won by the terror of his threats, or by the violence
of that new love which she felt kindling in her veins for him, swore
by Styx, the great oath of the gods, that she meditated no injury
to him. Then Ulysses made shew of gentler treatment, which gave her
hopes of inspiring him with a passion equal to that which she felt.
She called her handmaids, four that served her in chief, who were
daughters to her silver fountains, to her sacred rivers, and to her
consecrated woods, to deck her apartments, to spread rich carpets, and
set out her silver tables with dishes of the purest gold, and meat
as precious as that which the gods eat, to entertain her guest. One
brought water to wash his feet, and one brought wine to chase away,
with a refreshing sweetness, the sorrows that had come of late so
thick upon him, and hurt his noble mind. They strewed perfumes on his
head, and after he had bathed in a bath of the choicest aromatics,
they brought him rich and costly apparel to put on. Then he was
conducted to a throne of massy silver, and a regale, fit for Jove
when he banquets, was placed before him. But the feast which Ulysses
desired was to see his friends (the partners of his voyage) once more
in the shapes of men; and the food which could give him nourishment
must be taken in at his eyes. Because he missed this sight, he sat
melancholy and thoughtful, and would taste of none of the rich
delicacies placed before him. Which when Circe noted, she easily
divined the cause of his sadness, and leaving the seat in which she
sat throned, went to her sty, and let abroad his men, who came in like
swine, and filled the ample hall, where Ulysses sat, with gruntings.
Hardly had he time to let his sad eye run over their altered forms and
brutal metamorphosis, when with an ointment which she smeared over
them, suddenly their bristles fell off, and they started up in their
own shapes men as before. They knew their leader again, and clung
about him with joy of their late restoration, and some shame for their
late change; and wept so loud, blubbering out their joy in broken
accents, that the palace was filled with a sound of pleasing mourning,
and the witch herself, great Circe, was not unmoved at the sight. To
make her atonement complete, she sent for the remnant of Ulysses's
men who staid behind at the ship, giving up their great commander for
lost; who when they came, and saw him again alive, circled with their
fellows, no expression can tell