As far as human voice could reach the ear, With taunts the distant giant I accost: "Hear me, O Cyclop hear, ungracious host!

'T was on no coward, no ignoble slave, Thou meditat'dst thy meal in yonder cave; But one the vengeance fated from above 561 Doom'd to inflict; the instrument of Jove. Thy barb'rous breach of hospitable bands The God, the God revenges by my hands." These words the Cyclop's burning rage provoke;

From the tall hill he rends a pointed rock; High o'er the billows flew the massy load, And near the ship came thund'ring on the flood.

It almost brush'd the helm, and fell before: The whole sea shook, and refluent beat the shore.

570

The strong concussion on the heaving tide Roll'd back the vessel to the island's side: Again I shov'd her off; our fate to fly, Each nerve we stretch, and ev'ry oar we ply. Just 'scaped impending death, when now again

We twice as far had furrow'd back the main,

And send thee howling to the realms of night,

As sure as Neptune cannot give thee sight!"

Thus I; while raging he repeats his cries, With hands uplifted to the starry skies: "Hear me, O Neptune; thou whose arms are hurl'd

From shore to shore, and gird the solid world.

If thine I am, nor thou my birth disown,
And if th' unhappy Cyclop be thy son, 620
Let not Ulysses breathe his native air,
Laërtes' son, of Ithaca the fair!
If to review his country be his fate,
Be it thro' toils and suff'rings, long and late;
His lost companions let him first deplore;
Some vessel, not his own, transport him
o'er;

And when at home from foreign suff'rings freed,

More near and deep, domestic woes succeed!"

With imprecations thus he fill'd the air, And angry Neptune heard th' unrighteous prayer.

630

A larger rock then heaving from the plain, He whirl'd it round; it sung across the main;

It fell, and brush'd the stern: the billows

Till ev'ning Phoebus roll'd away the light: Stretch'd on the shores in careless ease we rest,

Till ruddy morning purpled o'er the east; Then from their anchors all our ships unbind,

And mount the decks, and call the willing wind.

Now ranged in order on our banks, we sweep

With hasty strokes the hoarse resounding deep;

Blind to the future, pensive with our fears, Glad for the living, for the dead in tears.'

BOOK X

ADVENTURES WITH EOLUS, THE LÆSTRYGONS, AND CIRCE

ARGUMENT

Ulysses arrives at the island of Eolus, who gives him prosperous winds, and incloses the adverse ones in a bag, which his companions untying, they are driven back again, and rejected. Then they sail to the Lastrygons. where they lose eleven ships, and, with one only remaining, proceed to the island of Circe. Eurylochus is sent first with some companions, all which, except Eurylochus, are transformed into swine. Ulysses then undertakes the adventure, and by the help of Mercury, who gives him the herb Mely, overcomes the enchantress, and procures the restoration of his men. After a year's stay with her, he prepares, at her instigation, for his voyage to the infernal shades.

The crackling vessels burst; hoarse groans arise,

And mingled horrors echo to the skies: The men, like fish, they stuck upon the flood, And cramm'd their filthy throats with human food.

Whilst thus their fury rages at the bay, My sword our cables cut, I call'd to weigh; And charged my men, as they from Fate would fly,

Each nerve to strain, each bending oar to ply.

The sailors catch the word, their oars they seize,

And sweep with equal strokes the smoky