ἑξῆμαρ μὲν ἔπειτα ἐμοὶ ἐρίηρες ἑταῖροι

δαίνυντ᾽ Ἠελίοιο βοῶν ἐλάσαντες ἀρίστας·

ἀλλ᾽ ὅτε δὴ ἕβδομον ἦμαρ ἐπὶ Ζεὺς θῆκε Κρονίων,

καὶ τότ᾽ ἔπειτ᾽ ἄνεμος μὲν ἐπαύσατο λαίλαπι θύων,400

ἡμεῖς δ᾽ αἶψ᾽ ἀναβάντες ἐνήκαμεν εὐρέι πόντῳ,

ἱστὸν στησάμενοι ἀνά θ᾽ ἱστία λεύκ᾽ ἐρύσαντες.

ἀλλ᾽ ὅτε δὴ τὴν νῆσον ἐλείπομεν, οὐδέ τις ἄλλη

φαίνετο γαιάων, ἀλλ᾽ οὐρανὸς ἠδὲ θάλασσα,

δὴ τότε κυανέην νεφέλην ἔστησε Κρονίων405

νηὸς ὕπερ γλαφυρῆς, ἤχλυσε δὲ πόντος ὑπ᾽ αὐτῆς.

ἡ δ᾽ ἔθει οὐ μάλα πολλὸν ἐπὶ χρόνον· αἶψα γὰρ ἦλθε

κεκληγὼς Ζέφυρος μεγάλῃ σὺν λαίλαπι θύων,

ἱστοῦ δὲ προτόνους ἔρρηξ᾽ ἀνέμοιο θύελλα

ἀμφοτέρους· ἱστὸς δ᾽ ὀπίσω πέσεν, ὅπλα τε πάντα410

εἰς ἄντλον κατέχυνθ᾽. ὁ δ᾽ ἄρα πρυμνῇ ἐνὶ νηὶ

πλῆξε κυβερνήτεω κεφαλήν, σὺν δ᾽ ὀστέ᾽ ἄραξε

πάντ᾽ ἄμυδις κεφαλῆς· ὁ δ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ἀρνευτῆρι ἐοικὼς

κάππεσ᾽ ἀπ᾽ ἰκριόφιν, λίπε δ᾽ ὀστέα θυμὸς ἀγήνωρ.

Ζεὺς δ᾽ ἄμυδις βρόντησε καὶ ἔμβαλε νηὶ κεραυνόν·415

ἡ δ᾽ ἐλελίχθη πᾶσα Διὸς πληγεῖσα κεραυνῷ,

ἐν δὲ θεείου πλῆτο, πέσον δ᾽ ἐκ νηὸς ἑταῖροι.

οἱ δὲ κορώνῃσιν ἴκελοι περὶ νῆα μέλαιναν

κύμασιν ἐμφορέοντο, θεὸς δ᾽ ἀποαίνυτο νόστον.

αὐτὰρ ἐγὼ διὰ νηὸς ἐφοίτων, ὄφρ᾽ ἀπὸ τοίχους420

λῦσε κλύδων τρόπιος, τὴν δὲ ψιλὴν φέρε κῦμα,

ἐκ δέ οἱ ἱστὸν ἄραξε ποτὶ τρόπιν. αὐτὰρ ἐπ᾽ αὐτῷ

ἐπίτονος βέβλητο, βοὸς ῥινοῖο τετευχώς·

τῷ ῥ᾽ ἄμφω συνέεργον, ὁμοῦ τρόπιν ἠδὲ καὶ ἱστόν,

ἑζόμενος δ᾽ ἐπὶ τοῖς φερόμην ὀλοοῖς ἀνέμοισιν.425

    The crew feasts for six days, the weather changes and they set sail for home. Zeus sends a storm that destroys the ships and all the crew drowns. Odysseus survives by lashing the keel and mast together and riding them in the sea.

    After six days of gloomy dining, the crew sets sail and darkness envelopes them one more time (403–6). The next eight verses cover in great detail the destruction of the ship: forestays snapped, mast flattened, the helmsman’s head crushed as he goes overboard like an acrobat—this last a variation on the earlier gruesome simile of the crew yanked out of the ship by Skylla like fish on the hook (12.251–56). Then Zeus finishes them off, leaving all but Odysseus to die, bobbing like crows in the sea.

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    The long, exciting journey home ends for the crew with this grim simile. As the poem’s opening lines foretold, their lack of self-control finally catches up with them. Odysseus notes their fate but expresses no particular sadness over it, even though we might see reasons for him to feel some remorse for the times when his curiosity cost lives. Odysseus is the right hero for this story, emotionally closed off from others, relentlessly self-disciplined, ready to lie at any time to anyone if it will give him leverage over others. The rhetoric of the poem always urges us to valorize any act, no matter how callous, that ensures the survival of its hero. Emotional entanglements are only a hindrance in this perspective and the crew members become interchangeable with the suitors, immature men who are unable to control their impulses and die for it at Odysseus’s hands. We may think of the Iliad, with its many violent, graphic deaths, its heroes vaunting cruelly over their victims, as the darker of the two Homeric epics. But that poem, for all its violence, bends finally toward forgiveness, compassion, and healing, forces rarely present in the Odyssey or its hero.

    We might be surprised to find that part of this dramatic shipwreck, with all its vivid relevance to the particular place in the story, appears again, almost verbatim, in a false tale that Odysseus delivers in Book 14 to Eumaeus, describing a shipwreck off Crete:

    ἀλλ᾽ ὅτε δὴ Κρήτην μὲν ἐλείπομεν, οὐδέ τις ἄλλη 
    φαίνετο γαιάων, ἀλλ᾽ οὐρανὸς ἠδὲ θάλασσα, 
    δὴ τότε κυανέην νεφέλην ἔστησε Κρονίων 
    νηὸς ὕπερ γλαφυρῆς, ἤχλυσε δὲ πόντος ὑπ᾽ αὐτῆς. 
    Ζεὺς δ᾽ ἄμυδις βρόντησε καὶ ἔμβαλε νηῒ κεραυνόν: 
    ἡ δ᾽ ἐλελίχθη πᾶσα Διὸς πληγεῖσα κεραυνῷ, 
    ἐν δὲ θεείου πλῆτο: πέσον δ᾽ ἐκ νηὸς ἅπαντες. 
    οἱ δὲ κορώνῃσιν ἴκελοι περὶ νῆα μέλαιναν 
    κύμασιν ἐμφορέοντο: θεὸς δ᾽ ἀποαίνυτο νόστον

    Odyssey 14.301–9

    Lines 301–4 replicate 403–6 in our passage verbatim, with one small change: Κρήτην μὲν (14.301) replaces τὴν νῆσον (12.403). The next eight verses in Book 12, describing in detail how the ship is destroyed, do not appear in Book 14. Then the parallels resume, with 14.305–9 echoing 12.415–19, again with one small change to accommodate the differing circumstances: ἅπαντες (14.307) replaces ἑταῖροι—the shipmates in the beggar’s false tale are not his companions, only fellow travelers.

    Comparing these two passages offers a window into the mysterious creative process whereby Homer builds his story, using repeated traditional words, phrases, or larger narrative units to compose scenes that are unfailingly fresh in their context. In Book 12, we witness the final obliteration of Odysseus’s crew, men who have been with him since Troy. The horrific events in 12.407–15 vividly mark this terrible conclusion. In Book 14, such detail is not necessary for the story to be exciting to the beggar’s audience of one. Likewise, the identical language in the two passages has a different impact in each. The darkness that falls on Odysseus and his crew in Book 12 is the crescendo of a long series of potentially obliterating events, stretching back as far as Odysseus’s suffocating existence on Calypso’s island in Book 5. In the beggar’s tale, which we know is false, the story is merely entertainment to get the two men through the night. We do not care about the lost sailors because we’ve been told they are not real.

    Alone again, Odysseus lashes together the keel and mast and floats onward in the storm. The South Wind picks up and he is carried back toward Skylla and Charybdis, establishing the circular rhythm of the story here, foreshadowing the “return” to Calypso. This time through, he avoids Skylla, but Charybdis swallows his makeshift boat, one last encounter with the dark, suffocating forces he has faced all along the way. He escapes that oblivion by clinging like a bat to a tree trunk jutting out over the whirlpool. The unusual simile Odysseus uses to measure how long he has to wait for the timbers to surface breaks through the magical folktale milieu we have been in for most of the adventures, perhaps signaling imminent the arrival back on Ithaka, a world far removed from sucking whirlpools and alluring Sirens.

    399  ἐπὶ … θῆκε: “added,” tmesis > ἐπιτίθημι.

    400  θύων: “raging,” complementary ptc. > θύω, with ἐπαύσατο.

    401  ἐνήκαμεν: “launched (our ships),” aor. > ἐνίημι.

    402  ἀνά … ἐρύσαντες: “hoisting” (lit., “drawing up”), tmesis.

    407  οὐ μάλα …χρόνον: “for a not very long time” (an example of litotes, Smyth 3032).

    408  κεκληγὼς: “howling,” nom. sing. pf. act. ptc. > κλάζω, attributive.

    409  ἔρρηξ(ε): aor. > ῥήγνυμι.

    410  ὅπλα: “tackle,” “equipment”

    411  ἄντλον: “the bilge” (the curved bottom of the ship’s hull) or “the bilge-water” (water that collects in the bilge).

    411  κατέχυνθ᾽: = κατέχυντο, 3rd pl. aor. mid. indic. > καταχέω.

    411  ὁ: i.e., the mast (ἱστός).

    411  πρύμνῃ ἐνὶ νηΐ: “in the stern" (lit., "in the hindmost part of the ship").

    412  σὺν: “completely,” adverbial.

    412  ἄραξε: “smashed,” “crushed,” > ἀράσσω.

    414  κάππεσ(ε): 3rd sing. aor. > καταπίπτω.

    414  ἰκριόφιν: dative of place where.

    416  ἐλελίχθη: aor. pass. > ἐλελίζω.

    416  πᾶσα: “completely.”

    417  ἐν … πλῆτο: tmesis, aor. mid./pass. > ἐμπίμπλημι (“to fill full of” + gen.).

    418  κορώνῃσιν: "sea crows," often identified as shearwaters.

    419  ἐμφορέοντο: "were borne about on," with dative. In Homer the verb only appears in the imperfect middle/passive, here and in 14.309 (where this same simile is repeated).

    420  ὄφρ(α): “until.”

    420  ἀπὸ … λῦσε: “loosened,” tmesis > ἀπολύω.

    420  τοίχους: “sides.”

    421  τὴν: i.e., the ship.

    421  ψιλὴν: predicate.

    421  φέρε: “carried (it) away,” unaugmented impf.

    422  ἐκ ... ἄραξε: "broke," "shattered," tmesis > ἐξαράσσω.

    422  ποτὶ: “against.”

    422  ἐπ᾽ αὐτῷ: "against it" (i.e., against the keel).

    423  βέβλητο: "was thrown," unaugmented 3rd sing. plupf. pass. > βάλλω.

    423  τετευχώς: “made,” nom. sing. pf. act. ptc. > τεύχω, with passive sense.

    424  τῷ: “with it.”

    424  ἄμφω: “both” (modifying τρόπις and ἱστός), dual.

    424  συνέεργον ὁμοῦ: “I lashed together” > συνέργω. Odysseus describes fashioning a raft out of bits broken from his ship.

    ἑξῆμαρ: for six days, six days long

    ἐρίηρος –ον: faithful, devoted, trusty

    ἑταῖρος –ου ὁ: comrade, companion

    δαίνυμι δαίσω ἔδαισα: (act.) to give a banquet, distribute (food); (mid.) to share a meal; to feast (on), eat (+ acc.)

    ἦμαρ –ατος τό: day

    Ζεύς Διός ὁ: Zeus

    Κρονίων –ωνος ὁ: son of Cronus

    ἄνεμος –ου ὁ: wind 400

    λαῖλαψ –απος ἡ: a tempest, furious storm, hurricane

    θύω: to rage, seethe, cover

    αἶψα: rapidly, speedily, suddenly

    ἀναβαίνω ἀναβήσομαι ἀνέβην ἀναβέβηκα ––– –––: to board, go up

    ἐνίημι ἐνήσω ἐνῆκα ἐνεῖκα ἐνεῖμαι ἐνείθην: to launch a ship into the sea; to send in, set out

    εὐρύς –εῖα –ύ: broad

    πόντος –ου ὁ: sea, open sea

    ἱστός –οῦ ὁ: mast, beam; loom

    ἱστίον –ου τό: a sail

    λευκός –ή –όν: white; light, bright

    εἰρύω/ἐρύω ἐρύσω/ἐρύω εἴρυσα/ἔρυσα/ἔρυσσα εἴρυσα/ἔρυσα/ἔρυσσα –– –– εἰρύσθην: to pull, draw, drag; to guard

    γαίη –ης ἡ: land, region, district

    ἠδέ: and

    κυάνεος –α –ον: dark-blue, glossy-blue 405

    νεφέλη –ης ἡ: cloud

    Κρονίων –ωνος ὁ: son of Cronus

    γλαφῠρός –ά –όν: hollow, deep

    ἀχλύω ἀχλύσω ἤχλυσα: to be or grow dark

    πόντος –ου ὁ: sea, open sea

    θέω θεύσομαι ἔδραμον δεδράμηκα ––– –––: to run, speed, move forward

    αἶψα: rapidly, speedily, suddenly

    κλάζω κλάγξω ἔκλαγξα κέκλαγγα ––– –––: to make a sharp piercing sound

    Ζέφυρος –ου ὁ: Zephyrus, the west wind

    λαῖλαψ –απος ἡ: a tempest, furious storm, hurricane

    ἱστός –οῦ ὁ: mast, beam; loom 410

    πρότονοι –ων οἱ: ropes from the masthead to the forepart of a ship, the forestays

    ρήγνυμι ῥήξω ἔρρηξα ἔρρηχα ἔρρηγμαι ἐρρήχθην: break, shatter, tear

    ἄνεμος –ου ὁ: wind

    θύελλα –ης ἡ: storm, eruption

    ἱστός –οῦ ὁ: mast, beam; loom

    ὀπίσω or ὀπίσσω: backwards, behind; in the future

    ἄντλος –ου ὁ: the hold of a ship

    καταχέω καταχῶ κατέχεα/κατέχυσα κατακέχυκα κατακέχυμαι κατεχύθην: to pour down upon, pour over

    ἄρα: now, then, next, thus

    πρυμνός –ή –όν: the hindmost, undermost, end-most

    πλήττω πλήξω ἔπληξα πέπληγα πέπληγμαι ἐπλήγην (–επλάγην): strike, smite

    κυβερνήτης –ου ὁ: a steersman, helmsman, pilot

    ὀστέον –ου τό: a bone

    ἀράσσω ἀράξω ἤραξα ––– ––– ἠράχθην: to knock, beat, strike

    ἄμυδις: together, at the same time

    ἄρα: now, then, next, thus

    ἀρνευτήρ –ῆρος ὁ: a diver, tumbler

    καταπίπτω καταπεσοῦμα κατέπεσον καταπέπτωκα: to fall

    ἴκρια –ων τά: the half-decks

    ὀστέον –ου τό: a bone

    ἀγήνωρ –ορος: manly, courageous, heroic

    Ζεύς Διός ὁ: Zeus 415

    ἄμυδις: together, at the same time

    βροντάω βροντήσω ἐβρόντησα – βεβρόντημαι ἐβροντήθην: to thunder

    ἐμβάλλω ἐμβαλῶ ἐνέβαλον ἐμβέβληκα ἐμβέβλημαι ἐνεβλήθην: to throw (into or onto); to cause to enter, embark, put

    κεραυνός –οῦ ὁ: a thunderbolt

    ἐλελίζω ἐλελίξω ἠλέλιξα: to whirl round

    Ζεύς Διός ὁ: Zeus

    πλήττω πλήξω ἔπληξα πέπληγα πέπληγμαι ἐπλήγην (–επλάγην): strike, smite

    κεραυνός –οῦ ὁ: a thunderbolt

    θέεον –ου τό: brimstone, sulfurous smell

    πίμπλημι πλήσω ἔπλησα πέπληκα πέπλησμαι ἐπλήσθην: to fill

    ἑταῖρος –ου ὁ: comrade, companion

    κορώνη –ης ἡ: sea-crow

    ἴκελος –η –ον: like, resembling

    μέλας μέλαινα μέλαν: black, dark, obscure

    κῦμα –ατος τό: wave

    ἐμφορέω ἐμφορέσω/ἐμφορήσω ἐνεφόρεσα/ἐνεφόρησα ἐμπεφόρηκα ἐμπεφόρημαι ἐνεφορήθην: (pass.) to be borne about in

    ἀπαίνυμαι – – – – –: to take away, withdraw

    νόστος –ου ὁ: return (home)

    ἀτάρ (or αὐτάρ): but, yet 420

    φοιτάω φοιτήσω ἐφοίτησα πεφοίτηκα ––– –––: to go to and fro, roam, to resort to

    ὄφρα: while; until; so that; ὄφρα … τόφρα, while … for so long

    τοῖχος –ου ὁ: the wall of a house

    κλύδων –ωνος ὁ: a wave, billow

    τρόπις –εως ἡ: a ship's keel

    ψιλός –ή –όν: bare, stripped; (soldier) without heavy armor, light troops

    κῦμα –ατος τό: wave

    ἕ: him, her, it; himself, herself, itself

    ἱστός –οῦ ὁ: mast, beam; loom

    ἀράσσω ἀράξω ἤραξα ––– ––– ἠράχθην: to knock, beat, strike

    τρόπις –εως ἡ: a ship's keel

    ἀτάρ (or αὐτάρ): but, yet

    ἐπίτονος –ου ὁ: the back-stay of a mast

    ῥινός –οῦ ἡ: the skin

    ἄμφω ἀμφοῖν: both (dual)

    συνέργω συνείρξω συνεῖρξα ––– ––– –––: to fasten, join; to close or tighten together, secure

    ὁμοῦ: together, at the same place or time

    τρόπις –εως ἡ: a ship's keel

    ἠδέ: and

    ἱστός –οῦ ὁ: mast, beam; loom

    ἕζομαι – – – – –: to sit down 425

    ὀλοός –ή –όν: destroying, destructive, fatal, deadly, murderous

    ἄνεμος –ου ὁ: wind

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    Suggested Citation

    Thomas Van Nortwick and Rob Hardy, Homer: Odyssey 5–12. Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Dickinson College Commentaries, 2024. ISBN: 978-1-947822-17-7 https://dcc.dickinson.edu/homer-odyssey/xii-397-425