t to enjoy it,
when a sound of rustling wings was heard all round them. Horrible
creatures, half birds, half women, with long talons and cruel beaks,
swooped down on the tables and carried off the food before the eyes
of the terrified banqueters. These were the Harpies, who had once been
sent to plague King Phineus, and when they were driven away by two of
the Argonauts, Zetes and Calais, took refuge in these islands. In vain
the Trojans attacked them with their swords, for the monsters would
fly out of reach, and then dart back again on a sudden, and pounce
once more on the food, while Celaeno, chief of the Harpies, perched on
a rock and chanted in hoarse tones a prophecy of ill omen. "You that
kill our oxen and seek to drive us from our rightful home, hearken to
my words, which Jupiter declared to Apollo, and Apollo told even to
me. You are sailing to Italy, and you shall reach Italy and enter its
harbors. But you are not destined to surround your city with a wall,
till cruel hunger and vengeance for the wrong you have done us force
you to gnaw your very tables with your teeth."

When the Trojans heard this terrible prophecy their hearts sank within
them, and Anchises, lifting his hands to heaven, besought the gods to
avert this grievous doom. Thus, full of sad forebodings, they returned
to their ships.

Their way now lay along the western coast of Greece, and they were
glad to slip unnoticed past the rocky island of Ithaca, the home of
Ulysses the wily. For they did not know that he was still held captive
by the nymph Calypso, and that many years were to pass before he
should be restored to his kingdom. They next cast anchor off Leucadia,
and passed the winter in these regions. In spring they sailed north
again, and landed in Epirus, and here to their surprise they found
Helenus, one of the sons of Priam, ruling over a Greek people. He
welcomed his kinsman joyfully and, having the gift of prophecy from
Apollo, foretold the course of his wanderings. "Italy, which you deem
so near, is a far-distant land, and many adventures await you before
you reach that shore where lies your destined home. Before you reach
it, you will visit Sicily, and the realms of the dead and the
island of Circe. But I will give you a sign whereby you may know the
appointed place. When by the banks of a secluded stream you shall
see a huge white sow with her thirty young ones, then shall you have
reached the limit of your wanderings. Be sure to