In such heroic games I yield to none::
Or yield to brave Laodamas alone;
Shall I with brave Laodamas contend?
A friend is sacred, and I style him friend.
Ungenerous were the man, and base of heart,
Who takes the kind, and pays the ungrateful part:
Chiefly the man in foreign realms confined,
Base to his friend, to his own interest blind :
All, all your heroes I this day defy;
Give me a man, that we our might may try.
Expert in every art, I boast the skill

To give the feather'd arrow wings to kill;
Should a whole host at once discharge the bow,
My well-aim'd shaft with death prevents the foe:
Alone superior in the field of Troy,
Great Philoctetes taught the shaft to fly.
From all the sons of earth unrival'd praise
I justly claim; but yield to better days,
To those famed days when great Alcides rose,
And Eurytus, who bade the gods be foes:
(Vain Eurytus, whose art became his crime,
Swept from the earth he perish'd in his prime;
Sudden the irremeable way he trod,
Who boldly durst defy the bowyer-god.)
In fighting fields as far the spear I throw,
As flies an arrow from the well-drawn bow.
Sole in the race the contest I decline,
Stiff are my weary joints; and I resign,
By storms and hunger worn: age well may fail,
When storms and hunger both at once assail."
Abash'd the numbers hear the godlike man,
Till great Alcinous mildly thus began: [tongue
"Well hast thou spoke, and well thy generous
With decent pride refutes a public wrong:
Warm are thy words, but warm without offence;
Fear only fools, secure in men of sense :
Thy worth is known. Then hear our country's
And bear to heroes our heroic fame;
In distant realms our glorious deeds display,
Repeat them frequent in the genial day; [end,
When bless'd with ease thy woes and wanderings
Teach them thy consort, bid thy sons attend;
How loved of Jove he crown'd our sires with praise,
How we, their offspring, dignify our race.

[claim,

"Let other realms the deathful gauntlet wield, Or boast the glories of the athletic field; We in the course unrival'd speed display, Or through cærulean billows plough the way; To dress, to dance, to sing, our sole delight, The feast or bath by day, and love by night: Rise then, ye skill'd in measures; let him bear Your fame to men that breathe a distant air, And faithful say, to you the powers belong To race, to sail, to dance, to chant the song. But, herald, to the palace swift repair, And the soft lyre to grace our pastimes bear." Swift at the word, obedient to the king, The herald flies the tuneful lyre to bring. Up rose nine seniors, chosen to survey The future games, the judges of the day: With instant care they mark a spacious round, And level for the dance the allotted ground: The herald bears the lyre: intent to play, The bard advancing meditates the lay: Skill'd in the dance, tall youths, a blooming band, Graceful before the heavenly minstrel stand; Light-bounding from the earth, at once they rise, Their feet half viewless quiver in the skies: Ulysses gazed, astonish'd to survey

The glancing splendours as their sandals play.

Meantime the bard, alternate to the strings,
The loves of Mars and Cytherea sings;
How the stern god, enamour'd with her charms,
Clasp'd the gay panting goddess in his arms,
By bribes seduced: and how the sun, whose eye
Views the broad heavens, disclosed the lawless joy.
Stung to the soul, indignant through the skies
To his black forge vindictive Vulcan flies:
Arrived, his sinewy arms incessant place
The eternal anvil on the massy base.
A wondrous net he labours, to betray
The wanton lovers, as entwined they lay;
Indissolubly strong! Then instant bears
To his immortal dome the finish'd snares.
Above, below, around, with art dispread,
The sure enclosure folds the genial bed;
Whose texture even the search of gods deceives,
Thin as the filmy threads the spider weaves.
Then, as withdrawing from the starry bowers,
He feigns a journey to the Lemnian shores,
His favourite isle! Observant Mars descries
His wish'd recess, and to the goddess flies;
He glows, he burns: the fair-hair'd queen of love
Descends smooth-gliding from the courts of Jove,
Gay blooming in full charms: her hand he press'd
With eager joy, and with a sigh address'd:

"Come, my beloved! and taste the soft delights:
Come, to repose the genial bed invites:
Thy absent spouse, neglectful of thy charms,
Prefers his barbarous Sintians to thy arms!"
Then, nothing loth, the enamour'd fair he led,
And sunk transported on the conscious bed.
Down rush'd the toils, inwrapping as they lay
The careless lovers in their wanton play:
In vain they strive, the intangling snares deny
(Inextricably firm) the power to fly.

Warn'd by the god who sheds the golden day,
Stern Vulcan homeward treads the starry way:
Arrived, he sees, he grieves, with rage he burns ;
Full horrible he roars, his voice all heaven returns.
"O Jove! (he cried) O all ye powers above,
See the lewd dalliance of the queen of love!
Me, awkward me, she scorns, and yields her charms
To that fair letcher, the strong god of arms.
If I am lame, that stain my natal hour
By fate imposed; such me my parent bore:
Why was I born? See how the wanton lies!
O sight tormenting to a husband's eyes!
But yet, I trust, this once even Mars would fly
His fair one's arms-he thinks her, once, too nigh.
But there remain, ye guilty, in my power,
Till Jove refunds his shameless daughter's dower.
Too dear I prized a fair enchanting face:
Beauty unchaste is beauty in disgrace."

Meanwhile the gods the dome of Vulcan throng,
Apollo comes, and Neptune comes along,
With these gay Hermes trod the starry plain;
But modesty withheld the goddess-train.
All heaven beholds, imprison'd as they lie,
And unextinguish'd laughter shakes the sky.

Then mutual, thus they spoke: "Behold on wrong Swift vengeance waits; and art subdues the strong! Dwells there a god on all the Olympian brow More swift than Mars, and more than Vulcan slow? Yet Vulcan conquers, and the god of arms Must pay the penalty for lawless charms."

Thus serious they but he who gilds the skies, The gay Apollo, thus to Hermes cries: "Would'st thou, enchain'd like Mars, O Hermes, lie, And bear the shame like Mars, to share the joy?"

"O envied shame! (the smiling youth rejoin'd) Add thrice the chains, and thrice more firmly bind; Gaze, all ye gods, and every goddess gaze, Yet eager would I bless the sweet disgrace."

Loud laugh the rest, even Neptune laughs aloud, Yet sues importunate to loose the god : "And free (he cries) O Vulcan! free from shame Thy captives; I ensure the penal claim."

"Will Neptune (Vulcan then) the faithless trust? He suffers who gives surety for the unjust: But say, if that lewd scandal of the sky, To liberty restored, perfidious fly ; Say, wilt thou bear the mulct!" He instant cries, "The mulct I bear, if Mars perfidious flies."

To whom appeased: "No more I urge delay! When Neptune sues, my part is to obey." Then to the snares his force the god applies; They burst; and Mars to Thrace indignant flies: To the soft Cyprian shores the goddess moves, To visit Paphos and her blooming groves, Where to the power a hundred altars rise, And breathing odours scent the balmy skies : Conceal'd she bathes in consecrated bowers, The Graces unguents shed, ambrosial showers, Unguents that charm the gods ! she last assumes Her wondrous robes; and full the goddess blooms. Thus sung the bard: Ulysses hears with joy, And loud applauses rend the vaulted sky.

Then to the sports his sons the king commands: Each blooming youth before the monarch stands, In dance unmatch'd! A wondrous ball is brought, (The work of Polybus, divinely wrought) This youth with strength enormous bids it fly, And bending backward whirls it to the sky; His brother, springing with an active bound, At distance intercepts it from the ground: The ball dismiss'd, in dance they skim the strand, Turn and return, and scarce imprint the sand. The assembly gazes with astonish'd eyes, And send in shouts applauses to the skies.

Then thus Ulysses: “ Happy king, whose name The brightest shines in all the rolls of fame: In subjects happy! with surprise I gaze; Thy praise was just; their skill transcends thy praise."

Pleased with his people's fame the monarch hears,

And thus benevolent accosts the peers:
"Since wisdom's sacred guidance he pursues,
Give to the stranger-guest a stranger's dues :
Twelve princes in our realm dominion share,
O'er whom supreme imperial power I bear:
Bring gold, a pledge of love; a talent bring,
A vest, a robe; and imitate your king:
Be swift to give; that he this night may share
The social feast of joy, with joy sincere.
And thou, Euryalus, redeem thy wrong :
A generous heart repairs a slanderous tongue."
The assenting peers, obedient to the king,
In haste their heralds send the gifts to bring.
Then thus Euryalus: "O prince, whose sway
Rules this bless'd realm, repentant I obey!
Be his this sword, whose blade of brass displays
A ruddy gleam; whose hilt, a silver blaze;
Whose ivory sheath, inwrought with curious pride,
Adds graceful terror to the wearer's side."

He said, and to his hand the sword consign'd;
"And if (he cried) my words affect thy mind,
Far from thy mind those words, ye whirlwinds, bear,
And scatter them, ye storms, in empty air !

Crown, O ye heavens, with joy his peaceful hours,
And grant him to his spouse and native shores!”
"And bless'd be thou, my friend, (Ulysses cries)
Crown him with every joy, ye favouring skies;
To thy calm hours continued peace afford,
And never, never may'st thou want this sword!”

He said, and o'er his shoulder flung the blade.
Now o'er the earth ascends the evening shade:
The precious gifts the illustrious heralds bear,
And to the court the embodied peers repair.
Before the queen Alcinous' sons unfold
The vests, the robes, and heaps of shining gold;
Then to the radiant thrones they move in state:
Aloft, the king in pomp imperial sat.

Thence to the queen: "O partner of our reign, O sole beloved! command thy menial train A polish'd chest and stately robes to bear, And healing waters for the bath prepare: That, bathed, our guest may bid his sorrows cease, Hear the sweet song, and taste the feast in peace. A bowl that flames with gold, of wondrous frame, Ourself we give, memorial of our name ! To raise in offerings to almighty Jove, And every god that treads the courts above." Instant the queen, observant of the king, Commands her train a spacious vase to bring; The spacious vase with ample streams suffice, Heap high the wood, and bid the flames arise. The flames climb round it with a fierce embrace, The fuming waters bubble o'er the blaze. Herself the chest prepares: in order roll'd The robes, the vests are ranged, and heaps of gold: And adding a rich dress inwrought with art, A gift expressive of her bounteous heart, Thus spoke to Ithacus: "To guard with bands Insolvable these gifts, thy care demands; Lest, in thy slumbers on the watery main, The hand of rapine make our bounty vain."

Then bending with full force, around he roll'd A labyrinth of bands in fold on fold, Closed with Circæan art. A train attends Around the bath: the bath the king ascends: (Untasted joy, since that disastrous hour He sail'd, ill-fated, from Calypso's bower, Where, happy as the gods that range the sky, He feasted every sense, with every joy.) He bathes; the damsels with officious toil Shed sweets, shed unguents, in a shower of oil: Then o'er his limbs a gorgeous robe he spreads, And to the feast magnificently treads. Full where the dome its shining valves expands, Nausicaa blooming as a goddess stands, With wondering eyes the hero she survey'd, And graceful thus began the royal maid:

"Hail, godlike stranger! and when heaven reTo thy fond wish thy long-expected shores, [stores This, ever grateful, in remembrance bear, To me thou owest, to me, the vital air."

"O royal maid, (Ulysses straight returns) Whose worth the splendours of thy race adorns, So may dread Jove, whose arm in vengeance forms The writhen bolt, and blackens heaven with storms, Restore me safe, through weary wanderings tost, To my dear country's ever-pleasing coast, As while the spirit in this bosom glows, To thee, my goddess, I address my vows: My life, thy gift I boast!"-He said and sat, Fast by Alcinous, on a throne of state. Now each partakes the feast, the wine prepares, Portions the food, and each his portion shares.

The bard a herald guides: the gazing throng
Pay low obeisance as he moves along:
Beneath a sculptured arch he sits enthroned,
The peers encircling form an awful round.
Then from the chine, Ulysses carves with art
Delicious food, an honorary part;
"This, let the master of the lyre receive,
A pledge of love! 'tis all a wretch can give.
Lives there a man beneath the spacious skies,
Who sacred honours to the bard denies?
The muse the bard inspires, exalts his mind;
The muse indulgent loves the harmonious kind."
The herald to his hand the charge conveys,
Not fond of flattery, nor unpleased with praise.
When now the rage of hunger was allay'd,
Thus to the lyrist wise Ulysses said:

"O more than man! thy soul the Muse inspires, Or Phoebus animates with all his fires:

For who, by Phoebus uninform'd, could know
The woe of Greece, and sing so well the woe!
Just to the tale, as present at the fray,
Or taught the labours of the dreadful day!
The song recals past horrors to my eyes,
And bids proud Ilion from her ashes rise.
Once more harmonious strike the sounding string,
The Epaan fabric, framed by Pallas, sing:
How stern Ulysses, furious to destroy,
With latent heroes sack'd imperial Troy.
If faithful thou record the tale of fame,
The god himself inspires thy breast with flame:
And mine shall be the task, henceforth, to raise
In every land thy monument of praise."

Full of the god, he raised his lofty strain,
How the Greeks rush'd tumultuous to the main:
How blazing tents illumined half the skies,
While from the shores the winged navy flies:
How even in Ilion's walls, in deathful bands,
Came the stern Greeks by Troy's assisting hands:
All Troy up-heaved the steed; of different mind,
Various the Trojans counsel'd; part consign'd
The monster to the sword, part sentence gave
To plunge it headlong in the whelming wave;
The unwise award to lodge it in the towers,
An offering sacred to the immortal powers:
The unwise prevail, they lodge it in the walls,
And by the gods' decree proud Ilion falls;
Destruction enters in the treacherous wood,
And vengeful slaughter, fierce for human blood.
He sung the Greeks stern-issuing from the steed,
How Ilion burns, how all her fathers bleed:
How to thy dome, Deïphobus! ascends
The Spartan king; how Ithacus attends
(Horrid as Mars), and how with dire alarms
He fights, subdues; for Pallas strings his arms.
Thus while he sung, Ulysses' griefs renew,
Tears bathe his cheeks, and tears the ground bedew.
As some fond matron views in mortal fight
Her husband falling in his country's right:
Frantic through clashing swords she runs, she flies,
As ghastly pale he groans, and faints, and dies:
Close to his breast she grovels on the ground,
And bathes with floods of tears the gaping wound;
She cries, she shrieks; the fierce insulting foe
Relentless mocks her violence of woe:
To chains condemn'd, as wildly she deplores;
A widow, and a slave on foreign shores.

So from the sluices of Ulysses' eyes
Fast fell the tears, and sighs succeeded sighs:
Conceal'd he grieved: the king observed alone
The silent tear, and heard the secret groan:

Then to the bard aloud: "O cease to sing,
Dumb be thy voice, and mute the tuneful string:
To every note his tears responsive flow,
And his great heart heaves with tumultuous woe;
Thy lay too deeply moves: then cease the lay,
And o'er the banquet every heart be gay:
This social right demands: for him the sails,
Floating in air, invite the impelling gales:
His are the gifts of love: the wise and good
Receive the stranger as a brother's blood.

[main,

"But, friend, discover faithful what I crave;
Artful concealment ill becomes the brave:
Say what thy birth, and what the name you bore,
Imposed by parents in the natal hour?
(For from the natal hour distinctive names,
One common right, the great and lowly claims.)
Say from what city, from what regions tost,
And what inhabitants those regions boast?
So shalt thou instant reach the realm assign'd,
In wondrous ships self-moved, instinct with mind;
No helm secures their course, no pilot guides;
Like man intelligent, they plough the tides,
Conscious of every coast and every bay,
That lies beneath the sun's all-seeing ray:
Though clouds anddarkness veil the encumber'd sky,
Fearless through darkness and through clouds
they fly:
Though tempests rage, though rolls the swelling
The seas may roll, the tempests rage in vain;
Even the stern god that o'er the waves presides,
Safe as they pass, and safe repass the tides,
With fury burns; while careless they convey
Promiscuous every guest to every bay.
These ears have heard my royal sire disclose
A dreadful story big with future woes:
How Neptune raged, and how, by his command,
Firm rooted in a surge a ship should stand
A monument of wrath: how mound on mound
Should bury these proud towers beneath the ground.
But this the gods may frustrate or fulfil,
As suits the purpose of the eternal will.
But say through what waste regions hast thou
stray'd,

What customs noted, and what coasts survey'd?
Possess'd by wild barbarians fierce in arms,
Or men, whose bosom tender pity warms?
Say why the fate of Troy awaked thy cares,
Why heaved thy bosom, and why flow'd thy tears?
Just are the ways of heaven: from heaven proceed
The woes of man; heaven doom'd the Greeks to
bleed,

A theme of future song! Say then if slain
Some dear-loved brother press'd the Phrygian plain?
Or bled some friend, who bore a brother's part,
And claim'd by merit, not by blood, the heart?"

BOOK IX.

ARGUMENT.

THE ADVENTURES OF THE CICONS, LOTOPHAGI, AND
CYCLOPS.

Ulysses begins the relation of his adventures; how, after the destruction of Troy, he with his companions made an incursion on the Cicons, by whom they were repulsed; and meeting with a storm, were driven to the coast of the Lotophagi. From whence they sailed to the land of the Cyclops, whose manners and situation are particularly characterised. The giant Polyphemus and his cave

D D

described; the usage Ulysses and his companions met with there; and, lastly, the method and artifice by which he escaped.

THEN thus Ulysses:-"Thou, whom first in sway,
As first in virtue, these thy realms obey;
How sweet the products of a peaceful reign!
The heaven-taught poet, and enchanting strain ;
The well-fill'd palace, the perpetual feast,
A land rejoicing, and a people bless'd!
How goodly seems it, ever to employ
Man's social days in union and in joy;
The plenteous board high-heap'd with cates divine,
And o'er the foaming bowl the laughing wine!

"Amid these joys, why seeks thy mind to know The unhappy series of a wanderer's woe; Remembrance sad, whose image to review, Alas! must open all my wounds anew? And oh, what first, what last shall I relate, Of woes unnumber'd sent by heaven and fate? "Know first, the man (though now a wretch distress'd)

Who hopes thee, monarch, for his future guest:
Behold Ulysses! no ignoble name,

Earth sounds my wisdom, and high heaven my fame.
"My native soil is Ithaca the fair,
Where high Neritus waves his woods in air:
Dulichium, Samè, and Zacynthus crown'd
With shady mountains, spread their isles around.
(These to the north and night's dark regions run,
Those to Aurora and the rising sun.)
Low lies our isle, yet bless'd in fruitful stores;
Strong are her sons, though rocky are her shores;
And none, ah none so lovely to my sight,

Promiscuous death the form of war confounds,
Each adverse battle gored with equal wounds :
But when his evening wheels o'erhung the main,
Then conquest crown'd the fierce Ciconian train.
Six brave companions from each ship we lost,
The rest escape in haste, and quit the coast.
With sails outspread we fly the unequal strife,
Sad for their loss, but joyful of our life.
Yet as we fled, our fellows' rites we paid,
And thrice we call'd on each unhappy shade.
"Meanwhile the god, whose hand the thunder
forms,

Drives clouds on clouds, and blackens heaven with

storms:

Wide o'er the waste the rage of Boreas sweeps,
And night rush'd headlong on the shaded deeps.
Now here, now there, the giddy ships are borne,
And all the rattling shrouds in fragments torn.
We furl'd the sail, we plied the labouring oar,
Took down our masts, and row'd our ships to shore.
Two tedious days and two long nights we lay,
O'erwatch'd and batter'd in the naked bay.
But the third morning when Aurora brings,
We rear the masts, we spread the canvass wings;
Refresh'd, and careless on the deck reclined,
We sit, and trust the pilot and the wind.
Then to my native country had I sail'd;
But, the cape doubled, adverse winds prevail'd.
Strong was the tide, which, by the northern blast
Impell'd, our vessels on Cythera cast.

Nine days our fleet the uncertain tempest bore
Far in wide ocean, and from sight of shore:
The tenth we touch'd, by various errors toss'd,
The land of Lotos, and the flowery coast.

In vain Calypso long constrain'd my stay,
With sweet, reluctant, amorous delay;
With all her charms as vainly Circe strove,
And added magic, to secure my love.
In pomps or joys, the palace or the grot,
My country's image never was forgot,
My absent parents rose before my sight,
And distant lay contentment and delight.

"Hear then the woes, which mighty Jove ordain'd
To waft my passage from the Trojan land.
The winds from Ilion to the Cicons' shore,
Beneath cold Ismarus, our vessels bore.
We boldly landed on the hostile place,
And sack'd the city, and destroy'd the race,
Their wives made captive, their possessions shared,
And every soldier found a like reward.
I then advised to fly; not so the rest,
Who staid to revel, and prolong the feast:
The fatted sheep and sable bulls they slay,
And bowls fly round, and riot wastes the day,
Meantime the Cicons, to their holds retired,
Call on the Cicons, with new fury fired;
With early morn the gather'd country swarms,
And all the continent is bright with arms;
Thick as the budding leaves or rising flowers
O'erspread the land, when spring descends in
showers:

All expert soldiers, skill'd on foot to dare,
Or from the bounding courser urge the war.
Now fortune changes, (so the fates ordain)
Our hour was come to taste our share of pain.
Close at the ships the bloody fight began,
Wounded they wound, and man expires on man.
Long as the morning sun increasing bright
O'er heaven's pure azure spread the growing light,

Then spread our hasty banquet on the ground.
Three men were sent, deputed from the crew,
(A herald one) the dubious coast to view,
And learn what habitants possess'd the place.
They went, and found a hospitable race;
Not prone to ill, nor strange to foreign guest,
They eat, they drink, and nature gives the feast;
The trees around them all their fruit produce;
Lotos the name; divine, nectareous juice!
(Thence call'd Lotophagi) which whoso tastes,
Insatiate riots in the sweet repasts,

Nor other home nor other care intends,

But quits his house, his country, and his friends:
The three we sent, from off the enchanting ground
We dragg'd reluctant, and by force we bound:
The rest in haste forsook the pleasing shore,
Or, the charm tasted, had return'd no more.
Now placed in order on their banks, they sweep
The sea's smooth face, and cleave the hoary deep;
With heavy hearts we labour through the tide,
To coasts unknown, and oceans yet untried.

"The land of Cyclops first; a savage kind,
Nor tamed by manners, nor by laws confined:
Untaught to plant, to turn the glebe and sow;
They all their products to free nature owe.
The soil untill'd a ready harvest yields,
With wheat and barley wave the golden fields,
Spontaneous wines from weighty clusters pour,
And Jove descends in each prolific shower.
By these no statutes and no rights are known,
No council held, no monarch fills the throne;
But high on hills or airy cliffs they dwell,
Or deep in caves whose entrance leads to hell.
Each rules his race, his neighbour not his care,
Heedless of others, to his own severe,

"Opposed to the Cyclopean coasts there lay
An isle, whose hills their subject fields survey;
Its name Lachæa, crown'd with many a grove,
Where savage goats through pathless thickets rove:
No needy mortals here, with hunger bold,

Or wretched hunters, through the wintery cold,
Pursue their flight; but leave them safe to bound
From hill to hill, o'er all the desert ground.
Nor knows the soil to feed the fleecy care,
Or feels the labours of the crooked share;
But uninhabited, untill'd, unsown

It lies, and breeds the bleating goat alone.
For there no vessel with vermilion prore,
Or bark of traffic, glides from shore to shore;
The rugged race of savages, unskill'd
The seas to traverse, or the ships to build,
Gaze on the coast, nor cultivate the soil;
Unlearn'd in all the industrious arts of toil.
Yet here all products and all plants abound,
Sprung from the fruitful genius of the ground;
Fields waving high with heavy crops are seen,
And vines that flourish in eternal green,
Refreshing meads along the murmuring main,
And fountains streaming down the fruitful plain.
"A port there is, enclosed on either side,
Where ships may rest, unanchor'd and untied,
Till the glad mariners incline to sail,
And the sea whitens with the rising gale.
High at its head, from out the cavern'd rock,
In living rills a gushing fountain broke:
Around it, and above, for ever green
The bushing alders form'd a shady scene.
Hither some favouring god, beyond our thought,
Through all-surrounding shade our navy brought ;
For gloomy night descended on the main,
Nor glimmer'd Phoebe in the ethereal plain:
But all unseen the clouded island lay,
And all unseen the surge and rolling sea,
Till safe we anchor'd in the shelter'd bay.
Our sails we gather'd, cast our cables o'er,
And slept secure along the sandy shore.
Soon as again the rosy morning shone,
Reveal'd the landscape and the scene unknown;
With wonder seized we view the pleasing ground,
And walk delighted, and expatiate round.
Roused by the woodland nymphs, at early dawn,
The mountain goats came bounding o'er the lawn:
In haste our fellows to the ships repair,
For arms and weapons of the sylvan war;
Straight in three squadrons all our crew we part,
And bend the bow, or wing the missile dart:
The bounteous gods afford a copious prey,
And nine fat goats each vessel bears away;
The royal bark had ten. Our ships complete
We thus supplied (for twelve were all the fleet.)
"Here, till the setting sun roll'd down the light,
We sat indulging in the genial rite:

Nor wines were wanting; those from ample jars
We drain'd, the prize of our Ciconian wars.
The land of Cyclops lay in prospect near;
The voice of goats and bleating flocks we hear,
And from their mountains rising smokes appear.
Now sunk the sun, and darkness cover'd o'er
The face of things: along the sea-beat shore
Satiate we slept: but when the sacred dawn,
Arising, glitter'd o'er the dewy lawn,

I call'd my fellows, and these words address'd:
My dear associates, here indulge your rest;
While with my single ship, adventurous, I
Go forth, the manners of yon men to try;

Whether a race unjust, of barbarous might,
Rude, and unconscious of a stranger's right;
Or such who harbour pity in their breast,
Revere the gods, and succour the distress'd.'
"This said, I climb my vessel's lofty side;
My train obey'd me, and the ship untied,
In order seated on their banks, they sweep
Neptune's smooth face, and cleave the yielding
deep.

When to the nearest verge of land we drew,
Fast by the sea a lonely cave we view,
High, and with darkening laurels cover'd o'er;
Where sheep and goats lay slumbering round the
shore.

Near this, a fence of marble from the rock,
Brown with o'er-arching pine, and spreading oak.
A giant-shepherd here his flock maintains
Far from the rest, and solitary reigns,
In shelter thick of horrid shade reclined;
And gloomy mischiefs labour in his mind.
A form enormous! far unlike the race
Of human birth, in stature, or in face;
As some lone mountain's monstrous growth he
stood,

Crown'd with rough thickets, and a nodding wood.
I left my vessel at the point of land,

And close to guard it, gave our crew command:
With only twelve, the boldest and the best,
I seek the adventure, and forsake the rest.
Then took a goatskin fill'd with precious wine,
The gift of Maron of Evantheus' line

(The priest of Phoebus at the Ismarian shrine.) In sacred shade his honour'd mansion stood Amidst Apollo's consecrated wood;

Him and his house heaven moved my mind to save,
And costly presents in return he gave;
Seven golden talents to perfection wrought,
A silver bowl that held a copious draught,
And twelve large vessels of unmingled wine,
Mellifluous, undecaying, and divine!
Which now some ages from his race conceal'd,
The hoary sire in gratitude reveal'd:

Such was the wine; to quench whose fervent steam,
Scarce twenty measures from the living stream
To cool one cup sufficed: the goblet crown'd
Breathed aromatic fragrancies around.

Of this an ample vase we heaved aboard,
And brought another with provisions stored.
My soul foreboded I should find the bower
Of some fell monster, fierce with barbarous power;
Some rustic wretch, who lived in heaven's despite,
Contemning laws, and trampling on the right.
The cave we found, but vacant all within,
(His flock the giant tended on the green ;)
But round the grot we gaze; and all we view,
In order ranged, our admiration drew:
The bending shelves with loads of cheeses press'd,
The folded flocks each separate from the rest
(The larger here, and there the lesser lambs,
The new-fallen young here bleating for their dams;
The kid distinguish'd from the lambkin lies :)
The cavern echoes with responsive cries.
Capacious chargers all around were laid,
Full pails, and vessels of the milking trade.
With fresh provisions hence our fleet to store
My friends advise me, and to quit the shore;
Or drive a flock of sheep and goats away,
Consult our safety, and put off to sea.
Their wholesome counsel rashly I declined,
Curious to view the man of monstrous kind,