If on the sons the parent's crimes descend, 820 What prince from those his lineage can defend? 825 Be this thy comfort, that 'tis thine to efface "Oh father Phoebus! whether Lycia's coast, And snowy mountains, thy bright presence boast; 830 Whether to sweet Castalia thou repair, air 840 Long trails of light, and shake their blazing hair. Thy rage the Phrygian felt, who durst aspire To excel the music of thy heavenly lyre; 846 Thy shafts avenged lewd Tityus' guilty flame, The immortal victim of thy mother's fame; Thy hand slew Python, and the dame who lost Her numerous offspring for a fatal boast. 850 In Phlegyas' doom thy just revenge appears, Condemned to furies and eternal fears; He views his food, but dreads, with lifted eye, The mouldering rock that trembles from on high. Propitious hear our prayer, O Power divine! And on thy hospitable Argos shine, 856 Whether the style of Titan please thee more, Whose purple rays the Achæmenes adore ; Or great Osiris, who first taught the swain In Pharian fields to sow the golden grain; 860 Or Mitra, to whose beams the Persian bows, And pays, in hollow rocks, his awful vows; Mitra, whose head the blaze of light adorns, Who grasps the struggling heifer's lunar horns." THE FABLE OF DRYOPE. FROM THE NINTH BOOK OF OVID'S METAMORPHOSES.1 HE said, and for her lost Galanthis sighs, When the fair consort of her son replies: Since you a servant's ravished form bemoan, 5 1 Upon occasion of the death of Hercules, his mother Alcmena recounts her misfortunes to Iole, who answers with a relation of those of her own family, in particular the transformation of her sister Dryope, which is the subject of the ensuing fable. -P. Her tender mother's only hope and pride, (Myself the offspring of a second bride). This nymph, compressed by him who rules the day, Whom Delphi and the Delian isle obey, Andræmon loved; and blessed in all those charms That pleased a god, succeeded to her arms. 14 A lake there was, with shelving banks around, Whose verdant summit fragrant myrtles crowned. These shades, unknowing of the fates, she sought, 21 And to the Naiads flowery garlands brought; sight, 31 35 My trembling sister strove to urge her flight: Her stiffening feet were rooted in the ground : In vain to free her fastened feet she strove, 41 And as she struggles only moves above: She feels the encroaching bark around her grow 44 By quick degrees, and cover all below : Surprised at this, her trembling hand she heaves To rend her hair; her hand is filled with leaves: Where late was hair, the shooting leaves are seen To rise, and shade her with a sudden green. 50 And found the springs, that ne'er till then denied 54 Their milky moisture, on a sudden dried. Behold Andræmon and the unhappy sire 66 "If to the wretched any faith be given, I swear by all the unpitying powers of heaven, No wilful crime this heavy vengeance bred; 71 prey. 74 In mutual innocence our lives we led : 80 frame Imperfect words, and lisp his mother's name, To hail this tree; and say, with weeping eyes, Within this plant my hapless parent lies: And when in youth he seeks the shady woods, Oh, let him fly the crystal lakes and floods, 85 Nor touch the fatal flowers; but, warned by me, Believe a goddess shrined in every tree. 95 She ceased at once to speak, and ceased to 100 be; And all the nymph was lost within the tree: Yet latent life through her new branches reigned, And long the plant a human heat retained. |