'Vast, O my friends, and difficult the toil
To seek your hero in a distant soil!
No common helps, no common guide, ye need,
Art it requires and more than winged speed.
What length of sea remains, what various lands,
Oceans unknown, inhospitable sands!
For adverse fate the captive chief has hurled
Beyond the confines of our narrow world.
Great things and full of wonder in your ears
I shall unfold; but first dismiss your fears,
Nor doubt with me to tread the downward road
That to the grotto leads, my dark abode.'