"But even from there my courage,
my presence of mind and tactics saved us all,
and we will live to remember this someday,
I have no doubt. Up now, follow my orders,
all of us work as one! You men at the thwarts –
lay on with your oars and strike the heaving swells,
trusting that Zeus will pull us through these straits alive."
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 12, lines 229-235. Odysseus attempts to rally his terrified men as they approach the deadly whirlpool Charybdis. He motivates them to row harder away from the whirlpool. He hopes that Zeus will pull them safely through the straits between the crags, Charybdis beneath one crag and Scylla lurking in her cave on the other. Odysseus reminds his men that his courage and quick thinking saved them from the Cyclops.