ng their gifts.

So next day the Sea-kings went down to the ship and put their gifts on
board and then returned to the palace and sacrificed an ox to Zeus. And
then they feasted and drank their good wine and waited till the sun went
down. And the minstrel sang to them, but Ulysses kept looking at the sun
impatiently, like a hungry ploughman tired out at the close of day. At
last the time arrived, and then Ulysses said, "Alcinous, let me go now,
and fare you well. My escort and my gifts are all prepared, and I could
wish no more. May I but find my wife and my dear ones all safe and sound
at home! And may Heaven grant you, too, happy homes and every blessing and
no distress among your people!" And to Queen Arete he said, "Lady, may you
live happily with your husband and children, and all this people, till old
age comes to you and death, which must come to all!"

Then the herald led the way and Ulysses followed to the ship, and the
queen sent her servants with him to carry warm clothing for the voyage and
food and drink. And when they had stored the ship he lay down silently in
the stern, and the rowers took their places in the benches and plied their
oars, while a deep, sweet sleep fell upon him, like the sleep of death.
Then the wonderful ship leapt forward on her way, like a team of chariot
horses plunging beneath the whip, and the great dark wave roared round the
stern. No hawk could fly so quickly as that ship flew through the waves,
and the hawk is the swiftest of all birds. And as she sped, the man who
had suffered so much and was as wise as the Gods lay peacefully asleep,
and forgot his sufferings.

But when the bright star rose that tells of the approach of day, the ship
drew near the island of Ithaca. There is a haven there between two steep
headlands which break the waves, so that ships can ride in safety without
a mooring rope, and at the head of it an olive-tree, and a shadowy cave
where the water fairies come and tend their bees and weave their sea-blue
garments on the hanging looms and mix their wine in bowls and jars of
stone. There are springs of water in the cave, and two ways into it, one
to the north for men to enter, and one to the south where none but the
Gods may pass.

The Sea-kings knew this harbor and rowed straight into it and ran their
ship half a keel's length ashore. Then they lifted Ulysses out of the
stern, wrapt in the rugs and coverlet, and laid him still asleep upon the
sand. And the g