"BUT when our ship the Ocean stream had left, our course again
Straight for Exa's isle we kept across the wide-wayed main.
There doth Aurora dwell,-there she, the mother of bright day,
Hath dancing lawns; the rising Sun thence goeth on his way.
Here running in we beached our ship upon the sandy shore,
And next ourselves too disembarked, and sought the land once more.
In slumber by the seaside wrapped we waited Morn divine:
But when the rosy-fingered Morn began again to shine,
Then to great Circe's palace-hall I bade my friends repair,
And to the shore th' unburied corse of dead Elpenor bear.
Then logs of wood we cut with speed, and next his funeral pile
Upon a headland sadly raised, shedding big tears the while.
But when the dead man's corse was burnt, with all the arms he wore,
A mound of earth, and pillar tall of stone upon the shore,
We reared above, and in the midst set high his shapely oar.
11. Then logs of wood, &c.
"Tum jussa Sibyllæ
Haud mora, festinant flentes, aramque sepulchri
Congerere arboribus, cæloque educere certant."-VIRG. Æn., vi. 176.
13. But when the dead man's corse, &c.
"Postquam collapsi cineres, et flamma quievit."—Ibid., vi. 226.
14. A mound of earth, &c.
"At pius Æneas ingenti mole sepulchrum
Imponit, suaque arma viro, remumque, tubamque
Monte sub aërio."—Ibid., vi. 232.
แ "Scarce was our sacred duty done, when promptly to the spot
Fair Circe, for our safe return from hell escaped her not,
Came, having donned her rich attire: behind two handmaids bore
Of ruby sparkling wine, and bread and meat, a goodly store.
And standing then amidst us all, the heav'nly goddess spake :
'Madmen, who, living, down to hell have dared your way to
make,-
Who, when all others die but once, will twice for death have sought,-
Come, eat the food, and drink the wine, that I have hither brought.
Rest here to-day; to-morrow sail at rising of the sun,
And I will show your course, and tell each hazard ye must run;
Lest by your folly led astray, on land or on the deep,
A fruitful crop of woe ye may be destined yet to reap.'
"Her bidding gladly we obeyed, and till the sun's decline,
Feasting on store of meat we sat, and drank the luscious wine.
But after sundown, when the Night came clothed in sable vest,
Fast by the cables of our ships my comrades took their rest.
Then to a seat apart with me the goddess fair retired,
And there, reclining by my side, my story she inquired.
And when I all the wondrous tale in order due had told,
Then Circe spake, and thus began the future to unfold:
"And thou must lay me in that lovely earth,
And heap a stately mound above my bones,
And plant a far-seen pillar over all."
-MATTHEW ARNOLD, Sohrab and Rustum.
Quod si tantus amor menti, si tanta cupido est
Bis Stygios innare lacus, bis nigra videre
Tartara; et insano juvat indulgere labori."-VIRG. Æn., vi. 133.
"Satis est inamabile regnum
Aspexisse semel, Stygios semel iîsse per amnes."—Ov. Met., xiv. 589.
"All this thou rightly hast performed; now list unto my speech,-
Remembrance of my warning word the god himself will teach.
When hence thou sailest, first of all thou'lt reach the Sirens' home,
Who with their song all men bewitch that thither chance to come.
Whoso his way unto their coast unwittingly has found,
And of the Sirens' melody but once has heard the sound,
No wife nor infant child shall stand beside him ever more,
Nor greet with joy the sire's return to his own native shore:
But sitting ever in a mead, the Sirens charm his ear
With their sweet song, whilst sailors' bones in heaps lie rotting near.
Around the bones waste skin and flesh;-but do thou give good heed
Unto my words, and hurry past the danger with all speed.
With deftly moulded wax the ears of thy companions fill,
may thine ears be charmed with song, and if thou dost implore, Or bid them loose thee, let thy mates imprison thee the more.
So that none hear them save thyself: thou mayst, if such thy will,—
But in the mast-box, hand and foot, see thou art bound upright,
And let the rope-end from the mast itself be fastened tight.
So
"But when their oars have sped thy ship beyond the Sirens' snare,
I will not, of the courses twain, which should be thine declare.
Do thou thyself consider well, and in thine heart decide,
And I the perils will reveal that lurk on either side.
For on the one hand beetling rocks mount upward from the shore,
And loud against them doth the wave of Amphitritè roar.
These rocks the Wanderers are called by the blest gods above ;
By these no sea-bird ever wings its flight, nor timid dove,
Of those that sweet ambrosia bear to our great Father Jove,
45. Whilst sailors' bones, &c.
"Jamque adeo scopulos Sirenum advecta subibat ;
Difficiles quondam, multorumque ossibus albos.”—Ibid., v. 864.
59. And loud against them, &c.
"Tum rauca assiduo longe sale saxa sonabant."—Ibid., v. 866.
But of their number the smooth rock retains one as its prey,
And our sire adds one to replace the victim borne away.
No mortal ship that thither sails doth thence in safety go,
For roaring surge and fiery blasts the seas with ruin strow,
In wild confusion tossing wreck and corses to and fro.
One only of sea-passing ships safe by those rocks has run,—
Argo, that from Æætes sailed, and world-wide glory won.
And Argo, too, the wave had dashed upon that fatal shore,
But Herè sped her past, for love that she to Jason bore.
"The other course hath perils twain,-two rocks: one towers on
high,
With crest sharp-pointed, and thereon a dark-grey cloud doth lie,
That never lifts, nor ever can the mountain-top be seen
In sunshine clear, through summer's heat or autumn day serene.
No mortal man could hope to climb, or to descend its crest,-
Not if with twenty hands and feet that mortal wight were blest.
For like to polished stone the rock uprises smooth and sheer,
And in the middle of the cliff a dim cave doth appear.
To murky Erebus it tends, and by this cavern's side,
Remember well, illustrious chief, thy dark-hulled ship to guide.
Ne'er from a hollow vessel's deck would arrow shot from bow,
By archer in his prime of strength, into its entrance go.
In that abyss dread Scylla dwells, aye shrieking horribly:
As of a new-born whelp resounds amidst the rocks her cry.
But she herself is portent dire, and none would e'er rejoice,
Not e'en a god himself, to see her shape or hear her voice.
For, verily, twelve gruesome feet, misshapen all, hath she,
And six long necks,-on each a head glares terrible to see.
69. Argo, that from Eates sailed, &c.
"The wond'red Argo, which in venturous piece,
First through the Euxine seas bore all the flower of Greece."
-SPENSER, Faerie Queene, Bk. ii. 12. 44.
72. The other course, &c.
“Hinc atque hinc vastæ rupes geminique minantur
In cælum scopuli.”—VIRG. Æn., i. 162.
79. And in the middle, &c.
"Fronte sub adversâ scopulis pendentibus antrum."-Ibid., i. 166.
Each head contains of thick-set teeth a triply furnished row,
Fraught with black death to all who near those rending fangs may go.
Her body downwards to the waist lies crouched within the cave,
But from the dark abyss her heads project above the wave,
In quest around the fatal rock, if that she haply may
On sea-dog or on dolphin pounce, or e'en some bigger prey,
Such as dark Amphitritè feeds unnumbered, bear away.
No sailor yet who in his ship hath Scylla's rock passed by,
Can boast that it hath been his lot unharmed from thence to fly;
For on his vessel swooping down from her abode of gloom,
Each head from off the deck conveys a victim to his doom.
'The other rock thou wilt discern of lesser height to be,
Hard by the first: betwixt them runs a bowshot's space of sea.
Upon this rock a fig-tree huge in leafy bloom doth grow,
And fell Charybdis sucketh down the dark-hued tide below.
Thrice she the flood sucks down, and thrice disgorges in the day,—
An awful sight. Oh may thy ship be far from thence, I pray,
Whene'er within her yawning gulf she swallows down the main,
For not the mighty sea-god's self could save thee from thy bane!
But do thou rather steer thy bark hard for the other side,
And drive thy vessel quickly past, whatever may betide.
For better 'tis of comrades six the sacrifice to weep,
Than all to sink together 'whelmed in the dread whirlpool's deep.'
91. Fraught with black death, &c.
"At Scyllam cæcis cohibet spelunca latebris
Ora exsertantem, et naves in saxa trahentem."-VIRG. En., iii. 424.
104. And fell Charybdis, &c.
"Dextrum Scylla latus, lævum implacata Charybdis
Obsidet, atque imo barathri ter gurgite vastos
Sorbet in abruptum fluctus, rursusque sub auras
Erigit alternos, et sidera verberat undâ."—Ibid., iii. 420.
105. Thrice she the flood, &c.
"Ter scopuli clamorem inter cava saxa dedere;
Ter spumam elisam et rorantia vidimus astra."-Ibid., iii. 566.
109. But do thou rather steer, &c.
"Præstat Trinacrii metas lustrare Pachyni
Cessantem, longos et circumflectere cursus,
Quam semel informem vasto vidisse sub antro
Scyllam, et cæruleis canibus resonantia saxa.”—Ibid., iii. 429.
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