Part 5 (1/2)

For this cause, at thy knees suppliant, I beg That thou wouldst tell me his disastrous end, If either thou beheld'st with thine own eyes 400 His death, or from some wand'rer of the Greeks Hast heard it; for no common woes, alas!

Was he ordain'd to share ev'n from the womb.

Neither through pity or o'erstrain'd respect Flatter me, but explicit all relate Which thou hast witness'd. If my n.o.ble Sire E'er gratified thee by performance just Of word or deed at Ilium, where ye fell So num'rous slain in fight, oh recollect Now his fidelity, and tell me true! 410 Then Menelaus, sighing deep, replied.

G.o.ds! their ambition is to reach the bed Of a brave man, however base themselves.

But as it chances, when the hart hath lay'd Her fawns new-yean'd and sucklings yet, to rest Within some dreadful lion's gloomy den, She roams the hills, and in the gra.s.sy vales Feeds heedless, till the lion, to his lair Return'd, destroys her and her little-ones, So them thy Sire shall terribly destroy. 420 Jove, Pallas and Apollo! oh that such As erst in well-built Lesbos, where he strove With Philomelides, and threw him flat, A sight at which Achaia's sons rejoic'd, Such, now, Ulysses might a.s.sail them all!

Short life and bitter nuptials should be theirs.

But thy enquiries neither indirect Will I evade, nor give thee false reply, But all that from the Antient of the Deep[14]

I have receiv'd will utter, hiding nought. 430 As yet the G.o.ds on aegypt's sh.o.r.e detained Me wis.h.i.+ng home, angry at my neglect To heap their altars with slain hecatombs.

For they exacted from us evermore Strict rev'rence of their laws. There is an isle Amid the billowy flood, Pharos by name, In front of aegypt, distant from her sh.o.r.e Far as a vessel by a sprightly gale Impell'd, may push her voyage in a day.

The haven there is good, and many a s.h.i.+p 440 Finds wat'ring there from riv'lets on the coast.

There me the G.o.ds kept twenty days, no breeze Propitious granting, that might sweep the waves, And usher to her home the flying bark.

And now had our provision, all consumed, Left us exhausted, but a certain nymph Pitying saved me. Daughter fair was she Of mighty Proteus, Antient of the Deep, Idothea named; her most my sorrows moved; She found me from my followers all apart 450 Wand'ring (for they around the isle, with hooks The fishes snaring roamed, by famine urged) And standing at my side, me thus bespake.

Stranger! thou must be ideot born, or weak At least in intellect, or thy delight Is in distress and mis'ry, who delay'st To leave this island, and no egress hence Canst find, although thy famish'd people faint.

So spake the G.o.ddess, and I thus replied.

I tell thee, whosoever of the Pow'rs 460 Divine thou art, that I am prison'd here Not willingly, but must have, doubtless, sinn'd Against the deathless tenants of the skies.

Yet say (for the Immortals all things know) What G.o.d detains me, and my course forbids Hence to my country o'er the fishy Deep?

So I; to whom the G.o.ddess all-divine.

Stranger! I will inform thee true. A seer Oracular, the Antient of the Deep, Immortal Proteus, the aegyptian, haunts 470 These sh.o.r.es, familiar with all Ocean's gulphs, And Neptune's subject. He is by report My father; him if thou art able once To seize and bind, he will prescribe the course With all its measured distances, by which Thou shalt regain secure thy native sh.o.r.es.

He will, moreover, at thy suit declare, Thou favour'd of the skies! what good, what ill Hath in thine house befall'n, while absent thou Thy voyage difficult perform'st and long. 480 She spake, and I replied--Thyself reveal By what effectual bands I may secure The antient Deity marine, lest, warn'd Of my approach, he shun me and escape.

Hard task for mortal hands to bind a G.o.d!

Then thus Idothea answer'd all-divine.

I will inform thee true. Soon as the sun Hath climb'd the middle heav'ns, the prophet old, Emerging while the breezy zephyr blows, And cover'd with the sc.u.m of ocean, seeks 490 His s.p.a.cious cove, in which outstretch'd he lies.

The phocae[15] also, rising from the waves, Offspring of beauteous Halosydna, sleep Around him, num'rous, and the fishy scent Exhaling rank of the unfathom'd flood.

Thither conducting thee at peep of day I will dispose thee in some safe recess, But from among thy followers thou shalt chuse The bravest three in all thy gallant fleet.

And now the artifices understand 500 Of the old prophet of the sea. The sum Of all his phocae numb'ring duly first, He will pa.s.s through them, and when all by fives He counted hath, will in the midst repose Content, as sleeps the shepherd with his flock.

When ye shall see him stretch'd, then call to mind That moment all your prowess, and prevent, Howe'er he strive impatient, his escape.

All changes trying, he will take the form Of ev'ry reptile on the earth, will seem 510 A river now, and now devouring fire; But hold him ye, and grasp him still the more.

And when himself shall question you, restored To his own form in which ye found him first Reposing, then from farther force abstain; Then, Hero! loose the Antient of the Deep, And ask him, of the G.o.ds who checks thy course Hence to thy country o'er the fishy flood.

So saying, she plunged into the billowy waste.

I then, in various musings lost, my s.h.i.+ps 520 Along the sea-beach station'd sought again, And when I reach'd my galley on the sh.o.r.e We supp'd, and sacred night falling from heav'n, Slept all extended on the ocean-side.

But when Aurora, daughter of the dawn, Look'd rosy forth, pensive beside the sh.o.r.e I walk'd of Ocean, frequent to the G.o.ds Praying devout, then chose the fittest three For bold a.s.sault, and worthiest of my trust.

Meantime the G.o.ddess from the bosom wide 530 Of Ocean rising, brought us thence four skins Of phocae, and all newly stript, a snare Contriving subtle to deceive her Sire.

Four cradles in the sand she scoop'd, then sat Expecting us, who in due time approach'd; She lodg'd us side by side, and over each A raw skin cast. Horrible to ourselves Proved that disguise whom the pernicious scent Of the sea-nourish'd phocae sore annoy'd; For who would lay him down at a whale's side? 540 But she a potent remedy devised Herself to save us, who the nostrils sooth'd Of each with pure ambrosia thither brought Odorous, which the fishy scent subdued.

All morning, patient watchers, there we lay; And now the num'rous phocae from the Deep Emerging, slept along the sh.o.r.e, and he At noon came also, and perceiving there His fatted monsters, through the flock his course Took regular, and summ'd them; with the first 550 He number'd us, suspicion none of fraud Conceiving, then couch'd also. We, at once, Loud-shouting flew on him, and in our arms Constrain'd him fast; nor the sea-prophet old Call'd not incontinent his s.h.i.+fts to mind.

First he became a long-maned lion grim, Then dragon, panther then, a savage boar, A limpid stream, and an o'ershadowing tree.

We persevering held him, till at length The Antient of the Deep, skill'd as he is 560 In wiles, yet weary, question'd me, and said.

Oh Atreus' son, by what confed'rate G.o.d Instructed liest thou in wait for me, To seize and hold me? what is thy desire?

So He; to whom thus answer I return'd.

Old Seer! thou know'st; why, fraudful, should'st thou ask?

It is because I have been prison'd long Within this isle, whence I have sought in vain Deliv'rance, till my wonted courage fails.

Yet say (for the Immortals all things know) 570 What G.o.d detains me, and my course forbids Hence to my country o'er the fishy Deep?

So I; when thus the old one of the waves.

But thy plain duty[16] was to have adored Jove, first, in sacrifice, and all the G.o.ds, That then embarking, by propitious gales Impell'd, thou might'st have reach'd thy country soon.

For thou art doom'd ne'er to behold again Thy friends, thy palace, or thy native sh.o.r.es, Till thou have seen once more the hallow'd flood 580 Of aegypt, and with hecatombs adored Devout, the deathless tenants of the skies.

Then will they speed thee whither thou desir'st.

He ended, and my heart broke at his words, Which bade me pa.s.s again the gloomy gulph To aegypt; tedious course, and hard to atchieve!

Yet, though in sorrow whelm'd, I thus replied.

Old prophet! I will all thy will perform.

But tell me, and the truth simply reveal; Have the Achaians with their s.h.i.+ps arrived 590 All safe, whom Nestor left and I, at Troy?

Or of the Chiefs have any in their barks, Or in their followers' arms found a dire death Unlook'd for, since that city's siege we closed?

I spake, when answer thus the G.o.d return'd.