And to where the ship’s stern-hawsers be cast forth on to the strand, {840}
That the men may at dawn take thought for the home-return to their land.’
She spake, and departed, and plunged from the height of the heaven mid swirls
Of the dark-blue sea; and she called to her sisters, the Nereïd-girls,
To come to her help: and the Maids of the Sea, so soon as they heard,
Gathered; and Thetis told them according to Hêrê’s word;
And she sped them all to the sea Ausonian thence forthright.
And swifter herself than the flash of an eye, or the arrows of light
Of the sun, from the uttermost bourne when his chariot-wheels upflame,
On through the water she fleeted and flashed, until she came