Book XXIII

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 perished, he alone escaped with life. And how he reached Ogygia’s isle, he told, And met the nymph Calypso, who desired That he would be her husband, and long time Detained and fed him in her vaulted grot, And promised that he ne’er should die, nor know Decay of age, through all the days to come; Yet moved she not the purpose of his heart.