We left the land of the Men of Winter, and landed on an island while the sky was still dark. And by dawn we had woken and I had sent some men to get Elpenor's body from Kirke's island while I and the men not sent built a pyre. Kirke, knowing that we had passed theough the land of the dead alive, came with some of her hand maidens bearing food and drink. She congratulated us for being the only mortals to come out alive, and she said she'd map out the landmarks and perils in our journey ahead so that we wouldn't get beached or killed when we sailed out tomorrow. All that day we feasted and when night came and all my men went to sleep, she took my hand and lead me over to a bush where we lay down together and she asked me to tell her everything that had happened down their since our lasting meeting. She listened intently, and when I was done, she warned me about sirens in our path and she told me how to pass them without dying. Once I passed them, I'd have two options: to go through the drifters, a place where no one had survived except for the Argos who's captain was favored by Hera, and to pass the den of Skylla, a fearful monster who takes crew straight from the ship, one man per head. Kirke recommended that I take the route of Skylla because the loss of a whole boat and every man on it is greater than the loss of just 6 men. Once we passed that island, we'd come upon the island of Thrinakia where Helios' immortal sheep live and graze, guarded by his nymph daughters Phaethousa and Lampetia, and though we'll be tempted to take one of the sheep, we mustn't because if we do, doom and destruction will come upon the ship and crew. And she finished as the first rays of dawn spread across the sky, and she left me, walking up the island and away. As soon as she left, I roused up the men and herded them onto the ship, there I told them what Kirke had told me; I asked them to tie me to the mast and not let me go no matter how much I begged, because I was to be the only one to hear the siren's song, but if I were to get loose I'd die. So we set off and as we started to near the sirens, I rolled beeswax into soft balls which the crew then put in my ears, they then tied me to the mast and went to the oars where they would row us quickly past the sirens. Soon I could hear the faint song of the two sirens, and it was so lovely that I cried to my crew to untie me and allow me to go closer, but they just tied me up more and rowed on in silence. As soon as the sirens went over the horizon and we could no longer hear them, the crew took out the beeswax and untied me, but no sooner had we left the domain of the sirens did we start getting pulled into the whirlpool and oars flew from the crew's hands. But I gave them encouragement and they caught their oars and picked up pace and soon we were out of range of the whirlpool, but I could see the mountains of Skylla and I didn't tell the crew of the horror awaiting them. We neared, then Skylla striked and took 6 of my best men as her meal and they screamed for help as they were gobbled up, and we just had to ignore them and row on. And we came upon the island of Helios, and it was a full crew vote to land, sleep, and leave in the morning, so I had to oblige but I made them swear not to harm a single sheep on that island and to only eat what Kirke had stocked us up with. They all swore and we reached land, made dinner, mourned the loss of our 6 men, and fell asleep. A month of storms hit the island and by the middle of them we had finished all our provisions and were surviving off fishing. My hungry crew was finding it increasingly harder to keep their hands off the sheep, but I reminded them that terrible things would happen if they touched one of those cattle. I went to a silent little cove where I prayed to the gods for salvation, but they only sent me to sleep. While I was asleep, Eurylokhos persuaded my crew into killing a heifer for food and they went and killed some, offered the good parts to the gods, and ate the rest. Suddenly I awoke from my slumber to the sweet smell of meat roasting, and I realised what my crew had done. Helios told Zeus to kill my men, and he promised to shatter my boat with a lightning bolt. But I couldn't do anything to help them, because they had already killed the animals (which lasted for 6 days each). Suddenly the day became clear, and we left the island with the meat, but Zeus was creating thunder above us, and within moments, the nice day turned black and lightning tore the ship's mast down and knocked all the crew off the ship to die. I alone was left to cling onto the ship, but one more buck sent me into the winedark sea. I drifted off on the remnants of the mast to Ogygia Isle where the nymph Kalypso took me as her lover. And at that somber note, I finished my tale...
Picture from: http://www.skylla.co.uk/blog
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