ARGUMENT. THE ARRIVAL OF ULYSSES IN ITHACA. ULYSSES takes his leave of Alcinous and Arete, and embarks in the evening. Next morning the fhip arrives at Ithaca; where the failors, as Ulyffes is yet fleeping, lay him on the fhore with all his treasures. On their return, Neptune changes their fhip into a rock. In the mean time Ulyffes, awaking, knows not his native Ithaca, by reafon of a mist which Pallas had caft round him. He breaks into loud lamentations; till the Goddefs, appearing to him in the form of a fhepherd, discovers the country to him, and points out the particular places. He then tells a feigned ftory of his adventures, upon which the manifefts herself, and they confult together of the measures to be taken to destroy the fuitors. To conceal his return, and disguife his perfon the more effectually, the changes him into the figure of an old beggar. THE |