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besideThe Deep, till we arrived where Circe bade.Here, Perimedes’ son EurylochusHeld fast the destined sacrifice, while IScoop’d with my sword the soil, op’ning a trenchEll-broad on ev’ry side, then pour’d aroundLibation consecrate to all the dead,First, milk with honey mixt, then luscious wine,Then water, sprinkling, last, meal over all.    30 This done, adoring the unreal formsAnd shadows of the dead, I vow’d to slay,(Return’d to Ithaca) in my own abode,An heifer barren yet, fairest and bestOf all my herds, and to enrich the pileWith delicacies, such as please the shades.But, in peculiar, to the Theban seerI vow’d a sable ram, largest and bestOf all my flocks. When thus I had imploredWith vows and pray’r, the nations of the dead,    40 Piercing the victims next, I turn’d them bothTo bleed into the trench; then swarming cameFrom Erebus the shades of the deceased,Brides, youths unwedded, seniors long with woeOppress’d, and tender girls yet new to grief.Came also many a warrior by the spearIn battle pierced, with armour gore-distain’d,And all the multitude around the fossStalk’d shrieking dreadful; me pale horror seized.I next, importunate, my people urged,    50 Flaying the victims which myself had slain,To burn them, and to supplicate in pray’rIllustrious Pluto and dread Proserpine.Then down I sat, and with drawn faulchion chasedThe ghosts, nor suffer’d them to approach the blood,Till with Tiresias I should first confer.   The spirit, first, of my companion came,Elpenor; for no burial honours yetHad he received, but we had left his corseIn Circe’s palace, tombless, undeplored,    60 Ourselves by pressure urged of other cares.Touch’d with compassion seeing him, I wept,And in wing’d accents brief him thus bespake.   Elpenor! how cam’st thou into the realmsOf darkness? Hast thou, though on foot, so farOutstripp’d my speed, who in my bark arrived?   So I, to whom with tears he thus replied.Laertes’ noble son, for wiles renown’d!Fool’d by some dæmon and the intemp’rate bowl,I perish’d in the house of Circe; there    70 The deep-descending steps heedless I miss’d,And fell precipitated from the roof.With neck-bone broken from the vertebræOutstretch’d I lay; my spirit sought the shades.But now, by those whom thou hast left at home,By thy Penelope, and by thy fire,The gentle nourisher of thy infant growth,And by thy only son TelemachusI make my suit to thee. For, sure, I knowThat from the house of Pluto safe return’d,    80 Thou shalt ere long thy gallant vessel moorAt the Ææan isle. Ah! there arrivedRemember me. Leave me not undeploredNor uninhumed, lest, for my sake, the GodsIn vengeance visit thee; but with my arms(What arms soe’er I left) burn me, and raiseA kind memorial of me on the coast,Heap’d high with earth; that an unhappy manMay yet enjoy an unforgotten name.Thus do at my request, and on my hill    90 Funereal, plant the oar with which I row’d,While yet I lived a mariner of thine.   He spake, to whom thus answer I return’d.Poor youth! I will perform thy whole desire.   Thus we, there sitting, doleful converse held,With outstretch’d faulchion, I, guarding the blood,And my companion’s shadowy semblance sadMeantime discoursing me on various themes.The soul of my departed mother, next,Of Anticleia came, daughter of brave    100 Autolycus; whom, when I sought the shoresOf Ilium, I had living left at home.Seeing her, with compassion touch’d, I wept,Yet even her, (although it pain’d my soul)Forbad, relentless, to approach the blood,Till with Tiresias I should first confer.Then came the spirit of the Theban seerHimself, his golden sceptre in his hand,Who knew me, and, enquiring, thus began.   Why, hapless Chief! leaving the cheerful day,    110 Arriv’st thou to behold the dead, and thisUnpleasant land? but, from the trench awhileReceding, turn thy faulchion keen away,That I may drink the blood, and tell thee truth.   He spake; I