Epitome

And in the other cliff was Charybdis, who thrice a day drew up the water and spouted it again. By the advice of Circe he shunned the passage by the Wandering Rocks, and in sailing past the cliff of Scylla he stood fully armed on the poop. But Scylla appeared, snatched

And thence he came to Thrinacia, an island of the Sun, where kine were grazing, and being windbound, he tarried there.[*](As to the adventures of Ulysses in Thrinacia, the island of the Sun, see Hom. Od. 12.127-141; Hom. Od. 12.260-402.) But when his comrades slaughtered some of the kine and banqueted on them, for lack of food, the Sun reported it to Zeus, and when Ulysses put out to sea, Zeus struck him with a thunderbolt.[*](See Hom. Od. 12.403-425.)

And when the ship broke up, Ulysses clung to the mast and drifted to Charybdis. And when Charybdis sucked down the mast, he clutched an overhanging wild fig-tree and waited, and when he saw the mast shot up again, he cast himself on it, and was carried across to the island of Ogygia.[*](See Hom. Od. 12.426-450, compare Hom. Od. 5.128-135.)

There Calypso, daughter of Atlas, received him, and bedding with him bore a son Latinus. He stayed with her five years, and then made a raft and sailed away.[*](As to the stay of Ulysses with Calypso in the island of Ogygia, and his departure in a boat of his own building, see Hom. Od. 5.13-281; Hom. Od. 7.243-266; Hyginus, Fab. 125. According to Hom. Od. 7.259, Ulysses stayed seven years with Calypso, not five years, as Apollodorus says. Hyginus limits the stay to one year. Homer does not mention that Calypso bore a son to Ulysses. In the Theogony of Hesiod (Hes. Th. 1111ff.) it is said that Circe (not Calypso), bore two sons, Agrius and Latinus, to Ulysses; the verses, however, are probably not by Hesiod but have been interpolated by a later poet of the Roman era in order to provide the Latins with a distinguished Greek ancestry. The verses are quoted by the Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. iii.200. Compare Joannes Lydus, De mensibus i.13, p. 7, ed. Bekker. Eustathius says (Eustathius on Hom. Od. xvi.118, p. 1796) that, according to Hesiod, Ulysses had two sons, Agrius and Latinus, by Circe, and two sons, Nausithous and Nausinous, by Calypso.) But on the high sea the raft was broken in pieces by the wrath of Poseidon, and Ulysses was washed up naked on the shore of the Phaeacians.[*](See Hom. Od. 5.282-493; Hyginus, Fab. 125.)

Now Nausicaa, the daughter of king Alcinous, was washing the clothes, and when Ulysses implored her protection, she brought him to Alcinous, who entertained him, and after bestowing gifts on him

And on arriving in his native land Ulysses found his substance wasted; for, believing that he was dead, suitors were wooing Penelope.[*](The number of the suitors, according to Homer, was one hundred and eight, namely, fifty-two from Dulichium, twenty-four from Same, twenty from Zacynthus, and twelve from Ithaca. See Hom. Od. 16.245-253. Apollodorus gives the numbers from these islands as fifty-seven, twenty-three, forty-four, and twelve respectively, or a hundred and thirty-six in all. Homer does not give a regular list of the names, but mentions some of them incidentally.) From Dulichium came fifty-seven:

Amphinomus, Thoas, Demoptolemus, Amphimachus, Euryalus, Paralus, Evenorides, Clytius, Agenor, Eurypylus, Pylaemenes, Acamas, Thersilochus, Hagius, Clymenus, Philodemus, Meneptolemus, Damastor, Bias, Telmius, Polyidus, Astylochus, Schedius, Antigonus, Marpsius, Iphidamas, Argius, Glaucus, Calydoneus, Echion, Lamas, Andraemon, Agerochus, Medon, Agrius, Promus, Ctesius, Acarnan, Cycnus, Pseras, Hellanicus, Periphron, Megasthenes, Thrasymedes, Ormenius, Diopithes, Mecisteus, Antimachus, Ptolemaeus, Lestorides, Nicomachus, Polypoetes, and Ceraus.

And from Samethere came twenty—three:— Agelaus, Pisander, Elatus, Ctesippus, Hippodochus, Eurystratus, Archemolus, Ithacus, Pisenor, Hyperenor, Pheroetes, Antisthenes, Cerberus, Perimedes, Cynnus, Thriasus, Eteoneus, Clytius, Prothous, Lycaethus, Eumelus, Itanus, Lyammus.

And from Zacynthos came forty—four:

And from Ithaca itself the suitors were twelve, to wit:— Antinous, Pronous, Liodes, Eurynomus, Amphimachus, Amphialus, Promachus, Amphimedon, Aristratus, Helenus, Dulicheus, and Ctesippus.

These, journeying to the palace, consumed the herds of Ulysses at their feasts.[*](As to the reckless waste of the suitors, see Hom. Od. 14.80-109.) And Penelope was compelled to promise that she would wed when the shroud of Laertes was finished, and she wove it for three years, weaving it by day and undoing it by night. In this way the suitors were deceived by Penelope, till she was detected.[*](As to Penelope's web, see Hom. Od. 19.136-158; Hyginus, Fab. 126.)

And Ulysses, being apprized of the state of things at home, came to his servant Eumaeus in the guise of a beggar,[*](As to the meeting of Ulysses and Eumaeus, see Hom. Od. 14.1-492; Hyginus, Fab. 126.) and made himself known to Telemachus,[*](As to the meeting and recognition of Ulysses and Telemachus, see Hom. Od. 16.1-234.) and arrived in the city. And Melanthius, the goatherd, a servant man, met them, and scorned them.[*](See Hom. Od. 17.184-253.) On coming to the palace Ulysses begged food of the suitors,[*](See Hom. Od. 17.360-457.) and

Now Penelope delivered to the suitors the bow of Ulysses, which he had once received from Iphitus; and she said that she would marry him who bent the bow.[*](See Hom. Od. 21.1-82; Hyginus, Fab. 126.) When none of them could bend it, Ulysses took it and shot down the suitors, with the help of Eumaeus, Philoetius, and Telemachus.[*](See Hom. Od. 21.140-434, Hom. Od. 22.1-389; Hyginus, Fab. 126.) He killed also Melanthius, and the handmaids that bedded with the suitors,[*](See Hom. Od. 22.417-477.) and he made himself known to his wife and his father.[*](See Hom. Od. 22.153-297; Hom. Od. 24.205-348.)

And after sacrificing to Hades, and Persephone, and Tiresias, he journeyed on foot through Epirus, and came to the Thesprotians, and having offered sacrifice according to the directions of the soothsayer Tiresias, he propitiated Poseidon.[*](Tiresias had warned Ulysses that, after slaying the suitors, he must journey inland till he came to a country where men knew not the sea, and where a wayfarer would mistake for a winnowing-fan the oar which Ulysses was carrying on his shoulder. There Ulysses was to sacrifice a ram, a bull, and a boar to Poseidon, the god whom he had offended. See Hom. Od. 11.119-131. But the journey itself and the sacrifice are not recorded by Homer. In a little island off Cos a Greek skipper told Dr. W. H. D. Rouse a similar story about the journey inland of the prophet Elias. The prophet, according to this account, was a fisherman who, long buffeted by storms, conceived a horror of the sea, and, putting an oar on his shoulder, took to the hills and walked till he met a man who did not know what an oar was. There the prophet planted his oar in the ground, and there he resolved to abide. That is why all the prophet's chapels are on the tops of hills. This legend was published by Dr. Rouse in The Cambridge Review under the heading of “A Greek skipper.” This and the remaining part of Apollodorus are probably drawn from the epic poem Telegony, a work by Eugammon of Cyrene, of which a short abstract by Proclus has been preserved. See Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ed. G. Kinkel, pp. 57ff. The author of the abstract informs us that after the death and burial of the suitors “Ulysses sacrificed to the nymphs and sailed to Elis to inspect the herds. And he was entertained by Polyxenus and received a present of a bowl. And after that followed the episodes of Trophonius, and Agamedes, and Augeas. Then he sailed home to Ithaca and offered the sacrifices prescribed by Tiresias. And after these things he went to the Thesprotians and married Callidice, queen of the Thesprotians. Then the Thesprotians made war on the Brygians, under the leadership of Ulysses. There Ares put Ulysses and his people to flight, and Athena engaged him in battle; but Apollo reconciled them. And after Callidice's death, Polypoetes, son of Ulysses, succeeded to the kingdom, and Ulysses himself went to Ithaca. Meanwhile Telegonus, sailing in search of his father, landed in Ithaca and ravaged the island; and marching out to repel him Ulysses was killed by his son in ignorance. Recognizing his error, Telegonus transported his father's body, and Telemachus, and Penelope to his mother, and she made them immortal. And Telegonus married Penelope, and Telemachus married Circe.” The tradition, mentioned also by Hyginus, Fab. 127, that one son of Ulysses (Telegonus) married his father's widow (Penelope), and that another son (Telemachus) married his father's concubine (Circe), is very remarkable, and may possibly point to an old custom according to which a son inherited his father's wives and concubines, with the exception of his own mother. Compare Apollod. 2.7.7, with Frazer's note (vol. i. p. 269). Apollodorus mentions the marriage of Telegonus to Penelope (see below), but not the marriage of Telemachus to Circe.) But Callidice,

and she had by him a son Polypoetes. And having married Callidice, he reigned over the Thesprotians, and defeated in battle the neighboring peoples who attacked him. But when Callidice died he handed over the kingdom to his son and repaired to Ithaca, and there he found Poliporthes, whom Penelope had borne to him.[*](Compare Paus. 8.12.6, from whom we learn that the birth of this son Poliporthes or Ptoliporthes, as Pausanias calls him, was mentioned in the epic poem Thesprotis.)

When Telegonus learned from Circe that he was a son of Ulysses, he sailed in search of him. And having come to the island of Ithaca, he drove away some of the cattle, and when Ulysses defended them, Telegonus wounded him with the spear he had in his hands, which was barbed with the spine of a sting-ray, and Ulysses died of the wound.[*](Compare Oppian, Halieut. ii.497-500; Scholia Graeca in Homeri Odysseam, ed. G. Dindorf, vol. i. p. 6; Hom. Od. 11.134; Eustathius on Hom. Od. xi.133, p. 1676; Philostratus, Vit. Apollon. vi.32; Philostratus, Her. iii.42; Parthenius, Narrat. 3; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 794; Scholiast on Aristoph. Plutus 303; Cicero, Tusc. Disp. ii.21.48ff.; Hor. Carm. 3.29.8; Hyginus, Fab. 127; Ovid, Ibis 567ff.; Dictys Cretensis vi.14ff.; Serv. Verg. A. 2.44. The fish (τρυγών), whose spine is said to have barbed the fatal spear, is the common stingray (Trygon pastinaca), as I learn from Professor D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, who informs me that the fish is abundant in the Mediterranean and not uncommon on our southern coasts. For ancient descriptions of the fish he refers me to Oppian, Halieut. ii.470ff. (the locus classicus); Ael., Nat. Anim. i.56; Nicander, Ther. 828ff. According to Aelian, the wound inflicted by the stingray is incurable. Hercules is said to have lost one of his fingers by the bite of a stingray (Ptolemy Hephaest., Nov. Hist. ii. in Westermann's Mythographi Graeci, p. 184). Classical scholars, following Liddell and Scott, sometimes erroneously identify the fish with the roach. The death of Ulysses through the wound of a stingray is foreshadowed in the prophecy of Tiresias that his death would come from the sea (Hom. Od. 11.134ff.). According to a Scholiast on Hom. (Scholia Graeca in Homeri Odysseam, ed. G. Dindorf, vol. i. p. 6), Hyginus, and Dictys Cretensis, Ulysses had been warned by an oracle or a dream to beware of his son, who would kill him; accordingly, fearing to be slain by Telemachus, he banished him to Cephallenia (Dictys Cretensis vi.14). But he forgot his son Telegonus, whom he had left behind with his mother Circe in her enchanted island. The death of Ulysses at the hands of his son Telegonus was the subject of a tragedy by Sophocles. See The Fragments of Sophocles, ed. A. C. Pearson, vol. ii. pp. 105ff. )

But when

But some say that Penelope was seduced by Antinous and sent away by Ulysses to her father Icarius, and that when she came to Mantinea in Arcadia she bore Pan to Hermes.[*](A high mound of earth was shown as the grave of Penelope at Mantinea in Arcadia. According to the Mantinean story, Ulysses had found her unfaithful and banished her the house; so she went first to her native Sparta, and afterwards to Mantinea, where she died and was buried. See Paus. 8.12.5ff. The tradition that Penelope was the mother of Pan by Hermes (Mercury) is mentioned by Cicero, De natura deorum iii.22.56. According to Duris, the Samian, Penelope was the mother of Pan by all the suitors (Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 772). The same story is mentioned also by Serv. Verg. A. 2.44, who says that Penelope was supposed to have given birth to Pan during her husband's absence, and that when Ulysses came home and found the monstrous infant in the house, he fled and set out afresh on his wanderings.)

However others say that she met her end at the hands of Ulysses himself on account of Amphinomus,[*](Amphinomus was one of the suitors of Penelope; his words pleased her more than those of the other suitors, because he had a good understanding. See Hom. Od. 16.394-398. He was afterwards killed by Telemachus (Hom. Od. 12. 89ff.). The suspicion that Penelope was unfaithful to her husband has no support in Homer.) for they allege that she was seduced by him.

And there are some who say that Ulysses, being accused by the kinsfolk of the slain, submitted the case to the judgment of