THE

ODYSSEY.

BOOK XIII.

HE

.

IO

E ceas'd; but left fo pleasing on their ear

His voice, that listening still they seem'd to hear. A pause of filence hush'd the shady rooms : The grateful conference then the king resumes : Whatever toils the great Ulysses past,

5 Beneath this happy roof they end at lait ; No longer now from shore to shore to roam, Smooth seas and gentle winds invite him home. But hear me, princess ! whom these walls inclose, For whom my chanter fings, and goblet flows With wines unmix'd (an honour due to age, To chear the grave, and warm the poet's rage) Though labour'd gold and many a dazzling vest Lie heap'd already for our god-like gueft; Without new treasures let him not remove,

15 Large, and expreffive of the public love: Each peer a tripod, each peer a vase bestow, A general tribute, which the state shall owe.

- This sentence pleas’d: then all their steps addrest To separate mansions, and retir'd to rest,

Now did the rosy-finger'd morn arife, And shed her facred light along the skies.

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Down to the haven and the ships in hafte
They bore the treasures, and in safety plac'd.
The king himself the vafes rang’d with care:
Then bade his followers to the feast repair.
A victim ox beneath the sacred hand
Of
great

Alcinous falls, and stains the fand:
To Jove th' Eternal (Power above all Powers !
Who wings the winds, and darkens Heaven with
showers)

30 'The fames afcend : till evening they prolong The rites, more facred made by heavenly fong : For in the midit, with public honours grac'd, The lyre divine, Demodocus! was plac'd ; All, but Ulysses, heard with fix'd delight: 35 He fate, and ey'd the sun, and wish'd the night; Slow seem'd the fun to move, the hours to roll, His native home deep-imag'd in his soul. As the tir'd 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 repaft (the day's hard labour done) : So to Ulysses welcome set the sun. Then instant tr Alcinous and the rest

45 (The Scherian states) he turn'd, and thus addrest : 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 leaft, When due libation shall have crown'd the feast, 50 Safe to my home to send your happy guest.

Complete

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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 confort blameless, and my friends in peace. 55
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 viriue may your nation stand, 60
And public evil never touch the land!

His words, well weigh'd, the general voice approv'd
Benign, and instant his dismission mov’d.
The monarch to Pontonous gave the fign,
To fill the goblet high with rosy wine :

6 Great Jove the Father first (he cried implore; Then send the ftranger to his native shore.

The luscious wine th' obedient herald brought; Around the manfion flow'd the purple draught : Each from his seac to each immortal pours, 70 Whom glory circles in th' Olympian bowers. Ulysses fole with air majestic ftands, The bowl prefenting to Arete's hands; *Then thus : 0 Queen, farewell! be still posiert Of dear remembrance, blefling ftill and blest! 75 Till age and death shall gently call thee hence, (Sure fate of every mortal excellence!) Farewell; and joys succeílive ever spring To thee, to thine, the people, and the king!

Thus he; then parting prints the fandy More 80 To the fair port: a herald march'd before,

Sent

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Sent by Alcinous ; of Arete's train
Three chosen maids attend him to the main ;
This does a tunick and white veft convey,
A various casket that, of rich inlay,

85
And bread and wine the third. The chearful mates
Safe in the hollow poop dispose the cates :
Upon the deck soft painted robes they spread,
With linen covered for the hero's bed.
He climb'd the lofty ftern; then gently prest

90 The swelling couch, and lay compos'd to rest.

Now plac'd in order, the Phæacian train Their cables loose, and launch into the main : At once they bend, and strike their equal oars, And leave the finking hills and lessening shores.

95 While on the deck the chief in silence lies, And pleasing flumbers steal

upon

his

eyes. As fiery coursers in the rapid race Urg'd by fierce drivers through the dusty space, Toss their high heads, and scour along the plain; 100 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 fails the winged galley flies; Less swift an eagle cuts the liquid skies ;

105 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, Wrapt in a pleasing, deep, and death-like reft,

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But when the morning star with early ray
Flam'd in the front of heaven, and promis'd day ;
Like diftant clouds the mariner descries
Fair Ithaca's emerging hills arise.

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Far from the town a spacious port appears,
Sacred to Phorcy's power, whose name it bears :
Two craggy rocks projecting to the main,
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 fhady boughs.
Beneath, a gloomy grotto's cool recess
Delights the Nereids of the neighbouring feas, 125
Where bowls and urns were form’d of living stone,
And massy beams in native marble shone;
On which the labours of the nymph were rolld,
Their webs divine of purple mix'd with gold.
Within the cave the clustering bees attend

130 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.

135 Thither they bent, and hauld their ship to land; (The crooked keel divides the yellow sand); Ulylles sleeping on his couch they bore, And gently plac'd him on the rocky shore. His treasures next, Alcinous' gifts, they laid 140 In the wild olive's unfrequented shade,

Secure

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