The Odyssey

THE SIRENS, SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS, THE CATTLE OF THE SUN.


“After we were clear of the river Oceanus, and had got out into the
open sea, we went on till we reached the Aeaean island where there is
dawn and sun-rise as in other places. We then drew our ship on to the
sands and got out of her on to the shore, where we went to sleep and
waited till day should break.

“Then, when the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared, I sent
some men to Circe’s house to fetch the body of Elpenor. We cut firewood
from a wood where the headland jutted out into the sea, and after we
had wept over him and lamented him we performed his funeral rites. When
his body and armour had been burned to ashes, we raised a cairn, set a
stone over it, and at the top of the cairn we fixed the oar that he had
been used to row with.

“While we were doing all this, Circe, who knew that we had got back
from the house of Hades, dressed herself and came to us as fast as she
could; and her maid servants came with her bringing us bread, meat, and
wine. Then she stood in the midst of us and said, ‘You have done a bold
thing in going down alive to the house of Hades, and you will have died
twice, to other people’s once; now, then, stay here for the rest of the
day, feast your fill, and go on with your voyage at daybreak tomorrow
morning. In the meantime I will tell Ulysses about your course, and
will explain everything to him so as to prevent your suffering from
misadventure either by land or sea.’

“We agreed to do as she had said, and feasted through the livelong day
to the going down of the sun, but when the sun had set and it came on
dark, the men laid themselves down to sleep by the stern cables of the
ship. Then Circe took me by the hand and bade me be seated away from
the others, while she reclined by my side and asked me all about our
adventures.

“‘So far so good,’ said she, when I had ended my story, ‘and now pay
attention to what I am about to tell you—heaven itself, indeed, will
recall it to your recollection. First you will come to the Sirens who
enchant all who come near them. If any one unwarily draws in too close
and hears the singing of the Sirens, his wife and children will never
welcome him home again, for they sit in a green field and warble him to
death with the sweetness of their song. There is a great heap of dead
men’s bones lying all around, with the flesh still rotting off them.
Therefore pass these Sirens by, and stop your men’s ears with wax that
none of them may hear; but if you like you can listen yourself, for you
may get the men to bind you as you stand upright on a cross piece half
way up the mast,99 and they must lash the rope’s ends to the mast
itself, that you may have the pleasure of listening. If you beg and
pray the men to unloose you, then they must bind you faster.

“‘When your crew have taken you past these Sirens, I cannot give you
coherent directions100 as to which of two courses you are to take; I
will lay the two alternatives before you, and you must consider them
for yourself. On the one hand there are some overhanging rocks against
which the deep blue waves of Amphitrite beat with terrific fury; the
blessed gods call these rocks the Wanderers. Here not even a bird may
pass, no, not even the timid doves that bring ambrosia to Father Jove,
but the sheer rock always carries off one of them, and Father Jove has
to send another to make up their number; no ship that ever yet came to
these rocks has got away again, but the waves and whirlwinds of fire
are freighted with wreckage and with the bodies of dead men. The only
vessel that ever sailed and got through, was the famous Argo on her way
from the house of Aetes, and she too would have gone against these
great rocks, only that Juno piloted her past them for the love she bore
to Jason.

“‘Of these two rocks the one reaches heaven and its peak is lost in a
dark cloud. This never leaves it, so that the top is never clear not
even in summer and early autumn. No man though he had twenty hands and
twenty feet could get a foothold on it and climb it, for it runs sheer
up, as smooth as though it had been polished. In the middle of it there
is a large cavern, looking West and turned towards Erebus; you must
take your ship this way, but the cave is so high up that not even the
stoutest archer could send an arrow into it. Inside it Scylla sits and
yelps with a voice that you might take to be that of a young hound, but
in truth she is a dreadful monster and no one—not even a god—could face
her without being terror-struck. She has twelve mis-shapen feet, and
six necks of the most prodigious length; and at the end of each neck
she has a frightful head with three rows of teeth in each, all set very
close together, so that they would crunch any one to death in a moment,
and she sits deep within her shady cell thrusting out her heads and
peering all round the rock, fishing for dolphins or dogfish or any
larger monster that she can catch, of the thousands with which
Amphitrite teems. No ship ever yet got past her without losing some
men, for she shoots out all her heads at once, and carries off a man in
each mouth.

“‘You will find the other rock lie lower, but they are so close
together that there is not more than a bow-shot between them. [A large
fig tree in full leaf101 grows upon it], and under it lies the sucking
whirlpool of Charybdis. Three times in the day does she vomit forth her
waters, and three times she sucks them down again; see that you be not
there when she is sucking, for if you are, Neptune himself could not
save you; you must hug the Scylla side and drive ship by as fast as you
can, for you had better lose six men than your whole crew.’

“‘Is there no way,’ said I, ‘of escaping Charybdis, and at the same
time keeping Scylla off when she is trying to harm my men?’

“‘You dare devil,’ replied the goddess, ‘you are always wanting to
fight somebody or something; you will not let yourself be beaten even
by the immortals. For Scylla is not mortal; moreover she is savage,
extreme, rude, cruel and invincible. There is no help for it; your best
chance will be to get by her as fast as ever you can, for if you dawdle
about her rock while you are putting on your armour, she may catch you
with a second cast of her six heads, and snap up another half dozen of
your men; so drive your ship past her at full speed, and roar out
lustily to Crataiis who is Scylla’s dam, bad luck to her; she will then
stop her from making a second raid upon you.’

“‘You will now come to the Thrinacian island, and here you will see
many herds of cattle and flocks of sheep belonging to the sun-god—seven
herds of cattle and seven flocks of sheep, with fifty head in each
flock. They do not breed, nor do they become fewer in number, and they
are tended by the goddesses Phaethusa and Lampetie, who are children of
the sun-god Hyperion by Neaera. Their mother when she had borne them
and had done suckling them sent them to the Thrinacian island, which
was a long way off, to live there and look after their father’s flocks
and herds. If you leave these flocks unharmed, and think of nothing but
getting home, you may yet after much hardship reach Ithaca; but if you
harm them, then I forewarn you of the destruction both of your ship and
of your comrades; and even though you may yourself escape, you will
return late, in bad plight, after losing all your men.’

“Here she ended, and dawn enthroned in gold began to show in heaven,
whereon she returned inland. I then went on board and told my men to
loose the ship from her moorings; so they at once got into her, took
their places, and began to smite the grey sea with their oars.
Presently the great and cunning goddess Circe befriended us with a fair
wind that blew dead aft, and staid steadily with us, keeping our sails
well filled, so we did whatever wanted doing to the ship’s gear, and
let her go as wind and helmsman headed her.

“Then, being much troubled in mind, I said to my men, ‘My friends, it
is not right that one or two of us alone should know the prophecies
that Circe has made me, I will therefore tell you about them, so that
whether we live or die we may do so with our eyes open. First she said
we were to keep clear of the Sirens, who sit and sing most beautifully
in a field of flowers; but she said I might hear them myself so long as
no one else did. Therefore, take me and bind me to the crosspiece half
way up the mast; bind me as I stand upright, with a bond so fast that I
cannot possibly break away, and lash the rope’s ends to the mast
itself. If I beg and pray you to set me free, then bind me more tightly
still.’

“I had hardly finished telling everything to the men before we reached
the island of the two Sirens,102 for the wind had been very favourable.
Then all of a sudden it fell dead calm; there was not a breath of wind
nor a ripple upon the water, so the men furled the sails and stowed
them; then taking to their oars they whitened the water with the foam
they raised in rowing. Meanwhile I look a large wheel of wax and cut it
up small with my sword. Then I kneaded the wax in my strong hands till
it became soft, which it soon did between the kneading and the rays of
the sun-god son of Hyperion. Then I stopped the ears of all my men, and
they bound me hands and feet to the mast as I stood upright on the
cross piece; but they went on rowing themselves. When we had got within
earshot of the land, and the ship was going at a good rate, the Sirens
saw that we were getting in shore and began with their singing.

“‘Come here,’ they sang, ‘renowned Ulysses, honour to the Achaean name,
and listen to our two voices. No one ever sailed past us without
staying to hear the enchanting sweetness of our song—and he who listens
will go on his way not only charmed, but wiser, for we know all the
ills that the gods laid upon the Argives and Trojans before Troy, and
can tell you everything that is going to happen over the whole world.’

“They sang these words most musically, and as I longed to hear them
further I made signs by frowning to my men that they should set me
free; but they quickened their stroke, and Eurylochus and Perimedes
bound me with still stronger bonds till we had got out of hearing of
the Sirens’ voices. Then my men took the wax from their ears and
unbound me.

“Immediately after we had got past the island I saw a great wave from
which spray was rising, and I heard a loud roaring sound. The men were
so frightened that they loosed hold of their oars, for the whole sea
resounded with the rushing of the waters,103 but the ship stayed where
it was, for the men had left off rowing. I went round, therefore, and
exhorted them man by man not to lose heart.

“‘My friends,’ said I, ‘this is not the first time that we have been in
danger, and we are in nothing like so bad a case as when the Cyclops
shut us up in his cave; nevertheless, my courage and wise counsel saved
us then, and we shall live to look back on all this as well. Now,
therefore, let us all do as I say, trust in Jove and row on with might
and main. As for you, coxswain, these are your orders; attend to them,
for the ship is in your hands; turn her head away from these steaming
rapids and hug the rock, or she will give you the slip and be over
yonder before you know where you are, and you will be the death of us.’

“So they did as I told them; but I said nothing about the awful monster
Scylla, for I knew the men would not go on rowing if I did, but would
huddle together in the hold. In one thing only did I disobey Circe’s
strict instructions—I put on my armour. Then seizing two strong spears
I took my stand on the ship’s bows, for it was there that I expected
first to see the monster of the rock, who was to do my men so much
harm; but I could not make her out anywhere, though I strained my eyes
with looking the gloomy rock all over and over.

“Then we entered the Straits in great fear of mind, for on the one hand
was Scylla, and on the other dread Charybdis kept sucking up the salt
water. As she vomited it up, it was like the water in a cauldron when
it is boiling over upon a great fire, and the spray reached the top of
the rocks on either side. When she began to suck again, we could see
the water all inside whirling round and round, and it made a deafening
sound as it broke against the rocks. We could see the bottom of the
whirlpool all black with sand and mud, and the men were at their wits
ends for fear. While we were taken up with this, and were expecting
each moment to be our last, Scylla pounced down suddenly upon us and
snatched up my six best men. I was looking at once after both ship and
men, and in a moment I saw their hands and feet ever so high above me,
struggling in the air as Scylla was carrying them off, and I heard them
call out my name in one last despairing cry. As a fisherman, seated,
spear in hand, upon some jutting rock104 throws bait into the water to
deceive the poor little fishes, and spears them with the ox’s horn with
which his spear is shod, throwing them gasping on to the land as he
catches them one by one—even so did Scylla land these panting creatures
on her rock and munch them up at the mouth of her den, while they
screamed and stretched out their hands to me in their mortal agony.
This was the most sickening sight that I saw throughout all my voyages.

“When we had passed the [Wandering] rocks, with Scylla and terrible
Charybdis, we reached the noble island of the sun-god, where were the
goodly cattle and sheep belonging to the sun Hyperion. While still at
sea in my ship I could bear the cattle lowing as they came home to the
yards, and the sheep bleating. Then I remembered what the blind Theban
prophet Teiresias had told me, and how carefully Aeaean Circe had
warned me to shun the island of the blessed sun-god. So being much
troubled I said to the men, ‘My men, I know you are hard pressed, but
listen while I tell you the prophecy that Teiresias made me, and how
carefully Aeaean Circe warned me to shun the island of the blessed
sun-god, for it was here, she said, that our worst danger would lie.
Head the ship, therefore, away from the island.’

“The men were in despair at this, and Eurylochus at once gave me an
insolent answer. ‘Ulysses,’ said he, ‘you are cruel; you are very
strong yourself and never get worn out; you seem to be made of iron,
and now, though your men are exhausted with toil and want of sleep, you
will not let them land and cook themselves a good supper upon this
island, but bid them put out to sea and go faring fruitlessly on
through the watches of the flying night. It is by night that the winds
blow hardest and do so much damage; how can we escape should one of
those sudden squalls spring up from South West or West, which so often
wreck a vessel when our lords the gods are unpropitious? Now,
therefore, let us obey the behests of night and prepare our supper here
hard by the ship; to-morrow morning we will go on board again and put
out to sea.’

“Thus spoke Eurylochus, and the men approved his words. I saw that
heaven meant us a mischief and said, ‘You force me to yield, for you
are many against one, but at any rate each one of you must take his
solemn oath that if he meet with a herd of cattle or a large flock of
sheep, he will not be so mad as to kill a single head of either, but
will be satisfied with the food that Circe has given us.’

“They all swore as I bade them, and when they had completed their oath
we made the ship fast in a harbour that was near a stream of fresh
water, and the men went ashore and cooked their suppers. As soon as
they had had enough to eat and drink, they began talking about their
poor comrades whom Scylla had snatched up and eaten; this set them
weeping and they went on crying till they fell off into a sound sleep.

“In the third watch of the night when the stars had shifted their
places, Jove raised a great gale of wind that flew a hurricane so that
land and sea were covered with thick clouds, and night sprang forth out
of the heavens. When the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn,
appeared, we brought the ship to land and drew her into a cave wherein
the sea-nymphs hold their courts and dances, and I called the men
together in council.

“‘My friends,’ said I, ‘we have meat and drink in the ship, let us
mind, therefore, and not touch the cattle, or we shall suffer for it;
for these cattle and sheep belong to the mighty sun, who sees and gives
ear to everything.’ And again they promised that they would obey.

“For a whole month the wind blew steadily from the South, and there was
no other wind, but only South and East.105 As long as corn and wine
held out the men did not touch the cattle when they were hungry; when,
however, they had eaten all there was in the ship, they were forced to
go further afield, with hook and line, catching birds, and taking
whatever they could lay their hands on; for they were starving. One
day, therefore, I went up inland that I might pray heaven to show me
some means of getting away. When I had gone far enough to be clear of
all my men, and had found a place that was well sheltered from the
wind, I washed my hands and prayed to all the gods in Olympus till by
and by they sent me off into a sweet sleep.

“Meanwhile Eurylochus had been giving evil counsel to the men, ‘Listen
to me,’ said he, ‘my poor comrades. All deaths are bad enough but there
is none so bad as famine. Why should not we drive in the best of these
cows and offer them in sacrifice to the immortal gods? If we ever get
back to Ithaca, we can build a fine temple to the sun-god and enrich it
with every kind of ornament; if, however, he is determined to sink our
ship out of revenge for these horned cattle, and the other gods are of
the same mind, I for one would rather drink salt water once for all and
have done with it, than be starved to death by inches in such a desert
island as this is.’

“Thus spoke Eurylochus, and the men approved his words. Now the cattle,
so fair and goodly, were feeding not far from the ship; the men,
therefore, drove in the best of them, and they all stood round them
saying their prayers, and using young oak-shoots instead of
barley-meal, for there was no barley left. When they had done praying
they killed the cows and dressed their carcasses; they cut out the
thigh bones, wrapped them round in two layers of fat, and set some
pieces of raw meat on top of them. They had no wine with which to make
drink-offerings over the sacrifice while it was cooking, so they kept
pouring on a little water from time to time while the inward meats were
being grilled; then, when the thigh bones were burned and they had
tasted the inward meats, they cut the rest up small and put the pieces
upon the spits.

“By this time my deep sleep had left me, and I turned back to the ship
and to the sea shore. As I drew near I began to smell hot roast meat,
so I groaned out a prayer to the immortal gods. ‘Father Jove,’ I
exclaimed, ‘and all you other gods who live in everlasting bliss, you
have done me a cruel mischief by the sleep into which you have sent me;
see what fine work these men of mine have been making in my absence.’

“Meanwhile Lampetie went straight off to the sun and told him we had
been killing his cows, whereon he flew into a great rage, and said to
the immortals, ‘Father Jove, and all you other gods who live in
everlasting bliss, I must have vengeance on the crew of Ulysses’ ship:
they have had the insolence to kill my cows, which were the one thing I
loved to look upon, whether I was going up heaven or down again. If
they do not square accounts with me about my cows, I will go down to
Hades and shine there among the dead.’

“‘Sun,’ said Jove, ‘go on shining upon us gods and upon mankind over
the fruitful earth. I will shiver their ship into little pieces with a
bolt of white lightning as soon as they get out to sea.’

“I was told all this by Calypso, who said she had heard it from the
mouth of Mercury.

“As soon as I got down to my ship and to the sea shore I rebuked each
one of the men separately, but we could see no way out of it, for the
cows were dead already. And indeed the gods began at once to show signs
and wonders among us, for the hides of the cattle crawled about, and
the joints upon the spits began to low like cows, and the meat, whether
cooked or raw, kept on making a noise just as cows do.

“For six days my men kept driving in the best cows and feasting upon
them, but when Jove the son of Saturn had added a seventh day, the fury
of the gale abated; we therefore went on board, raised our masts,
spread sail, and put out to sea. As soon as we were well away from the
island, and could see nothing but sky and sea, the son of Saturn raised
a black cloud over our ship, and the sea grew dark beneath it. We did
not get on much further, for in another moment we were caught by a
terrific squall from the West that snapped the forestays of the mast so
that it fell aft, while all the ship’s gear tumbled about at the bottom
of the vessel. The mast fell upon the head of the helmsman in the
ship’s stern, so that the bones of his head were crushed to pieces, and
he fell overboard as though he were diving, with no more life left in
him.

“Then Jove let fly with his thunderbolts, and the ship went round and
round, and was filled with fire and brimstone as the lightning struck
it. The men all fell into the sea; they were carried about in the water
round the ship, looking like so many sea-gulls, but the god presently
deprived them of all chance of getting home again.

“I stuck to the ship till the sea knocked her sides from her keel
(which drifted about by itself) and struck the mast out of her in the
direction of the keel; but there was a backstay of stout ox-thong still
hanging about it, and with this I lashed the mast and keel together,
and getting astride of them was carried wherever the winds chose to
take me.

“[The gale from the West had now spent its force, and the wind got into
the South again, which frightened me lest I should be taken back to the
terrible whirlpool of Charybdis. This indeed was what actually
happened, for I was borne along by the waves all night, and by sunrise
had reached the rock of Scylla, and the whirlpool. She was then sucking
down the salt sea water,106 but I was carried aloft toward the fig
tree, which I caught hold of and clung on to like a bat. I could not
plant my feet anywhere so as to stand securely, for the roots were a
long way off and the boughs that overshadowed the whole pool were too
high, too vast, and too far apart for me to reach them; so I hung
patiently on, waiting till the pool should discharge my mast and raft
again—and a very long while it seemed. A jury-man is not more glad to
get home to supper, after having been long detained in court by
troublesome cases, than I was to see my raft beginning to work its way
out of the whirlpool again. At last I let go with my hands and feet,
and fell heavily into the sea, hard by my raft on to which I then got,
and began to row with my hands. As for Scylla, the father of gods and
men would not let her get further sight of me—otherwise I should have
certainly been lost.107

“Hence I was carried along for nine days till on the tenth night the
gods stranded me on the Ogygian island, where dwells the great and
powerful goddess Calypso. She took me in and was kind to me, but I need
say no more about this, for I told you and your noble wife all about it
yesterday, and I hate saying the same thing over and over again.”