her voyage in a day. The haven there is good, and many a ship 440 Finds wat’ring there from riv’lets on the coast. There me the Gods kept twenty days, no breeze Propitious granting, that might sweep the waves, And usher to her home the flying bark. And now had our provision, all consumed, Left us exhausted, but a certain nymph Pitying saved me. Daughter fair was she Of mighty Proteus, Antient of the Deep, Idothea named; her most my sorrows moved; She found me from my followers all apart 450 Wand’ring (for they around the isle, with hooks The fishes snaring roamed, by famine urged) And standing at my side, me thus bespake. Stranger! thou must be ideot born, or weak At least in intellect, or thy delight Is in distress and mis’ry, who delay’st To leave this island, and no egress hence Canst find, although thy famish’d people faint. So spake the Goddess, and I thus replied. I tell thee, whosoever of the Pow’rs 460 Divine thou art, that I am prison’d here Not willingly, but must have, doubtless, sinn’d Against the deathless tenants of the skies. Yet say (for the Immortals all things know) What God detains me, and my course forbids Hence to my country o’er the fishy Deep? So I; to whom the Goddess all-divine. Stranger! I will inform thee true. A seer Oracular, the Antient of the Deep, Immortal Proteus, the Ægyptian, haunts 470 These shores, familiar with all Ocean’s gulphs, And Neptune’s subject. He is by report My father; him if thou art able once To seize and bind, he will prescribe the course With all its measured distances, by which Thou shalt regain secure thy native shores. He will, moreover, at thy suit declare, Thou favour’d of the skies! what good, what ill Hath in thine house befall’n, while absent thou Thy voyage difficult perform’st and long. 480 She spake, and I replied—Thyself reveal By what effectual bands I may secure The antient Deity marine, lest, warn’d Of my approach, he shun me and escape. Hard task for mortal hands to bind a God! Then thus Idothea answer’d all-divine. I will inform thee true. Soon as the sun Hath climb’d the middle heav’ns, the prophet old, Emerging while the breezy zephyr blows, And cover’d with the scum of ocean, seeks 490 His spacious cove, in which outstretch’d he lies. The phocæ15 also, rising from the waves, Offspring of beauteous Halosydna, sleep Around him, num’rous, and the fishy scent Exhaling rank of the unfathom’d flood. Thither conducting thee at peep of day I will dispose thee in some safe recess, But from among thy followers thou shalt chuse The bravest three in all thy gallant fleet. And now the artifices understand 500 Of the old prophet of the sea. The sum Of all his phocæ numb’ring duly first, He will pass through them, and when all by fives He counted hath, will in the midst repose Content, as sleeps the shepherd with his flock. When ye shall see him stretch’d, then call to mind That moment all your prowess, and prevent, Howe’er he strive impatient, his escape. All changes trying, he will take the form Of ev’ry reptile on the earth, will seem 510 A river now, and now devouring fire; But hold him ye, and grasp him still the more. And when himself shall question you, restored To his own form in which ye found him first Reposing, then from farther force abstain; Then, Hero! loose the Antient of the Deep, And ask him, of the Gods who checks thy course Hence to thy country o’er the fishy flood. So saying, she plunged into the billowy waste. I then, in various musings lost, my ships 520 Along the sea-beach station’d sought again, And when I reach’d my galley on the shore We supp’d, and sacred night falling from heav’n, Slept all extended on the ocean-side. But when Aurora, daughter of the dawn, Look’d rosy forth, pensive beside the shore I walk’d of Ocean, frequent to the Gods Praying devout, then chose the fittest three For bold assault, and worthiest of my trust. Meantime the Goddess from the bosom wide 530 Of Ocean rising, brought us thence four skins Of phocæ, and all newly stript, a snare Contriving subtle to deceive her Sire. Four cradles in the sand she scoop’d, then sat Expecting us, who in due time approach’d; She lodg’d us side by side, and over each A raw skin cast. Horrible to ourselves Proved that disguise whom the pernicious scent Of the sea-nourish’d phocæ sore annoy’d; For who would lay him down at a whale’s side? 540 But she a potent remedy devised Herself to save us, who the nostrils sooth’d Of each with pure ambrosia thither brought Odorous, which the fishy scent subdued. All morning, patient watchers, there we lay; And now the num’rous phocæ from the Deep Emerging, slept along the shore, and he At noon came also, and perceiving there His fatted monsters, through the flock his course Took regular, and summ’d them; with the first 550 He number’d us, suspicion none of fraud Conceiving, then couch’d also. We, at once, Loud-shouting flew on him, and in our arms Constrain’d him fast; nor the sea-prophet old Call’d not incontinent his shifts to mind. First he became a long-maned lion grim, Then dragon, panther then, a savage boar, A limpid stream, and an o’ershadowing tree. We persevering held him, till at length The Antient of the Deep, skill’d as he is 560 In wiles, yet weary, question’d me, and said. Oh Atreus’ son, by what confed’rate God Instructed liest thou in wait for me, To seize and hold me? what is thy desire? So He; to whom thus answer I return’d. Old Seer! thou know’st; why, fraudful, should’st thou ask? It is because I have been prison’d long Within this isle, whence I have sought in vain Deliv’rance, till my wonted courage fails. Yet say (for the Immortals all things know) 570 What God detains me, and my course forbids Hence to my country o’er the fishy Deep? So I; when thus the old one of the waves. But thy plain duty16 was to have adored Jove, first, in sacrifice, and all the Gods, That then embarking, by propitious gales Impell’d, thou might’st have reach’d thy country soon. For thou art doom’d ne’er to behold again Thy friends, thy palace, or thy native shores, Till thou have seen once more the hallow’d flood 580 Of Ægypt, and with hecatombs adored Devout, the deathless tenants of the skies. Then will they speed thee whither thou desir’st. He ended, and my heart broke at his words, Which bade me pass again the gloomy gulph To Ægypt; tedious course, and hard to atchieve! Yet, though in sorrow whelm’d, I thus replied. Old prophet! I will all thy will perform. But tell me, and the truth simply reveal; Have the Achaians with their ships arrived 590 All safe, whom Nestor left and I, at Troy? Or of the Chiefs have any in their barks, Or in their followers’ arms found a dire death Unlook’d for, since that city’s siege we closed? I spake, when answer thus the God return’d. Atrides, why these questions? Need is none That thou should’st all my secrets learn, which once Reveal’d, thou would’st not long dry-eyed remain. Of those no few have died, and many live; But leaders, two alone, in their return 600 Have died (thou also hast had war to wage) And one, still living, roams the boundless sea. Ajax,17 surrounded by his galleys, died. Him Neptune, first, against the bulky rocks The Gyræ drove, but saved him from the Deep; Nor had he perish’d, hated as he was By Pallas, but for his own impious boast In frenzy utter’d that he would escape The billows, even in the Gods’ despight. Neptune that speech vain-glorious hearing, grasp’d 610 His trident, and the huge Gyræan rock Smiting indignant, dash’d it half away; Part stood, and part, on which the boaster sat When, first, the brainsick fury seiz’d him, fell, Bearing him with it down into the gulphs Of Ocean, where he drank the brine, and died. But thy own brother in his barks escaped That fate, by Juno saved; yet when, at length, He should have gain’d Malea’s craggy shore, Then, by a sudden tempest caught, he flew 620 With many a groan far o’er the fishy Deep To the land’s utmost point, where once his home Thyestes had, but where Thyestes’ son Dwelt then, Ægisthus. Easy lay his course And open thence, and, as it pleased the Gods, The shifted wind soon bore them to their home. He, high in exultation, trod the shore That gave him birth, kiss’d it, and, at the sight, The welcome sight of Greece, shed many a tear. Yet not unseen he landed; for a spy, 630 One whom the shrewd Ægisthus had seduced By promise of two golden talents, mark’d His coming from a rock where he had watch’d The year complete, lest, passing unperceived, The King should reassert his right in arms. Swift flew the spy with tidings to this Lord, And He, incontinent, this project framed Insidious. Twenty men, the boldest hearts Of all the people, from the rest he chose, Whom he in ambush placed, and others charged 640 Diligent to prepare the festal board. With horses, then, and chariots forth he drove Full-fraught with mischief, and conducting home The unsuspicious King, amid the feast Slew him, as at his crib men slay an ox. Nor of thy brother’s train, nor of his train Who slew thy brother, one survived, but all, Welt’ring in blood together, there expired. He ended, and his words
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