Page:The Odyssey of Homer, with the Hymns, Epigrams, and Battle of the Frogs and Mice (Buckley 1853).djvu/111

324—359. ful of the raft, although afflicted, but rushing through the waves, he seized hold of it; and sat in the middle avoiding the verge of death. But a great wave carried it here and there through the stream. And as when the autumnal North wind carries thorns over the plain, but they are held close to one another; so the winds carried it here and there through the sea. Sometimes the South wind threw it forward to the North to carry, sometimes again the East wind gave it up to the West to pursue. But him fair-footed Ino Leucothoe, who was previously a mortal that had speech, but now in the main of the sea had a share in the honour of the gods, the daughter of Cadmus, saw; she indeed pitied wandering Ulysses, undergoing toils, and like unto a cormorant in flight, she came up from the deep; and she sat on the raft bound with many chains, and addressed him:

"O ill-fated one, why is the earth-shaking Neptune so violently wrath with thee, that he produces many evils for thee? He will not however destroy thee, although very anxious to do so. But do thus, (for thou seemest to me not to be unwise,) having put off these garments, leave thy raft to the winds to carry; but swimming with thine hands seek for your return to the land of the Phæacians, where there is destiny for thee to escape. And take this head-gear, which is immortal, and spread it under thy breast; then there is no fear that thou wilt surfer any thing, or perish. But when thou hast reached the shore with thine hands, taking it off again throw it into the dark sea, far from the continent, and do thou turn thyself away at a distance."

Thus having spoken, the goddess gave him the scarf, and she, like unto a diver, again went under the billowing sea: and the black wave covered her. But much-enduring, divine Ulysses, hesitated, and mourning spoke to his strong-hearted mind:

"Woe is me! does not some one of the immortals contrive again a deceit against me, since she orders me to go from the raft. But however I will by no means obey her; since at a distance with my eyes I beheld the land, where she said