The aged dame withdrew to take her rest In her own chamber, while Eurynomè, Who kept the royal bower, upheld a torch And thither led the pair, and, when they both Were in the chamber, went her way. They took Their place delighted in the ancient bed. The prince, the herdsman, and the swineherd ceased Meantime to tread the dance, and bade the maids Cease also, and within the palace-rooms Dark with night’s shadow, sought their place of rest. Then came the time of pleasant mutual talk, In which that noblest among women spake Of wrongs endured beneath her roof from those Who came to woo her—an insatiate crew— Who made of beeves and fatlings of the flock Large slaughter, and drained many a wine-cask dry. Then nobly born Ulysses told what woes His valor brought on other men; what toils And suffering he had borne; he told her all, And she, delighted, heard him, nor did sleep Light on her eyelids till his tale was done.
And first he told her how he overcame The people of Ciconia; how he passed Thence to the rich fields of the race who feed Upon the lotus; what the Cyclops did, And how upon the Cyclops he avenged The death of his brave comrades, whom the wretch Had piteously slaughtered and devoured. And how he came to Aeolus, and found A friendly welcome, and was sent by him Upon his voyage; yet ’twas not his fate To reach his native land; a tempest caught His fleet, and far across the fishy deep Bore him away, lamenting bitterly. And how he landed at Telepylus, Among the Laestrigonians, who destroyed His ships and warlike comrades, he alone In his black ship escaping. Then he told Of Circè, her deceit and many arts, And how he went to Pluto’s dismal realm In his good galley, to consult the soul Of him of Thebes, Tiresias, and beheld All his lost comrades and his mother—her Who brought him forth, and trained him when a child. And how he heard the Sirens afterward, And how he came upon the wandering rocks, The terrible Charybdis, and the crags Of Scylla—which no man had ever passed In safety; how his comrades slew for food The oxen of the Sun; how Jupiter, The Thunderer, with a bolt of fire from heaven Smote his swift barque; and how his gallant crew All