My knees, and weeping thus his suit address’d:


“‘O king, beloved of Jove, thy servant spare,

And ah, thyself the rash attempt forbear!

Never, alas! thou never shalt return,

Or see the wretched for whose loss we mourn.

With what remains from certain ruin fly,

And save the few not fated yet to die.’


“I answer’d stern: ‘Inglorious then remain,

Here feast and loiter, and desert thy train.

Alone, unfriended, will I tempt my way;

The laws of fate compel, and I obey.’

This said, and scornful turning from the shore

My haughty step, I stalk’d the valley o’er.

Till now approaching nigh the magic bower,

Where dwelt the enchantress skill’d in herbs of power,

A form divine forth issued from the wood

(Immortal Hermes with the golden rod)

In human semblance. On his bloomy face

Youth smiled celestial, with each opening grace.

He seized my hand, and gracious thus began:

‘Ah whither roam’st thou, much-enduring man?

O blind to fate! what led thy steps to rove

The horrid mazes of this magic grove?

Each friend you seek in yon enclosure lies,

All lost their form, and habitants of sties.

Think’st thou by wit to model their escape?

Sooner shalt thou, a stranger to thy shape,

Fall prone their equal: first thy danger know,

Then take the antidote the gods bestow.

The plant I give through all the direful bower

Shall guard thee, and avert the evil hour.

Now hear her wicked arts: Before thy eyes

The bowl shall sparkle, and the banquet rise;

Take this, nor from the faithless feast abstain,

For temper’d drugs and poison shall be vain.

Soon as she strikes her wand, and gives the word,

Draw forth and brandish thy refulgent sword,

And menace death: those menaces shall move

Her alter’d mind to blandishment and love.

Nor shun the blessing proffer’d to thy arms,

Ascend her bed, and taste celestial charms;

So shall thy tedious toils a respite find,

And thy lost friends return to human kind.