Three starless nights the doubtful navy strays
Without distinction, and three funless days.
The fourth renews the light, and, from our fhrouds,
We view a rifing land like diftant clouds :.
The mountain-tops confirm the pleafing fight,
And curling smoke afcending from their height.
The canvass falls, their oars the failors ply,
From the rude strokes the whirling waters fly.
At length I land upon the Strophades,
Safe from the danger of the ftormy feas:
Those ifles are compafs'd by th' Iönian main,
The dire abode where the foul harpies reign:
Forc'd by the winged warriors to repair
To their old homes, and leave their costly fare.
Monsters more fierce, offended heaven ne'er fent 280.
From hell's abyss, for human punishment.
With virgin-faces, but with wombs obfcene,
Foul paunches, and with ordure still unclean ::
With claws for hands, and looks for ever lean.
We landed at the port, and foon beheld
Fat herds of oxen graze the flowery field:
And wanton goats without a keeper stray'd;
With weapons we the welcome prey invade.
Then call the gods for partners of our feast:
And Jove himself the chief invited gueft.
We spread the tables on the greenfword ground:
We feed with hunger, and the bowls go round:
When from the mountain tops, with hideous cry,
And clattering wings, the hungry harpies fly :
They fnatch the meat, defiling all they find;
And, parting, leave a loathfome stench behind.
Clofe by a hollow rock again we fit,
New drefs the dinner, and the beds refit;
Secure from fight, beneath a pleasing shade,
Where tufted trees a native arbour made.
I bid my friends for vengeance then prepare,
And with the hellifh nation wage the war.
They, as commanded, for the fight provide,
And in the grafs their glittering weapons hide :
Then, when along the crooked shore we hear
Their clattering wings, and faw the foes appear,
Mifenus founds a charge: we take th' alarm,
And our ftrong hands with swords and bucklers arm.
In this new kind of combat all employ
Their utmost force the monsters to destroy.
In vain; the fated skin is proof to wounds:
And, from their plumes, the fhining fword rebounds.
At length, rebuff'd, they leave their mangled prey,
And their stretch'd pinions to the skies display.
Yet one remain'd the meffenger of Fate,
High on a craggy cliff Celano fate,
And thus her difmal errand did relate:
What, not contented with our oxen flain,
Dare you with heaven an impious war maintain, 325 And drive the harpies from their native reign? Heed, therefore, what I fay, and keep in mind What Jove decrees, what Phoebus has defign'd: And I, the Fury's queen, from both relate:
You feek th' Italian fhores, foredoom'd by fate: 330 Th' Italian fhores are granted you to find,
And a fafe paffage to the port affign'd.
But know, that ere your promis'd walls you build,
My curfes fhall feverely be fulfill'd.
Fierce famine is your lot, for this misdeed,
Reduc'd to grind the plates on
which you feed.
She faid, and to the neighbouring forest flew :
Our courage fails us, and our fears renew.
Hopeless to win by war, to prayers we fall,
And on th' offended harpies humbly call.
And whether gods or birds obscene they were,
Our vows for pardon and for peace prefer.
But old Anchises, offering facrifice,
And lifting up to heaven his hands and eyes,
Ador'd the greater gods: Avert, faid he,
These omens; render vain this prophecy;
And, from th' impending curfe, a pious people free.
Thus having said, he bids us put to sea ;
We loose from fhore our hausers and obey,
And foon, with fwelling fails, pursue our watery way.
Amidst our course Zacynthian woods appear;
And next by rocky Neritos we fteer:
We fly from Ithaca's detefted shore,
And curfe the land which dire Ulyffes bore.
At length Leucate's cloudy top appears,
And the fun's temple, which the failor fears.
Refolv'd to breathe a while from labour past,
Our crooked anchors from the prow we caft,
And joyful to the little city haste.
Here fafe, beyond our hopes, our vows we pay
To Jove, the guide and patron of our way.
The customs of our country we pursue,
And Trojan games on Actian fhores renew.
Our youth their naked limbs befmear with oil,
And exercife the wreftlers noble toil.
Pleas'd to have fail'd fo long before the wind,
And left fo many Grecian towns behind.
The fun had now fulfill'd his annual courfe,
And Boreas on the feas difplay'd his force:
I fix'd upon the temple's lofty door
The brazen shield which vanquifh'd Abas bore:
The verse beneath my name and action speaks,
These arms Æneas took from conquering Greeks.
Then I command to weigh; the feamen ply
Their fweeping oars, the smoking billows fly.
The fight of high Phæacia foon we loft,
And fkim'd along Epirus' rocky coaft.
Then to Chaonia's port our course we bend,
And, landed, to Buthrotus, heights afcend.
Here wondrous things were loudly blaz'd by fame, 380 How Helenus reviv'd the Trojan name,
And reign'd in Greece: That Priam's captive fon
Succeeded Pyrrhus in his bed and throne.
And fair Andromache, restor'd by fate,
Once more was happy in a Trojan mate.
I leave my gallies riding in the port,
And long to fee the new Dardanian court.
By chance, the mournful queen, before the gate,
Then folemniz'd her former husband's fate.
Green altars, rais'd of turf, with gifts fhe crown'd,
And facred priests in order stand around,
And thrice the name of hapless Hector found.
The grove itself resembles Ida's wood,
And Simois feem'd the well-diffembled flood.
But when, at nearer diftance, fhe beheld
My fhining armour, and my Trojan fhield,
Astonish'd at the fight, the vital heat
Forfakes her limbs, her veins no longer beat:
She faints, she falls; and, scarce recovering strength,
Thus, with a faultering tongue, fhe fpeaks at length:
Are you alive, O goddess-born! she said,
Or if a ghoft, then where is Hector's fhade?
At this fhe caft a loud and frightful cry:
With broken words I made this brief reply :
All of me that remains appears in fight,
I live; if living be to loath the light.
No phantom; but I drag a wretched life;
My fate refembling that of Hector's wife.
What have fuffer'd fince
you
loft your
By what strange bleffings are you now restor❜d?
|