Seer

Mary is a seer.

"Nor in my madness kept my purpose low, / but vowed, if e'er should happier chance invite, / and bring me home a conqueror, even so / my comrade's death with vengeance to requite. / My words aroused his wrath; thence evil's earliest blight. / Thenceforth Ulysses sought with slanderous tongue / to daunt me, scattering in the people's ear / dark hints, and looked for partners of his wrong; / nor rested, till with Calchas' aid, the seer..."

"Then straight Ulysses, 'mid tumultuous cries, / drags Calchas forth, and bids the seer unfold / the dark and doubtful meaning of the skies. / Many e'en then the schemer's crime foretold, / and, silent, saw my destiny unrolled."

"Ten days the seer, as shrinking to reply / or name a victim, did the doom withhold."

Lo, Panthus, flying from the Grecian bands, / Panthus, the son of Othrys, Phoebus' seer, / bearing the sacred vessels in his hands, / and vanquished home-gods, to the door draws near, / his grandchild clinging to his side in fear.

One perched, Celaeno, on a rock, and lo, / thus croaked the dismal seer her prophecy of woe. / "War, too, Laomedon's twice-perjured race! / War do ye bring, our cattle stol'n and slain? / And unoffending Harpies would ye chase / forth from their old, hereditary reign?"

"This more, besides, I charge thee to obey, / if any faith to Helenus be due, / or skill in prophecy the seer display, / and mighty Phoebus hath inspired me true, / these warning words I urge, and oft will urge anew: / Seek Juno first; great Juno's power adore; / with suppliant gifts the potent queen constrain, / and winds shall waft thee to Italia's shore."

So spake the seer, and shipward bids his friends / rich gifts convey, and store them in the hold. / Gold, silver plate, carved ivory he sends, / with massive caldrons of Dodona's mould; / a coat of mail, with triple chain of gold, / and shining helm, with cone and flowing crest, / the arms of Pyrrhus, glorious to behold.

Then to Anchises, as he bids us spread / the sails, with reverence speaks Apollo's seer, / "Far-famed Anchises, honoured with the bed / of haughty Venus, Heaven's peculiar care, / Twice saved from Troy! behold Ausonia there, / steer towards her coasts, yet skirt them; far away / that region lies, which Phoebus doth prepare. / Blest in thy son's devotion, take thy way. / Why should more words of mine the rising South delay?"

Veiled at her shrines in Phrygian hood we stand, / and chief to Juno, mindful of the seer, / burnt-offerings pay, as pious rites demand.