Explore "Odysseus" by Mary E. Burt on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
At daybreak the goddess gave Odysseus a large axe and a sharp adze, and led him to the heights of the island, where the largest trees grew. He went to work at once and cut down twenty trees, which he hewed into proper shape, and then tied them together with ropes which he himself made of bark.
In this way he built a raft which was very large and strong enough to stand the onset of the waves. He wove a railing of willow and fitted it around the sides of the raft, to protect himself against the dashing waves; and he raised a strong mast with sails shaped to it, and tightly bound by cords and ropes. He filled the crevices of the raft with wax and pitch and attached a rudder.