If but to seize thy arms thou make delay,
Again the fury vindicates her prey,

Her six mouths yawn, and six are snatch'd away,
From her foul womb Cratais gave to air
This dreadful pest! To her direct thy prayer,
To curb the monster in her dire abodes,

And guard thee through the tumult of the floods.
Thence to Trinacria's shore you bend your way,
Where graze thy herds, illustrious source of day!
Seven herds, seven flocks, enrich the sacred plains;
Each herd, each flock, full fifty heads contains:
The wondrous kind a length of age survey,
By breed increase not, nor by death decay,
Two sister goddesses possess the plain,

The constant guardians of the woolly train;
Lampetie fair, and Phaëthusa young,
From Phoebus and the bright Neæra sprung:
Here, watchful o'er the flocks, in shady bowers
And flowery meads they waste the joyous hours.
Rob not the god! and so propitious gales*
Attend thy voyage, and impel thy sails;
But if thy impious bands the flocks destroy,
The gods, the gods avenge it, and ye die!
"Tis thine alone (thy friends and navy lost)
Through tedious toils to view thy native coast.'
"She ceas'd: and now arose the morning ray;
Swift to her dome the goddess held her way.
Then to my mates I measur'd back the plain,
Climb'd the tall bark, and rush'd into the main ;
Then bending to the stroke, their oars they drew
To their broad breasts, and swift the galley flew.
Up-sprung a brisker breeze; with freshening

gales,

The friendly goddess stretch'd the swelling sails;
We drop our oars; at ease the pilot guides;.
The vessel light along the level glides.
When, rising sad and slow, with pensive look,
Thus to the melancholy train I spoke :

"O friends, Oh ever partners of my woes,
Attend while I what Heaven foredooms disclose,
Hear all fate hangs o'er all! on you it lies
To live, or perish! to be safe, be wise!

"In flowery meads the sportive Sirens play, Touch the soft lyre, and tune the vocal lay; Me, me alone, with fetters firmly bound, The gods allow to hear the dangerous sound. Hear and obey: if freedom I demand,'

1

Be every fetter strain'd, and added band to band.'
"While yet I speak, the winged galley flies,
And, lo! the Siren shores like mists arise.
Sunk were at once the winds; the air above,
And waves below, at once forgot to move!
Some demon calm'd the air, and smooth'd the deep,
Hush'd the loud winds, and charm'd the waves
Now every sail we furl, each oar we ply; [to sleep.
Lash'd by the stroke, the frothy waters fly.
The ductile wax with busy hands I mould,
And cleft in fragments, and the fragments roll'd:
Th' aerial region now grew warm with day,
The wax dissolv'd beneath the burning ray!
Then every ear I barr'd against the strain,
And from access of phrenzy lock'd the brain.
Now round the mast my mates the fetters roll'd,
And bound me limb by limb, with fold on fold.
Then, bending to the stroke, the active train
Plunge all at once their oars, and cleave the main.
"While to the shore the rapid vessel flies,
Our swift approach the Siren quire descries;
Celestial music warbles from their tongue,
And thus the sweet deluders tune the song:

"Oh stay, O pride of Greece! Ulysses, stay! Oh cease thy course, and listen to our lay! Blest is the man ordain'd our voice to hear, The song instructs the soul, and charms the ear. Approach thy soul shall into raptures rise; Approach and learn new wisdom from the wise! We know whate'er the kings of mighty name Achiev'd at llion in the field of fame; Whate'er beneath the Sun's bright journey lies, Oh stay and learn new wisdom from the wise!' "Thus the sweet charmers warbled o'er the main; My soul takes wing to meet the heavenly strain; I give the sign, and struggle to be free; Swift row my mates, and shoot along the sea; New chains they add, and rapid urge the way, Till, dying off, the distant sounds decay: Then, scudding swiftly from the dangerous ground, The deafen'd ear unlock'd, the chains unbound.

"Now all at once tremendous scenes unfold; Thunder'd the deeps, the smoking billows roll'd! Tumultuous waves embroil'd the bellowing flood, All trembling, deafen'd, and aghast we stood! No more the vessel plough'd the dreadful wave, Fear seiz'd the mighty, and unnerv'd the brave; Each dropp'd his oar: but swift from man to man With looks serene I turn'd, and thus began: 'O friends! Oh often tried in adverse storins! With ills familiar in more dreadful forms! Deep in the dire Cyclopean den you lay, Yet safe return'd-Ulysses led the way. Learn courage hence! and in my care confide: Lo! still the same Ulysses is your guide! Attend my words! your oars incessant ply; Strain every nerve, and bid the vessel fly. If from yon justling rocks and wavy war Jove safety grants; he grants it to your care. And thou whose guiding hand directs our way, Pilot, attentive listen and obey!

Bear wide thy course, nor plough those angry

waves

Where rolls yon smoke, yon tumbling ocean raves;
Steer by the higher rock; lest whirl'd around
We sink, beneath the circling eddy drown'd.'
"While yet I speak, at once their oars they seize,
Stretch to the stroke, and brush the working seas.
Cautious the name of Scylla I supprest;

That dreadful sound had chill'd the boldest breast.
Meantime, forgetful of the voice divine,
All dreadful bright my limbs in armour shine;
High on the deck I take my dangerous stand,
Two glittering javelins lighten in my hand;
Prepar'd to whirl the whizzing spear I stay,
Till the fell fiend arise to seize her prey.
Around the dungeon, studious to behold
The hideous pest! my labouring eyes I roll'd;
In vain the dismal dungeon dark as night
Vejle the dire monster, and confounds the sight.
"Now through the rocks, appall'd with deep

dismay,

We bend our course, and stem the desperate way;
Dire Scylla there a scene of horrour forms,
And here Charybdis fills the deep with storms.
When the tide rushes from her rumbling caves
The rough rock roars; tumultuous boil the waves;
They toss, they foam, a wild confusion raise,
Like waters bubbling o'er the fiery blaze;
Eternal mists obscure th' aerial plain,
And high above the rock she spouts the main!
When in her gulphs the rushing sea subsides,
She drains the ocean with the refluent tides:

The rock rebellows with a thundering sound;
Deep, wondrous deep below, appears the ground.
"Struck with despair, with trembling hearts we
view'd

The yawning dungeon, and the tumbling flood;
When, lo! fierce Scylla stoop'd to seize her prey,
Stretch'd her dire jaws, and swept six men away;
Chiefs of renown! loud-echoing shrieks arise:
I turn and view them quivering in the skies;
They call, and aid with out-stretch'd arms implore:
In vain they call, those arms are stretch'd no

more.

As, from some rock that over-hangs the flood,
The silent fisher calls th' insidious food,
With fraudful care he waits the finny prize,
And sudden lifts it quivering to the skies:
So the foul monster lifts her prey on high,
So pant the wretches, struggling in the sky;
In the wide dungeon she devours her food,
And the flesh trembles while she churns the blood.
Worn as I am with griefs, with care decay'd;
Never, I never, scene so dire survey'd ;
My shivering blood, congeal'd, forgot to flow;
Aghast I stood a monument of woe!

"Now from the rocks the rapid vessel flies,
And the hoarse din like distant thunder dies;
To Sol's bright isle our voyage we pursue,
And now the glittering mountains rise to view.
There sacred to the radiant god of day,
Graze the fair herds, the flocks promiscuous stray;
Then suddenly was heard along the main
To low the ox, to bleat the woolly train,
Straight to my anxious thoughts the sound convey'd
The words of Circe and the Theban shade;
Warn'd by their awful voice these shores to shun,
With cautious fears opprest, I thus begun:

"O friends! Oh ever exercis'd in care! Hear Heaven's commands, and reverence what ye hear!

To fly these shores the prescient Theban shade
And Circe warns! O be their voice obey'd:
Some mighty woe relentless Heaven forebodes:
Fly the dire regions, and revere the gods!'

"While yet I spoke, a sudden sorrow ran Through every breast, and spread from man to Till wrathful thus Eurylochus began:

[man,

"O cruel thou! some fury sure has steel'd That stubborn soul, by toil untaught to yield! From sleep debarr'd, we sink from woes to woes: And crucl enviest thou a short repose? Still must we restless rove, new seas explore, The Sun descending, and so near the shore? And, lo the night begins her gloomy reign, And doubles all the terrours of the main. Oft in the dead of night loud winds arise, Lash the wild surge, and bluster in the skies; Oh! should the fierce south-west his rage display, And toss with rising storms the watery way,' Though gods descend from Heaven's aerial plain To lend us aid, the gods descend in vain : Then while the night displays her awful shade, Sweet time of slumber! be the night obey'd! Haste ye to land! and when the morning ray Sheds her bright beam, pursue the destin'd way.' A sudden joy in every bosom rose: So will'd some demon, minister of woes!

"To whom with grief-Oh! swift to be undone, Constrain'd I act what wisdom bids me shun. But yonder herds and yonder flocks forbear; Attest the Heavens, and call the gods to hear:

Content an innocent repast display,

By Circe given and fly the dangerous prey.'
"Thus I: and while to shore the vessel flies, ·
With hands uplifted they attest the skies;
Then, where a fountain's gurgling waters play,
They rush to land, and end in feasts the day:
They feed; they quaff; and now (their hunger fed)
Sigh for their friends devour'd, and mourn the dead,
Nor cease the tears, till each in slumber shares
A sweet forgetfulness of human cares.

"Now far the night advane'd her gloomy reign,
And setting stars roll'd down the azure plain :
When, at the voice of Jove, wild whirlwinds rise,
And clouds and double darkness veil the skies;
The Moon, the stars, the bright etherial host
Seem as extinct, and all their splendours lost;
The furious tempest roars with dreadful sound:
Air thunders, rolls the ocean, groans the ground.
All night it rag'd: when morning rose, to land
We haul'd our bark, and moor'd it on the strand,
Where in a beauteous grotto's cool recess
Dance the green Nereids of the neighbouring seas.
"There while the wild winds whistled o'er the
Thus careful I addrest the listening train: [main,
O friends, be wise, nor dare the flocks destroy
Of these fair pastures: if ye touch, ye die!
Warn'd by the high command of Heaven, be aw'd,
Holy the flocks, and dreadful is the god!
That god who spreads the radiant beams of light,
And views wide Earth and Heaven's unmeasur'd
height.'

"And now the Moon had run her monthly round,
The south-east blustering with a dreadful sound;
Unhurt the beeves, untouch'd the woolly train
Low through the grove, or range the flowery plain:
Then fail'd our food; then fish we make our prey,
Or fowl that screaming hunt the watery way.
Till now, from sea or flood no succour found,
Famine and meagre want besieg'd us round.
Pensive and pale from grove to grove I stray'd,
From the loud storms to find a sylvan shade;
There o'er my hands the living wave I pour;
And Heaven and Heaven's immortal thrones adore,
To calm the roarings of the stormy main,
And grant me peaceful to my realms again,
Then o'er my eyes the gods soft slumber shed,
While thus Eurylochus arising said:

'O friends! a thousand ways frail mortals lead
To the cold tomb, and dreadful all to tread;
But dreadful most, when by slow decay
Pale hunger wastes the manly strength away.
Why cease ye then t' implore the powers above,
And offer hecatombs to thundering Jove?
Why seize ye not yon beeves, and fleecy prey?
Arise unanimous; arise and slay!
And, if the gods ordain a safe return,
To Phoebus shrines shall rise, and altars burn.
But, should the powers that o'er mankind preside
Decree to plunge us in the whelming tide,
Better to rush at once to shades below,
Than linger life away, and nourish woe!'

"Thus he: the beeves around securely stray, When swift to ruin they invade the prey; They seize, they kill!-but for the rite divine, The barley fail'd, and for libations wine. Swift from the oak they strip the shady pride; And verdant leaves the flowery cake supply. "With prayer they now address th' etherial train,

Slay the selected beeves, and flay the slain :

He ceas'd; but left so pleasing on their ear
His voice, that listening still they seem'd to hear,
A panse of silence hush'd the shady rooms:
The grateful conference then the king resumes:
Whatever toils the great Ulysses past,
Beneath this happy roof they end at last;
No longer now from shore to shore to roam,
Smooth seas and gentle winds invite him home.
Bot hear me, princess! whom these walls enclose,
To whom my chanter sings, and goblet flows
With wines unmix'd (an honour due to age,
To cheer the grave, and warm the poet's rage)
Though labour'd gold and many a dazzling vest
Lie heap'd already for our godlike guest;
Without new treasures let him not remove,
Large, and expressive of the public love:
Each peer a tripod, each a vase bestow,
A general tribute, which the state shall owe."

This sentence pleas'd: then all their steps addrest To separate mansions, and retir'd to rest.

Now did the rosy-finger`d Morn arise,
And shed her sacred light along the skies.
Down to the haven and the ships in haste
They bore the treasures, and in safety plac'd.
The king himself the vases rang'd with care:
Then bade his followers to the feast repair.
A victim ox beneath the sacred hand
Of great Alcinous falls, and stains the sand.
To Jove th' eternal (power above all powers!
Who wings the winds, and darkens Heaven with
showers)

The flames ascend: till evening they prolong
The rites, more sacred made by heavenly song:
For in the midst, with public honours grac'd,
Thy lyre divine, Demodocus! was plac'd;
All, but Ulysses, heard with fix'd delight:
He sate, and ey'd the Sun, and wish'à the night;
Slow seem'd the Sun to move, the hours to roll,
His native home deep imag'd'in his soul.
As the tir'd ploughman, spent with stubborn toil,
Whose oxen long have torn the furrow'd soil,
Sees with delight the Sun's declining ray,
When home with feeble knees he bends his way
To late repast (the day's hard labour done);
So to Ulysses welcome set the Sun.
Then instant to Alcinous and the rest

(The Scherian states) he turn'd, and thus addrest:

"thou, the first in merit and command!
And you, the peers and princes of the land!
May every joy be yours! nor this the least,
When due libation shall have crown'd the feast,
Safe to my home to send your happy guest.
Complete are now the bounties you have given.
Be all those bounties but confirm'd by Heaven!
So may I find, when all my wanderings cease,
My consort blameless, and my friends in peace.
VOL XIX,

His words, well weigh'd, the general voice ap-.. Benign, and instant his dismission mov'd. [prov'd The monarch to Pontonous gave the sign, To fill the goblet high with rosy wine: [plore; "Great Jove the father first," he cried, imThen send the stranger to his native shore."

The luscious wine th' obedient herald brought; Around the mansion flow'd the purple draught: Each from his seat to each immortal pours, Whom glory circles in th' Olympian bowers. Ulysses sole with air majestic stands,

The bowl presenting to Arete's hands;
Then thus: O queen, farewell! be still possest
Of dear remembrance, blessing still and blest!
Till age and death shall gently call thee lience,
(Sure fate of every mortal excellence!)
Farewell; and joys successive ever spring
To thee, to thine, the people, and the king!"
Thus he; then, parting, prints the sandy shore
To the fair port: a herald march'd before,
Sent by Alcinous; of Arete's train

Three chosen maids attend him to the main ;
This does a tunic and white vest convey,

A various casket that, of rich inlay,

And bread and wine the third. The cheerful mates

| Safe in the hollow poop dispose the cates:
Upon the deck soft painted robes they spread,
With linen cover'd for the hero's bed.
He climb'd the lofty stern; then gently prest
The swelling couch, and lay compos'd to rest.
Now plac'd in order, the Phæacian train
Their cables loose, and lanch into the main :
At once they bend, and strike their equal oars,
And leave the sinking hills and lessening shores.
While on the deck the chief in silence lies,
And pleasing slumbers steal upon his eyes.
As fiery coursers in the rapid race

Urg'd by fierce drivers through the dusty space,
Toss their high heads, and scour along the plain'
So mounts the bounding vessel o'er the main.
Back to the stern the parted billows flow,
And the black ocean foams and roars below.
Thus with spr ad sails the winged galley flics;
Less swift an eagle cuts the liquid skies;
Divine Ulysses was her sacred load,

A man, in wisdom equal to a god!
Much danger, long and mighty tails, he bore,
In storms by sea, and combats on the shore:
All which soft sleep now banish'd from his breast,
Wrapt in a pleasing, deep, and death-like rest.
But when the morning star with early ray
Flam'd in the front of Heaven, and promis'd day;
Like distant clouds the mariner descries
Fair Ithaca's emerging hills arise.
Far from the town a spacious port appears,
Sacred to Phorcys' power, whose name it bears;
Two craggy rocks projecting to the main,
The roaring wind's tempestuous rage restrain;
Within, the waves in softer murmurs glide,
And ships secure without their halsers ride,
High at the head a branching olive grows,
And crowns the pointed cliffs with shady boughs,
Beneath, a gloomy grotto's cool recess
Delights the Nereids of the neighbouring seas,

Where bowls and urns were form'd of living stone,
And massy beams in native marble shone;
On which the labours of the nymph were roll'd,
Their webs divine of purple mix'd with gold.
Within the cave the clustering bees attend
Their waxen works, or from the roof depend,
Perpetual waters o'er the pavement glide;
Two marble doors unfold on either side,
Sacred the south, by which the gods descend;
But mortals enter at the northern end.

Thither they bent, and haul'd their ship to land;
(The crooked keel divides the yellow sand); ̧
Ulysses sleeping on his couch they bore,
And gently plac'd him on the rocky shore.
His treasures next, Alcinous' gifts, they laid
In the wild olive's unfrequented shade,
Secure from theft: then lanch'd the bark again,
Resum'd their oars, and measur'd back the main.
Nor yet forgot old Ocean's dread supreme
The vengeance vow'd for eyeless Polypheme.
Before the throne of mighty Jove he stood;
And 'sought the secret counsels of the god:

"Shall then no more, O sire of gods, be mine The rights and honours of a power divine? Scorn'd ev'n by man, and (oh! severe disgrace!) By soft Phæacians, my degenerate racę! Against yon destin'd head in vain I swore, And menac'd vengeance, ere he reach'd his shore; To reach his natal shore was thy decree; Mild I obey'd, for who shall war with thee? Behold him landed, careless and asleep, From all th' eluded dangers of the deep! Io! where he lies, amidst a shining store Of brass, rich garments, and refulgent ore: And bears triumphant to his native isle A prize more worth than Ilion's noble spoil."

To whom the father of th' immortal powers, Who swells the clouds, and gladdens earth with

showers:

"Can mighty Neptune thus of man complain!
Neptune, tremendous o'er the boundless main!
Rever'd and awful ev'n in Heaven's abodes,
Ancient and great! a god above the gods!
If that low race offend thy power divine,
(Weak, daring creatures?) is not vengeance thine?
Go then, the guilty at thy will chastise."
He said the shaker of the Earth replies :
"This then I doom: to fix the gallant ship
A mark of vengeance on the sable deep:
To warn the thoughtless self-confiding train,
No more unlicens'd thus to brave the main.
Full in their port a shady hill shall rise,

If such thy will"-"We will it," Jove replies:
"Even when, with transport blackening all the
The swarming people hail their ship to land, [strand,
Fix her for ever, a memorial stone:

Still let her seem to sail, and seem alone;
The trembling crowds shall see the sudden shade
Of whelming mountains overhang their head!"
With that the god, whose earthquakes rock the
ground,

Fierce to Phæacia cross'd the vast profound,
Swift as a swallow sweeps the liquid way,
The winged pinnace shot along the sea.
The god arrests her with a sudden stroke,
And roots her down an everlasting rock.
Aghast the Scherians stand in deep surprise;
All press to speak, all question with their eyes.
What hands unseen the rapid bark restrain!
And yet it swims, or seems to swim, the main!

Thus they, unconscious of the deed divine : Till great Alcinous, rising, own'd the sign. "Behold the long predestin'd day!" he cries; "Oh! certain faith of ancient prophecies! These ears have heard my royal sire disclose A dreadful story, big with future woes; How mov'd with wrath, that careless we convey Promiscuous every guest to every bay, Stern Neptune rag'd; and how by his command Firm rooted in the surge a ship should stand (A monument of wrath): and mound on mound Should hide our walls, or whelm beneath the ground.

"The Fates have follow'd, as declar'd the seer, Be humbled, nations! and your monarch hear, No more unlicens'd brave the deeps, no more With every stranger pass from shore to shore; Ou angry Neptune now for mercy call: To his high name let twelve black oxen fall. So may the god reverse his purpos'd will, Nor o'er our city hang the dreadful bill."

The monarch spoke: they trembled and obey'dı Forth on the sands the victim oxen led: The gather'd tribes before the altars stand, And chiefs and rulers, a majestic band. 'The king of Ocean all the tribes implore; The blazing altars redden all the shore.

Meanwhile Ulysses in his country lay,
Releas'd from sleep, and round him might survey
The solitary shore and rolling sea.

Yet had his mind, through tedious absence, lost
The dear remembrance of his native coast;
Besides, Minerva, to secure her care,
Diffus'd around a veil of thicken'd air:
For so the gods ordain'd, to keep unseen
His royal person from his friends and queen;
Till the proud suitors for their crimes afford
An ample vengeance to their injur'd lord.

Now all the land another prospect bore,
Another port appear'd, another shore,
And long-continued ways, and winding floods,
And unknown mountains, crown'd with unknown

woods.

Pensive and slow, with sudden grief opprest,
The king arose, and beat his careful breast,
Cast a long look o'er all the coast and main,
And sought around, his native realm in vain :
Then with erected eyes stood fix'd in woe,
And, as he spoke, the tears began to flow:

"Ye gods!" he cry'd, "upon what barren coast,
In what new region, is Ulysses tost?
Possess'd by wild barbarians, fierce in arms?
Or men whose bosom tender pity warms >
Where shall this treasure now in safety lie?
And whither, whither, its sad owner fly?
Ah! why did I Alcinous' grace implore?
Ah! why forsake Phæacia's happy store?
Some juster prince, perhaps, had entertain'd,
And safe restor'd me to my native land.
Is this the promis'd, long-expected coast,
And this the faith Phæacia's rulers boast?
O righteous gods! of all the great, how few
Are just to Heaven, and to their promise true!
But he, the power to whose all-seeing cyes
The deeds of men appear without disguise;
'Tis his alone t' avenge the wrongs 1 bear:
For still th' opprest are his peculiar care.
To count these presents, and from thence to