Part 2 (1/2)
They heard him, and like er, in shunning that rock, they must be thrown upon For Ulysses had concealed from them the wounds, never to be healed, which Scylla was to open: their terror would else have robbed them all of all care to steer or move an oar, and haveher, where he and they ot the precautions which Circe had given him to prevent harm to his person, who had willed hi not to venture life for his brave companions, he could not contain, but ar a lance in either hand, he went up to the fore-deck, and looked when Scylla would appear
She did not show herself as yet, and still the vessel steered closer by her rock, as it sought to shun that other more dreaded; for they sa horribly Charybdis' black throat drew into her all the whirling deep, which she disgorged again, that all about her boiled like a kettle, and the rock roared with troubled waters; which when she supped in again, all the bottom turned up, and disclosed far under shore the swart sands naked, whose whole stern sight frayed the startled blood from their faces, and made Ulysses turn to view the wonder of whirlpools Which when Scylla saw, fro necks, and swooped up as many of his friends: whose cries Ulysses heard, and saw them too late, with their heels turned up, and their hands thrown to him for succour, who had been their help in all extremities, but could not deliver them now; and he heard them shriek out, as she tore them, and to the last they continued to throw their hands out to his he never had beheld a sight so full of miseries
Escaped from Scylla and Charybdis, but with a diminished crew, Ulysses and the sad remains of his followers reached the Trinacrian shore Here landing, he beheld oxen grazing of such surpassing size and beauty that, both fro three prohtly that he was coular island and the oxen of the Sun, of which Tiresias had forewarned hih his own fault, or that of his men, any violence or profanation should be offered to the holy oxen, that even then, tired as they ith the perils and fatigues of the day past, and unable to stir an oar, or use any exertion, and though night was fast co on, he would have had them re-embark ierous station; but his men with one voice resolutely opposed it, and even the too cautious Eurylochus himself withstood the proposal; so much did the temptation of a little ease and refreshment (ease tenfold sweet after such labours) prevail over the sagest counsels, and the apprehension of certain evil outweigh the prospect of contingent danger They expostulated that the nerves of Ulysses seemed to be made of steel, and his li or sleeping seemed indifferent to him; but that they were men, not Gods, and felt the coht-tienerated That black night still required to be served with meat, and sleep, and quiet havens, and ease That the best sacrifice to the sea was in the uments, which the majority have always ready to justify disobedience to their betters, they forced Ulysses to coainst his will to take up his night-quarters on shore But he first exacted from them an oath that they would neither , but content themselves with such food as Circe had stowed their vessel hen they parted fro the heaviest curses on whoever should break it; andtheir bark within a creek, they went to supper, contenting theiven thehts of their friends whoreat part of the night waking
In the ious observance of the oath that they had sworn, not in any case to atte, but to content themselves with the shi+p's food; for the God ned those cattle sees and hears all
They faithfully obeyed, and re which they were confined to that station by contrary winds, till all the wine and the bread were gone which they had brought with theone, necessity compelled them to stray in quest of whatever fish or fowl they could snare, which that coast did not yield in any great abundance Then Ulysses prayed to all the Gods that dwelt in bountiful heaven, that they would be pleased to yield the recourse to profane and forbidden violations; but the ears of heaven seemed to be shut, or some God incensed plotted his ruin; for at ilant and watchful to preventwhich he lay totally insensible of all that passed in the world, and what his friends or what his eneht do for his welfare or destruction Then Eurylochus took his advantage He was the man of most authority with them after Ulysses He represented to them all the misery of their condition; how that every death is hateful and grievous to mortality, but that of all deaths famine is attended with thecircumstances; that the subsistence which they could hope to draw fro was too precarious to be depended upon; that there did not see to favour their escape, but that they must inevitably stay there and perish, if they let an irrational superstition deter them from the ht be deceived in his belief that these oxen had any sacred qualities above other oxen; and even ad that they were the property of the God of the Sun, as he said they were, the Sun did neither eat nor drink, and the Gods were best served not by a scrupulous conscience, but by a thankful heart, which took freely what they as freely offered: with these and such like persuasions he prevailed on his half-fain the ihter of seven of the fairest of these oxen which were grazing Part they roasted and eat, and part they offered in sacrifice to the Gods, particularly to Apollo, God of the Sun, vowing to build a temple to his Godhead when they should arrive in Ithaca, and deck it with ifts Vain men! and superstition worse than that which they so lately derided! to iine that prospective penitence can excuse a present violation of duty, and that the pure natures of the heavenly poill admit of compromise or dispensation for sin
But to their feast they fell, dividing the roasted portions of the flesh, savoury and pleasant ht to the eyes, and a savour of death in the nostrils, of the waking Ulysses, who just woke in tih to prevent, their rash and sacrilegious banquet He had scarce tireat mischief was this which they had done unto hiy! the ox-hides which they had stripped began to creep as if they had life; and the roasted flesh bellowed as the ox used to do when he was living The hair of Ulysses stood up on end with affright at these omens; but his companions, like men whom the Gods had infatuated to their destruction, persisted in their horrible banquet
The Sun fro chariot sa Ulysses's men had slain his oxen, and he cried to his father Jove, ”Revenge me upon these iood to look upon when I walked my heavenly round In all ht and beautiful creatures as those my oxen were” The father promised that ample retribution should be taken of those accursed men: which was fulfilled shortly after, when they took their leaves of the fatal island
Six days they feasted in spite of the signs of heaven, and on the seventh, the wind changing, they set their sails and left the island; and their hearts were cheerful with the banquets they had held; all but the heart of Ulysses, which sank within hiave theeance Which soon overtook theues before a dreadful tempest arose, which burst their cables; down ca the skull of the pilot in its fall; off he fell froe at the wind's s of Jove came down; first a bolt struck Eurylochus, then another, and then another, till all the creere killed, and their bodies swam about like sea-mews; and the shi+p was split in pieces Only Ulysses survived; and he had no hope of safety but in tying hi upon the waves, like one that in no extre about with all the motions of the sea, with no other support than the slender ht cast him, all spent and weary with toil, upon the friendly shores of the island Ogygia
[Illustration: _Nine days was he floating about with all the motions of the sea_]
CHAPTER FOUR
The Island of Calypso--Imle Ulysses must be pursued Of all those faithful partakers of his toil, ith him left Asia, laden with the spoils of Troy, now not one remains, but all a prey to the reallant navy reduced to one shi+p, and that finally sed up and lost Where now are all their anxious thoughts of hoh the severest sufferings and the hardest labours to which poor seafarers were ever exposed, that their toils at last ht of their native shores and wives at Ithaca! Ulysses is now in the isle Ogygia, called the Delightful Island The poor shi+pwrecked chief, the slave of all the eleain raised by the caprice of fortune into a shadow of prosperity He that was cast naked upon the shore, bereft of all his companions, has now a Goddess to attend upon him, and his companions are the nymphs which never die Who has not heard of Calypso?
her grove croith alders and poplars; her grotto, against which the luxuriant vine laid forth his purple grapes; her ever new delights, crystal fountains, running brooks, entle and with violet; blue violets which like veins enarant ain what has been so well told already; or to relate those soft arts of courtshi+p which the Goddess used to detain Ulysses; the same in kind which she afterwards practised upon his less wary son, whom Minerva, in the shape of Mentor, hardly preserved froether in search of the scarce departed Ulysses
A memorable example of ood man his country is, was exhibited by Ulysses If Circe loved him sincerely, Calypso loves him with tenfold , but his departure; she offers hi, even to a participation of her immortality--if he will stay and share in her pleasures, he shall never die But death with glory has greater charms for a mind heroic than a life that shall never die with shaed his vows to his Penelope, he reserved no stipulation that he would forsake her whenever a Goddess should think hirow old together; and he would not survive her if he could, no meanly share in immortality itself, frohts kept him pensive and melancholy in thevoyages to Ithaca Twelve months had worn ahen Minerva fro on the seashores (his daily custo for a shi+p to carry hinant that so wise and brave a e by an unworthy Goddess; and at her request her father Jove ordered Mercury to go down to the earth to coer tied fast to his feet his winged shoes, which bear hiolden rod, the ensign of his authority Then wheeling in hted on the firm top of the mountain Pieria; thence he fetched a second circuit over the seas, kissing the waves in his flight with his feet, as light as any sea-ia, and soared up frorotto of the Goddess to whoe struck a horror, checked by love, through all the faculties of Calypso She replied to it, incensed: ”You Gods are insatiate, past all that live, in all things which you affect; whichIt afflicts you to the heart when any Goddess seeks the love of a h you yourselves without scruple link yourselves to women of the earth So it fared with you, when the delicious-fingered Morning shared Orion's bed; you could never satisfy your hate and your jealousy till you had incensed the chastity-loving dame, Diana, who leads the precise life, to coh with her arrows And when rich-haired Ceres gave the reins to her affections, and took Iasion (orthy) to her arly kept but Jove had soon notice of it, and the poor h with lightnings And now you envy me the possession of a wretchedhim lawfully mine; whose shi+p Jove rent in pieces with his hot thunderbolts, killing all his friends
Him I have preserved, loved, nourished; ratitude, mine; have vowed to make him deathless like myself; him you will take from me But I know your power, and that it is vain forthat I obey his race Calypso pro, she went to find Ulysses, where he sat outside the grotto, not knowing of the heavenlyany hu hoer afflict yourself with pining after your country, but build you a shi+p, hich you may return home, since it is the will of the Gods; who, doubtless, as they are greater in power than I, are greater in skill, and best can tell what is fittest for man But I call the Gods and ht but what stood with thy safety, nor would have done or counselled anything against thy good I persuaded thee to nothing which I should not have followed myself in thy extremity; for my mind is innocent and sis thou must yet endure before ever thou reachest thy native land, thou wouldest not esteem so hardly of a Goddess's offer to share her immortality with thee; nor, for a few years' enjoy Penelope, refuse an i life with Calypso”
He replied: ”Ever-honoured, great Calypso, let it not displease thee, that I a ain with a wife that is mortal: human objects are best fitted to human infirmities I well kno far in wisdoifts of the mind, thou exceedest my Penelope: she is a , yet never old; yet in her sight all ht of her, and of my country earth If any God, envious of my return, shall lay his dreadful hand upon iven me a mind not to sink under oppression In wars and waves s have not been small”
She heard his pleaded reasons, and of force she e from her sacred woods to cut down tih in a work unsuitable to their soft fingers, yet to obedience no sacrifice is hard; and Ulysses busily bestirred hi, till twenty tall trees, driest and fittest for tiht, he fell to joining the planks, using the plane, the axe, and the auger with such expedition that in four days' time a shi+p was made, complete with all her decks, hatches, sideboards, yards Calypso added linen for the sails, and tackling; and when she was finished, she was a goodly vessel for a man to sail in, alone or in co she was launched; and Ulysses, furnished with store of provisions, rich gariven him by Calypso, took a last leave of her and of her nyia which had so befriended him
[Illustration: _Took a last leave of her and of her nymphs_]
CHAPTER FIVE