on this good earth 395
more than it longed for women, bread, or finest wine!”
Then Rocky lightly leapt and stood by his friend’s side,
but the archer’s mind had gone to work before the dawn:
“It’s only just to care for our bruised bodies first.
Let’s go! The hunter Mind has flushed a hare in harbor.” 400
When the three vanished in the harbor’s jostling crowd,
fair Helen from her bosom’s secret cleft brought up
the prophesying globe to see her soul’s new road.
She bent above the god’s eye, but saw nothing more
than all her hairy comrades round her like adornments; 405
with their crude hanging beards they seemed sea-battered seals
cast by the raging sea on some far-distant strand,
and in the seals’ nest she discerned a pure-white swan.
Stooped low in silence thus, the sun-born sniffed her fate
and strove in foggy inner woods to see her way. 410
But the clear crystal suddenly dimmed, its riches vanished,
until a peaked cap rose and covered all its globe,
and Helen, trembling, thrust the eye back in her breast.
Their leader’s voice was heard then, full of cheer and joy:
“Come, dear blood brothers, stuff your bodies, eat and drink!” 415
He spoke, then broke a basket open and filled their hands.
All fell to eating headlong, and their dreadful jaws
ground round like millstones till the archway shook and swayed:
when they grabbed bread, their fists were filled with plunging swords,
when they drank wine, it thunderously plunged at once 420
like armored mail and wrapped them round with brazen shields;
wine turned to crimson blood, meat turned to sturdy flesh,
and when they’d eaten, the port stopped swaying, earth grew firm.
The piper then, wine-dreg of God, laughed loud and long:
“O God,” he roared, “patron of friends, bread, wine, and meat, 425
how you’ve declined and poked yourself in our wide guts!”
The heaven-baiter laughed and thrust his hardened hands
to cool them in the wine-flasks and the luscious fruit,
“Brothers, I’ve roamed the world, my eyes, have joyed in much,
yet never have I seen bazaars where gods are sold; 430
but it was foreordained that I should gape at gods
spitted like crabs on reeds and sold in clustered groups.
Here mortals may choose gods for every single need:
gods of the sea, gods of the earth, gods of good health,
one to cure goiters, belly-aches, or falling-sickness, 435
another to cure jaundice, sore throat, fever, dropsy.
Here gods are sold in rows, nostrums of every kind.
I dragged my god there by his feet, a votive beast:
‘Merchants, your health! I bring this miracle-working god,
defender of fine friendship with his bolts and lightnings.’ 440
An old man turned and whistled through his hairless lips:
‘How nice of him to come, too. Drag him out, let’s see him.’
He rubbed him with a touchstone, weighed him well on scales:
‘Great is his grace, by God! He’s true, pure, solid gold!’
He yelled, and from great joy his ears broke in a sweat; 445
then we began to bargain, and closed the deal with skill.
Now, lads, your brains shall grow huge, for you’ve eaten God,
but still be patient, for the wonders have not ceased.”
Then sly Odysseus turned and winked his eye at Granite,
and he with chuckles overturned a monstrous tub 450
from which at once poured sheepskins, sandals, vests and belts
which the great captain portioned out in equal shares:
“God has arranged for everything, for he’s all-knowing;
let’s dress like native Cretans; I’d be filled with shame
to face great King Idomeneus clad in rags; 455
and fellows, look, I’ve bought the starry sky for Helen.”
He then unfolded in the light a woman’s robe
that shone with rich adornments and with sparkling gems,
and she, who was love’s face, rejoiced and spread her arms:
“O skilled in many crafts, you rule the heart of woman 460
as if it, too, were but a heavy storm-tossed sea,
for headcoins, feathers, silver chains and frills delight
that godly, gaudy bird caged in a woman’s skull
She spoke, then gathering her brocaded armor, Vanished.
The men soon quickly armed themselves in their brave robes: 465
“Ahoy, we too shall walk tight-assed and scissor-stepped!”
they shouted gaily, and their mocking laughter rang.”
But when they saw the lean-branched lady turn a corner,
they cupped their hands against their eyes to bear the dazzle:
her firm voluptuous breasts snone naked in the dark, 470
high sandy rose-red hills in the world’s desolation,
and her dress flowered like the wealthy frills of spring.
Their leader’s eyes flashed fire, his gray hair stood on end:
“Fellows, I once saw fierce War firmly plant his feet
on two high peaks, then stoop and drink the rolling river, 475
and the deep water boiled with rage and turned to blood,
yet I feared not, as now I fear the sight of Helen!”
And Granite suddenly shuddered and recalled his brother:
“I’ve often thought, O Captain, to my heart’s great shame,
that you and I, body and soul, like black lambs follow 480
the woman warrior with her nude milk-laden breasts.”
Then the great-masted mind fell silent and refused
to show his most precipitous hope, his deepest grief,
but gathered his old friends and told them what to do:
“Scatter throughout this famous port, poke everywhere 485
and open your eyes wide, your nostrils, ears, your hearts,
because this earth, though beautiful, does not last long,
and then let’s meet for council when the twilight falls.”
He spoke, and each one scattered where his own heart wished.
Hardihood went alone and poked about the workshops. 490
Broad-shouldered Kentaur grabbed the piper by the nape
and climbed the crooked alleys of the harbor town
in search of good red wine and good full-bodied maids.
The mountain pair strolled arm in arm about the wharfs
where heavily-scented harbor girls winked playfully 495
with hanging hair and tinkling gods between their breasts;
but they, in the sweet snare of friendship soon forgot
to care for food and drink or even a girl’s kiss.
And knotty Captain Clam, like a ship’s dog let loose,
leapt every anchored prow to nose out his old friends; 500
his salt seafaring mind rejoiced to stroke the ships
with their swift-voyaged demons painted on the prows,
but all at once a shrill voice seized and cast him ashore:
“Aye, Captain Clam, your eyes are welcome as snow in heat!”
He turned and saw an old friend, a thin-haired shipmaster 505
with narrow skull and white hair” flowing down his back,
and the old friends fell moaning in each other’s arms.
They talked for hours of the sea, that wild horse-maid,
and like two oysters closed and opened their old entrails
while all the raging sea broke over them and dragged them down. 510
Meanwhile Odysseus and arch-eyebrowed Helen gaped
at the great wealth unstacked and heaped upon the piers
from the long-voyaged, many-oared, far foreign ships.
Crete in the harbor tower sat on her high throne
and from the far ends of the earth her four wind-lovers 515
brought her sea-caravans brimmed with many precious gifts.
First always came the harsh North Wind with his blond beard
and at the briny wheat-brown feet of his beloved
he spread the hides of wild beasts, wools, and fertile slaves,
and on her hot stones cast his honey-colored amber. 520
Then blowing from the shady side, the West Wind came
with his upturned mustache, his anklets of fine bronze,
and brought her gifts of tin and silver huge as loaves.
Then from the sunny side there came the withered, sly,
and winking lover of the sweet-breasted ancient East 525
with his bright silver rings and painted pouting lips,
and in her open hands and garnished lap heaped high
most precious spices, golden birds, and magic balms.
And Lord South Wind, that famous lover with moist locks,
brought her close-woven colored baskets, ivory gifts, 530
miracle-working letters, demons, monkeys, charms,
and Crete sat on her lofty throne, with naked breasts,
and held the scales above her seas and weighed each kiss.
Helen, unspeaking, felt the four winds blow about her
with hot erotic breath, whistling between her thighs, 535
and wished she were that robust isle in the sea’s midst
hard-beaten by her lovers, the four Captain Winds.
But woman’s flesh is an unable, transient thing,
and then lip-closing Charon grabs it by both braids
before it can rejoice an hour in man’s embrace. 540
The multicolored, raucous, crowded harbor swayed,
and in the woman’s towering, full, and famished throat
the suffocating wild dove secretly complained.
slid near the arch-eyed lady, and slowly in the sun 545
unwrapped in waves a rich-embroidered magic robe.
Black, white, and crimson horses dashed about its field,
and kings astride them bent their bows with golden darts
and shot slim green-blue beasts amid wild cypress groves,
and all around its hem rolled cool cascading waves. 550
Helen was dazzled like a quail, and shut her eyes,
but the old corsair bowed and said with lilting voice:
“I’ve traveled round the tree of earth, and yet I swear
I’ve never seen such beauty in a mortal maid.
Oho, who lies beside you longs for sleep in vain!” 555
He spoke with lowered head, but glanced with snaky eyes
and measured well the stanch man by the rose-drenched maid.
Odysseus laughed and seized the peddler’s hairy arms:
“By God, if she were all alone on distant shores
we’d fling her on our backs and make for our swift ship!” 560
The peddler’s thick lips cackled and his small eyes flashed:
“By God, if only all you say were true, my friend!
But God has sent her near me in a jostling port
and placed a true man by her side, a rampant lion.
You must have come as pilgrims for this holy feast day.” 565
His tongue began to wag around his lilting mouth
about the island’s withered souls, its barren maids,
its animals diseased and sterile, its drowned fleet.
“And all this, sire, because old age has crushed our king;
his strength has drained away, his rotted loins have shrunk, 570
and Crete, his flesh
and blood, grows old as he grows old.
Today he climbs to God to snatch at youth renewed,
that strength might once more crackle in his empty bones
and he descend at dawn with strong loins and new laws.
But if our Bull-God scorns to fill that putrid flesh, 575
our foul-lunged king will vanish in the cave and never
from out that labyrinthine darkness find the light.
The simple-hearted people fall on palace tiles
and all night long with holy water and love-making
try to assist our shrunk king to regain his strength.” 580
The shoulders then of sun-born Helen began to shake
until the old oriental codger stooped and smiled:
“Don’t let your lips, those red carnations, tremble, lady;
the Bull-God gulped our kings only in ancient times,
for now they’ve learned to be on good terms with the gods 585
and climb unruffled toward them, bearing golden towers,
for learn, the gods are merchants now and strike hard bargains.”
He spoke, then from his bosom dragged an ivory god
with seven towering heads piled on each other, worn
by myriads of caressing hands and pilgrim lips. 590
Odysseus grabbed at the ivory wonder eagerly;
the seven heads all swayed, and seven-colored flames
rose in his mind as with his finger tips he stroked
and gently licked with slow caresses each strange head.
Time shut its wings for a brief moment and stood still 595
so that the lone mind could have ample time to climb
with skillful fingers all the rungs of mortal virtues.
Below, the most coarse head, a brutal base of flesh,
swelled like a bloated beast bristling with large boar-tusks,
and it was fortified with veins as thick as horns. 600
Above it, like a warrior’s crest, the second head
clenched its sharp teeth and frowned with hesitating brows
like one who scans his danger, quakes before death’s door,
but in his haughty pride still feels ashamed to flee.
The third head gleamed like honey with voluptuous eyes, 605
its pale cheeks hallowed by the flesh’s candied kisses,
and a dark lovebite scarred its he-goat lips with blood.
The fourth head lightly rose, its mouth a whetted blade,
its neck grew slender and its brow rose tall as though
its roots had turned to flower, its meat to purest mind. 610
The fifth head’s towering brow was crushed with bitter grief,