Glad to have escaped alive, the survivors did not leave till they had performed the last sacred rites, calling aloud three times to each of their slain comrades by name that their spirits might be guided back to Hellas. Then, with aching hearts, they sped from that ill-omened shore, while Odysseus prayed to Zeus for a favoring north wind.
The Cloud-gatherer heard, but answered in anger. The sky to northward grew black and lowering. So suddenly did the storm-clouds overspread the heavens
that it seemed as if night had tumbled headlong upon the quaking fleet. Suddenly the wind leaped upon them, hurling the galleys apart as by a giant hand. The sails were torn to tatters by the tempest; the fury of the gale and the overwhelming rain forced the crews below, while the ships pitched and wallowed as they drove before the wind. Seeing that their only chance for life was to get under the lee of some protecting shore, the crews came up once more, each rower staggered to his seat, and they set to work to force their laboring craft towards land.
Two days and nights they toiled, till even their tough hands were blistered and raw, and their exhausted muscles could scarcely grip the oars. They reached the shelter of a promontory at length and rested there, amazed to find themselves still afloat.
By the next morning the gale seemed to have blown itself out, so they hoisted their yards, set sail, and stood south before a following wind and sea.
Again the hopes of all ran high, as they coasted along the mountainous shores of Eubœa, and turned southwest towards the long point of the Peloponnesus.
Still the favoring breeze swept them on. They doubled the dreaded cape of Maleia, and held west, now doubting not at all that in two days at the most their straining eyes would behold the rock cliffs of Ithaca. Only the face of Odysseus was stern and set, as he pondered in his mind the doleful prediction which had clouded his thoughts so many years.
Indeed, he was hardly surprised when, as they swept around the next jutting point, they were suddenly
thrown aback by a squall from the north, accompanied by such a head sea that they were forced to put about and run before it, as far back as Cythera.
Even here they could make no harbor but drifted on helplessly before the furious gale. Nine days and nights they were tossed about, not knowing where they were or whither they were being carried.