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I saw; she in the arms of sovreign Jove The lion-hearted Hercules conceivd, And, after, bore to Creon brave in fight His daughter Megara, by the noble son Unconquerd of Amphitryon espoused. Mother of Oedipus, who guilt incurrd Prodigious, wedded, unintentional, To her own son; his father first he slew, Then wedded her, which soon the Gods divulged. He, under vengeance of offended heavn, In pleasant Thebes dwelt miserable, King Of the Cadmean race; she to the gates Of Ades brazen-barrd despairing went, Self-strangled by a cord fastend aloft To her own palace-roof, and woes bequeathd (Such as the Fury sisters execute Innumerable) to her guilty son. Whom Neleus wood and won with spousal gifts Inestimable, by her beauty charmd She youngest daughter was of Iasus son, Amphion, in old time a sovreign prince In Minuëian Orchomenus, And King of Pylus. Three illustrious sons She bore to Neleus, Nestor, Chromius, And Periclymenus the wide-renownd, And, last, produced a wonder of the earth, Pero, by evry neighbour prince around In marriage sought; but Neleus her on none Deignd to bestow, save only on the Chief Who should from Phylace drive off the beeves (Broad-fronted, and with jealous care secured) Of valiant Iphicles. One undertook That task alone, a prophet high in fame, Melampus; but the Fates fast bound him there In rigrous bonds by rustic hands imposed. At length (the year, with all its months and days Concluded, and the new-born year begun) Illustrious Iphicles releasd the seer, Grateful for all the oracles resolved, Till then obscure. So stood the will of Jove. Who bore to Tyndarus a noble pair, Castor the bold, and Pollux cestus- famed. They prisners in the fertile womb of earth, Though living, dwell, and even there from Jove High privlege gain; alternate they revive And die, and dignity partake divine. Iphimedeia; she th embrace professd Of Neptune to have shared, to whom she bore Two sons; short-lived they were, but godlike both, Otus and Ephialtes far-renownd. Orion sole except, all-bounteous Earth Neer nourishd forms for beauty or for size To be admired as theirs; in his ninth year Each measurd, broad, nine cubits, and the height Was found nine ells of each. Against the Gods Themselves they threatend war, and to excite The din of battle in the realms above. To the Olympian summit they essayd To heave up Ossa, and to Ossas crown Branch-waving Pelion; so to climb the heavns. Nor had they failed, maturer grown in might, To accomplish that emprize, but them the son Of radiant-haird Latona and of Jove Slew both, ere yet the down of blooming youth Thick-sprung, their cheeks or chins had tufted oer. And Ariadne for her beauty praised, Whose sire was all-wise Minos. Theseus her From Crete toward the fruitful region bore Of sacred Athens, but enjoyd not there, For, first, she perishd by Dianas shafts In Dia, Bacchus witnessing her crime. And odious Eriphyle, who received The price in gold of her own husbands life. And all their daughters can I not relate; Night, first, would fail; and even now the hour Calls me to rest either on board my bark, Or here; meantime, I in yourselves confide, And in the Gods to shape my conduct home. Charmd into ecstacy by his discourse Throughout the twilight hall, till, at the last, Areta ivry armd them thus bespake. This stranger, graceful as he is in port, In stature noble, and in mind discrete? My guest he is, but ye all share with me That honour; him dismiss not, therefore, hence With haste, nor from such indigence withhold Supplies gratuitous; for ye are rich, And by kind heavn with rare possessions blest. Now ancient, eldest of Phæacias sons. |
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