A hide beneath the portico was spread,
And fleecy skins composed an humble bed :
A downy carpet cast with duteous care,
Secured him from the keen nocturnal air.”
His cornel javelin poised, with regal port, To the sage Greeks convened in Themis' court, 180 Forth issuing from the dome the prince repair'd; Two dogs of chasc, a lion-hearted guard, Behind him sourly stalk'd. Without delay The dame divides the labour of the day; Thus urging to the toil the menial train: "What marks of luxury the marble stain! Its wonted lustre let the floor regain; The seats with purple clothe in order due; And let the abstersive sponge the board renew: Let some refresh the vase's sullied mold; Some bid the goblets boast their native gold: Some to the spring, with each a jar, repair, And copious waters pure for bathing bear: Despatch! for soon the suitors will assay The lunar feast-rites to the god of day."
She said; with duteous haste a bevy fair Of twenty virgins to the spring repair: With varied toils the rest adorn the dome. Magnificent, and blithe, the suitors come.
Some wield the sounding axe; the dodder'd oaks 200
Divide, obedient to the forceful strokes.
Soon from the fount, with each a brimming urn,
(Eumæus in their train,) the maids return.
Three porkers for the feast, all brawny chined,
He brought; the choicest of the tusky kind :
In lodgments first secure his care he view'd,
Then to the king his friendly speech renew'd:
"Now say sincere, my guest! the suitor train
Still treat they worth with lordly dull disdain:
Or speaks their deed a bounteous mind humane ?"
"Some pitying god," Ulysses sad replied,
With vollied vengeance blast their towering pride!
No conscious blush, no sense of right, restrains
The tides of lust that swell their boiling veins :
From vice to vice their appetites are toss'd,
All cheaply sated at another's cost!"
While thus the chief his woes indignant told,
Melanthius, master of the bearded fold,
The goodliest goats of all the royal herd
Spontaneous to the suitors' feast preferr'd:
Two grooms assistant bore the victims bound;
With quavering cries the vaulted roofs resound:
And to the chief austere aloud began
The wretch unfriendly to the race of man:
"Here, vagrant, still? offensive to my lords! 225
Blows have more energy than airy words:
These arguments I'll use: nor conscious shame,
Nor threats, thy bold intrusion will reclaim.
On this high feast the meanest vulgar boast
A plenteous board! hence! seek another host!" 230
Rejoinder to the churl the king disdain'd,
But shook his head, and rising wrath restrain'd.
From Cephalenia cross the surgy main
Philætius late arrived, a faithful swain.
A steer ungrateful to the bull's embrace,
And goats he brought, the pride of all their race;
Imported in a shallop not his own:
The dome re-echoed to their mingled moan.
Straight to the guardian of the bristly kind
He thus began, benevolent of mind:
"What guest is he, of such majestic air?
His lineage and paternal clime declare:
Dim through the eclipse of fate, the rays divine
Of sovereign state with faded splendour shine.
If monarchs by the gods are plunged in wo,
To what abyss are we foredoom'd to go!"
Then affable he thus the chief address'd,
While with pathetic warmth his hand he press'd:
"Stranger, may fate a milder aspect show,
And spin thy future with a whiter clew!
Oh Jove! for ever deaf to human cries;
The tyrant, not the father of the skies!
Unpiteous of the race thy will began!
The fool of fate, thy manufacture, man,
With penury, contempt, repulse, and care,
The galling load of life is doom'd to bear.
Ulysses from his state a wanderer still,
Upbraids thy power, thy wisdom, or thy will!
Oh monarch ever dear!-oh man of wo!-
Fresh flow my tears, and shall for ever flow!
Like thee, poor stranger guest, denied his home!
Like thee, in rags obscene decreed to roam !
Or, haply perish'd on some distant coast,
In Stygian gloom he glides, a pensive ghost!
Oh, grateful for the good his bounty gave,
I'll grieve, till sorrow sink me to the grave!
His kind protecting hand my youth preferr'd,
The regent of his Cephalenian herd:
With vast increase beneath my care it spreads:
A stately breed! and blackens far the meads.
Constrain'd, the choicest beeves I thence import,
To cram these cormorants that crowd his court:
Who in partition seek his realm to share ;
Nor human right nor wrath divine revere.
Since here resolved oppressive these reside,
Contending doubts my anxious heart divide:
Now to some foreign clime inclined to fly,
And with the royal herd protection buy:
Then, happier thoughts return the nodding scale,
Light mounts despair, alternate hopes prevail: 280
In opening prospects of ideal joy,
My king returns; the proud usurpers die."
To whom the chief: "In thy capacious mind Since daring zeal with cool debate is join'd, Attend a deed already ripe in fate :
Attest, oh Jove! the truth I now relate!
This sacred truth attest, each genial power,
Who bless the board, and guard this friendly bower!
Before thou quit the dome (nor long delay)
Thy wish produced in act, with pleased survey, 290 Thy wondering eyes shall view his rightful reign By arms avow'd Ulysses shall regain,
And to the shades devote the suitor train."
"Oh Jove supreme!" the raptured swain replies, "With deeds consummate soon the promised joys! These aged nerves, with newborn vigour strung, In that bless'd cause should emulate the young"Assents Eumæus to the prayer address'd, And equal ardours fire his loyal breast.
Meantime the suitors urge the prince's fate, And deathful arts employ the dire debate: When in his airy tour, the bird of Jove
Truss'd with his sinewy pounce a trembling dove ; Sinister to their hope! This omen eyed Amphinomus, who thus presaging cried :
"The gods from force and fraud the prince defend!
Oh peers! the sanguinary scheme suspend:
Your future thought let sable fate employ,
And give the present hour to genial joy."
From council straight the assenting peerage ceased,
And in the dome prepared the genial feast.
Disrobed, their vests apart in order lay,
Then all with speed succinct the victims slay;
With sheep and shaggy goats the porkers bled,
And the proud steer was on the marble spread. 315
With fire prepared, they deal the morsels round,
Wine, rosy bright, the brimming goblets crown'd,
By sage Eumæus born; the purple tide
Melanthius from an ample jar supplied:
High canisters of bread Philætius placed;
And eager all devour the rich repast.
Disposed apart, Ulysses shares the treat;
A trivet table, and ignobler seat,
The prince appoints; but to his sire assigns
The tasteful inwards and nectareous wines.
"Partake, my guest," he cried, " without control
The social feast, and drain the cheering bowl:
Dread not the railer's laugh, nor ruffian's rage;
No vulgar roof protects thy honour'd age;
This dome a refuge to thy wrongs shall be,
From my great sire too soon devolved to me!
Your violence and scorn, ye suitors, cease,
Lest arms avenge the violated peace."
Awed by the prince, so haughty, brave, and young, Rage gnaw'd the lip, amazement chain'd the tongue. "Be patient, peers!" at length Antinous cries; 336 "The threats of vain imperious youth despise : Would Jove permit the meditated blow,
That stream of eloquence should cease to flow."
Without reply vouchsafed, Antinous ceased: 340
Meanwhile the pomp of festival increased:
By heralds rank'd, in marshall'd order move
The city tribes, to pleased Apollo's grove:
Beneath the verdure of which awful shade
The lunar hecatomb they grateful laid;
Partook the sacred feast, and ritual honours paid.
But the rich banquet in the dome prepared,
(A humble sideboard set,) Ulysses shared.
Observant of the prince's high behest,
His menial train attend the stranger guest:
Whom Pallas with unpardoning fury fired,
By lordly pride and keen reproach inspired.
A Samian peer, more studious than the rest
Of vice, who teem'd with many a deadborn jest ;
And urged, for title to a consort queen,
Unnumber'd acres arable and green;
(Ctesippus named;) this lord Ulysses eyed,
And thus burst out the imposthumate with pride:
"The sentence 1 propose, ye peers, attend :
Since due regard must wait the prince's friend, 360
Let each a token of esteem bestow : "
This gift acquits the dear respect I owe;
With which he nobly may discharge his seat,
And pay the menials for the master's treat."
He said; and of the steer before him placed, 365 That sinewy fragment at Ulysses cast,
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