(Child of his age), with strong paternal joy,

Forward he springs, and clasps the favourite boy:

So round the youth his arms Eumaeus spread,

As if the grave had given him from the dead.


“And is it thou? my ever-dear delight!

Oh, art thou come to bless my longing sight?

Never, I never hoped to view this day,

When o’er the waves you plough’d the desperate way.

Enter, my child! Beyond my hopes restored,

Oh give these eyes to feast upon their lord.

Enter, oh seldom seen! for lawless powers

Too much detain thee from these sylvan bowers,”

The prince replied: “Eumaeus, I obey;

To seek thee, friend, I hither took my way.

But say, if in the court the queen reside

Severely chaste, or if commenced a bride?”


Thus he; and thus the monarch of the swains:

“Severely chaste Penelope remains;

But, lost to every joy, she wastes the day

In tedious cares, and weeps the night away.”


He ended, and (receiving as they pass

The javelin pointed with a star of brass),

They reach’d the dome; the dome with marble shined.

His seat Ulysses to the prince resign’d.

“Not so (exclaims the prince with decent grace)

For me, this house shall find an humbler place:

To usurp the honours due to silver hairs

And reverend strangers modest youth forbears.”

Instant the swain the spoils of beasts supplies,

And bids the rural throne with osiers rise.

There sate the prince: the feast Eumaeus spread,

And heap’d the shining canisters with bread.

Thick o’er the board the plenteous viands lay,

The frugal remnants of the former day.

Then in a bowl he tempers generous wines,

Around whose verge a mimic ivy twines.

And now, the rage of thirst and hunger fled,

Thus young Ulysses to Eumaeus said:


“Whence, father, from what shore this stranger, say?

What vessel bore him o’er the watery way?

To human step our land impervious lies,

And round the coast circumfluent oceans rise.”


The swain returns: “A tale of sorrows hear: