atively modern. By avoiding the prolixity
which marks the speeches and the descriptions in Homer, I have gained
a rapidity to the narration, which I hope will make it more attractive
and give it more the air of a romance to young readers, though I am
sensible that by the curtailment I have sacrificed in many places
the manners to the passion, the subordinate characteristics to the
essential interest of the story. The attempt is not to be considered
as seeking a comparison with any of the direct translations of the
Odyssey, either in prose or verse, though if I were to state the
obligations which I have had to one obsolete version,[1] I should
run the hazard of depriving myself of the very slender degree of
reputation which I could hope to acquire from a trifle like the
present undertaking.

[Footnote 1: The translation of Homer by Chapman in the reign of James
I. III.--16]

CHAPTER I

_The Cicons.--The fruit of the lotos tree.--Polyphemus and
the Cyclops.--The kingdom of the winds, and god AEolus's fatal
present.--The Laestrygonian man-eaters._

This history tells of the wanderings of Ulysses and his followers in
their return from Troy, after the destruction of that famous city of
Asia by the Grecians. He was inflamed with a desire of seeing again
after a ten years absence, his wife and native country Ithaca. He
was king of a barren spot, and a poor country, in comparison of the
fruitful plains of Asia which he was leaving, or the wealthy kingdoms
which he touched upon in his return; yet wherever he came, he could
never see a soil which appeared in his eyes half so sweet or desirable
as his country earth. This made him refuse the offers of the goddess
Calypso to stay with her, and partake of her immortality, in the
delightful island; and this gave him strength to break from the
enchantments of Circe, the daughter of the Sun.

From Troy ill winds cast Ulysses and his fleet upon the coast of the
Cicons, a people hostile to the Grecians. Landing his forces, he laid
siege to their chief city Ismarus, which he took, and with it much
spoil, and slew many people. But success proved fatal to him; for his
soldiers elated with the spoil, and the good store of provisions which
they found in that place, fell to eating and drinking, forgetful of
their safety, till the Cicons, who inhabited the coast, had time to
assemble their friends and allies from the interior, who mustering
in prodigious force, set upon the Grec