Page 168 - the-odyssey

the sun went down and it came on dark, we camped upon
the sea shore. When the child of morning, rosy-fingered
Dawn, appeared, I called a council and said, ‘My friends,
we are in very great difficulties; listen therefore to me. We
have no idea where the sun either sets or rises, {85} so that
we do not even know East from West. I see no way out of it;
nevertheless, we must try and find one. We are certainly on
an island, for I went as high as I could this morning, and
saw the sea reaching all round it to the horizon; it lies low,
but towards the middle I saw smoke rising from out of a
thick forest of trees.’
‘Their hearts sank as they heard me, for they remem-
bered how they had been treated by the Laestrygonian
Antiphates, and by the savage ogre Polyphemus. They wept
bitterly in their dismay, but there was nothing to be got by
crying, so I divided them into two companies and set a cap-
tain over each; I gave one company to Eurylochus, while I
took command of the other myself. Then we cast lots in a
helmet, and the lot fell upon Eurylochus; so he set out with
his twenty-two men, and they wept, as also did we who were
left behind.
‘When they reached Circe’s house they found it built of
cut stones, on a site that could be seen from far, in the mid-
dle of the forest. There were wild mountain wolves and lions
prowling all round it—poor bewitched creatures whom she
had tamed by her enchantments and drugged into subjec-
tion. They did not attack my men, but wagged their great
tails, fawned upon them, and rubbed their noses lovingly
against them. {86} As hounds crowd round their master

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