Ulysses’s escort ship lay at the sea shore while it was loaded.
See evidence text
“As he spoke he crossed the threshold, and Alcinous sent a man to conduct him to his ship and to the sea shore. Arete also sent some maidservants with him—one with a clean shirt and cloak, another to carry his strong box, and a third with corn and wine. When they got to the water side the crew took these things and put them on board, with all the meat and drink; but for Ulysses they spread a rug and a linen sheet on deck that he might sleep soundly in the stern of the ship. Then he too went on board and lay down without a word, but the crew took every man his place and loosed the hawser from the pierced stone to which it had been bound. Thereon, when they began rowing out to sea, Ulysses fell into a deep, sweet, and almost deathlike slumber. {111}
”
The Phaeacian escort ship entered the haven of Phorcys.
See evidence text
“Into this harbour, then, they took their ship, for they knew the place. {114} She had so much way upon her that she ran half her own length on to the shore; {115} when, however, they had landed, the first thing they did was to lift Ulysses with his rug and linen sheet out of the ship, and lay him down upon the sand still fast asleep. Then they took out the presents which Minerva had persuaded the Phaeacians to give him when he was setting out on his voyage homewards. They put these all together by the root of the olive tree, away from the road, for fear some passer by {116} might come and steal them before Ulysses awoke; and then they made the best of their way home again.
”
The Phaeacian escort ship was reported to have brought Ulysses to Ithaca.
See evidence text
“But Neptune did not forget the threats with which he had already threatened Ulysses, so he took counsel with Jove. ‘Father Jove,’ said he, ‘I shall no longer be held in any sort of respect among you gods, if mortals like the Phaeacians, who are my own flesh and blood, show such small regard for me. I said I would let Ulysses get home when he had suffered sufficiently. I did not say that he should never get home at all, for I knew you had already nodded your head about it, and promised that he should do so; but now they have brought him in a ship fast asleep and have landed him in Ithaca after loading him with more magnificent presents of bronze, gold, and raiment than he would ever have brought back from Troy, if he had had his share of the spoil and got home without misadventure.’
”
Alcinous orders a never-before-voyaged ship drawn out and manned by fifty-two smart young sailors for Ulysses’s escort.
See evidence text
“Let us draw a ship into the sea—one that has never yet made a voyage—and man her with two and fifty of our smartest young sailors.”
·Direct
The escort crew draws the ship into the water, rigs its mast, sails, and oars, and spreads its white sails aloft.
See evidence text
“The fifty-two picked oarsmen went to the sea shore as they had been told, and when they got there they drew the ship into the water, got her mast and sails inside her, bound the oars to the thole-pins with twisted thongs of leather, all in due course, and spread the white sails aloft.”
·Reported
Laodamas tells Ulysses that the escort ship is already afloat and its crew assembled.
See evidence text
“Your return home will not be long delayed, for the ship is already drawn into the water, and the crew is found”
·Direct
The escort ship’s cargo is secured beneath its benches so nothing can break adrift and injure the rowers.
See evidence text
“saw everything so securely stowed under the ship’s benches that nothing could break adrift and injure the rowers”
·Direct
The escort ship bounds over the dark-blue water with extraordinary speed and holds steadily to her course.
See evidence text
“The ship bounded forward on her way as a four in hand chariot flies over the course when the horses feel the whip. Her prow curvetted as it were the neck of a stallion, and a great wave of dark blue water seethed in her wake. She held steadily on her course, and even a falcon, swiftest of all birds, could not have kept pace with her. Thus, then, she cut her way through the water”
·Direct
The fast-moving escort ship runs half her length onto the shore at Phorcys’s haven.
See evidence text
“Into this harbour, then, they took their ship, for they knew the place. {114} She had so much way upon her that she ran half her own length on to the shore”
·Hypothetical
Neptune intends to wreck the Phaeacian ship as it returns from escort duty.
See evidence text
“wreck the Phaeacian ship as it is returning from its escort”
·Hypothetical
Jove proposes transforming the escort ship into a nearshore rock that still looks like a ship.
See evidence text
“I should recommend you at the very moment when the people from the city are watching the ship on her way, to turn it into a rock near the land and looking like a ship”
·Direct
The returning escort ship is transformed into stone and driven into the ground by Neptune.
See evidence text
“the ship, which was making rapid way, had got close in. Then he went up to it, turned it into stone, and drove it down with the flat of his hand so as to root it in the ground”