Go quickly, drag the audacious boy to me; I"ll try the force of his divinity."
Thus did the audacious wretch those rites profane; His friends dissuade the audacious wretch in vain; In vain his grandsire urged him to give o"er His impious threats; the wretch but raves the more.
So have I seen a river gently glide, _60 In a smooth course and inoffensive tide; But if with dams its current we restrain, It bears down all, and foams along the plain.
But now his servants came besmeared with blood, Sent by their haughty prince to seize the G.o.d; The G.o.d they found not in the frantic throng But dragged a zealous votary along.
THE MARINERS TRANSFORMED TO DOLPHINS.
Him Pentheus viewed with fury in his look, And scarce withheld his hands, while thus he spoke: "Vile slave! whom speedy vengeance shall pursue, And terrify thy base, seditious crew: Thy country and thy parentage reveal, And why thou join"st in these mad orgies tell."
The captive views him with undaunted eyes, And, armed with inward innocence, replies.
"From high Meonia"s rocky sh.o.r.es I came, Of poor descent, Acaetes is my name: _10 My sire was meanly born; no oxen ploughed His fruitful fields, nor in his pastures lowed.
His whole estate within the waters lay; With lines and hooks he caught the finny prey.
His art was all his livelihood; which he Thus with his dying lips bequeathed to me: In streams, my boy, and rivers, take thy chance; There swims," said he, "thy whole inheritance.
"Long did I live on this poor legacy; Till tired with rocks, and my own native sky, _20 To arts of navigation I inclined, Observed the turns and changes of the wind: Learned the fit havens, and began to note The stormy Hyades, the rainy Goat, The bright Taygete, and the shining Bears, With all the sailor"s catalogue of stars.
"Once, as by chance for Delos I designed, My vessel, driven by a strong gust of wind, Moored in a Chian creek; ash.o.r.e I went, And all the following night in Chios spent.
_30 When morning rose, I sent my mates to bring Supplies of water from a neighbouring spring, Whilst I the motion of the winds explored; Then summoned in my crew, and went aboard.
Opheltes heard my summons, and with joy Brought to the sh.o.r.e a soft and lovely boy, With more than female sweetness in his look, Whom straggling in the neighbouring fields he took.
With fumes of wine the little captive glows, And nods with sleep, and staggers as he goes.
_40 "I viewed him nicely, and began to trace Each heavenly feature, each immortal grace, And saw divinity in all his face.
"I know not who," said I, "this G.o.d should be; But that he is a G.o.d I plainly see: And thou, whoe"er thou art, excuse the force These men have used; and, oh! befriend our course!"
"Pray not for us," the nimble Dictys cried, Dictys, that could the main-top-mast bestride, And down the ropes with active vigour slide.
_50 To the same purpose old Epopeus spoke, Who overlooked the oars, and timed the stroke; The same the pilot, and the same the rest; Such impious avarice their souls possessed.
"Nay, heaven forbid that I should bear away Within my vessel so divine a prey,"
Said I; and stood to hinder their intent: When Lycabas, a wretch for murder sent From Tuscany, to suffer banishment, With his clenched fist had struck me overboard, _60 Had not my hands, in falling, grasped a cord.
"His base confederates the fact approve; When Bacchus (for "twas he) began to move, Waked by the noise and clamours which they raised; And shook his drowsy limbs, and round him gazed: "What means this noise?" he cries; "am I betrayed?
All! whither, whither must I be conveyed?"
"Fear not," said Proreus, "child, but tell us where You wish to land, and trust our friendly care."
"To Naxos then direct your course," said he; _70 "Naxos a hospitable port shall be To each of you, a joyful home to me."
By every G.o.d that rules the sea or sky, The perjured villains promise to comply, And bid me hasten to unmoor the ship.
With eager joy I launch into the deep; And, heedless of the fraud, for Naxos stand: They whisper oft, and beckon with the hand, And give me signs, all anxious for their prey, To tack about, and steer another way.
_80 "Then let some other to my post succeed,"
Said I, "I"m guiltless of so foul a deed."
"What," says Ethalion, "must the ship"s whole crew Follow your humour, and depend on you?"
And straight himself he seated at the prore, And tacked about, and sought another sh.o.r.e.
"The beauteous youth now found himself betrayed, And from the deck the rising waves surveyed, And seemed to weep, and as he wept he said; "And do you thus my easy faith beguile?
_90 Thus do you bear me to my native isle?
Will such a mult.i.tude of men employ Their strength against a weak, defenceless boy?"
"In vain did I the G.o.dlike youth deplore, The more I begged, they thwarted me the more.
And now by all the G.o.ds in heaven that hear This solemn oath, by Bacchus" self, I swear, The mighty miracle that did ensue, Although it seems beyond belief, is true.
The vessel, fixed and rooted in the flood, _100 Unmoved by all the beating billows stood.
In vain the mariners would plough the main With sails unfurled, and strike their oars in vain; Around their oars a twining ivy cleaves, And climbs the mast and hides the cords in leaves: The sails are covered with a cheerful green, And berries in the fruitful canvas seen.
Amidst the waves a sudden forest rears Its verdant head, and a new spring appears.
"The G.o.d we now behold with open eyes; _110 A herd of spotted panthers round him lies In glaring forms; the grapy cl.u.s.ters spread On his fair brows, and dangle on his head.
And whilst he frowns, and brandishes his spear, My mates, surprised with madness or with fear, Leaped overboard; first perjured Madon found Rough scales and fins his stiffening sides surround; "Ah! what," cries one, "has thus transformed thy look?"
Straight his own mouth grew wider as he spoke; And now himself he views with like surprise.
_120 Still at his oar the industrious Libys plies; But, as he plies, each busy arm shrinks in, And by degrees is fashioned to a fin.
Another, as he catches at a cord, Misses his arms, and, tumbling overboard, With his broad fins and forky tail he laves The rising surge, and flounces in the waves.
Thus all my crew transformed around the ship, Or dive below, or on the surface leap, And spout the waves, and wanton in the deep.
_130 Full nineteen sailors did the ship convey, A shoal of nineteen dolphins round her play.
I only in my proper shape appear, Speechless with wonder, and half dead with fear, Till Bacchus kindly bid me fear no more.
With him I landed on the Chian sh.o.r.e, And him shall ever gratefully adore."
"This forging slave," says Pentheus, "would prevail O"er our just fury by a far-fetched tale: Go, let him feel the whips, the swords, the fire, _140 And in the tortures of the rack expire."
The officious servants hurry him away, And the poor captive in a dungeon lay.
But, whilst the whips and tortures are prepared.
The gates fly open, of themselves unbarred; At liberty the unfettered captive stands, And flings the loosened shackles from his hands.
THE DEATH OF PENTHEUS.
But Penthcus, grown more furious than before, Resolved to send his messengers no more, But went himself to the distracted throng, Where high Cithaeron echoed with their song.
And as the fiery war-horse paws the ground, And snorts and trembles at the trumpet"s sound; Transported thus he heard the frantic rout, And raved and maddened at the distant shout.
A s.p.a.cious circuit on the hill there stood, Level and wide, and skirted round with wood; _10 Here the rash Pentheus, with unhallowed eyes, The howling dames and mystic orgies spies.
His mother sternly viewed him where he stood, And kindled into madness as she viewed: Her leafy javelin at her son she cast, And cries, "The boar that lays our country waste!
The boar, my sisters! aim the fatal dart, And strike the brindled monster to the heart."
Pentheus astonished heard the dismal sound, And sees the yelling matrons gathering round: _20 He sees, and weeps at his approaching fate, And begs for mercy, and repents too late.
"Help, help! my aunt Autonoe," he cried; "Remember how your own Actaeon died."
Deaf to his cries, the frantic matron crops One stretched-out arm, the other Ino lops.
In vain does Pentheus to his mother sue, And the raw bleeding stumps presents to view: His mother howled; and heedless of his prayer, Her trembling hand she twisted in his hair, _30 "And this," she cried, "shall be Agave"s share,"
When from the neck his struggling head she tore, And in her hands the ghastly visage bore, With pleasure all the hideous trunk survey; Then pulled and tore the mangled limbs away, As starting in the pangs of death it lay.
Soon as the wood its leafy honours casts, Blown off and scattered by autumnal blasts, With such a sudden death lay Pentheus slain, And in a thousand pieces strowed the plain.
_40 By so distinguishing a judgment awed, The Thebans tremble, and confess the G.o.d.
BOOK IV.
THE STORY OF SALMACIS AND HERMAPHRODITES.
How Salmacis, with weak enfeebling streams Softens the body, and unnerves the limbs, And what the secret cause, shall here be shown; The cause is secret, but the effect is known.
The Naads nursed an infant heretofore, That Cytherea once to Hermes bore: From both the ill.u.s.trious authors of his race The child was named; nor was it hard to trace Both the bright parents through the infant"s face.
When fifteen years, in Ida"s cool retreat, _10 The boy had told, he left his native seat, And sought fresh fountains in a foreign soil; The pleasure lessened the attending toil.
With eager steps the Lycian fields he crossed, And fields that border on the Lycian coast; A river here he viewed so lovely bright, It showed the bottom in a fairer light, Nor kept a sand concealed from human sight.
The stream produced nor slimy ooze, nor weeds, Nor miry rushes, nor the spiky reeds; _20 But dealt enriching moisture all around, The fruitful banks with cheerful verdure crowned, And kept the spring eternal on the ground.
A nymph presides, nor practised in the chase, Nor skilful at the bow, nor at the race; Of all the blue-eyed daughters of the main, The only stranger to Diana"s train: Her sisters often, as "tis said, would cry, "Fie, Salmacis, what always idle! fie, Or take thy quiver, or thy arrows seize, _30 And mix the toils of hunting with thy ease."
Nor quiver she nor arrows e"er would seize, Nor mix the toils of hunting with her ease.
But oft would bathe her in the crystal tide, Oft with a comb her dewy locks divide; Now in the limpid streams she viewed her face, And dressed her image in the floating gla.s.s: On beds of leaves she now reposed her limbs, Now gathered flowers that grew about her streams: And then by chance was gathering, as she stood _40 To view the boy, and longed for what she viewed.
Fain would she meet the youth with hasty feet, She fain would meet him, but refused to meet Before her looks were set with nicest care, And well deserved to be reputed fair.
"Bright youth," she cries, "whom all thy features prove A G.o.d, and, if a G.o.d, the G.o.d of love; But if a mortal, bless"d thy nurse"s breast, Bless"d are thy parents, and thy sisters bless"d: But, oh! how bless"d! how more than bless"d thy bride, _50 Allied in bliss, if any yet allied.
If so, let mine the stolen enjoyments be; If not, behold a willing bride in me."
The boy knew nought of love, and, touched with shame, He strove, and blushed, but still the blush became: In rising blushes still fresh beauties rose; The sunny side of fruit such blushes shows, And such the moon, when all her silver white Turns in eclipses to a ruddy light.
The nymph still begs, if not a n.o.bler bliss, _60 A cold salute at least, a sister"s kiss: And now prepares to take the lovely boy Between her arms. He, innocently coy, Replies, "Or leave me to myself alone, You rude, uncivil nymph, or I"ll begone."
"Fair stranger then," says she, "it shall be so;"
And, for she feared his threats, she feigned to go; But hid within a covert"s neighbouring green, She kept him still in sight, herself unseen.
The boy now fancies all the danger o"er, _70 And innocently sports about the sh.o.r.e, Playful and wanton to the stream he trips, And dips his foot, and shivers as he dips.
The coolness pleased him, and with eager haste His airy garments on the banks he cast; His G.o.dlike features, and his heavenly hue, And all his beauties were exposed to view.
His naked limbs the nymph with rapture spies, While hotter pa.s.sions in her bosom rise, Flush in her cheeks, and sparkle in her eyes.
_80 She longs, she burns to clasp him in her arms, And looks, and sighs, and kindles at his charms.
Now all undressed upon the banks he stood, And clapped his sides and leaped into the flood: His lovely limbs the silver waves divide, His limbs appear more lovely through the tide; As lilies shut within a crystal case, Receive a glossy l.u.s.tre from the gla.s.s.
"He"s mine, he"s all my own," the Naiad cries, And flings off all, and after him she flies.
_90 And now she fastens on him as he swims, And holds him close, and wraps about his limbs.
The more the boy resisted, and was coy, The more she clipped and kissed the struggling boy.