Part 6 (2/2)

Then answer thus the shadowy form return'd.

Take courage; suffer not excessive dread 1000 To overwhelm thee, such a guide he hath And guardian, one whom many wish their friend, And ever at their side, knowing her pow'r, Minerva; she compa.s.sionates thy griefs, And I am here her harbinger, who speak As thou hast heard by her own kind command.

Then thus Penelope the wise replied.

Oh! if thou art a G.o.ddess, and hast heard A G.o.ddess' voice, rehea.r.s.e to me the lot Of that unhappy one, if yet he live 1010 Spectator of the cheerful beams of day, Or if, already dead, he dwell below.

Whom answer'd thus the fleeting shadow vain.

I will not now inform thee if thy Lord Live, or live not. Vain words are best unspoken.

So saying, her egress swift beside the bolt She made, and melted into air. Upsprang From sleep Icarius' daughter, and her heart Felt heal'd within her, by that dream distinct Visited in the noiseless night serene. 1020 Meantime the suitors urged their wat'ry way, To instant death devoting in their hearts Telemachus. There is a rocky isle In the mid sea, Samos the rude between And Ithaca, not large, named Asteris.

It hath commodious havens, into which A pa.s.sage clear opens on either side, And there the ambush'd Greeks his coming watch'd.

FOOTNOTES:

[9] Hesychius tells us, that the Greecians ornamented with much attention the front wall of their courts for the admiration of pa.s.sengers.

[10] ?f?a??? te ??a?.

[11] Antilochus was his brother.

[12] The son of Aurora, who slew Antilochus, was Memnon.

[13] Because Pisistratus was born after Antilochus had sailed to Troy.

[14] Proteus

[15] Seals, or sea-calves.

[16] From the abruptness of this beginning, Virgil, probably, who has copied the story, took the hint of his admired exordium.

Nam quis te, juvenum confidentissime, nostras.

Egit adire domos.

[17] Son of Oleus.

[18] ?a?t???--generally signifies the founder of a feast; but we are taught by Eustathius to understand by it, in this place, the persons employed in preparing it.

[19] This transition from the third to the second person belongs to the original, and is considered as a fine stroke of art in the poet, who represents Penelope in the warmth of her resentment, forgetting where she is, and addressing the suitors as if present.

[20] Mistaking, perhaps, the sound of her voice, and imagining that she sang.--Vide Barnes in loco.

BOOK V

ARGUMENT

Mercury bears to Calypso a command from Jupiter that she dismiss Ulysses.

She, after some remonstrances, promises obedience, and furnishes him with instruments and materials, with which he constructs a raft. He quits Calypso's island; is persecuted by Neptune with dreadful tempests, but by the a.s.sistance of a sea nymph, after having lost his raft, is enabled to swim to Phaeacia.

Aurora from beside her glorious mate t.i.thonus now arose, light to dispense Through earth and heav'n, when the a.s.sembled G.o.ds In council sat, o'er whom high-thund'ring Jove Presided, mightiest of the Pow'rs above.

Amid them, Pallas on the num'rous woes Descanted of Ulysses, whom she saw With grief, still prison'd in Calypso's isle.

Jove, Father, hear me, and ye other Pow'rs Who live for ever, hear! Be never King 10 Henceforth to gracious acts inclined, humane, Or righteous, but let ev'ry sceptred hand Rule merciless, and deal in wrong alone, Since none of all his people whom he sway'd With such paternal gentleness and love Remembers, now, divine Ulysses more.

He, in yon distant isle a suff'rer lies Of hopeless sorrow, through constraint the guest Still of the nymph Calypso, without means Or pow'r to reach his native sh.o.r.es again, 20 Alike of gallant barks and friends depriv'd, Who might conduct him o'er the s.p.a.cious Deep.

Nor is this all, but enemies combine To slay his son ere yet he can return From Pylus, whither he hath gone to learn There, or in Sparta, tidings of his Sire.

To whom the cloud-a.s.sembler G.o.d replied.

What word hath pa.s.s'd thy lips, daughter belov'd?

Hast thou not purpos'd that arriving soon At home, Ulysses shall destroy his foes? 30 Guide thou, Telemachus, (for well thou canst) That he may reach secure his native coast, And that the suitors baffled may return.

He ceas'd, and thus to Hermes spake, his son.

Hermes! (for thou art herald of our will At all times) to yon bright-hair'd nymph convey Our fix'd resolve, that brave Ulysses thence Depart, uncompanied by G.o.d or man.

Borne on a corded raft, and suff'ring woe Extreme, he on the twentieth day shall reach, 40 Not sooner, Scherie the deep-soil'd, possess'd By the Phaeacians, kinsmen of the G.o.ds.

<script>