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Climbing the coast; nor would Eurylochus Beside the hollow bark remain, but joind His comrades by my dreadful menace awed. Meantime the Goddess, busily employd, Bathed and refreshd my friends with limpid oil, And clothed them. We, arriving, found them all Banqueting in the palace; there they met; These askd, and those rehearsed the wondrous tale, And, the recital made, all wept aloud Till the wide dome resounded. Then approachd The graceful Goddess, and addressd me thus. Provoke ye not each other, now, to tears. I am not ignorant, myself, how dread Have been your woes both on the fishy Deep, And on the land by force of hostile powrs. But comeEat now, and drink ye wine, that so Your freshend spirit may revive, and ye Courageous grow again, as when ye left The rugged shores of Ithaca, your home. For now, through recollection, day by day, Of all your pains and toils, ye are become Spiritless, strengthless, and the taste forget Of pleasure, such have been your numrous woes. And won us to her will. There, then, we dwelt The year complete, fed with delicious fare Day after day, and quaffing genrous wine. But when (the year fulfilld) the circling hours Their course resumed, and the successive months With all their tedious days were spent, my friends, Summoning me abroad, thus greeted me. The fates ordain thee to revisit safe That country, and thy own glorious abode. Well-pleasd. Then, all the day, regaled we sat At Circes board with savry viands rare, And quaffing richest wine; but when, the sun Declining, darkness overshadowd all, Then, each within the dusky palace took Customd repose, and to the Goddess bed Magnificent ascending, there I urged My earnest suit, which gracious she receivd, And in wingd accents earnest thus I spake. Dismiss us hence. My own desires, at length, Tend homeward vehement, and the desires No less of all my friends, who with complaints Unheard by thee, wear my sad heart away. Laertes noble son, Ulysses famed For deepest wisdom! dwell not longer here, Thou and thy followers, in my abode Reluctant; but your next must be a course Far diffrent; hence departing, ye must seek The dreary house of Ades and of dread Persephone there to consult the Seer Theban Tiresias, prophet blind, but blest With faculties which death itself hath spared. To him alone, of all the dead, Hells Queen Gives still to prophesy, while others flit Mere forms, the shadows of what once they were. All courage; weeping on the bed I sat, Reckless of life and of the light of day. But when, with tears and rolling to and fro Satiate, I felt relief, thus I replied. This voyage, unperformd by living man? Brave Laertiades! let not the fear To want a guide distress thee. Once on board, Your mast erected, and your canvas white Unfurld, sit thou; the breathing North shall waft Thy vessel on. But when ye shall have crossd The broad expanse of Ocean, and shall reach The oozy shore, where grow the poplar groves And fruitless willows wan of Proserpine, Push thither through the gulphy Deep thy bark, And, landing, haste to Plutos murky abode. There, into Acheron runs not alone Dread Pyriphlegethon, but Cocytus loud, From Styx derived; there also stands a rock, At whose broad base the roaring rivers meet. There, thrusting, as I bid, thy bark ashore, O Hero! scoop the soil, opning a trench Ell- broad on evry side; then pour around Libation consecrate to all the dead, First, milk with honey mixt, then luscious wine, Then water, sprinkling, last, meal over all. Next, supplicate the unsubstantial forms Fervently of the dead, vowing to slay, (Returnd to Ithaca) in thy own house, An heifer barren yet, fairest and best Of all thy herds, and to enrich the pile With delicacies such as please the shades; But, in peculiar, to Tiresias vow A sable ram, noblest of all thy flocks. When thus thou hast propitiated with prayr All the illustrious |
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