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