O royal mother! ever honour'd name!
Permit me, (cries Telemachus,) to claim
A son's just right. No Grecian prince but I
Has power this bow to grant, or to deny.
Of all that Ithaca's rough hills contain,
And all wide Elis' courser-breeding plain,
To me alone my father's arms descend;
And mine alone they are, to give or lend.
Retire, oh queen! thy household task resume,
Tend, with thy maids, the labours of the loom;
The bow, the darts, and arms of chivalry,
These cares to man belong, and most to me.

Mature beyond his years, the queen admired
His sage reply, and with her train retired;
There in her chamber as she sate apart,
Revolved his words, and placed them in her heart.
On her Ulysses then she fix'd her soul;
Down her fair cheek the tears abundant roll,
Till gentle Pallas, piteous of her cries,
In slumber closed her silver-streaming eyes.

Now through the press the bow Eumæus bore,
And all was riot, noise, and wild uproar.
Hold! lawless rustic! whither wilt thou go?
To whom, insensate, dost thou bear the bow?
Exiled for this to some sequester'd den,
Far from the sweet society of men,

To thy own dogs a prey thou shalt be made;
If Heaven and Phoebus lend the suitors aid.
Thus they. Aghast he laid the weapon down,
But bold Telemachus thus urged him on.
Proceed, false slave, and slight their empty words;
What! hopes the fool to please so many lords? 400
Young as I am, thy prince's vengeful hand

Stretch'd forth in wrath, shall drive thee from the land. Now let them comfort their dejected train,

THEN fierce the hero o'er the threshold strode;
430 Stript of his rags, he blazed out like a god.
Full in their face the lifted bow he bore,
And quiver'd deaths, a formidable store:
Before his feet the rattling shower he threw,
And thus, terrific, to the suitor crew:

One venturous game this hand has won to-day,
Another, princes! yet remains to play;
Another mark our arrow must attain.
Phoebus, assist! nor be the labour vain.
Swift as the word the parting arrow sings,
And bears thy fate, Antinous, on its wings:
Wretch that he was, of unprophetic soul!
High in his hands, he rear'd the golden bowl!
Even then to drain it lengthen'd out his breath;
Changed to the deep, the bitter draught of death:
For fate who fear'd amidst a feastful band?
And fate to numbers, by a single hand?

If offer'd, vainly should for mercy call,
"Tis you that offer, and I scorn them all;
Your blood is my demand, your lives the prize,
10 Till pale as yonder wretch each suitor lies.
Hence with those coward terms; or fight or fly;
This choice is left you, to resist or die:
And die I trust ye shall.-He sternly spoke:
With guilty fears the pale assembly shook.
Alone Eurymachus exhorts the train;
Yon archer, comrades will not shoot in vain :
But from the threshold shall his darts be sped,
(Whoe'er he be) till every prince lie dead?
Be mindful of yourselves, draw forth your swords,
And to his shafts obtend these ample boards
(So need compels.) Then, all united, strive
The bold invader from his post to drive;
The city roused shall to our rescue haste,
And this mad archer soon have shot his last.
Swift as spoke, he drew his traitor sword,
And like a lion rush'd against his lord:
The wary chief the rushing foe represt,
Who met the point, and forced it in his breast:
His failing hand deserts the lifted sword,
And prone he falls extended o'er the board!
Before him wide, in mix'd effusion roll
The untasted viands, and the jovial bowl.
Full through his liver pass'd the mortal wound,
With dying rage his forehead beats the ground;
He spurn'd the seat with fury as he fell,
And the fierce soul to darkness dived, and hell.
Next bold Amphinomus his arms extends
To force the pass; the godlike man defends.
Thy spear, Telemachus, prevents the attack,
40 The brazen weapon driving through his back,
Thence through his breast its bloody passage tore,
Flat falls he thundering on the marble floor.
And his crush'd forehead marks the stone with
gore.

Full through his throat Ulysses' weapon pass'd,
And pierced the neck. He falls and breathes his last.
The tumbling goblet the wide floor o'erflows, 21
A stream of gore burst spouting from his nose;
Grim in convulsive agonies he sprawls:
Before him spurn'd, the loaded table falls,
And spreads the pavement with a mingled flood
Of floating meats, and wine, and human blood.
Amazed, confounded, as they saw him fall,
Uprose the throngs tumultuous round the hall.
O'er all the dome they cast a haggard eye,
Each look'd for arms: in vain; no arms were nigh.
Aim'st thou at princes? (all amazed they said ;) 31
Thy last of games unhappy hast thou play'd;
Thy erring shaft has made our bravest bleed,
And death, unlucky guest, attends thy deed.
Vultures shall tear thee-Thus incensed they spoke,
While each to chance ascribed the wondrous stroke,
Blind as they were: for death even now invades
His destined prey, and wraps them all in shades.
Then grimly frowning, with a dreadful look,
That wither'd all their hearts, Ulysses spoke:

Dogs, ye have had your day! ye fear'd no more
Ulysses vengeful from the Trojan shore;
While, to your lust and spoil a guardless prey
Our house, our wealth, our helpless handmaids lay:
Not so content, with bolder phrenzy fired,
Even to our bed presumptuous you aspired:
Laws, or divine, or human, fail'd to move,
Or shame of men, or dread of gods above;
Heedless alike of infamy or praise,
Or Fame's eternal voice in future days:
The hour of vengeance, wretches, now is come,
Impending fate is yours, and instant doom.

Thus dreadful he. Confused the suitors stood,
From their pale cheeks recedes the flying blood:
Trembling they sought their guilty heads to hide,
Alone the bold Eurymachus replied:

If, as thy words import, (he thus began,)
Ulysses lives, and thou the mighty man,
Great are thy wrongs, and much thou hast sustain'd
In thy spoil'd palace, and exhausted land;
The cause and author of those guilty deeds,
Lo! at thy feet unjust Antinous bleeds.
Not love, but wild ambition was his guide;
To slay thy son, thy kingdoms to divide,
These were his aims; but juster Jove denied.
Since cold in death the offender lies, oh spare
Thy suppliant people, and receive their prayer!
Brass, gold, and treasures, shall the spoil defray,
Two hundred oxen every prince shall pay :
The waste of years refunded in a day.
Till then thy wrath is just.-Ulysses burn'd
With high disdain, and sternly thus return'd:

All, all the treasures that enrich'd our throne
Before your rapines, join'd with all your own,

He left his javelin in the dead, for fear

The long encumbrance of the weighty spear

To the fierce foe advantage might afford,

To rush between, and use the shorten'd sword.
With speedy ardour to his sire he flies,

50 And, arm, great father! arm, (in haste, he cries;)
Lo hence I run for other arms to wield,
For missile javelins, and for helm and shield;
Fast by our side let either faithful swain
In arms attend us, and their part sustain.

60

80

90

100

110

120

130

Haste, and return, (Ulysses made reply)
While yet the auxiliary shafts this hand supply;
Lest thus alone, encounter'd by an host,
Driven from the gate, the important pass be lost.
With speed Telemachus obeys, and flies
Where piled in heaps the royal armour lies;
Four brazen helmets, eight refulgent spears,
And four broad bucklers to his sire he bears:
At once in brazen panoply they shone,
At once each servant braced his armour on;
Around their king a faithful guard they stand,
While yet each shaft flew deathful from his hand :
Chief after chief expired at every wound,
And swell'd the bleeding mountain on the ground.
Soon as his store of flying fates was spent,
70 Against the wall he set the bow unbent,
And now his shoulders bear the massy shield,
And now his hands two beamy javelins wield:
He frowns beneath his nodding plume, that play'd 140
O'er the high crest, and cast a dreadful shade.

There stood a window near, whence looking down | So drawn aloft, athwart the column tied,

From o'er the porch appear'd the subject town.
A double strength of valves secured the place,
A high and narrow, but the only pass :
The cautious king, with all-preventing care,
To guard that outlet, placed Eumæus there:
When Agelaus thus: Has none the sense
To mount yon window, and alarm from thence
The neighbour town? the town shall force the door,
And this bold archer soon shall shoot no more. 151
Melanthius then: That outlet to the gate
So near adjoins, that one may guard the strait.
But other methods of defence remain;
Myself with arms can furnish all the train;
Stores from the royal magazine I bring,

The howling felon swung from side to side.

Eumæus scoffing then with keen disdain :
There pass thy pleasing night, oh gentle swain!
On that soft pillow, from that envied height,
First may'st thou see the springing dawn of light;
So timely rise, when morning streaks the east,
To drive thy victims to the suitors' feast.

210

This said, they left him, tortured as he lay,
Secured the door, and hasty strode away:
Each, breathing death, resumed his dangerous post
Near great Ulysses; four against a host.
220
When lo! descending to her hero's aid,
Jove's daughter Pallas, war's triumphant maid:
In Mentor's friendly form she join'd his side:

And their own darts shall pierce the prince and king. Ulysses saw, and thus with transport cried:

He said; and mounting up the lofty stairs, Twelve shields, twelve lances, and twelve helmets

bears:

All arm, and sudden round the hall appears
A blaze of bucklers, and a wood of spears.
The hero stands oppress'd with mighty woe;
On every side he sees the labour grow:
Oh, curst event! and oh, unlook'd-for aid!
Melanthius or the women have betray'd-
Oh, my dear son!-The father with a sigh,
Then ceased; the filial virtue made reply:

Falsehood is folly, and 'tis just to own
The fault committed: this was mine alone;
My haste neglected yonder door to bar,
And hence the villain has supplied their war
Run, good Eumæus, then, and (what before
I thoughtless err'd in) well secure that door:
Learn, if by female fraud this deed were done,
Or (as my thought misgives) by Dolius' son.
While yet they spoke, in quest of arms again
To the high chamber stole the faithless swain,
Not unobserved. Eumæus watchful eyed,
And thus address'd Ulysses near his side:

The miscreant we suspected takes that way;
Him, if this arm be powerful, shall I slay?
Or drive him hither, to receive the meed
From thy own hand, of this detested deed?

Not so replied Ulysses ;) leave him there;
For us sufficient is another care;
Within the structure of this palace wall
To keep enclosed his masters till they fall:
Go you, and seize the felon; backward bind
His arms and legs, and fix a plank behind;
On this his body by strong cords extend,
And on a column near the roof suspend:
So studied tortures his vile days shall end.
The ready swains obey'd with joyful haste.
Behind the felon unperceived they pass'd,
As round the room in quest of arms he goes;
(The half-shut door conceal d his lurking foes :)
One hand sustain'd a helm, and one the shield,
Which old Laertes wont in youth to wield,
Cover'd with dust, with dryness chapt and worn,
The brass corroded, and the leather torn.
Thus laden, o'er the threshold as he stepp'd,
Fierce on the villain from each side they leap'd,
Back by the hair the trembling dastard drew,
And down reluctant on the pavement threw.
Active and pleased the zealous swains fulfil
At every point their master's rigid will;
First, fast behind, his hands and feet they bound,
Then straiten'd cords involved his body round;

Come, ever welcome, and thy succour lend;
Oh every sacred name in one! my friend!
Early we loved, and long our loves have grown:

160 Whate'er through life's whole series I have done,
Or good, or grateful, now to mind recall,
And, aiding this one hour, repay it all.
Thus he; but pleasing hopes his bosom warm,
Of Pallas latent in the friendly form.
The adverse host the phantom-warrior eyed,
And first, loud threatening Agelaüs cried :

Mentor, beware, nor let that tongue persuade
Thy frantic arm to lend Ulysses aid;

230

Our force successful shall our threat make good, 170 And with the sire and son's commix thy blood. What hopest thou here? Thee first the sword shall slay,

Then lop thy whole posterity away;

Far hence thy banish'd consort shall we send;
With his, thy forfeit lands and treasures blend;
Thus, and thus only, shalt thou join thy friend.

His barbarous insult even the goddess fires,
Who thus the warrior to revenge inspires:

240

Art thou Ulysses? where then shall we find
180 The patient body and the constant mind?
That courage, once the Trojans' daily dread,
Known nine long years, and felt by heroes dead?
And where that conduct, which revenged the lust 250
Of Priam's race, and laid proud Troy in dust?
If this, when Helen was the cause, were done,
What for thy country now, thy queen, thy son?
Rise then in combat, at my side attend;
Observe what vigour gratitude can lend,
And foes how weak, opposed against a friend!
She spoke; but willing longer to survey
The sire and son's great acts, withheld the day;
By farther toils decreed the brave to try,
And level poised the wings of victory;
Then with a change of form eludes their sight,
Perch'd like a swallow on a rafter's height,
And unperceived enjoys the rising fight.

190

Damastor's son, bold Agelaiis, leads
The guilty war; Eurynomus succeeds;
With these, Pisander, great Polictor's son,
200 Sage Polybus, and stern Amphymedon,
With Demoptolemus: these six survive;
The best of all the shafts had left alive.
Amidst the carnage, desperate as they star-1,
Thus Agelaus roused the lagging band:

260

270

The hour is come, when yon fierce man no more
With bleeding princes shall bestrew the flor.
Lo! Mentor leaves him with an empty bot st;
The four remain, but four against a host.

Let each at once discharge the deadly dart,
One sure of six shall reach Ulysses' heart:
The rest must perish their great leader slain :
Thus shall one stroke the glory lost regain.

280

Then all at once their mingled lances threw,
And thirsty all of one man's blood they flew;
In vain! Minerva turn'd them with her breath,
And scatter'd short or wide the points of death!
With deaden'd sound one on the threshold falls,
One strikes the gate, one rings against the walls:
The storm past innocent. The godlike man
Now loftier trod, and dreadful thus began:
'Tis now (brave friends) our turn, at once to throw
(So speed them heaven) our javelins at the foe:
That impious race to all their past misdeeds
Would add our blood; injustice still proceeds.
He spoke at once their fiery lances flew;
Great Demoptolemus, Ulysses slew;
Euryades received the prince's dart;
The goatherd's quiver'd in Pisander's heart:
Fierce Elatus by thine, Eumæus falls;

290

300

Their fall in thunder echoes round the walls.
The rest retreat; the victors now advance,
Each from the dead resumes his bloody lance.
Again the foe discharge the steely shower;
Again made frustrate by the virgin-power.
Some turn'd by Pallas, on the threshold fall,
Some wound the gate, some ring against the wall;
Some weak, or ponderous with the brazen head,
Drop harmless on the pavement, sounding dead.
Then bold Amphimedon his javelin cast;
Thy hand Telemachus it lightly razed;
And from Ctesippus' arm the spear elanced
On good Eumæus' shield and shoulder glanced:
Not lessen'd of their force (so slight the wound)
Each sung along, and dropp'd upon the ground.
Fate doom'd thee next, Eurymadus, to bear
Thy death, ennobled by Ulysses' spear.
By the bold son Amphimedon was slain,

And Polybus renown'd the faithful swain.

310

On all sides thus they double wound on wound,
In prostrate heaps the wretches beat the ground:
Unmanly shrieks precede each dying groan,
And a red deluge floats the reeking stone.
Leiodes first before the victor falls:
The wretched augur thus for mercy calls:
O gracious hear, nor let thy suppliant bleed:
Still undishonour'd, or by word or deed,
Thy house, for me, remains; by me repress'd,
Full oft we check'd the injustice of the rest:
Averse they heard me when I counsell'd well,
Their hearts were harden'd, and they justly fell.
Oh, spare an augur's consecrated head,
Nor add the blameless to the guilty dead.

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360

Priest as thou art! for that detested band
Thy lying prophecies deceived the land:
Against Ulysses have thy vows been made,
For them thy daily orisons were paid:
Yet more, even to our bed thy pride aspires:
One common crime one common fate requires.
Thus speaking, from the ground the sword he took
Which Agelaus' dying hand forsook :
Full through his neck the weighty falchion sped:
Along the pavement roll'd the muttering head.
Phemius alone, the hand of vengeance spared,
Phemius the sweet, the heaven-instructed bird.
Beside the gate the reverend minstrel stands;
The lyre now silent trembling in his hands;
Dubious to supplicate the chief, or fly
To Jove's inviolable altar nigh.
Where oft Laërtes holy vows had paid,
And oft Ulysses smoking victims laid.

His honour'd harp with care he first set down,
Between the laver and the silver throne;
Then prostrate stretch'd before the dreadful man,
Persuasive, thus, with accent soft began:

O king to mercy be thy soul inclined,
And spare the poet's ever-gentle kind.
A deed like this thy future fame would wrong,
For dear to gods and men is sacred song.

Pierced through the breast the rude Ctesippus bled, Self-taught I sing: by Heaven and Heaven alone And thus Philætius gloried o'er the dead:

The genuine seeds of poesy are sown:

There end thy pompous vaunts and high disdain; And (what the gods bestow) the lofty lay,

Oh sharp in scandal, voluble and vain!
How weak is mortal pride! To heaven alone
The event of actions and our fates are known:
Scoffer, behold what gratitude we bear:
The victim's heel is answer'd with his spear.
Ulysses brandish'd high his vengeful steel,
And Damastorides that instant fell;
Fast by, Leocritus expiring lay,

3TC

To gods alone and godlike worth we pay. 320 Save then the poet, and thyself reward; 'Tis thine to merit, mine is to record. That here I sung, was force, and not desire: This hand reluctant touch'd the warbling wire; 390 And let thy son attest, nor sordid pay, Nor servile flattery stain'd the moral lay.

The prince's javelin tore its bloody way
Through all his bowels: down he tumbles prone,
His batter'd front and brains besmear the stone.
Now Pallas shines confess'd! aloft she spreads 330
The arm of vengeance o'er their guilty heads;
The dreadful ægis blazes in their eye:
Amazed they see, they tremble and they fly:
Confused, distracted, through the rooms they fling:
Like oxen madden'd by the breeze's sting,
When sultry days, and long, succeed the gentle
spring.

Not half so keen fierce vultures of the chace
Stoop from the mountains on the feather'd race,
When, the wide field extended snares beset,
With conscious dread they shun the quivering net:
No help, no flight; but wounded every way,
Headlong they drop; the fowlers seize the prey.

The moving words Telemachus attends,
His sire approaches, and the bard defends.
Oh mix not, father, with those impious dead
The man divine; forbear that sacred head;
Medon, the herald, too, our arms may spare,
Medon, who made my infancy his care;
If yet he breathes, permit thy son to give
Thus much to gratitude, and bid him live.
Beneath a table, trembling with dismay,
Couch'd close to earth, unhappy Medon lay,
Wrapp'd in a new slain ox's ample hide:
Swift at the word he cast his screen aside,
Sprung to the prince, embraced his knees with tears,
And thus with grateful voice address'd his ears:

O prince! oh friend! lo here thy Medon stands:
Ah stop the hero's unresisted hands,
341 Incensed too justly by that impious brood,
Whose guilty glories now are set in blood.

400

4:0

460 But cast those mean dishonest rags away;
Permit me first the royal robes to bring:
Ill suits this garb the shoulders of a king.
Bring sulphur straight and fire, (the monarch cries,)
She hears, and at the word obedient flies.
With fire and sulphur, cure of noxious fumes,
He purged the walls, and blood-polluted rooms. 530
Again the matron springs with eager pace,
And spreads her lord's return from place to place.
They hear, rush forth, and instant round him stand,
A gazing throng, a torch in every hand.
They saw, they knew him, and with fond embrace
471 Each humbly kiss'd his knee, or hand, or face;
He knows them all, in all such truth appears,
Even he indulges the sweet joy of tears.