To them the king:  “No longer I detain
Your friendly care:  retire, ye virgin train! 
Retire, while from my wearied limbs I lave
The foul pollution of the briny wave. 
Ye gods! since this worn frame refection know,
What scenes have I surveyed of dreadful view! 
But, nymphs, recede! sage chastity denies
To raise the blush, or pain the modest eyes.”

The nymphs withdrawn, at once into the tide
Active he bounds; the flashing waves divide
O’er all his limbs his hands the waves diffuse,
And from his locks compress the weedy ooze;
The balmy oil, a fragrant shower, be sheds;
Then, dressed, in pomp magnificently treads. 
The warrior-goddess gives his frame to shine
With majesty enlarged, and air divine: 
Back from his brows a length of hair unfurls,
His hyacinthine locks descend in wavy curls. 
As by some artist, to whom Vulcan gives
His skill divine, a breathing statue lives;
By Pallas taught, he frames the wondrous mould,
And o’er the silver pours the fusile gold
So Pallas his heroic frame improves
With heavenly bloom, and like a god he moves. 
A fragrance breathes around; majestic grace
Attends his steps:  the astonished virgins gaze. 
Soft he reclines along the murmuring seas,
Inhaling freshness from the fanning breeze.

The wondering nymph his glorious port survey’d,
And to her damsels, with amazement, said: 

“Not without care divine the stranger treads
This land of joy; his steps some godhead leads: 
Would Jove destroy him, sure he had been driven
Far from this realm, the favourite isle of heaven. 
Late, a sad spectacle of woe, he trod
The desert sands, and now be looks a god. 
Oh heaven! in my connubial hour decree
This man my spouse, or such a spouse as he! 
But haste, the viands and the bowl provide.” 
The maids the viands and the bowl supplied: 
Eager he fed, for keen his hunger raged,
And with the generous vintage thirst assuaged.

Now on return her care Nausicaa bends,
The robes resumes, the glittering car ascends,
Far blooming o’er the field; and as she press’d
The splendid seat, the listening chief address’d: 

“Stranger, arise! the sun rolls down the day. 
Lo, to the palace I direct thy way;
Where, in high state, the nobles of the land
Attend my royal sire, a radiant band
But hear, though wisdom in thy soul presides,
Speaks from thy tongue, and every action guides;
Advance at distance, while I pass the plain
Where o’er the furrows waves the golden grain;
Alone I reascend—­With airy mounds
A strength of wall the guarded city bounds;
The jutting land two ample bays divides: 
Full through the narrow mouths descend the tides;
The spacious basons arching rocks enclose,
A sure defence from every storm that blows. 
Close to the bay great Neptune’s fane adjoins;
And near, a forum flank’d with marble shines,