“When they reached Circe’s house they found it built of cut stones, on a site that could be seen from far, in the middle of the forest.  There were wild mountain wolves and lions prowling all round it—­poor bewitched creatures whom she had tamed by her enchantments and drugged into subjection.  They did not attack my men, but wagged their great tails, fawned upon them, and rubbed their noses lovingly against them. {86} As hounds crowd round their master when they see him coming from dinner—­for they know he will bring them something—­even so did these wolves and lions with their great claws fawn upon my men, but the men were terribly frightened at seeing such strange creatures.  Presently they reached the gates of the goddess’s house, and as they stood there they could hear Circe within, singing most beautifully as she worked at her loom, making a web so fine, so soft, and of such dazzling colours as no one but a goddess could weave.  On this Polites, whom I valued and trusted more than any other of my men, said, ’There is some one inside working at a loom and singing most beautifully; the whole place resounds with it, let us call her and see whether she is woman or goddess.’

“They called her and she came down, unfastened the door, and bade them enter.  They, thinking no evil, followed her, all except Eurylochus, who suspected mischief and staid outside.  When she had got them into her house, she set them upon benches and seats and mixed them a mess with cheese, honey, meal, and Pramnian wine, but she drugged it with wicked poisons to make them forget their homes, and when they had drunk she turned them into pigs by a stroke of her wand, and shut them up in her pig-styes.  They were like pigs—­head, hair, and all, and they grunted just as pigs do; but their senses were the same as before, and they remembered everything.

“Thus then were they shut up squealing, and Circe threw them some acorns and beech masts such as pigs eat, but Eurylochus hurried back to tell me about the sad fate of our comrades.  He was so overcome with dismay that though he tried to speak he could find no words to do so; his eyes filled with tears and he could only sob and sigh, till at last we forced his story out of him, and he told us what had happened to the others.

“‘We went,’ said he, ’as you told us, through the forest, and in the middle of it there was a fine house built with cut stones in a place that could be seen from far.  There we found a woman, or else she was a goddess, working at her loom and singing sweetly; so the men shouted to her and called her, whereon she at once came down, opened the door, and invited us in.  The others did not suspect any mischief so they followed her into the house, but I staid where I was, for I thought there might be some treachery.  From that moment I saw them no more, for not one of them ever came out, though I sat a long time watching for them.’