Page:The Odyssey of Homer, with the Hymns, Epigrams, and Battle of the Frogs and Mice (Buckley 1853).djvu/110

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74
ODYSSEY. V.
289—324.

there is destiny for him to escape the great limit of misery, which befalls him: but still I think that he will undergo enough of calamity."

Thus having spoken, he collected the clouds, and disturbed the sea, taking his trident in his hands; and stirred up all the storms of all kinds of winds; and he with clouds covered the earth and the sea at the same time; and night arose from heaven. And the South-east and the South rushed together, and the hard-blowing West, and the cold-producing North, rolling the mighty wave. And then the knees and the dear heart of Ulysses were loosed, and sorrowing he said to his strong-hearted mind:

"Alas me, wretched one that I am! what will become of me at length? I fear, lest indeed the goddess has told all things unerringly, who said that I should accomplish toils by sea, before I reached my paternal land; all these things are certainly now brought to pass. With what clouds does Jupiter crown the wide heaven! and [how] he has troubled the sea! and the tempests of all manner of winds hasten on; now bitter destruction is certain for me. Thrice and four times blessed are the Grecians, who formerly perished in spacious Troy, gratifying the sons of Atreus! How I would that I had died and drawn fate upon myself in that day, when many Trojans hurled their brazen spears about the son of Peleus, who was dead. Then I should have obtained by lot funeral rites, and the Grecians would have celebrated my renown. But now it is destined for me to be seized by a miserable death."

As he was speaking thus, a mighty wave from the top[1] thrust him on, rushing terribly upon him, and whirled round the raft. And he himself fell at a distance from the raft, and let go the rudder from his hands; and a terrible storm of the winds mixed together coming upon it broke the middle of his mast. And the sail and the yard-arm fell at a distance in the sea, and kept him a long time under the wave: nor was he able to hold himself up immediately, from the rush of the great wave; for the garments which divine Calypso had given him were heavy; late, however, he came up, and vomited the bitter brine from his mouth, which trickled in abundance from his head. But not even thus was he forget-

  1. "A vertice pontus," Virg. Æn. i. 118. Loewe makes it equivalent to desuper, or rather, to funditus.