Verse

Odyssey

Book 4, Line 351 by Samuel Butler (English)

"I was trying to come on here, but the gods detained me in Egypt , for my hecatombs had not given them full satisfaction, and the gods are very strict about having their dues. Now off Egypt , about as far as a ship can sail in a day with a good stiff breeze behind her, there is an island called Pharos - it has a good harbor from which vessels can get out into open sea when they have taken in water - and the gods becalmed me twenty days without so much as a breath of fair wind to help me forward. We should have run clean out of provisions and my men would have starved, if a goddess had not taken pity upon me and saved me in the person of Eidothea, daughter to Proteus, the old man of the sea, for she had taken a great fancy to me.

OdysseyBook 4, Line 351Samuel ButlerEnglishVerse permalinkRead in Book 4

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Samuel Butler's public-domain English prose Odyssey via Perseus canonical TEI; prose segments are assigned to their source line span.