"Let other realms the deathful gauntlet wield, Or boast the glories of the athletic field: We in the course unrivall'd speed display, Or through cerulean billows plough the way; To dress, to dance, to sing, our sole delight, The feast or bath by day, and love by night: Rise, then, ye skill'd in measures; let him bear Your fame to men that breathe a distant air; And faithful say, to you the powers belong To race, to sail, to dance, to chant the song.
"But, herald, to the palace swift repair, And the soft lyre to grace our pastimes bear."
Swift at the word, obedient to the king, The herald flies the tuneful lyre to bring. Up rose nine seniors, chosen to survey The future games, the judges of the day With instant care they mark a spacious round And level for the dance the allotted ground: The herald bears the lyre: intent to play, The bard advancing meditates the lay. Skill'd in the dance, tall youths, a blooming band, Graceful before the heavenly minstrel stand: Light bounding from the earth, at once they rise, Their feet half-viewless quiver in the skies: Ulysses gazed, astonish'd to survey The glancing splendours as their sandals play. Meantime the bard, alternate to the strings, The loves of Mars and Cytherea sings: How the stern god, enamour'd with her charms Clasp'd the gay panting goddess in his arms, By bribes seduced; and how the sun, whose eye Views the broad heavens, disclosed the lawless joy. Stung to the soul, indignant through the skies To his black forge vindictive Vulcan flies: Arrived, his sinewy arms incessant place The eternal anvil on the massy base. A wondrous net he labours, to betray The wanton lovers, as entwined they lay, Indissolubly strong; Then instant bears To his immortal dome the finish'd snares: Above, below, around, with art dispread, The sure inclosure folds the genial bed: Whose texture even the search of gods deceives, Thin as the filmy threads the spider weaves, Then, as withdrawing from the starry bowers, He feigns a journey to the Lemnian shores, His favourite isle: observant Mars descries His wish'd recees, and to the goddess flies; He glows, he burns, the fair-hair'd queen of love Descends, smooth gliding from the courts of Jove, Gay blooming in full charms: her hand he press'd With eager joy, and with a sigh address'd:
"Come, my beloved! and taste the soft delights: Come, to repose the genial bed invites: Thy absent spouse, neglectful of thy charms, Prefers his barbarous Sintians to thy arms!"
Then, nothing loth, the enamour'd fair he led, And sunk transported on the conscious bed. Down rush'd the toils, inwrapping as they lay The careless lovers in their wanton play: In vain they strive; the entangling snares deny (Inextricably firm) the power to fly. Warn'd by the god who sheds the golden day, Stern Vulcan homeward treads the starry way: Arrived, he sees, he grieves, with rage he burns: Full horribly he roars, his voice all heaven returns.
"O Jove (he cried) O all ye powers above, See the lewd dalliance of the queen of love! Me, awkward me, she scorns; and yields her charms To that fair lecher, the strong god of arms. If I am lame, that stain my natal hour By fate imposed; such me my parent bore. Why was I born? See how the wanton lies! Oh sight tormenting to a husband's eyes! But yet, I trust, this once e'en Mars would fly His fair-one's arms--he thinks her, once, too nigh. But there remain, ye guilty, in my power, Till Jove refunds his shameless daughter's dower. Too dear I prized a fair enchanting face: Beauty unchaste is beauty in disgrace."
Meanwhile the gods the dome of Vulcan throng; Apollo comes, and Neptune comes along; With these gay Hermes trod the starry plain; But modesty withheld the goddess train. All heaven beholds, imprison'd as they lie, And unextinguish'd laughter shakes the sky. Then mutual, thus they spoke: "Behold on wrong Swift vengeance waits; and art subdues the strong! Dwells there a god on all the Olympian brow More swift than Mars, and more than Vulcan slow? Yet Vulcan conquers, and the god of arms Must pay the penalty for lawless charms."
Thus serious they; but he who gilds the skies, The gay Apollo, thus to Hermes cries: "Wouldst thou enchain'd like Mars, O Hermes, lie And bear the shame like Mars to share the joy?"
"O envied shame! (the smiling youth rejoin'd;) And thrice the chains, and thrice more firmly bind; Gaze all ye gods, and every goddess gaze, Yet eager would I bless the sweet disgrace."
Loud laugh the rest, e'en Neptune laughs aloud, Yet sues importunate to loose the god. "And free, (he cries) O Vulcan! free from shame Thy captives; I ensure the penal claim."
"Will Neptune (Vulcan then) the faithless trust? He suffers who gives surety for the unjust: But say, if that lewd scandal of the sky, To liberty restored, perfidious fly: Say, wilt thou bear the mulct?" He instant cries, "The mulct I bear, if Mars perfidious flies."
To whom appeased: "No more I urge delay; When Neptune sues, my part is to obey." Then to the snares his force the god applies; They burst; and Mars to Thrace indignant flies: To the soft Cyprian shores the goddess moves, To visit Paphos and her blooming groves, Where to the Power an hundred altars rise, And breathing odours scent the balmy skies; Concealed she bathes in consecrated bowers, The Graces unguents shed, ambrosial showers, Unguents that charm the gods! she last assumes Her wondrous robes; and full the goddess blooms.
Thus sung the bard: Ulysses hears with joy, And loud applauses read the vaulted sky.
Then to the sports his sons the king commands, Each blooming youth before the monarch stands, In dance unmatch'd! A wondrous ball is brought (The work of Polypus, divinely wrought); This youth with strength enormous bids it fly, And bending backward whirls it to the sky; His brother, springing with an active bound, At distance intercepts it from the ground. The ball dismissed, in dance they skim the strand, Turn and return, and scarce imprint the sand. The assembly gazes with astonished eyes, And sends in shouts applauses to the skies.
Then thus Ulysses: "Happy king, whose name The brightest shines in all the rolls of fame! In subjects happy with surprise I gaze; Thy praise was just; their skill transcends thy praise."
Pleas'd with his people's fame, the monarch hears, And thus benevolent accosts the peers: "Since wisdom's sacred guidance he pursues, Give to the stranger-guest a stranger's dues: Twelve princes in our realm dominion share, O'er whom supreme, imperial power I bear; Bring gold, a pledge of love: a talent bring, A vest, a robe, and imitate your king. Be swift to give: that he this night may share The social feast of joy, with joy sincere. And thou, Euryalus, redeem thy wrong; A generous heart repairs a slanderous tongue."
The assenting peers, obedient to the king, In haste their heralds send the gifts to bring. Then thus Euryalus: "O prince, whose sway Rules this bless'd realm, repentant I obey; Be his this sword, whose blade of brass displays A ruddy gleam; whose hilt a silver blaze; Whose ivory sheath, inwrought with curious pride, Adds graceful terror to the wearer's side."
He said, and to his hand the sword consign'd: "And if (he cried) my words affect thy mind, Far from thy mind those words, ye whirlwinds, bear, And scatter them, ye storms, in empty air! Crown, O ye heavens, with joy his peaceful hours, And grant him to his spouse, and native shores."
"And blest be thou, my friend, (Ulysses cries,) Crown him with every joy, ye favouring skies To thy calm hours continued peace afford, And never, never mayst thou want this sword,"
He said, and o'er his shoulder flung the blade. Now o'er the earth ascends the evening shade: The precious gifts the illustrious heralds bear, And to the court the embodied peers repair. Before the queen Alcinous' sons unfold The vests, the robes, and heaps of shining gold; Then to the radiant thrones they move in state: Aloft, the king in pomp imperial sate.
Thence to the queen: "O partner of our reign, O sole beloved! command thy menial train A polish'd chest and stately robes to bear, And healing waters for the bath prepare; That, bathed, our guest may bid his sorrows cease, Hear the sweet song, and taste the feast in peace. A bowl that flames with gold, of wondrous frame, Ourself we give, memorial of our name; To raise in offerings to almighty Jove, And every god that treads the courts above."
Instant the queen, observant of the king, Commands her train a spacious vase to bring, The spacious vase with ample streams suffice, Heap the high wood, and bid the flames arise. The flames climb round it with a fierce embrace, The fuming waters bubble o'er the blaze. Herself the chest prepares; in order roll'd The robes, the vests are ranged, and heaps of gold And adding a rich dress inwrought with art, A gift expressive of her bounteous heart. Thus spoke to Ithacus: "To guard with bands Insolvable these gifts, thy care demands; Lest, in thy slumbers on the watery main, The hand of rapine make our bounty vain."
Then bending with full force around he roll'd A labyrinth of bands in fold on fold, Closed with Circaean art. A train attends Around the bath: the bath the king ascends (Untasted joy, since that disastrous hour, He sail'd ill-fated from Calypso's bower); Where, happy as the gods that range the sky, He feasted every sense with every joy. He bathes; the damsels with officious toil, Shed sweets, shed unguents, in a shower of oil; Then o'er his limbs a gorgeous robe he spreads, And to the feast magnificently treads. Full where the dome its shining valves expands, Nausicaa blooming as a goddess stands; With wondering eyes the hero she survey'd, And graceful thus began the royal maid:
"Hail, godlike stranger! and when heaven restores To thy fond wish thy long-expected shores, This ever grateful in remembrance bear: To me thou owest, to me, the vital air."
"O royal maid! (Ulysses straight returns) Whose worth the splendours of thy race adorns, So may dread Jove (whose arm in vengeance forms The writhen bolt, and blackens heaven with storms), Restore me safe, through weary wanderings toss'd, To my dear country's ever-pleasing coast, As while the spirit in this bosom glows, To thee, my goddess, I address my vows; My life, thy gift I boast!" He said, and sate Fast by Alcinous on a throne of state.