Page 260 - the-odyssey

above Ortygia, {134} where the land begins to turn round
and look in another direction. {135} It is not very thickly
peopled, but the soil is good, with much pasture fit for cat-
tle and sheep, and it abounds with wine and wheat. Dearth
never comes there, nor are the people plagued by any sick-
ness, but when they grow old Apollo comes with Diana and
kills them with his painless shafts. It contains two commu-
nities, and the whole country is divided between these two.
My father Ctesius son of Ormenus, a man comparable to the
gods, reigned over both.
‘Now to this place there came some cunning traders
from Phoenicia (for the Phoenicians are great mariners) in
a ship which they had freighted with gewgaws of all kinds.
There happened to be a Phoenician woman in my father’s
house, very tall and comely, and an excellent servant; these
scoundrels got hold of her one day when she was washing
near their ship, seduced her, and cajoled her in ways that no
woman can resist, no matter how good she may be by na-
ture. The man who had seduced her asked her who she was
and where she came from, and on this she told him her fa-
ther’s name. ‘I come from Sidon,’ said she, ‘and am daughter
to Arybas, a man rolling in wealth. One day as I was com-
ing into the town from the country, some Taphian pirates
seized me and took me here over the sea, where they sold
me to the man who owns this house, and he gave them their
price for me.’
‘The man who had seduced her then said, ‘Would you
like to come along with us to see the house of your parents
and your parents themselves? They are both alive and are