s angry with us, for that safe we bear
Strangers of ev'ry nation to their home;
And he foretold a time when he would smite
In vengeance some Phaeacian gallant bark
Returning after convoy of her charge,
And fix her in the sable flood, transform'd
Into a mountain, right before the town.
So spake my hoary Sire, which let the God
At his own pleasure do, or leave undone. 700
But tell me truth, and plainly. Where have been
Thy wand'rings? in what regions of the earth
Hast thou arrived? what nations hast thou seen,
What cities? say, how many hast thou found
Harsh, savage and unjust? how many, kind
To strangers, and disposed to fear the Gods?
Say also, from what secret grief of heart
Thy sorrows flow, oft as thou hear'st the fate
Of the Achaians, or of Ilium sung?
That fate the Gods prepared; they spin the thread 710
Of man's destruction, that in after days
The bard may make the sad event his theme.
Perish'd thy father or thy brother there?
Or hast thou at the siege of Ilium lost
Father-in-law, or son-in-law? for such
Are next and dearest to us after those
Who share our own descent; or was the dead
Thy bosom-friend, whose heart was as thy own?
For worthy as a brother of our love
The constant friend and the discrete I deem. 720

FOOTNOTES:

[27] Agamemnon having inquired at Delphos, at what time the Trojan war
would end, was answered that the conclusion of it should happen at a time
when a dispute should arise between two of his principal commanders. That
dispute occurred at the time here alluded to, Achilles recommending force
as most likely to reduce the city, and Ulysses stratagem.

[28] +Toisi d' apo nysoes tetato dromos+--This expression is by the
commentators generally understood to be significant of the effort which
they made at starting, but it is not improbable that it relates merely to
the measurement of the course, otherwise, +karpalimos epetonto+ will be
tautologous.

[29] In boxing.

[30] The Translator is indebted to Mr Grey for an epithet more expressive
of the original (+Marmarygas+) than any other, perhaps, in all our
language. See the Ode on the Progress of Poetry.

"To brisk notes in cadence beating,
Glance their _many-twinkling_ feet"

[31] The original line has received such a variety of interpretations,
that a