Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

1

Reafon alone his upright judgment guides,
He hears impartial, and for truth decides;
Thus he determines from a fenfe profound,'
And of contention heals the pois'nous wound.
Wife kings, when fubjects grow in faction ftrong,
Firft calm their minds, and then redrefs their
wrong,

ΙΑΙ

150

By their good counfels bid the tumult ceafe,
And footh contending parties into peace:
His aid with duteous rev'rence they implore,
And as a god their virtuous prince adore:
From whom the mufes love fuch bleflings flow,
To them a righteous prince the people owe.
From Jove, great origin, all monarchs spring,
From mighty Jove of kings himfelf the king;
From the Pierian maids, the heav'nly nine,
And from Apollo, fire of verfe divine,
Far fhooting deity whofe beams infpire,
The poets fpring, and all who ftrike the lyre.
Blefs'd whom with eyes of love the mufes view,
Sweet flow his words, gentle as falling dew.
Is there a man by rifing woes opprefs'd,
Who feels the pangs of a diftracted breaft,
Let but the bard, who ferves the nine, rehearse
The acts of heroes pafs'd, the theme for verfe,
Or if the praife of gods, who pass their days 160
In endlefs eafe above, adorns the lays,
The powerful words adminifter relief,
And from the wounded mind expel the grief;
Such are the charms which to the bard belong,
A gift from gods deriv'd, the pow'r of fong.

Hail maids celeftial, feed of heav'n's great king,
Hear, nor unaided let the poet fing,
Infpire a lovely lay, harmonious nine,
My theme th' immortal gods, a race divine,
Of earth, of heav'n which lamps of Hght adorn,
And of old fable night, great parents born,
And, after, nourish'd by the briny main :
Hear goddeffes, and aid the vent'rous ftrain;
Say whence the deathlefs gods receiv'd their birth,
And next relate the origin of earth,

171

[blocks in formation]

The gods, to mortals who their good difpenfe;
Say how from them our honours we receive,
And whence the pow'r that they our wants re-
lieve:

How they arriv'd to the ethereal plains,
And took poffeffion of the fair domains:
With thefe, Olympian minds, my breast inspire,
And to the end fupport the facred fire,
In order all from the beginning trace,
From the first parents of the num'rous race.
Chaos, of all the origin, gave birth
Firth to her offspring the wide bofom'd earth,
The feat fecure of all the gods, who now
Poffels Olympus ever cloth'd with fnow;
Th' abodes of Hell from the fame fountain rife,
A gloomy land that fubterranean lies;

180

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

281

His right hand graip'd the long, the fatal knife,
His left the channel of the feed of life,
Which from the roots the rough-tooth'd metal
tore,

And bath'd his fingers with his father's gore ;
He throw'd behind the fource of Heav'n's pain;
Nor fell the ruins of the god in vain ;

The fanguine drops which from the members fall,
The fertile earth receives, and drinks them all:
Hence at the end of the revolving year,
Sprung mighty giants, pow'rful with the fpear,
Shining in arins; the Furies took their birth 290
Hence, and the Wood-nymphs of the spacious earth.
Saturn the parts divided from the wound,
Spoils of his parent god, caft from the ground
Into the fea; long through the watery plain;
They journey'd on the furface of the main :
Fruitful at length th' immortal fubitance grows,
Wait'ning it foams, and in a circle flows;
Behou a nymph arife divinely fair,
Whom to Cythera first the furges bear;
Hence is the borne, fafe o'er the deeps profound 300
To Cyprus, water'd by the waves around:
And here the walks endow'd with every grace
To charm, the goddess blooming in her face;
Her look demand refpect, and where the goes
Beneath her tender fect the herbage blows;
And Aphrodite, from the foam her name,
Among the race of gods and men the fame;
And Cytherea from Cythera came ;
Whence, beauteous crown'd the fafely crofs'd the
[ca,

And call'd, O Cyprus, Cypria from thee;
Nor lefs by Philomedea kwn on earth,
A name deriv'd immediate from her birth:
Her first attendants to th' immortal choir
Where Love, the oldest god, and fair Defire :
The virgin whisper, and the tempting Imile,
The fweet allurements that can hearts beguile,
Soft blandithments which never fail to move,
Friendship, and all the fond deceits in love,

310

Conftant her steps purfue, or will fhe go
Among the gods above, or men below.

320 Great Heaven was wrath thus by his fons to bleed, And call'd them Titans from the barbarous deed; He told them all, from a prophetic mind, The hours of his revenge were fure behind.

Now darkfome Night fruitful begun to prove, Without the knowledge of connubial love; From her black womb fad Destiny and Fate, Death, Sleep, and num rous Dreams, derive their date:

339

With Momus the dark goddefs teems again,
And Care the mother of a doleful train;
Th' Hefperides the bore, far in the leas,
Guards of the golden fruit, and fertile trees:
From the fame parent iprung the rig'rous three,
The goddeffes of Fate and Deitiny,
Clotho and Lachefis, whole boundless fway,
With Atropos both men and gods obey;
To human race they, from their birth ordain
A life of pleasure, or a life of pain;
To ilav'ry or to empire, fuch their pow'r,
They fix a mortal at his natal hour;
The crimes of men and gods the Fates purfue,
And give to each alike the vengeance due;
Nor can the greateft their relentment fly,
They punith e'er they lay their anger by:
And Nemefis from the fame fountain role,
From hurtful Night, herfelf the fource of woes:
Hence Fraud and locie Defire the bane of life,
Old age vexatious, and corroding Strife.

340

From Strife pernicious painful labour rofe, Oblivion, famine, and tormenting woes; 359 Hence combats, murders, wars, and flaughters rileg Deceits and quarrels, and injurious lies; Unruly licence hence that knows no bounds, And loffes fpring, and fad domeftic wounds; Hence perjury, black perjury, began,

A crime deftructive to the race of man.

30

Old Nereus to the Sea was born of Earth, Nereus who claims the precedence in birth To their defcendants; him old god they call, Becaufe fincere and affable to all; In judgment moderation he preferves, And never from the paths of justice fwerves. Thaumas the great from the fame parents came, Phorcys the ftrong, and Ceto beauteous dame: To the fame fire did Earth Euribia bear, As iron hard her heart, a cruel fair.

Doris to Nereus bore a lovely train, Fifty fair daughters, wand'rers of the main; A beauteous mother the, of Ocean born, Whofe graceful head the comly 'it locks adorn: 370 Proto, Eucrate, nymphs begin the line, Sao to whom, and Amphitrite join; Eudore, Thetis, and Ga.ene, grace, With Glauce, and Cymothoe, the race; Swift-footed Spio hence derives her birth, With thee, Thalia, ever prone to mirth; And Melite, charming in mien to fee, Did the fame mother bear Eulimene, Agave too, Palithea and thee; From whom iprung Erato, Eunice you, With arms appearing of a roly hue;

}

380

42

Doto and Proto join the progeny,
With them Pherufa and Dunamene;
Nifea and A&tea boaft the fame,
Protomedia from the fruitful dame,
And Doris honour'd with maternal name;
And hence does Panope her lineage trace,
And Galatea with a lovely face;
And hence Hippothoe who fweetly charms,
And thou Hipponoe with thy rofy arms:
And hence Cymodoce the floods who binds,
And with Cymatolege ftills the winds;
With them the power does Amphitrite fhare,
Of all the main the lovely'ft footed fair;
Cumo, Heïone, and Halimed

With a fweet garland that adorns her head,
Boaft the fame rife, joyful Glauconome,
Pontoporea, and Liagore;
Evagore, Laomedia join,

And thou Polynome, the num'rous line;
Autonoe, Lyfianaffa, name,

Sifters defcended from the fertile dame;
In the bright lift Evarne fair we find,

390

400

Spotlefs the nymph both in her form and mind,
And Plamathe of a majestic mien :
And thou divine Menippe there art feen;
To thefe we Nefo add, Eupompe thee,
And thee Themifto next, and Pronee;
Nemertes, virgin chafte, completes the race, 410
Not laft in honour, though the last in place;
Her breaft the virtues of her parent fire,
Her mind the copy of her deathlefs fire.
From blameless Nereus thefe, the fruits of joy,
And goodly offices the nymphs employ.

Of Ocean born, Electre plights her word
To Thaumas, and obeys her rightful lord;
Iris to whom, a goddefs fwift, fhe bears;
From them the Harpies, with their comely hairs,
Defcend, Aello who purfues the wind,

And with her fifter leaves the birds behind; 420
Ocypete the other; when they fly,
They feem with rapid wings to reach the sky.

Ceto to Phorcys bore the Graiæ, gray
From the first moment they beheld the day;
Hence gods and men thefe daughters Graiæ

name;

429

Pephredo lovely veil'd from Ceto came,
And Enyo with her facred veil: the fame
To Phorcys bore the Gorgons, who remain
Far in the feat of night, the diftant main,
Where, murm'ring at their talk, th' Hefperides
Watch o'er the golden fruit, and fertile trees:
The number of the Gorgons once were three,
Stheno, Medufa, and Euryale;

Of which two fifters draw immortal breath,
Free from the fears of age as free from death;
But thou Medufa felt a pow'rful foe,
A mortal thou, and born to mortal woe;
Nothing avail'd of love thy blifsful hours,
In a foft meadow, on a bed of flow'rs,
Thy tender dalliance with the ocean's king, 440
And in the beauty of the year the spring;
You by the conqu'ring hand of Perfeus bled,
Perfeus whofe fword laid low in duft thy head;
Then started out when you began to bleed,
The great Chryfaor, and the gallant feed

[blocks in formation]

That fatal day beheld Eurytion fall,
And with him Orthus in a gloomy stall;

461

470

By his strong arm the dog and herdsmen flain,
The hero drove the oxen cross the main;
The wide-brow'd herds he to Tirynthus bore,
And fafely landed on the facred fhore.
Calliroe in a cave conceiv'd again,
And for Ehidna bore maternal pain;
A monfter she of an undaunted mind,
Unlike the gods, nor like the human-kind;
One half a nymph of a prodigious size,
Fair her complexion, and afquint her eyes;
The other half a ferpent dire to view,
Large, and voracious, and of various hue;
Deep in a Syrian rock her horrid den,
From the immortal gods remote, and men;
There, fo the council of the gods ordains,
Forlorn, and ever young, the nymph remains.
In love Echidna with Typhaon join'd,
Outrageous he, and bluft'ring as the wind; 480
Of thefe the offsprings prov'd a furious race;
Orthus, the produce of the firft embrace,
Was vigilant to watch his master's herd,
The dog of Geryon and a truity guard:
Next Cerberus, the dog of Pluto, came,
Devouring direful of a monftrous frame;
From fifty heads he barks with fifty tongues,
Fierce and undaunted with his brazen lungs :
The dreadful Hydra rofe from the fame bed,
In Lerna by the fair-arm'd Juno bred,
Juno, with hate implacable, who strove
Against the virtues of the fon of Jove;
But Hercules, with Iolaus join'd,
Amphitryon's race, and of a martial mind,
Blefs'd with the counfel of the warlike maid,
Dead at his feet the horrid monster laid:
From the fame parents fprung Chimera dire,
From whofe black noftrils iffued flames of fire;
Strong and of size immense; a monster the,
Rapid in flight, aftonishing to fee;
A lion's head on herrge fhoulder's grew,
The goat's and dragon's terrible to view;
A lion the before in mane and throat,
Behind a dragon, in the midst a goat;
Her Pegasus the swift fubdued in flight,
Back'd by Bellerophon a gallant knight.

From Orthus and Chimera, foul embrace,
Is Sphinx deriv'd, a monster to the race

490

500

510

Of Cadmus fatal; from the fame dire veins
Sprung the ftern ranger of Nemean plains,
The lion nourish'd by the wife of Jove,
Permitted lord of Tretum's mount to rove;
Nemea he, and Apefas, commands,
Alarms the people, and destroys their lands;
In Hercules at laft a foe he found,
And from his arm receiv'd a mortal wound.
Ceto and Phoreys both renew'd their flame;
From which amour a horrid ferpent came;
Who keeps, while in a spacious cave he lies,
Watchful o'er all the golden fruit his eyes.

520

Tethys and Ocean, born of heav'n, embrace, Whence springs the Nile, and a long watʼry race, Alpheus, and Eridamus the ftrong, That rifes deep, and ftately rolls along, Strymon, Mæander, and the Ifter clear; Nor, Phalis, are thy ftreams omitted here; To the fame rife Rhefus his current owes, And Achelous that like filver flows; Hence Neffus takes his course, and Rhodius, With Haliaemon and Heptaporus; To these the Granic and

lapus join,

Herm.us to thefe, and Simoïs divine, Pereus, and the Caic flood that laves

530

540

The verdant margins with his beauteous waves;
The great Sangarius, and the Ladón, name,
Parthenius, and Evenus, ftreams of fame,
And you, Ardefcus, boast the fruitful line,
And lastly you Scamender the divine.
From the fame parents, fertile pair, we trace
A progeny of nymphs, a facred race;
Who, from their birth, o'er all mankind the care
With the great king Apollo jointly share;
In this is Jove, the god of gods, obey'd,
Who grants the rivers all to lend their aid.
The nymphs from Tethys, and old Ocean, these,
Pitho, Admete, daughters of the feas,
lanthe and Electra, nymphs of fame,
Doris and Prymno, and the beauteous dame
Urania, as a goddess fair in face;

Hence Hippo, and hence Clymene we trace, 550
And thou, Rodia, of the num'rous race;
Zeuxo to thefe fucceeds Calliroe,

Clytie, idya, and Pafithoe;

Plezaure here, and Galaxaure join,
And lovely Dion of a lovely nine;
Molobofis and Thoe add to thefe,
And charming Polydora form'd to please,
Cerces whole beauties all from nature rife,
And Pluto with her large majestic eyes;
Perfeis, Xanthe, in the lift we fee,
And lanira, and Acaste thee;
Meneltho, nor Europa, hence remove,
Ner Metis, nor Petræa raifing love;
Crifie and Afta boaft one ancient fire,
With fair Calypfo, object of defire,
Teleftho, faffron-veil'd, Eurynome,
Eudore, Tyche, and Ocyroe,

Numbers of tides fhe yielded to her lord,

Too many for a mortal to record;

580

But they who on or near their borders dwell,
Their virtues know, and can defcribe them well.
The fruits of Thia and Hyperion rife,
And with refulgent luftre light the skies,
The great, the glorious fun tranfcending bright,
And the fair fplendid moon the lamp of night;
With them Aurora, when whofe dawn appears,
Who mortal men and gods immortal cheers.

To Creus, her efpous'd, a fon of earth,
Eurybia gave the great Aftræus birth;
Perfes from them, of all moft skilful came,
And Pallas firft of goddeffes in fame.

Aurora brought to great Aftræus forth
The weft, the fouth-wind, and the rapid north;
The morning-ftar fair Lucifer she bore,
And ornaments of heav'n ten thousand more.
From Styx, the fairest of old Ocean's line,
And Pallas fprung a progeny divine,
Zeal to perform, and Vict'ry in her pace
Fair-footed, Valour, Might, a glorious race!
They hold a manfion in the realms above,
Their feat is always near the throne of Jove;
Where the dread thund'ring god pursues his way,
They march, and close behind his fteps obey. 600
This honour they by Styx their mother gain'd;
Which by her prudence the from Jove obtain'd:
When the great pow'r that ev'n the gods com-
mands,

Who fends the bolts from his almighty hands,
Summon'd th' immortals, who ebey'd his call,
He thus addrefs'd them in th' Olympian hall:

Ye gods, like gods, with me who dauntlef

dare

To face the Titans in a dreadful war,
Above the reft in honour fhall ye stand,
And ample recompence fhall load your hand : 610
To Saturn's reign who bow'd, and unpreferr'd,
Void of diftinction, and without reward,
Great, and magnificently rich, fhall fhine,
As right requires, and fuits a pow'r divine.

First, as her father counfell'd, Styx afcends,
And her brave offsprings to the god commends;
Great Jove receiv'd her with peculiar grace,
Nor honour'd lefs the mother than her race;
Enrich'd with gifts fhe left the bright abodes,
By Jove ordain'd the folemn oath of gods; 620
Her children, as the wifh'd, behind remain,
Conftant attendants on the thund'rer's train:
Alike the god with all maintain'd his word,
560 And rules in empire ftrong of lords the lord.

And thou Amphiro of the fource divine,
And Styx exceeding all the lovely line:
Thefe are the fons first in the lift of fame, 5701
And daughters, which from ancient Ocean came,
And fruitful Tethys, venerable dame :
Thosfands of ftreams which flow the fpacious earth
From Tethys, and her fons, deduce their birth;

Phœbe with fondnefs to her Caus cleav'd, And the a goddefs by a god conceiv'd; Latona, fable-veil'd, the produce proves, Pleafing to all of their connubial loves, Sweetly engaging from her natal hour, The most delightful in th' Olympian bow'r : From them Afterea fprung, a nymph renown'd, And with the fpoufal love of Perfes crown'd; To whom the bore Hecate, lov'd by Jove, And honour'd by th' inhabitants above, Profufely gifted from th' almighty hand, With pow'r extenfive o'er the fea and land, And great the honour the by Jove's high leave, Does from the ftarry vault of heav'n receive.

640

650

When to the gods the facred flames aspire,
From human off'rings as the laws require,
To Hecate the vows are firft preferr'd;
Happy of men whofe pray'rs are kindly heard,
Succefs attends his every act below,
Honour, wealth, pow'r, to him abundant flow.
The gods who all from earth and heaven defcend,
On her decifion for their lots depend;
Nor what the earliest gods the Titans claim,
By her ordain'd, of honour or of fame,
Has Jove revok'd by his fupreme command,
For her decrees, irrevocable stand:
Nor is her honour lefs, nor lefs her pow'r,
Because the only blefs'd the nuptial hour;
Great is her pow'r on earth, and great her fame,"
Nor lefs in heav'n, and o'er the main the fame,
Because Saturnian Jove reveres the dame:
The man she loves the can to greatness raise,
And grant to whom the favours public praise;
This fhines for words diftinguish'd at the bar;
One proudly triumphs in the spoils of war;
And the alone can speedy vict'ry give,
And rich in glory bid the conqu'rer live:
And where the venerable rulers meet
She fits fupreme upon the judgment-feat:
In fingle trials or of strength or skill,
Propitious the prefides o'er whom the will:
To honour the extends the beauteous crown,
And glads the parent with the fon's renown,
With rapid fwiftnefs wings the gallant steeds,
And in the race the flying courfer speeds.
Who, urg'd by want, and led by hopes of gain, 670
Purfue their journey cross the dang'rous main,
To Hecate they all for fafety how,
And to their god and her prefer the bow.
With eafe the goddefs, venerable dame,
Gives to the portfman's hand his wifh'd-for
game;

660

680

Or now the weary'd creature faintly flies, And for a while eludes the huntfman's eyes, Who stretches fure to feize the panting prey, And bear the glory of the chafe away, Till by the kind protect'refs of the plains, Her ftrength recovers, and new life the gains, She starts, furprising, and outstrips the wind, And leaves the mafters of the chafe behind. With Mercury the watchful goddess guards Of goats the ftraggling flocks, the lowing herds, And bleating folds rich with the pond'rous fleece; By her they leffen, and by her increase. The only daughter of her mother born, And her the gods with various gifts adorn: O'er infants the, fo Jove ordain'd, prefides, And the upgrowing youth to merit guides; Great is the true the future man to breed, A truft to her by Saturn's fon decreed.

690

Rhea to Saturn bore her brother god, Vesta and Ceres: Juno golden fhod, And Pluto hard of heart, whofe wide command Is o'er a dark and fubterranean land, A pow'rful monarch, hence derive their birth, With Neptune, deity who shakes the earth; Of thefe great Jove, the ruler of the skies, Of gods and men the fire, in counsel wife, Is born; and him the univerfe adores, And the earth trembles when his thunder roars.

700

Saturn from earth, and heav'n adorn'd with stars, Had learn'd the rumour of approaching wars, Great as he was, a greater should arife, To rob him of the empire of the skies, The mighty Jove, his fon, in counsel wife: With dread the fatal prophecy he heard, And for his regal honours greatly fear'd, And that the dire decree might fruitless prove, Devour's his pledges, at their birth, of love : Now Rhea, who her flaughter'd children griev'd, With Jove, the fire of gods and men, conceiv'd; To earth and heav'n fhe for affistance runs, And begs their counsel to revenge her fons, To guard her Jove from wily Saturn's ire, Secret to keep him from a barb'rous fire: They to their daughter lend a willing ear, And to her speak the hour of vengeance near, 720 Nor hide they from her what the fates ordain Of her great-minded fon, and Saturn's reign Her fafe to Crete the parent gods convey, In Lyctus there, a fertile foil, the lay; At length the tedious months their course had run, When mighty Jove the bore, her youngest son ; Wide-fpreading earth receiv'd the child with joy, And train'd the god up from a new-born boy. Rhea to Lyctus fafely took her flight, Protected by the fable veil of night; Far in the facred earth her fon the laid, On mount gæus ever crown'd with fhade. When the old king, who once could boast his reign O'er all the gods, and the ethereal plain, Came jealous of the infant's future pow'r, A ftone the mother gave him to devour; Greedy he feiz'd th' imaginary child, And fwallow'd heedlefs, by the dress beguild; Nor thought the wretched god of onght to fear, Nor knew the day of his difgrace was near;' 740 Invincible remains his Jove alive,

730

His throne to shake, and from his kingdom drive
The cruel parent, for to him 'tis giv'n

To rule the gods, and mount the throne of heav'n.
Well thriv'd the deity, nor was it long
Before his ftrength increas'd, and limbs grow'd

ftrong.

When the revolving year his course had run,
By earth thy art and Jove his pow'rful fon,
The crafty Saturn, once by gods ador'd,
His injur'd offsprings to the light reftor'd: 750
First from within he yielded to the day
The ftone deceitful, and his latest prey;
This Jove, in mem'ry of the wond'rous tale,
Fix'd on Parnaflus in a facred vale,
In Pytho the divine, a mark to be,

759

That future ages may aftonifh'd fee:
And now a greater tafk behind remains,
To free his kindred heav'n-born race from chains,
In an ill hour by Saturn rafhly bound,
Who from the hands of Jove their freedom found
With zeal the gods perform'd a thankful part,
The debt of gratitude lay next their heart;
Jove owes to them the bolts which dreadful fly,
And the bright lightning which illumes the fky;
To him th' exchange for liberty they bore,
Gifts deep in earth conceal'd, unknown before;
Now arm'd with them, he reigns almighty Jove
The lord of men below, and
gods above.

« EdellinenJatka »