The polish'd ore, reflecting every ray,
Blazed on the banquets with a double day.
Full fifty handmaids form the household train ;
Some turn the mill, or sift the golden grain ;
Some ply the loom; their busy fingers move
Like poplar leaves when Zephyr fans the grove. 135
Not more renown'd the men of Scheria's isle,
For sailing arts and all the naval toil,
Than works of female skill their women's pride,
The flying shuttle through the threads to guide :
Pallas to these her double gifts imparts,
Inventive genius, and industrious arts.
Close to the gates a spacious garden lies,
From storms defended and inclement skies.
Four acres was the allotted space of ground,
Fenced with a green enclosure all around.
Tall thriving trees confess'd the fruitful mould;
The reddening apple ripens here to gold.
Here the blue fig with luscious juice o'erflows,
With deeper red the full pomegranate glows,
The branch here bends beneath the weighty pear,
And verdant olives flourish round the year.
The balmy spirit of the western gale
Eternal breathes on fruits, untaught to fail :
Each dropping pear a following pear supplies:
On apples apples, figs on figs arise :
The same mild season gives the blooms to blow,
The buds to harden, and the fruits to grow.
Here order'd vines in equal ranks appear,
With all the united labours of the year;
Some to unload the fertile branches run,
Some dry the blackening clusters in the sun,
Others to tread the liquid harvest join,
The groaning presses foam with floods of wine.
Here are the wines in early flower descried,
Here grapes discolour'd on the sunny side,
And there in autumn's richest purple died.
Beds of all various herbs, for ever green,
In beauteous order terminate the scene.
Two plenteous fountains the whole prospect
This through the gardens leads its streams around,
Visits each plant, and waters all the ground;
While that in pipes beneath the palace flows,
And thence its current on the town bestows:
To various use their various streams they bring,
The people one, and one supplies the king.
Such were the glories which the gods ordain'd To grace Alcinous, and his happy land. Ev'n from the chief whom men and nations knew, The unwonted scene surprise and rapture drew; In pleasing thought he ran the prospect o'er, Then hasty enter'd at the lofty door. Night now approaching, in the palace stand, With goblets crown'd, the rulers of the land; Prepared for rest, and offering to the god Who bears the virtue of the sleepy rod. Unseen he glided through the joyous crowd, With darkness circled, and an ambient cloud. Direct to great Alcinous' throne he came, And prostrate fell before the imperial dame. Then from around him dropp'd the veil of night; Sudden he shines, and manifest to sight. The nobles gaze, with awful fear oppress'd; Silent they gaze, and eye the godlike guest. "Daughter of great Rhexenor!" thus began, Low at her knees the much-enduring man; "To thee, thy consort, and this royal train, To all that share the blessings of your reign, A suppliant bends: oh pity human wo! 'Tis what the happy to the unhappy owe. A wretched exile to his country send, Long worn with griefs, and long without a friend.
So may the gods your better days increase,
And all your joys descend on all your race;
So reign for ever on your country's breast,
Your people blessing, by your people bless'd!" 205
Then to the genial hearth he bow'd his face,
And humbled in the ashes took his place.
Silence ensued. The eldest first began,
Echeneus sage, a venerable man!
Whose well-taught mind the present age surpass'd,
And join'd to that the experience of the last.
Fit words attended on his weighty sense,
And mild persuasion flow'd in eloquence,
"Oh sight," he cried, "dishonest and unjust!
A guest, a stranger, seated in the dust!
To raise the lowly suppliant from the ground
Befits a monarch. Lo! the peers around
But wait thy word, the gentle guest to grace,
And seat him fair in some distinguish'd place.
Let first the herald due libation pay
To Jove, who guides the wanderer on his way;
Then set the genial banquet in his view,
And give the stranger guest a stranger's due."
His sage advice the listening king obeys,
He stretch'd his hand the prudent chief to raise, 225
And from his seat Laodamas removed;
(The monarch's offspring, and his best beloved ;)
There next his side the godlike hero sat;
With stars of silver shone the bed of state,
The golden ewer a beauteous handmaid brings, 230
Replenish'd from the cool translucent springs,
Whose polish'd vase with copious streams supplies
A silver laver of capacious size.
The table next in regal order spread,
The glittering canisters are heap'd with bread: 235
Viands of various kinds invite the taste,
Of choicest sort and savour, rich repast!
Thus feasting high, Alcinous gave the sign,
And bade the herald pour the rosy wine.
"Let all around the due libation pay
To Jove, who guides the wanderer on his way."
He said. Protonous heard the king's command;
The circling goblet moves from hand to hand:
Each drinks the juice that glads the heart of man. Alcinous then, with aspect mild, began:
"Princes and peers, attend; while we impart
To you the thoughts of no inhuman heart.
Now pleased and satiate from the social rite
Repair we to the blessings of the night;
But with the rising day, assembled here,
Let all the elders of the land appear,
Pious observe our hospitable laws,
And Heaven propitiate in the stranger's cause :
Then join'd in council, proper means explore
Safe to transport him to the wish'd-for shore:
(How distant that, imports not us to know,
Nor weigh the labour, but relieve the wo.)
Meantime, nor harm nor anguish let him bear:
This interval, Heaven trusts him to our care;
But to his native land our charge resign'd,
Heaven's is his life to come, and all the woes behind.
Then must he suffer what the fates ordain;
For fate has wove the thread of life with pain,
And twins ev'n from the birth are misery and man!
"But if, descending from the Olympian bower,
Gracious approach us some immortal power;
If in that form thou comest a guest divine;
Some high event the conscious gods design.
As yet, unbid they never graced our feast,
The solemn sacrifice call'd down the guest;
Then manifest of heaven the vision stood,
And to our eyes familiar was the god.
Oft with some favour'd traveller they stray,
And shine before him all the desert way;
With social intercourse, and face to face,
The friends and guardians of our pious race.
So near approach we their celestial kind,
By justice, truth, and probity of mind;
As our dire neighbours of Cyclopean birth
Match in fierce wrong the giant sons of earth." 280
"Let no such thought," with modest grace rejoin'd
The prudent Greek, "possess the royal mind.
Alas! a mortal, like thyself, am I;
No glorious native of yon azure sky:
In form, ah how unlike their heavenly kind!
How more inferior in the gifts of mind!
Alas, a mortal! most oppress'd of those
Whom fate has loaded with a weight of woes;
By a sad train of miseries alone
Distinguish'd long, and second now to none !
By Heaven's high will compell'd from shore to
With Heaven's high will prepared to suffer more.
What histories of toil could I declare!
But still long-wearied nature wants repair;
Spent with fatigue, and shrunk with pining fast, 295
My craving bowels still require repast.
Howe'er the noble, suffering mind may grieve
Its load of anguish, and disdain to live,
Necessity demands our daily bread;
Hunger is insolent, and will be fed.
But finish, oh ye peers! what you propose,
And let the morrow's dawn conclude my woes,
Pleased will I suffer all the gods ordain,
To see my soil, my son, my friends, again.
That view vouchsafed, let instant death surprise 305
With ever-during shade these happy eyes!"
The assembled peers with general praise approved His pleaded reason, and the suit he moved. Each drinks a full oblivion of his cares, And to the gifts of balmy sleep repairs. Ulysses in the regal walls alone Remain'd: beside him, on a splendid throne, Divine Arete and Alcinous shone. The queen, on nearer view, the guest survey'd, Robed in the garments her own hands had made, Not without wonder seen. Then thus began, Her words addressing to the godlike man:
"Camest thou not hither, wondrous stranger! say, From lands remote, and o'er a length of sea?
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