Konstantinos Konstantinidis – Amphiktyon
Who now would sit and set his wanderings in order?
For the world is measureless, beyond the paling of one’s court.
Far was the voyage that Odysseus took with the Argo,
craft-lord of ships and captain peerless;
and he clave the Atlantic, into waters untrodden by men.
Only Homer sings of this passage:
“Unto the isle of the twain Sirens
the goodly vessel comes;
the stern drove her fleetly on,
and straightway the wind fell away,
and a shining calm was laid upon the sea,
as though a god had hushed the waves to sleep.”
First at Cuba and at Hispaniola
the Argo made her haven,
and there the crew went ashore.
Feasting there was, and festival among the islanders;
yet ere they knew us, wary were their hearts.
Bare were the bodies of the women,
after the custom of that land—
with leaves they adorned their limbs;
and the men likewise, though in other wise arrayed.
Like statues of Hellas they stood, yet dusk of skin—
for the sun at the world’s girdle had fashioned them in fire.
And our seafarers felt as though among their own,
gentle and familiar the welcome.
Many days we tarried there,
that the captain might gather the wisdom of winds and seasons,
learn the ways of lands and currents,
and take aboard water and store of food.
A storm of the tropics held us fast,
yet safe we lay in Cuba’s shelter.
Strange lands, and fruits unknown—
sweet, full of sap, and marvellous to taste.
The ship upon the sandy shore was drawn,
and we in huts beside the forest’s rim
looked out upon the warm-breathing seas
and the mouth of a mighty river—
where the winds are turned
and a new current takes the keel.
Free were the women and full of longing,
chiefly the young, the maidens—
athirst for love.
In the blazing sun they shone like polished ebony,
and the sailors were eager.
Sirens they seemed, who held us in thrall with their grace,
granting us love and dances of worship.
Some there were who yearned to abide forever;
yet the remembrance of home drew them again.
At dawn we loosed from shore toward the south,
with a kindly current swelling our sails—
to Jamaica, to Puerto Rico,
to Hispaniola and to Trinidad.
Fair islands, deep in green,
with virgin nature all around,
friendly unto the Argonauts.
And in the end we came upon the Amazon River—
and at first we deemed it a broad sea;
but rowing against the stream
we knew our error.
We passed along that mighty river,
and knew many tribes of men,
and tributary streams, and havens and bays,
and sacred places and shadowed gorges.
Even to the mouth of the Gorgon we came—
yet no tokens did we take in proof,
that the children of this age of engines
might believe our tale.
These things we inscribed upon the sun and upon the stars—
and, men say, in full account
within the scrolls of Homer.
(19 April 2026)
Amphiktyon – Major General (ret.) Konstantinos Konstantinidis
Author, Member of the Hellenic Literary Society
http://www.amphiktyon.blogspot.com
https://www.amphiktyon.org
