On went the single ship till it came to the island of Aeaea, where Circe,
the dreadful daughter of the Sun, dwelt. She was deeply skilled in magic,
a haughty beauty, and had hair like the Sun. The Sun was her parent, and
begot her and her brother Aeaetes (such another as herself) upon Perse,
daughter to Oceanus.

Here a dispute arose among Ulysses's men, which of them should go ashore
and explore the country; for there was a necessity that some should go to
procure water and provisions, their stock of both being nigh spent; but
their hearts failed them when they called to mind the shocking fate of
their fellows whom the Laestrygonians had eaten, and those which the foul
Cyclop Polyphemus had crushed between his jaws; which moved them so
tenderly in the recollection that they wept. But tears never yet supplied
any man's wants; this Ulysses knew full well, and dividing his men (all
that were left) into two companies, at the head of one of which was
himself, and at the head of the other Eurylochus, a man of tried courage,
he cast lots which of them should go up into the country, and the lot fell
upon Eurylochus and his company, two-and-twenty in number, who took their
leave, with tears, of Ulysses and his men that stayed, whose eyes wore the
same wet badges of weak humanity, for they surely thought never to see
these their companions again, but that on every coast where they should
come they should find nothing but savages and cannibals.

Eurylochus and his party proceeded up the country, till in a dale they
descried the house of Circe, built of bright stone, by the roadside.
Before her gate lay many beasts, as wolves, lions, leopards, which, by her
art, of wild, she had rendered tame. These arose when they saw strangers,
and ramped upon their hinder paws, and fawned upon Eurylochus and his men,
who dreaded the effects of such monstrous kindness; and staying at the