'Twas doubtful, if th'augmented burden speeds,
Or clogs the progress of the furious steeds.
As from some cloud-capt hill a fragment worn
By dint of age, or by fierce whirlwinds torn,
Rolls down, and sweeps along in its descent
Men, trees, and cots, from their foundations rent;
Nor stops, till some deep vale confines its force,
=Or river, intercepted in its course;
So rolls th' ensanguin'd car beneath the load
Of the great here, and the greater god.
High o'er the deathful seene Apollo stands,
And wields the spears and reins with equal hands:
= Unerring skill he to his priest imparts,
But mocks the Theban shooters' useless arts.
Now Antiphus, unaided by his steed,
And Mænalus lie prostrate on the mead:
Ethion then of Heliconian strain;
Polites, noted for his brother slain,
And Lampus, who, with lust transported, strove
To force fair Mantho's interdicted love:
At him the god himself directs a dart,
At length (his whole divinity confess'd)
Phoebus the wond'ring augur thus address'd:
"Use well thy time, whilst in respect to me
Grim death delays the work of destiny.
We're overcome Whate'er the fates ordain,
They execute, nor weave the woof again.
Go then, and mindful of the promise made,
Gladden Elysium with thy present shade,
Secure, no burial honours thou shalt want,
Nor sue in vain for cruel Creon's grant."
To this the chief, surcharg'd with hostile spoils,
Replies, and for a while respires from toils:
"At first I knew thee thro' thy borrow'd look ;
Beneath th' unwonted weight the chariot shook:
Yet say,
how long wilt thou defer my fate? 1151
These honours ill become my wretched state.
E'en now I hear the porter's triple yell,
Hoarse-sounding Styx, and all the streams of Hell.
Take then the laurell'd honours of my head,
Too holy for the regions of the dead.
If to thy dying prophet aught is due,
And drove the shining mischief to his heart. 1120 With my last voice this boon I now renew,
On hills of slain the rapid coursers tread,
Destroy the living, and deform the dead.
The mangled carcases are furrow'd o'er ;
And the dash'd axles blush with human gore.
O'er some the kindling car, unnotic'd, rolls,
Breaks ev'ry limb, and crushes out their souls;
Whilst others, helpless with a mortal wound,
Foresee it smoking o'er the distant ground.
Now thro' his hands the slipp'ry bridle glides,
And the besprinkled beam, unstable, slides; 1130
The steeds, their hoofs involv'd in carnage stood,
And the spik'd wheels are clogg'd with clotted blood.
The javelins, which (their points infix'd within)
Stand extant on the surface of the skin,
The raging hero from the wounded drew,
Whose parting souls with groans the car pursue.
1101. As from] I wonder, that neither Mr.
Pope nor Mr. Wharton have taken notice of this
truly sublime comparison in their observation on
a similar one in Homer and Virgil, especially as
they have quoted one of Tasso, in my opinion,
much inferior to our author's.-I shall transcribe
all three.
· Ολοοίτροχἢ ὡς ἀπὸ πέτρης,
Όντε κατὰ σεφάνης ποταμὸς χειμάρρου ώση,
Τέξας ασιέτω ὄμβρω αναιδέΘ ἔχματα πέτρης,
και τ' αναθρώσκων πέτεται, κτυπέει δέ θ ̓ ὑπ' αὐτῶ
Υλη ὁδ ̓ ἀσφαλέως θέει ἔμπεδον, ὄφρ ̓ ἂν ἴκηται
Ισόπεδον, τότε δ' ἔτι κυλίνδεται, ἐσσύμενός περ.
Ac veluti montis saxum de vertice præceps
Cum ruit avulsum vento, ceu turbidus imber
Proluit, aut annis solvit sublapsa vetustas;
Fertur in abruptum magno mons improbus actu,
Exultatque solo, sylvas, armenta virosque
Involvens secum.
Qual gran sasso talor, ch'o la vecchiezza
Solve da un monte, o svelle ira de' venti
Ruinosa dirupa, e parta, e spezza
Le selve, e colle case anco gli armenti
Tal già trahea della, &c.
1107. So rolls] It is remarkable, that these
two lines are almost a transcript of Homer's:
-Μέγα δ' έβραχε φήγινΘ άξων
Βριθοσύνη δεινὴν γὰρ εἴγον θεὸν ἄνδρα τ' άρισον.
And to thy wrath resign my trait'rous spouse;
Avenge, avenge the broken marriage-vows." 1160
The grieving god descending on the plains,
The coursers groan, and bow'd to dust their manes.
Thus fares a vessel in a stormy night,
When the twin-stars withhold their friendly light;
Death in their thoughts, they shriek at ev'ry blast,
And deem the present moment for their last.
And now the grassy surface of the mead,
Convuls'd with frequent tremours, 'gan recede;
A thicker cloud of dust obscures the skies,
And murmurs dire from deepest Hell arise. 1170
This sound mistaken for the crash of fight,
From field the trembling warriors urge their flight.
Another tremour now bends to the ground
Men, horses, arms, and shakes the fields around.
The leafy grove inclines its various head,
And silent from his banks Ismenos fled.
The public anger lost in private fears,
They ground their arms, and, leaning on their spears,
Start back, as on each other's face they view
Wild terrour imag'd in a pallid hue.
As when Bellona forms a naval fray,
In scorn of Neptune, on the wat❜ry way:
If haply some fell tempest interpose,
Each thoughtful of himself, neglects his foes:
The common dangers cause their ire to cease,
And mutual fears impose a sudden peace:
Such was the fluctuating fight to view.
Whether from subterraneous prisons flew
Imbosom❜d blasts, and gather'd from afar,
In one vast burst discharg'd the windy war: 1190
Or latent springs had worn the rotten clay,
And open'd to themselves a gradual way:
Or on this side the swift machine of Heav'n
Inclin'd, by more than wonted impulse driv❜n,
Or whether Neptune bade old Ocean roar,
And dash'd the briny foam from shore to shore:
Or Earth herself would warn by these portents
The seer, or brother-kings of both events;
Lo! she discloses wide her hollow womb :
(Night fear'd the stars, the stars the nether gloom.)
The prophet and his coursers, while they strive
To pass, the yawning cleft ingulpbs alive :
Nor did he quit the reins and arms in hand,
But with them plung'd to the Tartarean strand;
And as he fell, gaz'd backward on the light;
And griev'd to see the field would soon unite,
Till now a lighter tremour clos'd again
The ground, and darken'd Pluto's wide domain.
The poet, having described the effects of Amphiaraus's coming into the infernal regions, introduces Pluto expressing his displeasure at his abrupt intrusion, and exhorting the furies to retaliate the insult by an excursion to the world above. At length, however, Amphiaraus pacifies him. The confederates, terrified by this extraordinary phenomenon, quit the field in great disorder and confusion, and express their concern for the death of the seer in a long oration. The Thebans spend the night in feasting and jollity. Adrastus calls a council in the morning, in which it is resolved, that Thiodamas should succeed Amphiaraus as augur; who, in pursuance of his election, appeases the earth by sacrifice, and delivers a funeral oration in praise of his predecessor. The battle recommencing, Tydeus on the part of the allies, and Hæmon on the part of the Thebans, signalize themselves by feats of prowess and gallantry. The Thebans, disheartened by the death of Atys, and retreat of Hæmon, are rallied by Menæ ceus, and renew the fight with redoubled vigour and alacrity. The poet then returns to Thebes; and while Ismene is relating a dream, which she had about her lover Atys, to her sister, he is brought into the palace just upon the point of death: this gives rise to a very affecting scene. Tydeus, in the mean time, mákes a great slaughter of his enemies; and meeting with Eteocles, exchanges a dart with him; but the other flying, in the pursuit of him he is overpowered by his enemies, and receiving a mortal wound, expires gnawing the head of Menalippus, who gave it him.
SOON as the prophet reach'd the dreary coasts
Of Styx, the mansion of pale visag'd ghosts,
Explor'd the secrets of the world below,
And pierc'd the regions of eternal woe;
His garb terrific, and loud-braying arms,
Fill Pluto's wide dominion with alarms.
The shades with horrour gaze upon his car,
His weapons, steeds distinguish'd in the war,
And his new body: for he neither came
Black from the urn, nor season'd with the flame;
But with the sweat of Mars was cover'd o'er, 11
And his hack'd target stain'd with dewy gore.
Nor had Erinnys yet with impious hand
O'er his cold members wav'd her flaming brand,
There is something very awful and solemn in the poet's description of the terrour and confusion which the presence of Amphiaraus occasioned in the infernal regions. But what we should principally regard it for, is the great light it throws on many parts of the heathen mythology, which would otherwise seem dark and mysterious. In short, it is altogether as fine a representation of Hell, as any we meet with in the ancient poets.
Or Proserpine, admitting him a ghost,
Inscrib'd his name upon the murky post.
Nor to the task the sisters' hands suffie'd;
The work as yet unfinish'd be surpris'd;
Then, nor till then, they cut the fatal thread,
And freed the seer, irregularly dead.
The manes of Elysium gaz'd around,
(Their pleasures interrupted at the sound)
And those who station'd in the gulph beneath,
An air less pure, and less enliv'ning breathe.
Then groan the lakes that parch'd with sulphur
And sluggish waters, scarcely seen to flow; [glow,
While Charon, wont to plough the loaded stream,
Mourns his lost fare, a melancholy theme; [shore,
And grieves, that shades had gain'd the Stygian
By chasms in Earth, and means unknown before. 30
In the mid part of this unhappy state
The king of Erebus in judgment sate :
The shades he question'd on their former crimes,
Displeas'd with all that fill his dreary climes;
There death in various shapes and orders stands,
The sister-fiends with vengeance in their hands,
And Punishment, distinguish'd in the throng
By chains harsh clanking, as she strides along.
With the same thumb the fates condemn and save,
Mean while fresh numbers issue from the grave. 40
There Minos with his colleague hears each cause,
Restrains the king, and mitigates the laws.
Nor was Cocytos absent, stream of woes,
And Phlegethon, that kindles as it flows,
Or Styx, whom e'en th' attesting gods revere.
Then trembling Pluto first experienc'd fear;
token of favour and displeasure among the a 39. With the same thumb] The thumb was a cients. When a man pressed his thumb, it was a sign of his regard, as Pliny informs us, Lib. 28. proverbio jubemur. cap. 11. Pollices, cum favemus, premere etian
When the thumb was tureed, his displeasure was signified, which was so the people of Rome ordered the gladiators to be great a mark of inalevolence, that by this alone slain, as we learn from Juvenal, Sat. 3.
Munera nunc edunt, et verso pollice vulgi
Quemlibet occidunt populariter.
43. Nor was Cocytos] Milton has given 3 fine picture of the rivers of Hell in the second book of Par. Lost, v. 577.
Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate,
Sad Acheron of sorrow, black and deep;
Cocytos, nam'd of lamentation loud
Heard on the rueful stream; fierce Phlegethon,
Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage.
Far off from those, a slow and silent stream,
Lethe, the river of oblivion rolls
Her wat'ry labyrinth, whereof who drinks
Forthwith his former state and being forgets,
Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain.
45. Or Styx] Though I have spoken of this river elsewhere, I cannot deny myself the plea sure of transcribing Hesiod's humorous accoust of the punishment of those gods who had swore falsely by it. "For one whole year," says he, "they must abstain from nectar and ambrosis, and lie on the ground dumb and lethargic, Aftet a year, greater punishments await them; for they are banished for nine years, and debarred the so
And spoke in wrath, as sick'ning he survey'd
The starry splendours, through the cleft display'd.
"What pow'r has forc'd Earth's barrier thus away,
And join'd the upper and the nether day?
Who piere'd our gloom? Say, whence these threats
From the stern lord of ocean or the skies? [arise,
Boaster, stand forth on thy own terms of fight;
Hence let form sink to chaos, day to night.
To whom more dear!-1 guard the guilty world,
Hither from Heav'n by adverse fortune hurl'd.
Nor e'en is this my own; I rule in vain,
When Jove encroaches thus upon my reign,
When on my throne the rays of Titan beat,
And light abhorr'd pervades my gloomy seat.
Wants he, the king of Heav'n, my strength to prove?
The fetter'd giants will each doubt remove,
The restless Titans (who did erst aspire
Earth to revisit) and his wretched sire.
Why wills he, that my toils should never cease?
Why must the light I lost disturb my peace?
But should it please, each kingdom I'll display,
And veil in Stygian mists the blaze of day.
Hence the twin sons of Tyndar I'll detain,
Nor render back th' Arcadian youth again.
For why does he thus journey to and fro,
And waft around the messages of woe?
Why should Ixion, with fresh labours worn,
And thirsting Tantalus my anger mourn?
How long shall living ghosts unpunish'd roam
From bank to bank, and violate my dome?
With me Pirithous durst once contend,
And Theseus sworn to his audacious friend:
Then of Alcides too (my guard remov'd)
The furious arm and strength robust I prov'd.
Now Hell, because some idle feuds arise
Between two petty princes, open lies.
I saw, when Orpheus the sad strain pursu'd,
The fiends in tears, the sisters' tasks renew'd.
The sweet musician o'er my wrath prevail'd,
Yet, heedless of the stern condition, fail'd.
Once, and but once I sought the world above,
And snatch'd in Sicily the joys of love:
The bold excursion stung th'etherial prince,
As the hard laws that quick ensu'd, evince.
At each six moons her mother at my hands
My consort for an equal term demands.
But why these plaints?-Go, minister of ill,
Revenge the insult, and our wrath fulfil.
If aught yet unconceiv'd, and unexpress'd,
Thy ready wit, and fertile brain suggest,
On which thy sisters may with envy gaze,
And I with wonder,-go, and win our praise.
But, as an omen of our future hate,
And as a prelude to the stern debate,
Let the two brothers meet without the wall,
And, fir'd by mutual rage, in combat fail.
Let one with more than brutal fury feed
On his foe's head, expiring in the deed,
Another the last fun'ral flames deny,
And taint with carcases his native sky.
Such acts may Jupiter with pleasure view,
Nor let thy wrath our realms alone pursue.
Seek one, who may with Heav'n itself engage,
And with his shield repel the thund'rer's rage. 110
Why should they rather dare thro' Hell to rove,
Than with heap'd mountains scale the walls of
Jove?"
This said, he ceas'd. His dreary palace takes
The signal dire, and to the centre shakes.
His earth, and that which overhangs him, nod
Beneath his voice, and own the speaking god.
Great was the shock, as when his brother rolls
His eyes around, and bends the starry poles.
He then rejoins." For thee, who durst explore
The sacred void inviolate before,
What pains can 1 devise?"-Half shrunk with fear,
His arms and chariot gone, proceeds the seer.
Yet still the badges of his order grace
The chief extinct, and shade his clay-cold face;
Tho' black, a fillet decks his awful brow,
And his hand grasps a wither'd olive-bough..
"If in this holy synod I may speak,
And in my own defence my silence break,
(Grand end of all things, but to me who knew
Each mystic cause, that mortal eye can view) 130
80 Source of existence, thy stern threats resign,
And to my pray'r thy willing ears incline
Nor deign to punish one who strictly fears
To disobey, and all thy laws reveres.
No rape Herculean drew me to thy coast,
Nor was illicit venery my boast:
On these insignia for the truth rely,
Alas! my coward heart ne'er soar'd so high.
Let not our chariot pale thy consort's cheek,
Nor Cerberus with grief his cavern seek.
An augur once by Phoebus much caress'd,
The gloomy void of Chaos I attest
(For why by Sol should Pluto's subject swear?)
That for no crime this punishment I bear.
This sacred truth the Cretan's urn must know,
This sacred truth impartial Minos show.
Bought of my treach'rous wife for cursed gold,
And in the list of Argive chiefs enroll'd,
Resign'd to fate, I sought the Theban plain,
Whence flock the shades that scarce thy realms
contain.
ciety of the gods.. At the end of the tenth year, however, they resume their pristine state and dignity."
49. What pow'r] Of all the orations in the Thebaid, there is none that can give less pleasure to the reader, and consequently less credit to the translator, than this before us. Not that Pluto speaks without spirit, but his speech has maby allusions to dark circunstances in heathen nythology; so that I very much question, if, after all the pains I have taken, it is intelligible to the greatest part of my readers. It is not of a nature to shine in poetry; and all I could do to make it tolerable, was to give it as smooth numbers as possible, and curtail that length which makes it still more disgusting.
150 When (how my soul yet dreads!) an earthquake
Big with destruction, and my trembling frame,
Rapt from the midst of gaping thousands, hurl'd
To night eternal in thy nether world.
What were my thoughts, while thro' Earth's hol-
I roll'd upheld in air, and lost in gloom? [low womb
Nought to my comrades or my country left,
Nor of my captive life by Thebes bereft;
135. No rape Herculean] The reader must observe, that Hercules himself did not design a rape upon Proserpine, but only went down to Hell with a view of rescuing Theseus and Pirithous, who had attempted it, from the punish ment that Pluto had intended for them.
Spontaneous then the soldiers quit their ground,
Nor wait, as custom was, the trumpet's sound.
Yet was their progress slow. They scarcely trail
Their legs along, so much did fear prevail.
Their very steeds, as sensible, oppose
Their flight, regardless of repeated blows;
Nor, won by blandishments, increase their speed,
Or lift their eyes from the terrific mead.
The Thebans push'd the charge, till Vesper led
Bright Cynthia's steeds, with dusky shades o'er
spread :
170 Now night, that soon their terrour smust increase, Imposes a short interval of peace.
Doom'd never more to breathe Lernæan air,
Or to my wond'ring friends, inurn'd, repair; 160
No sculptur'd tomb to lengthen out my fame,
No weeping parents, nor odorous flame.
To thee the whole of fun'ral pomp I bear,
Nor shall I aught with these fleet coursers dare,
Or murmur to become a subject shade:
I wave the honours that were whilom paid:
No prescience of the future dost thou want,
Secure of all the destinies can grant.
But check thy rage, the deities regard,
And for my spouse reserve the dire reward;
If, in the process of advancing age,
She fall, a victim worthier of thy rage."
The monarch heard, nor hearing disapprov'd,
Tho' loath to spare, and scorning to be mov'd.
The lion thus, when menac'd with the sight
Of obvious weapons, calls forth all his might;
But, if his prostrate foe declines the strife,
Stalks o'er him, and disdains so cheap a life.
Meanwhile they seek the late redoubted car,
Adorn'd with fillets, and the wreaths of war,
Astonish'd, as by none it was survey'd,
Or crush'd in conflict, or a capture made.
The troops, suspicious now, recoiling yield,
Walk round the traces of the treach'rous field,
And all prefer the sweets of vital breath
To Stygian pomp, and an inglorious death.
While at a distance in the road to fame,
Adrastus guides his troops, Palæmon came,
The messenger of woe, and trembling cries,
(For scarce he trusted to his conscious eyes, 190
Tho' station'd near the chief ingulph'd, he saw,
All pale and sad, the discontinuous flaw :)
"O monarch, turn thy steps, and seek with speed
The Doric turrets, and our native mead;
If haply, where we left them, they remain.
No arms we need; the battle bleeds in vain.
Our unavailing swords why wield we more?
When earth (a prodigy unseen of yore)
Absorbs our warriors. From beneath our feet
The ground we press seems striving to retreat. 200
I view'd myself the path to night profound,
Oeclides rushing thro' the sudden wound,
Than whom of mortal race was none more dear.
To the bright lamps that gild yon azure sphere
Long did I stretch my falt'ring hands, and strain
My voice; at length convinc'd that help was
vain,
I ply'd the sounding lash, and quickly left
The steaming champaign, in huge furrows cleft,
Nor common is the ill; the mother knows
Her sons, and favour to the Thebans shows." 210
Thus he. The monarch doubts, till Mopsus came,
And trembling Actor, who report the same.
But fame, who loves each terrour to enhance,
Relates, that more had shar'd the same mischance.
175.] This allusion to the generosity of the lion has the sanction of all the naturalists that ever treated on this animal to confirm it. Claudian in his eulogy on Stilicon, lib. 4. says,
Obvia prosternas, prostrataque more leonum Despicias: alacres ardent quum sternere tauros, Transiliunt prædas humiles. Hac ipse magistrâ Dat veniam victis, hac exhortante calores Horrificos, et quæ nunquam nocitura timentur Jurgia, contentus solo terrore coercet,
What were their aspects, when they took their fill Of sorrow's draught? Full many a pearly rill Stole from their helms unlac'd. Nought then could ease
Their jaded spirits that was wont to please. 250 They throw aside their bucklers wetted o'er, [gore, Such as they were; nor cleans'd their darts of Nor prais'd their horses, nor for battle drest The high-rais'd honours of the shining crest. Such was their grief they scarcely care to close Their wounds, and stanch the blood that freely Or with the due resource of food and rest [dows, Renew their strength, by toils of war opprest: All dwell with tears on the late augur's praise, His love of truth, and merit of the bays. One rumour only thro' the camp is spread, That all their fortune with the gods is tled: "Where are his sacred arms, rever'd in war, His crest with fillets grac'd, and laurell'd car? Could not Castalian lakes and caves retard His death? Was this his patron-god's reward? Who'll teach us now, what falling stars declare, And hallow'd light'nings inauspicious glare? What Heav'n betokens in the victim slain, When ye should march; what accidents detain? What hour is most averse to dove-ey'd peace, 251 And when to bid the trump of discord cease? Who now will all futurity disclose, The just interpreter of bliss or woes?
216. Nor wait, as custom was] Lactantius in his note on this passage furnishes us with a piece of antiquity, that, I believe, few of our readers are acquainted with: viz. that among the ancients every soldier, previously to his being enlisted, took an oath, that he would never leave the bat tle, before the sounding of a retreat.
225. Now night] Milton has some beautiful jines on the same subject.
Now night her course began, and over Heav'n
Inducing darkness, grateful truce impos'd,
And silence on the odious din of war.
239. All dwell] The reader cannot but sympathise with the Grecians on the loss of their patriot and prophet Amphiaraus, whose virtues endear him to the latest posterity. And here it may not be improper to observe, that the old proposition, "All men are alike after death," is only partially true. For the virtuous and useful men ber of society lives in the memory of the public, and is never thought of but with sorrow, nor mentioned but with honour; whereas the villain and pest of his country is either soon forgotten, remembered but with infamy and detestation.
To thee the war's events were all foreknown,
And all the public evils, and thy own;
Yet, (such was virtue's influence) thou didst join
Our troops, and clad in social armour shine;
And when the fatal hour and period came,
Didst find a leisure time to purchase fame
By adverse signs o'erthrown, and heroes slain,
Till heaps of carcases deform'd the plain.
What deeds of slaughter, and what scenes of death
Might we have seen, had Heav'n prolong'd thy
breath?
What lot befalls thee? Canst thon visit Earth
Again, and, as it were, renew thy birth?
Say, art thou thron'd beside thy fav'ring fates,
A counsellor in all their high debates?
Still by a grateful change dost thou obtain
The knowledge of the future, and explain ?
Or did the pow'r who rules the realms below,
In pity to thy sufferings, bestow
Elysium, and her birds of hallow'd flight?
Whate'er's thy lot beneath, the god of light,
Bewailing long his loss, shall loath relief,
And Delphos mourn thy death in silent grief.
Shut on this day shali Delos e'er remain,
The sea-girt Tenedos, and Cyrrha's fane;
No bold inquirer ope the Clarian gate,
The very laurels wither, rivers cease
To flow, and Trojan Thymbra rests in peace.
No certain knowledge shall the air unfold
By chirpings sage, nor destiny be told
By flapping pinions.-Soon the day shall come,
When, other oracles supprest and dumb,
Temples shall rise in honour of thy art,
And thy responses ready priests impart."
Such solemn dirges with due rev'rence paid
To the prophetic monarch's honour'd shade,
In lieu of rites funereal Greece bestows
And gives his wand'ring ghost the wish'd repose.
Then were their souls unmann'd with wild affright,
And all with equal horrour loath the fight.
Thus when some skilful pilot yields his breath,`
The crew desponding at his sudden death, 300
Their oars seem short of half their wonted force,
And the fresh gale less aidful to their course.
But converse long indulg'd had eas'd their smart,
And dull'd each quick sensation of the heart,
When sleep unnotic'd stole to their relief,
And bush'd the voice, and clos'd the eye of grief.
Not so the joyful Thebans spent the night;
But favour'd by the stars and Phoebe's light,
In the throng'd streets and houses, madly gay,
With various sports they chas'd the hours away.
Nor Branchus from his shrine interpret fate: 280 Each centinel lay dozing at his post,
For Lycia none should leave his native air,
Nor for advice to Didyma repair.
Jove's panting oaks shall on this day be mute,
Nor horned Ammon grant the pilgrim's suit:
278. Tenedos] Is an island of the Hellespont, situated over against Troy and sacred to Apollo, whence Chryses in his address to Apollo says, Τενέδοιό τι ἴφι ανάσσεις.
278. And Cyrrha's fane] See note on the
verse of the 3d book.
279. The Clarian gate] This and the other
places bere mentioned were noted for the most famous oracles.
And senseless riot reign'd thro' all the host. In antic measures some obliquely bound To the hoarse drum's and tinkling cymbal's sound, While others pipe, and swell the mellow flute, Or sing in concert with the shrill-ton'd lute The deities, whose favours worship claim. Their gods propitious, and in order name Pæans arise to ev'ry pow'r divine, And the crown'd goblets foam with sparkling wine. 321 They ridicule the Grecian augur's death, And, as in seeming contrast, spend their breath In praise of their Tiresias. Now they sing The feats and prowess of each ancient king, Thebes from its origin celestial trace, 280. Nor Branchus.] As a supplement to my Jove and Europa mixing in embrace, note on the 686th verse of the 3d book, 1 shall And boast, how on his back the damsel rode, transcribe the following account of Branchus from And grasp'd his horns, unconscious of the god : Of Cadmus, the tir'd heifer, and the field, Olus quidem decimus ab Apolline, cum in peregrinatione pranderet in littore, ac deinde That erst was seen an iron crop to yield: Of rocks that follow'd when Amphion strung proficisceretur, oblitus est filium nomine Simerum, qui pervenit in saltum Patronis cujusdam, His Theban lyre, and dancing groves, they sung: While others celebrate in equal strains et cum esset receptus, cœpit cum suis pueris caHarmonia, bound in hymeneal chains, pras pascere. Aliquando prehenderunt cygnum, et illum veste cooperuerunt, dumque ipsi pug- None want a fable for a theme of praise. Or tune to pregnant Semele their lays : nant uter illum patri munus offerret, et essent fatigati certamine: rejecta veste mulierem invene-In friendly guise, and urge th' unfinish'd song, While thus the genial banquet they prolong runt, et cum fugerent revocati ab eâ moniti sunt, ut patres unice Simerum diligerent puerum: illi quæ audierunt Patroni indicarunt. Tunc Patron 299. Thus when] Statius varies his similes Simerum pro filio suo nimio dilexit affectu, eique with all possible art, sometimes deriving them filiam suam ducendam locavit uxorem. Illa cum from the animal creation, sometimes from the pregnans ex eo esset vidit in somniis per fauces passions of mankind, and sometimes from the suas introisse solem, et exisse per ventrem: ideo vulgar scenes and occurrences of life; but wherinfans editus Branchus vocatus est, quia mater ever we follow him, we find him a faithful copier ejus per fauces sibi viderat uterum penetrasse. of nature. This before us, trifling and unworthy Hic cum in sylvis Apollinem osculatus fuisset, of notice as it may appear to some for its brevity, comprehensus est ab eo, et acceptâ corona virga-is, notwithstanding, very just, and answers in que vaticinari cœpit et subito nusquam compa- every point to the thing described with the utmost ruit. Templum ei factum est quod Branchiadon | precision and propriety. Nothing in nature could nominatur et Apollini Philesio pariter consecrata be more happily conceived, than the comparing sunt templa, quæ ab osculo Branchi, sive certa- Amphiaraus, who was the guide and oracle of his mine puerorum, Philesia nuncupantur, people, to the pilot of a ship.
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