51) Homer Odyssey 4.795

   [795] Then the Goddess, bright-eyed Athena, took other counsel. 
   She made a phantom, and likened it in form to a woman, Iphthime, daughter of great-hearted Icarius, whom Eumelus married, whose home was in Pherae. 
   And she sent it to the house of divine Ulysses, [800] to Penelope in the middle of her wailing and lamenting, to ask her cease from weeping and tearful lamentation. 
   So into the chamber it passed by the thong of the bolt, and stood above her head, and spoke to her, and said: 
   -Are you asleep Penelope, your heartache forgotten? 
   [805] No, the Gods that live at ease suffer you not to weep or be distressed, seeing that your son is yet to return; for in no wise is he a sinner in the eyes of the Gods.

   Then the obscure phantom answered her, and said: 
   [825] -Take heart, and be not in your mind too sore afraid; since such a guide goes with him as men have full often besought to stand by their side, for she has power, -- equable Pallas Athena. 
   And she pities you in your sorrow, for she it is that has sent me forth to tell you this. 
   [830] Then again wise Penelope answered her: 
   -If you are indeed a God, and has listened to the voice of a God, come, tell me, I pray you, also of that unfortunate one, whether he still lives and beholds the light of the sun, or whether he is already dead and in the house of Hades. 
    [835] And the obscure phantom answered her, and said: 
   -No, of him I may not speak at length, whether he be alive or dead; it is an ill thing to speak words vain as wind. 
   So saying the phantom glided away by the bolt of the door into the breath of the winds. 
   And [840] the daughter of Icarius started up from sleep, and her heart was warmed with comfort, that so clear a vision had sped to her in the darkness of night. 

   Now Dawn arose from her couch from beside lordly Tithonus, to bear light to the immortals and to mortal men. And the Gods were sitting down to council, and among them Zeus, who thunders on high, whose might is supreme. 
   [5] To them Athena was recounting the many afflictions of Ulysses, as she called them to mind; for it troubled her that he abode in the dwelling of the nymph: 
   -Father Zeus, and you other blessed Gods that are forever, never henceforward let sceptred king with a ready heart be kind and gentle, nor let him heed righteousness in his mind; [10] but let him ever be harsh, and work unrighteousness, seeing that no one remembers divine Ulysses of the people whose lord he was; yet gentle was he as a father. 
   He truly remains in an island suffering grievous pains, in the living rooms of the nymph Calypso, who [15] keeps him by force; and he cannot return to his own land, for he has at hand no ships with oars and no comrades to send him on his way over the broad back of the sea. 
   And now again they are minded to slay his well-loved son on his homeward way; for he went in quest of news of his father [20] to sacred Pylos and to goodly Lacedaemon. 
   Then Zeus, the cloud-gatherer, answered her, and said: 
   -My child, what a word has escaped the barrier of your teeth! Did you not yourself devise this plan, that really Ulysses might take vengeance on these men at his coming? 
   [25] But concerning Telemachus, do you guide him in your wisdom, for you can, that all without suffering any injury he may reach his native land, and the suitors may come back in their ship frustrated in their purpose. 

   So he drank and ate, [Hermes] the messenger Argeiphontes. [95] But when he had dined and satisfied his soul with food, then he made answer, and addressed her, saying: 
   -You, [Calypso] a Goddess, do question me, a God, upon my coming, and I will speak my word truly, since you ask me.
   It was Zeus who asked me come to or towards this place against my will.
   [100] Who of his own will would speed over so great space of salt sea-water, great past telling? Nor is there at hand any city of mortals who offer to the Gods sacrifice and choice hecatombs. 
   But it is in no wise possible for any other God to evade or make void the will of Zeus, who bears the aegis. 
   [105] He says that there is here with you a man most unhappy above all those warriors who around the city of Priam fought for nine years, and in the tenth year sacked the city and departed homeward. 
   But on the way they sinned against Athena, and she sent upon them an evil wind and long waves. [110] There all the rest of his goodly comrades perished, but as for him, the wind and the wave, as they bore him, brought him towards this place. 
   Him now Zeus asks you to send on his way with all speed, for it is not his fate to perish here far from his friends, but it is still his lot to see his friends and reach [115] his high-roofed house and his native land. 
   So he spoke, and Calypso, the beautiful Goddess, trembled. 

   [365] While he pondered thus in mind and heart, Poseidon, the earth-shaker, made to rise up a great wave, dread and grievous, arching over from above, and drove it upon him. 
   And as when a strong wind tosses a heap of straw that is dry, and some it scatters here, some there, [370] even so the wave scattered the long timbers of the raft. But Ulysses bestrode one plank, as though he were riding a horse, and stripped off the garments which beautiful Calypso had given him. Then straightway he stretched the veil beneath his breast, and flung himself headlong into the sea with hands outstretched, [375] ready to swim. 
   And the lord, the earth-shaker, saw him, and he shook his head, and thus he spoke to his own heart: 
   -So now, after you have suffered many ills, go wandering over the deep, till you come among the folk fostered of Zeus. Yet even so, it seems to me, you shall not make any mock at your suffering. 
   [380] So saying, he lashed his fair-maned horses, and came to Aegae, where is his glorious palace. 
   But Athena, daughter of Zeus, took other counsel. She stayed the paths of the other winds, and bade them all cease and be lulled to rest; [385] but she roused the swift North Wind, and broke the waves before him, to the end that Zeus-born Ulysses might come among the Phaeacians, lovers of the oar, escaping from death and the fates. 
   Then for two nights and two days he was driven about over the swollen waves, and full often his heart forboded destruction. 

   -Ha me, when Zeus has at length granted me to see the land beyond my hopes, and lo, I have prevailed to make my way and to cross this gulf, [410] nowhere does there appear a way to come forth from the gray sea.
   For outside are sharp rocks, and around them the wave roars foaming, and the rock runs up perpendicular, and the water is deep close in shore, so that in no wise is it possible to plant both feet firmly and escape ruin. 
   [415] Haplessly were I to seek to land, a great wave may seize me and dash me against the jagged rock, and so shall my striving be in vain. 
   But if I swim on yet further in hope to find shelving beaches and harbors of the sea, I fear me that the storm-wind may catch me up again, [420] and bear me, groaning heavily, over the teeming deep; or that some God may even send forth upon me some great monster from out the sea -- and many such does glorious Amphitrite breed. 
   For I know that [Poseidon] the glorious Earth-shaker is filled with wrath against me. 
   While he pondered thus in mind and heart, [425] a great wave bore him against the rugged shore. There would his skin have been stripped off and his bones broken, had not the Goddess, bright-eyed Athena, put a thought in his mind. 
   On he rushed and seized the rock with both hands, and clung to it, groaning, until the great wave went by. [430] This way then did he escape this wave, but in its backward flow it once more rushed upon him and stroke him, and flung him far out in the sea. 
   And just as, when a cuttlefish is dragged from its hole, many pebbles cling to its suckers, even so from his strong hands [435] were bits of skin stripped off against the rocks; and the great wave covered him. 

   Then really would unfortunate Ulysses have perished beyond his fate, had not bright-eyed Athena given him prudence. 
   Making his way forth from the surge where it belched upon the shore, he swam outside, looking ever toward the land in hope to find [440] shelving beaches and harbors of the sea. 
   But when, as he swam, he came to the mouth of a fair-flowing river, where seemed to him the best place, since it was smooth of stones, and besides there was shelter from the wind, he knew the river as he flowed forth, and prayed to him in his heart: 
   [445] -Hear me, O king, whosoever you are. As to one greatly longed-for do I come to you, seeking to escape from out the sea from the threats of Poseidon. 
   Reverend even in the eyes of the immortal Gods is that man who comes as a wanderer, even as I have now come to your stream and to your knees, after many toils. 
   [450] Nay, pity me, O king, for I declare that I am your suppliant. 

   Then, as he pondered, this thing seemed to him the better: [475] he went his way to the wood and found it near the water in a clear space; and he crept beneath two bushes that grew from the same spot, one of thorn and one of olive. 
   Through these the strength of the wet winds could never blow, nor the rays of the bright sun beat, [480] nor could the rain pierce through them, so closely did they grow, intertwining one with the other. 
   Beneath these Ulysses crept and straightway gathered with his hands a broad bed, for fallen leaves were there in plenty, enough to shelter two men or three [485] in winter-time, however bitter the weather. 
   And the much-enduring goodly Ulysses saw it, and was glad, and he lay down in the midst, and heaped over him the fallen leaves. 
   And as a man hides a brand beneath the dark embers in an outlying farm, a man who has no neighbors, [490] and so saves a seed of fire, that he may not have to kindle it from some other source, so Ulysses covered himself with leaves. 
   And Athena shed sleep upon his eyes, that it might enfold his lids and speedily free him from toilsome weariness. 

   So he lay there asleep, the much-enduring goodly Ulysses, overcome with sleep and weariness; but Athena went to the land and city of the Phaeacians. 
   These dwelt of old in spacious Hypereia [5] hard by the Cyclopes, men overweening in pride who plundered them continually and were mightier than they. 
   From that place Nausithous, the godlike, had removed them, and led and settled them in Scheria far from men that live by toil. 
   About the city he had drawn a wall, he had built houses [10] and made temples for the Gods, and divided the plowlands; but he, before now, had been stricken by fate and had gone to the house of Hades, and Alcinous was now king, made wise in counsel by the Gods. 

   To his house went the Goddess, bright-eyed Athena, to contrive the return of great-hearted Ulysses. 
   She went to a chamber, richly wrought, wherein slept a maiden like the immortal Goddesses in form and comeliness, Nausicaa, the daughter of great-hearted Alcinous; hard by slept two hand-maidens, gifted with beauty by the Graces, one on either side of the door-posts, and the bright doors were shut.