With horrour and amaze they first survey'd The swift vicissitudes of light and shade; And, when the Sun withdrew its setting ray, Fear'd an eternal absence of the day. From Manalos th' assembling rustics rove, And quit, in crowds, the black Parthenian grove; Then Rhipe, on her snowy cliffs reclin'd, And high Enispe, obvious to the wind. From Stratie the raging hinds descend; Tegan swains the exile's cause befriend. Cyllene mourns her desert height in vain; And Pallas weeps for her dispeopled plain. They flock from where the gentle Ladon glides, And rapid Cliton rolis his hoarser tides; Where white Lampia thunders in his course, And Peneus, whence the Styx derives his source. From Azan then they sought the deathful field, To which in howlings Ida's self must yield. Like waves, they pour from the Parthasian grove, Sacred to Cupid, and the queen of love: Where, to facilitate Calysto's rape, Great Jove assum'd Diana's arms and shape: Orchomenos, whose plains in sheep abound, And Cynosure, for savage beasts renown'd. Then Mars depopulates th' Ephytian plains, And lofty Psophis of her warriors drains : Stymphalus next, and where in days of yore The brave Alcides slew the foaming boar. Arcadians all: tho' various in their name, And manners, yet their nation was the same. For javeins some huge Paphian myrtles wield, Whilst others arm'd with sheep-crooks take the field. These, skilful archers, bend the stubborn bow, And those with stakes alone provoke the foe. 430 One in a spreading hat his hair confines, Another in a crested helmet shines.
Those with the spoils of some huge monster hide
Their features, glorying in terrific pride.
Mycena's sons alone withheld their aid,
Nor they with neutral ease the war survey'd :
The Sun's abrupt retreat, and impious rage
Of adverse brothers, all their arms engage.
Meanwhile th' ungrateful messenger in tears
The mournful tale to Atalanta bears;
How her rash son had sought the Theban fight,
With all the youths, companions in his flight.
Her fainty limbs with sudden horrour shook;
The falling bow her feeble grasp forsook:
Swift as the wind, impatient of delay,
"Whence springs this impotent, this useless rage,
This heat, that ill becomes thy tender age?
Canst thou th' experiene'd soldier's hardships bear,
In toils consume the day, the night in care?
Canst thou the falchion wield, and bend the bow,
Or with the strength I wish, repel the foe?
Hast thou forgot, when on Cyllene's height [weight,
Thy slacken'd knees could scarce support thy
While the fierce boar, the terrour of the wood, 461
Close at thy side, with threat'ning aspect stood?
How little had avail'd this useless blade,
Had my unerring shafts withheld their aid!
But here, alas! a mother's art must fail,
Nor Lycian bows, or Gnossian shafts avail.
Nor will the trusted courser aid supply,
When the loud tumult speaks the battle nigh.
In vain you mingle with the sons of Mars,
Scarce qualified to serve in Cupid's wars.
Nor were there omens wanting to disclose
Thy cruel flight, the source of future woes:
Diana's fane a sudden tremour shook;
The goddess frown'd, and angry was her look:
The falling trophies shook the sacred floor,
These arrows carry certain death no more,
But, erring from the mark, desert the bow:
Nor my faint arms their wonted vigour know.
Awhile await, and check thy youthful rage,
Till strength succeed, the gift of riper age; 480
Till the soft down thy tender cheeks embrace,
And stamp an air of manhood on thy face:
Nor tears, nor pray'rs shall then retard thy flight;
Myself will arm thee for the glorious fight.
Hence then-Nor let me here in vain repine;
Will you, his comrades, aid the rash design?
How well those stubborn hearts which nought can
Your steely race, and inbred rigour prove!" [move,
Here paus'd the matron: the surrounding chiefs
Strive to remove her fears, and soothe her griefs. 490
Scarce, when the trumpet sounds the last alarms,
Can she dismiss him from her pious arms;
453. Whence springs] The abruptness of this oration admirably expresses the violence of affection in Atalanta; and the silence of Parthenopaus on the other hand, has a beautiful effect. We may suppose, it was a dreadful mortification to the young adventurer, (who assumed the man as much as possible) to be called a smock-faced boy, reminded of his weakness, and desired to re
Thro' adverse woods and streams she forc'd her way. turn home, among a cloud of sncering warriors.
Her hair, dishevell'd, in confusion, flies,
Her naked breasts in wild emotion rise.
The tigress thus, with dreadful anguish stung,
P rsues the spoiler, and demands her young. 450
At length she snatch'd his courser's foaming reins,
And the pale warrior thus awhile detains.
414. To which in howlings] There was a temple here dedicated to Cybele, whose votaries were obliged to howl in a peculiar manuer, during the solemnization of the sacred rites.
418. Great Jove assum'd] There was a particular reason for his being disguised in this manner: Calysto being one of Diana's virgin attend
423. And where in days] This was Eryman
438. Of adverse brothers] viz. Atreus and Thyestes, whose story is too well known to need any farther elucidation,
Barthius, a critic of eminence, in the height of rapture on this occasion, cries out, Mirus talium artifex Papinius!
456. Nor Lycian bows] They were held in the greatest request among the ancient heathens. The arrows were called Gnossian, from Gnossus, a city of Crete.
470. Scarce qualified] Those commentators who bring an author off upon every occasion with this excuse, that he was obliged to conform to the national custom of the times, may find an apology for this raillery of Atalanta; but I am confident it would be esteemed indelicate, if not indecent and immodest, in a modern female. 475. The falling] So Lucan.
Oft she commends him to the monarch's care,
And thus awhile retards the fate of war.
Meanwhile an honest shame the Thebans awes,
And cools their ardour in the royal cause;
With just aversion they awhile delay'd
The town's defence, nor march in quest of aid.
Tho' fear-inspiring fame increas'd their woes,
Doubling the strength and number of their foes;
No wonted eagerness to take the field
501
Impels to fix th' hereditary shield,
None fit the rein, to check or urge his speed,
And animate to fight the snorting steed:
Heartless and void of military rage,
They sought the combat, and, constrain'd, engage.
Each seeks a just pretence to shun his doom;
One pleads a num'rous progeny at home:
Another for his pregnant consort fears,
Or mourns bis sire infirm and worn with years. 510
The god of war inspir'd no martial rage:
Their walls, decay'd with gath'ring filth and age,
And tow'rs, which at Amphion's call arose,
On ev'ry side a threat'ning gap disclose:
But now, alas! no bard with skilful hand
Repairs the breach, or bids the rampire stand.
But social love the stern Boeotian warms,
To snatch from hostile rage, and impious arms,
The liberties of Thebes, and ancient laws,
And aid the public, not the royal cause.
As when the wolf, with raging hunger bold,
Has bath'd the plain in blood, or storm'd the fold,
With paunch distended, and with lolling tongue,
He shuns the vengeance of the rustic throng;
trial, must sympathise with the disconsolate Atalanta, and confess the poet to be a faithful interpreter of nature. It is so common in these interviews to make use of such repetitions, and summon the merest trifles to one's aid, in order to effect a short delay, and put off the anguish of the parting moment. Lucan says of Pompey :
Mentem jam verba paratam Destituunt, blandæque juvat ventura trahentem Judulgere moræ, et tempus subducere fatis.
495. Meanwhile an honest shame] The poet has made a just distinction between the disposition of the allies and the Thebans to begin hostilities. The former, conscious of their own innocence, march to battle with the greatest confidence and alacrity; the latter, sensible of the unjust cause they are engaged in, and supporting, are represented as dejected, timorous, and desponding.
521. As when the wolf] The guilty conscience of Eteocles is well illustrated in this comparison. The outlines of this speaking picture were copied from Homer on a similar subject.
Αλλ' όγ' ἀρ έτρεσε θηρὶ κακὸν ῥέξαντι ἐοικώς, *Οςε κύνα κτεινας, ή βεκόλον αμφι βόεσσιν, Φεύγει, πρίν περ ὅμιλον ἀολλισθήμεναι ἀνδρῶν. Virgil has copied it likewise.
Ac velut ille, prius quam tela inimica sequantur, Continuò in montes sese avius abdidit altos Occiso pastore lupns, magnove juvenco, Conscius audacis facti: caudamque remulcens Subjecit pavitantem utero, sylvasque petivit. Virgil has undoubtedly the advantage in point of subject, though I think the simile itself is more copious, and contains a greater assemblage of images in our author.
And, conscious of the crime, at ev'ry sound
Exerts his speed, and hurls his eyes around.
Thus did each fresh report of fame suggest
The fears of vengeance to the tyrant's breast.
One spreads a rumour, that Lernæan horse
From old Asopus bent to Thebes their course; 530
Another, that Citharon's tow'ring height
Was occupied, a prelude to the fight:
A third relates, that fam'd Platea shone
With hostile fires, and splendours not her own.
Then Parian images at ev'ry pore
Were seen to sweat, and Dirce blush'd with gore.
Again on earth the speaking sphynx was heard,
And monstrous births the teeming mother scar'd.
On ev'ry breast presaging terrour sate,
Fraught with some omen of approaching fate. 540
But lo! a fiercer object strikes their eyes,
Forth thro' the streets the frantic priestess flies
Of Bacchus, and from his deserted fane
With hair dishevel'd rush'd along the plain.
She wildly star'd, and, urg'd with rage divine,
Shook high above her head a flaming pine.
Enthusiastic heavings swell'd her breast,
And thus her voice th' informing god addrest.
"Almighty pow'r! whose aid we boast no more,
Transferr'd from Thebes to some more favour'd
shore;
Whether you shake beneath the northern pole 551
Your wreathed spear, and fire the Thracian's soul;
Or bid the mangled vine revive again,
While stern Lycurgus threats, but threats in vain:
Whether you rage, where down a length'ning steep
The Ganges rushes, mingling with the deep;
535. Then Parian images] Some of these prognostics are mentioned by Lucan, as preceding the civil war.
Monstrosisque hominum partus, numeroque medoque
Membrorum, matremque suus conterruit infans:
And again :
Indigetes flevisse Deos, urbisque laborem
Testatos sudore lares.-
tiful imitation of the following passage in Lucan. 541. But lo! a fiercer object] This is a beau Terruerant satis hæc pavidam præsagia plebem: Sed majora premunt. Nam qualis vertice Pindi Edonis Ogygio decurrit plena Lyæo: Talis et attonitam rapitur matrona per urbem, Vocibus his prodens urgentem pectora Phoebum. And the prophecy, annexed to it, excels the criginal.
553. Or bid the mangled vine] Lycurgus, king of Thrace, caused most of the vines to be rooted up, so that his subjects were obliged to mix it with water, when it was less plentiful. Hence it was feigned, that he drove Bacchus himself ont of Thrace, and that Thetis received him iste her bosom, according to the following lines a Homer.
Οὐδὲ γὰρ ἐδὲ Δρύαντα, υιος κρατερὸς Λυκόοργα
Δὴν ἦν, ὃς ῥα θεοῖσιν ἐπερανίοισιν ἔριζεν.
Ος ποτε μαινομένοιο Διωνύσσοιο τιθηνάς
Σεΰε κατ' Αγάθεον Νυσσηῖον· εἰ δ ̓ ἅμα πέσει
Θύσθλα χαμαὶ κατέχευαν, ὑπ' ἀνδροφόνοιο Αυτης
Θεινόμεναι βεπλήγι. Διώνυσσος δὲ φοβηθείς
Δύσεθ' αλὸς κατὰ κύμα: Θέτις δ' ὑπεδέξατο κόλπος
Δειδιότα.
Iliad, b. 6. v. 130.
Or from the spring of Hermus rise in gold,
Whose parting waves the sacred ore unfold:
Incline thine ear: nor let us e'er despair
Of aid, nor mourn thy alienated care.
For royal perjuries, nor crimes our own,
We weep in slaughter, and in war atone:
Yet still, O Bacchus, we thy pow'r obey,
And gifts unceasing on thy altars lay.
But, ere I speak what wretched Thebes must feel,
And truths, invidious to the great, reveal;
Transport, and waft me to the northern pole,
Where endless frosts the rays of Sol control.
Was it for this I was constrain'd to swear,
When first the sacred fillets bound my hair? 570
I see two stately monarchs of the mead,
Their honours equal, and the same their breed,
With clashing horns, and butting heads engage,
And fall the victims of each other's rage.
More guilty he, who scorns a share to yield,
And claims the sole possession of the field:
Meanwhile a friend to neither wears the spoils,
And reaps the harvest of their bloody toils."
Here paus'd the dame: th' exhausted fury ceas'd,
And, ebbing in her soul, the god decreas'd. 580
Urg'd by these omens, and superior dread,
The king for counsel to Tiresias fled;
Blind was the seer, yet boundless was his view,
The present, future, and the past he knew.
No sacrifice employs his pious cares,
Nor th' augur's art his lawful notice shares,
Nor seeks he from presaging veins to prove,
Or learn in Delphic caves the will of Jove;
No list'uing stars his potent charms invoke,
Nor fragrant altars yield prophetic smoke:
But horrid arts of magic are explor'd,
And Stygian rites, by Jove and Heav'n abhor'd.
Oft he dispeoples Pluto's airy reign,
And bids reviving phantoms breathe again.
Of blasted sheep, selected from the field, Whose fleeces still the stench of sulphur yield,
577. Meanwhile a friend] This was Creon, who seized the kingdom of Thebes after the death of the two brothers, figured under the two bulls.
As I am not often guilty of troubling the reader with verbal criticisms and various readings, I hope he will pardon me, for barely mentioning a trifling dispute, which hath arisen about the 576th verse, between two celebrated verbal critics. One of them contends warmly that we should read mountain; alleging, the supposition to be more natural of beasts feeding there than on a field, as I have translated it. This must surely be a controversy about nothing, the meaning of the author in the words communem montem is nothing more than a pasture common to both. One of these disputants has quoted from Virgil, in support of his pinion,
The mangled entrails first are cull'd with care, Then cleans'd with grass, and hallow'd with a
There grew a wood, superior to the rage
Of wintry tempests, and corroding age;
Whose boughs with interweaving union form
A shade, impervious to the sun and storm.
Invidious winds at awful distance fly,
And glancing light'nings shoot obliquely by.
No breeze in murm'ring sounds is heard to breathe,
The same eternal horrour broods beneath.
Some scatter'd images of light invade,
And but enhance the terrour of the shade.
Nor was the sacred silence of the grove
Unnotic'd by the progeny of Jove;
Latonia's form, engrav'd on ev'ry tree,
Attests the presence of the deity.
Oft have her shafts resounded thro' the glade,
And howling dogs her passing orb betray'd;
As from her uncle's dark domains she flies,
And in Diana's form deserts the skies.
But, when the mountains glitter with her light,
And the still hours to pleasing sleep invite;
Here on her quiver she reclines her head,
With heaps of glitt'ring jav'lins round her spread.
Before the entrance lies the field of Mars, 621
Fam'd for its iron crop and rising wars.
Bold was the wretch who durst explore again
The fatal horrours of the bloody plain;
And, heedless of the past, employ his toil
To turn, and exercise the guilty soil.
Oft (as fame tells) the earth in sounds of woe
Is heard to groan from hollow depths below,
When her indignant sons in fight engage,
And deal their blows around with airy rage,
The trembling rustic leaves his work undone,
And lowing herds the dreadful issue shun.
Here (for the place itself convenient lies
For Stygian rites, and impious aid supplies)
Are brought young steers, unknowing of the yoke,
And sable sheep to grace the fatal stroke;
Each hill and vale th' unwonted silence mourns,
And echoing Dirce groan for groan returns.
Tiresias first (as custom taught) adorns
With azure wreaths of flow'rs their tender horns,
Then fills the hollow'd entrance of the wood 641
With bowls of wine and milk, a mingled flood:
Honey and blood, the last with trembling hands
He pours, as oft as the parch'd earth demands.
For Hecate, first of all th' immortal train,
They heap a triple pile upon the plain;
599. There grew] The two celebrated descriptions of a wood in Lucan and Tasso are, I think, inferior to this before us. The five first verses in
the original are highly finished; but the last is inexpressibly beautiful. The description of Lucan is in the 3d book of his Pharsalia, and that of Tasso in the 13th canto of his Jerusalem.
611. Latonia's form] This goddess was called Luna in Heaven, Diana upon Earth, and Proserpine in Hell. In the pagan theology it was very usual for their gods to have many names, as well as many offices. This piece of superstition is exact ly copied from them by the papists, in the several employments which are assigned to their saints.
629. When her indignant sons] These were supposed to be the souls of those warriors who arose from the dragon's teeth, and fell in a con flict among themselves.
Three sylvan structures to the furies rise,
Whose less'ning sumunits mingle with the skies:
The last of pine to Stygian Jove they rear,
Broad was the base, the top advanc'd in air.
To Proserpine, assign'd to lasting night,
An altar rises of inferior height.
May Charon's vessel groan beneath the weight,
And scarce restore to Styx the mighty freight.
Nor let the dead in one promiscuous train
650 Revive, and view the light of Heav'n again: 650
From fair Elysium let the just repair
Beneath thy conduct, and engage thy care;
With thee shall Hermes share the due command,
Direct their passage, and exert his wand.
But let Tisiphone the light disclose
To them whose crimes deserve eternal woes,
Without compunction and remission shake
Her flaming torch, and open ev'ry snake;
Let Cerberus his usual rage restrain,
And yield the passage to the guilty train.
Of these innumerable is the throng,
And yet the greatest part to Thebes belong."
He paus'd, unmov'd, and resolutely bent
To prove the issue, and await th'event:
Nor was the nymph deficient in her part,
For Phoebus had inur'd her tender heart.
Eteocles alone was seen to fear;
Convuls'd his limbs, and pale his cheeks appear.
One while the prophet's aged hands he press'd,
The mantle then, that grac'd his awful breast. 700
Would decency permit, he fain would soun
The sequel, nor conclude the rites begun.
Thus, when the bold Gætulian from afar
Hears the rous'd lion rushing to the war,
Asbam'd to fly, nor daring to advance,
He stands unmov'd, and grasps the sweating lance.
His doubts to fears, his fears to anguish grow,
As nearer he perceives the wrathful foe;
So fierce he thunders through the rustling wood,
So loud he roars, and speaks his lust of food. 710
But old Tiresias, impotent to bear
The fabric's front and ample sides they strew
With boughs of cypress, and the baleful yew.
Then with his crooked knife Tiresias trae'd
The destin'd mark, and pure libations plac'd
Between their horus: beneath the piercing wound
The victims fall, and headlong spurn the ground.
Fair Mantho, in a bowl of ample size,
Receives the blood, and to her lips applies.
The lukewarm vitals next the virgin sought
(As custom and her sire's example taught :)
Thrice round each smoking altar she convey'd
The sacred off rings in a charger laid;
With loads of fuel heaps the kindled fire,
And bids the lambent flames to Heav'n aspire.
But, when the prophet heard the crackling wood,
And felt the heat, as near the pile he stood,
Forth from his breast these dreadful accents broke,
The flaming structure trembling as he spoke: 670
"Ye chearless mansions of eternal woe,
And thou, sole arbiter of all below!
Whom ruthless fate and chance ordain to sway
The Stygian realms, and empty shades obey;
Transport those phantoms that for entrance wait
And loiter yet before the gloomy gate.
653. The fabric's front] The verses in some editions of the original are
Frondes atque omne cupressus Intexit plorata latus.
Which I think can scarcely be understood. There-
fore, instead of frondes, read frontes, which eluci-
dates the whole sentence, and then the sense will
be clearly this: The baleful cypress covered the
top and sides of the pile. This alteration seems
necessary, and it is favoured by the authority of
Virgil, who in the 6th book says,
Ingentem struxere pyram, cui frondibus atris
Intexit latera, et ferales ante cupressus
Constituunt.
The reader will observe, that ante implies the top
or front, and answers to the word frontes in our
author.
667. But, when the prophet] The reader will do himself a pleasure by comparing the following
account of these ceremonies with that of Lucan
in the 6th book of his Pharsalia. It is evidently copied from the latter, as may be easily discerned from an attentive perusal of both. I must beg leave to observe, that the description before us is more opportune aud strongly connected with the subject than in Lucan; nay, it seems more natural, that Eteocles, after such a complication of guilt and wickedness, should be anxious and solicitous concerning the event of the war, than Sextus, who was engaged in a doubly just cause. I would not be understood to speak in prejudice of Lucan, who has not only adorned his subject by this digression from it, but fully compensated for its unseasonable insertion. Give me leave to add, that Saul's application to the witch of Endor was owing to the same motives, and attended with similar circumstances.
This seeming scorn, repeats his former pray'r:
"Ye pow'rs, for whom these pure libations flow,
And Heav'n and Earth with sacred splendours glow,
Attest the fatal truth of what I say,
And learn, our charge admits of no delay.
Say, am 1 yet, ye sullen fiends, obey'd,
Or must I call Thessalian bags to aid?
Whose potent charms, and mystic verse shall shak
The realms of ether, and the Stygian lake: 720
Disclose your will, ye sisters of despair,
Say, do these just commands employ your care?
Shall Earth's weak barrier with a yawn give way,
And join the upper and the nether-day?
(Since you refuse to bid the dead return,
And leave inviolate each loaded urn)
Or will ye cut and maim the bloodless Lead,
And cull the fibres of the recent dead?
683. With thee shall Hermes] Horace assigns this god to the same office.
Tu pias lætis animas reponis
Sedibus: virâque levem coerces
Aureâ turbam, superis Deorum
701. Would decency permit] Never was the influence of conscience better proved, than a this description of Eteocles's conduct. His timi dity first spurs him on to learn the fortune of the war by necromancy; but when the rites are almost finished, and the hour drawing on that must determine his future happiness or misery, the borrours of guilt increase so much upon him, that he would fain have retired, well assured in himself, that he had no reason to expect, and consequently should find nothing in his favour.
To whom is the fallacious stream unknown,
730 To whom the toil of the returning stone;
The pain that Tityon's mangled vitais fcel,
And sad Ixion's revoluble wheel?
ye despise th' infirmities of age
Which yet retains the fatal pow'r to rage.
We know whate'er you labour to conceal,
And can, at will, those mysteries reveal.
Our vengeance lab'ring Hecate should know,
But pious awe diverts awhile the blow.
Nor does the triple king, whose name alone
You hear with terrour, as his pow'r you own,
From us lie hid;-but love of calm repose,
The joy of age, forbids me to disclose."
Here on his threat'ning speech the priestess broke,
And thus her interrupted sire bespoke.
"Forbear these useless threats, thy pray'rs have
sped,
And Hell no more withholds the summon'd dead.
Elysian landscapes shine, expos'd to day,
And yawning chasms the nether shades display.
Each grove and sable stream our eyes command,
Where Acheron excites the troubled sand,
Once, under Hecate's auspicious care,
Myself explor'd those regions of despair,
When in each vein my blood impetuous boil'd,
Nor Heav'n these darksome orbs of light had spoil'd.
But rather strive a close access to gain
To our own Theban, and th' Argolic train.
Of milk four smali libations will remove,
And force the rest to quit the dreary grove.
But mark attentive, as they pass along,
The features, aspect, mien of either throng.
Thy eyes must bere supply the want of mine,
And teach me what the Fates and Heav'n design."
Swift as the word, the spotless nymph obeys,
And thrice repeats aloud her mystic lays;
Aw'd by the sound, the shades requir'd, appear,
While others fled, impell'd by sudden fear.
As Circe once, and fair Medea shone,
Now Mantho shines, surpass'd in guilt alone.
750 Again ber list'ning sire she thus bespake:
"Agenor's son first quits the bloody lake;
With him appears the partner of his bed,
Two crested serpents hiss on either's head.
A troop of earth-born youths, in arms renown'd,
The wretched pair with hideous din surround.
The same day's Sun, that, rising, gave them birth,
Setting, restor'd them to their mother earth.
Fiercely they menace, fiercer yet engage,
And breathe revenge, and unavailing rage;
No more they seek admittance to the flood,
But wish to slake their thirst in mutual blood. 800
The next in order, as they pass along,
Vary in sex and age, a mingled throng.
Autonoe the first, is bath'd in tears,
And Semele the bolt, she merits, fears.
With eyes inverted, Ino shuns the foe,
And presses to her breast the source of woe.
Here sad Agave, as her sense returns,
In penitential weeds her Pentheus mourns;
5 Where Phlegethon his fiery torrent rolls,
Aud Styx the passage of the shades controls.
I see their king, enthron'd in regal state:
Around the ministers of torment wait.
1 see the consort of infernal Jove,
And conscious bed of interdicted love.
Death from an eminence surveys the throng
Of ghosts, and counts them as they pass along:
Yet still the greater part untold remains,
And o'er increasing numbers Pluto reigns.
With urn in band the Cretan judge appears,
And lives and crimes with his assessors hears:
The conscious wretch must all his acts reveal,
Loth to confess, unable to conceal."
"Let this suffice," (replies the Theban sage)
"O guide, and prop of my declining age!
Little alas! it here avails to dwell
On these sad scenes, and paint the woes of Hell;
How the fierce centaur still his rage retains,
And giants howl in adamantine chains.
755. Nor does the triple king] In the works of
the ancient poets we find many confused hints
and imperfect accounts concerning the existence
of a great, omnipotent, and eternal being, distin-
guished by the name of Demogorgon. All I can
collect from them amounts to show, that he was
the father and creator of all the other gods; and,
though bound in chains of adamant in the lowest
part of Hell, was yet so terrible to all the other
deities, that they could not bear the very mention
of his name. Lucan has mentioned him in the
following verses.
An ille
Compellandus erit, quo nunquam terra vocato
Non concussa tremit, qui Gorgona cernit apertam,
Verberibusque suis trepidam castigat Frinnyn,
Indespecta tenet vobis qui Tartara; enjus
Vos estis superi; Stygias qui pejerat undas.
Spenser has alluded to the notion of his pre-
existence to the other gods, in his apostrophe to
O thou, most ancient grandmother of all,
767. The fallacious stream] The crime of Tantalus is very well known, and for his punishment he was placed up to his chin in a pleasant stream, without being able to slake his thirst in it.
768. The toil of the returning stone] Sisyphus was a noted robber, slain by Theseus. In Hell he is represented rolling a huge stone up a hill, which rolling down again, affords him perpetual trouble and vexation.
769. The pain] Tityon made an attempt to ravish Latona, and fell by the arrows of Apollo. He is described by the poets with a vulture perpetually gnawing his liver.
770. Ixion's wheel] Ixion, boasting that he had lain with Juno, was struck down to Hell with a thunderbolt, and chained to a wheel, whose perpetual rotation was a perpetual source of anguish
799. No more they] The flood he means here, was the stream they contended about, and which, More old than Jove, whom thou at first didst breed, according to the poet, was the sole cause of their
Or that great house of gods celestial,
Which was begot in Demogorgon's hall,
And saw'st the secrets of the world unmade.
757. The Cretan judge] So Virgil:
Quæsitor Minos urnam movet: ille silentum
Conciliumque vocat, vitasque et crimina discit.
dispute; though the hints he has given are not sufficient to entitle me to mention it in my version.
803. Autonoe] Was the mother of Actæon. 804. And Semele] See note on the 365th verse of the first book.
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