Insult his wounds, and make them bleed anew. 340 Hence strife shall rise, and mortal war succeed; The guilty realms of Tantalus shall bleed; 345 Fixed is their doom: this all-remembering breast Yet harbours vengeance for the tyrant's feast." He said; and thus the Queen of heaven returned; (With sudden grief her labouring bosom burned): "Must I, whose cares Phoroneus' towers de fend, Must I, oh Jove, in bloody wars contend? 350 Thou know'st those regions my protection claim, Glorious in arms, in riches, and in fame; When Jove descended in almighty gold: But Thebes, where shining in celestial charms Ah why should Argos feel the rage of Jove? 365 370 Yet since thou wilt thy sister-queen control, 375 Let weeping Nilus hear the timbrel sound. 380 Begin from thence, where first Alpheus hides His wandering stream, and through the briny tides Unmixed to his Sicilian river glides. 385 Thy own Arcadians there the thunder claim, found, 390 And human bones yet whiten all the ground. And shall not Tantalus's kingdoms share 395 Nor doom to war a race derived from thee; Thus, in reproach and prayer, the Queen ex 400 pressed The rage and grief contending in her breast; Unmoved remained the ruler of the sky, And from his throne returned this stern reply: ""Twas thus I deemed thy haughty soul would bear The dire, though just, revenge which I prepare Against a nation thy peculiar care: 406 No less Dione might for Thebes contend, Nor Bacchus less his native town defend; Yet these in silence see the Fates fulfil Their work, and reverence our superior will. 410 For by the black infernal Styx I swear, (That dreadful oath which binds the Thunderer) a 'Tis fixed; the irrevocable doom of Jove; Of foreign forces, and his Argive bride, 1 Eteocles and Polynices.-P. 420 425 Be this the cause of more than mortal hate: The rest, succeeding times shall ripen into fate." The god obeys, and to his feet applies Those golden wings that cut the yielding skies. 434 Wings on the whistling winds his rapid way; Now smoothly steers through air his equal flight, Now springs aloft, and towers the ethereal height; 440 Then wheeling down the steep of heaven he flies, And draws a radiant circle o'er the skies. Meantime the banished Polynices roves (His Thebes abandoned) through the Aonian groves, While future realms his wandering thoughts delight, 445 450 His daily vision and his dream by night; 456 461 The hero then resolves his course to bend Where ancient Danaus' fruitful fields extend, And famed Mycene's lofty towers ascend, (Where late the sun did Atreus' crimes detest, And disappeared in horror of the feast). And now by chance, by fate, or furies led, From Bacchus' consecrated caves he fled, Where the shrill cries of frantic matrons sound, And Pentheus' blood enriched the rising ground. 465 Then sees Citharon towering o'er the plain, And thence declining gently to the main. Next to the bounds of Nisus' realms repairs, Where treacherous Scylla cut the purple hairs: The hanging cliffs of Scyron's rock explores, 470 And hears the murmurs of the different shores: Passes the strait that parts the foaming seas, And stately Corinth's pleasing site surveys. 'Twas now the time when Phoebus yields to night, And rising Cynthia sheds her silver light, 475 All birds and beasts lie hushed; sleep steals away of night; From the damp earth impervious vapours rise, Increase the darkness, and involve the skies. At once the rushing winds with roaring sound Burst from the Eolian caves, and rend the ground, |