Thus then I judge. while yet the planks sustain
The wild waves' fury, here I fix'd remain ;
But when their texture to the tempest yields,
I launch adventurous on the liquid fields,
Join to the help of gods the strength of man,
And take this method, since the best I can.
Ah me! when o'er a length of waters toss'd,
These eyes at last behold the unhoped-for coast,
460 No port receives me from the angry main,
But the loud deeps demand me back again.
Above sharp rocks forbid access; around
Roar the wild waves; beneath is sea profound!
While thus his thoughts an anxious council hold, No footing sure affords the faithless sand,
The raging god a watery mountain roll'd;
Like a black sheet the whelming billows spread,
Burst o'er the float, and thunder'd on his head.
Planks, beams, disparted fly; the scatter'd wood
Rolls diverse, and in fragments strews the flood.
So the rude Boreas, o'er the field new-shorn
Tosses and drives the scatter'd heaps of corn.
And now a single beam the chief bestrides ;
There poised awhile above the bounding tides,
His limbs discumbers of the clinging vest,
And binds the sacred cincture round his breast:
Then prone on ocean in a moment flung,
Stretch'd wide his eager arms, and shot the seas
along.
All naked now, on heaving billows laid,
Stern Neptune eyed him, and contemptuous said:
Go, learn'd in woes, and other foes essay!
Go, wander helpless on the watery way:
Thus, thus find out the destined shore, and then
(If Jove ordains it) mix with happier men.
Whate'er thy fate, the ills our wrath could raise
Shall last remember'd in thy best of days.
To stem too rapid, and too deep to stand.
If here I enter, my efforts are vain,
Dash'd on the cliffs, or heaved into the main :
Or round the island if my course I bend,
Where the ports open, or the snores descend,
470 Back to the seas the rolling surge may sweep,
And bury all my hopes beneath the deep.
Or some enormous whale the god may send
(For many such on Amphitrite attend,)
Too well the turns of mortal chance I know,
And hate relentless of my heavenly foe.
While thus he thought, a monstrous wave upbore
The chief, and dash'd him on the craggy shore:
Torn was his skin, nor had his ribs been whole,
But instant Pallas enter'd in his soul.
This said, his sea-green steeds divide the foam,
And reach high Ægæ and the towery dome.
Now, scarce withdrawn the fierce earth-shaking
Close to the cliff with both his hands he clung
And stuck adherent, and suspended hung,
Till the huge surge roll'd off: then, backward sweep
The refluent tides, and plunge him in the deep.
As when the polypus, from forth his cave
Torn with full force, reluctant beats the wave;
His ragged claws are stuck with stones and sands,
So the rough rock had shagg'd Ulysses hands:
And now had perish'd, whelm'd beneath the main,
The unhappy man; even fate had been in vain;
But all-subduing Pallas lent her
power,
And prudence saved him in the needful hour.
490 Beyond the beating surge his course he bore
(A wider circle, but in sight of shore,)
With longing eyes, observing to survey
Some smooth ascent, or safe sequestered bay.
Between the parting rocks at length he spied
A falling stream with gentler waters glide;
Where to the seas the shelving shore declined,
And form'd a bay impervious to the wind.
To this calm port the glad Ulysses press'd,
And hail'd the river, and its god address'd:
Whoe'er thou art, before whose stream unknown
Jove's daughter Pallas watch'd the favouring hour.
Back to their caves she bade the winds to fly,
And hush'd the blustering brethren of the sky.
The drier blasts alone of Boreas sway,
And bear him soft on broken waves away;
With gentle force impelling to that shore,
Where Fate has destined he shall toil no more.
And now two nights, and now two days were past,
Since wide he wander'd on the watery waste;
Heaved on the surge with intermitting breath,
And hourly panting in the arms of death.
I bend, a suppliant at thy watery throne,
Hear, azure king! nor let me fly in vain
To thee from Neptune and the raging main.
Heaven hears and pities hapless men like me,
For sacred e'en to gods is misery:
Let then thy waters give the weary rest,
And save a suppliant, and a man distress'd.
He pray'd, and straight the gentle stream subsides, Detains the rushing current of his tides, 510 Before the wanderer smooths the watery way,
The third fair morn now blazed upon the main; 500
Then glassy smooth lay all the liquid plain;
The winds were hush'd, the billows scarcely curl'd,
And a dead silence still'd the watery world.
When lifted on a ridgy wave he spies
The land at distance, and with sharpen'd eyes.
As pious children joy with vast delight
When a loved sire revives before their sight,
(Who, lingering long, has call'd on death in vain,
Fix'd by some dæmon to his bed of pain,
Till Heaven by miracle his life restore ;)
So joys Ulysses at the appearing shore;
And sees (and labours onward as he sees)
The rising forests, and the tufted trees.
And now, as near approaching as the sound
Of human voice the listening ear may wound,
Amidst the rocks he heard a hollow roar
Of murmuring surges breaking on the shore:
Nor peaceful port was there, nor winding bay,
To shield the vessel from the rolling sea,
But cliffs, and shaggy shores, a dreadful sight!
All rough with rocks, and foamy billows white.
Fear seized his slacken'd limbs and beating heart,
As thus he communed with his soul apart.
And soft receives him from the rolling sea.
That moment, fainting as he touch'd the shore, 580
He dropp'd his sinewy arms: his knees no more
Perform'd their office, or his weight upheld:
His swoln heart heaved; his bloated body swell'd;
From mouth and nose the briny torrent ran;
And lost in lassitude lay all the man,
Deprived of voice, of motion, and of breath,
The soul scarce waking in the arms of death.
520 Soon as warm life its wonted office found,
The mindful chief Leucothea's scarf unbound;
Observant of her word, he turn'd aside
His head, and cast it on the rolling tide.
Behind him far upon the purple waves
The waters waft it, and the nymph receives.
Now parting from the stream, Ulysses found
A mossy bank with pliant rushes crown'd;
The bank he press'd, and gently kiss'd the ground;
Where on the flowery herb as soft he lay,
Thus to his soul the sage began to say:
What will ye next ordain, ye powers on high!
And yet, ah yet, what fates are we to try?
Here by the stream, if I the night out-wear,
Thus spent already, how shall nature bear
The dews descending and nocturnal air;
Or chilly vapours breathing from the flood
When morning rises? If I take the wood,
And in thick shelter of innumerous boughs
Enjoy the comfort gentle sleep allows;
Though fenced from cold, and though my toil be
pass'd,
What savage beasts may wander in the waste!
Perhaps I yet may fall a bloody prey
To prowling bears, or lions in the way.
Thus long debating in himself he stood:
At length he took the passage to the wood,
Whose shady horrors on a rising brow
Waved high, and frown'd upon the stream below.
There grew two olives, closest of the grove,
With roots entwined, and branches interwove;
Alike their leaves, but not alike they smiled
With sister-fruits; one fertile, one was wild.
Nor here the sun's meridian rays had power,
Nor wind sharp-piercing, nor the rushing shower;
The verdant arch so close its texture kept.
Beneath this covert great Ulysses crept :
Of gathered leaves an ample bed he made
(Thick strewn by tempest through the bowery shade
Where three at least might winter's cold defy,
Though Boreas raged along the inclement sky.
This store, with joy the patient hero found,
And, sunk amidst them, heaped the leaves around.
As some poor peasant, fated to reside
Remote from neighbours in a forest wide,
Studious to save what human wants require,
In embers heaped, preserves the seeds of fire:
Hid in dry foliage thus Ulysses lies,
Till Pallas pour'd soft slumbers on his eyes;
And golden dreams (the gift of sweet repose)
Lull'd all his cares, and banish'd all his woes.
In elder times the soft Phæacian train
In ease possess'd the wide Hyperian plain;
Till the Cyclopean race in arms arose,
A lawless nation of gigantic foes;
Then great Nausithous from Hyperia far,
Through seas retreating from the sound of war, 10
The recreant nation to fair Scheria led,
Where never science rear'd her laurel'd head:
There round his tribes a strength of wall he raised:
To heaven the glittering domes and temples blazed:
Just to his realms, he parted grounds from grounds,
And shared the lands, and gave the lands their bounds.
Now in the silent grave the monarch lay,
And wise Alcinous held the regal sway.
To his high palace through the fields of air
The goddess shot; Ulysses was her care.
There as the night in silence roll'd away,
A heaven of charms divine Nausicaa lay;
Through the thick gloom the shining portals blaze;
Two nymphs the portals guard, each nymph a Grace.
Light as the viewless air, the warrior maid
Glides through the valves, and hovers round her head;
A favourite virgin's blooming form she took,
From Dymus sprung, and thus the vision spoke :
Oh indolent! to waste thy hours away!
And sleep'st thou careless of the bridal day?
Thy spousal ornament neglected lies;
Arise, prepare the bridal train, arise!
A just applause the cares of dress impart,
And give soft transport to a parent's heart.
Haste, to the limpid stream direct thy way,
When the gay morn unveils her smiling ray:
Haste to the stream! companion of thy care,
Lo, I thy steps attend, thy labours share.
:) Virgin, awake! the marriage hour is nigh,
See! from their thrones thy kindred monarchs sigh!
The royal car at early dawn obtain,
And order mules obedient to the rein:
For rough the way, and distant rolls the wave,
630 Where the fair vests Phracian virgins lave.
In pomp ride forth; for pomp becomes the great,
And majesty derives a grace from state.
Then to the palaces of heaven she sails,
Incumbent on the wings of wafting gales;
The seat of gods: the regions mild of peace,
Full joy, and calm eternity of ease:
There no rude winds presume to shake the skies,
No rains descend, no snowy vapours rise:
But on immortal thrones the bless'd repose;
The firmament with living splendor glows,
Hither the goddess wing'd the aërial way,
Through heaven's eternal gates that blazed with day.
Now from her rosy car Aurora shed
Pallas appearing in a dream to Nausicaa (the daughter of Alcinous king of Phæacia,) commands her to de-The dawn, and all the orient flam'd with red. scend to the river, and wash the robes of state, in pre-Up rose the virgin with the morning light, paration to her nuptials. Nausicaa goes with her Obedient to the vision of the night. handmaids to the river; where, while the garments The queen she sought: the queen her hours bestow'd are spread on the bank, they divert themselves in In curious works; the whirling spindle glow'd sports. Their voices awake Ulysses, who, addressing With crimson threads, while busy damsels cull himself to the princess, is by her relieved and clothed, and receives directions in what manner to apply to The snowy fleece, or twist the purpled wool. the king and queen of the island.
WHILE thus the weary wanderer sunk to rest, And peaceful slumbers calm'd his anxious breast; The martial maid from heaven's aërial height Swift to Phæacia wing'd her rapid flight.
Meanwhile Phæacia's peers in council sate;
From his high dome the king descends in state;
Then with a filial awe the royal maid
Approach'd him passing, and submissive said:
Will my dread sire his ear regardful deign,
And may his child the royal car obtain?
Say, with thy garments shall I bend my way,
Where through the vales the mazy waters stray?
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A dignity of dress adorns the great,,
And kings draw lustre from the robe of state.
Five sons thou hast; three wait the bridal day,
And spotless robes become the young and gay;
So when with praise amid the dance they shine,
By these my cares adorn'd, that praise is mine.
Thus she but blushes, ill-restrain'd, betray
Her thoughts intentive on the bridal day:
The conscious sire the dawning blush survey'd,
And smiling, thus bespoke the blooming maid.
My child, my darling joy, the car receive;
That, and whate'er our daughter asks, we give.
Swift as the royal nod the attending train
The car prepare, the mules incessant rein.
The blooming virgin with despatchful cares
Tunics, and stoles, and robes imperial, bears.
The queen, assiduous, to her train assigns
The sumptuous viands, and the flavorous wines.
The train prepare a cruise of curious mould,
A cruise of fragrance, form'd of burnish'd gold:
Odour divine! whose soft refreshing streams
Sleek the smooth skin, and scent the snowy limbs.
Now mounting the gay seat, the silken reins
Shine in her hand; along the sounding plains
Swift fly the mules: nor rode the nymph alone;
Around, a bevy of bright damsels shone.
They seek the cisterns where Phæacian dames
Wash their fair garments in the limpid streams;
Where, gathering into depth from falling rills,
The lucid wave a spacious bason fills.
The mules unharness'd range beside the main,
Or crop the verdant herbage of the plain.
Possess'd by wild barbarians fierce in arms;
Or men, whose bosom tender pity warms?
What sounds are these that gather from the shores?
The voice of nymphs that haunt the sylvan bowers,
The fair-hair'd Dryads of the shady wood;
Or azure daughters of the silver flood;
Or human voice? but, issuing from the shades,
80 Why cease I straight to learn what sound invades ?
Then, where the grove with leaves umbrageous
bends
With forceful strength a branch the hero rends;
Around his loins the verdant cincture spreads
A wreathy foliage and concealing shades.
As when a lion in the midnight hours,
Beat by rude blasts, and wet with wintry showers,
Descends terrific from the mountain's brow;
With living flames his rolling eye-balls glow;
90 With conscious strength elate, he bends-his way,
Majestically fierce to seize his prey,
(The steer or stag;) or, with keen hunger bold,
Springs o'er the fence, and dissipates the fold.
No less a terror, from the neighbouring groves
(Rough from the tossing surge) Ulysses moves;
Urged on by want, and recent from the storms:
The brackish ooze his manly grace deforms.
Wide o'er the shore with many a piercing cry
To rocks, to caves, the frighten'd virgins fly;
100 All but the nymph: the nymph stood fix'd alone,
By Pallas arm'd with boldness not her own.
Meantime in dubious thought the king awaits,
And, self-considering, as he stands, debates;
Distant his mournful story to declare,
Or prostrate at her knee address the prayer.
But fearful to offend, by wisdom sway'd,
At awful distance he accosts the maid.
If from the skies a goddess, or if earth
(Imperial virgin) boast thy glorious birth,
110 To thee I bend! If in that bright disguise
Thou visit earth, a daughter of the skies,
Hail, Dian, hail! the huntress of the groves
So shines majestic, and so stately moves,
So breathes an air divine! But if thy race
Be mortal, and this earth thy native place,
Bless'd is the father from whose loins you sprung,
Bless'd is the mother at whose breast you hung,
Bless'd are the brethren who thy blood divide,
To such a miracle of charms allied:
120 Joyful they see applauding princes gaze,
When stately in the dance you swim the harmonious
Then, emulous, the royal robes they lave,
And plunge the vestures in the cleansing wave;
(The vestures cleansed o'erspread the shelly sand,
Their snowy lustre whitens all the strand ;)
Then with a short repast relieve their toil,
And o'er their limbs diffuse ambrosial oil;
And while the robes imbibe the solar ray,
O'er the green mead the sporting virgins play,
(Their shining veils unbound.) Along the skies
Toss'd, and retoss'd, the ball incessant flies.
They sport, they feast: Nausicaa lifts her voice,
And, warbling sweet, makes earth and heaven rejoice.
As when o'er Erymanth Diana roves,
Or wide Täygetus' resounding groves;
A sylvan train the huntress queen surrounds,
Her rattling quiver from her shoulder sounds;
Fierce in the sport, along the mountain's brow
They bay the boar, or chase the bounding roe;
High o'er the lawn, with more majestic pace,
Above the nymphs she treads with stately grace;
Distinguish'd excellence the goddess proves;
Exults Latona as the virgin moves.
With equal grace Nausicaa trod the plain,
And shone transcendent o'er the beauteous train.
Meantime (the care and favourite of the skies)
Wrapt in embowering shade, Ulysses lies,
His woes forgot; but Pallas now addrest
To break the bands of all-composing rest.
Forth from her snowy hand Nausicaa threw
The various ball; the ball erroneous flew,
And swam the stream; loud shrieks the virgin train,
And the loud shriek redoubles from the main.
Waked by the shrilling sound, Ulysses rose,
And, to the deaf woods wailing, breathed his woes.
Ah me! on what inhospitable coast,
On what new region is Ulysses tost:
But bless'd o'er all, the youth with heavenly charms,
Who clasps the bright perfection in his arms! 190
Never, I never view'd till this bless'd hour
Such finish'd grace! I gaze, and I adore!
Thus seems the palm, with stately honours crown'd
By Phœbus' altars, thus o'erlooks the ground;
The pride of Delos. (By the Delian coast,
130 I voyaged, leader of a warrior-host,
But ah, how changed! from thence my sorrow flows;
O fatal voyage, source of all my woes!)
Raptured I stood, and as this hour amazed,
With reverence at the lofty wonder gazed:
Raptured I stand! for earth ne'er knew to bear
A plant so stately, or a nymph so fair.
Awed from access, I lift my suppliant hands;
For misery, oh queen, before thee stands !
Twice ten tempestuous nights I roll'd, resign'd
140 To roaring billows, and the warring wind:
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Heaven bade the deep to spare! but Heaven, my foe, As by some artist to whom Vulcan gives
Spares only to inflict some mightier woe!
Inured to cares, to death in all its forms,
Outcast Irove, familiar with the storms!
Once more I view the face of human kind:
Oh let soft pity touch thy generous mind!
Unconscious of what air I breathe, I stand
Naked, defenceless on a foreign land.
Propitious to my wants, a vest supply
His skill divine, a breathing statue lives;
By Pallas taught, he frames the wondrous mould,
210 And o'er the silver pours the fusile gold.
So Pallas his heroic frame improves
To guard the wretched from the inclement sky:
So may the gods, who heaven and earth controul,
Crown the chaste wishes of thy virtuous soul,
On thy soft hours their choicest blessings shed;
Bless'd with a husband be thy bridal bed;
Bless'd be thy husband with a blooming race,
And lasting union crown your blissful days.
The gods, when they supremely bless, bestow
Firm union on their favourites below:
Then envy grieves, with inly-pining hate:
The good exult, and heaven is in our state.
With heavenly bloom, and like a god he moves. 280
A fragrance breathes around; majestic grace
Attends his steps; the astonish'd virgins gaze.
Soft he reclines along the murmuring seas,
Inhaling freshness from the fanning breeze
The wondering nymph his glorious port survey'd,
And to her damsels, with amazement, said:
Not without care divine the stranger treads
220 This land of joy; his steps some godhead leads:
Would Jove destroy him, sure he had been driven
Far from this realm, the favourite isle of heaven. 290
Late a sad spectacle of woe, he trod.
The desert sands, and now he looks a god.
Oh heaven! in my connubial hour decree
This man my spouse, or such a spouse as he.
To whom the nymph-O stranger, cease thy care: But haste, the viands and the bowl provide
The maids the viands and the bowl supplied:
Eager he fed, for keen his hunger raged,
230 And with the generous vintage thirst assuaged.
Wise is thy soul, but man is born to bear:
Jove weighs affairs of earth in dubious scales,
And the good suffers, while the bad prevails.
Bear, with a soul resign'd, the will of Jove;
Who breathes, must mourn: thy woes are from above.
But since thou tread'st our hospitable shore,
"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 a happy king.
Then to her maids-Why, why, ye coward train,
These fears, this flight? ye fear, and fly in vain. 240
Dread ye a foe? dismiss that idle dread,
"Tis death with hostile step these shores to tread:
Safe in the love of heaven, an ocean flows
Around our realm, a barrier from the foes;
"Tis ours this son of sorrow to relieve,
Cheer the sad heart, nor let affliction grieve.
By Jove the stranger and the poor are sent;
And what to those we give, to Jove is lent.
Then food supply, and bathe his fainting limbs
Now on return her care Nausicaa bends,
The robes resumes, the glittering car ascends,
Far blooming o'er the field; and as she press'd
The splendid seat, the listening chief address'd.
Stranger, arise! the sun rolls down the day;
Lo, to the palace I direct thy way;
Where in high state the nobles of the land
Attend my royal sire, a radiant band.
But hear, though wisdom in thy soul presides,
Speaks from thy tongue, and every action guides;
Advance at distance, while I pass the plain
Where o'er the furrows waves the golden grain : 310
Alone I re-ascend-With airy mounds
A strength of wall the guarded city bounds;
The jutting land two ample bays divides;
Full through the narrow mouths descend the tides:
The spacious basins arching rocks enclose,
A sure defence from every storm that blows.
Close to the bay great Neptune's fane adjoins,
Where waving shades obscure the mazy streams. 250 And near, a forum flank'd with marble shines,
Where the bold youth, the numerous fleets to store,
Shape the broad sail, or smooth the taper oar:
For not the bow they bend, nor boast the skill
To give the feather'd arrow wings to kill;
But the tall mast above the vessel rear,
Or teach the fluttering sail to float in air.
They rush into the deep with eager joy,
Climb the steep surge, and through the tempest fly;
A proud, unpolish'd race-To me belongs
260 The care to shun the blast of slanderous tongues
Lest malice, prone the virtuous to defame,
Thus with vile censure taint my spotless name: 330
"What stranger this whom thus Nausicaa leads?
Heavens, with what graceful majesty he treads!
Perhaps a native of some distant shore,
The future consort of her bridal hour;
Or rather some descendant of the skies!
Won by her prayer, the aërial bridegroom flies.
Heaven on that hour its choicest influence shed,
270 That gave a foreign spouse to crown her bed!
All, all the godlike worthies that adorn
This realm, she flies: Phæacia is her scorn."
And just the blame : for female innocence
Not only flies the guilt, but shuns the offence;
Obedient to the call, the chief they guide
To the calm current of the secret tide:
Close by the stream a royal dress they lay,
A vest and robe with rich embroidery gay:
Then unguents in a vase of gold supply,
That breathed a fragrance through the balmy sky.
To them the king. No longer I detain
Your friendly care; retire, ye virgin train!
Retire, while from my wearied limbs I lave
The foul pollution of the briny wave.
Ye gods! since this worn frame refection knew,
What scenes have I survey'd of dreadful view!
But, nymphs, recede! sage chastity denies
To raise the blush, or pain the modest eyes.
The nymphs withdrawn, at once into the tide
Active he bounds; the flashing waves divide:
O'er all his limbs his hands the wave diffuse,
And from his locks compress the weedy ooze;
The balmy oil, a fragrant shower, he sheds:
Then, dress'd, in pomp magnificently treads.
The warrior-goddess gives his frame to shine
With majesty enlarged, and air divine:
Back from his brows a length of hair unfurls,
His hyacinthine locks descend in wavy curls.
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The unguarded virgin, as unchaste, I blame;
And the least freedom with the sex is shame,
Till our consenting sires a spouse provide,
And public nuptials justify the bride.
But wouldst thou soon review thy native plain?
Attend, and speedy thou shalt the main:
Nigh where a grove with verdant poplars crown'd,
To Pallas sacred, shades the holy ground,
We bend our way: a bubbling fount distils,
A lucid lake, and thence descends in rills;,
Around the grove, a mead with lively green
Falls by degrees, and forms a beauteous scene;
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 strong shout along the waves of air.
There wait embower'd, while I ascend alone
To great Alcinous on his royal throne.
Arrived, advance, impatient of delay,
And to the lofty palace bend thy way:
The lofty palace overlooks the town,
From every dome by pomp superior known;
A child may point the way. With earnest gait
Seek thou the queen along the rooms of state;
Her royal hand a wondrous work designs,
Around a circle of bright damsels shines;
Part twist the threads, and part the wool dispose,
While with the purple orb the spindle glows.
High on a throne, amid the Scherian powers
My royal father shares the genial hours;
But to the queen thy mournful tale disclose,
With the prevailing eloquence of woes:
So shalt thou view with joy thy natal shore,
Though mountains rise between, and oceans roar.
She added not, but waving as she wheel'd
The silver scourge, it glitter'd o'er the field:
With skill the virgin guides the embroider'd rein,
Slow rolls the car before the attending train.
Now whirling down the heavens, the golden day
Shot through the western clouds a dewy ray;
The
lates to her and Alcinous his departure from Calypso, And his arrival on their dominions.
The same day continues, and the book ends with the night.
THE patient heavenly man thus suppliant pray'd;
While the slow mules draw on the imperial maid:
350 Through the proud street she moves, the public gaze
The turning wheel before the palace stays.
With ready love her brothers gathering round,
Received the vestures, and the mules unbound.
She seeks the bridal bower: a matron there
The rising fire supplies with busy care,
Whose charms in youth her father's heart inflamed,
Now worn with age, Eurymedusa named:
The captive dame Phæacian rovers bore,
360 Snatch'd from Epirus, her sweet native shore,
(A grateful prize,) and in her bloom bestow'd
On good Alcinous, honour'd as a god;
Nurse of Nausicaa from her infant years,
And tender second to a mother's cares.
Now from the sacred thicket where he lay,
To town Ulysses took the winding way.
Propitious Pallas, to secure her care,
Around him spread a veil of thicken'd air:
To shun the encounter of the vulgar crowd,
370 Insulting still, inquisitive and loud.
When near the famed Pharacian walls he drew,
The beauteous city opening to his view,
His step a virgin met, and stood before:
A polish'd urn the seeming virgin bore,
And youthful smiled; but in the low disguise
Lay hid the goddess with the azure eyes.
Show me, fair daughter (thus the chief demands, The house of him who rules these happy lands. Through many woes and wanderings, lo! I come 350 To good Alcinous' hospitable dome.
grove they reach, where from the sacred shade To Pallas thus the pensive hero pray'd.
Daughter of Jove! whose arms in thunder wield
The avenging bolt, and shake the dreadful shield;
Forsook by thee, in vain I sought thy aid
When booming billows closed above head:
Attend, unconquer'd maid! accord my vows,
Bid the great hear, and pitying heal my woes.
This heard Minerva, but forbore to fly
Far from my native coast, I rove along,
A wretched stranger, and of all unknown!
The goddess answer'd, Father, I obey,
And point the wandering traveller his way:
Well known to me the palace you inquire,
For fast beside it dwells my honour'd sire:
But silent march, nor greet the common train
With question needless, or inquiry vain :
A race of rugged mariners are these:
390 Unpolish'd men, and boisterous as their seas;
The native islanders alone their care,
And hateful he who breathes a foreign air.
These did the ruler of the deep ordain
To build proud navies, and command the main;
On canvas wings to cut the watery way:
No bird so light, no thought so swift as they.
(By Neptune awed) apparent from the sky;
Stern god! who raged with vengeance unrestrain'd,
Till great Ulysses hail'd his native land.
Thus having spoke, the unknown celestial leads: The footsteps of the deity he treads, And secret moves along the crowded space, Unseen of all the rude Phæacian race. (So Pallas order'd. Pallas to their eyes The princess Nausicaa returns to the city, and Ulysses The mist objected, and condensed the skies.) soon after follows thither. He is met by Pallas in the The chief with wonder sees the extended streets, form of a young virgin, who guides him to the palace. The spreading harbours, and the riding fleets; and directs him in what manner to address the queen He next their princes' lofty domes admires, Arete. She then involves him in a mist, which causes In separate islands, crown'd with rising spires; him to pass invisible. The palace and gardens of Alcinous described. Ulysses falling at the feet of the And deep entrenchments, and high walls of stone queen, the mist disperses, the Phæacians admire, and That gird the city like a marble zone receive him with respect. The queen inquiring by At length the kingly palace gates he view'd; what means he had the garments he then wore, he re- There stopp'd the goddess, and her speech renew'd.
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