This said, Minerva led him thence, whom he
With nimble steps pursu'd, and, on the shore
Arriv'd, found all his mariners prepar'd,
Whom thus the princely voyager address'd:

Haste ye, my friends! and from the palace bring
The stores, which all stand ready; but the queen
Of this my purpos'd voyage nothing knows,
Nor the queen's women aught, save one alone.
He spake, and led them; they, obedient, brought
All down, and, as Ulysses' son enjoin'd,
Within the gallant bark the charge bestow'd.'

Then, led by Pallas, went the prince on board,
Where down they sat, the Goddess in the stern,
And at her side Telemachus. The crew
Cast loose the hawsers, and, embarking, fill'd
The benches. Blue-ey'd Pallas from the west
Call'd forth propitious breezes; fresh they curl'd
The sable deep, and, sounding, swept the waves.
He, loud-exhorting them, his people bade

Hand brisk the tackle; they obedient rear'd
The pine-tree mast, which in its socket deep

They lodg'd, then strain'd the cordage, and with

thongs

Well-twisted, drew the shining sail aloft.

A land-breeze fill'd the canvass, and the flood
Roar'd as she went against the steady bark,

That ran with even course her liquid way.

The rigging thus of all the galley set,

Their beakers crowning high with wine, they hail'd

The ever-living Gods, but above all

Minerva, daughter azure-ey'd of Jove.

Thus, all night long the galley, and till dawn

Had brighten'd into day, cleav'd swift the flood*.

*Scaliger comparing the two lines of Homer

Ἔπρησεν δ' ἄνεμος μέσον ἱσίον· ἀμφὶ δὲ κῦμα
Στείρῃ πορφύρεον μεγάλ ̓ ἴαχε, νηὸς ἰέσης·

with the following two of Virgil

Tendunt vela Noti; fugimus spumantibus undis,

Qua cursum ventusque gubernatorque vocabant,

is enraptured with the last of Virgil's, and for the sake of it gives him the preference. But, as Clarke justly observes, the learned critic forgot himself a little, for the line that charms him to such a degree is almost a literal version of a line found in the eleventh book of the Odyssey.

Τὴν δ ̓ ἀνεμός τε κυβερνήτης τ ̓ ἴθυνεν.

him

ARGUMENT OF THE THIRD BOOK.

Telemachus, arriving at Pylus, inquires of Nestor concerning Ulysses. Nestor relates to him all that he knows or has heard of the Greecians since their departure from Troy, but, not being able to give any satisfactory account of Ulysses, refers him to Menelaus. At evening Minerva quits Telemachus, but discovers herself in going. Nestor sacrifices to the Goddess, and, the solemnity ended, Telemachus sets forth for Sparta in one of Nestor's chariots, and accompanied by Nestor's son Pisistratus.

BOOK III.

THE sun, emerging from the lucid waves,
Ascended now the brazen vault with light
For the inhabitants of Earth and Heav'n,
When in their bark at Pylus they arriv'd,
City of Neleus. On the shore they found
The people sacrificing; bulls they slew
Black without spot to Neptune azure-hair'd*.

* On the southern side of Pylus stood a town called Lepreos, at the distance of forty stadia from the sea. In the midway between Lepreos and Annios stood the temple of Samian Neptune, distant a hundred stadia from each. At that temple it was, that Telemachus found the Pylians performing sacrifice.-C.

On ranges nine of seats they sat; each range
Receiv'd five hundred, and to each they made
Allotment equal of nine sable bulls*.

The feast was now begun; these tasting † sat
The entrails, those stood off'ring to the God
The thighs, his portion, when the Ithacans
Push'd right ashore, and, furling close the sails,
And making fast their moorings, disembark'd.
Forth came Telemachus by Pallas led,

Whom thus the Goddess azure-ey'd address'd:
Telemachus! there is no longer room

For bashful fear, since thou hast cross'd the flood,
With purpose to inquire what land conceals

Thy father, and what fate hath follow'd him.
Advance at once to the equestrian chief,
Nestor, within whose bosom lies, perhaps,
Advice well worthy of thy search; entreat
An answer at his lips sincere and true,
Who will not lie, for he is passing wise.

To whom Telemachus discreet replied:

Ah Mentor! how can I advance, how greet

* In Pylus were nine cities, and each city had a seat or bench appropriated to it.-B. & C.

They are said to taste them only, because they were a great multitude, and the entrails would not afford more than a taste for each.-C.

A chief like him, unpractis'd as I am

In manag'd phrase? Shame bids the youth beware, How he accosts the man of many years.

But thus the blue-ey'd Goddess in return:
Telemachus! Thou wilt, in part, thyself

Fit speech devise, and Heav'n will give the rest;
For thou wast neither born, nor hast been train'd
To manhood, under unpropitious Pow'rs.

So saying, Minerva led him thence, whom he
With nimble steps attending, soon arriv'd
Among the multitude. There Nestor sat,
And Nestor's sons, while, busily the feast
Tending, his num'rous followers roasted, some,
The viands, some transfix'd them with the spits.
They, seeing guests arriv'd, together all
Advanc'd, and, grasping courteously their hands,
Invited them to sit; but first, the son

Of Nestor, young Pisistratus, approach'd,

Who, fast'ning on the hands of both, beside

The banquet plac'd them, where the beach was spread
With fleeces, and where Thrasymedes sat,

His brother, and the hoary chief his sire.
To each a portion of the inner parts
He gave, then fill'd a golden cup with wine,
Which, tasted first, he to the daughter bore