The Companions of Ulysses by Jean de La Fontaine

Name: The Companions of Ulysses
Author: Jean de La Fontaine

The poem addresses a prince, praising the growth of his spirit and urging him to consult Good Sense and Reason. It then recounts how Ulysses and his companions, after ten years at the mercy of wind and tide, reach the enchanted shore where Circe reigns. Circe gives the thirsty Greeks a delicious but harmful drink: reason loses its rule over them, and they are changed into creatures such as bears, lions, elephants, and moles. Ulysses alone avoids the treacherous cup. Through wisdom, courage, and skilful conduct, Ulysses makes Circe drink a poison like her own. She declares her love for him, and he asks her to restore his companions’ former shapes. Circe tells him first to discover whether they will accept the offer. Ulysses brings them the cure and asks whether they wish to become men again. The lion refuses, valuing his claws, teeth, and royal station above the prospect of being merely one among others or serving in the ranks. The bear resists Ulysses’ reproach over his ugliness, arguing that Ulysses has no authority to judge the merits of another form; he is content as he is and would rather appeal to a beauty of the bearish race. Ulysses urges the wolf to abandon his appetite for shepherds’ flocks and return to honest life. The wolf replies that men also eat sheep and even kill their brothers; since men are wolves to one another, he prefers to remain a wolf. Every transformed companion gives the same answer. Great and small alike prize wild liberty and the licence to follow appetite. They no longer care for the praise of fair actions, imagining themselves free when passion directs them, though they are bound by chains they cannot perceive. The poem presents Ulysses’ crew as resembling many people who merit the prince’s censure and hatred.

By Jean de La Fontaine · First published 1693 · Genre: Verse Fable, Moral Allegory, Didactic Poetry · 1,732 words

First lines

To Monseigneur The Duke De Bourgogne.[1]

[1]: _Duke de Bourgogne_. -- Louis Duke de Bourgogne (Burgundy), grandson of Louis XIV. He was the son of Louis de Bourbon, the Dauphin, to whom La Fontaine had dedicated the first collection of his Fables. (See note, Dedication of Book I.) He was born in 1682, and at the time of this dedication was about twelve years of age, and the pupil of Fénélon. See Translator's Preface.

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Genres

Verse Fable — The work is a La Fontaine fable in rhymed verse, using animal figures and a compact narrative to convey a moral lesson.
Moral Allegory — Ulysses' transformed companions allegorically represent people who abandon reason, virtue, and civic responsibility in favor of appetite and self-indulgence.
Didactic Poetry — Its explicit purpose is instructional: it contrasts rational self-command with the enslaving force of passion and directs the lesson toward a young prince.
Classical Mythological Adaptation — The plot adapts the Homeric episode of Circe and Ulysses, recasting Greek myth in La Fontaine's moral and satirical manner.

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The Companions of Ulysses is listed on Textopian as a fable by Jean de La Fontaine, dated 1693 CE.

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Work type: Fable
Author: Jean de La Fontaine
Date: 1693 CE
Language: English
Genres: Verse Fable, Moral Allegory, Didactic Poetry, Classical Mythological Adaptation, Satire
Length: 1,732 words
Structure: 1 section, 6 paragraphs
Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)

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