ARGUMENT.
THE COUNCIL OF ITHACA.
Telemachus in the assembly of the lords of Ithaca complains of the injustice done him by the suitors, and insists upon their departure from his palace; appealing to the princes, and exciting the people to declare against them. The suitors endeavour to justify their stay, at least till he shall send the queen to the court of Icarius her father; which he refuses. There appears a prodigy of two eagles in the sky, which an augur expounds to the ruin of the suitors. Telemachus the demands a vessel to carry him to Pylos and Sparta, there to inquire of his father's fortunes. Pallas, in the shape of Mentor (an ancient friend of Ulysses), helps him to a ship, assists him in preparing necessaries for the voyage, and embarks with him that night; which concludes the second day from the opening of the poem. The scene continues in the palace of Ulysses, in Ithaca.
Now reddening from the dawn, the morning ray Glow'd in the front of heaven, and gave the day The youthful hero, with returning light, Rose anxious from the inquietudes of night. A royal robe he wore with graceful pride, A two-edged falchion threaten'd by his side, Embroider'd sandals glitter'd as he trod, And forth he moved, majestic as a god. Then by his heralds, restless of delay, To council calls the peers: the peers obey. Soon as in solemn form the assembly sate, From his high dome himself descends in state. Bright in his hand a ponderous javelin shined; Two dogs, a faithful guard, attend behind; Pallas with grace divine his form improves, And gazing crowds admire him as he moves,
His father's throne he fill'd; while distant stood The hoary peers, and aged wisdom bow'd.
'Twas silence all. At last AEgyptius spoke; AEgyptius, by his age and sorrow broke; A length of days his soul with prudence crown'd, A length of days had bent him to the ground. His eldest hope in arms to Ilion came, By great Ulysses taught the path to fame; But (hapless youth) the hideous Cyclops tore His quivering limbs, and quaff'd his spouting gore. Three sons remain'd; to climb with haughty fires The royal bed, Eurynomus aspires; The rest with duteous love his griefs assuage, And ease the sire of half the cares of age. Yet still his Antiphus he loves, he mourns, And, as he stood, he spoke and wept by turns,
"Since great Ulysses sought the Phrygian plains, Within these walls inglorious silence reigns. Say then, ye peers! by whose commands we meet? Why here once more in solemn council sit? Ye young, ye old, the weighty cause disclose: Arrives some message of invading foes? Or say, does high necessity of state Inspire some patriot, and demand debate? The present synod speaks its author wise; Assist him, Jove, thou regent of the skies!"
He spoke. Telemachus with transport glows, Embraced the omen, and majestic rose (His royal hand the imperial sceptre sway'd); Then thus, addressing to AEgyptius, said:
"Reverend old man! lo here confess'd he stands By whom ye meet; my grief your care demands. No story I unfold of public woes, Nor bear advices of impending foes: Peace the blest land, and joys incessant crown: Of all this happy realm, I grieve alone. For my lost sire continual sorrows spring, The great, the good; your father and your king. Yet more; our house from its foundation bows, Our foes are powerful, and your sons the foes; Hither, unwelcome to the queen, they come; Why seek they not the rich Icarian dome? If she must wed, from other hands require The dowry: is Telemachus her sire? Yet through my court the noise of revel rings, And waste the wise frugality of kings. Scarce all my herds their luxury suffice; Scarce all my wine their midnight hours supplies. Safe in my youth, in riot still they grow, Nor in the helpless orphan dread a foe. But come it will, the time when manhood grants More powerful advocates than vain complaints. Approach that hour! insufferable wrong Cries to the gods, and vengeance sleeps too long. Rise then, ye peers! with virtuous anger rise; Your fame revere, but most the avenging skies. By all the deathless powers that reign above, By righteous Themis and by thundering Jove (Themis, who gives to councils, or denies Success; and humbles, or confirms the wise), Rise in my aid! suffice the tears that flow For my lost sire, nor add new woe to woe. If e'er he bore the sword to strengthen ill, Or, having power to wrong, betray'd the will, On me, on me your kindled wrath assuage, And bid the voice of lawless riot rage. If ruin to your royal race ye doom, Be you the spoilers, and our wealth consume. Then might we hope redress from juster laws, And raise all Ithaca to aid our cause: But while your sons commit the unpunish'd wrong, You make the arm of violence too strong."
While thus he spoke, with rage and grief he frown'd, And dash'd the imperial sceptre to the ground. The big round tear hung trembling in his eye: The synod grieved, and gave a pitying sigh, Then silent sate--at length Antinous burns With haughty rage, and sternly thus returns:
"O insolence of youth! whose tongue affords Such railing eloquence, and war of words. Studious thy country's worthies to defame, Thy erring voice displays thy mother's shame. Elusive of the bridal day, she gives Fond hopes to all, and all with hopes deceives. Did not the sun, through heaven's wide azure roll'd, For three long years the royal fraud behold? While she, laborious in delusion, spread The spacious loom, and mix'd the various thread: Where as to life the wondrous figures rise, Thus spoke the inventive queen, with artful sighs:
"Though cold in death Ulysses breathes no more, Cease yet awhile to urge the bridal hour: Cease, till to great Laertes I bequeath A task of grief, his ornaments of death. Lest when the Fates his royal ashes claim, The Grecian matrons taint my spotless fame; When he, whom living mighty realms obey'd, Shall want in death a shroud to grace his shade.'
"Thus she: at once the generous train complies, Nor fraud mistrusts in virtue's fair disguise. The work she plied; but, studious of delay, By night reversed the labours of the day. While thrice the sun his annual journey made, The conscious lamp the midnight fraud survey'd; Unheard, unseen, three years her arts prevail; The fourth her maid unfolds the amazing tale. We saw, as unperceived we took our stand, The backward labours of her faithless hand. Then urged, she perfects her illustrious toils; A wondrous monument of female wiles!
"But you, O peers! and thou, O prince! give ear (I speak aloud, that every Greek may hear): Dismiss the queen; and if her sire approves Let him espouse her to the peer she loves: Bid instant to prepare the bridal train, Nor let a race of princes wait in vain. Though with a grace divine her soul is blest, And all Minerva breathes within her breast, In wondrous arts than woman more renown'd, And more than woman with deep wisdom crown'd; Though Tyro nor Mycene match her name, Not great Alemena (the proud boasts of fame); Yet thus by heaven adorn'd, by heaven's decree She shines with fatal excellence, to thee: With thee, the bowl we drain, indulge the feast, Till righteous heaven reclaim her stubborn breast. What though from pole to pole resounds her name! The son's destruction waits the mother's fame: For, till she leaves thy court, it is decreed, Thy bowl to empty and thy flock to bleed."
While yet he speaks, Telemachus replies: "Ev'n nature starts, and what ye ask denies. Thus, shall I thus repay a mother's cares, Who gave me life, and nursed my infant years! While sad on foreign shores Ulysses treads. Or glides a ghost with unapparent shades; How to Icarius in the bridal hour Shall I, by waste undone, refund the dower? How from my father should I vengeance dread! How would my mother curse my hated head! And while In wrath to vengeful fiends she cries, How from their hell would vengeful fiends arise! Abhorr'd by all, accursed my name would grow, The earth's disgrace, and human-kind my foe. If this displease, why urge ye here your stay? Haste from the court, ye spoilers, haste away: Waste in wild riot what your land allows, There ply the early feast, and late carouse. But if to honour lost, 'tis still decreed For you my bowl shall flow, my flocks shall bleed; Judge, and assert my right, impartial Jove! By him, and all the immortal host above (A sacred oath), if heaven the power supply, Vengeance I vow, and for your wrongs ye die."
With that, two eagles from a mountain's height By Jove's command direct their rapid flight; Swift they descend, with wing to wing conjoin'd, Stretch their broad plumes, and float upon the wind. Above the assembled peers they wheel on high, And clang their wings, and hovering beat the sky; With ardent eyes the rival train they threat, And shrieking loud denounce approaching fate. They cuff, they tear; their cheeks and neck they rend, And from their plumes huge drops of blood descend; Then sailing o'er the domes and towers, they fly, Full toward the east, and mount into the sky.
The wondering rivals gaze, with cares oppress'd, And chilling horrors freeze in every breast, Till big with knowledge of approaching woes, The prince of augurs, Halitherses, rose: Prescient he view'd the aerial tracks, and drew A sure presage from every wing that flew.
"Ye sons (he cried) of Ithaca, give ear; Hear all! but chiefly you, O rivals! hear. Destruction sure o'er all your heads impends Ulysses comes, and death his steps attends. Nor to the great alone is death decreed; We and our guilty Ithaca must bleed. Why cease we then the wrath of heaven to stay? Be humbled all, and lead, ye great! the way. For lo my words no fancied woes relate; I speak from science and the voice of fate.
"When great Ulysses sought the Phrygian shores To shake with war proud Ilion's lofty towers, Deeds then undone my faithful tongue foretold: Heaven seal'd my words, and you those deeds behold. I see (I cried) his woes, a countless train; I see his friends o'erwhelm'd beneath the main; How twice ten years from shore to shore he roams: Now twice ten years are past, and now he comes!"
To whom Eurymachus--"Fly, dotard fly, With thy wise dreams, and fables of the sky. Go prophesy at home, thy sons advise: Here thou art sage in vain--I better read the skies Unnumber'd birds glide through the aerial way; Vagrants of air, and unforeboding stray. Cold in the tomb, or in the deeps below, Ulysses lies; oh wert thou laid as low! Then would that busy head no broils suggest, For fire to rage Telemachus' breast, From him some bribe thy venal tongue requires, And interest, not the god, thy voice inspires. His guideless youth, if thy experienced age Mislead fallacious into idle rage, Vengeance deserved thy malice shall repress. And but augment the wrongs thou would'st redress, Telemachus may bid the queen repair To great Icarius, whose paternal care Will guide her passion, and reward her choice With wealthy dower, and bridal gifts of price. Till she retires, determined we remain, And both the prince and augur threat in vain: His pride of words, and thy wild dream of fate, Move not the brave, or only move their hate, Threat on, O prince! elude the bridal day. Threat on, till all thy stores in waste decay. True, Greece affords a train of lovely dames, In wealth and beauty worthy of our flames: But never from this nobler suit we cease; For wealth and beauty less than virtue please."
To whom the youth: "Since then in vain I tell My numerous woes, in silence let them dwell. But Heaven, and all the Greeks, have heard my wrongs; To Heaven, and all the Greeks, redress belongs; Yet this I ask (nor be it ask'd in vain), A bark to waft me o'er the rolling main, The realms of Pyle and Sparta to explore, And seek my royal sire from shore to shore; If, or to fame his doubtful fate be known, Or to be learn'd from oracles alone, If yet he lives, with patience I forbear, Till the fleet hours restore the circling year; But if already wandering in the train Of empty shades, I measure back the main, Plant the fair column o'er the mighty dead, And yield his consort to the nuptial bed."
He ceased; and while abash'd the peers attend, Mentor arose, Ulysses' faithful friend: (When fierce in arms he sought the scenes of war, "My friend (he cried), my palace be thy care; Years roll'd on years my godlike sire decay, Guard thou his age, and his behests obey.") Stern as he rose, he cast his eyes around, That flash'd with rage; and as spoke, he frown'd,
"O never, never more let king be just, Be mild in power, or faithful to his trust! Let tyrants govern with an iron rod, Oppress, destroy, and be the scourge of God; Since he who like a father held his reign, So soon forgot, was just and mild in vain! True, while my friend is grieved, his griefs I share; Yet now the rivals are my smallest care: They for the mighty mischiefs they devise, Ere long shall pay--their forfeit lives the price. But against you, ye Greeks! ye coward train! Gods! how my soul is moved with just disdain! Dumb ye all stand, and not one tongue affords His injured prince the little aid of words."
While yet he spoke, Leocritus rejoined: "O pride of words, and arrogance of mind! Would'st thou to rise in arms the Greeks advise? Join all your powers? in arms, ye Greeks, arise! Yet would your powers in vain our strength oppose. The valiant few o'ermatch a host of foes. Should great Ulysses stern appear in arms, While the bowl circles and the banquet warms; Though to his breast his spouse with transport flies, Torn from her breast, that hour, Ulysses dies. But hence retreating to your domes repair. To arm the vessel, Mentor! be thy care, And Halitherses! thine: be each his friend; Ye loved the father: go, the son attend. But yet, I trust, the boaster means to stay Safe in the court, nor tempt the watery way."
Then, with a rushing sound the assembly bend Diverse their steps: the rival rout ascend The royal dome; while sad the prince explores The neighbouring main, and sorrowing treads the shores. There, as the waters o'er his hands he shed, The royal suppliant to Minerva pray'd: