Page:The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer (IA iliadodysseyofho02home).pdf/297

Book XII. Convening there my friends, I thus began. My friends! food fails us not, but bread is yet And wine on board. Abstain we from the herds, Lest harm ensue; for ye behold the flocks And herds of a most potent God, the Sun! Whose eye and watchful ear none may elude. So saying, I sway'd the gen'rous minds of all. A month complete the South wind ceaseless blew, Nor other wind blew next, save East and South Yet they, while neither food nor rosy wine Fail'd them, the herds harm'd not, through fear to die. But, our provisions failing, they employed Whole days in search of food, snaring with hooks Birds, fishes, of what kind soe'er they might, By famine urged. I solitary roam'd Meantime the isle, seeking by pray'r to move Some God to shew us a deliv'rance thence. When, roving thus the isle, I had at length Left all my crew remote, laving my hands Where shelter warm I found from the rude blast, I supplicated ev'ry Pow'r above; But they my pray'rs answer'd with slumbers soft Shed o'er my eyes, and with pernicious art Eurylochus, the while, my friends harangued. My friends! afflicted as ye are, yet hear A fellow-suff'rer. Death, however caused, Abhorrence moves in miserable man, But death by famine is a fate of all