Page:Masterpieces of Greek Literature (1902).djvu/73

43 ODYSSEUS IN THE CAVE OF POLYPHEMUS 43

That warning of the antique prophecy Which Telemus Eurymides once spake — Skilled seer, who on our hills did auguries take, And waxed in years amid Cyclopian race. goo

Of all these things did he foreshadowings make. And well proclaimed my pitiable case, And how this lightless brow Odysseus should deface.

" But always I some great and beauteous man Expected, one in awful strength arrayed, eos

So to assail me as the legend ran. Now one unworthy by unworthy aid Doth blind me helpless, and with wine waylaid. And ail-too strengthless doth surpass the strong. But come, Odysseus, let respect be paid eio

To thee my guest, and thou shalt sail ere long. By the Earth-shaker wafted, free from scathe and wrong.

" His child am I, my sire he boasts to be, Who if he will, none else of mortal seed Or of the blest, can heal my wound." Thus he : as But I made answer : " Now in very deed I would to heaven this right arm might succeed So surely in thy death, as I am sure That no Poseidon even, at thy need. Thee of thine eyelessness hath power to cure. 620 Know well thy fatal hurt for erver shall endure."

Then to the king Poseidon he made prayer. Lifting his hand up to the starry sky : " Hear now, great monarch of the raven hair ; Holder of earth, Poseidon, hear ray cry, 625

If thou my father art indeed, and I