The Odyssey Read online

  he with good intent now addressed the assembly, saying:

  "Alkinoos, this is not the best way, nor is it seemly, to let

  a stranger sit on the ground, at the hearth among the ashes--

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  but people are holding back, awaiting your word! Come then,

  raise the stranger up, and give him a silver-studded

  chair to sit on, tell the heralds to mix more wine

  that we may pour libations to Zeus, hurler of bolts,

  the protector of sacrosanct suppliants! And also let

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  the housekeeper give this stranger dinner from her store."

  When Alkinoos, princely in power, heard these words, he took

  the wise, subtle-minded Odysseus by the hand, and raised him

  up from the hearth, and seated him on a shining chair--

  making his son get up, the kindly Laodamas,

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  who sat next to him, and was the one whom he loved best.

  A maid brought hand-washing water in a fine golden

  pitcher, and poured it into a silver basin, so he

  could wash, and drew up a polished table beside him.

  The respected housekeeper brought and set out bread,

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  with many side dishes, giving freely of her supplies.

  Much-enduring and godlike Odysseus drank and ate.

  Then Alkinoos, princely in power, said to the herald:

  "Pontonoos, mix a bowlful, serve wine to all in the hall,

  that we may pour libations to Zeus, hurler of bolts,

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  the protector of sacrosanct suppliants!"

  So he spoke,

  and Pontonoos came and mixed the mind-honeying2 wine

  and served it to all, with first drops for libation. But when

  they'd made libation and drunk as much as the heart desired,

  Alkinoos then addressed them, speaking as follows:

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  "Listen, you leaders and counselors of the Phaiakians,

  while I tell you what the heart in my breast dictates.

  Now that you've dined, go home and get your rest:

  tomorrow, early, we'll summon more of the elders,

  welcome this stranger here in our halls, and offer

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  choice sacrifice to the gods. Then we'll further consider

  the matter of his conveyance, how without toil or trouble,

  carried by us, he's to reach his native country--

  however far distant that may be--soon and rejoicing;

  nor on the way shall he suffer any harm or setback

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  until he sets foot on his own land--although thereafter

  he'll suffer whatever his fate and the weighty Spinners3 have spun

  with his birth-thread right from the moment his mother bore him!

  But if he's some kind of immortal, come down from heaven,

  then this is a new gambit of the gods' contriving, since

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  always till now they've appeared to us plainly manifest

  whenever we offer them our most lavish sacrifices,

  and they feast among us, sitting where we sit ourselves.

  What's more, if a solitary traveler should meet them on the road

  they don't use disguise, since we're close kin to them,

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  like the Kyklopes or the wild tribes of the Giants."4

  Then resourceful Odysseus responded to him, saying:

  "Alkinoos, don't let that bother you: I am not in any way

  like the immortals who hold the broad heavens, either

  physically or in nature: I look, and am, mortal, a man!

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  Whoever you know of mankind that shoulder the heaviest load

  of grief, to them I might liken myself in my sorrows--

  and indeed I could tell a yet longer tale of all

  the troubles I've endured by the will of the gods!

  But first let me eat some dinner, grieving though I am:

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  for nothing exists more shameless than one's loathsome belly,

  that forces a man to take notice of it at need, however

  distressed he may be and stricken by grief at heart,

  as I am grief-stricken at heart now; yet still unremittingly

  it commands me to eat and drink, forces me to forget

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  everything I have suffered, insists on being refilled!

  But will you please make haste, at daybreak's first appearance,

  to set me, the ill-starred one, on the road to my own country

  after all my troubles: let life leave me, once I've seen

  my possessions, my servants, and my great high-roofed house."

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  So he spoke: they all applauded and approved the dispatch

  of the stranger, since his request had been properly presented.

  When they'd made libation and drunk as much as the heart desired,

  they went, each man to his home, to get their repose;

  and godlike Odysseus was left there in the hall

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  with Arete and godlike Alkinoos sitting beside him,

  while the maidservants cleared away the remains of dinner.

  Then white-armed Arete was the first to speak, for she

  had recognized his mantle and tunic at first sight

  as fine clothes she herself and her serving women had made;

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  so now she spoke, and addressed him with winged words, saying:

  "Stranger, this question I'll ask first myself: Who are you,

  and from where? Who gave you these clothes? Did you not

  say that you arrived here while wandering over the deep?"

  Then, responding to her, resourceful Odysseus declared:

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  "It's hard, my queen, to render an exhaustive account

  of my troubles: the heavenly gods have given me so many!

  But this I will tell you, in response to your enquiry:

  There's an island, Ogygia, that lies far off in the deep,

  and the daughter of Atlas, crafty Kalypso, lives there,

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  a dread fair-tressed goddess; with her there's no one else

  has intercourse, be it of gods or of mortal humans,

  but unfortunate that I am, some god brought me alone

  to her hearth, after Zeus struck my swift ship with a bright

  bolt, and destroyed it in the midst of the wine-dark deep.

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  There all the rest of my staunch companions perished,

  but I clutched in my arms the keel of my curved vessel

  and was borne off for nine days: on the tenth dark night

  the gods landed me on Ogygia, where Kalypso dwells--

  that dread fair-tressed goddess! She welcomed me, took me in,

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  gave me food, treated me kindly, said she would make me

  immortal and ageless all my days; but she never

  could persuade the heart in my breast. There I remained

  for seven unbroken years,5 keeping ever damp with my tears

  the immortal garments in which Kalypso clothed me.

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  But when in its cycle the eighth year arrived for me, then

  she urged and told me to be on my way once more--

  either she'd had a message from Zeus or else her own mind

  had changed--and sent me off on a well-bound raft, and gave me

  plenty of bread and sweet wine, with immortal clothes to wear,

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  and raised a good tailwind for me, both mild and breezy.

  For seventeen days then I sailed on over the deep,

  and on the eighteenth your country's shadowy mountains

  came into sight, and the heart within me rejoiced.

  But I was out of luck: I still had plenty of trou
ble

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  to live with, directed against me by Poseidon the Earth-Shaker,

  for he raised up winds to confront me, delayed my journey

  by horribly roiling the sea, with waves that would not

  let me sail on, even miserably, aboard my raft: the storm

  broke it up! Nevertheless, I still somehow managed

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  to swim my way through this great gulf of the sea, until

  wind and wave carried me to your coast. Had I attempted

  to land there, the waves would have hurled me upon the strand,

  dashed me against great rocks at this cheerless site;

  But I kept well clear, and swam on, until I reached the river,

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  and this seemed to me the best possible landing place,

  being smooth of rocks and offering shelter against the wind.

  Out then I stumbled, half dead, and ambrosial night

  came on. I got clear of the heaven-fed river, lay down

  to sleep in the bushes, heaped up piles of leaves

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  around me: some god shed over me limitless sleep.

  So there in the leaves, much troubled at heart, I slumbered

  the whole night through, and next morning until midday

  and later--the sun was declining when at last sweet sleep

  released me. Then I saw your daughter's maids at play

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  on the shore, and herself among them, like a goddess.

  To her I appealed: she knew what was proper behavior--

  a virtue you'd not expect to find a young casually met

  person displaying: the young are always so thoughtless!

  She offered me food in abundance and sparkling wine

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  and had me washed in the river and gave me these clothes.

  Distressed I may be, but everything I've told you is the truth."

  Then Alkinoos made him this answer, saying: "Stranger,

  my child did not behave correctly in one respect: she should

  have brought you here to our home, along with her handmaids,

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  since she was the first to whom you made your supplication."

  Then in answer to him resourceful Odysseus declared:

  "Hero, do not for this rebuke your blameless daughter!

  She did indeed tell me to follow her with her handmaids,

  But I would not, being scared and embarrassed, in case

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  you might be somehow offended by the sight; we're all

  very suspicious-minded, we breeds of men here on earth."

  Alkinoos again responded to him, saying: "Stranger,

  the heart in my breast is not the kind to become irate

  without good cause: due measure is always better.

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  No, I could wish--Zeus, Father, Athene, Apollo!--that you,

  being the kind of man you are, with a mind like my own,

  might have my daughter, be known as my son-in-law,

  and be domiciled here: a house and property I'd give you

  were you willing to stay! But against your will shall no

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  Phaiakian detain you--never be that Zeus the Father's wish!

  For your convoy I set a day, that you may know it surely:

  tomorrow. Then you'll lie down, overmastered by sleep,

  and they'll row you over a calm sea until you arrive

  at your country and home--or whatever place you fancy,

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  even if it's somewhere far more distant than Euboia,

  the most remote of lands6--or so say those of our people

  who saw it when they conveyed the fair-haired Rhadamanthys

  to go visit Tityos, son of Gaia.7 Thither they voyaged,

  without effort completed their journey, and came back

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  home that same day! So shall you too discover

  by how much my vessels are the best, and my young men

  at sweeping the salt sea with their oar blades."

  So he spoke.

  Much-enduring godlike Odysseus, rejoicing, uttered

  a personal prayer, in these words: "Zeus, Father, grant

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  that he, Alkinoos, may accomplish all he's promised!

  So shall his fame spread, unquenchable, over all

  the grain-giving earth, and I get home to my own country!"

  Such the words they exchanged in discussion with one another.

  White-armed Arete now instructed her handmaids

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  to set up a bedstead down in the colonnade, and on it

  to spread fine purple blankets, with coverlets over them,

  and on top of these fleecy mantles to wear as wraps. The maids

  went out of the hall with torches held in their hands,

  and after they'd finished draping the close-strung bedstead,

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  they came back to Odysseus, and addressed him, saying:

  "Stranger, up with you now, your bed is made and ready."

  Thus they spoke, and welcome he found it to lie down and rest.

  There, then, he slept, much-enduring godlike Odysseus,

  on the corded bedstead down in the echoing colonnade.

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  But Alkinoos took his repose in the high house's inmost room,

  and beside him his lady wife now shared their bed and marriage.

  Book 8

  When Dawn appeared, early risen and rosy-fingered,

  Alkinoos, princely in power, arose from his slumber,

  and Odysseus, the Zeus-born sacker of cities, rose too.

  Alkinoos, princely in power, now led the way to

  the Phaiakians' assembly place, built for them near their ships:

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  On arrival there they sat down on the polished stones

  side by side, while Pallas Athene went through the city

  in the likeness of the herald of sagacious Alkinoos,

  working on the return of great-hearted Odysseus. To each

  man she met she would say, as she stood beside him:

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  "Come now, you leaders and counselors of the Phaiakians,

  attend the assembly, and hear all about the stranger

  who's recently come to the house of sagacious Alkinoos

  from being lost on the deep--in form he's like the immortals!"

  So saying she stirred up each man's heart and spirit,

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  and quickly the seats of assembly were all filled up

  by gathering men, many of whom now marveled

  at the sight of Laertes' sagacious son, for Athene had shed

  a wondrous grace over his head and shoulders, made him

  appear both taller and sturdier, so that he might

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  be welcome to all the Phaiakians, and inspire

  awe and respect, and accomplish the numerous feats

  in which the Phaiakians were to make trial of Odysseus.

  When they were all in place and gathered together,

  Alkinoos made a speech, addressed the assembly, saying:

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  "Listen, you leaders and counselors of the Phaiakians,

  while I tell you what the heart in my breast dictates. This stranger--

  who he is I don't know--has wandered here to my house,

  whether from men of the east or the west. He wants

  conveyance, and is begging us for assurance on that.

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  So let us, as in the past, provide him swift conveyance:

  for no other man who's appeared at my house has had to wait

  in misery overlong for the convoy that he needed!

  So come, let's haul a black ship down to the bright sea

  for its maiden voyage; let those fifty-two young men,

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  the best crew in the district, be chosen t
o serve aboard it;

  and then, when each man has fastened his oar to its rowlock,

  disembark, come up to my house, partake of a quick meal--

  on me, I'll make ample provision for everybody involved!