The joyful crew furvey his mighty size, And on the future banquet feast their eyes, As huge in length extended lay the beaft: Then wash their hands, and haften to the feast. There, till the fetting fun roll'd down the light, They fate indulging in the genial rite.
When evening rcfe, and darkness covered o'er 210 The face of things, we flept along the shore. But when the rofy morning warm'd the east, My men I funmon'd, and thefe words addreft: Followers and friends, attend what I propose: Ye fad companions of Ulyffes' woes! We know not here what land before us lies, Or to what quarter now we turn our eyes, Or where the fun fhall fet, or where fhall rise. Here let us think (if thinking be not vain) If any counfel, any hope remain. Alas! from yonder promontory's brow, 1551 view'd the coaft, a region flat and low;
A ghaftly band of giants hear the roar, [fhore.
And, ponring down the mountains, crowd the
Fragments they rend from off the craggy brow,
And dafh the ruins on the fhips below:
The crackling veffels burft; hoarfe groans arise,
And mingled horrors echo to the skies;
The men, like fish, they stuck upon the flood,
And cramm'd their filthy throats with
Whilft thus their fury rages at the bay, 145
My fword our cables cut, I call'd to weigh,
And charg'd my men, as they from Fate
Each nerve to train, each bending oar to ply,
The failors catch the word, their oars they seize,
And fweep with equal ftrokes the fmoky feas: 150
Clear of the rocks th' impatient vessel flies;
Whilst in the port each wretch encumber'd dies.
With earnest haste my frighted failors press,
While kindling transports glow'd at our fuccefs;
But the fad fate that did our friends destroy
Cool'd every breast, and damp'd the rifing joy.
Now dropp'd our anchors in the Axan bay,
Where Circe dwelt, the daughter of the day;
Her mother Persè, of old Ocean's strain,
Thus from the Sun defcended and the Main
[From the fame lineage ftern Eætes came,
The far-fam'd brother of th' enchantress dame);
Goddefs, and queen, to whom the powers belong
Of dreadful magic, and commanding fong.
Some God directing to this peaceful bay
Silent we came, and melancholy lay, [roll'd on,
Spent and o'erwatch'd. Two days and nights
And now the third fucceeding morning fhone.
I climb'd a cliff, with spear and sword in hand,
Whofe ridge o'erlook'd a fhady length of land: 170
To learn if aught of mortal works appear?
Or cheerful voice of mortal strike the ear?
From the high point I mark'd, in diftant view,
A ftream of curling smoke afcending blue,
And fpiry tops, the tufted trees above,
Of Circe's palace bofom'd in the grove.
Thither to hafte, the region to explore,
Was first my thought: but speeding back to fhore,
I deem'd it beft to vifit firft my crew,
And send out fpies the dubious cuaft to view.
As down the hill I folitary go,
Some Power divine, who pities human woe,
Sent a tall flag, defcending from the wood,
To cool his feryour in the cryftal flood;
Luxuriant on the wave worn bank he lay,
Stretch'd forth, and panting in the funny ray.
I launch'd my fpear, and with a fudden wound,
Tranfpierc'd his back, and fix'd him to the ground
He falls, and mourns his fate with human cries:
Through the wide wound the vital fpirit flies. 190
I drew, and cafting on the river's fide
The bloody fpear, his gather'd feet Ity'd
With twining oziers, which the bank fupplied.
An ell in length, the pliant whifp I weav'd,
And the huge body on my fhoulders heav'd:
Then, leaning on my fpear with both my hands,
Up-bore my load, and prefs'd the finking fands
With weighty steps, till at the fhip I threw
The welcome burden, and bespoke my crew:
An ifle incircled with the boundless flood;
A length of thickets, and entangled wood.
Some fuke! faw amid the forefts rife,
and all around it only feas and skies!
With broken hearts my fad companions stood,
Mindful of Cylop and his human food,
And horrid Leftrigons, the men of blood.
Prefaging tears apace began to reign;
But tears in mortal miferies are vain.
In equal parts 1 ftraight divide my band,
And name a chief each party to command;
I led the one, and of the other fide
Appointed brave Eurylochus the guide.
Then in the brazen helm the lots we throw,
And Fortune cafts Eurylochus to go:
He march'd with twice eleven in his train:
Penfive they march, and penfive we remain.
The palace in a woody vale they found, High rais'd of ftone; a fhaded space around; Whe mountain wolves and brindled lions roam, (By magic tam'd) familiar to the dome. With gentle blaudifhments our men they mect, And wag their tails, and fawning lick their
Cheer up, my friends! it is not yet our fate 200 To glide with ghosts through Pluto's gloomy gate. Food in the defart land, behold! is given; Live, and enjoy the providence of Heaven.
As from fome feast a man returning late,
His faithful dogs all meet him at the gate,
Rejoicing round, fome morfel to receive
(Such as the good man ever us'd to give).
Domestic thus the grisly beafts drew near;
They gaze with wonder, not unmix'd with fear.
Now on the threshold of the dome they stood,
And heard a voice refounding through the wood :
Plac'd a: her loom within the Goddess fung;
The vaulted roofs and olid pavement rung.
O'er the fair web the rifing figures fhine,
Immortal labour! worthy hands divine.
Polites to the reft the queftion mov'd
(A gallant leader, and a man I lov'd) :
What voice celeftial, chanting to the loom
(Or Nymph, or Goddefs) echoes from the room?
Say, fhall we feek accefs? With that they call;
And wide unfold the portals of the hall."
The Goddefs, rifing, afks her guests to stay, Who blindly follow where the leads the way. Eurylochus alone of all the band, Sufpecting fraud, more prud. ntly remain'd. On thrones around with downy coverings grac'd, With femblance faiz, th' unhappy men the plac'd,
Milk newly prefs'd, the facred four of wheat,
And honey fresh, and Pramnian wines the treat:
But venom'd was the bread, and mix'd the bowl,
With drugs of force to darken all the foul:
Soon in the luscious feast themselves they loft,
And drank oblivion of their native coast.
Inftant her circling wand the Goddess waves,
To hogs transforms them, and the sty receives.
No more was feen the human form divine;
Head, face, and members, bristle into swine:
Still curs'd with fenfe, their minds remain alone, 280
And their own voice affrights them when they
Mean while the Goddess in difdain bestows
The mat and acorn, brutal food! and strows
The fruits of cornel, as their feast, around;
Oh blind to fate! what led thy fteps to rove
The horrid mazes of this magic grove!
Each friend you feek in yon enclosure lies,
All loft their form, and habitants of fties.
Think'st thou by wit to model their escape?
Sooner fhalt thou, a stranger to thy fhape,
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 345
The bowl fhall fparkle, and the banquet rife;
Take this, nor from the faithless feaft abftain,
For temper'd drugs and poifons fhall be vain.
Soon as the ftrikes her wand, and gives the word,
Draw forth and brandish thy refulgent fword, 350
Now prone and groveling on unfavoury ground. 285 And menace death: thofe menaces shall move
Eurylochus, with penfive steps and flow, Aghaft returns; the meffenger of woe, And bitter fate. To fpeak he made effay, In vain effay'd, nor would his tongue obey,
But fpeaking tears the want of words fupply,
And the full foul bursts copious from his eye;
Affrighted, anxious for our fellows' fates,
We prefs to hear what fadly he relates :
We went, Ulyffes! (fuch was thy command) 295
Through the lone thicket and the defart land.
A palace in a woody vale we found,
Brown with dark forefts, and with fhades around.
A voice celeftial echoed from the dome,,
Or Nymph, or Goddess, chanting to the loom. 300
Accels we fought, nor was access denied:
Radiant fhe came: the portal's open'd wide :
'The Goddess mild invites the guests to stay:
They blindly follow where the leads the way.
I only wait behind, of all the train;
I waited long, and ey'd the doors in vain :
The reft are vanith'd, none repafs'd the gate;
And not a man appears to tell their fate.
I heard, and inftant o'er my shoulders flung
The belt in which my weighty faulchion hung 310
(A beamy blade); then feiz'd the bended bow,
And bade him guide the way, refolv'd to go.
He, proftrate falling, with both hands embrac'd
My knees, and, weeping, thus his fuit address'd:
O king, belov'd of Jove! thy fervant fpare,
And ah, thyself the rafh attempt forbear!
Never, alas! thou never fhalt return,
Or fee the wretched for whofe lofs we mourn.
With what remains from certain ruin fly,
And fave the few not fated yet to die.
I anfwer'd ftern: Inglorious then remain,
Here feaft and loiter, and defert thy train,
Alone, unfriended, will I tempt my way;
The laws of Fate compel, and I obey.
Her alter'd mind to blandifhment and love.
Nor fhun the blefling proffer'd to thy arms,
Afcend her bed, and taste celeftial charms:
So fhall thy tedious toils a refpite find,
And thy loft friends return to human kind.
But fwear her firft by those dread oaths that tie
The Powers below, the Bleffed in the sky;
Left to thee naked fecret fraud be meant,
Or magic bind thee cold and impotent. [drew 360
Thus while he spoke, the fovereign plant he
Where on th' all-bearing earth unmark'd it grew,
And show'd its nature and its wonderous power:
Black was the root, but milky-white the flower;
Moly the name, to mortals hard to find,
But all is eafy to th' ætherial kind.
This Hermes gave; then, gliding off the glade,
Shot to Olympus from the woodland fhade.
While, full of thought, revolving fates to come,
I fpeed my paffage to th' enchanted dome :
Arriv'd, before the lofty gates I ftay'd;
The lofty gates the Goddess wide difplay'd;
She leads before, and to the feaft invites:
I follow fadly to the magic rites.
Radiant with ftarry ftuds, a filver feat
Receiv'd my limbs; a footstool eas'd my feet.
She mix'd the potion, fraudulent of foul;
The poifon mantled in the golden bowl.
I took and quaff'd it, confident in Heaven:
Then wav'd the wand, and then the word was gi-
Hence to thy fellows! (dreadful she began) [ven.
Go, be a beat!--I heard, and yet was man.
Then fudden whilling, like a waving flame,
My beamy faulchion, I affault the dame.
Struck with unufual fear, the trembling cries, 385
320 She faints, fhe falls; the lifts her weeping eyes,
What art thou? fay! from whence, from whom
This faid and fcornful turning from the fhore 325
My haughty ftep, I ftalk'd the valley o'er.
Till now approaching nigh the magic bower;
Oh more than human! tell thy race, thy name.
Amazing ftrength, thefe poisons to fuftain!
Nor mortal thon, nor mortal is thy brain.
Or art thou he? the man to come (foretold
By Hermes powerful with the wand of gold)
Where dwelt th' enchantress skill'd in herbs of The man from Troy, who wander'd ocean round;
The man for wifdom's various arts renown'd,
Ulyffes? oh! thy threatening fury ceafe, [peace;
330 Sheathe thy bright fword, and join our hands in
Let mutual joys our mutual trust combine,
And love, and love bora confidence, be thine.
And how, dread Circe! (farions I rejoin)
Can love, and love-born,
in confidence, be mine! 408,
A form divine forth issued from the wood
Immortal Hermes with the golden rod)
In human femblance. On his bloomy face
Youth fmil'd celeftial, with each opening grace,
He feiz'd my hand, and gracious thus began:
Ah whither roam't thou, much enduring man?.
Beneath thy charms when my companions groan,
Transform'd to beafts, with accents not their own.
O thou of fraudful heart! fhall I be led
To fhare thy feaft-rites, or afcend 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 fwear that oath by which the Gods are tied,
Swear, in thy foul no latent frauds remain,
Swear by the vow which never can be vain.
The Goddess fwore then feiz'd my hand, and
To the sweet transports of the genial bed.
Miniftrant to their queen, with busy care
Four faithful handmaids the foft rites prepare;
Nymphs fprung from fountains, or from fhady
woods,
Or the fair offspring of the facred floods.
One o'er the couches painted carpets threw,
Whofe purple luftre glow'd against the view:
White linen lay beneath. Another plac'd
The filver ftands with golden flafkets grac'd
With dulcet beverage this the beaker crown'd,
Fair in the midft, with gilded cups around:
That in the tripod o'er the kindled pile
The water pours; the bubbling waters boil:
An ample vafe receives the fmoking wave;
And, in the bath prepar'd, my limbs I lave:
Reviving fweets repair the mind's decay,
And take the painful fenfe of toil away.
A veft and tanic o'er me next fhe threw,
Fresh from the bath, and dropping balmy dew;
Then led and plac'd nie on the fovereign feat,
With carpets fpread; a footstool at my feet.
The golden ewer a nymph obfequious brings,
Replenish'd from the cool tranflucent fprings:
With copious water the bright vafe fupplies
A filver laver of capacious fize.
I wash'd. The table in fair order spread, They heap the glittering canifters with bread! Viands of various kinds allure the taste,
Some hoard of grief close-harbour'd at his heart?
Untouch'd before thee ftand the cates divine,
And unregarded laughs the rofy wine.
Can yet a doubt or any dread remain,
When fworn that oath which never can be vain? 450
I anfwer'd: Goddefs ! human is thy breaft,
By juftice fway'd, by tender pity preft:
Ill fits it me, whofe friends are funk to beafts,
To quaff thy bowls, or riot in thy feafts.
Me would'ft thou pleafe? For them thy cares em
And them to me reftore, and me to joy.
With that he parted; in her potent hand
She bore the virtue of the magic wand.
Then haftening to the frics, fet wide the door,
Urg'd forth, and drove the briftly herd before; 460
Unwieldy, out they rush'd with general cry,
Enormous beafts difhoneft to the eye.
Now touch'd by counter charms, they change
And ftand majestic, and recall'd to men.
Thof harms of late that briftled every part,
Fall off; miraculous effect of art!
Till all the form in full proportion rife,
Mdre young, more large, more graceful to my eyes.
They faw, they knew me, and with eager pace
Clung to their mafter in a long embrace:
470
Sad, pleafing fight! with tears each eye ran o'er,
And fobs of joy re-echoed through the bower:
Evin Circe wept, her adamantine heart
Felt pity enter, and fuftain'd her part.
Son of Laertes! (then the queen began) Oh much-enduring, much experienc'd man! Hafte to thy veffel on the fea-beat fhore, Unload thy treafures, and the galley moor Then bring thy friends, fecure from future harms, And in our grottoes ftow thy fpoils and arms. 480 She faid obedient to her high command,
1 quit the place, and haften to the ftrand.
My fad companiont on the beach I found.
Their wiftful eyes in Aouds of forrow drown'd.
As from fresh paftures and the dewy field
(When loaded cribs their evening banquet yield)
The lowing herds return; around them throng
With leaps and bounds their late-imprifon'd young,
Rafh to their mothers with unruly joy,
And echoing hills return the tender cry;
Sa round me prefs'd, exulting at my fight,
With cries and agonies of wild delight,
The weeping failors; nor less fierce their joy
Than if return'd to Ithaca from Troy.
Ah, master! ever honour'd, ever dear!
(Thefe tender words on every fide I hear)
What other joy can equal thy return?
Not that lov'd country for whose fight we mourn?
The foil that nurs'd us, and that gave us breath:
But, ah ! relate our loft companions death.
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I anfwer'd chearful:, Hafte, your galley moor, And bring our treafures and our arms afhore: Thofe in yon hollow caverns let us lay; Then rife, and follow where I lead the way.
Your fellows live: believe your eyes, and come 505
To tafte the joys of Circe's facred dome.
With ready fpeed the joyful crew obey:
Alone Eurylochus perfuades their ftay.
Whither (he cry'd) ah! whither will ye run?
Seek ye to meet thofe evils ye fhould fhun?
Will you the terrors of the dome explore,
In fwine to grovel, or in lions roar,
Or wolf-like howl, away the midnight hour
In dreadful watch around the magic bower?
Remember Cyclop, and his bloody dead;
The leader's rafhnefs made the foldiers bleed.
I heard incens'd, and first revolv'd to speed
My flying faulchion at the rebels head.
Dear as he was, by ties of kindred bound,
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This hand had ftretch'd him breathless on the ground.
But all at once my interpofing train
For mercy pleaded nor could plead in vain.
Leave here the man who dares his prince defert,
Leave to repentance and his own fad heart,
To guard the fhip. Seek we the sacred fhades 525.
Of Circe's palace, where Uly fies leads.
This with one voice declar'd, the rifing train
Left the black veffel by the murmuring main.
Shame touch'd Eurylochus's alter'd breast,
He fear'd my threats, and follow'd with the rest. 530
Mean while the Geddefs, with indulgent cares
And fo ial joys, the late transform'd repairs;
Rear but the maft, the fpacious fail display, '600
The northern winds fhall wing thee on thy way.
Soon fhalt thou reach old Ocean's utmost ends,
Where to the main the shelving fhore defcends;
The barren trees of Proferpine's black woods,
Poplars and willows trembling o'er the floods: Gog
There fix thy veffel in the lonely bay,
540 And enter there the kingdoms void of day:
Where Phlegethon's loud torrents, rufhing down,
Hifs in the flaming gulf of Acheron;
And where, low-rolling from the Stygian bed, 610
Cocytus lamentable waters spread:
The bath, the feaft, their fainting foul renews;
Kich in refulgent robes, and dropping balmy dews:
Brightening with joy their eager eyes behold 535
Each other's face, and each his story told;
Then gushing tears the narrative confound,
And with their fubs the vaulted roofs refound.
When hufh'd their paffion, thus the Goddess
Ulyffes, taught by labours to be wife, fcries:
Let this fhort memory of grief suffice.
To me are known the various woes ye bore,
In ftorms by fea, in perils on the shore;
Forget whatever was in Fortune's power.
And share the pleatures of this genial hour.
Such be your minds as ere ye left your coast,
Or learn'd to forrow for a country lost.
Exiles and wanderers now, where-c'er ye go
Too faithful memory renews your woe;
The caufe remov'd, habitual griefs remain,
And the foul faddens by the ufe of pain,
545, Where the dark rocks o'erhang th' infernal lake,
And mingling ftreams eternal murmurs make.
First draw thy fauichion, and on every side
Trench the black earth a cubit long and wide: 615
To all the fhades around libations pour,
Her kind entreaty mov'd the general breaft;
Tir'd with long toil, we willing funk to reft.
We ply'd the banquet, and the bowl we crown'd,
Till the full circle of the year came round.
But when the scafons, following in their train,
Brought back the months, the days, and
As from a lethargy at once they rife,
And urge their chief with animating cries:
Is this, Ulyffes, our inglorious lot?
And is the name of Ithaca forgot?
Shall never the dear land in prospect rife,
Or the lov'd palace glitter in our eyes?
And o'er th' ingredients ftrew the hallow'd
New wine and milk, with honey temper'd, bring;
And living waters from the crystal spring.
Then the wan fhades and feeble ghosts implore, 620
With promis'd offerings on thy native shore;
A barren cow, the ftatelieft of the isle,
hours And, heap'd with various wealth, a blazing pile :
Thefe to the reft; but to the feer muft bleed
[again;
A fable ram, the pride of all thy breed.
360 Thefe folemn vows and holy offerings paid
To all the phantom-nations of the dead;
Be next thy care the fable sheep to place
Full o'er the pit, and hell-ward turn their face:
But from th' infernal rite thine eye withdraw, 630
| And back to Ocean glance with reverend awe.
Sadden fhall fkim along the dusky glades
Thin airy fhoals, and visionary fhades,
Then give command the facrifice to hafte,
Let the flay'd victims in the flame be caft,
And facred vows and myftic fong apply'd
To grilly Plato and his gloomy bride.
Wide o'er the puol, thy faulchion wav'd around
Shall drive the fpectres from forbidden ground:
The facred draught fhall all the dead forbear, 640
Till aw ul from the shades arise the feer.
Let him, oraculous, the end, the way,
The turns of all thy future fate, display,
Thy pilgrimage to come, and remnant of thy
day.
Melting I heard; yet till the fun's decline
Prolong'd the feast, and quaff'd the rofy wine; 565
But when the fhades came on at evening hour,
And all lay flumbering in the dusky bower;
I came a fuppliant to fair Circe's bed,
›-The tender moment feiz'd, and thus & faid :/
Be mindful, Goddess, of thy promife made;
Muft fad Ulyffes ever be delay'd?
Around their lord my fad companions mourn,
Each breaft beats homeward, anxious to return 1.
If but a moment parted from thy eyes,
Their tears flow round me, and my heart complies.
Go then, (fhe cry'd) ab, go! yet think, not I,
Not Circe, but the Fates, your wifh deny.
Ah, hope not yet to breathe thy native air!
Far other journey firft deniands thy care;
To tread th' uncomfortable paths beneath,
And view the realms of darknefs and of death.
There feck the Theban bard, depriv'd of fight:
Within, irradiate with prophetic light;
To whom Perfephone, entire and whole,
Gave to retain th' unfeparated foul:
The reft are forms, of empty ather made;
Impaffive femblance, and a flitting fhade.
So fpeaking, from the ruddy orient fhone
The morn, confpicuous on her golden throne.
The Goddess with a radiant tunic dress'd
My limbs, and o'er me cast a filken velt.
Long flowing robes of pureft white array
585 The nymph) that added Juftre to the day:
A tiar wreath'd her head with many a fold;
Her wait was circled with a zone of gold.
Forth-iffuing then, from place to place I flew;
Rouze man by man, and animate my crew,
Rife, rife, my niates! 'tis Cirecgives command: 655
Our journey calls us; haste, and quit the land.
All rife aud follow, yet depart not all,
Struck at the word, my very heart was dead:
Penfive I fate; my tears bedew'd the bed;
To hate the light and life my foul begun,
And faw that all was grief beneath the fun.
ItCompos'd at length, the gushing tears fuppreft,
And my toft limbs now weary'd into reft :
How fall tread (I cry'd) ah, Circe! fay,
- The dark defcent, and who shall guide the way
Can living eyes behold the realms below?
What bark to waft me, and what wind to blow?
Thy fated road. (the magic power reply'd)..
Divine Ulyffes! afks no mortal guide.
For Fate decreed one wretched man to fail.
A youth there was, Elpenor was he nam'd,
Not much forfenfe, nor much for courage fam'd: 660
The youngest of our hand, a vulgar foul,
Born but to banquet, and to drain the bowl.
He, hot and careless, on a turret's height
With fleep repair'd the long debauch of night:
The fudden tumult flirr'd him where he lay,
And down he haften'd, but forgot the way;
Full endlong from the roof the fleeper fell,
And frapp'd the fpinal joint, and wak'd in hell.
The reft crowd round me with an eager look;
Intet them with a figh, and thus bespoke :
Already, friends! ye think your toils are o'er,"
Your hopes already touch your native shore
Alas! far otherwife the nymph declares,
Far other journey first demands our cares;
To tread th' uncomfortable paths beneath,
The dreary realms of darkness and of death:
To feek Tirefias' awful fhade below,
And thence our fortunes and our fates to know.
My fad companions heard in deep defpair;
Frantic they tore their manly growth of hair; 680
To earth they fel; the tears began to rain;
But tears in mortal miferies are vain.
Sadly they far'd along the fea-beat fhore;
Still heav'd their hearts, and fill their eyes ran
o'er.
The ready victims at our bark we found, The fable ewe and ram, together bound, For fwift as thought the Goddefs had been there, 675 And thence had glided viewlefs as the air : " The paths of Gods what mortal can furvey? Who eyes their motion? who shall trace their 690 way?
Ulysses continues bis narration, How he arrived at the land of the Cimmerians, and what ceremonies be performed to invoke the dead. The manner of bis defcent, and the apparition of the fades: bis converfation with Elpenor, and with Tirefias, zuho informs bim in a prophetic manner of bis fortunes to come. He meets bis mother Anticlea, from whom be learns the fate of bis family. He fees the fades of the ancient heroines, ofterwards of Ajax keeps at a fullen diffance, and the beroes, and converfes in particular with Agamemnon and Achilles. difdains to answer bim. He then bebolds Tityus, Tantalus, Sifypbus, Hercules; till be is deterred from further curiofity by the apparition of horrid spectres, and the cries of the wicked in torments.
OW to the fhores we bend, a mournful train,
And, trenching the black earth on every fide,
Now to the faurark, and launch into the main: A cavern form, d, a cubit long and wide.
At once the mast we rear, at once unbind
The fpacious fheet, and itretch it to the wind :
Then pale and penfive ftand, with cares oppreft,
And folemn horror faddens every breast.
A freshening breeze the Magic Power supplied,
While the wing'd veffel flew along the tide;
Our oars we fhipp'd: ali day the welling fails
Full from the guiding pilot catch'd the gales.
New wine, with honey-temper'd milk, we bring,
Then living waters from the cryftal spring;
O'er thefe was ftrew'd the confecrated flour,
And on the furface fhone the holy ftore. ne
Now the wan fhades we hail, th' infernal Gods,
To fpeed our courfe, and waft us o'er the floods :
So fhall a barren heifer from the ftall
10 Beneath the knife upon your altars fall;
So in our palace, at our fafe return,
Rich with unnumber'd gifts the pile fhall burn;40
So fhall a ram the largest of the breed,
Black as thefe regions, to Tirefias bleed.
Now funk the fun from his aerial height,
And o'er the faded billows rush'd the night:
When lo! we reach'd old Ocean's utmost bounds,
Where rocks controul his waves with ever-during
mounds.
MIS
There in a lonely land, and gloomy cells,
The dusky nation of Cimmeria dwells;
The fun ne'er views th' uncomfortable feats,
When radiant be advances, or retreats:
Unhappy race whem endless night invades,
Clouds the dull air, and wraps them round
The ship we moor on these obscure abodes ;
Difbark the fheep, an offering to the Gods;
And, hell-ward bending, o'er the beach descry
The delefonie paffage to th' infernal sky.
The victims, vow'd to each Tartarcan Power,
Eurylochus and Perimedes bore.
Here open'd hell, all hell' here implor'd,
And from the fcabbard drew the fhining fword;
Thus folemn rites and holy vows we paid
To all the phantom nations of the dead,
Then dy'd the sheep; a purple torrent flow'd,"
And all the caverns fmok'd with ftreaming blood.
When, lo! appear'd along the dusky coasts,
Thin, airy fhoals of vifionary ghosts;
Fair, penfive youths, and foft enamour'd maids,
And wither'd elders, pale and wrinkled fhades; 50
Ghaftly with wounds the forms of warriors flain
Stalk'd with majestic port, a martial train :
These, and a thousand more fwarm'd o'er the
ground, V We
25 And all their dire affembly fhriek'd around.
Aftouifh'd at the fight, aghaft I ftood,
And a cold fear ran fhivering through my blood;
Straight I command the facrifice to hate,
Straight the flay'd victims to the flames are caft,
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