CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE PA 4025!a5P82""i89? "-"""^ , Otlyssey of Homer / 3 1924 026 667 240 fB^+e^ MAtLLSJI fifc**^ W Mii-i^m s MA^S- GAVLORD -''' DATE DUE ^^^ SEwS^iSTTOi^' ■ f^^M ^£?=r^ w-'^rte" MAR-I^^^H^ "■fiE^'f tj*20Df H ^ t i ^ 'W S^'^ NNTED IN U 5 / Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924026667240 THE ODYSSEY OF HOMER STANDARD BRITISH CLASSICS, These have been prepared to meet the demand for a series of Library Editions of the best Authors at a moderate price. Devty Zvo. Cloth extra, top edge gilt, -js. 6d. 1. Pepys' Diary, 1659 to 1669. With Memoirs and Notes by Lord Eraybrooke. 2. Evelyn's Diary, 1641 to 1705. With Memoirs and Notes by William Bray, F.S.A. 3. Gibbon's Roman Empire. A New Edition in Four Volumes, with all the Author's Notes. 4. White's Natural History of Selborne. Illustrated. Edited by G. Christopher Davies. 5. Walton and Cotton's Complete Angler. Illustrated. Edited by G. Christopher Davies. 6. Chesterfield's Letters to his Son. Complete Edition, with Notes. 7. Sheridan's Dramatic Works. 8. Swift's Choice Works. Including ' Gulliver's Travels,' 'Tale of a Tub,' etc. 9. Bacon's Essays and other Works. Including 'Advancement of Learning," 'Wisdom of the Ancients,' *New Atlantis,' etc 10. Dante's Vision. Translated by Cary, with Notes and Index. 11. Homer's Iliad. Translated by Pope, with Notes by Buckley, and Flaxman's Designs. 12. Homer's Odyssey, by F Other I'olmncs to follmv. Translated by Pope, with Notes by Buckley, and Flaxman's Designs. LONDON: i8 BURY STREET, W.C. * THE Odyssey of Homer TRANSLATED EV ALEXANDER POPE WITH NOTES REV. THEODORE 'aLOIS BUCKLEY, M.A., F.S.A. FLAXMAN'S DESIGNS LONDON W. W. GIBBINGS, i8, BURY STREET, W.C. Exeter : J. G. Commin 1891 A . ^ ( "f(rv ^ouE.^'Z— - MORRISON AND GIBB, PRINTERS, EDINBCRGH. CONTENTS. THE ODYSSEY. BOOK I. PAGE MINERVAS DESCENT TO ITHAGA . o , o . . „ I BOOK II. THE COUNCIL OF ITHACA ...,,,.. l6 BOOK III. THE INTERVIEW OF TELEMACHUS AND NESTOR 27 BOOK IV. THE CONFERENCE WITH MENELaUs ......... .42 BOOK V. THE DEPARTURE OF ULYSSES FROM CALYPSO 66 BOOK VI 81 BOOK VII. THE COURT OF ALCINOUS . . . . 9I BOOK VIII . . . loi BOOK IX. THE ADVENTURES OF THE CICONS, LOTOPHAGI, AND CYCLOPS . . . I16 BOOK X. ADVENTURES WITH iEOLUS, THE L^STRYGONS, AND CIRCE . . . . 131 BOOK XI. THE DESCENT INTO HELL ,...05. 147 vi CONTENTS. BOOK XII. PAGE THE SIRENS, SCYLLA, AND CHARYBDIS . l66 BOOK XIII. THE ARRIVAL OF ULYSSES IN ITHACA . . ....... l8o BOOK XIV. THE CONVERSATION WITH EUM/BUS . ... I92 BOOK XV. THE RETURN OF TELEMACHUS .... 2o6 BOOK XVI. THE DISCOVERY OF ULYSSES TO TELEMACHUS 220 BOOK XVII 231 BOOK XVIII. THE FIGHT OF ULYSSES AND IRUS .... 24I BOOK XIX. THE DISCOVERY OF ULYSSES TO EURYCLEA .... ... 258 BOOK XX .... 273 BOOK XXI. THE BENDING OF ULYSSES' BOW . ... 284 BOOK XXII. THE DEATH OF THE SUITORS 295 BOOK XXIII. . . . 307 BOOK XXIV. . . . . . .... 316 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Homer . . . .... Fire-place . .... Council of Jupiter, Minerva, and Mercury . The Descent of Minerva to Ithaca Phemius singing to the Suitors Apollo . Penelope surprised by the Suitors Mercury Telemachus in search of his Father . Nestor's Sacrifice . . Neptune . Penelope's Dream . Homer Mercury's message to Calypso Leucothea preserving Ulysses Head-dress Nausicaa throwing the Ball . . Ulysses following the Car of Nausicaa . Cephalus and Aurora . . . . Ulysses on the Hearth presenting himself to Alcinoiis and Aretfe Neptune . . Apollo and Diana .... . . Ulysses weeps at the Song of Demodocus . . . Hector in Chariot ... . . . . Ulysses giving Wine to Polyphemus . . . Centaur .... King of the Lsestrygons seizing one of the companions of Ulysses Ulysses at the table of Circe . ... Ulysses terrified by the Ghosts . ... Bows and Quivers ...... , . Morning . . .... . , The Sirens . . <, Scylla .... . . . , , . Lampetie complaining to Apollo . . . - Ulysses and Ram ... . . Ulysses Asleep laid on his own coast by the Phseacian Sailors. The Fates . ... Frontispiece. vui + 5 12 15 19 26 28 39 4r 64 65 6g 76 80 85 89 go 95 99 io3 114 125 130 134 141 164 165 i65 171 173 177 179 184 191 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Ulysses conversing with Eumasus Apollo and Diana discharging their arrows Ulysses and the Harpies. . . - Minerva restoring Ulysses to his own shape . . Ulysses and his Dog . ........ Diana . ■ ■ • . Ulysses preparing to fight with Irus .... Penelope . . . . Euryclea discovers Ulysses . The Harpies going to seize the Daughters of Pandarus Penelope carrying the Bow of Ulysses to the Suitors . Minerva . Ulysses killing the Suitors . Victory ..... "Meeting of Ulysses and Penelope ..... Mercury conducting the Souls of the Suitors to the Infernal Regions Arms Penelope's Choice ... PAGE . 194 . 215 . 219 225 • 230 246 249 257 269 275 285 294 297 306 3" 317 329 330 g^::}- FiRa.riji.CE. INTRODUCTION. Scepticism is as much the result of knowledge, as knowledge is of scepticism. To be content with what we at present know, is, for the most part, to shut our ears against conviction ; since, from the very gradual character of our education, we must continually forget, and emancipate ourselves from, knowledge previously acquired ; we must set aside old notions and embrace fresh ones ; and, as we learn, we must be daily unlearning something which it has cost us no small labour and anxiety to acquire. And this difficulty attaches itself more closely to an age in which progress has gained a strong ascendency over prejudice, and in which persons and things are, day by day, finding their real level, in lieu of their conventional value. The same principles which have swept away traditional abuses, and which are making rapid havoc among the revenues of sinecurists, and stripping the thin, tawdry veil from attractive superstitions, are working as actively in literature as in society. The credulity of one writer, or the partiality of another, finds as powerful a touchstone and as wholesome a chastisement in the healthy scepticism of a temperate class of antagonists, as the dreams of conservatism, or the impostures of pluralist sinecures in the Church. History and tradition, whether of ancient or comparatively recent times, are subjected to very different handling from that which the indulgence or credulity of former ages could allow. Mere statements are jealously watched, and the motives of the writer form as important an ingredient in the analysis of his history, as the facts he records. Probability is a powerful and troublesome test ; and it is by this troublesome standard that a large portion of historical evidence is sifted. Consistency is no less pertinacious and exacting in its demands. In brief, to write a history, we must know more than mere facts. Human nature, viewed under an induction of extended experience, is the best help to the criticism of human history. Historical characters can only be estimated by the standard which human experience, whether actual or traditionary, has furnished. To form correct views of individuals we must regard them as forming parts of a great whole — we must measure them by their relation to the mass of beings by whom they are surrounded, and, in contemplating the incidents in their X INTRODUCTION. lives or condition which tradition has handed down to us, we must rather consider the general bearing of the whole narrative, than the respective probability of its details. It is unfortunate for us, that, of some of the greatest men, we know least, and talk most. Homer, Socrates, and Shakespere ' have, perhaps, contributed more to the intellectual enlightenment of man- kind than any other three writers who could be named, and yet the history of all three has given rise to a boundless ocean of discussion, which has left us little save the option of choosing which theory or theories we will follow. The personality of Shakespere is, perhaps, the only thing in which critics will allow us to believe without con- troversy ; but upon everything else, even down to the authorship of plays, there is more or less of doubt and uncertainty. Of Socrates we know as little as the contradictions of Plato and Xenophon will allow us to know. He was one of the dramatis persona in two dramas as unlike in principles as in style. He appears as the enunciator of opinions as different in their tone as those of the writers who have handed them down. When we have read Plato or Xenophon, we think we know something of Socrates ; when we have fairly read and examined both, we feel convinced that we are something worse than ignorant. It has been an easy, and a popular expedient, of late years, to deny the personal or real existence of men and things whose life and con- dition were too much for our belief. This system — which has often comforted the religious sceptic, and substituted the consolations of Strauss for those of the New Testament — has been of incalculable value to the historical theorists of the last and present centuries. To question the existence of Alexander the Great, would be a more excusable act, than to believe in that of Romulus. To deny a fact related in Herodotus, because it is inconsistent with a theory developed from an Assyrian inscription which no two scholars read in the same way, is more pardonable, than to believe in the good-natured old king whom the elegant pen of Florian has idealized — Numa Pompilius. Scepticism has attained its culminating point with respect to Homer, and the state of our Homeric knowledge may be described as a free permission to believe any theory, provided we throw overboard all I " What," says Archdeacon Wilberforce, "is the_ natural root of loyalty as distinguished from such mere selfish desire of personal security as is apt to take its place in civilized times but that consciousness of a natural bond among the families of men, which gives a fellow- feeling to whole clans and nations, and thus enlists their affections in behalf of those time- honoured representatives of their ancient blood, in whose success they feel a personal interest ? Hence the delight when we recognize an act of nobility or justice in our hereditary princes. " ' Tuc^ue prior, tu parce genus qui ducis Olympo, Projice tela manu san^ds meus.' " So strong is this feeling, that it regains an engrafted influence even when history witnesses that vast convulsions have rent and weakened it ; and the Celtic feeling towards the Stuarts has been rekindled in our own days towards the grand-daughter of George the Third of Hanover, " Somewhat similar may be seen in the disposition to idolize those great lawgivers of man's race, who have ^ven expression, in the immortal language of song, to the deeper inspirations of our nature. The thoughts of Homer or of Shakespere are the universal inheritance of the human race. In this mutual ground every man meets his brother ; they have been set forth by the providence of God to vmdicate for all of us what nature could effect, and that, in these representatives of our race, we might recognize our common benefactors." — Doctrhte of the Incamatiottt pp. 9, 10. INTRODUCTION. xi written tradition, concerning the author or authors of the Ihad and Odyssey. What few authorities exist on the subject, are summarily dismissed, although the arguments appear to run in a circle. " This cannot be true, because it is not true ; and that is not true, because it cannot be true." Such seems to be the style, in which testimony upon testimony, statement upon statement, is consigned to denial and oblivion. It is, however, unfortunate that the professed biographies of Homer are partly forgeries, partly freaks of ingenuity and imagination, in which truth is the requisite most wanting. Before taking a brief review of the Homeric theory in its present conditions, some notice must be taken of the treatise on the Life of Homer which has been attributed to Herodotus. According to this document, the city of Cumae in ^olia, was, at an early period, the seat of frequent immigrations from various parts of Greece. Among the immigrants was Menapolus, the son of Ithagenes. Although poor, he married, and the result of the union was a girl named Crithe'is. The girl was left an orphan at an early age, under the guardianship of Cleanax, of Argos. It is to the indiscretion of this maiden that we " are indebted for so much happiness." Homer was the first fruit of her juvenile frailtyj and received the name of Melesigenes, from having been born near the river Meles, in Bceotia, whither Crithei's had been transported in order to save her repu- tation. " At this time," continues our narrative, " there lived at Smyrna a man named Phemius, a teacher of literature and music, who, not being married, engaged Crithei's to manage his household, and spin the flax he received as the price of his scholastic labours. So satisfactory was her performance of this task, and so modest her conduct, that he made proposals of marriage, declaring himself, as a further inducement, willing to adopt her son, who, he asserted, would become a clever man, if he were carefully brought up." They were married ; careful cultivation ripened the talents which nature had bestowed, and Melesigenes soon surpassed his schoolfellows in every attainment, and, when older, rivalled his preceptor in wisdom. Phemius died, leaving him sole heir to his property, and his mother soon followed. Melesigenes carried on his adopted father's school with great success, exciting the admiration not only of the inhabitants of Smyrna, but also of the strangers whom the trade carried on tnere, especially in the exportation of corn, attracted to that city. Among these visitors, one Mentes, from Leucadia, the modern Santa Maura, who evinced a knowledge and intelligence rarely found in those times, persuaded Melesigenes to Close his school, and accompany him on his travels. He promised not only to pay his expenses, but to furnish him with a further stipend, urging, that, " While he was yet young, it was fitting that he should see with his own eyes the countries and cities which might hereafter be the subjects of his discourses." Melesigenes consented, and set out with his patron, " examining all the curiosities of the countries they visited, and informing himself of everything by interrogating those whom he met." We may also suppose, that Jie xii INTRODUCTION^. wrote memoirs of all that he deemed worthy of preservation." Having set sail from Tyrrhenia and Iberia, they reached Ithaca. Here Mele- sigenes, who had already suffered in his eyes, became much worse ; and Mentes, who was about to leave for Leucadia, left him to the medical superintendence of a friend of his, named Mentor, the son of Alcinor. Under his hospitable and intelligent host, Melesigenes rapidly became acquainted with the legends respecting Ulysses, which afterwards formed the subject of the Odyssey. The inhabitants of Ithaca assert, that it was here that Melesigenes became blind, but the Colophonians make their city the seat of that misfortune. He then returned to Smyrna, where he applied himself to the study of poetry.3 But poverty soon drove him to Cumae. Having passed over the Hermasan plain, he arrived at Neon Teichos, the New Wall, a colony of Cumse. Here his misfortunes and poetical talent gained him the friendship of one Tychias, an armourer. " And up to my time," continued the author, " the inhabitants showed the place where he used to sit when giving a recitation of his verses ; and they greatly honoured the spot. Here also a poplar grew, which they said had sprung up ever since Melesigenes arrived." * But poverty still drove him on, and he went by way of Larissa, as being the most convenient road. Here, the Cumans say. he composed an epitaph on Gordius, king of Phrygia, which has how- ever, and with greater probability, been attributed to Cleobulus of Lindus.5 Arrived at Cumas, he frequented the converzationes ^ of the old men, and delighted all by the charms of his poetry. Encouraged by this favourable reception, he declared that, if they would allow him a pubUc maintenance, he would render their city most gloriously re- 2 EtKos 6e jatv ^v Kat fivrfiJMavva irdvTiiiv ypd(t>e(r9iu. Vit." Horn, in Schweigh. Herodot. t. iv. p. 299, sq. § 6. I may observe that this Life has been paraphrased in Enghsh by my learned young friend, Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie, and appended to my prose translation of the Odyssey. The present abridgment, however, will contain all that is of use to the reader, for the biographical value of the treatise is most insignificant. 3 /,e. both of composing and reciting verses, for, as Blair observes, " The first poets san^ their own verses." Sextus Empir. adv. Mus. p. 360, ed. Fabric. Ou a/xeAei ye rot koX ot TTOMjTal jLteAoirotoI Aeyoi/Tiu, Kal Ta 'OfLrjpav emj to irdKaL Trpds \upal' TJStTO. " The voice," observes Heeren, " was always accompanied by some instrument. The bard was provided with a harp, on which he played a prelude, to elevate and inspire his mind, and with which he accompanied the song when begun. His voice probably preserved a medium between singing and recitation ; the words, andnot the melody, were regarded by the listeners ; hence it was necessary for him to remain intelligible to all. In countries where nothing similar is found, it is diilficult to represent such scenes to the mind ; but whoever has had an opportunity of listening to the improvisatori of Italy, can easily form an idea of Demodocus and Phemiiis." — Ancient Greece, p. 94. * " Should it not be, since ;?y arrival?" asks Mackenzie, observing that, "poplars can hardly live so long." But, setting aside the fact that we must not expect consistency in a mere romance, the ancients had a superstitious belief in the great age of trees which grew near places consecrated by the presence of gods and great men. See Cicero de Legg, ii. i, sub init., wliere he speaks of the plane tree under which Socrates used to wallc, and of the tree at Delos, where Latona gave birth to ApoUo. This passage is referred to by Stephanus of Byzantium, j. v. N. T. p. 490, ed. de Pinedo. I omit quoting any of the dull epigrams ascribed to Homer, for, as Mr. Justice Talfourd rightly observes, "The authenticity of these fragments depends upon that of the pseudo-Herodotean Life of Homer, from which they are taken." Lit. of Greece, pp. 38, in Encyl. Metrop. Cf. Coleridge, Classic Poets, p. 317, 5 It is quoted as the work of CteobuluSj by Diogenes Laert. Vit. Cleob. p. 62, ed. Casaub. 6 I trust I am justified in employing this as an equivalent for the Greek Ac'tjxai. INTRODUCTION. xiii nowned. They avowed their willingness to support him in the measure he proposed, and procured him an audience in the council. Having made the speech, with the purport of which our author has forgotten to acquaint us, he retired, and left them to debate respect- ing the answer to be given to his proposal. The greater part of the assembly seemed favourable to the poet's demand, but one man observed that " if they were to feed Homers, they would be encumbered with a multitude of useless people." " From this circumstance," says the writer, " Melesigenes acquired the name of Homer, for the Cumans call blind men Homers."'' With a love of economy, which shows how similar the world has always been in its treatment of literary men, the pension was denied, and the poet vented his disappointment in a wish that Cumoea might never produce a poet capable of giving it renown and glory. At Phoccea, Homer was destined to experience another literary distress. One Thestorides, who aimed at the reputation of poetical genius, kept Homer in his own house, and allowed him a pittance, on condition of the verses of the poet passing in his name. Having collected sufficient poetry to be profitable, Thestorides, like some would-be-literary publishers, neglected the man whose brains he had sucked, and left him. At his departure, Homer is said to have observed : " O Thestorides, of the many things hidden from the knowledge of man, nothing is more unintelligible than the human heart." « Homer continued his career of difficulty and distress, until some Chian merchants, struck by the similarity of the verses they heard him recite, acquainted him with the fact that Thestorides was pursuing a profitable livelihood by the recital of the very same poems. This at once determined him to set out for Chios. No vessel happened then to be setting sail thither, but he found one ready to 3tart for Erythrse, a town of Ionia, which faces that island, and he prevailed upon the seamen to allow him to accompany them. Having embarked, he invoked a favourable wind, and prayed that he might be able to expose the imposture of Thestorides, who, by his breach of hospitality, had drawn down the wrath of Jove the Hospitable. At Erythras, Homer fortunately met with a person who had known him in Phoccea, by whose assistance he at length, after some difficulty, reached the little hamlet of Pithys. Here he met with an adventure, which we will continue in the words of our author. " Having set out from Pithys, Homer went on, attracted by the cries of some goats that were pasturing. The dogs barked on his approach, and he cried out. Glaucus (for that was the name of the goat-herd) heard his voice, ran up quickly, called off his dogs, and drove them away from Homer. For some time he stood wondering how a blind man should have ^ 'fis et TOu? 'O/AT^pov? So|et Tpe6€pa, " skin," which, according to Herod. 5, 58, was the material employed by the Asiatic Greeks for that purpo .e, that this poem was another offspring of Attic ingenuity ; and generally that the familiar mention of the cock (v. 191) is a strong argument against so ancient a date for its composition." Having thus given a brief account of the poems comprised in Pope's design, I will now proceed to make a few remarks on his translation, and on my own purpose in the present edition. Pope was not a Grecian. His whole education had been irregular, and his earliest acquaintance with the poet was through the version of Ogilby. It is not too much to say that his whole work bears the impress of a disposition to be satisfied with the general sense, rather than to dive deeply into the minute and delicate features of language. Hence his whole work is to be looked upon rather as an elegant paraphrase than a translation. There are, to be sure, certain con- ventional anecdotes, which prove that Pope consulted various friends, whose classical attainments were sounder than his own, during the undertaking ; but it is probable that these examinations were the result rather of the contradictory versions already existing, than of a desire to make a perfect transcript of the original. And in those days, what is called literal translation -was less cultivated than at present. If something like the general sense could be decorated with the easy gracefulness of a practised poet ; if the charms of metrical cadence and a pleasing fluency could be made consistent with a fair interpreta- tion of the poet's meaning, his words were less jealously sought for, and those who could read so good a poem as Pope's Iliad had fair reason to be satisfied. It would be absurd, therefore, to test Pope's translation by our own advancing knowledge of the original text. We must be content to XXX fNTRODUCTION. look at it as a most delightful work in itself, — a work which is as much a part of English literature as Homer himself is of Greek. We must not be torn from our kindly associations with the old Iliad, that once was our most cherished companion, or our most looked-for prize, merely because Buttmann, Loewe, and Liddell have made us so much more accurate as to dii;f ™ b^ Polyb ap At"ien ire, '' hn"'™"""^'' by various authors of credit, ard among the rest There aooear to have \^p^„' T S?'"-''" '° ""^^^ ^=™ "' '" ">= <=°"''"T of the Lotophagi. describe a marked dU? 'T "^"'T'- '•"=='" "^ '°'"^- ''<='=^"== Herodotus and Pliny ^n-mY^^TL^f'^ T'fH °T ''?"S,='" ^?"^"= P'=""' ^h-^e roots and seeds were fn sneikinf^f ih^T -J, i*"! '^""' °'^ \ ^^^^ °" ^^^ '^'"^V "^^' "f Libya. Herod., 4. 177, date^nd f kind nf *'"'" '""l' =^y=.*at 'he fruit is of the size of the mastu, sweet like * found ^ear \hf^lZ\,l'' "fl,^ °^ % Pl-ny 13 17, describes two different kinds, the one the fruFt of fLJTi- f '" EpP'-„*<= f°V"'"^ he describes from Corn. Nepos as the truit of a tree, n^ big as a bean, of a yellow colour, sweet and pleasant to the taste- the mide*from''it"rl^"1 1""''' 'T ""^^l^ °' ?f'''' r-^ ''"'"^ "P f°- f-d '^ kind of wine' was made from it, resembling mead, which would not keep many days..-Barker'rLemprilre. Book IX.] THE ODYSSEY. 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 : 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, N o 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. Each rules his race, his neighbour not his care. Heedless of others, to his own severe. " Opposed to the Cyclopean coast, there lay An isle, whose hills their subject fields survey ; 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. 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. 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 rismg gale. High at the head, from out the cavern'd rock, In living rills a gushing fountain broke : 119 120 THE ODYSSEY. [Book IX. Around it, and above, for ever green. The busy alders form'd a shady scene ; Hither some favouring god, beyond our thought, Through all- surrounding shade our navy brought ; For gloomy night 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. 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 came bounding o'er the lawn : In haste our fellows to the ships repair, 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 roU'd down the light. We sat indulging in the genial rite : Nor wines were wanting ; those from ample jars 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 ; 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. When to the nearest verge of land we drew, Fast by the sea a lonely cave we view, Book IX.] THE ODYSSEY. 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. A form enormous ! far unlike the race Of human birth, in stature, or in face ; 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 fiU'd with precious wine, The gift of Maron of Evantheus' line (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, The hoaiy 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. 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 distinguish'? from the lambkin lies) ; The cavern echoes with responsive cries. Capacious chargers all around were laid. THE ODYSSEY. [Book IX. 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. 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 : 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 aiTord us full repast ; We sit expecting. Lo ! he comes at last. Near half a forest on his back 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, 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 roU'd, and closed the gate (Scarce twenty four-wheel'd cars, compact 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, Then to the mother's teat submits 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 discovered 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 ? 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 : Through various seas, by various perils toss'd, And forced by storms, unwilling on your coast ; Far from our destined course and native land, Such was our fate, and such high Jove's command ! Book IX. 1 THE ODYSSEY. 123 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 ; Victors of late, but humble suppliants now 1 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 . '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 ■• Those air-bred people, and their goat-nursed Jove ; 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 anchored ? 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, Whom angry Neptune, whelm'd beneath the main : The scattered wreck the winds blew back again.' " He answer'd with his deed : his bloody hand Snatch'd two, unhappy ! of my martial band ; 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. 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. •* 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. 124 THE ODYSSEY. [Book IX. To seize the time, and with a sudden wound To fix the slumbering monster to the groui.d, My soul impels me ! and in act I stand To draw the sword ; but wisdom held my hand. 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. 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 : 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 ; 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, 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) ; Then heaving high the stone's unwieldy weight. He roU'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. Book IX.] THE ODYSSEY. 125 I then approach'd him reeking with their gore, And held the brimming goblet foaming o'er ; ' Cyclop ! since human flesh has been thy feast, Now drain this goblet, potent to digest ; 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, ULYSSES GIVING WINE TO POLYPHEMUS. Whoe'er thou art that bear'st celestial wine ! Declare thy name : not mortal is this juice, Such as the unbless'd Cyclopsean chmes 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. His sense lay covered with the dozy fume ; While thus my fraudful speech I reassume. ' Thy promised boon, O Cyclop ! now 1 claim, And plead my title ; Noman is my name.s ! Noman. The original is Utis, that is, in nobody, like Utopia, nowhere. The pun kept up !•: sufficiently obvious. 126 THE ODYSSEy. [Book IX. By that distinguish'd from my tender years, 'Tis what my parents call me, and my peers,' " The giant then : ' Our promis'd 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 Droop'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 (Green as it was) and sparkled fiery red. 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. 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. 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 ? Does any mortal, in the unguarded hour Of sleep, oppress thee, or by fraud or power ? ^OOK IX.] THE ODYSSEY, 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. " 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 : 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 : 'Twas for our lives my labouring bosom virought ; 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. 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 (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. Now far the last, with pensive pace and slow Thou movest, as conscious of thy master's woe ! 127 128 THE ODYSSEY. [Book IX. 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 : Swimg round and round, and dash'd from rock to rock, His battered brains should on the pavement smoke. 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. 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 ; 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. The strong concussion on the heaving tide RoU'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 .'' Already when the dreadful rock he threw, Old Ocean shook, and back his surges flew. Book IX.] THE ODYSSEY. 129 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 ; 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. 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.' " ' 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, 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 ; And when at home from foreign sufferings freed, More near and deep, domestic woes succeed ! ' "With imprecations thus he fiU'd the air. And angry Neptune heard the unrighteous prayer. A larger rock then heaving from the plain, He whirl'd it round = it sung across the main ; I30 THE ODYSSEY. [Book IX. 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 : 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 ; Till evening Phoebus roU'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 feai-s. Glad for the living, for the dead in tears." BOOK X. ARGUMENT. ADVENTURES WITH .lEOLUS, THE L-^STRYGONS, AND CIRCE. Ulysses arrives at the island of .^^olus, who gives him prosperous winds, and incloses the adverse ones in a bag, which his companions untying, they are driven back again and rejected. Then they sail to the Laestrygons, where they lose eleven ships, and, with only one remaining, proceed to the island of Circe. Eurylochus is sent first with some companions, all which, except Eurylochus, are transformed into swine. Ulysses 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. " At length we reach'd folia's sea-girt shore, Where great Hippotades the sceptre bore,' 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 : 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 IHon, 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 blasi For him the mighty sire of gods assign'd The tempest's lood, the tyrant of the wind : His word alone the listening storms obey, ' Hippotades, jEolus. L THE ODYSSEY. [Book X. 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 O, what gift to fools avails ! " Nine prosperous days we plied the labouring oar; 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 jEoIus I brought ? Whilst to his neighbour each express'd his thought : " ' 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 yEolus, ye see, augments his store : But come, my friends, these mystics gifts explore.' They said : and (oh cursed fate !) the thongs unwound ! 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 .^olian coast regain ; Our groan the rocks remurmur'd to the main. 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 : 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 : ' Ulysses here ! what demon could'st thou meet To thwart thy passage, and repel thy fleet ? Wast thou not furnish'd by our choicest care Book X.] THE ODYSSEY. 133 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.' " 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 : Six days and nights a doubtful course we steer. The next proud Lamos' stately towers appear. And Lffistrygonia'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.= " 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 : 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. " From thence we climb'd a point, \yhose 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 ; She to Artacia's silver streams came down (Artacia's streams alone supply the town) : ^ There is much doubt as to the real meaning of this passage. 134 THE ODYSSEY. 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. 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. [Book X. KING OF THE L.ESTRYGONS SEIZING ONE OF THE COMPANIONS OF ULYSSES. " 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 olif the craggy brow And dash the ruins on the ships below : 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 : Book X.] THE ODYSSEY. 135 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 glo\v'd at our success ; But the sad fate that did our friends destroy, Cool'd ever>- breast, and damp'd the rising joy. " Now dropp'd our anchors in the ^rean bay,' \\'here Circe dwelt, the daughter of the Day ! Her mother Perse, of old Ocean's strain, Thus from the Sun descended, and the Main (From the same lineage stem .taetes 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 roU'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 ; To learn if aught of mortal works appear. Or cheerfiil voice of mortal strike the ear ? From the high point I mark'd, in distant \4ew, A stream of curling smoke ascending blue. 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. .As down the hill I solitar\' go. Some power di\'ine, 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, and 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 «nde wound the vital spirit flies. I drew, and casting on the rivers 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 mv load, and press'd the sinking sands With weighty steps, till at the ship I threw ^ --Exan hiiv, so called from iEa, an island of Colchis. Its sitnation i,^ doubtful, some placing it on the western coast of Italy, others off the western coast of Sicily. ,36 THE ODYSSEY. [Book X. The welcome burden, and bespoke my crew : " ' Cheer up, my friends ! it is not yet our fate To ghde 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 roU'd down the light, They sate indulging in the genial rite. When evening rose, and darkness cover'd o'er 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 ! 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. 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 Lsestrygons, the men of blood.* Presaging tears apace began to rain ; 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, •* Lesstrygons. " 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 Phosnicians, Laistrigan, i.e. 'leomardax,' from their barbarous and cruel manners, and identifies them with the Leontini, from a Greek etymology ; the location of the Laestrygones 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 arid 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 Formije ; when once the respective situations of Circe's island and that of jEolus were thought to have been ascertained, it became no very diflicult matter to advance a step further, and, as the La:strygones lay, according to Homer, between those two islands, to make Formiae on the Italian coast a city of that people ; Formia: 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^iat, and to have denoted a good harbour. Mannert. iv. ri," quoted in Barker's Lempriere. Book X.] THE ODYSiEV. 137 And fortune casts Eurylochus to go ; He march'd with twice eleven in his train ; Pensive they march, and pensive we remain. " The palace in a woody vale they found, 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 ; 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 la:bour ! 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 (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, And honey fresh, and Pramnian wines the treat : = 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, And their own voice affrights them when they groan. Meanwhile the goddess in disdain bestows The mast and acorn, brutal food ! and strows The fruits and cornel, as their feast, around ; 3 Pvnmnian wines. These wines were proverbial for their excellence. See Alberti on Hesychius, vol. ii. p. 1015. 1 38 THE ODYSSEY. [Book X. 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 : 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. 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 (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.' " 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.' This said, and scornful turning from the shore My haughty step, I stalk'd the valley o'er. Till now approaching nigh the magic bower. Where dwelt the enchantress skill'd in herbs of power, A form divine forth issued from the wood (Immortal Hermes with the golden rod) 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 .-' Book X.] THE ODYSSEY. 139 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, 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, And menace death : those menaces shall move Her alter'd mind to blandishment and love. Nor shun the blessing profferd 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. " 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,^ But all is easy to the ethereal kind. This Hermes gave, then, gliding off the glade, Shot to Olympus from the woodland shade. While, full of thought, revolving fates to come, 1 speed my passage to the enchanted dome. Arrived, before the lofty gates I stay'd ; The lofty gates the goddess wide display'd : 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 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 Odyssey : — * Amongst the rest a small unsightly root. But of divine effect, he cuU'd me out ; The leaf was dark, and had prickles on it, Bjii in another country, as he said, Bore a bright golden Jlower, hut 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. I40 THE ODYSSEY. [Book X. 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. ' 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 trembHng 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. 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 I 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. 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.' " 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 : With dulcet beverage this the beaker crown'd. Fair in the midst, with gilded cups around ; Book X.] THE ODYSSEY. 141 That in the tripod o'er the Icindled 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 ; Then led and placed me on the sovereign seat, With carpets spread ; a footstool at my feet. The golden ewer a nymph obsequious brings, Replenish'd 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, ULYSSES AT THE TABLE OF CIRCE. They heap the glittering canisters with bread : Viands of various kinds allure the taste, Of choicest sort and savour, rich repast ! 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 : " ' 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 ? ' 142 THE ODYSSEY. [Book X. " 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 quai¥ thy bowls, or riot in thy feasts. Me would'st thou please ? fof them thy cares employ, And them to me restore, and me to joy.' " With that she parted : ia her potent hand She bore the virtue of the magic wand. Then, hastening to the stiess, set wide the door, Urged forth, and drove the bristly herd before ; Unwieldy, out they rush'd with general cry, Enormous beasts, dishonesi to the eye. Now touch'd by counter-charms they change again, And stand majestic, and re-call'd to men. 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 mc, and with eager pace Clung to their master in a long embrace : 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 oii 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.' " 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 : So round hie 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.' Book X.] THE ODYSSEY. 143 " 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. " ' Whither (he cried), ah whither will ye run ? Seek ye to meet those evils ye should shun } 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, 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 " 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. 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 mind 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. 144 THE ODYSSEY. [Book X- And the soul saddens by the use of pain.' " 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 .^ 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 ; 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. And view the realms of darkness and of death. There seek the Theban bard, deprived of sight ; Within, irradiate with prophetic light ; To whom Persephonfe, 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, 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 ? 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. Book X.] THE ODYSSEY. 145 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 roUing from the Stygian bed, 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. 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, 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 fla/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 : The sacred draught shall all the dead forbear. 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 : 146 THE ODYSSEY. [Book X- 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 : 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 stirred 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 : ' 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 ; To earth they fell : the tears began to rain ; But tears in mortal miseries are vain. 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 ? " BOOK XI. ARGUMENT. THE DESCENT INTO HELL. Ulysses continues his narration. How he arrived at the land of the Cimmerians, 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 his fortunes to come. He meets his mother Anticlea, 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 Tityu'^, Tantalus, Sisyphus, Hercules ; till he is deterred from further curiosity by the apparition of horrid spectres, and the cries of the wicked in torments. " Now to the shores we bend, a mournful train, Chmb 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,' 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. " Now sunk the sun from his aerial height, And o'er the shaded 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 ; = 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. " The ship we moor on these obscure abodes ; ' Cimmeria. It seems of little use to hunt for a real geographical situation for the Ciin- M 148 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XL Disbark the sheep, an offering to the gods ; 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. 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. merians of Homer. Some ancient northern nation probably 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 Necyomante'a, 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 previously 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 invention. 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 conception of it, as a whole, to which I would call the attention of the student. The entire narrative is wrapped up in such a mist, — it is so undefined and absolutely undefinable in place, time, and manner, — that it should almost seem as if the uncertainty of the poet's own know- ledge 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 sacri.'ices 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 Tireslas has appeared and drunk his fill. It is difficult to determine 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. jEneas, 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, ivhere the shades of men dwell. Vet, 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 j^neas in the iEneid, 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 an actual descent, makes the evocator a Babylonian and disciple of Zoroaster, 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 observa- tions 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, Eerhaps, does the contrast between the Ulysses of Homer and the Ulysses of the later fable, etween the high-minded fearless adventurer and the mean-spirited insidious manoeuvrer, appear in a more prominent light than in the ^ 7iccrotnancy* The shade of Achilles himself expresses astonishment at the composure with which a solitary mortal wanders, without divine escorr, among scenes of preternatural terror, at which even a living Achilles might have shuddered."— Mure's Homer, p. 402 Book XI.] THE ODYSSEY. " 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 ; 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 ! appeared along the dusky coasts, Thin, airy shoals of visionary ghosts : Fair, pensive youths, and soft enamour'd maids ; And wither'd elders, pale and wrinkled shades ; Ghastly with wounds the forms of warriors slain Stalk'd with majestic port, a martial train : These and a thousand more swarm'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. " 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, unburied lie. Sad at the sight I stand, deep fix'd in woe. And ere I spoke the tears began to flow. " ' 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. 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 ! 149 150 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XI. 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. But if, unheard, in vain compassion plead. Revere the gods, the gods avenge the dead ! 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. Tear follow'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, Regardless of her son the parent stood. " When lo ! the mighty Theban I behold ; ' 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 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. 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 ! ^ The mighty Theban. Tiresias. BOOK XL] THE ODYSSEY. 151 Where on Trinacrian rocks the ocean roars,'' 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 vfith his extensive eye. Above, below, on earth, and in the sky ! Rob not the god ; and so propitious gales 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 I Strangers thy guides ! 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 The deathful scene, princes on princes roUd ' 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, 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 hfe 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 ; 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 ? 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. The scenes of life recur, and actions past : They, seal'd with truth, return the sure reply ■ * Trinacrian, t.e. three-pointed, an epithet apphed to Sicily from its form. 152 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XI. 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, The dolesome realms of darkness and of death .'' Comest thou alive from pure, ethereal day .'' Dire is the region, dismal is the way ! Here 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 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 iTiy sire, good old Laertes, lives ? 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 : Whether the night descends or day prevails, 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 grea 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, Rank'd with his slaves, on earth the monarch lies : Deep are his sighs, his visage pale, his dress Book XI.] THE ODYSSEY. 153 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 ; 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 srtove her shade to bind, Thrice through my arms she slipp'd like empty wind. Or dreams, the vain illusions of the mind. 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 ! 'Tis not the queen of hell who thee deceives ; All, all are such, when life the body leaves : 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 v/ay, And climb the steep ascent to upper day : 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 flash'd along the gloom, withdrew ; Then shade to shade in mutual forms succeeds. Her race recounts, and their illustrious deeds. " Tyro began, whom great Salmoneus bred ; s 5 Tyro was the daughter of Salmoneus, king of ^Hs. Being harshly treated by her step- mother, Sidero, she left her father's house, and became enamoured of the river £nipeu!>. 154 "^HE ODYSSEY. [Book XI. 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 : 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 ; Thy early care the future worthies claim, To point them to the arduous paths of fame ; But in thy breast 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, but 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 ; 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 .lEson bred : From the same fountain Amythaon rose, Pleased with the din of war, and noble shout of foes. " There moved Antiopfe, 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 ; 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 rush'd 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,'* And soften'd his stern soul to tender love. " Sullen and sour, with discontented mien, NeDtune, by assuming the form of her favoured lover, gained her affections, and by him slie had two sons, Pelias and Neleus. She subsecjuently married her uncle Cretheus. 6 Megara^ the wife of Hercules, slain by hiui during his madness. Book XI.] THE ODYSSEY. 155 Jocasta frown'd, the incestuous Theban queen ; ^ 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. " And now the beauteous Chloris I descry, A lovely shade, Amphion's youngest joy ! 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. 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 ; The foe at last from durance where he lay, His heart revering, give him back to day ; Won by prophetic knowledge, to fulfil The stedfast 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,^ ' Jocasta, mother and wife of ffidipus. s By turns, " Another very remarkable feature of diptinction in the Odyssey is the ap- pearance, for the first time, of the system of apotheosis of aclinowledged mortals ; a doctrine whichbecame strictly orthodox in later ages, and remained so until the establishment of Christianity, but of which no traces whatever are perceptible in the Iliad. This is so singular an innovation, that it deserves very particular attention, and may seem almost to demonstrate the fact of a considerable lapse of time from the composition of the elder poem. In the Iliad, Castor and Pollux are mentioned in the ordinary language denoting common death and burial, and no more. In the Odyssey we have the account of their alternate resuscitation, which finally became the pcpular fable." — Coleridge, p. 236, seq. 156 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XI. And live alternate, and alternate die : In hell beneath, on earth, in heaven above, Reign the twin-gods, the favourite sons of Jove. " There Ephimedia trod the gloomy plain. Who charm'd the monarch of the boundless main : Hence Ephialtes, hence stern Otus sprung, More fierce than giants, more than giants strong ; The earth o'erburden'd groan'd beneath their weight. None but Orion e'er surpass'd their height : The wondrous youths had scarce nine winters told, When high in air, tremendous to behold, Nine ells aloft they rear'd their towering head, And full nine cubits broad their shoulders spread. Proud of their strength, and more than mortal size, The gods they challenge, and affect the skies : Heaved on Olympus tottering Ossa stood ; On Ossa, Pelion nods with all his wood. Such were they youths ! had they to manhood grown Almighty Jove had trembled on his throne : But ere the harvest of the beard began To bristle on the chin, and promise man. His shafts Apollo aim'd ; at once they sound. And stretch the giant monsters o'er the ground. " There mournful Phaedra with sad Procris moves. Both beauteous shades, both hapless in their loves ; And near them walli'd, with solemn pace and slow. Sad Adriadne, partner of their woe : The royal Minos Ariadne bred, She Theseus loved, from Crete with Theseus fled : Swift to the Dian isle the hero flies, And towards his Athens bears the lovely prize ; There Bacchus with fierce rage Diana fires. The goddess aims her shaft, the nymph expires. " There Clymenfe and Mera I behold. There Eriphylfe weeps, who loosely sold Her lord, her honour, for the lust of gold. But should I all recount, the night would fail. Unequal to the melancholy tale : And all-composing rest my nature craves. Here in the court, or yonder on the waves ; In you I trust, and in the heavenly powers. To land Ulysses on his native shores." He ceased ; but left so charming on their ear His voice, that listening still they seem'd to hear. Till, rising up, Aretfe silence broke, Stretch'd out her snowy hand, and thus she spoke : " What wondrous man heaven sends us in our guest ; Through all his woes the hero shines confess'd ; His comely port, his ample frame express A manly air, majestic in distress. Book XI.] THE ODYSSEY. i^y He, as my guest, is my peculiar care : You share the pleasure, then in bounty share To worth in misery a reverence pay. And with a generous hand reward his stay ; For since kind heaven with wealth our realm has bless'd, Give it to heaven by aiding the distress'd." Then sage Echeneus, whose grave reverend brow The hand of time had silvered o'er with snow, Mature in wisdom rose : " Your words, (he cries) Demand obedience, for your words are wise. But let our king direct the glorious way To generous acts ; our part is to obey." " While life informs these limbs (the king replied), Well to deserve, be all my cares employed : But here this night the royal guest detain. Till the sun flames along the ethereal plain. Be it my task to send with ample stores The stranger from our hospitable shores : Tread you my steps ! 'Tis mine to lead the race, The first in glory, as the first in place." To whom the prince : " This night with joy I stay « O monarch great in virtue as in sway ! If thou the circling year my stay control, To raise a bounty noble as thy soul ; The circling year I wait, with ampler stores And fitter pomp to hail my native shores : Then by my realms due homage would be paid ; For wealthy kings are loyally obey'd ! " " O king ! for such thou art, and sure thy blood Through veins (he cried) of royal fathers flow'd . Unlike those vagrants who on falsehood live, Skill'd in smooth tales, and artful to deceive ; Thy better soul abhors the liar's part. Wise is thy voice, and noble is thy heart. Thy words like music every breast control. Steal through the ear, and win upon the soul ; Soft, as some song divine, thy story flows, Nor better could the Muse record thy woes. " But say, upon the dark and dismal coast, Saw'st thou the worthies of the Grecian host ? The godlike leaders who, in battle slain. Fell before Troy, and nobly press'd the plain ? And lo ! a length of night behind remains. The evening stars still mount the ethereal plains. Thy tale with raptures I could hear thee tell, Thy woes on earth, the wondrous scenes in hell. Till in the vault of heaven the stars decay. And the sky reddens with the rising day." " O worthy of the power the gods assign'd (Ulysses thus replies), a king in mind : 158 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XI. Since yet the early hour of night allows Time for discourse, and time for soft repose, If scenes of misery can entertain, Woes I unfold, of woes a dismal train. Prepare to hear of murder and of blood ; Of godlike heroes who uninjured stood Amidst a war of spears in foreign lands, Yet bled at home, and bled by female hands. " Now summon'd Proserpine to hell's black hall The heroine shades : they vanish'd at her call. When lo ! advanced the forms of heroes slain By stern .lEgysthus, a majestic train : And, high above the rest, Atrides press'd the plain. He quaff 'd the gore ; and straight his soldier knew. And from his eyes pour'd down the tender dew : His arms he stretch'd ; his arms the touch deceive, Nor in the fond embrace, embraces give : His substance vanish'd, and his strength decay'd, Now all Atrides is an empty shade. " Moved at the sight, I for a space resign'd To soft affliction all my manly mind ; At last with tears : ' O what relentless doom. Imperial phantom, bow'd thee to the tomb ? Say while the sea, and while the tempest raves, Has Fate oppress'd thee in the roaring waves, Or nobly seized thee in the dire alarms Of war and slaughter, and the clash of arms ?' " The ghost returns : ' O chief of humankind For active courage and a patient mind ; Nor while the sea, nor while the tempest raves, Has Fate oppress'd me on the roaring waves ! Nor nobly seized me in the dire alarms Of war and slaughter, and the clash of arms. Stabb'd by a murderous hand Atrides died, A foul adulterer, and a faithless bride ; E'en in my mirth, and at the friendly feast. O'er the full bowl, the traitor stabb'd his guest ; Thus by the gory arm of slaughter falls The stately ox, and bleeds within the stalls. But not with me the direful murder ends, These, these expired ! their crime, they were my friends : Thick as the boars, which some luxurious lord Kills for the feast, to crown the nuptial board. When war has thunder'd with its loudest storms. Death thou hast seen in all her ghastly forms ; In duel met her on the listed ground. When hand to hand they wound return for wound ; But never have thy eyes astonish'd view'd So vile a deed, so dire a scene of blood. E'en in the flow of io^, when now the bowl Book XI.] THE ODYSSEY. Glows in our veins, and opens every soul, We groan, we faint ; with blood the dome is dyed, And o'er the pavement floats the dreadful tide— Her breast all gore, with lamentable cries, The bleeding innocent Cassandra dies ! Then though pale death froze cold in every vein. My sword I strive to wield, but strive in vain ; lor did my traitress wife these eyelids close, Or decently in death my limbs compose. O woman, woman, when to ill thy mind Is bent, all hell contains no fouler fiend : And such was mine ! who basely plunged her sword Through the fond bosom where she reign'd adored ! Alas ! I hoped, the toils of war o'ercome, To meet soft quiet and repose at home ; Delusive hope ! O wife, thy deeds disgrace The perjured sex, and blacken all the race ; And should posterity one virtuous find. Name Clytemnestra, they will curse the kind.' " Oh injured shade, (I cried,) what mighty woes To thy imperial race from woman rose ! By woman here thou tread'st this mournful strand, And Greece by woman lies a desert land.' " ' Warn'd by my ills beware, (the shade replies,) Nor trust the sex that is so rarely wise : When earnest to explore thy secret breast, Unfold some trifle, but conceal the rest. But in thy consort cease to fear a foe. For thee she feels sincerity of woe : When Troy first bled beneath the Grecian arms, She shone unrivall'd with a blaze of charms ; Thy infant son her fragrant bosom press'd, Hung at her knee, or wanton'd at her breast ; But now the years a numerous train have ran : The blooming boy is ripen'd into man : Thy eyes shall see him burn with noble fire, The sire shall bless his son, the son his sire : But my Orestes never met these eyes. Without one look the murder'd father dies ; Then from a wretched friend this wisdom learn. E'en to thy queen disguised, unknown, return ; For since of womankind so few are just. Think all are false, nor e'en the faithful trust. " ' But say, resides my son in royal port, In rich Orchomenos, or Sparta's court .'' Or say in Pyle ? for yet he views the light, Nor glides a phantom through the realms of night.' ' Then I : ' Thy suit is vain, nor can I say If yet he breathes in realms of cheerful day ; Or pale or wan beholds these nether skies : 159 i6o THE ODYSSEY. [Book XL Truth I revere, for wisdom never lies.' " Thus in a tide of tears our sorrows flow, And add new horror to the realms of woe ; Till side by side along the dreary coast Advanced Achilles' and Patroclus' ghost, A friendly pair ! near these the Pylian stray'd,' And towering Ajax, an illustrious shade ! War was his joy, and pleased with loud alarms, None but Pelides brighter shone in arms. " Through the thick gloom his friend Achilles knew, And as he speaks the tears descend in dew. " ' Comest thou alive to view the Stygian bounds. Where the wan spectres walk eternal rounds ; Nor fear'st the dark and dismal waste to tread, Throng'd with pale ghosts, familiar with the dead ">. ' " To whom with sighs : ' I pass these dreadful gates To seek the Theban, and consult the Fates : For still, distress'd, I rove from coast to coast. Lost to- my friends, and to my country lost. But sure the eye of Time beholds no name So bless'd as thine in all the rolls of fame ; Alive we hail'd thee with our guardian gods. And dead thou rulest a king in these abodes.' " ' Talk not of ruling in this dolorous gloom, Nor think vain words (he cried) can ease my doom. Rather I'd choose laboriously to bear A weight of woes, and breathe the vital air, A slave to some poor hind that toils for bread, Than reign the sceptred monarch of the dead." But say, if in my steps my son proceeds. And emulates his' godlike father's deeds ? I f at the clash of arms, and shout of foes. Swells his bold heart, his bosom nobly glows ? Say if my sire, the reverend Peleus, reigns. Great in his Phthia, and his throne maintains ; Or, weak and old, my youthful arm demands, To fix the sceptre stedfast in his hands ? O might the lamp of life rekindled burn, 9 Antilochus. 10 "The whole of the Necyomanteia is remarkable for the drearj' and even terrible revela- tions which it makes of the condition of the future life. All is cold and darli ; hunger and thirst and discontent prevail ; we hear nothing of Elysian fields for piety, or wisdom, or valour : and there is something quite deadening m the answer of the shade of Achilles to the consolation of Ulysses. This is one of the passages \\-hich called down the censure of Plaio ; and, indeed, how cheering a contrast to this gloomy picture is presented by the gentle and pious imagination of Pindar ! — " 'Thee to the Elysian plain, earth's farthest end, M'here Rhadamanthus dwells, the gods shall send : Where mortals easiest pass the careless hour ; No lingering winters there, nor snow nor shower ; But ocean ever, to refresh mankind. Breathes the shrill spirit of t^e western wind.'" " Moore'i. Translation." — Coleridge, p. 241, seq. Book XI.] THE ODYSSEY. i63 And death release me from the silent urn ! This arm, that thunder'd o'er the Phrygian plain, And sweli'd the ground with mountains of the slain, Should vindicate my injured father's fame, Crush the proud rebel, and assert his claim.' " ' Illustrious shade (I cried), of Peleus' fates No circumstance the voice of Fame relates : But hear with pleased attention the renown. The wars and wisdom of thy gallant son. With me from Scyros to the field of fame Radiant in arms the blooming hero came. When Greece assembled all her hundred states. To ripen counsels, and decide debates, Heavens ! how he charm'd us with a flow of sense, And won the heart with manly eloquence ! He first was seen of all the peers to rise. The third in wisdom, where they all were wise ! But when, to try the fortune of the day, Host moved toward host in terrible array, Before the van, impatient for the fight. With martial port he strode, and stern delight : Heaps strew'd on heaps beneath his falchion groan'd, And monuments of dead deform'd the ground. The time would fail should I in order tell What foes were vanquish'd, and what numbers fell : How, lost through love, Eurypylus was slain. And round him bled his bold Cetaan train. To Troy no hero came of nobler line. Or if of nobler, Memnon, it was thine. " When Ilion in the horse received her doom. And unseen armies ambush'd in its womb, Greece gave her latent warriors to my care, 'Twas mine on Troy to pour the imprison'd war : Then when the boldest bosom beat with fear. When the stern eyes of heroes dropp'd a tear. Fierce in his look his ardent valour glow'd, Flush'd in his cheek, or sallied in his blood ; Indignant in the dark recess he stands. Pants for the battle, and the war demands : His voice breathed death, and with a martial air He grasp'd his sword, and shook his glittering spear. And when the gods our arms with conquest crown'd, When Troy's proud bulwarks smoked upon the ground, Greece, to reward her soldier's gallant toils, Heap'd high his navy with unnumber'd spoils. " Thus great in glory, from the din of war Safe he return'd, without one hostile scar ; Though spears in iron tempests rain'd around. Yet innocent they play'd, and guiltless of a wound.' " While yet I spoke, the shade with transport glow'd. i62 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XI. Rose in his majesty, and nobler trod ; With haughty stalk he sought the distant glades Of warrior kings, and join'd the illustrious shades. " Now without number ghost by ghost arose, All wailing with unutterable woes. Alone, apart, in discontented mood, A gloomy shade, the sullen Ajax stood ; For ever sad, with proud disdain he pined, And the lost arms for ever stung his mind ; Though to the contest Thetis gave the laws. And Pallas, by the Trojans, judged the cause. O why was I victorious in the strife ? O dear-bought honour with so brave a life ! With him the strength of war, the soldier's pride, Our second hope to great Achilles, died ! Touch'd at the sight from tears I scarce refrain. And tender sorrow thrills in every vein ; Pensive and sad I stand, at length accost With accents mild the inexorable ghost ; ' Still burns thy rage ? and can brave souls resent E'en after death .? Relent, great shade, relent ! Perish those arms which by the gods' decree Accursed our army with the loss of thee ! With thee we fell ; Greece wept thy hapless fates. And shook astonish'd through her hundred states ; Not more,'when great Achilles press'd the ground. And breathed his manly spirit through the wound. O deem thy fall not owed to man's decree, Jove hated Greece, and punish'd Greece in thee ! Turn then, oh peaceful turn, thy wrath control, And calm the raging tempest of thy soul.' " While yet I speak, the shade disdains to stay. In silence turns, and sullen stalks away. " Touch'd at his sour retreat, through deepest night, Through hell's black bounds I had pursued his flight, And forced the stubborn spectre to reply ; But wondrous visions drew my curious eye. High on a throne, tremendous to behold. Stern Minos waves a mace of burnish'd gold ; Around ten thousand thousand spectres stand Through the wide dome of Dis, a trembling band. Still as they plead, the fatal lots he rolls. Absolves the just, and dooms the guilty souls. " The huge Orion, of portentous size, Swift through the gloom a giant-hunter flies : A ponderous mace of brass with direful sway Aloft he whirls, to crush the savage prey ! Stern beasts in trains that by his truncheon fell, Now grisly forms, shoot o'er the lawns of hell. Book XL] THE ODYSSEY. 163 " There Tityus large and long, in fetters bound," O'erspreads nine acres of infernal ground ; Two ravenous vultures, furious for their food, Scream o'er the fiend, and riot in his blood, Incessant gore the liver in his breast, The immortal liver grows, and gives the immortal feast. For as o'er Panopfe's enamell'd plains Latona journey'd to the Pythian fanes. With haughty love the audacious monster strove To force the goddess, and to rival Jove. " There Tantalus along the Stygian bounds Pours out deep groans (with groans all hell resounds) ; E'en in the circling floods refreshment craves, And pines with thirst amidst a sea of waves ; When to the water he his lips applies. Back from his lip the treacherous water flies. Above, beneath, around his hapless head, Trees of all kinds delicious fruitage spread ; There figs, sky-dyed, a purple hue disclose, Green looks the olive, the pomegranate glows ; There dangling pears exalting scents unfold. And yellow apples ripen into gold ; The fruit he strives to seize : but blasts arise, Toss it on high, and whirl it to the skies. " I turn'd my eye, and as I turn'd survey'd A mournful vision ! the Sisyphian shade : With many a weary step, and many a groan, Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone ; " The huge round stone, resulting with a bound. Thunders impetuous down, and smokes along the ground. Again the restless orb his toil renews. Dust mounts in clouds, and sweat descends in dews. " Now I the strength of Hercules behold,'^ A towering spectre of gigantic mould, A shadowy form ! for high in heaven's abodes Himself resides, a god among the gods : There, in the bright assemblies of the skies, He nectar quaffs, and Heb6 crowns his joys. Here hovering ghosts, like fowl, his shade surround, And clang their pinions with terrific sound ; Gloomy as night he stands, in act to throw The aerial arrow from the twanging bow. Around his breast a wondrous zone is roU'd, i^ Tityus, the son of Terra, or, according to some accounts, of Jupiter, by Elara, daughter of Orchomenus. He attempted to offer violence to Latona, but was shot dead by her children, and punished in hell in the manner which Homer here describes. ^^ Up th^ high hill, &c. The metrical beauty of these lines, in expressing the difficult ascent and rapid fall of the stone, has been repeatedly noticed. ^3 Hercules. " So in that uncommonly splendid passage in the Necyomanteia which has been called spurious, wheie Ulysses sees Hercules, the apotheosis of the hero is expressly mentioned, and the inconceivable distinction between the Idolon and the Self of the translated mortal is laid down.'*-^Coleridge, p. 237. N i64 THE ODYSSEY. Where woodland monsters grin in fretted gold : There sullen lions sternly seem to roar, The bear to growl, to foam the tusky boar ; There war and havoc and destruction stood, And vengeful murder red with human blood. Thus terribly adorn'd the figures shine, Inimitably wrought with skill divine. The mighty ghost advanced with awful look, And, turning his grim visage, sternly spoke : " ' O exercised in grief ! by arts refined : O taught to bear the wrongs of base mankind ! Such, such was I ! still toss'd from care to care, While in your world I drew the vital air ! E'en I, who from the Lord of Thunders rose, Bore toils and dangers, and a weight of woes : [Book XI, ULYSSES TERRIFIED BY THE GHOSTS. To a base monarch still a slave confined, (The hardest bondage to a generous mind !) Down to these worlds I trod the dismal way, And dragg'd the three-mouth'd dog to upper day E'en hell I conquer'd, through the friendly aid Of Maia's offspring, and the martial maid.' '■• " Thus he, nor deign'd for our reply to stay, But, turning, stalk'd with giant- strides away. " Curious to view the kings of ancient days, The mighty dead that live in endless praise. Resolved I stand ; and haply had survey'd The godlike Theseus, and Pirithous' shade ; But swarms of spectres rose from deepest hell, '4 Maia's offspring. Mercury. Book XI.] THE ODYSSEY. i6S With bloodless visage, and with hideous yell. They scream, they shriek ; and groans and dismal sounds Stun my scared ears, and pierce hell's utmost bounds. No more my heart the dismal din sustains, And my cold blood hangs shivering in my veins ; Lest Gorgon, rising from the infernal lakes, With horrors arm'd, and curls of hissing snakes, Should fix me stiffen'd at the monstrous sight, A stony image, in eternal night ! Straight from the direful coast to purer air I speed my flight, and to my mates repair. My mates ascend the ship ; they strike their oars ; The mountains lessen, and retreat the shores ; Swift o'er the waves we fly ; the freshening gales Sing through the shrouds, and stretch the swelhng sails." BOWS AND QUIVERS. BOOK XII. ARGUMENT. THE SIEENS, SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS. He relates how, after his return from the shades, he was sent by Circe on his voyage, by the coast of the Sirens, and by the strait of Scylla and Charybdis : the manner in which he escaped those dangers : how, being cast on the island Trinacria, his companions destroyed the oxen of the Sun ; the vengeance that followed ; how all perished by shipwreck except himself, who, swimming on the mast of the ship, arrived on the island of Calypso. With which his narration concludes. " Thus o'er the rolling surge the vessel flies, Till from the waves the JExan hills arise. Here the gay Morn resides in radiant bowers, Here keeps her revels with the dancing Hours ; Here Phcebus, rising in the ethereal way, Book XII.] THE ODYSSEY. 167 Through heaven's bright portals pours the beamy day. At once we fix our halsers on the land, At once descend, and press the desert sand ; There, worn and wasted, lose our cares in sleep, To the hoarse murmurs of the rolling deep. " Soon as the morn restored the day, we paid Sepulchral honours to Elpenor's shade. Now by the axe the rushing forest bends, And the huge pile along the shore ascends. Around we stand, a melancholy train, And a loud groan re-echoes from the main. Fierce o'er the pyre, by fanning breezes spread, The hungry flames devour the silent dead. A rising tomb, the silent dead to grace, Fast by the roarings of the main we place ; The rising tomb a lofty column bore, And high above it rose the tapering oar. " Meantime the goddess our return survey'd From the pale ghosts and hell's tremendous shade. Swift she descends : a train of nymphs divine Bear the rich viands and the generous wine : In act to speak the power of magic stands, And graceful thus accosts the listening bands : " ' O sons of woe ! decreed by adverse fates Alive to pass through hell's eternal gates ! All, soon or late, are doom'd that path to tread ; More wretched you ! twice number'd with the dead ! This day adjourn your cares, exalt your souls. Indulge the taste, and drain the sparkling bowls ; And when the morn unveils her saffron ray, Spread your broad sails, and plough the liquid way : Lo, I this night, your faithful guide, explain Your woes by land, your dangers on the main.' " The goddess spoke. In feasts we waste the day. Till Phoebus downward plunged his burning ray ; Then sable night ascends, and balmy rest Seals every eye, and calms the troubled breast. Then curious she commands me to relate The dreadful scenes of Pluto's dreary state. She sat in silence while the tale I tell, The wondrous visions and the laws of hell. " Then thus : ' The lot of man the gods dispose ; These iUs are past : now hear thy future woes. O prince attend ; some favouring power be kind. And print the important story on thy mind ! " ' Next, where the Sirens dwell, you plough the seas ; Their song is death, and makes destruction please. Unblest the man, whom music wins to stay Nigh the cursed shore, and listen to the lay. No more that wretch shall view the joys of life, 1 68 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XII. His blooming offspring, or his beauteous wife ! In verdant meads they sport ; and wide around Lie human bones that whiten all the ground : The ground polluted floats with human gore. And human carnage taints the dreadful shore. Fly swift the dangerous coast ; let every ear Be stopp'd against the song ! 'tis death to hear ! Firm to the mast with chains thyself be bound. Nor trust thy virtue to the enchanting sound. If, mad with transport, freedom thou demand, Be every fetter strain'd, and added band to band. " ' These seas o'erpass'd, be wise ! but I refrain To mark distinct thy voyage o'er the main : New horrors rise ! let prudence be thy guide. And guard thy various passage through the tide. " ' High o'er the main two rocks exalt their brow,' The boiling billows thundering roll below ; Through the vast waves the dreadful wonders move, Hence named Erratic by the gods above. No bird of air, no dove of swiftest wing, That bears ambrosia to the ethereal king, Shuns the dire rocks : in vain she cuts the skies ; The dire rocks meet, and crush her as she flies : Not the fleet bark, when prosperous breezes play, Ploughs o'er that roaring surge its desperate way - O'erwhelm'd it sinks : while round a smoke expires. And the waves flashing seem to burn with fires. Scarce the famed Argo pass'd these raging floods, The sacred Argo, fiU'd with demigods ! E'en she had sunk, but Jove's imperial bride Wing'd her fleet sail, and push'd her o'er the tide. " ' High in the air the rock its summit shrouds In brooding tempests, and in rolling clouds ; Loud storms around, and mists eternal rise. Beat its bleak brow, and intercept the skies. When all the broad expansion, bright with day, Glows with the autumnal or the summer ray, The summer and the autumn glow in vain. The sky for ever lowers, for ever clouds remain. Impervious to the step of man it stands, Though borne by twenty feet, though arm'd with twenty hands ; Smooth as the polish of the mirror rise The slippery sides, and shoot into the skies. Full in the centre of this rock displa/d, A yawning cavern casts a dreadful shade : I Two rocks. The Symple^des are meant ; two small, rugged islands at the entrance of the Euxine ; one near the European, the other near the Asiatic side. It was anciently supposed that these islands floated about, and sometimes united in order to crush the vessels which chanced at the time to be passing through the straits. It is also said (Pindar, Pyth. iv.), that they were endued with animation, and moved to and fro, more rapidly than the wind, until their death was achieved by the successful passage of the Aigo between them. Book XII.] THE ODYSSEY. 169 Nor the fleet arrow from the twanging bow, Sent with full force, could reach the depth below. Wide to the west the horrid gulf extends, And the dire passage down to hell descends. O fly the dreadful sight ! expand thy sails, Ply the strong oar, and catch the nimble gales ; Here Scylla' bellows from the dire abodes," Tremendous pest, abhorr'd by man and gods ! Hideous her voice, and with less terrors roar The whelps of lions in the midnight hour. Twelve feet, deform'd and foul, the fiend dispreads ; Six horrid necks she rears, and six terrific heads ; Her jaws grin dreadful with three rows of teeth j Jaggy they stand, the gaping den of death ; Her parts obscene the raging billows hide ; Her bosom terribly o'er looks the tide. When stung with hunger she embroils the flood. The sea-dog and the dolphin are her food ; She makes the huge leviathan her prey. And all the monsters of the watery way ; The swiftest racer of the azure plain Here fills her sails, and spreads her oars in vain ; Fell Scylla rises, in her fury roars. At once six mouths expands, at once six men devours. " ' Close by, a rock of less enormous height Breaks the wild waves, and forms a dangerous strait ; Full on its crown a fig's green branches rise, And shoot a leafy forest to the skies ; Beneath, Charybdis holds her boisterous reign 'Midst roaring whirlpools, and absorbs the main ; Thrice in her gulfs the boiling seas subside. Thrice in dire thunders she refunds the tide. Oh, if thy vessel plough the direful waves, When seas retreating roar within her caves. Ye perish all ! though he who rules the main Lends his strong aid, his aid he lends in vain. Ah, shun the horrid gulf ! by Scylla fly. 'Tis better six to lose, than all to die.' '• I then : ' O nymph propitious to my prayer, Goddess divine, my guardian power, declare. Is the foul fiend from human vengeance freed .'' Or, if I rise in arms, can Scylla bleed?' " Then she : ' O worn by toils, O broke in fight, StiU are new toils and war thy dire delight ? ^ Scylla^ daughter of Typho, or Phorcys. was beloved by Glaucus, one of the sea deities, whose addresses she scorned. He applied to Circe, wishing to obtain a love potion calculated to ensure her affections, but Circe herself fell in love with the god, and poured some poisons into the water in which Scylla bathed. No sooner had the nymph touched the place, than the horrid transformation described by Homer took place ; in despair she flung herself into the sea_, between the coasts of Italy and Sicily, where she was changed into a mass of rocks, which, like the opposite whirlpool of Charybdis, were greatly dreaded by sailors. 170 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XII. Will martial flames for ever fire thy mind, And never, never be to Heaven resign'd ? How vain thy efforts to avenge the wrong ! Deathless the pest ! impenetrably strong ! Furious and fell, tremendous to behold ! E'en with a look she withers all the bold ! She mocks the weak attempts of human might : Oh, fly her rage ! thy conquest is thy flight. If iDut to seize thy arms thou make delay, Again thy fury vindicates her prey ; Her six mouths yawn, and six are snatch'd away. From her foul wound Crataeis 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 Phaethusa young, From Phoebus and the bright Neasra 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 hands 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 ceased : and now arose the morning ray ; Swift to her dome the goddess held her way. Then to my mates I measured 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 swelhng 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, Ije wise ! " ' In flower' meads the sportive Sirens play, Book XII.] THE ODYSSEY. iTi 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. Be every fetter strain'd, be 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 to sleep. Now every sail we furl, each oar we ply : 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 : THE SIRENS. The aerial region now grew warm with day, The wax dissolved beneath the burning ray ; Then every ear I barr'd against the strain. And from access of frenzy lock'd the brain. Now round the masts 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 choir descries ; Celestial music warbles from their tongue, And thus the sweet deluders tune the song : 172 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XII "'Oh stay, O pride of Greece ! Ulysses stay ! Oh cease thy course, and hsten 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 Achieved at Ilion 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 ; 1 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, djdng off, the distant sounds decay : Then scudding swiftly from the dangerous ground, The deafen'd ear unlock'd, the chains unbound. " Now aU at once tremendous scenes unfold ; Thunder'd the deeps, the smoky billows roll'd I Tumultuous waves embroil the bellowing flood, AU trembling, deafen'd, and aghast we stood ! No more the vessel plough'd the dreadful wave. Fear seized the mighty, and unnerved the brave ; Each dropp'd his oar : but swift from man to man With looks serene I turn'd, and thus began : ' O friends ! O often tried in adverse storms ! 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 suppress'd ; 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 guttering javelins lighten in my hand ; Book XII.] THE ODYSSEY. m Prepared 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 roU'd ; In vain ! the dismal dungeon, dark as night, Veils 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 horror 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 the aerial plain, And high above the rock she spouts the main : When in her gulfs the rushing sea subsides, She drains the ocean with the refluent tides : The rock re-bellows 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 outstretch'd arms implore : In vain they call ! those arms are stretch'd no more. 174 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XII. As from some rock that overhangs the flood The silent fisher casts the insidious food, With fraudful care he waits the finny prize, And sudden hfts 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 chums 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 t'nunder 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 conve/d The words of Circe and the Theban shade ; Warn'd by their awful voice these shores to shun, With cautious fears oppress'd I thus begun : " ' O friends ! O ever exercised in care ! Hear Heaven's commands, and reverence what ye hear ! To fly these shores the prescient Theban shade And Circe warn ! Oh be their voice obe/d : Some mighty woe relentless Heaven forebodes : Fly these dire regions, and revere the gods ! ' " While yet I spoke, a sudden sorrow ran Through every breast, and spread from man to man, Till wrathful thus Eurylochus began : " ' 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 cruel, 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 terrors 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, I'hough 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 Book XII.] THE ODYSSEY. 175 Sheds her bright beam, pursue the destined way.' A sudden joy in every bosom rose : So will'd some demon, minister of woes ! " To whom with grief : ' O swift to be undone ! Constrain'd I act what wisdom bids me shun. But yonder herbs 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 gurgUng waters play. They rush to land, and end in feasts the day : They feed ; they quaff ; and now (their hunger fled) 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 advanced 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 ethereal 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 raged : 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 main. Thus careful I address'd the listening train : " ' 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 awed : Holy the flocks, and dreadful is the god ! That god who spreads the radiant beams of light, And views wide earth and heaven's unmeasured 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 touch the flowery plain : Then fail'd our food : then fish we make our prey, Or fowl that screaming haunt the watery way. Till now from sea or flood no succour found, Famine and meagre want besieged 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 implore, To calm the roarings of the stormy main. 176 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XII. And guide me peaceful to my realms again. Then o'er my eyes the gods soft slumbers 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 a slow decay Pale hunger wastes the manly strength away. Why cease ye then to implore the powers above. And offer hecatombs to thundering Jove ? Why seize ye not yon beeves, and fleecy prey 1 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 supplied. " With prayer they now address the ethereal train, Slay the selected beeves, and flay the slain : The thighs, with fat involved, divide with art, Strew'd o'er with morsels cut from every part. Water, instead of wine, is brought in urns. And pour'd profanely as the victim burns. The thighs thus offei"'d, and the entrails dress'd, They roast the fragments, and prepare the feast. " 'Twas then soft slumber fled my troubled brain : Back to the bark I speed along the main. When lo ! an odour from the feast exhales. Spreads o'er the coast, and scents the tainted gales ; A chilly fear congeal'd my vital blood. And thus, obtesting Heaven, I mourn'd aloud : '" O sire of men and gods, immortal Jove ! O all ye blissful powers that reign above ! Why were my cares beguiled in short repose .' O fatal slumljer, paid with lasting woes ! A deed so dreadful all the gods alarms, Vengeance is on the wing, and Heaven in arms ! ' " Meantime Lampetie mounts the aerial way,3 And kindles into rage the god of day : " ' Vengeance, ye powers (he cries), and thou whose hand Aims the red bolt, and hurls the writhen brand ! Slain are those herds which I with pride survey, When through the ports of heaven I pour the day, 3 Lampetie was the daughter of Apollo and Nesera, the guardian of the sacred flocks. Book XII.] THE ODYSSEY. 177 Or deep in ocean plunge the burning ray. Vengeance, ye gods ! or I the skies forego. And bear the lamp of heaven to shades below.' " To whom the thundering Power : ' O source of day ! Whose radiant lamp adorns the azure way, Still may thy beams through heaven's bright portal rise, The joy of earth, the glory of the skies : Lo ! my red arm I bare, my thunders guide, . To dash the offenders in the whelming tide.' " To fair Calypso, from the bright abodes, Hermes convey'd these counsels of the gods. " Meantime from man to man my tongue exclaims, My wrath is kindled, and my soul in flames. LAMPETIE COMPLAINING TO APOLLO. In vain ! I view perform'd the direful deed, Beeves, slain by heaps, along the ocean bleed. " Now heaven gave signs of wrath : along the ground Crept the raw hides, and with a bellowing sound Roar'd the dead limbs ; the burning entrails groan'd. Six guilty days my wretched mates employ In impious feasting, and unhallowed joy ; The seventh arose, and now the sire of gods Rein'd the rough storms, and calm'd the tossing floods With speed the bark we climb ; the spacious sails Loosed from the yards invite the impelling gales. Past sight of shore, along the surge we bound, And all above is sky, and ocean all around ; When lo ! a murky cloud the Thunderer forms Full o'er our heads, and blackens heaven with storms. 178 THE ODYSSEY. \pOQiVi XII. Night dwells o'er all the deep : and now outflies The gloomy west, and whistles in the skies. The mountain-billows roar ! the furious blast Howls o'er the shroud, and rends it from the mast : The mast gives way, and, crackling as it bends, Tears up the deck ; then all at once descends : The pilot by the tumbling ruin slain, Dash'd from the helm, falls headlong in the main. Then Jove in anger bids his thunders roll. And forky lightnings flash from pole to pole ; Fierce at our heads his deadly bolt he aims. Red with uncommon wrath, and wrapp'd in flames ; Full on the bark it fell ; now high, now low, Toss'd and retoss'd, it reel'd beneath the blow ; At once into the main the crew it shook : Sulphurous odours rose, and smouldering smoke. Like fowl that haunt the floods, they sink, they rise. Now lost, now seer, with shrieks and dreadful cries ; And strive to gain the bark ; but Jove denies. Firm at the helm I stand, when fierce the main Rush'd with dire noise, and dash'd the sides in twain ; Again impetuous drove the furious blast, Snapp'd the strong helm, and bore to sea the mast. Firm to the mast with cords the helm I bind, And ride aloft, to Providence resign'd, Through tumbling billows and a war of wind. " Now sunk the west, and now a southern breeze, More dreadful than the tempest, lash'd the seas ; For on the rocks it bore where Scylla raves. And dire Charybdis rolls her thundering waves. All night I drove ; and at the dawn of day, Fast by the rocks beheld the desperate way : Just when the sea within her gulfs subsides. And in the roaring whirlpools rush the tides, Swift from the float I vaulted with a bound. The lofty fig-tree seized, and clung around : So to the beam the bat tenacious clings, And pendent round it clasps his leather wings. High in the air the tree its boughs display'd. And o'er the dungeon cast a dreadful shade ; All unsustain'd between the wave and sky. Beneath my feet the whirling billows fly. What time the judge forsakes the noisy bar To take repast, and stills the wordy war, Charybdis, rumbhng from her inmost caves, The mast refunded on her refluent waves. Swift from the tree, the floating mass to gain, Sudden I dropp'd amidst the flashing main ; Once more undaunted on the ruin rode, And oar'd with labouring arms along the flood. Book XII.] THE ODYSSEY. Unseen I pass'd by Scylla's dire abodes : So Jove decreed (dread sire of men and gods). Then nine long days I plough'd the cahner seas, Heaved by the surge, and wafted by the breeze. Weary and wet the Ogygian shores I gain, When the tenth sun descended to the main. There, in Calypso's ever-fragrant bowers, Refresh'd I lay, and joy beguiled the hours. " My following fates to theei O king, are known, And the bright partner of thy royal throne. Enough : in misery can words avail ? And what so tedious as a twice-told tale ? " 179 ULYSSES AND RAM. BOOK XIII. ARGUMENT. THE ARRIVAL OF ULYSSES IN ITHACA. Ulysses takes his leave of Alcinoiis and Aretfe, and embarks in the evening. Next morning the ship arrives at Ithaca ; where the sailors, as Ulysses is yet sleeping, lay him on the shore with all his treasures. On their return, Neptune changes their ship into a rock. In the meantime Ulysses, awaking, knows not his native Ithaca, by reason of a mist which Pallas had cast round him. He breaks into loud lamentations ; till the goddess, appearing to him in the form of a shepherd, discovers the country to him, and points out the particular places. He then tells a feigned story of his adventures, upon which she manifests herself, and they consult together of the measures to be taken to destroy the suitors. To conceal his return, and disguise his person the more effectually, she changes him into the figure of an old beggar. He ceased ; but left so pleasing on their ear His voice, that listening still they seem'd to hear. A pause of silence hush'd the shady rooms : The grateful conference then the king resumes : " Whatever toils the great Ulysses pass'd, 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. But hear me, princes ! whom these walls inclose, For whom my chanter sings, and goblet flows With wine unmix'd (an honour due to age, To cheer the grave, and warm the poet's rage) ; Though labouFd 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 pleased • then all their steps address'd To separate mansions, and retired to rest. Book XIII.] THE ODYSSEY. i8' 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 placed. The king himself the vases ranged with care ; Then bade his followers to the feast repair. A victim ox beneath the sacred hand Of great Alcinoiis falls, and stains the sand. To Jove the 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 graced. Thy lyre divine, Demodocus ! was placed. All, but Ulysses, heard with fix'd delight : He sate, and eyed the sun, and wish'd the night : Slow seem'd the sun to move, the hours to roll. His native home deep-imaged in his soul. As the tired 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 Alcinoiis and the rest (The Scherian states) he turn'd, and thus address'd : " O 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. On you be every bliss ; and every day, In home-felt joys, delighted roll away : Yourselves, your wives, your long-descending race. May every god enrich with every grace ! Sure fix'd on virtue may your nation stand. And public evil never touch the land ! " His words well weigh'd, the general voice approved Benign, and instant his dismission moved. The monarch to Pontonus gave the sign, To fill the goblet high with rosy wine : " Great Jove the Father first (he cried) implore ; Then send the stranger to his native shore." The luscious wine the obedient herald brought ; Around the mansion flow'd the purple draught : Each from his seat to each immortal pours. 1 82 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XIIL Whom glory circles in the Olympian bowers. Ulysses sole with air majestic stands, The bowl presenting to Aretfe's hands : Then thus : " O queen, farewell ! be still possess'd Of dear remembrance, blessing still and bless'd ! Till age and death shall gently call thee hence, (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 Alcinoiis ; of Aretfe'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 climbed the lofty stern ; then gently press'd The swelling couch, and lay composed to rest. Now placed in order, the Phseacian train Their cables loose, and launch 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 Urged 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 spread sails the winged galley flies ; 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 toils he bore. In storms by sea, and combats on the shore : All which soft sleep now banish'd from his breast, Wrapp'd in a pleasing, deep, and death-like rest. But when the morning-star with early ray Flamed in the front of heaven, and promised 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, ■ Phorcys, the son of Pontus and Terra (Sea and Earth). He married his sister Ceto, who gave birtb to tlio dragon which guarded the appies of the Hesperides. Book XIII.] THE ODYSSEY. 183 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 tue labours of the nymphs were roU'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 placed him on the rocky shore. His treasures next, Alcinoiis' gifts, they laid In the wild olive's unfrequented shade. Secure from theft ; then launch'd the bark again, Resumed their oars, and measured 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 e'en by man, and (oh severe disgrace !) By soft Phceacians, my degenerate race ! Against yon destined head in vain I swore, And menaced 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 the eluded dangers of the deep ; Lo 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 I lion's noble spoil." To whom the Father of the immortal powers, Who swells the clouds, and gladdens earth with showev " Can mighty Neptune thus of man complain ? Neptune, tremendous o'er the boundless main ! Revered and awful e'en in heaven's abodes, Ancient and great ! a god above the gods ! J-f that low race offend thy power divine l84 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XIII. (Weak, daring creatures !) is not vengeance thine ? Go, then, the guilty at thy will chastise." He said. The shaker of the earth raphes ! " 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 unlicensed thus to brave the main. Full in their port a shady hill shall rise, If such thy will." — " We will it (Jove replies). E'en when with transport blackening all the strand. The swarming people hail their ship to land, 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 ! " ULYSSES ASLEEP LAID ON HIS OWN COAST BY THE PH.EACIAN SAILORS. With that the god whose earthquakes rock the ground Fierce to PhEe^cia 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 I Thus they, unconscious of the deed divine : Till great Alcinoiis, rising, own'd the sign. Book XIIL] THE ODYSSEY. 185 " Behold the long -predestined day ! (he cries ;) O certain faith of ancient prophecies ! These ears have heard my royal sire disclose A dreadful story, big with future woes ; How, moved with wrath, that careless we convey Promiscuous every guest to every bay, Stern Neptune raged ; 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 folio w'd as declared the seer. Be humbled, nations ! and your monarch hear. No more unlicensed brave the deeps, no more With every stranger pass from shore to shore : On angry Neptune now for mercy call ; To his high name let twelve black oxen fall. So may the god reverse his purposed will. Nor o'er our city hang the dreadful hill." The monarch spoke : they trembled and obey'd. Forth on the sands the victim oxen led : The gathered 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, Released from sleep, and round him might survey The solitary shore an d rolling sea. Yet had his mind through tedious absence lost The dear resemblance of his native coast ; Besides, Minerva, to secure her care. Diffused around a veil of thickened 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 injured lord. Now all the land another prospect bore, Another port appeared, another shore. And long-continued ways, and winding floods, And unknown mountains, crown'd with unknown woods. Pensive and slow, with sudden grief oppress'd, 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 cried), upon what barren coast, In what new region, is Ulysses toss'd ? Possess'd by wild barbarians, fierce in arms ? Or men whose bosom tender pity warms ? Where shall this treasure now in safety lie ? i86 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XIIL And whither, whither its sad owner fly ? Ah, why did I AlcinoUs grace implore ? Ah, why forsake Phasacia's happy shore ? Some juster prince perhaps had entertain'd, And safe restored me to my native land. Is this the promised, long-expected coast, And this the faith Phaeacia'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 eyes The deeds of men appear without disguise, 'Tis his alone to avenge the wrongs I bear : For still the oppress'd are his peculiar care. To count these presents, and from thence to prove Their faith is mine : the rest belongs to Jove." Then on the sands he ranged his wealthy store, The gold, the vests, the tripods number'd o'er : All these he found, but still in error lost, Disconsolate he wanders on the coast. Sighs for his country, and laments again To the deaf rocks, and hoarse-resounding main. When lo ! the guardian goddess of the wise. Celestial Pallas, stood before his eyes ; In show a youthful swain, of form divine. Who seem'd descended from some princely line. A graceful robe her slender body dress'd ; Around her shoulders flew the waving vest ; Her decent hand a shining javelin bore. And painted sandals on her feet she wore. To whom the king : " Whoe'er of human race Thou art, that wand erest in this desert place, With joy to thee, as to some god I bend. To thee my treasures and myself commend. O tell a wretch in exile doom'd to stray. What air I breathe, what country I survey ? The fruitful continent's extremest bound, Or some fair isle which Neptune's arms surround ? " From what far clime (said she) remote from fame Arrivest thou here, a stranger to our name ? <-~.->Thou seest an island, not to those unknown Whose hills are brighten'd by the rising sun, Nor those that placed beneath his utmost reign Behold him sinking in the western main. The rugged soil allows no level space For flying chariots, or the rapid race ; Yet, not ungrateful to the peasant's pain, Suffices fulness to the swelling grain : The loaded trees their various fruits produce, And clustering grapes afford a generous juice ; Woods crown our mountains, and in every grove Book XIIL] THE ODYSSEY. 187 The bounding goats and frisking heifers rove : Soft rains and kindly dews refresh the field, And rising springs eternal verdure yield. E'en to those shores is Ithaca renown'd, Where Troy's majestic ruins strew the ground." — At this, the chief with transport was possess'd ; His panting heart exulted in his breast : Yet, well dissembling his untimely joys. And veiling truth in plausible disguise, Thus, with an air sincere, in fiction bold. His ready tale the inventive hero told : " Oft have I heard in Crete this island's name ; For 'twas from Crete, my native soil, I came, Self-banish'd thence. I sail'd before the wind. And left my children and my friends behind. From fierce Idomeneus' revenge I flew, Whose son, the swift Orsilochus, I slew (With brutal force he seized my Trojan prey, Due to the toils of many a bloody day). Unseen I 'scaped, and, favour'd by the night. In a Phoenician vessel took my flight, For Pyle or Elis bound : but tempests toss'd And raging billows drove us on your coast. In dead of night an unknown port we gain'd. Spent with fatigue, and slept secure on land. But ere the rosy morn reneVd the day. While in the embrace of pleasing sleep I lay. Sudden, invited by auspicious gales, They land my goods, and hoist their flying sails. Abandon'd here, my fortune I deplore, A hapless exile on a foreign shore." Thus while he spoke, the blue-eyed maid began With pleasing smiles to view the godlike man : Then changed her form : and now, divinely bright, Jove's heavenly daughter stood confess'd to sight : Like a fair virgin in her beauty's bloom, Skill'd in the illustrious labours of the loom. " O still the same Ulysses ! (she rejoin'd,) In useful craft successfully refined ! Artful in speech, in action, and in mind ! Sufficed it not, that, thy long labours pass'd, Secure thou seest thy native shore at last ? But this to me ? who, like thyself excel In arts of counsel, and dissembling well ; To me ? whose wit exceeds the powers divine, No less than mortals are surpass'd by thine. Know'st thou not me ; who made thy life my care, Through ten years' wandering, and through ten years' war ; Who taught thee arts, Alcinoiis to persuade. To raise his wonder, and engage his aid ; 1 88 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XIII. And now appear, thy treasures to protect, Conceal thy person, thy designs direct. And tell what more thou must from Fate expect ; Domestic woes far heavier to be borne ! The pride of fools, and slaves' insulting scorn ? But thou be silent, nor reveal thy state ; Yield to the force of unresisted Fate, And bear unmoved the wrongs of base mankind, The last, and hardest, conquest of the mind." " Goddess of wisdom ! (Ithacus replies,) He who discerns thee must be truly wise. So seldom view'd, and ever in disguise ! When the bold Argives led their warring powers, Against proud Ilion's well-defended towers, Ulysses was thy care, celestial maid ! Graced with thy sight, and favour'd with thy aid. But when the Trojan piles in ashes lay, And bound for Greece we plough'd the watery way ; Our fleet dispersed, and driven from coast to coast. Thy sacred presence from that hour I lost ; Till I beheld thy radiant form once more. And heard thy counsels on Phaeacia's shore. But, by the almighty author of thy race, Tell me, oh tell, is this my native place 1 For much I fear, long tracts of land and sea Divide this coast from distant Ithaca ; The sweet delusion kindly you impose. To soothe my hopes, and mitigate my woes." Thus he. The blue-eyed goddess thus replies : " How prone to doubt, how cautious are the wise ! Who, versed in fortune, fear the flattering show. And taste not half the bliss the gods bestow. The more shall Pallas aid thy just desires, And guard the wisdom which herself inspires. Others, long absent from their native place. Straight seek their home, and fly with eager pace To their wives' arms, and children's dear embrace. Not thus Ulysses : he decrees to prove His subjects' faith, and queen's suspected love ; Who mourn'd her lord twice ten revolving years, And wastes the days in grief, the nights in tears. But Pallas knew (thy friends and navy lost) Once more 'twas given thee to behold thy coast : Yet how could I with adverse Fate engage. And mighty Neptune's unrelenting rage ? Now lift thy longing eyes, while I restore The pleasing prospect of thy native shore. Behold the port of Phorcys ! fenced around With rocky mountains, and with olives crown'd. Behold the gloomy grot ! whose cool recess Book XIII.] THE ODYSSEY. Delights the Nereids of the neighbouring seas : Whose now-neglected altars in thy reign Blush'd with the blood of sheep and oxen slain. Behold ! where Neritus the clouds divides, And shakes the waving forests on his sides." So spake the goddess ; and the prospect clear'd, The mists dispersed, and all the coast appeared. The king with joy confess'd his place of birth. And on his knees salutes his mother earth : Then, with his supphant hands upheld in air. Thus to the sea-green sisters sends his prayer : " All hail ! ye virgin daughters of the main ! Ye streams, beyond my hopes, beheld again ! To you once more your own Ulysses bows ; Attend his transports, and receive his vows ! If Jove prolong my days, and Pallas crown The growing virtues of my youthful son, To you shall rites divine be ever paid. And grateful offerings on your altars laid." Thus then Minerva : " From that anxious breast Dismiss those cares, and leave to heaven the rest. Our task be now thy treasured stores to save, Deep in the close recesses of the cave : Then future means consult." She spoke, and trod The shady grot, that brighten'd with the god. The closest caverns of the grot she sought ; The gold, the brass, the robes, Ulysses brought ; These in the secret gloom the chief disposed ; The entrance with a rock the goddess closed. Now, seated in the olive's sacred shade, Confer the hero and the martial maid. The goddess of the azure eyes began : " Son of Laertes ! much-experienced man ! The suitor-train thy earliest care demand, Of that luxurious race to rid the land : Three years thy house their lawless rule has seen, And proud addresses to the matchless queen. But she thy absence mourns from day to day, And inly bleeds, and silent wastes away : Elusive of the bridal hour, she gives Fond hopes to all, and all with hopes deceives." To this Ulysses : " O celestial maid ! Praised be thy counsel, and thy timely aid : Else had I seen my native walls in vain, Like great Atrides, just restored and slain. Vouchsafe the means of vengeance to debate. And plan with all thy arts the scene of fate. Then, then be present, and my soul inspire, As when we wrapp'd Troy's heaven-built walls in fire. Though leagued against me hundred heroes stand. igo THE ODYSSEY. [Book XIII- Hundreds shall fall, if Pallas aid my hand." She answer'd : " In the dreadful day of fight Know, I am with thee, strong in all my might. If thou but equal to thyself be found. What gasping numbers then shall press the ground ! What human victims stain the feastful floor ! How wide the pavements float with guilty gore I It fits thee now to wear a dark disguise. And secret walk unknown to mortal eyes. For this, my hand shall wither every grace. And every elegance of form and face ; O'er thy smooth skin a bark of wrinkles spread. Turn hoar the auburn honours of thy head : Disfigure every limb with coarse attire. And in thy eyes extinguish all the fire ; Add all the wants and the decays of life ; Estrange thee from thy own ; thy son, thy wife : From the loathed object every sight shall turn, And the blind suitors their destruction scorn. " Go first the master of thy herds to find. True to his charge, a loyal swain and kind : For thee he sighs ; and to the loyal heir And chaste Penelope extends his care. At the Coracian rock he now resides. Where Arethusa's sable water glides ; The sable water and the copious mast Swell the fat herd ; luxuriant, large repast ! With him rest peaceful in the rural cell, And all you ask his faithful tongue shall telL Me into other realms my cares convey, To Sparta, still with female beauty gay : For know, to Sparta thy loved offspring came, To learn thy fortunes from the voice of Fame." At this the father, with a father's care : " Must he too suffer ? he, O goddess ! bear Of wanderings and of woes a wretched share ? Through the wild ocean plough the dangerous way, And leave his fortunes and his house a prey ? Why would'st not thou, O all-enlighten'd mind ! Inform him certain, and protect him, kind ? " To whom Minerva : " Be thy soul at rest ; And know, whatever heaven ordains is best. To fame I sent him, to acquire renown ; To other regions is his virtue known : Secure he sits, near great Atrides placed ; With friendships strengthen'd, and with honours graced But lo ! an ambush waits his passage o'er Fierce foes insidious intercept the shore : In vain ; far sooner all the murderous brood This injured land shall fatten with their blood." Book XIII.] THE ODYSSEY. 191 She spake, then touch'd him with her powerful wand : The skin shrunk up, and wither'd at her hand : A swift old age o'er all his members spread ; A sudden frost was sprinkled on his head ; Nor longer in the heavy eye-ball shined The glance divine, forth-beaming from the mind. His robe, which spots indelible besmear. In rags dishonest flutters with the air : A stag's torn hide is lapp'd around his reins ; A rugged staff his trembling hand sustains ; And at his side a wretched scrip was hung, Wide-patch'd, and knotted to a twisted thong. So look'd the chief, so moved : to mortal 'eyes Object uncouth ! a man of miseries ! While Pallas, cleaving the wild fields of air, To Sparta flies, Telemachus her care. THE FATES. BOOK XIV. ARGUMENT. THE CONVERSATION WITH EUM^US. Ulysses arrives in disguise at the house of Eumasus, where he is received, entertained, and lodged with the utmost hospitality. The several discourses of that faithful old servant, with the feigned story told by Ulysses to conceal himself, and other conversations on various subjects, take up this entire book. But he, deep-musing, o'er the mountains stra/d Through mazy thickets of the woodland shade, And cavern'd ways, the shaggy coast along, With chffs and nodding forests overhung. Eumseus at his sylvan lodge he sought,^ A faithful servant, and without a fault. Ulysses found him busied, as he sate Before the threshold of his rustic gate ; Around, the mansion in a circle shone ; A rural portico of rugged stone (In absence of his lord, with honest toil His own industrious hands had raised the pile). I Eumatis. The following observations are at once just, pertinent, and interesting : — ** Eumaeus is a character less within the leach of modem imitation than any other in the Odyssey. He is a genuine country gentleman of the age of Homer, living at a distance from the town, having servants or labourers under him, but being at the same time the principal herdsman and superintendent of the swine belonging to Ulysses, which of course constituted an important article of the hero's property. He had come a stranger to Ithaca, and Ulysses had been his patron and friend ; these circumstances are evidently ingredients in the jealous dislike with which Melanthius and suitors regard liim, He is professedly of the old party, and is independent enough to act boldly upon his own principles. I think professor /Eoliades has great reason to be proud of his descent from this most respectable man. The scenes in his house are unequalled in their way, and are as remarkably different from the poetical rusticities of Theocritus and Virgil as they are from the coarseness of real life passed in low country occupations. There is a dignity and a philosophical elevation given to EumECus, which, without injuring the natural colouring of his manners, throws the light of poetry around them : and, after a very slight acquaintance with him, we repeat the hXoq v' MINERVA RESTORING ULYSSES TO HIS OWN SHAPE, To some rude churl, and borne by stealth away : So they aloud : and tears in tides had run, Their grief unfinish'd with the setting sun ; But checking the full torrent in its flow. The prince thus interrupts the solemn woe : " What ship transported thee, O father, say : And what bless'd hands have oar'd thee on the way ? " " All, all (Ulysses instant made reply), I tell thee all, my child, my only joy ! Phseacians bore me to the port assign'd, A nation ever to the stranger kind ; Wrapp'd in the embrace of sleep, the faithful train O'er seas convey'd me to my native reign : Embroider'd vesfores, gold, and brass, are laid 226 THE ODYSSEY. [BOOK XVI. Conceal'd in caverns in the sylvan shade. Hilher, intent the rival rout to slay, And plan the scene of death, I bend my way ; So Pallas vifills — but thou, my son, explain The names and numbers of the audacious train ; 'Tis mine to judge if better to employ Assistant force, or singly to destroy." " O'er earth (returns the prince) resounds thy name, Thy well-tried wisdom, and thy martial fame. Yet at thy words 1 start, in wonder lost ; Can we engage, not decades but an host ? Can we alone in furious battle stand. Against that numerous and determined band ? Hear then their numbers ; from Dulichium came Twice twenty-six, all peers of mighty name. .Six are their menial train : twice twelve the boast Of Samos ; twenty from Zac> nthus' coast : And twelve our country's pride ; to these belong Medon and Phemius, skili'd in heavenly song. Two sewers from day to day the revels wait, Exact of taste, and serve the feast in state. With such a foe the unequal fight to try. Were by false courage unrevenged to die. Then what assistant powers you boast relate, Ere yet we mingle in the stern debate." " Mark well my voice, (Ulysses straight replies :) What need of aids, if favour'd by the skies } If shielded to the dreadful fight we move. By mighty Pallas, and by thundering Jove ?" " Sufficient they (Telemachus rejoiii'd) Against the banded powers of all mankind : They, high enthroned above the rolling clouds, Wither the strength of man, and awe the gods." " Such aids expect, (he cries,) when strong in might We rise terrific to the task of fight. But thou, when morn salutes the aerial plain, The court revisit and the lawless train : Me thither in disguise Eumseus leads, An aged mendicant in tattei"'d weeds. There, if base scorn insult my reverend age, Bear it, my son ! repress thy rising rage. If outraged, cease that outrage to repel ; Bear it, my son ! howe'er thy heart rebel. Yet strive by prayer and counsel to restrain Their lawless insults, though thou strive in vain : For wicked ears are deaf to wisdom's call, And vengeance strikes whom Heaven has doom'd to fall. Once more attend : when she whose power inspires " The thinking mind, my soul to vengeance fires, Book XVI.] THE ODYSSEY. 227 I give the sign : that instant, from beneath, Aloft convey the instruments of death. Armour and arms ; and, if mistrust arise. Thus veil the truth in plausible disguise : " ' These glittering weapons, ere he sail'd to Troy, Ulysses view'd with stern heroic joy : Then, beaming o'er the illumined wall they shone ; Now dust dishonours, all their lustre gone. I bear them hence (so Jove my soul inspires). From the pollution of the fuming fires ; Lest when the bowl inflames, in vengeful mood Ye rush to arms, and stain the feast with blood : Oft ready swords in luckless hour incite The hand of wrath, and arm it for the fight.' " Such be the plea, and by the plea deceive : For Jove infatuates all, and all believe. Yet leave for each of us a sword to wield, A pointed javelin, and a fenceful shield. But by my blood that in thy bosom glows. By that regard a son his father owes ; The secret, that thy father lives, retain Lock'd in thy bosom from the household train ; Hide it from all ; e'en from Eumaeus hide, From my dear father, and my dearer bride. One care remains, to note the loyal few Whose faith yet lasts among the menial crew ; And noting, ere we rise in vengeance, prove Who love his prince ; for sure you merit love." To whom the youth : " To emulate, I aim. The brave and wise, and my great father's fame. But reconsider, since the wisest err. Vengeance resolved, 'tis dangerous to defer. What length of time must we consume in vain, Too curious to explore the menial train ! While the proud foes, industrious to destroy Thy wealth, in riot the delay enjoy. Suffice it in this exigence alone To mark the damsels that attend the throne : Dispersed the youth reside ; their faith to prove Jove grants henceforth, if thou hast spoke from Jove." While in debate they waste the hours away, The associates of the prince repass'd the bay : With speed they guide the vessel to the shores ; With speed debarking land the naval stores : Then, faithful to their charge, to Clytius bear, And trust the presents to his friendly care. Swift to the queen a herald flies to impart Her son's return, and ease a parent's heart ; Lest a sad prey to ever-musing cares, Pale grief destroy what time awhile forbears. B 228 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XVI. The iiicautious herald with impatience burns, And cries aloud, " Thy son, O queen, returns ; " Eumaeus sage approach'd the imperial throne. And breathed his mandate to her ear alone. Then measured back the way. The suitor band, Stung to the soul, abash'd, confounded stand ; And issuing from the dome, before the gate, With clouded looks, a pale assembly sate. At length Eurymachus : " Our hopes are vain ; Telemachus in triumph sails the main. Haste, rear the mast, the swelling shroud display ; Haste, to our ambush'd friends the news convey ! " Scarce had he spake, when, turning to the strand, Amphinomus survey'd the associate band ; Full to the bay within the winding shores With gather'd sails they stood, and lifted oars. " O friends ! " he cried, elate with rising joy, " See to the port secure the vessel fly ! Some god has told them, or themselves survey The bark escaped ; and measure back their way." Swift at the word descending to the shores, They moor the vessel and unlade the stores : Then, moving from the strand, apart they sate, And full and frequent form'd a dire debate. " Lives then the boy ? he lives (Antinoiis cries). The care of gods and favourite of the skies. All night we watch'd, till with her orient wheels Aurora flamed above the eastern hills, And from the lofty brow of rocks by day Took in the ocean with a broad survey : Yet safe he sails ; the powers celestial give To shun the hidden snares of death, and live. But die he shall, and thus condemn'd to bleed, Be now the scene of instant death decreed. Hope ye success ? undaunted crush the foe. Is he not wise ? know this, and strike the blow. Wait ye, till he to arms in council draws The Greeks, averse too justly to our cause ? Strike, ere, the states convened, the foe betray Our murderous ambush on the watery way. Or choose ye vagrant from their rage to fly. Outcasts of earth, to breathe an unknown sky P The brave prevent misfortune ; then be brave, And bury future danger in his grave. Returns he .'' ambush'd we'll his walk invade, Or where he hides in solitude and shade ; And give the palace to the queen a dower, Or him she blesses in the bridal hour. But if submissive you resign the sway, Slaves to a boy, go, flatter and obey. Book XVI.] THE ODYSSEY. 229 Retire we instant to our native reign, Nor be the wealth of kings consumed in vain ; Then wed whom choice approves : the queen be given To some blest prince, the prince decreed by Heaven." Abash'd, the suitor train his voice attends ; Till from his throne Amphinomus ascends, Who o'er Dulichium stretch'd his spacious reign, A land of plenty, bless'd with every grain : Chief of tlie numbers who the queen address'd. And though displeasing, yet displeasing least. Soft were his words ; his actions wisdom sway'd ; Graceful awhile he paused, then mildly said : " O friends, forbear ! and be the thought withstood : 'Tis horrible to shed imperial blood ! Consult we first the all-seeing powers above, And the sure oracles of righteous Jove. If they assent, e'en by this hand he dies ; If they forbid, I war not with the skies." He said ; the rival train his voice approved, And rising instant to the palace moved. Arrived, with wild tumultuous noise they sate, Recumbent on the shining thrones of state. Then Medon, conscious of their dire debates, The murderous counsel to the queen relates. Touch'd at the dreadful story, she descends : Her hasty steps a damsel train attends. Full where the dome its shining valves expands, Sudden before the rival powers she stands ; And, veiling, decent, with a modest shade Her cheek, indignant to Antinoiis said : " O void of faith ! of all bad men the worst ! Renown'd for wisdom, by the abuse accursed ! Mistaking fame proclaims thy generous mind : Thy deeds denote thee of the basest kind. Wretch ! to destroy a prince that friendship gives, While in his guest his murderer he receives ; Nor dread superior Jove, to whom belong The cause of suppliants, and revenge of wrong. Hast thou forgot, ungrateful as thou art. Who saved thy father with a friendly part ? Lawless he ravaged with his martial powers The Taphian pirates on Thesprotia's shores ; Enraged, his life, his treasures they demand ; Ulysses saved him from the avenger's hand. And would'st thou evil for his good repay ? His bed dishonour, and his house betray ? Afflict his queen, and with a murderous hand Destroy his heir?— but cease, 'tis I command." " Far hence those fears, (Eurymachus replied,) O prudent princess ! bid thy soul confide. 230 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XVI. Breathes there a man who dares that hero slay, While I behold the golden light of day ? No : by the righteous powers of heaven I swear, His blood in vengeance smokes upon my spear. Ulysses, when my infant days I led. With wine sufficed me, and with dainties fed : My generous soul abhors the ungrateful part, And my friend's son lives nearest to my heart. Then fear no mortal arm ; if Heaven destroy, We must resign : for man is born to die." Thus smooth he ended, yet his death conspired : Then sorrowing, with sad step the queen retired, With streaming eyes, all comfortless deplored, Touch'd with the dear remembrance of her lord : Nor ceased till Pallas bids her sorrows fly, And in soft slumber seal'd her flowing eye. And now Eumasus, at the evening hour. Came late, returning to his sylvan bower. Ulysses and his son had dress'd with art A yearling boar, and gave the gods their part. Holy repast ! That iristant from the skies The martial goddess to Ulysses flies : She waves her golden wand, and reassumes From every feature every grace that blooms ; At once his vestures change ; at once she sheds Age o'er his limbs, that tremble as he treads ; Lest to the queen the swain with transport fly, Unable to contain the unruly joy. When near he drew, the prince breaks forth : " Proclaim What tidings, friend ? what speaks the voice of fame ? Say, if the suitors measure back the main. Or still in ambush thirst for blood in vain ? " " Whether (he cries) they measure back the flood. Or still in ambush thirst in vain for blood. Escaped my care : where lawless suitors sway. Thy mandate borne, my soul disdain'd to stay. But from the Hermsan height I cast a view. Where to the port a bark high-bounding flew ; Her freight a shining band : with martial air Each poised his shield, and each advanced his spear ; And, if aright these searching eyes survey. The eluded suitors stem the watery way." The prince, well pleased to disappoint their wiles, Steals on his sire a glance, and secret smiles. And now, a short repast prepared, they fed Till the keen rage of craving hunger fled : Then to repose withdrawn, apart they lay. And in soft sleep forgot the cares of day. BOOK XVII. ARGUMENT. rdemachus returning to the city, relates to Penelope the sum of his travels. Ulysses is con- ducted by Eumaeus to the palace, where his old dog Argus acknowledges his master, after an absence of twenty years, and dies with joy. Eumseus returns into the country, and Ulysses remains among the suitors, whose behaviour is described. Soon as Aurora, daughter of the dawn, Sprinkled with roseate light the dewy lawn, In haste the prince arose, prepared to part ; His hand impatient grasps the pointed dart ; Fair on his feet the polish'd sandals shine. And thus he greets the master of the swine : " My friend, adieu ! let this short stay suffice I haste to meet my mother's longing eyes, And end her tears, her sorrows, and her sighs. But thou, attentive, what we order heed : This hapless stranger to the city lead : By public bounty let him there be fed, And bless the hand that stretches forth the bread. To wipe the tears from all afflicted eyes, My will may covet, but my power denies. If this raise anger in the stranger's thought. The pain of anger punishes the fault : The very truth I undisguised declare ; For what so easy as to be sincere ? " To this Ulysses : " What the prince requires Of swift removal, seconds my desires. To want like mine the peopled town can yield More hopes of comfort than the lonely held : Nor fits my age to till the laboufd lands, Or stoop to tasks a rural lord demands. Adieu ! but since this ragged garb can bear So ill the inclemencies of morning air, A few hours' space permit me here to stay ; 232 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XVII. My steps Eumeeus shall to town convey, With riper beams when Phoebus warms the day." Thus he ; nor aught Telemachus replied, But left the mansion with a lofty stride : Schemes of revenge his pondering breast elate, Revolving deep the suitors' sudden fate. Arriving now before the imperial hall. He props his spear against the pillar'd wall ; Then like a lion o'er the threshold bounds ; The marble pavement with his steps resounds : His eye first glanced where Euryclea spreads With furry spoils of beasts the splendid beds : She saw, she wept, she ran with eager pace, And reach'd her master with a long embrace. All crowded round, the family appears With wild entrancement, and ecstatic tears. Swift from above descends the royal fair (Her beauteous cheeks the blush of Venus wear, Chasten'd with coy Diana's pensive air) ; Hangs o'er her son, in his embraces dies ; Rains kisses on his neck, his face, his eyes : ^ Few words she spoke, though much she had to say ; And scarce those few, for tears, could force their way. " Light of my eyes ! he comes ! unhoped-for joy ! Has Heaven from Pylos brought my lovely boy .' So snatch'd from all our cares ! — Tell, hast thou known Thy father's fate, and tell me all thy own." " Oh dearest ! most revered of womankind ! Cease with those tears to melt a manly mind (Replied the prince) ; nor be our fates deplored. From death and treason to thy arms restored. Go bathe, androbed in white ascend the towers ; With all thy handmaids thank the immortal powers ; To every god vow hecatombs to bleed. And call Jove's vengeance on their guilty deed. While to the assembled council I repair : A stranger sent by Heaven attends me there ; My new accepted guest I haste to find. Now to Peirasus' honour'd charge consign'd." The matron heard, nor was his word in vain. She bathed ; and, robed in white, with all her train. To every god vovi^d hecatombs to bleed. And call'd Jove's vengeance on the guilty deed. Arm'd with his lance, the prince then pass'd the gate ; Two dogs behind, a faithful guard, await ; Pallas his form with grace divine improves : The gazing crowd admires him as he moves. Him, gathering round, the haughty suitors gr With semblance fair, but inward deep deceit, Their false addresses, generous, he denied, Book XVII.] THE ODYSSEY. 233 Pass'd on, and sate by faithful Mentor's side ; With Antiphus, and Halitherses sage (His father's counsellors, revered for age). Of his own fortunes, and Ulysses' fame. Much ask'd the seniors ; till Peiraeus came. The stranger-guest pursued him close behind ; Whom when Telemachus beheld, he join'd. He (when Peirseus ask'd for slaves to bring The gifts and treasures of the Spartan king) Thus thoughtful answer'd : " Those we shall not move, Dark and unconscious of the will of Jove ; We know not yet the full event of all : Stabb'd in his palace if your prince must fall, Us, and our house, if treason must o'erthrow, Better a friend possess them than a foe ; If death to these, and vengeance Heaven decree, Riches are welcome then, not else, to me. Till then retain the gifts." — The hero said. And in his hand the willing stranger led. Then disarray'd, the shining bath they sought (With unguents smooth) of polish'd marble wrought : Obedient handmaids with assistant toil Supply the limpid wave, and fragrant oil : Then o'er their limbs refulgent robes they threw, And fresh from bathing to their seats withdrew. The golden ewer a nymph attendant brings, Replenish'd from the pure translucent springs ; With copious streams that golden ewer supplies A silver laver of capacious size. They wash : the table, in fair order spread. Is piled with viands and the strength of bread. Full opposite, before the folding gate, The pensive mother sits in humble state ; Lowly she sate, and with dejected view The fleecy threads her ivory fingers drew. The prince and stranger shared the genial feast, Till now the rage of thirst and hunger ceased. When thus the queen : " My son ! my only friend ! Say, to my mournful couch shall I ascend ? (The couch deserted now a length of years ; The couch for ever water'd with my tears ;) Say, wilt thou not (ere yet the suitor crew Return, and riot shakes our walls anew). Say, wilt thou not the least account afford ? The least glad tidings of my absent lord ? " To her the youth : " We reach'd the Pylian plains, Where Nestor, shepherd of his people, reigns. All arts of tenderness to him are known, Kind to Ulysses' race as to his own ; No father with a fonder grasp of joy 234 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XVII. Strains to his bosom his long-absent boy. But all unknown, if yet Ulysses breathe, Or glide a spectre in the realms beneath ; For farther search, his rapid steeds transport My lengthen'd journey to the Spartan court. There Argive Helen I beheld, whose charnis (So Heaven decreed) engaged the great in arms. My cause of coming told, he thus rejoin'd ; And still his words live perfect in my mind : " ' Heavens ! would a soft, inglorious, dastard train An absent hero's nuptial joys profane ! So with her young, amid the woodland shades, A timorous hind the lion's court invades, Leaves in that fatal lair her tender fawns, And climbs the cliffs, or feeds along the lawns ; Meantime returning, with remorseless sway The monarch savage rends the panting prey : With equal fury, and with equal fame, • Shall great Ulysses reassert his claim. O Jove ! supreme ! whom men and gods revere ; And thou whose lustre gilds the rolling sphere ! With power congenial join'd, propitious aid The chief adopted by the martial maid ! Such to our wish the warrior soon restore. As when, contending on the Lesbian shore, His prowess Philomelides confess'd. And loud acclaiming Greeks the victor bless'd : Then soon the invaders of his bed, and throne. Their love presumptuous shall by death atone. Now what you question of my ancient friend, With truth I answer ; thou the truth attend. Learn what I heard the sea-born seer " relate, Whose eye can pierce the dark recess of fate. Sole in an isle, imprison'd by the main, The sad survivor of his mmierous train, Ulysses lies ; detain'd by magic charms, And press'd unwilling in Calypso's arms. No sailors there, no vessels to convey, No oars to cut the immeasurable way.' This told Atrides, and he told no more. Then safe I voyaged to my native shore.'' He ceased ; nor made the pensive queen reply, But droop'd her head, and drew a secret sigh. When Theoclymenus the seer began : " O suffering consort of the suffering man ! What human knowledge could, those kings might tell. But I the secrets of high heaven reveal. Before the first of gods be this declared. Before the board whose blessings we have shared ; ' Proteus. Book XVII.] THE ODYSSEY. 235 Witness the genial rites, and witness all This house holds sacred in her ample wall ! E'en now, this instant, great Ulysses, laid At rest, or wandering in his country's shade, Their guilty deeds, in hearing, and in view, Secret revolves ; and plans the vengeance due. Of this sure auguries the gods bestow'd. When first our vessel anchor'd in your road." " Succeed those omens. Heaven ! (the queen rejoin'd) So shall our bounties speak a grateful mind ; And every envied happiness attend The man who calls Penelope his friend." Thus communed they : while in the marble court (Scene of their insolence) the lords resort ; Athwart the spacious square each tries his art, To whirl the disk, or aim the missile dart. Now did the hour of sweet repast arrive, And from the field the victim flocks they drive : Medon the herald (one who pleased them best, And honour'd with a portion of their feast), To bid the banquet, interrupts their play : Swift to the hall they haste ; aside they lay Their garments, and succinct the victims slay. Then sheep, and goats, and bristly porkers bled, And the proud steer was o'er the marble spread. While thus the copious banquet they provide. Along the road, conversing side by side, Proceed Ulysses and the faithful swain ; When thus Eumaeus, generous and humane : " To town, observant of our lord's behest. Now let us speed ; my friend, no more my guest ! Yet like myself I wish thee here preferr'd, Guard of the flock, or keeper of the herd. But much to raise my master's wrath I fear ; The wrath of princes ever is severe. Then heed his will, and be our journey made While the broad beams of Phcebus are display'd. Or ere brown evening spreads her chilly shade." "Just thy advice (the prudent chief rejoin'd), And such as suits the dictate of my mind. Lead on : but help me to some staff" to stay My feeble step, since rugged is the way." Across his shoulders then the scrip he flung, Wide-patch'd, and fasten'd by a twisted thong. A staff" Eumasus gave. Along the way Cheerly they fare : behind, the keepers stay ; These with their watchful dogs (a constant guard) Supply his absence, and attend the herd. And now his city strikes the monarch's eyes, Alas ! how changed ! a man of miseries ; 236 THE ODYSSEY, [Book XVIL Propp'd on a staff, a beggar old and bare In rags dishonest fluttering with the air ! Now pass'd the rugged road, they journey down The cavern'd way descending to the town, Where, from the rock, with liquid drops distils A limpid fount ; that spread in parting rills Its current thence to serve the city brings ; An useful work, adorn'd by ancient kings. Neritus, Ithacus, Polyctor, there, In sculptured stone immortalized their care, In marble urns received it from above. And shaded with a green surrounding grove ; Where silver alders, in high arches twined. Drink the cool stream, and tremble to the wind. Beneath, sequester'd to the nymphs, is seen A mossy altar, deep embower'd in green ; Where constant vows by travellers are paid. And holy horrors solemnize the shade. Here with his goats (not vow'd to sacred fame, But pamper'd luxury) Melanthius came : = Two grooms attend him. With an envious look He eyed the stranger, and imperious spoke : " The good old proverb how this pair fulfil ! One rogue is usher to another still. Heaven with a secret principle endued Mankind, to seek their own similitude. Where goes the swineherd with that ill-look'd guest ? That giant-glutton, dreadful at a feast ! Full many a post have those broad shoulders worn, From every great man's gate repulsed with scorn : To no brave prize aspired the worthless swain, 'Twas but for scraps he ask'd, and ask'd in vain. To beg, than work, he better understands. Or we perhaps might take him off thy hands. For any office could the slave be good. To cleanse the fold, or help the kids to food. If any labour those big joints could learn. Some whey, to wash his bowels, he might earn. ^ Melanthius. The following remarks of Colonel Mure should be borne in mind during this and the following book : — "The male representative of the rebellious vassalage of Ulysses is the goatherd Melanthius. The female ringleader of the same faction is Melantho, waiting-maid of Penelope. The correspondence of name and disposition naturally leads to suspect some blood-relationship between the two. Nowhere, however, is there any notice to that effect on the part of Homer. It is only by collation of incidental passages at widely distant intervals, that we are led to infer they are brother and sister. Melantho is described, in xviii. 321, as the daughter of Dolius, head gardener, and favourite servant of Laertes, and as having been educated by Penelope, with ^eat tenderness, for her own service, but now lost to all sense of shame or duty, and the mistress of Eurymachus. Melanthius is also styled son of Dolius ; and although it is nowhere said that this Dolius was the same person as the father of Melantho, the fact may be inferred from the circumstance of her paramour, Eurymachus, being also described as the patron of Melanthius, who, accordingly, occupies a place by his side when admitted to the table of the suitors. The intimacy with the sister sufficiently explains the favour to the brother." — Mure, vol. i. p. 378. Book XVII.] THE ODYSSEY. 237 To cringe, to whine, his idle hands to spread, Is all, by which that graceless maw is fed. Yet hear me ! if thy impudence but dare Approach yon wall, I prophesy thy fare : Dearly, full dearly, shalt thou buy thy bread With many a footstool thundering at thy head." He thus : nor insolent of word alone, Spurn'd with his rustic heel his king unknown ; Spurn'd, but not moved : he like a pillar stood, Nor stirr'd an inch, contemptuous, from the road : Doubtful, or with his staff to strike him dead, Or greet the pavement with his worthless head. Short was that doubt ; to quell his rage inured, The hero stood self-conquer'd, and endured. But hateful of the wretch, Eumseus heaved His hands obtesting, and this prayer conceived : ^ " Daughters of Jove ! who from the ethereal bowers Descend to swell the springs', and feed the flowers ! Nymphs of this fountain ! to whose sacred names Our rural victims mount in blazing flames ! To whom Ulysses' piety preferr'd The yearly firstlings of his flock and herd ; Succeed my wish, your votary restore : Oh, be some god his convoy to our shore ! Due pains shall punish then this slave's offence, And humble all his airs of insolence, Who, proudly stalking, leaves the herds at large. Commences courtier, and neglects his charge." ' What mutters he ? (Melanthius sharp rejoins ;) This crafty miscreant, big with dark designs .^ The day shall come — nay, 'tis already near — When, slave ! to sell thee at a price too dear Must be my care ; and hence transport thee o'er, A load and scandal to this happy shore. Oh ! that as surely great Apollo's dart. Or some brave suitor's sword, might pierce the heart Of the proud son ; as that we stand this hour In lasting safety from the father's power ! " So spoke the wretch, but, shunning farther fray, Turn'd his proud step, and left them on their way. Straight to the feastful palace he repair'd. Familiar enter'd, and the banquet shared ; 3 This prayer conceived. "After the insult offered by the treacherous Melanthius to the disguised Ulysses, on his walk to the city, Eumaeus puts forth a prayer for the speedy return of his master, to curb and punish such brutal conduct. The goatherd scornfully retorts with a wish, ' that Telemachus were as sure of being smitten that day by Apollo in the palace hall, or of falling by the hands of the suitors, as he is sure that Ulysses will never return to Ithaca.' Now, when it is remembered, that not only was Ulysses to return, the minister of his own wrath, and that of the god whom the base peasant invokes, but that Melanthius himself was to be involved in the same speedy destruction as his licentious patrons, these few lines, which the^ careless reader passes over as mere matter of epic routine, will appear replete with ominous allusion to the impending catastrophe." — Mure, vol. i. p. 382. 238 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XVIL Beneath Eurymachus, his patron lord, He took his place, and plenty heap'd the board. Meantime they heard, soft circling in the sky. Sweet airs ascend, and heavenly minstrelsy (For Phemius to the lyre attuned the strain) : Ulysses hearken'd, then address'd the swain : " Well may this palace admiration claim. Great, and respondent to the master's fame ! Stage above stage the imperial structure stands, Holds the chief honours, and the town commands : High walls and battlements the courts inclose, And the strong gates defy a host of foes. Far other cares its dwellers now employ ; The throng'd assembly and the feast of joy : I see the smokes of sacrifice aspire, And hear (what graces every feast) the lyre." Then thus Eumseus : " Judge we which were best ; Amidst yon revellers a sudden guest Choose you to mingle, while behind I stay ? ■ Or I first entering introduce the way ? Wait for a space without, but wait not long ; This is the house of violence and wrong : Some rude insult thy reverend age may bear ; For like their lawless lords the servants are." " Just is, O friend ! thy caution, and address'd (Replied the chief, to no unheedful breast : The wrongs and injuries of base mankind Fresh to my sense, and always in my mind. The bravely-patient to no fortune yields : On rolling oceans, and in fighting fields. Storms have I pass'd, and many a stern debate ; And now in humbler scene submit to fate. What cannot want ? The best she will expose. And I am learn'd in all her train of woes ; She fills with navies, hosts, and loud alarms, The sea, the land, and shakes the world with arms ! " Thus, near the gates conferring as they drew, Argus, the dog, his ancient master knew : He not unconscious of the voice and tread. Lifts to the sound his ear, and rears his head ; Bred by Ulysses, nourish'd at his board. But, ah ! not fated long to please his lord ; To him, his swiftness and his strength were vain ; The voice of glory call'd him o'er the main. Till then in every sylvan chase renown'd. With Argus, Argus, rung the woods around ; With him the youth pursued the goat or fawn, Or traced the mazy leveret o'er the lawn. Now left to man's ingratitude he lay, Unhoused,-neglected in the public way ; Book XVII. ] THE ODYSSEY. 239 And where on heaps the rich manure was spread, Obscene with reptiles, took his sordid bed. He knew his lord ; he knew, and strove to meet ; In vain he strove to crawl and kiss his feet ; Yet (all he could) his tail, his ears, his eyes. Salute his master, and confess his joys. Soft pity touch'd the mighty master's soul ; Adown his cheek a tear unbidden stole, Stole unperceived : he turn'd his head and dried The drop humane : then thus impassion'd cried : " What noble beast in this abandon'd state Lies here all helpless at Ulysses' gate .' His bulk and beauty speak no vulgar praise : If, as he seems, he was in better days. ULYSSES AND HIS DOG. Some care his age deserves ; or was he prized For worthless beauty ? therefore now despised ; Such dogs and men there are, mere things of state ; And always cherish'd by their friends, the great." " Not Argus so, (Eumaeus thus rejoin'd,) But served a master of a nobler kind, Who never, never shall behold him more ! Long, long since perish'd on a distant shore ! Oh had you seen him, vigorous, bold, and young, Swift as a stag, and as a lion strong : Him no fell savage on the plain withstood. None 'scaped him bosom'd in the gloomy wood ; His eye how piercing, and his scent how true. To wind the vapour in the tainted dew ! 240 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XVII. Such, when Ulysses left his natal coast ; Now years unnerve him, and his lord is lost ! The women keep the generous creature bare, A sleek and idle race is all their care : The master gone, the servants what restrains ? Or dwells humanity where riot reigns ? Jove fix'd it certain, that whatever day Makes man a slave, takes half his worth away.'' This said, the honest herdsman strode before ; The musing monarch pauses at the door : The dog, whom Fate had granted to behold His lord, when twenty tedious years had roll'd, Takes a last look, and, having seen him, dies ; So closed for ever faithful Argus' eyes ! And now Telemachus, the first of all, Observed Eumaeus entering in the hall ; Distant he saw, across the shady dome ; Then gave a sign, and beckon'd him to come : There stood an empty seat, where late was placed, In order due, the steward of the feast, (Who now was busied carving round the board,) Eumasus took, and placed it near his lord. Before him instant was the banquet spread, And the bright basket piled with loaves of bread. Next came Ulysses lowly at the door, A figure despicable, old, and poor. In squalid vests, with many a gaping rent, Propp'd on a staff, and trembling as he went. Then, resting on the threshold of the gate, Against a cypress pillar lean'd his weight (Smooth'd by the workman to a polish'd plane) ; The thoughtful son beheld, and call'd his swain : " These viands, and this bread, Eumasus ! bear, And let yon mendicant our plenty share : And let him circle round the suitors' board. And try the bounty of each gracious lord. Bold let him ask, encouraged thus by me ; How ill, alas ! do want and shame agree ! " His lord's command the faithful servant bears : The seeming beggar answers with his prayers : " Bless'd be Telemachus ! in every deed Inspire him, Jove ! in every wish succeed !" This said, the portion from his son conve/d With smiles receiving on his scrip he laid. Long has the minstrel swept the sounding wire, He fed, and ceased when silence held the lyre. Soon as the suitors from the banquet rose, Minerva prompts the man of mighty woes To tempt their bounties with a suppliant's art, And learn the generous from the ignoble heart Book XVII.] THE ODYSSEY. (Not but his soul, resentful as humane, Dooms to full vengeance all the offending train) ; With speaking eyes, and voice of plaintive sound, Humble he moves, imploring all around. The proud feel pity, and relief bestow, With such an image touch'd of human woe ; Inquiring all, their wonder they confess. And eye the man, majestic in distress. While thus they gaze and question with their eyes, The bold Melanthius to their thought replies : " My lords ! this stranger of gigantic port The good Eumasus usher'd to your court. Full well I mark'd the features of his face, Though all unknown his clime, or noble race.'' "And is this present, swineherd ! of thy hand? Bring'st thou these vagrants to infest the land ? (Returns Antinoiis with retorted eye) Objects uncouth, to check the genial joy. Enough of these our court already grace. Of giant stomach, and of famish'd face. Such guests Eumaeus to his country brings. To share our feast, and lead the life of kings." To whom the hospitable swain rejoins : " Thy passion, prince, belies thy knowing mind. Who calls, from distant nations to his own, The poor, distinguish'd by their wants alone .'' Round the wide world are sought those men divine Who public structures raise, or who design ; Those to whose eyes the gods their ways reveal. Or bless with salutary arts to heal ; But chief to poets such respect belongs. By rival nations courted for their songs ; These states invite, and mighty kings admire. Wide as the sun displays his vital fire. It is not so with want ! how few that feed A wretch unhappy, merely for his need ! Unjust to me, and all that serve the state. To love Ulysses is to raise thy hate. For me, suffice the approbation won Of my great mistress, and her godlike son." To him Telemachus : " No more incense The man by nature prone to insolence : Injurious minds just answers but provoke" — Then turning to Antinoiis, thus he spoke : " Thanks to thy care ! whose absolute command Thus drives the stranger from our court and land. Heaven bless its owner with a better mind ! From envy free, to charity inclined. This both Penelope and I afford : 241 242 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XVIi. Then, prince ! be bounteous of Ulysses' board. To give another's is thy hand so slow ? So much more sweet to spoil than to bestow ? " " Whence, great Telemachus ! this lofty strain ? (Antinous cries with insolent disdain ;) Portions like mine if every suitor gave, Our walls this twelvemonth should not see the slave. ' He spoke, and lifting high above the board His ponderous footstool, shook it at his lord. The rest with equal hand conferr'd the bread : He fill'd his scrip, and to the threshold sped ; But first before Antinoiis stopp'd, and said : " Bestow, my friend ! thou dost not seem the worst Of all the Greeks, but prince-like and the first ; Then, as in dignity, be first in worth. And I shall praise thee through the boundless earth. Once I enjo/d in luxury of state Whate'er gives man the envied name of great ; Wealth, servants, friends, were mine in better days And hospitality was then my praise ; In eveiy sorrowing soul I pour'd delight, And poverty stood smiling in my sight. But Jove, all-governing, whose only will Determines fate, and mingles good with ill. Sent me (to punish my pursuit of gain) With roving pirates o'er the Egyptian main : By Egypt's silver flood our ships we moor ; Our spies commission'd straight the coast explore ; But impotent of mind, with lawless will The country ravage, and the natives kilL The spreading clamour to their city flies, And horse and foot in mingled tumults rise : The reddening dawn reveals the hostile fields, Horrid with bristly spears, and gleaming shields : Jove thunder'd on their side : our guilty head We turn'd to flight ; the gathering vengeance spread On all parts round, and heaps on heaps lay dead. Some few the foe in servitude detain ; Death ill exchanged for bondage and for pain ! Unhappy me a Cyprian took aboard, And gave to Dmetor, Cyprus' haughty lord : Hither, to 'scape his chains, my course I steer. Still cursed by Fortune, and insulted here ! " To whom Antinoiis thus his rage express'd : " What god has plagued us with this gourmand guest ? Unless at distance, wretch ! thou keep behind. Another isle, than Cyprus more unkind. Another Egypt shall thou quickly find. From all thou begg'st, a bold audacious slave ; Book XVII.] THE ODYSSEY. 243 Nor all can give so much as thou canst crave. Nor vifonder I, at such profusion shown ; Shameless they give, who give what's not their own." The chief, retiring : " Souls, like that in thee, 111 suits such forms of grace and dignity. Nor will that hand to utmost need afford The smallest portion of a wasteful board. Whose luxury whole patrimonies sweeps, Yet- starving want, amidst the riot, weeps." The haughty suitor with resentment burns, And, sourly smiling, this reply returns : " Take that, ere yet thou quit this princely throng ; And dumb for ever be thy slanderous tongue ! " He said, and high the whirling tripod flung. His shoulder-blade received the ungentle shock ; He stood, and moved not, like a marble rock ; But shook his thoughtful head, nor more complain'd, Sedate of soul, his character sustain'd, And inly form'd revenge : then back withdrew : Before his feet the well-fill'd scrip he threw, And thus with semblance mild address'd the crew : " May what I speak your princely minds approve. Ye peers and rivals in this noble love ! Not for the hurt I grieve, but for the cause. If, when the sword our country's quarrel draws, Or if, defending what is justly dear. From Mars impartial some broad wound we bear. The generous motive dignifies the scar. But for mere want, how hard to suffer wrong ! ' Want brings enough of other ills along ! Yet, if injustice never be secure, If fiends revenge, and gods assert the poor. Death shall lay low the proud aggressor's head. And make the dust Antinoiis' bridal bed." " Peace, wretch ! and eat thy bread without offence (The suitor cried), or force shall drag thee hence. Scourge through the public street, and cast thee there, A mangled carcase for the hounds to tear." ■ His furious deed the general anger moved, All, even the worst, condemn'd : and some reproved. " Was ever chief for wars like these renown'd .'' Ill fits the stranger and the poor to wound. Unbless'd thy hand I if in this low disguise Wander, perhaps, some inmate of the skies ; They (curious oft of mortal actions) deign In forms like these to round the earth and main. Just and unjust recording in their mind. And with sure eyes inspecting all mankind." Telemachus, absorb'd in thought severe, Nourish'd deepangu'sh, though he shed no tear; 244 "^HE ODYSSEY. [Book XVII, But the dark brow of silent sorrow shook : While thus his mother to her virgins spoke : " On him and his may the bright god of day That base, inhospitable blow repay ! " The nurse replies : " If Jove receives my prayer, Not one survives to breathe to-morrow's air." " All, all are foes, and mischief is their end ; Antinoiis most to gloomy death a friend (Replies the queen) : the stranger begg'd their grace. And melting pity soften'd every face ; From every other hand redress he found, But fell Antinoiis answer'd with a wound." Amidst her maids thus spoke the prudent queen, Then bade Eumaeus call the pilgrim in. " Much of the experienced man I long to hear, If or his certain eye, or listening ear. Have learn'd the fortunes of my wandering lord.""' Thus she, and good Eumseus took the word : " A private audience if thy grace impart, The stranger's words may ease the royal heart. His sacred eloquence in balm distils. And the soothed heart with secret pleasure fills. Three days have spent their beams, three nights have run Their silent journey, since his tale begun, Unfinish'd yet ; and yet I thirst to hear ! As when some heaven-taught poet charms the ear (Suspending sorrow with celestial strain Breathed from the gods to soften human pain) Time steals away with unregarded wing, And the soul hears him, though he cease to sing. " Ulysses late he saw, on Cretan ground (His father's guest), for Minos' birth renown'd. He now but waits the wind to waft him o'er. With boundless treasure, from Thesprotia's shore." To this the queen : " The wanderer let me hear. While yon luxurious race indulge their cheer. Devour the grazing ox, and browsing goat, And turn my generous vintage down their throat. For Where's an arm, like thine, Ulysses ! strong. To curb wild riot, and to punish wrong ? " She spoke. Telemachus then sneezed aloud ; Constrain'd, his nostril echoed through the crowd. The smiling queen the happy omen bless'd : " So may these impious fall, by Fate oppress'd ! " Then to Eumagus : " Bring the stranger, fly ! And if my questions meet a true reply, Graced with a decent robe he shall retire, A gift in season which his wants require." Thus spoke Penelope. Eumreus flies In duteous haste, and to Ulysses cries : Book XVII.] THE ODYSSEY. 245 " The queen invites thee, venerable guest ! A secret instinct moves her troubled breast, Of her long absent lord from thee to gain Some light, and sooth her soul's eternal pain. If true, if faithful thou, her grateful mind Of decent robes a present has design'd : So finding favour in the royal eye. Thy other wants her subjects shall supply." " Fair truth alone (the patient man replied) My words shall dictate, and my lips shall guide. To him, to me, one common lot was given. In equal woes, alas ! involved by Heaven. Much of his fates I know ; but check'd by fear I stand ; the hand of violence is here : Here boundless wrongs the starry skies invade. And injured suppliants seek in vain for aid. Let for a space the pensive queen attend, Nor claim my story till the sun descend ; Then in such robes as suppliants may require. Composed and cheerful by the genial fire, When loud uproar and lawless riot cease, Shall her pleased ear receive my words in peace." Swift to the queen returns the gentle swain : "And say (she cries), does fear, or shame de' in The cautious stranger .' With the begging kind Shame suits but ill." Eumaus thus rejoin'd : " He only asks a more propitious hour, And shuns (who would not ?) wicked men in power ; At evening mild (meet season to confer) By turns to question, and by turns to hear." " Whoe'er this guest (the prudent queen replies) His every step and every thought is wise. For men like these on earth he shall not find In all the miscreant race of human kind." Thus she. Eumseus all her words attends. And, parting, to the suitor powers descends ; There seeks Telemachus, and thus apart In whispers breathes the fondness of his heart : " The time, my lord, invites me to repair Hence to the lodge ; my charge demands my care. These sons of murder thirst thy life to take ; O guard it, guard it, for thy servant's sake ! " "Thanks to my friend (he cries) ; but now the hour Of night draws on, go seek the rural bower : But first refresh : and at the dawn of day Hither a victim to the gods convey. Our life to Heaven's immortal powers we trust. Safe in their care, for Heaven protects the just." Observant of his voice, Eumseus sate And fed recumbent on a chair of state. 24^ 7 /IE ODYSSEY. [Book XVII. Then instant rose, and as he moved along, 'Twas riot all amid the suitor throng, They feast, they dance, and raise the mirthful song. Till now, declining towards the close of day, The sun obliquely shot his dewy ray. BOOK XVIII. ARGUMENT. THE FIGHT OF ULYSSES AND IRUS. The beggar Irus insults Ulysses ; the suitors promote the quarrel, in which Irus is worsted and miserably handled. Penelope descends, and receives the presents of the suitors. The dialogue of Ulysses with Eurymachus. Vv HILE fix'd in thought the pensive hero sate, A mendicant approach'd the royal gate ; A surly vagrant of the giant kind. The stain of manhood, of a coward mind : From feast to feast, insatiate to devour, He flew, attendant on the genial hour. Him on his mother's knees, when babe he lay, She named Arnseus on his natal day : But Irus his associates call'd the boy. Practised the common messenger to fly ; Irus, a name expressive of the employ. From his own roof, with meditated blows. He strove to drive the man of mighty woes : " Hence, dotard ! hence, and timely speed thy way, Lest dragg'd in vengeance thou repent thy stay ; See how with nods assent yon princely train ! But honouring age, in mercy I refrain ; In peace away ! lest, if persuasions fail. This arm with blows more eloquent prevail." To whom, with stern regard : " O insolence. Indecently to rail without offence ! What bounty gives without a rival share ; I ask, what harms not thee, to breathe this air : Alike on alms we both precarious live : And canst thou envy when the great relieve ? Know, from the bounteous heavens all riches flow. And what man gives, the gods by man bestow ; Proud as thou art, henceforth no more be proud. 248 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XVIII. Lest I imprint my vengeance in thy blood ; Old as I am, should once my fury burn, How would'st thou fly, nor e'en in thought return ! " " Mere woman-glutton ! (thus the charl replied ;) A tongue so flippant, with a throat so wide ! Why cease I, gods ! to dash those teeth away, Like some wild boar's, that, greedy of his prey. Uproots the bearded corn ? Rise, try the fight, Gird well thy loins, approach, and feel my might -. Sure of defeat, before the peers engage : Unequal fight, when youth contends with age ! " Thus in a wordy war their tongues display More fierce intents, preluding to the fray ; Antinous hears, and in a jovial vein. Thus with loud laughter to the suitor-train : " This happy day in mirth, my friends, employ, And lo ! the gods conspire to crown our joy ; See ready for the fight, and hand to hand, Yon surly mendicants contentious stand : Why urge we not to blows ! " Well pleased they spring Swift from their seats, and thickening form a ring. To whom Antinoiis : " Lo ! enrich'd with blood, A kid's well-fatted entrails (tasteful food) On glowing embers lie ; on him bestow The choicest portion who subdues his foe ; Grant him unrivall'd in these walls to stay, The sole attendant on the genial day." The lords applaud : Ulysses then with art. And fears well-ieign'd, disguised his dauntless heart : " Worn as I am with age, decay'd with woe : Say, is it baseness to decline the foe .'' Hard conflict ! when calamity and age With vigorous youth, unknown to cares, engage ! Yet, fearful of disgrace, to try the day Imperious hunger bids, and I obey ; But swear, impartial arbiters of right, Swear to stand neutral, while we cope in fight." The peers assent : when straight his sacred head Telemachus upraised, and sternly said : " Stranger, if prompted to chastise the wrong Of this bold insolent, confide, be strong ! The injurious Greek that dares attempt a blow. That instant makes Telemachus his foe ; And these my friends ^ shall guard the sacred ties Of hospitality, for they are wise." Then, girding his strong loins, the king prepares ° > Antinoiis and Eurymachus. = "Judged by a more fastidious standard, the boxing match with the beggar Irus has Itbjectionable features : yet, if the poet was justified in disgu sing his hero as a mendicant, he was bound to carry him through his part with spirit. Ulvsses certainly appears as the prince Book XVIII.] THE ODYSSEY. 249 To close in combat, and his body bares ; Broad spread his shoulders, and his nervous thighs By just degrees, like well-turn'd columns, rise : Ample his chest, his arms are round and long. And each strong joint Minerva knits more strong (Attendant on her chief) : the suitor-crowd With wonder gaze, and gazing speak aloud : " Irus ! alas ! shall Irus be no more ? Black fate impends, and this the avenging hour ! Gods ! how his nerves a matchless strength proclaim. Swell o'er his well-strung limbs, and brace his frame ! " Then pale with fears, and sickening at the sight, They dragg'd the unwilling Irus to the fight ; ULYSSES PREPARING TO FIGHT WITH IRUS. From his blank visage fled the coward blood. And his flesh trembled as aghast he stood. " Oh that such baseness should disgrace the light ! O hide it, death, in everlasting night ! (Exclaims Antinoiis) ; can a vigorous foe Meanly decline to combat age and woe ? But hear me, wretch ! if recreant in the fray That huge bulk yield this ill-contested day, Instant thou sail'st, to Eschetus resign'd ; A tyrant, fiercest of the tyrant kind, Who casts thy mangled ears and nose a prey To hungry dogs, and lops the man away." While with indignant scorn he sternly spoke, of beggars ; nor probably was his royal dignity tarnished, in the spirit of heroic manners, by the righteous chastisement inflicted on the base profanei of his palace hall. '—Mure s Homer, p. 396. 2SO THE ODYSSEY. [Book XVIII. In every joint the trembling Irus shook. Now front to front each frowning champion stands, And poises high in air his adverse hands. The chief yet doubts, or to the shades below To fell the giant at one vengeful blow, Or save his life ; and soon his life to save The king resolves, for mercy sways the brave. That instant Irus his huge arm extends, Full on his shoulder the rude weight descends ; The sage Ulysses, fearful to disclose The hero latent in the man of woes, Checkd half his might ; yet, rising to the stroke. His jaw-bone dash'd, the crashing jaw-bone broke : Down dropp'd he stupid from the stunning wound ; His feet extended, quivering, beat the ground ; His mouth and nostrils spout a purple flood ; His teeth, all shatter'd, rush immix'd with blood. The peers transported, as outstretch'd he lies. With bursts of laughter rend the vaulted skies ; Then dragg'd along, all bleeding from the wound. His length of carcase trailing prints the ground : Raised on his feet, again he reels, he falls, Till propp'd, reclining on the palace walls : Then to his hand a staff the victor gave. And thus with just reproach address'd the slave : " There terrible, affright the dogs, and reign A dreaded tyrant o'er the bestial train ! But mercy to the poor and stranger show. Lest Heaven in vengeance send some mightier woe." Scornful he spoke, and o'er his shoulder flung The broad-patch'd scrip ; the scrip in tatters hung 111 join'd, and knotted to a twisted thong. Then, turning short, disdain'd a further stay ; But to the palace measured back the way. There, as he rested, gathering in a ring, The peers with smiles address'd their unknown king : " Stranger, may Jove and all the aerial powers With every blessing crown thy happy hours ! Our freedom to thy prowess'd arm we owe From bold intrusion of thy coward foe ; Instant the flying sail the slave shall wing To Eschetus, the monster of a king." While pleased he hears, Antinoiis bears the food, A kid's well-fatted entrails, rich with blood : The bread from canisters of shining mould Amphinomus ; and wines that laugh in gold : " And oh ! (he mildly cries) may Heaven display A beam of glory o'er thy future day ! Alas, the brave too oft is doom'd to bear The gripes of poverty, and stings of care.'' Book XVIII.] THE ODYSSEY. 251 To whom with thought mature the king replies : " The tongue speaks wisely, when the soul is wise : Such was thy father ! in imperial state, Great without vice, that oft attends the great : Nor from the sire art thou, the son, declined ; Then hear my words, and grave them in thy mind ! Of all that breathes, or grovelling creeps on earth, Most man in vain ! calamitous by birth : To-day, with power elate, in strength he blooms ; The haughty creature on that power presumes : Anon from Heaven a sad reverse he feels : Untaught to bear, 'gainst Heaven the wretch rebels. For man is changeful, as his bliss or woe ! Too high when prosperous, when distress'd too low. There was a day, when with the scornful great I swell'd in pomp and arrogance of state ; Proud of the power that to high birth belongs ; And used that power to justify my wrongs. Then let not/lfian be proud ; but firm of mind. Bear the best humbly, and the worst resign'd ; Be dumb when Heaven afflicts ! unlike yon train Of haughty spoilers, insolently vain ; Who make their queen and all her wealth a prey : But vengeance and Ulysses wing their way. mayst thou, favoured by some guardian power, Far, far be distant in that deathful hour ! For sure I am, if stern Ulysses breathe, These lawless riots end in blood and death.'' Then to the gods the rosy juice he pours, And the drain'd goblet to the chief restores. Stung to the soul, o'ercast with holy dread. He shook the graceful honours of his head ; His boding mind the future woe forestalls. In vain ! by great Telemachus he falls. For Pallas seals his doom : all sad he turns To join the peers ; resumes his throne, and mourns. Meanwhile Minerva with instinctive fires Thy soul, Penelope, from Heaven inspires : With flattering. hopes the suitors to betray, And seem to meet, yet fly, the bridal day : Thy husband's wonder, and thy son's to raise ; And crown the mother and the wife with praise. Then, while the streaming sorrow dims her eyes, Thus, with a transient smile, the matron cries : " Eurynomfe ! to go where riot reigns 1 feel an impulse, though my soul disdains ; To my loved son the snares of death to show, And in the traitor-friend unmask the foe ; Who, smooth of tongue, in purpose insincere, Hides fraud in smiles, while death is ambush'd there." 25 2 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XVIII. " Go, warn thy son, nor be the warning vain (Rephed the sagest of the royal train) ; But bathed, anointed, and adorn'd, descend ; Powerful of charms, bid every grace attend ; The tide of flowing tears awhile suppress ; Tears but indulge the sorrow, not repress. Some joy remains : to thee a son is given, Such as, in fondness, parents ask of Heaven." " Ah me ! forbear ! " returns the queen, " forbear, Oh ! talk not, talk not of vain beauty's care ; No more I bathe, since he no longer sees Those charms, for whom alone I wish to please. The day that bore Ulysses from this coast Blasted the little bloom these cheeks could boast. But instant bid Autonoe descend. Instant Hippodamfe our steps attend ; 111 suits it female virtue, to be seen Alone, indecent, in the walks of men.'' Then while Eurynomfe the mandate bears, From heaven Minerva shoots with guardian cares ; O'er all her senses, as the couch she press'd, She pours a pleasing, deep, and death-like rest, With every beauty every feature arms. Bids her cheeks glow, and lights up all her charms ; In her love-darting eyes awakes the fires (Immortal gifts ! to kindle soft desires) ; From limb to limb an air majestic sheds. And the pure ivory o'er her bosom spreads. Such Venus shines, when with a measured bound She smoothly gliding swims the harmonious round. When with the Graces in the dance she moves. And fires the gazing gods with ardent loves. Then to the skies her flight Minerva bends. And to the queen the damsel train descends : Waked at their steps, her flowing eyes unclose ; The tears she wipes, and thus renews her woes : " Howe'er 'tis well that sleep awhile can free, With soft forgetfulness, a wretch like me ; Oh ! were it given to yield this transient breath, Send, O Diana ! send the sleep of death ! Why must I waste a tedious life in tears. Nor bury in the silent grave my cares ? O my Ulysses ! ever-honour'd name ! For thee I mourn till death dissolves my frame." Thus wailing, slow and sadly she descends. On either hand a damsel train attends : Full where the dome its shining valves expands, Radiant before the gazing peers she stands ; A veil translucent o'er her brow display'd. Her beauty seems, and only seems, to shade : Book XVIIL] THE ODYSSEY. 253 Sudden she lightens in their dazzled eyes, And sudden flames in every bosom rise ; They send their eager souls with every look, Till silence thus the imperial matron broke : " O why ! my son, why now no more appears That warmth of soul that urged thy younger years ? Thy riper days no growing worth impart, A man in stature, still a boy in heart ! Thy well-knit frame unprofitably strong, Speaks thee a hero, from a hero sprung : But the just gods in vain those gifts bestow, wise alone in form, and brave in show ! Heavens ! could a stranger feel oppression's hand Beneath thy roof, and couldst thou tamely stand ? If thou the stranger's righteous cause decline, His is the sufferance, but the shame is thine." To whom, with filial awe, the prince returns : " That generous soul with just resentment burns ; Yet, taught by time, my heart has learn'd to glow For others' good, and melt at others' woe ; But, impotent those riots to repel, 1 bear their outrage, though my soul rebel ; Helpless amid the snares of death I tread, And numbers leagued in impious union dread ; But now no crime is theirs : this wrong proceeds From Irus, and the guilty Irus bleeds. Oh would to Jove ! or her whose arms display The shield of Jove, or him who rules the day ! That yon proud suitors, who licentious tread These courts, within these courts like Irus bled : Whose loose head tottering, as with wine oppress'd, Obliquely drops, and nodding knocks his breast ; Powerless to move, his staggering feet deny The coward wretch the privilege to fly." Then to the queen Eurymachus replies : " O justly loved, and not more fair than wise ! Should Greece through all her hundred states survey Thy finish'd charms, all Greece would own thy sway, In rival crowds contest the glorious prize, Dispeopling realms to gaze upon thy eyes : O woman ! loveliest of the lovely kind. In body perfect, and complete in mind." " Ah me ! (returns the queen) when from this shore Ulysses sail'd, then beauty was no more ! The gods decreed these eyes no more should keep Their wonted grace, but only serve to weep. Should he return, whate'er my beauties prove, My virtues last ; my brightest charm is love. Now, grief, thou all art mine ! the gods o'ercast My soul with woes, that long, ah long must last ! 2S4 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XVUI. Too faithfully my heart retains the day That sadly tore my royal lord away : He grasp'd my hand, and, ' O my spouse ! I leave Thy arms (he cried), perhaj-s to find a grave : Fame speaks the Trojans bold ; they boast the skill To give the feather'd arrow wings to kill, To dart the spear, and guide the rushing car With dreadful inroad through the walks of war. My sentence is gone forth, and 'tis decreed Perhaps by righteous Heaven that I must bleed ! My father, mother, all I trust to thee ; To them, to them, transfer the love of me : But, when my son grows man, the royal sway Resign, and happy be thy bridal day ! ' Such were his words ; and Hymen now prepares To light his torch, and give me up to cares ; The afflictive hand of wrathful Jove to bear : A wretch the most complete that breathes the air ! Fall'n e'en below the rights to woman due ! Careless to please, with insolence ye woo ! The generous lovers, studious to succeed. Bid their whole herds and flocks in banquets bleed ; By precious gifts the vow sincere display : You, only you, make her ye love your prey." Well-pleased Ulysses hears his queen deceive The suitor-train, and raise a thirst to give : False hopes she kindles, but those hopes betray. And promise, yet elude, the bridal day. While yet she speaks, the gay Antinoiis cries : " Offspring of kings, and more than woman wise ! 'Tis right ; 'tis man's prerogative to give. And custom bids thee without shame receive ; Yet never, never, from thy dome we move, Till Hymen lights the torch of spousal love." The peers despatch'd their heralds to convey The gifts of love ; with speed they take the way. A robe Antinoiis gives of shining dyes. The varying hues in gay confusion rise Rich from the artist's hand ! Twelve clasps of gold Close to the lessening waist the vest infold ! Down from the sweUing loins the vest unbound Floats in bright waves redundant o'er the ground A bracelet rich with gold, with amber gay, That shot effulgence like the solar ray, Eurymachus presents : and ear-rings bright, With triple stars, that cast a trembling light. Pisander bears a necklace wrought with art : And every peer, expressive of his heart, A gift bestows : this done, the queen ascends, And slow behind her damsel train attends. Book XVIII.] THE ODYSSEY. 255 Then to the dance they form the vocal strain, Till Hesperus leads forth the starry train ; And now he raises, as the daylight fades, His golden circlet in the deepening shades : Three vases heap'd with copious fires display O'er all the palace a fictitious day ; From space to space the torch wide-beaming burns, And sprightly damsels trim the rays by turns. To whom the king : " 111 suits your sex to stay Alone with men ! ye modest maids, away ! (lO, with the queen ; the spindle guide ; or cull (The partners of her cares) the silver wool ; i3e it my task the torches to supply E'en till the morning lamp adorns the sky ; E'en till the morning, with unwearied care, Sleepless I watch ; for I have learn'd to bear." Scornful they heard : Melantho, fair and young, (Melantho, from the loins of Dolius sprung. Who with the queen her years an infant led, With the soft fondness of a daughter bred,) Chieily derides : regardless of the cares Her queen endures, polluted joys she shares Nocturnal with Eurymachus : with eyes That speak disdain, the wanton thus replies : " Oh ! whither wanders thy distemper'd brain, Thoa bold intruder on a princely train ? Hence, to the vagrants' rendezvous repair; Or shun in some black forge the midnight air. Proceeds this boldness from a turn of soul, Or flows licentious from the copious bowl ? Is it that vanquish'd Irus swells thy mind ? A foe may meet thee of a braver kind, Who, shortening with a storm of blows thy stay, Shall send thee howling all in blood away ! " J( To whom with frowns : " O impudent in wrong ! Thy lord shall curb that insolence of tongue ; Know, to Telemachus I tell the offence ; The scourge, the scourge shall lash thee into sense." With conscious shame they hear the stern rebuke, Nor longer durst sustain the sovereign look. Then to the servile task the monarch turns His royal hands: each torch refulgent burns With added day : meanwhile in museful mood, Absorb'd in thought, on vengeance fix'd he stood. And now the martial maid, by deeper wrongs To rouse Ulysses, points the suitors' tongues : Scornful of age, to taunt the virtuous man, Thoughtless and gay, Eurymachus began : _ " Hear me (he cries), confederates and friends ! Some god, no doubt, this stranger kindly sends ; 256 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XVIII. The shining baldness of his head survey, It aids our torchUght, and reflects the ray." Then to the king that levell'd haughty Troy : " Say, if large hire can tempt thee to employ Those hands in work ; to tend the rural trade, To dress the walk, and form the embowering shade. So food and raiment constant will I give : But idly thus thy soul prefers to live. And starve by strolling, not by work to thrive." To whom incensed : " Should we, O prince, engage In rival tasks beneath the burning rage Of summer suns ; were both constrain'd to wield Foodless the scythe along the burden'd field ; Or should we labour while the ploughshare wounds. With steers of equal strength, the allotted grounds j Beneath my labours, how thy wondering eyes Might see the sable field at once arise ! Should Jove dire war unloose, with spear and shield, And nodding helm, I tread the ensanguined field, Fierce in the van : then wouldst thou, wouldst thou, — say, — ■ Misname me glutton, in that glorious day .'' No, thy ill-judging thoughts the brave disgrace 'Tis thou injurious art, not I am base. Proud to seem brave among a coward train ! But now, thou art not valorous, but vain. God ! should the stern Ulysses rise in might. These gates would seem too narrow for thy flight." While yet he speaks, Eurymachus replies, With indignation flashing from his eyes : " Slave, I with justice might deserve the wrong, Should I not punish that opprobrious tongue. Irreverent to the great, and uncontroU'd, Art thou from wine, or innate folly, bold ? Perhaps these outrages from Irus flow, A worthless triumph o'er a worthless foe ! " He said, and with full force a footstool threw : Whirl'd from his arm, with erring rage it flew : Ulysses, cautious of the vengeful foe, Stoops to the ground, and disappoints the blow. Not so a youth, who deals the goblet round. Full on his shoulder it inflicts a wound ; Dash'd from his hand the sounding goblet flies, He shrieks, he reels, he falls, and breathless lies. Then wild uproar and clamour mount the sky, Till mutual thus the peers indignant cry • " Oh had this stranger sunk to realms beneath, To the black realms of darkness and of death. Ere yet he trod these shores ! to strife he draws Peer against peer ; and what the weighty cause .'' A vagabond ! for him the great destroy, In vile ignoble jars, the feast of joy." Book XVIII.] THE ODYSSEY. 257 To whom the stern Telemachus uprose : " Gods ! what wild folly from the goblet flows ! Whence this unguarded openness of soul, But from the license of the copious bowl ? Or Heaven delusion sends : but hence away ! Force I forbear, and without force obey." Silent, abash'd, they hear the stern rebuke, Till thus Amphinoinus the silence broke : " True are his words, and he whom truth offends, Not with Telemachus, but truth contends ; Let not the hand of violence invade The reverend stranger, or the spotless maid ; Retire we hence, but crown with rosy wine The flowing goblet to the powers divine ! Guard he his guest beneath whose roof he stands : This justice, this the social rite demands." The peers assent : the goblet Mulius crown'd With purple juice, and bore in order round : Each peer successive his libation pours To the blest gods who fiU'd the ethereal bowers : Then swill'd with wine, with noise the crowds obey. And rushing forth, tumultuous reel away. BOOK XIX. ARGUMENT. THE DISCOVERY OF ULYSSES TO EURYCLEA. Ulysses and his son remove the weapons out of the armoury. Ulysses, in conversation with Penelope, gives a fictitious account of his adventures ; then assures her he had formerly entertained her husband in Crete ; and describes exactly his person and dress : affirms to have heard of him in Phseacia aud Thesprotia, and that his return is certain, and within a month. He then goes to bathe, and is attended by Euryclea, who discovers him to be Ulysses by the scar upon his leg, which he formerly received in himting the wild boar on Parnassus. The poet inserts a digression relating that accident, with all its particulars. Consulting secret with the blue-eyed maid, Still in the dome divine Ulysses sta/d : Revenge mature for act inflamed his breast ; And thus the son the fervent sire address'd : " Instant convey those steely stores of war To distant rooms, disposed with secret care : The cause demanded by the suitor-train. To soothe their fears, a specious reason feign : Say, since Ulysses left his natal coast. Obscene with smoke, their beamy lustre lest, His arms deform the roof they wont adorn ; From the glad walls inglorious lumber torn. Suggest, that Jove the peaceful thought inspired. Lest they, by sight of swords to fury fired. Dishonest wounds, or violence of soul, Defame the bridal feast and friendly bowl." The prince, obedient to the sage command. To Euryclea thus : " The female band In their apartments keep ; secure the doors ; These swarthy arms among the covert stores Are seemlier hid ; my thoughtless youth they blame, Imbrown'd with vapour of the smouldering flame." " In happier hour (pleased Euryclea cries), Tutor'd by early woes, grow early wise ; / Book XIX.] THE ODYSSEY. 259 Inspect with sharpen'd sight, and frtigal care, Your patrimonial wealth, a prudent heir. But who the lighted taper will provide (The female train retired) your toils to guide ? " " Without infringing hospitable right, This guest (he cried) shall bear the guiding light : I cheer no lazy vagrants with repast ; They share the meal that earn it ere they taste." He said : from female ken she straight secures The purposed deed, and guards the bolted doors : Auxiliar to his son, Ulysses bears The plumy-crested helms and pointed spears. With shields indented deep in glorious wars. Minerva viewless on her charge attends, And with her golden lamp his toil befriends. Not such the sickly beams, which unsincere Gild the gross vapour of this nether sphere ! A present deity the prince confess'd. And wrapp'd with ecstasy the sire address'd : " What miracle thus dazzles with surprise ! Distinct in rows the radiant columns rise ; The walls, where'er my wondering sight I turn, And roofs, amidst a blaze of glory burn ! Some visitant of pure ethereal race With his bright presence deigns the dome to grace.'' " Be calm (replies the sire) ; to none impart. But oft revolve the vision in thy heart : Celestials, mantled in excess of light, Can visit unapproach'd by mortal sight. Seek thou repose : whilst here I sole remain. To explore the conduct of the female train : The pensive queen, perchance, desires to know The series of my toils, to soothe her woe." With tapers flaming day his train attends, His bright alcove the obsequious youth ascends : Soft slumberous shades his drooping eyelids close. Till on her eastern throne Aurora glows. Whilst, forming plans of death, Ulysses stay'd. In counsel secret with the martial maid. Attendant nymphs in beauteous order wait The queen, descending from her bower of state. Her cheeks the warmer blush of Venus wear, Chasten'd with coy Diana's pensive air. An ivory seat with silver ringlets graced. By famed Icmalius wrought, the menials placed : With ivory silver'd thick the footstool shone. O'er which the panther's various hide was thrown. The sovereign seat with graceful air she press'd ; To different tasks their toil the nymphs address'd : The golden goblets some, and some restored 26o THE ODYSSEY. [Book XIX. From stains of luxury the polish'd board : These to remove the expiring embers came, While those with unctuous fir foment the flame. 'Twas then Melantho with imperious mien Renew'd the attack, incontinent of spleen : " Avaunt (she cried), offensive to my sight ! Deem not in ambush here to lurk by night, Into the woman-state asquint to pry ; A day-devourer, and an evening spy ! Vagrant, begone ! before this blazing brand Shall urge " — and waved it hissing in her hand. The insulted hero rolls his wrathful eyes, And " Why so turbulent of soul .? (he cries ;) Can these lean shrivell'd limbs, unnerved with age. These poor but honest rags, enkindle rage ? In crowds, we wear the badge of hungry fate : And beg, degraded from superior state ! Constrain'd a rent-charge on the rich I live ; Reduced to crave the good I once could give : A palace, wealth, and slaves, I late possess'd, And all that makes the great be call'd the bless'd : My gate, an emblem of my open soul, Embraced the poor, and dealt a bounteous dole. Scorn not the sad reverse, injurious maid ! 'Tis Jove's high will, and be his will obey'd ! Nor think thyself exempt : that rosy prime Must share the general doom of withering time : To some new channel soon the changeful tide Of royal grace the offended queen may guide ; And her loved lord unplume thy towering pride. Or, were he dead, 'tis wisdom to beware : Sweet blooms the prince beneath Apollo's care ; Your deeds with quick impartial eye surveys, Potent to punish what he cannot praise." Her keen reproach had reach'd the sovereign's ear : " Loquacious insolent ! (she cries,) forbear ; To thee the purpose of my soul I told ; Venial discourse, unblamed, with him to hold ; The storied labours of my wandering lord. To soothe my grief he haply may record : Yet him, my guest, thy venom'd rage hath stung ; Thy head shall pay the forfeit of thy tongue ! But thou on whom my palace-cares depend, Eurynorafe, regard the stranger-friend : A seat, soft spread with furry spoils, prepare ; Due-distant for us both to speak, and hear." The menial fair obeys with duteous haste : A seat adorn'd with furry spoils she placed : Due-distant for discourse the hero sate ; When thus the sovereign from her chair of state ; Book XIX. J THE ODYSSEY. 26 J " Reveal, obsequious to my first demand, Thy name, thy lineage, and thy natal land." He thus : " O queen ! whose far-resounding fame Is bounded only by the starry frame, Consummate pattern of imperial sway, Whose pious rule a warlike race obey ! In wavy gold thy summer vales are dress'd ; Thy autumns bend with copious fruit oppress'd : With flocks and herds each grassy plainis stored ; And fish of every fin thy seas afford : Their affluent joys the grateful realms confess ; And bless the power that still dehghts to bless, Gracious permit this prayer, imperial dame ! Forbear to know my lineage, or my name : Urge not this breast to heave, these eyes to weep ; In sweet oblivion let my sorrows sleep ! My woes awaked will violate your ear. And to this gay censorious train appear A whiny vapour melting in a tear." ^ " Their gifts the gods resumed (the queen rejoin'd), Exterior grace, and energy of mind. When the dear partner of my nuptial joy, Auxiliar troops combined, to conquer Troy. My lord's protecting hand alone would raise My drooping verdure, and extend my praise ! Peers from the distant Samian shore resort : Here with Dulichians join'd, besiege the court : Zacynthus, green with ever-shady groves, And Ithaca, presumptuous boast their loves : Obtruding on my choice a second lord, They press the Hymensean rite abhorred. Misrule thus mingling with domestic cares, I live regardless of my state affairs ; Receive no stranger-guest, no poor relieve ; But ever for my lord in secret grieve ! — This art, instinct by some celestial power, I tried, elusive of the bridal hour : '"Ye peers, (I cry,) who press to gain a heart, Where dead Ulysses claims no future part ; Rebate your loves, each rival suit suspend. Till this funereal web my labours end : Cease, till to good Laertes I bequeath A pall of state, the ornament of death. For when to fate he bows, each Grecian dame With just reproach were licensed to defame. Should he, long honoui"'d in supreme command. Want the last duties of a daughter's hand.' The fiction pleased ; their loves I long elude ; The night still ravell'd what the day renew'd : Three years successful in my heart conceal'd. 262 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XIX. My ineffectual fraud the fourth reveal'd : Befriended by my own domestic spies, The woof unwrought the suitor-train surprise. From nuptial rites they now no more recede, And fear forbids to falsify the brede. My anxious parents urge a speedy choice. And to their suffrage gain the filial voice. For rule mature, Telemachus deplores His dome dishonour'd, and exhausted stores^ But, stranger ! as thy days seem full of fate. Divide discourse, in turn thy birth relate : Thy port asserts thee of distinguish'd race ; No poor unfather'd product of disgrace." " Princess ! (he cries,) renew'd by your command, The dear remembrance of my native land Of secret grief unseals the fruitful source ; Fond tears repeat their long-forgotten course ! So pays the wretch whom fate constrains to roam, The dues of nature to his natal home ! — But inward on my soul let sorrow prey. Your sovereign will my duty bids obey. " Crete awes the circling waves, a fruitful soil ! And ninety cities crown the sea-born isle : Mix'd with her genuine sons, adopted names In various tongues avow their various claims : Cydonians, dreadful with the bended yew. And bold Pelasgi boast a native's due : The Dorians, plumed amid the files of war. Her foodful glebe with fierce Achaians share ; Cnossus, her capital of high command ; Where sceptred Minos with impartial hand Divided right ; each ninth revolving year, By Jove received in council to confer. His son Deucalion bore successive sway ; His son, who gave me first to view the day ! The royal bed an elder issue bless'd, Idomeneus, whom I lion fields attest Of matchless deeds : untrain'd to martial toil, I lived inglorious in my native isle, Studious of peace, and j^thon is my name. 'Twas then to Crete the great Ulysses came : For elemental war, and wintry Jove, From Malea's gusty cape his navy drove To bright Lucina's fane ; the shelfy coast Where loud Amnisus in the deep is lost. His vessels moor'd (an incommodious port !) The hero speeded to the Cnossian court : Ardent the partner of his arms to find. In leagues of long commutual friendship join'd. Vain hope ! ten suns had warm'd the western strand Book XIX.] THE ODYSSEY. 263 Since my brave brother, with his Cretan band, Had sail'd for Troy : but to the genial feast My honour'd roof received the royal guest : Beeves for his train the Cnossian peers assign, A public treat, with jars of generous wine. Twelve days while Boreas vex'd the aerial space, My hospitable dome he deign'd to grace : And when the north had ceased the stormy roar. He wing'd his voyage to the Phrygian shore." Thus the fam'd hero, perfected in wiles, With fair similitude of truth beguiles The queen's attentive ear : dissolved in woe. From her bright eyes the tears unbounded flow. As snows collected on the mountain freeze ; When milder regions breathe a vernal breeze, The fleecy pile obeys the whispering gales. Ends in a stream, and murmurs through the vales : So, melting with the pleasing tale he told, Down her fair cheek the copious torrent roll'd : She to her present lord laments him lost, And views that object which she wants the most Withering at heart to see the weeping fair. His eyes look stern, and cast a gloomy stare ; Of horn the stiff relentless balls appear. Or globes of iron fix'd in either sphere ; Firm wisdom interdicts the softening tear. A speechless interval of grief ensues. Till thus the queen the tender theme renews : " Stranger ! that e'er thy hospitable roof Ulysses graced, confirm by faithful proof ; Delineate to my view my warlike lord. His form, his habit, and his train record." " 'Tis hard, (he cries,) to bring to sudden sight Ideas that have wing'd their distant flight ; Rare on the mind those images are traced. Whose footsteps twenty winters have defaced : But what I can, receive. — In ample mode, A robe of military purple flow'd O'er all his frame : illustrious on his breast, The double-clasping gold the king confess'd. In the rich woof a hound, mosaic drawn, Bore on full stretch, and seized a dappled fawn : Deep in the neck his fangs indent their hold ; They pant and struggle in the moving gold. Fine as a filmy web beneath it shone A vest, that dazzled like a cloudless sun : The female train who round him throng'd to gaze. In silent wonder sigh'd unwilling praise. A sabre, when the warrior press'd to part, I gave, enamell'd with Vulcanian art : 264 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XIX. A mantle purple-tinged, and radiant vest, Dimension'd equal to his size, express'd Affection grateful to my honour'd guest. A favourite herald in his train I knew, His visage solemn, sad, of sable hue : Short woolly curls o'erfleeced his bending head. O'er which a promontory shoulder spread ; Eurybates ; in whose large soul alone Ulysses view'd an image of his own." His speech the tempest of her grief restored ; In all he told she recognized her lord : But when the storm was spent in plenteous showers, A pause inspiriting her languish'd powers, " O thou, (she cried,) whom first inclement Fate Made welcome to mv hospitable gate ; With all thy wants the name of poor shall end : Henceforth live honour'd, my domestic friend ! The vest much envied on your native coast, And regal robe with figured gold emboss'd. In happier hours my artful hand employ'd, When my loved lord this blissful bower enjoy'd : The fall of Troy erroneous and forlorn Doom'd to survive, and never to return ! " Then he, with pity touch'd : " O royal dame ! Your ever-anxious mind, and beauteous frame. From the devouring rage of grief reclaim. I not the fondness of your soul reprove For such a lord ! who crown'd your virgin-love With the dear blessing oF a fair increase ; Himself adorn'd with more than mortal grace : Yet while I speak the mighty woe suspend ; Truth forms my tale ; to pleasing truth attend. The royal object of your dearest care Breathes in no distant clime the vital air : In rich Thesprotia, and the nearer bound Of Thessaly, his name I heard renown'd : Without retinue, to that friendly shore Welcomed with gifts of price, a sumless store ! His sacrilegious train, who dared to prey On herds devoted to the god of day. Were doom'd by Jove, and Phoebus' just decree, To perish in the rough Ti-inacrian sea. To better fate the blamelffls chief ordain'd, A floating fragment of the wreck regain'd, And rode the storm ; till, by the billows toss'd. He landed on the fair Phjeacian coast. That race, who emulate the life of gods. Receive him joyous to their bless'd abodes : Large gifts confer, a ready sail command. To speed his voyage to the Grecian strand. Book XIX.] THE ODYSSEY. 265 But your wise lord (in whose capacious soul High schemes of power in just succession roll) His Ithaca refused from favouring Fate, Till copious wealth might guard his regal state. Phedon the fact affirm'd, whose sovereign sway Thesprotian tribes, a duteous race, obey : And bade the gods this added truth attest (While pure libations crown'd the genial feast}}? That anchor'd in his port the vessels stand, To waft the hero to his natal land. I for Dulichium urge the watery way. But first the Ulyssean wealth survey : So rich the value of a store so vast Demands the pomp of centuries to waste ! The darling object of your royal love Was journey'd thence to Dodonean Jove ; By the sure precept of the sylvan shrine, To form the conduct of his great design : Irresolute of soul, his state to shroud In dark disguise, or come, a king avow'd \ Thus lives your lord ; nor longer doom'd to roam •. Soon will he grace this dear paternal dome. By Jove, the source of good, supreme in power ! By the bless'd genius of this friendly bower ! I ratify my speech, before the sun His annual longitude of heaven shall run ; When the pale empress of yon starry train In the next month renews her faded wane, Ulysses will assert his rightful reign." " What thanks ! what boon ! (replied the queen), are due, When time shall prove the storied blessing tru<^ ! My lord's return should fate no more retard. Envy shall sicken at thy vast reward. But my prophetic fears, alas ! presage The wounds of Destiny's relentless rage. I long must weep, nor will Ulysses come^ With royal gifts to send you honour'd home !— Your other task, ye menial train, forbear : Now wash the stranger, and the bed prepare ; With splendid palls the downy fleece adorn : Uprising early with the purple morn, His sinews, shrunk with age, and stiff with toil, In the warm bath foment with fragrant oil. Then with Telemachus the social feast Partaking free, my sole invited guest ; Whoe'er neglects to pay distinction due, The breach of hospitable right may rue. The vulgar of my sex I most exceed In real fame, when most humane my deed ; And vainly to the praise of oueen aspire. 266 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XIX. If, stranger ! I permit that mean attire Beneath the feastful bower. A narrow space Confines the circle of our destined race ; 'Tis ours with good the scanty round to grace. Those who to cruel wrong their state abuse, Dreaded in life, the mutter'd curse pursues ; By death disrobed of all their savage powers, Then, licensed rage her hateful prey devours. But he whose inborn worth his acts commend, Of gentle soul, to human race a friend ; The wretched he relieves diffuse his fame, And distant tongues extol the patron-name.'' " Princess ! (he cried) in vain your bounties flow On me, confirm'd and obstinate in woe. When my loved Crete received my final view, And from my weeping eyes her cliffs withdrew ; These tatter'd weeds (my decent robe resign'd) I chose, the livery of a woful mind ! Nor will my heart-corroding care abate With splendid palls, and canopies of state : Low-couch'd on earth, the gift of sleep I scorn, And catch the glances of the waking morn. The delicacy of your courtly train To wash a wretched wanderer would disdain ; But if, in tract of long experience tried. And sad similitude of woes allied. Some wretch reluctant views aerial light, To her mean hand assign the friendly rite." Pleased with his wise reply, the queen rejoin'd : " Such gentle manners, and so sage a mind. In all who graced this hospitable bower I ne'er discerned, before this social hour. Such servant as your humble choice requires, To light received the lord of my desires. New from the birth; and with a mothei^s hand His tender bloom to manly growth sustain'd : Of matchless prudence, and a duteous mind : Though now to life's extremest verge declined. Of strength superior to the toil design'd — Rise, Euryclea ! with officious care For the poor friend the cleansing bath prepare : This debt his correspondent fortunes claim. Too like Ulysses, and perhaps the same ! Thus old with woes my fancy paints him now ! For age untimely marks the careful brow." Instant, obsequious to the mild command. Sad Euryclea rose : with trembling hand She veils the torrent of her tearful eyes ; And thus impassion'd to herself replies : " Son of my love, and monarch of my cares, ' Book XIX.] THE ODYSSEY. 267 What pangs for thee this wretched bosom bears ! Are thus by Jove who constant beg his aid With pious deed, and pure devotion, paid ? He never dared defraud the sacred fane Of perfect hecatombs in order slain : There oft implored his tutelary power. Long to protract the sad sepulchral hour ; That, form'd for empire with paternal care, His realm might recognize an equal heir. O destined head ! The pious vows are lost ; His God forgets him on a foreign coast ! — Perhaps, like thee, poor guest ! in wanton pride The rich insult him, and the young deride ! Conscious of worth reviled, thy generous mind The friendly rite of purity declined ; My will concurring with my queen's command. Accept the bath from this obsequious hand. A strong emotion shakes my anguish'd breast : In thy whole form Ulysses seems express'd : Of all the wretched harbour'd on our coast. None imaged e'er like thee my master lost." Thus half-discover'd through the dark disguise. With cool composure feign'd, the chief replies : " You join your suffrage to the public vote ; The same you think have all beholders thought." He said : replenish'd from the purest springs, The laver straight with busy care she brings : In the deep vase, that shone like burnish'd gold. The boiling fluid temperates the cold. Meantime revolving in his thoughtful mind The scar, with which his manly knee was sign'd ; His face averting from the crackling blaze. His shoulders intercept the unfriendly rays : Thus cautious in the obscure he hoped to fly The curious search of Euryclea's eye. y Cautious in vain ! nor ceased the dame to find The scar with which his manly knee was sign'd. This on Parnassus (combating the boar) With glancing rage the tusky savage tore. Attended by his brave maternal race, His grandsire sent him to the sylvan chase, Autolycus the bold (a mighty name For spotless faith and deeds of martial fame : Hermes, his patron god, those gifts bestow'd. Whose shrine with weanling lambs he wont to load). His course to Ithaca this hero sped. When the first product of Laertes' bed Was now disclosed to birth : the banquet ends, When Euryclea from the queen descends. And to his fond embrace the babe commends ; 268 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XIX. " Receive (she cries) your royal daughter's son ; And name the blessing that your prayers have won." Then thus the hoary chief : " My victor arms Have avi^ed the realms around with dire alarms : A sure memorial of my dreaded fame The boy shall bear ; Ulysses be his name ! And when with filial love the youth shall come To view his mother's soil, my Delphic dome With gifts of price shall send him joyous home." Lured with the promised boon, when youthful prime Ended in man, his mother's natal clime Ulysses sought ; with fond affection dear Aniphithea's arms received the royal heir : Her ancient lord ' an equal joy possess'd ; Instant he bade prepare the genial feast : A steer to form the sumptuous banquet bled, Whose stately growth five flowery summers fed : His sons divide, and roast with artful care The limbs ; then all the tasteful viands share. Nor ceased discourse (the banquet of the soul), Till Phcebus wheeling to the western goal ■ Resign'd the skies, and night involved the pole. Their drooping eyes the slumberous shade oppress'd, Sated they rose, and all retired to rest. Soon as the morn, new-robed in purple light. Pierced with her golden shafts the rear of night, Ulysses, and his brave maternal race, The young Autolyci, essay the chase. Parnassus, thick perplex'd with horrid shades, With deep-mouth'd hounds the hunter-troop invades ; What time the sun, from ocean's peaceful stream, Darts o'er the lawn his horizontal beam. The pack impatient snuff the tainted gale ; The thorny wilds the woodmen fierce assail : And, foremost of the train, his cornel spear Ulysses waved, to rouse the savage war. Deep in the rough recesses of the wood, A lofty copse, the growth of ages, stood ; Nor winter's boreal blast, nor thunderous shower. Nor solar ray, could pierce the shady bower. With wither'd foliage strew'd, a heapy store ! The warm pavilion of a dreadful boar. Roused by the hounds' and hunters' mingling cries, The savage from his leafy shelter flies ; With fiery glare his sanguine eye-balls shine. And bristles high impale his horrid chine. Young Ithacus advanced, defies the foe, Poising his lifted lance in act to throw ; The savage renders vain the wound decreed, ^ Autolycus. Book XIX.] THE ODYSSEY. 269 And springs impetuous with opponent speed ! His tusks oblique he aim'd, the knee to gore ; Aslope they glanced, the sinewy fibres tore, And bared the bone ; Ulysses undismay'd, Soon with redoubled force the wound repaid ; To the right shoulder-joint the spear applied, His further flank with streaming purple dyed : On earth he rush'd with agonizing pain ; With joy and vast surprise, the applauding train View'd his enormous bulk extended on the plain. With bandage firm Ulysses' knee they bound ; Then, chanting mystic lays, the closing wound Of sacred melody confess'd the force ; The tides of life regain'd their azure course. EURYCLEA DISCOVERS ULYSSES. Then back they led the youth with loud acclaim : Autolycus, enamoured with his fame, Confirm'd the cure ; and from the Delphic dome With added gifts return'd him glorious home. He safe at Ithaca with joy received, Relates the chase, and early praise achieved. Deep o'er his knee inseam'd remain'd the scar : Which noted token of the woodland war When Euryclea found, the ablution ceased : Down dropp'd the leg, from her slack hand released ; The mingled fluids from the base redound ; The vase reclining floats the floor around ! Smiles dew'd with tears the pleasing strife express'd Of grief and joy, alternate in her breast. Her fluttering words in melting murmurs died ; 8 70 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XIX. At length abrupt — " My son !— my king ! " — slivi cried. His neck witii fond embrace infolding fast, Full on the queen her raptured eye she cast. Ardent to speak the monarch safe restored : But, studious to conceal her royal lord, Minerva fix'd her mind on views remote, And from the present bliss abstracts her thought. His hand to Euryclea's mouth applied, " Art thou foredoom'd my pest .'' (the hero cried :) Thy milky founts my infant lips have drain'd : And have the Fates thy babbling age ordain'd To violate the life thy youth sustain'd ? An exile have I told, with v^eeping eyes, Full twenty annual suns in distant skies : At length return'd, some god inspires thy breast To know thy king, and here I stand confess'd. This heaven-discover'd truth to thee consign'd, Reserve the treasure of thy inmost mind : Else, if the gods my vengeful arm sustain. And prostrate to my sword the suitor-train ; With their lewd mates, thy undistinguish'd age Shall bleed a victim to vindictive rage." Then thus rejoin'd the dame, devoid of fear : " What words, my son, have pass'd thy lips severe ? * Deep in my soul the trust shall lodge secured ; With ribs of steel, and marble heart, immured. When Heaven, auspicious to thy right avow'd, Shall prostrate to thy sword the suitor-crowd, The deeds I'll blazon of the menial fair ; The lewd to death devote, the virtuous spare.'' " Thy aid avails me not (the chief replied) ; My own experience shall their doom decide : A witness-judge precludes a long appeal : Suffice it then thy monarch to conceal." - He said : obsequious, with redoubled pace, She to the fount conveys the exhausted vase : The bath renew'd, she ends the pleasing toil With plenteous unction of ambrosial oil. Adjusting to his limbs the tattei-'d vest. His former seat received the stranger guest ; Whom thus with pensive air the queen address'd : " Though night, dissolving grief in grateful ease, Your drooping eyes with soft oppression seize ; Awhile, reluctant to her pleasing force, Suspend the restful hour with sweet discourse. The day (ne'er brighten'd with a beam of joy !) My menials, and domestic cares employ : And, unattended by sincere repose, The night assists my ever-wakeful woes ; When nature 's hush'd beneath her brooding shade, Book XIX.] 7 HE ODYSSEY. 271 My echoing griefs the starry vault invade. As when the months are clad in flowery green, Sad Philomel, in bowery shades unseen, To vernal airs attunes her varied strains ; And Itylus sounds warbling o'er the plains ; Young Itylus, his parents' darling joy ! Whom chance misled the mother to destroy ; Now doom'd a wakeful bird to wail the beauteous boy. So in nocturnal soHtude forlorn, A sad variety of woes I mourn ! My mind, reflective, in a thorny maze Devious from care to care incessant strays. Now, wavering doubt succeeds to long despair ; Shall I my virgin nuptial vow revere ; And, joining to my son's my menial train. Partake his counsels, and assist his reign ? Or, since, mature in manhood, he deplores His dome dishonour'd, and exhausted stores ; Shall I, reluctant ! to his will accord ; And from the peers select the noblest lord ; So by my choice avovv'd, at length decide These wasteful love-debates, a mourning bride ? A visionary thought I'll now relate ; Illustrate, if you know, the shadow'd fate : " A team of twenty geese (a snow-white train !) Fed near the limpid lake with golden grain. Amuse my pensive hours. The bird of Jove Fierce from his mountain-eyrie downward drove ; Each favourite fowl he pounced with deathful sway. And back triumphant wing'd his airy way. My pitying eyes effused a plenteous stream, To view their death thus imaged in a dream ; With tender sympathy to soothe my soul, A troop of matrons, fancy-form'd, condole. But whilst with grief and rage my bosom bui"n'd. Sudden the tyrant of the skies return'd : Perch'd on the battlements he thus began (In form an eagle, but in voice a man) : ' O queen ! no vulgar vision of the sky I come, prophetic of approachmg joy : View in this plumy form thy victor-lord ; The geese (a glutton race) by thee deplored. Portend the suitors fated to my sword.' This said, the pleasing feather'd omen ceased. When from the downy bands of sleep released, Fast by the limpid lake my swan-like train I found, insatiate of the golden grain." " The vision self-explain'd (the chief replies) Sincere reveals the sanction of the skies : Ulysses speaks his own return decreed ; And by his sword the suitors sure to bleed." 272 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XIX. " Hard is the task, and rare," (the queen rejoin'd,) Impending destinies in dreams to find : Immured within the silent bower of sleep. Two portals firm the various phantoms keep : Of ivory one ; whence flit, to mock the brain. Of winged lies a light fantastic train : The gate opposed pellucid valves adorn, And columns fair incased with polish'd horn : Where images of truth for passage wait, With visions manifest of future fate. Not to this troop, I fear, that phantom soafd. Which spoke Ulysses to this realm restored : Delusive semblance ! — but my remnant life Heaven shall determine in a gameful strife ; With that famed bow Ulysses taught to bend, For me the rival archers shall contend. As on the listed field he used to place Six beams, opposed to six in equal space : Elanced afar by his unerring art. Sure through six circlets flew the whizzing dart. So, when the sun restores the purple day. Their strength and skill the suitors shall assay : To him the spousal honour is decreed, Who through the rings directs the feather'd reed. Torn from these walls (where long the kinder powers With joy and pomp have wing'd my youthful hours !) On this poor breast no dawn of bliss shall beam ; The pleasure past supplies a copious theme For many a dreary thought, and many a doleful dream ! "' " Propose the sportive lot (the chief replies). Nor dread to name yourself the bowyer's prize : Ulysses will surprise the unfinish'd game, Avow'd, and falsify the suitors' claim." To whom with grace serene the queen rejoin'd : " In all thy speech what pleasing force I find ! O'er my suspended woe thy words prevail ; I part reluctant from the pleasing tale, But Heaven, that knows what all terrestiials need, Repose to night, and toil to day decreed ; Grateful vicissitudes ! yet me withdrawn, Wakeful to weep and watch the tardy dawn Establish'd use enjoins ; to rest and joy Estranged, since dear Ulysses sail'd to Troy ! Meantime instructed is the menial tribe Your couch to fashion as yourself prescribe.'' Thus affable, her bower the queen ascends ; The sovereign step a beauteous train attends : There imaged to her soul Ulysses rose ; Down her pale cheek new-streaming sorrow flows : Till soft oblivious shade Minerva spread, And o'er her eyes ambrosial slumber shed. BOOK XX. ARGUMENT. While Ulysses lies in the vestibule of the palace, he is witness to the disorocrs of tht women. Minerva comforts him, and casts him asleep. At his waking he desires a favourable sign from Jupiter, which is granted. The feast of Apollo is celebrated by the people, and the suitors banquet in the palace. Telemachus exerts his authority amongst them ; notwith- standing which, Ulysses is insulted by Ctesippus, and the rest continue in their excesses. Strange prodigies are seen by Theoclymenus, the augur, who explains them to the destruc- tion of the wooers. An ample hide divine Ulysses spread, And form'd of fleecy skins his humble bed (The remnants of the spoil the suitor-crowd In festival devour'd, and victims vow'd). Then o'er the chief, Eurynome the chaste With duteous care a downy carpet cast : With dire revenge his thoughtful bosom glows. And, ruminating wrath, he scorns repose.- As thus pavilion'd in the porch he lay. Scenes of lewd loves his wakeful eyes survey, Whilst to nocturnal joys impure repair, With wanton glee, the prostituted fair. His heart with rage this new dishonour stung, Wavering his thoughts in dubious balance hung : Or instant should he quench the guilty flame With their own blood, and intercept the shame : Or to their lust indulge a last embrace. And let the peers consummate the disgrace. Round his swoln heart the murmurous fury rohs, As o'er her young the mother-mastiff growls. And bays the stranger groom : so wrath compress'd Recoiling, mutter'd thunder in his breast. " Poor suffering heart ! (he cried,) support the pain Of wounded honour, and thy rage restrain. Not fiercer woes thy fortitude could foil. When the brave partners of ihy ten years' toil 274 ^-^^ OBVSS£y. [Book XX. Dire Polypheme devour'd ; I then was freed By patient prudence from the death decreed." Thus anchor'd safe on reason's peaceful coast, Tempests of wrath his soul no longer toss'd ; Restless his body rolls, to rage resign'd : As one who long with pale-eyed famine pined, The savoury cates on glowing embers cast Incessant turns, impatient for repast : Ulysses so, from side to side devolved. In self-debate the suitor's doom resolved : When in the form of mortal nymph array'd, From heaven descends the Jove-born martial maid ; And hovering o'er his head in view confess'd. The goddess thus her favourite care address'd : " O thou, of mortals most inured to woes ! Why roll those eyes unfriended of repose ? Beneath thy palace-roof forget thy care ; Bless'd in thy queen ! bless'd in thy blooming heir ; Whom, to the gods when suppliant fathers bow They name the standard of their dearest vow." " Just is thy kind reproach (the chief rejoin'd), Deeds full of fate distract my various mind. In contemplation wrapp'd. This hostile crew What single arm hath prowess to subdue ? Or if, by Jove's and thy auxiliar aid. They're doom'd to bleed ; O say, celestial maid ! Where shall Ulysses shun, or how sustain Nations embattled to revenge the slain ? " •' Oh impotence of faith ! (Minerva cries,) If man on frail unknowing man relies, Doubt you the gods .? Lo, Pallas' self descends,' Inspires thy counsels, and thy toils attends. I Pallas' self. After detailing the various omens which had foreshadowed the death of the suitors. Colonel Mure observes : — "This whole train of allusions, in a great mea'^ure pointless if taken separately, assumes collectively an awful significance as concentrated around the fatality, that Ulysses was suddenly to destroy the suitors with the bow, on the sacred day of Apollo, the god of archery and of sudden destruction. The catastrophe was to take place at the moment when they were assembled to celebrate, with their characteristic levity of demeanour, the festival of the god, and while engaged in a trial of skill with the weapon which, sacred to him, was to deal death to themselves : with the very weapon, too, of the man they were outraging, and whose wife and plundered goods were the promised reward of the victor. " What, however, it may be asked, has induced the genius, who conceived this grand poetical moral, to shroud it under so enigmatical a veil? A sufficient answer to such questions might perhaps be, that we have no right to ask them. The following, however, suggests itself as a natural explanation of the mystery. The special patroness of Ulysses was Pallas. She had been his guardian angel during the Trojan war, and had conducted him safe through the dangers of his late adventurous course. To her, therefore, the first, and ostensibly the sole credit was to remain of completing the work she had begun. Had the agency of Apollo been brought forward in the prominent form to which its importance might otherwise seem to entitle it, Minerva would have been eclipsed, or a multiplicity of divine interference have resulted, injurious to the harmony of the action. The influence, therefore, of the god of the bow, with its train of portentous contingencies, has been very properly kept in the background of the picture. The few incidental touches by which it has been shadowed forth speak home, through their very obscurity, with the greater force, to the minds of those who appreciate the true spirit of the poem. ' — Vol. i. p. 385. Book XX.] THE ODYSSEY. 27s In me affianced, fortify thy breast, Though myriads leagued thy rightful claim contest ; My sure divinity shall bear the shield, And edge thy sword to reap the glorious field. Now, pay the debt to craving nature due. Her faded powers with balmy rest renew." She ceased, ambrosial slumbers seal his eyes ; His care dissolves in visionary joys : The goddess, pleased, regains her natal skies. Not so the queen ; the downy bands of sleep By grief relax'd, she waked again to weep : A gloomy pause ensued of dumb despair ; Then thus her fate invoked, with fervent prayer : THE HARPIES GOING TO SEIZE THE DAUGHTERS OF PANDARUS- " Diana ! speed thy deathful ebon dart. And cure the pangs of this convulsive heart. Snatch me, ye whirlwinds ! far from human race, Toss'd through the void illimitable space : Or if dismounted from the rapid cloud. Me with his whelming wave let Ocean shroud ! So, Pandarus, thy hopes, three orphan-fair, Were doom'd to vrander through the devious air ; Thyself untimely, and thy consort died, But four celestials both your cares supplied. Venus in tender delicacy rears With honey, milk, and wine their infant years : Imperial Juno to their youth assigned A form majestic, and sagacious mind : With shapely growth Diana graced their bloom : U 276 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XX. And Pallas taught the texture of the loom. But whilst, to learn their lots in nuptial love, Bright Cytherea sought the bower of Jove (The God supreme, to whose eternal eye The registers of fate expanded lie) ; Wing'd Harpies snatch the unguarded charge away, And to the Furies bore a grateful prey. Be such my lot ! Or thou, Diana, speed Thy shaft, and send me joyful to the dead : To seek my lord among the warrior train, Ere second vows my bridal faith profane. When woes the waking sense alone assail, Whilst Night extends her soft oblivious veil. Of other wretches' care the torture ends : No truce the warfare of my heart suspends ! The night renews the day-distracting theme. And airy terrors sable every dream. The last alone a kind illusion wrought. And to my bed my loved Ulysses brought, In manly bloom, and each majestic grace, As when for Troy he left my fond embrace ; Such raptures in my beating bosom rise, I deem it sure a vision of the skies." Thus, whilst Aurora mounts her purple throne. In audible laments she breathes her moan ; The sounds assault Ulysses' wakeful ear : Misjudging of the cause, a sudden fear Of his arrival known, the chief alarms ; He thinks the queen is rushing to his arms. Upspringing from his couch, with active haste The fleece and carpet in the dome he placed — (The hide, without, imbibed the morning air) ; And thus the gods invoked with ardent prayer : "Jove, and eternal thrones ! with heaven to friend, If the long series of my woes shall end : Of human race now rising from repose. Let one a blissful omen here disclose ; And, to confirm my faith, propitious Jove ! Vouchsafe the sanction of a sign above." Whilst lowly thus the chief adoring bows. The pitying god his guardian aid avows. Loud from a sapphire sky his thunder sounds ; With springing hope the hero's heart rebounds. Soon, with consummate joy to crown his prayer. An omen'd voice invades his ravish'd ear. Beneath a pile that close the dome adjoin'd, Twelve female slaves the gift of Ceres grind ; Task'd for the royal board to bolt the bran From the pure flour (the growth and strength of man) ; Discharging to the day the labour due, Book XX.] THE ODYSSEY. m Now early to repose the rest withdrew ; One maid unequal to the task assign'd, Still turn'd the toilsome mill with anxious mind ; And thus in bitterness of soul divined : " Father of gods and men, whose thunders roll O'er the cerulean vault, and shake the pole : Whoe'er from Heaven has gain'd this rare ostent (Of granted vows a certain signal sent), In this blest moment of accepted prayer. Piteous, regard a wretch consumed with care ! Instant, O Jove ! confound the suitor-train. For whom o'ertoil'd I grind the golden grain : Far from this dome the lewd devourers cast. And be this festival decreed their last ! " Big with their doom denounced in earth and sky, Ulysses' heart dilates with secret joy. Meantime the menial train with unctuous wood Heap'd high the genial hearth, Vulcanian food : When, early dress'd, advanced the royal heir ; With manly grasp he waved a martial spear ; A radiant sabre graced his purple zone. And on his foot the golden sandal shone. His steps impetuous to the portal press'd ; And Euryclea thus he there address'd : " Say thou to whom my youth its nurture owes, Was care for due refection and repose Bestow'd the stranger-guest ? Or waits he grieved, His age not honour'd, nor his wants relieved .'' Promiscuous grace on all the queen confers (In woes bewiider'd, oft the wisest errs). The wordy vagrant to the dole aspires. And modest worth with noble scorn retires." She thus : " O cease that ever-honour'd name To blemish now : it ill deserves your blame. A bowl of generous wine sufficed the guest ; In vain the queen the night refection press'd ; Nor would he court repose in downy state, Unbless'd, abandon'd to the rage of Fate ! A hide beneath the portico was spread, And fleecy skins composed an humble bed : A downy carpet cast with duteous care. Secured him from the keen nocturnal air." His cornel javelin poised with regal port, To the sage Greeks convened in Themis' court, Forth-issuing from the dome the prince repair'd ; Two dogs of chase, a lion-hearted guard, Behind him sourly stalk'd. Without delay The dame divides the labour of the day : Thus urging to the toil the menial train : " What marks of luxury the marble stain 27S THE ODYSSEY. [Book XX, Its wonted lustre let the floor regain ; The seats with purple clothe in order due ; And let the abstersive sponge the board renew ; Let some refresh the vase's sullied mould ; Some bid the goblets boast their native gold : Some to the spring, with each a jar, repair. And copious waters pure for bathing bear : Dispatch ! for soon the suitors will essay The lunar feast-rites to the god of day." She said : with duteous haste a bevy fair Of twenty virgins to the spring repair ; With varied toils the rest adorn the dome. Magnificent, and blithe, the suitors come. Some wield the sounding axe; the dodder'd oaks Divide, obedient to the forceful strokes. Soon from the fount, with each a brimming urn (EumKus in their train), the maids return. Three porkers for the feast, all brawny-chined. He brought ; the choicest of the tusky-kind : In lodgments first secure his care he. viewed, Then to the king this friendly speech renew'd : " Now say sincere, my guest ! the suitor-train. Still treat they worth with lordly dull disdain ; Or speaks their deed a bounteous mind humane .' " "Some pitying god (Ulysses sad replied) With voUied vengeance blast their towering pride ! No conscious blush, no sense of right, restrains The tides of lust that swell their boiling veins : From vice to vice their appetites are toss'd, All cheaply sated at another's cost !" While thus the chief his woes indignant told, Melanthius, master of the bearded fold, The goodliest goats of all the royal herd Spontaneous to the suitors' feast preferred : Two grooms assistant bore the victims bound : With quavering cries the vaulted roofs resound : And to the chief austere aloud began The wretch unfriendly to the race of man : " Here vagrant, still ? offensive to my lords ! Blows have more energy than airy words ; These arguments I'll use : nor conscious shame. Nor threats, thy bold intrusion will reclaim. On this high feast the meanest vulgar boast A plenteous bpard ! Hence ! seek another host ! " Rejoinder to the churl the king disdain'd. But shook his head, and rising wrath restrain'd. From Cephanelia 'cross the surgy main PhilcEtius late arrived, a faithful swain. A steer ungrateful to the bull's embrace. And goats he brought, the pride of all their race ; Book XX.] THE ODYSSEY. Imported in a shallop not his own : The dome re-echoed to the mingled moan. Straight to the guardian of the bristly kind He thus began, benevolent of mind : " What guest is he, of such majestic air ? His lineage and paternal clime declare : Dim through the eclipse of fate, the rays divine Of sovereign state with faded splendour shine. If monarchs by the gods are plunged in woe, To what abyss are we foredoom'd to go ! " Then affable he thus the chief address'd, Whilst with pathetic warmth his hand he press'd : " Stranger, may fate a milder aspect show, And spin thy future with a whiter clue ! O Jove ! for ever death to human cries ; The tyrant, not the father of the skies ! Unpiteous of the race thy will began ! The fool of fate, thy manufacture, man, With penury, contempt, repulse, and care, The galling load of life is doom'd to bear. Ulysses from his state a wanderer still. Upbraids thy powei-, thy wisdom, or thy will ! O monarch ever dear ! — O man of woe ! Fresh flow my tears, and shall for ever flow ! Like thee, poor stranger guest, denied his home, Like thee, in rags obscene decreed to roam ! Or, haply perish'd on some distant coast, In Stygian gloom he glides, a pensive ghost ! Oh, grateful for the good his bounty gave, I'll grieve, till sorrow sink me to the grave ! His kind protecting hand my youth preferr'd. The regent of his Cephalenian herd : With vast increase beneath my care it spreads : A stately breed ! and blackens far the meads. Constrain'd, the choicest beeves I thence import. To cram these cormorants that crowd his court : Who in partition seek his realm to share ; Nor human right nor wrath divine revere. Since here resolved oppressive these reside, Contending doubts my anxious heart divide : Now to some foreign clime inclined to fly, And with the royal herd protection buy ; Then, happier thoughts return the nodding scale, Light mounts despair, alternate hopes prevail : In opening prospects of ideal joy. My king returns ; the proud usurpers die." To whom the chief: " In thy capacious mind Since daring zeal with cool debate is join"d, Attend a deed already ripe in fate : Attest, O Jove ! the truth I now relate ! 279 28o THE ODYSSEY. [Book XX This sacred truth attest, each genial power, Who bless the board, and guard this friendly bower ! Before thou quit the dome (nor long delay) Thy wish produced in act, with pleased survey, Thy wondering eyes shall view : his rightful reign By arms avow'd Ulysses shall regain. And to the shades devote the suitor-train." " O Jove supreme ! the raptured swain replies, With deeds consummate soon the promised joys ! These aged nerves, with new-born vigour strung, In that blest cause should emulate the young." Assents Eumasus to the prayer address'd ; And equal ardours fire his loyal breast. Meantime the suitors urge the prince's fate, And deathful arts employ the dire debate : When in his airy tour, the bird of Jove Truss'd with his sinewy pounce a trembling dove ; Sinister to their hope ! This omen eyed Amphinomus, who thus presaging cried : " The gods from force and fraud the prince defend ; O peers ! the sanguinary scheme suspend : Your future thought let sable fate employ ; And give the present hour to genial joy." From council straight the assenting peerage ceased. And in the dome prepared the genial feast. Disrobed, their vests apart in order lay, Then all with speed succinct the victims slay ; With sheep and shaggy goats the porkers bled, And the proud steer was on the marble spread. With fire prepared, they deal the morsels round, Wine, rosy-bright, the brimming goblets crown'd, By sage Eumsus borne ; the purple tide Melanthius from an ample jar supplied : High canisters of bread Philaetius placed ; And eager all devour the rich repast. Disposed apart, Ulysses shares the treat ; A trivet table, and ignobler seat, The prince appoints ; but to his sire assigns The tasteful inwards, and nectareous wines. " Partake, my guest (he cried), without control The social feast, and drain the cheering bowl : Dread not the railer's laugh, nor ruffian's rage ; No vulgar roof protects thy honour'd age ; This dome a refuge to thy wrongs shall be. From my great sire too soon devolved to me ! Your violence and scorn, ye suitors, cease, Lest arms avenge the violated peace." Awed by the prince, so haughty, brave, and young, Rage gnaw'd the lip, amazement chain'd the tongue. " Be patient peers ! (at length Antinoiis cries,) Book XX.] THE ODYSSEY. 281 The threats of vain imperious youth despise : Would Jove permit the meditated blow, That stream of eloquence should cease to flow.'' Without reply vouchsafed, Antinous ceased : Meanwhile the pomp of festival increased : By heralds rank'd, in marshall'd order move The city tribes, to pleased Apollo's grove : Beneath the verdure of which awful shade, The lunar hecatomb they grateful laid ; Partook the sacred feast, and ritual honours paid. But the rich banquet, in the dome prepared (An humble sideboard set) Ulysses shared. Observant of the prince's high behest, His menial train attend the stranger-guest : Whom Pallas with unpardoning fury fired. By lordly pride and keen reproach inspired. A Samian peer, more studious than the rest Of vice, who teem'd with many a dead-born jest ; And urged, for title to a consort queen, Unnumber'd acres arable and green (Ctesippus named) ; this lord Ulysses eyed. And thus burst out the imposthumate with pride : " The sentence I propose, ye peers, attend : Since due regard must wait the prince's friend, Let each a token of esteem bestow : This gift acquits the dear respect I owe ; With which he nobly may discharge his seat. And pay the menials for a master's treat." He said : and of the steer before him placed. That sinewy fragment at Ulysses cast, Where to the pastern-bone, by nerves combined. The well-horn'd foot indissolubly join'd ; Which whizzing high, the wall unseemly sign'd. The chief indignant grins a ghastly smile ; Revenge and scorn within his bosom boil : When thus the prince with pious rage inflamed : " Had not the inglorious wound thy malice aim'd Fall'n guiltless of the mark, my certain spear Had made thee buy the brutal triumph dear • Nor should thy sire a queen his daughter boast ; The suitor, now, had vanish'd in a ghost : No more, ye lewd compeers, with lawless power Invade my dome, my herds and flocks devour : For genuine worth, of age mature to know. My grape shall redden, and my harvest grow. Or, if each othei-'s wrongs ye still support. With rapes and riot to profane my court ; What single arm with numbers can contend ? On me let all your lifted swords descend. And with my life such vile dishonours end." 282 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XX. A long cessation of discourse ensued, By gentler Agelaiis thus renew'd : " A just reproof, ye peers ! your rage restrain From the protected guest, and menial train : And, prince ! to stop the source of future ill. Assent yourself, and gain the royal will. Whilst hope prevail'd to see your sire restored, Of right the queen refused a second lord : But who so vain of faith, so blind to fate, To think he still survives to claim the state .? Now press the sovereign dame with warm desire To wed, as wealth or worth her choice inspire : The lord selected to the nuptial joys Far hence will lead the long-contested prize : Whilst in paternal pomp with plenty bless'd, You reign, of this imperial dome possess'd." Sage and serene Telemachus replies : " By him at whose behest the thunder flies. And by the name on earth I most revere. By great Ulysses and his woes I swear ! (Who never must review his dear domain ; EnroH'd, perhaps, in Pluto's dreary train), Whene'er her choice the royal dame avows. My bridal gifts shall load the future spouse : But from this dome my parent queen to chase ! From me, ye gods ! avert such dire disgrace." But Pallas clouds with intellectual gloom The suitors' souls, insensate of their doom I A mirthful frenzy seized the fated crowd ; The roofs resound with causeless laughter loud : Floating in gore, portentous to survey ! In each discolour'd vase the viands lay : Then down each cheek the tears spontaneous flow And sudden sighs precede approaching woe. In vision wrapp'd, the Hyperesian seer' Uprose, and thus divined the vengeance near : " O race to death devote ! with Stygian shade ° ^ Theoclymenus. ^ O race to death devote. The gloomy fatalism, so splendidly brought forward in this book, has been well described by Colonel Mure : — " In the Greek religious calendar, the first days of the month were sacred to Apollo from the remotest period : and the Neomenia, or Feast of the New Moon, celebrated in honour of that deity, continued to be one of the most popular festivals in every age of classical antiquity. On the morning of the day destined for the destruction of the suitors, the fourth after the arrival of Ulysses, theyappear earlier than usual in the palace hall. The reason assigned is, 'that it is a great public festival,* the feast of Apollo, in fact, as stated a few lines afterwards, where the heralds are described as leading the victims in procession through the city, and the people assembled in the grove of Phcebus. Now, it will be remembered that Apollo was, m the primitive mythology, and in that of Homer in particular, the god of sudden death ; and the biw, his favourite weapon, was the emblem of his destructive attributes. The bow was also the weapon with which Ulysses was to consummate his vengeance on the suitors. Hence the competition of archery with the hero's bow, appointed by Penelope the day before as a test of their prowess, is selected with ominous propriety as the gymnastic entertamment of the feast of the god. Mark, then, how impressive the combination ! The light-hearted suitors, like moths playing round the flame of a candle, were destined, while in the act of honouring the Book XX.] THE ODYSSEY. 283 Each destin'd peer impending fates invade ; With tears your wan distorted cheeks are drown'd ; With sanguine drops the walls are rubied round : Thick swarms the spacious hall with howling ghosts, To people Orcus, and the burning coasts ! Nor gives the sun his golden orb to roll, But universal night usurps the pole ! " Yet warn'd in vain, with laughter loud elate The peers reproach the sure divine of Fate ; And thus Eurymachus : " The dotard's mind To every sense is lost, to reason blind : Swift from the dome conduct the slave away ; Let him in open air behold the day." " Tax not (the heaven-illumined seer rejoin'd) Of rage, or folly, my prophetic mind. No clouds of error dim the ethereal rays. Her equal power each faithful sense obeys. Unguided hence my trembling steps I bend, Far hence, before yon hovering deaths descend ; Lest the ripe harvest of revenge begun, I share the doom ye suitors cannot shun." This said, to sage Piraus sped the seer, His honour'd host, a welcome inmate there. O'er the protracted feast the suitors sit. And aim to wound the prince with pointless wit : Cries one, with scornful leer and mimic voice, " Thy charity we praise, but not thy choice ; Why such profusion of indulgence shown To this poor, timorous, toil-detesting drone ? That others feeds on planetary schemes. And pays his host with hideous noon-day dreams. But, prince ! for once at least believe a friend ; To some Sicilian mart these courtiers send. Where, if they yield their freight across the main, Dear sell the slaves ! demand no greater gain." Thus jovial they ; but nought the prince replies ; Full on his sire he roll'd his ardent eyes ; Impatient straight to flesh his virgin-sword ; From the wise chief he waits the deathful word. Nigh in her bright alcove, the pensive queen To see the circle sate, of all unseen. Sated at length they rise, and bid prepare An eve-repast, with equal cost and care : But vengeful Pallas, with preventing speed, A feast proportion'd to their crimes decreed ; A feast of death, the feasters doom'd to bleed ! god of tlie bow and of sudden destruction, on his own feast day, and with his own weapon, tc, be suddenly destroyed by the bow of their injured sovereign. How fearful the self-irony of their unconscious appeals to the patronage of the very deity at whose altar they were about to be sacrificed." — Mure, vol. i. p. 381. BOOK XXI. ARGUMENT. THE BENDING OF ULYSSES* BOW. Penelope, to put an end to the solicitation of the suitors, proposes to marry the person who shall fir.st bend the bow of Ulysses, and shoot through the ringlets. After their attempts have proved ineffectual, Ulysses, taking Eumaeus and Philatius apart, discovers himself to them ; then returning, desires leave to try his strength at the bow, which, though refused with indignation by the suitors, Penelope and Telemachus cause it to be delivered to his hands. He bends it immediately, and shoots through all the rings. Jupiter at the same instant thunders from heaven ; Ulysses accepts the omen, and gives a sign to Telemachus, who stands ready armed at his side. And Pallas now, to raise the rivals' fires, With her own art Penelope inspires : Who now can bend Ulysses' bow, and wing The well-aim'd arrow through the distant ring, Shall end the strife, and win the imperial dame : But discord and black death await the game ! The prudent queen the lofty stair ascends, At distance due a virgin-train attends : A brazen key she held, the handle tum'd, With steel and polish'd elephant adom'd : Swift to the inmost room she bent her way, Where, safe reposed, the royal treasures lay ; There shone high heap'd the labour'd brass and ore, And there the bow which great Ulysses bore ; And there the quiver, where now guiltless slept Those winged deaths that many a matron wept. This gift, long since when Sparta's shore he trod, On young Ulysses Iphitus bestow'd : Beneath Orsilochus's roof they met ; ^ It is impossible not to feel some tedium in reading these latter books of the Odyssey. Although closely connected with the main subject, and necessary to the catastrophe, we cannot help perceiving, that the poem is spun out to a length which its real interest does not efficiently sustam. Book XXI.] THE ODYSSEY. 285 One loss was private, one a public debt ; Messena's state from Ithaca detains Three hundred sheep, and all the shepherd swains ; And to the youthful prince to urge the laws, The king and elders trust their common cause. But Iphitus, employ'd on other cares, Search'd the wide country for his wandering mares. And mules, the strongest of the labouring kind ; Hapless to search ! more hapless still to find ! For journeying on to Hercules, at length That lawless wretch, that man of brutal strength, Deaf to Heaven's voice, the social rite transgress'd ; And for the beauteous mares destroy'd his guest. PENELOPE CARRYING THE BOW OF ULYSSES TO THE SUITORS. He gave the bow ; and on Ulysses' part Received a pointed sword, and missile dart : Of luckless friendship on a foreign shore Their first, last pledges ! for they met no more. The bow, bequeath'd by this unhappy hand, Ulysses bore not from his native land ; Nor in the front of battle taught to bend. But kept in dear memorial of his friend. Now gently winding up the fair ascent, By many an easy step the matron went ; Then o'er the pavement glides with grace divine (With polish'd oak the level pavements shine) ; The folding gates a dazzling light display'd. With pomp of various architrave o'erlaid. The bolt, obedient to the silken s^t^ring, 286 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XXI. Forsakes the staple as she pulls the ring ; The wards respondent to the key turn round ; The bars fall back ; the flying valves resound ; Loud as a bull makes hill and valley ring, So roar'd the lock when it released the spring. She moves majestic through the wealthy room, Where treasured garments cast a rich perfume ; There from the column where aloft it hung, Reach'd, i;i its splendid case, the bow unstrung ; Across her knees she laid the well-known bow, And pensive sate, and tears began to flow. To full satiety of grief she mourns, Then silent to the joyous hall returns, To the proud suitors bears in pensive state The unbended bow, and arrows winged with fate. Behind, her train the polish'd coffer brings. Which held the alternate brass and silver rings. Full in the portal the chaste queen appears, And with her veil conceals the coming tears : On either side awaits a virgin fair ; While thus the matron, with majestic air : " Say you, whom these forbidden walls inclose, For whom my victims bleed, my vintage flows : If these neglected, faded charms can move ? Or is it but a vain pretence, you love .'' If I the prize, if me you seek to wife, Hear the conditions, and commence the strife. Who first Ulysses' wondrous bow shall bend, And through twelve ringlets the fleet arrow send ; Him will I follow, and forsake my home. For him forsake this loved, this wealthy dome. Long, long the scene of all my past delight, And still to last, the vision of my night ! " Graceful she said, and bade Eumasus show The rival peers the ringlets and the bow. From his full eyes the tears unbidden spring, Touch'd at the dear memorials of his king. Philaetius too relents, but secret shed The tender drops. Antinoiis saw, and said : " Hence to your fields, ye rustics ! hence away, Nor stain with grief the pleasures of the day ; Nor to the royal heart recall in vain The sad remembrance of a perish'd man. Enough her precious tears already flow — Or share the feast with due respect, or go To weep abroad, and leave to us the bow. No vulgar task ! Ill suits this courtly crew That stubborn horn which brave Ulysses drew. I well remember (for I gazed him o'er While yet a child), what majesty he bore 1 Book XXI. J THE ODYSSEY. ^ 287 Ana still ^all infant as I was) retain The port, the strength, the grandeur of the man." He said, but in his soul fond joys arise, And his proud hopes already win the prize. To speed the flying shaft through every ring. Wretch ! is not thine : the arrows of the king Shall end those hopes, and fate is on the wing ! Then thus Telemachus : " Some god I find With pleasing frenzy has possess'd my mind ; When a loved mother threatens to depart. Why with this ill-timed gladness leaps my heart ? Come then, ye suitors ! and dispute a prize Richer than all the Achaian state supplies, Than all proud Argos, or Mycsena knows, Than all our isles or continents inclose : A woman matchless, and almost divine. Fit for the praise of every tongue but mine. No more excuses then, no more delay ; Haste to the trial — Lo ! I lead the way, " I too may try, and if this arm can wing The feather'd arrow through the destined ring. Then if no happier knight the conquest boast, I shall not sorrow for a mother lost ; But, bless'd in her, possess those arms alone. Heir of my father's strength, as well as throne." He spoke ; then rising, his broad sword unbound, And cast his purple garment on the ground. A trench he open'd : in a hne he placed The level axes, and the points made fast (His perfect skill the wondering gazers eyed, The game as yet unseen, as yet untried). Then, with a manly pace, he took his stand : And grasp'd the bow, and twang'd it in his hand. Three times, with beating heart, he made essay ; Three times, unequal to the task, gave way ; A modest boldness on his cheek appear'd : And thrice he hoped, and thrice again he fear'd. The fourth had drawn it. The great sire with joy Beheld, but with a sign forbade the boy. His ardour straight the obedient prince suppress'd, And, artful, thus the suitor-train address'd : " O lay the cause on youth yet immature ! (For Heaven forbid such weakness should endure !) How shau inis arm, unequal to the bow. Retort an insult, or repel a foe ? But you ! whom Heaven with better nerves has bless'd, Accept the trial, and the prize contest." He cast the bow before him, and apart Against the polish'd quiver propp'd the dart. Resuming then his seat, Eupithes' son, 288 THE ODYSHEY. [Book XXL The bold Antinoiis, to the rest begun : " From where the goblet first begins to flow, From right to left in order take the bow ; And prove your several strengths." The princes heard ; And first Leiodes, blameless priest, appear'd : The eldest born of OEnops' noble race, Who next the goblet held his holy place : He, only he, of all the suitor throng, Their deeds detested, and abjured the wrong. With tender hands the stubborn horn he strains, The stubborn horn resisted all his pains ! Already in despair he gives it o'er : " Take it who will (he cries), I strive no more. What numerous deaths attend this fatal bow ! What souls and spirits shall it send below ! Better, indeed, to die, and fairly give Nature her debt, than disappointed live, With each new sun to some new hope a prey. Yet still to-morrow falser than to-day. How long in vain Penelope we sought ! This bow shall ease us of that idle thought, And send us with some humbler wife to live, Whom gold shall gain, or destiny shall give." Thus speaking, on the floor the bow he placed (With rich inlay the various floor was graced) : At distance far the feather'd shaft he throws. And to the seat returns from whence he rose. To him Antinoiis thus with fury said : " What words ill-omen'd from thy lips have fled .'' Thy coward-function ever is in fear ! Those arms are dreadful which thou canst not bear. Why should this bow be fatal to the brave .'' Because the priest is born a peaceful slave. Mark then what others can." He ended there. And bade Melanthius a vast pile prepare ; He gives it instant flame, then fast beside Spreads o'er an ample board a bullock's hide. With melted lard they soak the weapon o'er. Chafe eveiy knot, and supple every pore. Vain all their art, and all their strength as vain ; The bow inflexible resists their pain. The force of great Eurymachus alone And bold Antinoiis, yet untired, unknown : Those only now remain'd ; but those confess'd Of all the train the mightiest and the best. Then from the hall, and from the noisy crew. The masters of the herd and flock withdrew. The king observes them, he the hall forsakes. And, past the limits of the court, o'ertakes. Then thus with accent mild Ulysses spoke : Book XXI.] THE ODYSSEY. 289 " Ye faithful guardians of the herd and flock ! Shall I the secret of my breast conceal, Or (as my soul now dictates) shall I tell ? Say, should some favouring god restore again The lost Ulysses to his native reign. How beat your hearts ? what aid would you afford To the proud suitors, or your ancient lord ? " Philastius thus : " O were thy word not vain ! Would mighty Jove restore that man again ! These aged sinews, with new vigour strung. In his blest cause should emulate the young." With equal vows Eumaeus too implored Each power above, with wishes for his lord. He saw their secret souls, and thus began : ■' Those vows the gods accord ; behold the man ! Your own Ulysses ! twice ten years detain'd By woes and wanderings from this hapless land : At length he comes ; but comes despised, unknown, And finding faithful you, and you alone. All else have cast him from their very thought. E'en in their wishes and their prayers forgot ! Hear then, my friends : If Jove this arm succeer". And give yon impious revellers to bleed. My care shall be to bless your future lives With large possessions and with faithful wives ; Fast by my palace shall your domes ascend. And each on young Telemachus attend, And each be call'd his brother and my friend. To give you firmer faith, now trust your eye ; Lo ! the broad scar indented on my thigh, When with Autolycus's sons, of yore. On Parnass' top I chased the tusky boar." His ragged vest then drawn aside disclosed The sign conspicuous, and the scar exposed : Eager they view'd ; with joy they stood amazed : With tearful eyes o'er all their master gazed : Around his neck their longing arms they cast. His head, his shoulders, and his knees embraced ; Tears followed tears ; no word was in their power ; In solemn silence fell the kindly shower. The king too weeps, the king too grasps their hands, And moveless, as a marble fountain, stands. Thus had their joy wept down the setting sun. But first the wise man ceased, and thus begun : " Enough — on other cares your thought employ, For danger waits on all untimely joy. Full many foes, and fierce, observe us near ; Some may betray, and yonder walls may hear. Re-enter then, not all at one , but stay Some moments you, and let me lead the wav. 290 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XXI. To me, neglected as I am, I know The haughty suitors will deny the bow ; But thou, Eumjeus, as 'tis borne away, Thy master's weapon to his hand convey. At every portal let some matron wait. And each lock fast the well-compacted gate : Close let them keep, whate'er invades their ear ; Though arms, or shouts, or dying groans they hear. To thy strict charge, Phitetius, we consign The court's main gate : to guard that pass be thine.'' This said, he first return'd ; the faithful swains At distance follow, as their king ordains. Before the flame Eurymachus now stands, And turns the bow, and chafes it with his hands : Still the tough bow unmoved. The lofty man Sigh'd from his mighty soul, and thus began : " I mourn the common cause ; for, oh, my friends ! On me, on all, what grief, what shame attends ! Not the lost nuptials can affect me more (For Greece has beauteous dames on every shore). But baffled thus ! confess'd so far below Ulysses' strength, as not to bend his bow ! How shall all ages our attempt deride ! 1. ur weakness scorn ! " Antinoiis thus replied : " Not so, Eurymachus : that no man draws The wondrous bow, attend another cause. Sacred to Phoebus is the solemn day, Which thoughtless we in games would waste away : Till the next dawn this ill-timed strife forego, And here leave fixed the ringlets in a row. Now bid the sewer approach, and let us joiiv In due libations, and in rites divine, So end our night : befoire the day shall spring. The choicest offerings let Melanthius bring : Let then to Phoebus' name the fatted thighs Feed the rich smokes high curling to the skies. So shall the patron of these arts bestow (For his the gift) the skill to bend the bow." They heard well pleased : the ready heralds bring The cleansing waters from the limpid spring : The goblet high with rosy wine they crown'd. In order circling to the peers around. That rite complete, uprose the thoughtful man. And thus his meditated scheme began : " If what I ask your noble minds approve, Ye peers and rivals in the royal love ! Chief, if it hurt not great Antinoiis' ear (Whose sage decision I with wonder hear). And if Eurymachus the motion please : Give Heaven this day and rest the bow in peace. EooK XXL] THE ODYSSEY. 291 To-morrow let your arms dispute the prize. And take it he, the favour'd of the skies ! But, since till then this trial you delay, Trust it one moment to my hands to-day : Fain would I prove, before your judging eyes, What once I was, whom wretched you despise : If yet this arm its ancient force retain ; Or if my woes (a long-continued train) And wants and insults, make me less than man." Rage flash'd in lightning from the suitors' eyes. Yet mixed with terror at the bold emprise. Antinoiis then : " O miserable guest ! Is common sense quite banish'd from thy breast { Sufficed it not, within the palace placed, To sit distinguish'd, with our presence graced. Admitted here with princes to confer, A man unknown, a needy wanderer ? To copious wine this insolence we owe, And much thy betters wine can overthrow : The great Eurytian when this frenzy stung, Pirithoiis' roofs with frantic riot rung ; Boundless the Centaur raged ; till one and all The heroes rose, and dragg'd him from the hall ; His nose they shorten'd, and his ears they slit, And sent him sober'd home, with better wit. Hence with long war the double race was cursed, Fatal to all, but to the aggressor first. Such fate 1 prophesy our guest attends, If here this interdicted bow he bends : Nor shall these walls such insolence contain . The first fair wind transports him o'er the main. Where Echetus to death the guilty brings (The worst of mortals, e'en the worst of kings). Better than that, if thou approve our cheer ; Cease the mad strife, and share our bounty here," To this the queen her just dislike express'd : 'Tis impious, prince, to harm the stranger-guest. Base to insult who bears a suppliant's name. And some respect Telemachus may claim. What if the immortals on the man bestow Sufficient strength to draw the mighty bow ? Shall I, a queen, by rival chiefs adored, Accept a wandering stranger for my lord ? A hope so idle never touch'd his brain : Then ease your bosoms of a fear so vain. Far be he banish'd from this stately scene Who wrongs his princess with a thought so mean." " O fair ! and wisest of so fair a kind ! (Respectful thus Eurymachus rejoin'd,) Moved by no weak surmise, but sense of shame, 292 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XXI. We dread the all-arraigning voice of Fame : We dread the censure of the meanest slave, •The weakest woman : all can wrong the brave, ' Behold what wretches to the bed pretend Of that brave chief whose bow they could not bend 1 In came a beggar of the strolling crew, And did what all those princes could not do.' Thus will the common voice our deed defame, And thus posterity upbraid our name." To whom the queen : " If fame engage your views, Forbear those acts which infamy pursues ; Wrong and oppression no renown can raise ; Know, friend ! that virtue is the path to praise. The stature of our guest, his port, his face. Speak him descended from no vulgar race. To him the bow, as he desires, convey ; And to his hand if Phoebus give the day, Hence, to reward his merit, he shall bear A two-edged falchion and a shining spear, Embroider'd sandals, a rich cloak and vest, A safe conveyance to his port of rest." " O royal mother ! ever-honour'd name ! Permit me (cries Telemachus) to claim A son's just right. No Grecian prince but I Has power this bow to grant, or to deny. Of all that Ithaca's rough hills contain. And all wide Elis' courser-breeding plain," To me alone my father's arms descend ; And mine alone they are, to give or lend. Retire, O queen ! thy household task resume. Tend, with thy maids, the labours of thy loom ; The bow, the darts, and arms of chivalry. These cares to man belong, and most to me." Mature beyond his years, the queen admired His sage reply, and with her train retired ; There in her chamber as she sate apart, Revolved his words, and placed them in her heart. On her Ulysses then she fix'd her soul ; Down her fair cheek the tears abundant roll. Till gentle Pallas, piteous of her cries, In slumber closed her silver-streaming eyes. Now through the press the bow Eumseus bore, And all was riot, noise, and wild uproar. " Hold ! lawless rustic ! whither wilt thou go ? To whom, insensate, dost thou bear the bow ? Exiled for this to some sequester'd den. Far from the sweet society of men. To thy own dogs a prey thou shalt be made ; ^ f.lls was celebrated not only for its breed of horses, but as the grand ccene of the Olym- pian games. Book XXI.] THE ODYSSEY. 293 If Heaven and Phoebus lend the suitors aid." Thus they. Aghast he laid the weapon down, But bold Telemachus thus urged him on ; " Proceed, false slave, and slight their empty words : What ! hopes the fool to please so many lords ? Young as I am, thy prince's vengeful hand Stretch'd forth in wrath shall drive thee from the land. Oh ! could the vigour of this arm as well The oppressive suitors from my walls expel ? Thin what a shoal of lawless men should go To fill with tumult the dark courts below ! " The suitors with a scornful smile survey The youth, indulging in the genial day. Eumaeus, thus encouraged, hastes to bring The strifeful bow, and gives it to the king. Old Euryclea calling them aside, " Hear what Telemachus enjoins (he cried) : At every portal let some matron wait, And each lock fast the well-compacted gate ; And if unusual sounds invade their ear. If arms, or shouts, or dying groans they hear. Let none to call or issue forth presume, But close attend the labours of the loom." Her prompt obedience on his order waits ; Closed in an instant were the palace gates. In the same moment forth Philaetius flies. Secures the court, and with a cable ties The utmost gate (the cable strongly wrought Of Byblos' reed, a ship from Egypt brought) ; Then unperceived and silent at the board His seat he takes, his eyes upon his lord. And now his well-known bow the master bore, Turn'd on all sides, and view'd it o'er and o'er ; Lest time or worms had done the weapon wrong, Its owner absent, and untried so long. While some deriding — " How he turns the bow ! Some other like it sure the man must know, Or else would copy ; or in bows he deals ; Perhaps he makes them, or perhaps he steals.'' " Heaven to this wretch (another cried) be kind ! And bless, in all to which he stands inchned, With such good fortune as he now shall find." Heedless he heard them : but disdain'd reply ; The bow perusing with exactest eye. Then, as some heavenly minstrel, taught to sing High notes responsive to the trembling string, To some new strain when he adapts the lyre, Or the dumb lute refiis with vocal wire. Relaxes, strains, and draws them to and fro ; So the great master drew the mighty bow,. 294 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XXI. And drew with ease. One hand aloft display'd The bending horns, and one the string essay'd. From his essaying hand the string, let fly, Twang'd short and sharp like the shrill swallow's cry. A general horror ran through all the race, Sunk was each heart, and pale was every face. Signs from above ensued : the unfolding sky In lightning burst ; Jove thunder'd from on high. Fired at the call of heaven's almighty Lord, He snatch'd the shaft that glitter'd on the board (Fast by, the rest lay sleeping in the sheath. But soon to fly, the messengers of death). Now sitting as he was, the cord he drew, Through every ringlet levelling his view : Then notch'd the shaft, released, and gave it wing ; The whizzing arrow vanish'd from the string, Sung on direct, and threaded every ring. The solid gate its fuiy scarcely bounds ; Pierced through and through the solid gate resounds. Then to the prince : " Nor have I wrought thee shame ; Nor err'd this hand unfaithful to its aim ; Nor prov'd the toil too hard ; nor have I lost That ancient vigour, once my pride and boast. Ill I deserved these haughty peers' disdain ; Now let them comfort their dejected train. In sweet repast their present hour employ. Nor wait till evening for the genial joy : Then to the lute's soft voice prolong the night ; Music, the banquet's most refined delight." He said, then gave a nod ; and at the word Telemachus girds on his shining sword. Fast by his father's side he takes his stand : The beamy javelin lightens in his hand. BOOK xxn. ARGUMENT. THE DEATH OF THE SUITORS. Ulysses begins the slaughter of the suitors by the death of Antinoiis. He declares himself, and lets fly his arrows at the rest. Telemachus assists, and brings arms for his father, himself, £um£eus,and Philastius. Melanthius does the same for the wooers. Minerva encourages Ulysses in the shape of Mentor. The suitors are all slain, only Medon and Phemius are spared. Melanthius and the unfaithful servants are executed. The rest acknowledge their master with all demonstrations of joy. Then fierce the hero o'er the threshold strode ; Stripp'd of his rags, he blazed out like a god. Full in their face the lifted bow he bore, And quiver'd deaths, a formidable store ; Before his feet the rattling shower he threw. And thus, terrific, to the suitor-crew : " One venturous game this hand hath won to-day, Another, princes ! yet remains to play ; Another mark our arrow must attain. Phcebus, assist ! nor be the labour vain." Swift as the word the parting arrow sings, And bears thy fate, Antinoiis, on its wings : Wretch that he was, of unprophetic soul ! High in his hands he rear'd the golden bowl ! E'en then to drain it lengthen'd out his breath ; Changed to the deep, the bitter draught of death ; For fate who fear'd amidst a feastful band ? And fate to numbers, by a single hand ? Full through his throat Ulysses' weapon pass'd, And pierced his neck. He falls, and breathes his last. The tumbling goblet the wide floor o'erflows, A stream of gore burst spouting from his nose ; Grim in convulsive agonies he sprawls : Before him spurn'd the loaded table falls. And spreads the pavement with a mmgled flood 296 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XX II. Of floating meats, and wine, and human blood. Amazed, confounded, as they saw him fall. Up rose the throngs tumultuous round the hall : OV all the dome they cast a haggard eye, Each look'd for arms : in vain ; no arms were nigh : " Aim'st thou at princes ? (all amazed they said ;) Thy last of games unhappy hast thou play'd ; Thy erring shaft has made our bravest bleed. And death, unlucky guest, attends thy deed. Vultures shall tear thee." Thus incensed they spoke, While each to chance ascribed the wondrous stroke : Blind as they were : for death e'-en now invades His destined prey, and wraps them all in shades. Then, grimly frowning, with a dreadful look, That wither'd all their hearts, Ulysses spoke : " Dogs, ye have had your day ! ye fear'd no more Ulysses vengeful from the Trojan shore ; While, to your lust and spoil a guardless prey, Our house, our wealth, our helpless handmaids lay : Not so content, with bolder frenzy fired. E'en to our bed presumptuous you aspired : Laws or divine or human fail'd to move, Or shame of men, or dread of gods above ; Heedless alike of infamy or praise, Or Fame's eternal voice in future days ; The hour of vengeance, wretches, now is come ; Impending fate is yours, and instant doom." Thus dreadful he. Confused the suitors stood. From their pale cheeks recedes the flying blood : Trembling they sought their guilty heads to hide. Alone the bold Eurymachus replied : " If, as thy words import (he thus began), Ulysses lives, and thou the mighty man. Great are thy wrongs, and much hast thou sustain'd In thy spoil'd palace, and exhausted land ; The cause and author of those guilty deeds, Lo ! at thy feet unjust AntinoUs bleeds. Not love, but wild ambition was his guide ; To slay thy son, thy kingdom to divide, These were his aims ; but juster Jove denied. Since cold in death the offender lies, oh spare Thy suppliant people, and receive their prayer ! Krass, gold, and treasures, shall the spoil defray, Two hundred oxen every prince shall pay : The waste of years refunded in a day. Till then thy wrath is just." Ulysses burn'd With high disdain, and sternly thus return'd : " All, all the treasure that enrich'd our throne Before your rapines, join'd with all your own, If offer'd, vainly should for mercy call ; Book XXII.] THE ODYSSEY. 297 'Tis you that offer, and I scorn them all ; Your blood is my demand, your lives the prize, Till pale as yonder wretch each suitor lies. Hence with those coward terms ; or fight or fly ; This choice is left you, to resist or die : And die I trust ye shall." He sternly spoke : With guilty fears the pale assembly shook. Alone Eurymachus exhorts the train : " Yon archer, comrades, will not shoot in vain ; But from the threshold shall his darts be sped, (Whoe'er he be), till every prince he dead .? i5e mindful of yourselves, draw forth your swords, And to his shafts obtend these ample boards (So need compels). Then, all united strive The bold invader from his post to drive : ULYSSES KILLING THE SUITORS. The city roused shall to our rescue haste, And this mad archer soon have shot his last." Swift as he spoke, he drew his traitor sword, And like a lion rush'd against his lord : The wary chief the rushing foe repress'd. Who met the point and forced it in his breast : His falling hand deserts the lifted sword, And prone he falls extended o'er the board ! Before him wide, in mix'd effusion roll The untasted viands, and the jovial bowl. Full through his liver pass'd the mortal wound. With dying rage his forehead beats the ground ; He spurn'd the seat with fury as he fell, 298 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XXII. And the fierce soul to darkness dived, and hell. Next bold Amphinomus his arm extends To force the pass ; the godlike man defends. Thy spear, Telemachus, prevents the attack, The brazen weapon driving through his back, Thence through his breast its bloody passage tore ; Flat falls he thundering on the marble floor, And his crush'd forehead marks the stone vifith gore. He left his javelin in the dead, for fear The long encumbrance of the vv^eighty spear To the fierce foe advantage might afford. To rush between and use the shorten'd sword. With speedy ardour to his sire he flies, And, " Arm, great father ! arm (in haste he cries). Lo, hence I run for other arms to wield. For missive javelins, and for helm and shield ; Fast by our side let either faithful swain In arms attend us, and their part sustain." " Haste, and return (Ulysses made reply) While yet the auxiliar shafts this hand supply ; Lest thus alone, encounter'd by an host, Driven from the gate, the important pass be lost" With speed Telemachus obeys, and flies Where piled in heaps the royal armour lies ; Four brazen helmets, eight refulgent spears, And four broad bucklers to his sire he bears : At once in brazen panoply they shone, At once each servant braced his armour on ; Around their king a faithful guard they stand, While yet each shaft flew deathful from his hand : Chief after chief expired at every wound, And swell'd the bleeding mountain on the ground. Soon as his store of flying fates was spent. Against the wall he set the bow unbent ; And now his shoulders bear the massy shield, And now his hands two beamy javelins wield : He frowns beneath his nodding plume, that pla/d O'er the high crest, and cast a dreadful shade. There stood a window near, whence looking down From o'er the porch appear'd the subject town. A double strength of valves secured the place, A high and narrow, but the only pass : The cautious king, with all-preventing care. To guard that outlet, placed Eumseus there ; When Agelaiis thus : " Has none the sense To mount yon window, and alarm from thence The neighbour-town .'' the town shall force the door, And this bold archer soon shall shoot no more." Melanthius then : " That outlet to the gate So near adjoins, that one may guard the strait. Book XXII.] THE ODYSSEY. 299 But other methods of defence remain ; Myself with arms can furnish all the train ; Stores from the royal magazine I bring, And their own darts shall pierce the prince and king." He said ; and mounting up the lofty stairs, Twelve shields, twelve lances, and twelve helmets bears ; All arm, and sudden round the hall appears A blaze of bucklers, and a wood of spears. The hero stands oppress'd with mighty woe. On every side he sees the labour grow : " Oh cursed event ! and oh unlook'd for aid ! Melanthius or the women have betray'd — Oh my dear son ! " — The father with a sigh Then ceased ; the filial virtue made reply : " Falsehood is folly, and 'tis just to own The fault committed : this was mine alone ; My haste neglected yonder door to bar, And hence the villain has supplied their war. Run, good Eumaeus, then, and (what before I thoughtless err'd in) well secure that door : Learn, if by female fraud this deed were done, Or (as my thought misgives) by Dolius' son." While yet they spoke, in quest of arms again To the high chamber stole the faithless swain. Not unobserved. Eumasus watchful eyed, And thus address'd Ulysses near his side : " The miscreant we suspected takes that way : Him, if this arm be powerful, shall I slay ? Or drive him hither, to receive the meed From thy own hand, of this detested deed ?" " Not so (replied IJlysses) ; leave him there, For us sufficient is another care : Within the structure of this palace wall To keep enclosed his masters till they fall. Go you, and seize the felon ; backward bind His arms and legs, and fix a plank behind : On this his body by strong cords extend, And on a column near the roof suspend : So studied tortures his vile days shall end." The ready swains obe/d with joyful haste, Behind the felon unperceived they pass'd, As round the room in quest of arms he goes (The half-shut door conceal'd his lurking foes) : One hand sustain'd a helm, and one the shield Which old Laertes wont in youth to wield, Cover'd with dust, with dryness chapp'd and worn. The brass corroded, and the leather torn. Thus laden, o'er the threshold as he stepp'd. Fierce on the villain from each side they leap'd, Back bv the hair the trembling dastard drew, 300 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XXII. And down reluctant on the pavement threw. Active and pleased the zealous swains fulfil At every point their master's rigid will : First, fast behind, his hands and feet they bound, Then straiten'd cords involved his body round ; So drawn aloft, athwart the column tied, The howling felon swung from side to side. Eumaeus scoffing then with keen disdain : " There pass thy pleasing night, O gentle swain ! On that soft pillow, from that envied height. First may'st thou see the springing dawn of light ; So timely rise, when morning streaks the east, To drive thy victims to the suitors' feast." This said, they left him, tortured as he lay, Secured the door, and hasty strode away : Each, breathing death, resumed his dangerous post Near great Ulysses ; four against an host. When lo ! descending to her hero's aid, Jove's daughter, Pallas, War's triumphant maid : In Mentor's friendly form she join'd his side : Ulysses saw, and thus with transport cried : " Come, ever welcome, and thy succour lend ; O every sacred name in one, my friend ! Early we loved, and long our loves have grown ; Whate'er through life's whole series I have done, Or good, or grateful, now to mind recall. And, aiding this one hour, repay it all." Thus he ; but pleasing hopes his bosom warm Of Pallas latent in the friendly form. The adverse host the phantom-warrior eyed. And first, loud-threatening, Agelaiis cried : " Mentor, beware, nor let that tongue persuade Thy frantic arm to lend Ulysses aid ; Our force successful shall our threat make good. And with the sire and son commix thy blood. What hopest thou here .' Thee first the sword shall slay, Then lop thy whole posterity away ; Far hence thy banish'd consort shall we send ; With his thy forfeit lands and treasures blend ; Thus, and thus only, shalt thou join thy friend." His barbarous insult even the goddess fires, Who thus the warrior to revenge inspires : " Art thou Ulysses ? where then shcdl we find The patient body and the constant mind ? That courage, once the Trojans' daily dread. Known nine long years, and felt by heroes dead ? And where that conduct, which revenged the lust Of Priam's race, and laid proud Troy in dust ? If this, when Helen was the cause, were done ; What for thy country now, thy queen, thy son ? Book. XXII.] THE ODYSSEY. 301 Rise then in combat, at my side attend ; Observe what vigour gratitude can lend. And foes how weak, opposed against a friend ! " She spoke ; but wilHng longer to survey The sire and son's great acts, withheld the day ! By farther toils decreed the brave to try, And level poised the wings of victory ; Then with a change of form eludes their sight, Perch'd like a swallow on a rafter's height. And unperceived enjoys the rising fight. Damastor's son, bold Agelaiis, leads The guilty war, Eurynomus succeeds ; With these, Pisander, great Pol) ctor's son, Sage Polybus, and stern Amphimedon, With Demoptolemus : these six survive ; The best of all the shafts had left alive. Amidst the carnage, desperate as they stand, Thus Agelaiis roused the lagging band : "The hour is come, when yon fierce man no more With bleeding princes shall bestrew the floor. Lo ! Mentor leaves him with an empty boast ; The four remain, but four against an host. Let each at once discharge the deadly dart, One sure of six shall reach Ulysses' heart ; The rest must perish, their great leader slain : Thus shall one stroke the glory lost regain." Then all at once their mingled lances threw. And thirsty all of one man's blood they flew ; In vain ! Minerva turn'd them with her breath, And scatter'd short, or wide, the points of death ! With deaden'd sound one on the threshold falls, One strikes the gate, one rings against the walls : The storm pass'd innocent. The godlike man Now loftier trod, and dreadful thus began : " 'Tis now (brave friends) our turn, at once to throw (So speed them Heaven) our javelins at the foe. That impious race to all their past misdeeds Would add our blood, injustice still proceeds." He spoke : at once their fiery lances flew : Great Demoptolemus Ulysses slew ; Euryades received the prince's dart ; The goatherd's quiver'd in Pisander's heart ; Fierce Elatus by thine, Eumseus, falls ; Their fall in thunder echoes round the walls. The rest retreat : the victors now advance. Each from the dead resumes his bloody lance. Again the foe discharge the steely shower ; Again made frustrate by the virgin-power. Some, turn'd by Pallas, on the threshold fall. Some wound the gate, some ring against the wall ; 302 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XXII. Some weak, or ponderous with the brazen head, Drop harmless on the pavement, sounding dead. Then bold Amphimedon his javeUn cast ; Thy hand, Telemachus, it lightly razed : And from Ctesippus' arm the spear elanced On good Eumffius, shield and shoulder glanced : Not lessen'd of their force (so light the wound) Each sung along, and dropp'd upon the ground. Fate doom'd thee next, Eurydamus, to bear Thy death ennobled by Ulysses' spear. By the bold son Amphimedon was slain. And Polybus renown'd, the faithful swain. Pierced through the breast the rude Ctesippus bled, And thus Phitetius gloried o'er the dead : " There end thy pompous vaunts, and high disdain ; O sharp in scandal, voluble, and vain ! How weak is mortal pride ! To Heaven alone The event of actions and our fates are known : Scoffer, behold what gratitude we bear : The victim's heel is answer'd with this spear.'' Ulysses brandish'd high his vengeful steel, And Damastorides that instant fell ; Fast by Leocritus expiring lay. The prince's javelin tore its bloody way Through all his bowels : down he tumbles prone, His batter'd front and brains besmear the stone. Now Pallas shines confess'd ; aloft she spreads The arm of vengeance o'er their guilty heads : The dreadful aegis blazes in their eye : Amazed they see, they tremble, and they fly : Confused, distracted, through the rooms they fling : Like oxen madden'd by the breeze's sting, When sultry days, and long, succeed the gentle spring. Not half so keen fierce vultures of the chase Stoop from the mountains on the feather'd race, When, the wide field extended snares beset, With conscious dread they shun the quivering net : No help, no flight ; but wounded every way, Headlong they drop ; the fowlers seize the prey. On all sides thus they double wound on wound, In prostrate heaps the wretches beat the ground, Unmanly shrieks precede each dying groan, And a red deluge floats the reeking stone. Leiodes first before the victor falls : The wretched augur thus for mercy calls : " Oh gracious hear, nor let thy suppliant bleed : Still undishonoui-'d, or by word or deed. Thy house, for me, remains ; by me repress'd Full oft was check'd the injustice of the rest : Averse they heard me when I counsell'd well, Book XXIL] THE ODYSSEY. 303 Their hearts were harden'd, and they justly fell. O spare an augur's consecrated head, Nor add the blameless to the guilty dead." " Priest as thou art ! for that detested band Thy lying prophecies deceived the land : Against Ulysses have thy vows been made, For them thy daily orisons were paid : Yet more, e'en to our bed thy pride aspires : One common crime one common fate requires.'' Thus speaking, from the ground the sword he took Which Agelaiis' dying hand forsook : Full through his neck the weighty falchion sped ; Along the pavement roU'd the muttering head. Phemius alone the hand of vengeance spared, Phemius the sweet, the heaven-instructed bard. Beside the gate the reverend minstrel stands ; The lyre now silent trembling in his hands ; Dubious to supplicate the chief, or fly To Jove's inviolable altar nigh, Where oft Laertes holy vows had paid. And oft Ulysses smoking victims laid. His honour'd harp with care he first set down, Between the laver and the silver throne ; Then prostrate stretch'd before the dreadful man. Persuasive thus, with accent soft began : " O king ! to mercy be thy soul inclined. And spare the poet's ever-gentle kind. A deed like this thy future fame would wrong, For dear to gods and men is sacred song. Self-taught I sing ; by Heaven, and Heaven alone, The genuine seeds of poesy are sown : And (what the gods bestow) the lofty lay To gods alone and godlike worth we pay. Save then the poet, and thyself reward ; 'Tis thine to merit, mine is to record. That here I sung, was force, and not desire ; This hand reluctant touch'd the warbhng wire ; And let thy son attest, nor sordid pay. Nor servile flattery, stain'd the moral lay." The moving words Telemachus attends. His sire approaches, and the bard defends. " O mix not, father, with those impious dead The man divine ! forbear that sacred head ; Medon, the herald, too, our arms may spare, Medon, who made my infancy his care ; If yet he breathes, permit thy son to give Thus much to gratitude, and bid him live." Beneath a table, trembling with dismay, Couch'd close to earth, unhappy Medon lay, Wrapp'd in a new-slain ox's ample hide ; 304 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XXII. Swift at the word he cast his screen aside, Sprung to the prince, embraced his knee with tears, And thus with grateful voice address'd his ears : " O prince ! O friend ! lo, here thy Medon stands : Ah stop the hero's unresisted hands, Incensed too justly by that impious brood. Whose guilty glories now are set in blood." To whom Ulysses with a pleasing eye : " Be bold, on friendship and my son rely ; Live, an example for the world to read, H ow much more safe the good than evil deed : Thou, with the heaven-taught bard, in peace resort From blood and carnage to yon open court : Me other work requires." With timorous awe From the dire scene the exempted two withdraw, Scarce sure of life, look round, and trembling move To the bright altars of Protector Jove. Meanwhile Ulysses search'd the dome, to find If yet there live of all the offending kind. Not one ! complete the bloody tale he found. All steep'd in blood, all gasping on the ground. So, when by hollow shores the fisher-train Sweep with their arching nets the roaring main, And scarce the meshy toils the copious draught contain. All naked of their element, and bare, The fishes pant, and gasp in thinner air ; Wide o'er the sands are spread the stiffening prey. Till the warm sun exhales their soul away. And now the king commands his son to call Old Euryclea to the deathful hall : The son observant not a moment stays ; The aged governess with speed obeys ; The sounding portals instant they display ; The matron moves, the prince directs the way. On heaps of death the stern Ulysses stood, All black with dust, and covered thick with blood. So the grim lion from the slaughter comes. Dreadful he glares, and terribly he foams. His breast with marks of carnage painted o'er, His jaws all dropping with the bull's black gore. Soon as her eyes the welcome object met. The guilty fall'n, the mighty deed complete ; A scream of joy her feeble \oice essay'd : The hero check'd her, and composedly said : " Woman, experienced as thou art, control Indecent joy, and feast thy secret soul. To insult the dead is cruel and unjust ; Fate and their crime have sunk them to the dust. Nor heeded these the censure of mankind, The good and bad were equal in their mind Book XXII.] THE ODYSSEY. Justly the price of worthlessness they paid, And each now wails an unlamented shade. But thou sincere ! O Euryclea, say, What maids dishonour us, and what obey ? " Then she : " In these thy kingly walls remain (My son) full fifty of the handmaid train, Taught by my care to cull the fleece or weave, And servitude with pleasing tasks deceive ; Of these, twice six pursue their wicked way, Nor me, nor chaste Penelope obey ; Nor fits it that Telemachus command (Young as he is) his mother's female band. Hence to the upper chambers let me fly. Where slumbers soft now close the royal eye ; There wake her with the news " — the matron cried. " Not so (Ulysses, more sedate, replied). Bring first the crew who wrought these guilty deeds." In haste the matron parts : the king proceeds : " Now to dispose the dead, the care remains To you, my son, and you, my faithful swains ; The offending females to that task we doom. To wash, to scent, and purify the room : These (every table cleansed, and every throne, And all the melancholy laboijr done) Drive to yon court, without th^e palace wall, There the revenging sword shali smite them all ; So with the suitors let them mix in dust, Stretch'd in a long oblivion of their Just. He said : the lamentable train appear. Each vents a groan, and drops a tender tear : Each heaved her mournful burden, and beneath The porch deposed the ghastly heap of deafh. The chief severe, compelling each to move, Urged the dire task imperious from above : With thirsty sponge they rub the tables o'er (The swains unite their toil) ; the walls, the floor, Wash'd with the effusive wave, are purged of gore. Once more the palace set in fair array. To the base court the females take their way : There compass'd close between the dome and wall (Their life's last scene) they trembling wait their fall. Then thus the prince : " To these shall we afford A fate so pure as by the martial sword .^ To these, the nightly prostitutes to shame, And base revilers of our house and name ?" Thus speaking, on the circling wall he strung A ship's tough cable, from a column hung ; Near the high top he strain'd it strongly round. Whence no contending foot could reach the ground. Their heads above connected in a row, 305 3o6 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XXII. They beat the air with quivering feet below : Thus on some tree hung struggling in the snare, The doves or thrushes flap their wings in air. Soon fled the soul impure, and left behind The empty corse to waver with the wind. Then forth they led Melanthius, and began Their bloody work ; they lopp'd away the man, Morsel for dogs ! then trimm'd with brazen shears The wretch, and shorten'd of his nose and ears ; His hands and feet last felt the cruel steel : He roar'd, and torments gave his soul to hell. They wash, and to Ulysses take their way : So ends the bloody business of the day. To Euryclea then address'd the king : " Bring hither fire, and hither sulphur bring, To purge the palace : then the queen attend. And let her with her matron-train descend ; The matron-train, with all the virgin-band, Assemble here, to learn their lord's command." Then Euryclea : "Joyful I obey, But cast those mean dishonest rags away ; Permit me first the royal robes to bring : 111 suits this garb the shoulders of a king.'' " Bring sulphur straight, and fire" (the monarch cries). She hears, and at the word obedient flies. With fire and sulphur, cure of noxious fumes, He purged the walls, and blood-polluted rooms. Again the matron springs with eager pace. And spreads her lord's return from place to place. They hear, rush forth, and instant round him stand, A gazing throng, a torch in every hand. They saw, they knew him, and with fond embrace Each humbly kiss'd his knee, or hand, or face ; He knows them all, in all such truth appears, E'en he indulges the sweet joy of tears. BOOK XXIII. ARGUMENT. Euryclea awakens Penelope with the news of Ulysses' return, and the death of the suitors. Penelope scarcely credits her ; hut supposes some god has punished them, and descends from her apartment in doubt. At the first interview of Ulysses and Penelope, she is quite unsatisfied. Minerva restores him to the beauty of his youth ; but the queen continues in- credulous, till by some circumstances she is convinced, and falls into all the transports of passion and tenderness. They recount to each other all that has passed during their long separation. The next morning Ulysses, arming himself and his friends, goes from the city to visit his father. Then to the queen, as in repose she lay, The nurse with eager rapture speeds her way : The transports of her faithful heart supply A sudden youth, and give her wings to fly. " And sleeps my child ? (the reverend matron cries) Ulysses lives ! arise, my child, arise ! At length appears the long-expected hour ! Ulysses comes ! the suitors are no more ! No more they view the golden light of day ! Arise, and bless thee with the glad survey ! " Touch'd at her words, the mournful queen rejoin'd : " Ah ! whither wanders thy distemper'd mind ? The righteous powers, who tread the starry skies, The weak enlighten, and confound the wise, And human thought, with unresisted sway. Depress or raise, enlarge or take away : Truth, by their high decree, thy voice forsakes. And folly with the tongue of wisdom speaks. Unkind, the fond illusion to impose ! Was it to flatter or deride my woes ? Never did I a sleep so sweet enjoy. Since my dear lord left Ithaca for Troy. Why must I wake to grieve, and curse thy shore, O Troy ? — may never tongue pronounce thee more ! Y 3o8 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XXIII. Begone ! another might have felt our rage, But age is sacred, and we spare thy age." To whom with warmth : " My soul a lie disdains : Ulysses lives, thy own Ulysses reigns : That stranger, patient of the suitors' wrongs, And the rude license of ungovern'd tongues, He, he is thine ! Thy son his latent guest Long knew, but lock'd the secret in his breast ; With well-concerted art to end his woes. And burst at once in vengeance on the foes." While yet she spoke, the queen in transport sprung Swift from the couch, and round the matron hung ; Fast from her eye descends the rolling tear : " Say, once more say, is my Ulysses here ? How could that numerous and outrageous band By one be slain, though by a hero's hand .' " " I saw it not (she cries), but heard alone, When death was busy, a loud dying groan ; The damsel-train turn'd pale at every wound, Immured we sate, and catch'd each passing sound ; When death had seized her prey, thy son attends, And at his nod the damsel-train descends ; There terrible in arms Ulysses stood. And the dead suitors almost swam in blood : Thy heart had leap'd the hero to survey, Stern as the surly lion o'er his prey. Glorious in gore, now with sulphureous fires The dome he purges, now the flame aspires : Heap'd lie the dead without the palace walls — Haste, daughter, haste, thy own Ulysses calls ! Thy every wish the bounteous gods bestow ; Enjoy the present good, and former woe. Ulysses lives, his vanquish'd foes to see ; He lives to thy Telemachus and thee ! " " Ah no ! (with sighs Penelope rejoin'd,) Excess of joy disturbs thy wandering mind ; How blest this happy hour, should he appear. Dear to us all, to me supremely dear ; Ah, no ! some god the suitors' death decreed, Some god descends, and by his hand they bleed ; Blind ! to contemn the stranger's righteous cause, And violate all hospitable laws ! The good they hated, and the powers defied ; But Heaven is just, and by a god they died. For never must Ulysses view this shore ; Never ! the loved Ulysses is no more ! " " What words (the matron cries) have reach'd my ears } Doubt we his presence, when he now appears ? Then hear conviction : Ere the fatal day That forced Ulysses o'er the watery way, Book XXIII.] i THE ODYSSEY. 309 A boar, fierce rushing in the sylvan war, Plough'd half his thigh ; I saw, I saw the seal. And wild with transport had reveal'd the wound ; But ere I spoke, he rose, and check'd the sound. Then, daughter, haste away ! and if a lie Flow from this tongue, then let thy servant die I " To whom with dubious joy the queen replies : " Wise is thy soul, but errors seize the wise ; The works of gods what mortal can survey ? Who knows their motives, who shall trace their way ' But learn we instant how the suitors trod The paths of death, by man, or by a god." Thus speaks the queen, and no reply attends. But with alternate joy and fear descends ; At every step debates her lord to prove ; Or, rushing to his arms, confess her love ! Then gliding through the marble valves, in state Opposed, before the shining sire she sate. The monarch, by a column high enthroned. His eye withdrew, and fix'd it on the ground ; Curious to hear his queen the silence break : Amazed she sate, and impotent to speak ; O'er all the man her eyes she rolls in vain. Now hopes, now fears, now knows, then doubts again. At length Telemachus : " Oh, who can iind A woman like Penelope unkind ? Why thus in silence ? why with winning charms Thus slow to fly with rapture to his arms 'i Stubborn the breast that with no transport glows, When twice ten years are pass'd of mighty woe"* ; To softness lost, to spousal love unknown, The gods have formed that rigid heart of stone ! " " O my Telemachus ! (the queen rejoin'd,) Distracting fears confound my labouring mind ; Powerless to speak, I scarce uplift my eyes. Nor dare to question ; doubts on doubts arise. Oh deign he, if Ulysses, to remove These boding thoughts, and what he is, to prove ! " Pleased with her virtuous fears, the king replies : " Indulge, my son, the cautions of the wise ; Time shall the truth to sure remembrance bring : This garb of poverty belies the king : No more. This day our deepest care requires. Cautious to act what thought mature inspires. If one man's blood, though mean, distain our hands. The homicide retreats to foreign lands ; By us, in heaps the illustrious peerage falls. The important deed our whole attention calls." " Be that thy care (Telemachus replies) ; The world conspires to speak Ulysses wise ; THE ODYSSEY. [Book XXIIL For wisdom all is thine ! lo, I obey, And dauntless follow where you lead the way ; Nor shalt thou in the day of danger find Thy coward son degenerate lag behind." Then instant to the bath (the monarch cries), Bid the gay youth and sprightly virgins rise, Thence all descend in pomp and proud array, And bid the dome resound the mirthful lay ; While the sweet lyrist airs of rapture sings. And forms the dance responsive to the strings. That hence the eluded passengers may say, ' Lo ! the queen weds ! we hear the spousal lay ! ' The suitors' death, unknown, till we remove Far from the court, and act inspired by Jove." Thus spoke the king : the observant train obey, At once they bathe, and dress in proud array : The lyrist strikes the string ; gay youths advance. And fair-zoned damsels form the sprightly dance. The voice, attuned to instrumental sounds. Ascends the roof, the vaulted roof rebounds ; Not unobserved : the Greeks eluded say, " Lo ! the queen weds, we hear the spousal lay ! Inconstant ! to admit the bridal hour." Thus they — but nobly chaste she weds no more. Meanwhile the wearied king the bath ascends ; With faithful cares Eurynomfe attends. O'er every limb a shower of fragrance sheds ; Then, dress'd in pomp, magnificent he treads. The warrior-goddess gives his frame to shine With majesty enlarged, and grace divine. Back from his brows in wavy ringlets fly His thick large locks of hyacinthine dye. As by some artist to whom Vulcan gives His heavenly skill, a breathing image lives ; By Pallas taught, he frames the wondrous mould, And the pale silver glows with fusile gold : So Pallas his heroic form improves With bloom divine, and like a god he moves ! More high he treads, and issuing forth in state. Radiant before his gazing consort sate. " And, O my queen ! (he cries) what power above Has steel'd that heart, averse to spousal love ? Canst thou, Penelope, when heaven restores Thy lost Ulysses to his native shores. Canst thou, O cruel ! unconcern'd survey Thy lost Ulysses, on this signal day l "TTaste, Euryclea, and despatchful spread For me, and me alone, the imperial bed ; My weary nature craves the balm of rest : But Heaven with adamant has arm'd her breast." Book XXIII.] THE ODYSSEY. 3" " Ah no ! (she cries) a tender heart I bear, A foe to pride : no adamant is there ; And now, e'en now it melts ! for sure I see Once more Ulysses my beloved in thee ! Fix'd in my soul, as when he sail'd to Troy, His image dwells ; then haste the bed of joy i Haste, from the bridal bower the bed translate, Framed by his hand, and be it dress'd in state ! " Thus speaks the queen, still dubious, with disguise ; Touch'd at her words, the king with warmth replies : "Alas for this ! what mortal strength can move The enormous burden, who but Heaven above ? It mocks the weak attempts of human hands ; But the whole earth must move if Heaven commands. MEETING OF ULYSSES AND PENELOPE. Then hear sure evidence, while we display Words seal'd with sacred truth, and truth obey : This hand the wonder framed ; an olive spread Full in the court its ever-verdant head. Vast as some mighty column's bulk, on high The huge trunk rose, and heaved into the sky ; Around the tree I raised a nuptial bower. And roof'd defensive of the stonn and shower ; The spacious valve, with art inwrought, conjoins ; And the fair dome with polish'd marble shines. I lopp'd the branchy head ; aloft in twain Sever'd the bole, and smooth'd the shining gram ; Then posts, capacious of the frame, I raise, And bore it, regular, from space to space : 312 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XXIII. Athwart the frame, at equal distance he Thongs of tough hides, that boast a purple dye ; Then polishing the whole, the finish'd mould With silver shone, with elephant, and gold. But if o'ertum'd by rude, ungovern'd hands. Or still inviolate the olive stands, 'Tis thine, O queen, to say, and now impart. If fears remain, or doubts distract thy heart." While yet he speaks, her powers of life decay, She sickens, trembles, falls, and faints away. At length recovering, to his arms she flew, And strain'd him close, as to his breast she grew : The tears pour'd down amain ; and " O (she cries) Let not against thy spouse thine anger rise ! O versed in every turn of human art, Forgive the weakness of a woman's heart ! The righteous powers, that mortal lots dispose, Decree us to sustain a length of woes. And from the flower of life the bliss deny To bloom together, fade away, and die. let me, let me not thine anger move. That I forebore, thus, thus to speak my love ; Thus in fond kisses, while the transport warms, Pour out my soul, and die within thine arms ! 1 dreaded fraud ! Men, faithless men, betray Our easy faith, and make the sex their prey : Against the fondness of my heart I strove : 'Twas caution, O my lord ! not want of love. Like me had Helen fear'd, with wanton charms Ere the fair mischief set two worlds in arms ; Ere Greece rose dreadful in the avenging day ; Thus had she fear'd, she had not gone astray. But Heaven, averse to Greece, in wrath decreed That she should wander, and that Greece should bleed : Blind to the ills that from injustice flow, She colour'd all our wretched lives with woe. But why these sorrows when my lord arrives ? I yield, I yield ! my own Ulysses lives ! The secrets of the bridal bed are known To thee, to me, to Actoris alone (My father's present in the spousal hour. The sole attendant on our genial bower). Since what no eye hath seen thy tongue reveal'd, Hard and distrustful as I am, I yield." Touch'd to the soul, the king with rapture hears, Hangs round her neck, and speaks his joy in tears. As to the shipwreck'd mariner, the shores Delightful rise, when angry Neptune roars : Then, when the surge in thunder mounts the sky, And gulf d in crowds at once the sailors die ; Book XXIII.] THE ODYSSEY. 313 If one, more happy, while the tempest raves, OutHves the tumult of conflicting waves. All pale, with ooze deform'd, he views the strand, And plunging forth with transport grasps the land : The ravish'd queen with equal rapture glows. Clasps her loved lord, and to his bosom grows. Nor had they ended till the morning ray. But Pallas backward held the rising day. The wheels of night retarding, to detain The gay Aurora in the wavy main ; Whose flaming steeds, emerging through the night, Beam o'er the eastern hills with streaming light. At length Ulysses with a sigh replies : " Yet Fate, yet cruel Fate repose denies ; A labour long, and hard, remains behind ; By heaven above, by hell beneath enjoin'd : For to Tiresias through the eternal gates Of hell I trode, to learn my future fates. But end we here — the night demands repose, Be deck'd the couch ! and peace awhile, my woes ! " To whom the queen : " Thy word we shall obey, And deck the couch ; far hence be woes away ; Since the just gods, who tread the starry plains. Restore thee safe, since my Ulysses reigns. But what those perils heaven decrees, impart ; Knowledge may grieve, but fear distracts the heart.'' To this the king : " Ah, why must I disclose A dreadful story of approaching woes ? Why in this hour of transport wound thy ears. When thou must learn what I must speak with tears ? Heaven, by the Theban ghost, thy spouse decrees, Torn from thy arms, to sail a length of seas ; From realm to realm, a nation to explore Who ne'er knew salt, or heard the billows roar, Nor saw gay vessel stem the surgy plain, A painted wonder, flying on the main : An oar my hand must bear ; a shepherd eyes The unknown instrument with strange surprise, And calls a corn-van ; this upon the plain I fix, and hail the monarch of the main ; Then bathe his altars with the mingled gore Of victims vow'd, a ram, a bull, a boar ; Thence swift re-sailing to my native shores. Due victims slay to all the ethereal powers. Then Heaven decrees, in peace to end my days, And steal myself from life by slow decays ; Unknown to pain, in age resign my breath. When late stern Neptune points the shaft of death ; To the dark grave retiring as to rest ; My people blessing, by my people bless'd. 314 THE ODYSSEY. Jook XXIII. Such future scenes the all-righteous powers display- By their dread seer,' and such my future day." To whom thus firm of soul : " If ripe for death. And full of days, thou gently yield thy breath ; While Heaven a kind release from ills foreshows. Triumph, thou happy victor of thy woes ! " But Euryclea, with despatchful care. And sage Eurynomfe, the couch prepare ; Instant they bid the blazing torch display Around the dome an artificial day ; Then to repose her steps the matron bends, And to the queen Eurynomfe descends ; A torch she bears, to light with guiding fires The royal pair ; she guides them, and retires. Then instant his fair spouse Ulysses led To the chaste love-rites of the nuptial bed. And now the blooming youths and sprightly fair Cease the gay dance, and to their rest repair ; But in discourse the king and consort lay, While the soft hours stole unperceived away ; Intent he hears Penelope disclose A mournful story of domestic woes, His servants' insults, his invaded bed. How his whole flocks and herds exhausted bled, His generous wines dishonour'd shed in vain, And the wild riots of the suitor-train. The king alternate a dire tale relates. Of wars, of triumphs, and disastrous fates ; All he unfolds ; his listening spouse turns pale With pleasing horror at the dreadful tale ; Sleepless devours each word ; and hears how slain Cicons on Cicons swell the ensanguined plain ; How to the land of Lote unbless'd he sails ; And images the rills and flowery vales ! How dash'd like dogs, his friends the Cyclops tore (Not unrevenged), and quaff 'd the spouting gore ; How the loud storms in prison bound, he sails From friendly ^olus with prosperous gales ; Yet fate withstands ! a sudden tempest roars, And whirls him groaning from his native shores : How on the barbarous Lasstrigonian coast, By savage hands his fleet and friends he lost ; How scarce himself survived : he paints the bower. The spells of Circfe, and her magic power ; His dreadful journey to the realms beneath, To seek Tiresias in the vales of death ; How in the doleful mansions he surve/d His royal mother, pale Anticlea's shade ; And friends in battle slain, heroic ghosts ! ^ Tiresias. Book XXIII.] THE ODYSSEY. 315 Then how, unharm'd, he pass'd the Syren-coasts, The justling rocks where fierce Charybdis raves, And howUng Scylla whirls her thunderous waves. The cave of death ! How his companions slay The oxen sacred to the god of day. Till Jove in wrath the rattling tempest guides. And whelms the offenders in the roaring tides : How struggling through the surge he reach'd the shores Of fair Ogygia, and Calypso's bowers ; Where the gay blooming nymph constrain'd his stay, With sweet, reluctant, amorous delay ; And promised, vainly promised, to bestow Immortal life, exempt from age and woe : How saved from storms Phseacia's coast he trod. By great Alcinoiis honour'd as a god, Who gave him last his country to behold. With change of raiment, brass, and heaps of gold. He ended, sinking into sleep, and shares A sweet forgetfulness of all his cares. Soon as soft slumber eased the toils of day, Minerva rushes through the aerial way, And bids Aurora with her golden wheels Flame from the ocean o'er the eastern hills : Uprose Ulysses from the genial bed. And thus with thought mature the monarch said : " My queen, my consort ! through a length of years We drank the cup of sorrow mix'd with tears ; Thou, for thy lord : while me the immortal powers Detain'd reluctant from my native shores. Now, bless'd again by Heaven, the queen display, And rule our palace with an equal sway. Be it my care, by loans, or martial toils, To throng my empty folds with gifts or spoils. But now I haste to bless Laertes' eyes With sight of his Ulysses ere he dies ; The good old man, to wasting woes a prey, Weeps a sad life in solitude away. But hear, though wise ! This morning shall unfold The deathful scene, on heroes heroes roll'd. Thou with thy maids within the palace stay, From all the scene of tumult far away ! " He spoke, and sheathed in arms incessant flies To wake his son, and bid his friends arise. " To arms ! " aloud he cries ; his friends obey, With glittering arms their manly limbs array, And pass the city gate ; Ulysses leads the way. New flames the rosy dawn, but Pallas shrouds The latent warriors in a veil of clouds. BOOK XXIV. ARGUMENT. The souls of the suitors are conducted by Mercury to the infernal shades. Ulysses in the country goes to the retirement of his father, Laertes ; he finds him busied in his garden all alone : the manner of his discovery to him is beautifully described. They return together to his lodge, and the king is acknowledged by Dolius and the servants. The Ithacensians, led by Eupithes, the father of Antinoxis, rise against Ulysses, who gives them battle, in which Eupithes is killed by Laertes : and the goddess Pallas makes a lasting peace between Ulysses and his subjects, which concludes the Odyssey. Cyllenius now to Pluto's dreary reign Conveys the dead, a lamentable train ! The golden wand, that causes sleep to fly, Or in soft slumber seals the wakeful eye, That drives the ghosts to realms of night or day, Points out the long uncomfortable way. Trembling the spectres ghde, and plaintive vent Thin, hollow screams, along the deep descent. As in the cavern of some rifted den, Where flock nocturnal bats, and birds obscene ; Cluster'd they hang, till at some sudden shock They move, and murmurs run through all the rock ! So cowering fled the sable heaps of ghosts. And such a scream fill'd all the dismal coasts. And now they reach'd the earth's remotest ends, And now the gates where evening Sol descends, And Leucas' mck, and Ocean's utmost streams, And now pervade the dusky land of dreams. And rest at last, where souls unbodied dwell In ever-flowing meads of asphodel. The empty forms of men inhabit there, Impassive semblance, images of air ! Nought else are all that shined on earth before : Ajax and great Achilles are no more ! Yet still amaster-ghost, the rest he awed. The rest adored him, towering as he trod; Book XXIV.] THE ODYSSEY. J17 Still at his side is Nestor's son survey'd, And loved Patroclus still attends his shade. New as they were to that infernal shore, The suitors stopp'd, and gazed the hero o'er. When, moving slow, the regal form they view'd Of great Atrides : him in pomp pursued And solemn sadness through the gloom of hell, The train of those who by ^gysthus fell : " O mighty chief ! (Pelides thus began) Honour'd by Jove above the lot of man ! King of a hundred kings ! to whom resign'd The strongest, bravest, greatest of mankind, Comest thou the first, to view this dreary state ? And was the noblest, the first mark of Fate, MERCURY CONDUCTING THE SOULS OF THE SUITORS TO THE INFERNAL REGIONS. Condemn'd to pay the great arrear so soon, The lot, which all lament, and none can shun ! Oh ! better hadst thou sunk in Trojan ground. With all thy full-blown honours cover'd round ; Then grateful Greece with streaming eyes might raise Historic marbles to record thy praise : Thy praise eternal on the faithful stone Had with transm issive glories graced thy son. But heavier fates were destined to attend : What man is happy, till he knows his end ? " " O son of Peleus ! greater than mankind ! (Thus Agamemnon's kingly shade rejoin'd) Thrice happy thou, to press the martial plain 'Midst heaps of heroes in thy quarrel slain : 3i8 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XXIV. In clouds of smoke raised by the noble fray, Great and terrific e'en in death you lay, And deluges of blood flow'd round you every way. Nor ceased the strife till Jove himself opposed, And all in tempests the dire evening closed. Then to the fleet we bore thy honour'd load. And decent on the funeral bed bestow'd : Then unguents sweet and tepid streams we shed ; Tears flow'd from every eye, and o'er the dead Each clipp'd the curling honours of his head. Struck at the news, thy azure mother came. The sea-green sisters waited on the dame : A voice of loud lament through all the main Was heard ; and terror seized the Grecian train : Back to their ships the frighted host had fled ; But Nestor spoke, they listen'd and obey'd (From old experience Nestor's counsel springs. And long vicissitudes of human things) : ' Forbear your flight : fair Thetis from the main To mourn Achilles leads her azure train.' Around thee stand the daughters of the deep, Robe thee in heavenly vests, and round thee weep : Round thee, the Muses, with alternate strain, In ever-consecrating verse, complain. Each warlike Greek the moving music hears, And iron-hearted heroes melt in tears. Till seventeen nights and seventeen days return'd All that was mortal or immortal mourn'd. To flames we gave thee, the succeeding day. And fatted sheep and sable oxen slay ; With oils and honey blazed the augmented fires, And, like a god adorn'd, thy earthly part expires. Unnumber'd warriors round the burning pile Urge the fleet coursers or the racer's toil ; Thick clouds of dust o'er all the circle rise. And the mix'd clamour thunders in the skies. Soon as absorb'd in all-embracing flame Sunk what was mortal of thy mighty name. We then collect thy snowy bones, and place With wines and unguents in a golden vase (The vase to Thetis Bacchus gave of old. And Vulcan's art enrich'd the sculptured gold). There, we thy relics, great Achilles ! blend With dear Patroclus, thy departed friend : In the same urn a separate space contains Thy next beloved, Antilochus' remains. Now all the sons of warlike Greece surround Thy destined tomb, and cast a mighty mound; High on the shore the growing hill we raise. That wide the extended Hellespont surveys ;. Book XXIV.] THE ODYSSEY. 319 Where all, from age to age, who pass the coast. May point Achilles' tomb, and hail the mighty ghost. Thetis herself to all our peers proclaims Heroic prizes and exequial games ; The gods assented ; and around thee lay Rich spoils and gifts that blazed against the day. Oft have I seen with solemn funeral games Heroes and kings committed to the flames ; But strength of youth, or valour of the brave, With nobler contest ne'er renown'd a grave. Such were the games by azure Thetis given, And such thy honours, O beloved of Heaven ! Dear to mankind thy fame survives, nor fades Its bloom eternal in the Stygian shades. But what to me avail my honours gone. Successful toils, and battles bravely won ? Doom'd by stern Jove at home to end my life, By cursed ^Egysthus, and a faithless wife ! " Thus they : while Hermes o'er the dreary plain Led the sad numbers by Ulysses slain. On each majestic form they cast a view. And timorous pass'd, and awfully withdrew. But Agamemnon, through the gloomy shade, His ancient host Amphimedon survey'd : " Son of Melanthius ! (he began) O say ! What cause compell'd so many, and so gay, To tread the downward, melancholy way ? Say, could one city yield a troop so fair .'' Were all these partners of one native air ? Or did the rage of stormy Neptune sweep Your lives at once, and whelm beneath the deep ? Did nightly thieves, or pirates' cruel bands, Drench with your blood your pillaged country's sands ? Or well-defending some beleaguer'd wall. Say, for the public did ye greatly fall ? Inform thy guest : for such I was of yore When our triumphant navies touch'd your shore ; Forced a long month the wintry seas to bear. To move the great Ulysses to the war." " O king of men ! I faithful shall relate (Replied Amphimedon) our hapless fate. Ulysses absent, our ambitious aim With rival loves pursued his royal dame ; Her coy reserve, and prudence mix'd with pride, Our common suit nor granted, nor denied ; But close with inward hate our deaths design'd ; Versed in all arts of wily womankind. Her hand, laborious, in delusion spread A spacious loom, and mix'd the various thread. 'Ye peers (she cried) who press to gain my heart. 320 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XXIV. Where dead Ulysses claims no more a part, Yet a short space your rival suit suspend, Till this funereal web my labours end : Cease, till to good Laertes I bequeath A task of grief, his ornaments of death : Lest when the Fates his royal ashes claim, The Grecian matrons taint my spotless fame ; Should he, long honoured with supreme command, Want the last duties of a daughter's hand.' " The fiction pleased, our generous train complies. Nor fraud mistrusts in virtue's fair disguise. The work she pUed, but studious of delay, Each following night reversed the toils of day. Unheard, unseen, three years her arts prevail ; The fourth, her maid reveal'd the amazing tale, And show'd, as unperceived we took our stand. The backward labours of her faithless hand. Forced she completes it ; and before us lay The mingled web, whose gold and silver ray Display'd the radiance of the night and day. " Just as she finish'd her illustrious toil, 111 fortune led Ulysses to our isle. Far in a lonely nook, beside the sea. At an old swineherd's rural lodge he lay : Thither his son from sandy Pyle repairs. And speedy lands, and secretly confers. They plan our future ruin, and resort Confederate to the city and the court. First came the son ; the father next succeeds, Clad like a beggar, whom Eumaeus leads ; Propp'd on a staff, deform'd with age and care, And hung with rags that flutter'd in the air. Who could Ulysses in that form behold ? Scorn'd by the young, forgotten by the old. Ill-used by all ! to every wrong resign'd, Patient he suffer'd with a constant mind. But when, arising in his wrath to obey The will of Jove, he gave the vengeance way : The scattered arms that hung around the dome Careful he treasured in a private room ; Then to her suitors bade his queen propose The archer's strife, the source of future woes. And omen of our death ! In vain we drew The twanging string, and tried the stubborn yew : To none it yields but great Ulysses' hands ; In vain we threat : Telemachus commands : The bow he snatch'd, and in an instant bent ; Through every ring the victor arrow went. Fierce on the threshold then in arms he stood ; Pour'd forth the darts that thirsted for our blood, Book XXIV.] THE ODYSSEY. 321 And frown'd before us, dreadful as a god ! First bleeds Antinoiis : thick the shafts resound, And heaps on heaps the wretches strew the ground ; This way, and that, we turn, we fly, we fall ; Some god assisted, and unmann'd us all : Ignoble cries precede the dying groans ; And batter'd brains and blood besmear the stones. " Thus, great Atrides, thus Ulysses drove The shades thou seest from yon fair realms above ; Our mangled bodies now deform'd with gore. Cold and neglected, spread the marble floor. No friend to bathe our wounds, or tears to shed O'er the pale corse ! the honours of the dead." " Oh bless'd Ulysses ! (thus the king express'd His sudden rapture) in thy consort bless'd ! Not more thy wisdom than her virtue shined ; Not more thy patience than her constant mind. Icarius' daughter, glory of the past. And model to the future age, shall last : The gods, to honour her fair fame, shall rise (Their great reward) a poet in her praise. Not such, O Tyndarus ! thy daughter's deed, By whose dire hand her king and husband bled ; Her shall the Muse to infamy prolong. Example dread, and theme of tragic song ! The general sex shall suffer in her shame, And e'en the best that bears a woman's name." Thus in the regions of eternal shade Conferr'd the mournful phantoms of the dead ; While firom the town, Ulysses and his band Pass'd to Laertes' cultivated land. The ground himself had purchased with his pain, And labour made the rugged soil a plain. There stood his mansion of the rural sort. With usefvd buildings round the lowly court ; Where the few servants that divide his care Took their laborious rest, and homely fare ; And one Sicilian matron, old and sage, With constant duty tends his drooping age. Here now arriving, to his rustic band And martial son, Ulysses gave command : " Enter the house, and of the bristly swine Select the largest to the powers divine. Alone, and unattended, let me try If yet I share the old man's memory : If those dim eyes can yet Ulysses know (Their light and dearest object long ago), Now changed with time, with absence, and with woe.'' Then to his train he gives his spear and shield ; The house they enter ; and he seeks the field. 322 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XXIV. Through rows of shade, with various fruitage crown'd, And labour'd scenes of richest verdure round. Nor aged Doiius, nor his sons, were there, Nor servants, absent on another care ; To search the woods for sets of flowery thorn. Their orchard bounds to strengthen and adorn. But all alone the hoary king he found ; His habit coarse, but warmly wrapp'd around ; His head, that bow'd with many a pensive care. Fenced with a double cap of goatskin hair : His buskins old, in former service torn. But well repair'd ; and gloves against the thorn. In this array the kingly gardener stood. And clear'd a plant, encumber'd with its wood. Beneath a neighbouring tree, the chief divine Gazed o'er his sire, retracing every line, The ruins of himself, now worn away With age, yet still majestic in decay ! Sudden his eyes released their watery store ; The much-enduring man could bear no more. Doubtful he stood, if instant to embrace His aged limbs, to kiss his reverend face. With eager transport to disclose the whole, And pour at once the torrent of his soul. — Not so : his judgment takes the winding way Of question distant, and of soft essay ; More gentle methods on weak age employs : And moves the sorrows to enhance the joys. Then, to his sire with beating heart he moves. And with a tender pleasantry reproves ; Who digging round the plant still hangs his head, Nor aught remits the work, while thus he said : " Great is thy skill, O father ! great thy toil. Thy careful hand is stamp'd on all the soil. Thy squadron'd vineyards well thy art declare, The olive green, blue fig, and pendent pear ; And not one empty spot escapes thy care. On every plant and tree thy cares are shown, Nothing neglected, but th\'self alone. Forgi-\'e me, father, if this fault I blame ; Age so advanced, may some indulgence claim. Not for thy sloth, I deem thy lord unkind: Nor speaks thy form a mean or servile mind ; I read a monarch in that princely air. The same thy aspect, if the same thy care ; Soft sleep, fair garments, and the joys of wine, These are the rights of age, and should be thine. Who then thy master, say ? and whose the land So dress'd and managed by thy skilful hand ? But chief, oh tell me ! (what I question most) Book XXIV.] THE ODYSSEY. 323 Is this the far-famed Ithacensian coast ? For so reported the first man I view'd (Some surly islander, of manners rude), Nor farther conference vouchsafed to stay ; Heedless he whistled, and pursued his way. But thou, whom years have taught to understand. Humanely hear, and answer my demand : A friend I seek, a wise one and a brave : Say, lives he yet, or moulders in the grave ? Time was (my fortunes then were at the best) When at my house I lodged this foreign guest ; He said, from Ithaca's fair isle he came, And old Laertes was his father's name. To him, whatever to a guest is owed I paid, and hospitable gifts bestow'd : To him seven talents of pure ore I told. Twelve cloaks, twelve vests, twelve tunics stiff with gold ; A bowl, that rich with polish'd silver flames, And, skill'd in female works, four lovely dames." At this the father, with a father's fears (His venerable eyes bedimm'd with tears) : " This is the land ; but ah ! thy gifts are lost, For godless men, and rude possess the coast : Sunk is the glory of this once-famed shore ! Thy ancient friend, O stranger, is no more ! Full recompense thy^ bounty else had borne ; For every good man' yields a just return : So civil rights demand ; and who begins The track of friendship, not pursuing, sins. But tell me, stranger, be the truth confess'd, What years have circled since thou saw'st that guest? That hapless guest, alas ! for ever gone ! Wretch that he was ! and that I am ! my son ! If ever man to misery was born, 'Twas his to suffer, and 'tis mine to mourn ! Far from his friends, and from his native reign. He lies a prey to monsters of the main ; Or savage beasts his mangled relics tear, Or screaming vultures scatter through the air : Nor could his mother funeral unguents shed ; Nor wail'd his father o'er the untimely dead : Nor his sad consort, on the mournful bier, Seal'd his cold eyes, or dropp'd a tender tear ! " But, tell me who thou art .? and what thy race .'' Thy town, thy parents, and thy native place -^ Or, if a merchant in pursuit of gain. What port received thy vessel from the main ? Or comest thou single, or attend thy train ? " Then thus the son : " From Alybas I came. My palace there ; Eperitus my name. Z 324 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XXIV. Not vulgar born : from Aphidas, the king Of Polyphemon's royal line, I spring. Some adverse demon from Sicania bore Our vi^andering course, and drove us on your shore ; Far from the town, an unfrequented bay Relieved our wearied vessel from the sea. Five years have circled since these eyes pursued Ulysses parting through the sable flood : Prosperous he sail'd, with dexter auguries, And all the wing'd good omens of the skies. Well hoped we then to meet on this fair shore. Whom Heaven, alas ! decreed to meet no more." Quick through the father's heart these accents ran ; Grief seized at once, and wrapp'd up all the man : Deep from his soul he sigh'd, and sorrowing spread A cloud of ashes on his hoary head. Trembling with agonies of strong delight Stood the great son, heart-wounded with the sight : He ran, he seized him with a strict embrace, With thousand kisses wander'd o'er his face : " I, I am he ; O father, rise ! behold Thy son, with twenty winters now grown old ; Thy son, so long desired, so long detain'd. Restored, and breathing in his native land : These floods of sorrow, O my sire, restrain ! The vengeance is complete ; the suitor train, Stretch'd in our palace, by these hands lie slain." Amazed, Laertes : " Give some certain sign (If such thou art) to manifest thee mine." " Lo here the wound (he cries) received of yore, The scar indented by the tusky boar. When, by thyself, and by Anticlea sent, To old Autolycus's realms I went. Yet by another sign thy offspring know ; The several trees you gave me long ago. While yet a child, these fields I loved to trace, And trod thy footsteps with unequal pace ; To every plant in order as we came, WeU-pleased, you told its nature and its name, Whate'er my childish fancy ask'd, bestow'd : Twelve pear-trees, bowing with their pendent load, And ten, that red with blushing apples glow'd ; Full fifty purple figs ; and many a row Of various vines that then began to blow, A future vintage ! when the Hours produce Their latent buds, and Sol exalts the juice." Smit with the signs which all his doubts explain. His heart within him melts ; his knees sustain Their feeble weight no more : his arms alone Support him, round the loved Ulysses thrown ; Book XXIV.] THE ODYSSEY. 325 He faints, he sinks, with mighty joys oppress'd : Ulysses clasps him to his eager breast. Soon as returning life regains its seat, And his breath lengthens, and his pulses beat : " Yes, I believe (he cries), almighty Jove ! Heaven rules us yet, and gods there are above. 'Tis so — the suitors for their wrongs have paid — But what shall guard us, if the town invade ! If, while the news through every city flies. All Ithaca and Cephalenia rise ? " To this Ulysses : " As the gods shall please Be all the rest ; and set thy soul at ease. Haste to the cottage by this orchard's side. And take the banquet which our cares provide : There wait thy faithful band of rural friends. And there the young Telemachus attends." Thus having said, they traced the garden o'er, And stooping enter'd at the lowly door. The swains and young Telemachus they found,' The victim portion'd, and the goblet crown'd. The hoary king, his old Sicilian maid Perfumed and wash'd, and gorgeously array'd. Pallas attending gives his frame to shine With awful port, and majesty divine ; His gazing son admires the godhke grace. And air celestial dawning o'er his face. "What god (he cried) my father's form improves } How high he treads, and how enlarged he moves ! '' " Oh ! would to all the deathless powers on high, Pallas and Jove, and him who gilds the sky ! (RepHed the king elated with his praise) My strength were still, as once in better days : When the bold Cephalens the leaguer form'd, And proud Nericus trembled as I storm'd. Such were I now, not absent from your deed When the last sun beheld the suitors bleed. This arm had aided yours, this hand bestrown Our shores with death, and push'd the slaughter on ; Nor had the sire been separate from the son." They communed thus ; while homeward bent their way The swains, fatigued with labours of the day : Dolius the first, the venerable man ; And next his sons, a long succeeding train. For due refection to the bower they came, Call'd by the careful old Sicilian dame. Who nursed the children, and now tends the sire ; ' The swains atid young Telemachus. " It may be worth while also to observe the different econoiny of the households of Penelope and of Laertes, and to consider them as representin<; in some degree the later and the elder system ; to observe the separation and subordination of the slaves, and the organized service of the one, and the familiarity and almost equal ministry of master and servant in the other."— Coleridge, p. 235. 326 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XXIV They see their lord, they gaze, and they admire. On chairs and beds in order seated round, They share the gladsome board ; the roofs resound, While thus Ulysses to his ancient friend : " Forbear your wonder, and the feast attend : The rites have waited long." The chief commands Their love in vain ; old Dolius spreads his hands, Springs to his master with a warm embrace. And fastens kisses on his hands and face ; Then thus broke out : " O long, O daily mourn'd ! Beyond our hopes, and to our wish return'd ! Conducted sure by Heaven ! for Heaven alone Could work this wonder : welcome to thy own ! And joys and happiness attend thy throne ! Who knows thy bless'd, thy wish'd return ? oh say, To the chaste queen shall we the news convey ? Or hears she, and with blessings loads the day ? " " Dismiss that care, for to the royal bride Already is it known" (the king replied. And straight resumed his seat) ; while round him bows Each faithful youth, and breathes out ardent vows ; Then all beneath their father take their place, Rank'd by their ages, and the banquet grace. Now flying Fame the swift report had spread Through all the city, of the suitors dead. In throngs they rise, and to the palace crowd ; Their sighs were many, and the tumult loud. Weeping they bear the mangled heaps of slain ; Inhume the natives in their native plain, The rest in ships are wafted o'er the main. Then sad in council all the seniors sate, Frequent and full, assembled to debate : Amid the circle first Eupithes rose. Big was his eye with tears, his heart with woes : The bold Antinoiis was his age's pride. The first who by Ulysses' arrow died. Down his wan cheek the trickling torrent ran, As mixing words with sighs he thus began : " Great deeds, O friends ! this wondrous man has wrought, And mighty blessings to his country brought ! With ships he parted, and a numerous train. Those, and their ships, he buried in the main. Now he returns, and first essays his hand In the best blood of all his native land. Haste then, and ere to neighbouring Pyle he flies, Or sacred Elis, to procure supplies ; Arise (or ye for ever fall), arise ! Shame to this age, and all that shall succeed ! If unrevenged your sons and brothers bleed. Prove that we live, by vengeance on his head. Book XXIV.l THE ODYSSEY. 327 Or sink at once forgotten with the dead." Here ceased he, but indignant tears let fall Spoke when he ceased : dumb sorrow touch'd them all. When from the palace to the wondering throng Sage Medon came, and Phemius came along (Restless and early sleep's soft bands they broke) ; And Medon first the assembled chiefs bespoke : " Hear me, ye peers and elders of the land, Who deem this act the work of mortal hand ; As o'er the heaps of death Ulysses strode. These eyes, these eyes beheld a present god. Who now before him, now beside him stood. Fought as he fought, and mark'd his way with blood : In vain old Mentor's form the god behed ; 'Twas Heaven that struck, and Heaven wae on his side. A sudden horror all the assembly shook. When slowly rising, Halitherses spoke (Reverend and wise, whose comprehensive view At once the present and the future knew) : " Me too, ye fathers, hear ! from you proceed The ills ye mourn ; your own the guilty deed. Ye gave your sons, your lawless sons, the rein (Oft warn'd by Mentor and myself in vain) ; An absent hero's bed they sought to soil. An absent hero's wealth they made their spoil ; Immoderate riot, and intemperate lust ! The offence was great, the punishment was just. Weigh then my counsels in an equal scale. Nor rush to ruin. Justice will prevail." His moderate words some better minds persuade : They part, and join him : but the number stay'd. They storm, they shout, with hasty frenzy fired. And second all Eupithes' rage inspired. They case their limbs in brass ; to arms they run ; The broad effulgence blazes in the sun. Before the city, and in ample plain, They meet : Eupithes heads the frantic train. Fierce for his son, he breathes his threats in air ; Fate hears them not, and Death attends him there. This pass'd on earth, while in the realms above Minerva thus to cloud- compelling Jove : " May 1 presume to search thy secret soul .'' O Power Supreme, O Ruler of the whole ! Say, hast thou doom'd to this divided state Or peaceful amity, or stern debate ? Declare thy purpose, for thy will is fate." " Is not thy thought my own ? (the god replies Who rolls the thunder o'er the vaulted skies ; ) Hath not long since thy knowing soul decreed The chief's return should make the guilty bleed.' 328 THE ODYSSEY. [Book XXIV. 'Tis done, and at thy will the Fates succeed. Yet hear the issue : Since Ulysses' hand Has slain the suitors, Heaven shall bless the land. None now the kindred of the unjust shall own ; Forgot the slaughter'd brother and the son : Each future day increase of wealth shall bring, And o'er the past Oblivion stretch her wing. Long shall Ulysses in his empire rest. His people blessing, by his people bless'd. Let all be peace." — He said, and gave the nod That binds the Fates ; the sanction of the god : And prompt to execute the eternal will, Descended Pallas from the Olympian hill. Now sat Ulysses' at the rural feast. The rage of hunger and of thirst repress'd : To watch the foe a trusty spy he sent : A son of Dolius on the message went. Stood in the way, and at a glance beheld The foe approach, embattled on the field. With backward step he hastens to the bower. And tells the news. They arm with all their power. Four friends alone Ulysses' cause embrace. And six were all the sons of Dolius' race : Old Dolius too his rusted arms put on ; And, still more old, in arms Laertes shone. Trembling with warmth, the hoary heroes stand. And brazen panoply invests the band. The opening gates at once their war display : Fierce they rush forth : Ulysses leads the way. That moment joins them with celestial aid, In Mentor's form, the Jove-descended maid : The suffering hero felt his patient breast Swell with new joy, and thus his son address'd : " Behold, Telemachus ! (nor fear the sight,) The brave embattled, the grim front of fight I The valiant with the valiant must contend : Shame not the line whence glorious you descend. Wide o'er the world their martial fame was spread ; Regard thyself, the living, and the dead." " Thy eyes, great father ! on this battle cast. Shall learn from me Penelope was chaste." So spoke Telemachus : the gallant boy Good old Laertes heard with panting joy . " And bless'd ! thrice bless'd this happy day ! (he cries,) The day that shows me, ere I close my eyes, A son and grandson of the Arcesian name Strive for fair virtue, and contest for fame ! " Then thus Minerva in Laertes' ear : " Son of Arcesius, reverend warrior, hear ! Jove and Jove's daughter first implore in prayer. Book XXIV.] THE ODYSSEY. 329 Then, whirling high, discharge thy lance in air." She said, infusing courage with the word. Jove and Jove's daughter then the chief implored. And, whirling high, dismiss'd the lance in air. Full at Eupithes drove the deathful spear : The brass-cheek'd helmet opens to the wound ; He falls, earth thunders, and his arms resound. Before the father and the conquering son Heaps rush on heaps, they fight, they drop, they run. Now by the sword, and now the javelin, fall The rebel race, and death had swallow'd all ; But from on high the blue-eyed virgin cried ; Her awful voice detain'd the headlong tide : " Forbear, ye nations, your mad hands forbear From mutual slaughter ; Peace descends to spare." Fear shook the nations : at the voice divine They drop their javelins, and their rage resign. All scatter'd round their glittering weapons lie ; Some fall to earth, and some confusedly fly. With dreadful shouts Ulysses pour'd along, Swift as an eagle, as an eagle strong. But Jove's red arm the burning thunder aims ; Before Minerva shot the livid flames ; Blazing they fell, and at her feet expired ; Then stopped the goddess, trembled, and retired. " Descended from the gods ! Ulysses, cease ; Offend not Jove : obey, and give the peace." So Pallas spoke : the mandate from above The king obey'd. The virgin-seed of Jove, In Mentor's form, confirm'd the full accord, \nd willing nations knew their lawful lord. Penelope's choick.