their Teutonic home. It relates three great adventures of its hero, and tells us something of his life from boyhood until his death. It has the dignity and stateliness required by the epic form, and the life led by Hrothgar, Beowulf, and Hygelac, the principal persons of the story, has much of the simplicity of greatness that we have already noted in the Homeric epic.
Of the epic in other countries there is no space to treat. Many sagas, or herostories, have come down to us from Icelandic, Norse, and old German sources. Some of these have been retold in modern verse by Arnold in "Balder Dead" and by William Morris in the "Earthly Paradise." A mass of German legend attained epic form in the Middle Ages in the Nibelungenlied, and some of these stories were used by Wagner in his operas. In France, the Song of Roland is the greatest of a large number of epic tales that grew up around the name of Charlemagne and his knights, while the Arthurian legend, made English by the prose of Malory's Morte d'Arthur in the fifteenth century and Tennyson's
Idylls of the King in the nineteenth, first took on epic form in French poetry of the twelfth century.
Later epics are imitations of the heroic poems that sprang from peoples just attaining national consciousness and a relatively high state of civilization. Spenser's Faerie Queene is one of these, belonging to the end of the sixteenth century, and adapting some of the character of the Arthurian romances to an allegory of the founding of England, the greatness of the reign of Elizabeth, and the character of the ideal hero as conceived by the people of Shakespeare's time. A century later John Milton wrote the epic of Paradise Lost, biblical rather than historical in theme, imitative of Vergil, but summing up the thought of his time in regard to Providence and man's destiny. No epic of the founding of the United States exists, but Longfellow gathered many Indian legends into a noble poem expressive of Indian character and civilization, so that Hiawatha became, in our thought at least, the Ulysses or Aeneas of his race.
The insolent race of Cyclops, and endured Wrong from their mightier hands. A godlike chief,
Nausithoüs, led them to a new abode, And planted them in Scheria, far away From plotting neighbors. With a wall he fenced
Their city, built them dwellings there, and reared
Fanes to the gods, and changed the plain to fields.
But he had bowed to death, and had gone down
To Hades; and Alcinoüs, whom the gods 14 Endowed with wisdom, governed in his stead. Now to his palace, planning the return Of the magnanimous Ulysses, came The blue-eyed goddess Pallas, entering The gorgeous chamber where a damsel slept, Nausicaä, daughter of the large-souled king Alcinoüs, beautiful in form and face As one of the immortals. Near her lay, And by the portal, one on either side, Fair as the Graces, two attendant maids. The shining doors were shut. But Pallas came As comes a breath of air, and stood beside The damsel's head and spake. In look she seemed
The daughter of the famous mariner Dymas, a maiden whom Nausicaä loved, The playmate of her girlhood. In her shape The blue-eyed goddess stood, and thus she said:
*For the pronunciation of proper names, see page 235.
3. Pallas, one of the Greek goddesses, wise in the industries of peace and skilled in the arts of war, called by the Romans Minerva. 6. Cyclops, a race of giants having but one eye, and that in the middle of the forehead, fabled to inhabit Sicily. 9. Scheria, a mythical island, identified by the ancients with Corcyra. 14. Hades, the invisible lower world, the abode of the dead.
"Nausicaä, has thy mother then brought forth
A careless housewife? Thy magnificent robes Lie still neglected, though thy marriage day Is near, when thou art to array thyself In seemly garments, and bestow the like On those who lead thee to the bridal rite; For thus the praise of men is won, and thus Thy father and thy gracious mother both Will be rejoiced. Now with the early dawn Let us all hasten to the washing-place. I too would go with thee, and help thee there, That thou mayst sooner end the task, for thou Not long wilt be unwedded. Thou art wooed Already by the noblest of the race
Of the Phæacians, for thy birth, like theirs, Is of the noblest. Make thy suit at morn To thy illustrious father, that he bid His mules and car be harnessed to convey Thy girdles, robes, and mantles marvelous In beauty. That were seemlier than to walk, Since distant from the town the lavers lie." Thus having said, the blue-eyed Pallas went Back to Olympus, where the gods have made, So saith tradition, their eternal seat. The tempest shakes it not, nor is it drenched By showers, and there the snow doth never fall.
And sat upright, discoursing to himself: "Ah me! upon what region am I thrown? What men are here-wild, savage, and unjust, Or hospitable and who hold the gods In reverence? There are voices in the air, Womanly voices, as of nymphs that haunt 154 The mountain summits, and the river-founts, And the moist, grassy meadows. Or perchance Am I near men who have the power of speech? Nay, let me then go forth at once and learn." Thus having said, the great Ulysses left The thicket. From the close-grown wood he rent With his strong hand a branch well set with leaves,
And wound it as a covering round his waist. Then like a mountain lion he went forth, That walks abroad, confiding in his strength, In rain and wind; his eyes shoot fire; he falls On oxen, or on sheep, or forest-deer, For hunger prompts him even to attack The flock within its closely guarded fold. Such seemed Ulysses when about to meet Those fair-haired maidens, naked as he was, But forced by strong necessity. To them 171 His look was frightful, for his limbs were foul With sea-foam yet. To right and left they fled Along the jutting river-banks. Alone The daughter of Alcinoüs kept her place, 175 For Pallas gave her courage and forbade Her limbs to tremble. So she waited there. Ulysses pondered whether to approach The bright-eyed damsel and embrace her knees And supplicate, or, keeping yet aloof, Pray her with soothing words to show the way Townward and give him garments. Musing
Beholding such a scion of their house Enter the choral dance. But happiest he Beyond them all, who, bringing princely gifts, Shall bear thee to his home a bride; for sure I never looked on one of mortal race, Woman or man, like thee, and as I gaze I wonder. Like to thee I saw of late, In Delos, a young palm-tree growing up Beside Apollo's altar; for I sailed To Delos, with much people following me, On a disastrous voyage. Long I gazed Upon it wonder-struck, as I am now- For never from the earth so fair a tree Had sprung. So marvel I, and am amazed At thee, O lady, and in awe forbear To clasp thy knees. Yet much have I endured. It was but yestereve that I escaped From the black sea, upon the twentieth day, So long the billows and the rushing gales 215 Farther and farther from Ogygia's isle Had borne me. Now upon this shore some god Casts me, perchance to meet new sufferings here;
My handmaids, when a man appears in sight? Ye think, perhaps, he is some enemy. Nay, there is no man living now, nor yet Will live, to enter, bringing war, the land Of the Phæacians. Very dear are they To the great gods. We dwell apart, afar Within the unmeasured deep, amid its waves, The most remote of men; no other race Hath commerce with us. This man comes to us A wanderer and unhappy, and to him Our cares are due. The stranger and the poor Are sent by Jove, and slight regards to them Are grateful. Maidens, give the stranger food And drink, and take him to the river-side 267 To bathe where there is shelter from the wind." So spake the mistress; and they stayed their flight
To cleanse my shoulders from the bitter brine, And to anoint them; long have these my limbs Been unrefreshed by oil. I will not bathe 280 Before you. I should be ashamed to stand Unclothed in presence of these bright-haired maids."
He spake; they hearkened and withdrew, and told
The damsel what he said. Ulysses then 284 Washed the salt spray of ocean from his back And his broad shoulders in the flowing stream, And wiped away the sea-froth from his brows. And when the bath was over, and his limbs
"Listen to me, my maidens, while I speak. This man comes not among the godlike sons Of the Phæacian stock against the will Of all the gods of heaven. I thought him late Of an unseemly aspect; now he bears A likeness to the immortal ones whose home Is the broad heaven. I would that I might call A man like him my husband, dwelling here, And here content to dwell. Now hasten, maids, And set before the stranger food and wine."
« VorigeDoorgaan » |