Warn'd by the high command of Heaven,be awed; Holy the flocks, and dreadful is the god!

That god who spreads the radiant beams of light, And views wide earth and heaven's unmeasured height."

'And now the moon had run her monthly round, The south-east blustering with a dreadful sound; Unhurt the beeves, untouch'd the woolly train, Low through the grove, or range the flowery plain: Then fail'd our food; then fish we make our prey, Or fowl that screaming haunt the watery way. Till now from sea or flood no succour found, Famine and meagre want besieged us round. Pensive and pale from grove to grove I stray'd, From the loud storms to find a silvan shade; There o'er my hands the living wave I pour; And Heaven and Heaven's immortal thrones

adore,

To calm the roarings of the stormy main,
And grant me peaceful to my realms again.
Then o'er my eyes the gods soft slumber shed,
While thus Eurylochus, arising, said—

"O friends, a thousand ways frail mortals lead
To the cold tomb, and dreadful all to tread;
But dreadful most, when by a slow decay
Pale hunger wastes the manly strength away.
Why cease ye then to' implore the powers above,
And offer hecatombs to thundering Jove?

Why seize ye not yon beeves, and fleecy prey? Arise unanimous; arise and slay!

And if the gods ordain a safe return,

To Phoebus shrines shall rise, and altars burn. But should the powers that o'er mankind preside, Decree to plunge us in the whelming tide,

Better to rush at once to shades below,

Than linger life away, and nourish woe!"

Thus he: the beeves around securely stray, When swift to ruin they invade the prey; They seize, they kill!-but for the rite divine, The barley fail'd, and for libations, wine. Swift from the oak they strip the shady pride; And verdant leaves the flowery cake supplied. 'With prayer they now address the'etherial train, Slay the selected beeves, and flay the slain; The thighs, with fat involved, divide with art, Strew'd o'er with morsels cut from every part. Water, instead of wine, is brought in urns, And pour'd profanely as the victim burns. The thighs thus offer'd, and the entrails dress'd, They roast the fragments and prepare the feast. "Twas then soft slumber fled my troubled brain; Back to the bark I speed along the main. When lo! an odour from the feast exhales, Spreads o'er the coast, and scents the tainted gales; A chilly fear congeal'd my vital blood, And thus, obtesting Heaven, I mourn'd aloud"O sire of men and gods, immortal Jove! Oh all ye blissful powers that reign above! Why were my cares beguiled in short repose? O fatal slumber, paid with lasting woes! A deed so dreadful all the gods alarms, Vengeance is on the wing, and Heaven in arms!" 'Meantime Lampetie mounts the' aerial way, And kindles into rage the god of day.

6

"Vengeance, ye powers (he cries) and thou whose hand

Aims the red bolt, and hurls the writhen brand!

Slain are those herds which I with pride survey,
When through the ports of heaven I pour the day,
Or deep in ocean plunge the burning ray.
Vengeance, ye gods! or I the skies forego,
And bear the lamp of heaven to shades below."
"To whom the thundering power-“O source of
Whose radiant lamp adorns the azure way, [day!
Still may thy beams through heaven's bright portals
The joy of earth, and glory of the skies; [rise,
Lo! my red arm I bare, my thunders guide,
To dash the' offenders in the whelming tide."
To fair Calypso, from the bright abodes,
Hermes convey'd these councils of the gods.
'Meantime from man to man my tongue ex-
claims,

My wrath is kindled, and my soul in flames.
In vain! I view perform'd the direful deed,
Beeves, slain by heaps, along the ocean bleed.

Now Heaven gave signs of wrath: along the
ground

Crept the raw hides, and with a bellowing sound
Roar'd the dead limbs; the burning entrails groan'd.
Six guilty days my wretched mates employ
In impious feasting, and unhallow'd joy:
The seventh arose, and now the sire of gods
Rein'd the rough storms, and calm'd the tossing
floods;

With speed the bark we climb; the spacious sails
Loosed from the yards invite the' impelling gales.
Past sight of shore, along the surge we bound,
And all above is sky, and ocean all around!
When lo! a murky cloud the thunderer forms
Full o'er our heads, and blackens heaven with
storms.

Night dwells o'er all the deep: and now out flies
The gloomy west, and whistles in the skies.
The mountain-billows roar! the furious blast
Howls o'er the shroud, and rends it from the mast:
The mast gives way, and crackling as it bends,
Tears up the deck; then all at once descends:
The pilot by the tumbling ruin slain,

Dash'd from the helm, falls headlong in the main.
Then Jove in anger bids his thunders roll,
And forky lightnings flash from pole to pole;
Fierce at our heads his deadly bolt he aims,
Red with uncommon wrath, and wrapp'd in flames;
Full on the bark it fell: now high, now low,
Toss'd and retoss'd, it reel'd beneath the blow;
At once into the main the crew it shook :

Sulphureous odours rose, and smouldering smoke.
Like fowl that haunt the floods, they sink, they rise,
Now lost, now seen, with shrieks and dreadful

cries;

And strive to gain the bark; but Jove denies.
Firm at the helm I stand, when fierce the main
Rush'd with dire noise, and dash'd the sides in
Again impetuous drove the furious blast, [twain;
Snapp'd the strong helm, and bore to sea the mast.
Firm to the mast with cords the helm I bind,
And ride aloft, to Providence resign'd,
Through tumbling billows, and a war of wind.

'Now sunk the west, and now a southern breeze, More dreadful than the tempest, lash'd the seas; For on the rocks it bore where Scylla raves, And dire Charybdis rolls her thundering waves. All night I drove; and, at the dawn of day, Fast by the rocks beheld the desperate way: Just when the sea within her gulfs subsides, And in the roaring whirlpools rush the tides,

Swift from the float I vaulted with a bound,
The lofty fig-tree seized, and clung around;
So to the beam the bat tenacious clings,
And pendent round it clasps his leathern wings.
High in the air the tree its boughs display'd,
And o'er the dungeon cast a dreadful shade;
All unsustain❜d between the wave and sky,
Beneath my feet the whirling billows fly.
What time the judge forsakes the noisy bar
To take repast, and stills the wordy war,
Charybdis, rumbling from her inmost caves,
The mast refunded on her refluent waves.
Swift from the tree, the floating mast to gain,
Sudden I dropp'd amidst the flashing main;
Once more undaunted on the ruin rode,
And oar'd with labouring arms along the flood.
Unseen I pass'd by Scylla's dire abodes:
So Jove decreed (dread sire of men and gods);
Then nine long days I plough'd the calmer seas,
Heaved by the surge, and wafted by the breeze.
Weary and wet the' Ogygian shores I gain,
When the tenth sun descended to the main.
There in Calypso's ever fragrant bowers
Refresh'd I lay, and joy beguiled the hours.

'My following fates to thee, O king, are known, And the bright partner of thy royal throne. Enough; in misery can words avail?

And what so tedious as a twice-told tale?'