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or according to others, to Sicily, or again around the Ocean and the Tyrrhenian Sea.
2After putting to sea from Ilion, he called in at Ismaros, a city of the Ciconians, and seized it by force of arms and pillaged it, sparing only Maron, who was a priest of Apollo. When the Ciconians who lived on the mainland came to hear of this, they armed themselves and advanced against him. Losing six men from each ship, he put to sea and fled.
3Landing at the country of the Lotos-Eaters, he sent some of his men to discover who the inhabitants were. But they tasted the lotos and remained where they were; for in that land, there grew a delicious fruit called the lotos, which caused those who tasted it to forget all else. When Odysseus learned of this, he kept the others back, and dragged the men who had tasted the lotos back to the ships by force. And he set sail for the land of the Cyclopes and approached its shore.
4Leaving the rest of his ships at the neighbouring island, he approached the land of the Cyclopes with only a single ship, and disembarked with twelve companions. Close to the sea there was a cave, which he entered, taking with him the wineskin that Maron had given him. This cave was owned by Polyphemos, who was a son of Poseidon and the nymph Thoosa; he was a man of enormous size, a savage man-eater with a single eye on his forehead. sLighting a fire, Odysseus and his companions sacrificed some of the kids and began to feast; but the Cyclops arrived, and after he had driven his flocks into the cave and placed a huge stone at its entrance, he caught sight of the men and devoured some of them. 6Odysseus gave him some of Maron’s wine to drink. He drank it down and asked for more, and then, when he had drunk for a second time, he asked Odysseus to tell him his name. Odysseus replied that he was called Nobody, and the Cyclops promised that he would kill Nobody last and the others before him: such was the gift of friendship that he promised him in return for the wine. And overcome by drunkenness he fell asleep.
7Odysseus found a club lying in the cave, and helped by four of his comrades, he sharpened its point, and then, after heating it in the fire, blinded the Cyclops with it. Polyphemos cried out to the neighbouring Cyclopes and they came to help; but when they asked who was hurting him, and he replied, ‘Nobody,’ they went away again, believing him to mean that he was being injured by nobody. 8When the flocks sought to leave for their usual pasture, he opened up the cave, and standing at the entrance, stretched out his hands to feel the sheep [as they passed]. But Odysseus tied three rams together and slipping beneath the largest of them, he hid under its belly and left with the sheep; and then, after releasing his companions from their sheep, he drove the animals to the ships, and as he was sailing away, shouted to the Cyclops that he was Odysseus and had escaped from his hands. 9Now the Cyclops had been warned by a diviner that he would be blinded by Odysseus, and when he heard the name, he tore rocks from the ground and hurled them into the sea; and the ship only just escaped them. It was these events that gave rise to Poseidon’s anger against Odysseus.
10Sailing to sea with all [his ships], he came to the island of Aiolia, where Aiolos was king. He had been appointed controller of the winds by Zeus, with power both to calm them and send them forth. After entertaining Odysseus as his guest, he gave him an oxhide bag in which he had imprisoned the winds, and when he had shown him which he should use on the voyage, he attached the bag securely to the ship. By making use of the appropriate winds, Odysseus had a successful passage, but when he drew close to Ithaca and could already see the smoke rising from the town, he fell asleep; 11and his companions, thinking that he was carrying gold in the bag, untied it, and released the winds. Swept away by the winds, they travelled back the way they had come. Odysseus went to Aiolos and asked him for a favourable wind, but Aiolos drove him from the island, saying that he was unable to save a man if the gods were working against him.
12So he sailed on until he arrived at the land of the Laistrygonians, [where he put in,] mooring his own ship last in the line. The Laistrygonians were cannibals and their king was Antiphates. Wanting to learn about the inhabitants, Odysseus sent some of his men to investigate; and the king’s daughter met with them and took them to her father. 13He grasped hold of one of them and swallowed him down, but the others fled, and he chased after them, shouting out to summon the rest of the Laistrygonians. And the Laistrygonians rushed down to the sea, where they broke up the vessels by hurling rocks at them, and devoured the men. Odysseus cut the cable of his ship and made his way out to sea, but all the other ships were lost together with their crews.
14Left with a single ship, he put in at the island of Aiaie, the home of Circe, a daughter of the Sun and Perse and sister of Aietes, who had knowledge of all manner of drugs. Separating his comrades into two groups, he himself remained by the ship in accordance with the lot, while Eurylochos went to visit Circe with twenty-two companions. 15At her invitation, all except Eurylochos went inside, and she offered each of them a cup that she had filled with cheese, honey, barleymeal, and wine, with a drug mixed in. And when they had drunk, she touched them with her wand and transformed them, turning some of them into wolves, and others into pigs, or asses, or lions.* 16Eurylochos saw everything and went to tell Odysseus. Obtaining some moly* from Hermes, Odysseus went to Circe and sprinkled it into her potions, so that when he drank from them, he alone escaped her enchantments. He drew his sword, with the intention of killing her, but Circe allayed his anger, and restored his comrades to their original form. After he had received an oath from her that she would cause him no harm, Odysseus went to bed with her, and she bore him a son, Telegonos.*
17After delaying there for a year, he sailed on the Ocean, and then, after offering sacrifices to the souls [of the dead], he consulted the diviner Teiresias as Circe had advised, and beheld the souls of heroes and heroines alike. He also saw his mother Anticleia, and Elpenor, who had died from a fall in Circe’s house.
18He then went back to Circe, who sent him on his way again; and putting out to sea, he sailed past the island of the Sirens. The Sirens* were daughters of Acheloos by Melpomene, one of the Muses, and their names were Peisinoe, Aglaope, and Thelxiepeia. One of them played the lyre, another sang, and the third played the flute, and by these means they caused passing sailors to want to remain with them. 19From the thighs down, they were shaped like birds. Now Odysseus wanted to hear their song as he sailed by; so following Circe’s advice, he plugged the ears of his comrades with wax, and ordered that he himself should be bound to the mast. And when the Sirens prevailed on him to want to stay with them, he pleaded to be released, but his men bound him all the more firmly, and in this way he sailed by. There was a prophecy that if a ship sailed past the Sirens, they themselves would die; so they duly perished.
20After this, Odysseus arrived at a point where he had a choice of two different routes. On one side were the Wandering Rocks, and on the other, two enormous cliffs. On one of these cliffs was Scylla, a daughter of Crataiis and Trienos or Phorcos, who had the face and chest of a woman, but from her flanks down, six heads and twelve dogs’ feet; 21and on the other was Charybdis, who sucked in the water and spewed it out again three times a day. On Circe’s instructions, he avoided the passage around the Wandering Rocks, and sailed past the cliff of Scylla, standing fully armed at the stern. Scylla appeared, snatched up six of his comrades, and devoured them.
22From there he went to Thrinacia, an island of the Sun, where cattle* were grazing; and held back by unfavourable weather, he remained there. When his companions slaughtered some of the cattle and feasted on them for want of food, the Sun reported the matter to Zeus; and when they set sail again, Zeus struck them with a thunderbolt. 23As the ship broke up, Odysseus clung to the mast and was carried towards Charybdis. But when Charybdis sucked down the mast, he seized hold of an overhanging fig tree and waited; and when he saw the mast rise up again, he threw himself on to it and was carried across the sea to the island of Ogygia.