{"id":111,"date":"2021-05-26T09:19:24","date_gmt":"2021-05-26T13:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.ryerson.ca\/odyssey\/chapter\/book-v\/"},"modified":"2022-02-01T10:51:11","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T15:51:11","slug":"5","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/chapter\/5\/","title":{"raw":"Book V","rendered":"Book V"},"content":{"raw":"

Argument<\/b><\/h2>\r\nMercury 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\u2019s island; is persecuted by Neptune with dreadful tempests, but by the assistance of a sea nymph, after having lost his raft, is enabled to swim to Ph\u00e6acia.\r\n\r\nAurora from beside her glorious mate\r\nTithonus now arose, light to dispense\r\nThrough earth and heav\u2019n, when the assembled Gods\r\nIn council sat, o\u2019er whom high-thund\u2019ring Jove\r\nPresided, mightiest of the Pow\u2019rs above.\r\nAmid them, Pallas on the num\u2019rous woes\r\nDescanted of Ulysses, whom she saw\r\nWith grief, still prison\u2019d in Calypso\u2019s isle.\r\nJove, Father, hear me, and ye other Pow\u2019rs\r\nWho live for ever, hear! Be never King\r\nHenceforth to gracious acts inclined, humane,\r\nOr righteous, but let ev\u2019ry sceptred hand\r\nRule merciless, and deal in wrong alone,\r\nSince none of all his people whom he sway\u2019d\r\nWith such paternal gentleness and love\r\nRemembers, now, divine Ulysses more.\r\nHe, in yon distant isle a suff\u2019rer lies\r\nOf hopeless sorrow, through constraint the guest\r\nStill of the nymph Calypso, without means\r\nOr pow\u2019r to reach his native shores again,\r\nAlike of gallant barks and friends depriv\u2019d,\r\nWho might conduct him o\u2019er the spacious Deep.\r\nNor is this all, but enemies combine\r\nTo slay his son ere yet he can return\r\nFrom Pylus, whither he hath gone to learn\r\nThere, or in Sparta, tidings of his Sire.\r\nTo whom the cloud-assembler God replied.\r\nWhat word hath pass\u2019d thy lips, daughter belov\u2019d?\r\nHast thou not purpos\u2019d that arriving soon\r\nAt home, Ulysses shall destroy his foes?\r\nGuide thou, Telemachus, (for well thou canst)\r\nThat he may reach secure his native coast,\r\nAnd that the suitors baffled may return.\r\nHe ceas\u2019d, and thus to Hermes spake, his son.\r\nHermes! (for thou art herald of our will\r\nAt all times) to yon bright-hair\u2019d nymph convey\r\nOur fix\u2019d resolve, that brave Ulysses thence\r\nDepart, uncompanied by God or man.\r\nBorne on a corded raft, and suff\u2019ring woe\r\nExtreme, he on the twentieth day shall reach,\r\nNot sooner, Scherie the deep-soil\u2019d, possess\u2019d\r\nBy the Ph\u00e6acians, kinsmen of the Gods.\r\nThey, as a God shall reverence the Chief,\r\nAnd in a bark of theirs shall send him thence\r\nTo his own home, much treasure, brass and gold\r\nAnd raiment giving him, to an amount\r\nSurpassing all that, had he safe return\u2019d,\r\nHe should by lot have shared of Ilium\u2019s spoil.\r\nThus Fate appoints Ulysses to regain\r\nHis country, his own palace, and his friends.\r\nHe ended, nor the Argicide refused,\r\nMessenger of the skies; his sandals fair,\r\nAmbrosial, golden, to his feet he bound,\r\nWhich o\u2019er the moist wave, rapid as the wind,\r\nBear him, and o\u2019er th\u2019 illimitable earth,\r\nThen took his rod with which, at will, all eyes\r\nHe closes soft, or opes them wide again.\r\nSo arm\u2019d, forth flew the valiant Argicide.\r\nAlighting on Pieria, down he stoop\u2019d\r\nTo Ocean, and the billows lightly skimm\u2019d\r\nIn form a sew-mew, such as in the bays\r\nTremendous of the barren Deep her food\r\nSeeking, dips oft in brine her ample wing.\r\nIn such disguise o\u2019er many a wave he rode,\r\nBut reaching, now, that isle remote, forsook\r\nThe azure Deep, and at the spacious grot,\r\nWhere dwelt the amber-tressed nymph arrived,\r\nFound her within. A fire on all the hearth\r\nBlazed sprightly, and, afar-diffused, the scent\r\nOf smooth-split cedar and of cypress-wood\r\nOdorous, burning, cheer\u2019d the happy isle.\r\nShe, busied at the loom, and plying fast\r\nHer golden shuttle, with melodious voice\r\nSat chaunting there; a grove on either side,\r\nAlder and poplar, and the redolent branch\r\nWide-spread of Cypress, skirted dark the cave.\r\nThere many a bird of broadest pinion built\r\nSecure her nest, the owl, the kite, and daw\r\nLong-tongued, frequenter of the sandy shores.\r\nA garden-vine luxuriant on all sides\r\nMantled the spacious cavern, cluster-hung\r\nProfuse; four fountains of serenest lymph\r\nTheir sinuous course pursuing side by side,\r\nStray\u2019d all around, and ev\u2019ry where appear\u2019d\r\nMeadows of softest verdure, purpled o\u2019er\r\nWith violets; it was a scene to fill\r\nA God from heav\u2019n with wonder and delight.\r\nHermes, Heav\u2019n\u2019s messenger, admiring stood\r\nThat sight, and having all survey\u2019d, at length\r\nEnter\u2019d the grotto; nor the lovely nymph\r\nHim knew not soon as seen, for not unknown\r\nEach to the other the Immortals are,\r\nHow far soever sep\u2019rate their abodes.\r\nYet found he not within the mighty Chief\r\nUlysses; he sat weeping on the shore,\r\nForlorn, for there his custom was with groans\r\nOf sad regret t\u2019 afflict his breaking heart.\r\nLooking continual o\u2019er the barren Deep.\r\nThen thus Calypso, nymph divine, the God\r\nQuestion\u2019d, from her resplendent throne august.\r\nHermes! possessor of the potent rod!\r\nWho, though by me much reverenc\u2019d and belov\u2019d,\r\nSo seldom com\u2019st, say, wherefore comest now?\r\nSpeak thy desire; I grant it, if thou ask\r\nThings possible, and possible to me.\r\nStay not, but ent\u2019ring farther, at my board\r\nDue rites of hospitality receive.\r\nSo saying, the Goddess with ambrosial food\r\nHer table cover\u2019d, and with rosy juice\r\nNectareous charged the cup. Then ate and drank\r\nThe argicide and herald of the skies,\r\nAnd in his soul with that repast divine\r\nRefresh\u2019d, his message to the nymph declared.\r\nQuestionest thou, O Goddess, me a God?\r\nI tell thee truth, since such is thy demand.\r\nNot willing, but by Jove constrain\u2019d, I come.\r\nFor who would, voluntary, such a breadth\r\nEnormous measure of the salt expanse,\r\nWhere city none is seen in which the Gods\r\nAre served with chosen hecatombs and pray\u2019r?\r\nBut no divinity may the designs\r\nElude, or controvert, of Jove supreme.\r\nHe saith, that here thou hold\u2019st the most distrest\r\nOf all those warriors who nine years assail\u2019d\r\nThe city of Priam, and, (that city sack\u2019d)\r\nDeparted in the tenth; but, going thence,\r\nOffended Pallas, who with adverse winds\r\nOpposed their voyage, and with boist\u2019rous waves.\r\nThen perish\u2019d all his gallant friends, but him\r\nBillows and storms drove hither; Jove commands\r\nThat thou dismiss him hence without delay,\r\nFor fate ordains him not to perish here\r\nFrom all his friends remote, but he is doom\u2019d\r\nTo see them yet again, and to arrive\r\nAt his own palace in his native land.\r\nHe said; divine Calypso at the sound\r\nShudder\u2019d, and in wing\u2019d accents thus replied.\r\nYe are unjust, ye Gods, and envious past\r\nAll others, grudging if a Goddess take\r\nA mortal man openly to her arms!\r\nSo, when the rosy-finger\u2019d Morning chose\r\nOrion, though ye live yourselves at ease,\r\nYet ye all envied her, until the chaste\r\nDiana from her golden throne dispatch\u2019d\r\nA silent shaft, which slew him in Ortygia.\r\nSo, when the golden-tressed Ceres, urged\r\nBy passion, took I\u00e4sion to her arms\r\nIn a thrice-labour\u2019d fallow, not untaught\r\nWas Jove that secret long, and, hearing it,\r\nIndignant, slew him with his candent bolt.\r\nSo also, O ye Gods, ye envy me\r\nThe mortal man, my comfort. Him I saved\r\nMyself, while solitary on his keel\r\nHe rode, for with his sulph\u2019rous arrow Jove\r\nHad cleft his bark amid the sable Deep.\r\nThen perish\u2019d all his gallant friends, but him\r\nBillows and storms drove hither, whom I lov\u2019d\r\nSincere, and fondly destin\u2019d to a life\r\nImmortal, unobnoxious to decay.\r\nBut since no Deity may the designs\r\nElude or controvert of Jove supreme,\r\nHence with him o\u2019er the barren Deep, if such\r\nThe Sov\u2019reign\u2019s will, and such his stern command.\r\nBut undismiss\u2019d he goes by me, who ships\r\nMyself well-oar\u2019d and mariners have none\r\nTo send with him athwart the spacious flood;\r\nYet freely, readily, my best advice\r\nI will afford him, that, escaping all\r\nDanger, he may regain his native shore.\r\nThen Hermes thus, the messenger of heav\u2019n.\r\nAct as thou say\u2019st, fearing the frown of Jove,\r\nLest, if provoked, he spare not even thee.\r\nSo saying, the dauntless Argicide withdrew,\r\nAnd she (Jove\u2019s mandate heard) all-graceful went,\r\nSeeking the brave Ulysses; on the shore\r\nShe found him seated; tears succeeding tears\r\nDelug\u2019d his eyes, while, hopeless of return,\r\nLife\u2019s precious hours to eating cares he gave\r\nContinual, with the nymph now charm\u2019d no more.\r\nYet, cold as she was am\u2019rous, still he pass\u2019d\r\nHis nights beside her in the hollow grot,\r\nConstrain\u2019d, and day by day the rocks among\r\nWhich lined the shore heart-broken sat, and oft\r\nWhile wistfully he eyed the barren Deep,\r\nWept, groaned, desponded, sigh\u2019d, and wept again.\r\nThen, drawing near, thus spake the nymph divine.\r\nUnhappy! weep not here, nor life consume\r\nIn anguish; go; thou hast my glad consent.\r\nArise to labour; hewing down the trunks\r\nOf lofty trees, fashion them with the ax\r\nTo a broad raft, which closely floor\u2019d above,\r\nShall hence convey thee o\u2019er the gloomy Deep.\r\nBread, water, and the red grape\u2019s cheering juice\r\nMyself will put on board, which shall preserve\r\nThy life from famine; I will also give\r\nNew raiment for thy limbs, and will dispatch\r\nWinds after thee to waft thee home unharm\u2019d,\r\nIf such the pleasure of the Gods who dwell\r\nIn yonder boundless heav\u2019n, superior far\r\nTo me, in knowledge and in skill to judge.\r\nShe ceas\u2019d; but horror at that sound the heart\r\nChill\u2019d of Ulysses, and in accents wing\u2019d\r\nWith wonder, thus the noble Chief replied.\r\nAh! other thoughts than of my safe return\r\nEmploy thee, Goddess, now, who bid\u2019st me pass\r\nThe perilous gulph of Ocean on a raft,\r\nThat wild expanse terrible, which even ships\r\nPass not, though form\u2019d to cleave their way with ease,\r\nAnd joyful in propitious winds from Jove.\r\nNo\u2014let me never, in despight of thee,\r\nEmbark on board a raft, nor till thou swear,\r\nO Goddess! the inviolable oath,\r\nThat future mischief thou intend\u2019st me none.\r\nHe said; Calypso, beauteous Goddess, smiled,\r\nAnd, while she spake, stroaking his cheek, replied.\r\nThou dost asperse me rudely, and excuse\r\nOf ignorance hast none, far better taught;\r\nWhat words were these? How could\u2019st thou thus reply?\r\nNow hear me Earth, and the wide Heav\u2019n above!\r\nHear, too, ye waters of the Stygian stream\r\nUnder the earth (by which the blessed Gods\r\nSwear trembling, and revere the awful oath!)\r\nThat future mischief I intend thee none.\r\nNo, my designs concerning thee are such\r\nAs, in an exigence resembling thine,\r\nMyself, most sure, should for myself conceive.\r\nI have a mind more equal, not of steel\r\nMy heart is form\u2019d, but much to pity inclined.\r\nSo saying, the lovely Goddess with swift pace\r\nLed on, whose footsteps he as swift pursued.\r\nWithin the vaulted cavern they arrived,\r\nThe Goddess and the man; on the same throne\r\nUlysses sat, whence Hermes had aris\u2019n,\r\nAnd viands of all kinds, such as sustain\r\nThe life of mortal man, Calypso placed\r\nBefore him, both for bev\u2019rage and for food.\r\nShe opposite to the illustrious Chief\r\nReposed, by her attendant maidens served\r\nWith nectar and ambrosia. They their hands\r\nStretch\u2019d forth together to the ready feast,\r\nAnd when nor hunger more nor thirst remain\u2019d\r\nUnsated, thus the beauteous nymph began.\r\nLaertes\u2019 noble son, for wisdom famed\r\nAnd artifice! oh canst thou thus resolve\r\nTo seek, incontinent, thy native shores?\r\nI pardon thee. Farewell! but could\u2019st thou guess\r\nThe woes which fate ordains thee to endure\r\nEre yet thou reach thy country, well-content\r\nHere to inhabit, thou would\u2019st keep my grot\r\nAnd be immortal, howsoe\u2019er thy wife\r\nEngage thy ev\u2019ry wish day after day.\r\nYet can I not in stature or in form\r\nMyself suspect inferior aught to her,\r\nSince competition cannot be between\r\nMere mortal beauties, and a form divine.\r\nTo whom Ulysses, ever-wise, replied.\r\nAwful Divinity! be not incensed.\r\nI know that my Penelope in form\r\nAnd stature altogether yields to thee,\r\nFor she is mortal, and immortal thou,\r\nFrom age exempt; yet not the less I wish\r\nMy home, and languish daily to return.\r\nBut should some God amid the sable Deep\r\nDash me again into a wreck, my soul\r\nShall bear that<\/i> also; for, by practice taught,\r\nI have learned patience, having much endured\r\nBy tempest and in battle both. Come then\r\nThis evil also! I am well prepared.\r\nHe ended, and the sun sinking, resign\u2019d\r\nThe earth to darkness. Then in a recess\r\nInterior of the cavern, side by side\r\nReposed, they took their amorous delight.\r\nBut when Aurora, daughter of the dawn,\r\nLook\u2019d rosy forth, Ulysses then in haste\r\nPut on his vest and mantle, and, the nymph\r\nHer snowy vesture of transparent woof,\r\nGraceful, redundant; to her waist she bound\r\nHer golden zone, and veil\u2019d her beauteous head,\r\nThen, musing, plann\u2019d the noble Chief\u2019s return.\r\nShe gave him, fitted to the grasp, an ax\r\nOf iron, pond\u2019rous, double-edg\u2019d, with haft\r\nOf olive-wood, inserted firm, and wrought\r\nWith curious art. Then, placing in his hand\r\nA polish\u2019d adze, she led, herself, the way\r\nTo her isles\u2019 utmost verge, where tallest trees\r\nBut dry long since and sapless stood, which best\r\nMight serve his purposes, as buoyant most,\r\nThe alder, poplar, and cloud-piercing fir.\r\nTo that tall grove she led and left him there,\r\nSeeking her grot again. Then slept not He,\r\nBut, swinging with both hands the ax, his task\r\nSoon finish\u2019d; trees full twenty to the ground\r\nHe cast, which, dext\u2019rous, with his adze he smooth\u2019d,\r\nThe knotted surface chipping by a line.\r\nMeantime the lovely Goddess to his aid\r\nSharp augres brought, with which he bored the beams,\r\nThen, side by side placing them, fitted each\r\nTo other, and with long cramps join\u2019d them all.\r\nBroad as an artist, skill\u2019d in naval works,\r\nThe bottom of a ship of burthen spreads,\r\nSuch breadth Ulysses to his raft assign\u2019d.\r\nHe deck\u2019d her over with long planks, upborne\r\nOn massy beams; He made the mast, to which\r\nHe added suitable the yard;\u2014he framed\r\nRudder and helm to regulate her course,\r\nWith wicker-work he border\u2019d all her length\r\nFor safety, and much ballast stow\u2019d within.\r\nMeantime, Calypso brought him for a sail\r\nFittest materials, which he also shaped,\r\nAnd to his sail due furniture annex\u2019d\r\nOf cordage strong, foot-ropes, and ropes aloft,\r\nThen heav\u2019d her down with levers to the Deep.\r\nHe finish\u2019d all his work on the fourth day,\r\nAnd on the fifth, Calypso, nymph divine,\r\nDismiss\u2019d him from her isle, but laved him first,\r\nAnd cloath\u2019d him in sweet-scented garments new.\r\nTwo skins the Goddess also placed on board,\r\nOne charg\u2019d with crimson wine, and ampler one\r\nWith water, nor a bag with food replete\r\nForgot, nutritious, grateful to the taste,\r\nNor yet, her latest gift, a gentle gale\r\nAnd manageable, which Ulysses spread,\r\nExulting, all his canvas to receive.\r\nBeside the helm he sat, steering expert,\r\nNor sleep fell ever on his eyes that watch\u2019d\r\nIntent the Pleiads, tardy in decline\r\nBootes, and the Bear, call\u2019d else the Wain,\r\nWhich, in his polar prison circling, looks\r\nDirect toward Orion, and alone\r\nOf these sinks never to the briny Deep.\r\nThat star the lovely Goddess bade him hold\r\nContinual on his left through all his course.\r\nTen days and sev\u2019n, he, navigating, cleav\u2019d\r\nThe brine, and on the eighteenth day, at length,\r\nThe shadowy mountains of Ph\u00e6acia\u2019s land\r\nDescried, where nearest to his course it lay\r\nLike a broad buckler on the waves afloat.\r\nBut Neptune, now returning from the land\r\nOf Ethiopia, mark\u2019d him on his raft\r\nSkimming the billows, from the mountain-tops\r\nOf distant Solyma.[footnote]The Solymi were the ancient inhabitants of Pisidia in Asia-Minor.[\/footnote] <\/sup>With tenfold wrath\r\nInflamed that sight he view\u2019d, his brows he shook,\r\nAnd thus within himself, indignant, spake.\r\nSo then\u2014new counsels in the skies, it seems,\r\nPropitious to Ulysses, have prevail\u2019d\r\nSince \u00c6thiopia hath been my abode.\r\nHe sees Ph\u00e6acia nigh, where he must leap\r\nThe bound\u2019ry of his woes; but ere that hour\r\nArrive, I will ensure him many a groan.\r\nSo saying, he grasp\u2019d his trident, gather\u2019d dense\r\nThe clouds and troubled ocean; ev\u2019ry storm\r\nFrom ev\u2019ry point he summon\u2019d, earth and sea\r\nDarkening, and the night fell black from heav\u2019n.\r\nThe East, the South, the heavy-blowing West,\r\nAnd the cold North-wind clear, assail\u2019d at once\r\nHis raft, and heaved on high the billowy flood.\r\nAll hope, all courage, in that moment, lost,\r\nThe Hero thus within himself complain\u2019d.\r\nWretch that I am, what destiny at last\r\nAttends me! much I fear the Goddess\u2019 words\r\nAll true, which threaten\u2019d me with num\u2019rous ills\r\nOn the wide sea, ere I should reach my home.\r\nBehold them all fulfill\u2019d! with what a storm\r\nJove hangs the heav\u2019ns, and agitates the Deep!\r\nThe winds combined beat on me. Now I sink!\r\nThrice blest, and more than thrice, Achaia\u2019s sons\r\nAt Ilium slain for the Atrid\u00e6\u2019 sake!\r\nAh, would to heav\u2019n that, dying, I had felt\r\nThat day the stroke of fate, when me the dead\r\nAchilles guarding, with a thousand spears\r\nTroy\u2019s furious host assail\u2019d! Funereal rites\r\nI then had shared, and praise from ev\u2019ry Greek,\r\nWhom now the most inglorious death awaits.\r\nWhile thus he spake, a billow on his head\r\nBursting impetuous, whirl\u2019d the raft around,\r\nAnd, dashing from his grasp the helm, himself\r\nPlunged far remote. Then came a sudden gust\r\nOf mingling winds, that in the middle snapp\u2019d\r\nHis mast, and, hurried o\u2019er the waves afar,\r\nBoth sail and sail-yard fell into the flood.\r\nLong time submerged he lay, nor could with ease\r\nThe violence of that dread shock surmount,\r\nOr rise to air again, so burthensome\r\nHis drench\u2019d apparel proved; but, at the last,\r\nHe rose, and, rising, sputter\u2019d from his lips\r\nThe brine that trickled copious from his brows.\r\nNor, harass\u2019d as he was, resign\u2019d he yet\r\nHis raft, but buffetting the waves aside\r\nWith desp\u2019rate efforts, seized it, and again\r\nFast seated on the middle deck, escaped.\r\nThen roll\u2019d the raft at random in the flood,\r\nWallowing unwieldy, toss\u2019d from wave to wave.\r\nAs when in autumn, Boreas o\u2019er the plain\r\nConglomerated thorns before him drives,\r\nThey, tangled, to each other close adhere,\r\nSo her the winds drove wild about the Deep.\r\nBy turns the South consign\u2019d her to be sport\r\nFor the rude North-wind, and, by turns, the East\r\nYielded her to the worrying West a prey.\r\nBut Cadmus\u2019 beauteous daughter (Ino once,\r\nNow named Leucothea) saw him; mortal erst\r\nWas she, and trod the earth,[footnote]The Translator finding himself free to chuse between \u1f00\u03c5\u03b4\u03b7\u03ad\u03c3\u03c3\u03b1 and \u1f20\u03b4\u03b7\u03ad\u03c3\u03c3\u03b1, has preferred the latter.[\/footnote] <\/sup>but nymph become\r\nOf Ocean since, in honours shares divine.\r\nShe mark\u2019d his anguish, and, while toss\u2019d he roam\u2019d,\r\nPitied Ulysses; from the flood, in form\r\nA cormorant, she flew, and on the raft\r\nClose-corded perching, thus the Chief address\u2019d.\r\nAlas! unhappy! how hast thou incensed\r\nSo terribly the Shaker of the shores,\r\nThat he pursues thee with such num\u2019rous ills?\r\nSink thee he cannot, wish it as he may.\r\nThus do (for I account thee not unwise)\r\nThy garments putting off, let drive thy raft\r\nAs the winds will, then, swimming, strive to reach\r\nPh\u00e6acia, where thy doom is to escape.\r\nTake this. This ribbon bind beneath thy breast,\r\nCelestial texture. Thenceforth ev\u2019ry fear\r\nOf death dismiss, and, laying once thy hands\r\nOn the firm continent, unbind the zone,\r\nWhich thou shalt cast far distant from the shore\r\nInto the Deep, turning thy face away.\r\nSo saying, the Goddess gave into his hand\r\nThe wond\u2019rous zone, and, cormorant in form,\r\nPlunging herself into the waves again\r\nHeadlong, was hidden by the closing flood.\r\nBut still Ulysses sat perplex\u2019d, and thus\r\nThe toil-enduring Hero reason\u2019d sad.\r\nAlas! I tremble lest some God design\r\nT\u2019 ensnare me yet, bidding me quit the raft.\r\nBut let me well beware how I obey\r\nToo soon that precept, for I saw the land\r\nOf my foretold deliv\u2019rance far remote.\r\nThus, therefore, will I do, for such appears\r\nMy wiser course. So long as yet the planks\r\nMutual adhere, continuing on board\r\nMy raft, I will endure whatever woes,\r\nBut when the waves shall shatter it, I will swim,\r\nMy sole resource then left. While thus he mused,\r\nNeptune a billow of enormous bulk\r\nHollow\u2019d into an overwhelming arch\r\nOn high up-heaving, smote him. As the wind\r\nTempestuous, falling on some stubble-heap,\r\nThe arid straws dissipates ev\u2019ry way,\r\nSo flew the timbers. He, a single beam\r\nBestriding, oar\u2019d it onward with his feet,\r\nAs he had urged an horse. His raiment, then,\r\nGift of Calypso, putting off, he bound\r\nHis girdle on, and prone into the sea\r\nWith wide-spread palms prepar\u2019d for swimming, fell.\r\nShore-shaker Neptune noted him; he shook\r\nHis awful brows, and in his heart he said,\r\nThus, suff\u2019ring many mis\u2019ries roam the flood,\r\nTill thou shalt mingle with a race of men\r\nHeav\u2019n\u2019s special favourites; yet even there\r\nFear not that thou shalt feel thy sorrows light.\r\nHe said, and scourging his bright steeds, arrived\r\nAt \u00c6g\u00e6, where his glorious palace stands.\r\nBut other thoughts Minerva\u2019s mind employ\u2019d\r\nJove\u2019s daughter; ev\u2019ry wind binding beside,\r\nShe lull\u2019d them, and enjoin\u2019d them all to sleep,\r\nBut roused swift Boreas, and the billows broke\r\nBefore Ulysses, that, deliver\u2019d safe\r\nFrom a dire death, the noble Chief might mix\r\nWith maritime Ph\u00e6acia\u2019s sons renown\u2019d.\r\nTwo nights he wander\u2019d, and two days, the flood\r\nTempestuous, death expecting ev\u2019ry hour;\r\nBut when Aurora, radiant-hair\u2019d, had brought\r\nThe third day to a close, then ceas\u2019d the wind,\r\nAnd breathless came a calm; he, nigh at hand\r\nThe shore beheld, darting acute his sight\r\nToward it, from a billow\u2019s tow\u2019ring top.\r\nPrecious as to his children seems the life\r\nOf some fond father through disease long time\r\nAnd pain stretch\u2019d languid on his couch, the prey\r\nOf some vindictive Pow\u2019r, but now, at last,\r\nBy gracious heav\u2019n to ease and health restored,\r\nSo grateful to Ulysses\u2019 sight appear\u2019d\r\nForests and hills. Impatient with his feet\r\nTo press the shore, he swam; but when within\r\nSuch distance as a shout may fly, he came,\r\nThe thunder of the sea against the rocks\r\nThen smote his ear; for hoarse the billows roar\u2019d\r\nOn the firm land, belch\u2019d horrible abroad,\r\nAnd the salt spray dimm\u2019d all things to his view.\r\nFor neither port for ships nor shelt\u2019ring cove\r\nWas there, but the rude coast a headland bluff\r\nPresented, rocks and craggy masses huge.\r\nThen, hope and strength exhausted both, deep-groan\u2019d\r\nThe Chief, and in his noble heart complain\u2019d.\r\nAlas! though Jove hath given me to behold,\r\nUnhoped, the land again, and I have pass\u2019d,\r\nFurrowing my way, these num\u2019rous waves, there seems\r\nNo egress from the hoary flood for me.\r\nSharp stones hem in the waters; wild the surge\r\nRaves ev\u2019ry where; and smooth the rocks arise;\r\nDeep also is the shore, on which my feet\r\nNo standing gain, or chance of safe escape.\r\nWhat if some billow catch me from the Deep\r\nEmerging, and against the pointed rocks\r\nDash me conflicting with its force in vain?\r\nBut should I, swimming, trace the coast in search\r\nOf sloping beach, haven or shelter\u2019d creek,\r\nI fear lest, groaning, I be snatch\u2019d again\r\nBy stormy gusts into the fishy Deep,\r\nOr lest some monster of the flood receive\r\nCommand to seize me, of the many such\r\nBy the illustrious Amphitrite bred;\r\nFor that the mighty Shaker of the shores\r\nHates me implacable, too well I know.\r\nWhile such discourse within himself he held,\r\nA huge wave heav\u2019d him on the rugged coast,\r\nWhere flay\u2019d his flesh had been, and all his bones\r\nBroken together, but for the infused\r\nGood counsel of Minerva azure-eyed.\r\nWith both hands suddenly he seized the rock,\r\nAnd, groaning, clench\u2019d it till the billow pass\u2019d.\r\nSo baffled he that wave; but yet again\r\nThe refluent flood rush\u2019d on him, and with force\r\nResistless dash\u2019d him far into the sea.\r\nAs pebbles to the hollow polypus\r\nExtracted from his stony bed, adhere,\r\nSo he, the rough rocks clasping, stripp\u2019d his hands\r\nRaw, and the billows now whelm\u2019d him again.\r\nThen had the hapless Hero premature\r\nPerish\u2019d, but for sagacity inspired\r\nBy Pallas azure-eyed. Forth from the waves\r\nEmerging, where the surf burst on the rocks,\r\nHe coasted (looking landward as he swam)\r\nThe shore, with hope of port or level beach.\r\nBut when, still swimming, to the mouth he came\r\nOf a smooth-sliding river, there he deem\u2019d\r\nSafest th\u2019 ascent, for it was undeform\u2019d\r\nBy rocks, and shelter\u2019d close from ev\u2019ry wind.\r\nHe felt the current, and thus, ardent, pray\u2019d.\r\nO hear, whate\u2019er thy name, Sov\u2019reign, who rul\u2019st\r\nThis river! at whose mouth, from all the threats\r\nOf Neptune \u2019scap\u2019d, with rapture I arrive.\r\nEven the Immortal Gods the wand\u2019rer\u2019s pray\u2019r\r\nRespect, and such am I, who reach, at length,\r\nThy stream, and clasp thy knees, after long toil.\r\nI am thy suppliant. Oh King! pity me.\r\nHe said; the river God at once repress\u2019d\r\nHis current, and it ceas\u2019d; smooth he prepared\r\nThe way before Ulysses, and the land\r\nVouchsafed him easy at his channel\u2019s mouth.\r\nThere, once again he bent for ease his limbs\r\nBoth arms and knees, in conflict with the floods\r\nExhausted; swoln his body was all o\u2019er,\r\nAnd from his mouth and nostrils stream\u2019d the brine.\r\nBreathless and speechless, and of life well nigh\r\nBereft he lay, through dreadful toil immense.\r\nBut when, revived, his dissipated pow\u2019rs\r\nHe recollected, loosing from beneath\r\nHis breast the zone divine, he cast it far\r\nInto the brackish stream, and a huge wave\r\nReturning bore it downward to the sea,\r\nWhere Ino caught it. Then, the river\u2019s brink\r\nAbandoning, among the rushes prone\r\nHe lay, kiss\u2019d oft the soil, and sighing, said,\r\nAh me! what suff\u2019rings must I now sustain,\r\nWhat doom, at last, awaits me? If I watch\r\nThis woeful night, here, at the river\u2019s side,\r\nWhat hope but that the frost and copious dews,\r\nWeak as I am, my remnant small of life\r\nShall quite extinguish, and the chilly air\r\nBreath\u2019d from the river at the dawn of day?\r\nBut if, ascending this declivity\r\nI gain the woods, and in some thicket sleep,\r\n(If sleep indeed can find me overtoil\u2019d\r\nAnd cold-benumb\u2019d) then I have cause to fear\r\nLest I be torn by wild beasts, and devour\u2019d.\r\nLong time he mused, but, at the last, his course\r\nBent to the woods, which not remote he saw\r\nFrom the sea-brink, conspicuous on a hill.\r\nArrived, between two neighbour shrubs he crept,\r\nBoth olives, this the fruitful, that the wild;\r\nA covert, which nor rough winds blowing moist\r\nCould penetrate, nor could the noon-day sun\r\nSmite through it, or unceasing show\u2019rs pervade,\r\nSo thick a roof the ample branches form\u2019d\r\nClose interwoven; under these the Chief\r\nRetiring, with industrious hands a bed\r\nCollected broad of leaves, which there he found\r\nAbundant strew\u2019d, such store as had sufficed\r\nTwo travellers or three for cov\u2019ring warm,\r\nThough winter\u2019s roughest blasts had rag\u2019d the while.\r\nThat bed with joy the suff\u2019ring Chief renown\u2019d\r\nContemplated, and occupying soon\r\nThe middle space, hillock\u2019d it high with leaves.\r\nAs when some swain hath hidden deep his torch\r\nBeneath the embers, at the verge extreme\r\nOf all his farm, where, having neighbours none,\r\nSe saves a seed or two of future flame\r\nAlive, doom\u2019d else to fetch it from afar,\r\nSo with dry leaves Ulysses overspread\r\nHis body, on whose eyes Minerva pour\u2019d\r\nThe balm of sleep copious, that he might taste\r\nRepose again, after long toil severe.","rendered":"

Argument<\/b><\/h2>\n

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\u2019s island; is persecuted by Neptune with dreadful tempests, but by the assistance of a sea nymph, after having lost his raft, is enabled to swim to Ph\u00e6acia.<\/p>\n

Aurora from beside her glorious mate
\nTithonus now arose, light to dispense
\nThrough earth and heav\u2019n, when the assembled Gods
\nIn council sat, o\u2019er whom high-thund\u2019ring Jove
\nPresided, mightiest of the Pow\u2019rs above.
\nAmid them, Pallas on the num\u2019rous woes
\nDescanted of Ulysses, whom she saw
\nWith grief, still prison\u2019d in Calypso\u2019s isle.
\nJove, Father, hear me, and ye other Pow\u2019rs
\nWho live for ever, hear! Be never King
\nHenceforth to gracious acts inclined, humane,
\nOr righteous, but let ev\u2019ry sceptred hand
\nRule merciless, and deal in wrong alone,
\nSince none of all his people whom he sway\u2019d
\nWith such paternal gentleness and love
\nRemembers, now, divine Ulysses more.
\nHe, in yon distant isle a suff\u2019rer lies
\nOf hopeless sorrow, through constraint the guest
\nStill of the nymph Calypso, without means
\nOr pow\u2019r to reach his native shores again,
\nAlike of gallant barks and friends depriv\u2019d,
\nWho might conduct him o\u2019er the spacious Deep.
\nNor is this all, but enemies combine
\nTo slay his son ere yet he can return
\nFrom Pylus, whither he hath gone to learn
\nThere, or in Sparta, tidings of his Sire.
\nTo whom the cloud-assembler God replied.
\nWhat word hath pass\u2019d thy lips, daughter belov\u2019d?
\nHast thou not purpos\u2019d that arriving soon
\nAt home, Ulysses shall destroy his foes?
\nGuide thou, Telemachus, (for well thou canst)
\nThat he may reach secure his native coast,
\nAnd that the suitors baffled may return.
\nHe ceas\u2019d, and thus to Hermes spake, his son.
\nHermes! (for thou art herald of our will
\nAt all times) to yon bright-hair\u2019d nymph convey
\nOur fix\u2019d resolve, that brave Ulysses thence
\nDepart, uncompanied by God or man.
\nBorne on a corded raft, and suff\u2019ring woe
\nExtreme, he on the twentieth day shall reach,
\nNot sooner, Scherie the deep-soil\u2019d, possess\u2019d
\nBy the Ph\u00e6acians, kinsmen of the Gods.
\nThey, as a God shall reverence the Chief,
\nAnd in a bark of theirs shall send him thence
\nTo his own home, much treasure, brass and gold
\nAnd raiment giving him, to an amount
\nSurpassing all that, had he safe return\u2019d,
\nHe should by lot have shared of Ilium\u2019s spoil.
\nThus Fate appoints Ulysses to regain
\nHis country, his own palace, and his friends.
\nHe ended, nor the Argicide refused,
\nMessenger of the skies; his sandals fair,
\nAmbrosial, golden, to his feet he bound,
\nWhich o\u2019er the moist wave, rapid as the wind,
\nBear him, and o\u2019er th\u2019 illimitable earth,
\nThen took his rod with which, at will, all eyes
\nHe closes soft, or opes them wide again.
\nSo arm\u2019d, forth flew the valiant Argicide.
\nAlighting on Pieria, down he stoop\u2019d
\nTo Ocean, and the billows lightly skimm\u2019d
\nIn form a sew-mew, such as in the bays
\nTremendous of the barren Deep her food
\nSeeking, dips oft in brine her ample wing.
\nIn such disguise o\u2019er many a wave he rode,
\nBut reaching, now, that isle remote, forsook
\nThe azure Deep, and at the spacious grot,
\nWhere dwelt the amber-tressed nymph arrived,
\nFound her within. A fire on all the hearth
\nBlazed sprightly, and, afar-diffused, the scent
\nOf smooth-split cedar and of cypress-wood
\nOdorous, burning, cheer\u2019d the happy isle.
\nShe, busied at the loom, and plying fast
\nHer golden shuttle, with melodious voice
\nSat chaunting there; a grove on either side,
\nAlder and poplar, and the redolent branch
\nWide-spread of Cypress, skirted dark the cave.
\nThere many a bird of broadest pinion built
\nSecure her nest, the owl, the kite, and daw
\nLong-tongued, frequenter of the sandy shores.
\nA garden-vine luxuriant on all sides
\nMantled the spacious cavern, cluster-hung
\nProfuse; four fountains of serenest lymph
\nTheir sinuous course pursuing side by side,
\nStray\u2019d all around, and ev\u2019ry where appear\u2019d
\nMeadows of softest verdure, purpled o\u2019er
\nWith violets; it was a scene to fill
\nA God from heav\u2019n with wonder and delight.
\nHermes, Heav\u2019n\u2019s messenger, admiring stood
\nThat sight, and having all survey\u2019d, at length
\nEnter\u2019d the grotto; nor the lovely nymph
\nHim knew not soon as seen, for not unknown
\nEach to the other the Immortals are,
\nHow far soever sep\u2019rate their abodes.
\nYet found he not within the mighty Chief
\nUlysses; he sat weeping on the shore,
\nForlorn, for there his custom was with groans
\nOf sad regret t\u2019 afflict his breaking heart.
\nLooking continual o\u2019er the barren Deep.
\nThen thus Calypso, nymph divine, the God
\nQuestion\u2019d, from her resplendent throne august.
\nHermes! possessor of the potent rod!
\nWho, though by me much reverenc\u2019d and belov\u2019d,
\nSo seldom com\u2019st, say, wherefore comest now?
\nSpeak thy desire; I grant it, if thou ask
\nThings possible, and possible to me.
\nStay not, but ent\u2019ring farther, at my board
\nDue rites of hospitality receive.
\nSo saying, the Goddess with ambrosial food
\nHer table cover\u2019d, and with rosy juice
\nNectareous charged the cup. Then ate and drank
\nThe argicide and herald of the skies,
\nAnd in his soul with that repast divine
\nRefresh\u2019d, his message to the nymph declared.
\nQuestionest thou, O Goddess, me a God?
\nI tell thee truth, since such is thy demand.
\nNot willing, but by Jove constrain\u2019d, I come.
\nFor who would, voluntary, such a breadth
\nEnormous measure of the salt expanse,
\nWhere city none is seen in which the Gods
\nAre served with chosen hecatombs and pray\u2019r?
\nBut no divinity may the designs
\nElude, or controvert, of Jove supreme.
\nHe saith, that here thou hold\u2019st the most distrest
\nOf all those warriors who nine years assail\u2019d
\nThe city of Priam, and, (that city sack\u2019d)
\nDeparted in the tenth; but, going thence,
\nOffended Pallas, who with adverse winds
\nOpposed their voyage, and with boist\u2019rous waves.
\nThen perish\u2019d all his gallant friends, but him
\nBillows and storms drove hither; Jove commands
\nThat thou dismiss him hence without delay,
\nFor fate ordains him not to perish here
\nFrom all his friends remote, but he is doom\u2019d
\nTo see them yet again, and to arrive
\nAt his own palace in his native land.
\nHe said; divine Calypso at the sound
\nShudder\u2019d, and in wing\u2019d accents thus replied.
\nYe are unjust, ye Gods, and envious past
\nAll others, grudging if a Goddess take
\nA mortal man openly to her arms!
\nSo, when the rosy-finger\u2019d Morning chose
\nOrion, though ye live yourselves at ease,
\nYet ye all envied her, until the chaste
\nDiana from her golden throne dispatch\u2019d
\nA silent shaft, which slew him in Ortygia.
\nSo, when the golden-tressed Ceres, urged
\nBy passion, took I\u00e4sion to her arms
\nIn a thrice-labour\u2019d fallow, not untaught
\nWas Jove that secret long, and, hearing it,
\nIndignant, slew him with his candent bolt.
\nSo also, O ye Gods, ye envy me
\nThe mortal man, my comfort. Him I saved
\nMyself, while solitary on his keel
\nHe rode, for with his sulph\u2019rous arrow Jove
\nHad cleft his bark amid the sable Deep.
\nThen perish\u2019d all his gallant friends, but him
\nBillows and storms drove hither, whom I lov\u2019d
\nSincere, and fondly destin\u2019d to a life
\nImmortal, unobnoxious to decay.
\nBut since no Deity may the designs
\nElude or controvert of Jove supreme,
\nHence with him o\u2019er the barren Deep, if such
\nThe Sov\u2019reign\u2019s will, and such his stern command.
\nBut undismiss\u2019d he goes by me, who ships
\nMyself well-oar\u2019d and mariners have none
\nTo send with him athwart the spacious flood;
\nYet freely, readily, my best advice
\nI will afford him, that, escaping all
\nDanger, he may regain his native shore.
\nThen Hermes thus, the messenger of heav\u2019n.
\nAct as thou say\u2019st, fearing the frown of Jove,
\nLest, if provoked, he spare not even thee.
\nSo saying, the dauntless Argicide withdrew,
\nAnd she (Jove\u2019s mandate heard) all-graceful went,
\nSeeking the brave Ulysses; on the shore
\nShe found him seated; tears succeeding tears
\nDelug\u2019d his eyes, while, hopeless of return,
\nLife\u2019s precious hours to eating cares he gave
\nContinual, with the nymph now charm\u2019d no more.
\nYet, cold as she was am\u2019rous, still he pass\u2019d
\nHis nights beside her in the hollow grot,
\nConstrain\u2019d, and day by day the rocks among
\nWhich lined the shore heart-broken sat, and oft
\nWhile wistfully he eyed the barren Deep,
\nWept, groaned, desponded, sigh\u2019d, and wept again.
\nThen, drawing near, thus spake the nymph divine.
\nUnhappy! weep not here, nor life consume
\nIn anguish; go; thou hast my glad consent.
\nArise to labour; hewing down the trunks
\nOf lofty trees, fashion them with the ax
\nTo a broad raft, which closely floor\u2019d above,
\nShall hence convey thee o\u2019er the gloomy Deep.
\nBread, water, and the red grape\u2019s cheering juice
\nMyself will put on board, which shall preserve
\nThy life from famine; I will also give
\nNew raiment for thy limbs, and will dispatch
\nWinds after thee to waft thee home unharm\u2019d,
\nIf such the pleasure of the Gods who dwell
\nIn yonder boundless heav\u2019n, superior far
\nTo me, in knowledge and in skill to judge.
\nShe ceas\u2019d; but horror at that sound the heart
\nChill\u2019d of Ulysses, and in accents wing\u2019d
\nWith wonder, thus the noble Chief replied.
\nAh! other thoughts than of my safe return
\nEmploy thee, Goddess, now, who bid\u2019st me pass
\nThe perilous gulph of Ocean on a raft,
\nThat wild expanse terrible, which even ships
\nPass not, though form\u2019d to cleave their way with ease,
\nAnd joyful in propitious winds from Jove.
\nNo\u2014let me never, in despight of thee,
\nEmbark on board a raft, nor till thou swear,
\nO Goddess! the inviolable oath,
\nThat future mischief thou intend\u2019st me none.
\nHe said; Calypso, beauteous Goddess, smiled,
\nAnd, while she spake, stroaking his cheek, replied.
\nThou dost asperse me rudely, and excuse
\nOf ignorance hast none, far better taught;
\nWhat words were these? How could\u2019st thou thus reply?
\nNow hear me Earth, and the wide Heav\u2019n above!
\nHear, too, ye waters of the Stygian stream
\nUnder the earth (by which the blessed Gods
\nSwear trembling, and revere the awful oath!)
\nThat future mischief I intend thee none.
\nNo, my designs concerning thee are such
\nAs, in an exigence resembling thine,
\nMyself, most sure, should for myself conceive.
\nI have a mind more equal, not of steel
\nMy heart is form\u2019d, but much to pity inclined.
\nSo saying, the lovely Goddess with swift pace
\nLed on, whose footsteps he as swift pursued.
\nWithin the vaulted cavern they arrived,
\nThe Goddess and the man; on the same throne
\nUlysses sat, whence Hermes had aris\u2019n,
\nAnd viands of all kinds, such as sustain
\nThe life of mortal man, Calypso placed
\nBefore him, both for bev\u2019rage and for food.
\nShe opposite to the illustrious Chief
\nReposed, by her attendant maidens served
\nWith nectar and ambrosia. They their hands
\nStretch\u2019d forth together to the ready feast,
\nAnd when nor hunger more nor thirst remain\u2019d
\nUnsated, thus the beauteous nymph began.
\nLaertes\u2019 noble son, for wisdom famed
\nAnd artifice! oh canst thou thus resolve
\nTo seek, incontinent, thy native shores?
\nI pardon thee. Farewell! but could\u2019st thou guess
\nThe woes which fate ordains thee to endure
\nEre yet thou reach thy country, well-content
\nHere to inhabit, thou would\u2019st keep my grot
\nAnd be immortal, howsoe\u2019er thy wife
\nEngage thy ev\u2019ry wish day after day.
\nYet can I not in stature or in form
\nMyself suspect inferior aught to her,
\nSince competition cannot be between
\nMere mortal beauties, and a form divine.
\nTo whom Ulysses, ever-wise, replied.
\nAwful Divinity! be not incensed.
\nI know that my Penelope in form
\nAnd stature altogether yields to thee,
\nFor she is mortal, and immortal thou,
\nFrom age exempt; yet not the less I wish
\nMy home, and languish daily to return.
\nBut should some God amid the sable Deep
\nDash me again into a wreck, my soul
\nShall bear that<\/i> also; for, by practice taught,
\nI have learned patience, having much endured
\nBy tempest and in battle both. Come then
\nThis evil also! I am well prepared.
\nHe ended, and the sun sinking, resign\u2019d
\nThe earth to darkness. Then in a recess
\nInterior of the cavern, side by side
\nReposed, they took their amorous delight.
\nBut when Aurora, daughter of the dawn,
\nLook\u2019d rosy forth, Ulysses then in haste
\nPut on his vest and mantle, and, the nymph
\nHer snowy vesture of transparent woof,
\nGraceful, redundant; to her waist she bound
\nHer golden zone, and veil\u2019d her beauteous head,
\nThen, musing, plann\u2019d the noble Chief\u2019s return.
\nShe gave him, fitted to the grasp, an ax
\nOf iron, pond\u2019rous, double-edg\u2019d, with haft
\nOf olive-wood, inserted firm, and wrought
\nWith curious art. Then, placing in his hand
\nA polish\u2019d adze, she led, herself, the way
\nTo her isles\u2019 utmost verge, where tallest trees
\nBut dry long since and sapless stood, which best
\nMight serve his purposes, as buoyant most,
\nThe alder, poplar, and cloud-piercing fir.
\nTo that tall grove she led and left him there,
\nSeeking her grot again. Then slept not He,
\nBut, swinging with both hands the ax, his task
\nSoon finish\u2019d; trees full twenty to the ground
\nHe cast, which, dext\u2019rous, with his adze he smooth\u2019d,
\nThe knotted surface chipping by a line.
\nMeantime the lovely Goddess to his aid
\nSharp augres brought, with which he bored the beams,
\nThen, side by side placing them, fitted each
\nTo other, and with long cramps join\u2019d them all.
\nBroad as an artist, skill\u2019d in naval works,
\nThe bottom of a ship of burthen spreads,
\nSuch breadth Ulysses to his raft assign\u2019d.
\nHe deck\u2019d her over with long planks, upborne
\nOn massy beams; He made the mast, to which
\nHe added suitable the yard;\u2014he framed
\nRudder and helm to regulate her course,
\nWith wicker-work he border\u2019d all her length
\nFor safety, and much ballast stow\u2019d within.
\nMeantime, Calypso brought him for a sail
\nFittest materials, which he also shaped,
\nAnd to his sail due furniture annex\u2019d
\nOf cordage strong, foot-ropes, and ropes aloft,
\nThen heav\u2019d her down with levers to the Deep.
\nHe finish\u2019d all his work on the fourth day,
\nAnd on the fifth, Calypso, nymph divine,
\nDismiss\u2019d him from her isle, but laved him first,
\nAnd cloath\u2019d him in sweet-scented garments new.
\nTwo skins the Goddess also placed on board,
\nOne charg\u2019d with crimson wine, and ampler one
\nWith water, nor a bag with food replete
\nForgot, nutritious, grateful to the taste,
\nNor yet, her latest gift, a gentle gale
\nAnd manageable, which Ulysses spread,
\nExulting, all his canvas to receive.
\nBeside the helm he sat, steering expert,
\nNor sleep fell ever on his eyes that watch\u2019d
\nIntent the Pleiads, tardy in decline
\nBootes, and the Bear, call\u2019d else the Wain,
\nWhich, in his polar prison circling, looks
\nDirect toward Orion, and alone
\nOf these sinks never to the briny Deep.
\nThat star the lovely Goddess bade him hold
\nContinual on his left through all his course.
\nTen days and sev\u2019n, he, navigating, cleav\u2019d
\nThe brine, and on the eighteenth day, at length,
\nThe shadowy mountains of Ph\u00e6acia\u2019s land
\nDescried, where nearest to his course it lay
\nLike a broad buckler on the waves afloat.
\nBut Neptune, now returning from the land
\nOf Ethiopia, mark\u2019d him on his raft
\nSkimming the billows, from the mountain-tops
\nOf distant Solyma.[1]<\/sup><\/a> <\/sup>With tenfold wrath
\nInflamed that sight he view\u2019d, his brows he shook,
\nAnd thus within himself, indignant, spake.
\nSo then\u2014new counsels in the skies, it seems,
\nPropitious to Ulysses, have prevail\u2019d
\nSince \u00c6thiopia hath been my abode.
\nHe sees Ph\u00e6acia nigh, where he must leap
\nThe bound\u2019ry of his woes; but ere that hour
\nArrive, I will ensure him many a groan.
\nSo saying, he grasp\u2019d his trident, gather\u2019d dense
\nThe clouds and troubled ocean; ev\u2019ry storm
\nFrom ev\u2019ry point he summon\u2019d, earth and sea
\nDarkening, and the night fell black from heav\u2019n.
\nThe East, the South, the heavy-blowing West,
\nAnd the cold North-wind clear, assail\u2019d at once
\nHis raft, and heaved on high the billowy flood.
\nAll hope, all courage, in that moment, lost,
\nThe Hero thus within himself complain\u2019d.
\nWretch that I am, what destiny at last
\nAttends me! much I fear the Goddess\u2019 words
\nAll true, which threaten\u2019d me with num\u2019rous ills
\nOn the wide sea, ere I should reach my home.
\nBehold them all fulfill\u2019d! with what a storm
\nJove hangs the heav\u2019ns, and agitates the Deep!
\nThe winds combined beat on me. Now I sink!
\nThrice blest, and more than thrice, Achaia\u2019s sons
\nAt Ilium slain for the Atrid\u00e6\u2019 sake!
\nAh, would to heav\u2019n that, dying, I had felt
\nThat day the stroke of fate, when me the dead
\nAchilles guarding, with a thousand spears
\nTroy\u2019s furious host assail\u2019d! Funereal rites
\nI then had shared, and praise from ev\u2019ry Greek,
\nWhom now the most inglorious death awaits.
\nWhile thus he spake, a billow on his head
\nBursting impetuous, whirl\u2019d the raft around,
\nAnd, dashing from his grasp the helm, himself
\nPlunged far remote. Then came a sudden gust
\nOf mingling winds, that in the middle snapp\u2019d
\nHis mast, and, hurried o\u2019er the waves afar,
\nBoth sail and sail-yard fell into the flood.
\nLong time submerged he lay, nor could with ease
\nThe violence of that dread shock surmount,
\nOr rise to air again, so burthensome
\nHis drench\u2019d apparel proved; but, at the last,
\nHe rose, and, rising, sputter\u2019d from his lips
\nThe brine that trickled copious from his brows.
\nNor, harass\u2019d as he was, resign\u2019d he yet
\nHis raft, but buffetting the waves aside
\nWith desp\u2019rate efforts, seized it, and again
\nFast seated on the middle deck, escaped.
\nThen roll\u2019d the raft at random in the flood,
\nWallowing unwieldy, toss\u2019d from wave to wave.
\nAs when in autumn, Boreas o\u2019er the plain
\nConglomerated thorns before him drives,
\nThey, tangled, to each other close adhere,
\nSo her the winds drove wild about the Deep.
\nBy turns the South consign\u2019d her to be sport
\nFor the rude North-wind, and, by turns, the East
\nYielded her to the worrying West a prey.
\nBut Cadmus\u2019 beauteous daughter (Ino once,
\nNow named Leucothea) saw him; mortal erst
\nWas she, and trod the earth,[2]<\/sup><\/a> <\/sup>but nymph become
\nOf Ocean since, in honours shares divine.
\nShe mark\u2019d his anguish, and, while toss\u2019d he roam\u2019d,
\nPitied Ulysses; from the flood, in form
\nA cormorant, she flew, and on the raft
\nClose-corded perching, thus the Chief address\u2019d.
\nAlas! unhappy! how hast thou incensed
\nSo terribly the Shaker of the shores,
\nThat he pursues thee with such num\u2019rous ills?
\nSink thee he cannot, wish it as he may.
\nThus do (for I account thee not unwise)
\nThy garments putting off, let drive thy raft
\nAs the winds will, then, swimming, strive to reach
\nPh\u00e6acia, where thy doom is to escape.
\nTake this. This ribbon bind beneath thy breast,
\nCelestial texture. Thenceforth ev\u2019ry fear
\nOf death dismiss, and, laying once thy hands
\nOn the firm continent, unbind the zone,
\nWhich thou shalt cast far distant from the shore
\nInto the Deep, turning thy face away.
\nSo saying, the Goddess gave into his hand
\nThe wond\u2019rous zone, and, cormorant in form,
\nPlunging herself into the waves again
\nHeadlong, was hidden by the closing flood.
\nBut still Ulysses sat perplex\u2019d, and thus
\nThe toil-enduring Hero reason\u2019d sad.
\nAlas! I tremble lest some God design
\nT\u2019 ensnare me yet, bidding me quit the raft.
\nBut let me well beware how I obey
\nToo soon that precept, for I saw the land
\nOf my foretold deliv\u2019rance far remote.
\nThus, therefore, will I do, for such appears
\nMy wiser course. So long as yet the planks
\nMutual adhere, continuing on board
\nMy raft, I will endure whatever woes,
\nBut when the waves shall shatter it, I will swim,
\nMy sole resource then left. While thus he mused,
\nNeptune a billow of enormous bulk
\nHollow\u2019d into an overwhelming arch
\nOn high up-heaving, smote him. As the wind
\nTempestuous, falling on some stubble-heap,
\nThe arid straws dissipates ev\u2019ry way,
\nSo flew the timbers. He, a single beam
\nBestriding, oar\u2019d it onward with his feet,
\nAs he had urged an horse. His raiment, then,
\nGift of Calypso, putting off, he bound
\nHis girdle on, and prone into the sea
\nWith wide-spread palms prepar\u2019d for swimming, fell.
\nShore-shaker Neptune noted him; he shook
\nHis awful brows, and in his heart he said,
\nThus, suff\u2019ring many mis\u2019ries roam the flood,
\nTill thou shalt mingle with a race of men
\nHeav\u2019n\u2019s special favourites; yet even there
\nFear not that thou shalt feel thy sorrows light.
\nHe said, and scourging his bright steeds, arrived
\nAt \u00c6g\u00e6, where his glorious palace stands.
\nBut other thoughts Minerva\u2019s mind employ\u2019d
\nJove\u2019s daughter; ev\u2019ry wind binding beside,
\nShe lull\u2019d them, and enjoin\u2019d them all to sleep,
\nBut roused swift Boreas, and the billows broke
\nBefore Ulysses, that, deliver\u2019d safe
\nFrom a dire death, the noble Chief might mix
\nWith maritime Ph\u00e6acia\u2019s sons renown\u2019d.
\nTwo nights he wander\u2019d, and two days, the flood
\nTempestuous, death expecting ev\u2019ry hour;
\nBut when Aurora, radiant-hair\u2019d, had brought
\nThe third day to a close, then ceas\u2019d the wind,
\nAnd breathless came a calm; he, nigh at hand
\nThe shore beheld, darting acute his sight
\nToward it, from a billow\u2019s tow\u2019ring top.
\nPrecious as to his children seems the life
\nOf some fond father through disease long time
\nAnd pain stretch\u2019d languid on his couch, the prey
\nOf some vindictive Pow\u2019r, but now, at last,
\nBy gracious heav\u2019n to ease and health restored,
\nSo grateful to Ulysses\u2019 sight appear\u2019d
\nForests and hills. Impatient with his feet
\nTo press the shore, he swam; but when within
\nSuch distance as a shout may fly, he came,
\nThe thunder of the sea against the rocks
\nThen smote his ear; for hoarse the billows roar\u2019d
\nOn the firm land, belch\u2019d horrible abroad,
\nAnd the salt spray dimm\u2019d all things to his view.
\nFor neither port for ships nor shelt\u2019ring cove
\nWas there, but the rude coast a headland bluff
\nPresented, rocks and craggy masses huge.
\nThen, hope and strength exhausted both, deep-groan\u2019d
\nThe Chief, and in his noble heart complain\u2019d.
\nAlas! though Jove hath given me to behold,
\nUnhoped, the land again, and I have pass\u2019d,
\nFurrowing my way, these num\u2019rous waves, there seems
\nNo egress from the hoary flood for me.
\nSharp stones hem in the waters; wild the surge
\nRaves ev\u2019ry where; and smooth the rocks arise;
\nDeep also is the shore, on which my feet
\nNo standing gain, or chance of safe escape.
\nWhat if some billow catch me from the Deep
\nEmerging, and against the pointed rocks
\nDash me conflicting with its force in vain?
\nBut should I, swimming, trace the coast in search
\nOf sloping beach, haven or shelter\u2019d creek,
\nI fear lest, groaning, I be snatch\u2019d again
\nBy stormy gusts into the fishy Deep,
\nOr lest some monster of the flood receive
\nCommand to seize me, of the many such
\nBy the illustrious Amphitrite bred;
\nFor that the mighty Shaker of the shores
\nHates me implacable, too well I know.
\nWhile such discourse within himself he held,
\nA huge wave heav\u2019d him on the rugged coast,
\nWhere flay\u2019d his flesh had been, and all his bones
\nBroken together, but for the infused
\nGood counsel of Minerva azure-eyed.
\nWith both hands suddenly he seized the rock,
\nAnd, groaning, clench\u2019d it till the billow pass\u2019d.
\nSo baffled he that wave; but yet again
\nThe refluent flood rush\u2019d on him, and with force
\nResistless dash\u2019d him far into the sea.
\nAs pebbles to the hollow polypus
\nExtracted from his stony bed, adhere,
\nSo he, the rough rocks clasping, stripp\u2019d his hands
\nRaw, and the billows now whelm\u2019d him again.
\nThen had the hapless Hero premature
\nPerish\u2019d, but for sagacity inspired
\nBy Pallas azure-eyed. Forth from the waves
\nEmerging, where the surf burst on the rocks,
\nHe coasted (looking landward as he swam)
\nThe shore, with hope of port or level beach.
\nBut when, still swimming, to the mouth he came
\nOf a smooth-sliding river, there he deem\u2019d
\nSafest th\u2019 ascent, for it was undeform\u2019d
\nBy rocks, and shelter\u2019d close from ev\u2019ry wind.
\nHe felt the current, and thus, ardent, pray\u2019d.
\nO hear, whate\u2019er thy name, Sov\u2019reign, who rul\u2019st
\nThis river! at whose mouth, from all the threats
\nOf Neptune \u2019scap\u2019d, with rapture I arrive.
\nEven the Immortal Gods the wand\u2019rer\u2019s pray\u2019r
\nRespect, and such am I, who reach, at length,
\nThy stream, and clasp thy knees, after long toil.
\nI am thy suppliant. Oh King! pity me.
\nHe said; the river God at once repress\u2019d
\nHis current, and it ceas\u2019d; smooth he prepared
\nThe way before Ulysses, and the land
\nVouchsafed him easy at his channel\u2019s mouth.
\nThere, once again he bent for ease his limbs
\nBoth arms and knees, in conflict with the floods
\nExhausted; swoln his body was all o\u2019er,
\nAnd from his mouth and nostrils stream\u2019d the brine.
\nBreathless and speechless, and of life well nigh
\nBereft he lay, through dreadful toil immense.
\nBut when, revived, his dissipated pow\u2019rs
\nHe recollected, loosing from beneath
\nHis breast the zone divine, he cast it far
\nInto the brackish stream, and a huge wave
\nReturning bore it downward to the sea,
\nWhere Ino caught it. Then, the river\u2019s brink
\nAbandoning, among the rushes prone
\nHe lay, kiss\u2019d oft the soil, and sighing, said,
\nAh me! what suff\u2019rings must I now sustain,
\nWhat doom, at last, awaits me? If I watch
\nThis woeful night, here, at the river\u2019s side,
\nWhat hope but that the frost and copious dews,
\nWeak as I am, my remnant small of life
\nShall quite extinguish, and the chilly air
\nBreath\u2019d from the river at the dawn of day?
\nBut if, ascending this declivity
\nI gain the woods, and in some thicket sleep,
\n(If sleep indeed can find me overtoil\u2019d
\nAnd cold-benumb\u2019d) then I have cause to fear
\nLest I be torn by wild beasts, and devour\u2019d.
\nLong time he mused, but, at the last, his course
\nBent to the woods, which not remote he saw
\nFrom the sea-brink, conspicuous on a hill.
\nArrived, between two neighbour shrubs he crept,
\nBoth olives, this the fruitful, that the wild;
\nA covert, which nor rough winds blowing moist
\nCould penetrate, nor could the noon-day sun
\nSmite through it, or unceasing show\u2019rs pervade,
\nSo thick a roof the ample branches form\u2019d
\nClose interwoven; under these the Chief
\nRetiring, with industrious hands a bed
\nCollected broad of leaves, which there he found
\nAbundant strew\u2019d, such store as had sufficed
\nTwo travellers or three for cov\u2019ring warm,
\nThough winter\u2019s roughest blasts had rag\u2019d the while.
\nThat bed with joy the suff\u2019ring Chief renown\u2019d
\nContemplated, and occupying soon
\nThe middle space, hillock\u2019d it high with leaves.
\nAs when some swain hath hidden deep his torch
\nBeneath the embers, at the verge extreme
\nOf all his farm, where, having neighbours none,
\nSe saves a seed or two of future flame
\nAlive, doom\u2019d else to fetch it from afar,
\nSo with dry leaves Ulysses overspread
\nHis body, on whose eyes Minerva pour\u2019d
\nThe balm of sleep copious, that he might taste
\nRepose again, after long toil severe.<\/p>\n

  1. The Solymi were the ancient inhabitants of Pisidia in Asia-Minor. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  2. The Translator finding himself free to chuse between \u1f00\u03c5\u03b4\u03b7\u03ad\u03c3\u03c3\u03b1 and \u1f20\u03b4\u03b7\u03ad\u03c3\u03c3\u03b1, has preferred the latter. ↵<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"author":299,"menu_order":5,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[48],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-111","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":244,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/111\/revisions\/244"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/111\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=111"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=111"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}