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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 treafures. On their return, Neptune changes their thip 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, difcovers 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 difguife his perfon the more effectually, the changes him into the figure of an old beggar.

THE

THE ODYSSE Y.

BOOK

XIII.

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

that they feed to hear.

A paufe of filence hufh'd the fhady rooms:
The grateful conference then the king resumes:
Whatever toils the great Ulyffes past,
Beneath this happy roof they end at last ;
No longer now from shore to fhore to roam,
Smooth feas and gentle winds invite him home.
But hear me, princes! 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 veft
Lie heap'd already for our god-like guest;
Without new treasures let him not remove,
Large, and expreffive of the public love :
Each peer a tripod, each a vase bestow,

A general tribute, which the ftate fhall owe.
This fentence pleas'd: then all their steps addrest
To separate mansions, and retir'd to rest.
Now did the rofy-finger'd morn arise,
And shed her facred light along the fkies.

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Down to the haven and the fhips in hafte
They bore the treafures, and in fafety plac'd.
The king himself the vases rang'd with care:
Then bade his followers to the feaft repair.
A victim ox beneath the facred hand

Of great Alcinous falls, and ftains the fand.
To Jove th' Eternal (Power above all Powers!

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Who wings the winds, and darkens Heaven with fhowers)

The flames afcend: till evening they prolong

Thy rites, more facred made by heavenly song :
For in the midft, with public honours grac'd,
The lyre divine, Demodocus! was plac'd;
All, but Ulyffes, heard with fix'd delight:

He fate, and ey'd the fun, and wish'd the night;
Slow feem'd the fun to move, the hours to roll,
His native home deep-imag'd in his foul.
As the tir'd ploughman spent with ftubborn toil,
Whose oxen long have torn the furrow'd soil,
Sees with delight the fun's declining ray,
When home with feeble knees he bends his way
To late repaft (the day's hard labour done):
So to Ulyffes welcome fet the fun.

Then inftant to Alcinous and the reft

(The Scherian ftates) 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 least,
When due libation fhall have crown'd the feast,
Safe to my home to send your happy guest.

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Complete

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 blamelefs, and my friends in peace. 55
be every blifs; and every day,

On you

In home-felt joys delighted, roll away :

Yourselves, your wives, your long-defcending race,
May every God enrich with every grace!
Sure fix'd on virtue may your nation stand,

And public evil never touch the land!

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His words, well weigh'd, the general voice approv'd

Benign, and instant his difmiffion mov’d.
The monarch to Pontonous gave the fign,
To fill the goblet high with rofy wine :
Great Jove the Father firft (he cried) implore;
Then fend the ftranger to his native shore.

The lufcious wine th' obedient herald brought;
Around the manfion flow'd the purple draught:
Each from his feat to each immortal pours,
Whom glory circles in th' Olympian bowers.
Ulyffes fole with air majestic stands,

The bowl prefenting to Arete's hands;

Then thus: O Queen, farewell! be still possest
Of dear remembrance, bleffing still and blest!
Till age and death fhall gently call thee hence
(Sure fate of every mortal excellence !)
Farewell! and joys fucceffive ever spring
To thee, to thine, the people, and the king!
Thus he; then parting prints the fandy shore
To the fair port; a herald march'd before,
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Sent

Sent by Alcinous; of Arete's train

Three chofen maids attend him to the main i
This does a tunick and white vest convey,

A various cafket that, of rich inlay,

And bread and wine the third. The chearful mates
Safe in the hollow poop difpofe the cates :

Upon the deck foft painted robes they spread,
With linen cover'd for the hero's bed.
He climb'd the lofty ftern! then gently prest
The fwelling couch, and lay compos'd to reft.
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 leffening fhores.
While on the deck the chief in filence lies,
And pleafing flumbers steal upon
his eyes.
As fiery courfers in the rapid race

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Urg'd by fierce drivers through the dufty space,
Tofs their high heads, and scour along the plain; 100
So mounts the bounding vessel o'er the main.
Back to the ftern the parted billows flow,
And the black ocean foams and roars below.

Thus with spread fails the winged galley flies;
Lefs fwift an eagle cuts the liquid fkies;
Divine Ulyffes was her facred load,

A man, in wisdom equal to a God!
Much danger, long and mighty toils, he bore,
In storms by fea, and combats on the shore:
All which foft fleep now banish'd from his breast,
Wrapt in a pleafing, deep, and death-like rest.

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But

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