The goddess gave the veil as thus she spoke, And to the tossing deep went down, in form A cormorant; the black wave covered her. But still Ulysses, mighty sufferer, Pondered, and thus to his great soul he said:—
“Ah me! perhaps some god is planning here Some other fraud against me, bidding me Forsake my raft. I will not yet obey, For still far off I see the land in which ’Tis said my refuge lies. This will I do, For this seems wisest. While the fastenings last That hold these timbers, I will keep my place And bide the tempest here; but when the waves Shall dash my raft in pieces, I will swim, For nothing better will remain to do.”
As he revolved this purpose in his mind, Earthshaking Neptune sent a mighty wave, Horrid and huge and high, and where he sat It smote him.
As a violent wind uplifts The dry chaff heaped upon a threshing-floor, And sends it scattered through the air abroad, So did that wave fling loose the ponderous beams.
To one of these, Ulysses, clinging fast, Bestrode it, like a horseman on his steed; And now he took the garments off, bestowed By fair Calypso, binding round his breast The veil, and forward plunged into the deep, With palms outspread, prepared to swim.
Meanwhile Neptune beheld him—Neptune, mighty king— And shook his head, and said within himself:—
“Go thus, and laden with mischances roam The waters till thou come among the race Cherished by Jupiter, but well I deem Thou wilt not find thy share of suffering light.”
Thus having said he urged his coursers on, With their fair-flowing manes, until he came To Aegae, where his glorious palace stands.