Where to the pastern bone, by nerves combined,
The well-horn'd foot indissolubly join'd;
Which whizzing high, the wall unseemly sign'd.
The chief indignant grins a ghastly smile;
Revenge and scorn within his bosom boil :
When thus the prince with pious rage inflamed:
"Had not the inglorious wound thy malice aim'd
Fall'n guiltless of the mark, my certain spear
Had made thee buy the brutal triumph dear : 375
Nor should thy sire a queen his daughter boast;
The suitor, now, had vanish'd in a ghost:
No more, ye lewd compeers, with lawless power
Invade my dome, my herds and flocks devour:
For genuine worth, of age mature to know,
My grape shall redden, and my harvest grow.
Or, if each other's wrongs ye still support,
With rapes and riots to profane my court;
What single arm with numbers can contend?
On me let all your lifted swords descend,
And with my life such vile dishonours end."
A long cessation of discourse ensued,
By gentler Agelaus thus renew'd:
"A just reproof, ye peers! your rage restrain
From the protected guest, and menial train :
And, prince! to stop the source of future ill,
Assent yourself, and gain the royal will.
While hope prevail'd to see your sire restored,
Of right the queen refused a second lord:
But who so vain of faith, so blind to fate,
To think he still survives to claim the state?
Now press the sovereign dame with warm desire
To wed, as wealth or worth her choice inspire:
The lord selected to the nuptial joys
Far hence will lead the long-contested prize:
While in paternal pomp with plenty bless'd,
You reign, of this imperial dome possess'd."
Sage and serene Telemachus replies:
"By him at whose behest the thunder flies,
And by the name on earth Í most revere;
By great Ulysses and his woes I swear!
(Who never must review his dear domain;
Enroll'd, perhaps, in Pluto's dreary train,)
Whene'er her choice the royal dame avows,
My bridal gifts shall load the future spouse:
But from this dome my parent queen to chase!
From me, ye gods! avert such dire disgrace."
But Pallas clouds with intellectual gloom
The suitors' souls, insensate of their doom!
A mirthful phrensy seized the fated crowd;
The roofs resound with causeless laughter loud :
Floating in gore, portentous to survey!
In each discolour'd vase the viands lay;
Then down each cheek the tears spontaneous flow,
And sudden sighs precede approaching wo.
In vision wrapp'd, the Hyperesian seer
Uprose, and thus divined the vengeance near :
"Oh race to death devote! with Stygian shade
Each destined peer impending fates invade:
With tears your wan distorted cheeks are drown'd;
With sanguine drops the walls are rubied round: 426
Thick swarms the spacious hall with howling ghosts,
To people Orcus, and the burning coasts!
Nor gives the sun his golden orb to roll,
But universal night usurps the pole !"
Yet warn'd in vain, with laughter loud elate
The peers reproach the sure divine of fate;
And thus Eurymachus: "The dotard's mind
To every sense is lost, to reason blind :
Swift from the dome conduct the slave away;
Let him in open air behold the day."
"Tax not," the Heaven-illumined seer rejoin'd,
"Of rage, or folly, my prophetic mind.
No clouds of error dim the ethereal rays,
Her equal power each faithful sense obeys.
Unguided hence my trembling steps I bend,
For hence, before yon hovering deaths descend;
Lest the ripe harvest of revenge begun,
I share the doom ye suitors cannot shun."
This said, to sage Piræus sped the seer,
His honour'd host, a welcome inmate there.
O'er the protracted feast the suitors sit,
And aim to wound the prince with pointless wit:
Cries one, with scornful leer and mimic voice,
"Thy charity we praise, but not thy choice;
Why such profusion of indulgence shown
To this poor, timorous, toil-detesting drone?
That others feeds on planetary schemes,
And pays his host with hideous noonday dreams.
But, prince! for once at least believe a friend,
To some Sicilian mart these courtiers send,
Where, if they yield their freight across the main,
Dear sell the slaves! demand no greater gain."
Thus jovial they but naught the prince replies; Full on his sire he roll'd his ardent eyes; Impatient straight to flesh his virgin sword; From the wise chief he waits the deathful word. Nigh in her bright alcove, the pensive queen To see the circle sat, of all unseen. Sated at length they rise, and bid prepare An eve repast, with equal cost and care: But vengeful Pallas, with preventing speed, A feast proportion'd to their crimes decreed; A feast of death, the feasters doom'd to bleed!
The Bending of Ulysses' Bow.
PENELOPE, to put an end to the solicitation of the suitors, proposes to marry the person who shall first bend the bow of Ulysses, and shoot through the ringlets-After their attempts have proved ineffectual, Ulysses, taking Eumæus and Philætius apart, discovers himself to them; then returning, desires leave to try his strength at the bow, which, though refused with indignation by the suitors, Penelope and Telemachus cause it to be delivered to his hands-He bends it immediately, and shoots through all the rings-Jupiter at the same instant thunders from heaven-Ulysses accepts the omen, and gives a sign to Telemachus, who stands ready armed at his side.
AND Pallas now, to raise the rivals' fires,
With her own art Penelope inspires:
"Who now can bend Ulysses' bow, and wing
The well-aim'd arrow through the distant ring,
Shall end the strife, and win the imperial dame;
But discord and black death await the game!"
The prudent queen the lofty stair ascends, At distance due a virgin train attends; A brazen key she held, the handle turn'd, With steel and polish'd elephant adorn'd: Swift to the inmost room she bent her way, Where, safe reposed, the royal treasures lay; There shone high heap'd the labour'd brass and ore, And there the bow which great Ulysses bore; And there the quiver, where now guiltless slept 15 Those winged deaths that many a matron wept.
This gift, long since when Sparta's shores he trod, On young Ulysses Iphitus bestow'd:
Beneath Orsilochus's roof they met;
One loss was private, one a public debt;
Messena's state from Ithaca detains
Three hundred sheep, and all the shepherd swains;
And to the youthful prince to urge the laws,
The king and elders trust their common cause.
But Iphitus employ'd on other cares,
Search'd the wide country for his wandering mares,
And mules, the strongest of the labouring kind;
Hapless to search! more hapless still to find!
For journeying on to Hercules, at length
That lawless wretch, that man of brutal strength, 30
Deaf to Heaven's voice, the social rite transgress'd;
And for the beauteous mares destroy'd his guest.
He gave the bow; and on Ulysses' part
Received a pointed sword, and missile dart:
Of luckless friendship on a foreign shore
Their first, last pledges, for they met no more!
The bow, bequeath'd by this unhappy hand,
Ulysses bore not from his native land;
Nor in the front of battle taught to bend,
But kept in dear memorial of his friend.
Now gently winding up the fair ascent,
By many an easy step the matron went;
Then o'er the pavement glides with grace divine;
(With polish'd oak the level pavements shine ;) The folding gates a dazzling light display'd,
With pomp of various architrave o'erlaid.
The bolt, obedient to the silken string,
Forsakes the staple as she pulls the ring;
The wards respondent to the key turn round;
The bars fall back; the flying valves resound;
Loud as a bull makes hill and valley ring,
So roar'd the lock when it released the spring.
She moves majestic through the wealthy room,
Where treasured garments cast a rich perfume;
There from the column where aloft it hung,
Reach'd, in its splendid case, the bow unstrung;
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