slender mast under him, till the tenth night cast him, all spent and weary
with toil, upon the friendly shores of the island Ogygia.

[Illustration: _Nine days was he floating about with all the motions of
the sea_.]




CHAPTER FOUR

The Island of Calypso.--Immortality Refused.


Henceforth the adventures of the single Ulysses must be pursued. Of all
those faithful partakers of his toil, who with him left Asia, laden with
the spoils of Troy, now not one remains, but all a prey to the remorseless
waves, and food for some great fish; their gallant navy reduced to one
ship, and that finally swallowed up and lost. Where now are all their
anxious thoughts of home? that perseverance with which they went through
the severest sufferings and the hardest labours to which poor seafarers
were ever exposed, that their toils at last might be crowned with the
sight of their native shores and wives at Ithaca! Ulysses is now in the
isle Ogygia, called the Delightful Island. The poor shipwrecked chief, the
slave of all the elements, is once again raised by the caprice of fortune
into a shadow of prosperity. He that was cast naked upon the shore, bereft
of all his companions, has now a goddess to attend upon him, and his
companions are the nymphs which never die. Who has not heard of Calypso?
her grove crowned with alders and poplars; her grotto, against which the
luxuriant vine laid forth his purple grapes; her ever new delights,