Here Spring appears with flowery chaplets bound; Here Summer in her wheaten garland crowned; Here Autumn the rich trodden grapes besmear; And h.o.a.ry Winter shivers in the rear.
Phoebus beheld the youth from off his throne; That eye, which looks on all, was fixed on one.
He saw the boy"s confusion in his face, _40 Surprised at all the wonders of the place; And cries aloud, "What wants my son? for know My son thou art, and I must call thee so."
"Light of the world," the trembling youth replies, "Ill.u.s.trious parent! since you don"t despise The parent"s name, some certain token give, That I may Clymene"s proud boast believe, Nor longer under false reproaches grieve."
The tender sire was touched with what he said.
And flung the blaze of glories from his head, _50 And bid the youth advance: "My son," said he, "Come to thy father"s arms! for Clymene Has told thee true; a parent"s name I own, And deem thee worthy to be called my son.
As a sure proof, make some request, and I, Whate"er it be, with that request comply; By Styx I swear, whose waves are hid in night, And roll impervious to my piercing sight."
The youth transported, asks, without delay, To guide the Sun"s bright chariot for a day.
_60 The G.o.d repented of the oath he took, For anguish thrice his radiant head he shook; "My son," says he, "some other proof require, Rash was my promise, rash is thy desire.
I"d fain deny this wish which thou hast made, Or, what I can"t deny, would fain dissuade.
Too vast and hazardous the task appears, Nor suited to thy strength, nor to thy years.
Thy lot is mortal, but thy wishes fly Beyond the province of mortality: _70 There is not one of all the G.o.ds that dares (However skilled in other great affairs) To mount the burning axle-tree, but I; Not Jove himself, the ruler of the sky, That hurls the three-forked thunder from above, Dares try his strength; yet who so strong as Jove?
The steeds climb up the first ascent with pain: And when the middle firmament they gain, If downward from the heavens my head I bow, And see the earth and ocean hang below; _80 Even I am seized with horror and affright, And my own heart misgives me at the sight.
A mighty downfal steeps the evening stage, And steady reins must curb the horses" rage.
Tethys herself has feared to see me driven Down headlong from the precipice of heaven.
Besides, consider what impetuous force Turns stars and planets in a different course: I steer against their motions; nor am I 89 Born back by all the current of the sky.
_90 But how could you resist the orbs that roll In adverse whirls, and stem the rapid pole?
But you perhaps may hope for pleasing woods, And stately domes, and cities filled with G.o.ds; While through a thousand snares your progress lies, Where forms of starry monsters stock the skies: For, should you hit the doubtful way aright, The Bull with stooping horns stands opposite; Next him the bright Haemonian Bow is strung; And next, the Lion"s grinning visage hung: _100 The Scorpion"s claws here clasp a wide extent, And here the Crab"s in lesser clasps are bent.
Nor would you find it easy to compose The mettled steeds, when from their nostrils flows The scorching fire, that in their entrails glows.
Even I their headstrong fury scarce restrain, When they grow warm and restive to the rein.
Let not my son a fatal gift require, But, oh! in time recall your rash desire; You ask a gift that may your parent tell, _110 Let these my fears your parentage reveal; And learn a father from a father"s care: Look on my face; or if my heart lay bare, Could you but look, you"d read the father there.
Choose out a gift from seas, or earth, or skies, For open to your wish all nature lies, Only decline this one unequal task, For "tis a mischief, not a gift you ask; You ask a real mischief, Phaeton: Nay, hang not thus about my neck, my son: _120 I grant your wish, and Styx has heard my voice, Choose what you will, but make a wiser choice."
Thus did the G.o.d the unwary youth advise; But he still longs to travel through the skies, When the fond father (for in vain he pleads) At length to the Vulcanian chariot leads.
A golden axle did the work uphold, Gold was the beam, the wheels were orbed with gold.
The spokes in rows of silver pleased the sight, The seat with party-coloured gems was bright; _130 Apollo shined amid the glare of light.
The youth with secret joy the work surveys; When now the morn disclosed her purple rays; The stars were fled; for Lucifer had chased The stars away, and fled himself at last.
Soon as the father saw the rosy morn, And the moon shining with a blunter horn, He bid the nimble Hours without delay Bring forth the steeds; the nimble Hours obey: From their full racks the generous steeds retire, _140 Dropping ambrosial foams and snorting fire.
Still anxious for his son, the G.o.d of day, To make him proof against the burning ray, His temples with celestial ointment wet, Of sovereign virtue to repel the heat; Then fixed the beaming circle on his head, And fetched a deep, foreboding sigh, and said, "Take this at least, this last advice, my son: Keep a stiff rein, and move but gently on: The coursers of themselves will run too fast, _150 Your art must be to moderate their haste.
Drive them not on directly through the skies, But where the Zodiac"s winding circle lies, Along the midmost zone; but sally forth Nor to the distant south, nor stormy north.
The horses" hoofs a beaten track will show, But neither mount too high nor sink too low, That no new fires or heaven or earth infest; Keep the mid-way, the middle way is best.
Nor, where in radiant folds the Serpent twines, _160 Direct your course, nor where the Altar shines.
Shun both extremes; the rest let Fortune guide, And better for thee than thyself provide!
See, while I speak the shades disperse away, Aurora gives the promise of a day; I"m called, nor can I make a longer stay.
s.n.a.t.c.h up the reins; or still the attempt forsake, And not my chariot, but my counsel take, While yet securely on the earth you stand; Nor touch the horses with too rash a hand.
_170 Let me alone to light the world, while you Enjoy those beams which you may safely view."
He spoke in vain: the youth with active heat And sprightly vigour vaults into the seat; And joys to hold the reins, and fondly gives Those thanks his father with remorse receives.
Meanwhile the restless horses neighed aloud, Breathing out fire, and pawing where they stood.
Tethys, not knowing what had pa.s.sed, gave way, And all the waste of heaven before them lay.
_180 They spring together out, and swiftly bear The flying youth through clouds and yielding air; With wingy speed outstrip the eastern wind, And leave the breezes of the morn behind.
The youth was light, nor could he fill the seat, Or poise the chariot with its wonted weight: But as at sea the unballast vessel rides, Cast to and fro, the sport of winds and tides; So in the bounding chariot tossed on high, The youth is hurried headlong through the sky.
_190 Soon as the steeds perceive it, they forsake Their stated course, and leave the beaten track.
The youth was in a maze, nor did he know Which way to turn the reins, or where to go; Nor would the horses, had he known, obey.
Then the Seven Stars first felt Apollo"s ray And wished to dip in the forbidden sea.
The folded Serpent next the frozen pole, Stiff and benumbed before, began to roll, And raged with inward heat, and threatened war, _200 And shot a redder light from every star; Nay, and "tis said, Bootes, too, that fain Thou wouldst have fled, though c.u.mbered with thy wain.
The unhappy youth then, bending down his head, Saw earth and ocean far beneath him spread: His colour changed, he startled at the sight, And his eyes darkened by too great a light.
Now could he wish the fiery steeds untried, His birth obscure, and his request denied: Now would he Merops for his father own, _210 And quit his boasted kindred to the Sun.
So fares the pilot, when his ship is tossed In troubled seas, and all its steerage lost, He gives her to the winds, and in despair Seeks his last refuge in the G.o.ds and prayer.
What could he do? his eyes, if backward cast, Find a long path he had already pa.s.sed; If forward, still a longer path they find: Both he compares, and measures in his mind; And sometimes casts an eye upon the east, _220 And sometimes looks on the forbidden west.
The horses" names he knew not in the fright: Nor would he loose the reins, nor could he hold them tight.
Now all the horrors of the heavens he spies, And monstrous shadows of prodigious size, That, decked with stars, lie scattered o"er the skies.
There is a place above, where Scorpio, bent In tail and arms, surrounds a vast extent; In a wide circuit of the heavens he shines, And fills the s.p.a.ce of two celestial signs.
_230 Soon as the youth beheld him, vexed with heat, Brandish his sting, and in his poison sweat, Half dead with sudden fear he dropped the reins; The horses felt them loose upon their manes, And, flying out through all the plains above, Ran uncontrolled where"er their fury drove; Rushed on the stars, and through a pathless way Of unknown regions hurried on the day.
And now above, and now below they flew, And near the earth the burning chariot drew.
_240 The clouds disperse in fumes, the wondering Moon Beholds her brother"s steeds beneath her own; The highlands smoke, cleft by the piercing rays, Or, clad with woods, in their own fuel blaze.
Next o"er the plains, where ripened harvests grow, The running conflagration spreads below.
But these are trivial ills; whole cities burn, And peopled kingdoms into ashes turn.
The mountains kindle as the car draws near, Athos and Tmolus red with fires appear; _250 Oeagrian Haemus (then a single name) And virgin Helicon increase the flame; Taurus and Oete glare amid the sky, And Ida, spite of all her fountains, dry.
Eryx, and Othrys, and Cithgeron, glow; And Rhodope, no longer clothed in snow; High Pindus, Mimas, and Parna.s.sus sweat, And aetna rages with redoubled heat.
Even Scythia, through her h.o.a.ry regions warmed, In vain with all her native frost was armed.
_260 Covered with flames, the towering Apennine, And Caucasus, and proud Olympus, shine; And, where the long extended Alps aspire, Now stands a huge, continued range of fire.
The astonished youth, where"er his eyes could turn, Beheld the universe around him burn: The world was in a blaze; nor could he bear The sultry vapours and the scorching air, Which from below as from a furnace flowed, And now the axle-tree beneath him glowed: _270 Lost in the whirling clouds, that round him broke, And white with ashes, hovering in the smoke, He flew where"er the horses drove, nor knew Whither the horses drove, or where he flew.
"Twas then, they say, the swarthy Moor begun To change his hue, and blacken in the sun.
Then Libya first, of all her moisture drained, Became a barren waste, a wild of sand.
The water-nymphs lament their empty urns, Boeotia, robbed of silver Dirce, mourns; _280 Corinth, Pyrene"s wasted spring bewails, And Argos grieves whilst Aniymone fails.
The floods are drained from every distant coast, Even Tanas, though fixed in ice, was lost.
Enraged Caicus and Lycormas roar, And Xanthus, fated to be burned once more.
The famed Meeander, that unwearied strays Through mazy windings, smokes in every maze.
From his loved Babylon Euphrates flies; The big-swoln Ganges and the Danube rise _290 In thickening fumes, and darken half the skies.
In flames Ismenos and the Phasis rolled, And Tagus floating in his melted gold.
The swans, that on Cayster often tried Their tuneful songs, now sung their last, and died.
The frighted Nile ran off, and under-ground Concealed his head, nor can it yet be found: His seven divided currents all are dry, And where they rolled seven gaping trenches lie.
No more the Rhine or Rhone their course maintain, _300 Nor Tiber, of his promised empire vain.
The ground, deep cleft, admits the dazzling ray, And startles Pluto with the flash of day.
The seas shrink in, and to the sight disclose Wide, naked plains, where once their billows rose; Their rocks are all discovered, and increase The number of the scattered Cyclades.
The fish in shoals about the bottom creep, Nor longer dares the crooked dolphin leap; Gasping for breath, the unshapen phocae die, _310 And on the boiling wave extended lie.
Nereus, and Doris with her virgin train, Seek out the last recesses of the main; Beneath unfathomable depths they faint, And secret in their gloomy regions pant, Stern Neptune thrice above the waves upheld His face, and thrice was by the flames repelled.
The Earth at length, on every side embraced With scalding seas, that floated round her waist, When now she felt the springs and rivers come, _320 And crowd within the hollow of her womb.
Uplifted to the heavens her blasted head, And clapped her hands upon her brows, and said; (But first, impatient of the sultry heat, Sunk deeper down, and sought a cooler seat:) "If you, great king of G.o.ds, my death approve, And I deserve it, let me die by Jove; If I must perish by the force of fire, Let me transfixed with thunderbolts expire.
See, whilst I speak, my breath the vapours choke, _330 (For now her face lay wrapt in clouds of smoke,) See my singed hair, behold my faded eye And withered face, where heaps of cinders lie!
And does the plough for this my body tear?
This the reward for all the fruits I bear, Tortured with rakes, and hara.s.sed all the year?
That herbs for cattle daily I renew, And food for man, and frankincense for you?
But grant me guilty; what has Neptune done?
Why are his waters boiling in the sun?
_340 The wavy empire, which by lot was given, Why does it waste, and further shrink from heaven?
If I nor lie your pity can provoke, See your own heavens, the heavens begin to smoke!
Should once the sparkles catch those bright abodes, Destruction seizes on the heavens and G.o.ds; Atlas becomes unequal to his freight, And almost faints beneath the glowing weight.
If heaven, and earth, and sea together burn, All must again into their chaos turn.
_350 Apply some speedy cure, prevent our fate, And succour nature, e"er it be too late."
She ceased; for, choked with vapours round her spread, Down to the deepest shades she sunk her head.
Jove called to witness every power above, And even the G.o.d whose son the chariot drove, That what he acts he is compelled to do, Or universal ruin must ensue.
Straight he ascends the high ethereal throne, From whence he used to dart his thunder down, _360 From whence his showers and storms he used to pour, But now could meet with neither storm nor shower.
Then aiming at the youth, with lifted hand, Full at his head he hurled the forky brand, In dreadful thunderings. Thus the almighty sire Suppressed the raging of the fires with fire.
At once from life and from the chariot driven, The ambitious boy fell thunder-struck from heaven.
The horses started with a sudden bound, And flung the reins and chariot to the ground: _370 The studded harness from their necks they broke, Here fell a wheel, and here a silver spoke, Here were the beam and axle torn away; And, scattered o"er the earth, the shining fragments lay.
The breathless Phaeton, with flaming hair, Shot from the chariot, like a falling star, That in a summer"s evening from the top Of heaven drops down, or seems at least to drop; Till on the Po his blasted corpse was hurled, Far from his country, in the western world.
_380
PHaeTON"S SISTERS TRANSFORMED INTO TREES.