44 HOMER
Thy child ! Or ever he the way fulfil, Make thou Laertes-born Odysseus die, Waster of walls ! or should the high Fates will That friends and home he see, then lone and late and
ill 630
" Let him return on board a foreign ^ ship, And in his house find evil ! " Thus he prayed With hand uplifted and indignant lip ; And the dark-haired one heeded what he said. He then his hand upon a great stone laid, 635
Larger by far than that he hurled before, And the huge mass in booming flight obeyed The measureless impulse, and right onward bore. There 'twixt the blue-prowed bark descending and the shore.
Just short of ruin ; and the foaming wave 640
Whitened in boiling eddies where it fell, And rolling toward the isle our vessel drave, Tossed on the mane of that tumultuous swell. There found we all our fleet defended well. And comrades sorrow-laden on the sand, 645
Hoping if yet, past hope, the seas impel Their long-lost friends to the forsaken strand — Grated our keel ashore ; we hurrying leap on land.
Straight from the hollow bark our prize we share, That none might portionless come oJBf. To me eso The ram for my great guerdon then and there My well-greaved comrades gave in courtesy ; IVhich I to Zeus, supreme in majesty. Killed on the shore, and burned the thighs with fire : 1 The Greek says another^s ship, i. e. let his own be lost.
