“There Ephimedia trod the gloomy plain,
Who charm’d the monarch of the boundless main: 
Hence Ephialtes, hence stern Otus sprung,
More fierce than giants, more than giants strong;
The earth o’erburden’d groan’d beneath their weight,
None but Orion e’er surpassed their height: 
The wondrous youths had scarce nine winters told,
When high in air, tremendous to behold,
Nine ells aloft they rear’d their towering head,
And full nine cubits broad their shoulders spread. 
Proud of their strength, and more than mortal size,
The gods they challenge, and affect the skies: 
Heaved on Olympus tottering Ossa stood;
On Ossa, Pelion nods with all his wood. 
Such were they youths I had they to manhood grown
Almighty Jove had trembled on his throne,
But ere the harvest of the beard began
To bristle on the chin, and promise man,
His shafts Apollo aim’d; at once they sound,
And stretch the giant monsters o’er the ground.

“There mournful Phaedra with sad Procris moves,
Both beauteous shades, both hapless in their loves;
And near them walk’d with solemn pace and slow,
Sad Adriadne, partner of their woe: 
The royal Minos Ariadne bred,
She Theseus loved, from Crete with Theseus fled: 
Swift to the Dian isle the hero flies,
And towards his Athens bears the lovely prize;
There Bacchus with fierce rage Diana fires,
The goddess aims her shaft, the nymph expires.

“There Clymene and Mera I behold,
There Eriphyle weeps, who loosely sold
Her lord, her honour, for the lust of gold. 
But should I all recount, the night would fail,
Unequal to the melancholy tale: 
And all-composing rest my nature craves,
Here in the court, or yonder on the waves;
In you I trust, and in the heavenly powers,
To land Ulysses on his native shores.”

He ceased; but left so charming on their ear
His voice, that listening still they seem’d to hear,
Till, rising up, Arete silence broke,
Stretch’d out her snowy hand, and thus she spoke: 

“What wondrous man heaven sends us in our guest;
Through all his woes the hero shines confess’d;
His comely port, his ample frame express
A manly air, majestic in distress. 
He, as my guest, is my peculiar care: 
You share the pleasure, then in bounty share
To worth in misery a reverence pay,
And with a generous hand reward his stay;
For since kind heaven with wealth our realm has bless’d,
Give it to heaven by aiding the distress’d.”

Then sage Echeneus, whose grave reverend brow
The hand of time had silvered o’er with snow,
Mature in wisdom rose:  “Your words (he cries)
Demand obedience, for your words are wise. 
But let our king direct the glorious way
To generous acts; our part is to obey.”

“While life informs these limbs (the king replied),
Well to deserve, be all my cares employed: 
But here this night the royal guest detain,
Till the sun flames along the ethereal plain. 
Be it my task to send with ample stores
The stranger from our hospitable shores: 
Tread you my steps!  ’Tis mine to lead the race,
The first in glory, as the first in place.”