“Hear me (she cried), to whom the gods have given

To read this sign, and mystic sense of heaven,

As thus the plumy sovereign of the air

Left on the mountain’s brow his callow care,

And wander’d through the wide ethereal way

To pour his wrath on yon luxurious prey;

So shall thy godlike father, toss’d in vain

Through all the dangers of the boundless main,

Arrive (or if perchance already come)

From slaughter’d gluttons to release the dome.”


“Oh! if this promised bliss by thundering Jove

(The prince replied) stand fix’d in fate above;

To thee, as to some god, I’ll temples raise.

And crown thy altars with the costly blaze.”


He said; and bending o’er his chariot, flung

Athwart the fiery steeds the smarting thong;

The bounding shafts upon the harness play,

Till night descending intercepts the way.

To Diocles at Pherae they repair,

Whose boasted sire was sacred Alpheus’ heir;

With him all night the youthful stranger stay’d,

Nor found the hospitable rites unpaid,

But soon as morning from her orient bed

Had tinged the mountains with her earliest red,

They join’d the steeds, and on the chariot sprung,

The brazen portals in their passage rung.


To Pylos soon they came; when thus begun

To Nestor’s heir Ulysses’ godlike son:


“Let not Pisistratus in vain be press’d,

Nor unconsenting hear his friend’s request;

His friend by long hereditary claim,

In toils his equal, and in years the same.

No farther from our vessel, I implore,

The coursers drive; but lash them to the shore.

Too long thy father would his friend detain;

I dread his proffer’d kindness urged in vain.”


The hero paused, and ponder’d this request,

While love and duty warr’d within his breast.

At length resolved, he turn’d his ready hand,

And lash’d his panting coursers to the strand.

There, while within the poop with care he stored

The regal presents of the Spartan lord,

“With speed begone (said he); call every mate,