On the seventh day we reached the steep citadel of Lamos in Laestrygonian Telepylus, where a man who needs no sleep can earn double wages — herdsman by day and shepherd by night — for the paths of day and night come close. The other captains steered into a land-locked harbor under steep cliffs. I alone moored outside at the end of the point.
I climbed a lookout, saw only smoke, and sent two men and a herald inland along the wagon road that brings wood to the town. They met a girl drawing water, daughter of Antiphates the king. She pointed them to her father’s high house. Inside they found a woman huge as a mountain peak. She called her husband from assembly. He snatched one man and made his meal of him. The other two fled to the ships.
Antiphates raised the war-cry. Laestrygonians poured from every side — not like men but like Giants — and smashed the ships in the harbor with boulders from the cliffs. The water filled with drowning men; the giants speared them like fish. I cut my own ship’s cables with my sword and shouted to the crew to row for their lives. We pulled clear of the shelving rocks while the rest of the squadron died.
Only my one ship escaped. We sat at the oars without speaking for a long time, listening to the water and to the memory of men we could not go back for.
From there, grieving, we sailed to Aeaea, island of Circe of the lovely hair, dread goddess with a human voice, sister of murderous Aeetes, both children of Helios and of Perse the Oceanid. We put in and lay two days and nights eating our hearts for weariness. On the third I climbed a lookout with spear and sword and saw smoke rising from her halls through the scrub and forest.
I thought of scouting alone, then went back to the ship. On the path some god sent a great high-antlered stag across my way. I struck it through the back, carried it to the shore, and we feasted till sundown. At Dawn I told the crew we did not know east from west on this island, but smoke rose inland, and we must take thought.