So Pallas order'd, Pallas to their eyes

The mift objected, and condens'd the skies),
The chief with wonder fees th' extended streets,
The fpreading harbours, and the rifing fleets;
He next their princefs lofty domes admires,
In feparate islands crown'd with rifing spires;
And deep intrenchments and high walls of stone,
That gird the city like a marble zone.

At length the kingly palace-gates he view'd: There ftopp'd the Goddefs, and her speech renew'd:

My talk is done; the manfion you inquire
Appears before you: enter, and admire.
High thron'd, and feafting there thou shalt behold
The iceptred rulers. Fear not, but be bold;
A decent boldneís ever meets with friends,
Succeeds, and ev'n a stranger recommends.
Firt to the queen prefer a fuppliant's claim,
Alcinous queen, Arete is her name,

The fame her parents, and her power the fame..
For know, from Ocean's God Naufithous fprung,
And Peribaa, beautiful and young
(Eurymedon's laft hope, who rul'd of old
The race of giants, impious, proud, and bold;
Perith'd the nation in unrighteous war,
Perth'd the prince, and left his only heir).
Who now, by Neptune's amorous power compreft.
Produc'd a monarch that his people bleft,
Father and prince of the Phæacian name;
From him Rhexenor and Alcinous came.
The firft by Phoebus' burning arrows fir'd,
New from his nuptials, hapless youth! expir'd,
No fon furviv'd: Arete heir'd his ftate,
And her, Alcinous chofe his royal mate.
With honours yet to womenkind unknown,
This queen he graces, and divides the throne:
In equal tenderness her fons confpire,
And all the children emulate their fire.
When through the streets the gracious deigns to
move,

(The public wonder and the public love)
The tongues of all with transport found her praife
The eyes of all, as on a Goddess, gaze.
She feels the triumph of a generous breast:
To heal divifions, to relieve th' oppreft;
In virtue rich; in bletting others, bleft.
Go then fecure, thy humble fuit prefer,
And owe thy country and thy friends to her.
With that the Goddess deign'd no longer stay,
Bat o'er the world of waters wing'd her way:
Forfaking Scheria's ever-pleafing thore,
The winds to Marathon the virgin bore,
Thence, where proud Athens rears her towery
With opening ftreets and shining structures fpread,
She pait, delighted with the well-known feats;
And to Erectheus' facred dome retreats.

[head,

Mean while Ulyffes at the palace waits, There ftops, and anxious with his foul debates, Fix'd in amaze before the royal gates. The front appear'd with radiant iplendors gay, Bright as the lamp of night, or orb of day, The walls were maffy brafs, the cornice high Blue metals crown'd, in colours of the fky: Rich plates of gold the folding doors incafe; The pillars filver, on a brazen base; Silver the lintals deep projecting o'er, And gold, the ringlets that command the door.

Two rows of stately dogs on either hand,
In fculptur'd gold and labour'd filver stand.
Thefe Vulcan form'd with art divine, to wait
Immortal guardians at Alcinous' gate;
Alive each animated frame appears,

And ftill to live beyond the power of years.
Fair thrones within from fpace to space were rais'd,
Where various carpets with embroidery blaz'd,
The work of matrons: thefe the princefs preft,
Day following day, a long continued feaft.
Refulgent pedestals the walls furround,
Which boys of gold with flaming torches crown'd;
The polifh'd ore, reflecting every ray,
Blaz'd on the banquets with a double day.
Full fifty handmaids form the household train;
Some turn the mill, or fift the golden grain:
Some ply the loom : their bufy fingers move
Like poplar leaves when Zephyr fans the grove.
Not more renown'd the men of Scheria's ille,
For failing arts and all the naval toil,
Than works of female fkill their women's pride,
The flying shuttle through the threads to guide :
Pallas to thefe her double gifts imparts,
Inventive genius, and induftrious arts.

Clofe to the gates a fpacious garden lies,
From fterms defended and inclement skies.
Four acres was the alloted fpace of ground,
Fenc'd with a green enclosure all around,
Tall thriving trees confefs'd the fruitful mould;
The reddening apple ripens here to gold.
Here the blue fig with lufcious juice o'erflows,
With deeper red the full pomegranate glows,
The branch here bends beneath the weighty pear,
And verdant olives flourish round the year.
The balmy fpirit of the weftern gale
Eternal breathes on fruits untaught to fail:
Each dropping pear a following pear fupplies,
On apples apples, figs on figs arifc:
The fame mild feafon gives the blooms to blow,
The buds to harden, and the fruits to grow.

Here order'd vines in equal ranks appear,
With all th' united labours of the year;
Some to unload the fertile branches run,
Some dry the blackening clusters in the fun,
Others to tread the liquid harveft join,
The groaning preifes toan with floods of wine.
Here are the vines in early flower defcry'd,
Here grapes difcolour'd on the funny fide,
And there in autumn's richest purple dy'd.

Beds of all various herbs, for ever green,
In beauteous order terminate the scene.

Two plenteous fountains the whole profpect

crown'd;

This through the garden leads its ftreams around,
Vitits each plant, and waters all the ground:
While that in pipes beneath the palace flows,
And thence its current on the town beftows;
To various ufe their various ftreams they bring,
The people one, and one fupplies the king.

Such were the glories which the Gods ordain'd,
To grace Alcinous, and his happy land.
Ev'n from the chief who men and nations knew,
Th' unwonted fcene furprife and rapture drew;
In pleafing thought he ran the profpect o'er.
Then hafty enter'd at the lofty door.

Night now approaching, in the palace ftand,
With goblets crown'd, the rulers of the land;

Prepar'd for reft, and offering to the † God
Who bears the virtue of the fleepy rod.
Unfeen he glided through the joyous crowd,
With darkness circled, and an ambient cloud.
Direct to great Alcinous' throne he came,
And proftrate fell before th' imperial dame.
Then from around him dropt the veil of night;
Sudden he fhines, and manifeft to fight,
The nobles gaze, with awful fear oppreft;
Silent they gaze, and eye the godlike gueft.

Daughter of great Rhexenor! (thus began
Low at her knees the much enduring man)
To thee, thy confort, and this royal train,
To all that share the bleffings of your reign,
A fuppliant bends: Oh, pity human woe!
'Tis what the happy to th' unhappy owe.
A wretched exile to his country iend,
Long worn with griefs, and long without a friend.
So may the Gods your better days increase,
And all your joys defcend on all your race,
So reign for ever on your country's breast,
Your people blefling, by your people bleft!
Then to the genial hearth he bow'd his face,
And humbled in the ashes took his place.
Silence entued. The eldest firft began,
Echenus fage, a venerable man!
Whole well-taught mind the present age furpat,
And join'd to that th' experience of the last.
Fit words attended on his weighty fenfe,
And mild perfuafion flow'd in eloquence.

O fight (he cry'd) dishonest and unjust!
A guelt, a stranger, feated in the duft!
To raise the lowly fuppliant from the ground
Befits a monarch. Lo! the peers around
But wait thy word, the gentle guest to grace,
And feat him fair in fome diftinguish'd place.
Let first the herald due libation pay

To Jove, who guides the wanderer on his way:
Then fet the genial banquet in his view,
And give the stranger guest a stranger's due.

His fage advice the liftening king obeys,
He ftretch'd his hand the prudent chief to raife,
And from his feat Laodamas remov'd
(The monarch's offspring, and his best belov'd);
There next his fide the godlike hero fate;
With ftars of filver fhone the bed of ftate.
The golden ewer a beauteous handmaid brings,
Replenish'd from the cool tranflucent fprings,
Whofe polifh'd vafe with copious ftreams fupplies
A filver laver of capacious fize,
The table next in regal order fpread,
The glitter g canifters are heap'd with bread:
Viands of various kinds invite the taste,
Of choiceft fort and favour, rich repast!
Thus feafting high, Alcinous gave the fign,
And bade the herald pour the rofy wine.
Let all around the due libation pay

To Jove, who guides the wanderer on his way.
He faid. Pontonous heard the king's command:
The circling goblet moves from hand to hand:
Earth drinks the juice that glads the heart of man,
Alcinous then, with afpest mild, began;

Princes and peers, attend; while we impart
To you, the thoughts of no inhuman heart.
Now pleas'd and fatiate from the focial rite
Repair we to the bleflings of the night:
+ Mercury.

But with the rising day, affèmbled here,
Let all the elders of the land appear,
Pious obferve our hofpitable laws,
And Heaven propitiate in the ftranger's cause ;
Then, join'd in council, proper means explore
Safe to tranfport him to the wifh'd-for fhore
(How diftant that, imports not us to know,
Nor weigh the labour but relieve the woe).
Mean time, nor harm nor anguish let him bear :
This interval, Heaven trusts him to our care;
But to his native land our charge refign'd, [hind.
Heaven's his life to come, and all the woes be
Then must he fuffer what the Fates ordain;

For Fate has wove the thread of life with pain, And twins ev'n from the birth are mifery and ( man!

But if, defcended from th' Olympian bower,
Gracious approach us fome immortal power;
If in that form thou com'ft a guest divine:
Some high event the confcious Gods defign.
As yet, unbid they never grac'd our feast,
The folemn facrifice call'd down the gueft;
Then manifeft of heaven the vifion ftood,
And to our eyes familiar was the God.
Oft with fome favour'd traveller they Aray,
And shine before him all the defert way:
With focial intercourfe, and face to face,
The friends and guardians of our pious race.
So near approach we their celeftial kind,
By justice, truth, and probity of mind:
As our dire neighbours of Cyclopean birth
Match in fierce wrong the Giant-fons of earth.
Let no fuch thought (with modest grace re
join'd

The prudent Greek) poffefs the royal mind,
Alas! a mortal, like thyself, am I;

No glorious native of yon azure sky:

In form, ah how unlike their heavenly kind!
How more inferior in the gifts of mind!
Alas, a mortal! moft oppreft of thofe
Whom Fate has loaded with a weight of woes:
By a fad train of miferies alone

Diftinguifh'd long, and fecond now to none !
By Heaven's high will compell'd from thore t
fhore;

With Heaven's high will prepar'd to fuffer more.
What hiftories of toil could I declare!
But ftill long-wearied nature wants repair;
Spent with fatigue, and fhrunk with pining fast,
My craving bowels ftill require repait.
Howe'er the noble, fuffering mind, may grieve
Its load of anguish, and difdain to live;
Neceflity demands our daily bread;
Hunger is infolent, and will be fed.
But finish, oh ye peers! what you propofe,
And let the morrow's dawn conclude my woes.
Pleas'd will I fuffer all the Gods ordain,
To fee my fail, my fon, my friends, again.
That view vouchfaf'd, let inftant death furprise
With ever-during fhade thefe happy eyes!

Th' affembled peers with general praife an
His pleaded reafon, and the fuit he mov'd. [prov
Each drinks a full oblivion of his cares,
And to the gift of balmy fleep repairs.
Ulyffes in the regal walls alone

Remain'd belide him, on a fplendid throne Divine Arete and Alcinous fhone.

The queen, on nearer view, the guest survey'd,
Rob'd in the garments her own hands had made;
Not without wonder feen. Then thus began,
Her words addreffing to the godlike man:

Cam'ft thou not hither, wondrous ftranger! fay,
From lands remote, and o'er a length of fea!
Tell then whence art thou? whence that prince-
ly air?

And robes like thefe, fo recent and fo fair?
Hard is the talk, oh princess! you impofe:
(Thus fighing fpoke the man of many woes)
The long, the mournful series to relate
Of all my forrows fent by Heaven and Fate!
Yet what you ask, attend. An island lies
Beyond thefe tracts, and under other skies,
Ogygia nam'd, in Ocean's watery arms;
Where dwells Calypfo, dreadful in her charms!
Remote from Gods or men fhe holds her reign,
Amid the terrors of the rolling main.
Me, only me, the hand of fortune bore
Unbleft! to tread that interdicted shore:
When Jove tremendous in the fable deeps
Launch'd his red lightning at our fcatter'd fhips:
Then, all my fleet, and all my followers loft,
Sole on a plank, on boiling furges toft,
Heaven drove my wreck th' Ogygian isle to
find,

Full nine days floating to the wave and wind.
Met by the Goddess there with open arr.s.
She brib'd my stay with more than human charms;
Nay promis'd, vainly promis'd, to bestow
Immortal life, exempt from age and woe:
But all her blandithments fuccefsless prove,
To banish from my breaft my country's love.
I stay reluctant seven continued years,
And water her ambrotial couch with tears,
The eighth the voluntary moves to part,
Or urg'd by Jove, or her own changeful heart.
A raft was form'd, to cross the furging fea;
Herself supply'd the ftores and rich array,
And gave the gales to waft me on the way.
In feventeen days appear'd your pleasing coaft,
And woody mountains half in vapours loft.
Joy touch'd my foul: my foul was joy'd in vain,
For angry Neptune rous'd the raging main;
The wild winds whistle, and the billows roar;
The splitting raft the furious tempeft tore;
And ftorms vindictive intercept the fhore.
Soon as their rage fubfides, the feas I brave
With naked force, and fhoot along the wave,
To reach this ille: but there my hopes were
loft,

The furge impell'd me on a craggy coaft.
I chofe the fafer fea, and chanc'd to find.
A river's mouth impervious to the wind,
And clear of rocks. I fainted by the flood;
Then took the shelter of the neighbouring wood.
Twas night; and, cover'd in the foliage deep,
Jove plung'd my fenfes in the death of fleep.
All night I flept, oblivious of my pain:
Aurora dawn'd and Phoebus fhin'd in vain,
Nor, till oblique he flop'd his evening ray,
Had Somnus dry'd the balmy dews away.
Then female voices from the fhore I heard:
A maid midft them, goddess-like, appear'd:
To her I fued, the pity'd my distress;
Like thee in beauty, nor in virtue lefs.

Who from fuch youth could hope considerate care?
In youth and beauty wifdom is but rare!
She gave me life, reliev'd with just supplies
My wants, and lent thefe robes that strike your
eyes.

This is the truth: and oh, ye Powers on high!
Forbid that want should fink me to a lie,

To this the king: Our daughter but expreft Her cares imperfect to our godlike gueft. Suppliant to her, fince first he chose to pray, Why not herself did she conduct the way, And with her handmaids to our court convey? Hero and king! (Ulyffes thus reply'd) Nog blame her faultlefs, nor fufpe&t her pride: She bade me follow in th' attendant train; But fear and reverence did my steps detain, Left rafh fufpicion might alarm thy mind: Man's of a jealous and mistaking kind.

Far from my foul (he cry'd) the Gods efface All wrath ill-grounded, and fufpicion bafe! Whate'er is honeft, ftranger, I approve; And would to Phoebus, Pallas, and to Jove, Such as thou art, thy thought and mine were

one,

Nor theu unwilling to be call'd my fon.
In fuch alliance could't thou wish to join,
A palace ftor'd with treasures fhould be thine.
But, if reluctant, who hail force thy stay!
Jove bids to fet the ftranger on his way,
And flips fhali wait thee with the morning ray..
Till then, let flumber clofe thy careful eyes;
The wakeful mariners fhall watch the fkies,
And feize the moment when the breezes rife;
Then gently waft thee to the pleafing thore,
Where thy foul refts, and labour is no more.
Far as Euboea though thy country lay,
Our fhips with eafe traniport thee in a day.
Thither of old, earth's giant-fon to view,
On wings of winds with Rhadamanth they fiew:
This land, from whence their morning courie
begun,

Saw them returning with the fetting fun.
Your eyes fhall witness and confirm my tale,
Our youth how dextrous, and how fleet our fail.
When justly tim'd with equal fweep they row,
And ocean whitens in long tracts below.

Thus he. No word th' experienc'd man replies,

But thus to heaven (and heavenward lifts his eyes
O, Jove! O, father! what the king accords
Do thou make perfect! facred be his words!
Wide o'er the world Alcinous' glory fhine!
Let fame be his, and ah! my country mine!

Mean time Arete, for the hour of rest,
Ordains the fleecy couch and covering vest ;
Bids her fair train the purple quilts prepare,
And the thick carpets spread with busy care.
With torches blazing in their hands they past,
And finish'd all the queen's command with haftes.
Then gave the fignal to the willing gueft:
He rofe with pleasure, and retir d to rest.
There, foft-extended, to the murmuring found
Of the high porch, Ulyffes fleeps profound!
Within, releas'd from cares Alcinous lies,
And faft befide were clos'd Arete's eyes,

Il Tityus.

In diftant regions the Phæacian fame: None wield the gauntlet with fo dire a sway, Or fwifter in the race devour the way; None in the leap fpring with fo ftrong a bound, Or firmer, in the wrestling, prefs the ground. Thus fpoke the king; th' attending peers obey: In state they move, Alcinous leads the way: His golden lyre Demodocus unftrung, High on a column in the palace hung: And, guided by a herald's guardian cares, Majeftic to the lifts of Fame repairs.

Now fwarms the populace; a countless throng,
Youth and hoar age: and man drives man along:
The games begin; ambitious of the prize,
Acroneus, Thoon, and Eretmus rife ;
The prize Ocyalus and Prymneus claim,
Anchialus and Ponteus, chiefs of Fame :
There Proreus, Neates, Eratreus appear,
And fam'd Amphialus, Polyneus' heir:
Euryalus like Mars terrific rose,

When clad in wrath he withers hofts of foes:
Naubolides with grace unequall'd shone,
Or equall'd by Laodamas alone.

With these came forth Ambafineus the strong;
And three brave fons, from great Alcinous fprung.
Rang'd in a line the ready racers stand,
Start from the goal, and vanish'd o'er the strand:
Swift as on wings of winds upborne they fly,
And drifts of rifing duft involve the sky:
Before the race, what space the hinds allow
Between the mule and ox from plough to plough;
Clytonous fprung: he wing'd the rapid way,
And bore th' unrivall'd honours of the day."
With fierce embrace the brawny wrestlers join:
The conqueft, great Euryalus is thine.
Amphialus fprung forward with a bound,
Superior in the leap, a length of ground:
From Elatreus' ftrong arm the difcus flies,
And fings with unmatch'd force along the skies.
And Laodam whirls high, with dreadful fway,
The gloves of death, victorious in the fray.

While thus the peerage in the games contends, In act to speak, Laodamas afcends:

O friends, he cries, the ftranger feems well fkili'd

To try th' illuftrious labours of the field:

I deem him brave: then grant the brave man's
Invite the hero to his fhare of Fame. [claim,
What nervous arms he boafts! how firm his tread!
His limbs how turn'd! how broad his fhoul-
ders spread:

By age unbroke !...but all-confuming care [fpare:
Deftroys, perhaps, that ftrength that time would
Dire is the ocean, dread in all its forms!
Man muft decay, when man contends with storms.
Well haft thou fpoke (Euryalus replies):
Thine is the gueft, invite him thou to rife.
Swift at the word advancing from the crowd
He made obeisance, and thus fpoke aloud:

Vouchsafes the reverend ftranger to display
His manly worth, and share the glorious day?
Father, arife! for thee thy port proclaims
Expert to conquer in the folemn games.
To fame arife! for what more fame can yield
Than the fwift race, or conflict of the field 2

Steal from corroding care one tranfient day,
To glory give the space thou hast to stay;
Short is the time, and, lo! ev'n now the gales
Call thee aboard, and stretch the swelling fails,
To whom with fighs Ulyffes gave reply;
Ah! why th' ill-fuiting paftime must I try?
To gloomy care my thoughts alone are free;
Ill the gay fports with troubled hearts agree:
Sad from my natal hour my days have ran,
A much-afflicted, much-enduring man!
Who fuppliant to the king and peers implores
A fpeedy voyage to his native fhores.

Wide wanders, Laodam, thy erring tongue,
The sports of glory to the brave belong
(Retorts Euryalus): he boasts no claim
Among the great, unlike the fons of Fame.
A wandering merchant he frequents the main;
Some mean fea-farer in purfuit of gain;
Studious of freight, in naval trade well fkill'd,
But dreads th' athletic labours of the field.
Incens'd Ulyffes with a frown replies.

O forward to proclaim thy foul unwife!
With partial hands the Gods their gifts difpenfe;
Some greatly think, fome fpeak with manly fenfe
Here Heaven an elegance of form denies,
But wisdom the defect of form fupplies:
This man with energy of thought controls,
And teals with modeft violence our fouls,
He fpeaks referv'dly, but he speaks with force,
Nor can one word be chang'd but for a worfe;
In public more than mortal he appears,
And, as he moves, the gazing crowd reveres.
While others, beauteous as th' ætherial kind,
The nobler portion want, a knowing mind.
In outward show Heaven gives thee to excel,
But Heaven denies the praise of thinking well.
Ill bear the brave a rude ungovern'd tongue,
And, youth, my generous foul refents the wrong:
Skill'd in heroic exercife, I claim

A poft of honour with the fons of Fame:
Such was my boaft while vigour crown'd my days,
Now care furrounds me, and my force decays;
Inur'd a melancholy part to bear,

In fcenes of death, by tempeft and by war.
Yet, thus by woes impair'd, no more I wave
To prove the hero.---Slander ftings the brave.

Then, ftriding forward with a furious bound,
He wrench'd a rocky fragment from the ground.
By far more ponderous, and more huge by far,
Than what Phæacia's fons difcharg'd in air.
Fierce from his arm th' enormous load he flings,
Sonorous through the fhaded air it fings;
Couch'd to the earth, tempeftuous as it flies.
The crowd gaze upward while it cleaves the

fkies.

Beyond all marks, with many a giddy round Down rushing, it up-turns a hill of ground.

That inftant Pallas, burfting from a cloud, Fix'd a diftinguifh'd mark, and cry'd aloud : Ev'n he who fightlefs wants his visual ray May by his touch alone award the day: Thy fignal throw tranfcends the utmost bound Of every champion by a length of ground. Securely bid the ftrongeft of the train Arife to throw the ftrongeft throws in vain.

She fpoke; and momentary mounts the sky: The friendly voice Ulyffes hears with joy;