Yet I can pardon those obscurer rapes,
Those bashful crimes difguis'd in borrow'd fhapes;
But Thebes, where fhining in cœlestial charms
Thou cam'ft triumphant to a mortal's arms,
When all my glories o'er her limbs were spread,
And blazing light'nings danc'd around her bed;
Curs'd Thebes the vengeance it deferves, may prove-
Ah why fhou'd Argos feel the rage of Jove?
Yet fince thou wilt thy fifter-Queen controul,
Since ftill the luft of discord fires thy foul,
Go, rafe my Samos, let Mycenè fall,
And level with the duft the Spartan wall;
No more let mortals Juno's pow'r invoke,
Her fanes no more with eastern incense smoke,
Nor victims fink beneath the facred stroke;
But to your Ifis all my rites transfer,
Let altars blaze and temples smoke for her;
For her, thro' Ægypt's fruitful clime renown'd,
Let weeping Nilus hear the timbrel found.
Mentitis ignofco toris: illam odimus urbem
Quam vultu confeffus adis: ubi confcia magni
Signa tori, tonitrus agis, & mea fulmina torques.
Facta luant Theba: cur hoftes eligis Argos?
Quin age, fi tanta eft thalami difcordia fancti,
Et Samon, & veteres armis exfcinde Mycenas;
Verte folo Sparten. Cur ufquam fanguine fefto
Conjugis ara tua, cumulo cur thuris Eoi
Lata calet? melius votis Mareotica fumat
Coptos, &arifoni lugentia flumina Ñili.
H 3
But if thou must reform the ftubborn times,
Avenging on the fons the father's crimes,
And from the long records of diftant age
Derive incitements to renew thy rage;
Say, from what period then has fove design'd
To date his vengeance; to what bounds confin'd?
Begin from thence, where first Alpheus hides
His wand'ring stream, and thro' the briny tides
Unmix'd, to his Sicilian river glides.
Thy own Arcadians there the thunder claim,
Whofe impious rites difgrace thy mighty name;
Who raise thy temples where the chariot stood
Of fierce Oenomäus, defil'd with blood;
Where once his steeds their savage banquet found, 390
And human bones yet whiten all the ground.
Say, can thofe honours please? and can't thou love
Prefumptuous Crete, that boats the tomb of Jove?
Quod fi prifca luunt autorum crimina gentes,
Subvenitque tuis fera hæc fententia curis,
Percenfere avi fenium, quo tempore tandem
Terrarum furias abolere, & fecula retro
Emendare fat eft? jamdudum à fedibus illis
Encipe, fuctivaga qua præterlabitur unda
Sicanos longe relegens Alphcos amores.
Arcades hic tua (nec pudor eft?) delubra nefaflis
Impofuere locis: illic Mavortius axis
Oenomai, Geticoque pecus ftabulare fub mo
Dignius: abruptis, etiamnum inhumata procorum
Relliquiis trunca ora riget. Tamen hic tibi templi
Gratus honos: placet Ida nocens, mentitaque manes
And shall not Tantalus his kingdoms share
Thy wife and fifter's tutelary care?
Reverse, O Jove, thy too fevere decree,
Nor doom to war a race deriv'd from thee;
On impious realms, and barb'rous Kings, impose
Thy plagues, and curfe 'em with fuch *Sons as thofe.
Thus, in reproach and pray'r, the Queen exprefs'd 400
The rage and grief contending in her breast;
Unmov'd remain'd the ruler of the sky,
And from his throne return'd this ftern reply.
'Twas thus I deem'd thy haughty foul would bear The dire, tho' juft, revenge which I prepare Against a nation thy peculiar care:
No lefs Dione might for Thebes contend,
Nor Bacchus lefs his native town defend,
Yet these in filence fee the fates fulfil
Their work, and reverence our fuperior will.
Creta tuos. Me Tantaleis confiftere tectis,
Que tandem invidia eft? belli deflecte tumultus,
Et generis miferefce tui. Sunt impia late
Regna tibi, melius generos paffura nocentes.
Finierat mifcens precibus convicia Juno.
At non ille gravis, dictis, quanquam afpera, motus
Reddidit hæc: Equidem haud rebar te mente fecunda
Laturam, quodcunque tuos, (licet æquus) in Argos 495
Confulerem, neque me (fi detur copia) fallit
Multa fuper Thebis Bacchum, aufuramque Dionem
Dicere, fed noftri reverentia ponderis obftat.
*Etheocles and Polynices.
For by the black infernal Styx I fwear,
(That dreadful oath which binds the Thunderer)
'Tis fix'd; th' irrevocable doom of Jove;
No force can bend me, no perfuafion move.
Hafte then, Cyllenius, thro' the liquid air;
Go mount the winds, and to the shades repair;
Bid hell's black monarch my commands obey,
And give up Laius to the realms of day,
Whose ghost yet shiv'ring on Cocytus' fand,
Expects its paffage to the farther strand :
Let the pale fire revifit Thebes, and bear
These pleasing orders to the tyrant's ear;
That, from his exil'd brother, fwell'd with pride
Of foreign forces, and his Argive bride,
Almighty Jove commands him to detain
The promis'd empire, and alternate reign:
Horrendos etenim latices, Stygia æquora fratris
Obteftor, manfurum & non revocabile verum,
Nil fore quo dictis flectar. Quare impiger ales
Portantes præcede notos Cyllenia proles,
Aera per liquidum, regnifque illapfus opacis
Dic patruo: fuperas fenior fe tallat ad auras
Laius, extin&tum nati quem vulnere nondum
Ulterior Lethes accepit ripa profundi
Lege Erebi: ferat hæc diro mea juffa nepoti:
Germanum exilio fretum, Argolicifque tumentem
Hofpitiis, quod fponte cupit, procul impius aula
Arceat, alternum regni inficiatus bonorem:
Be this the caufe of more than mortal hate;
The reft, fucceeding times fhall ripen into Fate.
The God obeys, and to his feet applies
Those golden wings that cut the yielding skies;
His ample hat his beamy locks o'erfpread,
And veil'd the starry glories of his head!
He feiz'd the wand that causes fleep to fly,
Or in foft flumbers feals the wakeful eye;
That drives the dead to dark Tartarean coafts,
Or back to life compels the wond'ring ghofts.
Thus, thro' the parting clouds, the fon of May
Wings on the whistling winds his rapid way,
Now smoothly fteers thro' air his equal flight,
Now fprings aloft, and tow'rs th' ethereal height; 440
Then wheeling down the steep of heav'n he flies,
And draws a radiant circle o'er the fkies.
Meantime the banish'd Polynices roves
(His Thebes abandon'd) thro' th' Aonian groves,
Hinc caufæ irarum: certo reliqua ordine ducam.
Paret Atlantiades dictis genitoris, & inde
Summa pedum propere plantaribus illigat alis,
Obnubitque comas, & temperat aftra galero.
Tum dextra virgam inferuit, qua pellere dulces
Aut fuadere iterum fomnos, qua nigra fubire
Tartara, &exangues animare affueverat umbras.
Defiluit; tenuique exceptus inborruit aura.
Nec mora, fublimes raptim per inane volatus
Carpit, &ingenti defignat nubila gyro.
Interea patriis olim vagus exul ab oris
Qedipodionides furtim deferta pererrat
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