I then : O nymph propitious to my prayer, Goddefs divine! my gnardian power, declare, 149 Is the foul fiend from human vengeance freed?/ Qr, if I rife in arms, can Scylla bleed?

O friends, Oh ever partners of my woes, 190 Attend while I what Heaven fore dooms difclose, Hear all! Fate hangs o'er all: on you it lies To live, or perifh! to be fafe, be wife!

195

In flowery meads the sportive Sirens play, Touch the foft lyre, and tune the vocal lay; Me, me alone, with fetters firmly bound, The Gods allow to hear the dangerous found. Hear and obey; if freedom I demand, Be every fetter flrain'd, and added hand to band. While yet I fpeak the winged galley flies, And, lo! the Siren fhores like mifts arife. Sunk were at once the winds: the air above, And waves below, at once forget to move! Some dæmon calm'd the air, and smooth'd the

deep,

200

Then: fhe: O worn by toils, O broke in fight,. Still are new toils and war thy dire delight? Will martial flames for ever fire thy mind, And never, never be to Heaven refign'd? How vain thy efforts to avenge the wrong? Deathless the peft! impenetrably strong! Furious and fell, tremendous to behold! Ev'n with a look the withers all the bold! She mocks the weak attempts of human might; Oh fly, her rage! thy conqueft is thy flight. If but to feize thy arms thou make delay; Again the fury vindicates her prey, tile Her fix mouths yawn, and fix ate fnatch'd a

way,

way,

355

150

210

And cleft in fragments, and the fragments roll'd
Th' aerial region now grew warm with day,
The wax diffolv'd beneath the burning ray!
Then every ear I barr'd against the strain,
And from accefs of phrenfy lock'd the brain.
Now round the maft my mates the fetters roll'd,
And bound me limb by limb, with fold on fold. 215
Then, bending to the ftroke, the active train
Plunge all at once their oars, and cleave the main.
While to the shore the rapid veffel flies,
Our fwift approach the Siren choir defcries:
Celestial mufic warbles from their tongue,
And thus the fweet deluders tune the fong:

220

From her foul womb Cratais gave to air
This dreadful pest. To her direct thy prayer,
To curb the monster in her dire abodes,
And guard thee through the tumult of the floods.
Thence to Trinacria's, hore you bend your
160
Where graze thy, herds, illuftrious Source of Day!
Seven herds, seven flocks, enrich the facred plains;
Each herd, each flock, full fifty heads contains:
The wondrous kind a length of age furvey,
By breed increase not, nor by death decay,
Two fifter Goddeffes poffefs the plain,
The conftant guardians of the woolly train;
Lampetie fair, and Phaethufa young,
From Phabus and the bright Neæra sprung..
Here, watchful o'er the flocks, in fhady bowers 170
And flowery meads they waste the joyous hours.
Rob not the God! and fo propitious gales
Attend thy voyage, and impel thy fails;
But if thy impious hands the flocks destroy,
The Gods, the Gods avenge it, and ye die!
'Tis thine alone (thy friends and navy loft)
Through tedious toils to view thy native coaft.

She ceas'd: and now arofe the morning ray; Swift to her dome the Goddefs held her way. Then to my mates I meafur'd back the plain, Climb'd the tail bark, and ru'd into the main; Then bending to the stroke, their oars they drew To their broad breafts, and swift the galley flew. Up-fprung a brisker breeze; with freshning gales, The friendly Goddess stretch'd the fwelling fails; We drop our nars; at cafe the pilot guides; The veffel light along the level glides.

main;

My foul takes wing to meet the heavenly ftrain;
I give the fign, and ftruggle to be free;
Swift row my mates, and shoot along the fea: 235
New chains they add, and rapid urge the way,
Till, dying off, the diftant founds decay:
Then, feudding fwiftly from the dangerous ground,
The deafen'd car unlock'd, the chains unbound.

Now all at once tremendous f.enes unfold; 240
Thunder'd the deeps, the smoking billows roll'd!
Tumultuous waves embroil'd the bellowing flood,
All trembling, deafen'd, and aghaft we flood!
No more the veffel plough'd the dreadful wave,
Fear feiz'd the mighty, and unnerv'd the brave; 245
Each dropp'd his oar: but 1wift from man to man
With looks ferene I turn'd, and thus began:
O friends! Oh often tried in adverse storms!
With ills familiar in more dreadful forms!
Deep in the dire Cyclopean den yeu lay,
Yet fafe return'd-Ulyffes led the way.

250

255

Learn courage hence! and in my care confide:
Lo ftill the fame Ulyffes is your guide!
Attend my words! your oars inceffant ply;
Strain every nerve, and bid the veffel fly.
If from yon juftling rocks and wavy war
Jove fafety grants; he grants it to your care.
And thou whole guiding nand directs our way,"
Pilot, attentive liften and obey! [waves 260
Bear wide thy courfe, nor plough those angry
Where rolls yon fotoke, yon tumbling ocean raves;
Steer'd by the higher rock; left whirl'd around
We fink, beneath the circling eddy drown'd.
While yet I fpeak, at once their oars they feize,
Stretch to the ftroke; and brush the working feas.
Cautious the name of Scylla fuppreft;
That dreadful found had chill'd the boldest breast.
Mean time forgetful of the voice divine,
All dreadful bright my limbs in armour shine;
High on the deck I take my dangerous ftand,
Two glittering javelins lighten in my hand.
Prepar'd to whirl the whizzing spear I stay,”
Till the fell fiend arife to feize her prey.
Around the dungeon, ftudious to behold

270

There facred to the radiant God of day,
Graze the fair herds, the flocks promifcuous Aray}
Then fuddenly was heard along the main
To low the ox, to bleat the wholly train, [vey'd3zo
Straight to my anxions, thoughts the found coni-
The words of Circe and the Theban fhade; A
Warn'd by their awful voice these fhores to fhun,
With cautious fears oppreft, I thus begun : ›

O friends! Oh ever exercis'd in care! Hear Heaven's commands, and reverence what ye hear! 325

To fly thefe fhores the prescient Theban shade
And Circe warns! O be their voice obey'd:
Some mighty woe relentless Heaven forbodes:
Fly the dire regions, and revere the Gods!
While yet I spoke, a fudden forrow ran
Through every breast, and spread from man to
Till wrathful thus Eurylochus began: (man,

330

And, lo! the night begins her gloomy reign, And doubles all the terrors of the main.

280

285

may, We bend our courfe, and stem the defperate way; Dire Scylla there a scene of horror forms, And here Charybdis fills the deep with ftorms When the tide rushes from her rumbling caves The rough rock roars; tumultuous boil the waves; They tofs, they foam, a wild confufion raise, Like waters bubbling o'er the fiery blaze; Eternal mifts obfcure th' aerial plain, And high above the rock the spouts the main! When in her gulfs the rushing fea fubfides, She drains the ocean with the refluent tides: The rock rebellows with a thundering found; 290 Deep, wondrous deep below, appears the ground. Struck with defpair, with tremblingohlarts we view'd

The yawning dungeon, and the tumbling flood:
When, lo! fierce Scylla ftoop'd to feize her prey,
Stretch'd her dire jaws, and fwept fix men away;
Chiefs of renown! load echoing fhrieks arife:
I turn and view them quivering in the skies;
They call, and aid with out-stretch'd arms in-
plore :'

In vain they call; those arms are ftretch'd no more.
As from fome rock that over-hangs the flood, 300
The filent fisher calls th' infidious food,
With fraudful care he waits the finny prize,
And fudden lifts it quivering to the skies:
So the foul monfter lifts her prey on high,
So pant the wretches, ftruggling in the iky;
In the wide dungeon the devours her food,
And the flesh trembles while the churns the blood.
Worn as I am with griefs, with care decay'd;
Never, I never, fcene fo dire furvey'd;

305

340

Lafh the wild furge, and blufter in the skiest
Oh! fhould the fierce fouth-weft his rage display,
And tofs with rifing storms the watery way,
Though Gods defcend from Heaven's aerial plain
To lend us aid, the Gods defcend in vain :
Then while the night difplays her awful shade,
Sweet time of flumber be the night obey'd?
Hafte ye to land! and when the morning ray
Sheds her bright beam, pursue the deftin'd way.350
A fudden joy in every bofom rofe:
So will'd fome demon, minister of woes;

To whom with grief- Oh fwift to be undone,
Conftrain'd I act what wifdom bids me fhun,
But yonder herds and yonder flocks forbear;
Attest the heavens, and call the Gods to hear; i
Content an innocent repait difplay,

355

360

By Circe given, and fly the dangerous prey.
Thus I and while to fhore the veffel flies,
With hands uplifted they atteft the skies;
Then, where a fountains gurgling waters play,
They ruth to land, and end in feasts the day:
They feed; they quaff; and now (their hunger
fed)

Sigh for their friends davour'd, and mourn the dead.
Nor ceafe the tears, till each in flumber shares 265
A fweet forgetfulness of human cares.

Now far the night advanc'd her gloomy reign, And fetting stars roll'd down the azure plain, When, at the voice of Jove, wild whirlwinds rife, And clouds and double darknefs veil the fkies; 370 The moon, the stars, the bright æthereal host Seem as extinct, and all their fplendors loft; The furious tempeft roars with dreadful found: Air thunders, rolls the ocean, groans the ground.

Now from the rocks the rapid veffel flies,

And the hoarfe din like diftant thunder dies;

To Sol's bright ifle our voyage we purfue,

We haul'd our bark, and moor'd it on the strand,
Where in a beauteous grotto's cool recefs
Dance the green Nereids of the neighbouring feas.
There while the wild winds whistled o'er the

O friends, be wife, nor dare the flocks destroy Of these fair pastures: if ye touch, ye die. Warn'd by the high command of Heaven, be aw'd; ·Holy the flocks, and dreadful is the God! That God who fpreads the radiant beams of light, And views wide earth and heaven's unmeasur'd height.

386

And now the moon had run her monthly round,
The fouth-eaft bluftering with a dreadful found;
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 hunt the watery way.
Till now, fron fea or flood no fuccour found,
Famine and meagre, want befieg'd us round.
Penfive and pale from grove to grove I ftray'd, 395
From the loud ftorms to find a sylvan shade;
Therc o'er my hands the living wave I pour;
And Heaven and Heaven's immortal thrones a-
dore,

To calm the roarings of the ftormy main,
And grant me peaceful to my realms again.
Then o'er my eyes the Gods foft flumber shed,
While thus Eurylochus arifing faid;

400

405

O friends, a thousand ways frail mortals lead
To the cold tomb, and dreadful all to tread;
But dreadful moft, when by a flow decay
Pale hunger wastes the manly strength away.
Why ceafe ye then t' implore the Powers above,
And offer hecatombs to thundering Jove!
Why feize ye not yon beeves, and fleecy prey?
Arife unanimous; arife and flay!
And, if the Gods ordain a fafe return.
To Phœbus fhrines fhall rife, and altars burn.
But, fhould the Powers that o'er mankind
fide

Decree to plunge us in the whelming tide,
Better to rush at once to fhades below,
Than linger life away, and nourish woe!

410

pre

420

Thus he the beeves around securely stray, When fwift to ruin they invade the prey; They feize, they kill!-but for the rite divine, The barley fail'd, and for libations wine. Swift from the oak they ftrip the fhady pride;. And verdant leaves the flowery cake fupply'd. With prayer they now address th' ætherial train, Slay the felected beeves, and flay the flain : The thighs, with fat involv'd, divide with art, 425 Strew'd o'er with mortals 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 dreft, They roaft the fragments, and prepare the feat. 430 'Twas then foft flumber fled my troubled brain; Back to the bark I fpeed along the main. When, lo! an odour from the feast exhales, Spreads o'er the coaft, and fcents the tainted gales: A chilly fear congeal'd my vital blood, And thus obtefting Heaven I mourn'd aloud : O Sire of men and gods, inmortal Jove! Oh, all blifsful Powers that reign above! Why were my cares beguil'd in fhort repose? O fatal lumber paid with lafting woes: A deed to dreadful all the Gods alarms, Vengeance is on the wing, and Heaven in arms! Mean time Lampetic mounts th' aerial way, And kindles into rage he God of Day;

ye

435

440

485

Nightgdwells o'er all the deep and now outflies
The gloomy Weft, and whistles in the skies.
The mountain-billows roar! the furious blast
Howls o'er the shroud, and rends it from the maft:
The maft gives way and, crackling as it bends,
Tears up the deck; then all at once defcends;
The pilot by the tumbling ruin flain,
Dafh'd from the helm, falls headlong in the main.
Then Jove in anger bids his thunders roll,
And forky lightnings flafh from pole to pole.
Fierce at our heads his deadly bolt he aims,
Red with uncommon wrath, and wrapt in flames:
Full on the bark it fell; now high now low:
Tofs'd and retofs'd, it reei'd beneath the blow; 490
At once into the main the crew it shook:
Sulphureous odours rofe, and smouldering smoke.
Like fowl that haunt the floods, they fink, they
rife,
[cries;
Now loit, now feen, with fhrieks and dreadful
And strive to gain the bark; but Jove denies.
Firm at the helm I stand, when fierce the main
Rufh'd with dire noife, and dafh'd the fides in
Again impetuous drove the furious blaft, [twain;
Snap the strong heim, and bore to fea the mast.
Firm to the maft with cords the helm I bind, 500
And ride aloft, to Providence refign'd,
Through tumbling billows, and a war of wind.