There wait embower’d, while I ascend alone

To great Alcinous on his royal throne.

Arrived, advance, impatient of delay,

And to the lofty palace bend thy way:

The lofty palace overlooks the town,

From every dome by pomp superior known;

A child may point the way. With earnest gait

Seek thou the queen along the rooms of state;

Her royal hand a wondrous work designs,

Around a circle of bright damsels shines;

Part twist the threads, and part the wool dispose,

While with the purple orb the spindle glows.

High on a throne, amid the Scherian powers,

My royal father shares the genial hours:

But to the queen thy mournful tale disclose,

With the prevailing eloquence of woes:

So shalt thou view with joy thy natal shore,

Though mountains rise between and oceans roar.”


She added not, but waving, as she wheel’d,

The silver scourge, it glitter’d o’er the field;

With skill the virgin guides the embroider’d rein,

Slow rolls the car before the attending train,

Now whirling down the heavens, the golden day

Shot through the western clouds a dewy ray;

The grove they reach, where, from the sacred shade,

To Pallas thus the pensive hero pray’d:


“Daughter of Jove! whose arms in thunder wield

The avenging bolt, and shake the dreadful shield;

Forsook by thee, in vain I sought thy aid

When booming billows closed above my bead;

Attend, unconquer’d maid! accord my vows,

Bid the Great hear, and pitying, heal my woes.”


This heard Minerva, but forbore to fly

(By Neptune awed) apparent from the sky;

Stern god! who raged with vengeance, unrestrain’d.

Till great Ulysses hail’d his native land.


BOOK VII.


ARGUMENT.

THE COURT OF ALCINOUS.


The princess Nausicaa returns to the city and Ulysses soon after follows

thither. He is met by Pallas in the form of a young virgin, who guides him to

the palace, and directs him in what manner to address the queen Arete. She then