Whether the stile of Titan please thee more,
Whose purple rays th' Achæmenes adore;
Or great Ofiris, who firft taught the swain
In Pharian fields to fow the golden grain; 860
Or Mitra, to whose beams the Perfian bows,
And pays, in hollow rocks, his awful vows;
Mitra, whofe head the blaze of light adorns,
Who grafps the struggling heifer's lunar horns.

THE

FABLE

OF

DRYOPE.

From the NINTH BOOK of

OVID'S METAMORPHOSES.

VOL. II.

DRYOPE

IN

ARBORE M.

DIXIT:

IXIT: et, admonitu veteris commota
miniftrae,

Ingemuit; quam fic nurus eft adfata dolentem:
Te tamen, o genitrix, alienae fanguine veftro
Rapta movet facies. quid fi tibi mira fororis
Fata meae referam? quamquam lacrymaeque do-
lorque

ΙΟ

Impediunt, prohibentque loqui. fuit unica matri (Me pater ex alia genuit) notiffima forma Oechalidum Dryope: quam virginitate carentem, Vimque Dei paffam, Delphos Delonque tenentis,

NOTES.

DRYOPE.] Upon occafion of the death of Hercules, his Mother Alcmena recounts her misfortunes to Iole, who an

3

THE

FABLE

OF

DRYOPE.

HE faid, and for her loft Galanthis fighs,

SH

When the fair Confort of her fon replies. Since you a fervant's ravish'd form bemoan, And kindly figh for forrows not your own, Let me (if tears and grief permit) relate A nearer woe, a fifter's ftranger fate. No nymph of all Oechalia could compare For beauteous form with Dryope the fair, Her tender mother's only hope and pride, (Myself the offspring of a fecond bride.) This Nymph compress'd by him who rules the day, Whom Delphi and the Delian isle obey,

NOTES.

10

fwers with a relation of those of her own family, in particu lar the Transformation of her fifter Dryope, which is the fubject of the enfuing Fable. P.