Complete Works of Homer

by Homer

  Jealous, to see their high behests obey'd;

  Severe, if men the eternal rights evade.

  High o'er a gulfy sea, the Pharian isle

  Fronts the deep roar of disemboguing Nile:

  Her distance from the shore, the course begun

  At dawn, and ending with the setting sun,

  A galley measures; when the stiffer gales

  Rise on the poop, and fully stretch the sails.

  There, anchor'd vessels safe in harbour lie,

  Whilst limpid springs the failing cask supply.

  "And now the twentieth sun, descending, laves

  His glowing axle in the western waves:

  Still with expanded sails we court in vain

  Propitious winds to waft us o'er the main;

  And the pale mariner at once deplores

  His drooping vigour and exhausted stores.

  When lo! a bright cerulean form appears,

  Proteus her sire divine. With pity press'd,

  Me sole the daughter of the deep address'd;

  What time, with hunger pined, my absent mates

  Roam the wide isle in search of rural cates,

  Bait the barb'd steel, and from the fishy flood

  Appease the afflictive fierce desire of food."

  "'Whoe'er thou art (the azure goddess cries)

  Thy conduct ill-deserves the praise of wise:

  Is death thy choice, or misery thy boast,

  That here inglorious, on a barren coast,

  Thy brave associates droop, a meagre train,

  With famine pale, and ask thy care in vain?'

  "Struck with the loud reproach, I straight reply:

  'Whate'er thy title in thy native sky,

  A goddess sure! for more than moral grace

  Speaks thee descendant of ethereal race;

  Deem not that here of choice my fleet remains;

  Some heavenly power averse my stay constrains:

  O, piteous of my fate, vouchsafe to show

  (For what's sequester'd from celestial view?)

  What power becalms the innavigable seas?

  What guilt provokes him, and what vows appease?'

  "I ceased, when affable the goddess cried:

  'Observe, and in the truths I speak confide;

  The oracular seer frequents the Pharian coast,

  From whose high bed my birth divine I boast;

  Proteus, a name tremendous o'er the main,

  The delegate of Neptune's watery reign.

  Watch with insidious care his known abode;

  There fast in chains constrain the various god;

  Who bound, obedient to superior force,

  Unerring will prescribe your destined course.

  If, studious on your realms, you then demand

  Their state, since last you left your natal land,

  Instant the god obsequious will disclose

  Bright tracts of glory or a cloud of woes.'

  "She ceased; and suppliant thus I made reply:

  'O goddess I on thy aid my hopes rely;

  Dictate propitious to my duteous ear,

  What arts can captivate the changeful seer;

  For perilous the assay, unheard the toil,

  To elude the prescience of a god by guile.'

  "Thus to the goddess mild my suit I end.

  Then she: 'Obedient to my rule attend:

  When through the zone of heaven the mounted sun

  Hath journeyed half, and half remains to run;

  The seer, while zephyrs curl the swelling deep,

  Basks on the breezy shore, in grateful sleep,

  His oozy limbs. Emerging from the wave,

  The Phocas swift surround his rocky cave,

  Frequent and full; the consecrated train

  Of her, whose azure trident awes the main;

  There wallowing warm, the enormous herd exhales

  An oily steam, and taints the noontide gales.

  To that recess, commodious for surprise,

  When purple light shall next suffuse the skies,

  With me repair; and from thy warrior-band

  Three chosen chiefs of dauntless soul command;

  Let their auxiliar force befriend the toil;

  For strong the god, and perfected in guile.

  Strech'd on the shelly shore, he first surveys

  The flouncing herd ascending from the seas;

  Their number summ'd, reposed in sleep profound

  The scaly charge their guardian god surround;

  So with his battening flocks the careful swain

  Abides pavilion'd on the grassy plain.

  With powers united, obstinately bold,

  Invade him, couch'd amid the scaly fold;

  Instant he wears, elusive of the rape,

  The mimic force of every savage shape;

  Or glides with liquid lapse a murmuring stream,

  Or, wrapp'd in flame, he glows at every limb.

  Yet, still retentive, with redoubled might,

  Through each vain passive form constrain his flight

  But when, his native shape renamed, he stands

  Patient of conquest, and your cause demands;

  The cause that urged the bold attempt declare,

  And soothe the vanquish'd with a victor's prayer.

  The bands releas'd, implore the seer to say

  What godhead interdicts the watery way.

  Who, straight propitious, in prophetic strain

  Will teach you to repass the unmeasured main.

  She ceased, and bounding from the shelfy shore,

  Round the descending nymph the waves resounding roar.

  "High wrapp'd in wonder of the future deed,

  with joy impetuous to the port I speed:

  The wants of nature with repast suffice,

  Till night with grateful shade involved the skies,

  And shed ambrosial dews. Fast by the deep,

  Along the tented shore, in balmy sleep,

  Our cares were lost. When o'er the eastern lawn,

  In saffron robes, the daughter of the dawn

  Advanced her rosy steps, before the bay

  Due ritual honours to the gods I pay;

  Then seek the place the sea-born nymph assign'd,

  With three associates of undaunted mind.

  Arrived, to form along the appointed strand

  For each a bed, she scoops the hilly sand;

  Then, from her azure cave the finny spoils

  Of four vast Phocae takes, to veil her wiles;

  Beneath the finny spoils extended prone,

  Hard toil! the prophet's piercing eye to shun;

  New from the corse, the scaly frauds diffuse

  Unsavoury stench of oil, and brackish ooze;

  But the bright sea-maid's gentle power implored,

  With nectar'd drops the sickening sense restored.

  "Thus till the sun had travell'd half the skies,

  Ambush'd we lie, and wait the bold emprise;

  When, thronging quick to bask in open air,

  The flocks of ocean to the strand repair;

  Couch'd on the sunny sand, the monsters sleep;

  Then Proteus, mounting from the hoary deep,

  Surveys his charge, unknowing of deceit;

  (In order told, we make the sum complete.)

  Pleased with the false review, secure he lies,

  And leaden slumbers press his drooping eyes.

  Rushing impetuous forth, we straight prepare

  A furious onset with the sound of war,

  And shouting seize the god; our force to evade,

  His various arts he soon resumes in aid;

  A lion now, he curls a surgy mane;

  Sudden our hands a spotted paid restrain;

  Then, arm'd with tusks, and lightning in his eyes,

  A boar's obscener shape the god belies;

  On spiry volumes, there a dragon rides;

  Here, from our strict embrace
a stream he glides.

  At last, sublime, his stately growth he rears

  A tree, and well-dissembled foliage wears.

  Vain efforts with superior power compress'd,

  Me with reluctance thus the seer address'd;

  'Say, son of Atreus, say what god inspired

  This daring fraud, and what the boon desired?'

  I thus: 'O thou, whose certain eye foresees

  The fix'd event of fate's remote decrees;

  After long woes, and various toil endured,

  Still on this desert isle my fleet is moor'd,

  Unfriended of the gales. All-knowing, say,

  What godhead interdicts the watery way?

  What vows repentant will the power appease,

  To speed a prosperous voyage o'er the seas.'

  "'To Jove (with stern regard the god replies)

  And all the offended synod of the skies,

  Just hecatombs with due devotion slain,

  Thy guilt absolved, a prosperous voyage gain.

  To the firm sanction of thy fate attend!

  An exile thou, nor cheering face of friend,

  Nor sight of natal shore, nor regal dome,

  Shalt yet enjoy, but still art doom'd to roam.

  Once more the Nile, who from the secret source

  Of Jove's high seat descends with sweepy force,

  Must view his billows white beneath thy oar,

  And altars blaze along his sanguine shore.

  Then will the gods with holy pomp adored,

  To thy long vows a safe return accord.'

  "He ceased: heart wounded with afflictive pain,

  (Doom'd to repeat the perils of the main,

  A shelfy track and long!) 'O seer' I cry,

  'To the stern sanction of the offended sky

  My prompt obedience bows. But deign to say

  What fate propitious, or what dire dismay,

  Sustain those peers, the relics of our host,

  Whom I with Nestor on the Phrygian coast

  Embracing left? Must I the warriors weep,

  Whelm'd in the bottom of the monstrous deep?

  Or did the kind domestic friend deplore

  The breathless heroes on their native shore?

  "'Press not too far,' replied the god: 'but cease

  To know what, known, will violate thy peace;

  Too curious of their doom! with friendly woe

  Thy breast will heave, and tears eternal flow.

  Part live! the rest, a lamentable train!

  Range the dark bounds of Pluto's dreary reign.

  Two, foremost in the roll of Mars renown'd,

  Whose arms with conquest in thy cause were crown'd,

  Fell by disastrous fate: by tempests toss'd,

  A third lives wretched on a distant coast.

  "By Neptune rescued from Minerva's hate,

  On Gyrae, safe Oilean Ajax sate,

  His ship o'erwhelm'd; but, frowning on the floods,

  Impious he roar'd defiance to the gods;

  To his own prowess all the glory gave:

  The power defrauding who vouchsafed to save.

  This heard the raging ruler of the main;

  His spear, indignant for such high disdain,

  He launched; dividing with his forky mace

  The aerial summit from the marble base:

  The rock rush'd seaward, with impetuous roar

  Ingulf'd, and to the abyss the boaster bore.

  "By Juno's guardian aid, the watery vast,

  Secure of storms, your royal brother pass'd,

  Till, coasting nigh the cape where Malen shrouds

  Her spiry cliffs amid surrounding clouds,

  A whirling gust tumultuous from the shore

  Across the deep his labouring vessel bore.

  In an ill-fated hour the coast he gain'd,

  Where late in regal pomp Thyestes reigned;

  But, when his hoary honours bow'd to fate,

  Aegysthus govern'd in paternal state,

  The surges now subside, the tempest ends;

  From his tall ship the king of men descends;

  There fondly thinks the gods conclude his toil:

  Far from his own domain salutes the soil;

  With rapture oft the urge of Greece reviews,

  And the dear turf with tears of joy bedews.

  Him, thus exulting on the distant stand,

  A spy distinguish'd from his airy stand;

  To bribe whose vigilance, Aegysthus told

  A mighty sum of ill-persuading gold:

  There watch'd this guardian of his guilty fear,

  Till the twelfth moon had wheel'd her pale career;

  And now, admonish'd by his eye, to court

  With terror wing'd conveys the dread report.

  Of deathful arts expert, his lord employs

  The ministers of blood in dark surprise;

  And twenty youths, in radiant mail incased,

  Close ambush'd nigh the spacious hall he placed.

  Then bids prepare the hospitable treat:

  Vain shows of love to veil his felon hate!

  To grace the victor's welcome from the wars,

  A train of coursers and triumphal cars

  Magnificent he leads: the royal guest,

  Thoughtless of ill, accepts the fraudful feast.

  The troop forth-issuing from the dark recess,

  With homicidal rage the king oppress!

  So, whilst he feeds luxurious in the stall,

  The sovereign of the herd is doomed to fall,

  The partners of his fame and toils at Troy,

  Around their lord, a mighty ruin, lie:

  Mix'd with the brave, the base invaders bleed;

  Aegysthus sole survives to boast the deed."

  He said: chill horrors shook my shivering soul,

  Rack'd wish convulsive pangs in dust I roll;

  And hate, in madness of extreme despair,

  To view the sun, or breathe the vital air.

  But when, superior to the rage of woe,

  I stood restored and tears had ceased to flow,

  Lenient of grief the pitying god began:

  'Forget the brother, and resume the man.

  To Fate's supreme dispose the dead resign,

  That care be Fate's, a speedy passage thine

  Still lives the wretch who wrought the death deplored,

  But lives a victim for thy vengeful sword;

  Unless with filial rage Orestes glow,

  And swift prevent the meditated blow:

  You timely will return a welcome guest,

  With him to share the sad funereal feast."

  "He said: new thoughts my beating heart employ,

  My gloomy soul receives a gleam of joy.

  Fair hope revives; and eager I address'd

  The prescient godhead to reveal the rest:

  'The doom decreed of those disastrous two

  I've heard with pain, but oh! the tale pursue;

  What third brave son of Mars the Fates constrain

  To roam the howling desert of the main;

  Or, in eternal shade of cold he lies,

  Provoke new sorrows from these grateful eyes.'

  "'That chief (rejoin'd the god) his race derives

  From Ithaca, and wondrous woes survives;

  Laertes' son: girt with circumfluous tides,

  He still calamitous constraint abides.

  Him in Calypso's cave of late! view'd,

  When streaming grief his faded cheek bedow'd.

  But vain his prayer, his arts are vain, to move

  The enamour'd goddess, or elude her love:

  His vessel sunk, and dear companions lost,

  He lives reluctant on a foreign coast.

  But oh, beloved by Heaven! reserved to thee

  A happier lot the smiling Fates decree:

  Free from that law, beneath whose mortal sway

  Matter is changed, and varying for
ms decay,

  Elysium shall be thine: the blissful plains

  Of utmost earth, where Rhadamanthus reigns.

  Joys ever young, unmix'd with pain or fear,

  Fill the wide circle of the eternal year:

  Stern winter smiles on that auspicious clime:

  The fields are florid with unfading prime;

  From the bleak pole no winds inclement blow,

  Mould the round hail, or flake the fleecy snow;

  But from the breezy deep the blest inhale

  The fragrant murmurs of the western gale.

  This grace peculiar will the gods afford

  To thee, the son of Jove, and beauteous Helen's lord.'

  "He ceased, and plunging in the vast profound,

  Beneath the god and whirling billows bound.

  Then speeding back, involved in various thought,

  My friends attending at the shore I sought,

  Arrived, the rage of hunger we control

  Till night with silent shade invests the pole;

  Then lose the cares of life in pleasing rest.

  Soon as the morn reveals the roseate east,

  With sails we wing the masts, our anchors weigh,

  Unmoor the fleet, and rush into the sea.

  Ranged on the banks, beneath our equal oars

  White curl the waves, and the vex'd ocean roars

  Then, steering backward from the Pharian isle,

  We gain the stream of Jove-descended Nile;

  There quit the ships, and on the destined shore

  With ritual hecatombs the gods adore;

  Their wrath atoned, to Agamemnon's name

  A cenotaph I raise of deathless fame.

  These rites to piety and grief discharged,

  The friendly gods a springing gale enlarged;

  The fleet swift tilting o'er the surges flew,

  Till Grecian cliffs appear'd a blissful view!

  "Thy patient ear hath heard me long relate

  A story, fruitful of disastrous fate.

  And now, young prince, indulge my fond request;

  Be Sparta honoured with his royal guest,

  Till, from his eastern goal, the joyous sun

  His twelfth diurnal race begins to run.

  Meantime my train the friendly gifts prepare,

  The sprightly coursers and a polish'd car;

  With these a goblet of capacious mould,

  Figured with art to dignify the gold

  (Form'd for libation to the gods), shall prove

  A pledge and monument of sacred love."

  "My quick return (young Ithacus rejoin'd),

  Damps the warm wishes of my raptured mind;

  Did not my fate my needful haste constrain,

  Charm'd by your speech so graceful and humane,

  Lost in delight the circling year would roll,

  While deep attention fix'd my listening soul.

  But now to Pyle permit my destined way,