Suddenly a piercing cry was heard, as the monster seized six of the men and devoured them. The rest passed on unharmed; but since then, in speaking of conflicting dangers, it has been customary to use the expression, “falling from Charybdis into Scylla.”
Cattle of the sun.
Only too glad to effect an escape at any price, the Greeks again rowed on until they sighted Trinacria, the island of the sun, where Phaetusa and Lampetia watched over the sun god’s sacred herds. The men wished to land here to rest; but Ulysses reminded them that Tiresias, the blind seer, had warned them to avoid it, lest by slaying any of the sacred animals they should incur divine wrath.
The men, however, worn out with the toil of many days’ rowing, entreated so piteously to be allowed to rest, voluntarily pledging themselves to be content with their own provisions and not to slay a single animal, that Ulysses reluctantly yielded to their entreaties, and all went ashore.
After they had duly rested, they were still detained by unfavorable winds, until all their provisions were exhausted, and the few birds and fishes they managed to secure no longer sufficed to still the pangs of hunger.
Led by Eurylochus, some of the men, during one of Ulysses’ temporary absences, caught and slew some of the sun god’s cattle. To the general amazement and terror, the meat lowed while roasting on the spit, and the empty skins moved and crawled as if alive. All these sounds and sights could not, however, deter the sailors, who were bound to have a good feast, which they kept up for seven days, ere Ulysses could make them leave the Trinacrian shores.
In the mean while, Lampetia had hastened to Apollo to apprise him of the crime committed by Ulysses’ men. In anger he appeared before the assembled gods and demanded amends, threatening to withdraw the light of his countenance if he were not properly indemnified. Jupiter, to appease his hot anger, immediately promised that all the offenders should perish.
“‘Still shine, O Sun! among the deathless gods
And mortal men, upon the nourishing earth.
Soon will I cleave, with a white thunderbolt,
Their galley in the midst of the black sea!’”
Homer (Bryant’s tr.).
This promise he immediately fulfilled by drowning all except Ulysses, who alone had not partaken of the sacred flesh, and who, after clinging to the rudder for nine long days, a plaything for the wind and waves, was washed ashore on the Island of Ogygia, where the fair sea nymph Calypso had taken up her abode.
Ulysses and Calypso.