In four days he had completed the
whole work, and on the fifth Calypso sent him from the island after
washing him and giving him some clean clothes. She gave him a goat
skin full of black wine, and another larger one of water; she also
gave him a wallet full of provisions, and found him in much good
meat. Moreover, she made the wind fair and warm for him, and gladly
did Odysseus spread his sail before it, while he sat and guided the
raft skillfully by means of the rudder. He never closed his eyes, but
kept them fixed on the Pleiads, on late-setting Boötes, and on
the Bear - which men also call the Wain, and which turns round and
round where it is, facing Orion, and alone never dipping into the
stream of Okeanos - for Calypso had told him to keep this to his
left. Seventeen days did he sail over the sea, and on the eighteenth
the dim outlines of the mountains on the nearest part of the
Phaeacian coast appeared, rising like a shield on the
horizon.
But lord Poseidon, who was
returning from the Ethiopians, caught sight of Odysseus a long way
off, from the mountains of the Solymi. He could see him sailing upon
the sea, and it made him very angry, so he wagged his head and
muttered to himself, saying, heavens, so the gods have been changing
their minds about Odysseus while I was away in Ethiopia, and now he
is close to the land of the Phaeacians, where it is decreed that he
shall escape from the calamities that have befallen him. Still, he
shall have plenty of hardship yet before he has done with
it."
Thereon he gathered his clouds
together, grasped his trident, stirred it round in the sea, and
roused the rage of every wind that blows till earth, sea, and sky
were hidden in cloud, and night sprang forth out of the heavens.
Winds from East, South, North, and West fell upon him all at the same
time, and a tremendous sea got up, so that Odysseus’ heart began
to fail him. "Alas," he said to himself in his dismay, "what ever
will become of me? I am afraid Calypso was right when she said I
should have trouble by sea before I got back home. It is all coming
true. How black is Zeus making heaven with his clouds, and what a sea
the winds are raising from every quarter at once. I am now safe to
perish. Blest and thrice blest were those Danaans who fell before
Troy in the cause of [kharis] the sons of Atreus.
Would that had been killed on the day when the Trojans were pressing
me so sorely about the dead body of Achilles, for then I should have
had due burial and the Achaeans would have honored my name
[kleos]; but now it seems that I shall come to a most
pitiable end."
As he spoke a sea broke over him
with such terrific fury that the raft reeled again, and he was
carried overboard a long way off. He let go the helm, and the force
of the wind was so great that it broke the mast half way up, and both
sail and yard went over into the sea. For a long time Odysseus was
under water, and it was all he could do to rise to the surface again,
for the clothes Calypso had given him weighed him down; but at last
he got his head above water and spat out the bitter brine that was
running down his face in streams. In spite of all this, however, he
did not lose sight of his raft, but swam as fast as he could towards
it, got hold of it, and climbed on board again so as to escape
drowning. The sea took the raft and tossed it about as Autumn winds
whirl thistledown round and round upon a road. (It was as though the
South, North, East, and West winds were all at once tossing it back
and forth.)
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