Accursed snake! yet I more curs'd than he!
He gave the wound; the cause was given by me.
Yet none shall say, that unreveng'd you died.
He spoke; then climb'd a cliff's o'erhanging side,
And, resolute, leap'd on the foaming tide.
Tethys receiv'd him gently on the wave;
The death he sought denied, and feathers gave.
Debarr'd the surest remedy of grief,
And forc'd to live, he curst the unask'd relief.
Then on his airy pinions upward flies,
And at a second fall successless tries;
The downy plume a quick descent denies.
Enrag'd, he often dives beneath the wave,
And there in vain expects to find a grave.
His ceaseless sorrow for the unhappy maid
Meager'd his look, and on his spirits prey'd.
Still near the sounding deep he lives; his name
From frequent diving and emerging came,

THE TWELFTH BOOK OF OVID'S METAMORPHOSES, WHOLLY

TRANSLATED.

CONNEXION TO THE END OF THE ELEVENTH BOOK.

Esacus, the son of Priam, loving a country life, forsakes the court: living obscurely, he falls in love with a nymph; who, flying from him, was killed by a serpent; for grief of this, he would have drowned himself; but, by the pity of the gods, is turned into a Corinorant. Priam, not hearing of Esacus, believes him to be dead, and raises a tomb to preserve his memory. By this transition, which is one of the finest of all Ovid, the poet narurally falls into the story of the Trojan war, which is summed up, in the present book, but so very briefly, in many places, that Ovid seems more short than Virgil, contrary to his usual style. Yet the House of Fame, which is here described, is one of the most beautiful pieces in the whole Metamorphoses. The fight of Achilles and Cyg. nus, and the fray betwixt the Lapitha and Centaurs, yield to no other part of this poet: and particularly the loves and death of Cyllarus and Hylonome, the male and female Centaur, are wonderfully moving.

PRIAM, to whom the story was unknown,
As dead, deplor'd his metamorphos'd son:
A cenotaph his name and title kept,

And Hector round the tomb, with all his brothers, wept.

This pious office Paris did not share,
Absent alone, and author of the war,
Which, for the Spartan queen, the Grecians
drew

To avenge the rape, and Asia to subdue

A thousand ships were mann'd to sail the sea: Nor had their just resentments found delay, Had not the winds and waves oppos'd their

way.

At Aulis, with united powers, they meet; But there, cross winds or calms detain'd the fleet.

Now, while they raise an altar on the shore, And Jove with solemn sacrifice adore ; A boding sign the priests and people see: A snake of size immense ascends a tree, And in the leafy summit spied a nest, Which, o'er her callow young, a sparrow press'd.

Eight were the birds unfledg'd; their mother flew,

And hover'd round her care; but still in view: Till the fierce reptile first devour'd the brood; Then seiz'd the fluttering dam, and drank her

blood.

This dire ostent the fearful people view
Calchas alone, by Phoebus taught, foreknsw
What heaven decreed and with a smiling
glance,

Thus gratulates to Greece her happy chance.
O Argives, we shall conquer; Troy is ours,
But long delays shall first afflict our powers:
Nine years of labour the nine birds portend;
The tenth shall in the town's destruction end.

The serpent, who his maw obscene had fill'd, The branches in his curl'd embraces held : But as in spires he stood, he turn'd to stone: The stony snake retain'd the figure still his own.

Yet not for this the wind-bound navy weigh'd; Slack were their sails; and Neptune disobey'd. Some thought him loath the town should be destroy'd,

Whose building had his hands divine employ'd: Not so the seer; who knew, and known foreshow'd,

The virgin Phoebe with a virgin's blood
Must first be reconcil'd; the common cause
Prevail'd; and pity yielding to the laws
Fair Iphigenia, the devoted maid,
Was, by the weeping priests, in linen robes ar
ray'd;

All mourn her fate; but no relief appear'd: The royal victim bound, the knife already rear'd:

When that offended power,who caus'd their wo, Relenting ceas'd her wrath; and stopp'd the coming blow.

A mist before the ministers she cast; And, in the virgin's room, a hind she plac'd. The oblation slain, and Phoebe reconcil'd, The storm was hush'd, and dimpled ocean A favourable gale arose from shore, [smil'd: Which to the port desir'd the Grecian galleys bore.

Full in the midst of this created space Betwixt heaven, earth, and skies, there stands a place

Confining on all three; with triple bound; Whence all things, though remote, are view'd, around,

And thither bring their undulating sound.

The palace of loud Fame; her seat of power;
Plac'd on the summit of a lofty tower.

A thousand winding entries, long and wide,
Receive of fresh reports a flowing tide.
A thousand crannies in the walls are made;
Nor gate nor bars exclude the busy trade.
'T is built of brass, the better to diffuse
The spreading sounds, and multiply the news;
Where echoes in repeated echoes play :
A mart for ever full, and open night and day.
Nor silence is within, nor voice express,
But a deaf noise of sounds that never cease;
Confus'd, and chiding, like the hollow roar
Of tides, receding from the insulted shore :
Or like the broken thunder, heard from far,
When Jove to distance drives the rolling war.
'The courts are fill'd with a tumultuous din
Of crowds, or issuing forth, or ent'ring in:
A thoroughfare of news: where some devise
Things never heard; some mingle truth with lies:
The troubled air with empty sounds they beat
Intent to hear, and eager to repeat.
Error sits brooding there; with added train
Of vain Credulity, and Joys as vain:
Suspicion, with Sedition join'd, are near;
And rumours rais'd, and murmurs mix'd, and
panic fear

Fame sits aloft; and sees the subject ground,
And seas about, and skies above; inquiring all
around.
[known
The goddess gives the alarm; and soon is
The Grecian fleet, descending on the town.
Fix'd on defence, the Trojans are not slow
To guard their shore from an expected foe.
They meet in fight: by Hector's fatal hand
Protesilaus falls, and bites the strand, [won,
Which with expense of blood the Grecians
And prov'd the strength unknown of Priam's
And to their cost the Trojan leaders felt [son.
The Grecian heroes, and what deaths they
dealt.

From these first onsets, the Sigan shore Was strew'd with carcasses, and stain'd with

Then urg'd his fiery chariot on the foe:
And rising shook this lance, in act to throw
But first he cried, O youth, be proud to bear
Thy death, ennobled by Pelides' spear.
The lance pursu'd the voice without delay;
Nor did the whizzing weapon miss the way,
But pierc'd his cuirass, with such fury sent;
And sign'd his bosom with a purple dint.
At this the seed of Neptune; Goddess-born
For ornament, not use, these arms are worn
This helm, and heavy buckler, I can spare,
As only decorations of the war:
So Mars is arm'd for glory, not for need.
"T is somewhat more from Neptune to proceed
Than from a daughter of the sea to spring
Thy sire is mortal; mine is ocean's king.
Secure of death, I should contemn thy dart,
Though naked, and impassable depart:
He said, and threw the trembling weapon
pass'd
[plac'd,
Through nine bull-hides, each under other
On his broad shield, and stuck within the last.
Achilles wrench'd it out; and sent again
The hostile gift: the hostile gift was vain.
He tried a third, a tough well chosen spear;
The inviolable body stood sincere,
Though Cygnus then did no defence provide,
But scornful offer'd his unshielded side

Not otherwise the impatient hero far'd,
Than as a bull encompass'd with a guard,
Amid the circus roars: provok'd from far
By sight of scarlet, and a sanguine war :
They quit their ground; his bended horns elude
In vain pursuing, and in vain pursu❜d.

Before to farther fight he would advance, He stood considering, and survey'd his lance. Doubts if he wielded not a wooden spear Without a point: he look'd, the point was there. This is my hand, and this my lance, he said, By which so many thousand foes are dead. O whither is their usual virtue fled! I had it once; and the Lyrnessian wall, And Tenedos, confess'd it in their fall. Thy streams, Caïcus, roll'd a crimson flood; And Thebes ran red with her own natives'

blood.

Twice Telephus employ'd their piercing steel,
To wound him first, and afterward to heal.
The vigour of this arm was never vain :
And that my wonted prowess I retain,
Witness these heaps of slaughter on the plain.
He said, and, doubtful of his former deeds,
To some new trial of his force proceeds.
He chose Menetes from among the rest;
At him he lanc'd his spear, and pierc'd his

breast:

On the hard earth the Lycian knock'd his head, And lay supine; and forth the spirit fled.

At his left shoulder aimed: nor entrance found;
But back, as from a rock, with swift rebound
Harmless return'd: a bloody mark appear'd,
Which with false joy the flatter'd hero cheer'd.
Wound there was none; the blood that was in
view,

The lance before from slain Menætes drew.
Headlong he leaps from off his lofty car,
And in close fight on foot renews the war.
Raging with high disdain, repeats his blows;
Nor shield nor armour can their force oppose:
Huge cantlets of his buckler strew the ground,
And no defence in his bar'd arms is found.
But on his flesh no wound nor blood is seen;
The sword itself is blunted on the skin.

This vain attempt the chief no longer bears;
But round his hollow temples and his ears
His buckler beats: the son of Neptune, stunn'd
With these repeated buffets, quits his grouud;
A sickly sweat succeeds, and shades of night;
Inverted nature swims before his sight:
The insulting victor presses on the more,
And treads the steps the vanquish'd trod before,
Nor rest, nor respite gives. A stone there lay
Behind his trembling foe, and stopp'd his way:
Achilles took the advantage which he found,
O'erturn'd, and push'd him backward on the
ground.

His buckler held him under, while he press'd,
With both his knees above, his panting breast:
Unlac'd his helm: about his chin the twist
He tied; and soon the strangled soul dismiss'd.
With eager haste he went to strip the dead;
The vanquish'd body from his arms was fled.
His sea-god sire, to immortalize his fame,
Had turn'd it to the bird that bears his name.
A truce succeeds the labours of this day,
And arins suspended with a long delay.
While Trojan walls are kept with watch and
[guard.
The Greeks before their trenches mount the
The feast approach'd; when to the blue-ey'd maid
His vows for Cygnus slain the victor paid,
And a white heifer on her altar laid.
The reeking entrails on the fire they throw;
And to the gods the grateful odour flew :
Heaven had its part in sacrifice: the rest
Was broil'd and roasted for the future feast.
The chief invited guests were set around:
And, hunger first assuag'd, the bowls were
crown'd,

ward;

Which in deep draughts their cares and labours drown'd.

The mellow harp did not their ears employ:
And mute was all the warlike symphony.
Discourse, the food of souls, was their delight,
And pleasing chat prolong'd the summer's night.
The subject, deeds of arms; and valour shown,
Or on the Trojan side, or on their own.
Of dangers undertaken, fame achiev'd,
They talk'd by turns; the talk by turns ro-
liev'd.

What things but these could fierce Achilles tell,
Or what could fierce Achilles hear so well?
The last great act perform'd of Cygnus slain,
Did most the martial audience entertain:
Wondering to find a body, free by fate
From steel, and which could e'en that steel re-
Amaz'd, their admiration they renew; [bate:
And scarce Pelides could believe it true.

has

Then Nestor thus; What once this age In fated Cygnus, and in him alone, [known, These eyes have seen in Cæneus long before, Whose body not a thousand swords could bore. Caneus, in courage, and in strength, excell'd, And still his Othrys with his fame is fill'd: But what did most his martial deeds adorn, (Though since he chang'd his sex) a woman

born.

A novelty so strange, and full of fate, His listening audience ask'd him to relate. Achilles thus commends their common suit, O father, first for prudence in repute, Tell, with that eloquence, so much thy own, What thou hast heard, or what of Caneus known:

What was he, whence his change of sex begun, What trophies, join'd in wars with thee, he won?

Who conquer'd him, and in what fatal strife The youth, without a wound, could lose his life?

Neleides then; Though tardy age, and time, Have shrunk my sinews, and decay'd my prime, Though much I have forgotten of my store, Yet not exhausted, I remember more. Of all that arms achiev'd, or peace design'd, That action still is fresher in my mind Than aught beside. If reverend age can give To faith a sanction, in my third I live.

'T was in my second century I survey'd Young Canis, then a fair Thessalian maid: Canis the bright was born to high command; A princess, and a native of thy land, Divine Achilles: every tongue proclaim'd Her beauty, and her eyes a'l hearts inflem'd. Peleus, thy sire, perhaps had sought her bed, Among the rest; but he had either led Thy mother then, er was by promise tied, But she to him, ans J, like her love denied

It was her fortune once, to take her way Along the sandy margin of the sea: The Power of ocean view'd her as she pass'd, And, lov'd as soon as seen, by force embrac'd. So fame reports. Her virgin treasure seiz'd, And his new joys the ravisher so pleas'd, That thus, transported, to the nymph he cried; Ask what thou wilt, no prayer shall be denied. This also fame relates: the haughty fair, Who not the rape e'en of a god could bear. This answer, proud, return'd: To mighty

wrongs

A mighty recompense, of right, belongs.
Give me no more to suffer such a shame;
But change the woman for a better name;
One gift for all she said; and while she spoke,
A stern, majestic, manly tone she took.
A man she was: and as the godhead swore,
To Cæneus turn'd, who Canis was before.

To this the lover adds, without request,
No force of steel should violate his breast.
Glad of the gift, the new-made warrior goes
And arms among the Greeks, and longs for equal
foes.

Now brave Pirithous, bold Ixion's son, The love of fair Hippodame had won. The cloud-begotten race, half men, half beast, Invited, came to grace the nuptial feast: In a cool cave's recess the treat was made, Whose entrance trees with spreading boughs o'ershade. [came, They sat and summon'd by the bridegroom To mix with those, the Lapithean name: Nor wanted I: the roofs with joy resound: And Hymen, Io Hymen, rung around, Rais'd altars shone with holy fires; the bride, Lovely herself (and lovely by her side

A bevy of bright nymphs, with sober grace,) Came glittering like a star, and took her place: Her heavenly form beheld, all wish'd her joy; And little wanted, but in vain, their wishes all employ.

For one, most brutal of the brutal brood, Or whether wine or beauty fir'd his blood, Or both at once, beheld with lustful eyes

The bride; at once resolv'd to make his prize. Down went the board; and fastening on her hair,

He seiz'd with sudden force the frighted fair.
'Twas Eurytus began: his bestial kind [mind,
His crime pursu'd; and each as pleas'd his
Or her, whom chance presented, took: the feast
An image of a taken town express'd.

The cave resounds with female shrieks; we
rise,

Mad with revenge, to make a swift reprise: And Theseus first; What frenzy has possess'd, O Eurytus, he cried, thy brutal breast,

To wrong Pirithous, and not him alone,
But, while I live, two friends conjoin'd in one?
To justify his threat, he thrusts aside
The crowd of centaurs, and redeems the bride.
The monster nought replied: for words were
vain;

And deeds could only deeds unjust maintain: But answers with his hand; and forward press'd,

With blows redoubled, on his face and breast.
An ample goblet stood, of antique mould,
And rough with figures of the rising gold;
The hero snatch'd it up, and toss'd in air
Full at the front of the foul ravisher:
He falls; and falling vomits forth a flood [blood.
Of wine, and foam, and brains, and mingled
Half roaring, and half neighing through the hall,
Arms, arms, the double-form'd with fury call;
To wreak their brother's death: a medley flight
Of bowls and jars, at first, supply the fight,
Once instruments of feasts, but now of fate
Wine animates their rage, and arms their hate.

Bold Amycus, from the robb'd vestry brings
The chalices of heaven, and holy things
Of precious weight: a sconce, that hung on high,
With tapers fill'd to light the sacristy,
Torn from the cord, with his unhallow'd hand,
He threw amid the Lapithaan band.
On Celadon the ruin fell, and left
His face of feature and of form bereft :
So, when some brawny sacrificer knocks,
Before an altar led, an offer'd ox,

His eyeballs rooted out are thrown to ground:
His nose dismantled in his mouth is found,
His jaws, cheeks, front, one undistinguish'd

wound.

This, Belates, the avenger, could not brook; But, by the foot, a maple board he took, And hurl'd at Amycus; his chin is bent Against his chest, and down the centaur sent; Whom sputtering bloody teeth, the second blow Of his drawn sword despatch'd to shades below,

Grineus was near; and cast a furious look On the side altar, cens'd witn sacred smoke, And bright with flaming fires: The gods, he cried,

Have with their holy trade our hands supplied:
Why use we not their gifts? Then from the floor
An altar stone he heav'd, with all the load it
Altar and altar's freight together flew [bore:
Where thickest throng'd the Lapithaan crew;
And, at once, Broteas and Oryus slew:
Oryus' mother, Mycale, was known
Down from her sphere to draw the lab'ring moon.
Exadius cried, Unpunish'd shall not go
This fact, if arms are found against the foe.
He look'd about, where on a pine were spread
The votive horns of a stag's branching head:

At Grizeus these he throws; so just they fly, That the sharp antlers stuck in either eye: Breathless and blind he fell; with blood besmear'd, [beard.

His eyeballs beaten out hung dangling on his Fierce Rhætus, from the hearth a burning brand Selects, and whirling waves; till, from his hand The fire took flame; then dash'd it from the right,

On fair Charaxus' temples, near the sight:
The whistling pest came on, and pierc'd the
bone,
it shone :

And caught the yellow hair, that shrivell'd while
Caught, like dry stubble fir'd, or like seer wood;
Yet from the wound ensu'd no purple food;
But look'd a bubbling mass of frying blood.
His blazing locks sent forth a crackling sound,
And hiss'd like red-hot iron within the smithy

drown'd.

The wounded warrior shook his flaming hair,
Then (what a team of horse could hardly rear)
He heaves the threshold-stone; but could not
throw;

The weight itself forbad the threaten'd blow;
Which,dropping from his lifted arms, came down
Full on Cometes' head, and crush'd his crown.
Nor Rhætus then retain'd his joy, but said,
So by their fellows may our foes be sped,
Then with redoubled strokes he plies his head:
The burning lever not deludes his pains,
But drives the batter'd skull within the brains.
Thus flush'd, the conquerer, with force re-
new'd,

Evagrus, Dryas, Corythus, pursu'd:

First Corythus, with downy cheeks, he slew;
Whose fall when fierce Evagrus had in view,
He cried, What palm is from a beardless prey?
Rhatus prevents what more he had to say;
And drove within his mouth the fiery death,
Which enter'd hissing in, and chok'd his breath.
At Dryas next he flew; but weary chance
No longer would the same success advance.
But while he whirl'd in fiery circles round
The brand, a sharpen'd stake strong Dryas
found;

And in the shoulder's joint inflicts the wound. The weapon struck: which roaring out with pain

fle drew; nor longer durst the fight maintain, But turn'd his back, for fear; and fled amain. With him fled Orneus, with like dread pos

sess'd;

Thaumas and Medon, wounded in the breast,
And Mermeros, in the late race renown'd,
Now limping ran, and tardy with his wound.
Pholus and Melaneus from fight withdrew,
And Abas maim'd, who boars encountering
slew;

VOL. 1.-20

And augur Astylos, whose art in vain
From fight dissuaded the four-footed train,
Now beat the hoof with Nessus on the plain,
But to his fellow cried, Be safely slow,
Thy death deferr'd is due to great Alcides bow.
Meantime strong Dryas urg'd his chance se
well,

That Lycidas, Areos, Imbreus fell;
All, one by one, and fighting face to face:
Crenæus fled, to fall with more disgrace:
For, fearful while he look'd behind, he bore,
Betwixt his nose and front, the blow before.
Amid the noise and tumult of the fray,
Snoring and drunk with wine, Aphidas lay.
E'en then the bowl within his hand he kept,
And on a bear's rough hide securely slept.
Him Phorbas with his flying dart transfix'd;
Take thy next draught with Stygian waters
mix'd,

And sleep thy fill, the insulting victor cried;
Surpris'd with death unfelt, the Centaur died:
The ruddy vomit, as he breath'd his soul,
Repass'd his throat, and fill'd his empty bow'
I saw Petræus' arms employ'd around
A well-grown oak, to root it from the ground.
This way, and that, he wrench'd the fibrous
bands,

The trunk was like a sapling in his hands,
And still obey'd the bent: while thus he stood,
Pirithous' dart drove on, and nail'd him to the

wood.

Lycus and Cromys feli, by him oppress'd:
Helops and Dictys added to the rest

A nobler palm: Helops, through either car
Transfix'd, receiv'd the penetrating spear.
This Dictys saw; and seiz'd with sudden frign
Leapt headlong from the hill of steepy height;
And crush'd an ash beneath, that could not
bear his weight.

The shatter'd tree receives his fall, and strikes, Within his full-blown paunch, the sharpen'd spikes.

Strong Aphareus had heav'd a mighty stone,
The fragment of a rock, and would have thrown
But Theseus, with a club of harden'd oak,
The cubit-bone of the bold Centaur broke;
And left him maim'd, nor seconded the stroke.
Then leapt on tall Bianor's back: (who bore
No mortal burden but his own before.)
Press'd with his knees his sides: the double

man,

His speed with spurs increas'd, unwilling ran.
One hand the hero fasten'd on his locks;
His other plied him with repeated strokes:
The club hung round his ears, and batter'd
brows;

He falls; and lashing up his heels, his rider throws.