suading me by his wit, until we came to Phœnicia, where his houses and possessions lay. There with him I remained for a full year. But when the months and days were now finished, the year revolving round again, and the seasons came on, he set me in a sea-traversing ship, [to go] to Libya, having plotted false things, that I take freight together with him, but in order that he might transport me thither [to be sold as a slave], and receive a vast price [for me]. I attended him in the ship by necessity, although suspecting. And it ran with a clear beautiful north wind to the middle main beyond Crete: but Jove devised destruction for them. But when we had now left Crete,[1] nor did any other land appear, but the heaven and the sea, then at length the son of Saturn reared an azure cloud above the hollow ship; and the sea grew dark[2] beneath it. But Jove thundered frequently, and hurled a thunder-bolt upon the ship: and it was all whirled about, stricken by the thunder-bolt of Jove, and it was filled with sulphur, and all (the sailors) fell from the ship. And they, like unto gulls, were borne on the waves around the black ship: and God took away their return. But Jove gave to me in mine hands, although having griefs in mind, the unbroken mast of the azure-prowed ship, that I might still escape calamity. Clinging around this, I was borne along by the destructive winds: for nine days I was borne, but in the tenth black night a mighty rolling billow drifted me to the land of the Thesprotians. There the hero Pheidon, king of the Thesprotians, entertained me without expense: for his dear son, coming to me subdued with cold and toil, led me home, having raised me by the hand, until he reached the house of his sire. And he put on me a cloak and tunic as garments.
"There I heard of Ulysses; for he said that he entertained him, and received him kindly, as he was returning to his paternal land. And he showed me the possessions which Ulysses had collected together, brass, and gold, and much-wrought steel. And it would feed another family even to the tenth generation; so much treasure lay for him in the palace
- ↑ Cf. xii. 403, sqq. Moschus, Id. ii. 127, ἡδ' ὅτε δὴ γαίης ἄπο πατρίδος ἦεν ἄνευθεν φαίνεται δ' οὐτ' ἀκτή τις ἁλίῤῥοος, οὔτ' ὄρος αἰπύ, Ἀλλ' ἀὴρ μὲν ὕπερθεν, ἔνερθε δὲ πόντος ἀπείρων.
- ↑ So Alciphron, Op. i. 1. ἐπεφρίκει μὲν ὁ πόντος μελαινόμενος. Pacuvius, "inhorrescit mare, tenebræ conduplicantur, noctisque et nimbûm occæcat nigror."
