timbers, as the wind scatters a heap of chaff. Odysseus clung fast to
one beam and, mounting it, sat astride as on a horse, until he had
stripped off his clothes. Then he bound the veil round him, flung
himself head foremost into the billows, and swam lustily towards land.

The storm was now subsiding, and a steady breeze succeeded, blowing
from the north, which helped that much-tried hero in his struggle for
life. Yet for two days and two nights he battled with the waves, and
when day broke on the third day he found himself close under a
frowning wall of cliffs, at whose foot the sea was breaking with a
noise like thunder. Odysseus ceased swimming, and trod the water,
looking anxiously round for an opening in the cliffs where he might
land. While he hesitated, a great foaming wave came rushing landward,
threatening to sweep him against that rugged shore; but Odysseus saw
his danger in time, and succeeded in gaining a rocky mass which stood
above the surface just before him, and clutching it with hands and
knees, contrived to keep his hold until the huge billow was past. In
another moment he was caught by the recoil of the wave, and flung back
into the boiling surf, with fingers torn and bleeding. With desperate
exertions he fought his way out into the comparatively calm water,
outside the line of breakers, and swam parallel to the shore, until he
saw with delight a sheltered inlet, whence a river flowed into the
sea. Murmuring a prayer to the god of the river he steered for land,
and a few strokes brought him to a smooth sandy beach, where he lay
for a long time without sense or motion. All his flesh was swollen by
his long immersion in the water, the skin was stripped from his hands,
and when his breath came back to him he felt as weak as a child. Then
a deadly nausea came over him, and the water which he had swallowed
gushed up through his mouth and nostrils. Somewhat relieved by this,
he rose to his feet, and tottering to the river's brink loosed the