Page 177 - the-odyssey

passed in the waning of moons and the long days had come
round, my men called me apart and said, ‘Sir, it is time you
began to think about going home, if so be you are to be
spared to see your house and native country at all.’
‘Thus did they speak and I assented. Thereon through
the livelong day to the going down of the sun we feasted our
fill on meat and wine, but when the sun went down and it
came on dark the men laid themselves down to sleep in the
covered cloisters. I, however, after I had got into bed with
Circe, besought her by her knees, and the goddess listened
to what I had got to say. ‘Circe,’ said I, ‘please to keep the
promise you made me about furthering me on my home-
ward voyage. I want to get back and so do my men, they are
always pestering me with their complaints as soon as ever
your back is turned.’
‘And the goddess answered, ‘Ulysses, noble son of
Laertes, you shall none of you stay here any longer if you
do not want to, but there is another journey which you have
got to take before you can sail homewards. You must go to
the house of Hades and of dread Proserpine to consult the
ghost of the blind Theban prophet Teiresias, whose reason
is still unshaken. To him alone has Proserpine left his un-
derstanding even in death, but the other ghosts flit about
aimlessly.’
‘I was dismayed when I heard this. I sat up in bed and
wept, and would gladly have lived no longer to see the light
of the sun, but presently when I was tired of weeping and
tossing myself about, I said, ‘And who shall guide me upon
this voyage—for the house of Hades is a port that no ship

1 The Odyssey