That sight forbidding them, whose eyes she dimm'd
With darkness shed miraculous around 50
Her fav'rite Chief. Ulysses, wond'ring, mark'd
Their port, their ships, their forum, the resort
Of Heroes, and their battlements sublime
Fenced with sharp stakes around, a glorious show!
But when the King's august abode he reach'd,
Minerva azure-eyed, then, thus began.
My father! thou behold'st the house to which
Thou bad'st me lead thee. Thou shalt find our Chiefs
And high-born Princes banqueting within.
But enter fearing nought, for boldest men 60
Speed ever best, come whencesoe'er they may.
First thou shalt find the Queen, known by her name
Areta; lineal in descent from those
Who gave Alcinoues birth, her royal spouse.
Neptune begat Nausithoues, at the first,
On Peribaea, loveliest of her sex,
Latest-born daughter of Eurymedon,
Heroic King of the proud giant race,
Who, losing all his impious people, shared
The same dread fate himself. Her Neptune lov'd, 70
To whom she bore a son, the mighty prince
Nausithoues, in his day King of the land.
Nausithoues himself two sons begat,
Rhexenor and Alcinoues. Phoebus slew
Rhexenor at his home, a bridegroom yet,
Who, father of no son, one daughter left,
Areta, wedded to Alcinoues now,
And whom the Sov'reign in such honour holds,
As woman none enjoys of all on earth
Existing, subjects of an husband's pow'r. 80
Like veneration she from all receives
Unfeign'd, from her own children, from himself
Alcinoues, and from all Phaeacia's race,
Who, gazing on her as she were divine,
Shout when she moves in progress through the town.
For she no wisdom wants, but sits, herself,
Arbitress of such contests as arise
Between her fav'rites, and decides aright.
Her count'nance once and her kind aid secured,
Thou may'st thenceforth expect thy friends to see, 90
Thy dwelling, and thy native soil again.
So Pallas spake, Goddess caerulean-eyed,
And o'er the untillable and barren Deep
Departing, Scheria left, land of delight,
Whence reaching Marathon, and Athens next,
She pass'd into Erectheus' fair abode.
Ulysses, then, toward the palace moved
Of King Alcinoues, but immers'd in thought
Stood, f