"After her I saw Iphimedeia wife
of Aloeus who boasted the embrace of Poseidon. She bore two sons Otus
and Ephialtes, but both were short lived. They were the finest
children that were ever born in this world, and the best looking,
Orion only excepted; for at nine years old they were nine fathoms
high, and measured nine cubits round the chest. They threatened to
make war with the gods in Olympus, and tried to set Mount Ossa on the
top of Mount Olympus, and Mount Pelion on the top of Ossa, that they
might scale heaven itself, and they would have done it too if they
had been grown up, but Apollo, son of Leto, killed both of them,
before they had got so much as a sign of hair upon their cheeks or
chin.
"Then I saw Phaedra, and Procris,
and fair Ariadne daughter of the magician Minos, whom Theseus was
carrying off from Crete to Athens, but he did not enjoy her, for
before he could do so Artemis killed her in the island of Dia on
account of what Bacchus had said against her.
"I also saw Maira and Klymene and
hateful Eriphyle, who sold her own husband for gold. But it would
take me all night if I were to name every single one of the wives and
daughters of heroes whom I saw, and it is time
[hôra] for me to go to bed, either on board ship
with my crew, or here. As for my escort, heaven and yourselves will
see to it."
Here he ended, and the guests sat
all of them enthralled and speechless throughout the covered room.
Then Arete said to them:
Homer. The Odyssey. Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original. Samuel Butler. Based on public domain edition, revised by Timothy Power and Gregory Nagy. A. C. Fifield, London. 1900 (?).
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