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    The Odyssey
    The Odyssey
    The Odyssey
    Ebook1,518 pages28 hours

    The Odyssey

    By Nikos Kazantzakis

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview

    • Mythology

    • Death

    • War

    • Self-Discovery

    • Adventure

    • Wise Old Man

    • Chosen One

    • Power of Love

    • Call to Adventure

    • Power of Hate

    • Quest

    • Hero's Journey

    • Prophecy

    • Power of Friendship

    • Loyal Friend

    • Love

    • Nature

    • Family

    • Power

    • Survival

    About this ebook

    A continuation of Homer’s epic poem, Kazantzakis’s own Odyssey finds Odysseus once again leaving Ithaca on finding that the satisfactions of home and hearth are not as he remembered them. Following an encounter with the former Helen of Troy (now returned to her husband, the king of Sparta, after the ignominious defeat of the Trojans), Odysseus gradually wends his way to Egypt and southward, grappling all the while with questions about the nature of God. Considered by Kazantzakis himself to be one of his most important works, The Odyssey takes readers on a richly imagined quest for adventure and understanding with one of literature’s most timeless characters.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster
    Release dateSep 11, 2012
    ISBN9781476706856
    The Odyssey
    Author

    Nikos Kazantzakis

    Nikos Kazantzakis was born in Crete in 1883. He studied literature and art in Germany and Italy, philosophy under Henri Bergson in Paris and received his law degree from the University of Athens. The Greek Minster of Education in 1945, Kazantzakis was also a dramatist, translator, poet, and travel writer. Among his most famous works are, The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel, The Last Temptation of Christ, and Saviors of God.  He died in October 1957.

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    Reviews for The Odyssey

    4/5

    149 ratings100 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I won't say too much about the actual story. Everyone already knows that stuff from freshman English and general knowledge of myths and literary tropes. It has monsters and heroes and true love and coming of age and an awesome scene with a trick arrow shot and 3 guys against the world. Give it a try if you haven't looked at it since you were 15.

      I'm not sure I had ever read the whole Odyssey before. In any case, I now have heard the whole thing performed by Ian McKellen. I suppose Homer on audio book is about as close as I'll get to the original, unless someone can point me to someone who does the audio book in ancient Greek... McKellen's narration was great, but I bought the book to listen to while driving, and it put me to sleep. The story was really quite exciting, even if it did drag on a little when Odysseus was planning his suitor revenge. I guess we skipped that part in 9th grade English. But Gandalf's voice seemed to be more suited for bedtime stories than distracting me from traffic jams. I know what I'll be listening to when I can't get to sleep though.

      The translation, by Robert Fagles, was excellent. There were some places where I was like "that seems really colloquial" but then I was glad because it really was easy to understand. I would use this translation if I ever needed to read Homer for some reason.
    • 5/5
      What a glorious story and a thoroughly enjoyable translation. My only quibble with the translation is using the term 'Greeks' instead of Hellenes (as the 'Greeks' called themselves) since in all otherand sometimes very compex names she kept to the original, e.g. Odysseus instead of Ulysses. Have to say that the final page was a bit disappointing, the story just ended quite abruptly without the intensity and build up of the other adventures. That aside, this 3000 + year old story was superb on so many levels, beautiful poetic language and description, an exciting adventure story, iconic moments like with Odysseus' dog, insights into very ancient societies' mores and values --thoroughly misogynistic by the way. From the various inconsistencies and differences in style -- like the final scene -- I think it is pretty obvious that there was not just one narrator (Homer), but various retellings in the oral tradition. Actually, while I ostensibly 'read' this book, I was more or less 'hearing' the story, reading the poetry slowly and aloud in my head. This book was a great experience.
    • 3/5
      A soldier returns home ten years later than expected.2.5/4 (Okay).There are some really good parts near the end. Most of the book is tedious.
    • 5/5
      This very accessible translation definitely stands up to the hype. My perpetual secondary interest in the Odyssey has been as a skeleton key to Joyce's Ulysses. In this respect the episodic correspondences are crystal clear. Homer's time warping between comic book action sequences and epic scale events are preserved. Doesnt shy from foregrounding slavery for what it was and underscores the question of how many should suffer/die for one great man's return home.
    • 3/5
      A must read
    • 4/5
      My first foray into ancient Greek myth and I loved it. This translation is very accessible and immersed me into Odysseus' journey of trials and tribulations. Loved it!
    • 3/5
      I read The Iliad in Richmond Lattimore's translation and far preferred his style to that of Fagles. So while I found this sufficient to enable me to read the entire work at last, it did not move me as the first work did.
    • 5/5
      Over the last fifty years I've read four translations of 'The Odyssey': E V Rieu (Penguin Classics), Butcher & Lang (used and parodied by Joyce in 'Ulysses'; despised by Pound), T E Lawrence (critics are a bit sniffy, but I enjoyed it) and finally the only verse translation I've read, the other three are prose, by the American poet Robert Fagles (pronounced as in bagel). I was further delighted to find when listening to Adam Nicolson's book, 'The mighty dead: why Homer matters' (2014) that Fagles is his choice of an exemplary modern translation.Of course it could be growing familiarity with the tale over three quarters of my life that enhances the jouissance of re-reading, but Fagles is now my choice - every evening I looked forward to picking up the book. His use of verse enhances the emotion and action of the tale. You have to pay attention otherwise you may lose who is speaking or the thread of the tale's subtle structures of back story and/or current action, oftentimes twined. I was pleased when re-reading Robin Knox's introduction to find that some passages I'd enjoyed for their impact were highlighted by him, but also noted, to my chagrin, that I'd missed some as well - how could I have missed this and this? Of course that's the pleasure of the text - with each reading you find something new. This text repays close attention, at times difficult because the action urges the reader on - so I'll be going back for more - this really is a book to live with.The edition is enhanced with Robin Knox's introduction, as mentioned, maps, translation notes, genealogies, textual variants, suggestions for further reading and a pronunciation glossary - all very useful.
    • 5/5
      This translation is a must read for anyone interested in literature, classics, or history. The pace of the story is amazing with action and adventure mixed in with society and home life.
    • 4/5
      A re-read of classic literature. In this sequel to the Iliad, Homer continues with the adventures of Odysseus in the Odyssey. Maybe it was the 4 years of Latin I took in high school but this never gets old.
    • 5/5
      a wonderful New translation in meter, so it flows and reads like a song without overly flowery verse, and deep insight into what the Greek poets meant without distortion of a later morality and cultural lens. a joy to read.
    • 5/5
      One of the single greatest books, EVER. Written.!!! !!! !!!

      #paganism_101
    • 5/5
      Wilson's translation of the Odyssey is excellent, but the real value is her introductory material and notes, including the three maps of the world of The Odyssey and of the actual classical Greek world. As for the translation, my Greek is not adequate to comment but it reads very well, lively and yet true to the Homeric conventions. The pace is brisker than that of the archaic translations I have previously read, and more like contemporary English than some of the more modern. I even found myself sympathizing with different characters as I read. And I noticed some character development, in Telemachus, for example.
    • 4/5
      This feels like a book that needs two distinct reviews.

      First, Emily Wilson's translation, which is wonderful. Just as Heaney moved Beowulf from "worthy work" to a fun read, Wilson's made The Odyssey eminently readable, while keeping it a formally structured long poem and apparently sticking scrupulously to the pacing of the original Greek. I had started reading other translations of this work but never actually finished them, so I'm delighted that this one now exists. And the maps, introduction, footnotes and dramatis personae all helped me follow a work that's heavy on reference and allusion.

      But I have to say I didn't get on very well with the content. Some of it is delightful, from learning that Greeks have appreciated wine, olive oil and the sea for longer than much of the world's had written records, to all the descriptions that weren't about Odysseus himself. But there's a degree of repetitiveness to the language that grated--Wilson's introduction explains why it was so in a work written to be performed but it still took away from my experience of reading this as written text--a few too many passages that consist of just listing characters from other Greek myths to the point that they felt like the Torah's "begats", and by the end I found the character of Odysseus dislikable enough to not care about his fortunes.

      I'm still glad to have read this. I didn't get anywhere near the exposure to Greek mythology that US schools seem to give, so much of the story was either new to me or connected dots that I'd picked up scattershot from English literature referencing them. And I have to say that I'm re-reading the Torah this year, which seems to be of approximately the same age, and found The Odyssey so much more sophisticated and compelling as a work of literature. But I can't exactly say that I _like_ this story.
    • 4/5
      Opmerkelijke, niet-chronologische structuur. Ook minder tragedisch-hero?sch dan Ilias, meer accent op waarden trouw, vriendeschap. Verschuiving tav Ilias: mensheld speelt hier de hoofdrol; Odysseus doorspartelt alle gevaren dankzij zijn formidabele karakter (groot hart, eerlijk maar ook vurig en wreedaardig), een man voor alle tijden; doorslaggevend: hij gelooft in eigen kunnen. Ook intelligent-listig (soms web van leugens), daarom in de Oudheid eerder als negatieve figuur gezien (corrupt en leugenachtig), pas met Renaissance gerehabiliteerd.Maar Odysseus is wel de enige onbesproken held, alle anderen (inclusief Telemachos en Penelope) worden in een dubieus daglicht gesteld. Tav Ilias komen vrouwen meer op voorgrond (maar niet altijd positief).Geen mythe, maar wel heldenverhaal, epos. De hoofdlijn is grondig vermengd met andere verhalen (dat van de cycloop is bij andere volkeren in 125 versies te vinden). Het centraal thema is de queeste, de zoektocht naar wat verloren is gegaan (vergelijking met Gilgamesj mogelijk: bezoek aan onderwereld, nihilistische visie op dood).
    • 5/5
      I love this book. Lattimore's grasp is huge and the story is immortal (of course). One of the primordial epic stories in which we interact with the gods. The most rosy-fingered story ever told in its *best* translation. The story has everything -- including lots of sex. "It is hateful to me to tell a story over again, when I has been well told." After reading it in starts and fits, over the course of many years, it is finally finished -- "let the rest be hidden in silence."
    • 5/5
      An epic tale of Odysseus as he makes he journey back home from the Trojan war. Lost at sea for 6 years trying to get home to his wife, he encounters many obstacles such as sirens, cyclopes, and sea creatures! This tale, has plenty of room for interpretation and meaning behind it which would make for a great book to share in a middle to high school class room. Not only is it entertaining but it give a slight historical account of the Trojan war. The students will be able to take an abundance of knowledge such as moral and ethical dilemmas as well as recognizing personal growth. I remember reading this book in middle school and I would recommend it to anyone who has the desire for adventure and the open mindedness and the willingness to learn that needs to be present during the story.
    • 5/5
      Not for the faint of heart. But well worth the read.
    • 3/5
      I read this book as an assignment in school so ... it's was not necessary my like or my choice, but I think it was a goodread ( :) ), isn't it a classic after all? I get confused between the Illiad and the Odyssey - that's how concentrated I was but I have always thought and made a mental note to read it later in my life. It is later in my life now ... mmm
    • 4/5
      Well, it seems a bit odd to be reviewing The Odyssey after all these centuries, but of course it's a great story. The new translation is excellent, very accessible and easy to read, although some of the colloquialisms did seem a bit odd in the context (I guess it's the balance between seeming realistic and being easy to read). The Appendices containing the stories of the dead in Hades were great, poetic as well as easy to read, and reminded me a bit of Alice Oswald's Memorial. I might even try rereading the Iliad with this new translation, as I found it a bit hard going the last time I read it (an older translation).
    • 5/5
      How much I enjoy this book: I just re-read it for the third time, this time in preparation for Joyce's Ulysses and Burroughs's Naked Lunch (Arnold Weinstein from Brown University says Burroughs was heavily influenced by the Odyssey).

      There are several reasons the Odyssey is still good after almost three thousand years--among many, the structure pulls you in, the plot keeps you interested, Ulysses, Telemachus, and Penelope go through interesting and realistic changes. It's a wonderfully well-told story.

    • 4/5
      I'd read this translation before, as part of a college history course. I'd forgotten how tough it was to read; this particular translation doesn't seem to flow well for me. But the story is fantastic (How I Made it Home From the War), and it's really enjoyable in that aspect.

      If anybody would like to recommend another translation, have at it! This particular one was at the library, so I grabbed it when I had the chance.
    • 5/5
      You can't say this isn't a classic! What I really want is a film version starring Sean Bean redoing his take on the character he played in "Troy"! That would even be worth a modern price of theatre admittance. "It's a whale of a tale I'll tell you lads!" and even after Atwood's "Penelopiad" attempt to diminish this story, people will still go for the Lattimore version as I have. I read this version twice and the Penguin E.V. Rieu.
    • 5/5
      I read this in high school and then we watched the movie. I have to say, this was one of my favorites. This, the canterbury tales, and beowulf were some of my favorite reads in my 10th/11th grade english class.
    • 5/5


      I never was a reader of classic in fact I had to read the cliff notes version before attempting one. Last year's reading through all those Jane Austen was a pain but weirdly enough this classics is really good. Initially I thought The Odyssey would be hard on me and I was right when I begin the reading with Samuel Butler's translation. I tried using Librivox's audiobook to keep me going but its confusing me since Pallas Athena became Minerva, Zeus became Jove and Odysseus became Ulysses, I end up being so disinterest with the descriptiveness that I turn to Fagles. Fagles saved me.

      There's a huge differences between Fagles (1996), Butler's (1922) and Rieu's (1946) translations. I read through nearly half of Butler's, quarter of Rieu's and all of the Fagles and to be honest, if you saw Fagles version. Get them.

      One of the reason that Fagles is most preferred is that when a professor recommend it, you get it. Other than that, Fagles is said to be closest to the poetic form from the original Ancient Greek and even I notice the poetic elements in the words rather than the excessive descriptive paragraphs of the same thing with Rieu and Butler's. Both translated Odyssey in novel style and most of the free source "The Odyssey" translation came from Butler, it made absolute sense why some people have differences in opinions on this epic.

      Before I began, I actually read this book with the help of Ian McKellan's narration. I know I have been an anti-audiobook thing but I'm not being hypocrite, in fact I was still struggling with the audiobooks but I was absolutely fine with poems (and The Odyssey actually is a series of rhapsodies) since these things are not meant to be read. Its mean to be said out loud and for me, this is quite an exception. But I still have problems concentrating with the listening part because I often fall asleep or space out so thats why I read and listen at the same time.

      With Ian McKellan's (aka Gandalf or Magneto if you don't know who that was) theatric experience, he effectively brought the classic into deathless dramatic epicness. Experiencing "The Odyssey" is nothing if you haven't listen to it being told by a bard who is ironically is who Ian McKellan is and listening to Sir Ian McKellan breathing the soul of Homer into Odyssey is possibly near orgasmic thing that I've ever had to listen to.

      The Odyssey began with a prayer to the Muse as the narrator started giving a short summary of the story. It's mostly centered around the events surrounding the missing hero, Odysseus, King of Ithaca. 20 years since Odysseus went to Troy to fight the war for Helen of Argos (not Helen of Troy!), the hero never went home and everyone including his wife and son accepted that he's died. Years earlier prior to the even in the first book, hundreds of men came to Ithaca to court the King's widow, Queen Penelope as it seems to be a custom for a beautiful young widow to remarry after the death of their husband. But Penelope managed to avoid the remarriage by prolonging the courtship which ends with the suitors overstaying Penelope's palace for years and spend all of the palace's resources on their feasting.

      In the first book, Athena became distraught over the plight of the great hero who is stuck in limbo and the fate of Odysseus's wife and son with their guests terrorizing their home. After she begged Zeus to command Calypso to let Odysseus go from her sensual snare, she disguised herself as Mentes, an old friend of Odysseus, to nudge the young prince to take action against the suitor's menace. With the guidance by the goddess, Telemachus finally set off to the seas to search for real news from his father. Meanwhile, Odysseus escaped Calypso's grasp finally heading towards his home but his journey was diverted and he was stranded again in Scheria due to Poseidon's being angry over what Odysseus had blinded his son, the cyclops Polyphemus during his earlier journey. In Scheria, he began to weave his tale and finally tell the Phaecians of his past and his journey back from Troy to Ithaca. The tales itself include his encounter with Circe, Polyphebus, Aeolus, The Cattle of the Sun and etc. The Phaecians took pity on him and send him back to Ithaca where he plotted doom against the suitors who defiled his house.

      The story is being told in various multiple narration in the beginning (Athena, Telemachus, Penelope, Odysseus etc) that is why I get some readers would get lost and felt it is boring but if its being read out loud, the poetry in Odyssey is much more prevalent than some passive narration style. Because Fagles updated the translation to be nearer to the original, you'll get the feel of what Homer had initially tried to portray with his stories.

      Since I do critical reading with The Odyssey, I do take note to the major recurrent theme of Xenia. A concept of hospitality by the Greek that embrace travelers into their home, mostly because they fear a god would disguise themselves as travellers and would punish them if they didn't treat their guests well. There are also signs from the gods or the hint by Odysseus cunning tongue or the forebodings. Some argue that The Odyssey is used to justify the role of some political ideologies that even I couldn't grasp it firmly. Besides I was thinking that The Odyssey's characterizations and conflicts are being overused in so many modern literature particularly famous archetypal ones.

      Other than that, I do notice this book is actually a mild romance novel, particularly with Penelope who is constantly grieving about her husband from the start of the book. I can't say about Odysseus fidelity but frankly, some characters in this book is classic strong female archetype. Athena (obviously.. disguising as several guys, fighting in wars, a peacekeeper etc), Penelope (a loyal woman who acting skills and great patience is what kept her in that limbo and somehow did do something to escape her near inevitable fate of loveless forced marriage from a broken mutual love marriage), Calypso (a woman desperate in need of love and companionship so much that she offers everything kept a man who never love her) and Circe (basically a lonely girl who know how to defend herself against a bunch of men coming into her house and turn them into pigs which they are). Ironically, the female in this book have more character than a bunch of YA novels and hypes these days.

      I had some misgivings about the story initially since Telemachus part of the book is really annoying. But it move well whenever Athena and Odysseus was around.

      To anyone who is considering to take on the classic, for more immersive experience, I would recommend the combination of Fagles translation and Sir Ian McKellan's audiobook if you want to read the epic. It will take longer than a few days if you read them at night, but its well worth to see Ian McKellan curses and narrating female parts nicely.
    • 5/5
      As with my review of Lombardo's translation of the Iliad, I will not comment on homers masterful and classic story. Many others have done so and I can add little.

      But, like his translation of the Iliad, Lombardo's modern and dramatic style make this classic engaging.

      Highly recommended.
    • 3/5
      Great classic book of travel, adventure, and myths.
    • 2/5
      For ordinary people: you should be patient to read it.
      For aspiring PR managers: gods (especially Athena) definitely can teach you some tricks.
      And of course, it's excellent choice for those who likes totally unmotivated massive murders. Or like reading about crying people who are constantly complaining how miserable and unlucky they are.
    • 3/5
      My copy is Book 10 in the Kings Treasuries of Literature series. A quote from the Appendix: "These little books do not profess to be more than shortened and simplified versions of the great poetic originals, and they are designed, in the first instance, for children." This is a nice way to become acquainted with the classic.
    • 5/5
      This translation is a must read for anyone interested in literature, classics, or history. The pace of the story is amazing with action and adventure mixed in with society and home life.

    Book preview

    The Odyssey - Nikos Kazantzakis

    Prologue

    O Sun, great Oriental, my proud mind’s golden cap,

    I love to wear you cocked askew, to play and burst

    in song throughout our lives, and so rejoice our hearts.

    Good is this earth, it suits us! Like the global grape

    it hangs, dear God, in the blue air and sways in the gale,      5

    nibbled by all the birds and spirits of the four winds.

    Come, let’s start nibbling too and so refresh our minds!

    Between two throbbing temples in the mind’s great wine vats

    I tread on the crisp grapes until the wild must boils

    and my mind laughs and steams within the upright day.      10

    Has the earth sprouted wings and sails, has my mind swayed

    until black-eyed Necessity got drunk and burst in song?

    Above me spreads the raging sky, below me swoops

    my belly, a white gull that breasts the cooling waves;

    my nostrils fill with salty spray, the billows burst      15

    swiftly against my back, rush on, and I rush after.

    Great Sun, who pass on high yet watch all things below,

    I see the sea-drenched cap of the great castle-wrecker:

    let’s kick and scuff it round to see where it will take us!

    Learn, lads, that Time has cycles and that Fate has wheels      20

    and that the mind of man sits high and twirls them round;

    come quick, let’s spin the world about and send it tumbling!

    O Sun, my quick coquetting eye, my red-haired hound,

    sniff out all quarries that I love, give them swift chase,

    tell me all that you’ve seen on earth, all that you’ve heard,      25

    and I shall pass them through my entrails’ secret forge

    till slowly, with profound caresses, play and laughter,

    stones, water, fire, and earth shall be transformed to spirit,

    and the mud-winged and heavy soul, freed of its flesh,

    shall like a flame serene ascend and fade in the sun.      30

    You’ve drunk and eaten well, my lads, on festive shores,

    until the feast within you turned to dance and laughter,

    love-bites and idle chatter that dissolved in flesh;

    but in myself the meat turned monstrous, the wine rose,

    a sea-chant leapt within me, rushed to knock me down,      35

    until I longed to sing this song—make way, my brothers!

    Oho, the festival lasts long, the place is small;

    make way, let me have air, give me a ring to stretch in,

    a place to spread my shinhones, to kick up my heels,

    so that my giddiness won’t wound your wives and children.      40

    As soon as I let loose my words along the shore

    to hunt all mankind down, I know they’ll choke my throat,

    hut when my full neck smothers and my pain grows vast

    I shall rise up—make way!—to dance on raging shores.

    Snatch prudence from me, God, burst my brows wide, fling far      45

    the trap doors of my mind, let the world breathe awhile.

    Ho, workers, peasants, you ant-swarms, carters of grain,

    I fling red poppies down, may the world burst in flames!

    Maidens, with wild doves fluttering in your soothing breasts,

    brave lads, with your black-hilted swords thrust in your belts,      50

    no matter how you strive, earth’s but a barren tree,

    but I, ahoy, with my salt songs shall force the flower!

    Fold up your aprons, craftsmen, cast your tools away,

    fling off Necessity’s firm yoke, for Freedom calls.

    Freedom, my lads, is neither wine nor a sweet maid,      55

    not goods stacked in vast cellars, no, nor sons in cradles;

    it’s but a scornful, lonely song the wind has taken  . . .

    Come, drink of Lethe’s brackish spring to cleanse your minds,

    forget your cares, your poisons, your ignoble profits,

    and make your hearts as babes, unburdened, pure and light.      60

    O brain, be flowers that nightingales may come to sing!

    Old men, howl all you can to bring your white teeth back,

    to make your hair crow-black, your youthful wits go wild,

    for by our Lady Moon and our Lord Sun, I swear

    old age is a false dream and Death but fantasy,      65

    all playthings of the brain and the soul’s affectations,

    all but a mistral’s blast that blows the temples wide;

    the dream was lightly dreamt and thus the earth was made;

    let’s take possession of the world with song, my lads!

    Aye, fellow craftsmen, seize your oars, the Captain comes;      70

    and mothers, give your sweet babes suck to stop their wailing!

    Ahoy, cast wretched sorrow out, prick up your ears—

    I sing the sufferings and the torments of renowned Odysseus!

    I

    And when in his wide courtyards Odysseus had cut down

    the insolent youths, he hung on high his sated bow

    and strode to the warm bath to cleanse his bloodstained body.

    Two slaves prepared his bath, but when they saw their lord

    they shrieked with terror, for his loins and belly steamed      5

    and thick black blood dripped down from both his murderous palms;

    their copper jugs rolled clanging on the marble tiles.

    The wandering man smiled gently in his thorny beard

    and with his eyebrows signaled the frightened girls to go.

    For hours he washed himself in the warm water, his veins     10

    spread out like rivers in his body, his loins cooled,

    and his great mind was in the waters cleansed and calmed.

    Then softly sweet with aromatic oils he smoothed

    his long coarse hair, his body hardened by black brine,

    till youthfulness awoke his wintry flesh with flowers.     15

    On golden-studded nails in fragrant shadows flashed

    row upon row the robes his faithful wife had woven,

    adorned with hurrying winds and gods and swift triremes,

    and stretching out a sunburnt hand, he quickly chose

    the one most flaming, flung it flat across his back,     20

    and steaming still, shot back the bolt and crossed the threshold.

    His slaves in shade were dazzled till the huge smoked beams

    of his ancestral home flashed with reflected light,

    and as she waited by the throne in pallid, speechless dread,

    Penelope turned to look, and her knees shook with fright:     25

    "That’s not the man I’ve awaited year on year, O Gods,

    this forty-footed dragon that stalks my quaking house!"

    But the mind-archer quickly sensed the obscure dread

    of his poor wife and to his swelling breast replied:

    "O heart, she who for years has awaited you to force     30

    her bolted knees and join you in rejoicing cries,

    she is that one you’ve longed for, battling the far seas,

    the cruel gods and the deep voices of your deathless mind."

    He spoke, but still his heart leapt not in his wild chest,

    still in his nostrils steamed the blood of the newly slain;     35

    he saw his wife still tangled in their naked forms,

    and as he watched her sideways, his eyes glazed, almost

    in slaughter’s seething wrath he might have pierced her through.

    Swiftly he passed and mutely stood on his wide sill;

    the burning sun in splendor sank and filled all nooks      40

    and every vaulted cell with rose and azure shade.

    Athena’s altar in the court still smoked, replete,

    while in the long arcades in cool night air there swung

    the new-hung slaves, their eyes and swollen tongues protruding.

    His own eyes calmly gazed in the starry eyes of night,      45

    who from the mountains with her curly flocks descended,

    till all his murderous work and whir of arrows sank

    within his heart in peace, distilled like mist or dream,

    and his wild tiger heart in darkness licked its lips.

    After the joy of bathing, his mind grew serene,     50

    nor did he once glance backward toward the splattered blood,

    nor in its cunning coils once scheme for ways to save

    his dreadful head from dangers that besieged it now.

    Thus in this holy hour Odysseus basked in peace,

    on his ancestral threshold standing, bathed and shorn of care.      55

    Meanwhile in every courtyard the swift news had spread

    how slyly their king had stolen to his ancestral land

    and slain the suitors round the feasting boards like bulls.

    Leaning on their oak staffs, the slain men’s fathers shrieked

    and knocked on each town door to rouse the angry crowd;      60

    the common workmen threw their rough tools to the ground,

    the craftsmen closed their shops, and from the seaside pubs

    the drunken oarsmen lurched, climbing the winding paths.

    Cluster by cluster in the market place all swarmed

    like angry bees when wasps have robbed their hives of honey.     65

    A woman who had lost her man on Trojan shores

    for Helen’s sake raised her love-aching arms, and cried:

    "We’ve welcomed him too well, my lads, that barbarous butcher!

    Behold his gifts: a sword, a shield, three flasks of poison;

    one to be drunk at dawn, one at high noon, the third     70

    most bitter one, dear Gods, to be drunk in bed, alone!"

    Shrilly from doors, roofs, terraces, the widows swarmed,

    flinging black kerchiefs round their heads, and yelled with rage:

    "May Zeus curse him who scorched us now in our first bloom!

    Our beds are filmed with mold, our honest homes are ruined,      75

    and all for the sake of a man-luring, shameless slut!"

    They beat their sterile breasts, for lack of children shrunk,

    and one, swept by her grief, wailed in a wild lament:

    "I weep less for my good man’s death or widowed arms

    than for my fallen breasts, my teats that shrank and dried      80

    for lack of milk and a stout son to bite them sweetly."

    Secret and ancient wounds in their hearts bled again,

    their eyes grew dim, and the sun’s little light grew faint

    as on black floating clouds astride, dark shades of men,

    stranded on hopeless shores, came slowly drifting in.      85

    They passed through desolate dusk in silence, wrapped in webs,

    and swiftly gliding along high walls, vanished in doorways.

    One lightly touched his father, and the old man shivered,

    one let his shadow fall on his home’s scattered stones,

    one on the shriveled apples of his wife’s worn breasts.      90

    The fondled shoulders quivered, knees gave way with fright,

    the air with dead men thickened, and the stifling widows

    tightly embraced the empty air with grief, and moaned.

    An armless man, whose hands the Trojan shores devoured,

    leapt on a rock, and soon there huddled thickly round him      95

    the maimed, blind, warped and crippled of man-eating War.

    Comrades, he yelled, flailing the air with his arm-stumps,

    "our king’s come back and brought his body whole, unharmed,

    both of his hands, his feet, his eyes, his wily brain;

    but we’re now crawling beasts that grovel on the ground;      100

    we grasp, but with no hands, we leap, but with no feet,

    and with our blank eyesockets knock on the archons’ doors."

    Then his voice stopped, his head thrust back in hollow shoulders,

    and his friends cheered him wildly and embraced him tight;

    the widows rushed into the streets bareheaded, bold,      105

    grabbed torches, scattered through the town and spurred the men:

    "Ho! look at these brave lads that drip tears and saliva!

    Take up our spindles, bind your heads with our black kerchiefs!

    Women, raise high your torches, fire that murderous man,

    burn down his palace tonight and strew the ashes to the four winds!"      110

    And you, in the quiet of night, you felt, O harsh sea-battler,

    the tumult of the insolent crowd, the flaming torches,

    and as you stretched your neck to listen, your heart flared:

    "Even my isle moves under my feet like angry seas,

    and here I thought to find firm earth, to plant deep roots!      115

    The armature of earth is rent, the hull gapes open;

    the mob roars to my left, the archons crowd my right;

    how heavy the cargo grows; I’ll heave to, and unballast!"

    He spoke, then with great strides sped to his central court,

    his ears, lips, temples quivering like a slender hound,      120

    and as he groped his body stealthily, he seized

    his wide, two-bladed sword, in many slaughters steeped,

    and all at once his heart grew whole again and calm.

    From the high roofs his slaves discerned the seething mob,

    unloosed their locks and filled their rooms with lamentation;      125

    the queen took courage, rushed to where her husband stood

    and mutely flung her arms about his ruthless knees,

    but he commanded all to lock themselves in the high towers,

    then bellowed for his son till all the palace rang.

    The young man, lolling in his bath, leapt at the cry,      130

    thrust through the frightened slaves who washed his chest of gore,

    strode out and firmly stood by his dread father’s side.

    His naked body, flushed, still steamed in darkling air

    and like a bronze sword, slaked with slaughter, glowed and glittered.

    He who has borne a son dies not; the father turned,      135

    and his sea-battered vagrant heart swelled up with pride.

    Good seemed to him his young son’s neck, his chest and sides,

    the swift articulation of his joints, his royal veins

    that from tall temples down to lithesome ankles throbbed.

    Like a horse-buyer, with swift glances he enclosed      140

    with joy his son’s well-planted and keen-bladed form.

    "It’s I who stand before my own discarded husk,

    my lip unshaven, my heart still covered with soft down,

    all my calamities still buds, my wars, carnations,

    and my far journeys still faint flutterings on my brow."      145

    Not to betray his joy, he lowered his eyes, and frowned:

    "Tall tower of our tribe’s fort, my son, my only son,

    take heed: the knavish mob now rears and tries its wings,

    the maimed have taken arms, slaves have cast off their yoke,

    the ballast, risen to foam, now tries to guide the prow.      150

    Say that I’ve not returned, that waves have gulped me down,

    and come, tell me how you would crush this crude revolt."

    A mild breeze blew on ringlets of a fallow brow,

    somewhere amid an olive tree a nightbird sighed,

    soft seawaves far away on the smooth shingle murmured      155

    and happy night in her first sleep mumbled in dream.

    Telemachus then turned to his harsh-speaking lord:

    Father, your fierce eyes brim with blood, your fists are smoking!

    The cruel man-slayer grabbed his son and roared with laughter;

    two crows on two black branches shook with fright, and fled,      160

    and in the court an old oak swayed with all its stars.

    Hold firm, my son, or my strong laugh will knock you down!

    But the young man shook free from his strong father’s grasp:

    "At your side, sire, I think I bent the bow well, too.

    Are not our hands now slaked and satisfied with murder?"      165

    The eyebrows of his ruthless parent scowled in storm:

    "My son, on shores and islands far away still smoke

    luxurious palaces, still groan their slaughtered kings;

    our people have grown haughty, wars have smudged their hearts,

    they rage to cut down man’s most venerated peaks;      170

    I see the scales of fate now tottering in the balance."

    But raising his eyes boldly, the brave youth replied:

    "If I were king I’d sit beneath our plane tree’s shade

    and listen like a father to all my people’s cares,

    dispensing bread and freedom justly to all men;      175

    I mean to follow in the path of our old kings."

    His father laughed and his eyes flashed. My son, he mocked,

    those follow old kings best who leave them far behind.

    The young man, struck with fright, stepped back and thought: "This man

    is like the cruel male hare that kills its newborn sons.      180

    O Gods, I’d seize him if I dared, bind both his hands,

    nail him to my most winged prow and send him far

    beyond the sun’s returning, to return no more!"

    The lightning-minded man divined at once his son’s

    dark thoughts, and his clear heart was wrapped in sudden clouds:      185

    "You haste my going too soon, my only son. It’s said:

    ‘Die, dear, that I may love you; live, and be my foe.’ "

    The young man stood abashed and dropped his silent glance,

    but his voracious father shuddered, for he recalled

    how as a still unshaven lad, in youthful rage,      190

    he too had raised a mailed fist once against his father.

    One day while hunting wild game in a black ravine

    they found in a deep pit a wounded rutting boar

    that snarled with rage and plowed the earth with its sharp tusks.

    As both rushed panting, the son sprang with ready spear      195

    but, in his father’s feet entangled, tripped and fell.

    He leapt at once erect, frothing with seething rage,

    his blood rose high and turned his brain to mud, but as

    he roared and flung himself on his father, just in time

    their hunting hounds dashed in the breach to part them. Ah,      200

    now in his own son’s eyes he saw that black ravine.

    Gently he touched with love his son’s mane, raven-black:

    "Ah, lad, I feel your pain and love your sharp impatience,

    hold back your wrath: all things shall come, all in their turn.

    I’ve done my duty as a son, surpassed my father,      205

    now in your turn surpass me both in brain and spear,

    a difficult task, but if you can’t, our race must perish,

    and then our turn shall come to fall prey to the mob."

    He spoke, then set the gate ajar to catch the hubbub,

    and in the wind his ears flashed like long pointed flames.

    The clamor heaved and swelled as tramp of feet rang out      210

    on the stone royal road that mounted toward the palace,

    and torches flared and vanished at each winding turn.

    The sly man turned then to his son with mocking laughter:

    "Ah, you were born too late, for grim times crush, and soon      215

    your peaceful plane tree shall be hung with gruesome fruit—

    either with our slaves’ heads, my son, or our own heads!

    Run quickly, gird your sword, and if we live, we both

    may sit serenely by our plane tree’s shade one day,

    but at this moment, arms, I think, are a man’s first duty."      220

    The young man dashed in quickly, on his shoulders cast

    a blue embroidered cloak with silver clasps engraved

    with swallows, shod his wing-swift feet with fretted sandals,

    and from the smoke-black column seized and buckled tight

    his gold-emblazoned leather belt with its bronze sword.      225

    Father and son unbarred the outer gate and sped

    stealthily down the road, treading the earth like leopards.

    It was a sweet spring night, in blue-black heavens hung

    the dewy stars enwrapped in a soft down, and trembled

    like early almond flowers swung by evening breezes.      230

    My son, Odysseus said, as blue shores swept his eyes,

    "I bring to mind a brilliant shore where waves once cast me;

    my sturdy boat was wrecked one evening on sharp rocks

    and all night long I fought with Death in frothing tombs;

    sometimes the Sea-God smashed my sides, sometimes, in turn,      235

    with seaweed hands I smashed his murderous three-pronged fork.

    I held my stubborn soul between my teeth, like meat,

    and when day broke, stretched out my hands, grabbed at the world,

    hung to an osier branch, and dragged myself ashore;

    at once the almighty and pain-easing god of sleep      240

    poured on my salt-cracked battered flesh his tender down.

    Next morning in my sleep the roaring pebbles rang

    with rowdy laughter till I heard my brain resound

    like festive shores with female cries and wooden clogs.

    For a long time I held my eyelids closed and joyed      245

    in earth and in man’s life as in a thrush’s song;

    but my brains longed for sight, so through half-opened lids

    I spied on maids with flowing hair playing by the shore,

    tossing their flame-red apples in light, and with long strides

    catching them still in flight, their flushed necks glittering in air.      250

    In the maids’ midst a nude, cool-bodied princess stood, 251

    with hair of honey-gold piled on her new-washed head,

    and watched her playmates gamboling on the golden sands.

    I swear that these world-wandering, glutted eyes of mine,

    blessed to have seen nude goddesses on deathless shores,     255

    never before rejoiced in such reed-supple form;

    when she was but fourteen so must have flowered, I know,

    amid cool oleander blooms, fair Helen’s body,

    and I said longingly within my salt-caked heart:

    ‘Just such a maid as this must suckle my son’s children.’ "     260

    Suddenly startled, his son blushed, his temples throbbed.

    "Tall lily on far shores, and see, my son’s mind dazzles!

    Soft silver laughter, gleaming throats, and fragrant apples,

    hands that resist, then open, then softly close again—

    O may the night not drain its hours, may dawns be dark,      265

    and may he hear those flaming apple trees asway

    in lush warm gardens far away, their sweet fruit falling!"

    Suddenly through the mind of the mute quivering youth

    a pure love flowed for that rapacious man, his father.

    Thus did the two lords speak as they lunged down the slope;      270

    a breeze blew freshly, earth was fragrant as after rain,

    and perched in ancient olive groves, the lovebirds sighed.

    Somewhere high up in heaven’s gorges, in the wind’s blast,

    the stars like molting pure-white flowers in darkness fell;

    low on the grass, like constellations, houses gleamed;      275

    lamps stood in doorways suddenly to watch with stealth

    the two night prowlers plunging headlong from the palace.

    But doors were bolted quickly, clanging in the strange hush;

    old women spat thrice past their breasts to ward off evil;

    and black dogs thrust their tails between their thighs, and whined.      280

    The stooped house-wrecker in his brine-black heart drank in

    the uncivil poisoned welcome of his shameless people

    and in his wrathful heart a lightning longing seized him

    to fall on his isle ruthlessly and put to the sword

    men, women, and gods, and on the flaming shores of dawn      285

    scatter to the wide winds the ashes of his own homeland.

    Such were the thoughts that whirled in his blood-lapping brain;

    his son watched him askance and guessed with dread what thoughts

    swirled in this ruthless stranger who suddenly swooped down,

    flung into seething uproar palace, mother, and slaves,      290

    then from his own long locks snatched off the royal crown.

    Who was he? His blood had not leapt when he first saw

    this grimy stranger crouched in rags, hunched on his threshold;

    nor had his mother flung herself on his breast for haven

    but in the women’s quarter had crouched in speechless dread.      295

    "Speak now with kindness to your loved subjects, father, repress

    your rage like a great lord, consider that they too

    possess a soul, are even a god, but know it not."

    Thus spoke the son and looked straight in his father’s eyes;

    but as Odysseus neared the shore and breathed the sea,      300

    his mind grew cool, and soon within his pulsing heart

    a white gull soared from far-off seas and flapped its wings.

    Meanwhile the widows waved their flaming torches high

    though they would not confess how deeply their hearts quaked,

    then they all joined in rousing songs, and with hoarse throat,      305

    alas, roared out a tune to give their weak hearts strength:

    "Comrades, unsheath your bosom-knives, let come what may,

    we’ll either finish the job tonight or fall on ruin!"

    But all stood still at once and trembled with choked voice

    for in the shifting light they suddenly sensed a head      310

    held high, the long peaked cap, the coarse mustache gone gray

    by many sunlit shores, their master’s swirling glance..

    All turned to stone, the young men hid behind the women,

    the old men wrenched their necks, the maimed grew hollow-kneed—

    only the sound of dripping resin broke the hush.      315

    The murderer glared into his people’s eyes, but spoke not;

    two roads within him opened up for possible action:

    should he unleash on the coarse herd his lion-mind

    that men and demigods and even gods disdained,

    or pity his poor people, open his arms wide,      320

    and merge serenely with his flock like a good shepherd?

    He weighed both well, and finding pity to his advantage,

    opened his arms and hailed his people with feigned joy:

    "A thousand thousand welcomes, old and tender shoots

    of my fruit-bearing, many-branching regal rod!      325

    I came with justice and revenge held in both hands;

    first I set straight my shaken castle ruthlessly

    and now descend to greet my long-loved island too;

    it does me good to see you mount with your town elders

    to bow down low before your loved much-wandering lord."      330

    His head like a bellwether’s glowed among the sheep,

    and the crowd shuddered, tossed between two scorching fires;

    from ancient times their backs had bent to the cruel yoke—

    much bitter gall, dark horrors, hands made stiff and tough

    at their lord’s rowbench sometimes, then at the hard plow—     335

    how might the enslaved soul ever raise its head in pride?

    But now among downtrodden hearts a cry burst out

    as frightened freedom opened her still tender mouth

    because an armless man dared speak, because the first

    bold voice was heard opposing the soul-grabbing king:     340

    No! we shall not bow down! Our turn has come, man-slayer!

    His hollow shoulders shook, his dull eyes flashed with fire

    though the crowd rushed to choke the newborn cry of freedom;

    then an old townsman tried to soothe his master’s wrath,

    but he shook off the elder, grabbed a torch and thrust      345

    his way amid the crowd, holding the blaze aloft,

    and one by one he searched them, cowed them one by one.

    An unexpected joy blazed through his heart, for he

    had heard a free soul dare speak out, dare to withstand him.

    Who spoke? he cried, and searched all faces with his torch,      350

    but cheeks turned sallow-green, eyes glazed, and all

    stepped backward stealthily and vanished one by one.

    Then the tart man laughed bitterly and said: "O heart,

    you hoped in vain to find one like yourself to fight with,

    you on the right, he on the left, your isle between!"      355

    He gave the torch to his young son and his voice rang:

    "Who among all of you dared open his mouth to curse me?

    Who had a word to say, who dared to answer back?"

    But no one spoke, all blinked their eyes and watched with fright

    how in the smoke an owl’s full round yellow eyes      360

    were slowly mounting up their master’s pointed cap,

    The young blades thrust their reckless knives into their belts,

    and in the torches’ fluttering hight a swarming host

    of Trojan dead appeared and disembarked from ships;

    with rotted cobwebbed spears and dirty unkempt beards      365

    they rushed in silence through the air and fell in line

    to right and left of their king’s back, like wings of night.

    The pallid mortals backed in fear, their hair stood straight,

    until the boldest elder touched his master’s knees

    with reverential fear, and finally bid him welcoipe:      370

    "May the Immortals guard and bless this longed for hour

    when you once more stepped on your orphaned island, sire;

    now earth shall bloom once more and the stones sprout with grass.

    We kiss the hand that knows both how to kill its foes

    and to bestow rich gifts on friends; and I, true friend,      375

    bow down and kiss your footprints; welcome, and thrice welcome."

    But still their master’s mind was filled with seething rage:

    "Who runs, drinks, fights, or makes love better than I?

    What other mind can think up truths or lies like mine?

    I can in a brief moment snatch the royal crown      380

    from my own head, then gain it by myself once more;

    I’ve held it neither from my own father nor from you!"

    The elders stooped and mutely touched his ruthless knees,

    and though he suffered all their slavish strokes with scorn,

    his anger beat against him still like battering waves.      385

    "When I returned, I should have punished you at once!

    How could your hearts endure to watch my wealth for years

    devoured by spongers that like dogs gaped for my bed?

    Not one was found among you to rise up and speak out.

    Don’t fear—though I’ve returned from the earth’s ends, I find      390

    I’m full of pity, my heart aches for mankind’s pains,

    my memory blots out evil and retains good only.

    Don’t quake, I’ve not forgotten I’m my people’s father;

    the sun shall also rise tomorrow, our talks resume.

    Raise high your torches, slaves, it’s time I left. This day     395

    has also passed, we have well earned our daily bread together."

    All took the steep ascent, the widows rushed ahead

    with torches held aloft to light their master’s way;

    behind them poured the living, far behind the dead,

    and further back the dead dogs, horses, ox and cows      400

    that even in Hades long for yokes and goading prongs.

    The double shepherd led like a bellwether and heard

    behind him the mob flooding like a rumbling herd,

    and suddenly felt his body dead and living both,

    a sunburnt, many-breasted, many-souled thing full      405

    of eyes and mouths and tentacles that seized his isle

    and growled, a shepherd, sheep, sheep dog and wolf all told.

    Absurd, contrary longings leapt within his breast,

    but he held firm the reins of his capricious soul

    and when he reached his castle, passed in silence through      410

    the blood-drenched threshold with its two stone lion guards,

    and his son followed boldly like a lion’s whelp.

    The torches choked in embers and the stars leapt low

    like hungry glaring eyes of wolves in a dark wood;

    Odysseus reached his hairy hands in his wild court     415

    and double-barred his copper-banded groaning gates.

    The gardens moaned like caverns and the palace roared

    till the crowd backed in terror, for in the star’s light

    it seemed the guardian lions moved their stony jaws.

    Father and son then parted mutely in the large hall;     420

    the lone man climbed the tower to calm his seething mind

    while the young man lay restless on his bed and heard

    his wingless temples creak and open wide to hold

    the many-branched audacious brain of his rash father.

    "Dear God, he swoops and ravages in every soul,     425

    he stands erect on the earth’s threshing floor and rakes

    and winnows worthless chaff from wheat in a full wind,

    throws half to the livestock and casts the other half

    in his mind’s silent millstones and slowly grinds it fine."

    Longing to exorcise his father and make him fade      430

    once more like spinning foam on the night-wandering wave,

    the young man wove, unwove sly snares in his mind’s loom

    until he wearied and curled tight in soothing sleep;

    but as his eyes grew glazed and his mind dimmed, a dream

    swooped like a vulture and perched high on his skull’s back.      435

    He dreamt he stood on a tall rock by the sea’s rim

    and longed for his great father to rise from distant waves,

    but as he wept, he heard enormous wings sweep down,

    and when he raised his eyes a wind-swift eagle swooped

    and plunged its claws deep in his head unpityingly,      440

    then, shrieking thrice, soared swiftly to the wind’s high peak.

    The youth clung to the eagle’s neck in dread and closed

    his eyes, fearing to watch the downward-plunging earth.

    Where are we flying, Father? Stop! My head spins round!

    But as they mounted higher, he felt his shoulder blades      445

    sprout wings of curly down till to his startled eyes

    the earth seemed like a tiny hare that browsed on wind;

    an eagle’s heart rose in his chest, his claws grew hard,

    and on the ancient eagle’s neck he swayed with pride,

    Father, my wings are strong now, drop me from your claws!     450

    The ancient eagle shrieked with maniac joy and rage,

    beat his enormous wings, opened his branch-thick feet

    and hurled his young son headlong through star-burning air.

    The young man shrieked in terror, leapt from his low bed,

    groped in the dark, and then grew calm; all seemed a dream,     455

    a crazy thought new-hatched in the deceiving night.

    But wild sleep now escaped him: all night long he heard

    two monstrous eagle wings that beat above his head.

    Meanwhile the castle’s lord had passed to a far room,

    and when he’d loosed his belt and hung his crimson robe,      460

    his black and hairy chest blazed in the lantern’s light,

    his thighs were ringed with flame till the whole house caught fire.

    Amid thick hair, his face, his eyebrows, his coarse beard

    darkened, and in his blackened flesh his soul flashed fire.

    Like a swift agile youth, he leapt, and his chaste bed,      465

    long-suffering and unsoiled, joined to an olive tree,

    trembled and groaned. Penelope then, new-bathed and mute,

    raised her long lashes stealthily and gazed on him with fear.

    Waking in early dawn, he stole like a thief downstairs,

    unhooked a four-flamed oil-lamp and with caution searched      470

    his house like a sly landlord counting all his goods.

    He passed through his deep vaulted cells, uncovered all

    his huge embellished jars and in his mind summed up

    what oil, wine, grain the revelers had left untouched.

    Then he knelt down and quickly broke the double locks,      475

    uncovered his stone caskets buried deep in earth,

    and in his raging mind summed up what golden cups,

    what brooches, necklaces, what precious stones and rings,

    how many golden crowns were missing or still safe.

    He raised his lamp and to his secret armory passed      480

    where all his pointed lances shone, his broad shields smiled,

    and plumes on his bronze helmets swayed like living manes.

    He passed beyond to further cells and with his glance

    grasped looms and caldrons, brazen lampsteads, earthen jars,

    counting and adding all, then shook his head in wrath.      485

    Like a slim hunting hound he sniffed the pungent air,

    his nostrils quivering at fat sheepskins and soft beds

    to nose out all the shameful secrets of his house.

    He passed by slowly and held his lamp aloft until

    his tall and flickering shadow leapt from wall to roof,      490

    and his worn slaves, still sleeping on their humble pelts,

    hearing a noise, half-opened their thick-lidded eyes,

    but quickly cowered, and covered themselves in silent fear.

    He passed the women’s quarter, sniffed the holy blood

    of all the new-slain youths till murder bloomed once more      495

    within his heart like a rose garden drenched with sun.

    Stark naked on a sheepskin, his old father lay

    in a far corner, raised his pate, looked at his son,

    and his blank eyeballs, wounded by the lantern’s light,

    brimmed with quick tears and blinked like bats in a dark cave.     500

    His son stooped over him and gazed without compassion

    On the old rotting hulk that in youth’s flower one night

    embraced his bride and sowed the sperms of his son’s birth;

    now to what state reduced, for shame, filth on the earth!

    He grunted, crossed the sill and stepped into his court      505

    where under roofed arcades his slavehands slept and snored

    and in their sleep smiled quietly and dreamt, perhaps,

    that their fierce lord had drowned at sea, not to return.

    But he was gliding from his wine to his oil vats,

    rejoicing to caress the old friends of his youth;      510

    he bent and stroked the shafts, the mangles, the worn wheels,

    and talked with them as though they were old warriors, joked

    about their spilled intestines, their worn broken teeth,

    and they guffawed and creaked at their old master’s banter.

    At last he entered his ox-stables, his warm stalls.      515

    where frightened mares reared up, alarmed, with flashing eyes,

    but his ox slowly moved their necks and chewed their cud,

    and the man-slayer drew back so that his cutting glance

    might not disturb the passive beasts’ contented calm.

    Thus, landlord, did you hold your lamp aloft to count      520

    your goods with care and stack them in your storied mind.

    The cocks now on the dungheaps had begun to crow,

    and the thick-headed sparrows in the eaves awoke,

    for rose-lipped azure day laughed in the opaque sky.

    The man of many sorrows rejoiced to hear his cocks      525

    bring in the sun once more to his own native land,

    blew out his lamp and leant against Athena’s feet.

    His past whirled in his mind; old sorrows and old joys,

    all seas he’d ever sailed flashed in his eyes, green shores

    twined crimson in the sun, and snow-white mountain summits.      530

    His mind, round like the sun, shone in the first rays,

    holy and good, a ripe fruit filled with fertile seed.

    His eyebrows leapt and zoned his voyages like lightning,

    waves roared and beat against his temples, garden-mint

    and honeysuckle blossomed in Calypso’s cave,     535

    and amber scrolls like honey wound round Circe’s bed.

    He felt his hands with poisoned heavy lotus brim,

    alluring lethal songs rang in his ears once more,

    but he heard all, rejoiced in all, set sail, and no

    excessive sweetness turned his brain from his true course.      540

    He had not wished to fight with gods, but when fate ordained

    he’d fought a deadly battle with the sea’s great lord

    and with the ungirdled goddess and her pubic whirlwind.

    All dangers he had passed now crossed his silent mind,

    and in that hour, on Troy’s far-distant azure shores,      545

    the dawn broke sweetly: hungry vines with berries weighed

    climbed through the jagged ruins and browsed on broken stones;

    charred embers choked with flowers, and tall grasses rose

    from the cracked skulls of princes, lizards strolled in sun

    and with their flickering tails crumbled the famous walls.      550

    As the man-slayer smiled and tenderly caressed

    Athena’s slender ankles, her bronze feet, he joyed

    to feel the goddess was his faithful comrade still.

    His claw-tipped brain grew crimson as he stooped with calm

    above black pits that brimmed with blood of new-slain throats      555

    and filled his fists, then slowly laved the Immortal’s breasts,

    her thighs and knees, as though he stroked a mortal maid,

    until the wisdom goddess laughed in sunlight, smeared with blood.

    His tenant farmers, meanwhile, from far hills and fields

    swarmed round his outer gate and wondered in mistrust      560

    how to address him, what to say, how touch his knees,

    and as they waited, addle-brained, with humbled heads,

    Odysseus slowly came and stood before them calmly,

    and all knelt down and kissed the sly man-slayer’s hand.

    An ancient shepherd leaned on his oak staff and wailed,      565

    some touched their master’s knees, his chest and shoulder blades,

    until emboldened by his calm all touched his body

    that in the light unmoving stood with a bull’s splendor.

    When they had wept and laughed their fill, they huddled close

    and joined their heads to answer their lord prudently.      570

    He asked his shepherds first about his flocks, how many

    the leeching suitors in their orgies had gulped down;

    next with his mud-brained farmhands he discussed his vineyards,

    his ancient unpruned olive trees, his unsown fields,

    then asked his slaves how much ripe fruit their wives produced,      575

    how many male and female slaves to his increase.

    On two wax tablets he set down in ordered rows

    his heavy losses, left, his meager profits, right,

    till squandered chattel and real property rose up

    unwinding from his rapid hands and climbed his brain;      580

    then he stood up and portioned jobs to every hand:

    "I want all of my vineyards, olive trees, my farms,

    my horses, sheep, my ox, to know their landlord’s come!"

    Stooping with joy, the elders kissed their master’s knees,

    then, young again and light of heart, sped to their work,      585

    Odysseus called to all his heralds and cried out:

    "Runners, speed with your myriad mouths and lengthy strides,

    swarm through my villages and towns and thunder out:

    ‘Your lord invites you to a great feast at the full moon;

    wash and bedeck yourselves, hasten to grace his boards.      590

    He’s come! Let his land welcome him with blood and wine!’"

    His heralds bound their hair with leaves of the wild olive,

    then seized their staffs of ilex wood, puffed up their brains,

    and rumbled downward toward the fields like swift cascades.

    Day like a shepherdess awoke, the world was filled      595

    with wings and birdsong, clamorous noise of man and beast,

    and in the ancient olive trees, the early cuckoo’s song.

    As he pricked up his ears to catch the sounds of spring,

    his mind like frothy loam was covered with new grass

    and his much-traveled heart dissolved in mist; sounds rose      600

    most sweet out of the earth and now allured him; "Come,

    come grandchild, O great grandson, bring your brimming jug."

    The great man-slayer shook to smell his dread forebears,

    his hairy nostrils filled with deadly camomile, 604

    and leaping up, he glanced about him, chose a jug      605

    whose copper belly had once borne the reveler’s wine,

    and with a double-handled crater scooped blood from the pit

    and filled his brimming jug to water his forefathers,

    then plugged its bubbling mouth with aromatic thyme

    and took the ancient crooked path to the moldering graves.      610

    All of his dead leapt on his chest like crabs and Spread

    their sallow bellies and pale claws till he yelled out:

    Oho, how have the dead increased! They’ll knock me down!

    But when the mountain’s fresh breeze struck him, he took heart;

    the gorse was fragrant, honeybees on savory browsed,      615

    swift swallows cut the light, and their white bellies, warm

    and starry-downed, filled the tree-flowering air with love.

    His nostrils quivered and breathed in his isle far down

    to the musk-odorous shore with its thick salty seaweed.

    How good earth is, dear God, he murmured; "nostrils, eyes,      620

    hands, tongue, and ears here browse unbridled on good soil."

    But his forefathers growled until once more he took

    the sacred road to water earth’s unbreathing throats.

    For ages on their stony beds, swords at their sides,

    with gaping jaws unlocked, they’d waited for their grandson,      625

    and now the traveler quaked for fear he’d come too late

    and find his own dead vanished, in the rank grass smothered.

    But soon the rugged wall came into view, well built

    and well matched with smooth cornerblocks like a skull’s bones.

    Black souls like ravens perched on it in a long row,      630

    and when they saw their son ascend with brimming jug

    they opened wide their bottomless thick beaks, and some

    perched on the fat fig tree that browsed on women’s flesh, 633

    some by the oak that sucked up male ancestral strength. 634

    The mute world-wanderer on the destined threshold stood,      635

    pushed to one side a rock that blocked the gate, and entered.

    The tombs were softly melting in the sun’s fierce blaze,

    audacious ivy struck deep roots in the rock clefts,

    —great sweetness, fragrance, happiness—and bees buzzed round

    the camomile that like star clusters filled the ground.      640

    Chiseled upon the lintel’s huge stone block on high

    an ancient crane stretched out his slim long-voyaged wings,

    lean carter of the sky who on his bony back

    and the deep hollows of his neck brings back the swallows

    then fans them jocundly throughout the warm spring air.      645

    Suddenly on his skull, the rugged grandson felt

    the secret archon of his dread tribe watching him.

    Welcome, grandfather crane, old swallow-mount, thrice welcome,

    he cried, then cast aside the thorny thyme and flung

    fistfuls of brimming blood to give his forebears life.      650

    The man of seven souls rose like a crane, his head

    grew wings, his blood-drenched palms and his knees quaked to feel

    invisible blind souls that groped to find out what

    he sought, if friend or foe, and what his shoulders held,

    till the jug rang as though pecked by a thousand beaks.      655

    Like a bird-hunter that bestrews the ground with barley

    he cast thick drops of blood on the tombstones and called

    with throaty clucking sounds on all the souls to eat,

    then knelt amidst the tombs, uncovered the dark pit

    that brings together dead jaws with warm living breath      660

    and poured out all the jug like a fresh-slaughtered throat

    till blood in fountain-falls plunged gurgling down to Hades.

    Pressed tight like mud-soaked and lethargic beasts, the dead

    lay rotting on their backs, their white skulls packed with earth;

    then the world-traveler hung above the deadly pit,      665

    laid his ears close to earth and heard far down in Hades

    firm necks knit straight again and whole, bones creak and stretch?

    fists clasp with savage strength at swords deep in the earth

    till the tombs rang like battle bivouacs far away.

    They lapped the human blood, grew strong and licked their lips,      670

    then slowly lifted toward the light their muddy heads

    like snakes that thaw out and uncoil in the sun’s blaze.

    Their grandson’s soul grew strong as they grew strong, he groaned,

    leapt up, and with his thick soles swiftly thrust aside

    the gravel round the graves, charred bones of bulls, clay shards,      675

    and on Death’s threshing floor spread out a dancing ring.

    He flung his coat far from his back, and in the sun

    his well-knit sturdy body gleamed with many wounds.

    Dancing around his sunburnt loins, tattooed in blue,

    the twelve signs of the zodiac glowed like living beasts:      680

    the scorpion spread its claws, the lion leapt for prey,

    fishes in pairs sailed undulating round his belly,

    and the scales tipped in balance just above his navel.

    As though earth lived, he touched it with his quivering feet

    and slowly on Death’s threshing floor began to dance,      685

    He called first to the men, and his grandfathers leapt

    with their bronze moldy armor, grasped each other’s arms,

    and from their beards shook off the still voracious worms;

    he walked then to the women’s side and hailed with awe

    deep in the earth his tribe’s milk-bearing ancient toots.      690

    Like pomegranates, the tombs burst and cast their seed,     691

    and mothers grasped their grandson’s still warm living hand,

    then beat the earth like strutting partridges and stepped

    in stately measure with their naked incensed feet.

    Mortal Odysseus led the dance and hoarsely yelled:      695

    "Hey, mothers, hey, straight-backed like candles, grassy-haired,

    your rhythmic heels glint in the sun like crimson apples!

    Go to it, grandpap, air has once more filled your lungs,

    and I, your grandson, rush in the lead and start the song!

    Never before, I swear, have I wished to praise the tombs,      700

    but now, for your sakes only, I’ll adorn them richly.

    O tombstones, wings, O brooding wings spread on the ground

    to hatch your huge eggs and to warm your sturdy eaglets,

    ah mother eagles, all of your eggs hatch in my mind!"

    Thus the soul-snatcher danced and woke his great forefathers;      705

    some seized him by the arm, some grasped his dancing feet,

    others, like falcon-bells, hung round his swinging throat,

    and thus for hours he danced with his ancestral ghosts,

    swift in the lead sometimes or at the tail’s slow end,

    bursting with song like swallows that return in April.      710

    But soon the noon at zenith dripped heat drop by drop

    till he stopped dancing, sated, bid his flock farewell

    then took the goatpath hurriedly to reach the peak,

    for his eye longed to take in all his isle once more.

    In tingling air the mountain blurred in the heat-haze      715

    and the armed insects plunged like pirates on first flowers

    of fragrant golden gorse, wild thyme, and sweet whitethorn.

    Amid the first betrothals, before nest-building cares

    oppress, and bodies meet and passion vanishes,

    the small birds flit from branch to branch in joyous ease.      720

    A gray hawk in the sky wove swift wreaths silently

    and sought no prey, but flexed his overbrimming strength

    before the female hawk should call and drain him dry.

    The man of many travels climbed, and his heart filled

    with myriad wings and playful thoughts and fragrant herbs.      725

    He climbed, his country’s threshing floor in splendor spread,

    and when he stepped at length on the bald mountain’s peak

    and saw his poor isle’s slender body far below,

    he blinked his eyelids to hold back his brimming tears.

    This is the rock, the bare dry rock I’ve loved and longed for,      730

    he murmured then, and teardrops on his lashes gleamed,

    His mind, a hovering hawk, spied out the world below:

    gold sunburnt beaches bathed like athletes by the sea,

    all huts were drowned in light, and on the sun-drenched fields

    the sluggish oxen cut the earth’s fruit-bearing womb.      735

    But suddenly the earth and seashores shook, farms swayed,

    and the whole island, trembling like a mist, rose high

    and vanished like a cloud dispersed by the sun’s stroke.

    Odysseus felt his heart fill up with freshening sea;

    for hours he gleaned his country’s sweetness from the summit,     740

    then feeling hungry, turned to his body, laughed, and said:

    "Ah, comrade workhorse, let the long day’s labor cease.

    We woke before cock crow, worked hard by the lamp’s light,

    gave orders to the wretched living, and fed the shades;

    now it’s high time to feed you also, faithful beast."      745

    He spoke, and then with haste plunged down the burning stones;

    a bitter sea-chant rose and throbbed, beyond his will,

    and beat between his towering temples like resounding waves.

    He lunged down the descent, and with his salty songs

    his solitude rose like the sea and bathed him whole      750

    till dead and living turned to waves within his mind.

    But all at once Odysseus stopped, his wild song broke,

    for in an olive grove he saw blue smoke ascending.

    A humble hut, nestling among the trees, stood guard

    over a mortals goods: a jug of water, a bowl of clay,      755

    the poor and holy tools of work, an earthen god.

    Before the hut there crouched a bent old man who slit

    fresh reeds and wove them in a basket skillfully.

    "Good day, old man, I marvel at your crimson cheeks,

    your supple fingers and your green old age. I’m hungry!      760

    God is most great and swift repays a good deed done."

    The old man rose, and in the outstretched palms he placed

    a bowl of water and a dry crust of barley bun:

    "The crab, though poor, is thought a king in his own lair;

    bread, water, a good heart, are kingly presents, stranger."     765

    He spoke, then stooped again to his reed-weaving task.

    Squatting there on the ground, under an old tree’s shade,

    the beggar, like a guileless beast, chewed on his bun,

    and when he finished, turned and smiled at the old man:

    "The bread was good, grandpap, it knit my weary bones,      770

    good was the water too, it cooled my heart to the root,

    but I have never taken gifts unpaid for, and now

    I shall not rise till I’ve repaid you with good news.

    Old granddad, prick up your ears, do not be’ frightened now;

    renowned Odysseus moored in his native, land last night!"      775

    But the old man only shook his sun-devoured head:

    "We who must work day after day to eat, dear God,

    what do we care if kings return or drown in exile?

    We care about the rain, our vegetable plots, our lambs,

    the holy bread the Immortals feed us with our own sweat;      780

    kings are uncapturable birds, clouds blown by winds,"

    The border-guard disliked these wry complaining words:

    "For shame, old man, raise your head high above all need.

    He’s come, and bears in his strong hands a vengeful bow

    whose god perched like a black crow, on his shoulder blade      785

    and for whose sake he’s strewn the ground with young men’s corpses."

    Between dry angers the old man crunched a bit of earth:

    "I pity not the idle and scented youths he slew,

    nor was the queen worth all the lads slain for her sake;

    the lady passed her time well, weaving and unweaving,      790

    shuttling with craft her yes and no from warp to woof.

    Our master from a babe showed brashness—all his journeys,

    his myriad cares and slaughters, have not sweetened his mind,

    but forty millstones grind in his tempestuous head."

    The self-willed solitary glared at the old wretch:      795

    "The mind was not created to grow soft by grinding

    nor to be bent and yoked like cattle for men’s comforts;

    the more the soul grows old the more it fights its fate!"

    The old man sighed and answered with great sweetness then:

    "The soul was made not to deny or shout in vain      800

    but to stoop low and merge with the bread-giving earth.

    Behold me, son: I was begotten, sprang to youth,

    and when a light mustache bedewed my upper lip

    I longed to see long braids beside me on the pillow

    and sold my two lone oxen and bought me a wife,      805

    for I could sleep alone no longer, nor eat nor drink.

    When we had lain together, sons and daughters came;

    I ate bread, worked the earth, but tax-collecting Death

    passed by, and we shared the children half and half, like brothers.

    Lately he’s passed again with his mule and snatched my wife.      810

    I’ve seen and taken count: there is no greater good

    than holy mute obedience to man-eating earth."

    Odysseus rose with arrogance and boasted proudly:

    "I’ve also taken count: there is no greater good

    than when the earth says ‘Yes’ and man with wrath shouts ‘No!’      815

    And I’m acquainted with one soul that never deigned

    to stoop under the yoke of demon, man, or god,

    but sailed and traveled till his heart became a wineskin

    for all four good and evil elemental winds;

    he scorned the comfortable virtues, nor made friends      820

    with wealthy shepherds or with lambs or honest dogs

    but outside his own sheepfold howled like a wild wolf.

    People called him a beast, a god, and he but laughed,

    for he knew well, quite well, he was not god or beast

    but only a light drifting smoke, a passing crane,      825

    I’d give him my one son to walk by his proud side."

    He spoke, then grasped the old man’s knees in deep regret:

    "Grandpap, forgive me this ungrateful pay for bread;

    by God, I measure often but find no measurement;

    just like the two-faced queen, I ply the crafty shuttle;      830

    now learn, old man, my warp is No, my woof is Yes,

    and what I weave all day I swift unweave by night.

    But why cast words into the wind? All roads are good

    and blessed on earth, and your own road is holy too;

    I kiss with reverence, grandpap, your exhausted knees."      835

    Good journey, stranger; may God sweeten your proud mind.

    Through silver-branching olive trees, in azure dusk,

    the old man watched the sturdy body plunge in fields

    and vanish without trace, as though the wind had snatched it.

    The slit reeds fell and scattered from his puckered hands,      840

    his light dimmed as though lightning bolts had split his brain:

    "That’s not the stature nor the tread of mortal man;

    either a god’s descended to my hut to tease me

    or my decrepit eyes have looked upon the dread Odysseus!"

    While the proud archer chased the empty air and played,      845

    his ancient father crawled across his blood stained threshold.

    He crept to a hot windless pit amid the fields

    and lay down without speaking, merged his back and hips

    with the warm earth and the green clover flecked with flowers;

    like an old scarab, battle-scarred, with broken wings,      850

    that eats, works, spills its seed, then crawls in a dark pit

    and has no will to live since all its guts have emptied,

    thus did Laertes crawl and thrust himself in earth.

    He smelled the loam and softly smiled, caressed the grass,

    stretched out his bony limbs and yawned, then wryly sighed;      855

    a thick black swarm of ants crawled up his withered shanks,

    but like an ancient tree he suffered the dark mites

    to roam his flesh, nor felt their sharp exploring bites.

    Only one dark and secret wish perturbed him still

    like baby’s whimpering or water’s murmuring      860

    or dry reed’s moaning by the lake when the wind blows.

    One prayer, one sole entreaty chirped in his mind still;

    he gazed on earth, his lips moved and his words arose

    like water lilies in his mind’s warm murky pools.

    "O earth, dear wife, I’ve tilled you like a humble plowman,      865

    I was your faithful king, the oxen my mute brothers,

    I was your glowworm, crawling through your herbs at night,

    delighting in your rain-soaked soil with my bright belly,

    I passed above you, Dame Bread-Giver, and sowed my seed,

    and you received it mutely in your guts, and slowly      870

    and patiently we stooped and waited for the first rains.

    I’m through, with tilling the earth now, I want my wages;

    make my old body young again to breed me grandsons!

    Like a great warrior who adorns himself for Hades

    and girds the sharp sword to his side, and grasps his spear,      875

    and paints his old scars red, and thus descends and slides,

    so shall I grasp my scythe, my hoe, my prodding goad,

    a jug of water, my two brothers the dumb oxen,

    and like a bridegroom steal into your house at night;

    the tender meadow grass shall cover up our bed      880

    that I may lie, dear Earth, sweet wife, at your cool side;

    make my old body young again to breed me grandsons!

    I’ll not have them resemble my one faithless son

    who spurned you; they’ll become field workers, worms of earth,

    their minds shall gently steam with grass and soil and rain.      885

    Lady Bread-Giver, I’m tired! Take me, but don’t cast me

    on sands of disavowal or in Lethe’s well;

    make my old body young again to breed me grandsons!"

    The temples of the old man sank, he closed his lids,

    his whole life seemed like a far buzz of honeybees      890

    that slowly, sweetly fades away on flowering fields,

    and he a stingless drone that lies supine, and dies.

    He smiled, spread out his hands and touched the fragrant herbs,

    leant back his head on the good earth and called on sleep,

    and the god came like a light, downy death, and took him.      895

    Three days the heralds, olive-crowned, beat on all doors:

    "Elders, take up your staffs; young men, gird on your arms;

    women, unlock your bridal chests of scented wood,

    choose from your dearest dowry, your best panoply!

    Minstrels, take down your lyres hung with ringing bells      900

    and beat your brains like trees for the ripe songs to fall!

    Let empty stomachs laugh and all dry throats rejoice—

    brothers, our king invites you all to a rich feast!"

    Under ancestral plane trees, still new-leaved and green,

    row upon row the tables sagged with food and drink;      905

    a savage lowing rose from beasts slain on the grass,

    from the crowd’s helter-skelter and its husky laughter.

    The furrows round the plane grove flowed with the beasts’ blood

    and girdled the whole town with a red steaming belt.

    It was a cool late afternoon, the evening’s dusk,      910

    and as the mules descended with their copper bells,

    the azure mountain with its white paths heaved and swayed

    and roared as though cascades plunged down its pebbly sides.

    The new-bathed women with their snowy kerchiefs shone

    like constellations on the dusk-strewn mountain slopes;      915

    behind them clanged young men in arms with pulsing hearts,

    pounding their feet to see at last

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