breast there was a wondrous golden belt adorned in the most marvellousfashion with bears, wild boars, and lions with gleaming eyes; therewas also war, battle, and death. The man who made that belt, do whathe might, would never be able to make another like it. Hercules knewme at once when he saw me, and spoke piteously, saying, my poorUlysses, noble son of Laertes, are you too leading the same sorry kindof life that I did when I was above ground? I was son of Jove, but Iwent through an infinity of suffering, for I became bondsman to onewho was far beneath me- a low fellow who set me all manner of labours.He once sent me here to fetch the hell-hound- for he did not thinkhe could find anything harder for me than this, but I got the houndout of Hades and brought him to him, for Mercury and Minerva helpedme.'"On this Hercules went down again into the house of Hades, but Istayed where I was in case some other of the mighty dead should cometo me. And I should have seen still other of them that are gonebefore, whom I would fain have seen- Theseus and Pirithous gloriouschildren of the gods, but so many thousands of ghosts came round meand uttered such appalling cries, that I was panic stricken lestProserpine should send up from the house of Hades the head of thatawful monster Gorgon. On this I hastened back to my ship and orderedmy men to go on board at once and loose the hawsers; so theyembarked and took their places, whereon the ship went down thestream of the river Oceanus. We had to row at first, but presently afair wind sprang up.BOOK XII."AFTER we were clear of the river Oceanus, and had got out intothe open sea, we went on till we reached the Aeaean island where thereis dawn and sunrise as in other places. We then drew our ship on tothe sands and got out of her on to the shore, where we went to sleepand waited till day should break."Then, when the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared, Isent some men to Circe's house to fetch the body of Elpenor. We cutfirewood from a wood where the headland jutted out into the sea, andafter we had wept over him and lamented him we performed his funeralrites. When his body and armour had been burned to ashes, we raiseda cairn, set a stone over it, and at the top of the cairn we fixed theoar that he had been used to row with."While we were doing all this, Circe, who knew that we had gotback from the house of Hades, dressed herself and came to us as fastas she could; and her maid servants came with her bringing us bread,meat, and wine. Then she stood in the midst of us and said, 'Youhave done a bold thing in going down alive to the house of Hades,and you will have died twice, to other people's once; now, then,stay here for the rest of the day, feast your fill, and go on withyour voyage at daybreak tomorrow morning. In the meantime I willtell Ulysses about your course, and will explain everything to himso as to prevent your suffering from misadventure either by land orsea.'"We agreed to do as she had said, and feasted through the livelongday to the going down of the sun, but when the sun had set and it cameon dark, the men laid themselves down to sleep by the stern cablesof the ship. Then Circe took me by the hand and bade me be seated awayfrom the others, while she reclined by my side and asked me allabout our adventures."'So far so good,' said she, when I had ended my story, 'and now payattention to what I am about to tell you- heaven itself, indeed,will recall it to your recollection. First you will come to the Sirenswho enchant all who come near them. If any one unwarily draws in tooclose and hears the singing of the Sirens, his wife and childrenwill never welcome him home again, for they sit in a green field andwarble him to death with the sweetness of their song. There is a greatheap of dead men's bones lying all around, with the flesh stillrotting off them. Therefore pass these Sirens by, and stop yourmen's ears with wax that none of them may hear; but if you like youcan listen yourself, for you may get the men to bind you as youstand upright on a cross-piece half way up the mast, and they mustlash the rope's ends to the mast itself, that you may have thepleasure of listening. If you beg and pray the men to unloose you,then they must bind you faster."'When your crew have taken you past these Sirens, I cannot give youcoherent directions as to which of two courses you are to take; I willlay the two alternatives before you, and you must consider them foryourself. On the one hand there are some overhanging rocks againstwhich the deep blue waves of Amphitrite beat with terrific fury; theblessed gods call these rocks the Wanderers. Here not even a birdmay pass, no, not even the timid doves that bring ambrosia to FatherJove, but the sheer rock always carries off one of them, and FatherJove has to send another to make up their number; no ship that everyet came to these rocks has got away again, but the waves andwhirlwinds of fire are freighted with wreckage and with the bodiesof dead men. The only vessel that ever sailed and got through, was thefamous Argo on her way from the house of Aetes, and she too would havegone against these great rocks, only that Juno piloted her past themfor the love she bore to Jason."'Of these two rocks the one reaches heaven and its peak is lostin a dark cloud. This never leaves it, so that the top is neverclear not even in summer and early autumn. No man though he had twentyhands and twenty feet could get a foothold on it and climb it, forit runs sheer up, as smooth as though it had been polished. In themiddle of it there is a large cavern, looking West and turnedtowards Erebus; you must take your ship this way, but the cave is sohigh up that not even the stoutest archer could send an arrow into it.Inside it Scylla sits and yelps with a voice that you might take to bethat of a young hound, but in truth she is a dreadful monster and noone- not even a god- could face her without being terror-struck. Shehas twelve mis-shapen feet, and six necks of the most prodigiouslength; and at the end of each neck she has a frightful head withthree rows of teeth in each, all set very close together, so that theywould crunch any one to death in a moment, and she sits deep withinher shady cell thrusting out her heads and peering all round the rock,fishing for dolphins or dogfish or any larger monster that she cancatch, of the thousands with which Amphitrite teems. No ship everyet got past her without losing some men, for she shoots out all herheads at once, and carries off a man in each mouth."'You will find the other rocks lie lower, but they are so closetogether that there is not more than a bowshot between them. [Alarge fig tree in full leaf grows upon it], and under it lies thesucking whirlpool of Charybdis. Three times in the day does shevomit forth her waters, and three times she sucks them down again; seethat you be not there when she is sucking, for if you are, Neptunehimself could not save you; you must hug the Scylla side and driveship by as fast as you can, for you had better lose six men thanyour whole crew.'"'Is there no way,' said I, 'of escaping Charybdis, and at thesame time keeping Scylla off when she is trying to harm my men?'"'You dare-devil,' replied the goddess, you are always wanting tofight somebody or something; you will not let yourself be beateneven by the immortals. For Scylla is not mortal; moreover she issavage, extreme, rude, cruel and invincible. There is no help forit; your best chance will be to get by her as fast as ever you can,for if you dawdle about her rock while you are putting on your armour,she may catch you with a second cast of her six heads, and snap upanother half dozen of your men; so drive your ship past her at fullspeed, and roar out lustily to Crataiis who is Scylla's dam, badluck to her; she will then stop her from making a second raid uponyou."'You will now come to the Thrinacian island, and here you willsee many herds of cattle and flocks of sheep belonging to the sun-god-seven herds of cattle and seven flocks of sheep, with fifty head ineach flock. They do not breed, nor do they become fewer in number, andthey are tended by the goddesses Phaethusa and Lampetie, who arechildren of the sun-god Hyperion by Neaera. Their mother when shehad borne them and had done suckling them sent them to theThrinacian island, which was a long way off, to live there and lookafter their father's flocks and herds. If you leave these flocksunharmed, and think of nothing but getting home, you may yet aftermuch hardship reach Ithaca; but if you harm them, then I forewarnyou of the destruction both of your ship and of your comrades; andeven though you may yourself escape, you will return late, in badplight, after losing all your men.'"Here she ended, and dawn enthroned in gold began to show in heaven,whereon she returned inland. I then went on board and told my men toloose the ship from her moorings; so they at once got into her, tooktheir places, and began to smite the grey sea with their oars.Presently the great and cunning goddess Circe befriended us with afair wind that blew dead aft, and stayed steadily with us, keeping oursails well filled, so we did whatever wanted doing to the ship's gear,and let her go as wind and helmsman headed her."Then, being much troubled in mind, I said to my men, 'My friends,it is not right that one or two of us alone should know the propheciesthat Circe has made me, I will therefore tell you about them, sothat whether we live or die we may do so with our eyes open. First shesaid we were to keep clear of the Sirens, who sit and sing mostbeautifully in a field of flowers; but she said I might hear themmyself so long as no one else did. Therefore, take me and bind me tothe crosspiece half way up the mast; bind me as I stand upright,with a bond so fast that I cannot possibly break away, and lash therope's ends to the mast itself. If I beg and pray you to set mefree, then bind me more tightly still.'"I had hardly finished telling everything to the men before wereached the island of the two Sirens, for the wind had been veryfavourable. Then all of a sudden it fell dead calm; there was not abreath of wind nor a ripple upon the water, so the men furled thesails and stowed them; then taking to their oars they whitened thewater with the foam they raised in rowing. Meanwhile I look a largewheel of wax and cut it up small with my sword. Then I kneaded the waxin my strong hands till it became soft, which it soon did betweenthe kneading and the rays of the sun-god son of Hyperion. Then Istopped the ears of all my men, and they bound me hands and feet tothe mast as I stood upright on the crosspiece; but they went on rowingthemselves. When we had got within earshot of the land, and the shipwas going at a good rate, the Sirens saw that we were getting in shoreand began with their singing."'Come here,' they sang, 'renowned Ulysses, honour to the Achaeanname, and listen to our two voices. No one ever sailed past us withoutstaying to hear the enchanting sweetness of our song- and he wholistens will go on his way not only charmed, but wiser, for we knowall the ills that the gods laid upon the Argives and Trojans beforeTroy, and can tell you everything that is going to happen over thewhole world.'"They sang these words most musically, and as I longed to hearthem further I made by frowning to my men that they should set mefree; but they quickened their stroke, and Eurylochus and Perimedesbound me with still stronger bonds till we had got out of hearing ofthe Sirens' voices. Then my men took the wax from their ears andunbound me.