Through both, Eurymachus pursues the dame,

And with the noblest gifts asserts his claim.

Hence, therefore, while thy stores thy own remain;

Thou know’st the practice of the female train,

Lost in the children of the present spouse,

They slight the pledges of their former vows;

Their love is always with the lover past;

Still the succeeding flame expels the last.

Let o’er thy house some chosen maid preside,

Till Heaven decrees to bless thee in a bride.

But now thy more attentive ears incline,

Observe the warnings of a power divine;

For thee their snares the suitor lords shall lay

In Samos’ sands, or straits of Ithaca;

To seize thy life shall lurk the murderous band,

Ere yet thy footsteps press thy native land.

No!—sooner far their riot and their lust

All-covering earth shall bury deep in dust!

Then distant from the scatter’d islands steer,

Nor let the night retard thy full career;

Thy heavenly guardian shall instruct the gales

To smooth thy passage and supply thy sails:

And when at Ithaca thy labour ends,

Send to the town the vessel with thy friends;

But seek thou first the master of the swine

(For still to thee his loyal thoughts incline);

There pass the night: while he his course pursues

To bring Penelope the wish’d-for news,

That thou, safe sailing from the Pylian strand,

Art come to bless her in thy native land.”

Thus spoke the goddess, and resumed her flight

To the pure regions of eternal light,

Meanwhile Pisistratus he gently shakes,

And with these words the slumbering youth awakes:


“Rise, son of Nestor; for the road prepare,

And join the harness’d coursers to the car.”


“What cause (he cried) can justify our flight

To tempt the dangers of forbidding night?

Here wait we rather, till approaching day

Shall prompt our speed, and point the ready way.

Nor think of flight before the Spartan king

Shall bid farewell, and bounteous presents bring;

Gifts, which to distant ages safely stored,