On ev'ry table, and the cups, with wine

From brimming beakers fill'd, pass brisk around.
No lovelier sight know I*. But thou, it seems,
Thy thoughts hast turn'd to ask me whence my groans
And tears, that I may sorrow still the moret.

What first, what next, what last shall I rehearse,
On whom the Gods have show'r'd such various woes ?
Learn first my name, that even in this land
Remote I may be known, and that, escap'd

* Lucian ludicrously considers it as a demonstrative proof, that the life of a parasite, or of one who subsists at another's table, is supremely happy, that Homer, the wisest of poets, introduces the wise Ulysses admiring the spectacle here described as the pleasantest that the Earth affords. But Plato is very angry with Homer on account of this sentiment, and, asking if this be a lesson of temperance fit for a youth to study, swears by Jupiter, that in his opinion it is not. His indignation, however, seems rather unreasonable; since it is plainly a speech of complaisance merely, and designed to gratify Alcinoüs, the king of a voluptuous people. Thus Megaclides and Hermogenes considered it, and thus Eustathius; and, thus understood, it is a strong instance of the poet's attention to character, who so often extols the prudence of Ulysses.-C.

+ So Sophocles in Edipus Colon. ver. 501.

Δεινὸν μὲν τὸ πάλαι κείμενον ἤδη κακὸν,

Ω ξεῖν, ἐπεγείρειν.

O guest! 'tis hard to wake a sleeping wo!

And so Plutarch in his Symposiacs observes-We should be careful how we ask from others an account of their sufferings; for whether they have suffered by acts of injustice, or by the deaths of children, or by unsuccessful trading either by land or sea, the recital costs them pain.-C.

:.

From all adversity, I may requite

Hereafter this your hospitable care

At my own home, though distant far from yours. I am Ulysses, fear'd in all the Earth

For subtlest wisdom, and renown'd to Heav'n,
The offspring of Laertes; my abode

Is sun-burnt Ithaca; there stands, his boughs
Waving, the mountain Neritus sublime,
And it is neighbour'd close by clust'ring isles
All populous; thence Samos is beheld,
Dulichium, and Zacynthus forest-clad.
Flat on the Deep she lies, farthest remov'd
Toward the West, while, situate apart,
Her sister islands face the rising day;
Rugged she is, but fruitful nurse of sons
Magnanimous; nor shall these eyes behold,
Elsewhere, an object dear and sweet as she.
Calypso, beauteous Goddess, in her grot
Detain'd me, wishing me her own espous'd;
Ææan* Circe also, deeply skill'd

In subtlest arts, within her palace long.
Detain'd me, wishing me her own espous'd;
But never could they warp my constant mind.
So much our parents and our native soil
Attract us most, and even though our lot

* So called from Aia, a city of Colchis.-B. & C.

Be fair and plenteous in a foreign land.

But come-my painful voyage, such as Jove
Gave me from Ilium, I will now relate.

From Troy to Thracian Ismarus I sail'd,
City of the Ciconians; them I slew,

And laid their city waste*; whence bringing forth
Much spoil with all their wives, I portion'd it
With equal hand, and each receiv'd a share.
Next I exhorted to immediate flight

My people; but in vain; they madly scorn'd
My sober counsel, and much wine they drank,
And sheep and beeves slew num'rous on the shore.
Mean-time, Ciconians to Ciconians call'd,
Their neighbours summoning, a mightier host
And braver, dwelling distant from the shore,
And skilful, either mounted, to maintain
Fierce fight, or, if occasion bade, on foot.
Num'rous they came as leaves, or vernal flow'rs
At day-spring. Then, by the decree of Jove,
Misfortune found us. At the ships we stood
Piercing each other with the brazen spear,
And till the morning brighten'd into noon,
Few as we were, we yet withstood them all;
But, when the sun verg'd westward, then the Greeks
Fell back, and the Ciconian host prevail'd.

* Because they had been allies of Priam.-B, & C.

Six warlike Greecians from each galley's crew
Perish'd in that dread field; the rest escap'd*.

Thus, after loss of many, we pursu'd

Our course, yet, difficult as was our flight,
Went not till first we had invok'd by name
Our friends whom the Ciconians had destroy'dt.
But ether's Sov'reign, Jove, assail'd us soon
With a tempestuous North-wind; earth alike
And sea with storms he overhung, and night
Fell fast from Heav'n. Their heads deep-plunging oft
Our galleys flew, and rent, and rent again,
Our tatter'd sail-cloth crackled in the wind.
We, fearing instant death, within the barks
Our canvass lodg'd, and, toiling strenuous, reach'd
At length the continent. Two nights we lay
Continual there, and two long days, consum'd
With toil and grief; but when the beauteous morn
Had brought, at length, the third day to a close‡

* The whole number of the slain was seventy-two, for it afterward, that his barks were twelve.-B.

appears

+ It was customary, when any died in a foreign land, for the survivors, using certain ceremonies at the same time, to invoke them by name, that they might thus seem, even though their bodies were left behind, to have them still in their company.-B. & C.

† Αλλ' ὅτε δὴ τρίτον ἦμαρ ἐϋπλόκαμος τέλεσ ̓ ἐως,

Or it may signify, on the morning of the third day, for TEλew has a double sense, importing not only to finish, but to make or bring to pass. As in that line

Εἰ δύναμαι τελεσαι γε, καὶ εἰ τετελεσμένον ἐσι.

(Our masts erected, and white sails unfurl'd),
Again we sat on board; mean-time, the winds
Well manag'd by the steersman, urg'd us on.
And now, all danger pass'd, I had attain'd
My native shore, but, doubling in my course
Malea, waves, and currents, and North-winds
Constrain'd me devious to Cythera's isle*.
Nine days by cruel storms I thence was borne
Athwart the fishy deep, but on the tenth
Reach'd the Lotophagi, a race sustain'd

On sweetest fruit alonet. There quitting ship,
We landed and drew water, and the crews
Beside the vessel took their ev'ning cheer.
When hasty we had thus our strength renew'd,
I order'd forth my people to inquire
(Two I selected from the rest, with whom

I join'd a herald, third) what race of men
Might there inhabit. They departing mix'd
With the Lotophagi; nor hostile aught

Or savage the Lotophagi devis'd

* Malea was a promontory and Cythera an island of Laconia.B. & C.

+ Meninx is supposed to have been the land of the Lotophagi mentioned by Homer. Some indications of it are shown there, such as the altar built by Ulysses, and the very fruit he found; for it abounds with a sort of tree, which the inhabitants call the lotus, the fruit of which has the most agreeable flavour. Strabo. Geog. B. XVII.-It is also said, that they made wine of it.-C.