what joy they felt; they even cried
out with rapture, and to have seen their frantic expressions of mirth,
a man might have supposed that they were just in sight of their
country earth, the cliffs of rocky Ithaca. Only Eurylochus would
hardly be persuaded to enter that palace of wonders, for he remembered
with a kind of horror how his companions had vanished from his sight.

Then great Circe spake, and gave order, that there should be no more
sadness among them, nor remembering of past sufferings. For as yet
they fared like men that are exiles from their country, and if a gleam
of mirth shot among them, it was suddenly quenched with the thought of
their helpless and homeless condition. Her kind persuasions wrought
upon Ulysses and the rest, that they spent twelve months in all manner
of delight with her in her palace. For Circe was a powerful magician,
and could command the moon from her sphere, or unroot the solid oak
from its place to make it dance for their diversion, and by the help
of her illusions she could vary the taste of pleasures, and contrive
delights, recreations, and jolly pastimes, to "fetch the day about
from sun to sun, and rock the tedious year as in a delightful dream."

At length Ulysses awoke from the trance of the faculties into which
her charms had thrown him, and the thought of home returned with
tenfold vigour to goad and sting him; that home where he had left his
virtuous wife Penelope, and his young son Telemachus. One day when
Circe had been lavish of her caresses, and was in her kindest humour,
he moved to her subtilly, and as it were afar off, the question of his
home-return; to which she answered firmly, "O Ulysses, it is not in my
power to detain one whom the gods have destined to further trials. But
leaving me, before you pursue your journey home, you must visit the
house of Ades, or Death, to consult the shade of Tiresias the Theban
prophet; to whom alone, of all the dead, Proserpine, queen of hell,
has committed the secret of future events: it is he that must inform
you whether you shall ever see again your wife and country." "O
Circe," he cried; "that is impossible: who shall steer my course to
Pluto's kingdom? Never ship had strength to make that voyage." "Seek
no guide," she replied; "but raise you your mast, and hoist your white
sails, and sit in your ship in peace: the north wind shall waft you
through the seas, till you shall cross the expanse of the ocean, and
come to where gr