Book X · Ῥαψωδία κ

So we pulled up to the Aeolian island, and the guy posted up living there

was Aeolus, son of Hippotas, lowkey bestie-tier with the deathless gods,

parked out on a floating island, no cap: and the whole thing's walled off,

unbreakable bronze for daysss, with a sheer cliff just shooting bolt upright.

And get this, twelve kids of his are running about those halls,

And yeah, this man married the daughters off to be the sons' own wives.

So they're forever posted up next to dear old dad and their loyal mum,

just feasting: and there's an absurd spread laid out beside them, plates for daysss,

and the whole house is humming with that roast smell, the courtyard buzzing too,

they crash out on the rugs and the corded beds, cosy as anything.

And yeah, we rolled into that man's city and his gorgeous halls.

For a solid month he treated me like family, picking my brain on every single thing,

Ilium and the Argive ships and the whole comeback arc of the Achaeans:

But when I finally hit him up for the road out and was telling him

to send me on my way, he didn't fumble it once, he sorted the whole send-off.

He slid me a bag he'd skinned off a nine-year-old ox,

and inside it he'd strapped down the paths of the howling winds, locked tight:

to put whichever one he wants on pause and let another rip.

And in my hollow ship he lashed it down snug with a glinting cord,

a silver one, so not even the tiniest breath could leak out and dip:

but for me, me specifically, he set loose a breath of the west wind to blow,

gonna land, fr: because we wrecked our own selves with our smooth-brained mess.

For nine days straight we sailed, nights and days, fully nonstop,

and on the tenth our homeland fields were already coming up over the horizon,

close enough to clock people out there tending their little fires.

because I'd been working the ship's sheet nonstop, never once handing it

off to any of my crew, so we'd touch home soil that bit faster:

but my crew, they started running their mouths to each other,

saying I was hauling home gold and silver, the whole stash,

And one of them would go, side-eyeing the homie right next to him:

"Oh my days, the way this man is beloved and respected literally everywhere

he goes, whatever city or land he happens to pull up to.

He's hauling loads of gorgeous treasure out of Troy,

and we're rolling home empty-handed, nothing but air in our palms.

And now Aeolus has slid him this haul on top, doing him a solid

out of pure affection. Come on, let's peek quick and clock what's in here,

exactly how much gold and silver is sitting in this bag."

they untied the bag, and every single wind came bursting out,

and the storm snatched them up in a flash and yeeted them back out to sea,

sobbing the whole way, dragged off from their homeland. And me, I

woke up and turned it over in my flawless chest, properly torn,

or just take the l quietly and stick around among the living.

But I sucked it up and held on, and wrapping myself up in the ship

I just lay there: and the ships kept getting dragged by the vicious wind-blast

back to the Aeolian island, my crew groaning the entire trip.

and right away my crew grabbed dinner beside the fast ships, no hesitation.

But once we'd absolutely demolished the food and drink and the craving backed off,

that's when I took a herald and one of my crew along for backup

and headed to Aeolus's famous halls: and I caught him

We went into the house and posted up by the doorpost on the threshold,

sat ourselves down: and they were fully gobsmacked and started in on me:

"How are you back, Odysseus? What rotten spirit jumped you out there?

We sent you off proper, put real care into the whole thing, so you'd reach

That's what they said: and me, gutted to the core, I spoke up:

"My trash crew did me dirty, and on top of that this brutal

sleep absolutely cooked me. But fix it for me, friends: the power's in your hands."

That's what I said, going at them with soft, careful words, easing in:

"Get off this island, fast, you absolute worst of every living thing:

because it's straight up not allowed, me hosting or sending off

a man like you, the kind the blessed gods properly loathe.

Get gone, since you pulled up here hated by the immortals."

From there we sailed onward, sick to our hearts,

and the crew's whole spirit was getting ground down by the brutal rowing,

all from our own dumb mistake, since no easy passage was showing up anymore.

For six days straight we sailed, nights and days, fully nonstop,

Telepylus in Laestrygonia, where one herdsman driving his flock in

hollers out and another herdsman driving his flock out hollers right back:

a man who never sleeps could pull double wages out there, easy,

one set for grazing cattle, one set for herding the silver-white sheep:

So once we slid into the famous harbour, the one ringed by cliff

shooting up bolt upright the whole way round on both sides,

and headlands jutting out, glaring dead at each other

right at the mouth, and the entrance is mad narrow,

The ships got moored up inside the hollow harbour, parked,

packed in close together: because a swell never once built up in there,

not a big one, not a small one, just bright glassy calm all around.

But me, I held my black ship out solo, off on its own,

And I climbed up a rugged lookout and stood there scanning the whole scene:

no sign of cattle's work, no sign of men's work anywhere,

just smoke we could clock shooting up off the land.

So that's when I sent some crew off to go suss it out,

picking two of them, with a herald sent along as the third for backup.

They headed out and walked the smooth road, the one the carts use

to haul timber down to the town from the high mountains.

And right outside the town they ran into a girl drawing water,

She'd come down to the spring with the lovely flow,

Artacia: because that's where they'd fetch the water for the town:

and they stepped up close to her, spoke, and started digging,

who the king of these people was and who exactly he ruled over.

So they went into the famous halls, and the woman they

found in there was huge as a mountain peak, and they were properly repulsed.

And straight away she called the famous Antiphates out of the meeting,

her man, the one who cooked up a grim end for them on the spot.

the other two shot up and bolted back to the ships in a full panic.

But he sent up a war-cry through the town: and hearing it,

the mighty Laestrygonians came swarming from every direction,

thousands of them, not looking like men at all, more like Giants.

the kind it takes a whole grown man to even lift: and instantly a horrible din

went up across the ships, men dying, ships getting smashed all at once:

and spearing them like fish, they hauled them off for their joyless feast.

While they were busy slaughtering my crew inside the deep harbour,

and hacked the cables clean off my dark-prowed ship:

and instantly I fired up my crew and barked the order

to throw themselves on the oars, so we could dodge this whole nightmare:

and all of them tossed up the sea in a froth, terrified of the end.

the overhanging rocks: but all the others were lost right there, every last one.

From there we sailed onward, sick to our hearts,

glad to still be breathing but having lost our beloved crew.

And we pulled up to the Aeaean island: and the one living there

own sister to the deadly-scheming Aeetes:

both of them born from the sun, Helios, who lights up the mortals,

and a mother, Perse, the child Oceanus brought into the world.

There we steered the ship onto the shore in dead silence,

We climbed out there and for two full days and two solid nights

we just lay around, eating our own hearts out with exhaustion and grief.

But when Dawn with her gorgeous braids finally brought round the third day,

that's when I grabbed my spear and my sharp blade

hoping I might clock some sign of people and catch the sound of voices.

And I climbed up a rugged lookout and stood there scanning,

and smoke showed itself to me, rising off the wide-pathed earth

from Circe's halls, curling up through the dense thickets and the forest.

whether to head down and find out, since I'd clocked the gleaming smoke.

And as I turned it over, this seemed the smarter play, the bigger-brain move:

first to head back to the fast ship and the seashore,

feed my crew dinner and then send them off to scout.

that's when some god took pity on me, alone as I was out there,

and dropped a huge stag with towering antlers right into my path:

it was coming down to the river from its woodland pasture

to get a drink: because the sun's heat had it in a full chokehold.

of the back: and the bronze spear punched clean through it,

and it dropped in the dust with a bellow, and its spirit flew right off.

And stepping on it I dragged the bronze spear back out

of the wound: and I laid the carcass down on the ground there

and braiding a rope about a fathom long, well-twisted on both ends,

I lashed together the feet of that monstrous beast,

and off I went, hauling it slung round my neck back to the black ship,

leaning on my spear, since there was no way to sling it on a shoulder

And I dumped it down in front of the ship and woke my crew up,

going round to each man with soft, hyping words:

"Friends, we're not gonna be heading down, gutted as we are,

into the halls of Hades, before our fated day actually shows up:

let's lock in and eat and not waste away from hunger."

That's what I said, and they quick took my words on board:

and pulling the cloaks off their heads, down by the shore of the barren sea

they gawked at the stag: it was a seriously massive animal.

they washed up their hands and put together a glorious feast.

So then the whole day long, right up till the sun clocked out,

we sat there feasting on the endless meat and the sweet wine:

and when the sun set and the dark came rolling over us,

And the second rosy-fingered Dawn pulled up, doing her early-bird thing,

that's when I called an assembly and spoke out to them all:

"Hear me out, my crew, even with all the bad you're going through:

friends, we don't even know where the dark is, or where the dawn,

or where it pops back up: so let's think it through, fast,

whether there's any plan left in the tank: personally I'm not feeling it.

Because I climbed up a rugged lookout and clocked

an island, with the endless sea wrapped round it like a crown.

smoke with my own two eyes, through the dense thickets and the forest."

That's what I said, and their hearts shattered to pieces inside them,

flashing back hard to the deeds of the Laestrygonian Antiphates

and the raw violence of the big-hearted, man-eating Cyclops.

but no good ever came out of all that grieving, none.

So I counted off all my well-greaved crew

into two squads, and assigned a leader to each one:

I led one of them myself, and godlike Eurylochus led the other.

and out jumped the lot of big-hearted Eurylochus.

He set off to go, and twenty-two of the crew rolled out with him

sobbing: and they left us behind groaning too, every one.

And down in the glens they found the well-built halls of Circe,

And mountain wolves and lions were prowling about the place,

the ones she'd bewitched, since she'd dosed them with vile drugs.

And they didn't lunge at the men, no, instead the things

got up and fawned, long tails wagging the whole time.

from a feast: because he always pulls up with the treats that soothe them:

that's exactly how the strong-clawed wolves and the lions

fawned round my men: and they were terrified, clocking those grim monsters.

And they stood at the front doors of the goddess with the gorgeous braids,

as she worked her great immortal loom, the kind of weaving goddesses do,

delicate and graceful and absolutely radiant work.

And the first to speak up among them was Polites, a chief of men,

who was the dearest of my crew to me and the most loyal one:

is singing this gorgeous song, and the whole floor's ringing with it,

goddess or woman: come on, let's call out, quick."

That's what he said, and they called out, shouting up to her.

And right away she came out, swung open the shining doors

but Eurylochus hung back, because he straight up clocked a trap.

She led them in and sat them down on couches and chairs,

and for them she stirred up cheese and barley and pale honey

in Pramnian wine: but she laced the food with wicked drugs,

And once she'd handed it over and they downed it, straight away

she whacked them with a wand and herded them off into the pigsties.

And they had the heads of pigs now, the voice and the bristles

and the body, but their minds stayed steady, exactly like before.

some acorns and beechnuts and cornel berries

to eat, the kind of thing pigs sleeping on the ground always eat.

And Eurylochus came running back to the fast black ship

to bring the news of his crew and their bitter fate.

struck in the heart with massive grief: and his eyes

were brimming up with tears, and his whole spirit was set on wailing.

But once we'd all pressed him hard, badgering him for answers,

that's when he finally laid out the destruction of the rest of the crew:

and down in the glens we found the gorgeous well-built halls

made of polished stone, sitting in a clearing with a view all round.

And in there somebody working a great loom was singing clear,

goddess or woman: and they called out, shouting up to her.

and waved them in: and the whole lot of them followed, clueless:

but me, I hung back, because I straight up clocked a trap.

And they all vanished together, gone, and not one of them

showed up again: I sat there a long time keeping watch."

across my shoulders, the big bronze one, and my bow too:

and I told him to lead me straight back along that same road.

But he grabbed me with both hands and clung onto my knees,

and wailing he hit me with these winged words:

because I know you won't make it back yourself, and you won't be bringing

any of the rest of the crew either. Come on, with these guys here, quick,

let's just dip: we might still dodge the rotten day."

That's what he said, and I came back at him with this:

eating and drinking beside the hollow black ship:

but me, I'm going: a hard necessity has landed square on me."

Saying that, I headed off, up away from the ship and the sea.

But just as I was about to reach, walking up the sacred glens,

that's when Hermes, golden wand and all, pulled up on me en route,

heading to the house, looking like some young guy,

first bit of stubble coming in, the most charming age of youth:

and he gripped me by the hand and spoke up, calling me by name:

not knowing the lay of the land? Your crew are over there in Circe's place

penned up like pigs, stuck in their tight little holes.

You pulling up to set them free? Real talk, you won't even

make it back yourself, you'll stay right where the others are stuck.

here, take this powerful herb and head to Circe's house,

walk in clutching it, and it'll keep the bad day off your head, on god.

And lemme put you on, fr, to every shady little scheme Circe's got cooking.

She's gonna whip you up a drink and lace your food with the drugs, no cap:

the good herb I'm slipping you, and I'll walk you through it step by step.

The second Circe taps you with that long wand of hers, that's your cue,

yank the sharp sword off your thigh that exact moment, no hesitation,

and rush her like you're fully locked in to end her right there.

and at that point, don't you dare ghost a goddess inviting you in,

not if you want your boys unspelled and yourself looked after, fr.

But first make her swear it, the big oath the blessed gods can't wriggle out of,

that she's not cooking up some other dirty little move on you,

That's the play he laid out, and the Argus-slayer dug the herb up for me,

ripping it clean out of the ground, and showed me what it actually was.

At the root it ran black, but the bloom on it was milk-white, no joke,

and the gods call it moly: a nightmare for mortal men to dig up,

Then Hermes was out, gone, bouncing back up toward tall Olympus,

across the wooded island, and me, I beelined for Circe's place,

on foot, and my whole chest was churning dark the entire way down.

I posted up at the doors of that goddess with the gorgeous braids,

She came right out, swung those shiny doors wide open,

and waved me in: and I followed, heart heavy the whole way.

She walked me in and sat me on a silver-studded throne,

gorgeous, finely worked, the real deal: footstool waiting under my feet.

and slipped the drug in, plotting something foul deep in her chest.

But once she'd handed it over and I drank and it didn't touch me,

she swung that wand and said her piece, calling me out:

"Off to the pigsty with you now, go lie down with the rest of your boys."

and lunged at Circe like I was fully about to end her, dead serious.

She let out this massive shriek, ducked under, grabbed me by the knees,

and through her tears she hit me with words that came out flying:

"Who even are you, where you from? Where's your city, where's your folks?

No other man has ever toughed out these drugs of mine, not one,

not anyone who drank it and got it past the fence of his teeth:

but you, you've got a mind in your chest no spell can touch, deadass.

You're Odysseus, aren't you, that one wired different, the guy

on his way back from Troy in his fast black ship.

But come on, slide the blade back in its sheath, and let the two of us

climb into my bed, so once we've linked up,

all tangled in bed and in love, we can actually trust each other."

"Circe, how exactly are you asking me to go soft on you,

when you turned my boys into pigs right here in your halls,

and now you've got me, and with all this scheming you're telling me

to come to your room and climb into that bed of yours,

Nah, there's no version where I'm getting into that bed,

not unless you bring yourself to swear me a big oath, goddess,

that you're not cooking up some other dirty little move on me."

That's what I said, and right away she swore it, exactly like I asked.

that's when I climbed into Circe's absolutely gorgeous bed.

Meanwhile her handmaids were busy grinding away around the halls,

four of them, the ones who keep her whole house running like clockwork.

They come straight out of the springs and out of the groves

One of them was tossing gorgeous covers over the chairs,

purple ones up top, with linen tucked underneath, real fancy:

another was dragging silver tables out in front of the seats

and laying golden baskets out across them, all set up nice:

in a silver bowl, and handing round the golden cups, on rotation:

and the fourth was hauling water and stoking the fire,

piling it on under the big tripod, till the water got toasty.

And once the water had come to a proper rolling boil in the gleaming bronze,

mixing it just right, easy over my head and my shoulders,

till she pulled the soul-draining exhaustion clean out of my limbs.

And after she'd washed me down and rubbed me with rich oil,

she draped a gorgeous cloak around me and slid a tunic on too,

gorgeous, finely worked, the real deal: footstool under my feet.

Then a handmaid brought water and tipped it from a pitcher,

a beautiful golden one, streaming over a silver basin,

so I could wash up: and she dragged a polished table right over.

loading on plenty of dishes, generous with whatever she had on hand,

and told me to dig in: but my heart just wasn't on it,

I sat there with my mind miles off, clocking bad things rolling in.

And Circe, the second she peeped me parked there not even

pulled up close beside me and hit me with words that came out flying:

"Why you sitting there like this, Odysseus, silent as a mute,

eating yourself up inside, not touching the food or the drink?

You reckon there's some other trap waiting? There's no need

That's what she said, but I came right back at her with this:

"Circe, what man with even a shred of decency in him

could bring himself to taste the food and the drink before this,

before he'd sprung his crew loose and seen them with his own two eyes?

free them, so I can lay eyes on my ride-or-die boys."

That's what I said, and Circe marched out through the hall

with the wand in her hand, threw the pen doors wide,

and drove them out, looking like nine-year-old fatted hogs.

working through them, smearing a different drug on each one.

And off their bodies sloughed the bristles that the rotten potion

had sprouted on them before, the stuff queenly Circe had served:

and they flipped back into men, younger than they'd been before

They knew it was me, every one of them clung onto my hands:

and this sweet ache of weeping welled up over the lot of them, and the house

echoed something fierce: even the goddess herself felt for us.

She pulled up close beside me, that absolute legend among goddesses:

go now down to your fast ship and the edge of the sea.

First thing, haul the ship up high onto dry land,

stash all your gear and your goods inside the caves:

then come straight back, and bring your ride-or-die crew with you."

and I made my way down to the fast ship and the edge of the sea.

I found my ride-or-die crew posted up by the fast ship,

sobbing pitifully, big fat tears rolling down their faces.

And the way calves on a farm, when the cows of the herd

all skip and bound to meet them, and the pens can't even hold

them anymore, they just keep mooing nonstop, circling round

their mothers: that's how those guys, the second they laid eyes on me,

came pouring at me in tears: it hit their hearts the exact same

of rugged Ithaca, where they were raised and born:

and through their tears they hit me with words that came out flying:

"You making it back, child of Zeus, has us this hyped,

like we'd literally touched down back home in Ithaca:

That's what they said, and I answered them gentle and easy:

"First thing, let's haul the ship up high onto dry land,

and stash all our gear and our goods inside the caves:

then get yourselves moving, every one of you, fall in behind me,

drinking and eating: they've got endless supplies stocked in there."

That's what I said, and they hopped on my words real quick:

but Eurylochus, just him, tried to hold the whole crew back

and spoke up, hitting them with words that came out flying:

heading down to Circe's hall, where she'll flip the lot of us

into pigs or wolves or lions on the spot,

the kind that'd be stuck on guard duty over her big house, no choice,

exactly how the Cyclops ran it, the time our boys

because it was his recklessness that got them bodied too."

That's what he said, and honestly I went back and forth in my head

about ripping the long blade off my thick thigh

and lopping his head clean off and dropping it in the dirt,

gentle and easy, kept holding me back, all of them chiming in:

"Child of Zeus, we'll let this one slide, if that's your call,

let him stay right here by the ship and keep watch over it:

you just lead the rest of us on to Circe's sacred halls."

And Eurylochus didn't get left behind by the hollow ship either,

nah, he tagged along: he was terrified of how hard I'd snapped.

Meanwhile back at her place Circe was bathing the rest of my crew

real careful, rubbing them down with rich oil,

and we found the whole lot of them feasting nicely in the halls.

And when they saw each other and clocked who was who,

they broke down sobbing, and the house echoed all around.

She pulled up close beside me, that absolute legend among goddesses:

quit stirring up all this fresh grief now: I already know it myself,

both how much pain you went through out on the fish-filled sea,

and how brutal men did you dirty on dry land.

But come on, get some food in you and drink some wine,

the kind you carried when you first shipped out from your homeland,

rugged Ithaca: right now you're worn down to nothing and low,

forever stuck in your heads on the rough wandering: there's never any

joy left in your hearts, since you've genuinely been through it all."

So right there for the whole run of days, a full turning year,

we sat parked, feasting on endless meat and the sweet wine:

but when the year had run its lap and the seasons came back round,

the months wearing thin, the long days finishing up,

"My guy, it's high time you started thinking about home soil,

if it's genuinely fated for you to get saved and make it back

to your well-built house and your own homeland."

That's what they said, and my proud heart went along with it.

we sat parked, feasting on endless meat and the sweet wine.

But once the sun set and the dark came rolling in,

they crashed out for the night through the shadowy halls.

Meanwhile I climbed into Circe's absolutely gorgeous bed

and I spoke up, hitting her with words that came out flying:

"Circe, make good on that promise you swore me,

to send me home: my heart's already racing to be gone,

mine and the rest of the crew's, the ones wearing my heart down

That's what I said, and right away that legend of a goddess answered:

"Son of Laertes, Zeus's own line, Odysseus, always cooking up a plan,

don't hang around in my house against your will any longer.

But there's another road you gotta finish first, you gotta reach

to get a reading off the ghost of Tiresias, the one out of Thebes,

the blind prophet, whose mind is still fully locked in:

because even in death Persephone left him his wits,

him and him alone, while all the rest just flit about as shadows."

I just sat there on the bed sobbing, and my soul

had zero will left to keep living and see the light of the sun.

But once I'd cried myself dry and thrashed around in it,

that's when I came back at her with words and said:

Nobody's ever reached Hades in a black ship before, not once."

That's what I said, and right away that legend of a goddess answered:

"Son of Laertes, Zeus's own line, Odysseus, always cooking up a plan,

don't you sweat needing a guide beside your ship:

and sit tight: the breath of the North Wind will carry her on for you.

But once you've crossed all the way through Ocean in your ship,

where there's a low shore and the groves of Persephone,

tall poplars and willows that drop their fruit before it's ripe,

and you yourself, head down into the dank house of Hades.

That's the spot where Pyriphlegethon and Cocytus pour into Acheron,

Cocytus being a branch broken clean off the water of the Styx,

and there's a rock where the two roaring rivers slam together:

and dig a pit, about a forearm wide each way, neat:

and pour one out all around it for every last one of the dead,

first with honeyed milk, then with the sweet wine,

the third round with water: and dust white barley over the top.

that once you're back in Ithaca you'll sacrifice in your halls

a barren cow, your best one, and pile the pyre high with treasures,

and that for Tiresias alone, off to the side, you'll slaughter

an all-black ram, the standout one in your flocks.

sacrifice a ram and a black ewe right there on the spot,

turning their heads toward Erebus, while you twist away

facing the river's flow: and there a whole crowd of

the souls of the dead and gone will come pouring up.

to flay and burn the sheep lying there, cut down by the pitiless bronze,

and to send up prayers to the gods,

to mighty Hades and dread Persephone:

and you yourself, rip the sharp sword off your thigh

get anywhere near the blood till you've heard from Tiresias.

Right then the prophet will pull up for you, leader of your people,

the one who'll map out the road and the distances to cover

and your way home, how you'll cross the fish-filled sea."

She wrapped a cloak and a tunic around me for clothes:

and the nymph slipped a big shimmering silvery robe on herself,

fine and lovely, tied a gorgeous golden belt round her waist,

and laid a veil over her head, finishing the look.

gentle and easy, standing over each man one by one:

"No more dozing off and lapping up your sweet sleep now,

let's move out: queenly Circe's already laid the whole thing out for me."

That's what I said, and their proud hearts went along with it.

There was this one named Elpenor, the youngest of us, not exactly

brave in a fight and not all there in the head either,

the one who, off away from the rest, in Circe's sacred halls,

craving the cool air, had crashed out blackout drunk on the wine:

he shot bolt upright out of nowhere, and clean forgot

to head back down the long ladder the way he'd come up,

and pitched straight off the roof: his neck snapped

right at the spine, and his soul went down to Hades.

"You probably reckon you're heading home now to your own

homeland: but Circe's mapped out a whole different road for us,

to the halls of Hades and dread Persephone,

to get a reading off the ghost of Tiresias, the one out of Thebes."

they sank right down where they stood, sobbing and tearing at their hair:

but there was no use in them grieving over it.

But while we were heading down to the fast ship and the edge

of the sea, gutted, big fat tears rolling down our faces,

a ram and a black ewe,

breezing right past us: who could even lay eyes on a god

moving here or there, if the god doesn't wanna be seen?