Th' o'erlabour'd Cyclops from his task retires;
Th' Æolian forge exhausted of its fires.
For this, I suffer'd Phoebus' steeds to stray,
And the mad ruler to misguide the day;
When the wide earth to heaps of ashes turn'd, 310
And heav'n itself the wand'ring chariot burn'd.
For this, my brother of the wat❜ry reign
Releas'd th' impetuous sluices of the main :
But flames consum'd, and billows rag'd in vain.
Two races now, ally'd to Jove, offend;
To punish these, see Jove himself descend.
The Theban Kings their line from Cadmus trace,
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 mix'd with men in mortal fight:
Th' exulting mother, stain'd with filial blood;
The savage hunter and the haunted wood?
The direful banquet why should I proclaim, 325
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 murd'ring 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;
Vescitur at nati (facinus sine more!) cadentes Calcavere oculos. Jam jam rata vota tulisti Dire senex; meruere tuæ, meruere tenebræ Ultorem sperare Jovem. Nova sontibus arma Injiciam regnis, totumque a stirpe revellam Exitiale genus. Belli mihi semina sunto Adrastus socer, et superis adjuncta sinistris Connubia. Hanc etiam pœnis incessere gentem Decretum: neque enim arcano de pectore fallax Tantalus, et sævæ periit injuria mensæ.
Sic pater omnipotens. Ast illi saucia dictis, Flammato versans inopinum corde dolorem, Talia Juno refert. Mene, o Justissime divûm, Me bello certare jubes? scis semper ut arces 350 Cyclopum, magnique Phoroneos inclyta fama Sceptra viris, opibusque juvem; licet improbus illic Custodem Phariæ, somno letoque juvencæ Extinguas, septis et turribus aureus intres. Mentitis ignosco toris: illam odimus urbem, Quam vultu confessus adis: ubi conscia magni 360 Signa tori, tonitrus agis, et mea fulmina torques. Facta luant Thebe: cur hostes eligis Argos? 365
His sons with scorn their eyeless father view,
Insult his wounds, and make them bleed anew.
Thy curse, oh Edipus, just heav'n alarms,
And sets th' avenging thunderer in arms.
I from the root thy guilty race will tear,
And give the nations to the waste of war.
Adrastus soon, with Gods averse, shall join
In dire alliance with the Theban line;
Hence strife shall rise, and mortal war succeed;
The guilty realms of Tantalus shall bleed;
Fix'd is their doom; this all-rememb'ring breast
Yet harbours vengeance for the tyrant's feast.
He said; and thus the Queen of heav'n return'd; (With sudden Grief her lab'ring bosom burn'd) Must I, whose cares Phoroneus' tow'rs defend, 350 Must I, oh Jove, in bloody wars contend? Thou know'st those regions my protection claim, Glorious in arms, in riches, and in fame:
Tho' there the fair Egyptian heifer fed,
And there deluded Argus slept, and bled;
Tho' there the brazen tow'r was storm'd of old,
When Jove descended in almighty gold:
Yet I can pardon those obscurer rapes,
Those bashful crimes disguis'd in borrow'd shapes;
But Thebes, where shining in celestial charms 360
Thou cam'st 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 deserves, may prove:
Ah why should Argos feel the rage of Jove? 365
Quin age, si tanta est thalami discordia sancti,
Et Samon, et veteres armis exscinde Mycenas.
Verte solo Sparten. Cur usquam sanguine festo
Conjugis ara tuæ, cumulo cur thuris Eoi
Læta calet? Melius votis Mareotica sumat
Coptos, et ærisoni lugentia flumina Nili.
Quod si prisca luunt autorum crimina gentes,
Subvenitque tuis sera hæc sententia curis ; 380
Percensere ævi senium, quo tempore tandem
Terrarum furias abolere, et secula retro
Emendare sat est? Jamdudum ab sedibus illis
Incipe, fluctivaga qua præterlabitur unda
Sicanos longe relegens Alpheus amores.
Arcades hic tua (nec pudor est) delubra nefastis
Imposuere locis: illic Mavortius axis
Enomai, Geticoque pecus stabulare sub Æmo Dignius abruptis etiamnum inhumata procorum Relliquiis trunca ora rigent. Tamen hic tibi templi Gratus honos; placet Ida nocens, mentitaque manes Creta tuos. Me Tantaleis consistere tectis,
Quæ tandem invidia est? belli deflecte tumultus,
Yet since thou wilt thy sister-queen controul,
Since still the lust of discord fires thy soul,
Go, rase my Samos, let Mycene fall,
And level with the dust the Spartan wall;
No more let mortals Juno's pow'r invoke, 370
Her fanes no more with eastern incense smoke,
Nor victims sink beneath the sacred stroke;
But to your Isis all my rites transfer,
Let altars blaze and temples smoke for her;
For her, through Egypt's fruitful clime renown'd
Let weeping Nilus hear the timbrel sound.
But if thou must reform the stubborn times,
Avenging on the sons the father's crimes,
And from the long records of distant age
Derive incitements to renew thy rage;
Say, from what period then has Jove design'd
To date his vengeance; to what bounds confin'd?
Begin from thence, where first Alpheus hides
His wand'ring stream, and through the briny tides
Unmix'd to his Sicilian river glides.
Thy own Arcadians there the thunder claim,
Whose impious rites disgrace thy mighty name;
Who raise thy temples where the chariot stood
Of fierce Enomäus, defil'd with blood:
Where once his steeds their savage banquet found,
And human bones yet whiten all the ground.
Say, can those honours please; and can'st thou love
Presumptuous Crete that boasts the tomb of Jove?
And shall not Tantalus's kingdoms share
Thy wife and sister's tutelary care?
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