The Odysseys of Homer by Homer
Homer
The man, O Muse, inform, that many a way Wound with his wisdom to his wished stay; That wander’d wondrous far, when he the town Of sacred Troy had sack’d and shiver’d down; The cities of a world of nations, With all their manners, minds, and fashions, He saw and knew; at sea felt many woes, Much care sustain’d, to save from overthrows Himself and friends in their retreat for home; But so their fates he could not overcome, Though much he thirsted it. O men unwise, They perish’d by their own impieties! That in their hunger’s rapine would not shun The oxen of the lofty-going Sun, Who therefore from their eyes the day bereft Of safe return. These acts, in some part left, Tell us, as others, deified Seed of Jove. Now all the rest that austere death outstrove At Troy’s long siege at home safe anchor’d are, Free from the malice both of sea and war; Only Ulysses is denied access To wife and home. The grace of Goddesses, The rev’rend nymph Calypso, did detain Him in her caves, past all the race of men Enflam’d to make him her lov’d lord and spouse.
The Gods in council sit, to call Ulysses from Calypso’s thrall, And order their high pleasures thus: Grey Pallas to Telemachus (In Ithaca) her way addrest; And did her heav’nly limbs invest In Mentas’ likeness, that did reign King of the Taphians, in the main Whose rough waves near Leucadia run. Advising wise Ulysses’ son To seek his father, and address His course to young Tantalides, That govern’d Sparta. Thus much said, She shew’d she was Heav’n’s martial Maid, And vanish’d from him. Next to this, The Banquet of the Wooers is.