The Adventures of Ulysses

The Lotus Eaters live in Lotusland in the country of Libya. They eat lotus flowers, which make them sleep all day and dream. The flowers were the idea of the god Morpheus, who distributes sleep to humans and loves to watch their dreams. When Ulysses’s men stumble, exhausted, onto the beach at Lotusland, the Lotus Eaters place lotus blossoms all around the men so they can enjoy perpetual sleep. Morpheus spies on their dreams, adjusting them so the men don’t dream of the horrors of war. Ulysses realizes that the blossoms will keep the men trapped there forever, and he carries his sleeping crew back to their ships and sails them out to sea

Naiads are water nymphs, lesser deities who rule over springs, rivers, and parts of the sea. They’re drawn to jewels and humans, especially men, with whom they flirt shamelessly. The most lovely naiad is Thetis, who marries the human Peleus but forgets to invite the goddess Eris to the wedding, which leads to problems that erupt in the Trojan War. Other naiads chase after Ulysses’s ships when their crews toss treasure into the sea to prevent the ships from sinking. One naiad, Ino, cruelly treated by Poseidon, thwarts the sea god’s attempt to drown Ulysses by loaning the warrior her veil, which quickly propels him to land and safety.

The island of Ogygia is ruled by Calypso, a tall, willowy goddess descended from the Titans. Her island is a mini-paradise, with tree glades, songbirds, a pleasant grotto, and lovely beaches. Calypso finds Ulysses on the beach and claims him; they live together for a long time until the gods, and Ulysses himself, decide that he must move on.

Guarding a strait through which Ulysses’s ship must pass is an island occupied by two sisters, the Sirens, birdlike beings with women’s faces whose music and songs are so enchanting that sailors jump overboard, swim to the island, and die. The Sirens make flutes from the sailors’ skin and bones. Ulysses plugs his men’s ears and has himself strapped to the ship’s mast so that he can retain his hearing without jumping overboard.

Ulysses and his crew navigate a narrow strait between two giant rocks, one guarded by Scylla, a six-headed monster who eats half a dozen sailors from every ship that passes by, and the other guarded by Charybdis, who drinks seawater and spits it back out in a whirlpool that sinks all vessels that venture too close. Ulysses’s plan is to steer close to the middle between the monsters but nearer to Scylla, who will kill and eat six sailors while Charybdis would kill them all. Ulysses later loses his ship and all his remaining men to a storm. He floats on a raft that takes him back to the strait, where the raft gets swallowed by the whirlpool while Ulysses clings to a rock, then it pops back up and Ulysses escapes. Today, the two monsters still symbolize tough dilemmas people sometimes must face.