The Odyssey
took my bow, and told Eurylochus to come back with me and shew me the
way. But he laid hold of me with both his hands and spoke piteously,
saying, ‘Sir, do not force me to go with you, but let me stay here, for
I know you will not bring one of them back with you, nor even return
alive yourself; let us rather see if we cannot escape at any rate with
the few that are left us, for we may still save our lives.’
“‘Stay where you are, then,’ answered I, ‘eating and drinking at the
ship, but I must go, for I am most urgently bound to do so.’
“With this I left the ship and went up inland. When I got through the
charmed grove, and was near the great house of the enchantress Circe, I
met Mercury with his golden wand, disguised as a young man in the
hey-day of his youth and beauty with the down just coming upon his
face. He came up to me and took my hand within his own, saying, ‘My
poor unhappy man, whither are you going over this mountain top, alone
and without knowing the way? Your men are shut up in Circe’s pigstyes,
like so many wild boars in their lairs. You surely do not fancy that
you can set them free? I can tell you that you will never get back and
will have to stay there with the rest of them. But never mind, I will
protect you and get you out of your difficulty. Take this herb, which
is one of great virtue, and keep it about you when you go to Circe’s
house, it will be a talisman to you against every kind of mischief.
“‘And I will tell you of all the wicked witchcraft that Circe will try
to practice upon you. She will mix a mess for you to drink, and she
will drug the meal with which she makes it, but she will not be able to
charm you, for the virtue of the herb that I shall give you will
prevent her spells from working. I will tell you all about it. When
Circe strikes you with her wand, draw your sword and spring upon her as
though you were going to kill her. She will then be frightened, and
will desire you to go to bed with her; on this you must not point blank
refuse her, for you want her to set your companions free, and to take
good care also of yourself, but you must make her swear solemnly by all
the blessed gods that she will plot no further mischief against you, or
else when she has got you naked she will unman you and make you fit for
nothing.’
“As he spoke he pulled the herb out of the ground and shewed me what it
was like. The root was black, while the flower was as white as milk;
the gods call it Moly, and mortal men cannot uproot it, but the gods
can do whatever they like.
“Then Mercury went back to high Olympus passing over the wooded island;
but I fared onward to the house of Circe, and my heart was clouded with
care as I walked along. When I got to the gates I stood there and
called the goddess, and as soon as she heard me she came down, opened
the door, and asked me to come in; so I followed her—much troubled in
my mind. She set me on a richly decorated seat inlaid with silver,
there was a footstool also under my feet, and she mixed a mess in a
golden goblet for me to drink; but she drugged it, for she meant me
mischief. When she had given it me, and I had drunk it without its
charming me, she struck me with her wand. ‘There now,’ she cried, ‘be
off to the pigstye, and make your lair with the rest of them.’
“But I rushed at her with my sword drawn as though I would kill her,
whereon she fell with a loud scream, clasped my knees, and spoke
piteously, saying, ‘Who and whence are you? from what place and people
have you come? How can it be that my drugs have no power to charm you?
Never yet was any man able to stand so much as a taste of the herb I
gave you; you must be spell-proof; surely you can be none other than
the bold hero Ulysses, who Mercury always said would come here some day
with his ship while on his way home from Troy; so be it then; sheathe
your sword and let us go to bed, that we may make friends and learn to
trust each other.’
“And I answered, ‘Circe, how can you expect me to be friendly with you
when you have just been turning all my men into pigs? And now that you
have got me here myself, you mean me mischief when you ask me to go to
bed with you, and will unman me and make me fit for nothing. I shall
certainly not consent to go to bed with you unless you will first take
your solemn oath to plot no further harm against me.’
“So she swore at once as I had told her, and when she had completed her
oath then I went to bed with her.
“Meanwhile her four servants, who are her housemaids, set about their
work. They are the children of the groves and fountains, and of the
holy waters that run down into the sea. One of them spread a fair
purple cloth over a seat, and laid a carpet underneath it. Another
brought tables of silver up to the seats, and set them with baskets of
gold. A third mixed some sweet wine with water in a silver bowl and put
golden cups upon the tables, while the fourth brought in water and set
it to boil in a large cauldron over a good fire which she had lighted.
When the water in the cauldron was boiling,87 she poured cold into it
till it was just as I liked it, and then she set me in a bath and began
washing me from the cauldron about the head and shoulders, to take the
tire and stiffness out of my limbs. As soon as she had done washing me
and anointing me with oil, she arrayed me in a good cloak and shirt and
led me to a richly decorated seat inlaid with silver; there was a
footstool also under my feet. A maid servant then brought me water in a
beautiful golden ewer and poured it into a silver basin for me to wash
my hands, and she drew a clean table beside me; an upper servant
brought me bread and offered me many things of what there was in the
house, and then Circe bade me eat, but I would not, and sat without
heeding what was before me, still moody and suspicious.
“When Circe saw me sitting there without eating, and in great grief,
she came to me and said, ‘Ulysses, why do you sit like that as though
you were dumb, gnawing at your own heart, and refusing both meat and
drink? Is it that you are still suspicious? You ought not to be, for I
have already sworn solemnly that I will not hurt you.’
“And I said, ‘Circe, no man with any sense of what is right can think
of either eating or drinking in your house until you have set his
friends free and let him see them. If you want me to eat and drink, you
must free my men and bring them to me that I may see them with my own
eyes.’
“When I had said this she went straight through the court with her wand
in her hand and opened the pigstye doors. My men came out like so many
prime hogs and stood looking at her, but she went about among them and
anointed each with a second drug, whereon the bristles that the bad
drug had given them fell off, and they became men again, younger than
they were before, and much taller and better looking. They knew me at
once, seized me each of them by the hand, and wept for joy till the
whole house was filled with the sound of their halloa-ballooing, and
Circe herself was so sorry for them that she came up to me and said,
‘Ulysses, noble son of Laertes, go back at once to the sea where you
have left your ship, and first draw it on to the land. Then, hide all
your ship’s gear and property in some cave, and come back here with
your men.’
“I agreed to this, so I went back to the sea shore, and found the men
at the ship weeping and wailing most piteously. When they saw me the
silly blubbering fellows began frisking round me as calves break out
and gambol round their mothers, when they see them coming home to be
milked after they have been feeding all day, and the homestead resounds
with their lowing. They seemed as glad to see me as though they had got
back to their own rugged Ithaca, where they had been born and bred.
‘Sir,’ said the affectionate creatures, ‘we are as glad to see you back
as though we had got safe home to Ithaca; but tell us all about the
fate of our comrades.’
“I spoke comfortingly to them and said, ‘We must draw our ship on to
the land, and hide the ship’s gear with all our property in some cave;
then come with me all of you as fast as you can to Circe’s house, where
you will find your comrades eating and drinking in the midst of great
abundance.’
“On this the men would have come with me at once, but Eurylochus tried
to hold them back and said, ‘Alas, poor wretches that we are, what will
become of us? Rush not on your ruin by going to the house of Circe, who
will turn us all into pigs or wolves or lions, and we shall have to
keep guard over her house. Remember how the Cyclops treated us when our
comrades went inside his cave, and Ulysses with them. It was all
through his sheer folly that those men lost their lives.’
“When I heard him I was in two minds whether or no to draw the keen
blade that hung by my sturdy thigh and cut his head off in spite of his
being a near relation of my own; but the men interceded for him and
said, ‘Sir, if it may so be, let this fellow stay here and mind the
ship, but take the rest of us with you to Circe’s house.’
“On this we all went inland, and Eurylochus was not left behind after
all, but came on too, for he was frightened by the severe reprimand
that I had given him.
“Meanwhile Circe had been seeing that the men who had been left behind
were washed and anointed with olive oil; she had also given them
woollen cloaks and shirts, and when we came we found them all
comfortably at dinner in her house. As soon as the men saw each other
face to face and knew one another, they wept for joy and cried aloud
till the whole palace rang again. Thereon Circe came up to me and said,
‘Ulysses, noble son of Laertes, tell your men to leave off crying; I
know how much you have all of you suffered at sea, and how ill you have
fared among cruel savages on the mainland, but that is over now, so
stay here, and eat and drink till you are once more as strong and
hearty as you were when you left Ithaca; for at present you are
weakened both in body and mind; you keep all the time thinking of the
hardships you have suffered during your travels, so that you have no
more cheerfulness left in you.’
“Thus did she speak and we assented. We stayed with Circe for a whole
twelvemonth feasting upon an untold quantity both of meat and wine. But
when the year had passed in the waning of moons and the long days had
come round, my men called me apart and said, ‘Sir, it is time you began
to think about going home, if so be you are to be spared to see your
house and native country at all.’
“Thus did they speak and I assented. Thereon through the livelong day
to the going down of the sun we feasted our fill on meat and wine, but
when the sun went down and it came on dark the men laid themselves down
to sleep in the covered cloisters. I, however, after I had got into bed
with Circe, besought her by her knees, and the goddess listened to what
I had got to say. ‘Circe,’ said I, ‘please to keep the promise you made
me about furthering me on my homeward voyage. I want to get back and so
do my men, they are always pestering me with their complaints as soon
as ever your back is turned.’
“And the goddess answered, ‘Ulysses, noble son of Laertes, you shall
none of you stay here any longer if you do not want to, but there is
another journey which you have got to take before you can sail
homewards. You must go to the house of Hades and of dread Proserpine to
consult the ghost of the blind Theban prophet Teiresias, whose reason
is still unshaken. To him alone has Proserpine left his understanding
even in death, but the other ghosts flit about aimlessly.’
“I was dismayed when I heard this. I sat up in bed and wept, and would
gladly have lived no longer to see the light of the sun, but presently