CXXV Odyssea
Ulysses cum ab Ilio in patriam Ithacam rediret tempestate ad Ciconas est delatus, quorum oppidum Ismarum expugnavit praedamque sociis distribuit. Inde ad Lotophagos homines minime malos, qui loton †ex foliis flore procreatum edebant, [id] qui cibus tantam suavitatem praestabat, ut qui gustabant oblivionem caperent domum reditionis. ad eos socii duo missi ab Ulysse, cum gustarent herbas ab eis datas, ad naves obliti sunt reverti; quos vinctos ipse reduxit. Inde ad Cyclopem Polyphemum Neptuni filium. huic responsum erat ab augure Telemo Eurimi filio ut caveret ne ab Ulysse excaecaretur: hic ⟨in⟩ media fronte unum oculum habebat et carnem humanam epulabatur: qui postquam pecus in speluncam redegerat molem saxeam ingentem ad ianuam opponebat. qui Ulyssem cum sociis inclusit sociosque eius consumere coepit. Ulysses cum videret eius immanitati atque feritati resistere se non posse, vino quod a Marone acceperat eum inebriavit seque Utin vocari dixit. itaque cum oculum eius trunco ardenti exureret, ille clamore suo c[a]eteros Cyclopas convocavit eisque spelunca praeclusa dixit ‘Utis me excaecat’. illi credentes eum deridendi gratia dicere neglexerunt. at Ulysses socios suos ad pecora alligavit et ipse se ad arietem, et ita exierunt. Ad Aeolum †Hellenis filium, cui ab Iove ventorum potestas fuit tradita. is Ulyssem hospitio libere accepit follesque ventorum ei plenos muneri dedit: socii vero aurum argentumque credentes eum accepisse inter se cum partiri vellent folles clam solverunt ventique evolaverunt. Rursum ad Aeolum est delatus, a quo eiectus est, quod videbatur [Ulysses] numen deorum infestum habere. Ad Laestrygonas, quorum rex fuit Antiphates ** devoravit, navesque eius [undecim] confregit, excepta ⟨una⟩ nave, qua sociis eius consumptis evasit. In insulam Aenariam ad Circen Solis filiam, quae potione data homines in feras bestias commutabat. ad quam Eurylochum cum viginti duobus sociis misit quos illa ab humana specie immutavit. Eurylochus, timens qui non intraverat, inde fugit et Ulyssi nuntiavit; qui solus ad eam se contulit: sed in itinere Mercurius ei remedium dedit monstravitque quomodo Circen deciperet. qui postquam ad Circen venit et poculum ab ea accepit remedium Mercurii monitu coniecit ensemque strinxit minatus nisi socios sibi restitueret se eam interfecturum. tunc Circe intellexit non sine [divina] voluntate deorum id esse factum: itaque fide data se nihil tale commissuram socios eius ad pristinam formam restituit, ipsa cum eodem concubuit, ex quo filios duos procreavit Nausithoum et Telegonum. Inde proficiscitur ad lacum Avernum ad inferos descendit ibique invenit Elpenorem socium suum quem ad Circen reliquerat, interrogavitque eum, quomodo eo pervenisset. cui Elpenor respondit se ebrium per scalam cecidisse et cervices fregisse; et deprecatus est eum, cum ad superos redisset, sepulturae traderet et sibi in tumulo gubernaculum poneret. ibi et cum matre Anticlia est locutus * de fine errationis suae. Deinde ad superos reversus Elpenorem sepelivit et gubernaculum ita ut rogaverat in tumulo ei fixit. Tum ad Sirenas Melpomenes musae et Acheloi filias venit, quae partem superiorem muliebrem habebant inferiorem autem gallinaceam. harum fatum fuit tamdiu vivere quamdiu earum cantum mortalis audiens nemo praetervectus esset. Ulysses monitus a Circe Solis filia sociis cera aures obturavit seque ad arborem mali constringi iussit et sic praetervectus est. Inde ad Scyllam Typhonis filiam venit, quae superiorem corporis ⟨partem⟩ muliebrem inferiorem ‘ab inguine’ piscis et sex canes ex se natos habebat, eaque sex socios Ulyssis nave abreptos consumpsit. In insulam Siciliam ad Solis pecus sacrum [venerat], quod socii eius cum coquerent, in aëno mugiebat: [monitus] id ne attingeret ab Tiresia et a Circe monitus Ulysses cum [Ulysses] condormiret, socii involarunt pecus; itaque cum coquerent, carnes ex aëno dabant balatus. ob id Iovis navem eius fulmine incendit. itaque †multos socios ob eam causam ibi amisit. Ad Charybdin, quae ter die obsorbebat terque eructabat: eo monitu Tiresiae praetervectus est; sed ira Solis perlatus, quod pecus eius erat violatum, cum in insulam eius venisset, ⟨lic⟩et monitu Tiresiae vetuerit violari. ex his locis errans, naufragio facto, sociis amissis, enatavit. In insulam Aeaeam * Calypso Atlantis filia nympha, quae specie Ulyssis capta anno toto eum retinuit neque a se dimittere voluit donec Mercurius Iovis iussu denuntiavit nymphae ut eum dimitteret. [et] ibi facta rate Calypso omnibus rebus ornatum eum dimisit*. eamque ratim Neptunus fluctibus disiecit, quod Cyclopem filium eius lumine privaverat. ibi cum fluctibus iactaretur, Leucothoe, quam nos matrem matutam dicimus, quae in mari exigit aevum, balteum ei dedit, quo sibi pectus suum vinciret, ne pessum abiret. quod cum fecisset enatavit. Inde in insulam Phaeacum venit nudusque ex arborum foliis se obruit, qua Nausicaa Alcinoi regis filia vestem ad flumen lavandam tulit. ille erepsit e foliis et ab ea petit ut sibi opem ferret. illa misericordia mota pallio eum operuit et ad patrem suum eum adduxit. Alcinous hospitio liberaliter acceptum donisque decoratum in patriam Ithacam demisit. [ira Mercurii iterum naufragium fecit.] post vicesimum annum sociis amissis solus in patriam redit. — Et cum ab omnibus ignoraretur domumque suam attigisset, procos qui Penelopen in coniugium petebant obsidentes vidit regiam seque hospitem simulavit: at Euryclia nutrix ipsius dum pedes ei lavat ex cicatrice Ulyssem esse cognovit. postea procos Minerva adiutrice cum Telemacho filio et duobus servis interfecit sagittis.
125. The Odyssey of Odysseus
When Odysseus was returning from Ilium to his homeland Ithaca, he was carried by a storm to the Cicones, whose town Ismarus he sacked, and divided the plunder among his comrades. From there to the Lotus-eaters, men by no means bad, who ate lotus, †produced from leaves by a flower, [that] a food which gave such sweetness that those who tasted it lost the memory of returning home. Two comrades sent by Odysseus to them, when they tasted the herbs given by them, forgot to return to the ships; he himself brought them back, bound. From there to the Cyclops Polyphemus, son of Poseidon. An oracle had been given to him by the seer Telemus, son of Eurymus, to beware lest he be blinded by Odysseus: he had one eye in the middle of his forehead and feasted on human flesh. After he had driven his flock into the cave he set a huge stone against the door. He shut Odysseus in with his comrades and began to eat his comrades. When Odysseus saw that he could not resist his savagery and ferocity, he made him drunk with wine which he had received from Maron and said that he was called Nobody (Utis). So, when he was burning out his eye with a burning stake, the Cyclops by his shouting summoned the other Cyclopes and said to them, the cave being shut: ‘Nobody is blinding me.’ They, thinking that he was saying it in order to mock them, took no notice. But Odysseus tied his comrades to the sheep and himself to the ram, and so they came out. To Aeolus, †son of Hellen, to whom the power of the winds had been given by Zeus. He received Odysseus generously and gave him as a gift bags full of winds; but his comrades, thinking he had received gold and silver, when they wished to share it among themselves, secretly untied the bags and the winds flew out. He was carried back to Aeolus, by whom he was driven away, because [Odysseus] seemed to have the gods' wrath against him. To the Laestrygonians, whose king was Antiphates ** devoured, and he smashed his ships [eleven], except ⟨one⟩ ship, in which he escaped, his comrades having been consumed. To the island of Aenaria, to Circe, daughter of the Sun, who by giving a drink changed people into wild beasts. To her he sent Eurylochus with twenty-two comrades, whom she changed from human shape. Eurylochus, fearing, since he had not gone in, fled from there and reported to Odysseus; he went to her alone: but on the way Hermes gave him a remedy and showed him how to deceive Circe. When he came to Circe and received a cup from her, he put in the remedy at Hermes' advice and drew his sword, threatening that unless she restored his comrades to him, he would kill her. Then Circe understood that this had not been done without [divine] will of the gods; so, giving her word that she would commit nothing of the sort, she restored his comrades to their former shape; she lay with him herself, and by him bore two sons, Nausithous and Telegonus. From there he set out to Lake Avernus, went down to the underworld, and there found his companion Elpenor, whom he had left with Circe, and asked him how he had got there. Elpenor replied that he had fallen drunk from a ladder and broken his neck; and he begged him, when he returned to the upper world, to bury him and to set a rudder (an oar) on his mound. There he also spoke with his mother Anticlea * about the end of his wandering. Then, returned to the upper world, he buried Elpenor and fixed the rudder on his mound, as he had asked. Then he came to the Sirens, daughters of the Muse Melpomene and of Achelous, who had the upper part of a woman and the lower of a hen. It was fated for them to live as long as no mortal sailed past hearing their song. Odysseus, warned by Circe, daughter of the Sun, stopped his comrades' ears with wax and ordered himself to be bound to the mast, and so sailed past. From there he came to Scylla, daughter of Typhon, who had the upper ⟨part⟩ of the body of a woman, and the lower, ‘from the groin’, of a fish, and six dogs born from herself, and she ate six of Odysseus' comrades, snatched from the ship. On the island of Sicily, to the sacred flock of the Sun [he had come], which, when his comrades cooked it, lowed in the cauldron: [warned] Odysseus, warned by Tiresias and by Circe not to touch it, while [Odysseus] was sleeping, his comrades pounced on the flock; so, when they were cooking, the meats gave bleatings from the cauldron. For this Zeus set his ship on fire with a thunderbolt. And so he lost †many comrades there for that reason. To Charybdis, who swallowed three times a day and belched three times: he sailed past her on the advice of Tiresias; but he was borne on by the wrath of the Sun, because his flock had been violated, when he came to his island, ⟨although⟩ on Tiresias' advice he had forbidden it to be violated. Wandering from these places, shipwrecked, his comrades lost, he swam out. To the island of Aeaea * Calypso, the nymph, daughter of Atlas, who, captivated by Odysseus' beauty, kept him a whole year and did not wish to let him go until Hermes, at Zeus' command, told the nymph to send him away. [and] There, having made a raft, Calypso sent him away furnished with everything *. And Poseidon scattered that raft with waves, because he had deprived his son the Cyclops of light. As he was tossed there by the waves, Leucothea, whom we call Mater Matuta, who spends her life in the sea, gave him a girdle, with which to bind his chest, that he might not go to the bottom. When he had done this he swam out. Then he came to the island of the Phaeacians and covered himself naked with leaves of trees, where Nausicaa, daughter of King Alcinous, had carried clothes to the river to wash. He crept out of the leaves and begged her to bring him help. She, moved by pity, covered him with a cloak and brought him to her father. Alcinous, having received him generously as a guest and honoured him with gifts, sent him back to his homeland, Ithaca. [In the anger of Hermes he again suffered shipwreck.] After the twentieth year, his comrades lost, he returned alone to his country. — And when he was unknown to all and had reached his house, he saw the suitors who were seeking Penelope in marriage besieging the palace, and pretended to be a guest; but his nurse Euryclea, while washing his feet, recognised from a scar that he was Odysseus. Afterwards, with Athena's help, with his son Telemachus and two servants, he killed the suitors with arrows.
CXXVI Ulyssis cognitio
Ulysses ab Alcinoo rege Nausic⟨a⟩ae patre cum esset muneribus dimissus naufragio facto nudus Ithacam pervenit ad quandam casam suam, ubi erat nomine Eumaeus sybotes [hoc est subulcus †pecoris]. quem canis cum agnosceret et ei blandiretur, Eumaeus eum non recognoscebat, quoniam Minerva eum et habitum eius commutaverat. Eumaeus eum rogavit unde esset. [et] ille ait, se naufragio huc pervenisse. quem cum pastor interrogaret, an Ulyssem vidisset, dixit se comitem eius esse et signa et argumenta coepit dicere. quem mox Eumaeus casa recepit, cibo potuque animavit. Quo cum venissent famuli missi solito more pecora petitum, et ille interrogasset Eumaeum qui essent, ait: ‘post Ulyssis profectionem cum iam tempus inter[in]cederet, proci Penelopen in coniugium petentes venerunt; quos illa conditione ita differt: „cum telam detexuero, nubam“ (quam interdiu * detexebat, et sic eos differebat). nunc autem illi cum ancillis Ulyssis discumbunt et pecora eius consumunt’. Tunc Minerva effigiem suam ei restituit: subito sybotes ut vidit Ulyssem esse tenens amplectensque lacrimari coepit prae gaudio et admirari quid esset illud quod eum immutaverat. cui Ulysses ait: ‘crastino die perduc me in regiam ad Penelopen’. quem cum duceret, Minerva ei iterum faciem mendici transformavit. Quem cum Eumaeus ad mnesteras perduxisset et cum ancillis ⟨illi⟩ discumberent, ait ad illos: ‘habetis ecce alterum mendicum, qui cum Iro vos delectet’. tunc Melanthius unus e mnesteribus ait: ‘imo inter se luctentur, et victor accipiet ventriculum fartum et harundinem, unde victum eiciat’. Qui cum luctati essent et Ulysses Irum applosisset atque eum eiecisset, Eumaeus in mendici persona Ulyssem ad Eurycliam nutricem perduxit dicitque eum socium Ulyssis fuisse, cui cum * vellet, Ulysses ei os compressit, atque Penelopen etiam praemonuit, ut arcum et sagittas eius daret procis, ut qui ex iis eum intendisset, eam uxorem duceret. quae cum fecit inter se certarent et nemo pos⟨se⟩t intendere, Eumaeus ait deridendi gratia: ‘demus **’ *non pateretur Melanthius, qui erat* *Eumaeus arcum seni tradidit. ille omnes procos confixit excepto Melanthio servo. is clam procis * deprehensus est. cui nares et brachia et reliquas partes membrorum minutatim secuit, [atque domum suam cum coniuge potitus est.] ancillas autem suas iussit corpora eorum ad mare deferre, in quas rogatu Penelopes post caedem procorum Ulysses animadvertit.
126. The recognition of Odysseus
When Odysseus had been sent away by King Alcinous, the father of Nausicaa, with gifts, he suffered shipwreck and came naked to Ithaca, to a certain hut of his own, where there was a man by name Eumaeus, a swineherd (sybotes) [that is, a pig-keeper †of the flock]. When the dog recognised him and fawned on him, Eumaeus did not recognise him, because Athena had changed him and his appearance. Eumaeus asked him where he was from. [And] he said that he had come here by shipwreck. When the herdsman asked him whether he had seen Odysseus, he said he was his companion and began to tell tokens and proofs. Eumaeus soon received him into the hut and refreshed him with food and drink. When the servants, sent in the usual way to fetch the flocks, had come there, and he asked Eumaeus who they were, he said: ‘After Odysseus' departure, when time was going by, suitors came seeking Penelope in marriage; she puts them off on this condition: “When I have unwoven my web, I shall marry” (which she unwove * by day, and so put them off). But now they dine with the women-servants of Odysseus and consume his flocks.’ Then Athena restored his own appearance to him; suddenly the swineherd, when he saw it was Odysseus, holding and embracing him, began to weep for joy and to wonder what it was that had changed him. Odysseus said to him: ‘Tomorrow lead me into the palace to Penelope.’ As he was leading him, Athena again changed his face into a beggar's. When Eumaeus had led him to the suitors (mnesteras), and they were dining with the maidservants, he said to them: ‘Here you have another beggar, who with Irus will entertain you.’ Then Melanthius, one of the suitors, said: ‘Rather let them wrestle among themselves, and the victor will get a stuffed paunch and a reed, with which to throw out the loser.’ When they had wrestled and Odysseus had felled Irus and thrown him out, Eumaeus led Odysseus, in the person of a beggar, to the nurse Euryclea and said that he had been a companion of Odysseus, to whom when * wished, Odysseus clamped his hand over her mouth, and also instructed Penelope to give his bow and arrows to the suitors, so that whoever of them strung it should have her as wife. When she did this, and they competed among themselves and no one was able to string it, Eumaeus said in mockery: ‘Let us give **’ *would not allow it, Melanthius, who was * *Eumaeus handed the bow to the old man. He shot all the suitors with arrows except the servant Melanthius. He was caught secretly * the suitors. He cut off his nose and arms and other parts of his limbs in small pieces, [and he took possession of his house with his wife.] He ordered his maidservants to carry their bodies to the sea; Odysseus punished them at Penelope's request after the slaying of the suitors.
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