The Cruise of the Branwen

CRUISE OF THE BRANWEN And so, with the turn northwards, you reach the .LEgean, the true thoroughfare of the Greeks, studded with stepping-stones from one mainland to the other, in a long string of islands from l\1elos to the Point of Attica. But we returned to the west by the same route, at first, as we had come to Greece, through that long sapphire fiord between the hills which leads from Corinth past Itea, the port of Delphi, past Vostitza and Patras to the blue horizon to the north and east, where Arethusa arose from her couch in the snows On the Acroceraunian mountains. But we were not to reach our intended haven in Corfu without due hindrance. A gale sprang up from the north-west, and blew so bitterly and hard that the little Branwen had to fly for shelter to the nearest port. Now this was Port V.athi in Ithaca, wherein the Phreacians, "having knowledge of that place" drove their vessel ashore, half a keel's length high upon the sand, and " lifted Odysseus from out their hollow ship, all as he was in the sheet of linen and the bright rug, and laid him, yet heavy with slumber, on the sand," and placed the gifts of Nausicaa and Alcinous beside him. Our course had been laid from Patras to the north and east so as to make for Corfu through the channel between Cephalonia and Santa Maura, but the seas ran so high when we neared the open water that we had to turn back and make for the Gulf of Molo on the landward (or eastern) coast of Ithaca. On our right-hand side 148