Thy strength, of senseless iron thou art form’d,
Who thy companions weary and o’erwatch’d
Forbidd’st to disembark on this fair isle,
Where now, at last, we might with ease regale,
Thou, rash, command’st us, leaving it afar,
To roam all night the Ocean’s dreary waste;
But winds to ships injurious spring by night,
And how shall we escape a dreadful death
If, chance, a sudden gust from South arise
Or stormy West, that dash in pieces oft
The vessel, even in the Gods’ despight?
Prepare we rather now, as night enjoins,
Our evening fare beside the sable bark,
In which at peep of day we may again
Launch forth secure into the boundless flood.
That sorrow by the will of adverse heav’n
Approach’d, and in wing’d accents thus replied.
O’er-ruled by numbers. Come, then, swear ye all
A solemn oath, that should we find an herd
Or num’rous flock, none here shall either sheep
Or bullock slay, by appetite profane
Seduced, but shall the viands eat content
Which from immortal Circe we received.
Sware all, and when their oath was fully sworn,
Within a creek where a fresh fountain rose
They moor’d the bark, and, issuing, began
Brisk preparation of their evening cheer.
But when nor hunger now nor thirst remain’d
Unsated, recollecting, then, their friends
By Scylla seized and at her cave devour’d,
They mourn’d, nor ceased to mourn them, till they slept.
The night’s third portion come, when now the stars
Had travers’d the mid-sky, cloud-gath’rer Jove
Call’d forth a vehement wind with tempest charged,
Menacing earth and sea with pitchy clouds
Tremendous, and the night fell dark from heav’n.
But when Aurora, daughter of the day,
Look’d rosy forth, we haled, drawn inland more,
Our bark into a grot, where nymphs were wont
Graceful to tread the dance, or to repose.
Convening there my friends, I thus began.
And wine on board. Abstain we from the herds,
Lest harm ensue; for ye behold the flocks
And herds of a most potent God, the Sun!
Whose eye and watchful ear none may elude.
A month complete the South wind ceaseless blew,
Nor other wind blew next, save East and South,
Yet they, while neither food nor rosy wine
Fail’d them, the herds harm’d not, through fear to die.
But, our provisions failing, they employed
Whole days in search of food, snaring with hooks
Birds, fishes, of what kind soe’er they might.
By famine urged. I solitary roam’d
Meantime the isle, seeking by pray’r to move
Some God to shew us a deliv’rance thence.
When, roving thus the isle, I had at length
Left all my crew remote, laving my hands
Where shelter warm I found from the rude blast,
I supplicated ev’ry Pow’r above;
But they my pray’rs answer’d with slumbers soft
Shed o’er my eyes, and with pernicious art
Eurylochus, the while, my friends harangued.
A fellow-suff’rer. Death, however caused,
Abhorrence moves in miserable man,
But death by famine is a fate of all
Most to be fear’d. Come—let us hither drive
And sacrifice to the Immortal Pow’rs
The best of all the oxen of the Sun,
Resolving thus—that soon as we shall reach
Our native Ithaca, we will erect
To bright Hyperion an illustrious fane,
Which with magnificent and num’rous gifts
We will enrich. But should be chuse to sink
Our vessel, for his stately beeves incensed,
And should, with him, all heav’n conspire our death,
I rather had with open mouth, at once,
Meeting the billows, perish, than by slow
And pining waste here in this desert isle.
Then, driving all the fattest of the herd
Few paces only, (for the sacred beeves
Grazed rarely distant from the bark) they stood
Compassing them around, and, grasping each
Green foliage newly pluck’d from saplings tall,
(For barley none in all our bark remain’d)
Worshipp’d the Gods in pray’r. Pray’r made, they slew
And flay’d them, and the thighs with double fat
Investing, spread them o’er with slices crude.
No wine had they with which to consecrate
The blazing rites, but with libation poor
Of water hallow’d the interior parts.
Now, when the thighs were burnt, and each had shared
His portion of the maw, and when the rest
All-slash’d and scored hung roasting at the fire,
Sleep, in that moment,
| Previous chapter/page | Back | Home | Email this | Search | Discuss | Bookmark | Next chapter/page |