Blaspheme their feeder, and forget their lord.”


Thus speaking, with despatchful hand he took

A weighty axe, and cleft the solid oak;

This on the earth he piled; a boar full fed,

Of five years’ age, before the pile was led:

The swain, whom acts of piety delight,

Observant of the gods, begins the rite;

First shears the forehead of the bristly boar,

And suppliant stands, invoking every power

To speed Ulysses to his native shore.

A knotty stake then aiming at his head,

Down dropped he groaning, and the spirit fled.

The scorching flames climb round on every side;

Then the singed members they with skill divide;

On these, in rolls of fat involved with art,

The choicest morsels lay from every part.

Some in the flames bestrew’d with flour they threw;

Some cut in fragments from the forks they drew:

These while on several tables they dispose.

A priest himself the blameless rustic rose;

Expert the destined victim to dispart

In seven just portions, pure of hand and heart.

One sacred to the nymphs apart they lay:

Another to the winged son of May;

The rural tribe in common share the rest,

The king the chine, the honour of the feast,

Who sate delighted at his servant’s board;

The faithful servant joy’d his unknown lord.

“Oh be thou dear (Ulysses cried) to Jove,

As well thou claim’st a grateful stranger’s love!”


“Be then thy thanks (the bounteous swain replied)

Enjoyment of the good the gods provide.

From God’s own hand descend our joys and woes;

These he decrees, and he but suffers those:

All power is his, and whatsoe’er he wills,

The will itself, omnipotent, fulfils.”

This said, the first-fruits to the gods he gave;

Then pour’d of offer’d wine the sable wave:

In great Ulysses’ hand he placed the bowl,

He sate, and sweet refection cheer’d his soul.

The bread from canisters Mesaulius gave

(Eumaeus’ proper treasure bought this slave,

And led from Taphos, to attend his board,