Stopping at the
little port of Phorcys, where the steep shores stretch inward and a
spreading olive-tree o'ershadows the grotto of the nymphs, the sailors
lifted out Ulysses, laid him on the ground, and piling up his gifts under
the olive-tree, set sail for Phaeacia. But the angry Neptune smote the
ship as it neared the town and changed it to a rock, thus fulfilling an
ancient prophecy that Neptune would some day wreak his displeasure on the
Phaeacians for giving to every man who came to them safe escort home.
When Ulysses awoke he did not recognize the harbor, and thinking that he
had been treated with deceit, he wept bitterly. Thus Pallas, in the guise
of a young shepherd, found him, and showed him that it was indeed his own
dear land. She helped him to conceal his treasures in the grotto, and told
him that Telemachus was even now away on a voyage of inquiry concerning
him, and his wife was weeping over his absence and the insolence of the
suitors. But he must act with caution. To give him an opportunity to lay
his plans for the destruction of these men without being recognized, she
changed him to a beggar, wrinkled and old, and clad in ragged, soiled
garments. Then directing him to the home of his old herdsman, she hastened
to warn Telemachus to avoid the ship the suitors had stationed to destroy
him on his way home.
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