headlong, and were tossed upon the waves Like seamews round our galley, which the God Forbade them to regain. But Jupiter Gave to my hands, bewildered as I was, Our dark-prowed galley’s mast, unbroken yet, That by its aid I might escape. I wound My arms around it, and the raging winds Swept me along. Nine days they bore me on, And on the tenth dark night a mighty surge Drifted me, as it rolled, upon the coast Of the Thesprotians. There the hero-king Of the Thesprotians freely sheltered me And fed me; for his well-beloved son Had found me overcome with cold and toil, And took me by the hand and raised me up, And led me to his father’s house, and gave Seemly attire, a tunic and a cloak.
“There heard I of Ulysses. Pheidon told How he received him as a guest and friend, When on his homeward voyage. Then he showed The wealth Ulysses gathered, brass and gold, And steel divinely wrought. That store might serve To feed, until ten generations pass, Another household. But the chief himself, So Pheidon said, was at Dodona then; For he had gone to hear from the tall oak Of Jupiter the counsel of the God, Whether to land in opulent Ithaca, After long years of absence, openly Or in disguise. The monarch took an oath In his own palace, pouring to the gods Their wine, that even then the ship was launched, And the