to the house, we sat down at the door on the threshold; and they were astonished in their mind, and inquired:
"'How didst thou come, O Ulysses? what evil deity has pressed upon thee? certainly we sent thee away carefully, that thou mightest come to thy country, and house, and wherever is agreeable to thee.'
"Thus they spoke; but I addressed them, sorrowing in my heart. 'Both evil companions have injured me, and in addition to these, unhappy sleep; but cure me, O friends, for the power is with you.'
"Thus I spoke soothing them with mild words; but they became dumb; and their father answered me in discourse: 'Away with thee quickly from the island, thou vilest of the living! for it is not lawful for me to receive or escort away that man, who indeed is hated by the blessed gods. Away; since thou art come hither, hated by the gods.'
"Thus having spoken, he sent me away from the house mourning heavily. And from thence we sailed onward, sorrowing in our heart. But the mind of the men was wearied by the difficult rowing, through our own folly; since there no longer appeared an escort.
"For six days however we sailed both night and day; but on the seventh we came to the lofty city of Lamos, spacious[1] Læstrigonia, where a shepherd on going in calls a shepherd, but he going out listens. There a man who has no sleep would receive double pay, the one for feeding herds, the other for pasturing white sheep: for the ways[2] of night and of day are near. There when we came to the famous
- ↑ Or, "having a large gate:" but the Scholiast, "large or extensive, having its gates far apart." See Loewe.
- ↑ There is much difference of opinion respecting this passage: the Scholiast understands it "that the nightly and daily pastures are near the city." Chapman remarks, "some have understood, that the days in that region are long, and the nights short; so that Homer intends, that the equinoctial is there (for how else is the course of day and night near or equal?). But therefore the nights-man hath his double hire, being as long about his charge as the other; and the night being more dangerous. And if the day were so long, why should the nights-man be preferred in wages?" Cowper says, "It is supposed by Eustathius, that the pastures being infested by gadflies and other noxious insects in the day-time, they drove their sheep a-field in the morning, which by their wool were defended from them, and their cattle in the evening, when the insects had withdrawn." This latter interpretation seems the most probable, and has been followed by Riccius and Loewe.
