“ ‘Why art thou here? What god thine enemy Pursues thee, O Ulysses! whom we sent So well prepared to reach thy native land, Thy home, or any place that pleased thee most?’
“They spake, and sorrowfully I replied:— ‘The fault is all with my unthinking crew And my own luckless slumber. Yet, my friends, Repair the mischief, for ye have the power.’
“Thus with submissive words I spake, but they Sat mute, the father only answered me:—
“ ‘Hence with thee! Leave our island instantly, Vilest of living men! It may not be That I receive or aid as he departs One who is hated by the blessed gods— And thou art hated by the gods. Away!’
“He spake, and sent us from the palace-door Lamenting. Sorrowfully went we on. And now with rowing hard and long—the fruit Of our own folly—all our crews lost heart, And every hope of safe return was gone.
“Six days and nights we sailed; the seventh we came To lofty Laestrigoni with wide gates, The city of Lamos, where, on going forth, The shepherd calls to shepherd entering in. There might a man who never yields to sleep Earn double wages, first in pasturing herds, And then in tending sheep; for there the fields Grazed in the daytime are by others grazed At night. We reached its noble haven, girt By towering rocks that rise on every side, And the bold shores run out to form its mouth— A narrow entrance. There the other crews Stationed their barques, and moored them close beside Each other, in that hill-encircled port. No billow, even the smallest, rises there; The water glimmers with perpetual calm. I only kept my dark-hulled ship without, And bound its cable to a jutting rock.
“I climbed a rugged headland, and looked forth. No marks of tilth appeared, the work of men Or oxen, only smokes that from below Rose in the air. And then I sent forth scouts To learn what race of men who