Happy! and happy ftill fhe might have prov'd, Were the lefs beautiful, or lefs belov'd!
But Phoebus lov'd, and, on the flow'ry fide
Of Nemea's stream, 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 shade;
To woods and wilds the pleafing burden bears,
And trufts her infant to a fhepherd's cares.
How mean a fate, unhappy child! is thine?
Ah how unworthy thofe of race divine?
On flow'ry herbs in fome green covert laid,
His bed the ground, his canopy the shade,
He mixes with the bleating lambs his cries,
While the rude fwain his rural mufic tries
To call foft flumbers on his infant eyes.
Yet ev'n in those obfcure abodes to live,
Was more, alas! than cruel fate would give;
Intemerata toris. felix, fi Delia nunquam
Furta, nec occultum Phobo fociaffet amorem.
Namque ut paffa deum Nemexi ad fluminis undam,
Bis quinos plena cum fronte refumeret orbes
Cynthia, fidereum Latonæ fœta nepotem
Edidit: ac poenæ metuens (neque enim ille coactis
Donaffet thalamis veniam pater) avia rura
Eligit: ac natum fepta inter ovilia furtim
Montivago pecoris custodi mandat alendum.
Non tibi digna, puer, generis cunabula tanti
Gramineos dedit herba toros, et vimine querno
Texta domus: claufa arbutei fub cortice libri
Membra tepent, fuadetque leve cava fistula fomnos,
Et pecori commune folum. fed fata nec illum 691
For on the graffy verdure as he lay,
And breath'd his freshness of the early day,
Devouring dogs the helpless infant tore,
Fed on the trembling limbs, and lapp'd the gore:
Th' astonish'd mother, when the rumour came,
Forgets her father, and neglects her fame;
With loud complaints fhe fills the yielding air,
And beats her breaft, and rends her flowing hair;
Then, wild with anguish, to her fire fhe flies:
Demands the sentence, and contented dies.
But touch'd with forrow for the deed too late, The raging god prepares t' avenge her fate. He fends a monster, horrible and fell, Begot by furies in the depths of hell. The peft a virgin's face and bofom bears; High on her crown a rifing fnake Guards her black front, and hiffes in her hairs:
Conceffere larem: viridi nam cefpite terræ Projectum temere, et patulo cœlum ore trahentem, Dira canum rabies morfu depafta cruento 695 Disjicit. Hic vero attonitas ut nuntius aures Matris adit, pulfi ex animo genitorque, pudorque, Et metus: ifpa ultro fævis plangoribus amens Tecta replet, vacuumque ferens velamine pectus Occurrit confeffa patri. nec motus, at atro Imperat, nefandum! cupientem occumbere leto. Sero memor thalami, moeftæ folatia morti, Phoebe, paras, monftrum infandis Acheronte fub
Conceptum Eumenidum thalamis, cui virginis ora,
Peloraque, æternum ftridens a vertice furgit,
Et ferrugineam frontera difcriminat anguis:
About the realm the walks her dreadful round, When Night with fable wings o'erfpreads the ground;
Devours young
babes before their parents eyes,
And feeds and thrives on public miferies.
But gen'rous rage the bold Chorobus warms,
Chorobus, fam'd for virtue, as for arms.
715
Some few like him, infpir'd with martial flame,
Thought a fhort life well loft for endless fame.
Thefe, where two ways in equal parts divide,
The direful monster from afar descry'd;
Two bleeding babes depending at her fide; 720
Whofe panting vitals, warm with life, fhe draws,
And in their hearts embrues her cruel claws.
The youths furround her with extended fpears;
But brave Chorobus in the front appears,
Deep in her breast he plung'd his fhining fword,
And hell's dire monfter back to hell reftor'd.
Hæc tam dira lues nocturno fquallida paffu
Illabi thalamis, animifque a ftripe recentes
Abripere altricum gremiis, morfuque cruento
Devefci, et multum patrio pinguefcere luctu.
Haud tulit armorum præftans animique Chorœ-
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 fub corde tepefcunt.
Obvius huic latus omne virum ftipante corona,
It juvenis, ferrumque ingens fub pectore diró 725
Condidit; atque imas animæ mucrone corufco
Th' Inachians view the flain with vaft furprise,
Her twisting volumes and her rolling eyes,
Her spotted breast, and gaping womb embru'd
With livid poifon, and our childrens blood.
The crowd in ftupid wonder fix'd appear,
Pale ev'n in joy, nor yet forget to fear.
Some with vaft beams the fqualid corpfe engage,
And weary all the wild efforts of rage.
The birds obfcene, that nightly flock'd to taste,
With hollow ftretches fled the dire repaft;
And rav'nous dogs, allur'd by fcented blood,
And starving wolves, ran howling to the wood.
But fir'd with rage, from cleft Parnaffus' brow
Avenging Phoebus bent his deadly bow,
And hiffing flew the feather'd fates below:
Scrutatus tebras, tandem fua monftra profundo
Reddit habere Jovi. juvat ire, et vifere 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-
Hi trabibus duris, folatia vana dolori,
Proterere exanimes artus, afprofque molares
Deculcare genis; nequit iram explere poteftas.
Illam et nocturno circum ftridore volantes
Impaftæ fugiftis aves, rabidamque canum vim,
Oraque ficca ferunt trepidorum inhiaffe luporum.
Sævior in miferos fatis ultricis adempte
Delius infurgit, fummaque biverticis umbra
Parnaffi refidens, arcu crudelis iniquo
Peftifera arma jacit, campofque, et celfa Cyclopum
A night of fultry 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 Phoebus, afk'd why noxious fires appear,
And raging Sirius blafts the fickly year;
Demands their lives by whom his monster fell,
And dooms a dreadful facrifice to hell.
Blefs'd be thy duft, and let eternal fame
Attend thy manes, and preferve thy name,
Undaunted hero! who, divinely brave,
In fuch a caufe difdain'd thy life to fave;
But view'd the fhrine with a fuperior look,
And its upbraided godhead thus bespoke:
With piety, the foul's fecureft guard,
And confcious virtue, ftill its own reward,
Tecta fuperjecto nebularum incendit amictu.
Labuntur dulces animæ: Mors fila fororum
Enfe metit, captamque tenens fert manibus urbem.
Quærenti quæ caufa duci, quis ab æthere lævus
Ignis, et in totum regnaret Sirius annum,
Idem autor Pæan rurfus jubet ire cruento
Inferias monftro juvenes, qui cæde potiti.
Fortunate animi, longumque in facula digne
Promeriture diem! non tu pia degener arma
Occulis, aut certæ trepidas occurrere morti.
Cominus ora ferens, Cyrrhæi in limine templi 755
Conftitit, et facras ita vocibus afperat iras:
Non miffus, Thymbrae, tuos fupplexve penates
Advenio mea me pietas, et confcia virtus
Has egere vias: ego fum qui cade fubegi,
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