O had my love been less, or less thy fear!
The victory thus bought is far too dear.
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 dy'd.'
He spoke; then climb'd a cliff's o'er-hanging side,
And, resolute, leap'd on the foaming tide.
Tethys receiv'd him gently on the wave;
The death he sought deny'd, and feathers gave.
Debarr'd the surest remedy of grief,
And forc'd to live, he curst th' 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 th' 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.

Connection to the end of the Eleventh Book. sacus, 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 cormorant. Priam, not | hearing of Æsacus, believes him to be dead, and raises a tomb to preserve his memory. By this transition, which is one of the finest in all Ovid, | the poet naturally 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 Cygnus, 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.

[wept.

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
This pious office Paris did not share;
Absent alone, and author of the war,

And, in the leafy summit, spy'd 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
This dire ostent the fearful people view; [blood.
Calchas alone, by Phoebus taught, foreknew
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 loth 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 array'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 woe,
Relenting ceas'd her wrath; and stopp'd the com-
ing blow.

Amist before the ministers she cast;
And, in the virgin's room, a hind she plac'd.
Th' oblation slain, and Phoebe reconcil'd,
The storm was hush'd, and dimpled Ocean smil'd:
A favourable gale arose from shore,
Which to the port desir'd the Grecian galleys bore.
Full in the midst of this created space, [place
Betwixt Heaven, Earth, and Skies, there stands a
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.
'Tis 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

Which, for the Spartan queen, the Grecians drew Of tides, receding from th' insulted shore:
T' 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 solemo sacrifice adore;
A boding sign the priests and people sec:
A snake of size immense ascends a tree,

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 crouds, or issuing forth, or entering 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.
Errour 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 pa-
nic fear.

Fame sits aloft; and sees the subject ground,
And seas about, and skies above; inquiring all
around.

The goddess gives th' alarm; and soon is known
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,
Which with expense of blood the Grecians won:
And prov'd the strength unknown of Priam's son.
And to their cost the Trojan leaders felt
The Grecian heroes, and what deaths they dealt.
From these first onsets, the Sigaan shore
Was strew'd with carcases, and stain'd with gore:
Neptunian Cygnus troops of Greeks had slain;
Achilles in his car had scour'd the plain,
And clear'd the Trojan ranks: where'er he fought,
Cygnus, or Hector, through the fields he sought:
Cygnus he found; on him his force essay'd :
For Hector was to the tenth year delay'd. [yoke,
His white-man'd steeds, that bow'd beneath the
He cheer'd to courage, with a gentle stroke;
Then urg'd his fiery chariot on the foe:
And, rising, shook his lance, in act to throw.
But first he cry'd, "O youth, be proud to bear
Thy death, enobled by Pelides' spear."
The lance pursued 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.
"Tis 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
Through nine bull-hides, each under other plac'd,
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 try'd a third, a tough well-chosen spear;
Th' inviolable body stood sincere,
Though Cygnus then did no defence provide,
But, scornful, offer'd his unshielded side.

Not otherwise th' 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 pursued.

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 Menæætes from among the rest;
At him he lanch'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.

Then thus the hero: "Neither can I blame
The hand, or javelin; both are still the same.
The same I will employ against this foe;
And wish but with the same success to throw."
So spoke the chief; and while he spoke he threw;
The weapon with unerring fury flew,

At his left shoulder aim'd: 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 bor'd arms is found.
But on his flesh no wound or 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 ground;
A sickly sweat succeeds, and shades of night;
Inverted Nature swims before his sight:
Th' 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'er-turn'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 try'd; and soon the strangled soul dismiss'd.
With eager haste he went to strip the dead;
The vanquish'd body from his arms was filed.
His sea-god sire, t' immortalize his fame,
Had turn'd it to the bird that bears his name.
A truce succeeds the labours of this day,
And arms suspended with a long delay.
While Trojan walls are kept with watch and ward;
The Greeks before their trenches mount the guard;
The feast approach'd; when to the blue-eyed maid
His vows for Cygnus slain the victor paid,
And a white heifer on her altar laid.
The reeking entrails on the fire they threw ;
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,
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 reliev'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

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'er-

shade.

[came, They sate: and, summon'd by the bridegroom,

From steel, and which could ev'n that steel rebate: To mix with those, the Lapithæan name:
Amaz'd their admiration they renew;
And scarce Pelides could believe it true.

Then Nestor thus; "What once this age has
In fated Cygnus, and in him alone, [known,
These eyes have seen in Cæneus long before,
Whose body not a thousand swords could bore.
Cæneus, 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.

""Twas 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 all hearts inflam'd.
Peleus, thy sire, perhaps had sought her bed,
Among the rest; but he had either led

Thy mother then, or was by promise ty'd ;
But she to him, and all, alike her love deny'd.
"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 cry'd:
Ask what thou wilt, no prayer shall be deny'd.'
This also Fame relates: the haughty fair,
Who not the rape ev'n 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,

Nor wanted I: the roofs with joy resound:
And Hymen, lö 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 blood,
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
His crime pursued; and each as pleas'd his mind,
Or her, whom chance presented, took: the feast
An image of a taken town express'd.
[rise,

6

"The cave resounds with female shrieks; we
Mad with revenge, to make a swift reprise:
And Theseus first; What frenzy has possess'd,
O Eurytus,' he cry'd, 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 reply'd: 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 mold,
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
Of wine, and foam and brains, and mingled blood.
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 Lapithæan 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 eye-balls rooted out are thrown to ground,
His nose dismantled in his mouth is found,
His jaws, cheeks, front, one undistinguish'd wound.
"This Belates, th' avenger, could not brook;
But, by the foot, a maple-board he took,

Thy father's squire, Achilles, and his care;
Whom conquer'd in the Delopeian war,
Their king, his present ruin to prevent,
A pledge of peace implor'd, to Peleus sent.
Thy sire, with grieving eyes, beheld his fate;
And cry'd, Not long, lov'd Crantor, shalt thou
wait

Thy vow'd revenge.' At once he said, and threw
His ashen-spear, which quiver'd as it flew,
With all his force and all his soul apply'd;
The sharp point enter'd in the Centaur's side:
Both hands, to wrench it out, the monster join'd;
And wrench'd it out; but left the steel behind.
Stuck in his lungs it stood: enrag'd he rears
His hoofs, and down to ground thy father bears.
Thus trampled under foot, his shield defends
His head; his other hand the lance protends.
Ev'n while he lay extended on the dust,
He sped the Centaur, with one single thrust.
Two more his lance before transfix'd from far;
And two his sword had slain in closer war.
To these was added Dorylas: who spread
A bull's two goring horns around his head.
With these he push'd; in blood already dy'd:
Him, fearless, I approach'd, and thus defy'd:
Now, monster, now, by proof it shall appear,
Whether thy horns are sharper, or my spear.'
At this, I threw for want of other ward,
He lifted up his hand, his front to guard.
His hand it pass'd, and fix'd it to his brow:
Loud shouts of ours attend the lucky blow:
Him Peleus finish'd, with a second wound,
Which through the navel pierc'd: he reel'd around,
And dragg'd his dangling bowels on the ground:
Trod what he dragg'd, and what he trod he crush'd:
And to his mother-earth, with empty belly, rush'd.
"Nor could thy form, O Cyllarus, foreshow
Thy fate (if form to monsters men allow):
Just bloom'd thy beard, thy beard of golden hue:
Thy locks, in golden waves, about thy shoulders
flew.

Sprightly thy look: thy shapes in every part
So clean, as might instruct the sculptor's art,
As far as man extended: where began
The beast, the beast was equal to the man.
Add but a horse's head and neck, and he,
O Castor, was a courser worthy thee.
So was his back proportion'd for the seat;

All day they hunted; and when day expir'd,
Together to some shady cave retir'd.
Invited, to the nuptials both repair:
And, side by side, they both engage in war.

Uncertain from what hand, a flying dart

At Cyllarus was sent, which pierc'd his heart.
The javelin drawn from out the mortal wound,
He faints with staggering steps, and seeks the
ground:

The fair within her arms receiv'd his fall,
And strove his wandering spirits to recall :
And, while her hand the streaming blood oppos'd,
Join'd face to face, his lips with hers sue cios'd.
Stifled with kisses, a sweet death he dies;
She fills the fields with undistinguish'd cries:
At least her words were in her clamour drown'd;
For my stunn'd ears receiv'd no vocal sound.
In madness of her grief she seiz'd the dart
New drawn, and reeking from her lover's heart;
To her bare bosom the sharp point apply'd,
And wounded fell, and falling by his side, [dy'd.
Embrac'd him in her arms, and thus embracing
"Ev'n still, methinks, I see Phaocomes;
Strange was his habit, and as odd his dress.
Six lions hides, with thongs together fast,
His upper part defended to his waist;
And where man ended, the continued vest
Spread on his back the houss and trappings of a
beast.

A stump too heavy for a team to draw
(It seems a fabie, though the fact I saw)
He threw at Pholon; the descending blow
Divides the skull, and cleaves his head in two.
The brains, from nose and mouth, and either ear,
Came issuing out, as through a colendar
The curdled milk: or from the press the whey,
Driven down by weights above, is drain'd away.

"But him, while stooping down to spoil the slain,
Pierc'd through the paunch, I tumbled on the plam.
Then Chthonius and Teleboas I slew :
A fork the former arm'd; a dart his fellow threw.
The javelin wounded me (behold the scar).
Then was my time to seek the Trojan war;
Then I was Hector's match in open field;
But he was then unborn; at least a child;
Now, I am nothing. I forbear to tell
By Periphantes how Pyretus fell;
The Centaur by the knight: nor will I stay

So rose his brawny chest; so swiftly mov'd his On Amphix, or what deaths he dealt that day:

feet.

Coal-black his colour, but like jet it shone;
His legs and flowing tail were white alone.
Belov'd by many maidens of his kind,
But fair Hylonome possess'd his mind;
Hylonome, for features, and for face,
Excelling all the nymphs of double race:
Nor less her blandishments, than beauty, move;
At once both loving, and confessing love.
For him she dress'd; for him with female care
She comb'd, and set in curls her auburn hair.
Of roses, violets, and lilies mix'd,

And sprigs of flowing rosemary betwixt,
She form'd the chaplet, that adorn'd her front:
In waters of the Pegasæan fount,

And in the streams that from the fountain play,
She wash'd her face, and bath'd her twice a day.
The scarf of furs, that hung below her side,
Was ermin, or the panther's spotted pride:
Spoils of no common beast: with equal flame
They lov'd: their sylvan pleasures were the same:

What honour, with a pointless lance, he won,
Stuck in the front of a four-footed man.
What fame young Macareus obtain'd in fight:
Or dwell on Nessus, now return'd from flight.
How prophet Mopsus not alone divin'd,
Whose valour equal'd his foreseeing mind.

Already Caneus, with his conquering hand,
Had slaughter'd five, the boldest of their band:
Pyrachmus, Helymus, Antimachus,

Bromus the brave, and stronger Stiphelus:
Their names I number'd, and remember well,
No trace remaining, by what wounds they fell.
"Latreus, the bulkiest of the double race,
Whom the spoil'd arms of slain Halesus grace,
In years retaining still his youthful might,
Though his black hairs were interspers'd with
white,

Betwixt th' embattled ranks began to prance,
Proud of his helm, and Macedonian lance;
And rode the ring around; that either host
Might hear him, while he made this empty boast.