Instead the Sirens’ tempt him with their limpid song, as they sit there in the meadow with a vast heap of mouldering corpses, bones on which hangs the shrivelled skin.
Whoever encounters them unawares and listens to their voices will never joy at reaching home, his wife and children to greet him. Next you will come to the Sirens who beguile all men that approach them. Well listen now to what I tell you, and let some god remind you of it. ‘Then royal Circe said: “So, it all came to pass. I related it all in proper sequence.’īk XII:36-110 Odysseus tells his tale: Circe’s advice When the sun went down and darkness fell, my men lay down to sleep by the ships’ cables, but Circe took my hand and led me apart from my friends, and made me sit down and tell the tale, as she lay there beside me. To this our proud hearts yielded, and all day long till the sun set we feasted on ample meat and wine. Eat then and drink here today, but when Dawn comes set sail, and I will show the way and explain the course so you can avoid pain and suffering on sea or land for lack of a decent plan.” She stood there in the centre, and addressed us: “Resolute men, to have gone down living to Hades’ House, you who will meet death twice, while others die only once. When the body had burnt, and with it the dead man’s armour, we heaped a mound, and raised a stone on top, and at the summit we fixed his well-shaped oar.Ĭirce was well aware of our return from Hades’ House, and while we were busy with our tasks she adorned herself and hastened to us, her handmaids bringing plenty of bread and meat, and glowing red wine. Then swiftly cutting logs of wood we performed the funeral rites, grieving and in tears, on the furthest point of the headland. There we beached our ship on the sand and leapt to the shore, and there we slept until bright day.Īs soon as rosy-fingered Dawn appeared, I sent my men to Circe’s house to recover Elpenor’s corpse. ‘Leaving the River of Ocean, and crossing the wide sea waves, we came again to the Isle of Aeaea, where Eos the Dawn has her House and Dancing Floor: to the place where the sun rises.
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