Happy! and happy still she might have prov'd,
Were the less beautiful, or less belov'd ! 675
But Phæbus lov'd, and, on the flow'ry side
Of Nemea's itream, the yielding fair enjoy’d.
Now, ere ten moons their orb with light adorn,
Th’ illustrious offspring of the god was born.
The nymph, her father's anger to evade, 680
Retires from Argos to the fylvan fhade;
To woods and wilds the pleasing burden bears,
And trusts her infant to a shepherd's cares.

How mean a fate, unhappy child! is thine ?
Ah how unworthy those of race divine ?
On Row'ry herbs in some green covert laid,
His bed the ground, his canopy the shade,
He mixes with the bleating lambs his cries,
While the rude swain his rural music tries
To call soft slumbers on his infant

eyes.

690 S

, Yet ev'n in those obscure abodes to live, Was

more, alas! than cruel fate would give;

685

}

Intemerata toris. felix, fi Delia nunquam
Furta, nec occultum Phoebo sociaffet amorem.
Namque ut passa deum Nemeæi ad fluminis undam,
Bis quinos plena cum fronte resumeret orbes
Cynthia, fidereum Latonæ fæta ne potern
Edidit: ac pænæ metuens (neque enim ille coactis
Donafset thalamis veniam pater) avia rura 685
Eligit: ac natum fepta inter ovilia furtim
Montivago pecoris cuftodi mandat alendum.

Non tibi digna, puer, generis cunabula tanti Gramineos dedit herba toros, et vimine querno Texta domus: clausa arbutei sub cortice libri Membra tepent, suadetque leve cava fiftula fomnos, Et pecori commune folum. sed fata nec illum 691

For

695

For on the grafiy verdure as he lay,
And breath'd his frelhness of the early day,
Devouring dogs the helpless infant tore,
Fed on the trembling limbs, and lapp'd the gore:
Th’altonish'd mother, when the rumour came,
Forgets her father, and neglects her fame;
With loud complaints the fills the yielding air,
And beats her breast, and rends her flowing hair;
Then, wild with anguih, to her fire she flies :
Demands the sentence, and contented dies.

But touch'd with sorrow for the deed too late,
The raging god prepares t'avenge her fate.
He sends a monster, horrible and fell, 705
Begot by furies in the depths of hell.
The pest a virgin's face and bosom bears ;
High on her crown a rising snake appears,
Guards her black front, and hifles in her hairs:

Concessere larem : viridi nam cespite terre Projectum temere, et patulo cælum ore trahentem, Dira canumi rabies morsu depasta cruento

695 Disjicit. Hic vero attonitas ut nuntius aures Matris adit, pulli ex animo genitorque, pudorque; Et metus: ispa ultro fævis plangoribus amens Tecta replet, vacuumque ferens velamine pectus Occurrit confeffa patri, nec motus, at atro Imperat, nesandum! cupientem occumbere leto.

Sero memor thalami, moitæ folatia morti, Phæbe, paras, monstrum infandis Acheronte fub

imao Conceptum Eumenidum thalamis, cui virginis ora, Pectoraque, æternum stridens a vertice surgit, Et ferrugineam frontera discriminat anguis :

About

About the realm The walks her dreadful round, When Night with fable wings o'erspreads the ground;

711 Devours young

babes before their parents eyes, And feeds and thrives on public miseries. But gen'rous

rage

the bold Choræbus warms, Chorobus, fam'd for virtue, as for arms. 715 Some few like him, inspir'd with martial flame, Thought a short life well lost for endless fame. These, where two ways in equal parts divide, The direful monster from afar descry'd ; Two bleeding babes depending at her fide; 720 Whose panting vitals, warm with life, she draws, And in their hearts embrues her cruel claws. The youths surround her with extended fpears ; But brave Choræbus in the front appears, Deep in her breast he plung'd his shining sword, And hell's dire monster back to hell restor’d.

710

Hæc tam dira lues nocturno squallida passu
Illabi thalamis, animisque a stripe recentes
Abripere altricum gremiis, morsuque cruento
Devesci, et multum patrio pinguescere luctu.
Haud tulit armorum præstans animique Chorce-
bus;

715
Seque ultro lectis juvenum, qui robore primi
Famam pofthabita faciles extendere vita,
Obtulit. illa novas ibat populata penates
Portarum in bivio. lateri quo corpora parvum
Dependent, et jam unca manus vitalibus hæret,
Ferratique ungues tenero sub corde tepefcunt.
Obvius huic latus omne virum ftipante corona,
It juvenis, ferrumque ingens fub pectore diro 725
Condidit; atque imas animæ mucronę corusco

Th'

Th' Inachians view the flain with vast surprise,
Her twisting volumes and her rolling eyes,
Her spotted breast, and gaping womb embru'd
With livid poison, and our childrens blood. 730
The crowd in stupid wonder fix'd appear,
Pale ev'n in joy, nor yet forget to fear.
Some with vast beams the squalid corpse engage,
And weary all the wild efforts of rage.
The birds obscene, that nightly flock'd to tafte,
With hollow stretches fled the dire repast;
And rav’nous dogs, allur’d by scented blood,
And starving wolves, ran howling to the wood.

But fir'd with rage, from cleft Parnassus' brow
Avenging Phoebus bent his deadly bow, 740
And hissing flew the feather'd fates below:

Scrutatus dtebras, tandem sua monstra profundo
Reddit habere Jovi. juvat ire, et visere juxta
Liventes in morte oculos, uterique nefandam
Proluviem, et craffo fquallentia pectora tabo.
Qua noftræ cecidere animæ. ftupet Inacha pubes,
Magnaque poft lachrymas etiamnum gaudia pal-

lent.
Hi trabibus duris, folatia vana dolori,
Proterere exanimes artus, asprosque molares
Deculcare genis; nequit iram explere poteftas.
Illam et nocturno circum ftridore volantes 735
Impaftæ fugistis aves, rabidamque canum vim,
Oraque ficca ferunt trepidorum inhiaffe luporum.

Sævior in miseros fatis ultricis adempta Delius infurgit, summaque biverticis umbra 740 Parnassi residens, arcu crudelis iniquo Pestifera arma jacit, camposque, et celsa Cyclopumi

A

a

A night of sultry clouds involv'd around
The tow’rs, the fields, and the devoted ground:
And now a thousand lives together fled;
Death with his fithe cut off the fatal thread,
And a whole province in his triumph led.

But Phæbus, alk'd why noxious fires appear,
And raging Sirius blasts the fickly year;
Demands their lives by whom his monster fell,
And dooms a dreadful sacrifice to hell. 75%

Bless'd be thy dust, and let eternal fame
Attend thy manes, and preserve thy name,
Undaunted hero! who, divinely brave,
In such a cause disdain'd thy life to save;
But view'd the shrine with a fuperior look, 755
And its upbraided godhead thus bespoke:

With piety, the foul's securest guard,
And conscious virtue, still its own reward,

Tecta superjecto nebularum incendit amicu.
Labuntur dulces animæ: Mors fila fororum
Ense metit, captamque tenens fert manibus urbem.

Quærenti quæ causa duci, quis ab æthere lævus
Ignis, et in totum regnaret Sirius annum,
Idem autor Pæan rursus jubet ire cruento
Inferias monstro juvenes, qui cæde potiti. 750

Fortunate animi, longumque in facula digne
Promeriture diem! non tu pia degener arma
Occulis, aut certæ trepidas occurrere morti.
Cominus ora ferens, Cyrrhai in limine templi 755
Conftitit, et facras ita vocibus asperat iras :

Non missus, Thymbræe, tuos fupplexve penates
Advenio: mea me pietas, et conscia virtus
Has egere vias: ego fum qui ca de fubegi,

Willing