But let us leave him to their wills above;

The fates of men are in the hand of Jove.
And now, my venerable guest! declare
Your name, your parents, and your native air: 215
Sincere from whence begun your course relate,
And to what ship I owe the friendly freight?

Thus he and thus (with prompt invention bold) The cautious chief his ready story told:

On dark reserve what better can prevail, 220 Or from the fluent tongue produce the tale, Than when two friends, alone, in peaceful place Confer, and wines and cates the table grace; But most the kind inviter's cheerful face? Thus, might we sit, with social goblets crown'd, Till the whole circle of the year goes round; 226 Not the whole circle of the year would close My long narration of a life of woes.

But such was heav'n's high will! Know then, I

came

From sacred Crete, and from a sire of fame, 230 Castor Hylacides (that name he bore)

Belov'd and honour'd in his native shore; Bless'd in his riches, in his children more. Sprung of a handmaid, from a bought embrace, I shar'd his kindness with his lawful race:

235

But when that fate, which all must undergo,
From earth remov'd him to the shades below,
The large domain his greedy sons divide,
And each was portion'd as the lots decide.
Little, alas! was left my wretched share,
Except a house, a covert from the air:
But what by niggard fortune was denied,
A willing widow's copious wealth supplied.
My valour was my plea, a gallant mind

That, true to honour, never lagg'd behind
(The sex is ever to a soldier kind).

240

245

250

Now wasting years my former strength confound,
And added woes have bow'd me to the ground;
Yet by the stubble you may guess the grain,
And mark the ruins of no vulgar man.
Me, Pallas gave to lead the martial storm,
And the fair ranks of battle to deform:
Me, Mars inspir'd to turn the foe to flight,
And tempt the secret ambush of the night.
Let ghastly death in all his forms appear,
I saw him not; it was not mine to fear.
Before the rest I rais'd my ready steel;
The first I met, he yielded, or he fell.

But works of peace my soul disdain'd to bear,
The rural labour, or domestic care.

255

260

To raise the mast, the missile dart to wing,
And send swift arrows from the bounding string,
Were arts the gods made grateful to my mind;
Those gods who turn (to various ends design'd)
The various thoughts and talents of mankind. 265
Before the Grecians touch'd the Trojan plain,
Nine times commander or by land or main,
In foreign fields I spread my glory far,
Great in the praise, rich in the spoils of war:
Thence charg'd with riches, as increas'd in fame,
To Crete return'd, an honourable name.
But when great Jove that direful war decreed,
Which rous'd all Greece, and made the mighty

bleed,

Our states myself and Idomen employ

271

To lead their fleets, and carry death to Troy. 275
Nine years we warr'd; the tenth saw Ilion fall;
Homeward we sail'd, but heav'n dispers'd us all,
One only month my wife enjoy'd my stay;
So will'd the god who gives and takes away.
Nine ships I mann'd, equipp'd with ready stores,
Intent to voyage to th' Egyptian shores;

In feast and sacrifice my chosen train

281

Six days consum'd; the sev'nth we plough'd the

main.

285

Crete's ample fields diminish to our eye;
Before the Boreal blast the vessels fly;
Safe through the level seas we sweep our way;
The steerman governs, and the ships obey.
The fifth fair morn we stem th' Egyptian tide,
And tilting o'er the bay the vessels ride:
To anchor there my fellows I command,
And spies commission to explore the land.
But sway'd by Just of gain, and headlong will,
The coasts they ravage, and the natives kill.
The spreading clamour to their city flies,

290

And horse and foot in mingled tumult rise. 295
The redd'ning dawn reveals the circling fields
Horrid with bristly spears, and glancing shields.
Jove thunder'd on their side. Our guilty head
Weturn'd to flight; the gath'ring vengeance spread
On all parts round, and heaps on heaps lie dead.
I then explor'd my thought, what course to prove?
(And sure the thought was dictated by Jove;
O had he left me to that happier doom,

And sav'd a life of miseries to come!)

The radiant helmet from my brows unlac'd, 305
And low on earth my shield and jav❜lin cast,
I meet the monarch with a suppliant's face,
Approach his chariot, and his knees embrace.

He heard, he sav'd, he plac'd me at his side;
My state he pity'd, and my tears he dry'd, 310
Restrain❜d the rage the vengeful foe exprest,

And turn'd the deadly weapons from my breast.
Pious! to guard the hospitable rite,

And fearing Jove, whom mercy's works delight.

In Egypt thus with peace and plenty blest, I liv'd (and happy still had liv'd) a guest:

316

On sev'n bright years successive blessings wait;
The next chang'd all the colour of my fate.
A false Phoenician of insidious mind,

Vers'd in vile arts, and foe to humankind,
With semblance fair invites me to his home;

I seiz❜d the proffer (ever fond to roam),
Domestic in his faithless roof I stay'd,
Till the swift sun his annual circle made.
To Libya then he meditates the way;
With guileful art a stranger to betray,

320

325

And sell to bondage in a foreign land:

Much doubting, yet compell'd, I quit the strand.
Through the mid seas the nimble pinnace sails,
Aloof from Crete, before the northern gales: 330
But when remote her chalky cliffs we lost,
And far from ken of any other coast,