Argus

Outside the palace, I stood there; I spotted a dog lying on a pile of dung. My dog, as I left him when I went away for war. Old and treated as rubbish he laid there and I wish to go to him, but I cannot for risk of being found out. My dog, my companion lay there in pain and I must watch him wither. I speak and as he hears my voice, he struggles to wag his tail and point his nose. The dog I left behind had no strength to move toward me. My dog can finally rest easy now that he knows that I am safe and will be happy. As I turn away I wipe a salt tear from my cheek hiding it from Eumaeus.
          "I marvel that they leave this hound to lie here on the dung pile; he would have been a fine dog, form the look of him, I can't say as to his power and speed when he was young." I say to Eumaeus. 
He replies, "A hunter owned him but the man is dead in some far place.  If this old hound could show the form he had when Lord Odysseus left him, going to Troy, you'd see him swift and strong. He never shrank from any savage thing he'd brought to bay in the deep woods; on the sent no other dog kept up with him. Now misery has him in leash. His owner died abroad, and here the women salves will take no care of him. You know how servants are: without a master they have no will to labor, or excel. For Zeus who views the wide, into the death and darkness that awaits, that instant Argus closes his eyes and after seeing his master, he dies. And I walk foward, ready to face the Suitors, to get my revenge...

      “World takes away half the manhood of a man that day, he goes into captivity and slavery."
      As we walk away, toward the death and darkness waiting for us, my dog closes his eyes and dies. And I keep walking, ready to face the suitors and my revenge that is sure to follow...

Twenty years gone, and I am back again...

I finished telling my story to the Phaeacians. The next day, young Phaeacian noblemen conducted me home by ship. I arrived in Ithaca after being gone for twenty years. Athena appeared and told me of the situation at home. Numerous suitors, who thought I was dead, have been continually seeking the hand of Penelope, my wife, in marriage. They also had been eating my livestock. The suitors were planning to kill Telemachus, my son, because he would inherit my lands. Both Penelope and Telemachus still hoped I would return. Telemachus journeyed to Pylos and Sparta to learn about my fate. Athena disguised me as an old beggar and I went to see my old swine herder, Eumaeus. While Eumaeus and I were eating breakfast, Telemachus arrived.

I told Telemachus that I was his father. When I told him he shouted out and refused to believe that I was his father. I told him about my plan to kill the suitors and how Athena had changed me into an old beggar to disguise myself so that I could surprise the suitors.  I asked Telemachus how many suitors were in the home so that we could be prepared for the attack. He said that there were ten or even twice ten men. From Dulichium alone there were fifty-two picked men, with armorers, a half a dozen; twenty-four came from Same, twenty from Zacynthus; our own island accounts for twelve. Around 108 men were in my home, hoping for my wife’s hand in marriage and eating my livestock. No one could know who I was when we arrived at the house. So I said to my son: “Now one thing more. If son of mine you are and blood of mine, let no one hear Odysseus is about. Neither Laertes, nor the swineherd here, nor any slave, nor even Penelope. But you and I alone must learn how far the women are corrupted; we should know how to locate good men among our hands, the loyal and respectful, and the shirkers who take you lightly, as alone and young.” I could not for tell what was to come, however, I hoped for the best.

The Cattle of the Sun God

In the small hours of the third watch, when stars that shone out in the first dusk of evening had gone down to their setting, a giant wind blew from heaven, and clouds driven by Zeus were visible over the land and sea. We knew a storm was arising. We sailed to a sea cave. Our ship's food was running out and my men were starving. I mustered all the crew and said,
"Shipmates, our stores are in the ship's hold, food and drink; the cattle here are not for our provision, or we pay dearly for it." I warned my men not to eat the cattle, for I remembered my fortune that Circe foretold.
It stormed nearly every day, day in and day out. Soon, all the barley on the ship was gone; hunger drove my men to scour the wild shore to search for food. One day I withdrew from the ship to pray the gods in solitude, for hope that one might show me some way of salvation. Soon I found myself in a daze, a dream almost. And I slipped off into a deep sleep, at the time I did not know was caused by the gods. Now on the shore Eurylochus made a plea. He explained to the men that all the deaths had been hateful, mortal wretches, but that famine is the most pitiful, the worst end that a man can come to. He said that they would cut out the noblest of the cattle and sacrifice it to the god and once they return home that they would build a temple in honor of the god. It would be better to die at sea, rather than starve to death. So, the men ate the cattle while I was sleeping and made sacrifices to the god. Just then, I awoke from my slumber. When I saw my men, I cried up at Zeus: ‘O father Zeus and gods in bliss forever, you made me sleep away this day of mischief!’ For, I knew what the fate of my men would be. Helios was angry at Odysseus’s men for eating his cattle. So, he requested that the men be punished or he would make the sun shine on the underworld.

        When the men got back on the ship Zeus threw lightning bolts. And by then, the rest of my men were killed. I floated off into the sea on a part of the mast of the ship. For days, I wandered the ocean, but soon winds carried me to Charybdis. The ship was sucked down in the whirlpool and I panicked as I grabbed onto a nearby tree. Waiting nearly a day for my ship to arise, it finally resurfaced. I grabbed onto the ship once it was out of the whirlpool and began my journey home…

Scylla and Charybdis

As the Sirens faded, I saw smoke and white water and the men heard a sound and it terrified them. As the men panicked and dropped their oars, I spoke gently and said "Friends, have we never been in danger before this? More fearsome, is it now, than when the Cyclops penned us in his cave? What power he had! Did I not keep my nerve, and use my wits to find a way out for us?" The men then knew I would keep us out of trouble. They had faith in me. But as I sent them on toward Scylla, I didn't tell them anything, because I knew they would panic. They would have dropped their oars again. So I took up two heavy spears and made my way along the deck of the ship, looking for the sea monster, thinking I'd see her for the first time here. I strained my eyes but nowhere could I catch sight of her. And then she vomited, all the sea was like a cauldron seething over intense fire, when the mixture suddenly heaves and rises. The waves and white water were all around and it fell like rain. When she swallowed the sea water down we saw the funnel of the storm and heard the rocks all around. My men, by then, were in a panic. And that is when Scylla made her strike, taking out six of my best men from the ship. She ate them as they shrieked my name. I suffered as I watched them. But, we rowed on, my men in sorrow, and in doubt. We traveled on. My my didn't know what was yet to come, and I awaited the evils to show... 

The Sirens

          When we return to Circe's island, the goddess reveals our course to us and gives us advice on how to avoid the dangers we will face. She warns us of the sirens that lure sailors to their destruction, and the wandering rocks that even destroy sea birds in flight, the perils of the sea monster Scylla and the whirlpool of Charybdis. She warns that we should not eat the cattle of the sun god, which Tiresias has warned us of also.
          As soon as Circe stoped speaking, my men and I headed straight for our ships. The men ran to their places and soon we were on the sea. I spoke to my men of what Circe had told me and the first peril on our course were the sirens. I then spoke to the men and told them to listen careful as I put then wax on their ears so they did not hear the songs that the sirens were surely to sing. I then had them tie me up tight as a splint, and we set out, quick as lightning. As the men rowed, I bare witness to the songs that the Sirens were begining to sing. As I listened to their beautiful voices trying to lure me to death, I was soon begging the men to let me go and untie me. But they bent seady to the oars. So on we rowed until the Sirens dropped under the sea rim, and their singing faded away. We got through our first obstacle, but there were many more to come. I wondered if my men would make it out alive and the thought chilled me to the bone...

The Land of the Dead Continued...

As we bore down on the ship at the sea's edge and launched her on the salt immortal sea we were very cautious. By night our ship ran onward toward the ocean, the region of the Men of Winter. We went to the land that Circe foretold us to go to and planed to sacraficed the ram and ewe ashore. We sacrificed our animals with sweet wine, clear water, honey, and milk. The souls gathered as the black blood streamed into the wellpit, but I commanded my officers to flay the sheep and then came Elpenor, dead in Circes hall. I wept for pity as I spoke to him. He then told me of how he had come to fall off of Circes' roof and died. He told us to have him a proper burrial and that it would all work out. Then came the soul of Anticlea, my mother. As I morned her, I held off for the presence of Tiresias. He came forward. He told me my future and what was to come. He told me of the Sirens and also the Cattle of the Son Gods. He warned me that if my men feasted off of the cattle that they all would parish and I would remain, and as I would reach home, strang men would be in my house, they would eat my livestock as they court my lady, and after I would have delt out death to all the suitors. I would find land where men have ate meat unsalted and never seen seagoing ships and I shall make sacrifice to Lord Poseidon and take a seaborne death in old age. And all this shall be jus as he fortold...

The Land of the Dead

My men and I sailed to Aeolia where the king of the winds sent us on our way with a gift: a sack containing all the winds except the favorable west wind. When we were near home, my men opend the sack, letting lose a storm that drove us back to Aeolia. Aeolus cast us out, having decided that we were detested by the gods. We then sailed for seven days and arrived in the land of the Laestrygonians, a race of cannibals. These creatures destroyed all of our ships except the one we were sailing in. My reduced crew and I escaped and reached Aeaea, the island ruled by the sorceress-goddess Circe. She transformed half of my men into swine. Protected by a magic herb, I then demanded that Circe change my men back into human form. Before we departed from the island a year later, Circe told us that in order to reach home we must journey to the Land of the Dead, speak to Hades, and consult the blind prophet Tiresias.