views, but the fundamental
meaning is not physical, but ethical.

II.

We now come to the great physical obstacle standing in the way of the
Return of Ulysses, the sea, which, however, has always its divine side
to the Greek mind. A series of water-deities will rise before us out of
this mighty element, assuming various attitudes toward the solitary
voyager. Three of them, showing themselves as hostile (Neptune), as
helpful (Ino Leucothea), as saving (the River-God); all three too seem
in a kind of gradation, from the vast total sea, through one of its
phases, to the small stream pouring into the sea from the land. Thus
the Greek imagination, playing with water, deified the various
appearances thereof, specially in their relation to man. The
introduction of these three marine divinities naturally organizes this
second part of the Fifth Book into three phases or stages. Such is the
divine side now to be witnessed.

Parallel to this runs the human side, represented by the lone hero
Ulysses, who is passing through a fearful ordeal of danger with its
attendant emotions of anxiety, terror, hope, despair. A very hard test
is surely here applied to weak mortal flesh. We shall observe that he
passes through a series of mental perturbations at each divine
appearance; he runs up and down a scale of doubt, complaint,
resolution. His weakness he will show, yet also his strength;
dubitation yet faith; he will hesitate, yet finally act. Thus he saves
himself at last through his own will, yet certainly with the help of
the Gods; for both sides have to co-operate to bring about the heroic
act of his deliverance.

Pallas also comes to the aid of her favorite, but in an indirect
manner. The sea does not seem to be her element. She stops the winds
and "informs his mind with forecast," but she does not personally
appear and speak, nor is she addressed, as is the case with the
water-gods. She plays in by the way in this marine emergency; her
appearances now do not organize the action. But the three appearances
of the water-gods are the organic principle, their element being at
present the scene of the adventure. On these lines we shall note the
course of the poem in some detail.

1. Neptune returning from the Ethiopians to Hellas, sees the lone
sailor with his little craft from the heights of the mountain called
Solyma; at once the God's wrath is roused and he talks to himself,
"shaking his head." The clouds, the winds, the ocean o