Can heavenly natures nourish hate
So fierce, so blindly passionate?
although very beautiful, contains less depth, less feeling, and holds less intimately to the subject than this sublime reflection:
. . . and the men were perishing!
Someone has said that Vergil had imitated in his exposition the commencement of the Odyssey of Homer; this is a mistake. One finds always in the exposition of the Odyssey the real character of a first inspiration blended with the invocation, although more calm and less alluring than in the Iliad. Here is the translation:
Du plus sage Héros, Muse, dis les traverses
Sans nombre, après qu'il eut triomphé d'Ilion:
Rapelle les cités, les peuples, les usages,
Qu'il connut, et les mers où longtemps il erra:
Á quels soins dévorants, à quels maux l'exposèrent
L'amour de la patrie et noble désir
D'y mener ses guerriers! Vain désir: ils osèrent,
Insensés! du Soleil dévorer les troupeaux;
Et ce Dieu, du retour leur ravit la journée.
Fais-nous part de ces faits, fille de Jupiter.
Tell me, O Muse, of that sagacious man
Who, having overthrown the sacred town
Of Ilium, wandered far and visited
The capitals of many nations, learned
The customs of their dwellers and endured
Great suffering on the deep; his life was oft
In peril, as he laboured to bring back
His comrades to their homes. He saved them not,
Though earnestly he strove; they perished all,
Through their own folly; for they banqueted,
Madmen! upon the oxen of the Sun,—
The all-o'erlooking Sun, who cut them off
From their return. O Goddess, virgin-child
Of Jove, relate some part of this to me.
Bryant.
