"My house grew apace and I became
a great man among the Cretans, but when Zeus counseled that terrible
expedition, in which so many perished, the people required me and
Idomeneus to lead their ships to Troy, and there was no way out of
it, for the judgment of the dêmos insisted on our doing
so. There we fought for nine whole years, but in the tenth we sacked
the city of Priam and sailed home again as heaven dispersed us. Then
it was that Zeus devised evil against me. I spent but one month
happily with my children, wife, and property, and then I conceived
the idea of making a descent on Egypt, so I fitted out a fine fleet
and manned it. I had nine ships, and the people flocked to fill them.
For six days I and my men made feast, and I found them many victims
both for sacrifice to the gods and for themselves, but on the seventh
day we went on board and set sail from Crete with a fair North wind
behind us though we were going down a river. Nothing went ill with
any of our ships, and we had no sickness on board, but sat where we
were and let the ships go as the wind and steersmen took them. On the
fifth day we reached the river Aigyptos; there I stationed my ships
in the river, bidding my men stay by them and keep guard over them
while I sent out scouts to reconnoiter from every point of
vantage.
"But the men in their insolence
[hubris] disobeyed my orders, took to their own
devices, and ravaged the land of the Egyptians, killing the men, and
taking their wives and children captive. The alarm was soon carried
to the city, and when they heard the war cry, the people came out at
daybreak till the plain was filled with horsemen and foot soldiers
and with the gleam of armor. Then Zeus spread panic among my men, and
they would no longer face the enemy, for they found themselves
surrounded. The Egyptians killed many of us, and took the rest alive
to do forced labor for them. Zeus, however, put it in my mind to do
thus - and I wish I had died then and there in Egypt instead, for
there was much sorrow in store for me - I took off my helmet and
shield and dropped my spear from my hand; then I went straight up to
the king's chariot, clasped his knees and kissed them, whereon
he spared my life, bade me get into his chariot, and took me weeping
to his own home. Many made at me with their ashen spears and tried to
kill me in their fury, but the king protected me, for he feared the
mênis of Zeus the protector of strangers, who punishes
those who do evil.
"I stayed there for seven years
and got together much wealth among the Egyptians, for they all gave
me something; but when it was now going on for eight years there came
a certain Phoenician, a cunning rascal, who had already committed all
sorts of villainy, and this man talked me over into going with him to
Phoenicia, where his house and his possessions lay. I stayed there
for a whole twelve months, but at the end of that time when months
and days had gone by till the same season [hôra]
had come round again, he set me on board a ship bound for Libya, on a
pretense that I was to take a cargo along with him to that place, but
really that he might sell me as a slave and take the wealth I
fetched. I suspected his intention, but went on board with him, for I
could not help it.
"The ship ran before a fresh
North wind till we had reached the sea that lies between Crete and
Libya; there, however, Zeus counseled their destruction, for as soon
as we were well out from Crete and could see nothing but sea and sky,
he raised a black cloud over our ship and the sea grew dark beneath
it. Then Zeus let fly with his thunderbolts and the ship went round
and round and was filled with fire and brimstone as the lightning
struck it. The men fell all into the sea; they were carried about in
the water round the ship looking like so many sea-gulls, but the god
presently deprived them of all chance of homecoming
[nostos] again. I was all dismayed; Zeus, however,
sent the ship's mast within my reach, which saved my life, for I
clung to it, and drifted before the fury of the gale. Nine days did I
drift but in the darkness of the tenth night a great wave bore me on
to the Thesprotian coast. There Pheidon king of the Thesprotians
entertained me hospitably without charging me anything at all, for
his son found me when I was nearly dead with cold and fatigue,
whereon he raised me by the hand, took me to his father's house
and gave me clothes to wear.
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