O king! for fuch thou art, and fure thy blood 450 Through veins (he cry'd) of royal fathers flow'd; Unlike thofe vagrants who on falfehood live, Skill'd in fmooth tales, and artful to deceive; Thy better foul abhors the liar's part, Wife is thy voice, and noble is thy heart; Thy words like music every breast control, Steal through the ear, and win upon the foul; Soft, as fome fong divine, thy ftory flows, Nor better could the Mufe record thy woes. But fay, upon the dark and difmal coaft, Saw't thou the worthies of the Grecian hoft? The godlike leaders who, in battle flain, Fell before Troy, and nobly preft the plain? And, lo! a length of night behind remains, 'The evening ftars ftill mount th' ethereal plains. Thy tale with raptures I could hear thee tell, Thy woes on earth, the wondrous fcenes in hell, Till in the vault of Heaven the stars decay. And the sky reddens with the rifing day.
Thick as the boars, which fome luxurious lord
Kills for the feaft, to crown the nuptial board.
When war has thunder'd with its loudest ftorms,515
Death thou haft feen in all her ghaftly forms;
In duel met her, on the lifted ground,
When hand to hand they wound return for wound,
But never have thy eyes aftonish'd view'd
So vile a deed, fo dire a scene of blood.
Ev'n in the flow of joy, when now the bowl
Glows in our veins, and opens every foul,
We groan, we faint; with blood the dome is dy'd,
And o'er the pavement floats the dreadful tide
Her breaft all gore, with lamentable cries, 525
The bleeding innocent Caffaudra dies!
Then though pale death froze cold in every vein,
My fword I ftrive to wield, but strive in vain;
Nor did my traitress wife these eye-lids close,
Or decently in death my limbs compofe.
O woman, woman, when to ill thy mind
Is bent, all hell contains no fouler fiend:
And fuch was mine! who bafely plung'd her fword
470 Thro' the fond hofom where the reign'd ador'd!
Alas! I hop'd, the toils of war o'ercome,
To meet foft quiet and repofe at home;
Delufive Hope! O wife, thy deeds disgrace
The perjur'd fex, and blacken all the race;
475 And thould pofterity one virtuous find,
Name Clytemnestra, they will curse the kind. 540
O injur'd fhade, I cry'd, what mighty woes
To thy imperial race from woman rofe!
By woman here thou tread'st this mournful strand
And Greece by woman lies a defert land.
O worthy of the power the Gods aflign'd (Ulyffes thus replics) a king in mind! Since yet the early hour of night allows Time for difcourfe, and time for fost repose, If fcenes of mifery can entertain, Woes I unfold, of woes a difmal train. Prepare to hear of murder and of blood: Of godlike heroes who uninjur'd stood Amidst a war of fpears in foreign lands, Yet bled at home, and bled by female hands. Now fummon'd Proferpine to hell's black hall 480 The heroine shades; they vanish'd at her call. When, lo! advanc'd the forms of heroes flain By ftern Ægifthus, a majestic train;
He quaff'd the gore: and ftraight his foldier knew, 485
And from his eyes pour'd down the tender dew;
His arms he ftretch'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 fhade.
Mov'd at the fight, 1 for a space refign'd To foft affiiction all my manly mind; At laft with tears-O what relentless doom, Imperial phantom, bow'd thee to the tomb? Say, while the fea, and while the tempett raves, 495 Has fate opprefs'd thee in the roaring waves, Or nobly feiz'd thee in the dire alarms Of war and flaughter, and the clath of arms? The ghoft returns: O chief of human-kind For active courage and a patient mind; Nor while the fea, nor while the tempeft raves, Has Fate opprefs'd me on the roaring waves! Nor nobly feiz'd me in the dire alarms Of war and flaughter, and the clash of arms. Stabb'd by a murderous hand Atrides dy'd, A foul adulterer, and a faithlefs bride; Ev'n in my mirth and at the friendly feaft, O'er the fuli bowl, the traitor stabb'd his guest ;
Warn'd by my ills beware, the fhade replies, 545
Nor truft the fex that is fo rarely wife;
When earnest to explore thy fecret breast;
Unfold fome trifle, but conceal the rest.
But in thy confort ceafe to fear a foe,
For thee the feels fincerity of woe:
When Troy first bled beneath the Grecian arms,
She fhone unrival'a with a blaze of charms;
Thy infant fon her fragrant bofom prefs'd,
Hung at her knee, or wanton'd at her breaft;
But now the years a numerous train have ran; 555
The blooming boy is ripen'd into man;
Thy eyes fhall fee him burn with noble fire,
The fire fhall blefs his fon, the fon his fire:
But my Oreftes never met these eyes,
Without one look the murder'd father dies; 560
Then from a wretched friend this wisdom learn,
Ev'n to thy queen disguis'd, unknown, return;
For fince of womankind fo few are just,
Think all are falfe, not ev'n the faithful trust.
But fay, refides my fon in royal port,
In rich Orchomenus, or Sparta's court?
Or fay in Pyle? for yet he views the light,
Nor glides a phantom thro' the realms of night.
Then I thy fuit is vain, nor can I fay
If yet he breathes in realms of cheerful day: 570
Or pale or wan beholds these nether skies:
Truth I revere: for Wisdom never lies.
Thus in a tide of tears our frrows flow,
And add new horror to the realms of woe;
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Till fide by fide along the dreary coaft
Advanc'd Achilles' and Patroclus' ghost,
A friendly pair! near thefe the † Pylian fray'd,
And towering Ajax, an illuftrious fhade !
War was his joy, and pleas'd with loud alarms,
None but Pelides brighter fhone in arms.
Thro' the thick gloom his friend Achilles knew,
And as he speaks the tears defcend in dew.
Com'ft thou alive to view the Stygian bounds,
Where the van spectres walk eternal rounds;
Nor fear't the dark and difmal wafte to tread, 585
Throng'd with pale ghofts familiar with the dead?
To whom with fighs: pafs thefe dreadful gates
To feek the Theban, and confult the Fates:
For till, diftreft, I rove from coast to coaft,
Loft to my friends, and to my country loft,
But fure the eye of Time beholds no name
So bleft as thine in all the rolls of fame;
Alive we hail'd thee with our guardian Gods,
And dead, thou rui'it a king in these abodes.
Talk not ruling in this dolorous gloom,"
Nor think vain words (he cried) can eafe my doom.
Rather I choofe laboriously to bear
When Ilion in the horfe receiv'd her doom,
And unfeen armies ambush'd in its womb;
Greece gave her latent warriors to my care,
'Twas mine on Troy to pour th' imprifon'd war :)
Then when the boldest bofom beat with fear,
When the ftern eyes of heroes dropp'd a tear;
Fierce is his look his ardent valour glow'd,
Flush'd in his cheek, or fallied in his blood;
Indignant in the dark recefs he stands,
Pants for the battle, and the war demands;
His voice breath'd death, and with a martial air
He grafp'd his fword, and fhock his glittering
fear,
[crown'd,
And when the Gods our arms with conquest
When Troy's proud bulwarks fmok'd upon the
ground,
Greece to reward her foldier's gallant toils,
Heap high his navy with unnumber'd fpoils.
Thus great in glory from the din of war
Safe he return'd without one hoftile fear;
Though fpears in iron tempeft rain'd around,
Yet innocent they play'd, and guiltless of a wound.
While yet 1 fpoke, the fhade with transport
A gloomy fhade, the fullen Ajax stood;
For ever fad with proud difdain he pin'd,
And the loft arms for ever ftung his mind;
Though on the conteft Thetis gave the laws,
And Pallas, by the Trojans, judg'd the cause. 670
6ICO why was I victorious in the ftrife;
A weight of woes, and breathe the vital air,
A flave to fome poor hind that toils for bread ;
Than reign the fceptred monarch of the dead.
But fay, if in my fteps my fon proceeds,
And emulates his godlike father's deeds?
If at the clash of arms, and fhout of foes,
Swells his bold heart, his bofom nobly glows?
Say, if my fire, the reverend Peleus, reigns,
Great in his Phthia, and his throne maintains ́:
Or, weak and old, my youthful arm demands,
To fix the fceptre ftedfaft in his hands?
Oh might the lamp of life rekindled burn,
And death release me from the filent urn!
This arm, that thunder'd o'er the Phrygian plain,
And fwell'd the ground with mountains of the
Should vindicate my injur'd father's fame,
Crush the proud rebel, and affert his claim.
Illuftrious fhade, (I cried) of Peleus' fates
No circumstance the voice of Fame relates :
But hear with pleas'd attention the renown,
The wars and wifdom of thy gallant fon :
With me from Scyros to the field of fame
Kadiant in arms the blooming hero came.
When Greece affembled all her hundred states,
To ripen counfels, and decide debates;
Heavens! how he charm'd us with a flow
sense,
O dear-bought honour with fo brave a life!
With him the ftrength of war, the foldier's pride,
Our fecond hope to great Achilles died!
Touch'd at the fight, from tears I fcarce refrain,
And tender forrow thrills in every vein;
Penfive and fad I stand, at length accolt
With accents mild th' inexorable ghoft.
Still burns thy rage? and can brave fouls refent
Ev'n after death? Relent, great fhade, relent! 680
Perish those arms which by the Gods decree
Accurs'd our army with the lofs of thee!
With thee we fell; Grecce wept thy hapless fates;
of And fhook aftonish'd through her hundred ftates;
Not more, when great Achilles prefs'd the ground,
And breath'd his manly fpirit thro' the wound.
Oh, deem thy fall not ow'd 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 tempeft of thy foul.
While yet I fpeak, the shade difdains to stay,
In filence turns, and fullen ftalks away.
And won the heart with manly eloquence!
He firft was feen of all the peers to rife,
The third in wisdom where they all were wife;
But when, to try the fortune of the day,
Hoft mov'd tow'rd hoft in terrible array,
Before the van, impatient for the fight,
With martial port he strode, and stern delight; 630
Heaps ftrew'd on heaps beneath his faulchion
groan'd,
And monuments of dead deform'd the ground.
The time would fail, fhould I in order tell
What foes were vanquish'd, and what numbers
How, loft thro' love, Eurypylus was flain, 635 [fell:
And round him bled his bold Cetaan train.
To Troy no hero came of nobler line;
Or if of nobler, Memnon, it was thine.
Touch'd at his four retreat, thro' deepest night.
Thro' hell's black bounds I had purfued his flight,
And forc'd the frubborn fpectre to reply;
Bnt wondrous vilions 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
Thro' the wide dome of Dis, a trembling band. 700
Still as
they plead, the fatal lots he rolls,
Abfolves the juft, and dooms the guilty fouls.
There huge Orion, of portentous fize,
Swift through the gloom a giant hunger flies;
A ponderous mace of brafs with direful sway
Aloft he whirls, to crush the lavage prey;
Stern beafts in trains that by his truncheon fell,
Now grifly forms, shoot o'er the lawns of hell.
There Tityus large and long, in fetters bound,
O'erfpreads nine acres of infernal ground;
Two ravenous vultures, furious for their food,
Scream o'er the fiend, and riot in his blood,
Inceffant gore the liver in his breast,
Th' immortal liver grows, and gives th' immortal
For as o'er Panope's enamel'd plains,
715
Latona journey'd to the Pythian fanes,
With haughty love th'audacious monster ftrove
To force the Goddess, and to rival Jove.
There Tantalus along the Stygian bounds
Pours out deep groans (with groans all hell re-
founds)
Ev'n in the circling floods refreshment craves,
And pines with thirst amidst a sea of waves:
When to the water he his lip applies,
Back from his lip the treacherous water flies.
Above, beneath, around his hapless head,
Trees of all kinds delicious fruitage spread;
There figs fky-dyed, a purple hue disclose,
Green looks the olive, the pomegranate glows,
There dangling pears exalted fcents unfold,
And yellow apples ripen into gold;
The fruit he strives to feize: but blasts arise,
Tofs it on high, and whirl it to the skies.
Gloomy as night he stande, in act to throw
Th' aerial arrow from the twanging bow.
Around his breast a wonderous zone is roll'd,
Where woodland monsters grin in fretted gold,
There fullen lions fternly feem to roar,
The bear to growl, to foam the dusky boar,
There war and havoc and deftruction flood,
And vengeful murther red with human blood.
Thus terribly adorn'd the figures shine,
Inimitably wrought with skill divine.
The mighty ghost advanc'd with awful look,
And, turning his grim vifage, fternly spoke: 760
O exercis'd in grief by arts refin'd!
O taught to bear the wrongs of bafe mankind!
Such, fuch was I! ftill toft from care to care,
While in your world I drew the vital air!
Ev'n I, who from the Lord of Thunders rofe, 765
Bore toils and dangers, and a weight of woes;
To a bafe monarch ftill a flave confin'd,
(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;
Ev'n hell I conquer'd, through the friendly sid
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, 775
The mighty dead that live in endless praise,
730 Refolv'd I stand; and haply had furvey'd
The godlike Thefeus, and Pirithous' fhade;
But fwarms of spectres rofe from deepest hell,
With bloodless vifage, and with hideous yell, 780
They scream, they fhriek; fad groans and difmal
founds
(bounds.
Stun my fear'd ears, and pierce hell's utmot
No more my heart the difmal din fuftains,
And my cold blood hangs thivering in my veins:
Left Gorgon, rifing from th' infernal lakes, 785
With horrors arm'd, and curls of hissing snakes,
Should fix me, fliffen'd at the monstrous fight,
A ftony image, in eternal night!
Straight from the direful coast to purer air
I speed my flight, and to my mates repair.
790
My mates afcend the fhip; they ftrike their cars;
The mountains leffen, and retreat the fhores;
Swift o'er the waves we fly; the freshening gales
Sing through the fhrouds, and firetch the fwelling
fails.
I turn'd my eyes, and as I turn'd furvey'd
A mournful vifion! the Sifyphiau shade;
With many a weary step, and many a groan,
Up the high hill he heaves a huge round ftone;
The huge round ftone, refulting with a bound,
Thunders impetuous down, and fmokes along the
Again the restless orb his toil renews, (ground.
Dust mounts in clouds, and sweat descends in dews.
Now I the ftrength of Hercules behold,
A towering spectre of gigantic mould.
A fhadowy form! for high in heaven's abodes
Himself refides, a God among the Gods;
There, in the bright affemblies of the fkies,
He nectar quaffs, and Hebe crowns his joys.
Here hovering ghofts, like fowl, his fhade fur-
round,
And clang their pinions with terrific found!
He relates, Low, after bis return from the fhades, he was fent by Circe on his voyage, by the coaft of the Sirens, and by the Strait of Stylla and barybdis: the manner in which be efcaped thofe dangers: bow, being caft on the island Trinacria, bis companions defroyed the oxen of the Sun: the vengeance that follorved; beru all perif'd by shipwreck except wimself, who, fwimming on the mast of the hip, arriv'd on the island of Calypfo. With which bis relation concludes.
THUS
"HUS o'er the rolling furge the veffel flies,
Here the gay morn refides in radiant bowers,
Here keeps her revels with the dancing Hours;
Here Phoebus rifing in th' ætherial way,
Through heavens bright portals pours the beamy
day:
At once we fix our haifers on the fand,
At once defcend and prefs the defert land;
There, worn aud wasted, lose our cares in fleep,
To the hoarfe murmurs of the rolling deep.
Firm to the mast with chains thyself be bound,
Nor trust thy virtue to th' enchanting found.
If, mad with tranfport, freedom thou demand, 65
Be every fetter ftrain'd, and added band to band.
These feas o'erpaft, be wife! but I refrain
To mark diftinct thy voyage o'er the main :
New horrors rife let prudence be thy guide,
And guard thy various paffage through the tide. 70
High o'er the main two rocks exalt their brow,
The boiling billows thundering roll below;
Through the vaft waves the dreadful wonders
Hence nam'd Erratic by the Gods above. No bird of air, no dove of swifteft wing, That bears ambrofia to th' ætherial King, 15 Shuns the dire rocks: in vain the cuts the skies, The dire rocks meet, and crush her as fhe flies: Not the fleet bark, when profperous breezes play, Ploughs o'er that roaring furge its desperate way; O'erwhelm'd it finks: while round a fmoke expires,
Soon as the morn reftor'd the day, we pay'd Sepulchral honours to Elpenor's fhade. Now by the axe the rufhing foreft bends, And the huge pile along the fhore afcends. 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 flame devours the filent dead. Arifing tomb, the filent dead to grace, Faft by the roarings of the main we place; The rifing tomb a lofty column bore, And high above it rofe the tapering oar. Mean time the Goddess our return survey'd From the pale ghosts, and hell's tremendous fhade. Swift fhe defcends: A train of nymphs divine Bear the rich viands and the generous wine: In act to speak the † Power of Magic ftands, And graceful thus accofts the liftening bands: O fons of woe! decreed by adverfe fates Alive to pass through hell's eternal gates! All, foon 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 fouls,
Indulge the tafte, and drain the fparkling bowls:
And when the morn unveils her saffron ray,
Spread your broad fails, and plough the liquid
And the waves flashing feem to burn with fires.
Scarce the fan'd Argo pafs'd these raging floods,
The facred Argo fill'd with demigods!
Ev'n fhe had funk, but Jove's imperial bride
Wing'd her fleet fail, and pufh'd her o'er the tide.
High in the air the rock its funimit shrouds,
In brooding tempefts, and in rolling clouds;
Loud forms around, and mifts eternal rife,
Beat its bleak brow, and intercept the skies.
When all the broad expansion bright with day
Glows with th' autumnal or the fummer ray,
The fummer and the autumn glow in vain,
The sky for ever lours, 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 polifh of the mirror fife The flippery fides, and shoot' into the skies. Full in the centre of this rock display'd, A yawning cavern cafts a dreadful shade: 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 paffage down to hell defcends. O fly the dreadful fight! expand thy fails, Ply the frong oar and catch the nimble gales; 45 Here Scylla bellows from her dire abodes,
Lo! I this night, your faithful guide, explain
Your woes by land, your dangers on the main.
The Goddefs fpoke: in feats we wafte the day,
Till Phœbus downward plung'd his burning ray;
Then fable night afcends, and balmy reft
Seals every eye, and calms the troubled breast.
Then curious she commands me to relate
The dreadful fcenes of Pluto's dreary state:
She fat in filence while the tale I tell,
The wondrous vifions, and the laws of hell.
Then thus: The lot of man the Gods difpofe; Thefe ills are paft: now hear thy future woes. prince, attend! fome favouring Power be kind, And print th' important flory on thy mind! Next, where the sirens dwell, you plough the feas;
Their fong is death, and makes destruction please.
Unbleft the man, whom music wins to stay
Nigh the curft shore, and liften te the lay;
No more that wretch fhall view the joys of life, 55
His blooming offspring, or his beauteous wife!
lo verdant meads they fport; and wide around
Lie human bones, that whiten all the ground;
The ground polluted floats with human gore,
And human carnage taints the dreadful fhore.
ly fwift the dangerous coaft; let every ear
Be topp'd again the fong! his death to hear!
* Curce.
Tremendous pet! abhorr'd by men and gods!
Hideous her voice, and with lefs terrors roar
The whelps of lions in the midnight hour.
Twelve feet deform'd and foul the fiends difpreads;
Six horrid necks the rears, and fix terrific heads;
Her jaws grin dreadful with three rows of
teeth;
Jaggy they hand, the gaping den of death';
Her parts obfcene the raging billows hide; 115
Her bofom terribly o'erlooks the tide.
When flung with hunger fhe embroils the flood,
The fea-dog and the dolphin are her food;
She makes the huge leviathan her prey,
And all the monsters of the watery way;
The fwifteft racer of the azure plain
Here fills her fails and fpreads her oars in vain;
Fell Scylla rifes, in her fury roars,
At once fix mouths expands, at once fix men de
Clofe, by a rock of less enormous height 125 Breaks the wild waves, and forms a dangerous freight :
Fall on its crown a fig's green branches rife,
And shoot a leafy foreft to the fkies;
Beneath Charybdis holds her boisterous reign
Midft roaring whirlpools, and abforbs the main; 130
Thrice in her gulfs the boiling feas fubfide,
Thrice in dire thunder fhe refunds the tide.
Oh, if thy veffel plough the direful waves
When feas retreating roar within her caves,
Ye perish all! though he who rules the main
Lend his ftrong aid, his aid he lends in vain.
Ah, fhun the horrid gulf! by Scylla fly.
'Tis better fix to lofe, than all to die.
I then: O nymph propitious to my prayer, Goddefs divine! my gnardian power, declare, 140 Is the foul fiend from human vengeance freed? Or, if I rife in arms, can Scylla bleed?
When, rising fad and flow, with penfive look,
Thus to the melancholy train I spoke :
O friends, Oh ever partners of my woes, 190
Attend while I what Heaven for cooms difclofe,
Hear all! Fate hangs o'er all: on you it lies
To live, or perish! to be fafe, be wife!
In flowery meads the fportive Sirens play, Touch the foft lyre, and tune the vocal lay; 195 Me, me alone, with fetters firmly bound, The Gods allow to hear the dangerous found. Hear and obey: if freedom I demand, Be every fetter strain'd, and added band to band. While yet I fpeak the winged galley flies, And, lo! the Siren fhores like mifts arife. Sunk were at once the winds; the air above, And waves below, at once forget to move! Some dæmon calm'd the air, and imuth'd the
Hufh'd th loud winds, and charm'd the waves to
Now every fail we furl, each oar we ply; [fleep.205
Lafh'd by the ftroke, the frothy waters fly.
145 The ductile wax with bufy hands I mould,
Then the: O worn by toils, O broke in fight, Still are new toils and war thy dire delight? Will martial flames for ever fire thy mind, And never, never be to Heaven refign'd? How vain thy efforts to avenge the wrong? Deathlefs the peft! impenetrably strong! Furious and fell, tremendous to behold! Ev'n with a look fhe withers all the, bold! She mocks the weak attempts of human might; Oh fly her rage! thy conquest is thy flight. If but to feize thy arms thou make delay, Again the fury vindicates her prey,
Her fix mouths yawn, and fix are fnatch'd a155
From her foul womb Cratais gave to air
This dreadful pest! To her direct thy prayer,
To curb the monster in her dire abodes,
And guard thee through the tumult of the floods.
Thence to Trinacria's fhore you bend your
way,
160
Where graze thy herds, illuftrious Source of Day!
Seven herds, feven flocks, enrich the facred plains;
Each herd, each flock, full fifty heads contains:
The wondrous kind a length of age furvey,
By breed increase not, nor by death decay,
Two fifter Goddeffes poffefs the plain,
The conftant guardians of the woolly train;
Lampetie fair, and Phacthufa young,
From Phœbus and the bright Neæra fprung.
And cleft in fragments, and the fragments roll'd:
Th' aerial region now grew warm with day, 210
The wax diffolv'd beneath the burning ray!
Then every car I barr against the train,
And from accefs of phrenly lock'd the brain.
Now round the maft my niates the fetters roll'd,
And bound me limb by limb, with fold on fold. 215
Then, bending to the ftroke, the active train
Plunge all at once their oars, and cleave the main.
While to the shore the rapid veffel flies,
Our swift approach the Siren choir defcries:
Celeftial mufic warbles from their tongue,
And thus the fweet deluders tune the fong:
Oh stay, O pride of Greece! Ulyffes, ftay!
O ceafe thy course, and liften to our lay!
Bleft is the man ordain'd our voice to hear,
The forg inftructs the foul, and charms the ear.225
Approach! thy foul fhall into raptures rife
Approach! and learn new wisdom from the wife!
We know whate'er the kings of mighty name
Atchiev'd at Ilion in the field of fame;
165 Whate er beneath the fun's bright journey lies,230
Oh flay and learn new wifdom from the wife!
Thus the fweet charmers warbled o'er the
main;
My foul takes wing to meet the heavenly strain;
Here, watchful o'er the flocks, in fhady bowers 1701 give the fign, and firuggle to be free;
And flowery meads they waste the joyous hours.
Rob not the God! and fo propitious gales
Attend thy voyage, and impel thy fails;
But if thy impious hands the flocks destroy,
The Gods, the Gods avenge it, and ye dic!
'Tis thine alone (thy friends and navy luft)
Through tedious toils to view thy native coaft.
She ceas'd and now arofe the morning ray; Swift to her dome the Godde's held her way. Then to my mates I meafur'd back the plain, Climb'd the tall bark, and rush'd into the main; Then bending to the stroke, their oars they drew To their broad breasts, and swift the galley flew. Up-fprung a brifker breeze; with freshning gales, The friendly Goddess stretch'd the swelling fails; We drop our oars; at cafe the pilot guides; The veffel light along the level glides.
Swift row my mates, and fhoot along the fea: 235
New chains they add, and rapid urge the way,
Till, dying off, the diftant founds decay:
Then, fcudding fwiftly from the dangerous ground,
The deafen'd car unlock'd, the chains unbound.
Now all at once tremendous f.enes unfold; 240
Thunder'd the deeps, the fmoking billows roll'd!
Tumultuous waves embroil'd the bellowing flood,
All trembling, deafen'd, and aghaft we flood!
No more the veffel plough'd the dreadful wave,
Fear feiz'd the mighty, and unnerv'd the brave; 245
Each dropp'd his oar: but fwift from man to man
With looks ferene I turn'd, and thus began:
O friends! Oh often tried in adverse storms!
With ills familiar in more dreadful forms!
Deep in the dire Cyclopean den you lay,
Yet fafe return'd-Ulyffes led the way.
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