Circè’s Final Warnings

9“She spoke, and I replied: ‘O goddess, deign
To tell me truly, cannot I at once
Escape Charybdis and defend my friends
Against the rage of Scylla when she strikes?’

10“I spoke; the mighty goddess answered me: —
‘Rash man! do you still think of warlike deeds,
And feats of strength? And will you not give way
Even to the deathless gods? That pest is not
Of mortal mould; she cannot die, she is
A thing to tremble and to shudder at,
And fierce, and never to be overcome.
There is no room for courage; flight is best.
And if you should delay beside the rock
To take up arms, I fear lest once again
She fall on you with all her heads, and seize
As many men. Pass by the monster’s haunt
With all the speed that you can make, and call
Upon Crataeis, who brought Scylla forth
To be the plague of men, and who will calm
Her rage, that she assault you not again.

11“ ‘Then in your voyage shall you reach the isle
Thrinacia, where, in pastures of Helios,
His many beeves and fading sheep are fed —
Seven herds of oxen, and as many flocks
Of sheep, and fifty in each flock and herd.
They never multiply; they never die.
Two shepherdesses tend them, goddesses,
Nymphs with redundant locks —Lampelia one,
The other Phaethusa. These the nymph
Naeera to the overgoing Helios
Brought forth, and when their queenly mother’s care
Had reared them, she appointed them to dwell
In far Thrinacia, there to keep the flocks
And oxen of their father. If your thoughts
Be fixed on your return, so that you leave
These flocks and herds unharmed, you all will come
To Ithaca, though after many toils.
But if you rashly harm them, I foretell
Destruction to your ship and all its crew;
And if yourself escape, you will return
Late and in sorrow, all your comrades lost.’