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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41935 ***
+
+                 THE
+        ADVENTURES OF ULYSSES
+            _THE WANDERER_
+
+
+        An Old Story Retold by
+            C. RANGER-GULL
+
+              AUTHOR OF
+   "THE HYPOCRITE," "FROM THE BOOK
+  BEAUTIFUL," "BACK TO LILAC LAND,"
+                 ETC.
+
+
+             Illustrated
+                  BY
+              W. G. MEIN
+
+
+                London
+      GREENING AND COMPANY, LTD.
+  20 CECIL COURT, CHARING CROSS ROAD
+                 1902
+
+
+
+
+    BY THE SAME AUTHOR
+
+    THE HYPOCRITE.
+      Seventh Edition. 2s. 6d.
+
+    BACK TO LILAC LAND.
+      Second Edition. 6s.
+
+    MISS MALEVOLENT.
+      Second Edition. 3s. 6d.
+
+    THE CIGARETTE SMOKER.
+      Second Edition. 2s. 6d.
+
+    FROM THE BOOK BEAUTIFUL.
+      Being Old Lights Re-lit. 3s. 6d.
+
+
+    IN PREPARATION.
+
+    THE SERF. A Tale of the Times of
+      King Stephen.
+
+    HIS GRACE'S GRACE. A Story
+      of Oxford Life.
+
+
+
+
+    [Illustration: HE STARED STEADILY AT THEM WITH HIS SINGLE EYE
+      FOR A FULL MINUTE.
+        _Page 32._
+        _Frontispiece._]
+
+
+
+
+    TO
+
+    HERBERT BEERBOHM TREE
+
+    IN APPRECIATION OF HIS SCHOLARSHIP
+    IN ADMIRATION OF HIS ART
+    TO ONE OF THE FEW GREAT ARTISTS
+    WHO HAS NEVER BEEN UNTRUE
+    TO THE HIGHEST IDEALS OF HIS CALLING
+    AND IN SPECIAL MEMORY
+    OF THE FIRST NIGHT OF "HAMLET"
+    AT MANCHESTER
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                        PAGE
+    Foreword                                               9
+
+    Brief Account of Principal Characters
+      in the Odyssey                                      13
+
+    The First Episode--How They blinded the
+      Son of Poseidon                                     21
+
+    The Second Episode--The Adventure of
+      the Palace in the Wood                              39
+
+    The Third Episode--How Ulysses walked
+      in Hell, and of the Adventure of
+      the Sirens and Scylla                               48
+
+    The Fourth Episode--How Ulysses lost
+      his Merry Men and came a Waif to
+      Calypso with the Shining Hair                       63
+
+    The Last Episode--How the King came
+      Home again after the Long Years                     80
+
+    A Note on Homer and Ulysses                           98
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+    HE STARED STEADILY AT THEM WITH HIS
+      SINGLE EYE FOR A FULL MINUTE            _Frontispiece_
+
+    THEN HE CAME SWIFTLY UPON THE
+      GLEAMING PALACE                       _facing page_ 45
+
+    THEN HE WAS, IN AN INSTANT MOMENT,
+      AWARE OF A MORE THAN MORTAL PRESENCE        "       49
+
+    THEY CAME TO THE BRINK OF THE RIVER           "       52
+
+    "WHO AM I THAT I CAN COMBAT THE
+      WILL OF ZEUS OR THE HARDNESS OF
+      YOUR HEART?"                                "       78
+
+    "NAY, IF YOU LOVE ME," HE SAID, "NONE
+      OF THAT, MY FRIEND"                         "       83
+
+
+
+
+FOREWORD
+
+
+Seven fair and illustrious cities of the dim, ancient world, Argos,
+Athenæ, Chios, Colophon, Salamis, Rhodos, Smyrna, fought a war of
+words over HOMER'S birthplace.
+
+Each claimed the honour.
+
+And if, indeed, such an accident of chance confers an honour upon a
+town, then the birthplace of the Greatest Poet of all time should be a
+place of pilgrimage.
+
+For, among the weavers of Epos, Drama, and Romance, he who was called
+Melesegenes is first of all and wears an imperishable crown.
+
+For 3000 years his fame has streamed down the ages.
+
+The world has changed. Great empires have risen, flowered and passed.
+Christianity came, flooding mankind with light, at a time when, though
+Homer was a dim tradition, his work was a living force in the world.
+When Christ was born, Homerus was dead 900 years.
+
+A man with such immensity of glory ceases to be a man. He becomes a
+Force.
+
+Of the two imperishable monuments Homer has left us, the decision of
+critical scholarship has placed the _Iliad_ first. It has been said
+that the _Iliad_ is like the midday, the _Odyssey_ like the setting
+sun. Both are of equal splendour, though the latter has lost its
+noonday heat.
+
+But I would take that adroit simile and draw another meaning from it.
+
+When deferred, expected night at last approaches, when the sun paints
+the weary west with faëry pictures of glowing seas, of golden islands
+hanging in the sky, of lonely magic waterways unsailed by mortal
+keels; then, indeed, there comes into the heart and brain another
+warmth,--the mysterious quickening of Romance.
+
+For I think that the ringing sound of arms, the vibrant thriddings of
+bows, the clash of heroes, are far less wonderful than the long,
+lonely wanderings of Ulysses.
+
+Through all the _Odyssey_ the winds are blowing, the seas moaning, and
+the estranged sad spectres of the night flit noiselessly across the
+printed page.
+
+Through new lands, among new peoples--friends and foes--touching at
+green islands set like emeralds in wine-coloured seas, the immortal
+mariner moves to the music of his creator's verse. The Sirens' voices,
+the Fairy's enchanted wine, the Twin Monsters of the Strait pass and
+are forgotten.
+
+His wife's tears bid him ever towards home.
+
+I sometimes have wondered if Vergil thought of Ulysses when he made
+his own lesser wanderer say:--
+
+    "Per varios casus per tot discrimina rerum,
+    Tendimus in Latium, sedes ubi fata quietas
+    Ostendunt."
+
+And now, since we are to have, on that so magical a stage, a concrete
+picture: since we are to take away another storied memory from beneath
+the copper dome, I feel that the story of Ulysses may once more be
+told in English.
+
+A fine poet, a great player, are to give us an Ulysses who must
+perforce be not only full of the spirit of his own age of myth, but
+instinct with the spirit of this.
+
+That is as inevitable as it is interesting.
+
+The "Gentle Elia" (how one wishes one could find a better name for
+him--but custom makes cowards of us all) has written his own version
+of the _Odyssey_. I cannot emulate that. But I think I can at least be
+useful.
+
+There are three stages of knowing Homer: the time when one dog's ears
+and dogrells him at school, the time when one loves him, a literary
+love! at Oxford, and the time when the _va et vient_ of life in great
+capitals wakes the dormant Ulysses in the heart of every artist, and
+he begins to understand.
+
+    "The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
+    Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
+    'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
+    Push off, and sitting well in order smite
+    The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
+    To sail beyond the sunset----"
+
+                                           _C. RANGER-GULL._
+
+
+
+
+A BRIEF ACCOUNT
+
+OF THE
+
+PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS IN THE WANDERINGS OF ULYSSES, ACCORDING TO THE
+ANCIENT WRITERS AND LEGENDS.
+
+
+ULYSSES. The hero of Homer's great poem was known to the Greeks under
+the name of Odysseus. He was king of the pastoral islands of Ithaca
+and Dulichium. Most of the petty Greek chieftains became suitors for
+the hand of the beautiful Helen, and Ulysses was among the number, but
+withdrew when he realised the smallness of his chances. He then
+married Penelope, the daughter of Icarius, and at the same time joined
+with the other unsuccessful lovers of Helen in a sworn league for her
+future protection should she ever stand in need of it. He then
+returned to Ithaca with his bride. The rape of Helen soon compelled
+him to leave Penelope and join the other Grecian princes in the great
+war against Troy. He endeavoured to avoid the summons by pretending
+madness. Yoking a horse and a bull together, he began to plough the
+sands of the sea shore. The messenger who was sent to him took
+Telemachus, the infant son of Ulysses, and placed the child in the
+direct course of the plough, in this way circumventing his design.
+Ulysses was one of the most prominent figures during the Trojan war,
+his valour, and still more his cunning, making him of supreme
+importance in the councils of the princes. After the Trojan war
+Ulysses set sail for home, and at this period of his career the story
+of the _Odyssey_ begins. He was driven by malevolent winds on to the
+shores of Africa, where he and his mariners were captured by the
+one-eyed giant, Polyphemus, who ate five of the band. Ulysses escaped
+by thrusting a stake into the giant's eye and then leaving the cave in
+which he was confined by crawling under the bellies of the sheep when
+the Cyclops led them to pasture. He next arrives at Æolia, and Æolus
+gave him, imprisoned in bags, all the evil winds which were likely to
+obstruct his safe return homewards. The sailors, curious to know what
+the bags contained, opened them, and the imprisoned winds, rushing out
+with fearful violence, destroyed the whole fleet save only the vessel
+which bore Ulysses. The ship was thrown on the shores of the Goddess
+Circe's enchanted island, and the companions of Ulysses were changed
+into swine by the enchantress. Ulysses escaped the like fate by means
+of a magic herb he had received from Mercury, and forced the goddess
+to bring his friends to their original shape. He then yielded to her
+solicitations and made her the mother of Telegonus. The next stage of
+his adventures brings him to Hades, where he goes to consult the shade
+of the wise Tiresias as to the means of reaching home in safety. He
+passes the terrible coasts of the Sirens unhurt, and escaped the
+monsters Scylla and Charybdis by a series of narrow chances. In Sicily
+his sailors, urged by extreme hunger, killed some of Apollo's cattle,
+and the Sun-God in revenge destroyed all his companions and also his
+ship. Ulysses alone escaped on a raft and swam to the shores of an
+island belonging to Calypso, with whom he lived a lotos life as
+husband for seven years. The gods eventually interfered, and Ulysses,
+once more properly equipped, set out on his travels again. However,
+Neptune (Poseidon), the lord of the sea, still remembered the injury
+done to his son, the giant Polyphemus, and wrecked this ship also.
+Ulysses was cast up on the island of the Phoeacians, where he was
+hospitably received by King Alcinous and his daughter the Princess
+Nausicaa, and at last sent home in safety to his own kingdom after an
+absence of more than twenty years. The Goddess Athene befriended him,
+and informed him that his palace was crowded with debauched and
+insolent suitors for the hand of Queen Penelope, but that his wife was
+still faithful and unceasingly mourned his loss. Adopting the advice
+of the goddess, he disguised himself in rags to see for himself the
+state of his home. He then slew the suitors and lived quietly at home
+for the remaining sixteen years of his adventurous life. Tradition
+says that he at last met his death at the hands of his illegitimate
+son Telegonus.
+
+
+PENELOPE. A famous Græcian princess, wife of Ulysses. She married at
+about the same time that Helen wedded King Menelaus, and returned home
+to Ithaca with her husband against the wishes of her father Icarius of
+Sparta. During the long absence of Ulysses she was besieged by suitors
+for her hand, who established themselves in the palace. She became
+practically their prisoner, and was compelled to dissimulate and put
+them off by various excuses. She managed to keep her importunate
+guests in some sort of good humour by giving out that she would make a
+choice among them as soon as she had completed a piece of tapestry on
+which she was engaged. Each night she undid the stitches she had
+worked in the daytime. On the return of Ulysses she was, of course,
+freed from the suitors by her husband. According to some ancient
+writers, after the death of Ulysses she married Telegonus, Ulysses'
+son by the Goddess Circe. Her name Penelope sprung from some
+river-birds who were called "Penelopes."
+
+
+TELEMACHUS. The son of Ulysses and Penelope. When his father left for
+the Trojan war Telemachus was but an infant, but at the close of the
+campaign he went to seek him and to obtain what information he could
+about his father's absence. When Ulysses returned home in disguise
+Athene brought son and parent together, and the two concerted means to
+rid the palace of the suitors. After the death of Ulysses, Telemachus
+is said to have gone to the island of Circe and married the
+enchantress, formerly his father's mistress. A son called Latinus
+sprung from this union.
+
+
+ATHENE (Minerva). The Goddess of Wisdom was born from Zeus' brain
+without a mother. She sprang from his head in full armour. She was the
+most powerful of the goddesses and the friend of mankind. She was the
+patroness of Ulysses, and it was believed she first invented ships.
+Her chastity was inviolable. Her worship was universal.
+
+
+ZEUS (Jupiter). Chief of all the gods. His attitude towards Ulysses
+was friendly owing to the persuasion of his daughter Athene.
+
+
+POSEIDON (Neptune) was the Sea God and next in power to Zeus. He was
+the father of the giant Polyphemus whom Ulysses blinded, and is the
+consistent enemy of Ulysses throughout the whole _Odyssey_. Neptune
+was the brother of Zeus.
+
+
+HERMES (Mercury) was the messenger of the gods and a son of Zeus. He
+was especially the patron of travellers and well disposed to Ulysses.
+
+
+TIRESIAS was in life a celebrated soothsayer and philosopher of
+Thebes. His wisdom was universal. Having inadvertently seen the
+Goddess Athene bathing in the fountain of Hippocrene, he was blinded.
+Ulysses visited his spirit in Hades, in order to obtain his advice as
+to the journey homewards to Ithaca.
+
+
+CIRCE. An enchantress celebrated for her knowledge of the magic
+properties of herbs. She was of extreme personal beauty. In girlhood
+she married the prince of Colchis, whom she murdered to obtain his
+kingdom. She was thereon banished to the fairy island of Ææa. When
+Ulysses visited her shores she changed his companions into swine, but
+Ulysses was protected by the magic virtues of a herb called _moly_.
+Ulysses spent a year in the arms of Circe, and she gave birth to a son
+called Telegonus.
+
+
+CALYPSO. One of the daughters of Atlas, was known as the
+"bright-haired Goddess of Silence," and was queen of the lost island
+of Ogygia. Ulysses spent seven years with her, and she bore him two
+sons. By order of Zeus, Hermes was sent to the island ordering Ulysses
+to leave his voluptuous sloth, and Calypso, who was inconsolable at
+his loss, was forced to allow him to depart. The legend runs that the
+goddess offered him the gift of immortality if he would remain with
+her.
+
+
+SCYLLA and CHARYBDIS. Scylla was a terrible female monster who
+devoured six of Ulysses' crew, though the hero himself escaped her.
+Below the waist she was composed of creatures like dogs who never
+ceased barking. She was supported by twelve feet and had six different
+heads. The monster dwelt in a cave under the sea on one side of a
+narrow strait off the coast of Sicily. On the other side of the strait
+was the great whirlpool CHARYBDIS. It was invested with a personality
+by Homer, and Charybdis was said to be a giantess who sucked down
+ships as they passed.
+
+
+THE SIRENS. Monsters with sweet alluring voices who inhabited a small
+island near Sicily. They had bodies like great birds, according to
+some writers, with the heads of beautiful women. Whosoever heard their
+magic song must go to them and remain with them for ever. Ulysses
+escaped the enchantment by causing himself to be bound to the ship's
+mast.
+
+
+POLYPHEMUS. The son of Poseidon. He was the giant king of the
+Cyclopes who were workers in the forge of Vulcan and made armour for
+the gods. Ulysses and his companions blinded him in order to escape
+from the cavern where he had imprisoned them.
+
+
+ANTINOUS. A native gentleman of Ithaca, one of Penelope's most
+persistent suitors. When Ulysses came home disguised as a beggar
+Antinous struck him. He was the first to fall by Ulysses' bow.
+
+
+EURYCLEA. The nurse of Ulysses in his infancy, and one of the first to
+recognise him on his return from his wanderings. She was in her youth
+the lovely daughter of Ops of Ithaca.
+
+
+EUMÆUS. The herdsman and steward of Ulysses who knew his master on his
+return after an absence of twenty years. He was the king's right-hand
+man in the plot against, and fight with, the suitors of Penelope.
+
+
+
+
+THE ADVENTURES OF ULYSSES
+
+
+
+
+THE FIRST EPISODE
+
+HOW THEY BLINDED THE SON OF POSEIDON
+
+
+A warm mild wind, laden with sweet scents, blew over the sailors from
+the island, which now lay far astern.
+
+In the weary west the charmed sunset still lingered over Lotus Land.
+
+A rosy flush lay on the snow-capped mountains which were yet spectral
+in the last lights of the day, but looking out over the bows the sky
+was dark purple changing into black, and where it met the sea there
+was a white gleam of foam.
+
+The companions of Ulysses sat idle from the oars, for the wind filled
+the belly of the sail and there was no need for rowing. A curious
+silence brooded over them all. No one spoke to his fellow. The faces
+of all were sad, and in the eyes of some the fire of an unutterable
+regret burnt steadily.
+
+The heads of all were turned towards the island, which was fast
+disappearing from their view. Some of the men shaded their eyes with
+their hands in one last long look of farewell.
+
+As the curtain of the dark fell upon the sea, the warm offshore wind
+died away. A colder breeze, full of the sea-smell itself, came down
+over the port bow; it moaned through the cordage, and little waves
+began to hiss under the cutwater.
+
+Every now and again the wind freshened rapidly. The mournful whistling
+became a sudden snarling of trumpets. The ship and crew seemed to have
+passed over the limits of a tableau. Not only was it a quick elemental
+change of scene, but the change had its influence with the spectators.
+
+The sad fire--if the glow of regret is indeed a fire--died out of
+heavy eyes half veiled by weary lids. The sea-light dawned once more
+upon the faces of the mariners, the bright warm blood moved swiftly in
+their veins.
+
+One man ran to the steering oar to give an aid to the helmsman as the
+ship went about on the starboard tack, three more stood by the sheet,
+a hum of talk rose from the waist of the boat. Ulysses stood in the
+bows looking forward into the night. His tall, lean figure was bent
+forward, and his arm was thrown round the gilded boss of the prow. His
+eyes were deep set in his head, and his brow was furrowed with the
+innumerable wrinkles which come to the man who lives a life of
+hardship and striving.
+
+Yet the long years of battle and wandering, a life of shocks! had only
+intensified the alertness of his pose. He seemed, as he looked out
+into the night, a personification of "readiness." A crisp dark beard
+grew round his throat, and the veins on his bare brown arms were like
+blue enamel round a column of bronze.
+
+When the ship went about again he came down into the body of the ship
+and helped to pull upon the brace. Though he was no taller than many
+of his men, and leaner than most, in physical strength as well as in
+intellect he was first and chief. The mighty muscles leapt up on his
+arms as he strained on the taut rope.
+
+The ship slanted away down the wind into the night. The men gathered
+round their captain. "Comrades," he said to them in a singularly sweet
+and musical voice, "once more we adventure the deep, and no man knows
+what shall befall us. To our island home in the west, to dear Ithaca!
+if the gods so will it. Our wives weep for us on our deserted
+hearthstone. Our little ones are noble youths ere now, and may Zeus
+bring us safe home at last. Yet much it misdoubts me that there are
+other perils in store for us ere we hear the long breakers beat upon
+the shores of Ithaca and see the morning sun run down the wooded sides
+of Neriton. Be that as the Fates will it, let us keep always courage,
+gaiety, and the quiet mind."
+
+"We are well away from there," said one of the men, nodding vaguely
+towards the stern.
+
+"That are we," said another; "that cursed fruit is honeysweet in my
+mouth still. It stole away our brains and made us as women, we! the
+men who fought in Troyland."
+
+"Of what profit is it to look to the past, Phocion?" said Ulysses. "We
+did eat and sleep and forget, but it is over. The sea wind is salt
+once more upon our faces. Let us eat the night meal, and then I will
+choose a watch and the rest may sleep. Hand me the cup--To to-morrow's
+dawn!"
+
+Then one of the sailors took dried goat's flesh and fruit from a
+locker in the stern, and by the light of a torch of sawn sandal wood
+they fell to eating. Great bunches of purple grapes lay before each
+sailor, but they had brought none of the magic lotus fruit with them
+to steal away their vigour and thicken their blood.
+
+Then they lay down to sleep under coverings of skins. Two men went to
+the great steering oar, three men watched amidship by the braces, and
+Ulysses himself wrapped a woollen cloak round him and went once more
+into the bows.
+
+Alone there with the wind his thoughts once more went back to his far
+distant home. He thought with longing of his old father Laertes, of
+the child Telemachus playing in the marble courtyard of the sunny
+palace on the hill. A deep sigh shuddered out from his lips as his
+thoughts fell upon the lonely Queen Penelope. "Wife of mine," he
+thought, "shall I ever lie beside you more? Is there silver in your
+bright hair now? Are your thoughts to mewards as mine to you?
+Perchance another rules in my palace and sits at my seat. Are your
+lips another's now? The great tears are blinding me. Courage!"
+
+Bending his head upon his breast, Ulysses prayed long and earnestly to
+his awful patroness, the Goddess Athene, that she would still keep
+ward over his fortunes and guide him safely home.
+
+The night wore on and became very silent. The ship seemed to be
+moving swiftly and surely, though the wind had dropped and the voice
+of the waves was hushed. It seemed to the watcher in the bows that the
+ship was moving in the path of some strong current.
+
+A curious white mist suddenly rolled over the still surface of the
+sea, thick and ghostly. The mast and sail, which was now drooping and
+lifeless, swayed through it like giant spectres. Ulysses could see
+none of his companions, but when he hailed the watch the voice of
+Phocion came back to him through the ghostly curtain, curiously thick
+and muffled.
+
+"The mist thickens, my captain," said the sailor. "Can you see aught
+ahead?"
+
+"I can see nothing, Phocion," shouted Ulysses; "the mist is like wool.
+But I think it is a land mist come out to meet us. There should be
+land ahead."
+
+"I hear no surf or the rolling of waves," said Phocion. "May Zeus
+guide the boat, for mortal men are of no avail to-night."
+
+The ship moved on swiftly as if guided by invisible hands towards some
+goal, and still the expectant mariners heard no sound.
+
+Quite suddenly, and without the slightest warning, a vivid
+copper-coloured flash of lightning illuminated the ship. For an
+instant in the hard lurid light Ulysses saw the whole of the vessel in
+a distinct picture.
+
+Every detail was manifest--the mast, the cordage, the sleeping
+sailors below, the watching group by the shrouds, and, right away
+astern, the startled helmsmen motionless as statues of bronze.
+
+Then with a long grinding noise the ship seemed suddenly lifted up in
+the water, jerked forward, and then dropped again. She began to heel
+over a little out of the perpendicular, and then remained still,
+stranded upon an unknown and mysterious shore, where the waves were
+all asleep. Still the white mist circled round them.
+
+"Comrades," said Ulysses, "we are brought here by no chance of wind
+and waves. Some god has done this thing, but whether for weal or woe I
+cannot tell. Let us land upon the beach and lie down with our weapons
+within sound of the sea till dawn. At sunrise we shall know where the
+god has brought us."
+
+They landed at the order, and with the supreme indifference of the
+adventurer lay upon the shore and slept out the remainder of the
+night. But Ulysses had a prescience of harm, and was full of sinister
+forebodings. He did not sleep, but paced through the mist all night in
+a little beaten track among the boulders. He prayed long and earnestly
+to Athene.
+
+When the first faint hintings of dawn brightened through the mist a
+little breeze arose, and before the sky was more than faintly flushed
+with day the night fog was blown away like thistledown.
+
+As the sun climbed up the sky the companions found that they had been
+carried to a scene of singular beauty. They were on an island, a
+small, rich place at the mouth of a great bay. Rich level grass
+meadows, green as bright enamel and brilliant with flowers, sloped
+gently down to the violet sea. Behind was a thickly-wooded hill, at
+the foot of which was a sparkling spring surrounded by a tall grove of
+poplar trees.
+
+In the leafy wood the wild goats leapt under the wild vine trees like
+Pan at play, as fearless of the intruders as if they had never seen
+men before. All the bright morning the sailors made the wood ring with
+happy laughter as they speared the goats for a feast. All trouble
+passed from their minds, and as the spears flashed swiftly through the
+green wood the shrill, jocund voices of the hunters made all the
+island musical. Ulysses plunged into a translucent pool at the foot of
+the spring, and the cool water flashed like diamonds over his strong
+brown arms, and he looked indeed as if he were some river-god and this
+his fairy home.
+
+All day long they feasted and drank wine which they had brought in
+skins from Lotus Land. When night was falling, very still and gentle,
+they saw the blue smoke of fires over the bay, on the mainland, about
+a mile away, and the bleating of many sheep and the lowing of herds
+came to them over the wine-coloured sea.
+
+Ever and again voices could be heard--strange resonant voices. "That
+must be the country of some strange gods," the sailors said to each
+other. "Those are no mortal voices. We are come into some great
+peril." Before they slept they sacrificed a goat on the seashore to
+Zeus, that he might guard them from any coming harm.
+
+In the morning the king prepared for action. It was necessary to find
+upon what shores they had arrived, to get direction of Ithaca, and if
+treasure was to be won by force or guile, to take the opportunity
+which chance or the gods had sent.
+
+Ulysses chose twelve of his men, tried veterans with nerves of steel,
+old comrades who had fought with him for Helen on the windy plains of
+Troy. With these old never-strikes he embarked on the ship. He left
+Phocion as leader of the remainder of the crew, and taking Elpenor
+with him as second in command, they got out six sweeps, three on each
+side of the ship, and rowed slowly over the glassy bay.
+
+The mainland, on the shore where they landed, was a wild rocky place,
+and there was a broad road winding away up to the higher pasture
+lands. The road was made of great rocks beaten into smoothness, and
+fresh spoor of cattle showed that not long since a great herd had
+passed to the upland feeding grounds.
+
+Directly in front of them as they landed was a high cave. It was
+fringed with laurel bushes, which grew on ledges in the cliff side.
+
+Before the cave a great wall had been built in a square, forming a
+courtyard. The wall was built with enormous masses of rock, and fenced
+with a palisade of pine trunks and massive boles of oak. There was no
+sign of any living thing. Slowly and cautiously the party crept up to
+the wall. Their weapons were in readiness as they stole through the
+gateway. Within the square formed by the wall they could see that it
+was a vast cattle pen. "This must be the dwelling of some giant," said
+Elpenor; "men do not build like this. On what strange place have we
+chanced?" He looked inquiringly at Ulysses when he had spoken, and a
+ring of eager faces turned towards him whose wisdom was never at
+fault, the favourite of Athene.
+
+"I think, comrades," said Ulysses, "that we have been driven to the
+shores of the Cyclopes. They are mighty giants, who work in the forge
+of Vulcan making armour for the gods. Now this cave must be the
+dwelling of one of them, and I like not where we are. Let us but go
+within for a short time and take what we can find, and then hasten
+back to the island. The Cyclopes have no boats and cannot follow us.
+But it would go hard with us were we found, for they are crafty and
+cruel monsters."
+
+With hasty, curious footsteps they crossed the echoing flags of the
+courtyard and entered the cave. As the shadow of the entrance fell
+upon them and the chill of the air inside struck on their faces, more
+than one would have gladly stayed in the warm outside sunshine. It was
+an ill-omened, sinister place this lair of giants.
+
+A pungent ammoniacal smell made them cough and shudder as they crossed
+the threshold. Ulysses turned with a grim smile to his followers.
+"Thank the gods we are seamen and sons of the fresh wind. This Cyclops
+lives like a swine in a stye." The large entrance to the cave gave a
+fair light within, and their eyes soon became accustomed to it. Along
+one side of the cave were folds of fat lambs and kids who bleated
+lustily at them. At the end of the cave was a great couch of skins by
+the ashes of a pine fire. Bones and scraps of flesh were piled round,
+relics of some great orgy, and a sickly stench of decay came from the
+_débris_.
+
+Piles of wicker baskets were loaded with huge yellow cheeses, and
+there were many copper milk pails and bowls brimful of whey.
+
+The sailors rejoiced at such an abundance of good cheer, and they
+killed one of the fattest of the lambs and lit a fire to roast it.
+
+"The giant will not return till even," said Elpenor, "and by then we
+shall be far away. We will make a good meal now, and then load the
+ship with cheeses and drive off the best of the lambs. Our comrades
+will welcome us home this night, for we shall be full-handed!"
+
+So, careless of danger, they sat them down in that perilous place and
+made merry on the giant's cheer. They had brought skins of wine with
+them, and they drank in mockery to their absent host.
+
+In the middle of the feast one of the men suddenly laid down his cup.
+"Hearken," he said uneasily, "do you hear anything, friends?"
+
+"I hear nothing," said Ulysses. "What sound did you hear?"
+
+"A distant sound, I thought," answered the man, "as if the earth
+shook."
+
+"There is nothing," said a third at length; but a certain constraint
+fell upon them all, and anxiety clouded their faces.
+
+"Let us begone," said Ulysses at length. "There is what I do not like
+in the air. I fear evil."
+
+He had but hardly made an end of speaking when all of them there were
+struck rigid with apprehension. A distant but rapidly-nearing sound
+assailed their ears, a heavy crunching sound like the blows of a great
+hammer upon the earth, save that each succeeding blow was louder than
+the last. They stood irresolute for one fatal moment, and then started
+to run towards the mouth of the cave.
+
+The noise filled all the air, which hummed and trembled with it. They
+reached the entrance, but too late. Even as the first man came out
+into the afternoon sunlight, a great herd of cattle came pouring into
+the courtyard. Behind them, towering over the wall, as tall as the
+tallest pine on the slopes of Hymettus, strode Polyphemus, the giant
+king of the Cyclopes, son of the God Poseidon.
+
+The giant was naked to the waist, where he wore a girdle of skins. One
+great eye burned in the centre of his forehead, and a row of sharp,
+white teeth were framed by thick dribbling lips, like the lips of a
+cow.
+
+Under his arm Polyphemus carried a bundle of young sapling trees,
+which he had brought for faggots for his fire. He threw them on the
+floor of the courtyard by the mouth of the cave with a great crash.
+The adventurers crouched away at the back of the cave in the darkness
+as the giant entered.
+
+He drove all the ewes of his flock before him, leaving the rams
+outside in the court. Then he took a great hole of rock, which scarce
+twenty teams of horses could have moved, and closed the mouth of the
+cave.
+
+With a great sigh of weariness, which echoed like a hissing wind and
+blew the silent bats which hung to the roof this way and that in a
+frightened eddy of wings, he sank down upon his couch of skins. The
+giant had brought some of the firewood into the cave with him and he
+threw it into the embers.
+
+A resinous piece of wood suddenly caught the flame and flared up,
+filling the cavern with red light. One of the sailors dropped his
+spear with a loud clatter as the flames made plain the figure of the
+monster.
+
+Polyphemus turned his head and saw them.
+
+He stared steadily at them with his single eye for full a minute. A
+cruel smile played on his face.
+
+"Who are you, strangers?" he said at length, in a thick, low voice
+like the swell of a great organ. "Merchants, are you? Pirates? And
+whence come you along the paths of the sea?"
+
+Then Ulysses spoke in a smooth voice of conciliation. "We are Greeks,
+oh lord, soldiers of Agamemnon's army, bound for home over the seas
+from Troy. Bad weather has driven us out of our course, and so we have
+come to you and beg you to be our honoured host. Oh, great lord, have
+reverence for the gods, for Zeus himself is the god of hospitality."
+
+Then the giant smiled cunningly. "You are a man of little wit,
+stranger," he said, "or else you have indeed come from the very end of
+the world. I pay no heed to Zeus, for I am stronger than he. But now,
+tell me, where is your ship?"
+
+But Ulysses, the wary one, saw the snare and answered humbly, "The
+great Poseidon, god of the deep, wrecked our ship upon the rocks, and
+we alone survive of all our company."
+
+The giant looked fixedly at the trembling band for a moment. Then,
+with a sudden movement, he snatched among the mariners and grasped two
+of them in his mighty hand.
+
+The swift horror remained with them in all their after life. He
+stripped the clothes from each like a man strips the scales from a
+prawn with one quick twirl of his fingers.
+
+Then he dashed the quivering bodies upon the ground so that the yellow
+paste of the brains smeared the stone--save for the horrid crunching
+of bone and flesh, and the liquid gurgle of the monster's throat as he
+made his frightful meal, there was no sound in the cave.
+
+Then he fell into a foul sleep.
+
+Three times during the long night did Ulysses draw his sword to
+plunge it into the monster's heart, three times did he sheathe it
+again. For in his wisdom he knew that if he killed Polyphemus no one
+could ever move away the great stone which shut them from the outside
+world.
+
+In the morning Elpenor and one other died, and the giant drove his
+flocks to pasture and closed up the heroes in the cave.
+
+Then Ulysses comforted the dying hearts of his men, and as Polyphemus
+strode away over the hills whistling to his cattle, he made a plan for
+one last bid for freedom.
+
+Leaning against the wall of the cave was a great club of hard wood
+which the monster had put there to dry. It was an olive-tree trunk as
+big as the great spar of a ship.
+
+This they took and sharpened with their swords, and hardened it in the
+flame of the fire and hid it carefully away. Then very sadly the
+sailors cast lots as to who should be the four to help the captain.
+All day long they sat in the foetid cave and prayed to the gods for an
+alms of aid. And their hearts were leaden for love of their valiant
+comrades.
+
+At eventime two more heroes died.
+
+Then Ulysses rose, and though his knees were weak and his face
+blanched with agony, he spoke in a smooth voice. "My Lord Cyclops," he
+said, "I have filled this bowl with wine which we brought with us. I
+pray you drink, and perchance your heart may be touched and you will
+let us go."
+
+So the giant took the bowl from the king, and as Ulysses went near
+him his breath reeked of carrion and blood. He drank the wine, which
+was a sweet and drowsy vintage from the Lotus Island. "Give me more,"
+he cried thickly, "and say how you are named, for I will grant you a
+favour."
+
+Ulysses filled the bowl for him three times. "Oh, my lord," he said,
+"my friends and parents call me Noman, for that is my name. Now, great
+lord, your boon."
+
+The giant leered at the hero with drunken cunning. "Noman, since that
+is your name Noman, you shall die last of all, and the others first.
+That is your boon!"
+
+And once more he sank into his sleep, gorged with blood and wine.
+
+The hours wore on and the flames of the fire sank into a bright red
+glow. The loud stertorous breathing of the monster became more deep
+and regular. Very silently the five rose from among the rest and stole
+towards the fire with the great stake. They pressed it into the heart
+of the white hot embers and sat watching it change from black to
+crimson, while little sparks ran up and down the sides like flies upon
+the wall.
+
+When the spar was just about to burst into flame they drew it out, and
+with quick, nervous footsteps carried it to where Polyphemus lay
+sleeping. The glow from the hot hard wood played upon that vast
+blood-smeared countenance and the yellow wrinkled lid which veiled the
+cruel eye.
+
+Ulysses directed the point to the exact centre of the foul skin, and
+then with their old battle cry of "Helen!" the five heroes pressed it
+home through the hissing, steaming eyeball, turning it round and round
+until everything was burned away.
+
+They had just time to leap aside when the giant rose in horrid agony.
+His cries of rage and pain were like the cries of a thousand tortured
+beasts, and the din was so great that pieces of rock began to fall
+from the roof of the cave. He spun round in his torture, beating upon
+the walls with his arms and head until they were a raw and bleeding
+wound.
+
+At this awful sound mighty footsteps were heard outside the cave as
+the other giants rushed down from the hills. There came great and
+terrible voices shouting together, and it was as though a great storm
+was racing through the world.
+
+"What ails you, brother, that you call us from sleep in the night?"
+cried the giants.
+
+"Help! help! brothers. Noman is murdering me. I die!"
+
+A chorus of thunderous laughter came rolling back. "If Noman harms
+thee, then how should we aid thee, brother? 'Tis the gods who have
+sent thee a sickness which thou must endure."
+
+And now, through an aperture high up in the cave, the light began to
+whiten, and showed day was at hand. The footsteps of the Cyclopes grew
+faint and ceased, but Polyphemus lay moaning by the great stone which
+closed the entrance.
+
+The morning light grew stronger, and a breeze stole in, fresh and
+clean, and played upon the faces of the prisoners.
+
+The ewes began to bleat, for their milking time was at hand, and the
+rams cried out for freedom and the green pastures of the hill.
+
+The giant moved aside the stone to let them go and in the morning
+sunlight the sailors could see that he felt over them with his hands
+so that no men should mingle with them and so escape.
+
+First the ewes went out and then the young rams, and last of all the
+great old rams, patriarchs of the flock, began to move slowly towards
+the door.
+
+Then courage came back to Ulysses, and with it all his cunning.
+Stooping low under the belly of a great beast, he motioned to his
+friends to do likewise, and, slowly, in this way, holding to the
+fleece of the rams, they moved out of the cave. They could feel the
+rams tremble when the giant's hands ranged over the wool of their
+backs, but nevertheless they came safely out into the light, and stole
+down to where their ship yet lay at anchor.
+
+The air of the morning was like wine to them, and the face of the
+water as dear as the face of a well-beloved wife as they ran over the
+bright yellow sand.
+
+Then from the stern of the boat Ulysses cried out in a great voice of
+triumph. At that sound the monster came stumbling from his cave,
+reeling like a drunken man, and calling on his father Poseidon, Lord
+of the Sea, to avenge him on his enemies. He took up the stone that
+had barred the cave and threw it far out into the water, but it
+overshot the boat and did not harm the heroes, though the wave of its
+descent flung the ship from side to side as if it were a piece of
+driftwood. The mariners bent to the oars, and the vessels moved away
+from that accursed shore, slowly at first but more swiftly as their
+tired arms grew strong with the chance of safety, and the wine of hope
+flowed in their veins once more.
+
+They saw the sightless face of Polyphemus working horribly, his mouth
+opening and shutting like a dying fish as he looked heavenwards and
+implored his mighty father's aid.
+
+And after a space of mourning for the brave dead the heroes set out
+again over the sad grey seas, seeking Ithaca.
+
+But the heart of King Ulysses was sick and weary, for he dreaded the
+wrath to come, and most of all he longed for home.
+
+
+
+
+THE SECOND EPISODE
+
+THE ADVENTURE OF THE PALACE IN THE WOOD
+
+
+Ulysses slowly mounted the wooded hill. The path which rose towards
+the summit wound in and out through thick undergrowth, and his feet
+made no sound upon the green moss of the track.
+
+He had his spear ready for any game that he might chance on, but for
+half a day he saw no living thing save a few mailed lizards that lay
+open-eyed upon a stone.
+
+No birds twittered in the forest on the mountainside, only the wild
+bees sang in the stillness like jewels with voices.
+
+How beautiful the wood was! and how mysterious also. Ulysses felt a
+quickening of the pulses which did not come from fear, and a strange
+excitement possessed him which arose from he knew not what cause.
+
+The trees in the forest were very old and grew thickly together. The
+trunks were painted delicate greens, greys and browns by lichens, and
+the foliage overhead met and made a roof of bright leaves. Beneath
+this canopy there was a sort of twilight like the gloom in the temple
+of Zeus at Sparta.
+
+Ulysses toiled on and up. After a time the trees began to open out
+and grow less thickly. The moss-carpet began to be rocky and uneasy to
+walk upon, so that Ulysses knew that he must be nearing the top.
+
+At last he climbed a few worn boulders and stood alone upon the peak.
+From that great height he could discern the sea on all sides of the
+island. Beyond the thick woodlands below, the yellow sands of the
+shore went out to meet the water, and the king could see the ship
+riding at anchor and a small boat plying from it to a tiny group of
+black dots upon the beach.
+
+Ulysses sent his gaze circling slowly over the unbroken green of the
+woods. When his roving glance fell upon the very centre of the island
+he started suddenly and shaded his eyes from the sunlight with both
+hands. A thick column of blue smoke was rising from among the trees,
+and looking more intently than before he could see the gleam of white
+marble here and there through the greenwood, and catch the sunlight
+glinting upon copper.
+
+He had learned what he came to know; there was life upon the island.
+But of what kind? Did some fearful monster lurk yonder, three miles
+away in the forest. Another Cyclops, perchance, or some angry god
+wroth at a disturbance of his privacy.
+
+The still smoke rose into the soft air and a great calm seemed to
+brood over the place. No birds flew about the roofs.
+
+He began to retrace his steps down towards his comrades on the shore
+to tell them what he had seen.
+
+The wood was as still as before, but when he came to the meadow lands
+below he dropped quickly behind a clump of fern, for his keen eyes had
+seen a smooth brown flank not far away. A great stag was drinking at a
+little stream which sang its way down from the mountain to the sea.
+They had touched at the island with very little food left, and the
+king had promised that he would return with spoils from hunting.
+
+Just as the beast raised his head from the water the spear flashed
+like a gleam of light from the clump of fern, and the quarry stumbled,
+clattering among the stones with a sob.
+
+Then Ulysses made a rope of willow twigs and tied the stag's feet
+together and brought him to the ship.
+
+Only half the crew were upon the shore, for the rest had gone to
+explore the inward parts of the island with Eurylochus as their
+leader.
+
+They skinned the stag and made a fire, and roasted the sweet flesh
+upon their spear points. While they sat eating, a man with a white
+face came running over the shore towards them, and as they saw him
+come they rose with their arms in fear, for they knew that once more
+they had come to some dangerous and evil place, and that a deadly
+peril lurked in the forest.
+
+They saw he who ran was Eurylochus, and that he ran in terror.
+
+But none followed him in pursuit, nor did any arrow come singing like
+a bee from the shelter of the neighbouring trees.
+
+Eurylochus rushed up to them and sank exhausted by the fire. Ulysses
+gave him wine, and motioned the others to ask no questions but to let
+the man tell his tale in his own way. For he knew it would be more
+vivid so.
+
+"More evil, comrades!" he sobbed out at last, "and good men and true
+lost to us for ever. Know you where we have landed? This accursed
+place is Ææa, the home of the Goddess Circe, and I have seen her face
+to face."
+
+Ulysses started violently, and despair crept into his eyes as he
+motioned Eurylochus to proceed.
+
+"We went up through the valleys," said the lieutenant, "and entered
+the wood. After we had walked long, and were thirsty and weary, we
+came to an open glade in which stood the house of Circe. It was built
+of polished marble with copper roofs, and the trees made a thick wall
+on all sides of the glade. A very strange, silent place! All round the
+house were lions and mountain wolves playing with each other. We
+turned to fly in fear, but the beasts fawned upon us with gentle paws
+and waving tails, and we saw their eyes were sad and tame, and they
+were all unlike the beasts of the field. They were as dogs at supper
+begging for food from their masters. But it was an awful sight
+nevertheless.
+
+"Now, as we stood waiting in the porch, we heard a sweet low song
+inside the palace, sweeter than any mortal song, like the flutes and
+harps of the gods. Then we looked in, and we saw the goddess weaving
+at a golden loom, and going up and down before it as she sang. And
+Polites--oh, dear Polites!--called out to her, and the song ceased,
+and Circe came out to us, and bade us enter, and her beauty was like
+moonlight. Then the men went in, but I remained, mindful of the
+Cyclops and fearing harm. So I sat down in the wood, and the beasts
+played round me, and the lions licked my hands with their hard rough
+tongues. But I could see what was toward in the palace hall.
+
+"The goddess led them to rich couches and chairs, and she prepared a
+drink for them of golden honey and purple wine, white fresh cheese,
+and meal of corn. But she poured a brew of magic herbs into the drink,
+and when they had passed the bowl from hand to hand and drunk she
+waved a wand of cedar wood over them."
+
+He stopped, choking with emotion and shaking with horror at what he
+had seen. He covered his face with his hands.
+
+Ulysses placed a firm hand upon his shoulder, and he took up his tale
+once more. "And when she waved her wand behold a horror! For suddenly
+my comrades dwindled, and were changed to swine. The bristles of swine
+grew out upon them, and they grunted like swine, but still the souls
+of men shone out of their eyes. And she drove them away into a pen,
+and threw them beech nuts, laughing most musically. And I, the
+unhappy one, fled and am come hither with my tale."
+
+Ulysses rose with a pale set face, and stern hard lines flashed out
+round his lips. For a moment he prayed in silence to Athene. Then he
+slung his strung bow upon his shoulder, and loosened the arrows in the
+quiver, testing each one for a flaw in the shaft. He took his great
+silver-studded sword and buckled it round his waist. "I alone, my
+comrades, must go to the palace of the enchantress," he said. "I have
+no choice but to go and strive. May the gods preserve you, friends."
+
+He was preparing to move away when they all entreated him to remain
+with them, but he would not listen, and as he moved away and was lost
+to their sight they broke out into loud praises of him among
+themselves.
+
+It was ever thus. Their father and captain was first in wisdom and
+courage, and had always seemed to them more god than man.
+
+Ulysses passed over the meadows with slow sure step, thinking deeply.
+The forest closed about him, dark and lonely, and his walk changed. He
+became alert, walking warily and softly. His keen eyes roved over the
+untrodden paths, seeking to pierce the mystery of the greenwood.
+
+He had halted by a brook for a moment, debating which path he should
+venture, when help came to him.
+
+There was a crash in the tree tops above him, a glittering ball of
+light fell through the green, and a wind rushed among the leaves,
+suddenly rousing all the voices of the wood.
+
+    [Illustration: THEN HE CAME SWIFTLY UPON THE GLEAMING PALACE.
+        _Page 45._]
+
+A young and beautiful man, holding a golden rod, with a slight down
+upon his lip, came towards him.
+
+Ulysses knew that the God Hermes had flashed down from heaven to be
+his counsellor. He fell upon his knees before the divine messenger.
+
+"The great Athene has sent me to you, king," said the god, "for she
+heard your prayer upon the shore, and will deliver you from the forest
+danger. Here is a sprig of the magic herb moly. Take it in your hand
+for a safeguard against the wiles of Circe.
+
+"When you go into the palace she will mix you her enchanted potion,
+and strike you with her wand. Do you draw your sword, and make as
+though to slay her. Then she will fear greatly and swear to do you no
+harm."
+
+Ulysses took the white flowered talisman, and Hermes vanished among
+the trees.
+
+Then he came swiftly upon the gleaming palace, and going up to the
+marble porch struck upon it with his sword hilt, and called to the
+goddess.
+
+She glimmered towards him. Her hair was like a young horse-chestnut
+fresh from the pod. Her eyes were like pools of violet water, her neck
+was a tower of ivory, and her lips were red as sunset.
+
+The flower of evil, the goddess of strange sins!
+
+She smiled at the hero, and led him by the hand to a table on which
+was a golden cup, proffering it to him in welcome.
+
+Ulysses bowed low before her loveliness, and as he drank there was a
+strange smile in his eyes.
+
+The enchantress looked at him steadily. For a single moment a ripple
+of doubt crossed her face, but suddenly she seized her cedarn rod and
+smote his side, crying, "Get you to the stye, and lie there in filth
+with your companions."
+
+Ulysses drew his great sword, and held it over her with menacing eyes.
+She drooped to him, a very woman! and clung round him, weeping, and he
+could feel her warm heart beating, beating close to his. Her lovely
+hair fell around her in a golden cloud, and tears streamed down her
+cheeks as she swore by the gods on the Holy Hill never to harm him.
+
+And looking on her sinful loveliness the brain of Ulysses burned for
+her, and he took her lithe body in his strong arms and pressed the
+blossom of her lips to his. Her arms stole round him, and she called
+him lord and king.
+
+Then with a soft smile she led him to the courtyard where the swine
+lay sleeping in the sun. When the foul beasts saw Ulysses they set up
+a horrid chorus of grunting, and he raged to see his valiant friends
+so degraded. But clinging to him, the goddess raised her hand, and the
+swine vanished, and the goodly mariners stood up among the straw, more
+straight and tall than before, with all the marks of hardship and
+travel smoothed from their faces.
+
+That night the other mariners came up from the shore, guided by
+Ulysses. And the amber lamps flared in the hall, and all night till
+daybreak they made a great feast. They sang in praise of love and
+wine, and Circe sat at the right hand of the King of Ithaca.
+
+When the rosy dawn rushed up the sky, the goddess rose.
+
+The lamps paled in the fresh new light, and the feast was over.
+
+The mariners lay in sleep about the board, and the purple wine was
+spilt about them.
+
+Only the Goddess and the Hero were awake.
+
+Then she said, "Lord and love, the night is over. The sun climbs the
+sky, the woodlands awake. But let us go into my scented chamber, my
+purple chamber where the day never comes. There will we lie in love
+and sleep and forget the day."
+
+She led him by the hand over the cool marble floor. The purple
+curtains fell behind them with a soft noise of falling. All sound was
+hushed in the courts of the palace, and the whole house was still.
+
+
+
+
+THE THIRD EPISODE
+
+HOW ULYSSES WALKED IN HELL, AND OF THE ADVENTURE OF THE SIRENS AND
+SCYLLA
+
+
+The King of Ithaca stood all alone on a gloomy barren shore, spear in
+hand. The sky lowered black overhead, and from the vast yawning hole
+in the terrible cliff which rose up before him he seemed to hear
+strange wailings and faint cries coming, so it seemed, from a great
+distance.
+
+Had he at last broken away from the loving arms of Circe for this
+horror? Stung once more by the latent manhood in his blood, he had
+roused his energies and left the enchanted island to set out once more
+upon the weary quest for home. He had bade the goddess farewell and
+sailed away from the island of sweet lust to seek a ghostly counsellor
+and to drink deep at that fountain of wisdom which was once the glory
+of Thebes.
+
+When Circe had bade him, if he would indeed get back to Ithaca and
+leave her arms, seek the dead Tiresias in the place of the dead it had
+seemed an easy thing.
+
+What were pale ghosts to a warrior of Troyland and the vanquisher of
+Polyphemus? If the old seer alone could tell him how to conquer the
+wrath of Poseidon and win to his wife's arms once more, should he not
+go with a will?
+
+    [Illustration: THEN HE WAS, IN AN INSTANT MOMENT, AWARE OF A
+      MORE THAN MORTAL PRESENCE.
+        _Page 49._]
+
+And he had set out with his crew, and the magic wind which Circe gave
+them had brought them hither over grey sad seas, while they had
+touched nor oars nor helm.
+
+And now Ulysses went slowly up to the fissure in the rock, but a long
+solitary cry made him reel back trembling as his brave heart had never
+done before.
+
+Then he was, in an instant moment, aware of a more than mortal
+presence. Into that dread place came the awful majesty of the Queen of
+Heaven, and he fell to the ground before Athene.
+
+The full flowing river of her speech came down upon him.
+
+"If thou wouldst hold thy wife once more, Ulysses, and see thy rocky
+western home, then must thou dare this peril. None can help thee now
+save thou thyself. So it is decreed by the gods. If so be it that thy
+courage fails thee now then wilt thou be a wanderer for ever."
+
+"Lady of Heaven," he said, "I dare not go. Oh, anything but that."
+
+"Penelope!" she murmured sweetly.
+
+"I cannot face the dead."
+
+"Ithaca."
+
+"Oh, listen to those wailings in the abyss!"
+
+"Thy father Laertes weeps yet for the wanderer."
+
+"The dead! The dead are waiting there!"
+
+"Men call thee Ulysses!" said the goddess, and at that word something
+moved within him and his limbs began to stiffen, and once more the
+hero felt the spear-shank hard and cold within his grasp.
+
+He raised his face, and there was once more the old proud light upon
+it. Athene had gone, and big with his new resolve he stepped towards
+the blackness.
+
+A voice came to him, thin, and far down.
+
+"Ulysses! Ulysses! son of Laertes, I wait to guide thee. Hermes, son
+of Zeus, is with thee. Take courage in both hands and come."
+
+The king moved forward, and the dark swallowed him up. He stumbled
+along a descending rock-strewn pathway. In the increasing gloom it
+seemed to him that he was on the side of a steep hill. A moaning wind
+encircled him. Now and again a slight gleam was visible from the
+golden helmet of the god.
+
+Far far down he saw the leaden livid river of death, and on the sullen
+tide floated the stately funeral barge of Charon, the ferryman of the
+dead.
+
+The wind grew even more mournful and sad as they trod the meadows of
+asphodel and the grey lilies of the underworld towards the marge of
+Styx.
+
+Then the god called out aloud to the ferryman. As his voice echoed
+over the water, the dusky night became full of the sound of wings, and
+dark shapes filled the air. The spirits of the dead flapped round them
+in continual movement.
+
+The ghosts began to call and cry to the living hero. Some had little
+squeaky voices like bats, others made a louder and more hollow sound.
+
+The howlings of the formless increased all round Ulysses.
+
+The inarticulate found utterance in the indefinite.
+
+The waves of weird and hopeless voices rose, fell, undulated, now loud
+and shrill, now sobbing into silence. Little eager whispers filled the
+hero's ear.
+
+And to the terror of these great murmurs were added the sight of
+superhuman outlines, which melted away in the gloom almost as they
+appeared. Alecto and Tisiphone, the Furies, circled round Ulysses, and
+Megeara flew through the dark to her sisters.
+
+A cold hand seemed placed upon the hero's soul. Cries from precipice
+to precipice, from air to water, went on unceasingly--the melancholy
+vociferations of the lost!
+
+The loquacity of Hell!
+
+And in deadly fear, but resolute still, Ulysses struggled on through
+this great twilight world, open on all sides. As he walked on, the
+flying outlaws of the tomb seemed to be swarming over him and pressing
+him to the ground. He struggled beneath the weight of lost souls, but
+his whirling arms struck nothing but the empty air.
+
+Fresh clouds of spirits pricked the twilight, increased in size,
+amalgamated, thickened, and hurried towards him, crying.
+
+They came to the brink of the river. Before them, as they looked out
+over the water, was no horizon, but an opaque lividity like a wan,
+moving precipice, a cliff of the night.
+
+Then the old man Charon bowed to the commands of the gods and embarked
+them on his barge. He gazed on Ulysses with his keen wicked eyes, and
+his long white beard wagged in hideous mockery at this mortal among
+the dead.
+
+The thin pole dipped in and out of the water, and the drops which fell
+from it were the colour of leaden bullets, for there is no life in the
+water of Styx.
+
+Ulysses knelt in the bottom of the boat and shut out Hell from his
+eyes with his hand. He prayed to Athene for help to endure, and that
+he might have an answer from the old Seer Tiresias that would lead him
+safely home at last.
+
+And now the other bank of the river began to loom up before them and
+the air began to be silent.
+
+On the bank, as it seemed to welcome them, stood a tall old man with a
+golden sceptre in his hand. His face was full of an unutterable
+sadness, and his eyes were horny and dim with blindness. But his magic
+staff conducted him safely to the river brink, and in a high shivering
+voice he hailed Ulysses.
+
+"Why hast thou come here, O wise one, leaving the happy daylight for
+this cheerless shore? Noble son of Laertes, I know thy quest, and thus
+make answer. Father Zeus gave me power, which still remains, and I,
+an old blind ghost, can see into the future even on the shores of
+Styx. Thou seekest to know if thou wilt ever catch thy wife in thy
+strong arms once more, and tread the well-beloved fields of Ithaca.
+The mighty god of the sea, Poseidon, is wroth with thee and a
+malevolent god. For even now his son Polyphemus stumbles a bruised and
+sightless way among his native hills. But yet you may return after
+long woes and heavy toil. But one thing bear well in mind, O king,
+else wilt thou suffer unbelievable things. When thy ship touches at
+the Island Thrinacia, great herds of cattle will be feeding there on
+the fresh sweet grass which grows in the goodly upper world. These be
+the beeves and steers of the divine Helios, the Sun-God, and must be
+inviolate to men. But if one sacred beast is slain, then thy ship and
+all thy company will perish.
+
+"Perchance thou thyself may win Ithaca forlorn, and to find others in
+thy place, but that I know not. I have spoken."
+
+    [Illustration: THEY CAME TO THE BRINK OF THE RIVER.
+        _Page 52._]
+
+Then with a long melancholy cry the figure vanished into the dark.
+
+But in its place came a shadowy form which made the heart of the hero
+leap and beat, so it seemed all Hades was filled with the tumult.
+
+His mother Anticlea stood before him.
+
+Stretching out her cold, thin hands she spoke.
+
+"My boy that I suckled, why hast thou come into Hades not yet being
+dead, for I see that the flesh is still warm upon thee for which I
+drank to Zeus?"
+
+"Mother of mine, I sought Tiresias the Theban prophet. I have not
+even yet won Ithaca nor seen the dear ones there. A god is against me.
+So I came through the spirits of the unburied, and over the dark river
+to seek counsel of the seer. Knowest thou in this beyond-earth if the
+beloved Penelope still holds me in her heart? or is she perhaps here
+with thee, lost to the sunlight?"
+
+The mother of Ulysses answered, "Penelope is as faithful and true as
+on thy wedding day, but she is in a peril, so haste ye home. And now
+farewell." Where Ulysses had seen his mother, was but a little grey
+vapour which swayed and vanished.
+
+Then the hero called roughly to Charon, and bade him take the pole and
+urge the barge back to the starting-place. This time, though the
+multitude of the dead circled over him with cries, begging his help to
+take them out of Hades, he felt no fear, for his mind was burning with
+other thoughts.
+
+He mounted the long cliff side, and at last in the distance saw a
+faint gleam of light stealing down towards him. In the pale gleam the
+figure of Hermes was manifest for a moment flitting up to the day
+before him.
+
+The cries grew fainter and more faint. The light changed from grey to
+primrose, from primrose to yellow. The little star which was the mouth
+of the cave became a sun and then a world, and the yellow turned into
+the white hot sunshine as Hell faded utterly away.
+
+On the beach the little blue waves sang on the yellow sand. The black
+divers rose lazily on the swell, and the shields round the prow of the
+ship shone like white fire.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Once more the vessel of heroes swam over the seas. And now there was
+another quality in the wind for them, and the world was a new world.
+
+Their leader had told them that if they obeyed his commands they would
+win home once more. The news he had brought back from Hades made them
+sturdy and strong of heart, and they vowed that in all things they
+would trust in the king who had dared the perils of the underworld.
+
+Their thoughts turned with a lover's thirst to images of their native
+land, tranquil skies, the old-remembered meadows, cool brooks, and
+eternal peace after their long wandering.
+
+Hope beat high in the heart of Ulysses also. The grey nightmare of
+Hell was over and in the past, one more memory when in his own halls
+he would weave his saga.
+
+He had been near to the awful thing Death.
+
+He had found that after all it was only Death.
+
+The ship with a fair wind ran up a lane of light into the setting sun,
+and when at length the moon had risen and silvered all the sea,
+Ulysses called the men round him.
+
+"Comrades," he said, "with the dawn, if I have kept the reckoning
+aright, we shall come to the island where the Sirens dwell. Now the
+Lady Circe warned me against the Sirens, the singers who charm all men
+with their song. He who listens to Parthenope, Ligeia and Leucosia
+must stay with them for ever, listening spellbound to the song until
+he dies. And the island is covered with the bones of dead men. To
+listen is to die. But I wish to hear the voices and to escape the
+enchantment, and so obey my commands. When we near the island do you
+all close your ears with wax so that no sound can reach your brains.
+And take a stout rope and bind me to the mast so that I can in no wise
+loose myself. And howsoever I may order or entreat you to let me go to
+the Sirens, if their magic song enchants me, take no heed, but row
+steadily onwards until the island is far astern. Then only may you set
+me free."
+
+As dawn came, a faint grey line upon the horizon showed itself on the
+starboard bow. At the sight, with some laughter, for it was difficult
+to believe in the perils of sweet music!--even for men who had seen
+the wonders that they had seen--the men began to press yellow wax from
+the honeycomb into each other's ears.
+
+Then when no one among them could hear the flapping of the sail or the
+voice of the sea, nor could tell the meaning of his neighbour's voice,
+they went up to Ulysses, and with many light-hearted jests bound him
+to the mast, and because his strength was well known to them they
+reeved the rope with a treble hitch. No living man could have escaped
+from such bonds.
+
+As sailors will, they treated the whole thing as a huge jest, making a
+mock mutiny of it as they bound the captain. Ulysses could not help
+smiling at their mirth.
+
+After such wise precaution he had no fear, and in his heart of hearts
+he did not believe that the song of the Sirens would affect him much,
+though he followed the advice of Circe and made himself a prisoner.
+
+But a fierce curiosity possessed him. He cursed the slowness of the
+wind, for, as they bound him, the island was still a low line without
+colour on the water, and called out to the men to row faster,
+forgetting that they could not hear him.
+
+Slowly the grey island became purple, then brown, and at last showed
+itself a green, low, pleasant land, a place of meadows.
+
+The wind was behind them, and until they came quite close under the
+lee of the island Ulysses could hear no voices but those of the wind
+and waves. Then faintly at first, but rapidly becoming more sonorous
+and sweet, he heard the magic voices which were to ring in his ears in
+all his after life.
+
+No words of his at any time could express the loveliness of those
+voices, of the unutterable sweetness of it, nothing.
+
+The strains floated over the still sea like harps of heaven.
+
+All that man had known or desired in life, all the emotions which had
+stirred the human heart, were blended in those magic voices. The world
+had nothing more to give; here, here at last, was the absolute
+fulfilment of beauty.
+
+Louder and more piercingly sweet, as the unconscious sailors bent to
+the oars in earnest, and the sweat ran down their bare brown backs.
+
+    "Whither away, whither away, whither away? Fly no more.
+    Whither away from the high green field, and the happy
+        blossoming shore?
+    Day and night to the billow the fountain calls:
+    Down shower the gambolling waterfalls
+      From wandering over the lea."
+
+The face of Ulysses grew wan and grey as the ship passed a projecting
+point of rock. On the smooth green turf the three singers were
+standing. In face and form they were sweet and lovely girls.
+
+Naked to the waist, they wore long flowing draperies below, and as
+they sung the rosy bosoms rose and fell with the music, and the lucid
+throats rippled with song.
+
+    "Mariner, mariner, furl your sails,
+    For here are blissful downs and dales,
+    And merrily, merrily carol the gales,
+    And the spangle dances in bight and bay,
+    And the rainbow forms and flies on the land
+    Over the islands free;
+    And the rainbow lives in the curve of the sand;
+    Hither, come hither and see."
+
+And still the ship went on, but more slowly, as it were some force
+were at work deadening the arms of the rowers.
+
+Then the shrill loveliness fired the hero's blood, and he knew that he
+must go to the three lovely singers on the strand. Earth held nothing
+better than this--to lie for ever with that music in his ears.
+
+    "Whither away? listen and stay: mariner, mariner, fly no more."[1]
+
+    [1] These few lines of the Sirens' song have been taken from
+    Lord Tennyson's beautiful poem "The Sea Fairies."
+
+Then, as if drawn by the long cadenced notes as by cords, Ulysses
+gathered up his mighty strength and strove with his bonds.
+
+But the sailors had done their work too well, and the rope only cut
+deeply into the flesh.
+
+The white arms were stretched out to him in supplication, the song
+grew more full of unearthly beauty than before--and the ship was
+slowly passing by.
+
+Ulysses called out to the crew in an agony of command and entreaty.
+
+One of the men happened to look up and saw his face. He grinned,
+nudged his companion, and turned away.
+
+The song grew fainter, the three tall figures dwindled. The face of
+Ulysses grew ashen, and when at length they came to him and cut the
+ropes he said no word.
+
+He went alone to the prow of the vessel and looked out over the fair
+sun-bathed sea, and there were tears in his eyes, and his mouth was
+softer and more tremulous than it was wont to be.
+
+So they came away from Parthenope, Ligeia and Leucosia, the Sirens.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next day Ulysses called the crew together as before and told them
+of the new peril that awaited them. For the wise Circe had warned him
+that after the island of the Sirens he must needs encounter the
+terrible Scylla, for the ship must pass by her lair on its passage
+towards Home.
+
+But Ulysses knew that it was impossible to fight the monster, and that
+some of the crew were fated to die, but in his wisdom he did not tell
+them that.
+
+He finished his speech as follows:--"And so, my friends, the gods
+ordain that we must face Scylla, and the whirlpool Charybdis. There is
+no other way. But courage! always have courage. I who brought you safe
+from out of the cave of the Cyclops will bring you safe from this
+also. And so onward and have stout hearts."
+
+It was a misty day, and everything was shadowy and faint, but the ship
+moved slowly along a sheer wall of black cliff which towered up above
+them for a thousand feet or more. The top was lost in the mist. It was
+a lowering, frightful place.
+
+One of the sailors gave a shout which echoed back to them in mournful
+mockery through the mist.
+
+They rowed on steadily, hugging the cliff. Ulysses stood in the prow
+of the boat. He had put on armour and took two spears in his hand.
+
+His eyes searched the face of the cliff till they ached from the
+minute scrutiny.
+
+This waiting for the inevitable was terribly unnerving. Ulysses
+himself, knowing that some must die, was heavy and sad at heart as
+they glided along the side of the cliff.
+
+To the left the great whirlpool seethed and boiled, its outermost
+convolution scarce a bow-shot away. When it threw up the water the
+spray dashed up a hundred feet and fell in showers over the sailors,
+and as the water ran back in the ebb Ulysses could see, far down the
+black and spinning sides, to where the old witch Charybdis dwelt on
+the dark sand of the sea bottom.
+
+Suddenly the end came. A loud barking and howling startled them all so
+that each man paused on his oar. A pack of hounds were unkenneled, so
+it seemed, somewhere on the cliff face in the mist.
+
+Then a sickly musky smell enveloped them, so foul and stale that they
+coughed and spat even as their blood ran cold with fear.
+
+Through the curtain of mist, which had suddenly grown very thick, six
+objects loomed right over the boat.
+
+Six long tentacles swayed and quivered over the sailors, and at the
+end of each was a grinning head set with cruel fangs and a little red
+eager tongue that flickered in and out.
+
+For a moment the heads hung poised, and then each sought and found its
+victim.
+
+Six sailors were slowly drawn out of the boat, shrieking the name of
+Ulysses for the last time in their death agony. And all the time the
+barking of the hounds in the obscene womb of the monster went on
+unceasingly.
+
+Then the fury of flight came upon them. With bursting brains and red
+fire before their eyes they laboured at the great oars until the wood
+bent and shook and the ship leaped forward like a driven horse.
+
+And they left the strait of death and came out of the mist into a wide
+sunlit sea. But still a sound of distant barking came down the wind.
+
+So Scylla took her horrid toll of heroes.
+
+But Ulysses called them to prayer and lamentation for the dead.
+
+
+
+
+THE FOURTH EPISODE
+
+HOW ULYSSES LOST HIS MERRY MEN AND CAME A WAIF TO CALYPSO WITH THE
+SHINING HAIR
+
+
+The crew sat round a fire of driftwood.
+
+There was shelter where they sat, in a natural alcove of rock, but
+outside the great winds thundered and the wrack flew before the storm
+and a mighty unceasing roar filled the air.
+
+The faces of all the sailors wore a sullen look. Hunger had begun to
+suck the colour from their cheeks, their eyes were prominent and
+strained, their movements without energy or vigour.
+
+A rude shelter of sailcloth and various _débris_ that was scattered
+about seemed to show that for some time, at least, they had made their
+home in this place where the winds did not come.
+
+Ulysses was not among them. They were talking in low, discontented
+tones among themselves.
+
+"A whole month," said Eurylochus, "a whole month have we been sea
+bound in this accursed island. I am sick of islands!"
+
+"Never have we put to shore without some evil thing befalling," said
+another. "Oh, for Ithaca!"
+
+"I doubt we shall ever see Ithaca again," said a third. "We will be
+wanderers till we die; that is what I think. And this place is like to
+be the grave of all of us. I never knew a wind so furious to blow so
+long. We should sink in an hour did we but put out."
+
+"There is only food for one day more, and that sparse," said
+Eurylochus. "For my part, my limbs are heavy as brass and the strength
+is all gone from me. I could not move an oar now. Man needs meat and
+wine or the fires of hunger burn the sinews and dry the blood. Brown
+meat and red wine! I could fill my belly till the skin cracked!"
+
+"The rich brown meat, mate! Dost mind the soft kids on Circe's island?
+By Zeus, I can taste them now!"
+
+"Ay and the fat cows, roast till the blood ran out of them like liquid
+life."
+
+"I can even smell the smell of the roasting meat now. A welcome smell
+to a hungry man."
+
+"Would that we had never left Circe. 'Twas a kind queen, meet for our
+master! but her girls were kindly in love also."
+
+"To Hades with the girls!" said Eurylochus. "Thy talk of meat makes me
+heave with desire."
+
+He looked round cautiously before he continued.
+
+"Friends," he said in a low, rapid whisper, "tell me, are ye purposing
+to starve in the midst of plenty? Saw ye ever such fat oxen and cows
+as graze in the pastures above?"
+
+"Never did I see such cattle," answered another hungry wight. "Gods!
+they would make a feast for kings."
+
+"And yet pain and sickness is all over us, and we lust for food till
+we know not what we do!"
+
+"Captain's orders!"
+
+"Ulysses has lost his cunning for sure, and hunger has turned his
+brain. He is no more the brave leader of old. He goes wandering alone
+among the rocks and sleeps all day. And his eye is clouded and courage
+has left his voice. Friends, shall we die thus? No man of ye loveth
+Ulysses better than I love him. Is he not my kinsman indeed? He
+brought us from the Cyclops' cave and dared the perils of Hell. All
+this I know and say before you now. But the king is distraught and
+moody. He does not know what he is doing. He would be the first to
+join us with the merry and grateful word were he to come back and find
+the good red beef roasting on the fire and smell the savoury smoke."
+
+"Ay, captain was never one set against a feast! He loves good cheer,
+as becomes a proper fighting man."
+
+"My mind doubts me, comrades," said another. "Should we not rather
+trust the king even unto this last thing? Have we ever found him
+wanting yet? Did he not make us promise? Zeus knows if the thought of
+hot meat does not tickle my belly as well as thine--more, friend, for
+thou hast a paunch yet and none have I--but I for one trust in the
+captain. He knows."
+
+Then Eurylochus took up his spear as if he had decided and the
+discussion was over.
+
+"Listen, men," he said. "In all shapes death is a terrible thing. But
+I would rather die quickly at Scylla's hands than fade into Hades
+through famine. Hunger is the worst death of all. Come with me and
+bring your spears. We will choose the best of the herd and sacrifice
+to the gods. When we reach home again, can we not build a great temple
+to Helios, and fill it with rich gifts? The Sun-God, who gives light
+to all the world, will not grudge us a cow or two. Not he. 'Tis a more
+genial god than that. Ay, and though we indeed anger the god and he
+wreck us in the deep! I put ye this question--Would ye not rather
+swallow the cold salt water for a moment and so die, than die for days
+among the rocks?"
+
+His pale face worked with the force of his words. His eyes glistened
+with a terrible eagerness. As he spoke in a high, quivering nervous
+tenor, shaking his spear at them, the eagerness crept into their eyes
+also.
+
+Famine strangely transforms the human face. They became men with
+brute's eyes.
+
+Eurylochus marched away out of the shelter towards the pasture lands,
+and the others followed him. New strength seemed to come to them as
+they walked towards the herd, which could be seen, a red brown mass,
+grazing on a plain some half-mile away.
+
+The full force of the wind struck and retarded them as they emerged
+into the open, but it brought the lowing of the cattle to their ears
+and they pressed on.
+
+Ulysses lay sleeping about a quarter of a mile from the cove.
+
+He had wandered away from his companions in great despondency. For
+four long weeks the gale had roared past the island away to the north.
+The rain had fallen like spears, the thunder stammered its awful
+message, the green and white lightning snapped like whips of light. In
+all this the king saw the finger of evil. He knew that the mighty
+Poseidon still watched his fortunes with cruel, angry eyes. For this
+storm was no chance warring of the elements, but came, he knew,
+directed against him and his fated crew.
+
+Food had got lower and lower, the men began to grumble, and black
+looks of reproach met his eyes on every side.
+
+And all the time the fat cattle of Apollo cropped the tender shoots of
+the grass, the full udder dropped with creamy milk, and the shining
+flanks of the great beasts sent an alluring message to the starving
+men.
+
+Often Ulysses withdrew into some lonely place and prayed to Athene,
+but she seemed asleep or weary of his woes, for there came no
+answering sign.
+
+On this day hope seemed to have utterly departed from him. There was
+no break in the leaden clouds of the future.
+
+He had wandered away along the seashore, and fallen asleep from
+languor and grief, lulled by the great singing of the gale overhead.
+
+In his sleep he dreamed vividly. He saw the interior of the island.
+Suddenly, from among a clump of trees, a bright beam of golden light
+shot up heavenwards. He knew that one of the shepherd nymphs of Apollo
+went with some message for the god, and he shivered and moaned in his
+slumber.
+
+Then it seemed that he was in a great place of cloud, an immense
+formless world of mist. And through the mist came a terrible voice
+which turned him to stone. It was the voice of Apollo crying in anger.
+
+"Oh, Father Zeus, and all ye gods who dwell upon the hill above the
+thunder! punish the comrades of Ulysses for their crime. They have
+speared my beautiful cows that were my joy and of which I had great
+pleasure. Whenever I turned my face and shone upon the world I watched
+them feeding in my island. And now these whelps have slain the finest
+of all my herd. Vengeance! Bitter vengeance, or will I go far down
+into Hell and leave the world in gloom and shine no more upon it. I
+will make Hades a place of warmth and laughter, and the world all grey
+and full of death."
+
+In the midst Ulysses awoke with that angry cry still ringing in his
+ears. With a sick apprehension he hurried along the slippery boulders
+to the shelter place where he had left the crew.
+
+Within a hundred yards of the place he knew the worst. The wind blew
+a savoury smoke towards him, and his stomach yearned while his brain
+trembled in fear.
+
+The men were in high glee when he came round the corner of rock among
+them, great joints turned upon rough spits, skins and horns encumbered
+the ground, and the rich fat dropped hissing into the fire.
+
+A sudden silence fell upon their merriment as the captain came. He
+spread out his hands with a gesture of despair.
+
+"Comrades," he said sorrowfully, "ye have chosen to do this thing
+against my advice, and now it is done we must abide by the deed. I
+cannot reproach you. Still, I know that we must pay heavily for this
+sin against the Sun-God. Farewell, Ithaca! And now it is over let us
+eat of our unhallowed spoil. It may be that this is our last meal
+together, comrades."
+
+As he had finished speaking a strange and ominous thing happened. The
+blood-stained skins began to creep about like live things upon the
+ground.
+
+The red meat over the fire withered and moaned as if in pain. The air
+was filled with a lowing as of cows.
+
+Then in mad fear and riotous despair they fell upon the horrid meal
+with eager, tremulous hands. Ulysses was taken with the madness like
+the rest, and until sundown they gorged the dripping meat till they
+could eat no more, and their faces were bloated and their eyes were
+strained.
+
+As the sun sank into the sea with a red and angry face the wind
+dropped and ceased. A great calm spread over the waters. When the moon
+rose the ocean was like a sheet of still silver.
+
+Very hurriedly, whispering among themselves, as though they were
+afraid of their own voices, they launched the ship and rowed out into
+the moonlight, racing away from the accursed isle.
+
+And now the last scene of all came very quickly.
+
+Ulysses was wont to say that of all the things he had witnessed in his
+life this was the saddest and most terrible.
+
+A sudden crackle of thunder pealed over the sky. A fantastic network
+of lightning played round the ship like lace.
+
+A dark cloud formed itself directly over the boat, not two mast's
+lengths above, and all the waves below became like ink in the shadow.
+For a time it hung there motionless, and then suddenly a mighty wind
+swooped down on them like a hawk drops out of the sky. The mast
+snapped like a pipe-stem and crashed upon the deck, braining the
+helmsman in its fall. A smooth green wave, just slightly bubbling with
+froth on the crest, but like a hill of oil, rose and swept over the
+ship.
+
+Ulysses clung to a stanchion with all his mighty strength, and was
+just able to battle against the flood. When it passed over him he saw
+that every man of the crew was in the water. For a few moments they
+floated round him with sad cries of farewell, and then one by one they
+were swept into the Ultimate.
+
+The timbers of the ship broke away and she fell to pieces. With a loud
+cry to Athene, Ulysses launched himself on the waves clinging to a
+great log which had formed part of the keel. A swift current urged him
+along far away from the scene of the wreck.
+
+The purpose of the god was accomplished, and the waves fell, and the
+moonlight shone out clear and still once more.
+
+On all the waste of waters no sail, no cape nor headland broke the
+silver monotone.
+
+Loneliness descended upon the hero like a cloak; an utter abandonment
+such as he had never known before in life.
+
+The water began to grow very cold.
+
+An awful silence lay over the sea. The terrible jubilant silence of a
+god revenged!
+
+"And so all those well-known, long-tried voices were still! Never
+again would Eurylochus drain the full tankard in a kindly health."
+
+Ulysses bowed his head, and bitter tears welled up into his eyes.
+
+"Never again would grey old Diphilos stand at the helm of the good
+ship, sending his keen eyes out over the sounding wastes. How the last
+mournful cry of Jamenos had echoed through the storm. Young, straight
+Jamenos who had approached the Cyclops with him, beautiful young
+Jamenos, with the bold eyes and curling hair! And there was old
+Perdix too, old Perdix with his grin and chuckle and his tales. Never
+would Perdix sit by the fire and make merry yarns any more. The little
+twinkling rat-like eyes were stark and glazed now. Perdix stood beside
+the livid river among the rushing spirits. He would have no jests
+now."
+
+He saw them all together, in peril, storm, and quiet weather. His
+trusty men! His dear comrades!
+
+And now he alone was left, alone, alone, alone.
+
+Perhaps Athene herself was still with him and had not even yet
+forgotten her wanderer. As the thought struck along his brain a faint
+blush of hope began to flush his pallid cheek.
+
+He floated on and on. Dawn came, waxed strong, waned. Tremulous
+evening came like a shy novice about to take the veil of night. Night
+blazed in moonlit splendour once more.
+
+And at the hour when night stands still and dawn is not yet, the
+waves, kindlier than before, carried him to the island of Ogygia,
+where he heard the sea nymphs on the shore singing him a fairy
+welcome.
+
+Soft hands drew him from the deep, soft voices welcomed him; it seemed
+as if one queenly presence, a tall woman with golden hair which shone,
+towered among the rest, and he fell into a gentle swoon, a soft
+surrender to sleep.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    "We watch the fleeting isles of shade
+      That float upon the sea
+    When 'neath the sun some cloud hath spread
+      His purple canopy.
+    The woodbine odours scent the air,
+      The cypress' leaves are wet
+    From meadow springs that rise among
+      Parsley and violet.
+    Here shall the Wanderer remain;
+      The land of Love's Delight;
+    Shall here forget the past, the old
+      Sad spectres of the night."
+
+Soft and low the sea-maidens sang while Ulysses lay sleeping--even as
+they had sung nine long years ago when the sea cast him up on the
+shores of Calypso's kingdom.
+
+It was bright sunlight, a great fire of cedar wood burnt on an altar
+before the cave of the goddess who loved the hero, and the smoke
+scented all the island.
+
+Among the grove of stately trees which bordered the smooth pneumatic
+lawn in front of the cave Ulysses lay sleeping on a bed of fresh-born
+violets. A purple mantle shot with gold, woven by Calypso, was spread
+over him.
+
+The poplars and fragrant cypresses were full of sweet-voiced birds.
+
+Over the mouth of the cave grew a great vine, and the black grapes
+drooped and fell from it in their abundance.
+
+From the centre of the short emerald grass four springs of clear water
+came up in thin whips and flowed away in flashing rivulets.
+
+This was the home and kingdom of the Goddess Calypso, and was so
+beautiful a place that the fame of it had even reached Olympus, and
+the gods knew of the island.
+
+And nine long years had passed! It was nine years ago that the pale
+gaunt waif of the sea--a sad jetsam!--had swooned upon the yellow
+sand, while the bright-haired lady of Ogygia had gazed in wonder upon
+him.
+
+Circe had enthralled Ulysses for a year in her palace of wine and
+sorcery and lust. That was a time of fierce sinful pleasures, of wild
+deliriums.
+
+The fire had blazed, burnt, and died away in that still marble house
+in the wood.
+
+But how different these nine dreamy years! The mild-eyed, loving
+goddess lay in the hero's arms each night in tender love and sleep.
+She was no Circe, but a lady of quieter delights. Her spell was upon
+him, he was chained to her kind side by a magic influence, but she
+loved him, and was no Circe.
+
+Nine long years!
+
+Those old valiant mariners from the plains of Troyland were only white
+bones now, part of the sea-bed. They were far-off, remote, sweet sad
+memories.
+
+Calypso was the slow and gracious music to which his life moved now.
+Often he doubted all the past. They were phantoms all those old
+half-forgotten people.
+
+So he lay sleeping among the violets. The scented wind gave a myriad
+whispers to the poplars. The four springs sang a thin jocund song as
+they burst from the dark rich earth into the sunshine, and within her
+cave the goddess threw the golden shuttle and made a low crooning
+music as she thought of her stately warrior hard by, and sent him
+dreams of her white neck and wealth of golden hair.
+
+She knew he would never leave her now. Her spells were too strong. Her
+love too great.
+
+During the first years he had been wont to wander away to a lonely
+part of the shore. He would sit gazing with haunted eyes out over the
+sea, and his thoughts went to Penelope, and he shed a tear for old
+King Laertes and whispered to little Telemachus.
+
+But that also was over for him now. Ithaca was but a misty cloud, and
+the dear ones there but dreams in this island of dreams.
+
+The face of Ulysses was changed. The hard lines of endeavour, the
+brown painting of the wind, had gone from it. Noble and beautiful
+still, but even in sleep it could be seen to have lost its force.
+
+Suddenly, in the dim recesses of the grove, there was a silence. The
+birds stopped singing, and the murmur of the insects droned, swelled
+louder, and died away.
+
+Nothing was heard for a moment but the trickle of the streams, and
+then this also faded from sound.
+
+By the side of the sleeping hero stood the tall white figure of
+Athene. At her feet yellow flowers broke out like little flames, and
+her deep, grave eyes were bent full upon Ulysses.
+
+Perhaps he felt that unearthly majesty above him, for he turned and
+moaned in his sleep.
+
+The goddess, like a statue of white marble, stood looking down at him
+for several moments. Then with a little sigh she stooped and touched
+his forehead with her long slender fingers.
+
+The birds began a full-throated ecstasy of song, which filled the wood
+with a sound as of a myriad tiny flutes. The furry bees went swinging
+through the sunlit grove with deep organ music, the shrill tinkle of
+the streams sent its cool message once more into the hot swooning air.
+
+Where the goddess had stood there was nothing but a clump of yellow
+crocus and some violets more vivid than the rest.
+
+Ulysses awoke with sudden stammerings like a frightened child. He
+looked round him with strange troubled eyes.
+
+Then slowly he rose up and walked through the wood towards the cave of
+Calypso.
+
+Forgotten fingers were upon the latch of his brain, old scenes began
+to move through it in swift familiar panorama, he was as a man who
+wakened from a sleep of years.
+
+One word burst from his lips--"Penelope!" His face cleared as though a
+mist had suddenly dispersed before it, and his walk quickened into a
+firm, long stride as he came out on to the lawn.
+
+He stopped short as he saw the mouth of the cave. Calypso was pacing
+up and down with her sinuous graceful step, and at her side walked a
+tall young man with a golden wand in his hand and winged sandals upon
+his feet.
+
+And Ulysses knew him for the God Hermes who had given him the sacred
+herb in Circe's island and who had led him down the gloomy ways of
+Hades.
+
+They turned and came towards him.
+
+"He will never wish to go, Hermes," he heard Calypso say as they drew
+near.
+
+"King," said the god, "I am come to you with a message from Father
+Zeus. He hath seen you lying in this island with the goddess, and bids
+me tell you of Ithaca and home once more, that your heart may beat
+strong within you and you may adventure forth and find your wife
+Penelope in your ancestral house. And the father promises you divine
+protection. Your long wanderings shall be at an end, and you shall
+come safely to the land of your heart's desire. Is it your will to go
+and leave the lady?"
+
+The goddess laughed a little musical laugh of certain triumph.
+
+"Go!" she cried. "Ah, he will not go, Hermes. Could he not have left
+me any time these nine long years of love? Go! No, my mariner loves
+too well the soft couches of Ogygia, and these weak arms can yet hold
+his wisdom captive. How will you answer, my heart's love?"
+
+"To Ithaca?" said Ulysses.
+
+"Yes, to Penelope thy wife, who sorroweth for thee and is in peril,"
+answered the god.
+
+A bright light flashed into Ulysses' eyes and his cheek was flushed
+with hope.
+
+"Now have I tarried too long in this place," he cried. "I know not
+why, but never before has my heart burned within me as now. Yes, to
+Ithaca! back to my father and my wife and the old hills of home! Zeus
+be praised, for I who was asleep waken this day, and manhood is mine
+once more."
+
+Then Calypso drooped her lovely head like a tired flower as the God
+Hermes flashed up into the sky like a beam of light.
+
+"I see something of which I know not has come over you, lord of my
+heart," she said sadly. "I have no more power, save only the power of
+my deep love for you which you have forgotten. Who am I that I can
+combat the will of Zeus or the hardness of your heart? I have loved
+you well and cherished you, and shall I love you less now? No, I am no
+cruel goddess. Go, and my heart be with you; and what power is mine to
+aid you that shall you have. I doubt," she said, with a sudden burst
+of anger, "I doubt you have some greater goddess than I at your side,
+some lovelier lady, else how could my spell be broken? But now come
+within and make a farewell feast with me. My heart is sick and I would
+die. But one thing I can give you if you will not go. Would you be
+immortal? Stay with your lover and that gift is yours. Never shall
+death touch you or age. I am a goddess and can never die. Am I less
+beautiful than Penelope, or less kind?"
+
+Ulysses answered her pleadings slowly and painfully.
+
+    [Illustration: "WHO AM I THAT I CAN COMBAT THE WILL OF ZEUS
+      OR THE HARDNESS OF YOUR HEART?"
+        _Page 78._]
+
+"My queen and goddess, I know indeed that Penelope can never compare
+with such immortal loveliness as yours. Yes, she will grow old and
+wrinkled, and must die. Yet night and day all my heart must go out to
+her, and I would endure a thousand storms and sorrows to see home once
+more."
+
+"Because of my great love for you, go, and may all the gods shower
+blessings on you and protect you," she said in a low voice, and her
+eyes were all blind with tears.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On a red evening Calypso stood alone on a rock that jutted out into
+the sea.
+
+A black speck against the setting sun showed clear and far away.
+
+Then the night fell, and she wandered weeping through her scented
+avenues.
+
+But her heart was away on the moaning sea, away with Ulysses the
+departed.
+
+
+
+
+THE LAST EPISODE
+
+HOW THE KING CAME HOME AGAIN AFTER THE LONG YEARS
+
+
+With the tears blinding his eyes, with shaking hands, speechless with
+the happy thoughts surging in his brain, Ulysses knelt and kissed the
+dear, dear shores of his own country.
+
+The same rocky coasts, the same great mountain in the centre of the
+island raising its head into the clouds, everywhere eternally the
+same, and how beloved! was it not all mist and dreams--the long past?
+How he heard the Sirens sing, seen the swaying arms of the foul
+Scylla, and dwelt in love and slumber with Calypso?
+
+And by his side once more stood the goddess, serene and beautiful in
+her benevolent but awful calm. From her lips he had heard that here,
+even here in his own land, in the fields of his inheritance, one more
+supreme effort awaited him. He had learnt how his palace was full of
+riotous princes, who wooed his wife, the Queen Penelope. He knew how
+his son, the goodly Prince Telemachus, was least in his own house, and
+how wild revel and wantonness ate up his substance. The queen in
+peril! Penelope all but given up to the desires of lust and greed. All
+his great heart burnt with anger and hate against the suitors, and
+yet, with a strange dual emotion, beat high with pride for his dear
+and stainless lady, who still mourned for her husband, and longed
+against hope for his return.
+
+He kissed the kindly home-ground, and at that sacred contact a sense
+of strength and power came to him, a god-like power, that in all his
+long toils and wanderings he had never known before.
+
+He became conscious that Athene was speaking to him. "And remember
+ever, my Ulysses, that now thou hast need of all thy wit and cunning.
+In all the chances of thy life before never hadst thou need to walk as
+warily as now. For mere strength and valour unallied to wisdom and
+cunning will avail one nothing against the hundred. But at the hour of
+need I will be once more with thee if thou doest well and wisely.
+Courage! son of Laertes! 'tis but a little while till the end. Let not
+thy love and hate master thee until the appointed hour. And now, that
+thou mayest walk in thy palace and groves unknown for who thou art, I
+give thee a disguise. And so farewell until the hour of triumph."
+
+She stretched out her spear over the kneeling king. The firm flesh
+dried and wrinkled upon his arms and legs. His hair shrivelled up into
+grey sparseness and his eyes dimmed. He wore a tattered cloak, a thing
+of shreds and patches, and an old beggar's staff of ilex was in his
+hand.
+
+But beneath this seeming age and weakness was hidden the true hero as
+strong and cunning as before.
+
+The goddess turned into light and was no more, and with slow, tottering
+footsteps Ulysses took a lonely way among the well-remembered paths of
+his native hills.
+
+After an hour's travelling he came out on a smooth pasture land, with
+a little homestead nestling among a clump of trees. His heart beat
+eagerly within him, for if perchance after these long years farmer
+Eumæus still lived, here he might gain news of his palace and perhaps
+a friend.
+
+Eumæus was once the steward of the estates and a very faithful servant
+of his master. Ulysses approached the house. In front was a large
+courtyard, made by a fence of oak and hawthorn boughs, and within were
+twelve great pens for swine.
+
+And in the porch sat old Eumæus himself making himself a pair of
+sandals, hardly changed in a single feature, though perhaps his eyes
+were not so bright as in the old times.
+
+Hearing footsteps, the four fierce dogs which herded the swine rushed
+out of the yard and leapt angrily at the newcomer. He might have fared
+badly, for the great beasts were lean and evil-tempered, had not the
+swineherd ran out to his help and drew them off with curses.
+
+    [Illustration: "NAY, IF YOU LOVE ME," HE SAID, "NONE OF THAT,
+      MY FRIEND."]
+
+He turned to Ulysses. "Thank the gods, old fellow," he cried, "that I
+was near by. A little more and you would have been torn to pieces,
+and then you would be in an evil plight but I a worse! Dead would you
+be and past caring, but I should be disgraced. Heaven knows, I have
+enough trouble to bear. Here's my lawful master gone in foreign parts
+these long years--dead as like as not--and I sit here feeding swine
+for them that are but little better themselves. But come in, come in,
+old shrew. There's a bite of food for you within, which you need I
+make no doubt, and then you can tell me your story, for I am a lonely
+man now and like a crack of talk as well as most."
+
+The garrulous old fellow pushed him in with busy geniality and sat him
+down on the goatskin, which was his bed. Then he fetched what meat and
+wine he could furnish, and they sat down to a frugal meal.
+
+"What, then, about this lord of yours?" said Ulysses. "I myself have
+wandered far these last years. Perhaps I may have met with him, and
+can give you news."
+
+The swineherd chuckled.
+
+"Nay, if you love me," he said, "none of that, my friend. Why, every
+dirty old man as comes along this way has some such tale to tell. And
+then my poor lady up in the palace--the gods save her!--she takes them
+in and gives them a new cloak or what not, and believes all they say
+until the next one comes along. No! my dear lord is dead and never
+shall I look upon the like of him again. By Zeus! but he was a man if
+you like!"
+
+"Well, my host, we shall see in the future," said Ulysses, in so
+significant a tone that the swineherd was startled for a moment.
+
+The wind had arisen and it was a black stormy night so they went to
+rest early, and Eumæus slept soundly till dawn. But all through the
+silent hours the brain of Ulysses worked like a shuttle in a loom.
+
+At breakfast-time, while the swineherd was preparing the meal, the
+dogs began to bark loudly outside, but in a welcome manner, saluting
+one whom they knew.
+
+Footsteps were heard crossing the yard, and a tall young man with the
+first down of manhood on his lip stood in the doorway.
+
+Eumæus dropped the bowls in which he had been mixing the wine with a
+sudden clatter and ran towards the stranger.
+
+"My young lord," he cried, "oh, my young lord, the sight of you is a
+welcome one to weary eyes. Come within my poor place. This is but a
+poor old man who shelters with me for a day or two. Don't mind him, my
+lord."
+
+It was Telemachus the son of Ulysses.
+
+The king rose humbly and offered his seat to his son.
+
+"Keep your place, old man," said the prince. "The swineherd will find
+me another. And who may you be, and what do you in Ithaca?"
+
+Then Ulysses told him a long story. He said that he was a Cretan, and
+had fought at Troy and was now destitute and a wanderer.
+
+"Could you not take him to the palace, my lord?" said Eumæus.
+"Perhaps he might find some work there."
+
+"I will clothe him, and arm him with a sword, and give him a little to
+help him on his way," said Telemachus, "and that most gladly. But I
+cannot take him to the palace. The suitors would ill-use him because
+of his age, perhaps they would kill him for sport. I cannot restrain
+them; I am young; and what is one against so many? Moreover, so great
+is the hate they bear towards me, they would surely slay any guest of
+mine."
+
+Then Ulysses rose from his seat and bowed. "Lord," he said, "if I may
+dare to speak and you will hear, I say foul wrong is wrought against
+you in your palace, and my blood rages when I think of it."
+
+"Old fellow, you are right enough," said the boy, sadly. "Oh, for my
+dead sire! to sweep these dogs from Ithaca!"
+
+"Yes, the king!" said Eumæus, with a deep sigh.
+
+Suddenly Ulysses saw the tall figure of Athene was standing by his
+side.
+
+The other two were looking towards him, but could see nothing of her
+presence. The goddess looked at him with kindly eyes and touched him
+with her spear.
+
+Telemachus and Eumæus crouched trembling and speechless against the
+furthest side of the hut.
+
+The bronze came back to the face of the king, his hair fell from his
+head in all its old luxuriance, his figure filled out, and he stood
+before them in his full stature and all the glory of his manhood.
+
+Eumæus fell upon his knees and covered his eyes with his hand.
+
+"A god! a god!" he cried, "a god has come to us! Hail, oh Immortal
+One, guest of my poor homestead!"
+
+Telemachus knelt also. "Oh, Divine stranger, a boon! Tell me of my
+dear father, if indeed he lives and knows of the peril of his house.
+And will he ever come back to sit in his own chair and rule?"
+
+Then Ulysses stepped to his son and caught him in his arms and kissed
+him.
+
+"Telemachus! Telemachus!" he said, "no god am I, but your own dear
+father come home at last, and I am come with doom and death for the
+insolent ones about my board!"
+
+And when they had all three mingled their happy tears, Telemachus
+said, "Father, I know how great a warrior you are, and all the world
+rings with the wisdom and valour of your deeds. But we two can never
+fight against so many. In all, the princes number a hundred and a
+score of men; and they are all trained fighting men, the best from
+Ithaca and all the neighbouring islands. We must have other aid."
+
+"Comfort yourself, son," said Ulysses. "Aid we have, and the mightiest
+of all. Athene herself watches over my fortunes and will come in the
+hour of need. She has brought me hither and given me this disguise,
+and in all the coming contest her voice will help and her arm be for
+us. Should we need more aid than that?"
+
+"Truly, my father," said the boy, "we are well favoured, and my heart
+leaps within me at what is to come."
+
+As he finished speaking, once more the manhood of Ulysses left him and
+only a poor old beggar man stood before the swineherd and the prince.
+
+"Now will we go to the palace," said Ulysses. "I shall seem but a poor
+old beggar man, and however the princes may ill-use me I shall do
+nothing till the time has come and we are ready, and I charge you, my
+son, and my good friend Eumæus, that you do nothing to protect me
+however I am treated. You may check them by words if you can, but no
+more. And not even the queen herself must know that the king has come
+home again.
+
+"And now let us go. The judge is set, the doom begun; none shall stay
+it!"
+
+And the three went out from the hut over the mountain paths towards
+the palace.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The revel was at its height in the courtyard of the palace. Stone
+seats ran round the wall which enclosed the buildings. Over a low
+colonnade the orchard trees drooped into the court, and a huge vine
+trailed its weight of fruit over the marble.
+
+The hot afternoon sun sent a vivid colour over everything. Beyond the
+palace the blue mountains towered into a sky of deeper blue. Purple
+shadows from the buildings lay upon the white marble, and the long
+light glittered on a great table piled with golden cups and bowls,
+holding the _débris_ of the feast.
+
+A wild uproar and shouting filled the air.
+
+The court was filled with whirling figures of men and girls half drunk
+with wine and excitement as they moved in the figures of a lascivious
+dance.
+
+All the household girls were there with the suitors joining in the
+feast, and peals of laughter shivered through the sunny air.
+
+Telemachus sat on a seat apart watching the revel with keen eyes.
+There was a repressed excitement in his face and an eager regard. One
+of the girls noticed it as she strolled past. She was a slight, fair
+wanton creature with a mocking smile.
+
+"How, Lord Telemachus?" she said, laughing lightly, "are you not going
+to join us in the fun? You make a sorry host indeed! Is not this your
+palace, and do you leave us without your countenance. Oh, shame upon
+you for a laggard youth when wine and kisses wait you."
+
+She made an impudent grimace at him and flitted past. But a short time
+back he would have raged at this impudent salutation from a pretty
+slave girl who drew a confident strength from the protection of his
+enemies. But now he hardly heard her, but leant forward again in the
+attitude of one who watches and waits.
+
+Outside the palace gate, on the hot white road, two old men were
+approaching. One was the swineherd Eumæus and the other a wandering
+beggar man.
+
+Just by the threshold of the courtyard an old lean dog, very grey and
+feeble, lay upon a heap of dung in the sunlight. The mailed
+horse-flies hovered round him in swarms, but he seemed too weak to
+drive them away. As the beggar approached he threw his muzzle up into
+the air with a quick movement. His sightless eyes turned towards the
+advancing footsteps. With a great effort he scrambled to his feet. The
+lean tail wagged in tremulous joy, the scarred ears were pricked in
+welcome.
+
+He stumbled to the feet of Ulysses. When he touched him the old dog
+lay down in the dust and with a long sigh he died.
+
+And this was the first welcome the king had to his palace, and as he
+went in through the gates his eyes were wet with tears.
+
+When Telemachus saw the steward he beckoned him to the table and sat
+beside him while he ate. But Ulysses crouched down by the threshold.
+Telemachus gave bread and meat to the swineherd.
+
+"Go, Eumæus," he said aloud, "give these broken meats to that poor old
+beggar man by the gate, and tell him from me that if he lacks he
+should be bold and go to the princes and ask them for alms. By Zeus!
+he will never grow fat if he crouches by the door there!"
+
+Ulysses took the food with a low bow and packed it away in his
+wallet.
+
+He rose up grasping his staff, and went tottering among the suitors.
+His lean arms and furrowed, wrinkled face were so piteous, his whining
+appeal full of such misery, that many of the princes tossed him
+something.
+
+At the head of the table a tall and splendid young man was sitting. He
+was richly dressed in a showy, ostentatious manner. His florid,
+handsome face wore a perpetual and evil sneer. His grey eyes were
+ill-tempered and quarrelsome.
+
+"By the gods, my friends," he cried, with a sneer, "how tender-hearted
+and compassionate you are grown! With what lavishness do you bestow
+the wealth of Ulysses, or rather of the queen, upon this old
+scarecrow. Such old beasts are no use in this world. Get you gone, you
+old dog!"
+
+With that he hurled a three-legged stool at Ulysses. The stool struck
+him a heavy blow on his side.
+
+For a moment the black turmoil in the hero's heart was almost
+irrepressible. But with an enormous effort of will he overcame it. He
+stood quite still, with his head sunk upon his breast in humility.
+
+Now came the girls from out of the house carrying great jars of fresh
+wine, and copper bowls of water for the mixing, which they put upon
+the table.
+
+Here was better sport than an old beggar and his woes, and Ulysses
+moved aside and was forgotten.
+
+But one of the girls touched him on the shoulder. "Wanderer," said
+she, "the Queen Penelope has seen how Antinous used you from her room
+within the hall, and she sends me to summon you to her, for she would
+speak to you."
+
+Then, with beating heart and footsteps which trembled with no
+simulated age, the king followed the girl over the threshold of his
+own palace.
+
+As he was walking towards the chamber of the queen an old woman came
+towards them, a very old woman with a lined brown face and little,
+brilliant twinkling eyes.
+
+"Poor old man," she said, "it is a shame that they should use your
+grey hairs so, and abuse the hospitality which is the sacred right of
+strangers. My lady Penelope sends me to you, and bids me wash your
+feet in this bowl of water, so that we may purge our house of the
+stain the prince without has cast upon it. Sit on this stool and I
+will lave ye."
+
+So the old nurse Euryclea bathed the feet of her master whom she had
+dandled in her arms as a child. Suddenly Ulysses made as though he
+would draw away his foot. He remembered that on his leg he bore a
+strange-shaped scar made by a savage boar when he was a boy, and he
+feared the wise old woman would know him by that mark.
+
+But as she passed her hand along his ankle she touched the mark and
+turned his foot towards the light and saw it. She dropped his foot
+quickly, and the basin was overturned and the water ran away over the
+marble floor. She looked up into the king's face and knew him for all
+his disguise.
+
+In a fierce, hurried whisper he bade her be silent for her life and
+his and the queen's safety. As she vowed, trembling, by Zeus and the
+gods, to do his bidding, a trumpet snarled suddenly outside on the
+steps of the palace.
+
+The riot without died into silence.
+
+The clear cold voice of a herald began to speak.
+
+Thus says the Queen Penelope: "To-morrow will I make an end of all. In
+the forenoon I will choose from among the princes whom I will wed. Too
+long have ye rioted within the palace and eaten up the substance of
+myself and my son. I am aweary. And since there is no other way,
+to-morrow I will choose. Ye shall take the great bow of the King
+Ulysses from its cover. And he who can shoot an arrow through twelve
+axes in a row--even as Ulysses was wont to do--him will I wed."
+
+"Nurse!" whispered Ulysses, "the king will be here before any can bend
+that bow. Now go into the queen and tell her that the old man is sick
+and begs leave to wait upon her another time. And comfort her with an
+omen that you have seen, but tell her nothing. And now farewell. There
+is much to do ere dawn."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There was a silence of consternation in the great banqueting hall of
+the palace.
+
+Penelope from her seat upon the raised steps beneath the
+richly-decorated wall at the end smiled faintly to herself.
+
+The twelve axes stood in a row, driven into sockets in the pavement.
+The suitors stood in two long rows on either side.
+
+Antinous, the strongest of them all, held a great polished bow. His
+face blazed with anger and was red with shame.
+
+All eyes were centred on him. No one saw old Eumæus steal out into the
+porch and silently lower the heavy bars of the door and lash them
+tight with cords.
+
+"Ah!" cried Antinous, "I know now why neither any of you nor I myself
+can bend this bow. It is not the great strength of Ulysses, for I am
+stronger than he ever was. This is Apollo's festival, the Archer-God,
+and it is useless to strive to bend this bow to-day. Let us sacrifice
+to Helios to-day, and then to-morrow come again to the trial."
+
+Then the old beggar man came forward.
+
+"My lords," he said, "I pray you give me the bow, since you have done
+your trial for to-day. I was once strong in my youth. Let me have this
+honour."
+
+Antinous scowled at him, and stepped toward him to strike such
+insolence, but the clear voice of Penelope called sharply down the
+lane of men,--
+
+"Who insults even the meanest in my palace? Have more regard, sir, for
+I am still queen here. Give the old man the bow since that is his
+whim."
+
+Antinous was cowed, but still murmured, when Telemachus stepped
+quickly up to him. The boy seemed taller, his eyes shone with a cold,
+fierce light they had never seen in them before. His voice rang with a
+new authority.
+
+"Be silent, sir!" he said in a keen, threatening voice. "The bow is
+mine, and mine alone, to give or refuse as I decide. Mother, the trial
+is over for to-day. Go with your maidens into your own chamber. I will
+see to this old man, and I am master here and will be so."
+
+With a frightened pride and wonder the queen withdrew.
+
+The suitors began to whisper to each other, wondering what this might
+mean. Their confidence seemed to be slipping away from them. Each and
+all felt uneasy. There was some strange influence in the air which
+sapped their courage and silenced the loud insolent words which were
+ever on their lips.
+
+The shadow of death was creeping into the hall.
+
+The great marble room suddenly grew cold. The old beggar came up to
+the splendid Antinous and took the bow from his unresisting hand.
+
+As he plucked the string the gods spake at last. A crash of thunder
+pealed among them. There was a moment's silence, and then the
+bow-string rang beneath the hero's touch as clear as the note of a
+swallow.
+
+And in a strange light, which glowed out from the walls and great
+pillars of bronze, the princes saw no beggar, but a noble form with
+bronzed face and flashing eyes, and they knew the king had come home
+again.
+
+Ulysses motioned to his son, and Telemachus drew his sword and with a
+great shout rushed up the hall after his father.
+
+They turned and stood on the steps.
+
+An arrow sang like a flying wasp, and Antinous lay dying on the floor.
+
+Then the princes rushed to the walls where their armour and swords
+were wont to hang, but all the pegs were bare.
+
+Only above the steps where Ulysses stood were three spears and three
+shields, and as they gazed in cold fear Eumæus leapt upon the steps
+and the three girded on the armour.
+
+Again the great bow sang, and Amphinomus lay dead.
+
+Then Telemachus with a great shout drove his spear through the fat
+Ctessipus, and he fell gurgling his life away.
+
+But one of the suitors, Melanthius, climbed up a pillar through one of
+the lanterns of the hall and clambered over the roofs to the armoury
+unseen by Ulysses.
+
+And while the deadly arrows sped with bitter mocking words towards the
+cowering throng, he gathered a great sheaf of spears and flung them
+down among his comrades.
+
+They seized upon the spears with a fierce cry of joy, and Ulysses'
+heart failed him where he stood for there were still many living.
+
+They began to run up the hall towards the steps.
+
+Then at last Athene saw that her time had come, and she lifted her
+terrible war shield which brings death to the sons of men.
+
+And the flight of spears all went far wide of the mark, and some fell
+with a rattle upon the floor.
+
+With one cry of triumph the king leapt like light among the crowd.
+Hither and there flashed the three swords like swooping vultures, and
+Athene took all power from the princes, and one by one they screamed
+and met their doom.
+
+And soon the din of battle died away, and save for a faint moaning the
+hall was silent.
+
+And the princes, the pride of the islands, lay fallen in dust and
+blood, heaped one on the other, like a great catch of fishes turned
+out from a fisherman's nets upon the shore.
+
+Eumæus went to the door of the hall and cut the lashings, and raised
+the bars so that the sunlight came slanting in great beams. The dust
+danced in the light rays like a powder of tiny lives.
+
+Then Ulysses called the servants and bade them carry the bodies away.
+And he ordered Euryclea to wash the blood-stained floors, and to bring
+sulphur and torches that the place might be purified.
+
+And that night great beacons flared on the hills, and far out to sea
+the fishermen saw them and said, "Surely the king has come home
+again."
+
+And while the music rang though the lighted palace and the people
+passed before the gates shouting for joy, old Euryclea spread the
+marriage bed of the king by the light of flaming torches.
+
+And when all was prepared, the old nurse went to Ulysses and Penelope
+and led them to the door of the marriage chamber, as she had led them
+twenty years before.
+
+Then the music ceased in the palace halls and silence fell over all
+the house.
+
+
+
+
+A NOTE ON HOMER AND ULYSSES
+
+
+The uncertainty which prevails as to the actual birthplace of Homer
+also extends to the exact period at which he flourished. Doubts have
+been expressed by some modern scholars as to whether the poet ever
+existed as a personality. The view that the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ were
+not the work of an individual, but merely a collection of old folklore
+verse welded into a whole by many hands, made compact by ages, a
+self-born epic rising from crystallised tradition, is, however, not a
+tenable one, and need not be discussed here.
+
+As far as we are able to place the poet in his period correctly, we
+can say with some certainty that he flourished at a time between 800
+and 900 years before the birth of Christ.
+
+The Arundelian marbles fix his era at 907 years before the dawn of
+Christianity. About the life of the most ancient of all poets nothing
+whatever is known. There is a tradition that he had a school of
+followers in the Island of Chios, and we have early records of
+celebrations held there in his honour every few years. But no proof
+whatever exists of the truth of the supposition, though up to quite
+modern times the islanders maintained and believed in it.
+
+In the same way must be treated the story of Homer's blindness. It is
+a legend which cannot be proved or disproved. Yet at a time when
+literature must have been almost purely oral, his blindness need have
+been no bar to the exercise of his talent. It has been said, and the
+theory is at least an interesting one, that the music and sonance of
+Homer's lines came from the fact that they were composed to be
+_spoken_ rather than _read_. That the blindness of Milton did not in
+any way detract from the grandeur of his verse is an undoubted fact,
+and yet Milton had to _speak_ every line before he could have it
+recorded by others.
+
+We can deduce something of Homer from his work. That he must have been
+a travelled man seems indubitable. To this day the modern Ulysses or
+Menelaus, standing on the bridge of his tramp steamer, can see the
+headlands, islands, and capes, unchanged from 3000 years ago. That
+Homer was a man of deep feeling, was possessed of the "artistic
+temperament" in a very marked degree, seems equally clear. Nothing can
+be more delicate and touching than his handling of Penelope. Other
+ancient writers have represented the wife of Ulysses as an abandoned
+harlot, and said that her husband repudiated her for incontinence
+during his absence. Homer, with a far surer, finer touch, made her a
+model for wives to emulate and husbands to desire. The whole of the
+home-coming scenes in the _Odyssey_ could only have been written by a
+man who was no mere materialist.
+
+When Homer wrote, human nature was much less profound a thing than it
+has since become. And yet, though men's motives were entirely
+different, men's actions sprang from less subtle causes than now.
+Homer was a psychologist of the first class. He knew his fellow-men.
+In all Romance no one can point to a finer and more consistent
+character-study than that of Ulysses. Shakespeare has drawn no more
+vivid picture of a single temperament. Homer must have mixed with
+mankind, observed them closely, been an acute and untiring observer.
+
+The absolutely original temper of his mind is extraordinary. For we
+must remember that Homer could hardly have had any models to inform
+his choice of subjects or direct his style. Yet none of his
+imitators, and there have been many, were able, even in their
+happiest moments, even to approach him. As he was the first poet, so
+he was the greatest, and we may well conclude he will remain so until
+men themselves are things of the past.
+
+In the ancient world, when we get into the actual periods of recorded
+history, we find a worship of Homer universally existing. His works
+reposed under the pillow of Alexander together with the sword which
+had made him great. The conqueror enshrined the _Iliad_ in the richest
+casket of the vanquished Persian king. Altars smoked in Homer's honour
+all over Greece, he was venerated as a god. But speculations about
+Homer have, after all, but little value. We know nothing, and we shall
+never now know anything about him.
+
+He remains a glorious and mysterious fact. We have the priceless
+legacy of this Being, and that is enough.
+
+
+ULYSSES
+
+Even Euclid, the inventor of concrete logical processes, is forced to
+begin with axioms and definitions that are absurd. Once allow them,
+and everything proceeds to a brilliant triumph of mentality; but in
+order to build a basis in a vacuum, one has to swallow a dose of
+nonsense first.
+
+It must be confessed that in order to estimate the character-drawing
+employed by Homer to create Ulysses, we must swallow the supernatural
+influences which surrounded him. Put them out of the question and the
+hero lacks perspective and becomes a doll. Let it be granted that
+Minerva stood beside the wanderer. "Her clear and bared limbs
+o'erthwarted with the brazen-headed spear." Let us but believe with
+Homer that the careless Gods lie beside their nectar on the hill, and
+hurl their bolts far below into the valleys of men, then the man
+Ulysses shines out clear and full of colour, an absolute achievement
+in Art.
+
+An ancient Norse pick-axe has been discovered, bearing the following
+inscription:--
+
+    "_Either I will find a way or make one_,"
+
+and a broken helmet was once found in Battle Abbey, engraved with this
+crest:--
+
+    "_L'espoir est ma force._"
+
+The Master Mariner might have owned them both. The first quality which
+we marvel at in our analysis of Ulysses' character is the
+extraordinary _resource_ which he displays throughout all his
+wanderings. His qualities of passive endurance, his enormous courage,
+his mental agility--the very cream of cunning, are all component parts
+of his unfailing readiness to take sudden advantage of his
+opportunity. For him all tides were at flood to lead on to fortune.
+
+Charybdis sucks down his stout ship into the womb of the sea, he makes
+a raft of the restored keel.
+
+He estimates the brain power of the stupid Cyclops at its exact value,
+and escapes the vengeance of his companions by a pun. And there is a
+well-defined touch of fatalism in Ulysses also. When the irreparable
+blunder has been committed by his sailors, and Apollo's sacred beeves
+are smoking on the spit, he knows that he and all his men must pay
+heavily for their disregard of Circe's warning. It is inevitable.
+Nothing can turn aside the coming anger of the Sun-God. So Ulysses,
+being hungry, though innocent of the initial sacrilege, makes his
+unhallowed meal with the rest. He must endure the pain, so plucks the
+pelf also. To enlarge upon his courage and endurance were unnecessary.
+The _Odyssey_ is one long pæan of them both. His sagacity is manifest
+so vividly in all his actions that even Zeus, father of Heaven, says
+to Athene, "_No, daughter, I could never forget Ulysses, the wisest
+worldling of them all_." But what of Ulysses as a Sybarite? The hero
+"Mulierose," to borrow from the _Cloister and the Hearth_, the lover
+of ladies, "propt on beds of amaranth and moly," while white enchanted
+arms hold him a willing captive? I have heard it remarked that here
+the Ionian father of poets has gone astray. People have said to me
+that Ulysses loved his wife too well to dwell contented on the spicy
+downs of Lotos Land, that he was too taut and hardy a man. But Homer
+did not err in his study of temperament.
+
+How can one judge the man of 3000 years ago by the standards of
+to-day? In the ages when hosts joined in battle for the fair body of
+Helen men looked on women with other eyes than ours. Heaven and hell
+were very material places, pleasure was a very material, tangible,
+understandable thing and a lovely woman a gift from the Gods.
+
+Ulysses strove for Ithaca through storm and wrack, and when Fortune
+sent him to Calypso, or beached his ship on Circe's fairy isle, he was
+content to rest a little while. He yielded, like others of the wise.
+Socrates studied under Aspasia, and Aspasia ruled the world under the
+name of Pericles.
+
+It is in trying to fit the temperament of an ancient to a modern that
+the majority of people must always fail to understand a great piece of
+contemporary literature. One may sift the instances of modern
+temperament and comment on them, but one should not try to mould the
+residue into a like form. The Bible story paints King David, for
+example, as a truculent, bloodthirsty, canting monster--a complete
+portrait. The immorality and stupidity lies in trying to reconcile his
+Old Testament enormities with the revelations of the New.
+
+So with Ulysses, Circe, Calypso, Nausicaa, and even in later years the
+legendary Erippe, all fall truly, artistically and naturally into the
+mosaic of the hero's life.
+
+One interesting point in the pleasure-loving side of Ulysses' nature
+should by no means be disregarded. Not only did he take eagerly such
+joys as the Fates apportioned, but he was a true and discriminating
+Sybarite.
+
+We find him taking stringent precautions against disaster from the
+Sirens, yet determined to enjoy the luxury of their song. It is a
+pleasure not to be missed and not to be paid for. In after years we
+may imagine him relating his unique and delicious experience to his
+friends with an undoubted complacency.
+
+In the commendable and ancient virtues of filial love, a cardinal
+virtue in the old world, a forgotten duty to-day, Ulysses was
+singularly strong. His tenderest inquiries in Hades, the most
+passionate expressions of affection, are protested to the shade of
+Anticlea, his mother. One of the most touching scenes in the _Odyssey_
+is the meeting between Ulysses and Laertes, his father, after the long
+wanderings are over. "_He flung his arms around his father and cried
+out, 'Oh, my father, I am here indeed once more. I have come back to
+you at last! Dry your tears, for mine is the victory.'_"
+
+A many-sided man. Hard as a diamond and as bright, with every facet in
+his many-sided nature cut and polished by the hand of a master.
+
+                                                    C. R. G.
+
+
+THE END
+
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+Transcriber's Note
+
+The author's surname is hyphenated throughout this book, although the
+Library of Congress lists his name without the hyphen.
+
+The author varies slightly from _The Odyssey_ in places--for instance,
+the number of years Ulysses remains with Calypso. These variations are
+preserved as written.
+
+There is no page number reference on the illustration facing page 83.
+
+The author uses some variant spelling which is preserved as printed.
+This includes Phoeacians, Vergil, Melesegenes, dogrells, both Græcian
+and Grecian, and both lotos and lotus. These latter two variations
+appear in different sections of the book, so may well be deliberate on
+the part of the author.
+
+Minor punctuation errors have been repaired. The following amendments
+have also been made:
+
+    Page 10--discrimena amended to discrimina--Per varios casus
+    per tot discrimina rerum ...
+
+    Page 32--smiled amended to smile--A cruel smile played on his
+    face.
+
+    Page 74--ago years amended to years ago--It was nine years ago
+    that the pale gaunt waif of the sea ...
+
+    Page 94--iufluence amended to influence--There was some
+    strange influence in the air ...
+
+The frontispiece illustration has been moved to follow the title page.
+Other illustrations have been moved where necessary so that they are
+not in the middle of a paragraph.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Ulysses the Wanderer, by 
+Cyril Arthur Edward Ranger Gull
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41935 ***