ULY. Keeping cautiously aloof,
Thus I, Ulysses, guard my threatened life.
POL. What saidst thou? Wherefore hast thou changed thy name
T’ assume a new one?
ULY. Me my father named
Ulysses. It was destined you should suffer
A just requital for your impious feast;
For I in vain had with consuming flames
Laid Ilion waste, had I forborne t’ avenge
On you the murder of my valiant friends.
POL. Now is that ancient oracle, alas!
Accomplished, which foretold, that I by thee,
On thy return from Troy, should be deprived
Of sight: but that thou also for a deed
So cruel, shalt be punished, and full long
Endure the beating of tempestuous waves.
ULY. Go weep, my actions justify these words.
But to the shore I haste; and to my country
Will steer the vessel o’er Sicilia’s waves.
POL. Thou shalt not; with this fragment of the rock
Hurled at thy head, thee and thy perjured crew
Will I demolish: for I yet, though blind,
Can mount the cliff which overhangs the port,
And in its wonted crannies fix my steps.
CHOR. But we, blest partners in Ulysses’ voyage,
Henceforth the laws of Bacchus will obey.