"The adverse winds in leathern bags he brac'd,
Compress'd their force, and lock'd each struggling blast:
For him the mighty sire of gods assign'd,
The tempest's lord, the tyrant of the wind;
His word alone the list'ning storms obey,
To smooth the deep, or swell the foamy sea.
These, in my hollow ship the monarch hung,
Securely fetter'd by a silver thong;
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But Zephyrus exempt, with friendly gales He charg'd to fill, and guide the swelling sails: Rare gift! but oh, what gift to fools avails?" | } |
Pope, Odyss. x. 20.
The companions of Ulysses imagined that these bags contained some valuable treasure, and opened them while their leader slept. The tempests bursting out, drove the fleet from Ithaca, which was then in sight, and was the cause of a new train of miseries.
[394] See the third Æneid.
[395] See the sixth Æneid, and the eleventh Odyssey.
[396] Alexander the Great.—Ed.
[397] Achilles, son of Peleus.—Ed.
[398] Virgil, born at Mantua.—Ed.
[399] Don Francisco de Gama, grandson of Vasco de Gama, the hero of the Lusiad.—Ed.