25 Apr THE ODYSSEY excerpt 3
For we have no steersmen here among Phaeacia’s crews
or steering-oars that guide your common craft.
Our ships know in a flash their mates’ intentions,
know all ports of call and all the rich green fields.
With wings of the wind they cross the sea’s huge gulfs, s
hrouded in mist and cloud—no fear in the world of foundering,
fatal shipwreck. True, there’s an old tale I heard my father
telling once. Nausithous used to say that lord Poseidon was
vexed with us because we escorted all mankind and never
came to grief. He said that one day, as a well-built ship of ours
sailed home on the misty sea from such a convoy, the god would
crush it, yes, and pile a huge mountain round about our port.
THE ODYSSEY
TRANSLATED BY, Robert Fagles
