“Long on the Egyptian coast by calms confined, Heaven to my fleet refused a prosperous wind; No vows had we preferr’d, nor victims slain! For this the gods each favouring gale restrain Jealous, to see their high behests obey’d; Severe, if men the eternal rights evade. High o’er a gulfy sea, the Pharian isle Fronts the deep roar of disemboguing Nile: Her distance from the shore, the course begun At dawn, and ending with the setting sun, A galley measures; when the stiffer gales Rise on the poop, and fully stretch the sails. There, anchor’d vessels safe in harbour lie, Whilst limpid springs the failing cask supply.
“And now the twentieth sun, descending, laves His glowing axle in the western waves: Still with expanded sails we court in vain Propitious winds to waft us o’er the main; And the pale mariner at once deplores His drooping vigour and exhausted stores. When lo! a bright cerulean form appears, Proteus her sire divine. With pity press’d, Me sole the daughter of the deep address’d; What time, with hunger pined, my absent mates Roam the wide isle in search of rural cates, Bait the barb’d steel, and from the fishy flood Appease the afflictive fierce desire of food.”
“‘Whoe’er thou art (the azure goddess cries) Thy conduct ill-deserves the praise of wise: Is death thy choice, or misery thy boast, That here inglorious, on a barren coast, Thy brave associates droop, a meagre train, With famine pale, and ask thy care in vain?’ “Struck with the loud reproach, I straight reply: ‘Whate’er thy title in thy native sky, A goddess sure! for more than moral grace Speaks thee descendant of ethereal race; Deem not that here of choice my fleet remains; Some heavenly power averse my stay constrains: O, piteous of my fate, vouchsafe to show (For what’s sequester’d from celestial view?) What power becalms the innavigable seas? What guilt provokes him, and what vows appease?’
“I ceased, when affable the goddess cried: ‘Observe, and in the truths I speak confide; The oracular seer frequents the Pharian coast, From whose high bed my birth divine I boast; Proteus, a name tremendous o’er the main, The delegate of Neptune’s watery reign. Watch with insidious care his known abode; There fast in chains constrain the various god; Who bound, obedient to superior force, Unerring will prescribe your destined course. If, studious on your realms, you then demand Their state, since last you left your natal land, Instant the god obsequious will disclose Bright tracts of glory or a cloud of woes.’