The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics) (29 page)

¹⁰
Sailing to sea with all [his ships], he came to the island of Aiolia, where Aiolos was king. He had been appointed
controller of the winds by Zeus, with power both to calm them and send them forth. After entertaining Odysseus as his guest, he gave him an oxhide bag in which he had imprisoned the winds, and when he had shown him which he should use on the voyage, he attached the bag securely to the ship. By making use of the appropriate winds, Odysseus had a successful passage, but when he drew close to Ithaca and could already see the smoke rising from the town, he fell asleep;
¹¹
and his companions, thinking that he was carrying gold in the bag, untied it, and released the winds. Swept away by the winds, they travelled back the way they had come. Odysseus went to Aiolos and asked him for a favourable wind, but Aiolos drove him from the island, saying that he was unable to save a man if the gods were working against him.

¹²
So he sailed on until he arrived at the land of the Laistrygonians, [where he put in,] mooring his own ship last in the line. The Laistrygonians were cannibals and their king was Antiphates. Wanting to learn about the inhabitants, Odysseus sent some of his men to investigate; and the king’s daughter met with them and took them to her father.
¹³
He grasped hold of one of them and swallowed him down, but the others fled, and he chased after them, shouting out to summon the rest of the Laistrygonians. And the Laistrygonians rushed down to the sea, where they broke up the vessels by hurling rocks at them, and devoured the men. Odysseus cut the cable of his ship and made his way out to sea, but all the other ships were lost together with their crews.

¹⁴
Left with a single ship, he put in at the island of Aiaie, the home of Circe, a daughter of the Sun and Perse and sister of Aietes, who had knowledge of all manner of drugs. Separating his comrades into two groups, he himself remained by the ship in accordance with the lot, while Eurylochos went to visit Circe with twenty-two companions.
¹⁵
At her invitation, all except Eurylochos went inside, and she offered each of them a cup that she had filled with cheese, honey, barleymeal, and wine, with a drug mixed in. And when they had drunk, she touched them with her wand and transformed them, turning some of them into wolves, and others into pigs, or asses, or lions.
*
¹⁶
Eurylochos saw everything and went to
tell Odysseus. Obtaining some moly
*
from Hermes, Odysseus went to Circe and sprinkled it into her potions, so that when he drank from them, he alone escaped her enchantments. He drew his sword, with the intention of killing her, but Circe allayed his anger, and restored his comrades to their original form. After he had received an oath from her that she would cause him no harm, Odysseus went to bed with her, and she bore him a son, Telegonos.
*

¹⁷
After delaying there for a year, he sailed on the Ocean, and then, after offering sacrifices to the souls [of the dead], he consulted the diviner Teiresias as Circe had advised, and beheld the souls of heroes and heroines alike. He also saw his mother Anticleia, and Elpenor, who had died from a fall in Circe’s house.

¹⁸
He then went back to Circe, who sent him on his way again; and putting out to sea, he sailed past the island of the Sirens. The Sirens
*
were daughters of Acheloos by Melpomene, one of the Muses, and their names were Peisinoe, Aglaope, and Thelxiepeia. One of them played the lyre, another sang, and the third played the flute, and by these means they caused passing sailors to want to remain with them.
¹⁹
From the thighs down, they were shaped like birds. Now Odysseus wanted to hear their song as he sailed by; so following Circe’s advice, he plugged the ears of his comrades with wax, and ordered that he himself should be bound to the mast. And when the Sirens prevailed on him to want to stay with them, he pleaded to be released, but his men bound him all the more firmly, and in this way he sailed by. There was a prophecy that if a ship sailed past the Sirens, they themselves would die; so they duly perished.

²⁰
After this, Odysseus arrived at a point where he had a choice of two different routes. On one side were the Wandering Rocks, and on the other, two enormous cliffs. On one of these cliffs was Scylla, a daughter of Crataiis and Trienos or Phorcos, who had the face and chest of a woman, but from her flanks down, six heads and twelve dogs’ feet;
²¹
and on the other was Charybdis, who sucked in the water and spewed it out again three times a day. On Circe’s instructions, he avoided the passage around the Wandering Rocks, and sailed past the
cliff of Scylla, standing fully armed at the stern. Scylla appeared, snatched up six of his comrades, and devoured them.

²²
From there he went to Thrinacia, an island of the Sun, where cattle
*
were grazing; and held back by unfavourable weather, he remained there. When his companions slaughtered some of the cattle and feasted on them for want of food, the Sun reported the matter to Zeus; and when they set sail again, Zeus struck them with a thunderbolt.
²³
As the ship broke up, Odysseus clung to the mast and was carried towards Charybdis. But when Charybdis sucked down the mast, he seized hold of an overhanging fig tree and waited; and when he saw the mast rise up again, he threw himself on to it and was carried across the sea to the island of Ogygia.

²⁴
He was welcomed there by Calypso, daughter of Atlas, who went to bed with him, and bore him a son, Latinos.
*
He remained with her for five years,
*
and then built a raft and sailed away. It was broken up at sea, however, through the wrath of Poseidon, and he was cast ashore naked on the land of the Phaeacians.
²⁵
Nausicaa, the daughter of King Alcinoos, was washing clothes there, and when Odysseus approached her as a suppliant, she took him to Alcinoos, who welcomed him as a guest. And then, after presenting him with gifts, he sent him away to his native land accompanied by an escort. In his anger against the Phaeacians, Poseidon turned the escorting ship to stone and surrounded their city with a mountain.

²⁶
When Odysseus arrived in his native land, he found that his house had been ruined; for believing that he was dead, suitors
*
were courting Penelope. From Doulichion came fifty-seven:
²⁷
Amphinomos, Thoas, Demoptolemos, Amphimachos, Euryalos, Paralos, Evenorides, Clytios, Agenor, Eurypylos, Pylaimenes, Acamas, Thersilochos, Hagios, Clymenos, Philodemos, Meneptolemos, Damastor, Bias, Telmios, Polyidos, Astylochos, Schedios, Antigonos, Marpsios, Iphidamas, Argeios, Glaucos, Calydoneus, Echion, Lamas, Andraimon, Agerochos, Medon, Agrios, Promos, Ctesios, Acarnan, Cycnos, Pseras, Hellanicos, Periphron, Megasthenes, Thrasymedes, Ormenios, Diopithes, Mecisteus, Antimachos, Ptolemaios, Lestorides, Nicomachos, Polypoites, and Ceraos.
²⁸
From Same came
twenty-three: Agelaos, Peisandros, Elatos, Ctesippos, Hippodochos, Eurystratos, Archemolos, Ithacos, Peisenor, Hyperenor, Pheroites, Antisthenes, Cerberos, Perimedes, Cynnos, Thriasos, Eteoneus, Clytios, Prothoos, Lycaithos, Eumelos, Itanos, and Lyammos.
²⁹
From Zacynthos came fortyfour: Eurylochos, Laomedes, Molebos, Phrenios, Indios, Minis, Leiocritos, Pronomos, Nisas, Daemon, Archestratos, Hippo[machos, Euryalos, Periallos, Evenorides, Clytios, Agenor], Polybos, Polydoros, Thadytios, Stratios, [Phrenios, Indios,] Daisenor, Laomedon, Laodicos, Halios, Magnes, Oloitrochos, Barthas, Theophron, Nissaios, Alcarops, Periclymenos, Antenor, Pellas, Celtos, Periphas, Ormenos, [Polybos,] and Andromedes.
³⁰
And from Ithaca itself, there were twelve suitors: Antinoos, Pronoos, Leiodes, Eurynomos, Amphimachos, Amphialos, Promachos, Amphimedon, Aristratos, Helenos, Doulichieus, and Ctesippos.

³¹
These suitors had travelled to the palace and consumed the herds of Odysseus at their feasts. Penelope had been forced to promise that she would consent to marry when the shroud of Laertes was finished, and she worked at it for three years, weaving it by day and unravelling it by night. In this way, the suitors were fooled by Penelope, until the day came when she was caught in the act.
³²
When Odysseus learned of the situation in his household, he visited his servant Eumaios disguised as a beggar. And then, after making himself known to Telemachos, he went to the city with him. Melanthios the goatherd, a mere servant, met them on the way and abused them. On arriving at the palace, Odysseus begged food from the suitors, and discovering a beggar there called Iros, he wrestled with him.
*
He revealed his identity to Eumaios and Philoitios, and together with them and Telemachos, he devised a plot against the suitors.
³³
Penelope gave the suitors the bow of Odysseus (which he had received from Iphitos in earlier days), and said that she would marry the one who could flex the bow. When none of them succeeded, Odysseus took it and shot down the suitors, helped by Eumaios, Philoitios, and Telemachos. He also killed Melanthios, and the maidservants who had been sleeping with the suitors; and he revealed his identity to his wife and father.

³⁴
After sacrificing to Hades, Persephone, and Teiresias, he travelled on foot through Epirus, and arrived in the land of the Thesprotians,
*
where he propitiated Poseidon
*
by offering the sacrifices that Teiresias had advised in his prophecy.
*
Callidice, who was queen of the Thesprotians at the time, asked him to remain and offered him the throne;
³⁵
and she slept with him and bore him a son, Polypoites. After he had married Callidice, he became king of the Thesprotians, and defeated in battle the neighbouring peoples who attacked them. When Callidice died, he transferred the throne to his son and returned to Ithaca, where he discovered that Penelope had borne him a son, Poliporthes.

³⁶
When Telegonos learned from Circe that he was a son of Odysseus, he sailed away in search of him. Arriving at the island of Ithaca, he plundered some of the cattle,
*
and when Odysseus came to their rescue, Telegonos wounded him with the spear that he was carrying, which was tipped with the needle [from a stingray
*
]; and Odysseus died.
³⁷
When Telegonos discovered his identity, he lamented bitterly, and took his corpse, and Penelope too, to the land of Circe, where he married Penelope;
*
and Circe sent the pair of them to the Isles of the Blessed.

³⁸
It is said by some, however, that Penelope was seduced by Antinoos
*
and sent away by Odysseus to her father Icarios, and that when she reached Mantineia in Arcadia, she gave birth to Pan, as a son of Hermes.
*
³⁹
Others say that she was killed by Odysseus himself because of Amphinomos;
*
for they claim that she had been seduced by him.
⁴⁰
And there are some who say that when the relatives of the men killed by Odysseus made accusations against him, he took as his judge Neoptolemos,
*
who ruled the islands off Epirus; and Neoptolemos, thinking he would gain possession of Cephallenia if Odysseus were out of the way, condemned him to exile. And Odysseus went to Thoas,
*
son of Andraimon, in Aetolia, where he married the daughter of Thoas, and died at a great age leaving behind a son by her, Leontophonos.

SOME INTERPOLATIONS AND AN UNRELIABLE PASSAGE FROM THE EPITOME

1. 2. 4. 2 (p. 65)

Pindar and Hesiod in the
Shield
say of Perseus: ‘The whole of his back was covered by [the head of] a fearsome monster, [the Gorgon,] which was enclosed in a
kibisis.’
The
kibisis
bears that name because clothes and food are placed in it.

2. 2. 5. 12 (p. 83)

It was unlawful at that time for foreigners to be initiated, for Heracles was initiated only after he had become the adopted son of Pylios.

3. 3. 1. 4 (p. 97)

He was the first to become master of the sea, and extended his rule to almost all of the islands.

4. 3. 4. 4 (p. 102)

The names of Actaion’s dogs in the . . . were these:

Now surrounding his beautiful body, as though it were that of a beast,

His powerful dogs tore it apart. Beside it, Arcena first,

[. . .] after her, her valiant offspring,

Lynceus, and Balios the finely footed, and Amarynthos [. . .]—

And those that singled out by name are listed thus:

[. . .] and they then killed Actaios, at the instigation of Zeus,

For the first who drank the black blood of their master

Were Spartos, and Omargos, and Bores swift on the scent.

These were the first to devour Actaios and lap his blood.

And after these, the others rushed on him in a frenzy [. . .]

To be a remedy for the grievous sorrows of men.

5. 3. 6. 7 (p. 110)

What was said by Teiresias to Zeus and Hera:

Of the ten parts, a man enjoys only one,

But a woman in her heart enjoys all ten in full.

6. 3. 10. 3 (p. 119)

I have found some who are said to have been raised by him, namely, Capaneus and Lycourgos, according to Stesichoros in the
Eriphyle;
and Hippolytos, according to the author of the
Naupactica
, and Tyndareus, according to Panyasis, and Hymenaios, according to the Orphics, and finally, Glaucos, the son of Minos, according to Melesagoras.

7. 3. 15. 8 (p. 138)

And there, after Pasiphae had conceived a passion for the bull of Poseidon, he assisted her by constructing a wooden cow, and he built the Labyrinth, to which the Athenians sent seven boys and as many girls every year to serve as food for the Minotaur.

8. Epitome 5. 2 (p. 154)

Hippolyte was the mother of Hippolytos; she is also called Glauce and Melanippe. When Phaedra’s marriage was being celebrated, Hippolyte arrived under arms with her fellow Amazons and said that she would kill those who were sharing the hospitality of Theseus. So a battle took place, and she was killed, whether accidentally by her ally Penthesileia, or by Theseus, or because the companions of Theseus, seeing the onset of the Amazons, closed the door with all speed catching her inside, and killed her.