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BOOK X.
ÆOLUS, THE LÆSTRYGONES, CIRCE.
"Thence we went on to the Æolian island where lives Æolus son of Hippotas, dear to the immortal gods. It is an island that floats (as it were) upon the sea,[1] iron bound with a wall that girds it. Now Æolus has six daughters and six lusty sons, so he made the sons marry the daughters, and they all live with their dear father and mother, feasting and enjoying every conceivable kind of luxury. All day long the atmosphere of the house is loaded with the savour of roasting meats till it groans again, yard and all; but by night they sleep in their[errata 1] well made bedsteads, each with his own wife between the blankets. These were the people among whom we had now come.
14"Æolus entertained me for a whole month asking me questions all the time about Troy, the Argive fleet, and the return of the Achæans. I told him exactly how everything had happened, and when I said I must go, and asked him to further me on my way, he made no sort of difficulty, but set about doing so at once. Moreover, he flayed me a prime ox-hide to hold the ways of the roaring winds, which he shut up in the hide as in a sack—for Jove had made him captain over the winds, and he could stir or still each one of them according
- ↑ "Floating" (πλωτῇ) la not to be taken literally. The island itself, as apart from its inhabitants, was quite normal. There is no indication of its moving during the month that Ulysses stayed with Æolus, and on his return from his unfortunate voyage, he seems to have found it in the same place. The πλωτῇ in fact should no more be pressed than θοῇσι as applied to islands, Odyssey xv. 299—where they are called "flying" because the ship would fly past them. So also the "Wanderers," as explained by Buttmann; see note on Odyssey xii 457.
