With equal rage their airy quarrel try,
And win by turns the kingdom of the sky :
But with a thicker night black Auster shrouds
The heavens, and drives on heaps, the rolling
From whose dark womb a rattling tempest pours, Which the cold North congeals to haily showers. From pole to pole the thunder roars aloud, 496 And broken lightnings flash from every cloud. Now smokes with showers the misty mountainground,
And floated fields lie undistinguished round. The Inachian streams with headlong fury run, And Erasinus rolls a deluge on:
The foaming Lerna swells above its bounds, And spreads its ancient poisons o'er the grounds: Where late was dust, now rapid torrents play, Rush through the mounds, and bear the dams
505 Old limbs of trees from crackling forests torn, Are whirled in air, and on the winds are borne: The storm the dark Lycæan groves displayed, And first to light exposed the sacred shade. The intrepid Theban hears the bursting sky, 510 Sees yawning rocks in massy fragments fly, And views astonished, from the hills afar, The floods descending, and the watery war, That, driven by storms, and pouring o'er the plain,
Swept herds, and hinds, and houses to the main. Through the brown horrors of the night he fled, Nor knows, amazed, what doubtful path to tread;
His brother's image to his mind appears, Inflames his heart with rage, and wings his feet with fears.
So fares a sailor on the stormy main,
When clouds conceal Boötes' golden wain,
When not a star its friendly lustre keeps,
Nor trembling Cynthia glimmers on the deeps;
He dreads the rocks, and shoals, and seas, and
While thunder roars, and lightning round him
Thus strove the chief, on every side distressed, Thus still his courage with his toils increased; With his broad shield opposed, he forced his
Through thickest woods, and roused the beasts
Till he beheld, where from Larissa's height 530
The shelving walls reflect a glancing light:
Thither with haste the Theban hero flies;
On this side Lerna's poisonous water lies,
On that Prosymna's grove and temple rise:
He passed the gates which then unguarded lay,
And to the regal palace bent his way;
536
On the cold marble, spent with toil, he lies,
And waits till pleasing slumbers seal his eyes.
Adrastus here his happy people sways,
Blessed with calm peace in his declining days;
By both his parents of descent divine,
Great Jove and Phoebus graced his noble line: Heaven had not crowned his wishes with a son, But two fair daughters heired his state and throne.
To him Apollo (wondrous to relate!
But who can pierce into the depths of fate?)
Had sung-" Expect thy sons on Argos' shore,
A yellow lion and a bristly boar.”
This long revolved in his paternal breast,
Sate heavy on his heart, and broke his rest; 550
This, great Amphiaraus, lay hid from thee,
Though skilled in fate, and dark futurity.
The father's care and prophet's art were vain, For thus did the predicting god ordain.
Lo hapless Tydeus, whose ill-fated hand 555 Had slain his brother, leaves his native land, And seized with horror in the shades of night, Through the thick deserts headlong urged his flight:
Now by the fury of the tempest driven,
He seeks a shelter from the inclement heaven,
Till, led by fate, the Theban's steps he treads,
And to fair Argos' open court succeeds.
When thus the chiefs from different lands resort
To Adrastus' realms, and hospitable court; 564
The King surveys his guests with curious eyes,
And views their arms and habit with surprise.
A lion's yellow skin the Theban wears,
Horrid his mane, and rough with curling hairs;
Such once employed Alcides' youthful toils,
Ere yet adorned with Nemea's dreadful spoils.
A boar's stiff hide, of Calydonian breed,
Enides' manly shoulders overspread :
Oblique his tusks, erect his bristles stood,
Alive, the pride and terror of the wood.
Struck with the sight, and fixed in deep
The King the accomplished oracle surveys,
Reveres Apollo's vocal caves, and owns
The guiding godhead, and his future sons.
O'er all his bosom secret transports reign,
And a glad horror shoots through every vein. 580
To heaven he lifts his hands, erects his sight,
And thus invokes the silent Queen of night.
"Goddess of shades, beneath whose gloomy
reign
Yon spangled arch glows with the starry train:
You who the cares of heaven and earth allay,
Till Nature quickened by the inspiring ray 586
Wakes to new vigour with the rising day:
Oh thou who freest me from my doubtful state,
Long lost and wildered in the maze of fate!
Be present still, oh goddess! in our aid;
Proceed, and firm those omens thou hast made.
We to thy name our annual rites will pay,
And on thy altars sacrifices lay;
The sable flock shall fall beneath the stroke,
And fill thy temples with a grateful smoke. 595
Hail, faithful Tripos! hail, ye dark abodes
Of awful Phoebus: I confess the gods!
Thus, seized with sacred fear, the monarch prayed;
Then to his inner court the guests conveyed;
Where yet thin fumes from dying sparks arise,
And dust yet white upon each altar lies,
The relics of a former sacrifice.
The King once more the solemn rites requires,
And bids renew the feasts, and wake the fires.
His train obey, while all the courts around 605
With noisy care and various tumult sound.
Embroidered purple clothes the golden beds;
This slave the floor, and that the table spreads
A third dispels the darkness of the night, 609
And fills depending lamps with beams of light.
Here loaves in canisters are piled on high,
And there in flames the slaughtered victims
fry.
Sublime in regal state Adrastus shone,
Stretched on rich carpets on his ivory throne
A lofty couch receives each princely guest; 615
Around, at awful distance, wait the rest.
And now the King, his royal feast to grace, Acestis calls, the guardian of his race,
Who first their youth in arts of virtue trained, And their ripe years in modest grace maintained.
Then softly whispered in her faithful ear, 621
And bade his daughters at the rites appear.
When from the close apartments of the night,
The royal nymphs approach divinely bright;
Such was Diana's, such Minerva's face;
Nor shine their beauties with superior grace,
But that in these a milder charm endears,
And less of terror in their looks appears.
As on the heroes first they cast their eyes, 629
O'er their fair cheeks the glowing blushes rise,
Their downcast looks a decent shame confessed,
Then on their father's reverend features rest.
The banquet done, the monarch gives the sign To fill the goblet high with sparkling wine, Which Danaus used in sacred rites of old, 635 With sculpture graced, and rough with rising gold.
Here to the clouds victorious Perseus flies,
Medusa seems to move her languid eyes,
And even in gold turns paler as she dies.
There from the chase Jove's towering eagle
On golden wings, the Phrygian to the stars:
Still as he rises in the ethereal height,
His native mountains lessen to his sight;
While all his sad companions upward gaze,
Fixed on the glorious scene in wild amaze; 645
And the swift hounds, affrighted as he flies,
Run to the shade, and bark against the skies.
This golden bowl with generous juice was
crowned,
The first libations sprinkled on the ground,
By turns on each celestial power they call; 650
With Phoebus' name resounds the vaulted hall.
The courtly train, the strangers, and the rest,
Crowned with chaste laurel, and with garlands
dressed,
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