The Adventures Of Ulysses The Wanderer

CONTENTS


PAGE
Foreword 9

Brief Account of Principal Characters
in the Odyssey 13

The First Episode--How They blinded the
Son of Poseidon 21

The Second Episode--The Adventure of
the Palace in the Wood 39

The Third Episode--How Ulysses walked
in Hell, and of the Adventure of
the Sirens and Scylla 48

The Fourth Episode--How Ulysses lost
his Merry Men and came a Waif to
Calypso with the Shining Hair 63

The Last Episode--How the King came
Home again after the Long Years 80

A Note on Homer and Ulysses 98




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


HE STARED STEADILY AT THEM WITH HIS
SINGLE EYE FOR A FULL MINUTE _Frontispiece_

THEN HE CAME SWIFTLY UPON THE
GLEAMING PALACE _facing page_ 45

THEN HE WAS, IN AN INSTANT MOMENT,
AWARE OF A MORE THAN MORTAL PRESENCE " 49

THEY CAME TO THE BRINK OF THE RIVER " 52

"WHO AM I THAT I CAN COMBAT THE
WILL OF ZEUS OR THE HARDNESS OF
YOUR HEART?" " 78

"NAY, IF YOU LOVE ME," HE SAID, "NONE
OF THAT, MY FRIEND" " 83




FOREWORD


Seven fair and illustrious cities of the dim, ancient world, Argos,
Athenæ, Chios, Colophon, Salamis, Rhodos, Smyrna, fought a war of
words over HOMER'S birthplace.

Each claimed the honour.

And if, indeed, such an accident of chance confers an honour upon a
town, then the birthplace of the Greatest Poet of all time should be a
place of pilgrimage.

For, among the weavers of Epos, Drama, and Romance, he who was called
Melesegenes is first of all and wears an imperishable crown.

For 3000 years his fame has streamed down the ages.

The world has changed. Great empires have risen, flowered and passed.
Christianity came, flooding mankind with light, at a time when, though
Homer was a dim tradition, his work was a living force in the world.
When Christ was born, Homerus was dead 900 years.

A man with such immensity of glory ceases to be a man. He becomes a
Force.

Of the two imperishable monuments Homer has left us, the decision of
critical scholarship has placed the _Iliad_ first. It has been said
that the _Iliad_ is like the midday, the _Odyssey_ like the setting
sun. Both are of equal splendour, though the latter has lost its
noonday heat.

But I would take that adroit simile and draw another meaning from it.

When deferred, expected night at last approaches, when the sun paints
the weary west with faëry pictures of glowing seas, of golden islands
hanging in the sky, of lonely magic waterways unsailed by mortal
keels; then, indeed, there comes into the heart and brain another
warmth,--the mysterious quickening of Romance.

For I think that the ringing sound of arms, the vibrant thriddings of
bows, the clash of heroes, are far less wonderful than the long,
lonely wanderings of Ulysses.

Through all the _Odyssey_ the winds are blowing, the seas moaning, and
the estranged sad spectres of the night flit noiselessly across the
printed page.

Through new lands, among new peoples--friends and foes--touching at
green islands set like emeralds in wine-coloured seas, the immortal
mariner moves to the music of his creator's verse. The Sirens' voices,
the Fairy's enchanted wine, the Twin Monsters of the Strait pass and
are forgotten.

His wife's tears bid him ever towards home.

I sometimes have wondered if Vergil thought of Ulysses when he made
his own lesser wanderer say:--

"Per varios casus per tot discrimina rerum,
Tendimus in Latium, sedes ubi fata quietas
Ostendunt."

And now, since we are to have, on that so magical a stage, a concrete
picture: since we are to take away another storied memory from beneath
the copper dome, I feel that the story of Ulysses may once more be
told in English.

A fine poet, a great player, are to give us an Ulysses who must
perforce be not only full of the spirit of his own age of myth, but
instinct with the spirit of this.