om my sleep. As I came down to the ship the smell of the roasting
flesh came to me. Then I knew that a terrible deed had been committed
and that a dreadful thing would befall all of us.'

'For six days my company feasted on the best of the cattle. On the
seventh day the winds ceased to blow. Then we went to the ship and set
up the mast and the sails and fared out again on the deep.'

'But, having left that island, no other land appeared, and only sky and
sea were to be seen. A cloud stayed always above our ship and beneath
that cloud the sea was darkened. The West Wind came in a rush, and the
mast broke, and, in breaking, struck off the head of the pilot, and he
fell straight down into the sea. A thunderbolt struck the ship and the
men were swept from the deck. Never a man of my company did I see
again.'

'The West Wind ceased to blow but the South Wind came and it drove the
ship back on its course. It rushed towards the terrible rocks of Scylla
and Charybdis. All night long I was borne on, and, at the rising of the
sun? I found myself near Charybdis. My ship was sucked down. But I
caught the branches of the fig tree that grew out of the rock and hung
to it like a bat. There I stayed until the timbers of my ship were cast
up again by Charybdis. I dropped down on them. Sitting on the boards I
rowed with my hands and passed the rock of Scylla without the monster
seeing me.'

'Then for nine days I was borne along by the waves, and on the tenth day
I came to Ogygia where the nymph Calypso dwells. She took me to her
dwelling and treated me kindly. But why tell the remainder of my toils?
To thee, O King, and to thy noble wife I told how I came from Calypso's
Island, and I am not one to repeat a plain-told tale.'

VII

Odysseus finished, and the company in the hall sat silent, like men
enchanted. Then King Alcinous spoke and said, 'Never, as far as we
Phaeacians are concerned, wilt thou, Odysseus, be driven from thy
homeward way. To-morrow we will give thee a ship and an escort, and we
will land thee in Ithaka, thine own country.' The Princes, Captains and
Councillors, marvelling that they had met the renowned Odysseus, went
each to his own home. When the dawn had come, each carried down to the
ship on which Odysseus was to sail, gifts for him.

[Illustration]

When the sun was near its setting they all came back to the King's hall
to take farewell of him. The King poured out a great bowl of wine as an
offeri