{"id":120,"date":"2021-05-26T09:19:25","date_gmt":"2021-05-26T13:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.ryerson.ca\/odyssey\/chapter\/book-xiv\/"},"modified":"2022-02-01T10:53:16","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T15:53:16","slug":"14","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/chapter\/14\/","title":{"raw":"Book XIV","rendered":"Book XIV"},"content":{"raw":"

Argument<\/b><\/h2>\r\nUlysses arriving at the house of Eum\u00e6us, is hospitably entertained, and spends the night there.\r\n\r\nLeaving the haven-side, he turn\u2019d his steps\r\nInto a rugged path, which over hills\r\nMantled with trees led him to the abode\r\nBy Pallas mention\u2019d of his noble friend[footnote]\u0394\u1fd6\u03bf\u03c2 \u1f51\u03c6\u03bf\u03c1\u03b2\u03bf\u03c2.\u2014The swineherd\u2019s was therefore in those days, and in that country, an occupation honourable as well as useful. Barnes deems the epithet \u03b4\u1fd6\u03bf\u03c2 significant of his noble birth. Vide Clarke in loco.[\/footnote]<\/sup>\r\nThe swine-herd, who of all Ulysses\u2019 train\r\nWatch\u2019d with most diligence his rural stores.\r\nHim sitting in the vestibule he found\r\nOf his own airy lodge commodious, built\r\nAmidst a level lawn. That structure neat\r\nEum\u00e6us, in the absence of his Lord,\r\nHad raised, himself, with stones from quarries hewn,\r\nUnaided by Laertes or the Queen.\r\nWith tangled thorns he fenced it safe around,\r\nAnd with contiguous stakes riv\u2019n from the trunks\r\nOf solid oak black-grain\u2019d hemm\u2019d it without.\r\nTwelve penns he made within, all side by side,\r\nLairs for his swine, and fast-immured in each\r\nLay fifty pregnant females on the floor.\r\nThe males all slept without, less num\u2019rous far,\r\nThinn\u2019d by the princely wooers at their feasts\r\nContinual, for to them he ever sent\r\nThe fattest of his saginated charge.\r\nThree hundred, still, and sixty brawns remained.\r\nFour mastiffs in adjoining kennels lay,\r\nResembling wild-beasts nourish\u2019d at the board\r\nOf the illustrious steward of the styes.\r\nHimself sat fitting sandals to his feet,\r\nCarved from a stain\u2019d ox-hide. Four hinds he kept,\r\nNow busied here and there; three in the penns\r\nWere occupied; meantime, the fourth had sought\r\nThe city, whither, for the suitors\u2019 use,\r\nWith no good will, but by constraint, he drove\r\nA boar, that, sacrificing to the Gods,\r\nTh\u2019 imperious guests might on his flesh regale.\r\nSoon as those clamorous watch-dogs the approach\r\nSaw of Ulysses, baying loud, they ran\r\nToward him; he, as ever, well-advised,\r\nSquatted, and let his staff fall from his hand.\r\nYet foul indignity he had endured\r\nEv\u2019n there, at his own farm, but that the swain,\r\nFollowing his dogs in haste, sprang through the porch\r\nTo his assistance, letting fall the hide.\r\nWith chiding voice and vollied stones he soon\r\nDrove them apart, and thus his Lord bespake.\r\nOld man! one moment more, and these my dogs\r\nHad, past doubt, worried thee, who should\u2019st have proved,\r\nSo slain, a source of obloquy to me.\r\nBut other pangs the Gods, and other woes\r\nTo me have giv\u2019n, who here lamenting sit\r\nMy godlike master, and his fatted swine\r\nNourish for others\u2019 use, while he, perchance,\r\nA wand\u2019rer in some foreign city, seeks\r\nFit sustenance, and none obtains, if still\r\nIndeed he live, and view the light of day.\r\nBut, old friend! follow me into the house,\r\nThat thou, at least, with plenteous food refresh\u2019d,\r\nAnd cheer\u2019d with wine sufficient, may\u2019st disclose\r\nBoth who thou art, and all that thou hast borne.\r\nSo saying, the gen\u2019rous swine-herd introduced\r\nUlysses, and thick bundles spread of twigs\r\nBeneath him, cover\u2019d with the shaggy skin\r\nOf a wild goat, of which he made his couch\r\nEasy and large; the Hero, so received,\r\nRejoiced, and thus his gratitude express\u2019d.\r\nJove grant thee and the Gods above, my host,\r\nFor such beneficence thy chief desire!\r\nTo whom, Eum\u00e6us, thou didst thus reply.\r\nMy guest! I should offend, treating with scorn\r\nThe stranger, though a poorer should arrive\r\nThan ev\u2019n thyself; for all the poor that are,\r\nAnd all the strangers are the care of Jove.\r\nLittle, and with good will, is all that lies\r\nWithin my scope; no man can much expect\r\nFrom servants living in continual fear\r\nUnder young masters; for the Gods, no doubt,\r\nHave intercepted my own Lord\u2019s return,\r\nFrom whom great kindness I had, else, received,\r\nWith such a recompense as servants gain\r\nFrom gen\u2019rous masters, house and competence,\r\nAnd lovely wife from many a wooer won,\r\nWhose industry should have requited well\r\nHis goodness, with such blessing from the Gods\r\nAs now attends me in my present charge.\r\nMuch had I, therefore, prosper\u2019d, had my Lord\r\nGrown old at home; but he hath died\u2014I would\r\nThat the whole house of Helen, one and all,\r\nMight perish too, for she hath many slain\r\nWho, like my master, went glory to win\r\nFor Agamemnon in the fields of Troy.\r\nSo saying, he girdled, quick, his tunic close,\r\nAnd, issuing, sought the styes; thence bringing two\r\nOf the imprison\u2019d herd, he slaughter\u2019d both,\r\nSinged them, and slash\u2019d and spitted them, and placed\r\nThe whole well-roasted banquet, spits and all,\r\nReeking before Ulysses; last, with flour\r\nHe sprinkled them, and filling with rich wine\r\nHis ivy goblet, to his master sat\r\nOpposite, whom inviting thus he said.\r\nNow, eat, my guest! such as a servant may\r\nI set before thee, neither large of growth\r\nNor fat; the fatted\u2014those the suitors eat,\r\nFearless of heav\u2019n, and pitiless of man.\r\nYet deeds unjust as theirs the blessed Gods\r\nLove not; they honour equity and right.\r\nEven an hostile band when they invade\r\nA foreign shore, which by consent of Jove\r\nThey plunder, and with laden ships depart,\r\nEven they with terrours quake of wrath divine.\r\nBut these are wiser; these must sure have learn\u2019d\r\nFrom some true oracle my master\u2019s death,\r\nWho neither deign with decency to woo,\r\nNor yet to seek their homes, but boldly waste\r\nHis substance, shameless, now, and sparing nought.\r\nJove ne\u2019er hath giv\u2019n us yet the night or day\r\nWhen with a single victim, or with two\r\nThey would content them, and his empty jars\r\nWitness how fast the squand\u2019rers use his wine.\r\nTime was, when he was rich indeed; such wealth\r\nNo Hero own\u2019d on yonder continent,\r\nNor yet in Ithaca; no twenty Chiefs\r\nCould match with all their treasures his alone;\r\nI tell thee their amount. Twelve herds of his\r\nThe mainland graze;[footnote]It may be proper to suggest that Ulysses was lord of part of the continent opposite to Ithaca\u2014viz.\u2014of the peninsula Nericus or Leuca, which afterward became an island, and is now called Santa Maura. F.[\/footnote]<\/sup> as many flocks of sheep;\r\nAs many droves of swine; and hirelings there\r\nAnd servants of his own seed for his use,\r\nAs many num\u2019rous flocks of goats; his goats,\r\n(Not fewer than eleven num\u2019rous flocks)\r\nHere also graze the margin of his fields\r\nUnder the eye of servants well-approved,\r\nAnd ev\u2019ry servant, ev\u2019ry day, brings home\r\nThe goat, of all his flock largest and best.\r\nBut as for me, I have these swine in charge,\r\nOf which, selected with exactest care\r\nFrom all the herd, I send the prime to them.\r\nHe ceas\u2019d, meantime Ulysses ate and drank\r\nVoracious, meditating, mute, the death\r\nOf those proud suitors. His repast, at length,\r\nConcluded, and his appetite sufficed,\r\nEum\u00e6us gave him, charged with wine, the cup\r\nFrom which he drank himself; he, glad, received\r\nThe boon, and in wing\u2019d accents thus began.\r\nMy friend, and who was he, wealthy and brave\r\nAs thou describ\u2019st the Chief, who purchased thee?\r\nThou say\u2019st he perish\u2019d for the glory-sake\r\nOf Agamemnon. Name him; I, perchance,\r\nMay have beheld the Hero. None can say\r\nBut Jove and the inhabitants of heav\u2019n\r\nThat I ne\u2019er saw him, and may not impart\r\nNews of him; I have roam\u2019d through many a clime.\r\nTo whom the noble swine-herd thus replied.\r\nAlas, old man! no trav\u2019ler\u2019s tale of him\r\nWill gain his consort\u2019s credence, or his son\u2019s;\r\nFor wand\u2019rers, wanting entertainment, forge\r\nFalsehoods for bread, and wilfully deceive.\r\nNo wand\u2019rer lands in Ithaca, but he seeks\r\nWith feign\u2019d intelligence my mistress\u2019 ear;\r\nShe welcomes all, and while she questions each\r\nMinutely, from her lids lets fall the tear\r\nAffectionate, as well beseems a wife\r\nWhose mate hath perish\u2019d in a distant land.\r\nThou could\u2019st thyself, no doubt, my hoary friend!\r\n(Would any furnish thee with decent vest\r\nAnd mantle) fabricate a tale with ease;\r\nYet sure it is that dogs and fowls, long since,\r\nHis skin have stript, or fishes of the Deep\r\nHave eaten him, and on some distant shore\r\nWhelm\u2019d in deep sands his mould\u2019ring bones are laid.\r\nSo hath he perish\u2019d; whence, to all his friends,\r\nBut chiefly to myself, sorrow of heart;\r\nFor such another Lord, gentle as he,\r\nWherever sought, I have no hope to find,\r\nThough I should wander even to the house\r\nOf my own father. Neither yearns my heart\r\nSo feelingly (though that desiring too)\r\nTo see once more my parents and my home,\r\nAs to behold Ulysses yet again.\r\nAh stranger; absent as he is, his name\r\nFills me with rev\u2019rence, for he lov\u2019d me much,\r\nCared for me much, and, though we meet no more,\r\nHolds still an elder brother\u2019s part in me.\r\nHim answer\u2019d, then, the Hero toil-inured.\r\nMy friend! since his return, in thy account,\r\nIs an event impossible, and thy mind\r\nAlways incredulous that hope rejects,\r\nI shall not slightly speak, but with an oath\u2014\r\nUlysses comes again; and I demand\r\nNo more, than that the boon such news deserves,\r\nBe giv\u2019n me soon as he shall reach his home.\r\nThen give me vest and mantle fit to wear,\r\nWhich, ere that hour, much as I need them both,\r\nI neither ask, nor will accept from thee.\r\nFor him whom poverty can force aside\r\nFrom truth\u2014I hate him as the gates of hell.\r\nBe Jove, of all in heav\u2019n, my witness first,\r\nThen, this thy hospitable board, and, last,\r\nThe household Gods of the illustrious Chief\r\nHimself, Ulysses, to whose gates I go,\r\nThat all my words shall surely be fulfill\u2019d.\r\nIn this same year Ulysses shall arrive,\r\nEre, this month closed, another month succeed,\r\nHe shall return, and punish all who dare\r\nInsult his consort and his noble son.\r\nTo whom Eum\u00e6us, thou didst thus reply.\r\nOld friend! that boon thou wilt ne\u2019er earn from me;\r\nUlysses comes no more. But thou thy wine\r\nDrink quietly, and let us find, at length,\r\nSome other theme; recall not this again\r\nTo my remembrance, for my soul is grieved\r\nOft as reminded of my honour\u2019d Lord.\r\nLet the oath rest, and let Ulysses come\r\nEv\u2019n as myself, and as Penelope,\r\nAnd as his ancient father, and his son\r\nGodlike Telemachus, all wish he may.\r\nAy\u2014there I feel again\u2014nor cease to mourn\r\nHis son Telemachus; who, when the Gods\r\nHad giv\u2019n him growth like a young plant, and I\r\nWell hoped that nought inferior he should prove\r\nIn person or in mind to his own sire,\r\nHath lost, through influence human or divine,\r\nI know not how, his sober intellect,\r\nAnd after tidings of his sire is gone\r\nTo far-famed Pylus; his return, meantime,\r\nIn ambush hidden the proud suitors wait,\r\nThat the whole house may perish of renown\u2019d\r\nArcesias, named in Ithaca no more.\r\nBut whether he have fallen or \u2019scaped, let him\r\nRest also, whom Saturnian Jove protect!\r\nBut come, my ancient guest! now let me learn\r\nThy own afflictions; answer me in truth.\r\nWho, and whence art thou? in what city born?\r\nWhere dwell thy parents; in what kind of ship\r\nCam\u2019st thou? the mariners, why brought they thee\r\nTo Ithaca? and of what land are they?\r\nFor, that on foot thou found\u2019st us not, is sure.\r\nHim answer\u2019d, then, Ulysses, ever-wise.\r\nI will with truth resolve thee; and if here\r\nWithin thy cottage sitting, we had wine\r\nAnd food for many a day, and business none\r\nBut to regale at ease while others toiled,\r\nI could exhaust the year complete, my woes\r\nRehearsing, nor, at last, rehearse entire\r\nMy sorrows by the will of heav\u2019n sustained.\r\nI boast me sprung from ancestry renown\u2019d\r\nIn spacious Crete; son of a wealthy sire,\r\nWho other sons train\u2019d num\u2019rous in his house,\r\nBorn of his wedded wife; but he begat\r\nMe on his purchased concubine, whom yet\r\nDear as his other sons in wedlock born\r\nCastor Hylacides esteem\u2019d and lov\u2019d,\r\nFor him I boast my father. Him in Crete,\r\nWhile yet he liv\u2019d, all reverenc\u2019d as a God,\r\nSo rich, so prosp\u2019rous, and so blest was he\r\nWith sons of highest praise. But death, the doom\r\nOf all, him bore to Pluto\u2019s drear abode,\r\nAnd his illustrious sons among themselves\r\nPortion\u2019d his goods by lot; to me, indeed,\r\nThey gave a dwelling, and but little more,\r\nYet, for my virtuous qualities, I won\r\nA wealthy bride, for I was neither vain\r\nNor base, forlorn as thou perceiv\u2019st me now.\r\nBut thou canst guess, I judge, viewing the straw\r\nWhat once was in the ear. Ah! I have borne\r\nMuch tribulation; heap\u2019d and heavy woes.\r\nCourage and phalanx-breaking might had I\r\nFrom Mars and Pallas; at what time I drew,\r\n(Planning some dread exploit) an ambush forth\r\nOf our most valiant Chiefs, no boding fears\r\nOf death seized me<\/i>, but foremost far of all\r\nI sprang to fight, and pierced the flying foe.\r\nSuch was I once in arms. But household toils\r\nSustain\u2019d for children\u2019s sake, and carking cares\r\nT\u2019 enrich a family, were not for me.\r\nMy pleasures were the gallant bark, the din\r\nOf battle, the smooth spear and glitt\u2019ring shaft,\r\nObjects of dread to others, but which me\r\nThe Gods disposed to love and to enjoy.\r\nThus diff\u2019rent minds are diff\u2019rently amused;\r\nFor ere Achaia\u2019s fleet had sailed to Troy,\r\nNine times was I commander of an host\r\nEmbark\u2019d against a foreign foe, and found\r\nIn all those enterprizes great success.\r\nFrom the whole booty, first, what pleased me most\r\nChusing, and sharing also much by lot\r\nI rapidly grew rich, and had thenceforth\r\nAmong the Cretans rev\u2019rence and respect.\r\nBut when loud-thund\u2019ring Jove that voyage dire\r\nOrdain\u2019d, which loos\u2019d the knees of many a Greek,\r\nThen, to Idomeneus and me they gave\r\nThe charge of all their fleet, which how to avoid\r\nWe found not, so importunate the cry\r\nOf the whole host impell\u2019d us to the task.\r\nThere fought we nine long years, and in the tenth\r\n(Priam\u2019s proud city pillag\u2019d) steer\u2019d again\r\nOur galleys homeward, which the Gods dispersed.\r\nThen was it that deep-planning Jove devised\r\nFor me much evil. One short month, no more,\r\nI gave to joys domestic, in my wife\r\nHappy, and in my babes, and in my wealth,\r\nWhen the desire seiz\u2019d me with sev\u2019ral ships\r\nWell-rigg\u2019d, and furnish\u2019d all with gallant crews,\r\nTo sail for \u00c6gypt; nine I fitted forth,\r\nTo which stout mariners assembled fast.\r\nSix days the chosen partners of my voyage\r\nFeasted, to whom I num\u2019rous victims gave\r\nFor sacrifice, and for their own regale.\r\nEmbarking on the sev\u2019nth from spacious Crete,\r\nBefore a clear breeze prosp\u2019rous from the North\r\nWe glided easily along, as down\r\nA river\u2019s stream; nor one of all my ships\r\nDamage incurr\u2019d, but healthy and at ease\r\nWe sat, while gales well-managed urged us on.\r\nThe fifth day thence, smooth-flowing Nile we reach\u2019d,\r\nAnd safe I moor\u2019d in the \u00c6gyptian stream.\r\nThen, charging all my mariners to keep\r\nStrict watch for preservation of the ships,\r\nI order\u2019d spies into the hill-tops; but they\r\nUnder the impulse of a spirit rash\r\nAnd hot for quarrel, the well-cultur\u2019d fields\r\nPillaged of the \u00c6gyptians, captive led\r\nTheir wives and little ones, and slew the men.\r\nSoon was the city alarm\u2019d, and at the cry\r\nDown came the citizens, by dawn of day,\r\nWith horse and foot, and with the gleam of arms\r\nFilling the plain. Then Jove with panic dread\r\nStruck all my people; none found courage more\r\nTo stand, for mischiefs swarm\u2019d on ev\u2019ry side.\r\nThere, num\u2019rous by the glittering spear we fell\r\nSlaughter\u2019d, while others they conducted thence\r\nAlive to servitude. But Jove himself\r\nMy bosom with this thought inspired, (I would\r\nThat, dying, I had first fulfill\u2019d my fate\r\nIn \u00c6gypt, for new woes were yet to come!)\r\nLoosing my brazen casque, and slipping off\r\nMy buckler, there I left them on the field,\r\nThen cast my spear away, and seeking, next,\r\nThe chariot of the sov\u2019reign, clasp\u2019d his knees,\r\nAnd kiss\u2019d them. He, by my submission moved,\r\nDeliver\u2019d me, and to his chariot-seat\r\nRaising, convey\u2019d me weeping to his home.\r\nWith many an ashen spear his warriors sought\r\nTo slay me, (for they now grew fiery wroth)\r\nBut he, through fear of hospitable Jove,\r\nChief punisher of wrong, saved me alive.\r\nSev\u2019n years I there abode, and much amass\u2019d\r\nAmong the \u00c6gyptians, gifted by them all;\r\nBut, in the eighth revolving year, arrived\r\nA shrewd Ph\u0153nician, in all fraud adept,\r\nHungry, and who had num\u2019rous harm\u2019d before,\r\nBy whom I also was cajoled, and lured\r\nT\u2019 attend him to Ph\u0153nicia, where his house\r\nAnd his possessions lay; there I abode\r\nA year complete his inmate; but (the days\r\nAnd months accomplish\u2019d of the rolling year,\r\nAnd the new seasons ent\u2019ring on their course)\r\nTo Lybia then, on board his bark, by wiles\r\nHe won me with him, partner of the freight\r\nProfess\u2019d, but destin\u2019d secretly to sale,\r\nThat he might profit largely by my price.\r\nNot unsuspicious, yet constrain\u2019d to go,\r\nWith this man I embark\u2019d. A cloudless gale\r\nPropitious blowing from the North, our ship\r\nRan right before it through the middle sea,\r\nIn the offing over Crete; but adverse Jove\r\nDestruction plann\u2019d for them and death the while.\r\nFor, Crete now left afar, and other land\r\nAppearing none, but sky alone and sea,\r\nRight o\u2019er the hollow bark Saturnian Jove\r\nA cloud c\u00e6rulean hung, dark\u2019ning the Deep.\r\nThen, thund\u2019ring oft, he hurl\u2019d into the bark\r\nHis bolts; she smitten by the fires of Jove,\r\nQuaked all her length; with sulphur fill\u2019d she reek\u2019d,\r\nAnd, o\u2019er her sides precipitated, plunged\r\nLike gulls the crew, forbidden by that stroke\r\nOf wrath divine to hope their country more.\r\nBut Jove himself, when I had cast away\r\nAll hope of life, conducted to my arms\r\nThe strong tall mast, that I might yet escape.\r\nAround that beam I clung, driving before\r\nThe stormy blast. Nine days complete I drove,\r\nAnd, on the tenth dark night, the rolling flood\r\nImmense convey\u2019d me to Thesprotia\u2019s shore.\r\nThere me the Hero Phidon, gen\u2019rous King\r\nOf the Thesprotians, freely entertained;\r\nFor his own son discov\u2019ring me with toil\r\nExhausted and with cold, raised me, and thence\r\nLed me humanely to his father\u2019s house,\r\nWho cherish\u2019d me, and gave me fresh attire.\r\nThere heard I of Ulysses, whom himself\r\nHad entertain\u2019d, he said, on his return\r\nTo his own land; he shew\u2019d me also gold,\r\nBrass, and bright steel elab\u2019rate, whatsoe\u2019er\r\nUlysses had amass\u2019d, a store to feed\r\nA less illustrious family than his\r\nTo the tenth generation, so immense\r\nHis treasures in the royal palace lay.\r\nHimself, he said, was to Dodona gone,\r\nThere, from the tow\u2019ring oaks of Jove to ask\r\nCounsel divine, if openly to land\r\n(After long absence) in his opulent realm\r\nOf Ithaca, be best, or in disguise.\r\nTo me the monarch swore, in his own hall\r\nPouring libation, that the ship was launch\u2019d,\r\nAnd the crew ready for his conduct home.\r\nBut me he first dismiss\u2019d, for, as it chanced,\r\nA ship lay there of the Thesprotians, bound\r\nTo green Dulichium\u2019s isle. He bade the crew\r\nBear me to King Acastus with all speed;\r\nBut them far other thoughts pleased more, and thoughts\r\nOf harm to me, that I might yet be plunged\r\nIn deeper gulphs of woe than I had known.\r\nFor, when the billow-cleaving bark had left\r\nThe land remote, framing, combined, a plot\r\nAgainst my liberty, they stripp\u2019d my vest\r\nAnd mantle, and this tatter\u2019d raiment foul\r\nGave me instead, which thy own eyes behold.\r\nAt even-tide reaching the cultur\u2019d coast\r\nOf Ithaca, they left me bound on board\r\nWith tackle of the bark, and quitting ship\r\nThemselves, made hasty supper on the shore.\r\nBut me, meantime, the Gods easily loos\u2019d\r\nBy their own pow\u2019r, when, with wrapper vile\r\nAround my brows, sliding into the sea\r\nAt the ship\u2019s stern, I lay\u2019d me on the flood.\r\nWith both hands oaring thence my course, I swam\r\nTill past all ken of theirs; then landing where\r\nThick covert of luxuriant trees I mark\u2019d,\r\nClose couchant down I lay; they mutt\u2019ring loud,\r\nPaced to and fro, but deeming farther search\r\nUnprofitable, soon embark\u2019d again.\r\nThus baffling all their search with ease, the Gods\r\nConceal\u2019d and led me thence to the abode\r\nOf a wise man, dooming me still to live.\r\nTo whom, Eum\u00e6us, thou didst thus reply,\r\nAlas! my most compassionable guest!\r\nThou hast much moved me by this tale minute\r\nOf thy sad wand\u2019rings and thy num\u2019rous woes.\r\nBut, speaking of Ulysses, thou hast pass\u2019d\r\nAll credence; I at least can give thee none.\r\nWhy, noble as thou art, should\u2019st thou invent\r\nPalpable falsehoods? as for the return\r\nOf my regretted Lord, myself I know\r\nThat had he not been hated by the Gods\r\nUnanimous, he had in battle died\r\nAt Troy, or (that long doubtful war, at last,\r\nConcluded,) in his people\u2019s arms at home.\r\nThen universal Greece had raised his tomb,\r\nAnd he had even for his son atchiev\u2019d\r\nImmortal glory; but alas! by beaks\r\nOf harpies torn, unseemly sight, he lies.\r\nHere is my home the while; I never seek\r\nThe city, unless summon\u2019d by discrete\r\nPenelope to listen to the news\r\nBrought by some stranger, whencesoe\u2019er arrived.\r\nThen, all, alike inquisitive, attend,\r\nBoth who regret the absence of our King,\r\nAnd who rejoice gratuitous to gorge\r\nHis property; but as for me, no joy\r\nFind I in list\u2019ning after such reports,\r\nSince an \u00c6tolian cozen\u2019d me, who found\r\n(After long wand\u2019ring over various lands\r\nA fugitive for blood) my lone retreat.\r\nHim warm I welcom\u2019d, and with open arms\r\nReceiv\u2019d, who bold affirm\u2019d that he had seen\r\nMy master with Idomeneus at Crete\r\nHis ships refitting shatter\u2019d by a storm,\r\nAnd that in summer with his godlike band\r\nHe would return, bringing great riches home,\r\nOr else in autumn. And thou ancient guest\r\nForlorn! since thee the Gods have hither led,\r\nSeek not to gratify me with untruths\r\nAnd to deceive me, since for no such cause\r\nI shall respect or love thee, but alone\r\nBy pity influenced, and the fear of Jove.\r\nTo whom Ulysses, ever-wise, replied.\r\nThou hast, in truth, a most incredulous mind,\r\nWhom even with an oath I have not moved,\r\nOr aught persuaded. Come then\u2014let us make\r\nIn terms express a cov\u2019nant, and the Gods\r\nWho hold Olympus, witness to us both!\r\nIf thy own Lord at this thy house arrive,\r\nThou shalt dismiss me decently attired\r\nIn vest and mantle, that I may repair\r\nHence to Dulichium, whither I would go.\r\nBut, if thy Lord come not, then, gath\u2019ring all\r\nThy servants, headlong hurl me from a rock,\r\nThat other mendicants may fear to lie.\r\nTo whom the generous swine-herd in return.\r\nYes, stranger! doubtless I should high renown\r\nObtain for virtue among men, both now\r\nAnd in all future times, if, having first\r\nInvited thee, and at my board regaled,\r\nI, next, should slay thee; then my pray\u2019rs would mount,\r\nPast question, swiftly to Saturnian Jove.\r\nBut the hour calls to supper, and, ere long,\r\nThe partners of my toils will come prepared\r\nTo spread the board with no unsav\u2019ry cheer.\r\nThus they conferr\u2019d. And now the swains arrived,\r\nDriving their charge, which fast they soon enclosed\r\nWithin their customary penns, and loud\r\nThe hubbub was of swine prison\u2019d within.\r\nThen call\u2019d the master to his rustic train.\r\nBring ye the best, that we may set him forth\r\nBefore my friend from foreign climes arrived,\r\nWith whom ourselves will also feast, who find\r\nThe bright-tusk\u2019d multitude a painful charge,\r\nWhile others, at no cost of theirs, consume\r\nDay after day, the profit of our toils.\r\nSo saying, his wood for fuel he prepared,\r\nAnd dragging thither a well-fatted brawn\r\nOf the fifth year his servants held him fast\r\nAt the hearth-side. Nor failed the master swain\r\nT\u2019 adore the Gods, (for wise and good was he)\r\nBut consecration of the victim, first,\r\nHimself performing, cast into the fire\r\nThe forehead bristles of the tusky boar,\r\nThen pray\u2019d to all above, that, safe, at length,\r\nUlysses might regain his native home.\r\nThen lifting an huge shive that lay beside\r\nThe fire, he smote the boar, and dead he fell,\r\nNext, piercing him, and scorching close his hair,\r\nThey carv\u2019d him quickly, and Eum\u00e6us spread\r\nThin slices crude taken from ev\u2019ry limb\r\nO\u2019er all his fat, then other slices cast,\r\nSprinkling them first with meal, into the fire.\r\nThe rest they slash\u2019d and scored, and roasted well,\r\nAnd placed it, heap\u2019d together, on the board.\r\nThen rose the good Eum\u00e6us to his task\r\nOf distribution, for he understood\r\nThe hospitable entertainer\u2019s part.\r\nSev\u2019n-fold partition of the banquet made,\r\nHe gave, with previous pray\u2019r, to Maia\u2019s son[footnote]Mercury.[\/footnote]<\/sup>\r\nAnd to the nymphs one portion of the whole,\r\nThen served his present guests, honouring first\r\nUlysses with the boar\u2019s perpetual chine;\r\nBy that distinction just his master\u2019s heart\r\nHe gratified, and thus the Hero spake.\r\nEum\u00e6us! be thou as belov\u2019d of Jove\r\nAs thou art dear to me, whom, though attired\r\nSo coarsely, thou hast served with such respect!\r\nTo whom, Eum\u00e6us, thou didst thus reply.\r\nEat, noble stranger! and refreshment take\r\nSuch as thou may\u2019st; God[footnote]\u0398\u03b5\u03bf\u03c2\u2014without a relative, and consequently signifying God in the abstract, is not unfrequently found in Homer, though fearing to give offence to serious minds unacquainted with the original, I have not always given it that force in the translation. But here, the sentiment is such as fixes the sense intended by the author with a precision that leaves no option. It is observable too, that \u03b4\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9 \u03b3\u03b1\u03c1 \u03b1\u03c0\u03b1\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1\u2014is an ascription of power such as the poet never makes to his Jupiter.[\/footnote] gives, and God denies\r\nAt his own will, for He is Lord of all.\r\nHe said, and to the everlasting Gods\r\nThe firstlings sacrificed of all, then made\r\nLibation, and the cup placed in the hands\r\nOf city-spoiler Laertiades\r\nSitting beside his own allotted share.\r\nMeantime, Mesaulius bread dispensed to all,\r\nWhom, in the absence of his Lord, himself\r\nEum\u00e6us had from Taphian traders bought\r\nWith his own proper goods, at no expence\r\nEither to old Laertes or the Queen.\r\nAnd now, all stretch\u2019d their hands toward the feast\r\nReeking before them, and when hunger none\r\nFelt more or thirst, Mesaulius clear\u2019d the board.\r\nThen, fed to full satiety, in haste\r\nEach sought his couch. Black came a moonless night,\r\nAnd Jove all night descended fast in show\u2019rs,\r\nWith howlings of the ever wat\u2019ry West.\r\nUlysses, at that sound, for trial sake\r\nOf his good host, if putting off his cloak\r\nHe would accommodate him, or require\r\nThat service for him at some other hand,\r\nAddressing thus the family, began.\r\nHear now, Eum\u00e6us, and ye other swains\r\nHis fellow-lab\u2019rers! I shall somewhat boast,\r\nBy wine befool\u2019d, which forces ev\u2019n the wise\r\nTo carol loud, to titter and to dance,\r\nAnd words to utter, oft, better suppress\u2019d.\r\nBut since I have begun, I shall proceed,\r\nPrating my fill. Ah might those days return\r\nWith all the youth and strength that I enjoy\u2019d,\r\nWhen in close ambush, once, at Troy we lay!\r\nUlysses, Menelaus, and myself\r\nTheir chosen coadjutor, led the band.\r\nApproaching to the city\u2019s lofty wall\r\nThrough the thick bushes and the reeds that gird\r\nThe bulwarks, down we lay flat in the marsh,\r\nUnder our arms, then Boreas blowing loud,\r\nA rueful night came on, frosty and charged\r\nWith snow that blanch\u2019d us thick as morning rime,\r\nAnd ev\u2019ry shield with ice was crystall\u2019d o\u2019er.\r\nThe rest with cloaks and vests well cover\u2019d, slept\r\nBeneath their bucklers; I alone my cloak,\r\nImprovident, had left behind, no thought\r\nConceiving of a season so severe;\r\nShield and belt, therefore, and nought else had I.\r\nThe night, at last, nigh spent, and all the stars\r\nDeclining in their course, with elbow thrust\r\nAgainst Ulysses\u2019 side I roused the Chief,\r\nAnd thus address\u2019d him ever prompt to hear.\r\nLaertes\u2019 noble son, for wiles renown\u2019d!\r\nI freeze to death. Help me, or I am lost.\r\nNo cloak have I; some evil d\u00e6mon, sure,\r\nBeguil\u2019d me of all prudence, that I came\r\nThus sparely clad; I shall, I must expire.\r\nSo I; he, ready as he was in arms\r\nAnd counsel both, the remedy at once\r\nDevised, and thus, low-whisp\u2019ring, answer\u2019d me.\r\nHush! lest perchance some other hear\u2014He said,\r\nAnd leaning on his elbow, spake aloud.\r\nMy friends! all hear\u2014a monitory dream\r\nHath reach\u2019d me, for we lie far from the ships.\r\nHaste, therefore, one of you, with my request\r\nTo Agamemnon, Atreus\u2019 son, our Chief,\r\nThat he would reinforce us from the camp.\r\nHe spake, and at the word, Andr\u00e6mon\u2019s son\r\nThoas arose, who, casting off his cloak,\r\nRan thence toward the ships, and folded warm\r\nWithin it, there lay I till dawn appear\u2019d.\r\nOh for the vigour of such youth again!\r\nThen, some good peasant here, either for love\r\nOr for respect, would cloak a man like me,\r\nWhom, now, thus sordid in attire ye scorn.\r\nTo whom, Eum\u00e6us, thou didst thus reply.\r\nMy ancient guest! I cannot but approve\r\nThy narrative, nor hast thou utter\u2019d aught\r\nUnseemly, or that needs excuse. No want\r\nOf raiment, therefore, or of aught beside\r\nNeedful to solace penury like thine,\r\nShall harm thee here; yet, at the peep of dawn\r\nGird thy own tatters to thy loins again;\r\nFor we<\/i> have no great store of cloaks to boast,\r\nOr change of vests, but singly one for each.\r\nBut when Ulysses\u2019 son shall once arrive,\r\nHe will himself with vest and mantle both\r\nCloath thee, and send thee whither most thou would\u2019st.\r\nSo saying, he rose, and nearer made his couch\r\nTo the hearth-side, spreading it thick with skins\r\nOf sheep and goats; then lay the Hero down,\r\nO\u2019er whom a shaggy mantle large he threw,\r\nWhich oft-times served him with a change, when rough\r\nThe winter\u2019s blast and terrible arose.\r\nSo was Ulysses bedded, and the youths\r\nSlept all beside him; but the master-swain\r\nChose not his place of rest so far remote\r\nFrom his rude charge, but to the outer court\r\nWith his nocturnal furniture, repair\u2019d,\r\nGladd\u2019ning Ulysses\u2019 heart that one so true\r\nIn his own absence kept his rural stores.\r\nAthwart his sturdy shoulders, first, he flung\r\nHis faulchion keen, then wrapp\u2019d him in a cloak\r\nThick-woven, winter-proof; he lifted, next,\r\nThe skin of a well-thriven goat, in bulk\r\nSurpassing others, and his javelin took\r\nSharp-pointed, with which dogs he drove and men.\r\nThus arm\u2019d, he sought his wonted couch beneath\r\nA hollow rock where the herd slept, secure\r\nFrom the sharp current of the Northern blast.","rendered":"

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

Ulysses arriving at the house of Eum\u00e6us, is hospitably entertained, and spends the night there.<\/p>\n

Leaving the haven-side, he turn\u2019d his steps
\nInto a rugged path, which over hills
\nMantled with trees led him to the abode
\nBy Pallas mention\u2019d of his noble friend[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/sup>
\nThe swine-herd, who of all Ulysses\u2019 train
\nWatch\u2019d with most diligence his rural stores.
\nHim sitting in the vestibule he found
\nOf his own airy lodge commodious, built
\nAmidst a level lawn. That structure neat
\nEum\u00e6us, in the absence of his Lord,
\nHad raised, himself, with stones from quarries hewn,
\nUnaided by Laertes or the Queen.
\nWith tangled thorns he fenced it safe around,
\nAnd with contiguous stakes riv\u2019n from the trunks
\nOf solid oak black-grain\u2019d hemm\u2019d it without.
\nTwelve penns he made within, all side by side,
\nLairs for his swine, and fast-immured in each
\nLay fifty pregnant females on the floor.
\nThe males all slept without, less num\u2019rous far,
\nThinn\u2019d by the princely wooers at their feasts
\nContinual, for to them he ever sent
\nThe fattest of his saginated charge.
\nThree hundred, still, and sixty brawns remained.
\nFour mastiffs in adjoining kennels lay,
\nResembling wild-beasts nourish\u2019d at the board
\nOf the illustrious steward of the styes.
\nHimself sat fitting sandals to his feet,
\nCarved from a stain\u2019d ox-hide. Four hinds he kept,
\nNow busied here and there; three in the penns
\nWere occupied; meantime, the fourth had sought
\nThe city, whither, for the suitors\u2019 use,
\nWith no good will, but by constraint, he drove
\nA boar, that, sacrificing to the Gods,
\nTh\u2019 imperious guests might on his flesh regale.
\nSoon as those clamorous watch-dogs the approach
\nSaw of Ulysses, baying loud, they ran
\nToward him; he, as ever, well-advised,
\nSquatted, and let his staff fall from his hand.
\nYet foul indignity he had endured
\nEv\u2019n there, at his own farm, but that the swain,
\nFollowing his dogs in haste, sprang through the porch
\nTo his assistance, letting fall the hide.
\nWith chiding voice and vollied stones he soon
\nDrove them apart, and thus his Lord bespake.
\nOld man! one moment more, and these my dogs
\nHad, past doubt, worried thee, who should\u2019st have proved,
\nSo slain, a source of obloquy to me.
\nBut other pangs the Gods, and other woes
\nTo me have giv\u2019n, who here lamenting sit
\nMy godlike master, and his fatted swine
\nNourish for others\u2019 use, while he, perchance,
\nA wand\u2019rer in some foreign city, seeks
\nFit sustenance, and none obtains, if still
\nIndeed he live, and view the light of day.
\nBut, old friend! follow me into the house,
\nThat thou, at least, with plenteous food refresh\u2019d,
\nAnd cheer\u2019d with wine sufficient, may\u2019st disclose
\nBoth who thou art, and all that thou hast borne.
\nSo saying, the gen\u2019rous swine-herd introduced
\nUlysses, and thick bundles spread of twigs
\nBeneath him, cover\u2019d with the shaggy skin
\nOf a wild goat, of which he made his couch
\nEasy and large; the Hero, so received,
\nRejoiced, and thus his gratitude express\u2019d.
\nJove grant thee and the Gods above, my host,
\nFor such beneficence thy chief desire!
\nTo whom, Eum\u00e6us, thou didst thus reply.
\nMy guest! I should offend, treating with scorn
\nThe stranger, though a poorer should arrive
\nThan ev\u2019n thyself; for all the poor that are,
\nAnd all the strangers are the care of Jove.
\nLittle, and with good will, is all that lies
\nWithin my scope; no man can much expect
\nFrom servants living in continual fear
\nUnder young masters; for the Gods, no doubt,
\nHave intercepted my own Lord\u2019s return,
\nFrom whom great kindness I had, else, received,
\nWith such a recompense as servants gain
\nFrom gen\u2019rous masters, house and competence,
\nAnd lovely wife from many a wooer won,
\nWhose industry should have requited well
\nHis goodness, with such blessing from the Gods
\nAs now attends me in my present charge.
\nMuch had I, therefore, prosper\u2019d, had my Lord
\nGrown old at home; but he hath died\u2014I would
\nThat the whole house of Helen, one and all,
\nMight perish too, for she hath many slain
\nWho, like my master, went glory to win
\nFor Agamemnon in the fields of Troy.
\nSo saying, he girdled, quick, his tunic close,
\nAnd, issuing, sought the styes; thence bringing two
\nOf the imprison\u2019d herd, he slaughter\u2019d both,
\nSinged them, and slash\u2019d and spitted them, and placed
\nThe whole well-roasted banquet, spits and all,
\nReeking before Ulysses; last, with flour
\nHe sprinkled them, and filling with rich wine
\nHis ivy goblet, to his master sat
\nOpposite, whom inviting thus he said.
\nNow, eat, my guest! such as a servant may
\nI set before thee, neither large of growth
\nNor fat; the fatted\u2014those the suitors eat,
\nFearless of heav\u2019n, and pitiless of man.
\nYet deeds unjust as theirs the blessed Gods
\nLove not; they honour equity and right.
\nEven an hostile band when they invade
\nA foreign shore, which by consent of Jove
\nThey plunder, and with laden ships depart,
\nEven they with terrours quake of wrath divine.
\nBut these are wiser; these must sure have learn\u2019d
\nFrom some true oracle my master\u2019s death,
\nWho neither deign with decency to woo,
\nNor yet to seek their homes, but boldly waste
\nHis substance, shameless, now, and sparing nought.
\nJove ne\u2019er hath giv\u2019n us yet the night or day
\nWhen with a single victim, or with two
\nThey would content them, and his empty jars
\nWitness how fast the squand\u2019rers use his wine.
\nTime was, when he was rich indeed; such wealth
\nNo Hero own\u2019d on yonder continent,
\nNor yet in Ithaca; no twenty Chiefs
\nCould match with all their treasures his alone;
\nI tell thee their amount. Twelve herds of his
\nThe mainland graze;[2]<\/sup><\/a><\/sup> as many flocks of sheep;
\nAs many droves of swine; and hirelings there
\nAnd servants of his own seed for his use,
\nAs many num\u2019rous flocks of goats; his goats,
\n(Not fewer than eleven num\u2019rous flocks)
\nHere also graze the margin of his fields
\nUnder the eye of servants well-approved,
\nAnd ev\u2019ry servant, ev\u2019ry day, brings home
\nThe goat, of all his flock largest and best.
\nBut as for me, I have these swine in charge,
\nOf which, selected with exactest care
\nFrom all the herd, I send the prime to them.
\nHe ceas\u2019d, meantime Ulysses ate and drank
\nVoracious, meditating, mute, the death
\nOf those proud suitors. His repast, at length,
\nConcluded, and his appetite sufficed,
\nEum\u00e6us gave him, charged with wine, the cup
\nFrom which he drank himself; he, glad, received
\nThe boon, and in wing\u2019d accents thus began.
\nMy friend, and who was he, wealthy and brave
\nAs thou describ\u2019st the Chief, who purchased thee?
\nThou say\u2019st he perish\u2019d for the glory-sake
\nOf Agamemnon. Name him; I, perchance,
\nMay have beheld the Hero. None can say
\nBut Jove and the inhabitants of heav\u2019n
\nThat I ne\u2019er saw him, and may not impart
\nNews of him; I have roam\u2019d through many a clime.
\nTo whom the noble swine-herd thus replied.
\nAlas, old man! no trav\u2019ler\u2019s tale of him
\nWill gain his consort\u2019s credence, or his son\u2019s;
\nFor wand\u2019rers, wanting entertainment, forge
\nFalsehoods for bread, and wilfully deceive.
\nNo wand\u2019rer lands in Ithaca, but he seeks
\nWith feign\u2019d intelligence my mistress\u2019 ear;
\nShe welcomes all, and while she questions each
\nMinutely, from her lids lets fall the tear
\nAffectionate, as well beseems a wife
\nWhose mate hath perish\u2019d in a distant land.
\nThou could\u2019st thyself, no doubt, my hoary friend!
\n(Would any furnish thee with decent vest
\nAnd mantle) fabricate a tale with ease;
\nYet sure it is that dogs and fowls, long since,
\nHis skin have stript, or fishes of the Deep
\nHave eaten him, and on some distant shore
\nWhelm\u2019d in deep sands his mould\u2019ring bones are laid.
\nSo hath he perish\u2019d; whence, to all his friends,
\nBut chiefly to myself, sorrow of heart;
\nFor such another Lord, gentle as he,
\nWherever sought, I have no hope to find,
\nThough I should wander even to the house
\nOf my own father. Neither yearns my heart
\nSo feelingly (though that desiring too)
\nTo see once more my parents and my home,
\nAs to behold Ulysses yet again.
\nAh stranger; absent as he is, his name
\nFills me with rev\u2019rence, for he lov\u2019d me much,
\nCared for me much, and, though we meet no more,
\nHolds still an elder brother\u2019s part in me.
\nHim answer\u2019d, then, the Hero toil-inured.
\nMy friend! since his return, in thy account,
\nIs an event impossible, and thy mind
\nAlways incredulous that hope rejects,
\nI shall not slightly speak, but with an oath\u2014
\nUlysses comes again; and I demand
\nNo more, than that the boon such news deserves,
\nBe giv\u2019n me soon as he shall reach his home.
\nThen give me vest and mantle fit to wear,
\nWhich, ere that hour, much as I need them both,
\nI neither ask, nor will accept from thee.
\nFor him whom poverty can force aside
\nFrom truth\u2014I hate him as the gates of hell.
\nBe Jove, of all in heav\u2019n, my witness first,
\nThen, this thy hospitable board, and, last,
\nThe household Gods of the illustrious Chief
\nHimself, Ulysses, to whose gates I go,
\nThat all my words shall surely be fulfill\u2019d.
\nIn this same year Ulysses shall arrive,
\nEre, this month closed, another month succeed,
\nHe shall return, and punish all who dare
\nInsult his consort and his noble son.
\nTo whom Eum\u00e6us, thou didst thus reply.
\nOld friend! that boon thou wilt ne\u2019er earn from me;
\nUlysses comes no more. But thou thy wine
\nDrink quietly, and let us find, at length,
\nSome other theme; recall not this again
\nTo my remembrance, for my soul is grieved
\nOft as reminded of my honour\u2019d Lord.
\nLet the oath rest, and let Ulysses come
\nEv\u2019n as myself, and as Penelope,
\nAnd as his ancient father, and his son
\nGodlike Telemachus, all wish he may.
\nAy\u2014there I feel again\u2014nor cease to mourn
\nHis son Telemachus; who, when the Gods
\nHad giv\u2019n him growth like a young plant, and I
\nWell hoped that nought inferior he should prove
\nIn person or in mind to his own sire,
\nHath lost, through influence human or divine,
\nI know not how, his sober intellect,
\nAnd after tidings of his sire is gone
\nTo far-famed Pylus; his return, meantime,
\nIn ambush hidden the proud suitors wait,
\nThat the whole house may perish of renown\u2019d
\nArcesias, named in Ithaca no more.
\nBut whether he have fallen or \u2019scaped, let him
\nRest also, whom Saturnian Jove protect!
\nBut come, my ancient guest! now let me learn
\nThy own afflictions; answer me in truth.
\nWho, and whence art thou? in what city born?
\nWhere dwell thy parents; in what kind of ship
\nCam\u2019st thou? the mariners, why brought they thee
\nTo Ithaca? and of what land are they?
\nFor, that on foot thou found\u2019st us not, is sure.
\nHim answer\u2019d, then, Ulysses, ever-wise.
\nI will with truth resolve thee; and if here
\nWithin thy cottage sitting, we had wine
\nAnd food for many a day, and business none
\nBut to regale at ease while others toiled,
\nI could exhaust the year complete, my woes
\nRehearsing, nor, at last, rehearse entire
\nMy sorrows by the will of heav\u2019n sustained.
\nI boast me sprung from ancestry renown\u2019d
\nIn spacious Crete; son of a wealthy sire,
\nWho other sons train\u2019d num\u2019rous in his house,
\nBorn of his wedded wife; but he begat
\nMe on his purchased concubine, whom yet
\nDear as his other sons in wedlock born
\nCastor Hylacides esteem\u2019d and lov\u2019d,
\nFor him I boast my father. Him in Crete,
\nWhile yet he liv\u2019d, all reverenc\u2019d as a God,
\nSo rich, so prosp\u2019rous, and so blest was he
\nWith sons of highest praise. But death, the doom
\nOf all, him bore to Pluto\u2019s drear abode,
\nAnd his illustrious sons among themselves
\nPortion\u2019d his goods by lot; to me, indeed,
\nThey gave a dwelling, and but little more,
\nYet, for my virtuous qualities, I won
\nA wealthy bride, for I was neither vain
\nNor base, forlorn as thou perceiv\u2019st me now.
\nBut thou canst guess, I judge, viewing the straw
\nWhat once was in the ear. Ah! I have borne
\nMuch tribulation; heap\u2019d and heavy woes.
\nCourage and phalanx-breaking might had I
\nFrom Mars and Pallas; at what time I drew,
\n(Planning some dread exploit) an ambush forth
\nOf our most valiant Chiefs, no boding fears
\nOf death seized me<\/i>, but foremost far of all
\nI sprang to fight, and pierced the flying foe.
\nSuch was I once in arms. But household toils
\nSustain\u2019d for children\u2019s sake, and carking cares
\nT\u2019 enrich a family, were not for me.
\nMy pleasures were the gallant bark, the din
\nOf battle, the smooth spear and glitt\u2019ring shaft,
\nObjects of dread to others, but which me
\nThe Gods disposed to love and to enjoy.
\nThus diff\u2019rent minds are diff\u2019rently amused;
\nFor ere Achaia\u2019s fleet had sailed to Troy,
\nNine times was I commander of an host
\nEmbark\u2019d against a foreign foe, and found
\nIn all those enterprizes great success.
\nFrom the whole booty, first, what pleased me most
\nChusing, and sharing also much by lot
\nI rapidly grew rich, and had thenceforth
\nAmong the Cretans rev\u2019rence and respect.
\nBut when loud-thund\u2019ring Jove that voyage dire
\nOrdain\u2019d, which loos\u2019d the knees of many a Greek,
\nThen, to Idomeneus and me they gave
\nThe charge of all their fleet, which how to avoid
\nWe found not, so importunate the cry
\nOf the whole host impell\u2019d us to the task.
\nThere fought we nine long years, and in the tenth
\n(Priam\u2019s proud city pillag\u2019d) steer\u2019d again
\nOur galleys homeward, which the Gods dispersed.
\nThen was it that deep-planning Jove devised
\nFor me much evil. One short month, no more,
\nI gave to joys domestic, in my wife
\nHappy, and in my babes, and in my wealth,
\nWhen the desire seiz\u2019d me with sev\u2019ral ships
\nWell-rigg\u2019d, and furnish\u2019d all with gallant crews,
\nTo sail for \u00c6gypt; nine I fitted forth,
\nTo which stout mariners assembled fast.
\nSix days the chosen partners of my voyage
\nFeasted, to whom I num\u2019rous victims gave
\nFor sacrifice, and for their own regale.
\nEmbarking on the sev\u2019nth from spacious Crete,
\nBefore a clear breeze prosp\u2019rous from the North
\nWe glided easily along, as down
\nA river\u2019s stream; nor one of all my ships
\nDamage incurr\u2019d, but healthy and at ease
\nWe sat, while gales well-managed urged us on.
\nThe fifth day thence, smooth-flowing Nile we reach\u2019d,
\nAnd safe I moor\u2019d in the \u00c6gyptian stream.
\nThen, charging all my mariners to keep
\nStrict watch for preservation of the ships,
\nI order\u2019d spies into the hill-tops; but they
\nUnder the impulse of a spirit rash
\nAnd hot for quarrel, the well-cultur\u2019d fields
\nPillaged of the \u00c6gyptians, captive led
\nTheir wives and little ones, and slew the men.
\nSoon was the city alarm\u2019d, and at the cry
\nDown came the citizens, by dawn of day,
\nWith horse and foot, and with the gleam of arms
\nFilling the plain. Then Jove with panic dread
\nStruck all my people; none found courage more
\nTo stand, for mischiefs swarm\u2019d on ev\u2019ry side.
\nThere, num\u2019rous by the glittering spear we fell
\nSlaughter\u2019d, while others they conducted thence
\nAlive to servitude. But Jove himself
\nMy bosom with this thought inspired, (I would
\nThat, dying, I had first fulfill\u2019d my fate
\nIn \u00c6gypt, for new woes were yet to come!)
\nLoosing my brazen casque, and slipping off
\nMy buckler, there I left them on the field,
\nThen cast my spear away, and seeking, next,
\nThe chariot of the sov\u2019reign, clasp\u2019d his knees,
\nAnd kiss\u2019d them. He, by my submission moved,
\nDeliver\u2019d me, and to his chariot-seat
\nRaising, convey\u2019d me weeping to his home.
\nWith many an ashen spear his warriors sought
\nTo slay me, (for they now grew fiery wroth)
\nBut he, through fear of hospitable Jove,
\nChief punisher of wrong, saved me alive.
\nSev\u2019n years I there abode, and much amass\u2019d
\nAmong the \u00c6gyptians, gifted by them all;
\nBut, in the eighth revolving year, arrived
\nA shrewd Ph\u0153nician, in all fraud adept,
\nHungry, and who had num\u2019rous harm\u2019d before,
\nBy whom I also was cajoled, and lured
\nT\u2019 attend him to Ph\u0153nicia, where his house
\nAnd his possessions lay; there I abode
\nA year complete his inmate; but (the days
\nAnd months accomplish\u2019d of the rolling year,
\nAnd the new seasons ent\u2019ring on their course)
\nTo Lybia then, on board his bark, by wiles
\nHe won me with him, partner of the freight
\nProfess\u2019d, but destin\u2019d secretly to sale,
\nThat he might profit largely by my price.
\nNot unsuspicious, yet constrain\u2019d to go,
\nWith this man I embark\u2019d. A cloudless gale
\nPropitious blowing from the North, our ship
\nRan right before it through the middle sea,
\nIn the offing over Crete; but adverse Jove
\nDestruction plann\u2019d for them and death the while.
\nFor, Crete now left afar, and other land
\nAppearing none, but sky alone and sea,
\nRight o\u2019er the hollow bark Saturnian Jove
\nA cloud c\u00e6rulean hung, dark\u2019ning the Deep.
\nThen, thund\u2019ring oft, he hurl\u2019d into the bark
\nHis bolts; she smitten by the fires of Jove,
\nQuaked all her length; with sulphur fill\u2019d she reek\u2019d,
\nAnd, o\u2019er her sides precipitated, plunged
\nLike gulls the crew, forbidden by that stroke
\nOf wrath divine to hope their country more.
\nBut Jove himself, when I had cast away
\nAll hope of life, conducted to my arms
\nThe strong tall mast, that I might yet escape.
\nAround that beam I clung, driving before
\nThe stormy blast. Nine days complete I drove,
\nAnd, on the tenth dark night, the rolling flood
\nImmense convey\u2019d me to Thesprotia\u2019s shore.
\nThere me the Hero Phidon, gen\u2019rous King
\nOf the Thesprotians, freely entertained;
\nFor his own son discov\u2019ring me with toil
\nExhausted and with cold, raised me, and thence
\nLed me humanely to his father\u2019s house,
\nWho cherish\u2019d me, and gave me fresh attire.
\nThere heard I of Ulysses, whom himself
\nHad entertain\u2019d, he said, on his return
\nTo his own land; he shew\u2019d me also gold,
\nBrass, and bright steel elab\u2019rate, whatsoe\u2019er
\nUlysses had amass\u2019d, a store to feed
\nA less illustrious family than his
\nTo the tenth generation, so immense
\nHis treasures in the royal palace lay.
\nHimself, he said, was to Dodona gone,
\nThere, from the tow\u2019ring oaks of Jove to ask
\nCounsel divine, if openly to land
\n(After long absence) in his opulent realm
\nOf Ithaca, be best, or in disguise.
\nTo me the monarch swore, in his own hall
\nPouring libation, that the ship was launch\u2019d,
\nAnd the crew ready for his conduct home.
\nBut me he first dismiss\u2019d, for, as it chanced,
\nA ship lay there of the Thesprotians, bound
\nTo green Dulichium\u2019s isle. He bade the crew
\nBear me to King Acastus with all speed;
\nBut them far other thoughts pleased more, and thoughts
\nOf harm to me, that I might yet be plunged
\nIn deeper gulphs of woe than I had known.
\nFor, when the billow-cleaving bark had left
\nThe land remote, framing, combined, a plot
\nAgainst my liberty, they stripp\u2019d my vest
\nAnd mantle, and this tatter\u2019d raiment foul
\nGave me instead, which thy own eyes behold.
\nAt even-tide reaching the cultur\u2019d coast
\nOf Ithaca, they left me bound on board
\nWith tackle of the bark, and quitting ship
\nThemselves, made hasty supper on the shore.
\nBut me, meantime, the Gods easily loos\u2019d
\nBy their own pow\u2019r, when, with wrapper vile
\nAround my brows, sliding into the sea
\nAt the ship\u2019s stern, I lay\u2019d me on the flood.
\nWith both hands oaring thence my course, I swam
\nTill past all ken of theirs; then landing where
\nThick covert of luxuriant trees I mark\u2019d,
\nClose couchant down I lay; they mutt\u2019ring loud,
\nPaced to and fro, but deeming farther search
\nUnprofitable, soon embark\u2019d again.
\nThus baffling all their search with ease, the Gods
\nConceal\u2019d and led me thence to the abode
\nOf a wise man, dooming me still to live.
\nTo whom, Eum\u00e6us, thou didst thus reply,
\nAlas! my most compassionable guest!
\nThou hast much moved me by this tale minute
\nOf thy sad wand\u2019rings and thy num\u2019rous woes.
\nBut, speaking of Ulysses, thou hast pass\u2019d
\nAll credence; I at least can give thee none.
\nWhy, noble as thou art, should\u2019st thou invent
\nPalpable falsehoods? as for the return
\nOf my regretted Lord, myself I know
\nThat had he not been hated by the Gods
\nUnanimous, he had in battle died
\nAt Troy, or (that long doubtful war, at last,
\nConcluded,) in his people\u2019s arms at home.
\nThen universal Greece had raised his tomb,
\nAnd he had even for his son atchiev\u2019d
\nImmortal glory; but alas! by beaks
\nOf harpies torn, unseemly sight, he lies.
\nHere is my home the while; I never seek
\nThe city, unless summon\u2019d by discrete
\nPenelope to listen to the news
\nBrought by some stranger, whencesoe\u2019er arrived.
\nThen, all, alike inquisitive, attend,
\nBoth who regret the absence of our King,
\nAnd who rejoice gratuitous to gorge
\nHis property; but as for me, no joy
\nFind I in list\u2019ning after such reports,
\nSince an \u00c6tolian cozen\u2019d me, who found
\n(After long wand\u2019ring over various lands
\nA fugitive for blood) my lone retreat.
\nHim warm I welcom\u2019d, and with open arms
\nReceiv\u2019d, who bold affirm\u2019d that he had seen
\nMy master with Idomeneus at Crete
\nHis ships refitting shatter\u2019d by a storm,
\nAnd that in summer with his godlike band
\nHe would return, bringing great riches home,
\nOr else in autumn. And thou ancient guest
\nForlorn! since thee the Gods have hither led,
\nSeek not to gratify me with untruths
\nAnd to deceive me, since for no such cause
\nI shall respect or love thee, but alone
\nBy pity influenced, and the fear of Jove.
\nTo whom Ulysses, ever-wise, replied.
\nThou hast, in truth, a most incredulous mind,
\nWhom even with an oath I have not moved,
\nOr aught persuaded. Come then\u2014let us make
\nIn terms express a cov\u2019nant, and the Gods
\nWho hold Olympus, witness to us both!
\nIf thy own Lord at this thy house arrive,
\nThou shalt dismiss me decently attired
\nIn vest and mantle, that I may repair
\nHence to Dulichium, whither I would go.
\nBut, if thy Lord come not, then, gath\u2019ring all
\nThy servants, headlong hurl me from a rock,
\nThat other mendicants may fear to lie.
\nTo whom the generous swine-herd in return.
\nYes, stranger! doubtless I should high renown
\nObtain for virtue among men, both now
\nAnd in all future times, if, having first
\nInvited thee, and at my board regaled,
\nI, next, should slay thee; then my pray\u2019rs would mount,
\nPast question, swiftly to Saturnian Jove.
\nBut the hour calls to supper, and, ere long,
\nThe partners of my toils will come prepared
\nTo spread the board with no unsav\u2019ry cheer.
\nThus they conferr\u2019d. And now the swains arrived,
\nDriving their charge, which fast they soon enclosed
\nWithin their customary penns, and loud
\nThe hubbub was of swine prison\u2019d within.
\nThen call\u2019d the master to his rustic train.
\nBring ye the best, that we may set him forth
\nBefore my friend from foreign climes arrived,
\nWith whom ourselves will also feast, who find
\nThe bright-tusk\u2019d multitude a painful charge,
\nWhile others, at no cost of theirs, consume
\nDay after day, the profit of our toils.
\nSo saying, his wood for fuel he prepared,
\nAnd dragging thither a well-fatted brawn
\nOf the fifth year his servants held him fast
\nAt the hearth-side. Nor failed the master swain
\nT\u2019 adore the Gods, (for wise and good was he)
\nBut consecration of the victim, first,
\nHimself performing, cast into the fire
\nThe forehead bristles of the tusky boar,
\nThen pray\u2019d to all above, that, safe, at length,
\nUlysses might regain his native home.
\nThen lifting an huge shive that lay beside
\nThe fire, he smote the boar, and dead he fell,
\nNext, piercing him, and scorching close his hair,
\nThey carv\u2019d him quickly, and Eum\u00e6us spread
\nThin slices crude taken from ev\u2019ry limb
\nO\u2019er all his fat, then other slices cast,
\nSprinkling them first with meal, into the fire.
\nThe rest they slash\u2019d and scored, and roasted well,
\nAnd placed it, heap\u2019d together, on the board.
\nThen rose the good Eum\u00e6us to his task
\nOf distribution, for he understood
\nThe hospitable entertainer\u2019s part.
\nSev\u2019n-fold partition of the banquet made,
\nHe gave, with previous pray\u2019r, to Maia\u2019s son[3]<\/sup><\/a><\/sup>
\nAnd to the nymphs one portion of the whole,
\nThen served his present guests, honouring first
\nUlysses with the boar\u2019s perpetual chine;
\nBy that distinction just his master\u2019s heart
\nHe gratified, and thus the Hero spake.
\nEum\u00e6us! be thou as belov\u2019d of Jove
\nAs thou art dear to me, whom, though attired
\nSo coarsely, thou hast served with such respect!
\nTo whom, Eum\u00e6us, thou didst thus reply.
\nEat, noble stranger! and refreshment take
\nSuch as thou may\u2019st; God[4]<\/sup><\/a> gives, and God denies
\nAt his own will, for He is Lord of all.
\nHe said, and to the everlasting Gods
\nThe firstlings sacrificed of all, then made
\nLibation, and the cup placed in the hands
\nOf city-spoiler Laertiades
\nSitting beside his own allotted share.
\nMeantime, Mesaulius bread dispensed to all,
\nWhom, in the absence of his Lord, himself
\nEum\u00e6us had from Taphian traders bought
\nWith his own proper goods, at no expence
\nEither to old Laertes or the Queen.
\nAnd now, all stretch\u2019d their hands toward the feast
\nReeking before them, and when hunger none
\nFelt more or thirst, Mesaulius clear\u2019d the board.
\nThen, fed to full satiety, in haste
\nEach sought his couch. Black came a moonless night,
\nAnd Jove all night descended fast in show\u2019rs,
\nWith howlings of the ever wat\u2019ry West.
\nUlysses, at that sound, for trial sake
\nOf his good host, if putting off his cloak
\nHe would accommodate him, or require
\nThat service for him at some other hand,
\nAddressing thus the family, began.
\nHear now, Eum\u00e6us, and ye other swains
\nHis fellow-lab\u2019rers! I shall somewhat boast,
\nBy wine befool\u2019d, which forces ev\u2019n the wise
\nTo carol loud, to titter and to dance,
\nAnd words to utter, oft, better suppress\u2019d.
\nBut since I have begun, I shall proceed,
\nPrating my fill. Ah might those days return
\nWith all the youth and strength that I enjoy\u2019d,
\nWhen in close ambush, once, at Troy we lay!
\nUlysses, Menelaus, and myself
\nTheir chosen coadjutor, led the band.
\nApproaching to the city\u2019s lofty wall
\nThrough the thick bushes and the reeds that gird
\nThe bulwarks, down we lay flat in the marsh,
\nUnder our arms, then Boreas blowing loud,
\nA rueful night came on, frosty and charged
\nWith snow that blanch\u2019d us thick as morning rime,
\nAnd ev\u2019ry shield with ice was crystall\u2019d o\u2019er.
\nThe rest with cloaks and vests well cover\u2019d, slept
\nBeneath their bucklers; I alone my cloak,
\nImprovident, had left behind, no thought
\nConceiving of a season so severe;
\nShield and belt, therefore, and nought else had I.
\nThe night, at last, nigh spent, and all the stars
\nDeclining in their course, with elbow thrust
\nAgainst Ulysses\u2019 side I roused the Chief,
\nAnd thus address\u2019d him ever prompt to hear.
\nLaertes\u2019 noble son, for wiles renown\u2019d!
\nI freeze to death. Help me, or I am lost.
\nNo cloak have I; some evil d\u00e6mon, sure,
\nBeguil\u2019d me of all prudence, that I came
\nThus sparely clad; I shall, I must expire.
\nSo I; he, ready as he was in arms
\nAnd counsel both, the remedy at once
\nDevised, and thus, low-whisp\u2019ring, answer\u2019d me.
\nHush! lest perchance some other hear\u2014He said,
\nAnd leaning on his elbow, spake aloud.
\nMy friends! all hear\u2014a monitory dream
\nHath reach\u2019d me, for we lie far from the ships.
\nHaste, therefore, one of you, with my request
\nTo Agamemnon, Atreus\u2019 son, our Chief,
\nThat he would reinforce us from the camp.
\nHe spake, and at the word, Andr\u00e6mon\u2019s son
\nThoas arose, who, casting off his cloak,
\nRan thence toward the ships, and folded warm
\nWithin it, there lay I till dawn appear\u2019d.
\nOh for the vigour of such youth again!
\nThen, some good peasant here, either for love
\nOr for respect, would cloak a man like me,
\nWhom, now, thus sordid in attire ye scorn.
\nTo whom, Eum\u00e6us, thou didst thus reply.
\nMy ancient guest! I cannot but approve
\nThy narrative, nor hast thou utter\u2019d aught
\nUnseemly, or that needs excuse. No want
\nOf raiment, therefore, or of aught beside
\nNeedful to solace penury like thine,
\nShall harm thee here; yet, at the peep of dawn
\nGird thy own tatters to thy loins again;
\nFor we<\/i> have no great store of cloaks to boast,
\nOr change of vests, but singly one for each.
\nBut when Ulysses\u2019 son shall once arrive,
\nHe will himself with vest and mantle both
\nCloath thee, and send thee whither most thou would\u2019st.
\nSo saying, he rose, and nearer made his couch
\nTo the hearth-side, spreading it thick with skins
\nOf sheep and goats; then lay the Hero down,
\nO\u2019er whom a shaggy mantle large he threw,
\nWhich oft-times served him with a change, when rough
\nThe winter\u2019s blast and terrible arose.
\nSo was Ulysses bedded, and the youths
\nSlept all beside him; but the master-swain
\nChose not his place of rest so far remote
\nFrom his rude charge, but to the outer court
\nWith his nocturnal furniture, repair\u2019d,
\nGladd\u2019ning Ulysses\u2019 heart that one so true
\nIn his own absence kept his rural stores.
\nAthwart his sturdy shoulders, first, he flung
\nHis faulchion keen, then wrapp\u2019d him in a cloak
\nThick-woven, winter-proof; he lifted, next,
\nThe skin of a well-thriven goat, in bulk
\nSurpassing others, and his javelin took
\nSharp-pointed, with which dogs he drove and men.
\nThus arm\u2019d, he sought his wonted couch beneath
\nA hollow rock where the herd slept, secure
\nFrom the sharp current of the Northern blast.<\/p>\n

  1. \u0394\u1fd6\u03bf\u03c2 \u1f51\u03c6\u03bf\u03c1\u03b2\u03bf\u03c2.\u2014The swineherd\u2019s was therefore in those days, and in that country, an occupation honourable as well as useful. Barnes deems the epithet \u03b4\u1fd6\u03bf\u03c2 significant of his noble birth. Vide Clarke in loco. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  2. It may be proper to suggest that Ulysses was lord of part of the continent opposite to Ithaca\u2014viz.\u2014of the peninsula Nericus or Leuca, which afterward became an island, and is now called Santa Maura. F. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  3. Mercury. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  4. \u0398\u03b5\u03bf\u03c2\u2014without a relative, and consequently signifying God in the abstract, is not unfrequently found in Homer, though fearing to give offence to serious minds unacquainted with the original, I have not always given it that force in the translation. But here, the sentiment is such as fixes the sense intended by the author with a precision that leaves no option. It is observable too, that \u03b4\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9 \u03b3\u03b1\u03c1 \u03b1\u03c0\u03b1\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1\u2014is an ascription of power such as the poet never makes to his Jupiter. ↵<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"author":299,"menu_order":14,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[48],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-120","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\/120","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":4,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/120\/revisions\/254"}],"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\/120\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=120"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=120"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/odyssey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}