Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE ODYSSEY: BOOK 10. PHAECIAN NIGHTS: 2. OF CIRCE, by HOMER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE ODYSSEY: BOOK 10. PHAECIAN NIGHTS: 2. OF CIRCE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Then my well-greaved fellows I numberedm into two companies
Last Line: Whereof the swine earth-wallowing are wont to make their meat.
Subject(s): Circe; Mythology - Classical


THEN my well-greaved fellows I numbered into two companies,
And a leader I appointed to be o'er each of these;
And I led the one, and the other godlike Eurylochus led.
Then in a brazen helmet the shuffled lots we sped,
And therefrom the lot of Eurylochus the great of heart did go.
So he went his ways, and with him were fellows twenty and two;
And they wept as they went and left us, and sorrow sore we made.
Now they came on the house of Circe well builded down in a glade,
And all of smooth stone fashioned in a place seen far and near:
And about it were wolves of the mountain, and lions haunted there;
And she herself had tamed them with the help of herbs of ill:
Nor fell they upon our fellows, though they thronged about them still,
But fawning there upon them their long tails wagged withal.
And as dogs will fawn on their master when he comes from the feastful hall,
Because he is wont to bring them things that their hearts deem good,
Round these the wolves the strong-clawed, and the lions fawning stood,
And they feared when they beheld them, the creatures fierce and great.
But there was the house of the Goddess, and there they stood in the gate,
And Circe heard they singing in a lovely voice within,
As she wove on the web undying, such works as the Godfolk win,
Such works as are all-glorious, and delicate and fair.
Then the chief of men, Polites, bespake his fellows there,
A man who to me was dearest, and the heedfullest of all:
'O friends, there is some wight weaving a great web there in the hall,
And singing so fair that the pavement is echoing all about.
A goddess or a woman? but to her let us haste to cry out.'
So he spake, and they cried aloud, and their voices toward her cast,
And she, straight coming outwards, through the shining doorway passed,
And called them, and they followed, so witless was their mood;
But Eurylochus dreaded treason, and without the door abode.
So she led them in and set them on bench and lordly seat,
And a mess of cheese, and meal and honey pale and sweet
With Pramnian wine she mingled; and she blended therewithal
Ill herbs, that the land of their fathers might clean from their memories fall.
But when she had given thereof, and they had drunk of the wine,
With a staff she smote them, and shut them within the sty of the swine;
And swine-shape they had, and the voice and the bristles and head of the boar:
But ever their minds abided e'en such as they were before
So there were they styed up weeping, and Circe presently
Cast to them mast, and acorns, and nuts of the cornel tree,
Whereof the swine earth-wallowing are wont to make their meat.





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