Circe Forbids the Fight (Homer’s The Odyssey, Book 12 – Part 4)

So spake she; but I answered and said unto her: 'Come, I pray thee herein, goddess, tell me true, if there be any means whereby I might escape from the deadly Charybdis and avenge me on that other, when she would prey upon my company.' So spake I, and that fair-haired goddess answered me: 'Man overbold, lo, now and again the deeds of war are in thy mind and the travail thereof.

Wilt thou not yield thee even to the deathless gods? As for her, she is no mortal, but an immortal plague, dread, grievous and fierce, and not to be fought with; and against her there is no defence; flight is the bravest way.

For if thou tarried to do on thine armour by the cliff, I fear lest once again she sally forth and catch at thee with so many heads, and seize as many men as before.

So drive past with all thy force, and call on Crataiis, mother of Scylla, which bore her for a bane to mortals; and she will then let her from darting forth thereafter.

Then thou shalt come unto the isle Thrinacia.

There are many kine of Helios and his brave flocks feeding: seven herds of kine, and as many goodly flocks of sheep, and fifty in each flock.

They have no part in birth or in corruption; and there are goddesses to shepherd them, nymphs with fair tresses, Phaëthusa and Lampetie, whom bright Neæra bare to Helios Hyperion.

Now when the lady their mother had borne and nursed them, she carried them to the isle Thrinacia, to dwell afar, that they should guard their father's flocks and his kine with shambling gait.

If thou dost these no hurt, being heedful of thy return, truly ye may even yet reach Ithaca, albeit in evil case.

But if thou hurtest them, I foreshow ruin for thy ship and for thy men; and even though thou shouldest thyself escape, late shalt thou return in evil plight with the loss of all thy company.' Folks, there are just some days I cannot get a passage out of my mouth.