The chief unsheath'd his shining steel, prepar'd, Tho' seiz'd with sudden fear, to force the guard, Off'ring his brandish'd weapon at their face;Had not the Sibyl stopp'd his eager pace, And told him what those empty phantoms were:
Forms without bodies, and impassive air.
Hence to deep Acheron they take their way, Whose troubled eddies, thick with ooze and clay, Are whirl'd aloft, and in Cocytus lost.
There Charon stands, who rules the dreary coast-A sordid god: down from his hoary chin A length of beard descends, uncomb'd, unclean;His eyes, like hollow furnaces on fire;
A girdle, foul with grease, binds his obscene attire.
He spreads his canvas; with his pole he steers;The freights of flitting ghosts in his thin bottom bears.
He look'd in years; yet in his years were seen A youthful vigor and autumnal green.
An airy crowd came rushing where he stood, Which fill'd the margin of the fatal flood:
Husbands and wives, boys and unmarried maids, And mighty heroes' more majestic shades, And youths, intomb'd before their fathers' eyes, With hollow groans, and shrieks, and feeble cries.
Thick as the leaves in autumn strow the woods, Or fowls, by winter forc'd, forsake the floods, And wing their hasty flight to happier lands;Such, and so thick, the shiv'ring army stands, And press for passage with extended hands.
Now these, now those, the surly boatman bore:
The rest he drove to distance from the shore.
The hero, who beheld with wond'ring eyes The tumult mix'd with shrieks, laments, and cries, Ask'd of his guide, what the rude concourse meant;Why to the shore the thronging people bent;What forms of law among the ghosts were us'd;Why some were ferried o'er, and some refus'd.
"Son of Anchises, offspring of the gods,"The Sibyl said, "you see the Stygian floods, The sacred stream which heav'n's imperial state Attests in oaths, and fears to violate.
The ghosts rejected are th' unhappy crew Depriv'd of sepulchers and fun'ral due:
The boatman, Charon; those, the buried host, He ferries over to the farther coast;Nor dares his transport vessel cross the waves With such whose bones are not compos'd in graves.
A hundred years they wander on the shore;At length, their penance done, are wafted o'er."The Trojan chief his forward pace repress'd, Revolving anxious thoughts within his breast, He saw his friends, who, whelm'd beneath the waves, Their fun'ral honors claim'd, and ask'd their quiet graves.
The lost Leucaspis in the crowd he knew, And the brave leader of the Lycian crew, Whom, on the Tyrrhene seas, the tempests met;The sailors master'd, and the ship o'erset.
Amidst the spirits, Palinurus press'd, Yet fresh from life, a new-admitted guest, Who, while he steering view'd the stars, and bore His course from Afric to the Latian shore, Fell headlong down.The Trojan fix'd his view, And scarcely thro' the gloom the sullen shadow knew.
Then thus the prince: "What envious pow'r, O friend, Brought your lov'd life to this disastrous end?
For Phoebus, ever true in all he said, Has in your fate alone my faith betray'd.
The god foretold you should not die, before You reach'd, secure from seas, th' Italian shore.
Is this th' unerring pow'r?" The ghost replied;"Nor Phoebus flatter'd, nor his answers lied;Nor envious gods have sent me to the deep:
But, while the stars and course of heav'n I keep, My wearied eyes were seiz'd with fatal sleep.
I fell; and, with my weight, the helm constrain'd Was drawn along, which yet my gripe retain'd.
Now by the winds and raging waves I swear, Your safety, more than mine, was then my care;Lest, of the guide bereft, the rudder lost, Your ship should run against the rocky coast.
Three blust'ring nights, borne by the southern blast, I floated, and discover'd land at last:
High on a mounting wave my head I bore, Forcing my strength, and gath'ring to the shore.
Panting, but past the danger, now I seiz'd The craggy cliffs, and my tir'd members eas'd.
While, cumber'd with my dropping clothes, I lay, The cruel nation, covetous of prey, Stain'd with my blood th' unhospitable coast;And now, by winds and waves, my lifeless limbs are toss'd:
Which O avert, by yon ethereal light, Which I have lost for this eternal night!
Or, if by dearer ties you may be won, By your dead sire, and by your living son, Redeem from this reproach my wand'ring ghost;Or with your navy seek the Velin coast, And in a peaceful grave my corpse compose;Or, if a nearer way your mother shows, Without whose aid you durst not undertake This frightful passage o'er the Stygian lake, Lend to this wretch your hand, and waft him o'er To the sweet banks of yon forbidden shore."Scarce had he said, the prophetess began:
"What hopes delude thee, miserable man?
Think'st thou, thus unintomb'd, to cross the floods, To view the Furies and infernal gods, And visit, without leave, the dark abodes?
Attend the term of long revolving years;
Fate, and the dooming gods, are deaf to tears.
This comfort of thy dire misfortune take:
The wrath of Heav'n, inflicted for thy sake, With vengeance shall pursue th' inhuman coast, Till they propitiate thy offended ghost, And raise a tomb, with vows and solemn pray'r;And Palinurus' name the place shall bear."This calm'd his cares; sooth'd with his future fame, And pleas'd to hear his propagated name.
Now nearer to the Stygian lake they draw:
Whom, from the shore, the surly boatman saw;Observ'd their passage thro' the shady wood, And mark'd their near approaches to the flood.
Then thus he call'd aloud, inflam'd with wrath:
"Mortal, whate'er, who this forbidden path In arms presum'st to tread, I charge thee, stand, And tell thy name, and bus'ness in the land.
Know this, the realm of night- the Stygian shore:
My boat conveys no living bodies o'er;
Nor was I pleas'd great Theseus once to bear, Who forc'd a passage with his pointed spear, Nor strong Alcides- men of mighty fame, And from th' immortal gods their lineage came.
In fetters one the barking porter tied, And took him trembling from his sov'reign's side:
