MUSE, tell me of this man of wit, who roamed long years after he had sacked Troy’s sacred streets. ALL the rest who had escaped death, returned, fleeing battle and the sea; only Odysseus, captive of a goddess, desperate and home-sick, thought but of his wife and palace; but Calypso, that nymph and spirit, yearning in the furrowed rock-shelf, burned and sought to be his mistress; but years passed, the time was ripe, the gods decreed, (although traitors plot he was to return to Ithaca; and all the gods pitied him; but Poseidon steadfast to the last hated god-like Odysseus. The sea-god visited a distant folk, Ethiopians, who at the edge of earth are divided into two parts, (half watch the sun rise, half, the sun set,) there the hecatomb of slain sheep and oxen await his revels: and while he rejoiced, seated at the feast, the rest of the gods gathered in the palace of Olympian Zeus; and the father of men and of gods spoke thus: slain of Agamemnon’s child, great Orestes:) O you spirits, how men hate the gods, for they say evil comes of us, when they themselves, by their own wickedness, court peril beyond their fate; so Egisthus, defiant, sought Agamemnon’s wife and slew Agamemnon returning to his own palace, though we ourselves sent bright Hermes, slayer of Argos, to warn him lest Orestes, attaining to man’s estate, demand his inheritance and take vengeance: we forbade him to strike the king, we warned him to respect his wife: of gracious aspect, subtle with kindly speech, thus avert the foul work? Then the grey-eyed Athene, the goddess, spoke: O my father, Kronos begot, first among the great, his death at least was just, so may all perish who err thus; but my heart is rent for the prudent Odysseus, who, exiled from his friends, is kept too long distressed in an island, sea swept, in the sea midst, a forest island, haunt of a spirit, child of Atlas, crafty of thought, who knows the sea depth, who supports the high pillars which cut sky from earth; it is his child lamenting with broken heart, ceaseless to tempt him with soft and tender speech, that he forget Ithaca; but Odysseus, yearning to see but the smoke drift above his own house, prefers death; your heart, is it not touched, O Olympian? did not Odysseus please you when he made sacrifice before the Grecian ships in great Troy? why are you angry, Zeus? Then Zeus, keeper of the clouds, answering her, spoke: O my child, what quaint words have sped your lips, for how could I forget the god-like Odysseus, first to make sacrifice to the deathless in the sky-space? but Poseidon girder of earth, though yet he spares his life, nurtures unending hate; he goads him from place to place because of the Cyclops blinded of Odysseus, Polyphemus, half-god, greatest of the Cyclops, whom the nymph Thoosa, child of Phorcys, king of the waste sea, begot when she lay with Poseidon among the shallow rocks: but come, let us plot to reinstate Odysseus, and Poseidon must abandon his wrath; for what can one god accomplish, striving alone to defy all the deathless? Then the grey-eyed Athene, the goddess, spoke: O my father, Kronos begot, first among the great, if then it seems just to the highest, that Odysseus return to his own house, let us swiftly send Hermes, slayer of Argos, your attendant, that he state to the fair-haired nymph, our irrevocable wish, that Odysseus, valiant of heart, be sent back: and I will depart to Ithaca, |