their eyes were tired with wondering, My people washed their hands, and soon had made A noble banquet ready. All that day Till set of sun we sat and feasted there Upon the abundant meat and delicate wine; And when the sun went down, and darkness came, We slept upon the shore. But when the Morn, The rosy-fingered child of Dawn, looked forth, I called a council of my men and spake:—
“ ‘Give ear, my friends, amid your sufferings, To words that I shall say. We cannot here Know which way lies the west, nor where the east, Nor where the sun, that shines for all mankind, Descends below the earth, nor where again He rises from it. Yet will we consult, If room there be for counsel—which I doubt, For when I climbed that height I overlooked An isle surrounded by the boundless deep— An isle low lying. In the midst I saw Smoke rising from a thicket of the wood.’
“I spake; their courage died within their hearts As they remembered what Antiphates, The Laestrigon, had done, and what foul deeds The cannibal Cyclops, and they wept aloud. Tears flowed abundantly, but tears were now Of no avail to our unhappy band.
“Numbering my well-armed men, I made of them Two equal parties, giving each its chief. Myself commanded one; Eurylochus, The hero, took the other in his charge.
“Then in a brazen helm we shook the lots; The lot of brave Eurylochus leaped forth, And he with two-and-twenty of our men Went forward with quick steps, and yet in tears, While we as sorrowful were left behind.
“They found the fair abode where Circè dwelt, A palace of hewn stone within the vale, Yet nobly seated. There were mountain wolves And lions round it, which herself had tamed With powerful drugs; yet these assaulted not The visitors, but, wagging their long tails, Stood on their hinder feet, and fawned on them, Like mastiffs on their master when he