the laurel, beneath the valleys of Parnassus. They indeed were sailing into sandy Pylos, and the Pylian-sprung men for traffic and business in a dark ship, but Phœbus Apollo met them. And into the sea he made a spring, in body likened to a dolphin,[1] into the swift ship, and he lay a mighty and dreadful monster. And no one of them in his mind could regard or observe[2] him, * * * * he moved in all directions, and shook the timbers of the ship. But they in silence sat in the ship, in dread, nor did they loose the cables throughout the hollow black ship, nor did they loose the sail of the black-prowed ship; but as they who first set to work with [ropes of] bull hides, so they sailed, and the light south wind †from behind pressed on[3] the swift ship.† And they first passed by Malea, and came to the Lacedæmonian land, the sea-girt city, and Tænarus, the country of the mortal-rejoicing sun, where the dense-fleeced sheep of the king Sun ever feed, and possess a pleasant country. They indeed here wished to stop the ship, and, disembarking, to observe and behold with their eyes the mighty marvel, whether the monster would remain on the plain [decks] of the hollow ship, or would make a spring into the fishy wave of the sea around. But the well-built ship obeyed not the rudders, but keeping rich Peloponnesus at its side, it went on its way. And by the wind Apollo, the far-darting king, easily directed it; and she, making her way, came to Arene, and pleasant Argyphea, and Thryum, the ford of Alpheus, and handsome Æpy, and sandy Pylos, and the Pylos-born men. And he went past Crunü, and Chalcis, and by Dyme, and by divine Elis, where the Epeians rule. And she reached Pheræ,[4] rejoicing in the gale of Jove. And to them out from the clouds appeared the lofty crag of Ithaca, and Dulichium, and Same, and woody Zacynthus. And it indeed passed by over[5] all Peloponne-
- ↑ "This, I imagine, was not the dolphin of modern times, which is a slender, elegant, and comparatively small fish; but, as seems clear from the descriptions in the classic poets generally, nothing more or less than the porpoise." Coleridge, p. 290.
- ↑ I read τῶν δ' οὔτις κατὰ θυμὸν ἐπεφράσατ' οὐδ' ἐνόησεν, with Matth. and Herm., placing a mark of lacuna after the line.
- ↑ I read ἔπειγε, with Ruhnken, instead of ἔγειρε. Cf. Od. xii. 167, ἔπειγε γὰρ οὖρος ἀπήμων.
- ↑ Cf. Od. xv. 295.
- ↑ Hermann has changed ἐπεὶ to ἔπι, which he says is "adverbialiter de superficie dictum," as in Il. xvii. 650, μάχη δ' ἔπι πᾶσα φαάνθη.
