Page:The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer (IA iliadodysseyofho02home).pdf/227

Book X. He gave his daughters to his sons to wife; They with their father hold perpetual feast And with their royal mother, still supplied With dainties numberless; the sounding dome Is fill'd with sav'ry odours all the day, And with their consorts chaste at night they sleep On stateliest couches with rich arras spread. Their city and their splendid courts we reach'd. A month complete he, friendly, at his board Regaled me, and enquiry made minute Of Ilium's fall, of the Achaian fleet, And of our voyage thence. I told him all. But now, desirous to embark again, I ask'd dismission home, which he approved, And well provided for my prosp'rous course. He gave me, furnish'd by a bullock slay'd In his ninth year, a bag; ev'ry rude blast Which from its bottom turns the Deep, that bag Imprison'd held; for him Saturnian Jove Hath officed arbiter of all the winds, To rouse their force or calm them, at his will. He gave me them on board my bark, so bound With silver twine that not a breath escaped, Then order'd gentle Zephyrus to fill Our sails propitious. Order vain, alas! So fatal proved the folly of my friends. Nine days continual, night and day we sail'd, And on the tenth my native land appear'd.