I NIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. HEXRY DOUGLASS BACOX. 1877. Accessions No. ...&-/<*. Shelf No. ULYSSES AND THE HARPIES. LONDON: NATHANIEL COOKE, (Late Ingram, Cooke, ff Co.) MILFOKD HOUSE, STRAND. THE ODYSSEY H M E K, TRANSLATED BY ALEXANDEK POPE, Note*, BY THE EEV. THEODORE ALOIS BUCKLEY, M.A., F.SA. FLAXMAN'S DESIGNS, AND OTHER ENGRAVINGS. LONDON: NATHANIEL COOKE, MILPOBD HOUSE, STRAND. 1854. LONDON : PRINTED BY REED AND PARDON, PATERNOSTER ROW. CONTENTS. PAGE BOOK i. MINERVA'S DESCENT TO ITHACA 7 BOOK II. THE COUNCIL OF ITHACA 24 BOOK III. THE INTERVIEW OF TELEMACHUS AND NESTOR 37 BOOK IV. THE CONFERENCE WITH MENELAUS 54 BOOK V. THE DEPARTURE OF ULYSSES FBOM CALYPSO 82 BOOK VI 99 BOOK VII. THE COURT OF ALCINOUS 110 BOOK VIII. ' 122 BOOK IX. THE ADVENTURES OF THE CICONS, LOTOPHAGI, AND CYCLOPS.. 139 BOOK X. ADVENTURES WITH .EOLUS, THE L^STRYGONS, AND CIRCE .... 156 BOOK XI. THE DESCENT INTO HELL 175 BOOK XII. THE SIRENS, SCYLLA, AND CHARYBDIS 197 BOOK XHI. THE ARRIVAL OF ULYSSES IN ITHACA 212 BOOK XIV. THE CONVERSATION WITH EUM^EUS 225 BOOK XV. THE RETURN OF TELEMACHUS 241 BOOK XVI. THE DISCOVERY OF ULYSSES TO TELEMACHUS 256 BOOK xvii 269 BOOK XVHI. THE FIGHT OF ULYSSES AND IRUS 287 BOOK XIX. THE DISCOVERY OF ULYSSES TO EURYCLEA 299 BOOK XX 317 BOOK XXI. THE BENDING OF ULYSSES* BOW 330 BOOK XXII. THE DEATH OB 1 THE SUITORS 343 BOOK xxiii 357 OO BOOK XXIV i t 000 Illustrations. I'AGE 1. Ulysses and the Harpies Frontispiece. 2. Homer Title-page. 3. Thetis 4 4. Council of Jupiter, Minerva, and Mercury 11 5. The Descent of Minerva to Ithaca 12 6. Phemius singing to the Suitors 20 7. Apollo 23 8. Penelope surprised hy the Suitors 27 9 . Pylos 36 10. Telemachus in search of his Father 38 11. Nestor's Sacrifice 51 12. Mount Olympus 53 13. Penelope's Dream , 79 14. Sidon 81 15. Mercury's Message to Calypso 85 16. Leucothea preserving Ulysses 93 17. Nausicaa throwing the Ball 103 18. Ulysses following the Car of Nausicaa 108 19. Cephalus and Aurora 109 20. Ulysses on the Hearth presenting himself to Alcinoiis and Arete.. .. 115 21. Neptune 119 22. Bows and Quivers 121 23. Apollo and Diana 129 24. Ulysses weeps at the Song of Demodocus 137 25. Hector in Chariot 138 26. Ulysses giving Wine to Polyphemus 150 27. Centaur 155 28. King of the Leestrygons seizing one of the Companions of Ulysses 160 29. Ulysses at the Table of Circe. 168 VI ILLT7STBATIONS. PAGE 30. Ulysses and Earn ] 74 81. Ulysses terrified by the Ghosts 196 32. Morning 197 33. The Sirens 203 34. Scylla 205 35. Lampetie complaining to Apollo 209 36. Ulysses asleep laid on his own Coast by the Pheacian Sailors ...... 216 37. Ulysses conversing with Eumaeus 227 38. Tenedos 240 39. Apollo and Diana discharging their arrows 252 40. Minerva restoring Ulysses to his own shape 261 41 . Mount Olympus 268 42. Ulysses and his Dog 279 43. Diana 286 44. Ulysses preparing to fight with Irus 289 45. Victory. 298 46. Euryclea discovers Ulysses 312 47. Penelope 316 48. The Harpies going to seize the Daughters of Pandarus 320 49. Penelope carrying the Bow of Ulysses to the Suitors 332 50. The Fates 342 51. Ulysses killing the Suitors 346 52. Minerva 356 53. Meeting of Ulysses and Penelope 362 54. Apollo . 367 55. Mercury conducting the Souls of the Suitors to the Infernal Regions 369 56. Arms 383 57. Penelope's Choice 384 UNIVERSITY THE ODYSSEY. 1 BOOK I. ARGUMENT, MINERVA'S DESCENT TO ITHACA. The Poem opens within forty-eight days of the arrival of Ulysses in his do- minions. He had now remained seven years in the island of Calypso, when the gods assembled in council proposed the method of his departure from thence, and his return to his native country. For this purpose it is con- cluded to send Mercury to Calypso, and Pallas immediately descends to Ithaca. She holds a conference with Telemachus, in the shape of Mentes, king of the Taphians ; in which she advises him to take a journey in quest of his father Ulysses, to Pylos and Sparta, where Nestor and Menelaizs yet reigned ; then, after having visibly displayed her divinity, disappears. The suitors of Penelope make great entertainments, and riot in her palace till night. Phemius sings to them the return of the Grecians, till Penelope puts a stop to the song. Some words arise between the suitors and Tele- machus, who summons the council to meet the day following, HPHE man for wisdom's various arts renown'd, 3 -*- Long exercised in woes, Muse ! resound ; Who, when his arms had wrought the destined fall Of sacred Troy, and razed her heaven-built wall, 1 The limits necessitated by the dimensions of this volume have compelled me to be less diffuse in the illustration of the Odyssey, than of the Iliad. I have therefore omitted introducing parallel passages. 2 The man. " The Odyssey or Ulysseid is a story exclusively concerning, and devoted to the honour of the one man Ulysses ; every event is connected, all men are compared, with him ; weeping or stern, patient or furious, silent * THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK i. Wandering from clime to clime, observant strayed, Their manners noted, and their states survey'd. On stormy seas unnumber'd toils he bore, Safe \vith his friends to gain his natal shore : Vain toils! their impious folly dared to prey On herds devoted to the god of day; 10 The god vindictive doom'd them never more (Ah, men unbless'd!) to touch that natal shore. Oh, snatch some portion of these acts from fate, Celestial Muse ! and to our world relate. Now at their native realms the Greeks arrived; All who the wars of ten long years survived, And 'scaped the perils of the gulfy main. Ulysses, sole of all the victor train, An exile from his dear paternal coast, Deplored his absent queen and empire lost. 20 Calypso in her caves constrain'd his stay, With sweet, reluctant, amorous delay: In vain for now the circling years disclose The day predestined to reward his woes. At length his Ithaca is given by fate, Where yet new labours his arrival wait ; or speaking, swimming or fighting, naked or in rags, in robes or in armour he is ever hefore our eyes in some shape or other the central heart from which life-blood flows into every the minutest vein and vesicle of the entire poem." Coleridge, p. 254. " That the Odyssey is not of the same age, or by the same hand or hands, as the Iliad, is one of the positions of the German theory which, though at vari- ance with the prevalent belief of ancient and modern times, has been counte- nanced by many great scholars as probable, if not absolutely demonstrated. This opinion is founded on the striking discrepancy as to the wife of Vulcan, who in the Iliad is Charis, and in the Odyssey is Venus ; on the appearance of Mercury as the constant messenger of. Olympus, to the exclusion of Iris, who almost constantly acts that part in the Iliad ; on the change in the forms of many words ; on the decreased simplicity of the manners, and on the altered aspect of the mythology. These later points of difference have been already very strongly laid before the reader in the extract from Vico, and some- of them will be more particularly mentioned in the course of this Introduction : and though it would not become me to pronounce a peremptory decision on this question, I cannot help owning that I never read a book of the Odyssey without being more and more convinced that a considerable number of years must have intervened between the composition of the two poems. It should be remarked, too, that, in every instance of difference, the statement in the Odyssey is invariably that which agrees with the finally prevailing habits and creed of succeeding ages." Ibid. p. 231, seq. BOOK i.] THE ODYSSEY. 9 At length their rage the hostile powers restrain, All but the ruthless monarch of the main. But now the god, remote, a heavenly guest, In ^Ethiopia graced the genial feast 30 (A race divided, whom with sloping rays The rising and descending sun surveys) ; There on the world's extremest verge revered With hecatombs and prayer in pomp preferr'd, Distant he lay: while in the bright abodes Of high Olympus, Jove convened the gods : The assembly thus the sire supreme address'd, - In the black ocean, or the watery war, 'Tis mine to master with a constant mind; Inured to perils, to the worst resign'd. By seas, by wars, so many dangers run; Still I can suffer : their high will be done ! " Thus while he spoke, the beamy sun descends, And rising night her friendly shade extends. 290 To the close grot the lonely pair remove, And slept delighted with the gifts of love. When rosy morning call'd them from their rest, Ulysses robed him in the cloak and vest. The nymph's fair head a veil transparent graced, Her swelling loins a radiant zone embraced With flowers of gold : an under robe, unbound, In snowy waves flow'd glittering on the ground. Forth issuing thus, she gave him first to wield A weighty axe, with truest temper steeled, 300 And double-edged; the handle smooth and plain, Wrought of the clouded olive's easy grain ; And next, a wedge to drive with sweepy sway : Then to the neighbouring forest led the way. On the lone island's utmost verge there stood Of poplars, pine, and firs, a lofty wood, Whose leafless summits to the skies aspire, Scorch'd by the sun, or seared by heavenly fire (Already dried). These pointing out to view, The nymph just show'd him, and with tears withdrew. 310 Now toils the hero : trees on trees o'erthrown Fall crackling round him, and the forests groan : Sudden, full twenty on the plain are strow'd, And lopp'd and lighten'd of their branchy load. At equal angles these disposed to join, He smooth'd and squared them by the rule and line, (The wimbles for the work Calypso found) With those he pierced them, and with clinchers bound. Long and capacious as a shipwright forms Some bark's broad bottom to out-ride the storms, 320 So large he built the raft ; then ribb'd it strong From space to space, and nail'd the planks along ; BOOKV.] THE ODYSSEY. 91 These form'd the sides : the deck he fashion'd last ; Then o'er the vessel raised the taper mast, With crossing sail-yards dancing in the wind; And to the helm the guiding rudder join'd (With yielding osiers fenced, to hreak the force Of surging waves, and steer the steady course). Thy loom, Calypso, for the future sails Supplied the cloth, capacious of the gales. 330 With stays and cordage last he rigg'd the ship, And, roll'd on levers, launch'd her in the deep. Four days were pass'd, and now the work complete, Shone the fifth morn, when from her sacred seat The nymph dismiss'd him (odorous garments given), And bathed in fragrant oils that breathed of heaven : Then fill'd two goat-skins with her hands divine, With water one, and one with sable wine: Of every kind, provisions heaved aboard ; And the full decks with copious viands stored. 340 The goddess, last, a gentle breeze supplies, To curl old Ocean, and to warm the skies. And now, rejoicing in the prosperous gales, With beating heart Ulysses spreads his sails : Placed at the helm he sate, and mark'd the skies, Nor closed in sleep his ever-watchful eyes. There view'd the Pleiads, and the Northern Team, And great Orion's more refulgent beam, To which, around the axle of the sky, The Bear, revolving, points his golden eye : 350 Who shines exalted on the ethereal plain, Nor bathes his blazing forehead in the main. Far on the left those radiant fires to keep The nymph directed, as he sail'd the deep. Full seventeen jiights he cut the foamy way: The distant land appear'd the following day : Then swell'd to sight Phaeacja's dusky coast, And woocty mountains, half in vapours lost ; That lay before him indistinct and vast, Like a broad shield amid the watery waste. 360 But him, thus voyaging the deeps below, From far, on Solyme's aerial brow, 6 The king of ocean saw, and seeing burn'd (From ^Ethiopia's happy climes return'd) ; 6 Solyme, in Lycia. 92 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK The raging monarch shook his azure head, And thus in secret to his soul he said : " Heavens ! how uncertain are the powers on high ! Is then reversed the sentence of the sky, In one man's favour ; while a distant guest I shared secure the ^Ethiopian feast? 370 Behold how near Phteacia's land he draws; The land affix'd by Fate's eternal laws To end his toils. Is then our anger vain ? No ; if this sceptre yet commands the main." He spoke, and high the forky trident hurFd, Rolls clouds on clouds, and stirs the watery world, At once the face of earth and sea deforms, Swells all the winds, and rouses all the storms. Down rush'd the night : east, west, together roar ; And south and north roll mountains to the shore. 380 Then shook the hero, to despair resign'd, And question'd thus his yet unconquer'd mind: " "Wretch that I am! what farther fates attend This life of toils, and what my destined end ? Too well, alas! the island goddess knew On the black sea what perils should ensue. New horrors now this destined head enclose; Unfill'd is yet the measure of my woes ; With what a cloud the brows of heaven are crown 'd! What raging winds! what roaring waters round! 390 'Tis Jove himself the swelling tempest rears ; Death, present death, on every side appears. Happy ! thrice happy ! who, in battle slain, Press'd, in Atrides' cause, the Trojan plain! Oh! had I died before that well-fought waU! Had some distinguish'd day renown'd my fall (Such as was that when showers of javelins fled From conquering Troy around Achilles dead); All Greece had paid me solemn funerals then, And spread my glory with the sons of men. 400 A shameful fate now hides my hapless head, Unwept, unnoted, and for ever dead!" A mighty wave rush'd o'er him as he spoke, The raft it cover'd, and the mast it broke; Swept from the deck, and from the rudder torn, Far on the swelling surge the chief was borne ; While by the howling tempest rent in twain Flew sail and sail-yards rattling o'er the main. BOOK V.] THE ODYSSEY. Long-press'd, he heaved beneath the weighty wave, Clogg'd by the cumbrous vest Calypso gave : At length, emerging, from his nostrils wide And gushing mouth effused the briny tide; E'en then not mindless of his last retreat, He seized the raft, and leap'd into his seat, Strong with the fear of death. The rolling flood, Now here, now there, impell'd the floating wood. As when a heap of gather'd thorns is cast, Now to, now fro, before the autumnal blast ; Together clung, it rolls around the field; So roll'd the float, and so its texture held : And now the south, and now the north, bear sway, And now the east the foamy floods obey, And now the west wind whirls it o'er the sea. The wandering chief with toils on toils oppress'd, Leucothea saw, and pity touch'd her breast.? (Herself a mortal once, of Cadmus' strain, But now an azure sister of the main.) 93 410 420 LEUCOTHEA PKESERVING- ULYSSES. Swift as a sea-mew springing from the flood, All radiant on the raft the goddess stood : 7 Leucothea, called Matuta by the Romans, was the wife of Athamas, changed into a marine deity. 94 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK v. Then thus address'd him : " Thou whom heaven decrees 430 To Neptune's wrath, stern tyrant of the seas ! (Unequal contest !) not his rage and power, Great as he is, such virtue shall devour. What I suggest, thy wisdom will perform : Forsake thy float, and leave it to the storm ; Strip off thy garments ; Neptune's fury brave With naked strength, and plunge into the wave. To reach Phseacia all thy nerves extend, There Fate decrees thy miseries shall end. This heavenly scarf beneath thy bosom bind, 440 And live; give all thy terrors to the wind. Soon as thy arms the happy shore shall gain, Return the gift, and cast it in the main : Observe my orders, and with heed obey, Cast it far off, and turn thy eyes away." With that, her hand the sacred veil bestows, Then down the deeps she dived from whence she rose ; A moment snatch'd the shining form away, And all was covered with the curling sea. Struck with amaze, yet still to doubt inclined, 450 He stands suspended, and explores his mind: "What shall I do? unhappy me! who knows But other gods intend me other woes ? Whoe'er thou art, I shall not blindly join Thy pleaded reason, but consult with mine : For scarce in ken appears that distant isle Thy voice foretels me shall conclude my toil. Thus then I judge : while yet the planks sustain The wild waves' fury, here I fix'd remain; But, when their texture to the tempest yields, 460 I launch adventurous on the liquid fields, Join to the help of gods the strength of man, And take this method, since the best I can." While thus his thoughts an anxious council hold, The raging god a watery mountain roll'd ; Like a black sheet the whelming billows spread, Burst o'er the float, and thunder'd on his head. Planks, beams, disparted fly; the scatter'd wood Rolls diverse, and in fragments strews the flood. So the rude Boreas, o'er the field new-shorn, 470 Tosses and drives the scatter'd heaps of corn. And now a single beam the chief bestrides : There poised a\vhile above the bounding tides, BOOKV.] THE ODYSSEY. 95 His limbs dis cumbers of the clinging vest, And binds the sacred cincture round his breast : Then prone on ocean in a moment flung, Stretch'd wide his eager arms, and shot the seas along. All naked now, on heaving billows laid, Stern Neptune eyed him, and contemptuous said: "Go, learn'd in woes, and other foes essay! 480 Go, wander helpless on the watery way: Thus, thus find out the destined shore, and then (If Jove ordains it) mix with happier men. Whate'er thy fate, the ills our wrath could raise Shall last remember'd in thy best of days." This said, his sea-green steeds divide the foam, And reach high JEgee and the towery dome. Now, scarce withdrawn the fierce earth-shaking power, Jove's daughter Pallas watch'd the favouring hour. Back to their caves she bade the winds to fly, 490 And hush'd the blustering brethren of the sky. The drier blasts alone of Boreas sway, And bear him soft on broken waves away ; With gentle force impelling to that shore, Where Fate has destined he shall toil no more. And now two nights, and now two days were pass'd, Since wide he wander'd on the watery waste ; Heaved on the surge with intermitting breath, And hourly panting in the arms of death. The third fair morn now blazed upon the main; 500 Then glassy smooth lay all the liquid plain ; The winds were hush'd, the billows scarcely curl'd, And a dead silence still'd the watery world; When lifted on a ridgy wave he spies The land at distance, and with sharpen'd eyes. As pious children joy with vast delight When a loved sire revives before their sight (Who, lingering long, has call'd on death in vain, Fix'd by some demon to his bed of pain, Till Heaven by miracle his life restore) ; 510 So joys Ulysses at the appearing shore : And sees (and labours onward as he sees) The rising forests, and the tufted trees. And now, as near approaching as the sound Of human voice the listening ear may wound, Amidst the rocks he heard a hollow roar Of murmuring surges breaking on the shore : 96 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK v. Nor peaceful port was there, nor winding bay, To shield the vessel from the rolling sea, But cliffs, and shaggy shores, a dreadful sight ! 520 All rough with rocks, with foamy billows white. Fear seized his slacken'd limbs and beating heart, As thus he communed with his soul apart: " Ah me ! when, o'er a length of waters toss'd. These eyes at last behold the unhoped-for coast, No port receives me from the angry main, But the loud deeps demand me back again. Above, sharp rocks forbid access; around, Roar the wild waves; beneath, is sea profound! No footing sure affords the faithless sand. 530 To stem too rapid, and too deep to stand. If here I enter, my efforts are vain, Dash'd on the cliffs, or heaved into the main; Or round the island if my course I bend, Where the ports open, or the shores descend, Back to the seas the rolling surge may sweep, And bury all my hopes beneath the deep. Or some enormous whale the god may send (For many such on Amphitrite attend) ; Too well the turns of mortal chance I know, 540 And hate relentless of my heavenly foe." While thus he thought, a monstrous wave upbore The chief, and dash'd him on the craggy shore : Torn was his skin, nor had the ribs been whole, But instant Pallas enter' d in his soul. Close to the cliff with both his hands he clung, And stuck adherent, and suspended hung; Till the huge surge roll'd off; then backward sweep The refluent tides, and plunge him in the deep. As when the polypus, from forth his cave 550 Torn with full force, reluctant beats the wave. His ragged claws are stuck with stones and sands : So the rough rock had shagg'd Ulysses' hands. And now had perish'd, whelm'd beneath the main, The unhappy man ; e'en fate had been in vain ; But all-subduing Pallas lent her power, And prudence saved him in the needful hour. Beyond the beating surge his course he bore, (A wider circle, but in sight of shore,) With longing eyes, observing, to survey 560 Some smooth ascent, or safe sequester'd bay. BOOKV.] THE ODYSSEY. 97 Between the parting rocks at length he spied A falling stream with gentler waters glide; Where to the seas the shelving shore declined, And form'd a bay impervious to the wind. To this calm port the glad Ulysses press'd, And hail'd the river, and its god address'd : " Whoe'er thou art, before whose stream unknown I bend, a suppliant at thy watery throne, Hear, azure king! nor let me fly in vain 570 To thee from Neptune and the raging main. Heaven hears and pities hapless men like me, For sacred even to gods is misery: Let then thy waters give the weary rest, And save a suppliant, and a man distress'd." He pray'd, and straight the gentle stream subsides, Detains the rushing current of his tides, Before the wanderer smooths the watery way, And soft receives him from the rolling sea. That moment, fainting as he touch'd the shore, 580 He dropp'd his sinewy arms : his knees no more Perform'd their office, or his weight upheld : His swoln heart heaved ; his bloated body swell'd : From mouth and nose the briny torrent ran; And lost in lassitude lay all the man, Deprived of voice, of motion, and of breath ; The soul scarce waking in the arms of death. Soon as warm life its wonted office found, The mindful chief Leucothea's scarf unbound ; Observant of her word, he turn'd aside 590 His head, and cast it on the rolling tide. Behind him far, upon the purple waves, The waters waft it, and the nymph receives. Now parting from the stream, Ulysses found A mossy bank with pliant rushes crown'd ; The bank he press'd, and gently kiss'd the ground; Where on the flowery herb as soft he lay, Thus to his soul the sage began to say: " What will ye next ordain, ye powers on high ! And yet, ah yet, what fates are we to try? 600 Here by the stream, if I the night out-wear, Thus spent already, how shall nature bear The dews descending, and nocturnal air; Or chilly vapours breathing from the flood When morning rises ? If I take the wood, 98 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK v. And in thick shelter of innumerous boughs Enjoy the comfort gentle sleep allows; Though fenced from cold, and though my toil be pass'd, What savage beasts may wander in the waste! Perhaps I yet may fall a bloody prey 610 To prowling bears, or lions in the way." Thus long debating in himself he stood : At length he took the passage to the wood, Whose shady horrors on a rising brow Waved high, and frown'd upon the stream below. There grew two olives, closest of the grove, With roots entwined, and branches interwove ; Alike their leaves, but not alike they smiled With sister-fruits; one fertile, one was wild. Xor here the sun's meridian rays had power, 620 Nor wind sharp- piercing, nor the rushing shower ; The verdant arch so close its texture kept: Beneath this covert great Ulysses crept. Of gather'd leaves an ample bed he made (Thick strewn by tempest through the bowery shade) ; Where three at least might winter's cold defy, Though Boreas raged along the inclement sky. This store with joy the patient hero found, 4nd, sunk amidst them, heap'd the leaves around. As some poor peasant, fated to reside 630 Remote from neighbours in a forest wide, Studious to save what human wants require, In embers heap'd, preserves the seeds of fire : Hid in dry foliage thus Ulysses lies, Till Pallas pour'd soft slumbers on his eyes ; And golden dreams (the gift of sweet repose) Lull'd all his cares, and banish'd all his woes. BOOK VI. ARGUMENT. Pallas appearing in a dream to Nausicaa (the daughter of Alcinoiis, king of Phaeacia), commands her to descend to the river, and wash the rohes of state, in preparation for her nuptials. Nausicaa goes with her handmaids to the river; where, while the garments are spread on the bank, they divert themselves in sports. Their voices awake Ulysses, who, addressing himself to the princess, is by her relieved and clothed, and receives direc- tions in what manner to apply to the king and queen of the island. TI7HILE thus the weary wanderer sunk to rest, * And peaceful slumbers calm'd his anxious breast, The martial maid from heaven's aerial height Swift to Phseacia wing'd her rapid flight. In elder times the soft Pheeacian train In ease possess'd the wide Hyperian plain : Till the Cyclopean race in arms arose, A lawless nation of gigantic foes : Then great Nausithous from Hyperia far, Through seas retreating from the sound of war, 10 The recreant nation to fair Scheria led, Where never science rear'd her laurell'd head : There round his tribes a strength of wall he raised; To heave i the glittering domes and temples blazed : Just to his realms, he parted grounds from grounds, And shared the lands, and gave the lands their bounds. Now in the silent grave the monarch lay, And wise Alcinoiis held the legal sway. 1 To his high palace through the fields of air The goddess shot ; Ulysses was her care. 20 1 Wise Alcinoiis. The reader will scarcely, however, fail to perceive that Alcinoiis is rather clever than wise. His character, distinguished by a kind of popular urbanity, stands in fine contrast to the deep and sound feelings of Ulysses. 100 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK vi. There, as the night in silence rollM away, A heaven of charms divine Nausicaa lay: 2 Through the thick gloom the shining portals blaze ; Two nymphs the portals guard, each nymph a Grace. Light as the viewless air the warrior-maid Glides through the valves, and hovers round her head ; A favourite virgin's blooming form she took, From Dymas sprung, and thus the vision spoke : " Oh indolent ! to waste thy hours away ! And sleep'st thou careless of the bridal day ? 30 Thy spousal ornament neglected lies; Arise, prepare the bridal train, arise ! A just applause the cares of dress impart, And give soft transport to a parent's heart. Haste, to the limpid stream direct thy way, When the gay morn unveils her smiling ray : Haste to the stream ! companion of thy care, Lo, I thy steps attend, thy labours share. Virgin, awake! the marriage hour is nigh, See ! from their thrones thy kindred monarchs sigh ! 40 The royal car at early dawn obtain, And order mules obedient to the rein ; For rough the way, and distant rolls the wave, Where their fair vests Phaeacian virgins lave. In pomp ride forth ; for pomp becomes the great, And majesty derives a grace from state." Then to the palaces of heaven she sails, Incumbent on the wings of wafting gales; The seat of gods ; the regions mild of peace, Full joy, and calm eternity of ease. There no rude winds presume to shake the skies, 3 50 No rains descend, no snowy vapours rise ; But on immortal thrones the blest repose; The firmament with living splendours glows. Hither the goddess winged the aerial way. Through heaven's eternal gates that blazed with day. Now from her rosy car Aurora shed The dawn, and all the orient flamed with red. Up rose the virgin with the morning light, Obedient to the vision of the night. 2 A pretty sketch of the character of Nausicaa is given hy Colonel Mure, v. i. p. 405. 3 This passage is rivalled in sublimity hy Lucretius iii. 18, seq. BOOK vi.] THE ODYSSEY. 101 The queen she sought, the queen her hours bestow'd 60 In curious works; the whirling spindle glow'd With crimson threads, while busy damsels cull The snowy fleece, or twist the purpled wool. Meanwhile Phseacia's peers in council sate ; From his high dome the king descends in state; Then with a filial awe the royal maid Approach'd him passing, and submissive said : "Will my dread sire his ear regardful deign, And may his child the royal car obtain? Say, with my garments shall I bend my way, 70 AVhere through the vales the mazy waters stray? A dignity of dress adorns the great, And kings draw lustre from the robe of state. Five sons thou hast; three wait the bridal day, And spotless robes become the young and gay : So when with praise amid the dance they shine, By these my cares adorn'd, that praise is mine." Thus she : but blushes ill-restrain'd betray Her thoughts intentive on the bridal day : The conscious sire the dawning blush survey'd, 80 And, smiling, thus bespoke the blooming maid: " My child, my darling joy, the car receive ; That, and whate'er our daughter asks, we give." Swift at the royal nod the attending train The car prepare, the mules incessant rein. The blooming virgin with despatchful cares Tunics, and stoles, and robes imperial, bears. The queen, assiduous, to her train assigns The sumptuous viands, and the flavorous wines. The train prepare a cruse of curious mould, 90 A cruse of fragrance, form'd of burnish'd gold; Odour divine! whose soft refreshing streams Sleek the smooth skin, and scent the snowy limbs. Now mounting the gay seat, the silken reins Shine in her hand ; along the sounding plains Swift fly the mules : nor rode the nymph alone ; ^Around, a bevy of bright damsels shone. They seek the cisterns where Phaeacian dames Wash their fair garments in the limpid streams ; Where, gathering into depth from falling rills, 100 The lucid wave a spacious bason fills. The mules, unharness'd, range beside the main, Or crop the verdant herbage of the plain. 102 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK vi. Then emulous the royal robes they lave, And plunge the vestures in the cleansing wave (The vestures cleansed o'erspread the shelly sand, Their snowy lustre whitens all the strand) ; Then with a short repast relieve their toil, And o'er their limbs diffuse ambrosial oil ; And while the robes imbibe the solar ray, 110 O'er the green mead the sporting virgins play (Their shining veils unbound). /Along the skies, Toss'd and retoss'd, the ball incessant flies. They sport, they feast ; Nausicaa lifts her voice, And, warbling sweet, makes earth and heaven rejoice. As when o'er Erymanth Diana roves, Or wide Taygetus' resounding groves ; A sylvan train the huntress queen surrounds, Her rattling quiver from her shoulders sounds : Fierce in the sport, along the mountain's brow 120 They bay the boar, or chase the bounding roe; High o'er the lawn, with more majestic pace, Above the nymphs she treads with stately grace ; Distinguish'd excellence the goddess proves; Exults Latona as the virgin moves. With equal grace Nausicaa trod the plain, And shone transcendent o'er the beauteous train. Meantime (the care and favourite of the skies) Wrapp'd in embowering shade, Ulysses lies, His woes forgot! but Pallas now address'd 130 To break the bands of all-composing rest. Forth from her snowy hand Nausicaa threw The various ball ; the ball erroneous flew, And swam the stream ; loud shrieks the virgin train, And the loud shriek redoubles from the main. Waked by the shrilling sound, Ulysses rose, And, to the deaf woods wailing, breathed his woes : " Ah me ! on what inhospitable coast, On what new region is Ulysses toss'd ; Possess'd by wild barbarians fierce in arms ; 140 Or men, whose bosom tender pity warms ? What sounds are these that gather from the shores? The voice of nymphs that haunt the sylvan bowers, The fair-hair'd Dryads of the shady wood ; Or azure daughters of the silver flood ; Or human voice ? but issuing from the shades, Why cease I straight to learn what sound invades?" BOOK VI.] THE ODYSSEY. 103 Then, where the grove with leaves umbrageous bends, With forceful strength a branch the hero rends ; Around his loins the verdant cincture spreads 150 A wreathy foliage and concealing shades. NAUSICAA THROWING THE BALL. As when a lion in the midnight hours, Beat by rude blasts, and wet with wintry showers, Descends terrific from the mountain's brow ; With living flames his rolling eye-balls glow; With conscious strength elate, he bends his way, Majestically fierce, to seize his prey (The steer or stag) ; or, with keen hunger bold, Springs o'er the fence, and dissipates the fold. No less a terror, from the neighbouring groves 160 (Rough from the tossing surge) Ulysses moves; Urged on by want, and recent from the storms; The brackish ooze his manly grace deforms. Wide o'er the shore with many a piercing cry To rocks, to caves, the frighted virgins fly; All but the nymph: the nymph stood fix'd alone, By Pallas arm'd with boldness not her own. Meantime in dubious thought the king awaits, And, self-considering, as he stands, debates ; Distant his mournful story to declare, 170 Or prostrate at her knee address the prayer. 4 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK vi. But fearful to offend, by wisdom sway*d, At awful distance he accosts the maid : " If from the skies a goddess, or if earth (Imperial virgin) boast thy glorious birth, To thee I bend ! If in that bright disguise Thou visit earth, a daughter of the skies, Hail, Dian, hail! the huntress of the groves So shines majestic, and so stately moves, So breathes an air divine ! But if thy race 180 Be mortal, and this earth thy native place, Blest is the father from whose loins you sprung, Blest is the mother at whose breast you hung, Blest are the brethren who thy blood divide, To such a miracle of charms allied : Joyful they see applauding princes gaze, When stately in the dance you swim the harmonious maze. But blest o'er all, the youth with heavenly charms, ~\Vho clasps the bright perfection in his arms! Never, I never view'd till this blest hour 190 Such finish'd grace ! I gaze, and I adore ! Thus seems the palm, with stately honours crown'd By Phoebus' altars ; thus o'erlooks the ground ; The pride of Delos. (By the Delian coast, I voyaged, leader of a warrior-host, But ah, how changed! from thence my sorrow flows; O fatal voyage, source of all my woes !) Raptured I stood, and as this hour amazed, "With reverence at the lofty wonder gazed: Raptured I stand ! for earth ne'er knew to bear 200 A plant so stately, or a nymph so fair. Awed from access, I lift my suppliant hands ; For Misery, O queen ! before thee stands. Twice ten tempestuous nights I roll'd, resign'd To roaring billows, and the warring wind.; Heaven bade the deep to spare ; but heaven, my foe, Spares only to inflict some mightier woe. Inured to cares, to death in all its forms ; Outcast I rove, familiar with the storms. Once more I view the face of human kind: 210 Oh let soft pity touch thy generous mind! Unconscious of what air I breathe, I stand Xaked, defenceless on a narrow land. Propitious to my wants, a vest supply To guard the wretched from the inclement sky : BOOK vi.] THE ODYSSEY. 105 So may the gods, who heaven and earth control, Crown the chaste wishes of thy virtuous soul, On thy soft hours their choicest blessings shed; Blest with a husband be thy bridal bed; Blest be thy husband with a blooming race, 220 And lasting union crown your blissful days. The gods, when they supremely bless, bestow Firm union on their favourites below: Then envy grieves, with inly-pining hate; The good exult, and heaven is in our state." To whom the nymph : " O stranger, cease thy care ; Wise is thy soul, but man is born to bear : Jove weighs affairs of earth in dubious scales, And the good suffers, while the bad prevails. Bear, with a soul resign'd, the will of Jove ; 230 Who breathes, must mourn: thy woes are from above. But since thou tread'st our hospitable shore, 'Tis mine to bid the wretched grieve no more, To clothe the naked, and thy way to guide. Know, the Pheeacian tribes this land divide; From great Alcinoiis' royal loins I spring, A happy nation, and a happy king." Then to her maids : " Why, why, ye coward train, These fears, this flight ? ye fear, and fly in vain. Dread ye a foe? dismiss that idle dread, 240 'Tis death with hostile step these shores to tread : Safe in the love of heaven, an ocean flows Around our realm, a barrier from the foes; 'Tis ours this son of sorrow to relieve, Cheer the sad heart, nor let affliction grieve. By Jove the stranger and the poor are sent; And what to those we give to Jove is lent. Then food supply, and bathe his fainting limbs Where waving shades obscure the mazy streams." Obedient to the call, the chief they guide 250 To the calm current of the secret tide ; Close by the stream a royal dress they lay, A vest and robe, with rich embroidery gay: Then unguents in a vase of gold supply, That breathed a fragrance through the balmy sky\ To them the king: "No longer I detain Your friendly care : retire, ye virgin train ! Retire, while from my wearied limbs I lave The foul pollution of the briny wave. 106 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK VL Ye gods ! since this \vorn frame refection knew, 260 What scenes have I surveyed of dreadful view ! But, nymphs, recede ! sage chastity denies To raise the blush, or pain the modest eyes." The nymphs withdrawn, at once into the tide Active he bounds ; the flashing waves divide : O'er all his limbs his hands the wave diffuse, And from his locks compress the weedy ooze; The balmy oil, a fragrant shower, he sheds; Then, dressed, in pomp magnificently treads. The warrior-goddess gives his frame to shine 270 With majesty enlarged, and air divine: Back from his brows a length of hair unfurls, His hyacinthine locks descend in wavy curls. As by some artist, to whom Vulcan gives His skill divine, a breathing statue lives ; By Pallas taught, he frames the wondrous mould, And o'er the silver pours the fusile gold. So Pallas his heroic frame improves With heavenly bloom, and like a god he moves. A fragrance breathes around ; majestic grace 280 Attends his steps : the astonished virgins gaze. Soft he reclines along the murmuring seas, Inhaling freshness from the fanning breeze. The wondering nymph his glorious port survey'd, And to her damsels, with amazement, said : ' Xot without care divine the stranger treads This land of joy ; his steps some godhead leads : Would Jove destroy him, sure he had been driven Far from this realm, the favourite isle of heaven. Late, a sad spectacle of woe, he trod 290 The desert sands, and now he looks a god. Oh heaven ! in my connubial hour decree This man my spouse, or such a spouse as he! But haste, the viands and the bowl provide." The maids the viands and the bowl supplied: Eager he fed, for keen his hunger raged, And with the generous vintage thirst assuaged. Now on return her care Nausicaa bends, The robes resumes, the glittering car ascends, Far blooming o'er the field; and as she press'd 300 The splendid seat, the listening chief address'd: " Stranger, arise ! the sun rolls down the day, Lo, to the palace I direct thy way; BOOK vi.] THE ODYSSEY. 107 Where, in high state, the nobles of the land Attend my royal sire, a radiant band. But hear, though wisdom in thy soul presides, Speaks from thy tongue, and every action guides ; Advance at distance, while I pass the plain Where o'er the furrows waves the golden grain : Alone I reascend With airy mounds 310 A strength of wall the guarded city bounds : The jutting land two ample bays divides ; Full through the narrow mouths descend the tides; The spacious basons arching rocks enclose, A sure defence from every storm that blows. Close to the bay great Neptune's fane adjoins ; And near, a forum flank'd with marble shines. Where the bold youth, the numerous fleets to store, Shape the broad sail, or smooth the taper oar: For not the bow they bend, nor boast the skill 320 To give the feather'd arrow wings to kill; But the tall mast above the vessel rear, Or teach the fluttering sail to float in air. They rush into the deep with eager joy, Climb the steep surge, and through the tempest fly; A proud, unpolish'd race To me belongs The care to shun the blast of slanderous tongues; Lest malice, prone the virtuous to defame, Thus with vile censure taint my spotless name: 'What stranger this whom thus Nausicaa leads? 330 Heavens, with what graceful majesty he treads ! Perhaps a native of some distant shore, The future consort of her bridal hour : Or rather some descendant of the skies ; Won by her prayer, the aerial bridegroom flies. Heaven on that hour its choicest influence shed, That gave a foreign spouse to crown her bed ! All, all the godlike worthies that adorn This realm, she flies : Phseacia is her scorn.' And just the blame ; for female innocence 340 Not only flies the guilt, but shuns the offence : The unguarded virgin, as unchaste, I blame ; And the least freedom with the sex is shame, Till our consenting sires a spouse provide, And public nuptials justify the bride. But would'st thou soon review thy native plain ? Attend, and speedy thou shalt pass the main: 108 THE ODYSSEY. Nigh where a grove with verdant poplars crown'd, To Pallas sacred, shades the holy ground, We bend our way: a bubbling fount distils A lucid lake, and thence descends in rills ; Around the grove, a mead with lively green Falls by degrees, and forms a beauteous scene; Here a rich juice the royal vineyard pours ; And there the garden yields a waste of flowers. Hence lies the town, as far as to the ear Floats a strong shout along the waves of air. There wait enibower'd,. while I ascend alone To great Alcinoiis on his royal throne. BOOK VI. 350 ULYSSES FOLLOWING THE CAR OF NAUSICAA. Arrived, advance, impatient of delay, 360 And to the lofty palace bend thy way: The lofty palace overlooks the town, From every dome by pomp superior known; A child may point the way. With earnest gait Seek thou the queen along the rooms of state; Her royal hand a wondrous work designs, Around a circle of bright damsels shines; Part twist the threads, and part the wool dispose, While with the purple orb the spindle glows. High on a throne, amid the Scherian powers, 370 My royal father shares the genial hours ; BOOK vi.] THE ODYSSEY. 109 But to the queen thy mournful tale disclose, With the prevailing eloquence of woes : So shalt thou view with joy thy natal shore, Though mountains rise between, and oceans roar." She added not, but waving, as she wheel'd, The silver scourge, it glitter'd o'er the field : With skill the virgin guides the embroider' d rein, Slow rolls the car before the attending train. Now whirling down the heavens, the golden day 380 Shot through the western clouds a dewy ray; The grove they reach, where, from the sacred shade, To Pallas thus the pensive hero pray'd : " Daughter of Jove ! whose arms in thunder wield The avenging bolt, and shake the dreadful shield ; Forsook by thee, in vain I sought thy aid When booming billows closed above my head; Attend, unconquer'd maid ! accord my vows, Bid the Great hear, and pitying heal my woes." This heard Minerva, but forbore to fly 390 (By Neptune awed) apparent from the sky : Stern god! who raged with vengeance unrestrain'd, Till great Ulysses hail'd his native land. UNIVERSITY CEFHALTJS AND AURORA. BOOK VII. THE COURT OF ALCINOOS. The princess Xausicaa returns to the city, and Ulysses soon after follows thither. He is met by Pallas in the form of a young virgin, who guides him to the palace, and directs him in what manner to address the queen Arete. She then involves him in a mist, which causes him to pass in- visible. The palace and gardens of Alcinoiis described. Ulysses falling at the feet of the queen, the mist disperses, the Pha?acians admire, and receive him with respect. The queen inquiring by what means he had the garments he then wore, he relates to her and Alcinoiis his departure from Calypso, and his arrival in their dominions. The same day continues, and the book ends with the night. THE patient heavenly man thus suppliant pray'd ; -* While the slow mules draw on the imperial maid: Through the proud street she moves, the public gaze ; The turning wheel before the palace stays. With ready love her brothers, gathering round, Received the vestures, and the mules unbound. She seeks the bridal bower : a matron there The rising fire supplies with busy care, Whose charms in youth her father's heart inflamed, Now worn with age, Eury medusa named : 10 The captive dame Phseacian rovers bore, Snatch' d from Epirus, her sweet native shore (A grateful prize), and in her bloom bestow'd On good Alcinoiis, honour'd as a god; Nurse of Nausicaa from her infant years, And tender second to a mother's cares. Now from the sacred thicket where he lay, To town Ulysses took the winding way. Propitious Pallas, to secure her care, Around him spread a veil of thicken'd air ; 20 To shun the encounter of the vulgar crowd, Insulting still, inquisitive and loud. BOOK vii.] THE ODYSSEY. Ill When near the famed Phaeacian walls he drew, The beauteous city opening to his view, His step a virgin met, and stood before : A polish'd urn the seeming virgin bore, And youthful smiled ; but in the low disguise Lay hid the goddess with the azure eyes. " Show me, fair daughter (thus the chief demands), The house of him who rules these happy lands. 30 Through many woes and wanderings, lo ! I come To good Alcinoiis' hospitable dome. Far from my native coast, I rove alone, A wretched stranger, and of all unknown !" The goddess answer'd : "Father, I obey, And point the wandering traveller his way : Well known to me the palace you inquire, For fast beside it dwells my honour'd sire: But silent march, nor greet the common train With question needless, or inquiry vain : 40 A race of rugged mariners are these, Unpolish'd men, and boisterous as their seas; The native islanders alone their care, And hateful he who breathes a foreign air. These did the ruler of the deep ordain To build proud navies, and command the main; On canvas wings to cut the watery way; No bird so light, no thought so swift as they." Thus having spoke, the unknown celestial leads : The footsteps of the deity he treads, 50 And secret moves along the crowded space, Unseen of all the rude Phaeacian race. (So Pallas order'd. Pallas to their eyes The mist objected, and condensed the skies.) The chief with wonder sees the extended streets, The spreading harbours, and the riding fleets ; He next their princes' lofty domes admires, In separate islands, crown'd with rising spires; And deep intrenchments, and high walls of stone, That gird the city like a marble zone. 60 At length the kingly palace gates he view'd ; There stopp'd the goddess, and her speech renew'd : " My task is done ; the mansion you inquire Appears before you: enter, and admire. High-throned, and feasting, there thou shalt behold The sceptred rulers. Fear not, but be bold: 112 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK YII. A decent boldness ever meets with friends, Succeeds, and even a stranger recommends. First to the queen prefer a suppliant's claim, Alcinoiis' queen. Arete is her name. 70 The same her parents, and her power the same. For know, from ocean's god Nausithoiis sprung, And Peribaea, beautiful and young (Eurymedon's last hope, who ruled of old The race of giants, impious, proud, and bold: Perish'd the nation in unrighteous war, Perish'd the prince, and left this only heir), Who now, by Neptune's amorous power compress'd, Produced a monarch that his people bless'd, Father and prince of the Phseacian name ; 80 From him Rhexenor and Alcinoiis came. 1 The first by Phoebus' burning arrows fired, New from his nuptials, hapless youth! expired. No son survived ; Arete heir'd his state, And her, Alcinoiis chose his royal mate. With honours yet to womankind unknown, This queen he graces, and divides the throne : In equal tenderness her sons conspire, And all the children emulate their sire. When through the street she gracious deigns to move 90 (The public wonder and the public love), The tongues of all with transport sound her praise, The eyes of all, as on a goddess, gaze. She feels the triumph of a generous breast : To heal divisions, to relieve the oppress'd; In virtue rich; in blessing others, bless'd. Go then secure, thy humble suit prefer, And owe thy country and thy friends to her." With that the goddess deign'd no longer stay, But o'er the world of waters wing'd her way : 100 Forsaking Scheria's ever-pleasing shore, The winds to Marathon the virgin bore : Thence, where proud Athens rears her towery head, 2 With opening streets and shining structures spread, 1 The names "Ehexenor" (man-breaker) , and " Alcinoiis" (mind-strong) are evidently antithetical. Colonel Mure looks upon the latter name as conveying a latent sarcasm. 2 Athens. I need scarcely remind my readers that this was emphatically the city of Pallas. BOOK vii.] THE ODYSSEY. 113 She pass'd, delighted with the well-known seats; And to Erectheus' sacred dome retreats. Meanwhile Ulysses at the palace waits, There stops, and anxious with his soul debates, Fix'd in amaze before the royal gates. The front appear'd with radiant splendours gay, 110 Bright as the lamp of night, or orb of day, The walls were massy brass : the cornice high Blue metals crown'd in colours of the sky ; Rich plates of gold the folding doors incase ; The pillars silver, on a brazen base ; Silver the lintels deep-projecting o'er, And gold the ringlets that command the door. Two rows of stately dogs, on either hand, In sculptured gold and labour'd silver stand. These Vulcan form'd with art divine, to wait 120 Immortal guardians at Alcinoiis' gate ; Alive each animated frame appears, And still to live beyond the power of years. Fair thrones within from space to space were raised, Where various carpets with embroidery blazed, The work of matrons : these the princes press'd, Day following day, a long continued feast. Refulgent pedestals the walls surround, Which boys of gold with flaming torches crown'd ; The polish'd ore, reflecting every ray, 130 Blazed on the banquets with a double day. Full fifty handmaids form the household train ; Some turn the mill, or sift the golden grain ; Some ply the loom; their busy fingers move Like poplar-leaves when Zephyr fans the grove. Not more renown'd the men of Scheria's isle. For sailing arts and all the naval toil, Than works of female skill their women's pride, The flying shuttle through the threads to guide: Pallas to these her double gifts imparts, 140 Inventive genius, and industrious arts. Close to the gates a spacious garden lies, From storms defended and inclement skies. Four acres was the allotted space of ground, Fenced with a green enclosure all around. Tall thriving trees confess'd the fruitful mould : The reddening apple ripens here to gold. 114 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK YII. Here the blue fig -with luscious juice o'erflows, With deeper red the full pomegranate glows: The hranch here hends beneath the weighty pear, 150 And verdant olives flourish round the year. The balmy spirit of the western gale Eternal breathes on fruits, untaught to fail : Each dropping pear a folio-wing pear supplies, On apples apples, figs on figs arise : The same mild season gives the blooms to blow, The buds to harden, and the fruits to grow. Here order'd vines in equal ranks appear, With all the united labours of the year ; Some to unload the fertile branches run, 160 Some dry the blackening clusters in the sun, Others to tread the liquid harvest join ; The groaning presses foam with floods of wine. Here are the vines in early flower descried, Here grapes discolour'd on the sunny side, And there in autumn's richest purple dyed. Beds of all various herbs, for ever green, In beauteous order terminate the scene. Two plenteous fountains the whole prospect crown'd : This through the gardens leads its streams around, 170 Visits each plant, and waters all the ground; While that in pipes beneath the palace flows, And thence its current on the town bestows : To various use their various streams they bring, The people one, and one supplies the king. Such were the glories which the gods ordain'd, To grace Alcinoiis, and his happy land. E'en from the chief whom men and nations knew, The unwonted scene surprise and rapture drew ; In pleasing thought he ran the prospect o'er, 180 Then hasty enter'd at the lofty door. Night now approaching, in the palace stand, With goblets crown'd, the rulers of the land ; Prepared for rest, and offering to the god 3 Who bears the virtue of the sleepy rod. Unseen he glided through the joyous crowd, With darkness circled, and an ambient cloud. Direct to great Alcinoiis' throne he came, And prostrate fell before the imperial dame. 3 Mercury. BOOK VII.] THE ODYSSEY. Then from around him dropp'd the veil of night; Sudden he shines, and manifest to sight. The nobles gaze, with awful fear oppress'd; Silent they gaze, and eye the godlike guest, 115 190 ULYSSES ON THE HEARTH PRESENTING HIMSELF TO ALCINOUS AND ARETE. " Daughter of great Rhexenor ! (thus began, Low at her knees, the much-enduring man) To thee, thy consort, and this royal train, To all that share the blessings of your reign, A suppliant bends : oh pity human woe ! 'Tis what the happy to the unhappy owe. A wretched exile to his country send, 200 Long worn with griefs, and long without a friend. So may the gods your better days increase, And all your joys descend on all your race; So reign for ever on your country's breast, Your people blessing, by your people bless'd ! " Then to the genial hearth he bow'd his face, And humbled in the ashes took his place. Silence ensued. The eldest first began, Echeneus sage, a venerable man ! Whose well-taught mind the present, age surpass'd, 210 And join'd to that the experience of the last. Fit words attended on his weighty sense, And mild persuasion flow'd in eloquence. 116 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK YII. "Oh sight (he cried) dishonest and unjust! A guest, a stranger, seated in the dust! To raise the lowly suppliant from the ground Befits a monarch. Lo! the peers around But wait thy -word, the gentle guest to grace, And seat him fair in some distinguished place. Let first the herald due libation pay 220 To Jove, who guides the wanderer on his way ; Then set the genial banquet in his view, And give the stranger-guest a stranger's due." His sage advice the listening king obeys, He stretch'd his hand the prudent chief to raise, And from his seat Laodamas removed (The monarch's offspring, and his best-beloved) ; There next his side the godlike hero sate ; With stars of silver shone the bed of state. The golden ewer a beauteous handmaid brings, 230 Replenish'd from the cool translucent springs, Whose polish'd vase with copious streams supplies A silver laver of capacious size. The table next in regal order spread, The glittering canisters are heap'd with bread: Viands of various kinds invite the taste, Of choicest sort and savour, rich repast! Thus feasting high, Alcinous gave the sign, And bade the herald pour the rosy wine: " Let all around the due libation pay 240 To Jove, who guides the wanderer on his way." He said. Pontonous heard the king's command ; The circling goblet moves from hand to hand ; Each drinks the juice that glads the heart of man. Alcinous then, with aspect mild, began: " Princes and peers, attend ; while we impart To you the thoughts of no inhuman heart. Now pleased and satiate from the social rite Repair we to the blessings of the night ; But with the rising day, assembled here, 250 Let all the elders of the land appear, Pious observe our hospitable laws, And Heaven propitiate in the stranger's cause; Then join'd in council, proper means explore Safe to transport him to the wished-for shore (How distant that, imports us not to know, Nor weigh the labour, but relieve the woe). BOOK vii.] THE ODYSSEY. 117 Meantime, nor harm nor anguish let him bear: This interval, Heaven trusts him to our care ; But to his native land our charge resign'd, 260 Heaven's is his life to come, and all the woes behind. Then must he suffer what the Fates ordain ; For Fate has wove the thread of life with pain ! And twins, e'en from the birth, are Misery and Man ! But if, descended from the Olympian bower, Gracious approach us some immortal power; If in that form thou comest a guest divine : Some high event the conscious gods design. As yet, unbid they never graced our feast, The solemn sacrifice call'd down the guest ; 270 Then manifest of Heaven the vision stood, And to our eyes familiar was the god. Oft with some favour'd traveller they stray, And shine before him all the desert way ; With social intercourse, and face to face, The friends and guardians of our pious race. So near approach we their celestial kind, By justice, truth, and probity of mind ; As our dire neighbours of Cyclopean birth Match in fierce wrong the giant-sons of earth." 280 " Let no such thought (with modest grace rejoin'd The prudent Greek) possess the royal mind. Alas! a mortal, like thyself, am I; No glorious native of yon azure sky : In form, ah how unlike their heavenly kind ! How more inferior in the gifts of mind ! Alas, a mortal ! most oppress'd of those Whom Fate has loaded with a weight of woes ; By a sad train of miseries alone Distinguish 'd long, and second now to none ! 290 By Heaven's high will compell'd from shore to shore ; With Heaven's high will prepared to suffer more. What histories of toil could I declare ! But still long- wearied nature wants repair ; Spent with fatigue, and shrunk with pining fast, My craving bowels still require repast. Howe'er the noble, suffering mind, may grieve Its load of anguish, and disdain to live, Necessity demands our daily bread; Hunger is insolent, and will be fed. 300 118 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK vn. But finish, oh ye peers ! what you propose, And let the morrow's dawn conclude my woes. Pleased will I suffer all the gods ordain, To see my soil, my son, my friends again. That view vouchsafed, let instant death surprise With ever-during shade these happy eyes!" The assembled peers with general praise approved His pleaded reason, and the suit he moved. Each drinks a full oblivion of his cares, And to the gifts of balmy sleep repairs. 310 Ulysses in the regal walls alone Remain'd: beside him, on a splendid throne, Divine Arete and Alcinoiis shone. The queen, on nearer view, the guest survey'd, Robed in the garments her own hands had made, Not without wonder seen. Then thus began, Her words addressing to the godlike man: " Camest thou not hither, wondrous stranger ! say, From lands remote, and o'er a length of sea? Tell then, whence art thou ? whence that princely air ? 320 And robes like these, so recent and so fair?" " Hard is the task, O princess ! you impose (Thus sighing spoke the man of many woes), The long, the mournful series to relate Of all my sorrows sent by Heaven and Fate ! Yet what you ask, attend. An island lies Beyond these tracts, and under other skies, Ogygia named, in Ocean's watery arms ; Where dwells Calypso, dreadful in her charms ! Remote from gods or men she holds her reign, 330 Amid the terrors of a rolling main. Me, only me, the hand of fortune bore, Unblest ! to tread that interdicted shore : When Jove tremendous in the sable deeps Launch'd his red lightning at our scatter'd ships ; Then, all my fleet, and all my followers lost, Sole on a plank, on boiling surges toss'd, Heaven drove my wreck the Ogygian isle to find, Full nine days floating to the wave and wind. Met by the goddess there with open arms, 340 She bribed my stay with more than human charms; Xay, promised, vainly promised, to bestow Immortal life, exempt from age and woe; BOOK VIL] THE ODYSSEY. 119 But all her blandishments successless prove, To banish from my breast my country's love. I stay reluctant seven continued years, And water her ambrosial couch with tears, The eighth she voluntary moves to part, Or urged by Jove, or her own changeful heart. A raft was form'd to cross the surging sea; 350 Herself supplied the stores and rich array, And gave the gales to waft me on the way. In seventeen days appear'd your pleasing coast, And woody mountains half in vapours lost. Joy touch'd my soul : my soul was joy'd in vain, For angry Neptune roused the raging main The wild winds whistle, and the billows roar; The splitting raft the furious tempest tore; And storms vindictive intercept the shore. Soon as their rage subsides, the seas I brave 360 With naked force, and shoot along the wave, To reach this isle ; but there my hopes were lost, The surge impell'd me on a craggy coast. I chose the safer sea, and chanced to find A river's mouth impervious to the wind, And clear of rocks. I fainted by the flood ; Then took the shelter of the neighbouring wood. 'Twas night, and, cover'd in the foliage deep, Jove plunged my senses in the death of sleep. All night I slept, oblivious of my pain : 370 Aurora dawn'd and Phoebus shined in vain, Nor, till oblique he sloped his evening ray. Had Somnus dried the balmy dews away. Then female voices from the shore I heard: A maid amidst them, goddess-like, appear'd ; To her I sued, she pitied my distress; Like thee in beauty, nor in virtue less. 120 THE 'ODYSSEY. [BOOK vii. Who from such youth could hope considerate care ? In youth and beauty wisdom is but rare ! She gave me life, relieved with just supplies 380 My wants, and lent these robes that strike your eyes. This is the truth : and oh, ye powers on high ! Forbid that want should sink me to a lie." To this the king : " Our daughter but expressed Her cares imperfect to our godlike guest. Suppliant to her, since first he chose to pray, Why not herself did she conduct the way, And with her handmaids to our court convey ?" "Hero and king (Ulysses thus replied) Nor blame her faultless, nor suspect of pride : 390 She bade me follow in the attendant train ; But fear and reverence did my steps detain, Lest rash suspicion might alarm thy mind : Man 's of a jealous and mistaken kind." " Far from my soul (he cried) the gods efface All wrath ill-grounded, and suspicion base! Whate'er is honest, stranger, I approve, And would to Phoebus, Pallas, and to Jove, Such as thou art, thy thought and mine were one, Nor thou unwilling to be call'd my son. 400 In such alliance could'st thou wish to join, A palace stored with treasures should be thine. But if reluctant, who shall force thy stay? Jove bids to set the stranger on his way, And ships shall wait thee with the morning ray. Till then, let slumber cross thy careful eyes: The wakeful mariners shall watch the skies, And seize the moment when the breezes rise : Then gently waft thee to the pleasing shore, Where thy soul rests, and labour is no more. 410 Far as Euboea though thy country lay, Our ships with ease transport thee in a day. Thither of old, earth's giant son 4 to view, On wings of winds with Rhadamanth they flew ; This land, from whence their morning course begun, Saw them returning with the setting sun. Your eyes shall witness and confirm my tale, Our youth how dexterous and how fleet our sail, Tityus. BOOK VII.] THE ODYSSEY. When justly timed with equal sweep they row, And ocean whitens in long tracks below." Thus he. No word the experienced man replies, But thus to heaven (and heavenward lifts his eyes) " O Jove ! O father ! what the king accords Do thou make perfect ! sacred be his words ! Wide o'er the world Alcinoiis' glory shine ! Let fame be his, and ah! my country mine!" Meantime Arete, for the hour of rest, Ordains the fleecy couch, and covering vest; Bids her fair train the purple quilts prepare, And the thick carpets spread with busy care. With torches blazing in their hands they pass'd, And finish'd all their queen's command with haste : Then gave the signal to the willing guest : He rose with pleasure, and retired to rest. There, soft extended, to the murmuring sound Of the high porch, Ulysses sleeps profound ! Within, released from cares, Alcinoiis lies ; And fast beside were closed Arete's eyes. 121 420 430 BOWS AND QUIVERS. BOOK VIII. ARGUMENT. Alcinoiis calls a council, in which it is resolved to transport Ulysses into his country. After which, splendid entertainments are made, where the cele- brated musician and poet, Demodocus, plays and sings to the guests. They next proceed to the games, the race, the wrestling, discus, &c., where Ulysses casts a prodigious length, to the admiration of all the spectators. They return again to the banquet, and Demodocus sings the loves of Mars and Venus. Ulysses, after a compliment to the poet, desires him to sing the introduction of the wooden horse into Troy, which subject provoking his tears, Alcinous inquires of his guest his name, parentage, and fortunes. \TOW fair Aurora lifts her golden ray, ^ And all the ruddy orient flames with day : Alcinous, and the chief, with dawning light, Rose instant from the slumbers of the night ; Then to the council-seat they bend their way, And fill the shining thrones along the bay. Meanwhile Minerva, in her guardian care, Shoots from the starry vault through fields of air ; In form, a herald of the king, she flies From peer to peer, and thus incessant cries : 10 "Nobles and chiefs who rule Phseacia's states, The king in council your attendance waits ; A prince of grace divine your aid implores, O'er unknown seas arrived from unknown shores." She spoke, and sudden with tumultuous sounds Of thronging multitudes the shore rebounds : At once the seats they fill ; and every eye Gazed, as before some brother of the sky. Pallas with grace divine his form improves, More high he treads, and more enlarged he moves: 20 She sheds celestial bloom, regard to draw; And gives a dignity of mien, to awe; With strength, the future prize of fame to play, And gather all the honours of the day. BOOK viii.] THE ODYSSEY. 123 Then from his glittering throne Alcinoiis rose "Attend (he cried) while we our will disclose. Your present aid this godlike stranger craves, Toss'd hy rude tempest through a war of waves ; Perhaps from realms that view the rising day, Or nations subject to the western ray. 30 Then grant, what here all sons of woe obtain (For here affliction never pleads in vain) : Be chosen youths prepared, expert to try The vast profound, and bid the vessel fly: Launch the tall bark, and order every oar ; Then in our court indulge the genial hour. Instant, you sailors to this task attend ; Swift to the palace, all ye peers, ascend; Let none to strangers honours due disclaim : Be there Demodocus, the bard of fame, 1 40 Taught by the gods to please, when high he sings The vocal lay, responsive to the strings." Thus spoke the prince : the attending peers obey ; In state they move ; Alcinoiis leads the way : Swift to Demodocus the herald flies, At once the sailors to their charge arise : They launch the vessel, and unfurl the sails, And stretch the swelling canvas to the gales; Then to the palace move : a gathering throng, Youth, and white age, tumultuous pour along. 50 Now all accesses to the dome are fill'd ; Eight boars, the choicest of the herd, are kill'd; 1 Demodocus. Of the early bards of Greece Heeren elegantly observes : " The gift of song came to them from the gods ; it is the muse or Jove himself who inspires them, and teaches them what they should sing. As this idea continually recurs, it is probable that their poetical effusions were often extemporaneous : at least this seems in many cases hardly to admit of a doubt. Ulysses proposes to Demodocus the subject of his song ; and the bard, like the modern improvisatori, commences his strains under the influ- ence of the sudden inspiration. We would by no means be understood to assert, that there were none but extemporaneous productions. Certain songs very naturally became favourites, and were kept alive in the mouths of the poets ; whilst an infinite number, which were but the offspilng of the moment, died away at their birth. But an abundance of songs was needed, a variety vras required, and the charm of novelty even then enforced its claims. " ' For novel lays attract our ravish'd ears ; But old, the mind with inattention hears.' " Heeren's Greece, p. 93, seq. 124 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK vin. Two beeves, twelve fallings, from the flock they bring To crown the feast; so wills the bounteous king. The herald now arrives, and guides along The sacred master of celestial song ; Dear to the Muse! who gave his days to flow With mighty blessings, mix'd with mighty woe ; With clouds of darkness quench'd his visual ray, But gave him skill to raise the lofty lay. 60 High on a radiant throne sublime in state, Encircled by huge multitudes, he sate : With silver shone the throne : his lyre, well strung To rapturous sounds, at hand Pontonous hung : Before his seat a polish'd table shines, And a full goblet foams with generous wines : His food a herald bore : and now they fed ; And now the rage of craving hunger fled. Then, fired by all the Muse, aloud he sings The mighty deeds of demigods and kings : 70 From that fierce wrath the noble song arose, That made Ulysses and Achilles foes : How o'er the feast they doom the fall of Troy : The stern debate Atrides hears with joy : For Heaven foretold the contest, when he trod The marble threshold of the Delphic god, Curious to learn the counsels of the sky, Ere yet he loosed the rage of war on Troy. Touch'd at the song, Ulysses straight resign'd To soft affliction all his manly mind. 80 Before his eyes the purple vest he drew, Industrious to conceal the falling dew : But when the music paused, he ceased to shed The flowing tear, arid raised his drooping head; And, lifting to the gods a goblet crown'd, He pour'd a pure libation to the ground. Transported with the song, the listening train Again with loud applause demand the strain : Again Ulysses veil'd his pensive head, Again unmannd, a shower of sorrows shed ; 90 Conceal'd he wept : the king observed alone The silent tear, and heard the secret groan ; Then to the bard aloud " O cease to sing, Dumb be thy voice and mute the harmonious string; Enough the feast has pleased, enough the power Of heavenly song has crown'd the genial hour ! BOOK -VIIL] THE ODYSSEY. 125 Incessant in the games your strength display, 3 Contest, ye brave, the honours of the day ! That pleased the admiring stranger may proclaim In distant regions the Phaeacian fame : 100 None wield the gauntlet with so dire a sway, Or swifter in the race devour the way; None in the leap spring with so strong a bound, Or firmer, in the wrestling, press the ground." Thus spoke the king ; the attending peers obey ; In state they move, Alcinoiis leads the way : His golden lyre Demodocus unstrung, High on a column in the palace hung; And guided by a herald's guardian cares, Majestic to the lists of Fame repairs. 110 Now swarms the populace : a countless throng, Youth and hoar age ; and man drives man along. The games begin : ambitious of the prize, Acroneus, Thoon, and Eretmeus rise ; The prize Ocyalus and Prymneus claim, Anchialus and Ponteus, chiefs of fame. There Proreus, Nautes, Eratreus, appear, And famed Amphialus, Polyneus' heir; Euryalus, like Mars terrific, rose, When clad in wrath he withers hosts of foes ; 120 Naubolides with grace unequall'd shone, Or equall'd by Laodamas alone. "With these came forth Ambasineus the strong : And three brave sons, from great Alcinoiis sprung. Ranged in a line the ready racers stand, Start from the goal, and vanish o'er the strand : Swift as on wings of winds, upborne they fly, And drifts of rising dust involve the sky. Before the rest, what space the hinds allow Between the mule and ox, from plough to plough, 130 Clytonius sprung : he wing'd the rapid way, And bore the unrivall'd honours of the day. With fierce embrace the brawny wrestlers join ; The conquest, great Euryalus, is thine. Amphialus sprung forward with a bound, Superior in the leap, a length of ground. 2 The games. The remarks made on the Iliad, in illustration of the funeral games celebrated in honour of Patroclus, will be found of some use in reading the present passage. 126 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK vm. From Elatreus' strong arm the discus flies, And sings with unmatched force along the skies. And Laodam whirls high, with dreadful sway, The gloves of death, victorious in the fray. 140 While thus the peerage in the games contends, In act to speak, Laodamas ascends. " O friends (he cries), the stranger seems well skill'd To try the illustrious labours of the field : I deem him brave : then grant the brave man's claim, Invite the hero to his share of fame. "What nervous arms he boasts! how firm his tread! His limbs how turn'd! how broad his shoulders spread! By age unbroke ! but all-consuming care Destroys perhaps the strength that time would spare : 150 Dire is the ocean, dread in all its forms ! Man must decay when man contends with storms." " Well hast thou spoke (Euryalus replies) : Thine is the guest, invite him thou to rise." Swift at the word, advancing from the crowd, He made obeisance, and thus spoke aloud : " Vouchsafes the reverend stranger to display His manly worth, and share the glorious day ? Father, arise ! for thee thy port proclaims Expert to conquer in the solemn games. 160 To fame arise ! for what more fame can yield Than the swift race, or conflict of the fie*ld ? Steal from corroding care one transient day, To glory give the space thou hast to stay; Short is the time, and lo ! e'en now the gales Call thee aboard, and stretch the swelling sails." To whom with sighs Ulysses gave reply: " Ah why the ill-suiting pastime must I try ? To gloomy care my thoughts alone are free; 111 the gay sports with troubled hearts agree : 170 Sad from my natal hour my days have ran, A much-afflicted, much-enduring man ! Who, suppliant to the king and peers, implores A speedy voyage to his native shores." " Wide wanders, Laodam, thy erring tongue, The sports of glory to the brave belong (Retorts Euryalus) : he boasts no claim Among the great, unlike the sons of Fame. A wandering merchant he frequents the main; Some mean seafarer in pursuit of gain ; 180 BOOK VIIL] THE ODYSSEY. 127 Studious of freight, in naval trade well skilPd, But dreads the athletic labours of the field." Incensed, Ulysses with a frown replies : " O forward to proclaim thy soul unwise ! With partial hands the gods their gifts dispense : Some greatly think, some speak with manly sense; Here Heaven an elegance of form denies, But wisdom the defect of form supplies : This man with energy of thought controls, And steals with modest violence our souls ; 190 He speaks reservedly, but he speaks with force, Nor can one word be changed but for a worse ; In public more than mortal he appears, And, as he moves, the gazing crowd reveres : While others, beauteous as the ethereal kind, The nobler portion want, a knowing mind. In outward show Heaven gives thee to excel, But Heaven denies the praise of thinking well. Ill bear the brave a rude ungovern'd tongue, And, youth, my generous soul resents the wrong : 200 Skill'd in heroic exercise, I claim A post of honour with the sons of Fame. Such was my boast while vigour crown'd my days, Now care surrounds me, and my force decays ; Inured a melancholy part to bear, In scenes of death, by tempest and by war. Yet thus by woes impair'd, no more I waive To prove the hero slander stings the brave." Then, striding forward with a furious bound, He wrench'd a rocky fragment from the ground, 210 By far more ponderous, and more huge by far, Than what Phaeacia's sons discharged in air. Fierce from his arm the enormous load he flings; Sonorous through the shaded air it sings ; Couch'd to the earth, tempestuous as it flies, The crowd gaze upward while it cleaves the skies. Beyond all marks, with many a giddy round Down-rushing, it up-turns a hill of ground. That instant Pallas, bursting from a cloud, Fix'd a distinguish'd mark, and cried aloud : 220 "E'en he who, sightless, wants his visual ray May by his touch alone award the day : Thy signal throw transcends the utmost bound Of every champion by a length of ground : 128 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK vm. Securely bid the strongest of the train Arise to throw ; the strongest throws in vain." She spoke : and momentary mounts the sky : The friendly voice Ulysses hears with joy. Then thus aloud (elate with decent pride) : " Rise, ye Phseacians, try your force (he cried) : 230 If with this throw the strongest caster vie, Still, further still, I bid the discus fly. Stand forth, ye champions, who the gauntlet wield, Or ye, the swiftest racers of the field! Stand forth, ye wrestlers, who these pastimes grace ! I wield the gauntlet, and I run the race. In such heroic games I yield to none, Or yield to brave Laodamas alone : Shall I with brave Laodamas contend? A friend is sacred, and I style him friend. 240 Ungenerous were the man, and base of heart, Who takes the kind, and pays the ungrateful part : Chiefly the man, in foreign realms confined, Base to his friend, to his own interest blind : All, all your heroes I this day defy; Give me a man that we our might may try. Expert in every art, I boast the skill To give the feather d arrow wings to kill; Should a whole host at once discharge the bow, My well-aim'd shaft with death prevents the foe : 250 Alone superior in the field of Troy, Great Philoctetes taught the shaft to fly. From all the sons of earth unrivalTd praise I justly claim ; but yield to better days, To those famed days when great Alcides rose, And Eurytus, who bade the gods be foes (Vain Eurytus, whose art became his crime, 5 Swept from the earth, he perish'd in his prime ; Sudden the irremeable way he trod, Who boldly durst defy the bowyer god). 260 In fighting fields as far the spear I throw As flies an arrow from the well-drawn bow. Sole in the race the contest I decline, Stiff are my weary joints, and I resign ; 3 Vain Eurytus. He was king of (Echaha, and defied even Plercules to shoot with a more certain aim than himself, offering his daughter as the prize of victory. Hercules proved successful. BOOKVIIL] THE ODYSSEY. 129 By storms and hunger worn : age well may fail, When storms and hunger both at once assail." Abash'd, the numbers hear the godlike man, Till great Alcinoiis mildly thus began : " Well hast thou spoke, and well thy generous tongue With decent pride refutes a public wrong : 270 Warm are thy words, but warm without offence; Fear only fools, secure in men of sense ; Thy worth is known. Then hear our country's claim, And bear to heroes our heroic fame : In distant realms our glorious deeds display, Repeat them frequent in the genial day; When, blest with ease, thy woes and wanderings end, Teach them thy consort, bid thy sons attend; How loved of Jove, he crown'd our sires with praise, How we their offspring dignify our race. 280 "Let other realms the deathful gauntlet wield, Or boast the glories of the athletic field; We in the course unrivall'd speed display, Or through cerulean billows plough the way; To dress, to dance, to sing, our sole delight, The feast or bath by day, and love by night: Rise, then, ye skill'd in measures ; let him bear Your fame to men that breathe a distant air; And faithful say, to you the powers belong To race, to sail, to dance, to chant the song. 290 " But, herald, to the palace swift repair, And the soft lyre to grace our pastimes bear." APOLLO AND DIANA. Swift at the word, obedient to the king, The lierald flies the tuneful lyre to bring. Up rose nine seniors, chosen to survey The future games, the judges of the day. With instant care they mark a spacious round, And level for the dance the allotted ground: The herald bears the lyre ; intent to play, The bard advancing meditates the lay. 300 130 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK vm. Skill'd in the dance, tall youths, a blooming band, Graceful before the heavenly minstrel stand : Light-bounding from the earth, at once they rise, Their feet half- viewless quiver in the skies : Ulysses gazed, astonish'd to survey The glancing splendours as their sandals play. Meantime the bard, alternate to the strings, The loves of Mars and Cytherea sings; 4 How the stern god, enamour'd with her charms, Clasp'd the gay panting goddess in his arms, 310 By bribes seduced; and how the sun, whose eye Views the broad heavens, disclosed the lawless joy. Stung to the soul, indignant through the skies To his black forge vindictive Vulcan flies : Arrived, his sinewy arms incessant place The eternal anvil on the massy base. A wondrous net he labours, to betray The wanton lovers, as entwined they lay, Indissolubly strong! Then instant bears To his immortal dome the finish'd snares: 320 Above, below, around, with art dispread, The sure inclosure folds the genial bed: Whose texture even the search of gods deceives, Thin as the filmy threads the spider weaves. Then, as withdrawing from the starry bowers, He feigns a journey to the Lemnian shores, His favourite isle : observant Mars descries His wish'd recess, and to the goddess flies ; He glows, he burns, the fair-hair'd queen of love Descends, smooth gliding from the courts of Jove, 330 Gay blooming in full charms : her hand he press'd With eager joy, and with a sigh address'd : " Come, my beloved ! and taste the soft delights : Come, to repose the genial bed invites : Thy absent spouse, neglectful of thy charms, Prefers his barbarous Sintians to thy arms ! " 5 Then, nothing loth, the enamour'd fair he led, And sunk transported on the conscious bed. Down rush'd the toils, inwrapping as they lay The careless lovers in their wanton play : 340 4 Cytherea, Venus. 5 For an account of the Sintians, see notes ou the first book of the Iliad, published in this series, vol. i. p. 99. BOOK viii.] THE ODYSSEY. J31 In vain they strive ; the entangling snares deny (Inextricably firm) the power to fly. Warn'd by the god who sheds the golden day, Stern Vulcan homeward treads the starry way: Arrived, he sees, he grieves, with rage he burns: Full horribly he roars, his voice all heaven returns. " O Jove, (he cried) O all ye powers above, See the lewd dalliance of the queen of love ! Me, awkward me, she scorns; and yields her charms To that fair lecher, the strong god of arms. 350 If I am lame, that stain my natal hour By fate imposed; such me my parent bore. Why was I born ? See how the wanton lies ! Oh sight tormenting to a husband's eyes ! But yet, I trust, this once e'en Mars would fly His fair-one's arms. he thinks her, once, too nigh. But there remain, ye guilty, in my power, Till Jove refunds his shameless daughter's dower. Too dear I prized a fair enchanting face : Beauty unchaste is beauty in disgrace." 360 Meanwhile the gods the dome of Vulcan throng ; Apollo comes, and Neptune comes along; With these gay Hermes trod the starry plain; But modesty withheld the goddess train. All heaven beholds, imprison'd as they lie, And unextinguish'd laughter shakes the sky. Then mutual, thus they spoke : " Behold on wrong Swift vengeance waits ; and art subdues the strong ! Dwells there a god on all the Olympian brow More swift than Mars, and more than Vulcan slow? 370 Yet Vulcan conquers, and the god of arms Must pay the penalty for lawless charms." Thus serious they ; but he who gilds the skies, The gay Apollo, thus to Hermes cries: " Would 'st thou enchain'd like Mars, O Hermes, lie, And bear the shame like Mars to share the joy ? " " O envied shame ! (the smiling youth rejoin'd ;) Add thrice the chains, and thrice more firmly bind ; Gaze all ye gods, and every goddess gaze, Yet eager would I bless the sweet disgrace." 380 Loud laugh the rest, e'en Neptune laughs aloud, Yet sues importunate to loose the god : " And free, (he cries) O Vulcan ! free from shame Thy captives; I ensure the penal claim." 132 . THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK vm. " Will Neptune (Vulcan then) the faithless trust ? He suffers who gives surety for the unjust : But say, if that lewd scandal of the sky, To liberty restored, perfidious fly ; Say, wilt thou bear the mulct?" He instant cries, " The mulct I bear, if Mars perfidious flies." 390 To whom appeased : " No more I urge delay ; When Neptune sues, my part is to obey." Then to the snares his force the god applies ; They burst ; and Mars to Thrace indignant flies : To the soft Cyprian shores the goddess moves, To visit Paphos and her blooming groves, Where to the Power an hundred altars rise, And breathing odours scent the balmy skies; Concealed she bathes in consecrated bowers, The Graces unguents shed, ambrosial showers, 400 Unguents that charm the gods ! she last assumes Her wondrous robes ; and full the goddess blooms. Thus sung the bard: Ulysses hears with joy, And loud applauses rend the vaulted sky. Then to the sports his sons the king commands, Each blooming youth before the monarch stands, In dance unmatch'd! A wondrous ball is brought (The work of Polypus, divinely wrought) ; This youth with strength enormous bids it fly, And bending backward whirls it to the sky; 410 His brother, springing with an active bound, At distance intercepts it from the ground. The ball dismissed, in dance they skim the strand, Turn and return, and scarce imprint the sand. The assembly gazes with astonished eyes, And sends in shouts applauses to the skies. Then thus Ulysses : " Happy king, whose name The brightest shines in all the rolls of fame ! In subjects happy ! with surprise I gaze ; Thy praise was just ; their skill transcends thy praise." 420 Pleas'd with his people's fame, the monarch hears, And thus benevolent accosts the peers: " Since wisdom's sacred guidance he pursues, Give to the stranger-guest a stranger's dues : Twelve princes in our realm dominion share, O 'er whom supreme, imperial power I bear : Bring gold, a pledge of love : a talent bring, A vest, a robe, and imitate your king. BOOK vui.] THE ODYSSEY. 133 Be swift to give : that he this night may share The social feast of joy, with joy sincere. 430 And thou, Euryalus, redeem thy wrong; A generous heart repairs a slanderous tongue." The assenting peers, obedient to the king, In haste their heralds send the gifts to bring. Then thus Euryalus : " O prince, whose sway Rules this bless'd realm, repentant I obey ! Be his this sword, whose blade of brass displays A ruddy gleam ; whose hilt a silver blaze ; Whose ivory sheath, inwrought with curious pride, Adds graceful terror to the wearer's side." 440 He said, arid to his hand the sword consign'd : " And if (he cried) my words affect thy mind, Far from thy mind those words, ye whirlwinds, bear, And scatter them, ye storms, in empty air ! Crown, O ye heavens, with joy his peaceful hours, And grant him to his spouse, and native shores ! " " And blest be thou, my friend, (Ulysses cries.) Crown him with every joy, ye favouring skies ! To thy calm hours continued peace afford, And never, never may'st thou want this sword." 450 He said, and o'er his shoulder flung the blade. Now o'er the earth ascends the evening shade : The precious gifts the illustrious heralds bear, And to the court the embodied peers repair. Before the queen Alcinoiis' sons unfold The vests, the robes, and heaps of shining gold ; Then to the radiant thrones they move in state : Aloft, the king in pomp imperial sate. Thence to the queen : " O partner of our reign, O sole beloved ! command thy menial train 460 A polish'd chest and stately robes to bear, And healing waters for the bath prepare; That, bathed, our guest may bid his sorrows cease, Hear the sweet song, and taste the feast in peace. A bowl that flames with gold, of wondrous frame, Ourself we give, memorial of our name ; To raise in offerings to almighty Jove, And every god that treads the courts above." Instant the queen, observant of the king, Commands her train a spacious vase to bring, ' 470 The spacious vase with ample streams suffice, Heap the high wood, and bid the flames arise. 134 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK vm. The flames climb round it with a fierce embrace, The fuming waters bubble o'er the blaze. Herself the chest prepares: in order roll'd The robes, the vests are ranged, and heaps of gold : And adding a rich dress inwrought with art, A gift expressive of her bounteous heart. Thus spoke to Ithacus : " To guard with bands Insolvable these gifts, thy care demands; 480 Lest, in thy slumbers on the watery main, The hand of rapine make our bounty vain." Then bending with full force around he roll'd A labyrinth of bands in fold on fold, Closed with Circaean art. A train attends Around the bath : the bath the king ascends (Untasted joy, since that disastrous hour, He sail'd ill-fated from Calypso's bower) ; "Where, happy as the gods that range the sky, He feasted every sense with every joy. 490 He bathes ; the damsels, with officious toil, Shed sweets, shed unguents, in a shower of oil : Then o'er his limbs a gorgeous robe he spreads, And to the feast magnificently treads. Full where the dome its shining valves expands, Nausicaa blooming as a goddess stands; With wondering eyes the hero she survey'd, And graceful thus began the royal maid : " Hail, godlike stranger ! and when heaven restores To thy fond wish thy long-expected shores, 500 This ever grateful in remembrance bear: To me thou owest, to me, the vital air." " O royal maid ! (Ulysses straight returns) Whose worth the splendours of thy race adorns, So may dread Jove (whose arm in vengeance forms 6 The writhen bolt, and blackens heaven with storms), Restore me safe, through weary wanderings toss'd, To my dear country's ever-pleasing coast, 6 So may dread Jove. Coleridge, p. 236, remarks that, 4i in the Odyssey the action of Jupiter is faint and partial; he says but little, and directs still less ; once or twice he appears indistinctly, and for a brief space, and at a remote distance from the earth and its aftairs ; and throughout these passages, and indeed throughout the poem, the governing supremacy of Jupiter is less >triking, and the individual personality of the gods less sensible, whilst some- thing of the blissful inactivity of an Epicurean heaven seems to have become the portion of all the fierce and ever-restless divinities of the Iliad." BOOK viii.] THE ODYSSEY. 135 As while the spirit in this bosom glows, To thee, my goddess, I address my vows; 510 My life, thy gift I boast !" He said, and sate Fast by Alcinoiis on a throne of state. Now each partakes the feast, the wine prepares, Portions the food, and each his portion shares. The bard a herald guides ; the gazing throng Pay low obeisance as he moves along : Beneath a sculptured arch he sits enthroned, The peers encircling form an awful round. Then, from the chine, Ulysses carves with art Delicious food, an honorary part: 7 520 " This, let the master of the lyre receive, A pledge of love ! 'tis all a wretch can give. Lives there a man beneath the spacious skies Who sacred honours to the bard denies? The Muse the bard inspires, exalts his mind; The Muse indulgent loves the harmonious kind." The herald to his hand the charge conveys, Not fond of flattery, nor unpleased with praise. When now the rage of hunger was allay'd, Thus to the lyrist wise Ulysses said : 530 " O more than man ! thy soul the Muse inspires, Or Phoebus animates with all his fires: For who, by Phoebus uninform'd, could know The woe of Greece, and sing so well the woe ? Just to the tale, as present at the fray, Or taught the labours of the dreadful day: The song recalls past horrors to my eyes, And bids proud Ilion from her ashes rise. , Once more harmonious strike the sounding string, The Epsean fabric, framed by Pallas, sing: 8 540 How stern Ulysses, furious to destroy, With latent heroes sack'd imperial Troy. If faithful thou record the tale of Fame, The god himself inspires thy breast with flame : And mine shall be the task henceforth to raise In every land thy monument of praise." 7 So in the Iliad we find the chine allotted to Ajax, as the most honourable share of the feast. 8 The Eptsan fabric, that is, the giant horse . made by Epeus. See note on the fourth book. 136 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK vm. Full of the god he raised his lofty strain : How the Greeks rush'd tumultuous to the main ; How hlazing tents illumined half the skies, While from the shores the winged navy flies; 550 How, e'en in Ilion's walls, in deathful bands, Came the stern Greeks by Troy's assisting hands: All Troy up-heaved the steed ; of differing mind, Various the Trojans counsell'd : part consign 'd The monster to the sword, part sentence gave To plunge it headlong in the whelming wave; The unwise award to lodge it in the towers, An offering sacred to the immortal powers : The unwise prevail, they lodge it in the walls, And by the gods' decree proud Ilion falls : 560 Destruction enters in the treacherous wood, And vengeful slaughter, fierce for human blood. He sung the Greeks stern-issuing from the steed, How Ilion burns, how all her fathers bleed; How to thy dome, De'iphobus ! ascends The Spartan king; how Ithacus attends (Horrid as Mars) ; and how with dire alarms He fights subdues, for Pallas strings his arms. Thus, while he sung, Ulysses' griefs renew, Tears bathe his cheeks, and tears the ground bedew: 570 As some fond matron views in mortal fight Her husband falling in his country's right; Frantic through clashing swords she runs, she flies, As ghastly pale he groans, and faints, and dies ; Close to his breast she grovels on the ground, And bathes with floods of tears the gaping wound : She cries, she shrieks : the fierce insulting foe Relentless mocks her violence of woe : To chains condemn'd, as wildly she deplores; A widow, and a slave on foreign shores. 580 So from the sluices of Ulysses' eyes Fast fell the tears, and sighs succeeded sighs : Conceal'd he grieved : the king observed alone The silent tear, and heard the secret groan ; Then to the bard aloud : " O cease to sing, Dumb be thy voice, and mute the tuneful string; To every note his tears responsive flow, And his great heart heaves with tumultuous woe; Thy lay too deeply moves : then cease the lay, And o'er the banquet every heart be gay: 590 BOOK VIII.] THE ODYSSEY. 137 This social right demands : for him the sails, Floating in air, invite the impelling gales: His are the gifts of love : the wise and good Receive the stranger as a brother's blood. ULYSSES WEEPS AT THE SONG OF DEMODOCUS. "But, friend, discover faithful what I crave; Artful concealment ill becomes the brave : Say what thy birth, and what the name you bore, Imposed by parents in the natal hour ? (For from the natal hour distinctive names, One common right, the great and lowly claims :) 600 Say from what city, from what regions toss'd, And what inhabitants those regions boast? So shalt thou instant reach the realm assign'd, In wondrous ships, self-moved, instinct with mind; No helm secures their course, no pilot guides; Like man intelligent, they plough the tides, Conscious of every coast, and every bay, That lies beneath the sun's all-seeing ray ; Though clouds and darkness veil the encumber'd sky, Fearless through darkness and through clouds they fly; 610 Though tempests rage, though rolls the swelling main, The seas may roll, the tempests rage in vain; E'en the stern god that o'er the waves presides, Safe as they pass, and safe repass the tides, 138 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK vin. With fury burns; while careless they convey Promiscuous every guest to every bay. These ears have heard my royal sire disclose A dreadful story, big with future woes ; How Neptune raged, and how, by his command, Firm rooted in a surge a ship should stand 620 A monument of wrath ; how mound on mound Should bury these proud towers beneath the ground. But this the gods may frustrate or fulfil, As suits the purpose of the Eternal "Will. But say through what waste regions hast thou stray'd, AVhat customs noted, and what coasts survey 'd ; Possess'd by wild barbarians fierce in arms, Or men whose bosom tender pity warms ? Say why the fate of Troy awaked thy cares, Why heaved thy bosom, and why flow'd thy tears? 630 Just are the ways of Heaven : from Heaven proceed The woes of man ; Heaven doom'd the Greeks to bleed, A theme of future song ! Say, then, if slain Some dear-loved brother press'd the Phrygian plain ? Or bled some friend, who bore a brother's part, And claim'd by merit, not by blood, the heart?" HECTOR IX CHARIOT. BOOK IX. ARGUMENT. THE ADVENTURES OF THE CICONS, LOTOPHA.GI, AND CYCLOPS. Ulysses begins the relation of his adventures ; how, after the destruction of Troy, he with his companions made an incursion on the Cicons, by whom they were repulsed ; and, meeting with a storm, were driven to the coast of the Lotophagi. From thence they sailed to the land of the Cyclops, whose manners and situation are particularly characterised. The giant Polyphe- mus and his cave described ; the usage Ulysses and his companions met with there ; and, lastly, the method and artifice by which he escaped. THEN" thus Ulysses: "Thou whom first in sway, As first in virtue, these thy realms obey ; How sweet the products of a peaceful reign ! The heaven-taught poet, and enchanting strain ; The well-fill'd palace, the perpetual feast, A land rejoicing, and a people bless'd ! How goodly seems it ever to employ Man's social days in union and in joy ; The plenteous board high-heap'd with cates divine, And o'er the foaming bowl the laughing wine ! 10 " Amid these joys, why seeks thy mind to know The unhappy series of a wanderer's woe? Remembrance sad, whose image to review, Alas! must open all my wounds anew! And oh, what first, what last, shall I relate, Of woes unnumber'd sent by Heaven and Fate ? " Know first the man (though now a wretch distress' d) Who hopes thee, monarch, for his future guest. Behold Ulysses ! no ignoble name, Earth sounds my wisdom, and high heaven my fame. 20 " My native soil is Ithaca the fair, Where high Neritus waves his woods in air; 1 1 High Neritus, that is, far distant, for the sea at a distance seems to rise. 140 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK ix. Dulichium, Same, and Zacynthus crown'd With shady mountains, spread their isles around (These to the north and night's dark regions run, Those to Aurora and the rising sun). Low lies our isle, yet bless'd in fruitful stores; Strong are her sons, though rocky are her shores; And none, ah none so lovely to my sight, Of all the lands that heaven o'erspreads with light 30 In vain Calypso long constrain'd my stay, With sweet, reluctant, amorous delay; With all her charms as vainly Circe strove, And added magic to secure my love. In pomps or joys, the palace or the grot, My country's image never was forgot ; My absent parents rose before my sight, And distant lay contentment and delight. " Hear, then, the woes which mighty Jove ordain'd To wait my passage from the Trojan land. 40 The winds, from Ilion to the Cicons' shore, Beneath cold Ismarus our vessels bore. We boldly landed on the hostile place, And sack'd the city, and destroy'd the race, Their wives made captive, their possessions shared, And every soldier found a like reward. I then advised to fly; not so the rest, Who stay'd to revel, and prolong the feast : The fatted sheep and sable bulls they slay, And bowls flow round, and riot wastes the day. 50 Meantime the Cicons, to their holds retired, Call on the Cicons, with new fury fired; With early morn the gather'd country swarms, And all the continent is bright with arms ; Thick as the budding leaves or rising flowers O'erspread the land, when spring descends in showers : All expert soldiers, skill'd on foot to dare, Or from the bounding courser urge the war. Now fortune changes (so the Fates ordain) ; Our hour was come to taste our share of pain. 60 Close at the ships the bloody fight began, Wounded they wound, and man expires on man. Long as the morning sun increasing bright O'er heaven's pure azure spreads the growing light, Promiscuous death the form of war confounds, Each adverse battle gored with equal wounds ; BOOKIX.] THE ODYSSEY. 141 But when his evening wheels o'erhung the main, 2 Then conquest crown 'd the fierce Ciconian train. Six brave companions from each ship we lost, The rest escape in haste, and quit the coast. 70 With sails outspread we fly the unequal strife, Sad for their loss, but joyful of our life. Yet as we fled, our fellows' rites we paid, And thrice we call'd on each unhappy shade. " Meanwhile the god, whose hand the thunder forms, Drives clouds on clouds, and blackens heaven with storms : Wide o'er the waste the rage of Boreas sweeps, And night rush'd headlong on the shaded deeps. Now here, now there, the giddy ships are borne, And all the rattling shrouds in fragments torn. 80 We furl'd the sail, we plied the labouring oar, Took down our masts, and row'd our ships to shore. Two tedious days and two long nights we lay, O'erwatch'd and batter'd in the naked bay. But the third morning when Aurora brings, We rear the masts, we spread the canvas wings ; Refresh'd, and careless on the deck reclined, We sit, and trust the pilot and the wind. Then to my native country had I sail'd : But, the cape doubled, adverse winds prevail'd. 90 Strong was the tide, which by the northern blast Impell'd, our vessels on Cythera cast. Nine days our fleet the uncertain tempest bore Far in wide ocean, and from sight of shore : The tenth we touch'd, by various errors toss'd, The land of Lotus and the flowery coast. We climb'd the beach, and springs of water found, Then spread our hasty banquet on the ground. Three men were sent, deputed from the crew (A herald one) the dubious coast to view, 100 And learn what habitants possess'd the place. They went, and found a hospitable race: Not prone to ill, nor strange to foreign guest, They eat, they drink, and nature gives the feast : The trees around them all their food produce ; Lotus the name : divine, nectareous juice ! 3 2 His evening wheels. Literally, " when the oxen were loosed from lahour." 8 Lotus. A great difference of opinion has prevailed among the moderns 142 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK ix. (Thence call'd Lotophagi) ; which whoso tastes, Insatiate riots in the sweet repasts, Nor other home, nor other care intends, But quits his house, his country, and his friends. 110 The three we sent, from off the enchanting ground We dragg'd reluctant, and by force we hound : The rest in haste forsook the pleasing shore, Or, the charm tasted, had return'd no more. Now placed in order on their banks, they sweep The sea's smooth face, and cleave the hoary deep: With heavy hearts we labour through the tide, To coasts unknown, and oceans yet untried. " The land of Cyclops first, a savage kind, Nor tamed by manners, nor by laws confined: 120 Untaught to plant, to turn the glebe, and sow, They all their products to free nature owe : The soil, untill'd, a ready harvest yields, With wheat and barley wave the golden fields : Spontaneous wines from weighty clusters pour, And Jove descends in each prolific shower. By these no statutes and no rights are known, No council held, no monarch fills the throne; But high on hills, or airy cliffs, they dwell, Or deep in caves whose entrance leads to hell. 130 Each rules his race, his neighbour not his care, Heedless of others, to his own severe. " Opposed to the Cyclopean coasts, there lay An isle, whose hills their subject fields survey ; as to what the ancients intended by the lotus : the history of it is mixed with fable, from passing through the hands of poets. Of the existence of a fruit growing spontaneously, furnishing the popular food of nations, there is no doubt, as it is mentioned by various authors of credit, and among the rest by Polyb. ap. Athen. 14.65, who appears to have seen it in the country of the Lotophagi. There appear to have been two distinct species of lotus, because Herodotus and Pliny describe a marked difference, the one being an aquatic plant, whose root and seeds were eaten in Egypt, the other the fruit of a shrub on the sandy coast of Libya. Herod., 4. 177, in speaking of the Libyan lotus, says that the fruit is of the size of the mastu, sweet like the date, and a kind of wine is made of it. Pliny, 13. 17, describes two different kinds, the one found near the Syrtes, the other in Egypt: the former he describes from Corn. Nepos as the fruit of a tree, as big as a bean, of a yellow colour, sweet and pleasant to the taste ; the fruit was bruised and made into a kind of paste, and stored up for food ; a kind of wine was made from it, resembling mead, which would not keep many days. BarkW's Lempriere. BOOK ix.] THE ODYSSEY. 143 Its name Lachsea, crown'd with many a grove, Where savage goats through pathless thickets rove : No needy mortals here, with hunger bold, Or wretched hunters through the wintry cold Pursue their flight; but leave them safe to bound From hill to hill, o'er all the desert ground. 140 Nor knows the soil to feed the fleecy care, Or feels the labours of the crooked share ; But uninhabited, untill'd, unsown, It lies, and breeds the bleating goat alone. For there no vessel with vermilion prore, Or bark of traffic, glides from shore to shore ; The rugged race of savages, unskill'd The seas to traverse, or the ships to build, Gaze on the coast, nor cultivate the soil, Unlearn'd in all the industrious arts of toil. 150 Yet here all products and all plants abound, Sprung from the fruitful genius of the ground ; Fields waving high with heavy crops are seen, And vines that flourish in eternal green, Refreshing meads along the murmuring main, And fountains streaming down the fruitful plain. " A port there is, inclosed on either side, Where ships may rest, unanchor'd and untied; Till the glad mariners incline to sail, And the sea whitens with the rising gale. 160 High at the head, from out the cavern'd rock, In living rills a gushing fountain broke : Around it, and above, for ever green, The bushy alders form'd a shady scene ; Hither some favouring god, beyond our thought, Through all-surrounding shade our navy brought; For gloomy niglit descended on the main, Nor glimmer'd Phoebe in the ethereal plain : But all unseen the clouded island lay, And all unseen the surge and rolling sea, 170 Till safe we anchor'd in the shelter'd bay : Our sails we gather'd, cast our cables o'er, And slept secure along the sandy shore. Soon as again the rosy morning shone, Reveal'd the landscape and the scene unknown, With wonder seized, we view the pleasing ground, And walk delighted, and expatiate round. Roused by the woodland nymphs at early dawn, The mountain goats c?.me bounding o'er the lawn : 144 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK ix. In haste our fellows to the ships repair, 180 For arms and weapons of the sylvan war ; Straight in three squadrons all our crew we part, And bend the bow, or wing the- missile dart ; The bounteous gods afford a copious prey, And nine fat goats each vessel bears away : The royal bark had ten. Our ships complete We thus supplied (for twelve were all the fleet). " Here, till the setting sun roll'd down the light, We sat indulging in the genial rite : NOT wines were wanting; those from ample jars 190 We drain'd, the prize of our Ciconian wars. The land of Cyclops lay in prospect near: The voice of goats and bleating flocks we hear, And from their mountains rising smokes appear. Now sunk the sun, and darkness cover'd o'er The face of things : along the sea-beat shore Satiate we slept; but, when the sacred dawn Arising glitter'd o'er the dewy lawn, I call'd my fellows, and these words address'd : ' My dear associates, here indulge your rest ; 200 While, with my single ship, adventurous, I Go forth, the manners of yon men to try ; Whether a race unjust, of barbarous might, Rude and unconscious of a stranger's right ; Or such who harbour pity in their breast, Revere the gods, and succour the distress'd.' "This said, I climb'd my vessel's lofty side; My train obey'd me, and the ship untied. In order seated on their banks, they sweep Neptune's smooth face, and cleave the yielding deep. 210 When to the nearest verge of land we drew, / Fast by the sea a lonely cave we view, High, and with darkening laurels covered o'er; Where sheep and goats lay slumbering round the shore : Near this, a fence of marble from the rock, Brown with o'erarching pine and spreading oak. A giant shepherd here his flock maintains Far from the rest, and solitary reigns, In shelter thick of horrid shade reclined ; And gloomy mischiefs labour in his mind. 220 A form enormous ! far unlike the race Of human birth, in stature, or in face ; BOOK IX.] T HE O D Y S S E Y. H5 As some lone mountain's monstrous growth he stood, Crown'd with rough thickets, and a nodding wood. I left my vessel at the point of land, And close to guard it, gave our crew command : With only twelve, the boldest and the best, I seek the adventure, and forsake the rest. Then took a goatskin fill'd with precious wine, The gift of Maron of Evantheus' line 23(> (The priest of Phoebus at the Ismarian shrine). In sacred shade his honour'd mansion stood Amidst Apollo's consecrated wood; Him, and his house, Heaven moved my mind to save, And costly presents in return he gave; Seven golden talents to perfection wrought, A silver bowl that held a copious draught, And twelve large vessels of unmingled wine, Mellifluous, undecaying, and divine ! Which now, some ages from his race conceal'd, 240 The hoary sire in gratitude reveal'd. Such was the wine : to quench whose fervent steam Scarce twenty measures from the living stream To cool one cup sufficed: the goblet crown'd Breathed aromatic fragrances around. Of this an ample vase we heaved aboard, And brought another with provisions stored. My soul foreboded I should find the bower Of some fell monster, fierce with barbarous power; Some rustic wretch, who lived in Heaven's despite, 250 Contemning laws, and trampling on the right. The cave we found, but vacant all within (His flock the giant tended on the green) : But round the grot we gaze ; and all we view, In order ranged, our admiration drew : The bending shelves with loads of cheeses press'd, The folded flocks each separate from the rest (The larger here, and there the lesser lambs, The new-fallen young here bleating for their dams ; The kid distinguished from the lambkin lies): 260 The cavern echoes with responsive cries. Capacious chargers all around were laid, Full pails, and vessels of the milking trade. With fresh provisions hence our fleet to store My friends advise me, and to quit the shore. 146 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK ix. Or drive a flock of sheep and goats away, Consult our safety, and put off to sea. Their wholesome counsel rashly I declined. Curious to view the man of monstrous kind, And try what social rites a savage lends : 270 Dire rites, alas! and fatal to my friends! " Then first a fire we kindle, and prepare For his return with sacrifice and prayer; The loaden shelves afford us full repast ; We sit expecting. Lo! he comes at last. Near half a forest on his hack he bore. And cast the ponderous burden at the door. It thunder'd as it fell. We trembled then, And sought the deep recesses of the den. Now driven before him through the arching rock, 280 Came tumbling-, heaps on heaps, the unnumber'd flock : Big-udder'd ewes, and goats of female kind (The males were penn'd in outward courts behind) ; Then, heaved on high, a rock's enormous weight To the cave's mouth he roll'd, and closed the gate (Scarce twenty four-wheel'd cars, compart and strong, The massy load could bear, or roll along). He next betakes him to his evening cares, And, sitting down, to milk his flocks prepares ; Of half their udders eases first the dams, 290 Then to the mother's teat submit the lambs; Half the white stream to hardening cheese he press'd, And high in wicker-baskets heap'd : the rest, Reserved in bowls, supplied his nightly feast. His labour done, he fired the pile, that gave A sudden blaze, and lighted all the cave. We stand discover'd by the rising fires ; Askance the giant glares, and thus inquires : " ' What are ye, guests ? on what adventure, say, Thus far ye wander through the watery way? 300 Pirates perhaps, who seek through seas unknown The lives of others, and expose your own ?' " His voice like thunder through the cavern sounds : My bold companions thrilling fear confounds, Appall'd at sight of more than mortal man ! At length, with heart recover'd. I began : " ' From Troy's famed fields, sad wanderers o'er the main, Behold the relics of the Grecian train : BOOK IX.] THE ODYSSEY. 147 Through various seas, by various perils toss'd, And forced by storms, unwilling on your coast ; 310 Far from our destined course and native land, Such was our fate, and such high Jove's command I Nor what we are befits us to disclaim, Atrides' friends (in arms a mighty name), Who taught proud Troy and all her sons to bow j Victors of late, but humble suppliants now ! Low at thy knee thy succour we implore; Respect us, human, and relieve us, poor. At least, some hospitable gift bestow, 'Tis what the happy to the unhappy owe : 320 'Tis what the gods require : those gods revere ; The poor and stranger are their constant care ; To Jove their cause, and their revenge belongs, He wanders with them, and he feels their wrongs.' " ' Fools that ye are (the savage thus replies, His inward fury blazing at his eyes), Or strangers, distant far from our abodes, To bid me reverence or regard the gods. Know then, we Cyclops are a race above 4 Those air-bred people, and their goat-nursed Jove; 330 And learn, our power proceeds with thee and thine, Not as he wills, but as ourselves incline. But answer, the good ship that brought ye o'er, Where lies she anchor'd? near or off the shore?' " Thus he. His meditated fraud I find (Versed in the turns of various human-kind) : And, cautious thus : ' Against a dreadful rock, Fast by your shore the gallant vessel broke. Scarce with these few I 'scaped ; of all my train, 340 Whom angry Neptune, whelm'd beneath the main : The scattered wreck the winds blew back again/ 4 Cyclops. This is unquestionably the most amusing story in the Odyssey, and " Sinbad the Sailor " will suggest a dozen parallels to every reader. It has formed the ground-work of an amusing satiric drama, by Euripides. Colonel Mure observes that " This adventure is still the best extant specimen of political gigantophonia, and the prototype of all or most of those which have since acquired celebrity. It exhibits that happy mixture of the serious and burlesque, the terrible and visible, which constitutes popular romance . The more delicate of its humorous ingredients is the combination, in the character of Polyphemus, with his flocks, milk, butter, and cheese, of the primitive simplicity of pastoral life with the ferocity of the giant 'and cannibal." V. i.p. 399. 148 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK ix. " He answer'd with his deed : his bloody hand Snatch'd two, unhappy ! of my martial band 5 And dash'd like dogs against the stony floor: The pavement swims with brains and mingled gore. Torn limb from limb, he spreads his horrid feast, And fierce devours it like a mountain beast: He sucks the marrow, and the blood he drains, Nor entrails, flesh, nor solid bone remains. 350 We see the death from which we cannot move, And humbled groan beneath the hand of Jove. His ample maw with human carnage fill'd, A milky deluge next the giant swill'd; Then stretch'd in length o'er half the cavern'd rock, Lay senseless, and supine, amidst the flock. To seize the time, and with a sudden wound To fix the slumbering monster to the ground, My soul impels me! and in act I stand To draw the sword; but wisdom held my hand, 360 A deed so rash had finished all our fate, No mortal forces from the lofty gate Could roll the rock. In hopeless grief we lay, And sigh, expecting the return of day. Now did the rosy-fingered morn arise, And shed her sacred light along the skies ; He wakes, he lights the fire, he milks the dams, And to the mother's teats submits the lambs. The task thus finish'd of his morning hours, Two more he snatches, murders, and devours. 370 Then pleased, and whistling, drives his flock before, Removes the rocky mountain from the door, And shuts again : with equal ease disposed, As a light quiver's lid is oped and closed. His giant voice the echoing region fills : His flocks, obedient, spread o'er all the hills. "Thus left behind, even in the last despair I thought, devised, and Pallas heard my prayer. Revenge, and doubt, and caution, work'd my breast; ' But this of many counsels seem'd the best : 380 The monster's club within the cave I spied, A tree of stateliest growth, and yet undried, Green from the wood: of height and bulk so vast, The largest ship might claim it for a mast. This shorten'd of its top, I gave my train A fathom's length, to shape it and to plane; BOOK ix.] THE ODYSSEY. 149 The narrower end I sharpen'd to a spire ; Whose point we harden'd with the force of fire. And hid it in the dust that strew'd the cave, Then to my few companions, bold and brave, 390 Proposed, who first the venturous deed should try, In the broad orbit of his monstrous eye To plunge the brand and twirl the pointed wood, When slumber next should tame the man of blood. Just as I wished, the lots were cast on four : Myself the fifth. We stand and wait the hour. He comes with evening : all his fleecy flock Before him march, and pour into the rock : Not one, or male or female, stayed behind (So fortune chanced, or so some god designed) ; 400 Then heaving high the stone's unwieldy weight, He roll'd it on the cave and closed the gate. First down he sits, to milk the woolly dams, And then permits their udder to the lambs. Next seized two wretches more, and headlong cast, Brain'd on the rock; his second dire repast. I then approach'd him reeking with their gore, And held the brimming goblet foaming o'er ; 1 Cyclop ! since human flesh has been thy feast, Now drain this goblet, potent to digest; 410 Know hence what treasures in our ship we lost, And what rich liquors other climates boast. We to thy shore the precious freight shall bear, If home thou send us and vouchsafe to spare. But oh! thus furious, thirsting thus for gore, The sons of men shall ne'er approach thy shore, And never shalt thou taste this nectar more.' "He heard, he took, and pouring down his throat, Delighted, swill'd the large luxurious draught. ' More ! give me more (he cried) : the boon be thine, 420 Whoe'er thou art that bear'st celestial wine ! Declare thy name : not mortal is this juice, Such as the unbless'd Cyclopeean climes produce (Though sure our vine the largest cluster yields, And Jove's scorn'd thunder serves to drench our fields); -But this descended from the bless'd abodes, A rill of nectar, streaming from the gods.' "He said, and greedy grasped the heady bowl, Thrice drained, and poured the deluge on his soul. 150 THE ODYSSEY. His sense lay covered -with the dozy fume; While thus my fraudful speech I reassume. ' Thy promised boon, O Cyclop ! now I claim, And plead my title; Noman is my name. 5 By that distinguish'd from my tender years, 'Tis what my parents call me, and my peers/ [BOOK rx. 430 ULYSSES GIVING WINE TO POLYPHEMUS. " The giant then : ' Our promised grace receive, The hospitable boon we mean to give : When all thy wretched crew have felt my power, Noman shall be the last I will devour.' " He said : then nodding with the fumes of wine 440 Dropp'd his huge head, and snoring lay supine. His neck obliquely o'er his shoulders hung, Press'd with the weight of sleep that tames the strong: There belch'd the mingled streams of wine and blood, And human flesh, his indigested food. Sudden I stir the embers, and inspire With animating breath the seeds of fire ; Each drooping spirit with bold words repair, And urge my train the dreadful deed to dare. The stake now glow'd beneath the burning bed 450 (Green as it was) and sparkled fiery red, 5 Noman. The original is Utis, that is, in nobody, like Utopia, nowhere. The pun kept up is sufficiently obvious. BOOKIX.] THE ODYSSEY, 151 Then forth the vengeful instrument I bring; With beating hearts my fellows form a ring. Urged by some present god, they swift let fall The pointed torment on his visual ball, Myself above them from a rising ground Guide the sharp stake, and twirl it round and round. As when a shipwright stands his workmen o'er, Who ply the wimble, some huge beam to bore; Urged on all hands, it nimbly spins about, 460 The grain deep-piercing till it scoops it out : In his broad eye so whirls the fiery wood; From the pierced pupil spouts the boiling blood; Singed are his brows; the scorching lids grow black; The jelly bubbles, and the fibres crack. And as when armourers temper in the ford The keen-edged pole-axe, or the shining sword, The red-hot metal hisses in the lake, Thus in his eye-ball hiss'd the plunging stake, He sends a dreadful groan, the rocks around Through all their inmost winding caves resound, 470 Scared we receded. Forth with frantic hand, He tore and dash'd on earth the gory brand: Then calls the Cyclops, all that round him dwell, With voice like thunder, and a direful yell. From all their dens the one-eyed race repair, From rifted rocks, and mountains bleak in air. All haste assembled, at his well-known roar, Inquire the cause, and crowd the cavern door. " What hurts thee, Polypheme ? what strange affright Thus breaks our slumbers, and disturbs the night? 480 Does any mortal, in the unguarded hour Of sleep, oppress thee, or by fraud or power? Or thieves insidious thy fair flock surprise?' Thus they : the Cyclop from his den replies : " ' Friends, Noman kills me ; Noman, in the hour Of sleep, oppresses me with fraudful power.' * If no man hurt thee, but the hand divine Inflict disease, it fits thee to resign: To Jove or to thy father Neptune pray,' The brethren cried, and instant strode away. 490 " Joy touch'd my secret soul and conscious heart, Pleased with the effect of conduct and of art. Meantime the Cyclop, raging with his wound, Spreads his wide arms, and searches round and round : 152 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK ix. At last, the stone removing from the gate, With hands extended in the midst he sate : And search'd each passing sheep, and felt it o'er, Secure to seize us ere we reach' d the door (Such as his shallow wit he deem'd was mine) ; But secret I revolved the deep design : 500 'Twas for our lives my labouring bosom wrought; Each scheme I turn'd, and sharpen'd every thought; This way and that I cast to save my friends, Till one resolve my varying counsel ends. " Strong were the rams, with native purple fair, Well fed, and largest of the fleecy care. These, three and three, with osier bands we tied (The twining bands the Cyclop's bed supplied) ; The midmost bore a man, the outward two Secured each side : so bound we all the crew. 510 One ram remain'd, the leader of the flock ; In his deep fleece my grasping hands I lock, And fast beneath, in woolly curls inwove, There cling implicit, and confide in Jove. When rosy morning glimmer'd o'er the dales, He drove to pasture all the lusty males : The ewes still folded, with distended thighs Unmilk'd, lay bleating in distressful cries. But heedless of those cares, with anguish stung, He felt their fleeces as they pass'd along 520 (Fool that he was), and let them safely go, All unsuspecting of their freight below. "The master ram at last approach'd the gate, Charged with his wool, and with Ulysses' fate. Him while he pass'd, the monster blind bespoke : * What makes my ram the lag of all the flock ? First thou wert wont to crop the flowery mead, First to the field and river's bank to lead, And first with stately step at evening hour Thy fleecy fellows usher to their bower. 530 Now far the last, with pensive pace and slow Thou movest, as conscious of thy master's woe ! Seest thou these lids that now unfold in vain ? (The deed of Noman and his wicked train!) Oh ! didst thou feel for thy afflicted lord, And would but Fate the power of speech afford, Soon might'st thou tell me, where in secret here The dastard lurks, all trembling with his fear: BOOKIX.] THE ODYSSEY. 153 Swung round and round, and dash'd from rock to rock, His battered brains should on the pavement smoke. 540 No ease, no pleasure my sad heart receives, While such a monster as vile Noman lives.' "The giant spoke, and through the hollow rock Dismiss'd the ram, the father of the flock. No sooner freed, and through the inclosure pass'd, First I release myself, my fellows last: Fat sheep and goats in throngs we drive before, And reach our vessel on the winding shore. With joy the sailors view their friends return'd, And hail us living whom as dead they mourn'd. 550 Big tears of transport stand in every eye; I check their fondness, and command to fly. Aboard in haste they heave the wealthy sheep, And snatch their oars, and rush into the deep. " Now off at sea, and from the shallows clear, As far as human voice could reach the ear, With taunts the distant giant I accost: ' Hear me, O Cyclop ! hear, ungracious host ! Twas on no coward, no ignoble slave, Thou meditatest thy meal in yonder cave ; 660 But one, the vengeance fated from above Doom'd to inflict; the instrument of Jove. Thy barbarous breach of hospitable bands, The god, the god revenges by my hands.' "These words the Cyclop's burning rage provoke; From the tall hill he rends a pointed rock; High o'er the billows flew the massy load, And near the ship came thundering on the flood. It almost brush'd the helm, and fell before: The whole sea shook, and refluent beat the shore. 570 The strong' concussion on the heaving tide Roll'd back the vessel to the island's side : Again I shoved her off; our fate to fly, Each nerve we stretch, and every oar we ply. Just 'scaped impending death, when now again We twice as far had furrow'd back the main, Once more I raise my voice; my friends, afraid, With mild entreaties my design dissuade : ' What boots the godless giant to provoke, Whose arm may sink us at a single stroke? , 580 Already when the dreadful rock he threw, Old Ocean shook, and back his surges flew. 154 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK ix. The sounding voice directs his aim again; The rock o'erwhelms us, and we 'scaped in vain.' "But I, of mind elate, and scorning fear, Thus with new taunts insult the monster's ear : ' Cyclop ! if any, pitying thy disgrace, Ask, who disfigured thus that eyeless face? Say 'twas Ulysses : 'twas his deed declare, Laertes' son, of Ithaca the fair; 590 Ulysses, far in fighting fields renown'd, Before whose arm Troy tumbled to the ground.' "The astonished savage with a roar replies: ' Oh heavens ! oh faith of ancient prophecies ! This, Telemus Eurymedes foretold (The mighty seer who on these hills grew old ; Skill'd the dark fates of mortals to declare, And learn'd in all wing'd omens of the air) ; Long since he menaced, such was Fate's command ; And named Ulysses as the destined hand. 600 I deem'd some godlike giant to behold, Or lofty hero, haughty, brave, and bold; Not this weak pigmy-wretch, of mean design, Who, not by strength subdued me, but by wine. But come, accept our gifts, and join to pray Great Neptune's blessing on the watery way; For his I am, and I the lineage own; The immortal father no less boasts the son. His power can heal me, and relight my eye ; And only his, of all the gods on high.' 610 "'Oh! could this arm (I thus aloud rejoin'd) From that vast bulk dislodge thy bloody mind, And send thee howling to the realms of night! As sure as Neptune cannot give thee sight.' " Thus I ; while raging he repeats his cries, With hands uplifted to the starry skies! ' Hear me, O Neptune ; thou whose arms are hurl'd From shore to shore, and gird the solid world; If thine I am, nor thou my birth disown, And if the unhappy Cyclop be thy son, 620 Let not Ulysses breathe his native air, Laertes' son, of Ithaca the fair. If to review his country be his fate, Be it through toils and sufferings long and late ; His lost companions let him first deplore; Some vessel, not his own, transport him o'er; BOOKIX.] THE ODYSSEY. 155 And when at home from foreign sufferings freed, More near and deep, domestic woes succeed ! ' "With imprecations thus he fill'd the air, And angry Neptune heard the unrighteous prayer. 630 A larger rock then heaving from the plain, He whirl' d it round ; it sung across the main ; It fell, and brush'd the stern : the billows roar, Shake at the weight, and refluent beat the shore. With all our force we kept aloof to sea, And gain'd the island where our vessels lay. Our sight the whole collected navy cheer'd, Who, waiting long, by turns had hoped and fear'd. There disembarking on the green sea side, We land our cattle, and the spoil divide : 640 Of these due shares to every sailor fall ; The master ram was voted mine by all : And him (the guardian of Ulysses' fate) With pious mind to Heaven I consecrate. But the great god, whose thunder rends the skies, Averse, beholds the smoking sacrifice ; And sees me wandering still from coast to coast, And all my vessels, all my people, lost! While thoughtless we indulge the genial rite, As plenteous cates and flowing bowls invite; 650 Till evening Phoebus roll'd away the light: Stretch'd on the shore in careless ease we rest, Till ruddy morning purpled o'er the east; Then from their anchors all our ships unbind, And mount the decks, and call the willing wind. Now, ranged in order on our banks, we sweep With hasty strokes the hoarse-resounding deep; Blind to the future, pensive with our fears, Glad for the living, for the dead in tears." BOOK X. ARGUMENT. ADVENTURES WITH ^OLUS, THE LjESTRYGOXS, AND CIBCE. Ulysses arrives at the island of ^Eolus, who gives him prosperous winds, and incloses the adverse ones in a hag, which his companions untying, they are driven back again and rejected. Then they sail to the Laestrygons, where they lose eleven ships, and, with one only remaining, proceed to the island of Circe. Eurylochus is sent first with some companions, all which, except Eurylochus, are transformed into swine. XJlysses then undertakes the adventure, and, by the help of Mercury, who gives him the herb Moly, overcomes the enchantress, and procures the restoration of his men. After a year's stay with her, he prepares, at her instigation, for his voyage to the infernal shades. * * A T length we reacli'd ^Eolia's sea-girt shore, -^- Where great Hippotades the sceptre bore, 1 A floating isle ! high-raised by toil divine, Strong walls of brass the rocky coast confine. Six blooming youths, in private grandeur bred, And six fair daughters, graced the royal bed: These sons their sisters wed, and all remain Their parents' pride, and pleasure of their reign. All day they feast, all day the bowls flow round, And joy and music through the isle resound : 10 At night each pair on splendid carpets lay, And crown'd with love the pleasures of the day. This happy port affords our wandering fleet A month's reception, and a safe retreat. Full oft the monarch urged me to relate The fall of Hion, and the Grecian fate ; Full oft I told: at length for parting moved: The king with mighty gifts my suit approved. The adverse winds in leathern bags he braced, Compress'd their force, and lock'd each struggling blast: 20 1 Hippotadex, ^Eolus. BOOK x.] THE ODYSSEY. 157 For him the mighty sire of gods assign'd The tempest's lord, the tyrant of the wind : His word alone the listening storms obey, To smooth the deep, or swell the foamy sea. These in my hollow ship the monarch hung, Securely fetter'd by a silver thong: But Zephyrus exempt, with friendly gales He charged to fill, and guide the swelling sails: Rare gift ! but 0, what gift to fools avails ! "Nine prosperous days we plied the labouring oar; 30 The tenth presents our welcome native shore: The hills display the beacon's friendly light, And rising mountains gain upon our sight. Then first my eyes, by watchful toils oppress'd, Complied to take the balmy gifts of rest ; Then first my hands did from the rudder part (So much the love of home possess'd my heart) : When lo! on board a fond debate arose; What rare device those vessels might inclose ? What sum, what prize from -^Eolus I brought? 40 Whilst to his neighbour each express'd his thought : " l Say, whence ye gods, contending nations strive Who most shall please, who most our hero give? Long have his coffers groan'd with Trojan spoils; Whilst we, the wretched partners of his toils, Reproach' d by want, our fruitless labours mourn, And only rich in barren fame return. Now ^Eolus, ye see, augments his store : But come, my friends, these mystic gifts explore.' They said : and (oh cursed fate !) the thongs unbound ! 50 The gushing tempest sweeps the ocean round ; Snatch'd in the whirl, the hurried navy flew, The ocean widen'd and the shores withdrew. Roused from my fatal sleep I long debate If still to live, or desperate plunge to fate ; Thus doubting, prostrate on the deck I lay, Till all the coward thoughts of death gave way. "Meanwhile our vessels plough the liquid plain, And soon the known ^Eolian coast regain ^ Our groan the rocks remurmur'd to the main. 60 We leap'd on shore, and with a scanty feast Our thirst and hunger hastily repress'd; That done, two chosen heralds straight attend Our second progress to my royal friend: 158 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK x. And him amidst his jovial sons we found ; The banquet steaming, and the goblets crown'd : There humbly stoop'd with conscious shame and awe, Nor nearer than the gate presumed to draw. But soon his sons their well-known guest descried, And starting from their couches loudly cried: 70 ' Ulysses here ! what demon could'st thou meet To thwart thy passage, and repel thy fleet? Wast thou not furnish'd by one choicest care For Greece, for home, and all thy soul held dear?' Thus they. In silence long my fate I mourn'd ; At length these words with accents low return'd : * Me, lock'd in sleep, my faithless crew bereft Of all the blessings of your godlike gift ! But grant, oh grant, our loss we may retrieve : A favour you, and you alone can give.' 80 "Thus I with art to move their pity tried, And touch'd the youths ; but their stern sire replied : 'Vile wretch, begone! this instant I command Thy fleet accursed to leave our hallow'd land. His baneful suit pollutes these bless'd abodes, Whose fate proclaims him hateful to the gods.' " Thus fierce he said : we sighing went our way, And with desponding hearts put off to sea. The sailors spent with toils their folly mourn, But mourn in vain ; no prospect of return : 90 Six days and nights a doubtful course we steer, The next proud Lamos' stately towers appear, And Lsestrygonia's gates arise distinct in air. The shepherd, quitting here at night the plain, Calls, to succeed his cares, the watchful swain ; But he that scorns the chains of sleep to wear, And adds the herdsman's to the shepherd's care, So near the pastures, and so short the way, His double toils may claim a double pay, And join the labours of the night and day. 2 100 " Within a long recess a bay there lies, Edged round with cliffs high pointing to the skies; The jutting shores that swell on either side Contract its mouth, and break the rushing tide. Our eager sailors seize the fair retreat, And bound within the port their crowded fleet; 2 There is much doubt as to the real meaning of this passage. BOOK x.] THE ODYSSEY. 159 For here retired the sinking billows sleep, And smiling calmness silver'd o'er the deep. I only in the bay refused to moor, And fix'd, without, my halsers to the shore. 110 "From thence we climb'd a point, whose airy brow Commands the prospect of the plains below: No tracks of beasts, or signs of men, we found, But smoky volumes rolling from the ground. Two with our herald thither we command, With speed to learn what men possess'd the land. They went, and kept the wheel's smooth-beaten road Which to the city drew the mountain wood; When lo ! they met, beside a crystal spring, The daughter of Antiphates the king; 120 She to Artacia's silver streams came down (Artacia's streams alone supply the town) : The damsel they approach, and ask'd what race The people were ? who monarch of the place ? With joy the maid the unwary strangers heard, And show'd them where the royal dome appear'd. They went; but, as they entering saw the queen Of size enormous, and terrific mien (Not yielding to some bulky mountain's height), A sudden horror struck their aching sight. 130 Swift at her call her husband scour'd away To wreak his hunger on the destined prey; One for his food the raging glutton slew, But two rush'd out, and to the navy flew. " Balk'd of his prey, the yelling monster flies, And fills the city with his hideous cries : A ghastly band of giants hear the roar, And, pouring down the mountains, crowd the shore. Fragments they rend from off the craggy brow, And dash the ruins on the ships below : 140 The crackling vessels burst; hoarse groans arise, And mingled horrors echo to the skies; The men like fish, they struck upon the flood, And cramm'd their filthy throats with human food. Whilst thus their fury rages at the bay, My sword our cables cut, I call'd to weigh ; And charged my men, as they from fate would fly, Each nerve to strain, each bending oar to ply. The sailors catch the word, their oars they seize, And sweep with equal strokes the smoky seas: laO 160 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK x. Clear of the rocks the impatient vessel flies ; Whilst in the port each wretch encumber'd dies. With earnest haste my frighted sailors press, While kindling transports glow'd at our success; But the sad fate that did our friends destroy, Cool'd every breast, and damp'd the rising joy. KING OF THE LJESTRYGONS SEIZING ONE OF THE COMPANIONS OF ULYSSES. "Now dropp'd our anchors in the ^Eaean bay. 3 Where Circe dwelt, the daughter of the Day ! Her mother Perse, of old Ocean's strain, Thus from the Sun descended, and the Main 160 (From the same lineage stern ^Eaetes came, The far-famed brother of the enchantress dame) ; Goddess, and queen, to whom the powers belong Of dreadful magic, and commanding song. Some god directing to this peaceful bay Silent we came, and melancholy lay, Spent and o'erwatch'd. Two days and nights roil'd on, And now the third succeeding morning shone. I climb'd a cliff, with spear and sword in hand, Whose ridge o'erlook'd a shady length of land; 170 To learn if aught of mortal works appear, Or cheerful voice of mortal strike the ear ? 8 Moean bay, so called from JE&, an island of Colchis. Its situation is doubtful, some placing it on the western coast of Italy, others off the western coast of Sicily. BOOKX.] THE ODYSSEY. 161 From the high point I mark'd, in distant view, A stream of curling smoke ascending hlue, And spiry tops, the tufted trees above, Of Circe's palace bosom'd in the grove. " Thither to haste, the region to explore, Was first my thought : but speeding back to shore I deem'd it best to visit first my crew, And send our spies the dubious coast to view. 180 As down the hill I solitary go, Some power divine, who pities human woe, Sent a tall stag, descending from the wood, To cool his fervour in the crystal flood; Luxuriant on the wave-worn bank he lay, Stretch'd forth and panting in the sunny ray. I launch'd my spear, arid with a sudden wound Transpierced his back, and fix'd him to the ground. He falls, and mourns his fate with human cries : Through the wide wound the vital spirit flies. 190 I drew, and casting on the river's side The bloody spear, his gather'd feet I tied With twining osiers which the bank supplied. An ell in length the pliant wisp I weaved, And the huge body on my shoulders heaved : Then leaning on my spear with both my hands, Upbore my load, and press'd the sinking sands With weighty steps, till at the ship I threw The welcome burden, and bespoke my crew : " ' Cheer up, my friends ! it is not yet our fate 200 To glide with ghosts through Pluto's gloomy gate. Food in the desert land, behold! is given! Live, and enjoy the providence of heaven/ " The joyful crew survey his mighty size. And on the future banquet feast their eyes, As huge in length extended lay the beast; Then wash their hands, and hasten to the feast. There, till the setting sun roll'd down the light, They sate indulging in the genial rite. When evening rose, and darkness cover'd o'er 210 The face of things, we slept along the shore. But when the rosy morning warm'd the east, My men I summon'd, and these words address'd : " ' Followers and friends, attend what I propose : Ye sad companions of Ulysses' woes! 162 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK x. We know not here what land before us lies, Or to what quarter now we turn our eyes, Or where the sun shall set, or where shall rise. Here let us think (if thinking be not vain) If any counsel, any hope remain. 220 Alas! from yonder promontory's brow I view'd the coast, a region flat and low ; An isle encircled with the boundless flood; A length of thickets, and entangled wood. Some smoke I saw amid the forest rise, And all around it only seas and skies!' " With broken hearts my sad companions stood, Mindful of Cyclops and his human food, And horrid Laestrygons, the men of blood. 4 Presaging tears apace began to rain ; 230 But tears in mortal miseries are vain. In equal parts I straight divide my band, And name a chief each party to command ; I led the one, and of the other side Appointed brave Eurylochus the guide. Then in the brazen helm the lots we throw, And fortune casts Eurylochus to go; He march'd with twice eleven in his train ; Pensive they march, and pensive we remain. 4 Lastrygons. " Some suppose them the same as the people of Leontium, and neighbours to the Cyclops : fed on human flesh, and when Ulysses came on their coasts, sunk his ships, and devoured his companions ; were of gigantic stature, according to Homer. Bochart, G. S. i. 30, explains this fable by supposing that they were so called by the Phoenicians, Laistrigan, i. e. ' leo- mardax,' from their barbarous and cruel manners, and identifies them with the Leontini, from a Greek etymology ; the location of the Lsestrygones in Sicily seems to have been an arbitrary arrangement of those who pretended to elucidate the mythological narratives of Homer ; the poet on the contrary places them and the Cyclops at a wide distance from each other ; equally fabulous is the account that a colony of them passed over into Italy with Lamus at their head, and built the city of Formise : when once the respective situations of Circe's island and that of ^Eolus were thought to have been ascertained, it became no very difficult matter to advance a step further, and, as the Laestiygones lay, according to Homer, between those two islands, to make Formiae on the Italian coast a city of that people ; Formise was, in truth, of Pelasgic origin, and seems to have owed much of its prosperity to a Spartan colony : the name appears to come from the Greek 'Op/j.tcu, and to have denoted a good harbour. Mannert. iv. 11," quoted in Barker's Lem- priere. BOOKX.] THE ODYSSEY. 163 " The palace in a woody vale they found, 240 High raised of stone; a shaded space around; Where mountain wolves and brindled lions roam, (By magic tamed,) familiar to the dome. With gentle blandishment our men they meet, And wag their tails, and fawning lick their feet As from some feast a man returning late, His faithful dogs all meet him at the gate, Rejoicing round, some morsel to receive, (Such as the good man ever used to give,) Domestic thus the grisly beasts drew near; 250 They gaze with wonder not unmix'd with fear. Now on the threshold of the dome .they stood, And heard a voice resounding through the wood : Placed at her loom within, the goddess sung; The vaulted roofs and solid pavement rung. O'er the fair web the rising figures shine, Immortal labour! worthy hands divine. Polites to the rest the question moved (A gallant leader, and a man I loved) : " * What voice celestial, chanting to the loom 260 (Or nymph, or goddess), echoes from the room? Say, shall we seek access ? ' With that they call ; And wide unfold the portals of the hall. " The goddess, rising, asks her guests to stay, Who blindly follow where she leads the way. Eurylochus alone of all the band, Suspecting fraud, more prudently remain'd. On thrones around with downy coverings graced, With semblance fair, the unhappy men she placed. Milk newly press'd, the sacred flour of wheat, 270 And honey fresh, and Pramnian wines the treat : 5 But venom'd was the bread, and mix'd the bowl, With drugs of force to darken all the soul : Soon in the luscious feast themselves they lost, And drank oblivion of their native coast. Instant her circling wand the goddess waves, To hogs transforms them, and the sty receives. No more was seen the human form divine ; Head, face, and members, bristle into swine : Still cursed with sense, their minds remain alone, 280 And their own voice affrights them when they groan.' 5 Pramnian wines. These wines were proverbial for their excellence. See Alberti on Hesychius, vol. ii. p. 1015. 164 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK x. Meanwhile the goddess in disdain bestows The mast and acorn, brutal food ! and strows The fruits and cornel, as their feast, around; Now prone and grovelling on unsavoury ground. " Eurylochus, with pensive steps and slow, Aghast returns; the messenger of woe, And bitter fate. To speak he made essay, In vain essay'd, nor would his tongue obey. His swelling heart denied the words their way : 290 But speaking tears the want of words supply, And the full soul bursts copious from his eye. Affrighted, anxious for our fellows' fates, We press to hear what sadly he relates : "' We went, Ulysses! (such was thy command) Through the lone thicket and the desert land. A palace in a woody vale we found Brown with dark forests, and with shades around. A voice celestial echoed through, the dome, Or nymph or goddess, chanting to the loom. 300 Access we sought, nor was access denied : Radiant she came : the portals open'd wide : The goddess mild invites the guests to stay: They blindly follow where she leads the way. I only wait behind of all the train : I waited long, and eyed the doors in vain : The rest are vanish'd, none repass'd the gate And not a man appears to tell their fate.' " I heard, and instant o'er my shoulder flung The belt in which my weighty falchion hung 310 (A beamy blade) : then seized the bended bow, And bade him guide the way, resolved to go. He, prostrate falling, with both hands embraced My knees, and weeping thus his suit address'd : " ' O king, beloved of Jove, thy servant spare, And ah, thyself the rash attempt forbear ! Never, alas! thou never shalt return, Or see the wretched for whose loss we mourn. With what remains from certain ruin fly, And save the few not fated yet to die.' 320 " I answer'd stern : ' Inglorious then remain, Here feast and loiter, and desert thy train. Alone, unfriended, will I tempt my way; The laws of fate compel, and I obey.' BOOKX.] THE ODYSSEY. 165 This said, and scornful turning from the shore My haughty step, I stalk'd the valley o'er. Till now approaching nigh the magic hower, Where dwelt the enchantress skill'd in herbs of power, A form divine forth issued from the wood (Immortal Hermes with the golden rod) 330 In human semblance. On his bloomy face Youth smiled celestial, with each opening grace. He seized my hand, and gracious thus began : ' Ah whither roam'st thou, much-enduring man ? O blind to fate ! what led thy steps to rove The horrid mazes of this magic grove? Each friend you seek in yon enclosure lies, All lost their form, and habitants of sties. Think'st thou by wit to model their escape? Sooner shalt thou, a stranger to thy shape, 340 Fall prone their equal: first thy danger know, Then take the antidote the gods bestow. The plant I give through all the direful bower Shall guard thee, and avert the evil hour. Now hear her wicked arts : Before thy eyes The bowl shall sparkle, and the banquet rise ; Take this, nor from the faithless feast abstain For temper'd drugs and poison shall be vain. Soon as she strikes her wand, and gives the word, Draw forth and brandish thy refulgent sword, 350 And menace death: those menaces shall move Her alter'd mind to blandishment and love. Nor shun the blessing proffer'd to thy arms, Ascend her bed, and taste celestial charms : So shall thy tedious toils a respite find, And thy lost friends return to human-kind. But swear her first by those dread oaths that tie The powers below, the blessed in the sky; Lest to thee naked secret fraud be meant, Or magic bind thee cold and impotent.' 360 "Thus while he spoke, the sovereign plant he drew Where on the all-bearing earth unmark'd it grew, And show'd its nature and its wondrous power : Black was the root, but milky white the flower ; Moly the name, to mortals hard to find, 6 But all is easy to the ethereal kind. * 6 Moly. " Milton, the idea of whose Comus differs from that of the fable of Circe in exhibiting the spiritual and intellectual rather than the mere moral 166 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK x. This Hermes gave, then, gliding off the glade, Shot to Olympus from the woodland shade. While, full of thought, revolving fates to come, I speed my passage to the enchanted dome. 370 Arrived, before the lofty gates I stay'd; The lofty gates the goddess wide display'd : She leads before, and to the feast invites ; I follow sadly to the magic rites. Radiant with starry studs, a silver seat Received my limbs : a footstool eased my feet. She mix'd the potion, fraudulent of soul ; The poison mantled in the golden bowl. I took, and quaff 'd it, confident in heaven: Then waved the wand, and then the word was given. 380 ' Hence to thy fellows ! (dreadful she began :) Go, be a beast!' I heard, and yet was man. "Then, sudden whirling, like a waving flame, My beamy falchion, I assault the dame. Struck with unusual fear, she trembling cries, She faints, she falls ; she lifts her weeping eyes. " ' What art thou ? say ! from whence, from whom you came ? O more than human ! tell thy race, thy name. Amazing strength, these poisons to sustain ! Not mortal thou, nor mortal is thy brain. 390 Or art thou he, the man to come (foretold By Hermes, powerful with the wand of gold), The man from Troy, who wander d ocean round; The man for wisdom's various arts renown'd, Ulysses ? Oh ! thy threatening fury cease, Sheathe thy bright sword, and join our hands in peace! or prudential nature in danger from, and finally triumphing over, the charms of worldly pleasure, seizes the thought of the Moly, and gives it a religious or Christian turn, which, of course, is not found in the Odyssej : ' Amongst the rest a small unsightly root, But of divine effect, he cull'd me out ; The leaf was dark, and had prickles on it, But in another country, as he said, Bore a bright golden flower, but not in this soil; Unknown, and like esteem'd, the dull swain Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon ; And yet more medicinal is it than that Moly That Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave,' &c." Coleridge, p. 263. BOOKX.] THE ODYSSEY. 167 Let mutual joys our mutual trust combine, And love, and love-born confidence, be thine.' "'And how, dread Circe! (furious I rejoin) Can love, and love-born confidence, be mine, 400 Beneath thy charms when my companions groan, Transform'd to beasts, with accents not their own ? O thou of fraudful heart, shall I be led To share thy feast-rites, or ascend thy bed ; That, all unarm'd, thy vengeance may have vent, And magic bind me, cold and impotent? Celestial as thou art, yet stand denied ; Or swear that oath by which the gods are tied, Swear, in thy soul no latent frauds remain, Swear by the vow which never can be vain.' 410 " The goddess swore : then seized my hand, and led To the sweet transports of the genial bed. Ministrant to the queen, with busy care Four faithful handmaids the soft rites prepare ; Nymphs sprung from fountains, or from shady woods, Or the fair offspring of the sacred floods. One o'er the couches painted carpets threw, Whose purple lustre glow'd against the view : White linen lay beneath. Another placed The silver stands, with golden flaskets graced: 420 With dulcet beverage this the beaker crown'd, Fair in the midst, with gilded cups around; That in the tripod o'er the kindled pile The water pours; the bubbling waters boil; An ample vase receives the smoking wave ; And, in the bath prepared, my limbs I lave : Reviving sweets repair the mind's decay, And take the painful sense of toil away. A vest and tunic o'er me next she threw, Fresh from the bath, and dropping balmy dew ; 430 Then led and placed me on the sovereign seat, With carpets spread; a footstool at my feet. The golden ewer a nymph obsequious brings, Replenished from the cool translucent springs; With copious water the bright vase supplies A silver laver of capacious size. I wash'd. The table in fair order spread, They heap the glittering canisters with bread : Viands of various kinds allure the taste, Of choicest sort and savour, rich repast ! 440 168 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK x. Circe in vain invites the feast to share; Absent I ponder, and absorb'd in care : While scenes of woe rose anxious in my breast, The queen beheld me, and these words address'd: ULYSSES AT THE TABLE OF CIRCE. " ' Why sits Ulysses silent and apart, Some hoard of grief close harbour'd at his heart ? Untouch'd before thee stand the cates divine, And unregarded laughs the rosy wine. Can yet a doubt or any dread remain, When sworn that oath which never can be vain?* 450 " I answered : ' Goddess ! human is my breast, By justice sway'd, by tender pity press'd : 111 fits it me, whose friends are sunk to beasts, To quaff thy bowls, or riot in thy feasts. Me would'st thou please ? for them thy cares employ, And them to me restore, and me to joy.' *' With that she parted : in her potent hand She bore the virtue of the magic wand. Then, hastening to the sties, set wide the door, Urged forth, and drove the bristly herd before ; 4GO Unwieldy, out they rush'd with general cry, Enormous beasts dishonest to the eye. Now touch'd by counter-charms they change again, And stand majestic, and recall'd to men. BOOKX.] THE ODYSSEY. 169 Those hairs of late that bristled every part, Fall off, miraculous effect of art ! Till all the form in full proportion rise, More young, more large, more graceful to my eyes. They saw, they knew me, and with eager pace Clung to their master in a long embrace : 470 Sad, pleasing sight! with tears each eye ran o'er, And sobs of joy re-echoed through the bower ; E'en Circe wept, her adamantine heart Felt pity enter, and sustain'd her part. " ' Son of Laertes ! (then the queen began) Oh much-enduring, much-experienced man ! Haste to thy vessel on the sea-beat shore, Unload thy treasures, and the galley moor ; Then bring thy friends, secure from future harms, And in our grottoes stow thy spoils and arms.' 480 " She said. Obedient to her high command I quit the place, and hasten to the strand, My sad companions on the beach I found, Their wistful eyes in floods of sorrow drown'd. " As from fresh pastures and the dewy field (When loaded cribs their evening banquet yield) The lowing herds return ; around them throng With leaps and bounds their late imprison'd young, Rush to their mothers with unruly joy, And echoing hills return the tender cry : 490 So round me press'd, exulting at my sight, With cries and agonies of wild delight, The weeping sailors ; nor less fierce their joy Than if return'd to Ithaca from Troy. ' Ah master ! ever honour'd, ever dear ! (These tender words on every side I hear) What other joy can equal thy return ? Not that loved country for whose sight we mourn, The soil that nursed us, and that gave us breath: But ah! relate our lost companions' death.' 500 " I answer'd cheerful : ' Haste, your galley moor, And bring our treasures and our arms ashore : Those in yon hollow caverns let us lay, Then rise, and follow where I lead the way. Your fellows live ; believe your eyes, and come To taste the joys of Circe's sacred dome.' " With ready speed the joyful crew obey ; Alone Eurylochus persuades their stay. 170 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK x. Whither (he cried), ah whither will ye run? Seek ye to meet those evils ye should shun? 510 Will you the terrors of the dome explore, In swine to grovel, or in lions roar, Or wolf-like howl away the midnight hour In dreadful watch around the magic bower? Remember Cyclops, and his bloody deed; The leader's rashness made the soldiers bleed.' " I heard incensed, and first resolved to speed My flying falchion at the rebel's head. Dear as he was, by ties of kindred bound, This hand had stretch'd him breathless on the ground, 520 But all at once my interposing train For mercy pleaded, nor could plead in vain. 'Leave here the man who dares his prince desert, Leave to repentance and his own sad heart, To guard the ship. Seek we the sacred shades Of Circe's palace, where Ulysses leads.' " This with one voice declared, the rising train Left the black vessel by the murmuring main. Shame touch'd Eurylochus's alter' d breast ; He fear'd my threats, and follow'd with the rest. 530 "Meanwhile the goddess, with indulgent cares And social joys, the late transform'd repairs ; The bath, the feast, their fainting soul renews : Rich in refulgent robes, and dropping balmy dews : Brightening with joy their eager eyes behold Each other's face, and each his story told ; Then gushing tears the narrative confound, And with their sobs the vaulted roofs resound. When hush'd their passion, thus the goddess cries : 'Ulysses, taught by labours to be wise, 540 Let this short memory of grief suffice. To me are known the various woes ye bore, In storms by sea, in perils on the shore; Forget whatever was in Fortune's power, And share the pleasures of this genial hour. Such be your minds as ere ye left your coast, Or learn'd to sorrow for a country lost. Exiles and wanderers now, where'er ye go, Too faithful memory renews your woe : The cause removed, habitual griefs remain, 550 And the soul saddens by the use of pain.' BOOKX.] THE ODYSSEY. 171 "Her kind entreaty moved the general breast; Tired with long toil, we willing sunk to rest. We plied the banquet, and the bowl we crown'd, Till the full circle of the year came round. But when the seasons, following in their train, Brought back the months, the days, and hours again; As from a lethargy at once they rise, And urge their chief with animating cries : " ' Is this, Ulysses, our inglorious lot ? 560 And is the name of Ithaca forgot? Shall never the dear land in prospect rise, Or the loved palace glitter in our eyes ? ' " Melting I heard ; yet till the sun's decline Prolong'd the feast, and quaff 'd the rosy wine: But when the shades came on at evening hour, And all lay slumbering in the dusky bower, I came a suppliant to fair Circe's bed, The tender moment seized, and thus I said : * Be mindful, goddess ! of thy promise made ; 570 Must sad Ulysses ever be delay'd ? Around their lord my sad companions mourn, Each breast beats homeward, anxious to return: If but a moment parted from thy eyes, Their tears flow round me, and my heart complies.' "'Go then (she cried), ah go! yet think, not I, Not Circe, but the Fates, your wish deny. Ah hope not yet to breathe thy native air ! Far other journey first demands thy care ; To tread the uncomfortable paths beneath, 580 And view the realms of darkness and of death. There seek the Theban bard, deprived of sight ; Within, irradiate with prophetic light ; To whom Persephone, entire and whole, Gave to retain the unseparated soul : The rest are forms, of empty ether made ; Impassive semblance, and a flitting shade.' " Struck at the word, my very heart was dead : - Pensive I sate : my tears bedew'd the bed : To hate the light and life my soul begun, 590 And saw that all was grief beneath the sun. Composed at length, the gushing tears suppress'd, And my toss'd limbs now wearied into rest. 'How shall I tread (I cried), ah, Circe! say, The dark descent, and who shall guide the way? 172 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK x. Can living eyes behold the realms below? What bark to waft me, and what wind to blow ? ' " ' Thy fated road (the magic power replied), Divine Ulysses ! asks no mortal guide. Rear but the mast, the spacious sail display, 600 The northern winds shall wing thee on thy way. Soon shalt thou reach old Ocean's utmost ends, Where to the main the shelving shore descends; The barren trees of Proserpine's black woods, Poplars and willows trembling o'er the floods : There fix thy vessel in the lonely bay, And enter there the kingdoms void of day : Where Phlegethon's loud torrents, rushing down, Hiss in the flaming gulf of Acheron ; And where, slow rolling from the Stygian bed, 610 Cocytus' lamentable waters spread: Where the dark rock o'erhangs the infernal lake, And mingling streams eternal murmurs make. First draw thy falchion, and on every side Trench the black earth a cubit long and wide : To all the shades around libations pour, And o'er the ingredients strew the hallow'd flour: New wine and milk, with honey temper'd bring, And living water from the crystal spring. Then the wan shades and feeble ghosts implore, 620 With promised offerings on thy native shore; A barren cow, the stateliest of the isle, And heap'd with various wealth, a blazing pile : These to the rest; but to the seer must bleed A sable ram, the pride of all thy breed. These solemn vows and holy offerings paid To all the phantom nations of the dead, Be next thy care the sable sheep to place Full o'er the pit, and hellward turn their face : But from the infernal rite thine eye withdraw, 630 And back to Ocean glance with reverend awe. Sudden shall skim along the dusky glades Thin airy shoals, and visionary shades. Then give command the sacrifice to haste, Let the flay'd victims in the flame be cast, And sacred vows and mystic song applied To grisly Pluto and his gloomy bride. Wide o'er the pool thy falchion waved around Shall drive the spectres from forbidden ground : BOOKX.] THE ODYSSEY. 173 The sacred draught shall all the dead forbear, 640 Till awful from the shades arise the seer. Let him, oraculous, the end, the way, The turns of all thy future fate display, Thy pilgrimage to come, and remnant of thy day.' " So speaking, from the ruddy orient shone The morn, conspicuous on her golden throne. The goddess with a radiant tunic dress'd My limbs, and o'er me cast a silken vest. Long flowing robes, of purest white, array The nymph, that added lustre to the day: . 650 A tiar wreath'd her head with many a fold ; Her waist was circled with a zone of gold. Forth issuing then, from place to place I flew ; Rouse man by man, and animate my crew. ' Rise, rise, my mates ! 'tis Circe gives command : Our journey calls us ; haste, and quit the land.' All rise and follow, yet depart not all, For Fate decreed one wretched man to fall. " A youth there was, Elpenor was he named, Not much for sense, nor much for courage famed : 660 The youngest of our band, a vulgar soul, Born but to banquet, and to drain the bowl. He, hot and careless, on a turret's height With sleep repair'd the long debauch of night : The sudden tumult stirr'd him where he lay, And down he hasten'd, but forgot the way ; Full headlong from the roof the sleeper fell, And snapp'd the spinal joint, and waked in hell. " The rest crowd round me with -an eager look ; I met them with a sigh, and thus bespoke : 670 ' Already, friends ! ye think your toils are o'er, Your hopes already touch your native shore : Alas! far otherwise the nymph declares, Far other journey first demands our cares ; To tread the uncomfortable paths beneath, The dreary realms of darkness and of death ; To seek Tiresias' awful shade below, And thence our fortunes and our fates to know.' " My sad companions heard in deep despair ; Frantic they tore their manly growth of hair; 680 To earth they fell : the tears began to rain ; Hut tears in mortal miseries are vain. 174 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK x' Sadly they fared along the sea-beat shore; Still heaved their hearts, and still their eyes ran o'er. The ready victims at our bark we found, The sable ewe and ram, together bound. For swift as thought the goddess had been there, And thence had glided, viewless as the air: The paths of gods what mortal can survey? Who eyes their motion? who shall trace their way?" 690 ULYSSES AND BAH. BOOK XL AEGUMENT. THE DESCEHT INTO HELL. Ulysses continues his narration. How he arrived at the land of the Cimme- rians, and what ceremonies he performed to invoke the dead. The manner of his descent, and the apparition of the shades : his conversation with Elpenor, and with Tiresias, who informs him in a prophetic manner of hie, fortunes to come. He meets his mother Auticlea, from whom he learns the state of his family. He sees the shades of the ancient heroines, afterwards of the heroes, and converses in particular with Agamemnon and Achilles. Ajax keeps at a sullen distance, and disdains to answer him. He then beholds Tityus, Tantalus, Sisyphus, Hercules ; till he is deterred from further curiosity hy the apparition of horrid spectres, and the cries of the wicked in torments. ^ \fOW to the shores we bend, a mournful train, ** Climb the tall bark, and launch into the main : At once the mast we rear, at once unbind The spacious sheet, and stretch it to the wind: Then pale and pensive stand, with cares oppress'd, And solemn horror saddens every breast. A freshening breeze the magic power supplied, 1 While the wing'd vessel flew along the tide ; Our oars we shipp'd : all day the swelling sails Full from the guiding pilot catch'd the gales. 10 " Now sunk the sun from his aerial height, And o'er the shade~cL billows rush'd the night: When lo! we reach'd old Ocean's utmost bounds, Where rocks control his waves with ever-during mounds. " There in a lonely land, and gloomy cells, The dusky nation of Cimmeria dwells j 2 1 Circe. 2 Cimmeria. It seems of little use to hunt for a real geographical situation 176 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK XT. The sun ne'er views the uncomfortable seats, When radiant he advances, or retreats : Unhappy race! whom endless night invades, Clouds the dull air, and wraps them round in shades. 20 " The ship we moor on these obscure abodes ; Disbark the sheep, an offering to the gods; for the Cimmerians of Homer. Some ancient northern nation prohably suggested their existence, and poetic fancy furnished the rest. " The most remarkable passage in the whole Odyssey for the aspect which it presents of its mythology, is that magnificent tale of the Necyomanteia, or intercourse of Ulysses with the shades of the dead. It is very easy to call the whole or any part of this singular description spurious ; and certainly the passage, as a whole, is so conceived as to admit of parts being inserted or expunged without injury to its general consistency or entireness ; but those who remember the history of the collection of the Homeric poems, as pre- viously stated in this work, will probably think it very idle to pretend to put out a few lines here and there, which may seem to bear marks of modern in- vention. The Necyomanteia, as a whole, appears to have just as good a right to be called Homeric as any other part of the Odyssey, and it is the concep- tion of it, as a whole, to which I would call the attention of the student. The entire narrative is wrapped up iu such a mist, it is so undefined and abso- lutely undefinable in place, time, and manner, that it should almost seem as if the uncertainty of the poet's own knowledge of the state and locality of the dead were meant to be indicated by the indistinctness of his description. Ulysses sails all day from the dwelling of Circe with a north wind ; at sunset he comes to the boundary of the ocean, where the Cimmerians dwell in cloud and darkness and perpetual night ; here he goes ashore, and proceeds to a spot described by Circe, digs a trench, pours certain libations, and sacrifices sheep in it, calls upon the dead to appear, draws his sword, and awaits the event. Immediately the manes or shades assemble around the trench, each thirst for the sacrificial blood, from which they are repelled by the sword's point, till Tiresias has appeared and drunk his fill. It is difficult to deter- mine the nature of this grand and solemn scene, and to say whether Ulysses is supposed himself to descend to the Shades, or only to evoke the spirits, as the woman of Endor is commonly understood to have evoked Samuel. ^Eneas, we know, actually descends and ascends; and Lucian, in a piece founded entirely on this Necyomanteia, evidently takes the hero to have visited the infernal regions in person. In many passages he seems so to understand it. Ulysses sees Minos administering justice amongst the dead; he sees Orion hunting, Tityus tormented by vultures, Tantalus standing in the lake, and Sisyphus upheaving his stone; he sees the asphodel meadow. And Achilles asks how he has dared to descend to Hades, where the shades of men dwell. Yet, upon a careful consideration of the beginning and conclusion of the passage, it will, I think, appear plain that no actual descent, such as that of ^Eneas in the ^Eneid, was in the contemplation of the original poet ; but that the whole ground plan is that of an act of Asiatic evocation only ; and Lucian, who, in his piece, combines the Homeric rites of evocation with BOOK XL] THE ODYSSEY. 177 And, hellward bending, o'er the beach descry The doleful passage to the infernal sky. The victims, vow'd to each Tartarian power, Eurylochus and Perimedes bore. "Here open'd hell, all hell I here implored. And from the scabbard drew the shining sword : And trenching the black earth on every side, A cavern form'd, a cubit long and wide. 30 New wine, with honey-temper'd milk, we bring, Then living waters from the crystal spring : O'er these was strew'd the consecrated flour, And on the surface shone the holy store. " Now the wan shades we hail, the infernal gods. To speed our course, and waft us o'er the floods : So shall a barren heifer from the stall Beneath the knife upon your altars fall ; So in our palace, at our safe return, Rich with unnumber'd gifts the pile shall burn ; 40 So shall a ram, the largest of the breed, Black as these regions, to Tiresias bleed. " Thus solemn rites and holy vows we paid To all the phantom-nations of the dead; Then died the sheep : a purple torrent flow'd, And all the caverns smoked with streaming blood. When lo ! appear'd along the dusky coasts, Thin, airy shoals of visionary ghosts : an actual descent, makes the evocator a Babylonian and disciple of Zoro- aster, and lays the scene somewhere on the banks of the Euphrates." Coleridge, p. 239, seq. At the risk of being charged with unwarrantable prolixity I must add the following observations of Colonel Mure : " From the narrative of this expedition every trait of comic humour is judiciously excluded. The gaiety with which the royal adventurer had so lately recounted even his most calamitous vicissitudes gives place to a solemnity often rising to the sublime, in his description of the dismal terrors of the mansions of the dead. The consideration of the poet's doctrine of a future state as embodied in this episode, belongs to the chapter on his mythology. Nowhere, perhaps, does the contrast between the Ulysses of Homer and the Ulysses of the later fable, between the high-minded fearless adventurer and the mean-spirited insidious manceuvrer, appear in a more prominent light than in the ' necuomancy.' The shade of Achilles himself expresses astonish- ment at the composure with which a solitary mortal wanders, without divine escort, among scenes of preternatural terror, at which even a living Achilles might have shuddered."- Mure's Homer, p. 402. 178 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK xi. Fair, pensive youths, and soft enamour'd maids; And wither' d elders, pale and wrinkled shades ; 50 Ghastly with wounds the forms of warriors slain Stalk'd with majestic port, a martial train : These and a thousand more swann'd o'er the ground, And all the dire assembly shriek'd around. Astonish'd at the sight, aghast I stood, And a cold fear ran shivering through my blood ; Straight I command the sacrifice to haste, Straight the flay'd victims to the flames are cast, And mutter'd vows, and mystic song applied To grisly Pluto, and his gloomy bride. 60 "Now swift I waved my falchion o'er the blood; Back started the pale throngs, and trembling stood. Round the black trench the gore untasted flows, Till awful from the shades Tiresias rose. " There wandering through the gloom I first survey'd, New to the realms of death, Elpenor's shade : His cold remains all naked to the sky On distant shores unwept, uriburied lie. Sad at the sight I stand, deep fix'd in woe, And ere I spoke the tears began to flow. 70 " ' O say what angry power Elpenor led To glide in shades, and wander with the dead? How could thy soul, by realms and seas disjoin'd, Outfly the nimble sail, and leave the lagging wind?' " The ghost replied : ' To hell my doom I owe, Demons accursed, dire ministers of woe ! My feet, through wine unfaithful to their weight, Betray'd me tumbling from a towery height ; Staggering I reel'd, and as I reel'd I fell, Lux'd the neck-joint my soul descends to hell. 80 But lend me aid, I now conjure thee lend, By the soft tie and sacred name of friend ! By thy fond consort ! by thy father's cares ! By loved Telemachus's blooming years ! For well I know that soon the heavenly powers Will give thee back to day, and Circe's shores : There pious on my cold remains attend, There call to mind thy poor departed friend. The tribute of a tear is all I crave, And the possession of a peaceful grave. 90 But if, unheard, in vain compassion plead, Kevere the gods, the gods avenge the dead ! BOOK XL] THE ODYSSEY. 179 A tomb along the watery margin raise, The tomb with manly arms and trophies grace, To show posterity Elpenor was. There high in air, memorial of my name, Fix the smooth oar, and bid me live to fame.' " To whom with tears : ' These rites, O mournful shade, Due to thy ghost, shall to thy ghost be paid.' " Still as I spoke the phantom seem'd to moan, 100 Tear folio w'd tear, and groan succeeded groan. But, as my waving sword the blood surrounds, The shade withdrew, and mutter'd empty sounds. " There as the wondrous visions I survey'd, All pale ascends my royal mother's shade : A queen, to Troy she saw our legions pass ; Now a thin form is all Anticlea was ! Struck at the sight I melt with filial woe, And down my cheek the pious sorrows flow, Yet as I shook my falchion o'er the blood, 110 Regardless of her son the parent stood. "When lo! the mighty Theban I behold; 8 To guide his steps he bore a staff of gold; Awful he trod ! majestic was his look! And from his holy lips these accents broke : "'Why, mortal, wanderest thou from cheerful day, To tread the downward, melancholy way? What angry gods to these dark regions led Thee, yet alive, companion of the dead ? But sheathe thy poniard, while my tongue relates 120 Heaven's stedfast purpose, and thy future fates.' " While yet he spoke, the prophet I obey'd, And in the scabbard plunged the glittering blade : Eager he quaff'd the gore, and then express'd Dark things to come, the counsels of his breast. "'Weary of light, Ulysses here explores A prosperous voyage to his native shores; But know by me unerring Fates disclose New trains of dangers, and new scenes of woes. I see, I see, thy bark by Neptune toss'd, 130 For injured Cyclops, and his eyeball lost ! Yet to thy woes the gods decree an end, If Heaven thou please ; and how to please attend ! 3 The mighty Theban. Tiresias. 180 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK xi. "Where on Trinacrian rocks the ocean roars, 4 Graze numerous herds along the verdant shores ; Though hunger press, yet fly the dangerous prey, The herds are sacred to the god of day, Who all surveys with his extensive eye, Above, below, on earth, and in the sky! Rob not the god; and so propitious gales 140 Attend thy voyage, and impel thy sails : But, if his herds ye seize, beneath the waves I see thy friends o'erwhelm'd in liquid graves ! The direful wreck Ulysses scarce survives ! Ulysses at his country scarce arrives! Strangers thy guides J nor there thy labours end; New foes arise, domestic ills attend ! There foul adulterers to thy bride resort, And lordly gluttons riot in thy court. But vengeance hastes amain! These eyes behold 150 The deathful scene, princes on princes roll'd ! That done, a people far from sea explore, Who ne'er knew salt, or heard the billows roar, Or saw gay vessel stem the watery plain, A painted wonder flying on the main ! Bear on thy back an oar: with strange amaze A shepherd meeting thee, the oar surveys, And names a van: there fix it on the plain, To calm the god that holds the watery reign ; A threefold offering to his altar bring, 160 A bull, a ram, a boar; and hail the ocean king. But home return'd, to each ethereal power Slay the due victim in the genial hour: So peaceful shalt thou end thy blissful days, And steal thyself from life by slow decays : Unknown to pain, in age resign thy breath, When late stern Neptune points the shaft with death To the dark grave retiring as to rest, Thy people blessing, by thy people bless'd! "Unerring truths, O man, my lips relate; 170 This is thy life to come, and this is fate.' " To whom unmoved : ' If this the gods prepare, What Heaven ordains the wise with courage bear. But say, why yonder on the lonely strands, Unmindful of her son, Anticlea stands ? * Trinacrian, L e. three-pointed, an epithet applied to Sicily from its form. BOOKXI.] THE ODYSSEY. 181 Why to the ground she bends her downcast eye ? Why is she silent, while her son is nigh? The latent cause, O sacred seer, reveal!' " ' Nor this (replies the seer) will I conceal. Know, to the spectres that thy beverage taste, 180 The scenes of life recur, and actions past : They, seal'd with truth, return the sure reply; The rest, repell'd, a train oblivious fly.' *' ' The phantom-prophet ceased, and sunk from sight, To the black palace of eternal night. " Still in the dark abodes of death I stood, When near Anticlea moved, and drank the blood. Straight all the mother in her soul awakes, And, owning her Ulysses, thus she speaks: ' Comest thou, my son, alive, to realms beneath, 190 The dolesome realms of darkness and of death? Comest thou alive from pure, ethereal day ? Dire is the region, dismal is the way ! Hero lakes profound, there floods oppose their waves, There the wide sea with all his billows raves ! Or (since to dust proud Troy submits her towers) Comest thou a wanderer from the Phrygian shores ? Or say, since honour call'd thee to the field, Hast thou thy Ithaca, thy bride, beheld?' " ' Source of my life,' I cried, ' from earth I fly 200 To seek Tiresias in the nether sky, To learn my doom; for, toss'd from woe to woe, In every land Ulysses finds a foe : Nor have these eyes beheld my native shores, Since in the dust proud Troy submits her towers. " ' But, when thy soul from her sweet mansion fled, Say, what distemper gave thee to the dead? Has life's fair lamp declined by slow decays, Or swift expired it in a sudden blaze? Say, if my sire, good old Laertes, lives ? 210 If yet Telemachus, my son, survives? Say, by his rule is my dominion awed, Or crush'd by traitors with an iron rod? Say, if my spouse maintains her royal trust; Though tempted, chaste, and obstinately just? Or if no more her absent lord she wails, But the false woman o'er the wife prevails ? ' " Thus I, and thus the parent-shade returns : ' Thee, ever thee, thy faithful consort mourns : 182 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK xi. Whether the night descends or day prevails, 220 Thee she by night, and thee by day bewails. Thee in Telemachus thy realm obeys; In sacred groves celestial rites he pays, And shares the banquet in superior state, Graced with such honours as become the great. Thy sire in solitude foments his care : The court is joyless, for thou art not there ! No costly carpets raise his hoary head, No rich embroidery shines to grace his bed ; Even when keen winter freezes in the skies, 230 Rank'd with his slaves, on earth the monarch lies: Deep are his sighs, his visage pale, his dress The garb of woe and habit of distress. And when the autumn takes his annual round, The leafy honours scattering on the ground, Regardless of his years, abroad he lies, His bed the leaves, his canopy the skies. Thus cares on cares his painful days consume, And bow his age with sorrow to the tomb ! " ' For thee, my son, I wept my life away ; 240 For thee through hell's eternal dungeons stray: Nor came my fate by lingering pains and slow, Nor bent the silver-shafted queen her bow; No dire disease bereaved me of my breath; Thou, thou, my son, wert my disease and death ; Unkindly with my love my son conspired, For thee I lived, for absent thee expired.' " Thrice in my arms I strove her shade to bind, Thrice through my arms she slipp'd like empty wind, Or dreams, the vain illusions of the mind. 250 Wild with despair, I shed a copious tide Of flowing tears, and thus with sighs replied : " ' Fliest thou, loved shade, while I thus fondly mourn ? Turn to my arms, to my embraces turn ! Is it, ye powers that smile at human harms! Too great a bliss to weep within her arms? Or has hell's queen an empty image sent, That wretched I might e'en my joys lament ?' " * O son of woe,' the pensive shade rejoin'd ; O most inured to grief of all mankind ! 260 'Tis not the queen of hell who thee deceives; All. all are such, when life the bodv leaves: BOOK XL] THE ODYSSEY. 183 No more the substance of the man remains, Nor bounds the blood along the purple veins: These the funereal flames in atoms bear, To wander with the wind in empty air: While the impassive soul reluctant flies, Like a vain dream, to these infernal skies. But from the dark dominions speed thy way, And climb the steep ascent to upper day; 270 To thy chaste bride the wondrous story tell, The woes, the horrors, and the laws of hell.' " Thus while she spoke, in swarms hell's empress brings Daughters and wives of heroes and of kings ; Thick and more thick they gather round the blood, Ghost thronged on ghost (a dire assembly) stood! Dauntless my sword I seize: the airy crew, Swift as it flashed along the gloom, withdrew; Then shade to shade in mutual forms succeeds, Her race recounts, and their illustrious deeds. 280 "Tyro began, whom great Salmoneus bred; 5 The royal partner of famed Cretheus' bed. For fair Enipeus, as from fruitful urns He pours his watery store, the virgin burns ; Smooth flows the gentle stream with wanton pride, And in soft mazes rolls a silver tide. As on his banks the maid enamour'd roves, The monarch of the deep beholds and loves; In her Enipeus' form and borrow'd charms The amorous god descends into her arms : 290 Around, a spacious arch of waves he throws, And high in air the liquid mountain rose; Thus in surrounding floods conceal'd he proves The pleasing transport, and completes his loves. Then, softly sighing, he the fair address'd, And as he spoke her tender hand he press'd. Hail, happy nymph! no vulgar births are owed To the prolific raptures of a god: Lo! when nine times the moon renews her horn, Two brother heroes shall from thee be born ; 300 5 Tyro was the daughter of Salmoneus, king of ^Elis. Being harshly treated by her step-mother, Sidero, she left her father's house, and became enamoured of the river Enipeus. Neptune, by assuming the form of her favoured lover, gained her affections, and by him she had two sons, Pelias and Neleus. She subsequently married her uncle Cretheus. 184 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK xi. Thy early care the future worthies claim, To point them to the arduous paths of fame; But in thy hreast the important truth conceal, Nor dare the secret of a god reveal: For know, thou Neptune view'st! and at my nod Earth trembles, and the waves confess their god,' " He added not, hut mounting spurn'd the plain, Then plunged into the chambers of the main. " Now in the time's full process forth she brings Jove's dread vicegerents in two future kings; 310 O'er proud lolcos Pelias stretch'd his reign, And godlike Neleus ruled the Pylian plain : Then, fruitful, to her Cretheus' royal bed She gallant Pheres and famed JEson bred: From the same fountain Amythaon rose, Pleased with the din of war, and noble shout of foes. " There moved Antiope, with haughty charms, Who bless'd the almighty Thunderer in her arms: Hence sprung Amphion, hence brave Zethus came, Founders of Thebes, and men of mighty name ; 320 Though bold in open field, they yet surround The town with walls, and mound inject on mound; Here ramparts stood, there towers rose high in air, And here through seven wide portals rushed the war. " There with soft step the fair Alcmena trod, Who bore Alcides to the thundering god : And Megara, who charm'd the son of Jove, 6 And soften'd his stern soul to tender love. "Sullen and sour, with discontented mien Jocasta frown'd, the incestuous Theban queen ;? 330 With her own son she join'd in nuptial bands, Though father's blood imbrued his murderous hands: The gods and men the dire offence detest, The gods with all their furies rend his breast; In lofty Thebes he wore the imperial crown, A pompous wretch ! accursed upon a throne. The wife self-murder'd from a beam depends, And her foul soul to blackest hell descends; Thence to her son the choicest plagues she brings, And the fiends haunt him with a thousand stings. 340 "And now the beauteous Chloris I descry, A lovely shade, Amphion's youngest joy! *> Megara, the wife of Hercules, slain by him during his madness. 1 Jocaxla, mother and wife of CEdipus. BOOK XL] THE ODYSSEY. 18o With gifts unnumber'd Neleus sought her arms, Nor paid too dearly for unequall'd charms; Great in Orchomenos, in Pylos great, He sway'd the sceptre with imperial state. Three gallant sons the joyful monarch told, Sage Nestor, Periclimenus the bold, And Chromius last ; but of the softer race, One nymph alone, a miracle of grace. 350 Kings on their thrones for lovely Pero burn; The sire denies, and kings rejected mourn. To him alone the beauteous prize he yields, Whose arm should ravish from Phylacian fields The herds of Iphyclus, detain'd in wrong; Wild, furious herds, unconquerably strong ! This dares a seer, but nought the seer prevails, In beauty's cause illustriously he fails ; Twelve moons the foe the captive youth detains In painful dungeons, and coercive chains ; 360 The foe at last, from durance where he lay, His heart revering, gave him back to day ; Won by prophetic knowledge, to fulfil The stedfasfc purpose of the Almighty will. "With graceful port advancing now I spied, Leda the fair, the godlike Tyndar's bride: Hence Pollux sprung, who wields with furious sway The deathful gauntlet, matchless in the fray; And Castor, glorious on the embattled plain, Curbs the proud steeds, reluctant to the rein : By turns they visit this ethereal sky, 8 s^< J33R <^ And live alternate, and alternate die : //>^ OP TIIR "^ In hell beneath, on earth, in heaven aboroerr v -_ __ ,_ ' Reign the twin-gods, the favourite sons df o*l. V -Cl R SIT 1 8 By