the Cyclops prayed to Poseidon to punish Odysseus; the god heard him,
persecuting him from that time onward. Reassembling his ships,
Odysseus proceeded on his voyage.

He next called at the isle of Aeolus, king of the winds, who gave him
in a bag all the winds but one, a favouring breeze which was to waft
him to his own island. For nine days Odysseus guarded his bag, but at
last, when Ithaca was in sight, he sank into a sleep of exhaustion.
Thinking that the bag concealed some treasure, his men opened it, only
to be blown back to Aeolus who bid him begone as an evil man when he
begged aid a second time.

After visiting the Laestrygones, a man-eating people, who devoured all
the fleet except one ship's company, the remainder reached Aeaea, the
island where lived the dread goddess Circe. Odysseus sent forward
Eurylochus with some twenty companions who found Circe weaving at a
loom. Seeing them she invited them within; then after giving them a
charmed potion she smote them with her rod, turning them into swine.
Eurylochus who had suspected some trickery hurried back to Odysseus
with the news. The latter determined to go alone to save his friends.
On the way he was met by Hermes, who showed him the herb moly, an
antidote to Circe's draught. Finding that her magic failed, she at
once knew that her visitor was Odysseus whose visit had been
prophesied to her by Hermes. He bound her down by a solemn oath to
refrain from further mischief and persuaded her to restore to his men
their humanity. When Odysseus desired to depart home, she told him of
the wanderings that awaited him. First he must go to the land of the
dead to consult the shade of Teiresias, the blind old prophet, who
would help him.