The Odyssey (Wisehouse Classics Edition). Homer

The Odyssey (Wisehouse Classics Edition) - Homer


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before the final doom of Troy;

      With steeds and gilded cars, a gorgeous train

      Attend the nymphs to Phthia’s distant reign.

      Meanwhile at home, to Megapentha’s bed

      The virgin choir Alector’s daughter led.

      Brave Megapenthas From a stolen amour

      To great Atrides’ age his handmaid bore;

      To Helen’s bed the gods alone assign

      Hermione, to extend the regal line;

      On whom a radiant pomp oh Graces wait,

      Resembling Venus in attractive state.

      While this gay friendly troop the king surround,

      With festival and mirth the roofs resound;

      A bard amid the joyous circle sings

      High airs attemper’d to the vocal strings;

      Whilst warbling to the varied strain, advance

      Two sprightly youths to form the bounding dance,

      ’Twas then, that issuing through the palace gate,

      The splendid car roll’d slow in regal state:

      On the bright eminence young Nestor shone,

      And fast beside him great Ulysses’ son;

      Grave Eteoneous saw the pomp appear,

      And speeding, thus address’d the royal ear;

      “Two youths approach, whose semblant features prove

      Their blood devolving from the source of Jove

      Is due reception deign’d, or must they bend

      Their doubtful course to seek a distant friend?”

      “Insensate! (with a sigh the king replies,)

      Too long, misjudging, have I thought thee wise

      But sure relentless folly steals thy breast,

      Obdurate to reject the stranger-guest;

      To those dear hospitable rites a foe,

      Which in my wanderings oft relieved my woe;

      Fed by the bounty of another’s board,

      Till pitying Jove my native realm restored —

      Straight be the coursers from the car released,

      Conduct the youths to grace the genial feast.”

      The seneschal, rebuked, in haste withdrew;

      With equal haste a menial train pursue:

      Part led the coursers, from the car enlarged,

      Each to a crib with choicest grain surcharged;

      Part in a portico, profusely graced

      With rich magnificence, the chariot placed;

      Then to the dome the friendly pair invite,

      Who eye the dazzling roofs with vast delight;

      Resplendent as the blaze of summer noon,

      Or the pale radiance of the midnight moon.

      From room to room their eager view they bend

      Thence to the bath, a beauteous pile, descend;

      Where a bright damsel train attends the guests

      With liquid odours, and embroider’d vests.

      Refresh’d, they wait them to the bower of state,

      Where, circled with his pears, Atrides sate;

      Throned next the king, a fair attendant brings

      The purest product of the crystal springs;

      High on a massy vase of silver mould,

      The burnish’d laver flames with solid gold,

      In solid gold the purple vintage flows,

      And on the board a second banquet rose.

      When thus the king, with hospitable port;

      “Accept this welcome to the Spartan court:

      The waste of nature let the feast repair,

      Then your high lineage and your names declare;

      Say from what sceptred ancestry ye claim,

      Recorded eminent in deathless fame,

      For vulgar parents cannot stamp their race

      With signatures of such majestic grace.”

      Ceasing, benevolent he straight assigns

      The royal portion of the choicest chines

      To each accepted friend; with grateful haste

      They share the honours of the rich repast.

      Sufficed, soft whispering thus to Nestor’s son,

      His head reclined, young Ithacus begun:

      “View’st thou unmoved, O ever-honour’d most!

      These prodigies of art, and wondrous cost!

      Above, beneath, around the palace shines

      The sunless treasure of exhausted mines;

      The spoils of elephants the roofs inlay,

      And studded amber darts the golden ray;

      Such, and not nobler, in the realms above

      My wonder dictates is the dome of Jove.”

      The monarch took the word, and grave replied:

      “Presumptuous are the vaunts, and vain the pride

      Of man, who dares in pomp with Jove contest,

      Unchanged, immortal, and supremely blest!

      With all my affluence, when my woes are weigh’d,

      Envy will own the purchase dearly paid.

      For eight slow-circling years, by tempests toss’d,

      From Cypress to the far Phoenician coast

      (Sidon the capital), I stretch’d my toil

      Through regions fatten’d with the flows of Nile.

      Next Aethiopia’s utmost bound explore,

      And the parch’d borders of the Arabian shore;

      Then warp my voyage on the southern gales,

      O’er the warm Lybian wave to spread my sails;

      That happy clime, where each revolving year

      The teeming ewes a triple offspring bear;

      And two fair crescents of translucent horn

      The brows of all their young increase adorn:

      The shepherd swains, with sure abundance blest,

      On the fat flock and rural dainties feast;

      Nor want of herbage makes the dairy fail,

      But every season fills the foaming pail.

      Whilst, heaping unwash’d wealth, I distant roam,

      The best of brothers, at his natal home,

      By the dire fury of a traitress wife,

      Ends the sad evening of a stormy life;

      Whence, with incessant grief my soul annoy’d,

      These riches are possess’d, but not enjoy’d!

      My wars, the


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