Ill suits it with your shows of duteous zeal,

From me the purposed voyage to conceal;

Though at the solemn midnight hour he rose,

Why did you fear to trouble my repose?

He either had obey’d my fond desire,

Or seen his mother pierced with grief expire.

Bid Dolius quick attend, the faithful slave

Whom to my nuptial train Icarius gave

To tend the fruit groves: with incessant speed

He shall this violence of death decreed

To good Laertes tell. Experienced age

May timely intercept the ruffian rage.

Convene the tribes the murderous plot reveal,

And to their power to save his race appeal.”


Then Euryclea thus: “My dearest dread;

Though to the sword I bow this hoary head,

Or if a dungeon be the pain decreed,

I own me conscious of the unpleasing deed;

Auxiliar to his flight, my aid implored,

With wine and viands I the vessel stored;

A solemn oath, imposed, the secret seal’d,

Till the twelfth dawn the light of day reveal’d.

Dreading the effect of a fond mother’s fear,

He dared not violate your royal ear.

But bathe, and, in imperial robes array’d,

Pay due devotions to the martial maid,

And rest affianced in her guardian aid.

Send not to good Laertes, nor engage

In toils of state the miseries of age:

Tis impious to surmise the powers divine

To ruin doom the Jove-descended line;

Long shall the race of just Arcesius reign,

And isles remote enlarge his old domain.”


The queen her speech with calm attention hears,

Her eyes restrain the silver-streaming tears:

She bathes, and robed, the sacred dome ascends;

Her pious speed a female train attends:

The salted cakes in canisters are laid,

And thus the queen invokes Minerva’s aid;


“Daughter divine of Jove, whose arm can wield

The avenging bolt, and shake the dreadful shield

If e’er Ulysses to thy fane preferr’d

The best and choicest of his flock and herd;

Hear, goddess, hear, by those oblations won;

And for the pious sire preserve the son;