I journey’d down to Pluto’s drear abode.
But let us hence to bed, there to enjoy
Tranquil repose. My love, make no delay.
Thou shalt to bed at whatsoever time
Thy soul desires, since the immortal Gods
Give thee to me and to thy home again.
But, thou hast spoken from the seer of Thebes
Of arduous toils yet unperform’d; declare
What toils? Thou wilt disclose them, as I judge,
Hereafter, and why not disclose them now?
Ah conversant with woe! why would’st thou learn
That tale? but I will tell it thee at large.
Thou wilt not hear with joy, nor shall myself
With joy rehearse it; for he bade me seek
City after city, bearing, as I go,
A shapely oar, till I shall find, at length,
A people who the sea know not, nor eat
Food salted; they trim galley crimson-prow’d
Have ne’er beheld, nor yet smooth-shaven oar
With which the vessel wing’d scuds o’er the waves.
He gave me also this authentic sign,
Which I will tell thee. In what place soe’er
I chance to meet a trav’ler who shall name
The oar on my broad shoulder borne, a van;
He bade me, planting it on the same spot,
Worship the King of Ocean with a bull,
A ram, and a lascivious boar, then seek
My home again, and sacrifice at home
An hecatomb to the immortal Gods
Inhabitants of the expanse above.
So shall I die, at length, the gentlest death
Remote from Ocean; it shall find me late,
In soft serenity of age, the Chief
Of a blest people.—Thus he prophesied.
If heav’n appoint thee in old age a lot
More tranquil, hope thence springs of thy escape
Some future day from all thy threaten’d woes.
Eurynome and Euryclea dress’d
Their bed by light of the clear torch, and when
Dispatchful they had spread it broad and deep,
The ancient nurse to her own bed retired.
Then came Eurynome, to whom in trust
The chambers appertain’d, and with a torch
Conducted them to rest; she introduced
The happy pair, and went; transported they
To rites connubial intermitted long,
And now recover’d, gave themselves again.
Meantime, the Prince, the herdsman, and the good
Eumæus, giving rest each to his feet,
Ceased from the dance; they made the women cease
Also, and to their sev’ral chambers all
Within the twilight edifice repair’d.
Satiate, Ulysses tasted and his spouse
The sweets of mutual converse. She rehearsed,
Noblest of women, all her num’rous woes
Beneath that roof sustain’d, while she beheld
The profligacy of the suitor-throng,
Who in their wooing had consumed his herds
And fatted flocks, and drawn his vessels dry;
While brave Ulysses, in his turn, to her
Related his successes and escapes,
And his afflictions also; he told her all;
She listen’d charm’d, nor slumber on his eyes
Fell once, or ere he had rehearsed the whole.
Beginning, he discoursed, how, at the first
He conquer’d in Ciconia, and thence reach’d
The fruitful shores of the Lotophagi;
The Cyclops’ deeds he told her next, and how
He well avenged on him his slaughter’d friends
Whom, pitiless, the monster had devour’d.
How to the isle of Æolus he came,
Who welcom’d him and safe dismiss’d him thence,
Although not destin’d to regain so soon
His native land; for o’er the fishy deep
Loud tempests snatch’d him sighing back again.
How, also at Telepylus he arrived,
Town of the Læstrygonians, who destroyed
His ships with all their mariners, his own
Except, who in his sable bark escaped.
Of guileful Circe too he spake, deep-skill’d
In various artifice, and how he reach’d
With sails and oars the squalid realms of death,
Desirous to consult the prophet there
Theban Tiresias, and how there he view’d
All his companions, and the mother bland
Who bare him, nourisher of his infant years.
How, next he heard the Sirens in one strain
All chiming sweet, and how he reach’d the rocks
Erratic, Scylla and Charybdis dire,
Which none secure from injury may pass.
Then, how the partners of his voyage slew
The Sun’s own beeves, and how the Thund’rer Jove
Hurl’d down his smoky bolts into his bark,
Depriving him at once of all his crew,
Whose dreadful fate he yet, himself, escaped.
How to Ogygia’s isle he came, where dwelt
The nymph Calypso, who, enamour’d, wish’d
To espouse him, and within her spacious grot
Detain’d, and fed, and promis’d him a life
Exempt for ever from the sap of age,
But him moved not. How, also, he arrived
After much toil, on the Phæacian coast,
Where ev’ry heart revered him as a God,
And whence, enriching him with brass and gold,
And costly raiment first, they sent him home.
At this last word, oblivious slumber sweet
Fell on him, dissipating all his cares.
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