Page:The Odyssey of Homer, with the Hymns, Epigrams, and Battle of the Frogs and Mice (Buckley 1853).djvu/209

374—415. "But quickly to the Sun, who journeys above, came Lampetia, wearing a large garment, as a messenger, that we (my companions) had slain his oxen. And he immediately addressed the immortals, enraged at heart:

O father Jove, and ye other blessed gods, who exist for ever, punish the companions of Ulysses, the son of Laertes, who have insolently slain mine oxen, in which I rejoiced both coming to the starry heaven, and turning back again to earth from heaven. But if they do not repay me a proper return for my oxen, I will go down to Pluto's, and will shine amongst the dead.'

"But him cloud-collecting Jove answering addressed: 'O Sun, do thou by all means shine amongst the immortals and mortal men, over the fruitful plain. And then I, striking a little their swift ship with a white thunderbolt, will quickly cleave it in the middle of the dark sea.'

"But these things I heard from fair-haired Calypso; and she said that she had heard them from the messenger Mercury. But when I came to the ship and the sea, I chided them one after another, standing near them, nor could we find any remedy; for the oxen were now dead. Then the gods immediately showed prodigies to them; the skins crawled, and the flesh lowed on the spits, both roast and raw; and there was a voice as of oxen. For six days then my beloved companions feasted, driving away the best of the oxen of the Sun: but when Jove, the son of Saturn, brought on the seventh day, then the wind ceased raging with a tempest: and we, straightway embarking, committed ourselves to the wide sea: having erected the mast and drawn up the white sails.

"But when we had now left the island, nor did any other land appear, but the heaven and the sea, then the son of Saturn reared an azure cloud above the hollow ship; and the sea became dark beneath it. But it ran for no very long time; for immediately came the clamouring West wind, rushing with a mighty tempest: and the storm of the wind broke both the cables of the mast; and the mast fell backwards, and all the tackle was thrown in confusion into the hold; and he struck the head of the helmsman backward in the ship, and broke all the bones of his head together; and he fell like unto a diver from the deck, and his noble mind left his bones; and Jove thundered together, and hurled a thunderbolt upon the ship: