When lo! they met, beside a crystal spring, 120 The daughter of Antiphates the King;

She to Artacia's filver ftreams came down,
(Artacia's ftreams alone fupply the town:)
The damfel they approach, and ask'd what race
The people were? who monarch of the place?
25 With joy the Maid th'unwary ftrangers heard,
And fhew'd them where the royal dome appear❜d.
They went; but as they ent'ring faw the Queen
Of size enormous, and terrific mien,

v. 120. The daughter of Antiphates, &c.] It is not evident from whence Ulyffes had the knowledge of thefe particulars; the perfons whom he fent to fearch the land perifh'd in the attempt, or were deftroy'd with the fleet by the Laftrigons: How then could this relation be made to Ulyffes? It is probable that he had his infor mation from Circe or Calypfo, for Circe in the fequel of the Odyssey tells Ulyffes, that he was acquainted with all the sufferings that he had undergone by fea; and if the, as a Goddefs, knew his adventures, why might fhe not relate to him thefe particulars? Homer a little lower tells us, that the Leftrigons transfix'd (wigoles) the companions of Ulyffes, and then carried them away on their weapons like fo many fishes; others prefer ipoles, that is, connecting them together like a range of fishes; both which very well exprefs the prodigious ftrength of these Giants: others chufe the word doraípovres, or, "they eat them yet alive (palpitantes) like fifhes." The preference is fubmitted to the Reader. Euftathius.

I will only add, that poffibly the relation of the barbarity of Polypheme, and Antiphates, with refpect to their eating the flesh of men, may not be entirely fabulous: Modern hiftory affures us, that favages have been found in parts of the world lately discover'd, who eat the bodies of their enemies: It is therefore no wonder that the more polite and civiliz'd nations of Antiquity, look'd upon fuch men as monfters, and that their Poets painted them as fuch, or perhaps aggravated the fierte, or fiercenefs of their featares, ftruck with horror at their brutal inhumanity.

(Not

(Not yielding to fome bulky mountain's height) 130 A fudden horror ftruck their aking fight.

135

Swift at her call her husband fcowr'd away
To wreak his hunger on the deftin'd prey;
One for his food the raging glutton flew,
But two rufh'd out, and to the navy flew.
Balk'd of his prey, the yelling monster flies,
And fills the city with his hideous cries;

A ghaftly band of Giants hear the roar,

And pouring down the mountains, crowd the fhore. Fragments they rend from off the craggy brow, 140 And dafh the ruins on the ships below:

The crackling veffels burft; hoarfe groans arife,
And mingled horrors eccho to the skies.
The men, like fifh, they ftuck upon the flood,
And cram'd their filthy throats with human food.
145 Whilft thus their fury rages at the bay,

My fword our cables cut, I call'd to weigh;
And charged my men, as they from fate would flie
Each nerve to ftrain, each bending oar to ply.

The failors catch the word, their oars they feize,
150 And sweep with equal strokes the fmoaky feas;
Clear of the rocks th'impatient veffel flies;
Whilft in the port each wretch encumber'd dies.

With

With earnest haste my frighted failors press,

While kindling transports glow'd at our. fuccefs; 155 But the fad fate that did our friends deftroy Cool'd ev'ry breaft, and damp'd the rifing joy." Now dropp'd our anchors in th' ean bay, Where Circe dwelt, the daughter of the Day;

v. 158. Where Circe dwelt.] Hefiod in his Theogony agrees with Homer as to the Genealogy of Circe and Actes.

Ἠελίῳ δ ̓ ἀκάμαντι τέκε κλυτὴ ὠκεανίνη

Περσηίς, Κίρκην τε και Αιήτην βασιλῆς.

That is, "< Perfeis the daughter of Oceanus bore to Phebus, Circe and
"King Aetes." But why are they fabled to be the offspring of
the fun? Enftathius anfwers, either from their high birth, as the
great perfonages of Antiquity were call'd Aoyevs, or the fons of
Jupiter, and the Sun in the ancient Mythology reprefented that.
Deity or from their extraordinary beauty, which might perhepe
par'd to the Sun, or from
the whole might be deriv'd from the way of fpeaking among the
Orientals; at this day we are inform'd from the beft Hiftorians,
that fuch language prevails in the eastern countries, and Kings and
great perfonages are call'd the brothers or offspring of the Sun.

This ea is a mountain or promontory in Italy: perhaps ori-
ginally an Ifland, and ftill keeping the refemblance of it. Thus
Procopius, Gothicorum, lib. 1. Circeium hand medico tractu in mare
porrectum infula fpeciem fert, tam praternavigantibus quam terreftri
itinere prætereuntibus: and Strabo, lib. 5. Kipxalov opos vnoidov Da-
λάτη σε καὶ ἕλεσι But is the relation that Homer makes of this.
Ifland, and of Circe, agreeable to truth? Undoubtedly it is not; but
Homer was very well acquainted with the story of Medea, and ap
plies what was reported of that Enchantrefs to Circe, and gives
the name of Eed to the Inland of Circe, in refemblance to ca,
a city of Colchos, the country of Medea and Actes. That Homer
was not a ftranger to the ftory of Medea is evident, for he men-
tions the fhip Argo in the twelfth Odyffey, in which Jafon fail'd
to Colchos, where Medea fell in love with him; fo that tho' Circe
be a fabled. Deity, yet what Homer fays of her, was applicable to
the character of another perfon, and confequently a juft foundation
for a flory in Poetry. With this opinion Strabo agrees.

Her

Her Mother Persè, of old Ocean's ftrain,

160 Thus from the Sun defcended, and the Main. (From the fame lineage ftern Eates came,

The far-fam'd brother of th' enchantress dame)ta &
Goddefs, and Queen, to whom the pow'rs belong bal. 2

Of dreadful Magic, and commanding Song.

165 Some God directing to this peaceful bay Silent we case, and melancholy lay,

Spent and o'erwatch'd. Two days and nights roll'd-on, [
And now the third fucceeding morning fhone.

I climb'd a cliff, with fpear and fword in hand,wzA 170 Whofe ridge o'erlook'd a fhady length of land &

v. 169. I climb a Cliff. Scaliger, lib. 5. his Poetics obferves,
that there is a general refemblance between Ulyffes in Homer, and
Eneas in Virgil, and that Æneas acts in the fame manner as
Ulyffes.
Adarow od no th, to?!

Qui teneants (nam inculta videt) hominesne ferandɔi
Quarere conftituiti, une gard did Borligino C

That Critic remarks, that tho' the attitudes of the two Heroes
are the fame, yet they are drawn by Virgil with a more mafterly
hand: Fufior & latior Homerus invenietur, picior Virgilius, & nu
meris aftrictior.

Uges himself here takes a general view ofmation, this was
the Inland, but
fends his companions for a more particular

neceffary to introduce the following story, and give it an air of
probability; if he had made the experiment in His own perfon,
his virtue would have been proof against the forocries of Circe, and
confequently there could not have been room for a defcription of
her enchantments. Enftathius.

To

To learn if aught of mortal works appear,
Or chearful voice of mortal ftrike the ear?
From the high point I mark'd, in diftant view,
A ftream of curling fmoke afcending blue,
175 And fpiry tops, the tufted trees above,
Of Circe's Palace bofom'd in the grove.

Thither to haste, the region to explore,

Was first my thought: but speeding back to shore
I deem'd it beft to vifit firft my crew,

180 And send out spies the dubious coast to view.
As down the hill I folitary go,

Some pow'r divine who pities human woe
Sent a tall ftag, defcending from the wood,
To cool his fervor in the cryftal flood;
185 Luxuriant on the wave-worn bank he lay,

Stretch'd forth, and panting in the funny ray.
I lanc'd my fpear, and with a sudden wound
Transpierc'd his back, and fix'd him to the ground.
190 He falls, and mourns his fate with human cries:
Thro' the wide wound the vital fpirit flies.
I drew, and cafting on the river fide
The bloody fpear, his gather'd feet I ty'd
With twining ofiers which the bank'd supply'd.

}

An