When Ulysses reached the lawn, in front of the palace, the lions and other savage animals came bounding to meet him, and would have fawned upon him and licked his feet.But the wise king struck at them with his long spear, and sternly bade them begone out of his path; for he knew that they had once been bloodthirsty men, and would now tear him limb from limb, instead of fawning upon him, could they do the mischief that was in their hearts.The wild beasts yelped and glared at him, and stood at a distance, while he ascended the palace steps.
On entering the hall, Ulysses saw the magic fountain in the center of it.The up-gushing water had now again taken the shape of a man in a long, white, fleecy robe, who appeared to be making gestures of welcome.The king likewise heard the noise of the shuttle in the loom and the sweet melody of the beautiful woman's song, and then the pleasant voices of herself and the four maidens talking together, with peals of merry laughter intermixed.But Ulysses did not waste much time in listening to the laughter or the song.He leaned his spear against one of the pillars of the hall, and then, after loosening his sword in the scabbard, stepped boldly forward, and threw the folding doors wide open.The moment she beheld his stately figure standing in the doorway, the beautiful woman rose from the loom, and ran to meet him with a glad smile throwing its sunshine over her face, and both her hands extended.
"Welcome, brave stranger!" cried she."We were expecting you."And the nymph with the sea-green hair made a courtesy down to the ground, and likewise bade him welcome; so did her sister with the bodice of oaken bark, and she that sprinkled dew-drops from her fingers' ends, and the fourth one with some oddity which I cannot remember.And Circe, as the beautiful enchantress was called (who had deluded so many persons that she did not doubt of being able to delude Ulysses, not imagining how wise he was), again addressed him:
"Your companions," said she, "have already been received into my palace, and have enjoyed the hospitable treatment to which the propriety of their behavior so well entitles them.If such be your pleasure, you shall first take some refreshment, and then join them in the elegant apartment which they now occupy.
See, I and my maidens have been weaving their figures into this piece of tapestry."She pointed to the web of beautifully-woven cloth in the loom.
Circe and the four nymphs must have been very diligently at work since the arrival of the mariners; for a great many yards of tapestry had nw been wrought, in addition to what I before described.In this new part, Ulysses saw his two and twenty friends represented as sitting on cushions and canopied thrones, greedily devouring dainties, and quaffing deep draughts of wine.The work had not yet gone any further.O, no, indeed.The enchantress was far too cunning to let Ulysses see the mischief which her magic arts had since brought upon the gormandizers.
"As for yourself, valiant sir," said Circe, "judging by the dignity of your aspect, I take you to be nothing less than a king.Deign to follow me, and you shall be treated as befits your rank."So Ulysses followed her into the oval saloon, where his two and twenty comrades had devoured the banquet, which ended so disastrously for themselves.But, all this while, he had held the snow-white flower in his hand, and had constantly smelt of it while Circe was speaking; and as he crossed the threshold of the saloon, he took good care to inhale several long and deep snuffs of its fragrance.Instead of two and twenty thrones, which had before been ranged around the wall, there was now only a single throne, in the center of the apartment.But this was surely the most magnificent seat that ever a king or an emperor reposed himself upon, all made of chased gold, studded with precious stones, with a cushion that looked like a soft heap of living roses, and overhung by a canopy of sunlight which Circe knew how to weave into drapery.The enchantress took Ulysses by the hand, and made him sit down upon this dazzling throne.Then, clapping her hands, she summoned the chief butler.
"Bring hither," said she, "the goblet that is set apart for kings to drink out of.And fill it with the same delicious wine which my royal brother, King Aetes, praised so highly, when he last visited me with my fair daughter Medea.That good and amiable child! Were she now here, it would delight her to see me offering this wine to my honored guest."But Ulysses, while the butler was gone for the wine, held the snow-white flower to his nose.
"Is it a wholesome wine?" he asked.
At this the four maidens tittered; whereupon the enchantress looked round at them, with an aspect of severity.
"It is the wholesomest juice that ever was squeezed out of the grape," said she; "for, instead of disguising a man, as other liquor is apt to do, it brings him to his true self, and shows him as he ought to be."The chief butler liked nothing better than to see people turned into swine, or making any kind of a beast of themselves; so he made haste to bring the royal goblet, filled with a liquid as bright as gold, and which kept sparkling upward, and throwing a sunny spray over the brim.But, delightfully as the wine looked, it was mingled with the most potent enchantments that Circe knew how to concoct.For every drop of the pure grape juice there were two drops of the pure mischief; and the danger of the thing was, that the mischief made it taste all the better.The mere smell of the bubbles, which effervesced at the brim, was enough to turn a man's beard into pig's bristles, or make a lion's claws grow out of his fingers, or a fox's brush behind him.
