I

230

Jove weighs affairs of earth, in dubious scales,
And the good fuffers, while the bad prevails:
Bear, with a foul refign'd, the will of Jove;
Who breathes, muft mourn: thy woes are from
But fince thou tread'ft our hospitable shore, [above.
'Tis mine to bid the wretched grieve no more,
To clothe the naked, and thy way to guide---
Know, the Phæacian tribes this land divide;
From great Alcinous' royal loins I spring,
A happy nation, and an happy king.

235

Then to her maids: Why, why, ye coward
train,

Thefe fears, this flight? Ye fear, and fly in vain. 240
Dread ye a foe? difmifs that idle dread,

But hatte, the viands and the bowl provide--- 295
The maids the viands, and the bowl supply'd ;
Eager he fed, for keen his hunger rag'd,
And with the generous vintage thirst affwag'd.
Now on return her care Nausicaa bends,
The robes refumes, the glittering car afcends, 300
Far blooming o'er the field: and as the prefs'd
The fplendid feat, the liftening chief addrefs'd:
Stranger, arife! the fun rolls round the day,
Lo! to the palace I direct the way:
Where in high ftate the nobles of the land
Attend my royal fire, a radiant band.
But hear, though wisdom in thy foul prefides,
Speaks from thy tongue, and every action guides;
Advance at diftance while I pafs the plain
Where o'er the furrows waves the golden grain: 310
Alone I re-afcend-With airy mounds

305

245 A ftrength of wall the guarded city bounds:
The jutting land two ample bays divides:
Full thro' the narrow mouths defcend the tides:
The fpacious bafons arching rocks enclose,
A fure defence from every storm that blows.

250

'Tis death with hostile steps these shores to tread :
Safe in the love of Heaven, an occan flows
Around our realm, a barrier from the foes;
'Tis ours this fon of forrow to relieve,
Cheer the fad heart, nor let affliction grieve.
By Jove the stranger and the poor are fent;
And what to thofe we give, to Jove is lent.
Then food fupply, and bathe his fainting limbs
Where waving fhadesobfcure the mazy streams.
Obedient to the call, the chief they guide
To the calm current of the fecret tide:
Clofe by the ftream a royal dress they lay,
A veft and robe, with rich embroidery gay:
Then unguents in a vafe of gold supply,
That breath'd a fragrance through the balmy fky.
To them the king: No longer I detain
Your friendly care retire, ye virgin train!
Retire, while from my weary'd limbs I lave
The foul pollution of the briny wave:

255

260

| Clofe to the bay great Neptune's fane adjoins;
And near, a forum flank'd with marble fhines,
Where the bold youth, the numerous fleets to

ftore,

325

Shape the broad fail, or smooth the taper oar: 320
For not the bow they bend, nor boaft the skill
To give the feather'd arrows wings to kill;
But the tall maft above the veffel rear,
Or teach the fluttering fail to float in air.
They rush into the deep with eager joy,
Climb the fsteep furge, and thro' the tempeft fly;
A proud, unpolish'd race---To me belongs
The care to fhun the blast of flanderous tongues;
Left malice, prone the virtuous to defame,
Thus with vile cenfure taint my spotlefs name: 330
"What ftranger this whom thus Nausicaa
"leads?

"Heavens, with what graceful majesty he treads!
"Perhaps a native of fome distant shore,
"The future confort of her bridal hour;
270" Or rather fome defcendant of the skies;

Ye Gods! fince this worn frame refection knew,
What fcenes have I furvey'd of dreadful view!
But, nymphs, recede! fage chastity denies
To raife the blush, or pain the modeft eyes.
The nymphs withdrawn, at once into the tide 265
Active he bounds; the flashing waves divide :
O'er all his limbs his hands the wave diffuse,
And from his locks comprefs the weedy ooze;
The balmy oil, a fragrant fhower, he fheds;
Then, dreft, in pomp magnificently treads,
The Warrior Goddess gives his frame to shine
With majefty enlarg'd, and air divine :
Back from his brow a length of hair unfurls,
His hyacinthine locks defcend in wavy curls.
As by fome artist, to whom Vulcan gives
His kill divine, a breathing ftatue lives;
By Pallas taught, he frames the wondrous mould,
And o'er the filver pours the fufile gold.
So Pallas his heroic frame improves
With heavenly bloom, and like a God he moves. 280
A fragrance breathes around: majestic grace
Attends his fteps: th' aftonifh'd virgins gaze.
Soft he reclines along the murmuring feas,
Inhaling freshness from the fanning breeze.
The wondering nymph his glorious port fur-
And to her damfels with amazement faid: [vey'd,
Not without care divine the ftranger treads
This land of joy: his fteps fume Godhead leads:
Would Jove destroy him, sure he had been driven

Late a fad fpectacle of woe, he trod
The defart fands, and now he looks a God.
Oh, Heaven! in my connubial hour decree
This man my spouse, or such a spouse as he!

335

"Won by her prayers, th' aerial bridegroom flies. "Heaven on that hour his choiceft influence shed, "That gave a foreign fpcufe to crown her bed! "All, all the godlike worthies that adorn 275" This realm, the flies: Phæacia is her fcorn." 340 And just the blame: for female innocence Not only flies the guilt, but fhuns th' offence. Th' unguarded virgin, as unchafte, I blame; And the leaft freedom with the fex is fhame, Till our confenting fires a spouse provide, And public nuptials juftify the bride.

345

But would't thou foon review thy native plain,
Attend, and speedy thou shalt pass the main:
Nigh where a grove with verdant poplars
crown'd,

To Pallas facred, fhades the holy ground,
We bend our way: a bubbling fount diftils
A lucid lake, and thence defcends in rills;
Around the grove a mead with lively green
Falls by degrees, and forms a beauteous fcene;
Here a rich juice the royal vineyard pours;
And there the garden yields a waste of flowers.
Hence lies the town, as far as to the ear`
Floats a frong fhout along the waves of air.

350

355

BOOK VII.

THE ARGUMENT.

The Court of Alcinous.

The Princefs Nausicaa returns to the city, and Ulyffes foon after follows thither. He is met by Pallas in the form of a young virgin, who guides him to the palace, and directs bim in what manner to address the queen Arette. She then involves him in a miß, which causes him to pafs invisible. The palace and gardens of Alcinous deferibed. Ulyffes falling at the feet of the queen, the mift difperfes, the Phaacians admire, and receive him with respect. The queen inquiring by what means he had the garments be then wore, be relates to ber and Alcinous bis departure from Calypfo, and bis arrival on their dominions. The fame day continues, and the book ends with the night.

5 Through many woes and wanderings, lo! I come
To good Alcinous' hospitable dome.
Far from my native coast, I rove alone,
A wretched stranger, and of all unknown!
The Goddess anfwer'd, Father, I obey,
And point the wandering traveller his way:
Well known to me the palace you inquire,
For faft befide it dwells my honour'd fire;
But filent march, nor greet the common train
With questions needlefs, or inquiry vain,
15 A race of rugged mariners are thefe;
Unpolifh'd men, and boisterous as their feas:
The native iflanders alone their care,
And hateful he who breathes a foreign air.
Thefe did the ruler of the deep ordain

20 To build proud navies, and command the main :
On canvas wings to cut the watery way;
No bird fo light, no thought fo fwift, as they.
Thus having fpoke, th' unknown celestial leads;
The footstep of the Deity he treads,

(So Falles order'd, Pallas to their eyes
The mift objected, and condens'd the skies,
The chief with wonder fees th' extended streets, 55
The fpreading harbours, and the rifing fleets;
He next their princess lofty domes admires,
in feparate iflands crown'd with rifing fpires;
And deep intrenchments and high walls of tone,
That gird the city like a marble zone.
At length the kingly palace-gates he view'd:

60

There ftopp'd the Goddefs, and her fpeech re-
new'd :

My task is done; the manfion you inquire
Appears before you enter, and admire.
High thron'd, and feafting there thou shalt behold
The fceptred rulers. Fear not, but be bold;
A decent boldnefs ever meets with friends,
Succeeds, and ev'n a ftranger recommends,
Firft to the queen préfer a fuppliant's claim,
Alcinous queen, Arete is her name,

70

Two rows of ftatcly dogs on either hand,
In fculptur'd gold and labour'd filver ftand.
These Vulcan form'd with art divine, to wait 120
Immortal guardians at Alcinous' gate;
Alive each animated frame appears,
And still to live beyond the power

of years.

Fair thrones within from space to space were rais'd,
Where various carpets with embroidery blaz'd, 125
The work of matrons: these the princess preft,
Day following day, a long continued feast.
Refulgent pedeftals the walls futround,

Which boys of gold with flaming torches crown'd;
The polifh'd ore, reflecting every ray,
130
Blaz'd on the banquets with a double day.
Full fifty hand aaids 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 ifle,
For failing arts and all the naval toil,
Than works of female skill their women's pride,
The flying fhuttle through the threads to guide:
Pallas to thefe her double gifts imparts, '
75 Inventive genius, and industrious arts.

80

The fame her parents, and her power the fame.
For know, from Ocean's God Napfithous sprung,
And Periba, beautiful and young
(Eurymedon's laft hope, who rul'd of old
The race of giants, impious, proud, and bold;
Perifh'd the nation in unrighteous war,
Perish'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 first by Phoebus' burning arrows fir'd,
New from his nuptials, hapless youth! expir'd.
No fon furviv'd Arete heir'd his state,
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.

85

When through the streets the gracious deigns to

move,

90

Clofe to the gates a fpacious garden lies,
From ftorms defending and inclement skies.
Four acres was the allotted space 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 luscious juice o'erflows,
With deeper red the full pomegranate glows,

140

145

The branch here bends beneath the weighty pear,
And verdant olives flourish round the year.
The balmy spirit of the western gale
Eternal breathes on fruits untaught to fail:
Each dropping pear a following pear supplies,
On apples apples, figs on figs arife:
The fame mild feafon gives the blooms to blow,
The buds to harden, and the fruits to grow.

155

160

Here order'd vines in equal ranks appear,
With all th' united labours of the year;
Some to unlead the fertile branches run,
Some dry the blackening clusters in the fun,
95 Others to tread the liquid harvest join,
The groaning preffes foam with floods of wine.
Here are the vines in early flower defcry'd,
Here grapes difcolour'd on the funny fide,
165
And there in autumn's richeft purple dy'd.

(head,

(The public wonder and the public love)
The tongues of all with tranfport found her praife
The eyes of all, as on a Goddefs, gaze.
She feels the triumph of a generous breaft:
To heal divifions, to relieve th' oppreft;
In virtue rich; in blefling others, bleft.
Go then fecure, they humble fuit prefer,
And owe thy country and thy friends to her.
With that the Goddefs deign'd no longer flay,
But o'er the world of waters wing'd her way: 100
Forfaking Scheria's ever-pleafing shore,
The winds to Marathon the virgin bore,
Thence, where proud Athens rears her towery
With opening streets and fhining structures fpread,
She paft, delighted with the well-known feats; 105
And to Erectheus' facred dome retreats.
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 fplendors gay, 110
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 iky:
Rich plates of gold the folding doors incafe;
The pillars filver, on a brazen bafe ;
Silver the lintels deep projecting o'er,
And gold, the ringlets that command the doer.

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 streams around,
Vifits 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.

}

175

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 diew;
In pleafing thought he ran the profpect o'er
Then hally enter'd at the lofty door.
Night now approaching, in the palace stand,
With goblets crown'd, the rulers of the laud;

E e

180

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.

But with the rifing day, affembled here, 185 Let all the elders of the land appear,

Pious obferve our hofpitable laws,

250

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 255

Then from around him dropt the veil of night; 190 (How diftant that, imports not us to know,

Sudden he fhines, and manifeft to fight,
The nobles gaze, with awful fear oppreft;
Silent they gaze, and eye the godlike guest.

195

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 owc.
A wretched exile to his country send,
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 bleffing, by your people bleft!

Then to the genial hearth he bow'd his face,
And humbled in the afhes took his place.
Silence enfued. The eldest first began,
Echenus fage, a venerable man!

200

205

Whofe well-taught mind the prefent age furpat,
And join'd to that th' experience of the laft.
Fit words attended on his weighty sense,
And mild perfuafion flow'd in eloquence.

O fight (he cry'd) dishonest and unjuft!

A guest, a stranger, seated in the duft!
To raise the lowly suppliant from the ground
Befits a monarch. Lo! the peers around
But wait thy word, the gentle guest to grace,
And feat him fair in fome diftinguifh'd place.
Let firft 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 ftranger gueft a ftranger'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

215

220

(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, 230
Replenish'd from the cool translucent fprings,
Whofe polish'd vafe with copious ftreams fupplies
A filver laver of capacious fize,

The table next in regal order spread,.

Nor weigh the labour but relieve the woe).
Mean time, nor harm nor anguifh let him bear:
This interval, Heaven trufts him to our care;
But to his native land our charge refign'd, 260 [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!

270

But if, defcended from th' Olympian bower, 265
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 feaft,
The folemn facrifice call'd down the guest;
Then manifeft of heaven the vifion stood,
And to our eyes familiar was the God.
Oft with fome favour'd traveller they ftray,
And fhine 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 juftice, truth, and probity of mind:
As our dire neighbours of Cyclopean birth
Match in fierce wrong the Giant-fons of earth. 283
Let no fuch thought (with modeft grace re-

join'd

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

No glorious native of yon azure sky:

275

In form, ah how unlike their heavenly kind! 285
How more inferior in the gifts of mind!

Alas, a mortal! moft oppreft of those

Whom Fate has loaded with a weight of woes :
By a fad train of miferies alone

200

Diftinguish'd long, and fecond now to none!
By Heaven's high will compell'd from fhore to
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 faft, 295
My craving bowels ftill require repast.
Howe'er the noble, fuffering mind, may grieve

The glittering canifters are heap'd with bread: 235 Its load of anguifh, and difdain to live;

240

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 afpe& mild, began;

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

† Mercury.

245

Neceflity demands our daily bread;

300

Hunger is infolent, and will be fed.
But finish, oh ye peers! what you propose,
And let the morrow's dawn conclude my woes.
Pleas'd will I fuffer all the Gods ordain,
To fee my foil, my fon, my friends, again.
That view vouchlaf'd, let inftant death furprife 305
With ever-during fhade thefe happy eyes!

Th' affembled peers with general praife ap-
His pleaded reafen, and the fuit he mov'd. [provid
Each drinks a full oblivion of his cares,
And to the gift of balmy fleep repairs.

Remain'd: befide him, on a fplendid throne

Ulyffes in the regal walls alone

Divine Arete and Alcinous fhone.

310

345 Then gently waft thee to the pleafing fhore,
Where thy foul refts, and labour is no more.
Far as Euboea though thy country lay,'
Our fhips with eafe tranfport thee in a day.
Thither of old, earth's || giant-fon to view,
On wings of winds with Rhadamanth they flew :
This land, from whence their morning courfe .