And impotent desire to reign alone,
That scorns the dull reversion of a throne; Each would the sweets of sovereign rule devour, While Discord waits upon divided power.
As stubborn steers by brawny ploughmen broke,
And joined reluctant to the galling yoke, 185 Alike disdain with servile necks to bear
The unwonted weight, or drag the crooked share,
But rend the reins, and bound a different way, And all the furrows in confusion lay : Such was the discord of the royal pair, Whom fury drove precipitate to war. In vain the chiefs contrived a specious way, To govern Thebes by their alternate sway: Unjust decree! while this enjoys the state, That mourns in exile his unequal fate, And the short monarch of a hasty year Foresees with anguish his returning heir. Thus did the league their impious arms restrain, But scarce subsisted to the second reign.
Yet then, no proud aspiring piles were raised, No fretted roofs with polished metals blazed; No laboured columns in long order placed, No Grecian stone the pompous arches graced; No nightly bands in glittering armour wait Before the sleepless tyrant's guarded gate; 205 No chargers then were wrought in burnished gold,
Nor silver vases took the forming mould; Nor gems on bowls embossed were seen to shine,
Blaze on the brims, and sparkle in the wine. Say, wretched rivals! what provokes your
Say, to what end your impious arms engage?
Not all bright Phoebus views in early morn, Or when his evening beams the west adorn, When the south glows with his meridian ray, And the cold north receives a fainter day; 215 For crimes like these, not all those realms suffice,
Were all those realms the guilty victor's prize! But fortune now (the lots of empire thrown) Decrees to proud Eteocles the crown: What joys, oh, tyrant! swelled thy soul that
When all were slaves thou couldst around
Pleased to behold unbounded power thy own, And singly fill a feared and envied throne ! But the vile vulgar, ever discontent, Their growing fears in secret murmurs vent; Still prone to change, though still the slaves of
And sure the monarch whom they have, to
New lords they madly make, then tamely bear, And softly curse the tyrants whom they fear. And one of those who beneath the sway Of kings imposed, and grudgingly obey, (Whom envy to the great, and vulgar spite, With scandal armed, the ignoble mind's de
Exclaimed "O Thebes! for thee what fates remain,
What woes attend this inauspicious reign? 235 Must we, alas! our doubtful necks prepare, Each haughty master's yoke by turns to bear, And still to change whom changed we still must fear?
These now control a wretched people's fate, 239 These can divide, and these reverse the state :
Ev'n fortune rules no more!-O servile land, Where exiled tyrants still by turns command! Thou sire of gods and men, imperial Jove! Is this the eternal doom decreed above? On thy own offspring hast thou fixed this fate, From the first birth of our unhappy state; 246 When banished Cadmus, wandering o'er the main,
For lost Europa searched the world in vain, And fated in Boeotian fields to found A rising empire on a fóreign ground, First raised our walls on that ill-omened plain, Where earth-born brothers were by brothers slain ?
What lofty looks the unrivalled monarch bears! How all the tyrant in his face appears! What sullen fury clouds his scornful brow! 255 Gods! how his eyes with threatening ardour glow!
Can this imperious lord forget to reign, Quit all his state, descend, and serve again? Yet, who, before, more popularly bowed? Who more propitious to the suppliant crowd? Patient of right, familiar in the throne ? What wonder then? he was not then alone. O wretched we, a vile, submissive train, Fortune's tame fools, and slaves in every reign! As when two winds with rival force contend, This way and that, the wavering sails they bend,
While freezing Boreas and black Eurus blow, Now here, now there, the reeling vessel throw: Thus on each side, alas! our tottering state Feels all the fury of resistless fate, And doubtful still, and still distracted stands, While that prince threatens, and while this commands."
And now the almighty Father of the gods Convenes a council in the blest abodes. Far in the bright recesses of the skies, High o'er the rolling heavens, a mansion lies, Whence, far below, the gods at once survey The realms of rising and declining day, And all the extended space of earth, and air, and sea.
Full in the midst, and on a starry throne, 280 The Majesty of heaven superior shone ; Serene he looked, and gave an awful nod, And all the trembling spheres confessed the god.
At Jove's assent, the deities around
In solemn state the consistory crowned. Next a long order of inferior powers Ascend from hills, and plains, and shady bowers;
Those from whose urns the rolling rivers flow; And those that give the wandering winds to
Here all their rage, and ev'n their murmurs
cease, And sacred silence reigns, and universal peace. A shining synod of majestic gods
Gilds with new lustre the divine abodes; Heaven seems improved with a superior ray, And the bright arch reflects a double day. 295 The monarch then his solemn silence broke, The still creation listened while he spoke, Each sacred accent bears eternal weight, And each irrevocable word is fate :
"How long shall man the wrath of Heaven defy, And force unwilling vengeance from the sky! Oh race confederate into crimes, that prove Triumphant o'er the eluded rage of Jove!
This wearied arm can scarce the bolt sustain, And unregarded thunder rolls in vain : The o'erlaboured Cyclops from his task retires, The Eolian force exhausted of its fires. For this, I suffered Phoebus' steeds to stray, And the mad ruler to misguide the day. When the wide earth to heaps of ashes turned, And heaven itself the wandering chariot burned.
For this, my brother of the watery reign Released the impetuous sluices of the main : But flames consumed, and billows raged in vain.
Two races now, allied to Jove, offend;
To punish these, see Jove himself descend. The Theban kings their line from Cadmus
From godlike Perseus those of Argive race. Unhappy Cadmus' fate who does not know, And the long series of succeeding woe? How oft the Furies, from the deeps of night, Arose, and mixed with men in mortal fight: The exulting mother, stained with filial blood The savage hunter and the haunted wood; The direful banquet why should I proclaim, And crimes that grieve the trembling gods to
Ere I recount the sins of these profane,
The sun would sink into the western main, And rising gild the radiant east again. Have we not seen (the blood of Laius shed) 330 The murdering son ascend his parent's bed, Through violated nature force his way, And stain the sacred womb where once he lay? Yet now in darkness and despair he groans, And for the crimes of guilty fate atones. His sons with scorn their eyeless father view,
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