“ Atrides ! lo! with what disdainful eye
Achilles sees his country's forces fly;
Blind, impious man! whose anger is his guide,
Who glories in unutterable pride.
So may he perish, so may Jove disclaim
The wretch relentless, and o’erwhelm with shame!
But Heaven forsakes not thee : o'er yonder sands
Soon shalt thou view the scatter'd Trojan bands
Fly diverse ; while proud kings, and chiefs renown'd,
Driven heaps on heaps, with clouds involved around
Of rolling dust, their winged wheels employ
To hide their ignominious heads in Troy.
He spoke, then rush'd amid the warrior crew,
And sent his voice before him as he flew,
Loud, as the shout encountering armies yield
When twice ten thousand shake the laboring field ;
Such was the voice, and such the thundering sound
Of him whose trident rends the solid ground.
Each Argive bosom beats to meet the fight,
And grisly war appears a pleasing sight.
Meantime Saturnia from Olympus' brow,
High-throned in gold, beheld the fields below;
With joy the glorious conflict she survey'd,
Where her great brother gave the Grecians aid.
But placed aloft, on Ida's shady height
She sees her Jove, and trembles at the sight.
Jove to deceive, what methods shall she try,
What arts, to blind his all-beholding eye ?
At length she trusts her power; resolved to prove
The old, yet still successful, cheat of love;
Against his wisdom to oppose her charms,
And lull the lord of thunders in her arms.
Swift to her bright apartment she repairs,
Sacred to dress and beauty's pleasing cares :
With skill divine had Vulcan form’d the bower,
Safe from access of each intruding power.
Touch'd with her secret key, the doors unfold :
Self-closed, behind her shut the valves of gold.
Here first she bathes; and round her body pours
Soft oils of fragrance, and ambrosial showers :
The winds, perfumed, the balmy gale convey
Through heaven, through earth, and all the aërial way:
Spirit divine! whose exhalation greets
The sense of gods with more than mortal sweets.
Thus while she breathed of heaven, with decent pride
Her artful hands the radiant tresses tied;
Part on her head in shining ringlets rolld,
Part o'er her shoulders waved like melted gold.
Around her next a heavenly mantle flow'd,
That rich with Pallas' labor'd colors glow'd :
Large clasps of gold the foldings gather'd round,
A golden zone her swelling bosom bound.
Far-beaming pendants trenible in her ear,
Each gem illumined with a triple star.
Then o'er her head she cast a veil more white
Than new-fallen snow, and dazzling as the light.
Last her fair feet celestial sandals grace.
Thus issuing radiant with majestic pace,
Forth from the dome the imperial goddess moves,
And calls the mother of the smiles and loves.
“ How long (to Venus thus apart she cried)
Shall human strife celestial minds divide ?
Ah yet, will Venus aid Saturnia's joy,
And set aside the cause of Greece and Troy?"
“Let heaven's dread empress (Cytheræa said) Speak her request, and deem her will obey’d.” *“ Then grant me (said the queen) those conquering
charms,
That power, which mortals and immortals warms,
That love, which melts mankind in fierce desires,
And burns the sons of heaven with sacred fires !
6. For lo! I haste to those remote abodes,
Where the great parents (sacred source of gods!)
Ocean ar d Tethys their old empire keep,
On the last limits of the land and deep.
In their kind arms my tender years were past;
What time old Saturn, from Olympus cast,
Of upper heaven to Jove resign'd the reign,
Whelm'd under the huge mass of earth and main.
For strife, I hear, has made the union cease,
Which held so long that ancient pair in peace.
What honor, and what love, shall I obtain,
If I compose those fatal feuds again;
Once more their minds in mutual ties engage,
And, what my youth has owed, repay their
She said. With awe divine, the queen of love
Obey'd the sister and the wife of Jove;
And from her fragrant breast the zone embraced,*
With various skill and high embroidery graced. • Compare Tasso :
Teneri sdegni, e placide, e tranquille
Repulse, e cari vezzi, e licte paci,
Sorrisi, parolette, e dolci stille
Di pianto, e sospir tronchi, e molli baci.”
Gier. Lib. xvi. 13.
In this was every art, and every charm,
To win the wisest, and the coldest warm :
Fond love, the gentle vow, the gay desire,
The kind deceit, the still-reviving fire,
Persuasive speech, and the more persuasive sighs,
Silence that spoke, and eloquence of eyes.
This on her hand the Cyprian Goddess laid :
“ Take this, and with it all thy wish ; ” she said.
With smiles she took the charm; and smiling pressid
The powerful cestus to her snowy breast.
Then Venus to the courts of Jove withdrew;
Whilst from Olympus pleased Saturnia flew.
O'er high Pieria thence her course she bore,
O'er fair Emathia's ever-pleasing shore,
O‘er Hemus' hills with snows eternal crown d;
Nor once her flying foot approach'd the ground.
Then taking wing from Athos' lofty steep,
She speeds to Lemnos o'er the rolling deep,
And seeks the cave of Death's half-brother, Sleep.*
Sweet pleasing Sleep! (Saturnia thus began)
Who spread'st thy empire o’er each god and man:
If e’er obsequious to thy Juno's will,
O power of slumbers ! hear, an 1 favor still.
Shed thy soft dews on Jove's immortal eyes,
While sunk in love's entrancing joys he lies.
A splendid footstool, and a throne, that shine
With gold unfading, Somnus, shall be thine ;
The work of Vulcan; to indulge thy ease,
When wine and feasts thy golden humors please.”
“Imperial dame (the balmy power replies),
Great Saturn's heir, and empress of the skies !
O’er other gods I spread my easy chain;
The sire of all, old Ocean, owns my reign,
And his hush'd waves lie silent on the main.
But how, unbidden, shall I dare to steep
Jove's awful temples in the dew of sleep?
Long since too venturous at thy bold command
On those eternal lids I laid my hand;
What time, deserting Ilion's wasted plain,
His conquering son, Alcides, plough'd the main.
When lo! the deeps arise, the tempests roar,
And drive the hero to the Coan shore :
Great Jove, awaking, shook the blest abodes
With rising wrath, and tumbled gods on gods;
Me chief he sought, and from the realms on high
Had hurl'd indignant to the nether sky, * Compare the description of the dwelling of Sleep in Orlando Furioso, lk. vi.
But gentle Night, to whom I fled for aid
(The friend of earth and heaven), her wings display'd;
Impower'd the wrath of gods and men to tame,
Even Jove revered the venerable dame.”
“ Vain are thy fears (the queen of heaven replies,
And, speaking, rolls her large majestic eyes);
Think'st thou that Troy has Jove's high favor won,
Like great Alcides, his all-conquering son?
Hear, and obey the mistress of the skies,
Nor for the deed expect a vulgar prize ;
For know, thy loved-one shall be ever thine,
The youngest Grace, Pasithaë the divine.*
“ Swear then he said) by those tremendous floods
That roar through hell, and bind the invoking gods:
Let the great parent earth one hand sustain,
And stretch the other o'er the sacred main :
Call the black Titans, that with Chronos dwel!,
To hear and witness from the depths of hell;
That she, my loved-one, shall be ever mine,
The youngest Grace, Pasithaë the divine.”
The queen assents, and from the infernal bowers
Invokes the sable subtartarean powers,
And inose who rule the inviolable floods,
Whom mortals name the dread Titanian gods.
Then swift as wind, o'er Lemnos' smoky isle
They wing their way, and Imbrus’sea-beat soil;
Through air, unseen, involved in darkness glide,
And light on Lectos, on the point of Ide
(Mother of savages, whose echoing hills
Àre heard resounding with a hundred rills):
Fair Ida trembles underneath the god :
Hush'd are her mountains, and her forests nod.
There on a fir, whose spiry branches rise
To join its summit to the neighboring skies;
Dark in embowering shade, conceal'd from sight,
Sat Sleep, in likeness of the bird of night
(Chalcis his name by those of heavenly birth,
But callid Cymindis' by the race of earth).
To Ida's top successful Juno flies;
Great Jove surveys her with desiring eyes ;
The god, whose lightning sets the heavens on fire,
Through all his bosom feels the fierce desire ;
Fierce as when first by stealth he seized her charms,
Mix'd with her soul, and melted in her arms :
Fix'd on her eyes he fed his eager look,
Then press'd her hand, and thus with transport spoke :
Why comes my goddess from the ethereal sky,
And not her steeds and faming chariot nigh? ”
Then she-“I haste to those remote abodes
Where the great parents of the deathless gods,
The reverend Ocean and gray Tethys, reign,
On the last limits of the land and main.
I visit these, to whose indulgent cares
I owe the nursing of my tender years :
For strife, I hear, has made that union cease
Which held so long that ancient pair in peace.
The steeds, prepared my chariot to convey
O’er earth and seas, and through the aërial way,
Wait under Ide: of thy superior power
To ask consent, I leave the Olympian bower;
Nor seek, unknown to thee, the sacred cells
Deep under seas, where hoary Ocean dwells."
" For that (said Jove) suffice another day!
But eager love denies the least delay.
Let softer cares the present hour employ,
And be these moments sacred all to joy:
Ne'er did my soul so strong a passion prove,
Or for an earthly, or a heavenly love :
Not when I press'd Ixion's matchless dame,
Whence rose Pirithous like the gods in fame :
Not when fair Danaë felt the shower of gold
Stream into life, whence Perseus brave and bold.
Not thus I burn'd for either Theban dame
(Bacchus from this, from that Alcides came):
Nor Phænix' daughter, beautiful and young,
Whence godlike Rhadamarth and Minos sprung. *
Not thus I burn'd for fair Latona's face,
Nor comelier Ceres' more majestic grace.
Not thus even for thyself I felt desire,
As now my veins receive the pleasing fire."
He spoke; the goddess with the charming eyes
And Minos, “ By Homer, Minos is described as the son of Jupiter, and of the laughter of Phænix, whom all succeeding authors name Europa ; and he is thus carried back into the remotest period of Cretan antiquity known to the poet, apparently as a native hero, illustrious enough for a divine parentage, and too ancient to allow his descent to be traced to any other source. But in a genealogy recorded by later writers, he is likewise the adopted son of Asterius, as descendant of Dorus, the son of Helen, and is thus connected with a colony said to have been led into ('reta by Tentamu , or Tectamus, son of Dorus, who is related either to have crossed over from Thessaly, or to have embarked at Malea after having led his followers by land into Laconia.”—Thirlwall, 15. 136. seq.
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