Book 2
35
Know that as soon as I sailed away from your island on the raft I had built I suffered shipwreck, and was only just saved by Leukothea and brought to the country of the Phaeacians. They conveyed me to my own land, where I found my wife's numerous suitors revelling at my expense. I killed them all, but was afterwards taken off by Telegonos, my son by Circe. At present I am in the Island of the Blest, repenting deeply that I left your hospitality and the immortality you offered me, and as soon as I get a chance I will make my escape and come to you."
35
This was what the letter said, together with a request that she would show us hospitality.
36
When I had advanced a short distance from the sea I found a cave such as Homer described, and the lady herself spinning wool. When she had taken the letter and read it through she burst into tears and wept a long time, but after a while she invited us to dinner and feasted us nobly. She asked questions about Odysseus and about Penelope, what she was like to look at, and whether her good sense was so remarkable as Odysseus used to boast it. We made such answers as we thought would be agreeable to her. Then we went off to the ship and bivouacked near by on the beach.
47
These, then, were my adventures on the sea, during my voyage among the islands, in the air, afterwards in the whale and when we had escaped thence, and among the heroes . . . until I reached the opposite continent. What happened to me on land I will describe in the following books.
