Of Pytho into pleasant Panopeus.
Next, suff'ring grievous torments, I beheld
Tantalus; in a pool he stood, his chin 715
Wash'd by the wave; thirst-parch'd he seem'd, but found
Nought to assuage his thirst; for when he bow'd
His hoary head, ardent to quaff, the flood
Vanish'd absorb'd, and, at his feet, adust
The soil appear'd, dried, instant, by the Gods. 720
Tall trees, fruit-laden, with inflected heads
Stoop'd to him, pomegranates, apples bright,
The luscious fig, and unctuous olive smooth;
Which when with sudden grasp he would have seized,
Winds hurl'd them high into the dusky clouds. 725
There, too, the hard-task'd Sisyphus I saw,
[1]Thrusting before him, strenuous, a vast rock.
With hands and feet struggling, he shoved the stone
Up to a hill-top; but the steep well-nigh
Vanquish'd, by [2]some great force repulsed, the mass
Rush'd again, obstinate, down to the plain. 731
Again, stretch'd prone, severe he toiled, the sweat
Bathed all his weary limbs, and his head reek'd.
The might of Hercules I, next, survey'd;
His semblance; for himself their banquet shares 735
- ↑ Βασαζοντα must have this sense interpreted by what follows. To attempt to make the English numbers expressive as the Greek, is a labour like that of Sisyphus. The Translator has done what he could.
- ↑ It is now, perhaps, impossible to ascertain with precision what Homer meant by the word κραταιίς, which he uses only here, and in the next book, where it is the name of Scylla’s dam.—Αναιδης—is also of very doubtful explication.
With
