Book IX

1Then Odysseus of the many designs answered him:

"Lord Alcinous, most renowned among all peoples,¹

truly it is a fine thing to hear a singer

such as this man is, with a voice like the gods'.

5For I say there is no accomplishment more graceful²

than when joy holds a whole people,

and feasters up and down the hall sit listening to a singer,

seated in order, and beside them the tables are loaded

with bread and meats, and the cupbearer draws wine

10from the bowl and carries it round and fills the cups:

this seems to my mind the fairest thing there is.

But your heart has turned to asking after my grievous

cares — so that I may mourn and groan the more.

What first, then, what last shall I tell through?

15For the gods of heaven have given me sorrows past counting.

Now first I will tell my name, so that you too

may know it — and I hereafter, if I escape the pitiless day,

may be your guest-friend, though my home is far away.

I am Odysseus, son of Laertes — known to all mankind³

20for my cunning designs; and my fame has reached heaven.

My home is Ithaca, clear-skied under its mountain,

Neriton, tall in its shivering leaves; and around it islands

lie in a cluster, close to one another —

Dulichium and Same and wooded Zacynthus.

25Ithaca itself lies low, farthest out in the sea

toward the dark of sunset — the rest face dawn and the sun —

rough ground, but a good nurse of men. I cannot⁴

see any sweeter sight, for my part, than a man's own country.

The queenly goddess Calypso would have kept me there beside her⁵

30in her hollow caves, hungry to make me her husband,

and so, in the same way, Circe detained me in her halls,

the guileful lady of Aeaea, hungry to make me her husband:

but they never once persuaded the heart in my breast.

So true it is that nothing is sweeter than a man's own country

35and his own parents, even if he lives in a rich house

far away in a strange land, cut off from his parents.

But come — let me tell you also my journey home, and all its cares,

which Zeus laid on me on the way from Troy.

From Ilium the wind bore me to the Cicones —⁶

40to Ismarus. There I sacked the city and destroyed the men;

and out of the city we took their wives and much substance

and divided all, so that no man might go cheated of his share by me.

Then, you may be sure, I ordered a quick-footed retreat —

and they, the great fools, would not obey.⁷

45There and then much wine was being drunk, and many sheep

they slaughtered along the shore, and shambling crook-horned cattle;

and meanwhile Cicones went crying to Cicones,

their neighbors inland — more of them, and better men,

skilled at fighting men from chariots

50and, where need was, on foot.

They came, then, thick as leaves and flowers come in their season,

in the morning mist. Then an evil doom of Zeus stood by us,

luckless men, to load us with pains in plenty.

They set their battle-line and fought by the fast ships,

55and each side pelted each with bronze-tipped spears.

As long as it was morning, and the sacred day still growing,

so long we stood them off and held our ground, though they were more;

but when the sun turned over toward unyoking-time,⁸

then the Cicones broke the Achaeans, and mastered them.

60Six from each ship, six strong-greaved companions

were killed; the rest of us fled from death and doom.

From there we sailed on further, grieved at heart,⁹

glad to be out of death, having lost our dear companions.

But my curved ships would not go forward

65before we had called three times on each of those poor companions¹⁰

who died on the plain, cut down by the Cicones.

And Zeus who gathers the clouds roused the North Wind against the ships

in a howling squall, and covered land and sea alike

with cloud; and night rose up out of heaven.

70The ships were swept along slantwise, their sails

ripped into three and four rags by the strength of the wind.

We lowered them into the hulls, in terror of death,

and rowed the ships hard in toward the shore.

There for two nights and two days without a break

75we lay, eating our hearts with weariness and pain together.

But when Dawn of the lovely braids brought the third day round,

we set up the masts and hauled the white sails open

and sat, and the wind and the steersmen held them on course.

And now I would have come unharmed to my own country,

80but the wave and the current, as I rounded Malea,¹¹

and the North Wind beat me off course and drove me wide of Cythera.

From there for nine days I was carried by ruinous winds

across the fish-filled sea; and on the tenth we stepped ashore

in the land of the Lotus-eaters, who eat a flower for food.¹²

85There we set foot on the mainland and drew water,

and the companions quickly took their meal beside the fast ships.

And when we had tasted food and drink,

then I sent companions ahead to learn

what men they were who ate bread upon this earth:

90two men I chose, and sent a third with them as herald.

They went their way at once, and fell in with the Lotus-eater men;

and the Lotus-eaters had no thought of killing

our companions — but they gave them lotus to taste.

And whoever of them ate the honey-sweet fruit of the lotus¹³

95no longer wished to bring back word or to return:

there they wanted to stay, among the Lotus-eater men,

browsing the lotus, and to forget their homecoming.

These men I forced back weeping to the ships,

dragged them under the benches of the hollow ships and bound them,

100and I ordered the rest of my trusted companions

to hurry and board the fast ships —

for fear some other might eat of the lotus and forget his homecoming.

And they came aboard at once and took their places at the oarlocks,

and sitting in order they struck the gray salt water with their oars.

105From there we sailed on further, grieved at heart.

And we came to the land of the Cyclopes — the overweening,¹⁴

the lawless — who, trusting in the deathless gods,

plant no crop with their hands, and plow nothing:

everything springs up for them unsown, unplowed,

110wheat and barley, and vines that carry

wine in their heavy clusters, and Zeus' rain swells it for them.

They have no counsel-bearing assemblies, no established laws,

but live on the crests of the high mountains

in hollow caves, and each man lays down the law

115to his own wives and children — and they care nothing for one another.

Now a scrubby island stretches outside the harbor there,¹⁵

neither close in to the Cyclopes' land nor far out,

wooded; and on it goats past counting breed,

wild goats: no tread of men scares them away,

120no hunters push through to it, men who suffer

hard days in the timber, working the mountain crests;

it is held by no flocks and no plowed fields,

but unsown and unplowed all its days

the island is widowed of men, and feeds its bleating goats.

125For the Cyclopes have no red-cheeked ships,

and no shipwrights among them who might labor out

well-benched vessels to accomplish every need,

crossing to the cities of the world, the way men

so often traverse the sea in ships to one another:

130such craftsmen would have made the island a fair settlement too.

For it is not a bad island at all: it would bear every crop in season.

There are meadows in it along the shores of the gray salt water,

soft, well-watered; vines there would never die;

there is level plowland, and a deep standing harvest always

135ready for the scythe in season, for the soil beneath is rich.

And there is a harbor with safe anchorage, where there is no need of mooring-line —

no anchor-stones to throw, no stern-cables to make fast:

you beach her, and wait until the sailors'

hearts prompt them, and the breezes blow.

140And at the harbor's head runs shining water,

a spring under a cave, with black poplars growing round it.

There we sailed in — and some god was guiding us —

through the dead of night, with nothing to be seen ahead:

a fog lay thick around the ships, and the moon

145showed nothing from heaven, shut in by clouds.

No one's eyes made out that island then,

nor did we see the long combers rolling in against the shore

before the well-benched ships ran up the beach.

And with the ships beached, we took down all the sails

150and stepped out ourselves onto the surf-line of the sea,

and there we dropped asleep, and waited for shining Dawn.

When Dawn appeared, the early-born, with fingers of rose,

we walked that island marveling, all through it.

And the nymphs, daughters of aegis-bearing Zeus, started

155the mountain goats, so my companions might have their meal.

At once we fetched our curved bows and long-socketed goat-spears

out of the ships, and forming in three bands

we shot; and quickly the god gave us game to our hearts' content.

Twelve ships followed with me, and to each

160nine goats fell by lot; for me alone they picked out ten.

So then all day long till the setting of the sun

we sat feasting on meat past counting and sweet wine.

For the red wine was not yet spent from out our ships:

there was still some left, for each crew had drawn off much

165in two-handled jars when we took the Cicones' holy citadel.

And we looked across at the land of the Cyclopes, who were near:

smoke, and voices — theirs, and their sheep's and goats'.¹⁶

And when the sun went down and the dusk came on,

then we lay down to sleep on the surf-line of the sea.

170When Dawn appeared, the early-born, with fingers of rose,

then I called an assembly, and spoke among them all:

'The rest of you stay here now, my trusted companions,

while I with my own ship and my own crew

go and make trial of those men over there — what they are:

175whether violent, savage, without justice,¹⁷

or kind to strangers, with hearts that fear the gods.'

So speaking I went aboard, and ordered my companions

to board in their turn and loose the stern-cables.

And they came aboard at once and took their places at the oarlocks,

180and sitting in order they struck the gray salt water with their oars.

But when we reached the place — it was not far —

there on the land's edge, close by the sea, we saw a cave,

high, overhung with laurels. There many

flocks — sheep and goats — were penned at night; around it a yard

185ran high-built, of stones set deep in the earth,

and tall pines, and oaks with lofty crowns.

And there a man slept, a monster of a man, who shepherded¹⁸

his flocks alone and far apart; he kept no company

with others, but held aloof, and his heart knew no law.

190For he was built a monstrous wonder — nothing like

a man who eats bread, but like a wooded crag

of the high mountains, standing clear of all the rest.

Then I ordered the rest of my trusted companions

to stay there by the ship and guard the ship,

195while I picked the twelve best of my companions

and went. And I took a goatskin of dark wine,

sweet wine, that Maron gave me, Euanthes' son,¹⁹

the priest of Apollo, the god who watches over Ismarus —

because we had protected him, with his child and his wife,

200out of reverence: for he lived in the wooded grove

of Phoebus Apollo. And he gave me shining gifts:

he gave me seven talents of well-wrought gold,

and he gave me a mixing-bowl all of silver, and then

wine, drawn off in two-handled jars, twelve in all,

205sweet and unmixed, a drink for gods. Not one

of the slaves or handmaids in his house knew of it —

only himself and his dear wife, and one housekeeper only.

Whenever they drank that honey-sweet red wine,

he would fill one cup and pour it into twenty measures

210of water, and a sweet smell would rise from the bowl,

a marvel: no joy then in holding back.

Of this I filled a great skin and brought it, and provisions too

in a sack: for my proud heart had a foreboding, even then,

that a man would come against me clothed in great strength,

215a savage, knowing nothing of judgments or of laws.

Quickly we came to the cave, and did not find him

within: he was herding his fat flocks in the pasture.

We went into the cave and stared in wonder at everything:

crates sagging with cheeses; pens crowded²⁰

220with lambs and kids — each sort folded separately,

the firstlings apart, apart the middle-born,

apart again the newborn; and every vessel swimming with whey,

the pails and bowls, all made by hand, that he milked into.

There first my companions begged me, pleading:

225take some cheeses and go back; then quickly,

driving the kids and lambs out of their pens

down to the fast ship, sail away over the salt water.

But I would not listen — it would have been far better —²¹

not until I saw him, and whether he would give me guest-gifts.

230And his appearing was to be no joy to my companions.

We lit a fire there and made an offering, and helped ourselves

to cheeses, and ate, and sat inside waiting for him,

until he came back herding. He carried a huge weight

of dry wood, to serve him at supper-time,

235and flung it down inside the cave with a crash;

and we in terror shrank away into the cave's far corner.

He drove his fat flocks into the wide cavern —

all those he milked; the males he left outside,

the rams and he-goats, out in the deep yard.

240Then he lifted high and set in place a huge door-stone,

a massive thing: twenty-two carts, good ones,²²

four-wheeled, could not have levered it off the ground —

such a towering cliff of rock he set in the doorway.

Then, sitting, he milked the ewes and bleating goats,

245all in due order, and set the young under each.

And straightway he curdled half the white milk

and gathered it and stored it in the plaited baskets,

and half he stood in vessels, so it might be there

for him to take and drink, and serve him at supper-time.

250And when at last he had hurried through his work,

then he lit the fire — and saw us, and asked:

'Strangers, who are you? From where do you sail the watery ways?²³

Is it on some business — or do you rove at random,

the way sea-raiders do, who wander

255staking their own lives, bearing evil to strangers?'

So he spoke, and our own hearts broke within us

in terror of the deep voice and the monster himself.

Even so I answered him, and said:

'We are Achaeans, blown off course from Troy

260by every wind there is, across the great gulf of the sea,

making for home — but by other routes, other roads

we came: so Zeus, I suppose, chose to devise it.

We declare ourselves the people of Agamemnon, Atreus' son,²⁴

whose fame is now the greatest thing under heaven,

265so vast the city he sacked, so many the peoples

he destroyed. But we, for our part, have come to your knees

in hope you may offer guest-friendship — or give besides

some gift, as is the right and custom done for strangers.

Respect the gods, mighty one. We are your suppliants,

270and Zeus is the avenger of suppliants and of strangers —

Zeus of Strangers, who walks beside honored guests.'

So I spoke, and he answered me at once, with pitiless heart:

'You are a fool, stranger — or you have come from far away —²⁵

you who tell me to fear the gods or shun their anger.

275The Cyclopes pay no heed to Zeus who bears the aegis,

nor to the blessed gods: for we are the better men by far.

I would not spare you or your companions to dodge

the hatred of Zeus — not unless my own heart bade me.

But tell me: where did you moor your well-made ship when you came?

280At the far end of the shore, or near? I want to know.'

So he spoke, testing; but I knew too much, and he did not catch me;

I answered him back with words of guile:

'My ship — Poseidon the earth-shaker smashed her to pieces,²⁶

driving her on the rocks at the border of your country:

285he brought her against a headland, and the wind carried her in from the sea.

But I, with these men here, escaped sheer destruction.'

So I spoke; and out of his pitiless heart he answered nothing,

but sprang up and reached his hands out at my companions,

snatched up two together, and dashed them like puppies²⁷

290against the ground: their brains ran out on the earth, and wetted it.

He tore them limb from limb and made ready his supper,

and he ate like a mountain-bred lion, and left nothing —

the entrails, the flesh, the bones with their marrow.

And we, weeping, lifted up our hands to Zeus

295at the horror we watched, helplessness holding our hearts.

And when the Cyclops had filled his great belly,

feeding on man-flesh and washing it down with unmixed milk,

he lay stretched out in the cave among his sheep.

And I made a plan in my own great heart²⁸

300to steal close, draw the sharp sword from beside my thigh,

and stab him in the chest, where the midriff holds the liver,

feeling for the place with my hand. But a second thought held me:

there we too would have perished in sheer destruction,

for we could never have pushed back with our hands

305the massive stone he had set in the high doorway.

So then, groaning, we waited for shining Dawn.

When Dawn appeared, the early-born, with fingers of rose,

then he lit the fire, and milked his famous flocks,

all in due order, and set the young under each.

310And when at last he had hurried through his work,

he snatched up two men together again, and made his meal ready.

And having fed, he drove his fat flocks out of the cave,

lifting off the great door-stone with ease — and then

set it back, the way a man sets the lid on a quiver.²⁹

315With a great whistling the Cyclops turned his fat flocks

toward the mountain; and I was left brooding evil deep in my heart:

if somehow I might pay him back, and Athena grant me the glory.

And this, as I turned it over, seemed to me the best plan.

There lay beside a pen a great club of the Cyclops',

320green olive-wood: he had cut it to carry³⁰

once it seasoned. Looking it over we judged it

big as the mast of a black twenty-oared ship,

a broad-beamed freighter, that crosses the great gulf:³¹

that was its length, that its thickness to the eye.

325Standing to it, I cut off about a fathom's measure

and handed it to my companions, and told them to dress it down;

and they made it smooth, while standing by I brought it to a point

at the tip, and then took it and hardened it in the blazing fire.

And I laid it carefully by, hiding it under the dung

330that was strewn in a great deep litter through the cave.

And I told the others to shake lots among them

for who would dare, together with me, to lift the stake

and grind it in his eye, when sweet sleep came on him.

The lot fell on the very men I would have chosen —

335four of them, and I counted myself in with them, the fifth.

At evening he came back, herding his fair-fleeced flocks,

and drove those fat flocks straight into the wide cavern,

all of them: he left not one outside in the deep yard,

whether some foreboding moved him, or a god so ordered it.³²

340Then he lifted high and set in place the great door-stone,

and sitting, he milked the ewes and bleating goats,

all in due order, and set the young under each.

And when at last he had hurried through his work,

he snatched up two men together again, and made his supper ready.

345And then I came up close and spoke to the Cyclops,

holding in my hands an ivy-wood bowl of the dark wine:

'Cyclops — here, drink wine, now you have fed on man-flesh:³³

so you may know what kind of drink our ship

carried stored. I was bringing it as an offering for you, in hope

350you might pity me and send me home. But your madness is past all bearing.

Merciless one — how will any other man of all the many

ever come near you again? What you have done is past all measure.'

So I spoke; and he took it, and drank it down; and it pleased him — terribly —

the sweet drink; and he demanded a second helping:

355'Give me more — be generous. And tell me your name,

here, now, so I can give you a guest-gift that will make you glad.

The grain-giving plowland bears wine for the Cyclopes too —

fine clusters, and Zeus' rain swells them for us;

but this — this is a rivulet of ambrosia and nectar!'

360So he spoke, and I handed him the fire-bright wine again.

Three times I brought and gave it; three times, in his folly, he drained it.

And when the wine had come circling round the Cyclops' wits,

then I spoke to him with honeyed words:

'Cyclops, you ask my glorious name? Then I

365will tell it — and you give me the guest-gift, as you promised.

Nobody is my name. Nobody is what they call me —³⁴

my mother and my father and all my companions.'

So I spoke, and he answered me at once, with pitiless heart:

'Nobody I will eat last of all his company,

370and the others before him. That shall be your guest-gift.'³⁵

He spoke — and reeling back he fell flat, and lay there

with his thick neck lolled over sideways; and sleep

the all-subduer took him. And from his gullet gushed wine

and gobbets of human flesh, as he belched in his drunkenness.

375And then I drove the stake under the deep ash-heap

to heat; and with my words I put courage in all

my companions, so no man might flinch and hang back.

But when that olive stake in the fire, green though it was,

was on the point of catching, and glowed clean through, terrible —

380then I brought it close out of the fire, and my companions

stood round me; and a great power breathed courage into us.

They took up the olive stake, sharpened at its point,

and rammed it in his eye; and I, throwing my weight on from above,

spun it — the way a man bores a ship-timber³⁶

385with a drill, and his mates below keep it running

with a strap they hold at either end, and it spins on without stopping:

so we took the fire-pointed stake and spun it

in his eye, and the blood came boiling up round its heat,

and the blast singed all his lids and brows away

390as the eyeball burned, and the roots of it crackled in the fire.

As when a smith dips a great axe-head or an adze³⁷

in cold water, and it hisses loud and high,

tempering it — for that is what gives iron its strength —

so his eye hissed round the olive stake.

395And he let out a huge and hideous howl, and the rock rang round it,

and we shrank back in terror. He wrenched the stake

out of his eye, all fouled with streaming blood,

and flung it from him, flailing his arms in agony,

and set up a great bellowing to the Cyclopes who lived

400around him in caves along the windy heights.

And they heard his cry and came thronging from every side,

and standing round the cave they asked him what was wrong:

'What in the world, Polyphemus? What hurt, that you cry out so³⁸

through the ambrosial night and make us sleepless?

405Surely no mortal is driving off your flocks against your will?

Surely no one is killing you — by cunning or by force?'

And out of the cave strong Polyphemus answered them:

'Friends — Nobody is killing me, by cunning and not by force!'

And they answered with winged words, and gave it back:

410'If nobody is forcing you, then — alone as you are —³⁹

it must be sickness from great Zeus, and there is no escaping that.

Pray to our father, the lord Poseidon.'

So they spoke as they went; and my own heart laughed,

how my name had utterly deceived him — the name, and the flawless cunning.

415But the Cyclops, groaning and heaving in his agonies,

groped with his hands and lifted the stone from the doorway,

and sat himself down in the door with both arms spread,

in hope of catching anyone who tried to slip out with the sheep:

such a fool, I suppose, he hoped to find in me.

420But I was planning how it might all come out best —

if I could find some release from death for my companions

and for myself; and I wove every guile and design,⁴⁰

as a man does for his very life: for the great evil was close.

And this, as I turned it over, seemed to me the best plan.

425There were rams there, well-fed, thick in the fleece,

fine big animals, their wool dark as violets.

These, working quietly, I lashed together with plaited withies —

the ones that monster slept on, the outlaw — in threes:

the middle one of each three carried a man,

430and the other two walked either side, protecting my companions.

So three sheep to each man. But for myself —

there was one ram, far the finest of all the flock;

I caught him along the back and curled under his shaggy belly

and lay there; and in that wondrous fleece, with my hands

435twisted fast, I hung on, with an enduring heart.

So then, groaning, we waited for shining Dawn.

When Dawn appeared, the early-born, with fingers of rose,

then the male flocks poured out toward pasture,

and the unmilked females bleated about the pens

440with their udders bursting. And their lord, worn down

by evil agonies, ran his hands along the backs of all his sheep

as they stood up straight — and never sensed it, the fool:

my men bound under the breasts of his own fleecy sheep.

Last of the flock the great ram walked toward the doorway,

445heavy with his wool — and with me, and my crowding thoughts.⁴¹

And strong Polyphemus, running his hands over him, said:

'Old sweetheart — my ram — why last of all the flock⁴²

through the cave this time? Before, you were never one to lag behind:

first, always first, striding out to graze the soft flowering grass,

450first to reach the running rivers,

first in your longing to turn home to the fold

at evening. And now — last of all. Grieving, are you,

for your master's eye, that a coward of a man put out,

with his miserable companions, when he had crushed my wits with wine —

455Nobody — who is not yet, I promise, clear of destruction.

If only you could think with me, if only you had a voice⁴³

to say where that man is dodging from my fury:

then his brains would be dashed against the floor and spattered

this way and that through the cave, and my heart would find

460some ease from the evils this worthless Nobody has brought me.'

So speaking he sent the ram away from him, out the door.

And when we had gone a little way from the cave and the yard,

first I loosed myself from under the ram, and then set my companions free.

Swiftly then we drove those long-shanked sheep, deep in fat,

465turning again and again to look behind, until we came

to the ship. And a welcome sight we were to our dear companions —

we who had escaped death — but the others they wept and wailed for.

I would not have it: I frowned each man's tears back⁴⁴

and ordered them quickly to fling the fine-fleeced sheep

470aboard in numbers, and sail out over the salt water.

And they came aboard at once and took their places at the oarlocks,

and sitting in order they struck the gray salt water with their oars.

But when I was as far offshore as a man's shout carries,

then I called to the Cyclops with jeering words:

475'Cyclops! Not so weak a man's companions, after all,

were those you meant to eat by main force in your hollow cave.

And your own evil deeds were bound to find you out —

merciless one — you who did not shrink from eating guests

in your own house. For that Zeus has paid you, and the other gods.'

480So I spoke, and the anger in his heart grew fiercer,

and he tore off the peak of a great mountain and hurled it,

and brought it down just ahead of the dark-blue prow —

barely — it missed the tip of the steering-oar;

and the sea heaved up under the falling rock,

485and the backwash carried the ship straight in toward the land,

a flood-surge out of the deep, and drove her toward the shore.

But I seized a long pole in my hands

and shoved her off and out, and roused my companions,

ordering them to fall to their oars and get us clear of the evil,

490nodding hard with my head; and they bent to it and rowed.

But when we were twice as far out over the sea,

then I made to call to the Cyclops again; and around me my companions

tried to hold me back with honeyed words, this one and that one:

'Merciless man — why must you provoke a savage⁴⁵

495who even now, with that shot into the sea, has driven the ship

straight back ashore — and we thought we died there!

If he had heard a voice, heard any one of us speaking,

he would have smashed our heads and the ship's timbers together

with one jagged boulder: he throws that far.'

500So they spoke, but they could not persuade my great heart,⁴⁶

and I called back to him with fury in my breast:

'Cyclops — if any mortal man ever asks you

who put the shameful blinding on your eye,

tell him: Odysseus, sacker of cities, blinded me —⁴⁷

505the son of Laertes, who has his home in Ithaca.'

So I spoke, and he groaned aloud, and answered:

'Ah, then it comes home to me — the old prophecy!⁴⁸

There was a seer here once, a great man and a good one,

Telemus, Eurymus' son, who excelled in prophecy

510and grew old prophesying among the Cyclopes.

He told me all this would come to pass in time:

that I would lose my sight at the hands of an Odysseus.

But I always watched for some big man, a handsome one,

to come here, clothed in great strength;

515and now a little man, a worthless thing, a weakling,

has put out my eye — after he crushed me with wine.

But come here, Odysseus — let me set out a guest-gift for you,⁴⁹

and press the famous earth-shaker to give you passage home.

For I am his son, and he declares himself my father.

520He himself, if he wills it, will heal me — and no one else,

none of the blessed gods, and no mortal man.'

So he spoke; and I answered him and said:

'Would to god I could strip you of breath and life

and send you down to the house of Hades

525as surely as not even the earth-shaker will ever heal that eye.'

So I spoke; and he then prayed to the lord Poseidon,

stretching out his hands to the starry heaven:

'Hear me, Poseidon who hold the earth, dark-haired one:⁵⁰

if I am truly yours, and you declare yourself my father,

530grant that Odysseus, sacker of cities, never come home —

the son of Laertes, who has his home in Ithaca.

But if it is his portion to see his own people, to reach

his well-built house and his own fatherland,

late may he come, and in evil case, all companions lost,

535on another man's ship — and find trouble in his house.'

So he spoke in prayer, and the dark-haired god heard him.⁵¹

Then once again he lifted a stone — far bigger —

whirled it, and let it fly, putting his measureless strength behind it,

and brought it down just astern of the dark-blue ship —

540barely — it missed the tip of the steering-oar;

and the sea heaved up under the falling rock,

and the wave carried her forward, and drove her toward the far shore.

But when we came back to the island where the other

well-benched ships waited all together, with the companions

545sitting round them weeping, watching for us without end,

there we ran the ship up on the sands

and stepped out ourselves onto the surf-line of the sea.

And taking the Cyclops' flocks out of the hollow ship

we divided all, so that no man might go cheated of his share by me.⁵²

550But the great ram — my strong-greaved companions gave him

to me alone, when the flocks were shared, a gift apart; and on the shore

I offered him to Zeus of the black cloud, the son of Cronos,

lord of all, and burned the thigh-cuts. But he took no heed of my offering:⁵³

he was pondering, even then, how all my well-benched ships

555might be destroyed, and all my trusted companions.

So then all day long till the setting of the sun

we sat feasting on meat past counting and sweet wine;

and when the sun went down and the dusk came on,

then we lay down to sleep on the surf-line of the sea.

560When Dawn appeared, the early-born, with fingers of rose,

then I roused my companions and ordered them

to board in their turn and loose the stern-cables.

And they came aboard at once and took their places at the oarlocks,

and sitting in order they struck the gray salt water with their oars.

565From there we sailed on further, grieved at heart,⁵⁴

glad to be out of death, having lost our dear companions.