Metamorphoses

“We, too, having fastened our ships to the shores of Circe, remembering Antiphates and the cruel Cyclop, refused to go and enter her unknown abode. By lot were we chosen; that lot sent both me and the faithful Polytes, and Eurylochus, and Elpenor, too much addicted to wine, and twice nine companions, to the walls of Circe. Soon as we reached them, and stood at the threshold of her abode; a thousand wolves, and bears and lionesses mixed with the wolves, created fear through meeting them; but not one of them needed to be feared, and not one was there to make a wound on our bodies. They wagged their caressing tails in the air, and fawning, they attended our footsteps , until the female servants received us, and led us, through halls roofed with marble, to their mistress.

MetamorphosesOvidHenry T. RileyEnglishVerse permalinkRead in Book 14

Book 14, Line 18ProseID metamorphoses-riley-en-prose-14-18