The Wanderings of Odysseus by Rosemary Sutcliff

Author:Rosemary Sutcliff
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Published: 1995-09-04T04:00:00+00:00

The Phaeacian Games

Next day, Alcinous sent word to his people to prepare a ship for sea and have her moored in readiness at the main jetty below the town.

At midday, the chiefs and captains dined with him in the great hall of the palace. And there, while they ate, the king's bard sang to them: a man whom the gods had made sightless, as men blind a singing bird to add sweetness to the song. Striking his harp in time to the winged words, he sang of the heroes of Troy; and, listening in his seat beside the king, Odysseus pulled a fold of his mantle over his head as men do in wild weather or when they wish to shield their faces from the gaze of those about them. But Alcinous, being closest to him, knew that he wept; and when the song was finished, rose and said that they had had enough of feasting and harp-song, and should go now to amuse themselves with running and wrestling and suchlike sports in the open air.

So they got up from the tables and went out to the gathering-place below the palace. The young men hurried to join them, among them the king's three sons; and they fell to racing and wrestling, the long jump and throwing the discus. Then the thought came to them that their guest, who despite being worn down by hardship was built like a wrestler, might care to join them; and Laodamas, one of the king's sons, came to him with their invitation.

But Odysseus shook his head, saying that he was too heavy at heart for such games.

At that, some of the young men took offense, and one, Euryalus by name, laughed sneeringly, "Our apologies, sir. It is clear that you are a trader, captain of some sow-bellied merchant ship. It was a foolish mistake to think you might be an athlete."

At this, Odysseus' head went up and his brows drew together. "Yet I have been one in happier times, before I grew old and tired with war and wandering," he said. "And it may be, after all, that something of that yet remains to me. Shall we put it to the test?" And, getting up, without even troubling to fling aside his mantle, he picked up the largest and heaviest of the great bronze disks from where they lay and, whirling about, sent it spinning from his hand. The crowd watched the shining arc that it made against the sky, and ran out to mark the spot where it pitched to earth, far ahead of any other throw that had been made that day.

Then Odysseus, his blood running light and roused within him. challenged any man there to box or wrestle or shoot at a mark with him. But Alcinous, perhaps not wishing to see his young men worsted at every sport in turn, courteously refused the challenge. "Let us show you a skill which is ours above all the world," he said, and called for the blind bard once more to make music for dancing.

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