Eurylochus

If not, and the inhabitants prove as inhospitable as the Polyphemus or the Laestrygones, then there will be but half of us perish, and the remainder may set sail and escape." As nobody objected to this scheme, Ulysses proceeded to count the whole band, and found that there were forty-six men, including himself.

He then numbered off twenty-two of them, and put Eurylochus, who was one of his chief officers and second only to himself in sagacity, at their head.

Ulysses took command of the remaining twenty-two men in person.

Then taking off his helmet, he put two shells into it, one on which was written go, and on the other stay.

Another person now held the helmet, while Ulysses and Eurylochus drew out a shell, and the word go was found written on that which Eurylochus had drawn.

In this manner it was decided that Ulysses and his twenty-two men were to remain at the seaside until the other party should have found out what sort of treatment they might expect at the mysterious palace.

As there was no help for it, Eurylochus immediately set forth at the head of his twenty-two followers, who went off in a very melancholy state of mind, leaving their friends in hardly better spirits than themselves.

No sooner had they clambered up the cliff than they discerned the tall marble towers of the palace, ascending as white as snow, out of the lovely green shadow of the trees which surrounded it.

If not, and the inhabitants prove as inhospitable as the Polyphemus or the Laestrygones, then there will be but half of us perish, and the remainder may set sail and escape." As nobody objected to this scheme, Ulysses proceeded to count the whole band, and found that there were forty-six men, including himself.

He then numbered off twenty-two of them, and put Eurylochus, who was one of his chief officers and second only to himself in sagacity, at their head.

Ulysses took command of the remaining twenty-two men in person.

Then taking off his helmet, he put two shells into it, one on which was written "Go," and on the other "Stay." Another person now held the helmet, while Ulysses and Eurylochus drew out a shell, and the word "Go" was found written on that which Eurylochus had drawn.

In this manner it was decided that Ulysses and his twenty-two men were to remain at the seaside until the other party should have found out what sort of treatment they might expect at the mysterious palace.

As there was no help for it, Eurylochus immediately set forth at the head of his twenty-two followers, who went off in a very melancholy state of mind, leaving their friends in hardly better spirits than themselves.

No sooner had they clamored up the cliff than they discerned the tall marble towers of the palace, ascending as white as snow, out of the lovely green shadow of the trees which surrounded it.

A gush of smoke came from a chimney in the rear of the edifice.

for he had told them plainly it would happen, and had told them what to do.

And two of them stood up from the benches, calm in their great deafness, and came to him, two men whose names the old song keeps, Paramedes and Eurylochus, and instead of loosing him they took up more rope and bound him tighter still more turns around his chest and the mast drawing him snug against the wood so he could not so much as lean toward the shore and then they went back to their benches and took up their oars and leaned their backs into the work and rowed And the little ship went on across the flat and shining water, on past the green meadow and its beautiful and terrible voices, and did not turn in, not by a hand's breadth.

And little by little the low shore began to fall away behind them, and the song began to grow fainter, reaching out after the ship across the widening water, thinning on the still air, until at last it was only a single thread of sound, and then not even that.

and there was nothing at all over the sea but the steady knock of the oars in their leather loops and the wide flat shining emptiness and the quiet.

and told me that the safe course the only safe course is to row straight on past it out into the falling dark and put it well behind us before the morning comes row past he said for all our sakes do not set one foot upon that shore And here the fire asks you, gently, to be tender with the men now, as the fire itself is tender with them.

For they were not wicked men, and they were not fools, and the thing they wanted was only the thing that any worn-out person in all the world wants at the end of a long and grieving day.

One of them answered his captain, a man named Eurylochus, and the fire asked you to mark him.

And remember that he was no traitor, whatever came of this, but only a man worn clean through to the end of himself.

Then Ulysses said, "We shall divide the crew into two companies.

One shall be mine, and of the other, Eurylochus shall be chief, and we will cast lots to see who shall search the island." So they cast lots, and the lot of Eurylochus came out first.

So he went, and twenty men or so with him, and in the middle of the wood they found an open space, and in the space a palace, and all about it wolves and lions were wandering.

The men were very much afraid of the beasts, for they did them no harm.

They had snouts and bristles, and they grunted like pigs, but they had the hearts of men.

And Circe shut them up in sties and gave them acorns and beech masts to eat.

But Eurylochus had stayed outside when the others went in, and he ran back to the ship and told Ulysses what had happened.

Then Ulysses armed himself and said, "I will go and save these men." Nor would he listen when the others begged him not to go.

I'm So spake Eurylochus, and the rest of the company consented thereto.

Forthwith they drave off the best of the kine of Helios that were nigh at hand, for the fair kine of Shamblingate and Broad of Brow were feeding no great way from the dark-prowed ship.

Then they stood around the cattle and prayed to the gods, plucking the fresh leaves from an oak of lofty boughs, for they had no white barley on board the decked ship.

He counted the company into two bands and took command of one himself.

and gave the other to Eurylochus, a steady man and his own kinsman by marriage, and they shook lots in a bronze helmet to see which band would go inland to the smoke, and the lot that jumped out was that of Eurylochus.

And Eurylochus and his two and twenty went up into the woods, weeping quietly as they went, and the men who stayed behind on the beach wept too, watching them go, and the fire will not laugh at any of that weeping, for these were brave men whom the road had heard, walking toward an unknown smoke, because it was their turn, which is one of the quietest kinds of courage there is, Chapter 8 The House of the Singing Witch They found the house in a clearing in the deep of the woods, a wide low house built of polished stone, smooth as still water, standing where no house had any business being, with the oaks all around it and the one thread of smoke rising from it into the green light.

And around that house, in the clearing, were wolves, mountain wolves and lions, a whole loose company of them, moving in the open in the middle of the day, and the men froze where they stood and then saw.

and could not believe they were seeing, the strangest sight the voyage had yet offered them.

And what such a one was doing, keeping a lonely house among oaks at the world's edge, is a question the song does not answer and the fire will not press.

The men heard the welcome and were glad and went in after her in their innocence, all but one.

Eurylochus hung back.

Music Music So spake Eurylochus, and the rest of my company consented thereto.

Then at the last, I knew that some god was indeed imagining evil, and I uttered my voice and spake unto him winged words.

Eurylochus, verily ye put force upon me, being but one among you all.

But come, swear me now a mighty oath, one and all.

to the intent that if we light on a herd of kine or a great flock of sheep none in the evil folly of his heart may slay any sheep or ox but in quiet eat ye the meat which the deathless circe gave so i spake and straightway they swore to refrain as i commanded them now after they had sworn and done that oath we stayed our well-builded ship in the hollow harbor near to a well of sweet water and my company went forth from out the ship, and deftly got ready supper.

Thereupon I ordered a gathering of my men and spake in their midst, saying, Friends, for as much as there is yet meat and drink in the swift ship, Let us keep our hands off those kind, lest some evil thing befall us.

For these are the kind and brave flocks of a dread god, even of Helios, who overseeth all and overheareth all things.

I suppose Odysseus doesn't have an option here but to... bend to Eurylochus's whims, not whims, desires, commands.

It's the scene where Circe turns Odysseus's men into pigs, not with a wand or a flash of magic, but with her own hands.

She strokes Eurylochus's hair until it becomes all bristly, massages and molds his face and reveals a snout beneath her fingers.

The other men around the table notice what's happening but they can't stop eating.

The spell keeps pulling their hands toward the food, forcing it into their mouths while they watch him change.