Which through a narrow valley rush'd along,
Oxen and sheep, an undistinguish'd throng.
With these the sloping hills were cover'd o'er,
And the long windings of the sandy shore.
Behind a Cyclops came; and by degrees,
Rose to my view, and tower'd above the trees.
His giant stature, like a lofty rock,
Appear'd and in his hand a knotted oak
Of tallest growth; around his shoulder flung
His bag enormous, by a cable hung.
Panting I lay; as when a lurking deer,
From some close thicket, sees the hunter near.
By dread subdu'd, confounded, and amaz'd,
My fixed eye-balls darken'd as I gaz'd.
Soon from above my wretched mates he knew,
As on the level shore, in open view,
They sat secure, with flow'ry garlands crown'd;
The signs of spoil and ravage scatter'd round.
With indignation, for his wasted flock,
Inam'd, he thus, like distant thunder, spoke.
"Whoe'er these are, who from their native soil
To foreign climates thus, in quest of spoil,
Licentious roam; they soon shall feel my hand,
And rue that e'er they touch'd Trinacria's
strand."

As mutt'ring thus, along the craggy road.
He came, the mountain trembled as he trode.
The wretches saw with horrour and affright;
Each limb enfeebled lost the pow'r of flight.
Their cries in vain the monster mov'd to spare;
His club he rear'd and swung it thrice in air,
Then hurl'd it cross the bay: it swiftly drove
O'er the smooth deep, and raz'd the beach
above.

Threat'ning it rush'd along; but, bending low,
Each, where he sat, escap'd the weighty blow.
Beyond them far it pitch'd upon the land, [sand.
Tore the green sward, and heav'd a mount of
Now starting from the ground they strove to fly,
Press'd by despair and strong necessity;
The woody summits of the cliffs to gain,
With fait ring haste they fled across the plain.
But the impending mountains barr'd their flight,
High and projecting from their airy height;
Back from the slipp'ry arch, in heaps, they fall;
And with imploring cries for mercy call,
In vain. The monster with gigantic strides,
At twenty steps, the spacious bay divides;
Around his knees the whit'ning billows roar,
And his rude voice like thunder shakes the shore.
"There thirty youths he slew; against the
stones

And ragged cliffs, he dash'd their crackling bones.
Twenty his feet and heavy hands pursue,
As to the ocean in despair they flew;
Striving the summit of the beach to gain,
With headlong course to rush into the main :
For there they hop'd a milder fate to have,
And less abhorr'd, beneath the whelming wave.
These too he reach'd; and with his weighty
hand,
[sand.

Their flight oppress'd, and mix'd them with the
Two yet surviv'd; who supplicating strove,
With humble suit, his barb'rous soul to move.
With trembling knees the sandy beach they
press'd;

And, as they came, the monster thus address'd. ""O thon! with whom no mortal can compare For strength resistless, pity now and spare,

O let the blood, already shed, atone
For our provoking guilt, and trespass done!
O spare and pity! sure the gods above,
Who sit around the starry throne of Jove,
Are won by pray'r; and he whose matchless
might

The solid Earth sustains and starry height,
Oft spares the guilty; for his soul approves
Compassion, and the works of mercy loves.
Let sov'reign pity touch thy mighty breast;
And him revere, the greatest and the best;
Who pardons oft, but measures grief and pain
To such as hear the wretched plead in vain.'

"As thus to touch his iron heart they try'd,
The Cyclops smiling, scornful thus reply'd:
The praise of mercy well your words proclaim;
And vengeance mark, though merited, with blame,
Well have you spoken; therefore, from my hand,
More favour hope than any of your band;
They, on the desert shore expos'd and bare,
The wolves shall feast and ev'ry bird of air;
But ye, preferr'd above the rest, shall have
This body for your monument and grave.'

"He said, and seizing lifts them both on high,
With hands and feet extended in the sky :
Then dash'd them thrice against the rocky shore;
Gnaw'd their warm flesh, and drank their stream-
ing gore.

Oft have I seen the havoc of the plain,
The rage of tempests and the stormy main;
But fate, in such a form, ne'er met my eyes,
And, while I speak, afresh its horrours rise
To chill my veins nor can the vary'd state
Of sprightly youth, and middle age sedate,
Or life's last stage with all its griefs opprest,
Banish the dire impression from my breast.
For still I see the monster, as he stood,
His hairy visage dy'd in human blood :
As the grim lion leaves the wasted plains,
Red from the ravage of the flocks and swains.
"With vengeance pleas'd he view'd the shores
around;

And, riding near the beach, our vessel found:
Her by the mast he seiz'd: and to the land,
With all her anchors, dragg'd along the strand.
Exploring, next the solid deck he tore,
And found, conceal'd below, his fleecy store.
With scornful smiles he saw the theft bewray'd;
And sidelong on the beach the galley laid;
And call'd his flock: to open light they strain,
Through the wide beach, and crowd upon the

plain :

Still, as they pass'd, his weighty hands he laid
On their soft backs, and, stroking gently, said:
"Go now, my flock! enjoy the verdant hills,
The rivers cool, the sweet refreshing rills,
The meads and shady forests, safe from harm;
Your foes lie crush'd beneath your master's
arm."

The giant thus; and next the hold explor'd:
Four jars he found with Lesbian vintage stor'd.
These first he drain'd; then to his lips apply'd
His flute, which like a quiver by his side,
Of size enormous, hung. Its hollow sound
The woods repeated and the caves around.
Its music such, as when a stormy gale
Roars through a hollow cliff with hideous pea!,
Resounding deep, along the level shore;
He play'd, and drove his pasturing flock before.

"Horrour and grief at once my heart assail'd; | A slender fir, ten cubit lengths, I found
Presages sad o'er ev'ry hope prevail'd.
My distant country rush'd upon my mind;
My friends, my weeping parents, left behind.
Now lost to hope, and furious from despair,
With both my hands I rent my rooted hair;
And, in an agony of sorrow, prest,

With strokes repeated oft, my heaving breast.
All day I mourn'd; but when the setting ray
Retir'd, and ev'ning shades expell'd the day;
Encourag'd by the night, I sought the plain;
And, wand'ring anxious 'midst the mangled
slain,

Oft call'd to know if any of the band

Did yet survive, escap'd the monster's hand :
But none reply'd. Along the desert shore
All night I wander'd, 'midst the sullen roa
Of bursting billows; till the morning ray
Appear'd to light my solitary way.

'Twas then I reach'd a mountain's height o'er-
spread

With thickets close, and dark impending shade,
Hung o'or a valley, where a river leads
His wand'ring current through a grove of reeds.

"Thither I went; and, op'ning to the deep,
A cavern found beneath the rocky steep:
The haunt of mountain goats, when wint'ry rains
Have chas'd them from the hills and naked
plains.

Gladly I enter'd; for, deceiv'd by fear,
I always thought the barb'rous Cyclops near;
His form descry'd in ev'ry tree behind,
And heard his voice approaching in the wind.
Of honey there a sweet repast I found,
In clusters hanging from the cliffs around.
My hunger soon appeas'd, the gentle pow'r
Of sleep subdu'd me till the ev'ning hour.
'Twas then I wak'd; and to the deep below,
Through thickets, creep'd with careful steps
and slow;

And gaz'd around if any hut were there,
Or solitary wretch my grief to share:
But none appear'd. I climb'd a mountain's head,
Where, wide before me, lay the ocean spread;
And there no object met my wishing eyes,
But billows bounded by the setting skies.
Yet still I gaz'd, till night's prevailing sway
Extinguish'd, in the west, the ev'ning ray.
Hopeless and sad, descending from my stan 1,
I wander'd on the solitary strand,
[roar
Through the thick gloom; and heard the sullen
Of billows bursting on the desert shore.
"Thus ten long years I liv'd conceal'd by day,
Under a rock on wither'd leaves I lay;
At dawn and twilight on the mountains stood,
Exploring with my eyes the pathless flood;
Impatient till some friendly sail should come,
To waft me to my sire and native home:
But none appear'd. The pilots shun the shores
Where Etna flames, and dire Charybdis roars;
And where the curs'd Cyclopean brothers reign,
The lonely tyrants of the desert plain.
Press'd by despair, at last I dar'd to brave,
E'en in a skiff, the terrours of the wave;
Contemning all the perils in my way,
For worse it seem'd than death itself to stay.
"Of oziers soft the bending hull I wove;
And ply'd the skins of mountain goats above.

Fall'n from a mould'ring bank, and stript it round.
This for the mast, with bulrush ropes I ty'd;
A pole to steer the rudder's use supply'd:
Four goat-skins join'd I fitted for the sail,
And spread it with a pole to catch the gale.
Each chink with gum, against the brine I clos'd
And the whole work beneath a shade dispos'd,
Where, from the hills descending to the main,
A winding current cuts the sandy plain.
Nuts and dry'd figs in baskets next I shar'd;
And liquid stores in bags of skin prepar'd:
And waited anxious till the southern gale,
From the dire coast, should bear my flying sail.
Nine days I stay'd; and still the northern breeze,
From great Hesperia, swept the whit'ning seas :
But on the tenth it chang'd; and when the hour
Of twilight call'd the giant to his bow'r,
Down from my grotto to the shore I came,
And call'd the god who rules the ocean's stream;
Oblations vow'd, if. by his mighty hand
Conducted safe, I found my native land.
And, turning where conceal'd my vessel lay,
The rope 1 loos'd, and push'd her to the bay;
The sail unfurl'd, and, steering from the strand,
Behind me left with joy the hated land.

"All night, by breezes sped, the prow divides
The deep, and o'er the billows lightly glides.
But when the dawn, prevailing o'er the night,
Had ting'd the glowing east with purple light,
The air was hush'd: deserted by the gale,
Loose to the mast descends the empty sail.
And full against my course a current came,
Which hurl'd me backwards, floating on its stream,
Towards the land. I saw the shores draw near;
And the long billows on the beach appear.
The cruel Cyclops spy'd me, as he drove
His past'ring flock along the hills above;
And winding through the groves his secret way,
Conceal'd behind a promontory lay;
Prepar'd to snatch me, when his arm could reach
My skiff, which drove ungovern'd to the beach.
I mark'd his purpose; furious from despair,
With both my hands I rent my rooted hair;
And on the poop with desp'rate purpose stood,
Prepar'd to plunge into the whelming flood.
But Neptune sav'd me in that perilous hour;
The headlong current felt his present pow'r :
Back from the shore it turn'd at his command,
And bore me joyful from the fatal strand.
The Cyclops vex'd, as when some fowler spies,
Safe from his cover'd snares, the quarry rise,
His seat forsook, and, leaning o'er the steep,
Strove with soft words to lure me from the deep.
'Stranger, approach! nor fly this friendly strand;
Share the free blessings of a happy land:
Here, from each cliff, a stream of honey flows;
And ev'ry hill with purple vintage glows.
Approach; your fear forget; my bounty share;
My kindness prove and hospitable care.'
As to allure me thus the monster try'd,
His fraud I knew; and rashly thus reply'd:
'Talk not of friendship; well I know the doom
Of such as to your dire dominions come:
These eyes beheld when, with a ruthless hand,
My wretched mates you murder'd on the strand.
Two su'd for mercy; but their limbs you tore
With brutal rage, and drank their streaming gore.

The warriors of the Pylian race obey, Nestor, his partial favour thus express'd,

And to the Theban chief himself address'd.

"The truth you speak, nor do your words appear | With patience hear the reasons which I plead

Prepar'd with art, or dictated by fear;
For what you tell, my memory recails,
When young I saw you at my native walls,
Yourself a youth; though now a length of years,
Imprinted deep, in all your form appears;
Yet still, with sure remembrance, can I trace
Your voice the same and lineaments of face.
An infant then upon your knees I hung,

For fun'ral rites, the honours of the dead.
Well have you heard the various ills that wait
On strife prolong'd, and war's disastrous state:
And they, who choose to dwell amid alarms,
The rage of slaughter and the din of arms,
Know little of the joys, when combats cease,
That crown with milder bliss the hours of peace.
Though gladly would I see, in vengeance just,

And catch'd the pleasing wonders from your The Theban tow'rs confounded with the dust;

tongue :

our woes I pity'd, as I pity still;

And, were the chiefs determin'd by my will,
The truce should stand for piety conspires
With justice, to demand what Thebes requires."
The hero thus; the king of men replies:
"Princes, in fight approv'd, in council wise!
What Thebes propounds 'tis yours alone to chuse
Whether ye will accept it or refuse:

For though your votes consenting in my hand
Have plac'd the sceptre of supreme command;
Yet still my pow'r, obedient to your choice,
Shall with its sanction join the public voice."
The monarch thus; and thus the chief re-
ply'd,

Whom fair Etolia's martial sons obey'd:

"

'Princes, attend! and thou,whose sovʼreign hand
Sways the dread sceptre of supreme command!
What Thebes requires I do not now oppose,
Because, insensible to human woes,

The widow's tears I scorn, the mother's sighs,
The groans of fathers, or the orphan's cries,
Whose dearest hopes, in rage of battle slain,
With wounds defac'd, lie scatter'd on the plain:
Compassion for the host, which fruitless toil
So long has wasted in a foreign soil,
What Thebes propounds, impels me to dissuade,
And, for the living, disregard the dead.
How long has war and famine thin'd our pow'rs,
Inactive camp'd around the Theban tow'rs?
And pestilence, whose dire infection flies,
Blown by the furies through the tainted skies?
Many now wander on the Stygian shore,
Whom sires and consorts shall behold no more;
And many still, who yet enjoy the day,
Must follow down the dark Tartarean way,
If, blinded by the fates, our counsels bar
The course of conquest and protract the war.
Since equity and public right demands
That Thebes should fall by our avenging hands,
Now let us combat, till the gods above,
Who sit around the starry throne of Jove,
The judges of the nations, crown our toil,
So long endur'd, with victory and spoil;
Or, destine us to fall in glorious fight,
Elate and dauntless in the cause of right.
Shall we delay till dire infection spreads
Her raven wings o'er our devoted heads?
Till gen'rous wrath, by slow disease supprest,
Expires inactive in the warrior's breast,
And life, the price of glory, paid in vain,
We die forgotten on a foreign plair."

Tydides thus; and he, whose sov'reign sway
The warriors of the Pylian race obey,
Nestor, reply'd, for eloquence approv'd,
By Pallas and the tuneful sisters lov'd:
"Confed'rate kings! and thou, whose sov'reign

hand

Sways the dread sceptre of supreme command,

That from the war releas'd, we might again
Each share the pleasures of his native reign:
Yet let us not presumptuously withstand
What piety alike and right command,
The honours of the dead; nor tempt the gods,
To curse our labours, from their bright abodes.
Far in the Heav'ns, above this mortal scene,
In boundless light, the thund'rer sits serene;
He views the works of men; the good he knows,
And on their just attempts success bestows;
But blasts impiety, and mocks its aim,
With disappointment sure, and lasting shame.

"Attend, ye princes! and I shall unfold
What sage Harmonius taught my sire of old.
The Locri summon'd all their martial pow'rs,
And fought around the Orchomenian tow'rs.
From oxen seiz'd, began the dire debate;
And wide and wasteful was the work of fate.
The Orchomenians oft a truce propos'd
For fun'ral rites; the Locrian chiefs oppos'd.
Nine days expir'd, the bleeding warriors lay;
Their wounds hot streaming to the solar ray.
From Styx's sable shore their ghosts implor'd,
With suppliant cries, Hell's dread avenging
lord.

He heard, and from the gloomy deep below
Of Erebus profound, the house of woe,
A fury sent, the fiercest of the crew,
Whose iron scourges human crimes pursue:
Discord her name; among th' infernal gods
She dwells, excluded from the blest abodes;
Though oft on Earth she rears her baleful head,
To kindle strife, and make the nations bleed.
The fury came; and, hov'ring o'er the plain,
Devoted with her eyes the Locrian train.
In form a raven, to a tow'r she flew,
Which rose upon a precipice in view,
And on the airy summit took her seat,
With potent charms, to kindle dire debate.
The howling dogs her presence first declare;
The war-horse trembling snorts aloft in air;
On man at last the dire infection feil,
The awful vengeance of the pow'rs of Hell,
Confusion straight through all the camp is found;
The wand'ring centinel deserts his ground,
Fatally gay and crown'd with ev'ry weed,
Which weeping matrons scatter o'er the dead;
Of dire portent: but when the silent reign
Of night possess'd the mountains and the plain,
Above the camp her torch the fury rear'd,
Red, in the air, its baleful flame appear'd,
Kindling debate: outrageous strife arose,
Loud as the ocean when a tempest blows,
O'er all the plain, and stun'd the ear of night
With shouts tumultuous and the din of fight.
Down from her airy stand the goddess came,
Shot like a meteor, with a stream of flame,
To kindle fiercer strife, with stronger charms,
To swell the tumult and the rage of arms,

The combat burn'd: the Orchomenians heard
With horrour, nor beyond their walls appear'd,
By awe divine restrain'd: but when the light
Return'd successive on the steps of night,
From ev'ry tow'r they saw the spacious plain
With havoc heap'd, and mountains of the slain.
The secret cause the augurs first declar'd;
The justice of the gods they own'd and fear'd.
No fun'ral rite the Orchomenian state
On them bestow'd, the vulgar or the great;
In one deep pit, whose mouth extended wide
Four hundred cubit length from side to side,
They whelm'd them all; their bucklers and their

spears,

The steeds, the chariots, and the charioteers,
One ruin mix'd; for so the will of Jove
The priests declar'd; and heap'd a mount abové:
Such was the fate, by Heav'n and Hell decreed,
To punish bold contemners of the dead.
And let us not their fatal wrath provoke,
Nor merit by our guilt an equal stroke;
But seal the truce, and piously bestow
What to the reliques of the dead we owe."

He said; the peers their joint assent declare,
The dead to honour, and the gods revere.
The king of men commands a herald straight
The priests to call, and hasten ev'ry rite.
While thus the sov'reign mandate they obey'd,
Th' Etolian leader rose, and frowning said:

"O blind to truth! and fated to sustain
A length of woes, and tedious toils in vain!
By sounds deceiv'd, as to her fatal den
Some vocal sorc'ress lures the steps of men;
O eloquence! thou fatal charm! how few,
Guided by thee, their real good pursue!
By thee, our minds, with magic fetters bound,
In all decisions, true and false confound.
Not the unnumber'd wrecks, which lie along
The Syrens' coast the trophies of their song,
Nor there where Circe from the neighb'ring deep,
With strong enchantments, draws the passing
ship,

Can match thy spoils: O let me ne'er obey,
And follow blindly, as you point the way!
Confed'rate kings! since nothing can oppose
The truce you purpose with our treach'rous foes,
With mischief pregnant; I alone am free,
Nor these my eyes the fatal rite shall see;
Lest it be said, when mischief shall succeed,
Tydides saw it, and approv'd the deed."
Speaking he grasp'd his spear and pond'rous
[field,
And mcv'd like Mars, when, 'midst th' imbattled
Sublime he stalks to kindle fierce alarms,
To swell the tumult and the rage of arms.
Such seem'd the chief: the princes with sur-
prize

shield;

Turn on the king of men, at once their eyes.
He thus began: "Since now the public choice
The truce approves, with one consenting voice;
Tydides only, with superior pride,
Tho' youngest, still the readiest to decide,
Our gen'ral sense condemns; his haughty soul

Must not the counsels of the host control,
Brave though he is: the altars ready stand;
In order waits the consecrated band;
Straight let us seal the truce with blood and wine,
And, to attest it, call the pow'rs divine."

The monarch thus; Tydides to his tent,
Thro' the still host, in sullen sorrow went,

Fix'd in his mind the fatal vision stay'd,
Snatch'd by invading force his lovely maid;
The fraud of Cytherea; still his heart
Incessant anguish felt, and lasting smart:
And, as a lion, when his side retains

A barbed shaft, the cause of bitter pains,
Growls in some lonely shade; his friends declin'd
He breath'd in groans the anguish of his mind.

Now round the flaming hearth th' assembly

stands,

And Theseus thus invokes with lifted hands:
"Hear me, ye pow'rs, that rule the realms oflight!
And ye dread sov'reigns of the shades of night!
If, till the eighth succeeding Sun displays,
Above the eastern hills, his early rays,
Any bold warrior of the Argive bands,
Against a Theban lifts his hostile hands
By us approv'd; let ev'ry curse succeed
On me, and all, for perjury decreed.
And as by blood our mutual oath we seal,
The blood of victims drawn by deathful steel;
So let their blood be shed, who, scorning right,
Profanely shall presume its ties to slight."
Apollo's priest, for Thebes, resum'd the vow,
The gods above invoking, and below,
Their vengeance to inflict, if force, or art,
The truce should violate on either part.

The rites concluded thus, the king commands
Two younger warriors of his native bands
A chariot to prepare; the driver's place
Sophronimus assum'd; with tardy pace,
Ascend the sage ambassadors; before
A lighted torch Asteropæus bore,

And led the way; the tents, the field of war,
They pass'd, and at the gate dismiss'd the car.

THE

EPIGONIAD.

BOOK V.

SOON as the Sun display'd his orient ray,
And crown'd the mountain tops with early day,
Through ev'ry gate the Theban warriors flow,
Unarm'd and fearless of th' invading foe:
As when, in early spring, the shepherd sees
Rush from some hollow rock a stream of bees,
Long in the cliffs, from winter's rage, conceal'd,
New to the light, and strangers to the field;
In compass wide their mazy flight they steer,
Which wings of balmy zephyrs lightly bear
Along the meads, where some soft river flows,
Or forests, where the flow'ry hawthorn blows;
To taste the early spring their course they bend,
And lightly with the genial breeze descend;
So o'er the heights and plains the Thebans
spread;
[dead,
Some, 'midst the heaps of slaughter, sought their
Others with axes to the woods repair'd,
Fell'd the thick forests, and the mountains bar'd,
With like intent the Argive warriors mov'd,
By Theseus led, whom virgin Pallas lov'd.
Ten thousand oxen drew the harness'd wains,
In droves collected from the neighb'ring plairs;
Slow up the mountains move the heavy wheels,
The steep ascent each groaning axle feels:
In ev'ry grove the temper'd axes sound;
The thick trees crackle, and the caves resound.
Now to the plain the moving woods descend,
Under their weight a thousand axles bend: