The Argonautica

What land is this? Where have the tempests driven us together?

If only we had dared press onward, scorning fear,

to rush straight through the rocks along the selfsame pathway.

Even if we had gone beyond the portion granted by Zeus,

far better to die attempting some great deed.

But now what can we do, held back by the force of the winds

and forced to wait here, though only briefly? Such empty

shoreline of the limitless mainland spreads open before us.

So he spoke; then in despair at the evil situation

Ancaeus the helmsman, deeply distressed, addressed the heroes:

We meet the most dreadful doom, with no escape

from ruin; now only worst suffering remains,

for us, crouched in waste, though rescuing winds may blow

from shore; for scanning far, I see shoals everywhere,

a sea on every side, where water churns in vain

and runs fretted over close-set stretches of gray sand.

Our sacred ship would long ago have been shattered miserably

very far from dry land; but the flood tide itself carried her

out of the open sea and lifted her high upon the land.

Now the tide has rushed back toward the sea, and only sea-foam

whirls there unnavigable, covering the land so far.

Therefore I say that every hope has now been cut away

from voyage and homecoming. Let some other man display

his skill: take helm, whoever seeks to save us.