Then the goddess gave him the veil, and dived again into the deep
as a sea-gull diveth, and the waves closed over her. Then Ulysses
pondered the matter, saying to himself: "Woe is me! can it be that
another of the gods is contriving a snare for me, bidding me leave
my raft? Verily, I will not yet obey her counsel, for the land,
when I saw it, seemed a long way off. I am resolved what to do; so
long as the raft will hold together, so long will I abide on it;
but when the waves shall break it asunder, then will I swim, for
nothing better may be done."

But while he thought thus within himself, Poseidon sent another
great wave against the raft. As a stormy wind scattereth a heap of
husks, so did the wave scatter the timbers of the raft. But
Ulysses sat astride on a beam, as a man sitteth astride of a
horse; and he stripped off from him the goodly garments which
Calypso had given him, and put the veil under his breast, and so
leapt into the sea, stretching out his hands to swim.

And Poseidon, when he saw him, shook his head, and said: "Even so
go wandering over the deep, till thou come to the land. Thou wilt
not say that thou hast not had trouble enough."

But Athene, binding up the other winds, roused the swift north
wind, that so Ulysses might escape from death.

So for two days and two nights he swam. But on the third day there
was a calm, and he saw the land from the top of a great wave, for
the waves were yet high, close at hand. But when he came near he
heard the waves breaking along the shore, for there was no harbour
there, but only cliffs and rugged rocks.