Ithaca was in sight. The ship was so close to shore that Odysseus’s men could see the cookfires burning on the hillsides. Their skipper, alas, had chosen this moment to lie down for a snooze. The men knew he had a hide-covered sack that he would let no one touch. They decided to plunder it. What Odysseus’s men didn’t know was that the sack contained the Adverse Winds, gifted to their commander by King Aeolus. When the men opened the bag, the winds rushed out in one furious blow, driving the ship back across every league she had traversed on her long voyage home.
