By the side of the sleeping hero stood the tall white figure of Athene. At her feet yellow flowers broke out like little flames, and her deep, grave eyes were bent full upon Ulysses.
Perhaps he felt that unearthly majesty above him, for he turned and moaned in his sleep.
The G.o.ddess, like a statue of white marble, stood looking down at him for several moments. Then with a little sigh she stooped and touched his forehead with her long slender fingers.
The birds began a full-throated ecstasy of song, which filled the wood with a sound as of a myriad tiny flutes. The furry bees went swinging through the sunlit grove with deep organ music, the shrill tinkle of the streams sent its cool message once more into the hot swooning air.
Where the G.o.ddess had stood there was nothing but a clump of yellow crocus and some violets more vivid than the rest.
Ulysses awoke with sudden stammerings like a frightened child. He looked round him with strange troubled eyes.
Then slowly he rose up and walked through the wood towards the cave of Calypso.
Forgotten fingers were upon the latch of his brain, old scenes began to move through it in swift familiar panorama, he was as a man who wakened from a sleep of years.
One word burst from his lips--"Penelope!" His face cleared as though a mist had suddenly dispersed before it, and his walk quickened into a firm, long stride as he came out on to the lawn.
He stopped short as he saw the mouth of the cave. Calypso was pacing up and down with her sinuous graceful step, and at her side walked a tall young man with a golden wand in his hand and winged sandals upon his feet.
And Ulysses knew him for the G.o.d Hermes who had given him the sacred herb in Circe"s island and who had led him down the gloomy ways of Hades.
They turned and came towards him.
"He will never wish to go, Hermes," he heard Calypso say as they drew near.
"King," said the G.o.d, "I am come to you with a message from Father Zeus. He hath seen you lying in this island with the G.o.ddess, and bids me tell you of Ithaca and home once more, that your heart may beat strong within you and you may adventure forth and find your wife Penelope in your ancestral house. And the father promises you divine protection. Your long wanderings shall be at an end, and you shall come safely to the land of your heart"s desire. Is it your will to go and leave the lady?"
The G.o.ddess laughed a little musical laugh of certain triumph.
"Go!" she cried. "Ah, he will not go, Hermes. Could he not have left me any time these nine long years of love? Go! No, my mariner loves too well the soft couches of Ogygia, and these weak arms can yet hold his wisdom captive. How will you answer, my heart"s love?"
"To Ithaca?" said Ulysses.
"Yes, to Penelope thy wife, who sorroweth for thee and is in peril,"
answered the G.o.d.
A bright light flashed into Ulysses" eyes and his cheek was flushed with hope.
"Now have I tarried too long in this place," he cried. "I know not why, but never before has my heart burned within me as now. Yes, to Ithaca! back to my father and my wife and the old hills of home! Zeus be praised, for I who was asleep waken this day, and manhood is mine once more."
Then Calypso drooped her lovely head like a tired flower as the G.o.d Hermes flashed up into the sky like a beam of light.
"I see something of which I know not has come over you, lord of my heart," she said sadly. "I have no more power, save only the power of my deep love for you which you have forgotten. Who am I that I can combat the will of Zeus or the hardness of your heart? I have loved you well and cherished you, and shall I love you less now? No, I am no cruel G.o.ddess. Go, and my heart be with you; and what power is mine to aid you that shall you have. I doubt," she said, with a sudden burst of anger, "I doubt you have some greater G.o.ddess than I at your side, some lovelier lady, else how could my spell be broken? But now come within and make a farewell feast with me. My heart is sick and I would die. But one thing I can give you if you will not go. Would you be immortal? Stay with your lover and that gift is yours. Never shall death touch you or age. I am a G.o.ddess and can never die. Am I less beautiful than Penelope, or less kind?"
Ulysses answered her pleadings slowly and painfully.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "WHO AM I THAT I CAN COMBAT THE WILL OF ZEUS OR THE HARDNESS OF YOUR HEART?"
_Page 78._]
"My queen and G.o.ddess, I know indeed that Penelope can never compare with such immortal loveliness as yours. Yes, she will grow old and wrinkled, and must die. Yet night and day all my heart must go out to her, and I would endure a thousand storms and sorrows to see home once more."
"Because of my great love for you, go, and may all the G.o.ds shower blessings on you and protect you," she said in a low voice, and her eyes were all blind with tears.
On a red evening Calypso stood alone on a rock that jutted out into the sea.
A black speck against the setting sun showed clear and far away.
Then the night fell, and she wandered weeping through her scented avenues.
But her heart was away on the moaning sea, away with Ulysses the departed.
THE LAST EPISODE
HOW THE KING CAME HOME AGAIN AFTER THE LONG YEARS
With the tears blinding his eyes, with shaking hands, speechless with the happy thoughts surging in his brain, Ulysses knelt and kissed the dear, dear sh.o.r.es of his own country.
The same rocky coasts, the same great mountain in the centre of the island raising its head into the clouds, everywhere eternally the same, and how beloved! was it not all mist and dreams--the long past?
How he heard the Sirens sing, seen the swaying arms of the foul Scylla, and dwelt in love and slumber with Calypso?
And by his side once more stood the G.o.ddess, serene and beautiful in her benevolent but awful calm. From her lips he had heard that here, even here in his own land, in the fields of his inheritance, one more supreme effort awaited him. He had learnt how his palace was full of riotous princes, who wooed his wife, the Queen Penelope. He knew how his son, the goodly Prince Telemachus, was least in his own house, and how wild revel and wantonness ate up his substance. The queen in peril! Penelope all but given up to the desires of l.u.s.t and greed. All his great heart burnt with anger and hate against the suitors, and yet, with a strange dual emotion, beat high with pride for his dear and stainless lady, who still mourned for her husband, and longed against hope for his return.
He kissed the kindly home-ground, and at that sacred contact a sense of strength and power came to him, a G.o.d-like power, that in all his long toils and wanderings he had never known before.
He became conscious that Athene was speaking to him. "And remember ever, my Ulysses, that now thou hast need of all thy wit and cunning.
In all the chances of thy life before never hadst thou need to walk as warily as now. For mere strength and valour unallied to wisdom and cunning will avail one nothing against the hundred. But at the hour of need I will be once more with thee if thou doest well and wisely.
Courage! son of Laertes! "tis but a little while till the end. Let not thy love and hate master thee until the appointed hour. And now, that thou mayest walk in thy palace and groves unknown for who thou art, I give thee a disguise. And so farewell until the hour of triumph."
She stretched out her spear over the kneeling king. The firm flesh dried and wrinkled upon his arms and legs. His hair shrivelled up into grey spa.r.s.eness and his eyes dimmed. He wore a tattered cloak, a thing of shreds and patches, and an old beggar"s staff of ilex was in his hand.
But beneath this seeming age and weakness was hidden the true hero as strong and cunning as before.
The G.o.ddess turned into light and was no more, and with slow, tottering footsteps Ulysses took a lonely way among the well-remembered paths of his native hills.
After an hour"s travelling he came out on a smooth pasture land, with a little homestead nestling among a clump of trees. His heart beat eagerly within him, for if perchance after these long years farmer Eumaeus still lived, here he might gain news of his palace and perhaps a friend.
Eumaeus was once the steward of the estates and a very faithful servant of his master. Ulysses approached the house. In front was a large courtyard, made by a fence of oak and hawthorn boughs, and within were twelve great pens for swine.
And in the porch sat old Eumaeus himself making himself a pair of sandals, hardly changed in a single feature, though perhaps his eyes were not so bright as in the old times.
Hearing footsteps, the four fierce dogs which herded the swine rushed out of the yard and leapt angrily at the newcomer. He might have fared badly, for the great beasts were lean and evil-tempered, had not the swineherd ran out to his help and drew them off with curses.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "NAY, IF YOU LOVE ME," HE SAID, "NONE OF THAT, MY FRIEND."]