"Now through the rocks, appall'd with deep dismay, We bend our course, and stem the desperate way; Dire Scylla there a scene of horror forms, And here Charybdis fills the deep with storms. When the tide rushes from her rumbling caves, The rough rock roars, tumultuous boil the waves; They toss, they foam, a wild confusion raise, Like waters bubbling o'er the fiery blaze; Eternal mists obscure the aerial plain, And high above the rock she spouts the main; When in her gulfs the rushing sea subsides, She drains the ocean with the refluent tides; The rock re-bellows with a thundering sound; Deep, wondrous deep, below appears the ground.
"Struck with despair, with trembling hearts we view'd The yawning dungeon, and the tumbling flood; When lo! fierce Scylla stoop'd to seize her prey, Stretch'd her dire jaws, and swept six men away. Chiefs of renown! loud-echoing shrieks arise; I turn, and view them quivering in the skies; They call, and aid with outstretch'd arms implore; In vain they call! those arms are stretch'd no more. As from some rock that overhangs the flood The silent fisher casts the insidious food, With fraudful care he waits the finny prize, And sudden lifts it quivering to the skies: So the foul monster lifts her prey on high, So pant the wretches struggling in the sky; In the wide dungeon she devours her food, And the flesh trembles while she churns the blood. Worn as I am with griefs, with care decay'd, Never, I never scene so dire survey'd! My shivering blood, congeal'd, forgot to flow; Aghast I stood, a monument of woe!
"Now from the rocks the rapid vessel flies, And the hoarse din like distant thunder dies; To Sol's bright isle our voyage we pursue, And now the glittering mountains rise to view. There, sacred to the radiant god of day, Graze the fair herds, the flocks promiscuous stray: Then suddenly was heard along the main To low the ox, to blest the woolly train. Straight to my anxious thoughts the sound convey'd The words of Circe and the Theban shade; Warn'd by their awful voice these shores to shun, With cautious fears oppress'd I thus begun:
"'O friends! O ever exorcised in care! Hear Heaven's commands, and reverence what ye hear! To fly these shores the prescient Theban shade And Circe warn! Oh be their voice obey'd Some mighty woe relentless Heaven forebodes: Fly these dire regions, and revere the gods!'
"While yet I spoke, a sudden sorrow ran Through every breast, and spread from man to man, Till wrathful thus Eurylochus began:
"'O cruel thou! some Fury sure has steel'd That stubborn soul, by toil untaught to yield! From sleep debarr'd, we sink from woes to woes: And cruel' enviest thou a short repose? Still must we restless rove, new seas explore, The sun descending, and so near the shore? And lo! the night begins her groomy reign, And doubles all the terrors of the main: Oft in the dead of night loud winds rise, Lash the wild surge, and bluster in the skies. Oh, should the fierce south-west his rage display, And toss with rising storms the watery way, Though gods descend from heaven's aerial plain To lend us aid, the gods descend in vain. Then while the night displays her awful shade, Sweet time of slumber! be the night obey' Haste ye to land! and when the morning ray Sheds her bright beam, pursue the destined way.' A sudden joy in every bosom rose: So will'd some demon, minister of woes!
"To whom with grief: 'O swift to be undone! Constrain'd I act what wisdom bids me shun. But yonder herbs and yonder flocks forbear; Attest the heavens, and call the gods to hear: Content, an innocent repast display, By Circe given, and fly the dangerous prey.'
'Thus I: and while to shore the vessel flies, With hands uplifted they attest the skies: Then, where a fountain's gurgling waters play, They rush to land, and end in feasts the day: They feed; they quaff; and now (their hunger fled) Sigh for their friends devour'd, and mourn the dead; Nor cease the tears' till each in slumber shares A sweet forgetfulness of human cares. Now far the night advanced her gloomy reign, And setting stars roll'd down the azure plain: When at the voice of Jove wild whirlwinds rise, And clouds and double darkness veil the skies; The moon, the stars, the bright ethereal host Seem as extinct, and all their splendours lost: The furious tempest roars with dreadful sound: Air thunders, rolls the ocean, groans the ground. All night it raged: when morning rose to land We haul'd our bark, and moor'd it on the strand, Where in a beauteous grotto's cool recess Dance the green Nerolds of the neighbouring seas.
"There while the wild winds whistled o'er the main, Thus careful I address'd the listening train:
"'O friends, be wise! nor dare the flocks destroy Of these fair pastures: if ye touch, ye die. Warn'd by the high command of Heaven, be awed: Holy the flocks, and dreadful is the god! That god who spreads the radiant beams of light, And views wide earth and heaven's unmeasured height.'
"And now the moon had run her monthly round, The south-east blustering with a dreadful sound: Unhurt the beeves, untouch'd the woolly train, Low through the grove, or touch the flowery plain: Then fail'd our food: then fish we make our prey, Or fowl that screaming haunt the watery way. Till now from sea or flood no succour found, Famine and meagre want besieged us round. Pensive and pale from grove to grove I stray'd, From the loud storms to find a sylvan shade; There o'er my hands the living wave I pour; And Heaven and Heaven's immortal thrones implore, To calm the roarings of the stormy main, And guide me peaceful to my realms again. Then o'er my eyes the gods soft slumbers shed, While thus Eurylochus arising said:
"'O friends, a thousand ways frail mortals lead To the cold tomb, and dreadful all to tread; But dreadful most, when by a slow decay Pale hunger wastes the manly strength away. Why cease ye then to implore the powers above, And offer hecatombs to thundering Jove? Why seize ye not yon beeves, and fleecy prey? Arise unanimous; arise and slay! And if the gods ordain a safe return, To Phoebus shrines shall rise, and altars burn. But should the powers that o'er mankind preside Decree to plunge us in the whelming tide, Better to rush at once to shades below Than linger life away, and nourish woe.'
"Thus he: the beeves around securely stray, When swift to ruin they invade the prey; They seize, they kill!--but for the rite divine. The barley fail'd, and for libations wine. Swift from the oak they strip the shady pride; And verdant leaves the flowery cake supplied.
"With prayer they now address the ethereal train, Slay the selected beeves, and flay the slain; The thighs, with fat involved, divide with art, Strew'd o'er with morsels cut from every part. Water, instead of wine, is brought in urns, And pour'd profanely as the victim burns. The thighs thus offer'd, and the entrails dress'd, They roast the fragments, and prepare the feast.
"'Twas then soft slumber fled my troubled brain; Back to the bark I speed along the main. When lo! an odour from the feast exhales, Spreads o'er the coast and scents the tainted gales; A chilly fear congeal'd my vital blood, And thus, obtesting Heaven, I mourn'd aloud;
"'O sire of men and gods, immortal Jove! O all ye blissful powers that reign above! Why were my cares beguiled in short repose? O fatal slumber, paid with lasting woes! A deed so dreadful all the gods alarms, Vengeance is on the wing, and Heaven in arms!'
"Meantime Lampetie mounts the aerial way, And kindles into rage the god of day;
"'Vengeance, ye powers (he cries), and then whose hand Aims the red bolt, and hurls the writhen brand! Slain are those herds which I with pride survey, When through the ports of heaven I pour the day, Or deep in ocean plunge the burning ray. Vengeance, ye gods! or I the skies forego, And bear the lamp of heaven to shades below.'
"To whom the thundering Power: 'O source of day Whose radiant lamp adorns the azure way, Still may thy beams through heaven's bright portal rise, The joy of earth, the glory of the skies: Lo! my red arm I bare, my thunders guide, To dash the offenders in the whelming tide.'
"To fair Calypso, from the bright abodes, Hermes convey'd these counsels of the gods.
"Meantime from man to man my tongue exclaims, My wrath is kindled, and my soul in flames. In vain! I view perform'd the direful deed, Beeves, slain in heaps, along the ocean bleed.
"Now heaven gave signs of wrath: along the ground Crept the raw hides, and with a bellowing sound Roar'd the dead limbs; the burning entrails groan'd. Six guilty days my wretched mates employ In impious feasting, and unhallowed joy; The seventh arose, and now the sire of gods Rein'd the rough storms; and calm'd the tossing floods: With speed the bark we climb; the spacious sails. Loosed from the yards invite the impelling gales. Past sight of shore, along the surge we bound, And all above is sky, and ocean all around; When lo! a murky cloud the thunderer forms Full o'er our heads, and blackens heaven with storms. Night dwells o'er all the deep: and now outflies The gloomy west, and whistles in the skies. The mountain-billows roar! the furious blast Howls o'er the shroud, and rends it from the mast: The mast gives way, and, crackling as it bends, Tears up the deck; then all at once descends: The pilot by the tumbling ruin slain, Dash'd from the helm, falls headlong in the main. Then Jove in anger bids his thunders roll, And forky lightnings flash from pole to pole: Fierce at our heads his deadly bolt he aims, Red with uncommon wrath, and wrapp'd in flames: Full on the bark it fell; now high, now low, Toss'd and retoss'd, it reel'd beneath the blow; At once into the main the crew it shook: Sulphurous odours rose, and smouldering smoke. Like fowl that haunt the floods, they sink, they rise, Now lost, now seen, with shrieks and dreadful cries; And strive to gain the bark, but Jove denies. Firm at the helm I stand, when fierce the main Rush'd with dire noise, and dash'd the sides in twain; Again impetuous drove the furious blast, Snapp'd the strong helm, and bore to sea the mast. Firm to the mast with cords the helm I bind, And ride aloft, to Providence resign'd, Through tumbling billows and a war of wind. "Now sunk the west, and now a southern breeze, More dreadful than the tempest lash'd the seas; For on the rocks it bore where Scylla raves, And dire Charybdis rolls her thundering waves. All night I drove; and at the dawn of day, Fast by the rocks beheld the desperate way; Just when the sea within her gulfs subsides, And in the roaring whirlpools rush the tides, Swift from the float I vaulted with a bound, The lofty fig-tree seized, and clung around; So to the beam the bat tenacious clings, And pendent round it clasps his leather wings. High in the air the tree its boughs display'd, And o'er the dungeon cast a dreadful shade; All unsustain'd between the wave and sky, Beneath my feet the whirling billows fly. What time the judge forsakes the noisy bar To take repast, and stills the wordy war, Charybdis, rumbling from her inmost caves, The mast refunded on her refluent waves. Swift from the tree, the floating mass to gain, Sudden I dropp'd amidst the flashing main; Once more undaunted on the ruin rode, And oar'd with labouring arms along the flood. Unseen I pass'd by Scylla's dire abodes. So Jove decreed (dread sire of men and gods). Then nine long days I plow'd the calmer seas, Heaved by the surge, and wafted by the breeze. Weary and wet the Ogygian shores I gain, When the tenth sun descended to the main. There, in Calypso's ever-fragrant bowers, Refresh'd I lay, and joy beguiled the hours. "My following fates to thee, O king, are known, And the bright partner of thy royal throne. Enough: in misery can words avail? And what so tedious as a twice-told tale?"