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'There Ephimedia trod the gloomy plain, Who charm'd the monarch of the boundless main; Hence Ephialtes, hence stern Otus sprung, More fierce than giants, more than giants strong; The earth o'erburden'd groan'd beneath their weight,

None but Orion e'er surpass'd their height:
The wondrous youths had scarce nine winters told,
When high in air, tremendous to behold,
Nine ells aloft they rear'd their towering head,
And full nine cubits broad their shoulders spread.
Proud of their strength, and more than mortal size,
The gods they challenge, and affect the skies;
Heaved on Olympus tottering Ossa stood;
On Ossa, Pelion nods with all his wood:
Such were they youths! had they to manhood
grown,

Almighty Jove had trembled on his throne.
But ere the harvest of the beard began

To bristle on the chin, and promise man,

His shafts Apollo aim'd; at once they sound, And stretch the giant monsters o'er the ground. There mournful Phædra with sad Procris

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moves,

Both beauteous shades, both hapless in their loves; And near them walk'd, with solemn pace and slow, Sad Ariadne, partner of their woe;

The royal Minos Ariadne bred,

She Theseus loved; from Crete with Theseus fled;
Swift to the Dian isle the hero flies,

And towards his Athens bears the lovely prize;
There Bacchus with fierce rage Diana fires,
The goddess aims her shaft, the nymph expires.

'There Clymenè and Mera I behold;
There Eriphylè weeps, who loosely sold
Her lord, her honour, for the lust of gold.
But should I all recount, the night would fail,
Unequal to the melancholy tale;

And all composing rest my nature craves,
Here in the court, or yonder on the waves:
In you I trust, and in the heavenly powers,
To land Ulysses on his native shores.'

He ceased; but left so charming on their ear His voice, that listening still they seem'd to hear. Till rising up, Aretè silence broke,

Stretch'd out her snowy hand, and thus she spoke'What wondrous man Heaven sends us in our

guest!

Through all his woes the hero shines confess'd;
His comely port, his ample frame, express
A manly air, majestic in distress.

He, as my guest, is my peculiar care;

You share the pleasure,—then in bounty share; To worth in misery, a reverence pay,

And with a generous hand reward his stay; For since kind Heaven with wealth our realm has bless'd,

Give it to Heaven, by aiding the distress'd.'

Then sage Echeneus, whose grave reverend brow The hand of Time had silver'd o'er with snow, Mature in wisdom rose: Your words (he cries) Demand obedience, for your words are wise. But let our king direct the glorious way

To generous acts; our part is to obey.'

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While life informs these limbs (the king replied) Well to deserve, be all my cares employ'd; But here this night the royal guest detain, Till the sun flames along the' etherial plain:

Be it my task to send with ample stores
The stranger from our hospitable shores:
Tread you my steps! 'Tis mine to lead the race,
The first in glory, as the first in place.'

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To whom the prince- This night with joy I O monarch great in virtue as in sway! If thou the circling year my stay control, To raise a bounty noble as thy soul; The circling year I wait, with ampler stores And fitter pomp to hail my native shores: Then by my realms due homage would be paid; For wealthy kings are loyally obey'd!'

"O king! for such thou art, and sure thy blood Through veins (he cried) of royal fathers flow'd; Unlike those vagrants who on falsehood live, Skill'd in smooth tales, and artful to deceive; Thy better soul abhors the liar's part, Wise is thy voice, and noble is thy heart. Thy words like music every breast control, Steal through the ear, and win upon the soul; Soft, as some song divine, thy story flows, Nor better could the Muse record thy woes.

'But say, upon the dark and dismal coast Saw'st thou the worthies of the Grecian host; The godlike leaders who, in battle slain, Fell before Troy, and nobly press'd the plain? And lo! a length of night behind remains, The evening stars still mount the' etherial plains. Thy tale with raptures I could hear thee tell, Thy woes on earth, the wondrous scenes in hell, Till in the vault of heaven the stars decay, And the sky reddens with the rising day.'

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O worthy of the power the gods assign'd, (Ulysses thus replies) a king in mind!

Since yet the early hour of night allows
Time for discourse, and time for soft repose,
If scenes of misery can entertain,

Woes I unfold, of woes a dismal train.
Prepare to hear of murder and of blood;
Of godlike heroes who uninjured stood
Amidst a war of spears in foreign lands,
Yet bled at home, and bled by female hands.
'Now summon'd Proserpine to hell's black hall
The heroine shades; they vanish'd at her call.

6 When lo! advanced the forms of heroes slain
By stern Egysthus, a majestic train,
And high above the rest, Atrides press'd the plain.
He quaff'd the gore; and straight his soldier knew,
And from his eyes pour'd down the tender dew;
His arms he stretch'd; his arms the touch deceive,
Nor in the fond embrace, embraces give:
His substance vanish'd, and his strength decay'd,
Now all Atrides is an empty shade.

• Moved at the sight, I for a space resign'd To soft affliction all my manly mind;

At last with tears-“ Oh what relentless doom,
Imperial phantom, bow'd thee to the tomb?
Say, while the sea, and while the tempest raves,
Has Fate oppress'd thee in the roaring waves,
Or nobly seized thee in the dire alarms

Of war and slaughter, and the clash of arms?"

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The ghost returns- "O chief of humankind For active courage and a patient mind;

Nor while the sea, nor while the tempest raves,
Has Fate oppress'd me on the roaring waves;
Nor nobly seized me in the dire alarms
Of war and slaughter, and the clash of arms.
Stabb'd by a murderous hand Atrides died,
A foul adulterer, and a faithless bride;

E'en in my mirth, and at a friendly feast,
O'er the full bowl, the traitor stabb'd his guest.
Thus by the gory arm of slaughter falls
The stately ox, and bleeds within the stalls.
But not with me the direful murder ends,
These, these expired! their crime, they were my
friends:

Thick as the boars, which some luxurious lord
Kills for the feast, to crown the nuptial board.
When war has thunder'd with its loudest storms,
Death thou hast seen in all her ghastly forms;
In duel met her on the listed ground,
When hand to hand they wound return for wound;
But never have thy eyes astonish'd view'd
So vile a deed, so dire a scene of blood.
E'en in the flow of joy, when now the bowl
Glows in our veins, and opens every soul,
We groan, we faint; with blood the dome is dyed,
And o'er the pavement floats the dreadful tide—
Her breast all gore, with lamentable cries,
The bleeding innocent Cassandra dies!

Then though pale death froze cold in every vein,
My sword I strive to wield, but strive in vain;
Nor did my traitoress wife these eyelids close,
Or decently in death my limbs compose.
O woman, woman! when to ill thy mind
Is bent, all hell contains no fouler fiend:
And such was mine! who basely plunged her sword
Through the fond bosom where she reign'd adored!
Alas! I hoped, the toils of war o'ercome,
To meet soft quiet and repose at home:
Delusive hope! O wife, thy deeds disgrace
The perjured sex, and blacken all the race;

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