The Adventures of Ulysses

Damaged by the winds, the fleet pulls into a beautiful cove for rest and repairs. Within the cove, the sky changes from day to night and back again in minutes. The men drag two of their ships onto the beach and leave one vessel anchored in the bay as a precaution. They begin to mend the sails and repair the beached ships.

Ulysses sends a man to climb a distant tree and scan the surroundings. When the man doesn’t return, Ulysses sends another, then a third. Puzzled, Ulysses goes to the tree and climbs it. Near the top, he realizes that he’s not on a tree but on a hairy giant who happens to be asleep at the moment but, when it grew light earlier, awoke and ate the men sent by Ulysses.

Sliding back down the giant, Ulysses calls for the men to escape, but the sun climbs quickly back into the sky, and a throng of giants descends onto the beach, grabbing men, eating them, and smashing the beached ships. A handful of men gather around Ulysses, who wields his sword and slices off the giants’ grasping fingers. The men fight bravely, make their way into the bay, swim for the remaining ship, and escape. Most of their companions are dead; only one ship remains.

The remaining 45 men sail to a wooded coastline with a good harbor. Ulysses, not willing to risk the men again, launches a skiff and paddles for shore alone. He ascends a hill, climbs a tree, gazes around, and finds the sea on all sides. It’s an island; the only escape is their ship.

Nearby among the tall oaks is a small castle; Ulysses hears eerie howls coming from it. A giant stag crosses his path; Ulysses spears it and carries it down to the beach. His men get to shore and process the meat, roast it, gorge themselves, and sleep. Ulysses stands guard; he realizes that if the island’s deer are that big, the men soon will have plenty of food for the next leg of their trip. Also, there are clear-running streams to supply them with water.

Ulysses wants to explore the castle while the men guard the ship, but his first officer, Eurylochus, begs for a chance to see trees and walk inside a building that doesn’t rock on the ocean. Ulysses relents, and Eurylochus sets off with half the men.

As they approach the castle, the men hear howling and draw their weapons. They come to the castle grounds, where a pack of lions and wolves race about. The creatures see the men and jump on them before the men can react, but the beasts lick their faces gratefully. Eurylochus embraces a lion; the men realize these animals are intelligent and friendly.

From the castle they hear a woman singing. Eurylochus stands guard while the men enter the castle. On a terrace, the men find a beautiful, tall woman with long, shining golden hair, singing and weaving a gorgeous tapestry. She tells them she is Circe, granddaughter of the sun god Helios and Perse, and daughter of Oceanus. She offers the men baths and food and hopes they’ll tell her stories of their travels.

At the meal, Circe gives the men a delicious porridge that they devour. Circe walks among them, refilling their bowls, until they begin to change into pigs. Circe herds them into a pig sty and tosses pig food at them.

At night, Eurylochus, no longer hearing his men, peers through a wall slit, sees a lady at a loom, and hears singing, but there’s no sign of his men. Retreating, he notices that the wolves and lions “stood like statues, walked like shadows” (56). They make no sound as he runs past and down the hill to the beach, where he reveals what he has seen and falls unconscious.

Ulysses hikes alone to the castle. Toward dawn, the god Hermes appears and informs him that the Cyclops Polyphemus was Poseidon’s son, and Poseidon wants revenge. Hermes and other gods don’t like this course of events, and, to balance things out, Hermes will help Ulysses.

First, he informs the warrior that the castle belongs to the sorceress Circe, who is fattening up the crewmen as morsels for some of her guests. Then he gives Ulysses a black-and-yellow moly flower, which will ward off the drugs in Circe’s food. After the meal, Ulysses must advance on her as if to kill her, and, when she defends herself with irresistible enchantments, Ulysses must hold them off long enough to get her to swear she won’t hurt him while he visits. Hermes wishes him luck and winks out of sight.

Ulysses approaches the castle. The wolves and lions gather about him; he pets them, then enters the castle. He meets Circe at her loom. She greets him, and her servants bathe and clothe him. Circe feeds him, but, clutching the moly flower, he doesn’t finish the bowl, feeling full. She gives him wine, but whatever else is in it has no effect. They talk, and Ulysses tells her he thinks the friendly lions and wolves have human eyes. Impatient, Circe leaps toward him with a wand, crying, “Change, change, change! Turn, turn, turn!” (62) Nothing happens.

Ulysses takes the wand from her, snaps it in two, draws his sword, grabs her by the hair, forces her to her knees, and threatens to kill her. She grasps the sword blade; her power courses through him, and she lures him with her eyes. She speaks softly, coyly, and romantically. Ulysses feels intense love for her. Under her enchantment, he promises to live with her if she promises never to hurt him and to restore his men. She agrees. The pigs are changed back into men. The rest of the crew join them, and for a long time they all live and feast at the castle, entertained by minstrels and dancing girls, hunting, and playing sports.

Ulysses falls deeper into love and almost forgets his wife and home. One day, Circe confesses that he’s her favorite husband. He asks how many spouses she’s had; she says she’s immortal and has been loved by deities, but she prefers men. When they grow old she transforms them into immortal creatures that roam the island. The wolves and lions are the best of them; the lesser ones are smaller animals like rabbits, squirrels, spiders, and even a jealous monkey who throws walnut shells at Ulysses.

He asks what animal he would become; she replies, “With your swiftness and your cunning ways—oh, yes, a fox. A king of foxes” (67). It won’t happen, though, she says, unless Ulysses chooses to forget his home. Ulysses ponders this and decides that he must honor his oath to return to Ithaca. Circe warns him that the gods have decreed that he must suffer great hardship, including a visit to the Land of the Dead, if he continues his quest. Circe asks him to leave quickly, lest she forget her oaths and trap him and his crew forever.

Ulysses and his men hurry down to the ship, board it, and sail away. The lions and wolves collect along the shore and bemoan their loneliness.

The Land of the Dead lies somewhere beyond the sea to the west; Ulysses and his men sail in that direction. Soon the sky grows dark—“no stars, no moon” (72)—and night lasts for a week. Ulysses steers, keeping himself awake, until a gray fog surrounds them. He sends a man, Elpenor, up the mast to look around; the ship lurches and the man tumbles screaming into the sea and drowns. Promptly, the fog lifts a bit; a screaming gull rises and flies ahead. Ulysses orders the men to follow the gull; exhausted, he falls asleep.

The men think Ulysses murdered Elpenor so they could follow his spirit toward the underworld. Night falls again, and Ulysses wakes and resumes steering. The boat suddenly pitches forward and rushes downhill onto a sloping river, the Styx, that flows under a gray light, its black shores lined with black and white trees. This is the Land of the Dead. They arrive at a harbor, disembark, and walk to a meadow of black grass grazed by black goats. The men kill two goats; they drain the goat blood into a trench and wait for ghosts to arrive and feed. The ghosts will guide them.

Steamy shapes of heads and shoulders appear that drink the blood. One is Ulysses’s mother, Anticleia, who chides him for visiting her before he’s dead. Another is Achilles, who asks if he’s still remembered in Greece. Ulysses answers that he hasn’t yet been able to return home, but at every island he visits, the names of Achilles and his son Neoptolemus are known and celebrated.

Pleased, Achilles warns Ulysses to avoid the island of the Sirens, three witches who sing so beautifully that sailors can’t resist and swim to the island, where the Sirens eat their flesh and make their skin and bones into musical instruments.

A skeleton ghost appears: It’s Ajax, one of Greece’s greatest warriors who fought alongside Ulysses against Troy. When Achilles was killed, Ajax lost the contest for the dead warrior’s armor to Ulysses and killed himself in humiliation. He declares his hatred for Ulysses, and he gloats that Ulysses’s home is besieged by suitors for Penelope’s hand. Anticleia confirms Ajax’s story. Ulysses thanks them for the warning.

The ghost of Elpenor appears. Ulysses swears that the sailor’s death was an accident. Elpenor replies that he’ll haunt Ulysses until he builds a “barrow” or small memorial for him at the first land the crew sees. Ulysses swears to do so. Elpenor alerts Ulysses to an ocean strait that his ship must traverse. The strait is guarded on one side by the six-headed hungry monster Scylla and on the other by the thirsty Charybdis, who drinks the tides and spits them out in a deadly whirlpool. Scylla can eat six sailors, but Charybdis would sink the entire boat, so it’s better to steer a little toward Scylla’s side.

Finally Ulysses speaks to Teiresias, blind and “woman-shaped,” in life a sage and prophet. Teiresias says the crew’s next landfall will be the island of Sicily, where Hyperion, a sun god, pastures his golden cows. The men, no matter how hungry, must not eat a single cow or they’ll never reach home.

Teiresias urges Ulysses not to gape at the wonders of the underworld but to leave quickly, as he and his men are already “tainted with death” (81). The sailors board their ship and pass magically upriver despite no wind. Anticlea calls out over and over, “Good-bye … good-bye …” (81), until the ship is too far for Ulysses to hear her.