Alcinous, famous
King, it is good to listen to a minstrel such as Demodocus is. And as
for me, I know of no greater delight than when men feast together with
open hearts, when tables are plentifully spread, when wine-bearers pour
out good wine into cups, and when a minstrel sings to them noble songs.
This seems to me to be happiness indeed. But thou hast asked me to speak
of my wanderings and my toils. Ah, where can I begin that tale? For the
gods have given me more woes than a man can speak of!'

'But first of all I will declare to you my name and my country. I am
ODYSSEUS, SON OF LAERTES, and my land is Ithaka, an island around which
many islands lie. Ithaka is a rugged isle, but a good nurse of hardy
men, and I, for one, have found that there is no place fairer than a
man's own land. But now I will tell thee, King, and tell the Princes
and Captains and Councillors of the Phaeacians, the tale of my
wanderings.'

'The wind bore my ships from the coast of Troy, and with our white sails
hoisted we came to the cape that is called Malea. Now if we had been
able to double this cape we should soon have come to our own country,
all unhurt. But the north wind came and swept us from our course and
drove us wandering past Cythera.'

'Then for nine days we were borne onward by terrible winds, and away
from all known lands. On the tenth day we came to a strange country.
Many of my men landed there. The people of that land were harmless and
friendly, but the land itself was most dangerous. For there grew there
the honey-sweet fruit of the lotus that makes all men forgetful of their
past and neglectful of their future. And those of my men who ate the
lotus that the dwellers of that land offered them became forgetful of
their country and of the way before them. They wanted to abide forever
in the land of the lotus. They wept when they thought of all the toils
before them and of all they had endured. I led them back to the ships,
and I had to place them beneath the benches and leave them in bonds. And
I commanded those who had ate of the lotus to go at once aboard the
ships. Then, when I had got all my men upon the ships, we made haste to
sail away.'

[Illustration]

'Later we came to the land of the Cyclopes, a giant people. There is a
waste island outside the harbour of their land, and on it there is a
well of bright water that has poplars growing round it. We came to that
empty island, and we beached our ships and took down o