When the wide earth to heaps of ashes turn'd,
And heaven itself the wandering chariot burn'd.
For this, my brother of the watery reign
Releas'd th' impetuous fluices of the main :
But flames confum'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 Perfeus thofe of Argive race.
Unhappy Cadmus' fate who does not know,
And the long feries of fucceeding woe?
How oft the Furies, from the deeps of night,
Arose, and mix'd with men in mortal fight :
Th' exulting mother, ftain'd with filial blood;
The favage hunter, and the haunted wood?
The direful banquet why should I proclaim,
And crimes that grieve the trembling Gods to name?
Et Phaetontaea mundum fquallere favilla.
Nil actum eft: neque tu valida quod cufpide late
per illicitum pelago, germane, dedifti.
Nunc geminas punire domos, quis fanguinis autor
Ipfe ego, defcendo. Perfeos alter in Argos
Scinditur, Aonias fluit hic ab origine Thebas.
Mens cunctis impofta manet. Quis funera Cadmi
Nefciat? et toties excitam a fedibus imis
Eumenidum bellaffe aciem ? mala gaudia matrum,
Errorefque feros nemorum, et reticenda deorum
Crimina? vix lucis fpatio, vix noctis abactae
Enumerare queam mores, gentemque profanam.
Ere I recount the fins of these prophane,
The fun would fink into the western main,
And rifing gild the radiant eaft again.
Have we not seen (the blood of Laius fhed)
The murdering fon ascend his parent's bed,
Through violated nature force his way,
And ftain the facred womb where once he lay?
Yet now in darkness and despair he groans;
And for the crimes of guilty fate atones;
His fons with fcorn their eyless father view,
Infult his wounds, and make them bleed anew.
Thy curse, oh Oedipus, just heaven alarms,
And fets th' avenging Thunderer in arms.
I from the root thy guilty race will tear,
And give the nations to the waste of war.
Adraftus foon, with Gods averfe, fhall join
In dire alliance with the Theban line:
Scandere quinetiam thalamos hic impius haeres
Patris, et immeritae gremium incestare parentis
Apetiit, proprios monftro revolutus in ortus. t
Ille tamen Superis aeterna piacula folvit,
Projecitque diem: nec jam amplius aethere noftro
Vefcitur at nati (facinus fine more!) cadentes
Calcavere oculos. jam jam rata vota tulisti,
Dire fenex; meruere tua, meruere tenebrae
Ultorem fperare Jovem, nova fontibus arma
Injiciam regnis, totumque a ftirpe revellam
Exitiale genus. belli mihi femina funto
Adraftus focer, et fuperis adjuncta finiftris
Hence ftrife fhall rife, and mortal war fucceed;
The guilty realms of Tantalus fhall bleed :
Fix'd is their doom; this all-remembering breast
Yet harbours vengeance for the tyrant's feast.
He said; and thus the Queen of heaven return'd;
(With fudden grief her laboring bofom burn'd)
Muft I, whofe cares Phoroneus' towers defend,
Muft I, oh Jove, in bloody wars contend?
Thou know'ft thofe regions my protection claim,
Glorious in arms, in riches, and in fame:
Though there the fair Ægyptian heifer fed,
And there deluded Argus flept, and bled;
Though there the brazen tower was ftorm'd of old,
When Jove defcended in almighty gold.
Yet I can pardon those obscurer rapes,
Those bashful crimes difguis'd in borrow'd shapes;
Connubia. Hanc etiam poenis inceffere gentem
Decretum: neque enim arcano de pectore fallax
Tantalus, et faevae periit injuria menfae.
Sic pater omnipotens. Aft illi faucia dictis,
Flammato verfans inopinum corde dolorem,
Talia Juno refert: Mene, ô juftiffime divûm,
Me bello certare jubes? fcis femper ut arces
Cyclopum, magnique Phoroneos inclyta fama
Sceptra viris, opibufque juvem; licet improbus illic
Cuftodem Phariae, fomno letoque juvencae
Extinguas, feptis et turribus aureus intres.
Mentitis ignofco toris: illam odimus urbem,
But Thebes, where, fhining in celestial charms,
Thou cam'ft triumphant to a mortal's arms,
When all my glories o'er her limbs were spread,
And blazing lightnings danc'd around her bed;
Curs'd Thebes the vengeance it deferves, may prove-
Ah, why should Argos feel the rage of Jove ?
Yet, fince thou wilt thy fifter Queen control,
Since still the lust of discord fires thy foul,
Go, rafe my Samos, let Mycene fall,
And level with the duft the Spartan wall;
No more let mortals Juno's power invoke,
Her fanes no more with eastern incense smoke,
Nor victims fink beneath the facred stroke;
But to your
Ifis all my rights transfer,
Let altars blaze and temples smoke for her;
For her, through Egypt's fruitful clime renown'd, 375
Let weeping Nilus hear the timbrel sound.
But if thou must reform the stubborn times,
Avenging on the fons the father's crimes,
Quam vultu confeffus adis: ubi conscia magni
Signa tori, tonitrus agis, et mea fulmina torques.
Facta luant Thebae: cur hoftes eligis Argos?
Quin age, fi tanta eft thalami difcordia fancti,
Et Samon, et veteres armis exfcinde Mycenas.
Verte folo Sparten. cur ufquam fanguine fefto
Conjugis ara tuae, cumulo cur thuris Eoï
Laeta calet; melius votis Mareotica fumat
Coptos, et aerifoni lugentia flumina Nili.
Quod fi prifca luunt autorum crimina gentes,
And from the long records of diftant age
Derive incitements to renew thy rage;
Say, from what period then has Jove defign'd
To date his vengeance; to what bounds confin'd?
Begin from thence, where firft Alpheus hides
His wandering ftream, and through the briny tides
Unmix'd to his Sicilian river glides.
385
Thy own Arcadians there the thunder claim,
Whose impious rites difgrace thy mighty name;
Who raise thy temples where the chariot stood
Of fierce Oenomaus, defil'd with blood;
Where once his steeds their favage banquet found, 390
And human bones yet whiten all the ground.
Say, can thofe honours please? and canft thou love
Prefumptuous Crete, that boasts the tomb of Jove!
And shall not Tantalus's kingdom share
Thy wife and fifter's tutelary care?
Arcades hic tua (nec pudor eft) delubra nefaftis
Impofuere locis: illic Mavortius axis
Oenomaï, Geticoque pecus ftabulare fub Aemo.
Dignius: abruptis etiamnum inhumata procorum
Relliquiis trunca ora rigent. tamen hic tibi templi
Gratus honos. placet Ida nocens, mentitaque manes
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