Book 12 - Sea Perils and Defeat

I returned to Aeaea, where I buried Elpenor and spent one last night with Circe. She described the obstacles that I will face on my voyage home and told me how to negotiate them. As I set sail, I passed Circe’s counsel on to my men. We approached the island of the lovely Sirens, and I, as instructed by Circe, plugged my men’s ears with beeswax and had them bind him to the mast of the ship. I alone heard their song flowing forth from the island, promising to reveal the future. The Sirens’ song was so seductive that even I, king of Ithaca, begged to be released from my fetters, but my faithful men only binded me tighter. If it weren't for them, I would have never made it out of there. Perhaps it was greed that motivated them, though. All men want to satisfy their ids, and their id was greed. Greed of sex, money, and fame. It's like almost every man's dream. To make a name for themselves while they are alive. Is that the purpose of life? Or because it is what they want, and since it is in their id, is their sole purpose in life to satisfy their ids? I think it is the latter of the two. Anyways, once we passed the Sirens’ island, I knew my men and I needed to navigate the straits between Scylla and Charybdis. Scylla was a six-headed monster who, when ships usually pass, swallows one sailor for each head. tha would be an extra six people lost. Damn! My crew is always being eaten, Atleast its not me, I need to get home in order to finish the story. Charybdis was an enormous whirlpool that threatened to swallow the entire ship. As instructed by Circe, I held my course tight against the cliffs of Scylla’s lair. As my men and I stared at Charybdis on the other side of the strait, the heads of Scylla swoopped down and gobbled up six of the sailors. Next, I came to Thrinacia, the island of the Sun, Apollo. I wanted to avoid it entirely, but the outspoken Eurylochus persuades me to let my beleaguered crew to rest there. Damn his tongue! I wish I didn't let him talk at all and the Scylla swallowed him instead. A storm kept them beached for a month, and at first the crew was content to survive on its provisions in the ship. When those ran out, however, Eurylochus persuaded the other crew members to disobey me and slaughter the cattle of the Sun. Disobey ME! How dare they! I, their captain, how has led them through all of this so far, and as though I couldn't do it for the rest of the way. They did so one afternoon as I slept; when the Sun found out, he asked Zeus to punish me and my men. Shortly after the Achaeans set sail from Thrinacia, Zeus kicked up another storm, which destroyed the ship, as though that wasn't old, and sent the entire crew to its death beneath the waves. As had been predicted, only I survived, and that too, just barely. The storm swept me all the way back to Charybdis, which I narrowly escaped for the second time. Afloat on the broken timbers of my ship, I eventually reached Ogygia, Calypso's island. HereI broke from my story, stating to the Phaeacians that I saw no reason to repeat to them my account of my experience on Ogygia. My journey is like a circle, except there is solid hope that this circle will ofr once, end. Here I will leave off and leave the rest to next time.