When bless'd with ease thy woes and wanderings end, Teach them thy consort, bid thy sons attend; How loved of Jove, he crown'd our sires with praise, How we their offspring dignify our race.
Let other realms the deathful gauntlet wield, Or boast the glories of the athletic field. We in the course unrivall'd speed display, Or through cærulean billows plough the way; To dress, to dance, to sing, our sole delignt, The feast or bath by day, and love by night: Rise then, ye skill'd in measures; let him bear Your fame to men that breathe a distant air; And faithful say, to you the powers belong To race, to sail, to dance, to chant the song.
Arrived, he sees, he grieves, with rage he burns: Full horrible he roars, his voice all heaven returns O Jove, he cried, oh all ye powers above, 280 See the lewd dalliance of the queen of love! Me, awkward me, she scorns; and yields her charms To that fair lecher, the strong god of arms. If I am lame, that stain my natal hour By fate imposed; such me my parent bore. Why was I born? See how the wanton lies! Oh sight tormenting to an husband's eyes! But yet I trust, this once even Mars would fly His fair-one's arms-he thinks her, once, too nigh. But there remain, ye guilty, in my power, 290 Till Jove refunds his shameless daughter's dower. Too dear I prized a fair enchanting face: Beauty unchaste is beauty in disgrace. Meanwhile the gods the dome of Vulcan throng; Apollo comes, and Neptune comes along; With these gay Hermes trod the starry plain; But modesty withheld the goddess train. All heaven beholds, imprison'd as they lie, And unextinguish'd laughter shakes the sky. Then mutual, thus they spoke: Behold, on wrong 300 Swift vengeance waits; and art subdues the strong! Dwells there a god on all the Olympian brow More swift than Mars, and more than Vulcan slow? Yet Vulcan conquers, and the god of arms Must pay the penalty for lawless charms.
But, herald, to the palace swift repair, And the soft lyre to grace our pastimes bear. Swift at the word, obedient to the king, The herald flies the tuneful lyre to bring. Up rose nine seniors, chosen to survey The future games, the judges of the day. With instant care they mark a spacious round, And level for the dance the allotted ground; The herald bears the lyre: intent to play, The bard advancing meditates the lay. Skill'd in the dance, tall youths, a blooming band, Graceful before the heavenly minstrel stand: Light-bounding from the earth, at once they rise, Their feet half-viewless quiver in the skies: Ulysses gazed, astonish'd to survey The glancing splendors as their sandals play. Meantime the bard, alternate to the strings, The loves of Mars and Cytherea sings; How the stern god, enamour'd with her charms, Clasped the gay panting goddess in his arms, 310 By bribes seduced; and how the sun, whose eye Views the broad heavens, disclosed the lawless joy. Stung to the soul, indignant through the skies To his black forge vindictive Vulcan flies: Arrived, his sinewy arms incessant place The eternal anvil on the massy base. A wondrous net he labours, to betray The wanton lovers, as entwined they lay, Indissolubly strong! Then instant bears To his immortal dome the finish'd snares. Above, below, around, with art dispread, The sure inclosure folds the genial bed; Whose texture even the search of gods deceives, Thin as the filmy threads the spider weaves. Then, as withdrawing from the starry bowers, He feigns a journey to the Lemnian shores, His favourite isle; observant Mars descries His wish'd recess, and to the goddess flies; He glows, he burns, the fair-hair'd queen of love Descends smooth gliding from the courts of Jove, 330 Gay blooming in full charms: her hand he press'd With eager joy, and with a sigh address'd.
Come, my beloved! and taste the soft delights; Come; to repose the genial bed invites: Thy absent spouse, neglectful of thy charms, Prefers his barbarous Sintians to thy arms!
Then, nothing loth, the enamour'd fair he led, And sunk transported on the conscious bed. Down rush'd the toils, inwrapping as they lay, The careless lovers in their wanton play: In vain they strive; the entangling snares deny (Inextricably firm) the power to fly. Warn'd by the god who sheds the golden day, Stern Vulcan homeward treads the starry way:
Thus serious they: but he who gilds the skies, The gay Apollo, thus to Hermes cries: Wouldst thou enchain'd like Mars, oh Hermes, lie, And bear the shame like Mars, to share the joy?
O envied shame! (the smiling youth rejoin'd ;) Add thrice the chains, and thrice more firmly bind; Gaze all ye gods, and every goddess gaze, Yet eager would I bless the sweet disgrace. Loud laugh the rest, even Neptune laughs aloud,
Yet sues importunate to loose the god: And free, he cries, oh Vulcan! free from shame Thy captives; I insure the penal claim.
Will Neptune (Vulcan then) the faithless trust? He suffers who gives surety for th' unjust: But say, if that lewd scandal of the sky,
320 To liberty restored, perfidious fly: Say, wilt thou bear the mulct? He instant cries, The mulct I bear, if Mars perfidious flies.
To whom, appeased: No more I urge delay; When Neptune sues, my part is to obey. Then to the snares his force the god applies; They burst; and Mars to Thrace indignant flies: To the soft Cyprian shores the goddess moves, To visit Paphos and her blooming groves, Where to the Power an hundred altars rise, And breathing odours scent the balmy skies; Conceal'd she bathes in consecrated bowers, The Graces unguents shed, ambrosial showers, 400 Unguents that charm the gods! she last assumes Her wondrous robes; and the full goddess blooms. Thus sung the bard; Ulysses hears with joy, And loud applauses rend the vaulted sky.
Then to the sports his sons the king commands, Each blooming youth before the monarch stands, In dance unmatch'd! A wondrous ball is brought
340 (The work of Polyphus, divinely wrought ;) This youth with strength enormous bids it fly, And bending backward whirls it to the sky; His brother, springing with an active bound, At distance intercepts it from the ground
The ball dismiss'd, in dance they skim the strand, Turn and return, and scarce imprint the sand. The assembly gazes with astonish'd eyes, And sends in shouts applauses to the skies.
Then thus Ulysses: Happy king, whose name The brightest shines in all the rolls of fame! In subjects happy! with surprise I gaze; Thy praise was just: their skill transcends thy praise. Pleased with his people's fame, the monarch hears, And thus benevolent accosts the peers. Since wisdom's sacred guidance he pursues, Give to the stranger-guest a stranger's dues: Twelve princes in our realm dominion share, O'er whom supreme, imperial power I bear: Bring gold, a pledge of love: a talent bring, A vest, a robe, and imitate your king. Be swift to give; that he this night may share The social feast of joy, with joy sincere. And thou, Euryalus, redeem thy wrong; A generous heart repairs a slanderous tongue.
Lest, in thy slumbers on the watery main, The hand of rapine make our bounty vain. Then bending with full force, around he roll'd A labyrinth of bands in fold on fold, Closed with Circæan art. A train attends Around the bath: the bath the king ascends (Untasted joy, since that disastrous hour, He şail'd ill-fated from Calypso's bower;) Where, happy as the gods that range the sky, He feasted every sense, with every joy. He bathes; the damsels, with officious toil, Shed sweets, shed unguents, in a shower of oil: Then o'er his limbs a gorgeous robe he spreads, And to the feast magnificently treads. Full where the dome its shining valves expands, Nausicaa blooming as a goddess stands; With wondering eyes the hero she survey'd,
430 And graceful thus began the royal maid. Hail, godlike stranger! and when heaven restores To thy fond wish thy long-expected shores, This ever grateful in remembrance bear, To me thou owest, to me, the vital air.
The assenting peers, obedient to the king, In haste their heralds send the gifts to bring. Then thus Euryalus: O prince, whose sway Rules this bless'd realm, repentant I obey! Be his this sword, whose blade of brass displays A ruddy gleam; whose hilt a silver blaze; Whose ivory sheath, inwrought with curious pride, Adds graceful terror to the wearer's side.
He said, and to his hand the sword consign'd: And if, he cried, my words affect thy mind, Far from thy mind those words, ye whirlwinds, bear, And scatter them, ye storms, in empty air! Crown, oh ye heavens, with joy his peaceful hours, And grant him to his spouse, and native shores!
And bless'd be thou, my friend, Ulysses cries: Crown him with every joy, ye favouring skies! To thy calm hours continued peace afford, And never, never may'st thou want this sword! 450
He said, and o'er his shoulders flung the blade. Now o'er the earth ascends the evening shade: The precious gifts the illustrious heralds bear, And to the court the embodied peers repair. Before the queen Alcinoüs' sons unfold The vest, the robes, and heaps of shining gold; Then to the radiant thrones they move in state: Aloft, the king in pomp imperial sate.
O royal maid, Ulysses straight returns, Whose worth the splendours of thy race adorns, So may dread Jove (whose arm in vengeance forms The writhen bolt, and blackens heaven with storms,) Restore me safe, through weary wanderings toss'd, To my dear country's ever-pleasing coast, As while the spirit in this bosom glows, To thee, my goddess, I address my vows; My life, thy gift I boast! He said, and sate Fast by Alcinois on a throne of state.
Now each partakes the feast, the wine prepares, Portions the food, and each his portion shares. The bard an herald guides; the gazing throng Pay low obeisance as he moves along: Beneath a sculptured arch he sits enthroned, The peers encircling form an awful round.
Then, from the chine, Ulysses carves with art Delicious food, an honorary part; This let the master of the lyre receive, A pledge of love! 'tis all a wretch can give. Lives there a man beneath the spacious skies, Who sacred honours to the bard denies ? The Muse the bard inspires, exalts his mind: The Muse indulgent loves the harmonious kind.
The herald to his hand the charge conveys, 460 Not fond of flattery, nor unpleased with praise. When now the rage of hunger was allay'd, Thus to the lyrist wise Ulysses said: O more than man! thy soul the Muse inspires, Or Phœbus animates with all his fires!
Thence to the queen. O partner of our reign, O sole beloved! command thy menial train A polish'd chest and stately robes to bear, And healing waters for the bath prepare; That, bathed, our guest may bid his sorrows cease, Hear the sweet song, and taste the feast in peace. A bowl that flames with gold, of wondrous frame, Ourself we give, memorial of our name; To raise in offerings to almighty Jove, And every god that treads the courts above.
Instant the queen, observant of the king, Commands her train a spacious vase to bring, The spacious vase with ample streams suffice, Heap high the wood, and bid the flames arise. The flames climb round it with a fierce embrace, The fuming waters bubble o'er the blaze. Herself the chest prepares: in order roll'd The robes, the vests are ranged, and heaps of gold: And adding a rich dress inwrought with art, A gift expressive of her bounteous heart, Thus spoke to Ithacus: To guard with bands Insolvable these gifts, thy care demands:
For who, by Phœbus uninform'd, could know The woe of Greece, and sing so well the woe? Just to the tale, as present at the fray, Or taught the labours of the dreadful day: The song recalls past horrors to my eyes, 470 And bids proud Ilion from her ashes rise. Once more harmonious strike the sounding string, The Epæan fabric, framed by Pallas, sing: How stern Ulysses, furious to destroy, With latent heroes sack'd imperial Troy. If faithful thou record the tale of Fame, The god himself inspires thy breast with flame; And mine shall be the task henceforth to raise In every land thy monument of praise.
Full of the god, he raised his lofty strain, 480 How the Greeks rush'd tumultuous to the main;
How blazing tents illumined half the skies, While from the shores the winged navy flies: How, even in Ilion's walls, in deathful bands, Came the stern Greeks by Troy's assisting hands: All Troy up-heaved the steed; of differing mind, Various the Trojans counsell'd; part consign'd The monster to the sword, part sentence gave To plunge it headlong in the whelming wave; The unwise award to lodge it in the towers, An offering sacred to the immortal powers: The unwise prevail, they lodge it in the walls, And by the gods' decree proud Ilion falls: Destruction enters in the treacherous wood, And vengeful slaughter, fierce for human blood.
With fury burns; while careless they convey 550 Promiscuous every guest to every bay. These ears have heard my royal sire disclose A dreadful story big with future woes, How Neptune raged, and how, by his command. Firm rooted in a surge a ship should stand A monument of wrath; how mound on mound Should bury these proud towers beneath the ground. But this the gods may frustrate or fulfil, As suits the purpose of the eternal will. But say through what waste regions hast thou stray'd,
560 What customs noted, and what coasts survey'd; Possess'd by wild barbarians fierce in arms, Or men whose bosom tender pity warms? Say why the fate of Troy awaked thy cares, Why heaved thy bosom, and why flow'd thy tears? Just are the ways of heaven; from heaven proceed The woes of man; heaven doom'd the Greeks to bleed, A theme of future song! Say then if slain Some dear loved brother press'd the Phrygian plain" Or bled some friend, who bore a brother's part,
He sung the Greeks stern-issuing from the steed, How Ilion burns, how all her fathers bleed; How to thy dome, Deiphobus! ascends The Spartan king; how Ithacus attends (Horrid as Mars,) and how with dire alarms He fights, subdues; for Pallas strings his arms. Thus while he sung, Ulysses griefs renew,
Tears bathe his cheeks, and tears the ground be- And claim'd by merit, not by blood, the heart?
As some fond matron views in mortal fight Her husband falling in his country's right: Frantic through clashing swords she runs, she flies, As ghastly pale he groans, and faints and dies; Close to his breast she grovels on the ground; And bathes with floods of tears the gaping wound: She cries, she shrieks; the fierce insulting foe Relentless mocks her violence of woe:
To chains condemn'd as wildly she deplores; A widow, and a slave on foreign shores.
So from the sluices of Ulysses' eyes Fast fell the tears, and sighs succeeded sighs; Conceal'd he grieved: the king observed alone The silent tear, and heard the secret groan; Then to the bard aloud: O cease to sing, Dumb be thy voice, and mute the tuneful string; To every note his tears responsive flow, And his great heart heaves with tumultuous woe Thy lay too deeply moves: then cease the lay, And o'er the banquet every heart be gay: This social right demands; for him the sails, Floating in air, invite the impelling gales: His are the gifts of love; the wise and good Receive the stranger as a brother's blood.
The Adventures of the Cicons, Lotophagia, and Cyclops. Ulysses begins the relation of his adventures; how after the destruction of Troy, he with his companions made an incursion on the Cicons, by whom they were re pulsed; and meeting with a storm, were driven to the coast of the Lotophagi. From thence they sailed to the land of the Cyclops, whose manners and situation are particularly characterised. The giant Polyphenus and his cave described; the usage Ulysses and his companions met with there; and lastly, the method and artifice by which he escaped.
THEN thus Ulysses. Thou whom first in sway, As first in virtue, these thy realms obey: 590 How sweet the products of a peaceful reign! The heaven-taught poet, and enchanting strain, The well-fill'd palace, the perpetual feast, A land rejoicing, and a people blest! How goodly seems it ever to employ
But, friend, discover faithful what I crave; Artful concealment ill becomes the brave: Say what thy birth, and what the name you bore, Imposed by parents in the natal hour?
Man's social days in union and in joy; The plenteous board high-heap'd with cates divine, And o'er the foaming bowl the laughing wine.
(For from the natal hour distinctive names,
Amid these joys, why seeks thy mind to know The unhappy series of a wanderer's woe?
One common right, the great and lowly claims;) 600 Remembrance sad, whose image to review,
Say from what city, from what regions tost,
And what inhabitants those regions boast?
So shalt thou instant reach the realm assign'd, In wonderous ships, self-moved, instinct with mind:
Alas! must open all my wounds anew! And oh, what first, what last shall I relate, Of woes unnumber'd sent by Heaven and Fate ?
No helm secures their course, no pilot guides: Like man intelligent, they plough the tides Conscious of every coast, and every bay, That lies beneath the sun's all-seeing ray :
Know first the man (though now a wretch distress'd) Who hopes thee, monarch, for his future guest. Behold Ulysses! no ignoble name, Earth sounds my wisdom, and high heaven my fame
Though clouds and darkness veil the encumber'd sky, Fearless through darkness, and through clouds they 610
Though tempests rage, though rolls the swelling main, The seas may roll, the tempests rage in vain : Even the stern god that o'er the waves presides Safe as they pass, and safe repass the tides,
My native soil is Ithaca the fair, Where high Neritus waves his woods in air; Dulichium, Samé, and Zacynthus, crown'd With shady mountains, spread their isles around: (These to the north and night's dark regions run, Those to Aurora and the rising sun.) Low lies our isle, yet bless'd in fruitful stores; Strong are her sons, though rocky are her shores;
And none, ah none so lovely to my sight, The tenth we touch'd, by various errors tost, Of all the lands that heaven o'erspreads with light! The land of Lotus and the flowery coast.
In vain Calypso long constrain'd my stay, With sweet, reluctant, amorous delay; With all her charms as vainly Circe strove, And added magic to secure my love. In pomps or joys, the palace or the grot, My country's image never was forgot, My absent parents rose before my sight, And distant lay contentment and delight.
Hear then the woes which mighty Jove ordain'd To wait my passage from the Trojan land. The winds from Ilion to the Cicons' shore, Beneath cold Ismarus, our vessels bore.
31 We climb'd the beach, and springs of water found, Then spread our hasty banquet on the ground. Three men were sent, deputed from the crew (An herald one, the dubious coast to view, And learn what habitants possess'd the place. They went, and found a hospitable race: Not prone to ill, nor strange to foreign guest, They eat, they drink, and nature gives the feast; The trees around them all their food produce; Lotos, the name; divine, nectareous juice! (Thence call'd Lotophagi;) which whoso tastes, Insatiate riots in the sweet repasts,
We boldly landed on the hostile place,
Nor other home, nor other care intends,
And sack'd the city, and destroy'd the race,
But quits his house, his country, and his friends. 110
Their wives made captive, their possessions shared, The three we sent, from off the enchanting ground
And every soldier found a like reward.
The fatted sheep and sable bulls they slay,
We dragg'd reluctant, and by force we bound The rest in haste forsook the pleasing shore, Or, the charm tasted, had return'd no more. Now placed in order on their banks, they sweep
And bowls flow round, and riot wastes the day. 50 The sea's smooth face, and cleave the hoary deep;
Meantime the Cicons, to their holds retired,
Call on the Cicons, with new fury fired: With early morn the gather'd country swarms, And all the continent is bright with arms;
Thick as the budding leaves or rising flowers O'erspread the land, when spring descends in
With heavy hearts we labour through the tide, To coasts unknown, and oceans yet untried. The land of Cyclops first, a savage kind, Nor tamed by manners, nor by laws confined, 120 Untaught to plant, to turn the glebe and sow, They all their products to free nature owe. The soil untill'd a ready harvest yields, With wheat and barley wave the golden fields, Spontaneous wines from weighty clusters pour, And Jove descends in each prolific shower.
All expert soldiers, skill'd on foot to dare, Or from the bounding courser urge the war. Now fortune changes (so the Fates ordain :) Our hour was come to taste our share of pain. Close at the ships the bloody fight began, Wounded they wound, and man expires on man. Long as the morning sun increasing bright O'er heaven's pure azure spread the growing light, Promiscuous death the form of war confounds, Each adverse battle gored with equal wounds; But when his evening wheels o'erhung the main, Then conquest crown'd the fierce Ciconian train. Six brave companions from each ship we lost, The rest escaped in haste, and quit the coast. With sails outspread we fly the unequal strife, Sad for their loss, but joyful of our life: Yet as we fled, our fellows' rites we paid, And thrice we call'd on each unhappy shade.
60 By these no statutes and no rights are known, No council held, no monarch fills the throne, But high on hills, or airy cliffs, they dwell, Or deep in caves whose entrance leads to hell. 130 Each rules his race, his neighbour not his care, Heedless of others, to his own severe.
Opposed to the Cyclopean coast, there lay An isle, whose hills their subject fields survey; Its name Lachæa, crown'd with many a grove, Where savage goats through pathless thickets rove;
70 No needy mortals here, with hunger bold, Or wretched hunters through the wintry cold Pursue their flight; but leave them safe to bound From hill to hill, o'er all the desert ground. Nor knows the soil to feed the fleecy care, Or feels the labours of the crooked share; But uninhabited, untill'd, unsown
Meanwhile the god whose hand the thunder forms, Drives clouds on clouds, and blackens heaven with
Wide o'er the waste the rage of Boreas sweeps, And night rush'd headlong on the shaded deeps. Now here, now there, the giddy ships are borne, And all the rattling shrouds in fragments torn. We furl'd the sail, we plied the labouring oar, Took down our masts, and row'd our ships to shore. Two tedious days and two long nights we lay, O'erwatch'd and batter'd in the naked bay. But the third morning when Aurora brings, We rear the masts, we spread the canvas wings; Refresh'd, and careless on the deck reclined, We sit, and trust the pilot and the wind. Then to my native country had I sail'd; But the cape doubled, adverse winds prevail'd. Strong was the tide, which, by the northern blast Impell'd, our vessels on Cythera cast. Nine days our fleet the uncertain tempest bore Far in wide ocean, and from sight of shore;
It lies, and breeds the bleating goat alone. For there no vessel with vermilion prore, Or bark of traffic, glides from shore to shore; The rugged race of savages, unskill'd The seas to traverse, or the ships to build, Gaze on the coast, nor cultivate the soil; Unlearn'd in all the industrious arts of toil. Yet here all products and all plants abound, Sprung from the fruitful genius of the ground; Fields waving high with heavy crops are seen, And vines that flourish in eternal green, Refreshing meads along the murmuring main, And fountains streaming down the fruitful plain
A port there is, inclosed on either side, 90 Where ships may rest, unanchor'd and untied; Till the glad mariners incline to sail, And the sea whitens with the rising gale. High at its head, from out the cavern'd rock In living rills a gushing fountain broke:
170 And costly presents in return he gave;
Around it, and above, for ever green The bushing alders form'd a shady scene. Hither some favouring god, beyond our thought, Through all-surrounding shade our navy brought; For gloomy night descended on the main, Nor glimmer'd Phœbe in the ethereal plain : But all unseen the clouded island lay, And all unseen the surge and rolling sea, Till safe we anchor'd in the shelter'd bay: Our sails we gather'd, cast our cables o'er, And slept secure along the sandy shore. Soon as again the rosy morning shone, Reveal'd the landscape and the scene unknown, With wonder seized, we view the pleasing ground, And walk delighted, and expatiate round. Roused by the woodland nymphs at early dawn, The mountain goats came bounding o'er the lawn: In haste our fellows to the ships repair, For arms and weapons of the sylvan war; Straight in three squadrons all our crew we part, And bend the bow, or wing the missile dart; The bounteous gods afford a copious prey, And nine fat goats each vessel bears away: The royal bark had ten. Our ships complete We thus supplied (for twelve were all the fleet.) Here, till the setting sun roll'd down the light,
We sat indulging in the genial rite:
Seven golden talents to perfection wrought, A silver bowl that held a copious draught, And twelve large vessels of unmingled wine, Mellifluous, undecaying, and divine! Which now, some ages from his race conceal'd, 240 The hoary sire in gratitude reveal'd Such was the wine; to quench whose fervent stream Scarce twenty measures from the living stream To cool one cup sufficed the goblet crown'd Breathed aromatic fragrancies around. Of this an ample vase we heaved aboard, And brought another with provisions stored. My soul foreboded I should find the bower Of some fell monster, fierce with barbarous power, Some rustic wretch, who lived in heaven's despite, Contemning laws, and trampling on the right. The cave we found, but vacant all within, (His flock the giant tended on the green :) But round the grot we gaze and all we view,
Nor wines were wanting; those from ample jars 190 In order ranged, our admiration drew: We drain'd, the prize of our Ciconian wars.
The land of Cyclops lay in prospect near;
The bending shelves with loads of cheeses press'd, The folded flocks each separate from the rest; (The larger here, and there the lesser lambs, The new-fall'n young there bleating for their dams ; The kid distinguish'd from the lambkin lies :) The cavern echoes with responsive cries Capacious chargers all around were laid, Full pails, and vessels of the milking trade. With fresh provisions hence our fleet to store 200 My friends advise me, and to quit the shore; Or drive a flock of sheep and goats away, Consult our safety, and put off to sea. Their wholesome counsel rashly I declined, Curious to view the man of monstrous kind, And try what social rites a savage lends: Dire rites, alas! and fatal to my friends!
The voice of goats and bleating flocks we hear, And from their mountains rising smokes appear. Now sunk the sun, and darkness cover'd o'er The face of things: along the sea-beat shore Satiate we slept: but when the sacred dawn Arising glitter'd o'er the dewy lawn, I call'd my fellows, and these words address'd: My dear associates, here indulge your rest, While, with my single ship, adventurous, I Go forth the manners of yon men to try; Whether a race unjust, of barbarous might, Rude, and unconscious of a stranger's right: Or such who harbour pity in their breast, Revere the gods, and succour the distress'd. This said, I climb'd my vessel's lofty side; My train obey'd me, and the ship untied. In order seated on their banks, they sweep Neptune's smooth face, and cleave the yielding
When to the nearest verge of land we drew, Fast by the sea a lonely cave we view, High, and with darkening laurels cover'd o'er, Where sheep and goats lay slumbering round the shore. Near this, a fence of marble from the rock, Brown with o'erarching pine and spreading oak. A giant shepherd here his flock maintains Far from the rest, and solitary reigns,
In shelter thick of horrid shade reclined; And gloomy mischiefs labour in his mind. A form enormous! far unlike the race Of human birth, in stature or in face;
Then first a fire we kindle, and prepare For his return with sacrifice and prayer. The loaden shelves afford us full repast; We sit expecting. Lo! he comes at last. Near half a forest on his back he bore, And cast the ponderous burden at the door. It thunder'd as it fell. We trembled then, And sought the deep recesses of the den. Now driven before him through the arching rock, 280 Came tumbling, heaps on heaps, the unnumber'd flock;
Big udder'd ewes, and goats of female kind The males were penn'd in outward courts behind ;) Then heaved on high, a rock's enormous weight 220 To the cave's mouth he roll'd, and closed the gate: (Scarce twenty four-wheel'd cars, compact and strong, The massy load could bear, or roll along.) He next betakes him to his evening cares, And, sitting down, to milk his flocks prepares;
As some lone mountain's monstrous growth he stood,
Crown'd with rough thickets, and a nodding wood. I left my vessel at the point of land,
And close to guard it, gave our crew command:
Of half their udders eases first the dams, Then to the mothers he submits the lambs. Half the white stream to hardening cheese he press'd
With only twelve, the boldest and the best, I seck the adventure, and forsake the rest:
And high in wicker-baskets heap'd: the rest,
Reserved in bowls, supplied his nightly feast.
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