And grant him to his spouse, and native shores.”


“And blest be thou, my friend, (Ulysses cries,)

Crown him with every joy, ye favouring skies

To thy calm hours continued peace afford,

And never, never mayst thou want this sword,”


He said, and o’er his shoulder flung the blade.

Now o’er the earth ascends the evening shade:

The precious gifts the illustrious heralds bear,

And to the court the embodied peers repair.

Before the queen Alcinous’ sons unfold

The vests, the robes, and heaps of shining gold;

Then to the radiant thrones they move in state:

Aloft, the king in pomp imperial sate.


Thence to the queen: “O partner of our reign,

O sole beloved! command thy menial train

A polish’d chest and stately robes to bear,

And healing waters for the bath prepare;

That, bathed, our guest may bid his sorrows cease,

Hear the sweet song, and taste the feast in peace.

A bowl that flames with gold, of wondrous frame,

Ourself we give, memorial of our name;

To raise in offerings to almighty Jove,

And every god that treads the courts above.”


Instant the queen, observant of the king,

Commands her train a spacious vase to bring,

The spacious vase with ample streams suffice,

Heap the high wood, and bid the flames arise.

The flames climb round it with a fierce embrace,

The fuming waters bubble o’er the blaze.

Herself the chest prepares; in order roll’d

The robes, the vests are ranged, and heaps of gold

And adding a rich dress inwrought with art,

A gift expressive of her bounteous heart.

Thus spoke to Ithacus: “To guard with bands

Insolvable these gifts, thy care demands;

Lest, in thy slumbers on the watery main,

The hand of rapine make our bounty vain.”


Then bending with full force around he roll’d

A labyrinth of bands in fold on fold,

Closed with Circaean art. A train attends

Around the bath: the bath the king ascends

(Untasted joy, since that disastrous hour,