The Whole Works of Homer :: :: University of Virginia Library

He shewes from Hell his safe retreate,
To th' Ile Ææa, Circes seate.
And how he scapt the Sirens calls.
With th' erring Rockes, and waters falls,
That Scylla and Charybdis breake.
The Sunnes stolne Herds; and his sad wreake,
Both of Vlysses ship and men,
His owne head scaping scarce the paine.

Another.

Μυ.

The Rockes that errd;
The Sirens call;
The Sunnes stolne Herd;
The souldiers fall.

Ovr Ship now past the streights of th' Ocean flood;
She plowd the broad seas billowes; and made good,
The Ile Ææa, where the Pallace stands
Of th' early Riser, with the rosie hands,
Actiue Aurora; where she loues to dance;
And where the Sunne doth his prime beames aduance.
When here arriu'd; we drew her vp to land,
And trod our selues the resaluted sand:
Found on the shore, fit resting for the Night;
Slept, and expected the celestiall light.

Soone as the white-and-red-mixt-fingerd Dame,

Reditur ab inferis ad Circen.

Had guilt the mountaines with her Saffron flame;
I sent my men to Circes house before,
To fetch deceast Elpenor to the shore.

Strait swelld the high banks with feld heapes of trees;
And (full of teares) we did due Exequies
To our dead friend. (Whose Corse consum'd with fire,

Elpenor tumulatur.

And honourd Armes: whose Sepulcher entire;
And ouer that, a Columne raisd) his Ore,
Curiously caru'd (to his desire before)
Vpon the top of all his Tombe, we fixt.
Of all Rites fit, his Funerall Pile was mixt.

Nor was our safe ascent from hell, conceald
From Circes knowledge; nor so soone reueald,
But she was with vs, with her bread and food,
And ruddie wine, brought by her sacred brood

180

Of woods and Fountaines. In the midst she stood,
And thus saluted vs: Vnhappie men,
That haue (inform'd with all your sences) bene
In Plutos dismall mansion. You shall die
Twice now; where others that Mortalitie,
In her faire armes, holds; shall but once decease.
But eate and drinke out all conceit of these;
And this day dedicate to food and wine;
The following Night to Sleepe. When next shall shine
The chearfull Morning; you shall proue the seas.
Your way, and euery act ye must addresse,
My knowledge of their order shall designe:
Lest with your owne bad counsels, ye encline
Euents as bad against ye; and sustaine
By sea and shore, the wofull ends that raigne
In wilfull actions. Thus did she aduise;
And, for the time, our Fortunes were so wise,
To follow wise directions. All that day
We sate and feasted. When his lower way,
The Sunne had enterd; and the Euen, the hie:
My friends slept on their Gables; she and I,
(Led by her faire hand, to a place apart,
By her well sorted) did to sleepe conuert
Our timed powres. When, all things Fate let fall
In our affaire, she askt; I told her all.
To which she answerd: These things thus tooke end:
And now to those that I informe, attend:
Which (you remembring) God himselfe shall be,
The blessed author of your memorie.

Circe præsagit futura pericula.

First, to the Sirens ye shall come, that taint
The minds of all men, whom they can acquaint

Sirenarum descriptio.

With their attractions. Whosoeuer shall
(For want of knowledge mou'd) but heare the call
Of any Siren: he will so despise
Both wife and children, for their sorceries,
That neuer home turnes his affections streame;
Nor they take ioy in him, nor he in them.
The Sirens will so soften with their song,
(Shrill, and in sensuall appetite so strong)
His loose affections, that he giues them head.
And then obserue: They sit amidst a meade;
And round about it runnes a hedge or wall
Of dead mens bones: their witherd skins and all,
Hung all along vpon it; and these men
Were such as they had fawnd into their Fen,
And then their skins hung on their hedge of bones.
Saile by them therefore; thy companions
Before hand causing to stop euery eare

181

With sweete soft waxe so close; that none may heare
A note of all their charmings. Yet may you
(If you affect it) open eare allow
To trie their motion: but presume not so
To trust your iudgement; when your senses go
So loose about you; but giue straight command
To all your men, to bind you foote and hand,
Sure to the Mast; that you may safe approue
How strong in instigation to their loue
Their rapting tunes are. If so much they moue,
That, spite of all your reason, your will stands
To be enfranchisde, both of feete and hands;
Charge all your men before, to sleight your charge,
And rest so farre, from fearing to enlarge,
That much more sure they bind you. When your friends
Haue outsaild these: the danger that transcends
Rests not in any counsaile to preuent;
Vnlesse your owne mind, finds the tract and bent
Of that way, that auoids it. I can say
That in your course, there lies a twofold way;
The right of which, your owne, taught, present wit
And grace diuine, must prompt. In generall yet
Let this informe you: Neare these Sirens shore
Moue two steepe Rocks; at whose feete, lie and rore
The blacke seas cruell billowes: the blest Gods
Call them the Rouers. Their abhord abods
No bird can passe: no not the Doues

πελειας τρηρωνες Columbæ timidæ. What these Doues were, and the whole minde of this place: the Great Macedon asking Chiron Amphipolites, he answered, They were the Pleiades or seuen Stares. One of which (besides his proper imperfection, of being αμυδρος in adeo exilis, vel subobscurus, vt vix appareat) is vtterly obscured or let by these Rocks. Why then, or how, Ioue still supplied the lost one, that the number might be full: Athænaus falles to it, and helps the other out: Interpreting it to be affirmed of their perpetuall septenary number, though there appeared but sixe. But how lame and loathsome these Prozers shew in their affected expositions of the Poeticall Minde, this and an hundred others, spent in meere presumptuous guesse at this inaccessible Poet; I hope will make plaine enough to the most enuious of any thing done, besides their owne set censures, and most arrogant ouer weenings. In the 23. of the Iliads, (being Ψ) at the Games celebrated at Patroclus funerals, they tied to the top of a Mast, πελειαν τρηρωνα timidam Columbam, to shoote at for a game: so that (by these great mens aboue said expositions,) they shot at the Pleiades.

, whose feare
Sire Ioue so loues, that they are said to beare
Ambrosia to him; can their rauine scape;
But one of them, falles euer to the rape
Of those slie rocks. Yet Ioue, another still
Adds to the rest; that so may euer fill
The sacred number. Neuer ship could shunne
The nimble perill wing'd there; but did runne
With all her bulke, and bodies of her men
To vtter ruine. For the seas retaine
Not onely their outragious æsture there;
But fierce assistents, of particular feare,
And supernaturall mischiefe, they expire;
And those are whirlewinds of deuouring fire
Whisking about still. Th' Argiue ship, alone

182

(Which bore the

ναυς πασιμελουσα &c. Nauis omnibus Curæ: the ship that hold the care of all men, or of all things: which our Critickes will needs restraine, omnib' heroib' Poetis omnibus, vel Historicis, when the care of all mens preseruatiō is affirmed to be the freight of it: as if Poets and Historians comprehended all things, when I scarce know any that makes them any part of their care. But this likewise is garbige good enough for the monster. Nor wil I tempt our spic't consciences with expressing the diuine mind it includes. Being afraid to affirme any good of poore Poesie, since no man gets any goods by it. And notwithstanding many of our bird-eyd starters at prophanation are for nothing so afraid of it; as that lest their galled consciences (scarce beleeuing the most reall truth, in approbation of their liues) should be rubbed with the confirmation of it, euen in these contemned vanities (as their impieties please to call them,) which by much more learned and pious then themselues, haue euer bene called the raptures of diuine inspiration. By which, Homo supra humanam naturam erigitur; & in Deum transit. Plat.

care of all men) got her gone,
Come from Areta. Yet perhaps euen she
Had wrackt at those Rocks; if the Deitie
That lies by Ioues side, had not lent her hand
To their transmission; since the man that mann'd
In chiefe that voyage, she, in chiefe did loue.
Of these two spitefull Rocks, the one doth shoue
Against the height of heauen, her pointed brow.
A blacke cloud binds it round, and neuer show
Lends to the sharp point: not the cleare blew skie
Lets euer view it. Not the Sommers eye;
Not feruent Autumnes. None, that Death could end
Could euer skale it; or if vp, descend.
Though twenty hands and feete he had for hold:
A polisht ice-like glibnesse doth enfold
The rocke so round, whose midst, a gloomie cell
Shrowds, so farre Westward, that it sees to hell.
From this, keepe you as farre, as from his bow
An able yong man can his shaft bestow.
For here, the

δεινον λελακϝια &c. Grauiter vocifer ans: as all, most vntruly translate it. As they do in the next verse, these words σκυλλακος νεογελης Catuli Leonis. No Lion being here dreamed of, nor any vociferation. δεινον λελακϝια signifying indignam, dissimilem, or horribilem vocem edens: But in what kind horribilem? Not for the grauitie or greatnesse of her voice, but for the vnworthy or disproportionable small whuling of it: she being in the vast frame of her body, as the very words πελωρ κακος signifie, monstrum ingens: whose disproportion and deformitie, is too Poetically (and therein elegantly) ordered, for fat and flat Prozers to comprehend. Nor could they make the Poets words serue their comprehension; and therefore they adde of their owne, ληχεο from whence λελακϝια is deriued, signifying crepo, or stridulé clamo. And σκυλλακος νεογελης, is to be expounded, caruli nuper or recens nati, not Leonis. But thus they botch and abuse the incomparable expressor: Because they knew not how otherwise to be monstrous enough themselues, to helpe out the Monster. Imagining so huge a great body, must needs haue a voice as huge; and then would not our Homer haue likened it to a Lions whelps voyce, but to the Lions owne: and all had bene much too little, to make a voyce answerable to her hugenesse. And therefore found our inimitable master, a new way to expresse her monstrous disproportion: performing it so, as there can be nihil supra. And I would faine learne of my learned Detractor, that will needs haue me onely translate out of the Latine, what Latine translation telles me this? or what Grecian hath euer found this and a hundred other such? Which may be some poore instance, or proofe of my Grecian faculty, as far as old Homer goes in his two simple Poems, but not a sillable further will my sillie spirit presume.

whuling Scylla, shrowds her face:
That breaths a voice, at all parts, no more base
Then are a newly-kitn'd kitlings cries;
Her selfe a monster yet, of boundlesse sise;
Whose sight would nothing please a mortals eies;
No nor the eyes of any God, if he
(Whom nought should fright) fell foule on her; and she
Her full shape shew'd. Twelue foule feete beare about
Her ougly bulke. Sixe huge long necks lookt out
Of her ranke shoulders: euery necke, doth let
A ghastly head out: euery head; three set
Thicke thrust together, of abhorred teeth;
And euery tooth stucke with a sable death.

She lurkes in midst of all her denne; and streakes
From out a ghastly whirle-poole, all her necks;
Where, (gloting round her rocke) to fish she falles;

183

And vp rush Dolphins, Dogfish; somewhiles, Whales,
If got within her, when her rapine feeds;
For euer-groning Amphitrite breeds
About her whirlepoole, an vnmeasur'd store;
No Sea-man euer boasted touch of shore
That there toucht with his ship; but still she fed
Of him, and his. A man for euery head
Spoiling his ship of. You shall then descrie
The other humbler Rocke, that moues so nie,
Your dart may mete the distance. It receaues
A huge wilde Fig-tree, curl'd with ample leaues;
Beneath whose shades, diuine Charybdis sits
Supping the blacke deepes. Thrice a day her pits
She drinking all dry; and thrice a day againe,
All, vp she belches; banefull to sustaine.
When she is drinking, dare not neare her draught,
For not the force of Neptune, (if once caught)
Can force your freedome. Therefore in your strife
To scape Charybdis, labour all, for life
To row neare Scylla; for she will but haue
For her sixe heads, sixe men; and better saue
The rest, then all, make offerings to the waue.

This Neede she told me of my losse, when I
Desir'd to know, if that Necessitie
(When I had scap't Charybdis outrages)
My powres might not reuenge; though not redresse?
She answerd: O vnhappy! art thou yet
Enflam'd with warre? and thirst to drinke thy swet?
Not to the Gods giue vp, both Armes, and will?
She, deathlesse is, and that immortall ill
Graue, harsh, outragious, not to be subdu'd,
That men must suffer till they be renew'd.
Nor liues there any virtue that can flie
The vicious outrage of their crueltie.
Shouldst thou put Armes on, and approch the Rocke;
I feare, sixe more must expiate the shocke.
Sixe heads, sixe men aske still. Hoise saile, and flie;
And in thy flight, aloud, on Cratis crie
(Great Scyllas Mother, who, exposde to light
That bane of men;) and she will do such right
To thy obseruance, that she, downe will tread
Her daughters rage; nor let her shew a head.

From thenceforth then, for euer past her care;
Thou shalt ascend, the Ile Triangulare;
Where many Oxen of the Sunne are fed;
And fatted flocks. Of Oxen, fifty head
In euery herd feed; and their herds are seuen;
And of his fat flocks is their number, Euen.

184

Increase they yeeld not, for they neuer die;
There euery shepherdesse, a Deitie.
Faire Phaethusa, and Lempetie,
The louely Nymphs are, that their Guardians be.
Who, to the daylights lofty-going flame
Had gracious birthright, from the heauenly Dame
Still yong Neara; who (brought forth and bred)
Farre off dismist them; to see duly fed
Their Fathers herds and flocks in Sicilie.
These herds, and flocks, if to the Deitie
Ye leaue, as sacred things, vntoucht; and on
Goe with all fit care of your home, alone,
(Though through some sufferance) you yet safe shall land
In wished Ithaca. But if impious hand
You lay on those herds to their hurts: I then
Presage sure ruine, to thy ship and men.
If thou escap'st thy selfe, extending home
Thy long'd for landing; thou shalt loded come
With store of losses, most exceeding late,
And not consorted with a saued mate.

This said; the golden-thron'd Aurora rose;
She, her way went, and I did mine dispose
Vp to my ship; weigh'd Anchor, and away.
When reuerend Circe; helpt vs to conuaie
Our vessell safe, by making well inclind
A Sea mans true companion, a forewind;
With which she filld our sailes, when, fitting all
Our Armes close by vs; I did sadly fall
To graue relation, what concernd in Fate
My friends to know, and told them that the state
Of our affaires successe, which Circe had
Presag'd to me alone, must yet be made
To one, nor onely two knowne; but to all:
That since their liues and deaths were left to fall
In their elections; they might life elect,
And giue what would preserue it, fit effect.

I first inform'd them, that we were to flie
The heauenly-singing Sirens harmony,
And flowre-adorned Medow. And that I
Had charge to heare their song; but fetterd fast
In bands, vnfauor'd, to th' erected Mast;
From whence, if I should pray; or vse command
To be enlarg'd; they should with much more band
Containe my struglings. This I simply told
To each particular; nor would withold
What most enioyn'd mine owne affections stay,
That theirs the rather might be taught t'obay.

In meane time, flew our ships; and straight we fetcht

185

The Sirens Ile; a spleenelesse wind, so stretcht
Her wings to waft vs, and so vrg'd our keele.
But hauing reacht this Ile, we could not feele
The least gaspe of it: it was striken dead,
And all the Sea, in prostrate slumber spread:
The Sirens diuell charm'd all. Vp then flew
My friends to worke; strooke saile, together drew,
And vnder hatches stowd them: sat, and plied
Their polisht oares; and did in curls diuide
The white-head waters. My part then came on;
A mighty waxen Cake, I set vpon;
Chopt it in fragments, with my sword; and wrought
With strong hand, euery peece, till all were soft.
The great powre of the Sunne, in such a beame
As then flew burning from his Diademe,
To liquefaction helpt vs. Orderlie,
I stopt their eares; and they, as faire did ply
My feete, and hands with cords; and to the Mast
With other halsers, made me soundly fast.

Then tooke they seate; and forth our passage strooke;
The fomie Sea, beneath their labour shooke.

Rowd on, in reach of an erected voice;
The Sirens soone tooke note, without our noice;
Tun'd those sweete accents, that made charmes so strong;
And these learn'd numbers, made the Sirens song:

Come here, thou, worthy of a world of praise;
That dost so high, the Grecian glory raise;
Vlysses! stay thy ship; and that song heare
That none past euer, but it bent his eare:
But left him rauish, and instructed more
By vs, then any, euer heard before.
For we know all things whatsoeuer were
In wide Troy labour'd; whatsoeuer there
The Grecians and the Troians both sustain'd;
By those high issues that the Gods ordain'd.
And whatsoeuer, all the earth can show
T'informe a knowledge of desert, we know.

This they gaue accent in the sweetest straine
That euer open'd an enamour'd vaine.
When, my constrain'd heart, needs would haue mine eare
Yet more delighted; force way forth, and heare.
To which end I commanded, with all signe
Sterne lookes could make (for not a ioynt of mine
Had powre to stirre) my friends to rise, and giue
My limbs free way. They freely striu'd to driue
Their ship still on. When (farre from will to lose)
Eurylochus, and Perimedes rose
To wrap me surer; and opprest me more

186

With many a halser, then had vse before.
When, rowing on, without the reach of sound;
My friends vnstopt their eares; and me, vnbound;
And, that Ile quite we quitted. But againe
Fresh feares emploid vs. I beheld a maine
Of mighty billows, and a smoke ascend:
A horrid murmure hearing. Euery friend
Astonisht sat: from euery hand, his oare
Fell quite forsaken: with the dismall Rore
Where all things there made Echoes, stone still stood
Our ship it selfe: because the ghastly flood
Tooke all mens motions from her, in their owne:
I, through the ship went, labouring vp and downe
My friends recouerd spirits. One by one
I gaue good words, and said: That well were knowne
These ills to them before: I told them all;
And that these could not proue, more capitall
Then those the Cyclop blockt vs vp in; yet
My vertue, wit, and heauen-helpt Counsailes, set
Their freedomes open. I could not beleeue
But they rememberd it, and wisht them giue
My equall care, and meanes, now equall trust:
The strength they had, for stirring vp, they must
Rouze, and extend, to trie if Ioue had laid
His powres in theirs vp, and would adde his aid
To scape euen that death. In particular then
I told our Pylot, that past other men
He, most must beare firme spirits; since he swaid
The Continent, that all our spirits conuaid
In his whole guide of her. He saw there boile
The fierie whirlpooles; that to all our spoile
Inclosde a Rocke: without which, he must stere,
Or all our ruines stood concluded there.

All heard me, and obaid; and little knew
That, shunning that Rocke, sixe of them should rue
The wracke, another hid. For I conceal'd
The heauy wounds that neuer would be heal'd,
To be by Scylla opened; for their feare
Would then haue robd all, of all care to stere;
Or stirre an oare, and made them hide beneath:
When they, and all, had died an idle death.
But then, euen I forgot to shunne the harme
Circe forewarnd: who willd I should not arme,
Nor shew my selfe to Scylla, lest in vaine
I ventur'd life. Yet could not I containe
But arm'd at all parts; and two lances tooke:
Vp to the foredecke went, and thence did looke
That Rockie Scylla would haue first appear'd,

187

And taken my life, with the friends I feard.

From thence yet, no place could afford her sight;
Though through the darke rocke, mine eye threw her light,
And ransackt all waies. I then tooke a streight
That gaue my selfe, and some few more receipt
Twixt Scylla, and Charybdis; whence we saw
How horridly Charybdis throat: did draw
The brackish sea vp, which, when all abroad
She spit againe out: neuer Caldron sod
With so much feruor, fed with all the store
That could enrage it. All the Rocke did rore
With troubl'd waters: round about the tops
Of all the steepe crags, flew the fomy drops.
But, when her draught, the sea and earth dissunderd,
The troubl'd bottoms turnd vp, and she thunderd;
Farre vnder shore, the swart sands naked lay.
Whose whole sterne sight, the startl'd blood did fray
From all our faces. And while we on her
Our eyes bestowd thus, to our ruines feare;
Sixe friends had Scylla snatcht out of our keele,
In whom, most losse, did force and virtue feele.
When looking to my ship, and lending eye
To see my friends estates, their heeles turnd hie,
And hands cast vp, I might discerne; and heare
Their calles to me for helpe, when now they were
To try me in their last extremities.
And as an Angler, medcine for surprise
Of little fish, sits powring from the rocks,
From out the crookt horne, of a fold-bred Oxe;
And then with his long Angle, hoists them hie
Vp to the Aire; then sleightly hurles them by,
When, helplesse sprauling on the land they lie:
So easely Scylla to her Rocke had rapt
My wofull friends; and so vnhelpt, entrapt
Strugling they lay beneath her violent rape;
Who in their tortures, desperate of escape;
Shriekt as she tore; and vp, their hands to me
Still threw for sweete life. I did neuer see
In all my sufferance ransacking the seas,
A spectacle so full of miseries.

Thus hauing fled these rocks (these cruell dames
Scylla, Charybdis.) where the king of flames
Hath offerings burnd to him; our ship put in
The Iland, that from all the earth doth winne
The Epithete, Faultlesse: where the broad of head
And famous Oxen, for the Sunne are fed,
With many fat flocks of that high-gone God.
Set in my ship, mine eare reacht, where we rod

188

The bellowing of Oxen, and the bleate
Of fleecie sheepe; that in my memories seate
Put vp the formes, that late had bene imprest
By dread Ææan Circe; and the best
Of Soules, and Prophets, the blind Theban Seer;
The wise Tiresias, who was graue decreer
Of my returnes whole meanes. Of which, this one
In chiefe he vrg'd; that I should alwaies shunne
The Iland of the Man-delighting Sunne.
When, (sad at heart for our late losse) I praid
My friends to heare fit counsaile, (though dismaid
With all ill fortunes) which was giuen to me
By Circes, and Tiresias Prophecie;
That I should flie the Ile, where was ador'd
The Comfort of the world: for ills, abhorr'd
Were ambusht for vs there; and therefore, willd
They should put off, and leaue the Ile. This kill'd
Their tender spirits; when Eurylochus
A speech that vext me vtter'd; answering thus:

Cruell Vlysses! Since thy nerues abound
In strength, the more spent; and no toyles confound
Thy able lims, as all beate out of steele;
Thou ablest vs to, as vnapt to feele
The teeth of Labor, and the spoile of Sleepe,
And therefore still, wet wast vs in the deepe;
Nor let vs land to eate; but madly, now;
In Night, put forth, and leaue firme land to strow
The Sea with errors. All the rabide flight
Of winds that ruine ships, are bred in Night.
Who is it, that can keepe off cruell Death,
If suddainly should rush out th' angry breath
Of Notus, or the eager-spirited West?
That cuffe ships, dead; and do the Gods their best!
Serue black Night still, with shore, meate, sleepe, and ease;
And offer to the Morning for the seas.

This all the rest approu'd; and then knew I
That past all doubt, the diuell did apply
His slaughterous works. Nor would they be withheld;
I was but one; nor yeelded, but compell'd.
But all that might containe them, I assaid:
A sacred oath, on all their powres I laid;
That if with herds, or any richest flocks
We chanc't t'encounter; neither sheepe, nor Oxe
We once should touch; nor (for that constant ill
That followes folly) scorne aduice, and kill:
But quiet sit vs downe, and take such food
As the immortall Circe had bestowd.

They swore all this, in all seuerst sort;

189

And then we ancord, in the winding Port;
Neare a fresh Riuer, where the longd-for shore
They all flew out to; tooke in victles store;
And, being full, thought of their friends, and wept
Their losse by Scylla; weeping till they slept.

In Nights third part; when stars began to stoope;
The Cloud-assembler, put a Tempst vp.
A boistrous spirit he gaue it; draue out all
His flocks of clouds; and let such darknesse fall,
That Earth, and Seas for feare, to hide were driuen;
For, with his clouds, he thrust our Night from heauen.

At Morne, we drew our ships into a caue;
In which the Nymphs, that Phœbus cattaile draue;
Faire dancing Roomes had, and their seates of State.
I vrg'd my friends then, that to shunne their Fate,
They would obserue their oath; and take the food
Our ship afforded; nor attempt the blood
Of those faire Herds and Flocks; because they were,
That dreadfull Gods, that all could see, and heare.

They stood obseruant, and in that good mind
Had we bene gone: but so aduerse the wind
Stood to our passage, that we could not go.
For one whole moneth, perpetually did blow
Impetuous Notus; not a breaths repaire
But his, and Eurus, rul'd in all the Aire.
As long yet, as their ruddy wine, and bread
Stood out amongst them; so long, not a head
Of all those Oxen, fell in any strife
Amongst those students for the gut, and life.
But when their victles faild, they fell to prey:
Necessitie compell'd them then, to stray
In rape of fish, and fowle: what euer came.
In reach of hand or hooke; the bellies flame
Afflicted to it. I then, fell to praire;
And (making to a close Retreate, repaire
Free from, both friends, and winds) I washt my hands,
And all the Gods besought, that held commands
In liberall heauen; to yeeld some meane to stay
Their desperate hunger; and set vp the way
Of our returne restraind. The Gods, in steed
Of giuing what I prayd for, powre of deed;
A deedlesse sleepe, did on my lids distill,
For meane to worke vpon, my friends their fill.
For, whiles I slept, there wak't no meane to curb
Their headstrong wants; which he that did disturb
My rule, in chiefe, at all times; and was chiefe
To all the rest in counsaile to their griefe;
Knew well, and of, my present absence tooke

190

His fit aduantage; and their iron strooke
At highest heate. For (feeling their desire
In his owne Entrailes, to allay the fire
That Famine blew in them) he thus gaue way
To that affection: Heare what I shall say,
(Though words will stanch no hunger) euery death
To vs poore wretches, that draw temporall breath,
You know, is hatefull; but all know, to die
The Death of Famine, is a miserie
Past all Death loathsome. Let vs therefore take
The chiefe of this faire herd; and offerings make
To all the Deathlesse that in broad heauen liue;
And, in particular, vow, if we arriue
In naturall Ithaca, to strait erect
A Temple to the haughtie in aspect;
Rich, and magnificent, and all within
Decke it with Relicks many, and diuine.
If yet, he stands incenst, since we haue slaine
His high-browd herd; and therefore will sustaine
Desire to wracke our ship: he is but one;
And all the other Gods, that we attone
With our diuine Rites, will their suffrage giue
To our design'd returne, and let vs liue.
If not; and all take part, I rather craue
To serue with one sole Death, the yawning waue;
Then, in a desert Iland, lie and sterue;
And, with one pin'd life, many deaths obserue.

All cried, He counsailes nobly; and all speed
Made to their resolute driuing. For the feed
Of those coleblacke, faire, broad-browd, Sun-lou'd Beeues:
Had place, close by our ships. They tooke the liues
Of sence, most eminent. About their fall
Stood round, and to the States celestiall
Made solemne vowes: But, other Rites, their ship
Could not afford them; they did therefore strip
The curld-head Oke, of fresh yong leaues, to make
Supply of seruice for their Barly cake.
And, on the sacredly enflam'd, for wine
Powrd purest water; all the parts diuine
Spitting, and rosting: all the Rites beside
Orderly vsing. Then did light diuide
My low, and vpper lids; when, my repaire
Made neare my ship; I met the delicate ayre
Their rost exhal'd. Out instantly I cried;
And said, O Ioue, and all ye Deified,
Ye haue opprest me with a cruell sleepe;
While ye conferd on me, a losse as deepe
As Death descends to. To themselues, alone

191

My rude men, left vngouernd; they haue done
A deed so impious, (I stand well assur'd)
That you will not forgiue, though ye procur'd.

Then flew Lempetie, with the ample Robe,
Vp to her Father, with the golden Globe;
Ambassadresse, t'informe him, that my men
Had slaine his Oxen. Heart-incensed then;
He cried; Reuenge me (Father, and the rest
Both euer liuing, and for euer blest.)
Vlysses impious men, haue drawne the blood
Of those my Oxen, that it did me good
To looke on, walking, all my starrie round;
And when I trod earth, all with medowes crown'd
Without your full amends, Ile leaue heauen quite;
Dis, and the Dead, adorning with my light.

The Cloud-herd answerd; Son! thou shalt be ours,
And light those mortals, in that Mine of flowres;
My red hote flash, shall grase but on their ship,
And eate it, burning, in the boyling deepe.

This by Calypso, I was told, and she
Inform'd it, from the verger Mercurie.

Come to our ship; I chid, and told by name
Each man, how impiously he was to blame.
But chiding got no peace; the Beeues were slaine:
When straight the Gods, fore-went their following paine
With dire Ostents. The hides, the flesh had lost,
Crept, all before them. As the flesh did rost
It bellowd like the Oxe it selfe, aliue.
And yet my souldiers, did their dead Beeues driue
Through all these Prodigies, in daily feasts.
Sixe daies they banqueted, and slue fresh beasts,
And when the seuenth day, Ioue reduc't the wind
That all the moneth rag'd; and so in did bind
Our ship, and vs; was turnd, and calm'd; and we
Lancht, put vp Masts; Sailes hoised, and to Sea.

The Iland left so farre; that land no where;
But onely sea, and skie, had powre t'appeare;
Ioue fixt a cloud aboue our ship; so blacke
That all the sea it darkned. Yet from wracke
She ranne a good free time: till from the West
Came Zephyre ruffling forth; and put his breast
Out, in a singing tempest; so most vast,
It burst the Gables, that made sure our Mast;
Our Masts came tumbling downe: our cattell downe,
Rusht to the Pump: and by our Pylots crowne
The maine Mast, past his fall; pasht all his Skull,
And all this wracke, but one flaw, made at full.
Off from the Sterne, the Sternesman, diuing fell,

192

And from his sinews, flew his Soule to hell.
Together, all this time, Ioues Thunder chid;
And through, and through the ship, his lightning glid:
Till it embrac't her round: her bulke was filld
With nasty sulphur; and her men were killd:
Tumbl'd to Sea, like Sea-mews swumme about,
And there the date of their returne was out.

I tost from side to side still, till all broke
Her Ribs were with the storme: and she did choke
With let-in Surges; for, the Mast torne downe;
Tore her vp pecemeale; and for me to drowne
Left little vndissolu'd. But to the Mast
There was a lether Thong left; which I cast
About it, and the keele; and so sat tost
With banefull weather, till the West had lost
His stormy tyranny. And then arose
The South, that bred me more abhorred woes;
For backe againe his blasts expelld me, quite
On rauenous Charybdis. All that Night
I totter'd vp and downe, till Light, and I
At Scyllas Rocke encounterd; and the nie
Dreadfull Charybdis. As I draue on these,
I saw Charybdis, supping vp the seas;
And had gone vp together, if the tree
That bore the wilde figs, had not rescu'd me;
To which I leapt, and left my keele; and hie
Chambring vpon it, did as close imply
My brest about it, as a Reremouse could:
Yet, might my feete, on no stub fasten hold
To ease my hands: the roots were crept so low
Beneath the earth; and so aloft did grow
The far-spred armes, that (though good height I gat)
I could not reach them. To the maine Bole, flat
I therefore still must cling; till vp againe
She belcht my Mast, and after that, amaine
My keele came tumbling: so at length it chanc't,
To me, as to a Iudge; that long aduanc't
To iudge a sort of hote yong fellowes iarres,
At length time frees him from their ciuill warres;
When, glad, he riseth, and to dinner goes;
So time, at length, releast with ioyes my woes,
And from Charybdis mouth, appear'd my keele.
To which (my hand, now loosd; and now, my heele)
I altogether, with a huge noise, dropt;
Iust in her midst fell, where the Mast was propt;
And there rowd off, with owers of my hands.
God, and Mans Father, would not, from her sands
Let Scylla see me; for I then had died

193

That bitter death, that my poore friends supplied.

Nine Daies at Sea, I houer'd: the tenth Night
In th' Ile Ogygia, where about the bright
And right renoum'd Calypso, I was cast
By powre of Deitie; Where I liu'd embrac't
With Loue, and feasts. But why should I relate
Those kind occurrents? I should iterate
What I in part, to your chaste Queene and you
So late imparted. And for me to grow
A talker ouer of my tale againe,
Were past my free contentment to sustaine.

Finis duodecimi libri Hom. Odyss.

Opus nouem dierum.

Συν θεω.