pool were too high, too vast, and too far apart for me to reachthem; so I hung patiently on, waiting till the pool should dischargemy mast and raft again- and a very long while it seemed. A jurymanis not more glad to get home to supper, after having been longdetained in court by troublesome cases, than I was to see my raftbeginning to work its way out of the whirlpool again. At last I let gowith my hands and feet, and fell heavily into the sea, bard by my rafton to which I then got, and began to row with my hands. As for Scylla,the father of gods and men would not let her get further sight ofme- otherwise I should have certainly been lost.]"Hence I was carried along for nine days till on the tenth night thegods stranded me on the Ogygian island, where dwells the great andpowerful goddess Calypso. She took me in and was kind to me, but Ineed say no more about this, for I told you and your noble wife allabout it yesterday, and I hate saying the same thing over and overagain."BOOK XIII.THUS did he speak, and they all held their peace throughout thecovered cloister, enthralled by the charm of his story, till presentlyAlcinous began to speak."Ulysses," said he, "now that you have reached my house I doubtnot you will get home without further misadventure no matter howmuch you have suffered in the past. To you others, however, who comehere night after night to drink my choicest wine and listen to mybard, I would insist as follows. Our guest has already packed up theclothes, wrought gold, and other valuables which you have broughtfor his acceptance; let us now, therefore, present him further, eachone of us, with a large tripod and a cauldron. We will recoupourselves by the levy of a general rate; for private individualscannot be expected to bear the burden of such a handsome present."Every one approved of this, and then they went home to bed each inhis own abode. When the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn,appeared, they hurried down to the ship and brought their cauldronswith them. Alcinous went on board and saw everything so securelystowed under the ship's benches that nothing could break adrift andinjure the rowers. Then they went to the house of Alcinous to getdinner, and he sacrificed a bull for them in honour of Jove who is thelord of all. They set the steaks to grill and made an excellentdinner, after which the inspired bard, Demodocus, who was afavourite with every one, sang to them; but Ulysses kept on turninghis eyes towards the sun, as though to hasten his setting, for hewas longing to be on his way. As one who has been all day ploughinga fallow field with a couple of oxen keeps thinking about his supperand is glad when night comes that he may go and get it, for it isall his legs can do to carry him, even so did Ulysses rejoice when thesun went down, and he at once said to the Phaecians, addressinghimself more particularly to King Alcinous:"Sir, and all of you, farewell. Make your drink-offerings and sendme on my way rejoicing, for you have fulfilled my heart's desire bygiving me an escort, and making me presents, which heaven grant that Imay turn to good account; may I find my admirable wife living in peaceamong friends, and may you whom I leave behind me give satisfaction toyour wives and children; may heaven vouchsafe you every good grace,and may no evil thing come among your people."Thus did he speak. His hearers all of them approved his saying andagreed that he should have his escort inasmuch as he had spokenreasonably. Alcinous therefore said to his servant, "Pontonous, mixsome wine and hand it round to everybody, that we may offer a prayerto father Jove, and speed our guest upon his way."Pontonous mixed the wine and handed it to every one in turn; theothers each from his own seat made a drink-offering to the blessedgods that live in heaven, but Ulysses rose and placed the double cupin the hands of queen Arete."Farewell, queen," said he, "henceforward and for ever, till age anddeath, the common lot of mankind, lay their hands upon you. I now takemy leave; be happy in this house with your children, your people,and with king Alcinous."As he spoke he crossed the threshold, and Alcinous sent a man toconduct him to his ship and to the sea shore. Arete also sent somemaid servants with him- one with a clean shirt and cloak, another tocarry his strong-box, and a third with corn and wine. When they got tothe water side the crew took these things and put them on board,with all the meat and drink; but for Ulysses they spread a rug and alinen sheet on deck that he might sleep soundly in the stern of theship. Then he too went on board and lay down without a word, but thecrew took every man his place and loosed the hawser from the piercedstone to which it had been bound. Thereon, when they began rowingout to sea, Ulysses fell into a deep, sweet, and almost deathlikeslumber.The ship bounded forward on her way as a four in hand chariotflies over the course when the horses feel the whip. Her prow curvetedas it were the neck of a stallion, and a great wave of dark blue waterseethed in her wake. She held steadily on her course, and even afalcon, swiftest of all birds, could not have kept pace with her.Thus, then, she cut her way through the water. carrying one who was ascunning as the gods, but who was now sleeping peacefully, forgetful ofall that he had suffered both on the field of battle and by thewaves of the weary sea.When the bright star that heralds the approach of dawn began toshow. the ship drew near to land. Now there is in Ithaca a haven ofthe old merman Phorcys, which lies between two points that break theline of the sea and shut the harbour in. These shelter it from thestorms of wind and sea that rage outside, so that, when once withinit, a ship may lie without being even moored. At the head of thisharbour there is a large olive tree, and at no distance a fineoverarching cavern sacred to the nymphs who are called Naiads. Thereare mixing-bowls within it and wine-jars of stone, and the bees hivethere. Moreover, there are great looms of stone on which the nymphsweave their robes of sea purple- very curious to see- and at all timesthere is water within it. It has two entrances, one facing North bywhich mortals can go down into the cave, while the other comes fromthe South and is more mysterious; mortals cannot possibly get in byit, it is the way taken by the gods.Into this harbour, then, they took their ship, for they knew theplace, She had so much way upon her that she ran half her own lengthon to the shore; when, however, they had landed, the first thingthey did was to lift Ulysses with his rug and linen sheet out of theship, and lay him down upon the sand still fast asleep. Then they tookout the presents which Minerva had persuaded the Phaeacians to givehim when he was setting out on his voyage homewards. They put theseall together by the root of the olive tree, away from the road, forfear some passer by might come and steal them before Ulysses awoke;and then they made the best of their way home again.But Neptune did not forget the threats with which he had alreadythreatened Ulysses, so he took counsel with Jove. "Father Jove,"said he, "I shall no longer be held in any sort of respect among yougods, if mortals like the Phaeacians, who are my own flesh andblood, show such small regard for me. I said I would Ulysses gethome when he had suffered sufficiently. I did not say that he shouldnever get home at all, for I knew you had already nodded your headabout it, and promised that he should do so; but now they have broughthim in a ship fast asleep and have landed him in Ithaca afterloading him with more magnificent presents of bronze, gold, andraiment than he would ever have brought back from Troy, if he hadhad his share of the spoil and got home without misadventure."And Jove answered, "What, O Lord of the Earthquake, are youtalking about? The gods are by no means wanting in respect for you. Itwould be monstrous were they to insult one so old and honoured asyou are. As regards mortals, however, if any of them is indulging ininsolence and treating you disrespectfully, it will always rest withyourself to deal with him as you may think proper, so do just as youplease.""I should have done so at once," replied Neptune, "if I were notanxious to avoid anything that might displease you; now, therefore,I should like to wreck the Phaecian ship as it is returning from itsescort. This will stop them from escorting people in future; and Ishould also like to bury their city under a huge mountain.""My good friend," answered Jove, "I should recommend you at the verymoment when the people from the city are watching the ship on her way,to turn it into a rock near the land and looking like a ship. Thiswill astonish everybody, and you can then bury their city under themountain."When earth-encircling Neptune heard this he went to Scheria wherethe Phaecians live, and stayed there till the ship, which was makingrapid way, had got close-in. Then he went up to it, turned it intostone, and drove it down with the flat of his hand so as to root it inthe ground. After this he went away.The Phaeacians then began talking among themselves, and one wouldturn towards his neighbour, saying, "Bless my heart, who is it thatcan have rooted the ship in the sea just as she was getting into port?We could see the whole of her only moment ago."This was how they talked, but they knew nothing about it; andAlcinous said, "I remember now the old prophecy of my father. Hesaid that Neptune would be angry with us for taking every one sosafely over the sea, and would one day wreck a Phaeacian ship as itwas returning from an escort, and bury our city under a high mountain.This was what my old father used to say, and now it is all comingtrue. Now therefore let us all do as I say; in the first place we mustleave off giving people escorts when they come here, and in the nextlet us sacrifice twelve picked bulls to Neptune that he may have mercyupon us, and not bury our city under the high mountain." When thepeople heard this they were afraid and got ready the bulls.Thus did the chiefs and rulers of the Phaecians to king Neptune,standing round his altar; and at the same time Ulysses woke up oncemore upon his own soil. He had been so long away that he did notknow it again; moreover, Jove's daughter Minerva had made it a foggyday, so that people might not know of his having come, and that shemight tell him everything without either his wife or his fellowcitizens and friends recognizing him until he had taken his revengeupon the wicked suitors. Everything, therefore, seemed quite differentto him- the long straight tracks, the harbours, the precipices, andthe goodly trees, appeared all changed as he started up and lookedupon his native land. So he smote his thighs with the flat of hishands and cried aloud despairingly."Alas," he exclaimed, "among what manner of people am I fallen?Are they savage and uncivilized or hospitable and humane? Whereshall I put all this treasure, and which way shall I go? I wish Ihad stayed over there with the Phaeacians; or I could have gone tosome other great chief who would have been good to me and given mean escort. As it is I do not know where to put my treasure, and Icannot leave it here for fear somebody else should get hold of it.In good truth the chiefs and rulers of the Phaeacians have not beendealing fairly by me, and have left me in the wrong country; they saidthey would take me back to Ithaca and they have not done so: mayJove the protector of suppliants chastise them, for he watches overeverybody and punishes those who do wrong. Still, I suppose I mustcount my goods and see if the crew have gone off with any of them."He counted his goodly coppers and cauldrons, his gold and all hisclothes, but there was nothing missing; still he kept grieving about