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Instant her circling wand the goddess waves,
To hogs transforms them, and the sty receives.
No more was seen the human form divine;
Head, face, and members bristle into swine.:
Still cursed with sense, their minds remain alone,
And their own voice affrights them when they
groan.

Meanwhile the goddess in disdain bestows
The mast and acorn, brutal food! and strows
The fruits of cornel, as their feast, around;
Now prone and groveling on unsavoury ground.
Eurylochus with pensive steps and slow,
Aghast returns; the messenger of woe,

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And bitter fate. To speak he made essay,
In vain essay'd, nor would his tongue obey,
His swelling heart denied the words their way:
But speaking tears the want of words supply,
And the full soul bursts copious from his eye.
Affrighted, anxious for our fellows' fates,
We press to hear what sadly he relates.

"We went, Ulysses! (such was thy command) Through the lone thicket, and the desert land. A palace in a woody vale we found

Brown with dark forests, and with shades around.
A voice celestial echoed from the dome,
Or nymph, or goddess, chanting to the loom.
Access we sought, nor was access denied:
Radiant she came; the portals open'd wide:
The goddess mild invites the guests to stay:
They blindly follow where she leads the way.
I only wait behind, of all the train:

I waited long, and eyed the doors in vain:
The rest are vanish'd, none repass'd the gate;
And not a man appears to tell their fate."

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I heard, and instant o'er my shoulders flung The belt in which my weighty falchion hung (A beamy blade); then seized the bended bow, And bade him guide the way, resolved to go. He, prostrate falling, with both hands embraced My knees, and weeping thus his suit address'dO king beloved of Jove! thy servant spare, And ah, thyself the rash attempt forbear! Never, alas! thou never shalt return,

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Or see the wretched for whose loss we mourn.
With what remains from certain ruin fly,
And save the few not fated yet to die."

'I answer'd stern-" Inglorious then remain,
Here feast and loiter, and desert thy train.`
Alone, unfriended, will I tempt my way;
The laws of Fate compel, and I obey."

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This said, and scornful turning from the shore
My haughty step, I stalk'd the valley o'er.
Till now approaching nigh the magic bower,
Where dwelt the' enchantress skill'd in herbs of
power;

A form divine forth issued from the wood
(Immortal Hermes with the golden rod),
In human semblance. On his bloomy face
Youth smiled celestial, with each opening grace.
He seized my hand, and gracious thus began―

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Ah, whither roam'st thou? much enduring man! O blind to fate! what led thy steps to rove The horrid mazes of this magic grove? Each friend you seek in yon enclosure lies, All lost their form, and habitants of styes. Think'st thou by wit to model their escape? Sooner shalt thou, a stranger to thy shape,

Fall prone their equal: first thy danger know,
Then take the antidote the gods bestow.
The plant I give through all the direful bower
Shall guard thee, and avert the evil hour.
Now hear her wicked arts.
Before thy eyes

The bowl shall sparkle, and the banquet rise;
Take this, nor from the faithless feast abstain,
For temper'd drugs and poisons shall be vain.
Soon as she strikes her wand, and gives the word,
Draw forth and brandish thy refulgent sword,
And menace death: those menaces shall move
Her alter'd mind to blandishment and love.
Nor shun the blessing proffer'd to thy arms;
Ascend her bed, and taste celestial charms:
So shall thy tedious toils a respite find,
And thy lost friends return to humankind.
But swear her first by those dread oaths that tie
The powers below, the blessed in the sky;
Lest to thee, naked, secret fraud be meant,
Or magic bind thee, cold and impotent."

Thus while he spoke, the sovereign plant he
drew,

Where on the' all-bearing earth unmark'd it grew,
And show'd its nature and its wondrous power:
Black was the root, but milky white the flower;
Moly the name, to mortals hard to find,
But all is easy to the' etherial kind.
This Hermes gave, then gliding off the glade
Shot to Olympus from the woodland shade.

While full of thought, revolving fates to come,
I speed my passage to the' enchanted dome :
Arrived, before the lofty gates I stay'd;
The lofty gates the goddess wide display'd;

She leads before, and to the feast invites ;
I follow sadly to the magic rites.

Radiant with starry studs, a silver seat
Received my limbs; a footstool eased my feet.
She mix'd the potion, fraudulent of soul;
The poison mantled in the golden bowl.
I took, and quaff'd it, confident in Heaven:
Then waved the wand, and then the word was
given.

"Hence to thy fellows! (dreadful she began) Go, be a beast!"-I heard, and yet was man.

Then sudden whirling, like a waving flame, My beamy falchion, I assault the dame. Struck with unusual fear, she trembling cries, She faints, she falls; she lifts her weeping eyes, "What art thou? say! from whence, from whom you came?

O more than human! tell thy race, thy name.
Amazing strength, these poisons to sustain!
Not mortal thou, nor mortal is thy brain.
Or art thou he, the man to come (foretold
By Hermes powerful with the wand of gold),
The man from Troy, who wander'd ocean round;
The man for wisdom's various arts renown'd,
Ulysses? oh! thy threatening fury cease,
Sheath thy bright sword, and join our hands in
peace;

Let mutual joys our mutual trust combine,
And love, and love-born confidence be thine.”

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And how, dread Circè! (furious I rejoin) Can love and love-born confidence be mine, Beneath thy charms when my companions groan, Transform'd to beasts, with accents not their own; O thou of fraudful heart! shall I be led To share thy feast-rites, or ascend thy bed,

That, all unarm❜d, thy vengeance may have vent, And magic bind me, cold and impotent? Celestial as thou art, yet stand denied,

Or swear that oath by which the gods are tied;
Swear, in thy soul no latent frauds remain,
Swear by the vow which never can be vain!"
"The goddess swore: then seized my hand, and
led

To the sweet transports of the genial bed.
Ministrant to their queen with busy care
Four faithful handmaids the soft rites prepare:
Nymphs sprung from fountains, or from shady
woods,

Or the fair offspring of the sacred floods.

One o'er the couches painted carpets threw,
Whose purple lustre glow'd against the view:
White linen lay beneath.
Another placed
The silver stands with golden flaskets graced :
With dulcet beverage this the beaker crown'd,
Fair in the midst, with gilded cups around:
That in the tripod o'er the kindled pile
The water pours; the bubbling waters boil:
An ample vase receives the smoking wave;
And, in the bath prepared, my limbs I lave :
Reviving sweets repair the mind's decay,
And take the painful sense of toil away.
A vest and tunic o'er me next she threw,
Fresh from the bath and dropping balmy dew;
Then led and placed me on the sovereign seat,
With carpets spread; a footstool at my feet.
The golden ewer a nymph obsequious brings,
Replenish'd from the cool translucent springs ;
With copious water the bright vase supplies
A silver laver of capacious size.

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