Book XIX

And therefore went Ulysses to receive The promised princely gifts. Autolycus And all his sons received him with kind words, And friendly grasp of hands. Amphithea there⁠— His mother’s mother⁠—took him in her arms, And kissed his brow and both his beautiful eyes. Then to his noble sons Autolycus Called to prepare a feast, and they obeyed. They brought and slew a steer of five years old, And flayed and dressed it, hewed the joints apart, And sliced the flesh, and fixed it upon spits, Roasted it carefully, and gave to each His part. So all the day till set of sun They feasted, to the full content of all. And when the sun had set, and earth grew dark, They laid them down, and took the gift of sleep. But when the rosy-fingered Morn appeared, Born of the Dawn, forth issued the young men, The children of Autolycus, with hounds, To hunt, attended by their noble guest, Ulysses. Up the steeps of that high mount Parnassus, clothed with woods, they climbed, and soon Were on its airy heights. The sun, new risen From the deep ocean’s gently flowing stream, Now smote the fields. The hunters reached a dell; The hounds before them tracked the game; behind Followed the children of Autolycus. The generous youth Ulysses, brandishing A spear of mighty length, came pressing on Close to the hounds. There lay a huge wild boar Within a thicket, where moist-blowing winds Came not, nor in his brightness could the sun Pierce with his beams the covert, nor the rain Pelt through, so closely grew the shrubs. The ground Was heaped with sheddings of the withered leaves. Around him came the noise of dogs and men Approaching swiftly. From his lair he sprang And faced them, with the bristles on his neck Upright, and flashing eyes. Ulysses rushed Before the others, with the ponderous spear Raised high in his strong hand intent to smite. The boar was first to strike; he dealt a blow Sidelong, and gashed his foe above the knee, And tore the flesh, but left untouched the