"By Juno's guardian aid, the watery vast,
Secure of storms, your royal brother past:
Till coasting nigh the cape, where Malea shrouds
Her spiry cliffs amid surrounding clouds ;
A whirling gust tumultuous from the shore
Across the deep his labouring vessel bore.
In an ill-fated hour the coast he gain'd,
Where late in regal pomp Thyestes reign'd;
But, when his hoary honours bow'd to fate,
Egysthus govern'd in paternal state.
The surges now subside, the tempest ends;
From his tall ship the king of men descends:
There fondly thinks the gods conclude his toil!
Far from his own domain salutes the soil:
With rapture oft the verge of Greece reviews,
And the dear turf with tears of joy bedews.
Him, thus exulting on the distant strand,
A spy distinguish'd from his airy stand,
To bribe whose vigilance, Ægysthus told
A mighty sum of ill-persuading gold:

There watch'd this guardian of his guilty fear,
Till the twelfth Moon had wheel'd her pale career;
And now, admonish'd by his eye, to court,
With terrour wing'd, conveys the dread report.
Of deathful arts expert, his lord employs
The ministers of blood in dark surprise:
And twenty youths, in radiant mail encas'd,
Close ambush'd nigh the spacious hall he plac'd.
Then bids prepare the hospitable treat:
Vain shows of love to veil his felon-hate!
To grace the victor's welcome from the wars,
A train of coursers and triumphal cars
Magnificent he leads! the royal guest,
Thoughtless of ill, accepts the fraudful feast.
The troop, forth issuing from the dark recess,
With homicidal rage the king oppress!
So, whilst he feeds luxurious in the stall,
The sovereign of the herd is doom'd to fall.
The partners of his fame and toils of Troy,
Around their lord, a mighty ruin! lie:
Mix'd with the brave, the base invaders bleed;
Egysthus sole survives to boast the deed.'
"He said: chill borrours shook my shivering soul,
Rack'd with convulsive pangs in dust I roll;
And hate, in madness of extreme despair,
To view the Sun, or breathe the vital air.
But when, superior to the rage of woe,

I stood restor'd, and tears had ceas'd to flow;
Lenient of grief, the pitying god began-
Forget the brother, and resume the man:
To fate's supreme dispose the dead resign,
That care be fate's, a speedy passage thine.
Still lives the wretch who wrought the death de-
Bat lives a victim for thy vengeful sword; [plor'd,
Taless with filial rage Orestes glow,
And swift prevent the meditated blow;
You timely will return a welcome guest,
With him to share the sad funereal feast.'

[lord.'

Laertes' son: girt with circumfluous tides,
He still calamitous constraint abides.
Him in Calypso's cave of late I view'd,
When streaming grief his faded cheek bedew'd.
But vain his prayer, his arts are vain, to move
Th' enamour'd goddess, or elude her love :
His vessel sunk, and dear companions lost,
He lives reluctant on a foreign coast.
But oh, belov'd by Heaven! reserv'd to thee
A happier lot the smiling Fates decree :
Free from that law, beneath whose mortal sway
Matter is chang'd, and varying forms decay;
Elysium shall be thine; the blissful plains
Of utmost Earth, where Rhadamanthus reigns.
Joys ever young, unmix'd with pain or fear,
Fill the wide circle of th' eternal year:
Stern Winter smiles on that auspicious clime;
The fields are florid with unfading prime;
From the bleak pole no winds inclement blow,
Mould the round hail, or flake the fleecy snow:
But from the breezy deep the blest inhale
The fragrant murmurs of the western gale.
This grace peculiar will the gods afford
To thee, the son of Jove, and beauteous Helen's
"He ceas'd; and, plunging in the vast profound,
Beneath the god the whirling billows bound.
Then speeding back, involv'd in various thought,
My friends attending at the shore I sought.
Arriv'd, the rage of hunger we control,
Till night with silent shade invests the pole;
Then lose the cares of life in pleasing rest.—
Soon as the morn reveals the roseate east,
With sails we wing the masts, our anchors weigh,
Unmoor the fleet, and rush into the sea.
Rang'd on the banks, beneath our equal oars
White curl the waves, and the vex'd ocean roars.
Then, steering backward from the Pharian isle,
We gain the stream of Jove-descending Nile:
There quit the ships, and on the destin'd shore
With ritual hecatombs the gods adore:
Their wrath aton'd, to Agamemnon's name
A cenotaph I raise of deathless fame.
These rites to piety and grief discharg'd,
The friendly gods a springing gale enlarg'd:
The fleet swift tilting o'er the surges flew,
Till Grecian cliffs appear'd, a blissful view!

"Thy patient ear hath heard me long relate
A story, fruitful of disastrous fate:
And now, young prince, indulge my fond request
Be Sparta honour'd with his royal guest,
Till, from his eastern goal, the joyous Sun
His twelfth diurnal race begins to run.
Meantime my train the friendly gifts prepare,
| Three sprightly coursers, and a polish'd car:
With these, a goblet of capacious mould,
Figur'd with art to dignify the gold,
(Form'd for libation to the gods) shall prove
A pledge and monument of sacred love."

"My quick return," young Ithacus rejoin'd,
"Damps the warm wishes of my raptur'd mind:
Did not my fate my needful haste constrain,
Charm'd by your speech, so graceful and humane,
Lost in delight the circling year would roll,
While deep attention fix'd my listening soul.
But now to Pyle permit my destin'd way,
My lov'd associates chide my long delay:
In dear remembrance of your royal grace,
I take the present of the promis'a vase;
The coursers, for the champaign sports, retain;
That gift our barren rocks will render vain :

Horrid with cliffs, our meagre land allows Thin herbage for the mountain goat to browse, But neither mead nor plain supplies, to feed The sprightly courser, or indulge his speed: To sea-surrounding realms the gods assign Small tract of fertile lawn, the least to mine."

His hand the king with tender passion press'd, And, smiling, thus the royal youth address'd: "O early worth! a soul so wise, and young, Proclaims you from the sage Ulysses sprung, Selected from my stores, of matchless price, An urn shall recompense your prudent choice: Not mean the massy mould of silver, grac'd By Vulcan's art, the verge with gold enchas'd; A pledge the scepter'd power of Sidon gave, When to his realm I plough'd th' orient wave." Thus they alternate; while with artful care The menial train the regal feast prepare: The firstlings of the flock are doom'd to die; Rich fragrant wines the cheering bowl supply; A female band the gift of Ceres bring; And the gilt roofs with genial triumph ring. Meanwhile, in Ithaca, the suitor-powers In active games divide their jovial hours: In areas vary'd with mosaic art, Some whirl the disk, and some the javelin dart. Aside, sequestered from the vast resort, Antinous sate spectator of the sport; With great Eurymachus, of worth confest, And high descent, superior to the rest ; Whom young Noëmon lowly thus addrest :

'My ship equipp'd within the neighbouring port, The prince, departing from the Pylian court, Requested for his speed; but, courteous, say When steers he home, or why this long delay? For Elis I should sail with utmost speed,

T" import twelve mares which there luxurious feed,

And twelve young mules, a strong laborious race, New to the plough, unpractis`'d in the trace."

Unknowing of the course to Pyle design'd, A sudden horrour seiz'd on either mind: The prince in rural bower they fondly thought, Numbering his flocks and herds, not far remote. "Relate," Antinous cries," devoid of guile, When spread the prince his sail for distant Pyle? Did chosen chiefs across the gulfy main Attend his voyage, or domestic train? Spontaneous did you speed his secret course, Or was the vessel seiz'd by fraud or force?" "With willing duty, not reluctant mind,” (Noëmon cry'd)" the vessel was resign'd. Who, in the balance, with the great affairs Of courts, presume to weigh their private cares? With him, the peerage next in power to you: And Mentor, captain of the lordly crew, Or some celestial in his reverend form, Safe from the secret rock and adverse storm, Pilots the course: for when the glimmering ray Of yester dawn disclos'd the tender day, Mentor himself I saw, and much admir'd”— T'hen ceas'd the youth, and from the court retir'd. Confounded and appall'd, th' unfinish'd game The suitors quit, and all to council came. Antinous first th' assembled peers addrest, Rage sparkling in his eyes, and busning in his breast: "O shame to manhood! shall one daring boy The scheme of all our happiness destroy? Fly unperceiv'd, seducing half the flower Of nobles, and invite a foreign power?

The ponderous engine rais' to crush us all,
Recoiling, on his head is sure to fall.
Instant prepare me, on the neighbouring strand,
With twenty chosen mates a vessel mann'd;
For ambush'd close beneath the Samian shore
His ship returning shall my spies explore:
He soon his rashness shall with life atone,
Seek for his father's fate, but find his own."

With vast applause the sentence all approve;
Then rise, and to the feastful hall remove;
Swift to the queen the herald Medon ran,
Who heard the consult of the dire divan:
Before her dome the royal matron stands,
And thus the message of his haste demands:
"What will the suitors? must my servant-train
Th' allotted labours of the day refrain,
For them to form some exquisite repast?
Heaven grant this festival may prove their last!
Or, if they still must live, from me remove
The double plague of luxury and love!
Forbear, ye sons of insolence! forbear,
In riot to consume a wretched heir.
In the young soul illustrious thought to raise,
Were ye not tutor'd with Ulysses' praise?
Have not your fathers oft my lord defin'd,
Gentle of speech, beneficent of mind?
Some kings with arbitrary rage devour,
Or in their tyrant-minions vest the power:
Ulysses let no partial favours fall,
The people's parent, he protected all:
But absent now, perfidious and ingrate!

| His stores ye ravage, and usurp his state."
He thus: "O were the woes you speak the worst!
They form a deed more odious and accurst;
More dreadful than your boding soul divines:
But pitying Jove avert the dire designs!
The darling object of your royal care
Is mark'd to perish in a deathful snare;
Before he anchors in his native port,
From Pyle re sailing and the Spartan court;
Horrid to speak! in ambush is decreed
The hope and heir of Ithaca to bleed!"

Sudden she sunk beneath the weighty woes,
The vital streams a chilling horrour froze :
The big round tear stands trembling in her eye,
And on her tongue imperfect accents die.
At length, in tender language, interwove
With sighs, she thus express'd her anxious love:
"Why rashly would my son his fate explore,
Ride the wild waves, and quit the safer shore?
Did he, with all the greatly wretched, crave
A blank oblivion, and untimely grave?

""Tis not," reply'd the sage," to Medon given
To know, if some inhabitant of Heaven
In his young breast the daring thought inspir'd;
Or if, alone with filial duty fir'd,
The winds and waves he tempts in early bloom,
Studious to learn his absent father's doom."

The sage retir'd: unable to control
The mighty griefs that swell her labouring soul,
Rolling convulsive on the floor, is seen
The piteous object of a prostrate queen.
Words to her dumb complaint a pause supplies,
And breath, to waste in unavailing cries.
Around their sovereign wept the menial fair,
To whom she thus address'd her deep despair:
"Behold a wretch whom all the gods consign
To woe! Did ever sorrows equal mine?
Long to my joys my dearest lord is lost,
His country's buckler, and the Grecian boast;

Now from my fond embrace, by tempest torn,
Our other column of the state is borne :
Nor took a kind adieu, nor sought consent !-
Unkind confederates in his dire intent!
Ill suits it with your shows of duteons zeal,
From me the purpos'd voyage to conceal :
Though at the solemn midnight hour he rose,
Why did you fear to trouble my repose?
He either had obey'd my fond desire,

Or seen his mother, pierc'd with grief, expire.
Bid Dolius quick attend, the faithful slave
Whom to my nuptial train Icarius gave,
To tend the fruit-groves: with incessant speed
He shall this violence of death decreed
To good Laertes tell. Experienc'd age
May timely intercept the ruffian rage.
Convene the tribes, the murderous plot reveal,
And to their power to save his race appeal."

Then Euryclea thus: "My dearest dread!
Though to the sword I bow this hoary head,
Or if a dungeon be the pain decreed,
I own me conscious of th' unpleasing deed.
Auxiliar to his fight, my aid implor'd,
With wine and viands I the vessel stor'd:
A solemn oath, impos'd, the secret seal'd,
Till the twelfth dawn the light of Heaven reveal'd,
Dreading th' effect of a fond mother's fear,
He dar'd not violate your royal ear.
But bathe, and, in imperial robes array'd,
Pay due devotions to the martial maid',
And rest affianc'd in her guardian aid.
Send not to good Laertes, nor engage
In toils of state the miseries of age:
Tis impious to surmise, the powers divine
To ruin doom the Jove-descended line:
Long shall the race of just Arcesius reign,
And isles remote enlarge his old domain."
The queen her speech with calm attention hears,
Her eyes restrain the silver-streaming tears:
She bathes, and, rob'd, the sacred doom ascends:
Her pious speed a female train attends:
The salted cakes in canisters are laid,
And thus the queen invokes Minerva's aid:

46

Daughter divine of Jove, whose arm can wield Th' avenging bolt, and shake the dreaded shield! If e'er Ulysses to thy fane preferr'd The best and choicest of his flock and herd; Hear, goddess, hear, by those oblations won ; And for the pious sire preserve the son: His wish'd return with happy power befriend, And on the suitors let thy wrath descend."

She ceas'd; shrill ecstasies of joy declare The favouring goddess present to the prayer: The suitors heard, and deem'd the mirthful voice A signal of her hymeneal choice:

Whilst one most jovial thus accosts the board; "Too late the queen selects a second lord : In evil hour the nuptial rite intends, When o'er her son disastrous death impends." . Thus he, unskill'd of what the Fates provide! But with severe rebuke Antinous cry'd:

"These empty vaunts will make the voyage vain; Alarm not with discourse the menial train; The great event with silent hope attend; Our deeds alone our counsel must commend." His speech thus ended short, he frowning rose, And twenty chiefs renown'd for valour chose:

Minerva.

Down to the strand he speeds with haughty strides,
Where anchor'd in the bay the vessel rides,
Replete with mail and military store,
In all her tackle trim to quit the shore.
The desperate crew ascend, unfurl the sails
(The sea-ward prow invites the tardy gales);
Then take repast, till Hesperus display'd
His golden circlet in the western shade."

Meantime the queen, without reflection due,
Heart-wounded, to the bed of state withdrew:
In her sad breast the prince's fortunes roll,
And hope and doubt alternate scize her soul.
So when the woodman's toil her cave surrounds,
And with the hunter's cry the grove resounds;
With grief and rage the mother lion stung,
Fearless herself, vet trembles for her young.

;

While pensive in the silent slumberous shade, Sleep's gentle powers her drooping eyes invade Minerva, life-like, on imbodied air Impress'd the form of Iphthima the fair (Icarius' daughter she, whose blooming charms Allur'd Eumelus to her virgin-arms; A scepter'd lord, who o'er the fruitful plain Of Thessaly, wide stretch'd his ample reign) As Pallas will'd, along the sable skies, To calin the queen, the phantom-sister flies. Swift on the regal dome descending right, The bolted valves are pervious to her flight. Close to her head the pleasing vision stands, And thus performs Minerva's high commands: O why, Penelope, this causeless fear, To render sleep's soft blessing unsincere? Alike devote to sorrow's dire extreme The day reflection, and the midnight dream! Thy son the gods propitions will restore, And bid thee cease his absence to deplore."

66

To whom the queen (whilst yet her pensive mind
Was in the silent gates of sleep contin'd)
"O sister, to my soul for ever dear,
Who this first visit to reprove my fear?
How in a realm so distant should you know
From what deep source my deathless sorrows flow?
To all my hope my royal lord is lost,
His country's buckler, and the Grecian boast:
And, with consummate woe to weigh me down,
The heir of all his honours and his crown,
My darling son is fled! an easy prey

To the fierce storms, or men more fierce than they :
Who, in a league of blood associates sworn,
Will intercept th' unwary youth's return."
"Courage resume," the shadowy form reply'd,
"In the protecting care of Heaven confide:
On him attends the blue-ey'd martial maid;
What earthly can implore a surer aid?
Me now the guardian goddess deigns to send,
To bid thee patient his return attend."

The queen replies: "If in the blest abodes
A goddess, thou hast commerce with the gods;
Say, breathes my lord the blissful realm of light,
Or lies he wrapt in ever-during night?"

Inquire not of his doom," the phantom cries,
I speak not all the counsel of the skies:
Nor must indulge with vain discourse, or long,
The windy satisfaction of the tongue."

Swift through the valves the visionary fair
Repass'd, and viewless mix'd with common air.
The queen awakes, deliver'd of her woes:
With florid joy her heart dilating glows:
The vision, manifest of future fate,
Makes her with hope her son's arrival wait.

Meantime the suitors plough the watery plain, Telemachus in thought already slain! When sight of lessening Ithaca was lost, Their sail directed for the Samian coast, A small but verdant isle appear'd in view, And Asteris th' advancing pilot knew: An ample port the rocks projected form, To break the rolling waves, and ruffling storm: That safe recess they gain with happy speed, And in close ambush wait the murderous deed.

THE ODYSSEY.

BOOK V.

ARGUMENT.

THE DEPARTURE OF ULYSSES FROM CALYPSO.

PALLAS, in a council of the gods, complains of the detention of Ulysses in the island of Calypso; whereupon Mercury is sent to command his removal. The seat of Calypso described. She consents with much difficulty; and Ulysses builds a vessel with his own hands, on which he embarks. Neptune overtakes him with a terrible tempest, in which he is shipwrecked, and in the last danger of death: till Leucothea, a sea goddess, assists him, and, after innumerable perils, he gets ashore on Phæacia.

THE saffron Morn, with early blushes spread,
Now rose refulgent from Tithonus' bed;
With new-born day to gladden mortal sight,
And gild the courts of Heaven with sacred light.
Then met th' eternal synod of the sky,
Before the god who thunders from on high,
Supreme in might, sublime in majesty.
Pallas, to these, deplores th' unequal fates
Of wise Ulysses, and his toils relates:
Her hero's danger touch'd the pitying power,
The nymph's seducements, and the magic bower.
Thus she began her plaint: "Immortal Jove!
And you who fill the blissful seats above!
Let kings no more with gentle mercy sway,
Or bless a people willing to obey,
But crush the nations with an iron rod,
And every monarch be the scourge of God:
If from your thoughts Ulysses you remove,
Who rul'd his subjects with a father's love.
Sole in an isle, encircled by the main,
Abandon'd, banish'd from his native reign,
Unblest he sighs, detain'd by lawless charms,
And press'd unwilling in Calypso's arms.
Nor friends are there, nor vessels to convey,
Nor oars to cut th' immeasurable way.
And now fierce traitors, studious to destroy
His only son, their ambush'd fraud employ;
Who, pious, following his great father's fame,
To sacred Pylos and to Sparta came." [who forms
"What words are these," (reply'd the power
The clouds of night, and darkens Heaven with
storms)

"Is not already in thy soul decreed,
The chief's return shall make the guilty bleed?
What cannot wisdom do? Thou may'st restore
The son in safety to his native shore;

While the fell foes, who late in ambush lay,
With fraud defeated, measure back their way."

Then thus to Hermes the command was given:
"Hermes, thou chosen messenger of Heaven!
Go, to the nymph be these our orders borne:
'Tis Jove's decree, Ulysses shall return:
The patient man shall view his old abodes,
Nor help'd by mortal hand, nor guiding gods:
In twice ten days shall fertile Sheria find,
Alone, and floating to the wave and wind.
The bold Phæacians there, whose haughty line
Is mix'd with gods, half human, half divine,
The chief shall honour as some heavenly guest,
And swift transport him to his place of rest.
His vessels loaded with a plenteous store
Of brass, of vestures, and resplendent ore,
(A richer prize than if his joyful isle
Receiv'd him charg'd with Ilion's noble spoil).
His friends, his country, he shall see, though late;
Such is our sovereign will, and such is fate."

[winds,

He spoke. The god, who mounts the winged
Fast to his feet the golden pinions binds,
That high through fields of air his flight sustain
O'er the wide earth, and o'er the boundless main.
He grasps the wand that causes sleep to fly,
Or in soft slumber seals the wakeful eye:
Then shoots from Heaven to high Pieria's steep,
And stoops incumbent on the rolling deep.
So watery fowl, that seek their fishy food,
With wings expanded o'er the foaming flood,
Now sailing smooth the level surface sweep,
Now dip their pinions in the briny deep.
Thus o'er the world of waters Hermes flew,
Till now the distant island rose in view:
Then swift ascending from the azure wave,
He took the path that winded to the cave.
Large was the grot, in which the nymph he found
(The fair-hair'd nymph with every beauty crown'd);
She sate, and sung: the rocks resound her lays;
The cave was brighten'd with a rising blaze:
Cedar and frankincense, an odorous pile,
Flam'd on the hearth, and wide perfum'd the isle ;
While she with work and song the time divides,
And through the loom the golden shuttle guides.
Without the grot a various sylvan scene
Appear'd around, and groves of living green;
Poplars and alders ever quivering play'd,
And nodding cypress form'd a fragrant shade;
On whose high branches, waving with the storm,
The birds of broadest wing their mansion form,
The chough, the sea-mew, the loquacious crow,
And scream aloft, and skim the deeps below.
Depending vines the shelving cavern screen,
With purple clusters blushing through the green.
Four limpid fountains from the clefts distil;
And every fountain pours a several rill,
In mazy windings wandering down the hill:
Where bloomy meads with vivid greens were
crown'd,

And glowing violets threw odours round.
A scene, where if a god should cast his sight,
A god might gaze, and wander with delight!
Joy touch'd the messenger of Heaven: he stay'd
Entranc'd, and all the blissful haunt survey’d.
Him, entering in the cave, Calypso knew;
For powers celestial to each other's view