The Odysseys of Homer, together with the shorter poems

Alcides, forcefullest of all the brood Of men enforc’d with need of earthy food, My Muse shall memorise; the son of Jove, Whom, in fair-seated Thebes (commix’d in love With great heaven’s sable-cloud-assembling State) Alcmena bore to him; and who, in date Of days forepast, through all the sea was sent, And Earth’s inenarrable continent, To acts that king Eurystheus had decreed; Did many a petulant and imperious deed Himself, and therefore suffer’d many a toil; Yet now inhabits the illustrious soil Of white Olympus, and delights his life With still-young Hebe, his well-ankled wife. Hail, King, and Son of Jove! Vouchsafe me Virtue, and, her effect, felicity!