192When the ships had reached the open sea, and no land any longer was in sight, sky everywhere and everywhere sea, then a dark-blue rain-cloud stood over my head, bringing night and storm, and the wave bristled in the darkness. 196At once the winds roll the sea, and great waves rise; 197scattered, we are tossed over the vast abyss; 198storm-clouds wrapped up the day, and a rainy night took away the sky; 199lightning flashes redouble as the clouds are torn. 200We are driven off course and wander on blind waves. 201Palinurus himself says he cannot tell day from night in the sky, nor remember the way in the midst of the waves.
203For three whole days, made uncertain by blind darkness, we wander over the sea, and as many starless nights. 205On the fourth day land was seen at last first to rise, to open up mountains in the distance, and to roll up smoke. 207The sails drop, we rise to the oars; 207without delay the sailors strain, churn the foam and sweep the dark-blue waters. 209Saved from the waves, I am received first by the shores of the Strophades; 210the Strophades, so called by a Greek name, are islands in the great Ionian sea, which dread Celaeno and the other Harpies inhabit, since Phineus' house was closed to them and in fear they left their former tables.
214No monster more grim than they, no plague and wrath of the gods more savage ever raised itself from the Stygian waters. 216These birds have maidens' faces, a most foul discharge from the belly, hooked hands, and features always pale with hunger. 219When we were carried here and entered the harbour, look, we see fine herds of cattle all over the plains, and flocks of goats on the grass with no one guarding them. 222We rush upon them with the sword and call the gods and Jupiter himself to share the spoil; 223then on the curving shore we build couches and feast on the rich meal. 225But suddenly, with a terrifying swoop from the mountains, the Harpies are upon us, and shake their wings with a great clanging, and tear the feast apart, and befoul everything with their filthy touch; 228then, amid the foul stench, a dreadful screech.
229Again, in a deep recess beneath a hollowed rock, closed in by trees and bristling shadows all around, we set out the tables and renew the fire on the altars: again, from a different quarter of the sky and from hidden lairs, the shrieking flock flies round the prey with hooked feet and pollutes the food with their mouths. 234Then I tell my comrades to take up arms, and that war must be waged with the dread race. 236They do just as ordered, and lay out their swords hidden in the grass, and conceal their shields out of sight. 238So when the Harpies swooped down and raised their noise along the curving shore, Misenus from a high lookout gives the signal on his hollow bronze.
240My comrades attack and try a strange new kind of battle, to wound with steel these foul birds of the sea: but they receive no force on their feathers nor wounds on their backs, and gliding off in swift flight beneath the stars, they leave the half-eaten prey and foul traces. 245Celaeno alone perched on a towering rock, ill-omened prophetess, and bursts out with this cry from her breast: 'Is it war too, in return for the slaughter of cattle and slain bullocks, sons of Laomedon, is it war you are ready to bring, and to drive the innocent Harpies from their ancestral kingdom? 250Take then into your hearts and fix there these words of mine, which the almighty father foretold to Phoebus, Phoebus Apollo to me, and which I, greatest of the Furies, reveal to you.
253You are making for Italy on your course, and, having called on the winds, you will reach Italy, and you will be permitted to enter its harbours; 255but you will not gird with walls the city granted you before dread hunger and the wrong of your slaughter of us force you to gnaw round and devour your tables with your jaws.'