840

845

Skill'd in the laws of secret fate above,
And the dark counfels of almighty Jove,
"Tis thine the seeds of future war to know,
The change of Sceptres, and impending woe;
When direful meteors spread thro' glowing air
Long trails of light, and shake their blazing hair.
Thy rage the Phrygian felt, who durit aspire
T'excel the music of thy heav'nly lyre;
Thy shafts aveng'd lewd Tityus' guilty flame,
Th’immortal victim of thy mother's fame ;
Thy hand New Python, and the dame who loft
Her num'rous offspring for a fatal boast. 850
In Phlegyas' doom thy just revenge appears,
Condemn'd to furies and eternal fears ;
He views his food, but dreads, with lifted eye,
The mouldring rock that trembles from on high.

Propitious hear our pray'r, O Pow'r divine ! 855
And on thy hospitable Argos shine,
Whether the style of Titan please thee more,
Whose purple rays th’ Achæmenes adore ;

Parcarum praeniffe minas, fatumque quod ultra eft,
Et fummo placitura Jovi. quis letifer annus, 840
Bella quibus populis, mutent quae fceptra cometae.
Tu Phryga submittis citharae, tu matris honori 845
Terrigenam Tityon Stygiis extendis arenis.
Te viridis Python, Thebanaque mater ovantem
Horruit in pharetris. ultrix tibi torva Megaera 850
Jejunum Phlegyam fubter cava faxa jacentem
Aeterno premit accubitu, dapibusque profanis
Instimulat: fed mifta famem fastidia vincunt.
Adsis o, memor hofpitii, Junoniaque arva
Dexter ames; seu te roseum Titana vocari
Gentis Achaemeniae ritu, feu praeftat Ofwin

855

Or great Ofiris, who first taught the fwain
In Pharian fields to fow the golden grain ; 860
Or Mitra, to whose beams the Persian bows,
And pays, in hollow rocks, his awful vows;
Mitra, whose head the blaze of light adorns,
Who grasps the struggling heifer's lunar horns.

Frugiferum, seu Persei sub rupibus antri
Indignata fequi torquentem cornua Mitram.

1

He said, and for her loft Galanthis fighs,

When the fair Consort of her son replies.
Since you a servant's ravilh'd form bemoan,
And kindly sigh for sorrows not your own;
Let me (if tears and grief permit) relate
A nearer woe, a fifter's stranger fate.
No Nymph of all Oechalia could compare
For beateous form with Dryope the fair,
Her tender mother's only hope and pride,
(Myself the offspring of a second bride.)

5

10

DIXIT
IXIT: et, admonitu veteris commota miniftrae,

Ingemuit; quam fic nurus eft adfata dolentem :
Te tamen, o genitrix, alienae fanguine vestro
Rapta movet facies. quid fi tibi mira fororis
Fata meae referam ? quanquam lacrymaeque dolorque
Impediunt, prohibentque loqui. fuit unica matri
(Me pater ex alia genuit) notiflima forma

NOTE s. DRYOPE.] Upon the occasion of the death of Hercules, bis Mother Alcmena recounts her misfortunes to Jole, who answers with a relation of those of her own family, in particular the Transformation of her fifter Dryope, which is the subject of the ensuing Fable,

3