not a syllable further will my silly spirit presume. THE THIRTEENTH BOOK OF HOMER’S ODYSSEYS THE ARGUMENT Ulysses (shipp’d, but in the even, With all the presents he was given, And sleeping then) is set next morn In full scope of his wish’d return, And treads unknown his country-shore, Whose search so many winters wore. The ship (returning, and arriv’d Against the city) is depriv’d Of form, and, all her motion gone, Transform’d by Neptune to a stone. Ulysses (let to know the strand Where the Phæacians made him land) Consults with Pallas, for the life Of ev’ry wooer of his wife. His gifts she hides within a cave, And him into a man more grave, All hid in wrinkles, crookéd, gray, Transform’d; who so goes on his way. ANOTHER ARGUMENT _Νυ̑._ Phæacia Ulysses leaves; Whom Ithaca, Unwares, receives. He said; and silence all their tongues contain’d, In admiration, when with pleasure chain’d Their ears had long been to him. At last brake Alcinous silence, and in this sort spake To th’ Ithacensian, Laertes’ son: “O Ithacus! However over-run With former suff’rings in your way for home, Since ’twas, at last, your happy fate to come To my high-roof’d and brass-foundation’d house, I hope, such speed and pass auspicious Our loves shall yield you, that you shall no more Wander, nor suffer, homewards, as before. You then, whoever that are ever grac’d With all choice of authoriz’d pow’r to taste Such wine with me as warms the sacred rage, And is an honorary giv’n to age,[1] With which ye likewise hear divinely sing, In honour’s praise, the poet of the king, I move, by way of my command, to this: That where in an elaborate chest there lies A present for our guest, attires of price, And gold engrav’n with infinite device, I wish that each of us should add beside A tripod, and a caldron, amplified With size, and metal of most rate, and great; For we, in council of taxation met, Will from our subjects gain their worth again; Since ’tis unequal one man should sustain A charge so weighty, being the grace of all, Which borne by many is a weight but small.” Thus spake Alcinous, and pleas’d the rest; When each man clos’d with home and sleep his feast. But when the colour-giving light arose, All to the ship did all their speeds dispose,[2] And wealth, that honest men makes, brought with them.[3] All which ev’n he that wore the diadem Stow’d in the ship himself, beneath the seats The rowers sat in, stooping, lest their lets In any of their labours he might prove. Then home he turn’d, and after him did move The whole assembly to expected feast. Among whom he a sacrifice addrest, And slew an ox, to weather-wielding Jove, Beneath whose empire all things are, and move. The thighs then roasting, they made glorious cheer Delighted highly; and amongst them there The honour’d-of-the-people us’d his voice, Divine Demodocus. Yet, through this choice Of cheer and music, had Ulysses still An eye directed to the Eastern hill, To see Him rising that illustrates all;