Odysseus and the Oar

Take a well-shaped oar and go

until you reach men who do not know of the sea

and who eat food that is not mixed with salt:

they know neither of red-cheeked ships

nor of well-shaped oars, which are the wings of ships.

I´ll tell you a very clear sign, and you won´t miss it:

when you come across another man on the road

who says that you have a chaff-wrecker on your shining shoulder,

then plant the well-shaped oar in the earth

and perform a fine sacrifice to lord Poseidon-

a ram, a bull, and a boar, mounter of sows.

Then return home and sacrifice holy hecatombs

to the immortal gods, who dwell in the broad sky

to all of them in order