heir lovely voices by
which they lured men to go on shore and there slew them. In the
flowery meadows were the bones of the foolish sailors who had seen
only the lovely faces and long, golden hair of the Sirens, and had
lost their hearts to them.

Against these mermaids Circe had warned Odysseus, and he repeated her
warnings to his men.

Following her advice he filled the ears of the men with wax and bade
them bind him hand and foot to the mast.

Past the island drove the ship, and the Sirens seeing it began their
sweet song. "Come hither, come hither, brave Odysseus," they sang.
Then Odysseus tried to make his men unbind him, but Eurylochus and
another bound him yet more tightly to the mast.

When the island was left behind, the men took the wax from their ears
and unbound their captain. After passing the Wandering Rocks with
their terrible sights and sounds the ship came to a place of great
peril. Beyond them were yet two huge rocks between which the sea
swept.

One of these ran up to the sky, and in this cliff was a dark cave in
which lived Scylla a horrible monster, who, as the ship passed seized
six of the men with her six dreadful heads.

In the cliff opposite lived another terrible creature called Charybdis
who stirred the sea to a fierce whirlpool.

By a strong wind the ship was driven into this whirlpool, but Odysseus
escaped on a broken piece of wreckage to the shores of an island.

On this island lived Calypso of the braided tresses, a goddess feared
by all men. But, to Odysseus she was very kind and he soon became as
strong as ever.

"Stay with me, and thou shalt never grow old and never die," said
Calypso.

A great homesickness had seized Odysseus, but no escape came for eight
years. Then Athene begged the gods to help him. They called on Hermes,
who commanded Calypso to let him go. She wanted him to stay with her
but promised to send him away. She told him to make a raft which she
would furnish with food and clothing for his need.

He set out and in eighteen days saw the land of the Phaeacians appear.
But when safety seemed near, Poseidon, the sea-god, returned from his
wanderings and would have destroyed him had it not been that a fair
sea-nymph gave him her veil to wind around his body. This he did and
finally reached the shore.

IV

HOW ODYSSEUS MET WITH NAUSICAA

In the land of the Phaeacians there dwelt no more beautiful, nor any
sweeter maiden, than the King's own daughter