The Odysseys of Homer, together with the shorter poems. Homer

‭ Sunk to the waters, when they all had won ‭ The never-fell’d, and sound-exciting, wood, ‭ Sacred to Pallas; where the god-like good ‭ Ulysses rested, and to Pallas pray’d: ‭ “Hear me, of goat-kept Jove th’ unconquer’d Maid! [11] ‭ Now throughly hear me, since, in all the time ‭ Of all my wrack, my pray’rs could never climb ‭ Thy far-off ears; when noiseful Neptune toss’d ‭ Upon his wat’ry bristles my emboss’d ‭ And rock-torn body. Hear yet now, and deign ‭ I may of the Phæacian state obtain ‭ Pity, and grace.” Thus pray’d he, and she heard, ‭ By no means yet, expos’d to sight, appear’d, ‭ For fear t’ offend her uncle, the supreme ‭ Of all the Sea-Gods, whose wrath still extreme ‭ Stood to Ulysses; and would never cease, ‭ Till with his country shore he crown’d his peace.

      ‭ FINIS LIBRI SEXTI HOM. ODYSS.

      ‭[1] ϒπνῳ καἱ καμἀτῳ ἁρημένος. Sonno et labore afflictus. Sleep ‭(καταχρηστικω̑ς) for the want of sleep.

      ‭[2] Intending Dymas’ daughter.

      ‭[3] This familiar and near wanton carriage of Nausicaa to her father, ‭joined with that virgin modesty expressed in her after, is much ‭praised by the gravest of Homer’s expositors; with her father’s ‭loving allowance of it, knowing her shamefastness and judgment ‭would not let her exceed at any part. Which note is here inserted, ‭not as if this were more worthy the observation than other ‭every-where strewed flowers of precept, but because this more ‭generally pleasing subject may perhaps find more fitness for the ‭stay of most readers.

      ‭[4] The piety and wisdom of the Poet was such, that (agreeing with ‭the Sacred Letter) not the least of things he makes come to pass ‭sine Numinis providentiâ. As Spondanus well notes of him.

      ‭[5] Διερὸς βροτός. Cui vitalis vel sensualis humiditas inest. ‭βροτὸς ὰ ῥέω, ut dicatur quasi ῥοτὸς, i.e. ὁ ἐν ῥοᾓ ὢν, quod ‭nihil sit magis fluxum quam homo.

      ‭[6] Ανήρ virili animo præditus, fortis, magnanimus. Nor are ‭those affirmed to be men, qui servile quidpiam et abjectum ‭faciunt, vel, facere sustinent: according to this of Herodotus in ‭Polym. πολλοὶ μὲν ἄνθρωποι ει͒εν, ὀλίγοι δὲ ἄνδρες. Many ‭men’s forms sustain, but few are men.

      ‭[7] According to another translator: ‭ “Ab Jove nam supplex pauper procedit et hospes, ‭ Res brevis, at chara est, magni quoque munaris instar.” ‭Which I cite to show his good when he keeps him to the original, ‭and near in any degree expounds it.

      ‭[8] He taught their youths modesty by his aged judgment. As ‭receiving the custom of maids then used to that entertainment of ‭men, notwithstanding the modesty of that age, could not be ‭corrupted inwardly for those outward kind observations of guests ‭and strangers, and was therefore privileged. It is easy to avoid ‭show; and those, that most curiously avoid the outward ‭construction, are ever most tainted with the inward corruption.

      ‭[9] The city’s description so far forth as may in part induce her ‭promised reason why she took not Ulysses to coach with her.

      ‭[10] Not without some little note of our omnisufficient Homer’s ‭general touch of the least fitness lying in his way, may this courtly ‭discretion he describes in Nausicaa be observed, if you please.

      ‭[11] More of our Poet’s curious and sweet piety.