THE INFANT JUPITER

NURSED BY THE NYMPH NEDA AND HER ATTENDANTS, AND SUCKLED BY A GOAT.

IN years and wisdom, of the nymphs who nursed The infant Thunderer, Neda was the first;

With tender care, amid the azure flood,

She plunged the new-born babe, and bathed the god;
Then wrapped the mighty child in purple bands,
And gave the treasure to her sister's hands.
Proudly the nymph the glorious charge received,
In joyful arms the infant Thunderer heaved;
With graceful care, and art well understood,
She rocked the golden cradle of the god.
On his ambrosial lips the goat distilled
Her milky store, and fed the heavenly child;
The duteous bee produced her honeyed spoil,
And for the god pursued her flowery toil.

CALLIMACHUS.

JUPITER.

He spoke, and awful bends his sable brows,
Shakes his ambrosial curls, and gives the nod,
The stamp of fate and sanction of the god.
High heaven with reverence the dread signal took,
And all Olympus to the centre shook.

POPE'S HOMER.

ANOTHER VERSION OF THE SAME PASSAGE.

He spoke and bowed his forehead, knitted stern
With darkening brows; the agitated locks,
Dropping ambrosia, round the immortal head

Of Heaven's king shook, and rocked the Olympian

hill.

ELTON.

THE EAGLE OF JUPITER SOOTHED BY CELESTIAL MUSIC.

O, SOVEREIGN of the willing soul,

Parent of sweet and solemn-breathing airs,

Enchanting shell! the sullen Cares

And frantic Passions hear thy soft control.
Perching on the sceptred hand

Of Jove, thy magic lulls the feathered king.
With ruffled plumes and flagging wing,

Quenched in dark clouds of slumber lie

The terrors of his beak, and lightnings of his eye.

NEPTUNE.

THE sea-born Neptune there was picturéd,
In his divine resemblance, wondrous like:

GRAY.

His face was rugged, and his hoary head Droppéd with brackish dew, - his three forked

pike

He sternly shook, and therewith fierce did strike The raging billows, that on every side

They trembling stood, and made a long, broad dike,

That his swift chariot might have passage wide, Which four great sea horses did draw, in teamways tied.

His sea horses did seem to snort amain,
And from their nostrils blow the briny stream,
That made the sparkling waves to smoke again,
And flame with gold; but the white, foamy cream
Did shine with silver, and shoot forth its beam.

SPENSER.

AMPHITRITE.

O'ER the green waves which gently bend and swell,

Fair Amphitrite steers her silver shell;

Her playful dolphins stretch the silken rein,

Hear her sweet voice, and glide along the main.

As round the wide, meandering coasts she moves, By gushing rills, rude cliffs, and nodding groves, Each by her pine, the wood-nymphs wave their locks, And blue-eyed Naiads peep amid the rocks.

DARWIN.

A SUMMER SUNSET.

Low walks the sun, and broadens by degrees,
Just o'er the verge of day. The shifting clouds
Assembled gay, a richly gorgeous train,

In all their pomp attend his setting throne.
Air, earth, and ocean smile immense. And now,
As if his weary chariot sought the bowers
Of Amphitrite, and her tending nymphs
(So Grecian fable sung), he dips his orb;
Now half immersed, and now a golden curve,
Gives one bright glance, then total disappears.

THOMSON.

A CHARACTER.

HIS nature is too noble for the world;

He would not flatter Neptune for his trident,

Nor Jove for his power to thunder.

SHAKESPEARE.

PLUTO.

PLUTO, the grisly god, who never spares,
Who feels no mercy, and who hears no prayers,
Lives dark and dreadful in hell's deep abodes,
And mortals hate him as the worst of gods.

POPE'S HOMER.

THE PARCÆ, OR FATES.

NEAR Jove's high throne see the dread Sisters stand;
The distaff streams from Clotho's withered hand.
With light and shade co-mixed, concord and strife,
Artful she weaves the mingled thread of life.
Hour after hour the growing line extends,
The cradle and the coffin bound its ends;
While the dread Lachesis, with skilful pains,
Twines the slight cord which fluttering life sustains;
And Atropos lifts high the shears which sever

That slender thread, and cuts its course forever.