Minerva's Laureate breaths, whose face  
Is here acquainted first with brass:  
His lofty stile, yet smooth and trim,  
Can make even tumors beauteous seem  
Rome's Orpheus, who creates a GROVE,  
Which t'other's Music could but move:  
Singing Thebes' Ruins, he does teach  
The listening stones to mend the breach  
Wouldst know him! read his strains Thou'st find  
This shows his face, but Those his Mind.    

AN ESSAY UPON STATIUS: OR, THE FIVE FIRST BOOKS OF PUBL: PAPINIUS STATIUS his THEBAIS.  
Done into English Verse By T. S. With the Poetic History Illustrated.  JUVENAL. Sat. 7. 
Tunc par ingenio pretium: nunc utile multis  
Pallere, & toto vinum nescire Decembri.  
LONDON, Printed for Richard Royston, at the Angel in Ivy-Lane. 1648.   

NOBILI AMICORUM PARI, Do. GULIELMO PASTON BARONETTO, ET Do. GULIELMO D'OYLY EQV: AURATO, MUSARUM EXULUM ASYLIS, ET RELIGIONIS PROFLIGATAE ASSERTORIBUS, PATRONIS EIVS PLURIMUM HONORANDIS, THOMAS STEPHENS VOTO ET MANCIPI CLIENS ADDICTISSIMUS, HASCE STATIANAS PRIMITIAS, IN GRATI ANIMI TESTIMONIUM, L. M. M.M.D.D.C.Q.   

To the ingenuous Reader.  
READER,  
THou art here presented with a piece of Statius metaphrased: The Author was twice crowned Laureate, in the most Po●ticke, and best judging Times. It is not the least part of his glory, that he deserved juvenal's envy, as some judiciously suspect the applauding Satirist. I intent to pick no quarrels with his Name or Country: but shall be well satisfied, if thy courtesy will allow him to be Naturalised amongst us. For those Critical pens which have published their ingenious disputes, between Ursulus and Surculus, (although, I conceive, neither were of kin to our Statius) would have deserved better of the Commonwealth of Learning, if they had held a torch to the dark and mysterious places of the Poem: Which, I dare say, would not be so much neglected, but that it is so little understood. The subject matter of the work, is the most ancient of any History recorded by the Poets: And were it not preserved in our Author, it had been, long since, worn out by Time: Appearing now like old ruins, which preserve the memory of a place, although the form be wholly decayed. For those 
a Homer (applauded by Pausanias:) Autimachus, Pon●icus, etc.  teeming wits, which have been delivered of Poems on the same subject, (the comparing of which, would have been the best light to an interpreter:) have nothing but their Names, now remaining The iniquity of Time! which has not only defaced Thebes, but robbed us of that Poesy which might repair it: at least with paper-wals, more lasting than Amphion's stones.  
The translation was meditated, midst all the clamour and employments of a public School; and so, cannot be so accomplished, as might be expected from a vacant retiredness. And, when I shall tell thee, that it was intended for a help to my Scholars, for understanding the Poet, thou wilt not wonder at my marginal explications of the Poetic story. Those grander proficients, who have digested that in their own brains, may save themselves a labour of glancing on them: (I would provoke no man to look asquint:) For others that want bladders, however in honour perhaps they had rather sink, safety will persuade them to swim with this inferior help.  
I know the common Fate of Translations, which are seldom read entire, but by snatches; and such pieces only, as are prejudged by the critic Reader, where the Translator is sentenced, according as he jumps with the others fancy. Yet censure me as thou wilt: So I benefit any, I have my end: And if any thing here prove satisfactory to my candid, ingenuous Friends, it will encourage my progress in that work, which otherwise here receives its period. Farewell.   

In Statium omnibus numeris accurate Anglica Poesi donatum, a doctissimo viro D●o. Stephens.  
— Ne diguius unqu●m  
Majestas meminit ses● Romana lo●utam. 
Claudian.   
Quis novus hic Hermes vatem felicibus umbris  
Evocat? & Lucim 〈◊〉 cultore superbum  
Elysi●● viduat? Manes, quibus esse sodalis  
Dignatus 〈◊〉, m●●rent; passim innuba laurus,  
Et P●●bi● marcent myrti, florentqu● cupressi.  
Post C●●m quisn●m Vencrem teniaret Apellem?  
Hoc facts! Authoris tamen hic Veneres, Charitesque  
Spirat, & in vers● redivivus Statius omni.  
Enibeus ille calor vatis migravit, & in Te  
Congestus: major collectis viribus exit.  
Atque erit ●mbiginon populo fortasse nepotum,  
Interpres potius fueris dicendus, an Author.  
Tam similis vix ipse sui est: Sic garrula vocem  
Nympha refert, repetitque sonos, ●inguae aemula nostrae.  
Non adeo similes, peperit quos Led●, gemelli;  
Lactea utrique coma est, par frons, cadémque genarum  
Purpura, consimiles acceudunt lumina flammae.  
Thebanae portenta domus, jocasta marito  
Quos peperie fra●res, confusae aenigmata stirpis  
(Heu! male virgineam quae incestant nomi●a chartam)  
Dum recitas, alto superas ea monstra Cothurno.  

Argia & Deiphile.  Si pulchras pingas (fucus decet iste) puellas;  
Si non illarum, flagramus amore Poetae:  
A facie nullae, veniunt sed ab Arte sagittae,  

Lib. 2.  Sin 〈◊〉 celebres, & casti federa lecti,  
Frigida corripitur ta● purâ ●oe●ia flammâ,  
Imactaque rapi velle●●, vel spoute Sabinae.  
Personat & jam festus Hymen, ducuntur ad aras  
Nativoque crocus mutatur sanguinis ostre.  
Sponsae, virginco 〈◊〉 pepla rubore.  

Lib. ●.  Sive sitim ca●●es, nobis sitis alicrae crescit,  
(Tan●ah● hi●●ieri quis ●●llet▪ sola levare  
Ham Aga●ip●●ae pot●rit Permessidos unda.  
Quo pede ●apisti fauste pergas, iterúmque  
Th●bam surgent meliore Amphioue muri.  Reginaldus Bekenham.  

To his approved friend, and late reverend Master Mr. Thomas Stephens on his judicious, and incomparable Translation of Statius.  
DIamonds form diamonds: who'd know the just  
Length of your worth, by your own labours must  
Take measure. Honour to my verse it is  
(Admired Sir) to dawnei'th ' frontispiece  
And usher day, which flowers in each page  
Of your learned Paraphrase: which should my rage  
(Misguiding-folly rather) fond praise  
'Bove the deserving text and Author's bays,  
Swear th' anger kindled in the brethren's pile,  
Duels more sprightly in an English stile,  
'Twould injure him and you. To overdraw  
Were error in Apelles against the Law  
Imagery commands, since in these arts  
The beauty of the likeness wonder darts,  
And makes the miracle, Hence flows your fame,  
We can but only say 'tis not the same.  
The short-lived issues then of such, whose brain  
Needs others works as bladders in the main  
Of wit and fancy, these we term Translation;  
Yours brook no other Title than creation.  
From the old Latin stock new stems are sprung▪  
Statius new borne, speaks a new mother tongue.  
Live then bright Suns of Masculine Poetry  
Phoenix and heir at once, Parelii.  
These and all else are weak, except that one  
Between yourselves there's no comparison.  Rob: Baldock.  

To my honoured friend Mr. Thomas Stephens on his admirable Comment and Translation of the first five books of the Thebaids.  
ARt, Sir, works miracles: she can Revive  
Men dead, in years and Fame, and bid them Live;  
And speak a Language which they knew not, and  
More sense perhaps, than They did understand.  
(Some Comments courteously belly, and wit  
Authors into more Raptures, than they writ.)  
Your Statius ne'er knew English sure: scarce we  
Know it ourselves, but by Dictionary;  
'Tis so new cast, and moulded, we oft look  
For our own Mother-tongue i'th' constring-booke:  
Yet here he speakesed so in the mode and trim,  
The Finers selves envy both you, and him;  
Who is your debtor for his stuff, and glass;  
His text owes wit unto your Paraphrase.  
Which you so turned, wrought, sweat until you hit  
What Statius in English should have writ.  
Which cost you so oft watchings, it pleads right  
To shine now: Day's due, after so many nights.  
Five Books, so absolutely just, and best,  
There's nothing wanting to them, but the rest:  
For Comment and Translation so agree,  
They show the Beauty, and they help us see.  
Strange Artist! who dost thus miraculously  
Paint Shapes: And then paint'st Day to view them by.  Clem: Paman.  

To his much honoured friend, and late reverend Master, Mr. Thomas Stephens, on his deserving Translation of Statius.  
THe world's refined, we see; and golden wits  
Spring up i'th' iron age; more tersenesse sits  
On Pallas' smother brow; and every river  
Can nobler streams than Helicon deliver.  
If so, why are those 
a The Quinquatria, in which Statius was crowned.  Festivals forbid  
That crowned our Author? where's the bays that did  
Enrich his glorious head? shall virtue rise  
To a higher pitch, and have a cheaper price?  
Yet with neglect there's safety: Seldome's praise  
Secure, but emulation blasts the bays.  
If thou wrot'st Laureate too, others we see  
Have envied Him, his Ghost would envy Thee.  Pereg: D'oyly.  

To his highly esteemed friend, Mr. Thomas Stephens, on his incomparable Translation of Statius.  
WE thank you (Noble Sir) you've caused to be,  
What we have wished, but yet despair to see:  
Statius translated; One, all Sphinx to us,  
Till we had met with Thee, a O Oedipus.  
T'encounter whom, 'tis far more glory than  
Tydeus his conquering of the fifty Men.  
And thus Etheocles with his Brother, are  
In Thee more glorious, then in Thebes they were.  
Thou writest of Princes, yet I'd rather be  
Author, then subject of thy Poetry:  
And yet be Prince too; since thou art of all  
Minerva's train, the ●it imperial.  
The Muses here had ne'er been free from doubt,  
Hadst no● Thou Hermes come to help them out.  
'Tis that which raises wonder to thy Book.  
To see therein light out of darkness struck.  
Lucan and Ovid, with such easy men,  
Are a fit work for a mere Rhymers pen:  
And cryptick juvenal, though dark he be,  
We see unnighted is by Farnaby.  
‛ This makes me praise thy choice; thou'st ta'en a Poet,  
Which to translate, is to be Author of it.  
For had we not thy clear invention seen,  
Statius to us had not half published been.  
Methinks, I hear the Authors ghost repine,  
To see his own work thus out-vied by thine.  
Now let dull Rabbis, that learn nothing better,  
Then to pick quarrels with an Hebrew letter;  
(Of which crooked Characters, to find the way,  
They make their faces more deformed, than They:)  
Let them contemn thy Book: Thy Noble strains  
Are made for clever, and unwrinckled brains.  
Go on; make up the rest; and let us know  
The perfect height, that Art can reach unto:  
That so the learned World may owe Thee more  
Than to the Author's self it did before.  
When thou hast thus displayed the Theban war,  
'Twill be more during, then 'tis Ancient far.  Thomas Poley.  

In eruditissimum Statianae Thebaidos interpretem, olim Praeceptorem ejus observandum.  

QUaliter in mundi votis, aviúmque querelis,  
Nata recèns, surgit gratior inde dies:  
It meliore comá, flavos spondétque capillos,  
Lanugo tenerae lucis, Apollo, tuae:  
Nostratis Stati, sic dum crepuscula spargis,  
Optamus totam, quae sine nube, diem:  
Sylvae ut detonsae, coelo videantur aperto;  
Nulla sit obscuro textilis umbra loco.   

Sic erit; & jaetam faciet nunc Statius urbem:  
Thebais & populo fiet amica vovo.   Gulielmus Copinger.  

To his ingenious friend Mr. Tho: Stephens concerning his judicious Translation of Statius his Thebais.  
I'M not ambitious that the Press should sweat  
In torturing the harmless Alphabet  
To print my rural Genius; nor do I  
Pride it to list my common Poetry  
Amongst those Commander-wits which lead the Van  
Of thy Heroic wars, whose each pen can  
Muster an Army of Poetic strains.  
To rout those Rebels of the vulgar brains  
Ignorance, envy, obloquy, and scorn  
And truly make all their base hopes forlorn:  
No 'tis thy love, 'tis thy word of Command  
In thy Battalia's front makes me thus stand  
And dare the peevish world to charge thy wit  
Censure-proof with what e'er would pistol it.  
Let envy squint her venomed lightning, Thou  
Shalt stand unblasted with thy Laureate brow.  Ch: Woodward.  

ERRATA.  
Reader, thy ingenuity will correct those literal errors, which do not much pervert the sense; especially if thou ●ave reference to the Latin Copy. The most material I have thus observed.  
PAg. 1. in the Comment, lin. 1. read, ravished. p. 4. ver. 93. r. Then ●ear; 1. p. 17. deal lineam primam. p. 43. in the Comment, ●. 14. r. venomous; Lytarge. (y)—. p. 56. v. 715. r. Jove's. p. 72. ●. 308. r. Harmion●. p. 78. in the Comment, l. 6. r. Oicles. p. 83. ●. 629. r. stumps and rocks. p. 109. v. 613. r. hatred God. p. 115. in the Comment. m r. almost all winter. p. 116. v. 761. r. shrill. p. 118. v. 814. r. sleep. p. 118. v. 827. r. curdled. p. 119. in the Comment l. 1. ●nterpone, m, A fountain or well in the Nemeaean wood. p. 120. v. 889. r. Curetes. p. 122. in the Comment. l. 5. interpone, ●. on whose banks laurels. & l. 6. r. Thessalian river. p. 123. r. now's th●. p. 126. v. 89. r. women. p. 130. v. 196. r. angry (y) God. p. 131. in the Comment, r. * solvit sua Brachia. p. 137. v. 426. r. stern. p. 138. v. 441. r. corn p. 140. v. 499. r. close flames. in the Comment, interpone, d, Son to Thiodomas, squire to Hercules. and in the Comment, l. 6. r. Heroes (d) 〈◊〉 loss. p. 141▪ v. 523. r. and nurse.   

Argument. Lib. 1. Statii Thebaidos.  
Blind O Oedipus, th' incestuous parricide,  
Invokes Tisiphone to scourge the pride  
Of's scornful sons: Who reign by joint consent,  
In course; then change their Crowns for banishment.  
The first lot fell t' Etheocles: But Jove  
Sends Hermes down, for Laius' Ghost, to move  
Quarrels between them. Polynices' flies  
To Argos, weatherbeaten: Thither hies  
Young Tydeus too: There they contest, and fight:  
Till King Adrastus, thus disturbed i'th' night,  
Makes peace; invites them; asks their names: They follow  
To''th' Altars; where he chants Hymns to Apollo.  
A Sacred heat inflames me, to relate  
The 
(a) Etheocles and Polynices.  brethren's quarrels, and inveterate hate  
For an alternate Crown; and to rehearse  
Thebes' guilt. Great Powers, whence shall I fetch my verse?  
Shall I that Nation's infancy display?  

(b) Banished by jupiter  Europa's rape? 
(c) Forbidding his son Cadmus to return without his sister Europa.  Agenor's fatal Law?  
Or Cadmus scouring th' Ocean? 'Twere too far,  
Should I discourse, how th' 
(d) Cadmus' in the place sowed serpent's ●eeth, which grew to G●●n●s, who ki●●●d one another.  Ploughman, sowing war  
In his seditious furrows, stood amazed  
At his own new-sprung blades: How th'walls were raised  
With Tyrian Stones, charmed by Amphion's ditty:  
Whence grew that 
(e) By which Agave slew Pe●●beus.  rage, which seized on 
(f) Semel● half Mother to Bacchus was a Theban.  Bacchus' City:  
(Stern 
(g) jealous of jove with Semele.  juno, 'twas thy work:) against whose brow,  
Unhappy 
(h) Who slew his son Learchus, instead of a young Lyon.  Athamas did bend his bow:  
Why, slighting the jonick sea, the 
(i) L●ucothoe.  Mother  
Leapt with Palaemo● in, the second Brother.  
But farewell these; farewell both grief and joy,  
Which Cadmus found: The miseries which annoy  
The house of O Oedipus must be my song:  
Who dare not sing the triumphs that belong  
To 
(k) Titus Domitianus whom the Poet flatters.  Caesar's banners; nor the double bays  
He bore from 
(l) He triumphed twice o'er the Cattis and Batavi.  Rhine, or Danow: Or that praise  
The conquered Dacians yield him, who were thrown  
Down from the 
m Amongst these Nations mountains were consecrated, on which they cursed their enemies. Strab. Lib 7.  Hills they cursed us on. 'Tis known  
How's 
(n) Domitian, yet a child, freed his father from Vitellius his siege in the Capitol.  infant year brought succour to, the glory  
Of Iov●, Rome's Capitol— Thou larger story  
Of great Vespasians name, borne to complete  
Thy Father's victories, whom this 
(o) The Roman Empire.  Royal seat  
Wishes eternal: Though the stars be crowded  
In narrower compass; Though the never-clouded  
East, the cold North, and Southern climate, free  
From blasts, invite Thee: Though Apollo be  
Ambitious to set off his round with those  
Rich 
(p) The custom was to paint the Emperors with glories about their heads, in the similitude of gods.  glories of thy Rays: And jove dispose  
Half of his mighty Throne to Thee, (Great Soul)  
Humble thy thoughts to earth, stoop to control  
The Sea and Land; a while Divinity smother,  
And make the heavens thy free gift to another.  
The time may come, when a diviner rage  
May swell my verse to thy great Acts. This page,  
Tuned on my harp, is filled with Theban Wars;  
One Crown destructive to two Princes: jars  
Which death could put no end to; funeral 
(q) When the two Brethren were burnt at one pile, that flame (as if it were angry) parted in the air.  flames  
Divided, like the souls they carry; names  
Of dead Kings without Tombstones; many a Town  
I'th' ruins of the people overthrown.  
When 
(r) A fountain near Thebes.  Dirce blushed, being stained with Grecian blood:  
And joves-beloved Thetis wondering stood  
To see 
(s) A River of Boeotia emptying itself into Euripus Euboicus.  Ismenos, which was dry before,  
Flow with such violence and chide his shore.  
What Champion (Muse) dost first remember? Is't  
Enraged Tydêus? or Apollo's 
(t) Amphiaraus who with his chariot was swallowed into the earth.  Priest,  
Buried before he's dead? Or is't the proud  

(u) Fight ●n the river Hismeneta he was drowned.  Hyppomedon, whose slaughters stop the flood  
That overwhelmed him? Or wilt weep the tale  
Of young Parthenopaeus funeral?  
When that's spun out, take 
(x) Brained with stones as he was scaling the walls of Thebes.  Capanêus, and tell  
(But with a greater horror) how he fell.  
The hand of O Oedipus had eclipsed the light  
Of's wicked eyes, and brought eternal night  
Over his shame, whilst he still lived the longer,  
That he might long be dying: But a stronger  
Beams darted from his soul, there Furies lie  
In thousand shapes (invited thither by  
His bosom sins) which watch him; whilst he hides  
Himself in his hugged darkness, and resides  
In his close, unseen Chambers. Then he raises  
The fresh wounds he had made, those empty places  
Where's eye had been, to heaven: Beating the ground,  
The senseless ground, with's bloody hands; a sound  
Of horror thus breaks out:— Ye ye infernal Fiends,  
Which reign o'er guiltiness, and Hell, whose ends  
Are narrower than our faults; And thou dark Lake  
Of Styx, whose prospect I, though blind, can take.  
Thou too, Tisiphone, which knowest best  
That voice, thoust heard so oft, grant this request:  
If I have served thee truly, whom I found  
Nurse to my infancy, who heal'dst the wound  
They 
(y) Then he was named O Oedipus. This was commanded by his Father Laius, affrighted at the Oracle.  bored through my feet; If I did go  
At thy command to 
(z) A Phocian City near Parnassus.  Cyrrha's streams, which flow  
'twixt the two-headed Hill, when I might rather  
Have stayed with 
(a) King of Corinth, to whom O Oedipus was presented by his Shepherd Phorbas.  Polybus, my supposed Father.  
Where in the Tower of 
(b) Appearing with three Promontories.  three-toped Phocis, I  
Grappled with th' hoary King, and did deny  
Life to his trembling joints, seeking to find  
What there I lost, a Father: If my mind  
By thee enlightened could untie the knot  
Of Sphinx her riddle: If the incestuous blot  
By which I stained my 
(d) Ioc●●ta whom he married.  Mother's bed brought joys  
To my free spirit; where I got thee boys.  
Strait on these hands I fell desiring death,  
And to my Mother did mine eyes bequeath.  
Then here I ask a noble boon, and that,  
Which thou thyself wouldst prompt: My sons of late  
(Sons still, howe'er 
(e) By incestuous marriage.  begotten) do despise  
Their mournful Father, robbed of's power, and's eye.  
They will not 
(f) Only his d●ughter Antigone would perform that office.  guide me, will not cheer my heart  
With words of comfort: But (O grievous smart!)  
Grown proud, they raise their Sceptres from my urn,  
Triumph o'er blindness, laughing when I mourn.  
Am I accursed in these too? does dull jove  
See this with silence? Thou at lest may'st prove  
Their scourge: Sweet Mistress of revenge, come hither,  
Entail a Curse upon their heirs for ever.  
Put on that Diadem besmeared with gore,  
Which from my father's head these fingers tore.  
Go, winged with a Parents curse; Divide  
Between the Brethren: Let the sword decide  
That title too: Dear Queen of Hell, invent  
Some mischief, great as my desires: Th'event  
Will show their courage: Couldst thou plot a rage  
Worthy their souls, they'd prove their Parentage.  
This said: the Fury throws a cruel glance  
Upon him. She was sitting then by chance  
On black Cocytus' banks, where she did scatter  
Her serpent locks, to let them drink o'th' water.  
But swift as lightning, or some falling Star,  
She flies from thence; The ghosts give place, and fear  
Their Mistress presence: she her progress makes  
Through the black shades, where souls do swarm, and takes  
The way to th' Iron gate; at foot o'th' hill  
Of 
(g) A Laconian promontory whence was supposed a passage to Hell.  Taenarus, where's a free entrance still,  
But no return: The day shrunk from her sight,  
And hid herself in that dark cloud, which night  
Brought for her mantle: Distant 
(h) A high Thessalian Mountain, feigned to be Metamorphosed from a man at the sight of the Gorgon's head.  Atlas fled,  
And let the heavens fall from his trembling head.  
But from the plains of 
(i) Part of the aforesaid Promontory.  Malea she does hurry  
I'th' beaten path to Thebes: Nor does the Fury  
Fly any way with greater speed, or takes  
More joy in hell: A hundred 
(k) This kind of Serpent was ●s●ribed to the F●ries locks for 〈…〉  horned snakes  
(The lifeguard of her head) shades all her face;  
A dark black colour fills the hollow place,  
Where stood her worn-out eyes: just as the Moon  
Blushes, when by Art 
(l) The superstition of the heathen thought that the Moon Eclipsed was conjured out of the heavens, at which time they sounded loud Instruments of br●sse, left she should he●r their incantations.  Magic she's charmed down▪  
From heaven. Thus puffing out her hollow cheeks  
With rage, and swollen with venomed gore, there breaks  
A black flame from her ugly mouth: Whence came in  
An army of diseases; Empty famine,  
Devouring plagues, grim death: Her tattered coat  
Sits wrinkled on her back, tied with a knot  
Or two about her: if she change that hue,  
The 
(m) justice is a servant to the Fates.  Destinies spin her another clue.  
Then shakes she both her hands: this flames does wear,  
Tother with serpent fingers stings the air.  
When she stood still, where long 
(n) A mountain dedicated to Bac●hus.  Cithaeron meets  
Heaven with his cragged top, her hissing greets  
The earth so loud, that th'echoed noise resounds  
Through vast 
(o) Containing Attica, Boeotia, Megaris, AEtolia, and Phocis, besides the sea so called.  Achaia, and the Grecian towns.  

(p) Proved to be the middle of the earth by Ioves Eagles, which met there.  Parnassus, the world's navel, heard it: so  
Did sharp 
(q) Laconia producing v●liant men.  Eurotas; doubtful 
r Whether belonging to Thessalia or Thracia.  O Eat too,  
Which tottered at the sound. 
s A neck of land where Corinth stands, enduring the violence of the waves on either side.  Isthmos did wonder,  
And scarce had power to keep two seas asunder.  
Leucothoe affrighted at the crack  
Pulled her Palaemon from the Dolphin's back,  
And hid him in her lap. The Fury next  
Flying to 
t Thebes built by Cadmus.  Cadmus' Towers (which she had vexed  
With many storms before) begets strange passion  
I'th' brethren's frighted minds; renews the fashion  
Of their 
u The earthborn Giants, which destroyed one another.  first founder's rage; then Envy tears  
Their tortured souls, and hate-begetting fears.  
Now a desire of Government possest'um:  
Their league is broke, whilst both strive to invest'um  
First, with the pall, and Sceptre: Oh! 'tis brave  
To be Lord Paramount, and not to have  
A partner in our royal Fortunes: Neither  
Will Crowns divided ever hold together.  
So, when the toiling husbandman shall yoke  
Two untamed steers in's plough, they'll scorn the stroke  
They feel, and know not how, with down-pressed necks  
To draw such burdens: strait the carriage cracks,  
Rend with their several forces; whilst they take  
Two divers paths, and crooked furrows make.  
Such was the brethren's discord, such stern Ire  
Had set an edge, on their untamed desire.  
At length they covenant, year by year, t'exchange,  
By course, their Crowns for banishment: 'tis strange,  
How they would cool their Fortunes: whilst the heir  
Gapes at the hopes of the succeeding year.  
This was that league, their wars were stopped upon:  
Scarce lasting to the next 
w For the second year Etheocles denied it.  Succession.  
And yet the world had not used then to gild  
Their seiled roofs, nor had it learned to build  
Piatzo's raised with 
x Lac●demon●●n● Corinth being most famous for it.  Grecian marble, able  
To shelter thronged 
y He alludes to th● Roman custom of entertaining their clients with a sportula.  retainers to their table:  
Kings slept (if Kings can sleep) without a Guard;  
No Sentinels at door kept watch and ward:  
No precious Goblets made their wine look neat,  
No plates of gold were sullied with their meat:  
'Tis a bare power they seek, an empty prize,  
A naked kingdom crownes their victories.  
Thus whilst both strive for a neglected soil,  
The humble throne of Cadmus, they defile  
Religion and themselves: The laws and rig●t  
Are beaten down, 
z In their funeral flames.  alive and dead they fight.  
Misguided souls! whither does passion bear you?  
What if both poles were th' purchase, should it dare you  
To such impieties? If all that's seen  
By th' eye of heaven, i'th' East, or West, or when  
He wanders out of's circle, to behold  
The Southern heat, or squints o'th' Northern cold?  
What if Tyre's wealth, or Phrygian heaps invite you?  
But 'tis a dismal Palace does excite you  
To rage: you'd buy from hell a wretched boon,  
To sit in O Oedipus his 
a The Sceptre being always fatal to those that swayed it.  cursed throne,  
But now the lots are cast, and fate has crossed  
Stiff Polynices' hopes. How wast thou lost  
In thine own joys, proud 
b Etheocles, to whom the lot fell.  Tyrant then? when all  
About thee, were thy slaves? when thou might'st call,  
What 'ere thou fanciest, thine, and none deny thee?  
Yet by and by the commons whisper nigh thee  
Some relish of dislike; and (as they use)  
The next successor in their heart they choose.  
And one amongst the rest (whose mind was set  
To blast the Sceptre, and could never yet  
With patience bear commands) cries out; Oh Fate!  
Is't thus resolved to vex th' 
c Ogyges' was King of Thebes when the first deluge happened, long before that of Deucalion.  Ogygian State?  
Must we exchange our fears still? and endanger  
Our subdued heads by course to serve a stranger?  
Th'ave made division of our lives, th'ave weakened  
The hand of 
d Choosing banishment willingly, the worst of misery.  Fortune. Shall I still be reckoned  
A bondslave ruled by banished spirits? is't,  
Great power of heaven and earth! fixed in thy breast  
To plague my countrymen with such a doom?  
Or does this long-continued mischief come  
Since Cadmus searching the 
e Carpathus is an Island 'twixt Egypt and Rhodes, which names the sea about her.  Carpathian seas,  
For her who backed the wanton 
f Europa Cadmus' sister, stolen by jupiter, transformed to a bull.  Bull, did please  
To choose those fields of 
g Once King of this place, after whose name, the Baeotians were once called.  Hyas, here t'erect  
His newfound kingdom? Might we else expect  
This plague, from the first 
h The Giants springing from the Dragon's teeth, who destroyed one another.  brethren's quarrels, when  
Earth showed her sons, but called them back again?  
D'ye mark, since tother's banishment, how sour  
He looks upon't? How he has swelled his power?  
How big his words? how proud his pace is grown?  
Think you, that this man will be e'er brought down  
To his own private fortunes? Yet we find  
That none was once more gentle, just, and kind:  
And reason good: he had a rival then,  
But we be controlled by all: Poor, abject men.  
Like as two winds, from several quarters met,  
Scuffle for mastery o'er the sails, and wet  
The topmast in the churlish waves: such fate  
Hangs o'er this doubtful, this distracted State.  
One Prince commands obedience, whilst t'other  
Threatens as much if they obey his brother.  
But at Ioves high command the gods resort  
To heaven's Star-chamber: 'Twas the inner Court  
Where they assembled, 
i In the middle of the heavens.  equally between  
The East and Western houses: whence was seen  
The confines of the earth and seas: 
k jupiter.  The God  
Shining i'th' midst, strikes terror with the nod  
Of his majestic countenance: A●on  
He sets him down, in his bespangled throne.  
The rest stand, and expect: not one presumed  
To sit, till leave was beckoned: Then they assumed  
The Demigods, tothth' place they had assigned;  
And th' heaven-begotten 
l Growing from the rain, distilling out of the clouds.  Rivers: Nay the wind  
Comes whistling too; but's breath was stopped with fear.  
Thus having filled the starry Choir, they wear  
Such Majesty about them, that the face  
Of heavens amazed: Such beauty fills the place,  
That more than day breaks thence: The roof's all gold,  
The beams of Chrysolite hidden flames do hold.  
Having commanded silence, all the round  
Gave care and trembled: (for within that sound  
Was an unchanged decree; the 
m Divinely enough, contrary to the fond opinion of the Stoics.  Fates did make  
His words a law:) thus then aloft he spoke.  
The tainted earth; and man's polluted soul  
I here impeach, whom vengeance can't control.  
How long shall guilty cries awake my rage?  
This arm is tired with thundering. 'Tis an age▪  
Has wearied out the 
n Vulcan's men which made jove his thunderbolts.  Cyclops. Every cinder  
In Vulcan's shop's burnt out. 
o AEtna, the flaming Sicilian Mount.  I would not hinder  
Thy horses (Phoebus) ranging where they list  
To fire the world, when their false 
p Phaeton thrown headlong into the river Padus.  guide was missed,  
Hoping they would refineed: But all in vain,  
As was thy labour, Neptune, when the 
q In the great deluge.  Main,  
Raised by thy trident, found a way to pass  
Beyond its bounds, and washed Earth's dirty face.  
Now come we armed with vengeance against two Nations  
Sprung from our 
r The Argives challenge from Perseus the son of jove and Danas, the Thebans from Cadmus, of the line of Epaphus.  loins: One's Greece, the habitations  
Of Perseus: tother's Thebes, built in that tract,  
Which men once called 
s Afterward Boeotia, from the Ox which the Oracle commanded Cadmus to follow.  Aonia: One neglect  
Has seized on all their souls. Who does not know  
Cadmus his ruins? Whilst the powers below,  
Charmed from their darker vaults, oft quarreled here.  
D'ye see their 
t As that of Agave triumphing in Pentheus' death, and that of Iocasta's incest.  Matrons wicked joys? D'ye hear  
The outcries from their 
u Where Athamas slew his son Learchus.  groves? I would conceal  
Those daring sins that strike at 
w As Niobe against Latona, Pentheus against Bacchus, and S●mele against juno.  heaven: to tell  
All those lewd manners, which defile that place,  
One day and night would be too short a space.  
Yet O Oedipus, more fruitful in his sin,  
Covets his Father's bed, and strives to win  
Strange pleasures from his Mother. Who, before him,  
ere forced a passage to that womb that bore him?  
But just revenge has 
x Having torn out his eyes.  reached him: He has banished  
All day, and comfort: Heaven itself is vanished  
Out of his sight: whilst his malignant brood  
(Wicked beyond all precedent) have stood  
Triumphing o'er his blindness. The hast obtained,  
Old Mischief, what thou ask'dst: Thy 
y Of blindness.  night has gained  
Ioves ear, and's hand: I'll arm their rage, and mock  
At th' ruin of both kingdoms: All that stock  
I'll root and branch destroy. The quarrel's spun  
With ease: 
z King of the Argives.  Adrastus pitying exiled son,  
Joined to that 
a His daughter Argia, was married afterward to Polynices, but it is spoken here as if done and passed, as all things are in the foreknowledge of the gods.  Line unhappily, shall give  
Assistance. 'Tis decreed: Nor must they live.  
Deceitful 
b Once King there, who intending to try the divinity of the gods, whom he had invited, served up his son Pelops to the table.  Tantalus sticks in our breast:  
We han't digested yet his bloody feast.  
So spoke the God: But juno deeply wounded  
With such unlooked-for news, this answer rounded.  
Must I to Arms (great Justice?) must I fight?  
'Tis known full well, what strength of men, what might  
I always brought to th' towers of 
c Called ●he Cyclops towers for the excellency of the workmanship.  Greece: that Crown  
Which my 
d Who bounding the dominion between Neptune and juno, gave sentence on her part, and was therefore honoured by her.  Phoronêus wore, with what renown  
Hast flourished? I have winked at one dull sleight,  
When sleeping 
e Made the keeper of Ioves beloved Io, and slain by Mercury.  Argus found eternal night  
Within those borders: when in a Golden shower  
Thou found'st a passage to the guarded 
f Where Acrisius imprisoned Danac.  tower:  
'Tis pardoned: 'twas a borrowed shape offended.  
But when thou worest 
g As he appeared to S●mel● in Thebes.  thyself, and waste attended  
With flames, the tokens of our nuptial sports,  
My hate may justly blast such rival Courts.  
Let Thebes be punished: what had Greece deserved?  
Yet take thy pleasure: If thy Queen's reserved  
An object for thy scorn, level her Cities,  

h Grecian Cities dedicated to juno, Samos had the honour to see her Nuptials.  Samos, 
h Grecian Cities dedicated to juno, Samos had the honour to see her Nuptials.  Mycenae, and 
h Grecian Cities dedicated to juno, Samos had the honour to see her Nuptials.  Sparta: Sure it pities  
Thee, she's so great: What needs perfuming wood  
To warm her Altars, washed with sacred blood?  

i A City devoted to Isis, formerly Io, now deified.  Coptos in Egypt sends a better savour,  
Where Isis' tears 
k This sacrifice began with sound of kettledrums, where Isis' tears for her Os●●is, were thought to cause Nile's inundations.  with Nile obtain more favour.  
But if old scores t' a new account we call,  
And 'tis decreed to squeeze the dregs of all  
The times are past: Where shall this task begin?  
What age will serve to purge Earth's raging sin?  
Look back upon that 
l Pisa in Arcadia, by whose wall Alph●us flows, near which was Ioves grove.  kingdom, whence by cunning  

m Alpheus' af●er a long coarse under earth and sea, rises again with the fountain Arethusa in Sicily.  Alphêus is joined with Arethusa; running  
Through sea and earth, to find her; Is't not shame,  
Th' Arcadians should build temples to thy name  
In so unchaste a place? There were the forces  
And charrets of 
n Who proposed his daughter Hippodamia a prize to him that conquered him in a chariot combat, which cost the lives of thirteen wooers.  O Enomâus: whose horses  
Might make Getulian 
o Thracia, where Diomedes his horses were fed with man's flesh.  AEmus a fit stable:  
Behold the mangled limbs of a whole rabble  
Of suitors lie unburied there. False 
p Where Paris gave the rash judgement against juno.  Ide,  
The place of my disgrace, thou mak'st thy pride▪  
So's 
q The place of Ioves nativity which does likewise bo●st of his tomb.  Crete, which has belied thy sepulchre.  
May not poor Greece be left thy spouse? Forbear  
Such furious threats. Take pity on that Nation,  
That claims from thee, by a most nee●e relation.  
The world has many kingdoms: None's so good,  
But may be died, in the false brethren's blood.  
Thus ended she her suit, made up of tears  
Lined with reproaches: But Ioves patient ears  
Herd her without disturbance: then replies;  
'Twas not expected, any curse should seize  
Upon thy Grecians, were it ne'er so right,  
But thou wouldst frown: Nay 
r There worshipped.  Bacchus, if he might  
Have liberty, would plead for's Thebes, I know:  
And (durst she speak) so would 
s Mother to Venus, and solicitous for her grandchild Hermione.  Dione too.  
But witness all th' infernal lakes, and those  
Black Stygian floods, my brother Pluto chose,  
There's an irrevocable sentence passed:  
Wherefore my swift-winged 
t The Ambassador of heaven.  Mercury, make haste:  
Outstrip the winds that bear thee: Through the air  
Glide down to th' darker region: There repair  
To grandsire 
u Father to O Oedipus.  Laius; call him back from hell:  
(He's not yet passed the 
w Of Lethe whence no return.  Gulf: because he fell  
Untimely by the sword of O Oedipus:  
This is that kingdom's 
x That the souls of slaughtered bodies wander a hundred years.  Fundamental:) Thus  
Quickened by thee, send him to's 
y Etheocles.  Grandchilds Court,  
With these commands: His brother (whose resort  
To Greece, in's banishment, will swell his pride,  
And strengthen's sufferings) must be denied  
Access to's presence, (He himself would choose it)  
And when the throne is asked, let him refuse it.  
Hence will I ground their anger, and dispose  
The rest as order bids me. 
z Called Atlantiades from his grandsire Atlas, King of Arcadia.  Hermes goes  
As jove commanded, putting on a pair  
Of winged buskins; whilst his golden hair,  
And starry head was shadowed with his hat:  
Then takes his charming rod, the sceptre that  
Commands sleep, or forbids it: He looks over  
Death's Court with this: This can lost life recover.  
Thus vaulting down, he flutters in the air;  
Which parted gently; Neither stops he there;  
But with his sudden flight, the welkin sounded,  
And darting downward, all the sky was rounded.  
Now Polynices, banished from his throne,  
As 'twas contracted, wanders all alone,  
By 
a Not daring openly to appear there in his brother's year.  stealth i'th' Theban deserts: Whilst his mind  
Feeds on the hopes, of what must be resigned  
e'er long to's hands. Sometimes he thinks the Sun  
Stands still; 'Tis tedious ere the year be done.  
One thought, asleep and waking has possessed him,  
What beams will gild that hour, that shall invest him  
I'th' strength o'th' Kingdom; When his humbled brother  
Must go and seek new fortunes, whilst 
b Himself by course.  another  
Shall wield the sceptre. This were such a day  
He'd spend an age to see't. But the delay  
Is irksome to his fancy: Yet that thought  
Is quelled, remembering how he shall be brought  
With pomp to th'Diadem; and sit on high,  
To laugh at's wand'ring brothers misery.  
Thus various passions do his soul annoy,  
And over-greedy wishes spend his joy.  
But now he settles his undaunted pace  
To 
c First King of the Argives, whence they are called Inachidae.  Innachus his City's, and the place  
Where 
d Who expelling King Sthenelus governed Argos.  Danâus reigned; To 
e Where Atreus frighted Thyestes with a banquet of his own children. At which sight the Sun fled backward.  Mycenae, which would hide  
Her black deeds from the startling Sun: His guide  
Was rage, or chance, or destiny. He flies  
By the 
f In which Bacchus' Priestesses performed their howling sacrifices.  Ogygian caves, where frantic cries  
Of the mad Priests are echoed: where the fields  
Fattened with 
g Of the Bacchaes which launce themselves.  sacred blood more plenty yields.  
Then passed he by 
h A Boeotian mountain devoted to Bacchus, on whose smooth top was a long continued plain.  Cithaeron's gentle plain,  
Where the high mount stoops down to kiss the Main.  
Next climbs he 
i A famous thief, who threw the passengers he had robbed, from this place, headlong into the sea.  Scyron's dangerous craggy rocks:  
And sees, where 
k The City Megara where Scylla cut off her father's fatal hair.  Nisus with his purple locks  
Once reigned. Then leaves he quiet Corinth, where  
‛ Two neighbour 
l The Isthmos where Corinth stands is between the Ionian and AEgean Seas.  seas made music in his ear.  
By this time had the Moon begun her station,  
And Sol, tired out with's last perambulation,  
Was gone to bed. The silent world does view  
Her Eyrie chariot, pearld with drops of dew.  
No beasts do roar, no birds do chatter, sleep  
O'er man's desires, and careful thoughts does creep:  
And nodding through the air, brings down in haste,  
A sweet forgetfulness of labour past.  
But the grey sky promised no glorious beams  
From th' morning sun: The dusky Twilight seems  
To put out day too soon, and keeps no light  
Reflected from the absent sun: Grim night  
Arising thicker from the earth, does cloud  
Heaven's glittering fires. Whilst the winds aloud  
Knock at th' 
m AEolia is a part ef ' Asia minor; where AEolus king of the winds kept Court.  AEolian bars, and rudely force  
A passage from their prisons. Strait the hoarse  
And hollow throat of winter comes on, scolding:  
The winds fall out among themselves; Each holding  
Heaven by a proper title, for his own;  
Till Poles are rend, and th' Axle's overthrown.  
But the prevailing Southern blast has given  
Most clouds to th' work, and chiefly mantles heaven:  
Opening a thousand spouts; whose drops are stayed  
By th' dry cold Northern breath, and hail are made.  
Nay heaven's artillery comes in; the Thunder  
And subtle lightning, tear the clouds asunder.  
By this time 
n A woody country, near the city Cleon●, where Hercules slew the famous Lyon.  Nemêa, and the 
o Five in number: viz. Cyllenus, Lycaeus, Lycormis, Argoleon, and Maenalus.  hills that scatter  
About th' Arcadian groves, are drenched with water.  
Old 
p Named from the first Argive king.  Inachus with nimbler floods does roar,  
Cold 
q Arising in the North.  Erasines more active than before.  
In sandy channels, where men walked but now,  
In spite of dams, huge streams do overflow.  
You'd think that 
r The pool where Hercules killed the serpent Hydra.  Lerna's poisonous, troubled lake,  
Swelled with new venom. Every wood does crack:  
The trees let fall their arms: And heaven beholds  
What it ne'er saw before, 
s In which shades Pan kept his summer Court of residence.  Lycaean folds.  
Our frighted travailer's amazed to see  
The stones drop from the craggy cliffs: But he  
The stones drop from the craggy cliffs: But he  
Startles at harsher music, whilst each mountain  
In dreadful Cataracts pours down a fountain  
Of cloud-begotten waters; which o'erthrow  
Both folds and cottages of shepherds too.  
Benighted thus, and mad at this disaster,  
He gropes on: Fear and's brother, spur him faster.  
So when a storm has caught the mariner  
In raging seas, when neither Moon, nor star,  
Lights him t'his channel; troubled reason leaves  
His soul to th' angry heavens, and boisterous waves:  
Now fears he treacherous shoals; now thinks he knocks  
His reeling ship against the foaming rocks.  
Thus through the woods does Polynices fly;  
Rousing with's trusty spear the beasts that lie  
In their wild mansions: His stout breast does tear  
A way through thickets: now grown bold with fear.  
Till from Larissa's top, he spies a light,  
(
t For there was a Thessalian City of that name, which named Achilles Larissaeus.  Lariss a tower of Argos) conquering night,  
Through all the winding streets, to this he plies  
With all his power. O'th' left hand, he descries  
Juno's 
u Where stood Juno's Temple.  Prosymna. On the right, he sees  
The lake of Lerna drained by 
w This lake was dried up by Hercules, burning the spongy ground about it▪ The name of Hydra being fetched 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  Hercules.  
At length he enters th' open gates, and strait  
Beholds the 
x Where Adrastus kept Court.  Palace, in whose porch he might  
Repose his stiffened limbs: Here rests his head,  
And sleeps invited to so hard a bed.  
Adrastus then was King; whose quiet fate  
Had spun his years beyond a middle date:  
Nobly descended; challenging from heaven  
In both his 
y Son to Tàlaus the grandchild of jupiter, and Eurynome daughter to Apollo.  parents. Yet the gods had given  
No male successor to him: All his hope  
Rests in two 
z Dcipbile, and Argia.  daughters, which must underprop  
His throne. Apollo, once being asked about'um,  
Replied: (you'd think the god had meant to flout'um)  
(But time discovers Truth) Their chosen love,  
A bristled Hog, and Lion fierce, shall prove.  
This riddle couldst not thou, grave Sire, untwist,  
Not thou 
a Amphiaraus Oicles' son.  Oiclides, great Apollo's Priest.  
The god forbade it: Only care possessed,  
And gnawed upon their Father's doubtful breast.  
As't happened: 
b The son of O Eneus reigning over Calydon, Pleuros and Olevos, Cities of AEtolia.  Tydeus at that instant, leaving  
His native Calydonia; (Horror cleaving  
Fast to his guilty soul, for's 
c Menalippus, whom unawares he had slain, as he was hunting.  brother's blood)  
I'th' dead of night, traced the same desert wood,  
And felt that storm of Ice, and hail; till rain  
Had washed his face; and thawed his back again.  
Then chances on that shelter, where before  
Tother had stretched his limbs upon the floor.  
Here chance presents a bloody rage. The weather  
Can't make one roof shroud both their heads together.  
Their tongues beat the preparative, till both  
Swollen big with anger, rise: And first they ' unclothe  
And strip their shoulders naked: next they dare  
Each other (Championlike) t'a single war.  
The Theban was the taller, and had told  
Most suns o'th' two: yet Tydeus was as bold,  
And equalled him in's courage; Give him's merit,  
In a less room there reigned a greater spirit.  
By this time they were fallen to cuffs: the blows  
Like 
d Rip●eus the most Northern mount of Scythia is famous for these storms.  Scythian hail, or darts an Army throws,  
Fly thick about their ears: Nor do they stick  
With buckled hams their empty guts to kick.  
So when th' Olympic games return again  
At five years' end to jove, on 
e A City of Elis, ●●eer which the Olympic games were celebrated every fifth year to the honour of jupiter.  Pisa's plain,  
The dust is laid with falling drops of sweat,  
And the spectators differing votes do whet  
The striplings valour; whilst the 
f No women were admit 〈…〉  Matrons barred  
From entrance, stand expecting their 
g 〈…〉  reward.  
Thus quickened by their rage, they fight this duel,  
(For 'twas not praise they looked for) whilst their cruel  
Hooked fingers, claw their faces: Each man cries  
How he can best tear out his fellows eyes.  
Perhaps their angry swords too had been drawn,  
Which they had girt about them; where thy bane,  
Unhappy Theban, had been better wrought  
By a stranger's hand: But that Adrastus thought  
He heard some deep-fetched groans, and outcries pass,  
I'th' dead o'th' night, which called him to the place:  
Whose hoary head, since care and age did cumber,  
He could not freely harbour quiet slumber.  
Thus, when by torchlight he was brought in state  
Down, through the Courts, and had unbar'd the gate;  
He spies strange faces there: scratched mangled cheaks,  
Which dropped large showers of blood: With that he breaks  
To these expressions: What inflames your angers  
To these uncivil broils, young fiery strangers?  
None of my subjects durst presume I'm sure,  
To break the peace thus rudely. Why does your  
Unbounded rage disturb the silent night?  
Is the whole day too short? Or d'ye delight  
To banish peace, and rest? Speak: whence d'ye come?  
Or whither go ye? why so quarrelsome?  
Your rage says y'are not base: A noble house  
●s wrote in bloody letters, on your brows.  
Scarce had he done: when speaking both together,  
They mix these words, and frown on one another.  
Mild King, what need we talk this quarrel over?  
These streams of blood you see, our wrongs discover.  
They uttered this confusedly: But next,  
Tidêus goes on, alone: My soul being vexed  
At her 
h Killing his brother unawares.  misfortunes, left her native Land  
Of 
i The boar slain by Meleager and sent by Diana.  Monster-bearing Calydonia, and  
Th' AEtolian 
k Which were washed by Achelous, a ●iver springing in Thessalia.  plains; hoping to find some ease:  
But close within your borders, night did seize  
With all her powers upon me: Who is this  
Denies my head a shelter here, cause his  
Took took first possession in the place? We see  
The double shapen 
l Half men, half horses, indeed Thessalians, the first that backed horses.  Centaurs will agree  
To lodge together: And the Cyclops rest  
But in one 
m The shop where they make Ioves thunderbolts.  AEtna: Nay the wildest beast  
Knows nature's Laws, and can't one roof contain  
Us two?— But why do I spend myself in vain?  
Be whoso 'ere thou wilt, thou art not like  
To triumph long. If guilty 
n Of hi● late slaughter▪  blood don't strike  
New horror to my soul, I'll make thee know  
I'm O Eneus son, and 
o Mel●●ger the father to O Eneus was son to 〈…〉  Mars his grandchild too.  
We have both stock and courage too, says t'other:  
But 'twas a startled 
p 〈…〉  conscience made him smother  
His Father's name. Stay, says the King: assuage  
Such churlish thoughts begot by night, or rage,  
Or valour. Use my Court: come enter hither,  
And let your shaked hands join your hearts together.  
'Tis not in vain, nor were the gods asleep,  
When first you quarreled: Love perhaps may creep  
Through these rough paths; & than you may with laughter  
Remember these past discontents hereafter.  
How truly did this reverend King foretell  
Their fortunes I when this storm was o'er, they fell  
In such a league, as made another 
q The four pair of friends are famous: Theseus and Pirithous, Pylades and Orestes, Patroclus and Achilles, Tydeus and Polynices.  pair;  
And might with Thesêus and his 
r Pirithous, accompanied by his friend to hell in search of Proserpina.  friend compare,  
In their long progress: Or with 
s Or●stes haunted by the Furies for Clytaemnestra's murder was freed by Pylades' advice.  Pylad's stand  
Who freed Orestes from Megara's hand.  
Their wounded minds were healed now, with the balm  
Dropped from Adrastus' lips: Like as a calm  
Quiets the troubled waves, when th' storm is over,  
And the last blast expiring now, does hover  
About the sails. Strait into th' Court they pass;  
Where the good King beholds the comely grace  
Of their attire, and arms: He spies the skin  
Of some great bearded Lion (sure, of kin  
To that young 
t Hercules whilst a child slew a Lion near Teumessus, whose ●kin he always used as a mantle.  Hercules in Tempe slew  

u For there is another Tempe in Thessalia, this in Boeotia.  Teumessian Tempe, long before he knew  
The 
w Afterwards one of his twelve labours.  Cleonaean monster) hang about  
The Thebans shoulders: whilst a bristled, stout,  
And tusked boar, of 
x Famous formerly for the great boar Diana sent.  Calydonian kind,  
Had parted with his coat, which spread behind  
Tydeus his back: The aged Prince, possessed  
With strange amazement at the sight, confessed  
Apollo's sacred truth, remembering then  
What Oracles he heard, i'th' 
y Where the Tripos was  speaking Den.  
This spectacle confounds him: Joy does thrill  
Through all his foul; He reads expressed the will  
O'th' gods, that brought them hither: Now he sees,  
What beasts they were, the riddling god did please  
To point out for his sons-in-law: then raises  
His hands to heaven, and chant● these solemn praises.  
Thou sacred power of Night, which do●●● embrace  
The cares of heaven, and earth: whilst every place  
I'th' sky, is spangled by thy hand; Repairing  
Our wearied natures, against the Sun's appearing:  
Thy darkness is my guide: through the thick mist  
Of perplexed error: Thou dost best untwist  
Thy threads of foretold destiny. Go on;  
Perfect, great Queen, the work thou hast begun.  
This Court shall pay a yearly sacrifice  
To thy great Deity: On thy altar dies  
Two fair, 
z The colour making them proper for the night. Macr.  black heifers; whose 
a Having been shut up five years, whence they were called Lustralia.  fat gu●s shall soak  
I'th' newest 
b With which they used to sprinkle the infernal sacrifice●, and those offered to the Dii minores.  milk, and make thy Temple's smoke.  
Hail faithful 
c The place where the Pythia●ate ●ate, when she prophesied.  Tripos, and ye close abodes  
Of the dark Oracle. I've found the gods.  
This said, he grasps their hands, and guides them right  
To th' farther court: Where th' Altars still looked white  
With their late 
d Having sacrificed the day before to Apollo.  fires; I'th' ashes yet there fumed  
Some sparks alive, with fragments unconsumed.  
He bids them bring new fuel, and prepare  
A second offering. His servants hear  
With reverence and obey him: All the Court  
Rings with their diligence: One goes to sort  
New broidered cover for the beds, and calls  
For richer tapestry to hang the walls.  
Another scours the pots. One puts out night,  
And fills the branched candlesticks with light.  
Some play the Cooks, and spit the joints of meat;  
Others make paste, when they have ground their wheat:  
Adrastus joys to see them; putting on  
His richest robes, and mounts his Ivory throne.  
Of th' other side, the strangers took their places,  
(Their wounds being washed) and viewed each others faces;  
Then took acquaintance. Th' aged King soon after  
Sends for Acestes (she had nursed his daughters,  
And had their virgin chastity in care  
Till 
e At whose Altars they use to be presented spotless on their marriage day by a matron.  Hymen asked for't) whispering her i'th' ear.  
Who soon perceived his mind: And forthwith came  
Her double charge, (you'd think their shape the same  
Which armed Pallas and Diana wore,  
But with less terror) from their chamber door.  
Soon as their looks were on the strangers fixed,  
A blushing red, and paler white were mixed  
Within their comely cheeks; their eyes did rove  
A glance, or two, but duty checked their love.  
When the last course o'th' feast, was served up,  
Adras●us calls for's graven guilded cup,  
Which 
f Two former kings of the Argives.  Danâus and 
f Two former kings of the Argives.  Phoronêus used of old  
In sacrifice: 'T had many stamps i'th' gold.  
On th' one side 
g He was said to fly to the Gorgon's execution, because he was the first that used a ship with sails.  winged Persêus sets upon,  
And kills the snake-haired Gorgon, which being done  
He seems to mount i'th' air: But she le's fall  
Her ghastly eyes; and, though in gold, looks pale.  
Near her, takes 
h Tros his son, beloved of jupiter, and mounted to heaven on an Eagles back, where he was made the god's cupbearer.  Ganym●de his glorious flight,  
And leaves the hills behind; Troy's out of sight:  
His fellow-huntsmen sadly look about,  
And's dogs in vain do bark at every cloud.  
This cup was crowned with wine: Whilst all the gods  
By course were called on: But Phoeb ' got the od●.  
The servants crowned with 
i Retaining still Daphne's temper.  chaste unspotted bays  
Chant at Ph●●b's shrine their Choral Hymns of praise.  
This day's his festival: The fire ne'er falters,  
But fed with incense shines on's smoking Altars.  
Then says the King: Perhaps my noble guests,  
You'd ask what cause begat these solemn feasts;  
Or why, amongst all the gods, w'adore Apollo.  
It is no vain religion which does hollow  
This time: The Argives l●ng since groaning under  
A curse began it: Mark, and hear the wonder.  
After the god had pierced the speckled skin  
Of th' earth-begotten 
k Said to be born of the earth, and slain by Apollo, because the sun dries up those vapours which are exhaled from the moist ground.  Python, folding in  
Delphos with's numerous circles, wearing out  
With's tail the well-grown oaks; whilst spread about  
The springs of Helicon, his forked tongue  
Lick's poison from the crystal streams; 'Twas long  
ere many darts dispatched him; spreading over  
The Phocian plains his yet-twined bulk did cover  
A hundred acres. Then the god resorts  
(To cleanse the 
l Nothing stained with blood, before expiation made, might be admitted to the court of heaven.  guilt of blood) to th' humble courts  
Of our 
m Once king of the Argives.  Cr●topus, whose young 
n Psamate beloved of, and ravished by Apoll●.  daughters eye  
Ruled o'er his house: In her, sweet modesty,  
And beauty strove for conquest: Happy maid,  
Could she Apollo's close desires avoid.  
For on the banks of Nemêa, giving way  
To th' sportful god, she there conceived a boy:  
And after ten moons wanes, brought forth her son,  
Latona's royal grandchild. But anon  
Fearing her father's vengeance (for he knew  
Nothing of those embraces) she withdrew  
To desert walks: Where she exposed (for fear)  
Her infant amongst the folds t'a shepherd's care.  
Sweet babe! such entertainments don't become  
The stock thou springst of: Earth prepares thy room  
Garnished with flowery beds, and thatched above  
With oaken leaves close woven; whilst the grove  
Lends bark to make thy garments; gentle sleep  
Is whistled on; Thou battlest with the sheep.  
Yet Fate thought this too good a place for him,  
For deepmouthed bloodhounds tore him limb from lim●  
And feasted on his members, which were spread  
Upon the grass, where he with air was fed.  
This news no sooner struck his mother's ear,  
But she forgot both father, shame, and fear:  
She fills the Court with outcries, and uncovers  
Her naked breasts; Then the whole truth discovers  
To the hard hearted King; who publisheth  
The sentence which she hoped for, present death.  
Could Phoeb ' forget his joys thus? But too late  
He plots her just revenge, and does create  
A monster, hell would own; conceived between  
The coupling Furies: In whose shape was seen  
A virgin's face and breast, but from her crown,  
A snake, that hissed eternally, hangs down,  
And parts her cloudy brow: This Imp does creep  
To their close-chambers secretly when sleep  
Sits heavy on them; tearing infants from  
The breast that suckle them; devouring some  
With ravenous jaws, before their Parents eyes,  
And fat's herself with public miseries.  
But C●oraeb's skilful valour could not brook  
This plague without revenge: Who strait betook  
Himself to's chosen band of friends, whose souls,  
Prized credit more than life. The Monster rolls  
More death before he still; and then she stood  
Where two ways parted, smeared with infant's blood:  
On both sides of her hung a babe, whose hearts  
●eak'd with her claws, which search their vital parts:  
Our Champion here sets on her, guarded round  
With all his train; His sword si●ks into th' wound  
●t made in her black breast; and hunts her soul  
Through all her limbs till hell receives her foul  
bespotted carcesse: 'Twas a joy to come  
●nd see her ghastly looks, and paunch that womb  
●n which she'd crammed our sucklings; To behold  
●er venomed breast: Amazement struck us cold:  
●nd these extremes of joy turn pale again.  
●ome thrashed her senseless limbs, seeking in vain  
This solace for their griefs: Others brought trees  
●o dash her teeth out: rage their power outvies.  
●e ravenous skrieking birds few from these grounds,  
●hough hungerbitten, when as deepmouthed hounds,  
●nd chap-faln wolves, gaping at distance stood,  
Greedy of prey, yet durst not take such food.  
Enraged Apollo sets an edge on's spleen  
●hus disappointed: Sitting then between  
●arnassus double top, he arms his bow  
●ith poisoned arrows; Whilst the fields below,  
●nd all the Grecian houses seemed to flame,  
through the thick clouds, which hung about the same.  
●weet souls of all sides dropped: Death 
p Not broke it off, as in common destinies.  cut the thread  
●f Fate, and captive towns in triumph led.  
But when the Oracle was sought to, why  
●uch flames and dire 
q As that of the dog●r, so generally hurtful.  Aspects possessed the sky:  
●he same Power bids, their lives should pay to hell  
● sacrifice, by whom his monster fell.  
Courageous soul! deserving when thouart dead  
● lasting name: Thou didst not hide thy head  
Through base degenerous fear; nor trembled'st when  
Thou metst grim death to''th' face. Thus Cor●b● then  
With an undaunted look, stands at the do●●  
Of the god's Temple, and inrageth more  
The divi●e breast, thus speaking: I'm not sent,  

r Called Thymbraeus, from a place near Troy, where he was worshipped.  Phoeb ', to thy shrine; nor come I to relent,  
And beg thy pardon: 'twas mine own free spirit  
And care to th' public, brought me: 'Twas my merit  
That tamed thy vengeance, god, 'tis me the hast sought  
With clouded foggy days, and pestilence brought  
From heaven unjustly. But if gods delight  
So much in monsters, and regard so slight  
The loss o'th' world, and death of men: if heaven  
Be so unkind; How have the Grecians given  
Just cause of anger? May not I suffice  
(Great Power) to be the Fates just sacrifice?  
Or does thy gentle heart declare more pity  
When it depopulates a well-filled City?  
When the fields shine with bonfires, which are made  
Of ploughmen's bones? But why should I dissuade  
Or stop thy striking hand? The matrons vow  
Poured out long since attends me. 'Tis enough▪  
I have deserved that 
s Provoking it by these affronts.  stroke, that shall not spare me:  
But draw thy well strung bow: Let th' arrows tear me,  
Send a triumphing soul to th' grave: But then  
Drive that black cloud away, that blasts our men:  
So that I die, be satisfied: 'Tis just  
To punish only those who break their trust.  
Phoeb's rage gave back a● this, and grants a boon  
More than was asked; His life: The tempest soon  
Blew from our heaven ● whilst Choroebe is entreated  
To leave the startled god. This cause created  
These solemn feasts, which yearly we renew  
T'appease the god, whose Altars now ye view.  
But what blood fills your veins, my Friends? Although  
(If fame deserves belief) 
t Son to O Eneus King of Calydonia.  Tydêus does owe,  
His birth to Calydoniae, and may claim  

* AEtoliae where now reigned Praetus▪ Tydeus' uncle.  Parthaons' ancient sceptre. But what same  
Brought you to Argos? Tell me, who's this other?  
Since 'tis a time to talk in, nothing smother.  
The noble 
u Named her from Ismenos a Theban river.  Theban now with downcast eyes  
Swollen big with grief, now with side-glances spies  
Tydêus his wounds; then breaks his silence thus:  
Before these Altars here, it fits not us  
To mingle such discourses: What I am,  
How stocked, what blood, the country whence I came,  
Will blast your sacrifice: yet if you're bend  
To know my wretched fortunes; My descent  
Came from my grandsire 
w Modestly for shame concealing his father's name.  Cadmus; Thebes, the joy  
Of 
x Either from Queen Hermione Mars' daughter, or for the Giants springing from the dragon's teeth, both being the delight of Mars.  Mars, my Country; I Iocasta's boy.  
And now Adrastus startled with his guest  
Discovered thus, says, why d'ye hide the rest?  
'Tis known already: Fame does take her rise  
Not so remote from Argos. He that lies  
Under the North pole, chattering: He th●t drinks  
I'th' Indian Ganges; He i'th' West, that thinks  
To trace the sun to bed, and those that sail  
Amongst the Africa shoals have learned the tale  
Of Thebes beset with Furies; and those eyes  
Which shrunk from their own guilt: Let this suffice  
To thy complaints; and score not up their sin  
On thine own head; Such stains may be of kin  
To us from our 
y As from Tantalus.  forefathers: But that blot  
Don't prejudice their offspring. Equal not  
Their vices; but endeavour by thy merit  
To purge their guilt: Them, not their faults inherit.  
But now 
z Two Northern signs, viz. Sep●entrio and Opiochus, which at the first appearance of the morn, burn dim.  Charls-waine declines, and the i'll 
z Two Northern signs, viz. Sep●entrio and Opiochus, which at the first appearance of the morn, burn dim.  sire  
Does disappear: with fresh cups feed the fire:  
Chant out Apollo's hymns; repeat his praise,  
Our guardian still from our 
a As when Apollo taught Thyestes after Atreus his wickedness, to marry his own daughter Pelopeia, on whom he begat AEgisthus, who revenged his father by Agamemnon's death.  forefather's days.  
Great Father Phoeb ', whether the snowy tops  
Of 
b A Lycian City dedicated to Apollo.  Patara delight thee; Or the drops  
Of pure 
c Apollo enamoured of Castalia, who threw herself into a fountain, used to dip his locks in the waters.  Castalian dew do bathe thy hair,  
Thy golden hair: Or whether Troy does wear  
Thy 
d That of Thymbraeus.  name and presence; where thou didst submit  
Thyself to labours for thyself unfit,  
And serv'dst the 
e When he and Neptune●ere ●ere hired to build the walls of Troy by Laomedon.  Mason willingly; or tired  
With seeking floating 
f When Delos could not be found by Latona, Cynthus the highest mountain discovered itself, where she brought forth Apollo and Diana.  Delos, if desired  
Cynthus, Latona's welcome mount, does please:  
Cynthus, whose top shades the AEgaean seas:  
The Quiver's thine, and bow stiffe-bent, to quell  
Thy daring foes: 
g The sun never grows old.  Eternal youth does dwell  
Upon thy cheeks: Thou canst foretell the doom  
Of th' unjust Fates, and knowst what is to come:  
Know'st what decrees jove means to pass; dost show  
What plagues or wars shall reign; what overthrow  
Of crowns 
h By Comets.  heaven points at: 'Twas thy harp subdued  
The 
i Mar●ias who challenged Apollo.  Phrygian minstrel. Thou didst drag the rude  
Earth's offspring 
k Seeking to enforce  Titius down to hell, and take  
Just vengeance for thy mother: Thou dost shake  
Envenomed Python with thy looks; and quail  
The The●a●e 
l Niobe, contending with Diana, was deprived by Apollo of all her children.  dame, with thy triumphant spoil.  
Wrinkled Megara is thy Minister  
Tormenting hungry 
m Who burning the temple of Apollo, was placed in hell under a huge stone, whose downfall was daily threatened, and he fed there by Megara.  Phlegîas, who does fear  
The ever-falling stone; she proffers meat  
To's empty stomach, but he loathes to eat.  
Great God be present, think upon the place  
That 
n ●n Crotopus' time.  entertained thee; show a smiling face  
To Juno's land; whether thou please to choose  
Fair Titan's name, which th' 
o These were part of Persia, named from their King Achaemenes.  Achaemonians use;  
Or if 
p Worshipped under that ●ame by the AEg●ptians.  Osiris' title take the more,  
Whom Egypt makes the Author of her store.  
Or, as the Persians in their caves below,  

q The Persian worshipped the sun eclipsed in a Cave, by the name of Mitra, in the shape of a Lion with a Tiara on his head, holding by the horns a struggling Cow, representing the Moon, which labours to avoid him.  Mitra, which draws by th' horns a stubborn Cow.  
Finis Lib. I. Statii Thebay.   

Argument. Lib. 2. Statii Thebaidos.  
Hermes returns with Laius' Ghost, which steals  
Tiresias' shape, and in a dream reveals  
To th' Tyrant, Jove's decree. Adrastus gives  
Argia and Deiphile, for wives  
To Polynices and Tydeus: They are married  
With prodigies, because Argia carried  
Hermiones chain. The Theban Prince desires  
His Crown; which Tydeus in his name requires.  
Denied by th' King, he war denounceth; then  
Returns by Sphinx her rock; where fifty men  
Way lay him; they're subdued: He sends this story  
By Maeon back, and sings Minerva's glory.  
Mean time winged Mercury, with Ioves embassage  
Returns from hell: thick clouds oppose his passage,  
And troubled air infolds him: ne'er a blast  
To driveed away; but stinking fogs are cast  
Out of the silent region: Then appear  
The spreading floods of Styx, and flames of fire,  
Belched out of sulphurous streams, which choke th● way.  
Behind crawls Laius trembling, whose delay  
His wound might yet excuse; for in his side  
His sons rash sword sunk, hilts and all; He tried  
The onset of the 
a Which possessed his son OEdipus.  Furies; yet he creeps,  
And 
b Mercury's Caduceus, which can charm souls from hell.  Hermes' powerful wand doth guide his steps.  
The barren groves were startled, and those coasts  
Where the dark shades were filled with trembling Ghosts.  
The Earth herselfe's amazed, to see her womb  
Lie open back again; nay there were some  
In their cold, senseless Urns, whose withered brows  
Spoke envy: One amongst the rest, whose vows  
Were still unlucky, and (which wrought his bane)  
heavens grief his joy, heaven's joy his grief began;  
Says, Go and prosper whatsoever design  
thou'rt called for, whether jove did so enjoin;  
Or uncontrol'd Erinnys by thee sent  
Greeting tothth' day; Or some 
c These were wont to counterfeit a frenzy before their incantations.  Enchantress spent  
Her charms upon thy Tomb. Thou shalt have sight  
Of the fresh air, and the forgotten light  
O'th' sun; thou'lt tread upon the springing grass,  
And hear the warbling Rivers, as they pass  
From their clear fountains. Yet at last with pain,  
Look to return to these black shades again.  
No sooner Cerb'rus spies them, from the dark  
Cell, where he lay, but he begins to bark  
With all his mouths at once: The cur does grin  
At such strange ghosts as seek to enter in;  
But now he swells his bristled neck, enraged,  
And would have torn them piece-meal; But assuaged  
By the gods powerful Sceptre, down he lies,  
And treble sleep tames his 
d Answering to his three heads.  three pair of eyes.  
There is a place, which the old Grecians said  
Was 
e A Laconian promontory, where Hercules had a Temple in a cave, which Poets imagine the passage 〈…〉  Taenarus, where foaming Malea's head,  
Which seamen tremble at, towers to the sky's,  
Till it hath quite lost the beholder's eyes.  
The lofty tops still fair, and does disdain  
Th' inferior power of wind, or force of rain:  
But the tired stars rest on it; and the wind  
There ye may trace the lightning; and the ranks  
And shapes o'th' clouds are moulded on those banks.  
The soaring Lark could never raise her flight  
So high, nor thunder could this Mountain fright.  
But when the day grows old, the shade does flee,  
(Strange bounds are these) tothth' o'th' neighbour Sea.  
There Taenarus crooks his broken shores, as though  
His coward banks gave backward from the rough  
And boisterous waves: Here Neptune lands his steads  
Tired in th' 
f The description of the Sea-horse.  AEgean Sea, whose 
g Named so from AEgeus, son to Neptune.  fore-hoof treads  
The sands, but spread to a fishes tail behind.  
From hence, as men report, the pale Ghosts find  
A by-way path, through which due Custome's reared  
By death, to Pluto's Court: Here may be heard  
Strange shrieks and groans, (if any truth be found  
In the Arcadian Ploughmen) all the ground  
Rings with a hellish noise: Sometimes a stroke,  
Sometimes a word which the last Fury spoke,  
Sounds till high-noon: It frights the Country-boare  
Out of the fields, to hear 
h Three-headed Cerberus.  Death's Porter roar.  
Here Hermes, with a Stygian fog surrounded,  
Springs into th'air. The clouds, which late abounded,  
Break with his Glory: His warm breathing makes  
Fair weather round about him. Thence he takes  
His circuit by 
i The Northern Star, which Climate was chosen by Mercury, because the most windy and most advantageous for his flight.  Arcturus, mounting then  
Through Phoebe's 
k She being Night's Mistress.  silent Orb, o'er lands and men.  
Sleep meets him with Night's chariot, and does rise  
With reverence, and strait departs the skies.  
Laius' beneath him hovers, and does view  
The stars he's 
l B● dying unnaturally on his son's sword.  robbed of, whence his 
m Either because of the Nobility of his Progenitors, or from the Stoics opinion, who fetch the Souls of men from the Stars.  soul he drew.  
And now to 
n The Boeotian mountain which over-looked Phocis, where he was slain.  Cyrrha's craggy top was come,  
Whence he spies Phocis, stained with his tomb.  
At last he reaches Thebes; there sighs out tears  
Near his son's threshold: Yet at first forbears  
To pass those wel-known doors. But when he spies  
Those stately roofs, whose beauteous tops did rise  
On pillars he had laid, and saw those 
o Of the Chariot in which he was slain.  wheels  
Stained yet with blood; troubled, he backward reels:  
The thunderers high command, the charming force  
Of the 
p Mercury's Caduceus, given him by Apollo in Arcadia, after the Oxen were stolen.  Arcadian rod, scarce stopped his course.  
As't chanced too, 'twas a solemn 
q Called Bacchus his first Birthday.  Day, which heaven  
Marked out with 
r Semele desiring to see jove in his Majesty, was thunderstruckk, yet the God pitying her Babe, not ripe for nativity, took him from her womb, and nourished him in his thigh.  thunder; when young Bacchus, given  
To's Father's thigh, found a too early birth  
From Semele: This caused the Tyrant's mirth  
To banish sleep that night; but spread abroad  
Through house and ground, belched out the pursy 
s Bacchus to whom that day was dedicated.  God  
Amongst their Crowns and empty Cups, till day  
Did part them: There ye might have heard them play  
On their loud Pipes, and Trumpets, which o'ercome  
In their shrill noise the rattling of the Drum.  
And glad 
t A Boeotian mountain dedicated to Bacchus.  Cithaeron tied the women out,  
Inflamed now, not 
u As once, when Agave tore her son Pentheus' piece-meal; hence our Poet calls Bacchus now, Their more gentle God.  enraged, to dance about  
His un-trod thickets. So the 
w Named here from Biston a Thracian King; they used to feast upon their mountains.  Thracians spread  
Banquets to their rash troops, o'th' snowy head  
Of Rhodope, or Dale of 
x A mountain between Thrace and Thessaly, which in the middle encloseth a famous Valley.  Ossa: where  
The panting limbs of beasts, which they did tear  
From Lion's jaws, and blood with milk allayed  
Proves a rich Feast: but if their sense be stayed  
With wines enraging sent, then 'tis their play  
To dash their cups, throw stones, or any way  
To shed their partner's blood; with which the rabble  
Will make new feasts, and garnish a new table.  
Such was the night, when swift 
y Mercury named from Cyllene, an Arcadian mountain, his birthplace.  Cyllenius crept  
Tothth' Thebans privy-Chamber, 
z Etheocles named here from Echion one of Cadmus his companions in building Thebes.  who then slept  
Stretched out at large upon his Ivory bed,  
With coverings of Assyrian tapestry spread.  
How careless is man's heart! He feasts, he sleeps!  
But Laius did, as he was taught, and creeps  
In blind 
a ● blind Theban Prophet, punished by juno, for passing verdict on Ioves part against her.  Tiresias' borrowed hue; left this  
Might seem a dream, he wears his voice and fleece:  
His own locks still remained, and the driven snow  
Upon his chin, so did his paleness too:  
But a false Mitre on his hair was placed,  
And's veil with wreaths of Olive boughs was graced.  
Then seems to touch the breast o'th' sleeping King  
With's bough, and thus the Fates decrees to sing.  
This is no time for sleep, secure from fear  
Of thy false brother, Dullard! Dost not hear?  
Heroic acts invite thee: Dost not see,  
What preparations, Fool, he makes for Thee?  
Thou dalliest, like a sleeping Pilot, when  
The Sea works high with winds, his Compass then  
Is quite forgot, his Stern let loose: And yet  
Thy brother's new-matched spouse, Fame says, has set  
New wings on's soul: He's gathering strength to gain  
Thy Kingdom from thee, and 
b 〈…〉  deny't again:  
H'appoints thy Court, the nurs'ry for his age:  
Adrastus his Wife's Father, does engage  
His resolution deeper, with what force  
Her Dowry th' Argives bring: Nay (which is worse)  
Tydeus, who's stained in's brother's blood, has tied  
A solemn knot of friendship: Hence his pride  
Puffs up itself: this raises his intent  
To promise thee a lasting banishment.  
The King of heaven, in pity sent me down,  
With this advice; Keep Thebes; It is thine own:  
Banish th'ambitious brother, who would deal  
As ill with thee; let not his gaping zeal  
For thy destruction, any longer trust  
To his close plots, or think the Grecians must  
Come, Lord it over Thebes. Then, leaving him,  
When this was said, (for now the Stars burned dim  
Before the day) he first unclothes his face  
Of's borrowed mask, confessing that he was  
His Father's Sire; and falling on the bed  
where's cursed Grandchild tumbled, he does spread  
His throat, still gaping with the wound, before  
His eyes, and seems to bathe him in his gore.  
This breaks his sleep; then starting up, he stood  
Scared with these prodigies; and shook the blood,  
The seeming blood from's trembling joints; together  
He fears his Grandsire, and demands his Brother.  
As when a Tiger th'hunts-man's Echo hears,  
She rouses up her sluggish limbs, and tears  
The toils she's trapped in: 'Tis her sport to meet  
With some bold foe; She yawns; She sucks her feet;  
Strait into th' o'th' company she hurries,  
And in her jaws, some panting soul she carries,  
To feast her bloody Whelps: So rage persuades  
The King, he'has vanquished now his Brother's aides.  
But now the Morn rose from her 
c Named here from Migdon, a King of Phrygia, where Tithonus, Aurora's beloved, lived.  Phrygian cell,  
And wiping her dewed locks, she did expel  
The night's cold darkness, blushing on the Sun  
That follows her: Bright 
d The morning star, which drives his other flock before him.  Lucifer was one  
O'th'last that woos her, with his parting glances,  
But now resigns the Sky: And Sol advances  
His Chariot o'er the heavens, whose glorious light  
Deprives the world of his pale sister's sight.  
When old Adrastus, leaves his chamber, where  
The 
e Named from Dirce, a Theban fountain, and Achelous an AEtolian river running into Calydonia.  Theban and the 
e Named from Dirce, a Theban fountain, and Achelous an AEtolian river running into Calydonia.  Calydonian Peer  
Did not stay long behind: Sleep had refreshed  
Their wearied limbs, (since the last storm had fleshed  
Each in his fellows blood) with all his store  
Of blessings: But Adrastus' breast found more  
Unquiet thoughts; whilst he recalls the gods,  
And his new guests, with what strange fate abodes  
His sons-in-law, found thus unlooked for: Those  
Meeting i'th'midst o'th'Hall, shook hands, and chose  
A place fit to discourse their private cares:  
And first Adrastus thus salutes their ears.  
My noble Sparks, whom the black night brought hit●●r  
By the gods care; whose steps through stormy weather,  
And thundering showers, Phoeb ' guided to this Court:  
Y'ave heard (I doubt not) what a troop resort  
To woo my daughters; both whose equal years,  
Are all the pledge my hopes can find of heirs.  
What modest beauty sits upon their brow  
(Trust not a Father's eyes) yourselves may know  
From last night's entertainment. Puissant Kings,  
Whose thoughts soar on their Armies spreading wings,  
Make these th'ambition of their vows. 'Twere long  
To tell how the 
f Either a Missenian, or rather an Achaean town, by which the river Pierius floweth.  Pharaean Princes throng,  
And the 
g Named from O Etialu●, a Laconian King.  Laconian Lords: With what strong hope  
Th' 
h As Atalanta the Mother of Parth●nopaus.  Achaean matrons strive to underprop  
Their house with plants from hence. 
i For his Daughter Deianira for whom Hercules fought with the river Achelous.  O Eneus thy father  
Has not refused more courteous proffers: Neither  
Has the 
k O Enomaus, whose Daughter Hippodamia had triumphed over the lives of thirteen Wooers, who were vanquished by her Father in Chariot-combats.  Pi●●an Chariotteer▪ But I  
Both Spartans' brood, and El●an kind decry  
To be my Sons-in-law: This blood is due  
With all my care, by th' Fates decrees to you.  
The Gods are kind, which sent such valiant Knights  
Within my Court: How th' Oracle delights,  
And feeds my soul▪ This honour you achieve  
Through the heights storms; this balm your wounds receive.  
They heard him, when their eyes a while were fixed  
On one another; who should answer next,  
Their looks did compliment: But Tydeus spirit  
More daring still, began: How is thy merit  
Eclipsed by thy modest soul, which tames  
Thy growing Fortunes? Who can claim more names  
And kingdoms than Adrastus? Is't not known  
How thou wast wooed to leave thy 
l The Sycionians inhabited part of Pelopomi●sus, where AEgileus stood, whose king Polybus was Grandsire to Adrastus by his Daughter Las●anassa, who was married to Talaus King of the Argives: Their Son Adrastus flying the rage of the Citizens, to his Grandfather, was made Heir to his Crown, but was recalled by the Argives after his Father's death. Pausan.  Grandsires' throne  
Of Sytion, to curb th'unbridled lust  
Of th' Argives. Would the Gods be pleased to trust  
Those nations to thy hands, which lie within  
The Grecian 
m This Isthmos divides the AEgean and jonick Seas, being a passage between Greece and Peloponnesus: these Countries therefore are meant, and the other Lands in both Seas.  Is●mos, and whose banks are seen  
Beneath it: Savage Mycenae had not then  
Scared back the 
n Which fled from the wicked acts of Atreus and Thyesies there.  Sun; nor th' 
o Where OEnomaus reigned.  Elean vale had been  
The Theatre of blood: And other Kings  
Had scaped the Furies lash, whose venomed stings  
This 
o Polynices in his Father and his Brother.  Theban, who has felt, may speak. But we  
Have ready minds to serve thee. So said he;  
And th'other then subjoins: Who would not toil  
To find such fathers? Though love seldom smile  
On banished wretches, yet all grief departs  
Our soul, and Care bids farewell to our hearts.  
Nor do our joyful breasts less comfort find,  
Then when a Ship, late tossed with raging wind,  
Beholds the welcome shore; 'Tis our desire,  
Who have begun so luckily, t'expire,  
And run our Fortunes with Thee. Thus they rise  
Without more words: Whilst the old King outvies  
His last words with new promises: His might  
Shall aid them back, t'instate them in their right.  
The frolic Argives now, with joy did meet  
This welcome news, which through the town did greet  
Their ears: Their King had found a noble pair  
Of sons, with whom Argia, and the fair  
Deiphile should kindle Hymen's flame,  
And lose their Virgin crop, now ripe. This Fame  
Spreads through the neighbour Cities; all the round's  
Filled with't, as far as the 
p Two woody mountains of Arcadia, one dedicated to Pan, the other to Venus.  Lycaean bounds,  
And the 
p Two woody mountains of Arcadia, one dedicated to Pan, the other to Venus.  Parthenian thickets: to the Coasts  
Of 
q There were divers other Ephyrae, but Corinth her● was named so, from the Nymph Ephyra, Daughter to the Ocean, and Thetis.  Corinth: Nay the tell-tale Goddess boasts  
The same in Thebes, where hovering o'er the walls,  
She frights the startled 
r Etheocles, named from Labdacus' Grandfather to OEdipus.  King; whilst she recalls  
His last night's Dream: (what dares the Monster? where  
Does her spleen end?) She sings o'th' solemn cheer  
That entertained his Brother: Of the hour  
That crowned his Bridebed: Of the league and power  
O'th' stock he's joined to: Nay her fatal ditty  
Speaks war already. Now the pompous 
s Argos where the marriages were solemnised.  City  
On the set day, did all her train unfold;  
Joy crowded in the Court: You might behold  
Their Father's 
t On their Weddings and Funerals they used in triumph to produce the Images of their Ancestors.  statues march; The brass did strive  
With living faces, which was most alive:  
The artist durst make such comparison.  
Horned 
u First King of the Argives, but feigned by the Poets, to be changed into a River, and therefore said to be horned, either from his crooked banks, or because the murmuring of waters sounds like the lowing of Oxen, AElian. lib. 1.  Inachus sat o'th' left hand, leaning on  
His o'erturned 
w This was the old portraiture of rivers, and thus Inachus is described by Virgil, A ●ead. lib. 1.  Pitcher; old 
x These are all Argive kings.  jasius  
And good 
y Who taught the people first to sacrifice to angry juno.  Phoroneus, bold 
z First shutting up his Daughter Danae from him, then exposing her to the mercy of the Seas.  Acrisius  
Whose anger struck at jove, and 
a Father to Acrisius an heroic Champion.  Abas too  
The warrior, with valiant 
b Who killed Apollo's Monster, whose head he bore in triumph.  Choroebe, who  
On's swords point bore a head, encompassed him;  
As 
c Commanding his fifty Daughters in one night, to murder all their Husbands who were Sons to his Brother AEgyptus.  Danâus did, whose crabbed looks did seem  
Still to be plotting mischief. Then there stood  
A thousand chieftains more. When strait a flood  
O'th' common people roars within the gate,  
Set open now. Where first the Nobles sat,  
With those o'th' royal blood. The inner ground  
Was warm with sacrifice, and did resound  
With women's chat: The Grecian Matrons there,  
(Yet interlaced with Virgins every where)  
Make a chaste ring, and teach the Brides to tie  
This knot, and shake off fearful modesty.  
These were led on, in Virgin robes, and state;  
Staining their lilly-cheeks, with roses late  
Dissolved to blushes; casting down their eyes;  
When love of their Virginity did seize  
Closely upon them; and the bashful thought  
Of the first night a second blushing brought:  
This does bedew their cheeks; Yet at those tears  
Their tender Parents smile. Just so appears  
Pallas, and rougher 
d Being always accustomed to the woods.  Diana, when they slide  
From heaven together, both have 
e The one a helmet and spear, in token of the vanquished Gorgon; the other a bow and arrows, because she was a Huntress.  Arms, beside  
Stern brows alike, and yellow locks tied up  
Above their Crown: She leads her troops to th' top  
Of 
f A Delian mountain dedicated to Diana.  Cynthus, this to 
g An Attic mountain dedicated to Mi●erva.  Aracinthus: Then  
(If 
h Which their divinity denies.  eyes might see) what eyes can judge between  
Their grace and lustre? Who did most partake  
Of jove and majesty? Or should they make  
Exchange of habits, than Minerva's quiver  
And Delia's helm, would suit as well together.  
The Grecians joys o'restow: The Gods were tired  
With vows; As each man's house and state required,  
He brought a sacrifice: Some from the ground,  
Some from the folds. Yet all like favour found  
If pure hands offered it. The Gods were pleased  
With incense, and their doors with 
i Used both in private and public houses on solemn dai●s, juven. Sat. 6.  garlands dressed.  
But lo! a Panic fear struck all their mind,  
Upon a sudden, (thus the Fates designed)  
The people's joys were clouded, and the day  
Disturbed; They went with torches light to pay  
Duty's to maiden Pallas, who accounts  

e The City where these Nupti Is were celebrated.  Lariss ' as much as her 
f The mountains on which Minerva's festivals, called Munichia, were celebrated.  Munichian mounts:  
Here th'Argives, as their Fathers used, resort,  
When their chaste years were ripe for nuptial sport,  
To dedicate their Virgin 
g Virgins before they were espoused dedicated their locks, and whatsoever was an emblem of their Virginity, to Pallas the guardian of it.  locks, and plead  
Excuse for Love's first sweets. But as they tread  
O'th' greeces of the stately tower; the shield  
Of brass, which brave 
h An Arcadian born, but a most prosperous king of the Argives, whose shield consecrated to the Goddess, was in their solemn triumphed born before the Conqueror through the streets▪ ●s his greatest honour.  Euhippus won i'th' field,  
Comes tumbling from the Temples stately spire,  
And puts the 
i significantly intimating th●t war should quench this love.  torches out, Loves sacred fire.  
And from the distant Choir a trumpet sounds  
Frighting them back, which now scarce kept their grounds.  
All trembling, stared at first upon the King;  
But strait 
k Flattering the King.  deny they'd heard it. Yet this thing  
Sounded unluckily within their ears,  
And several whispers soon increased their fears.  
No marvel: thou Argia did retain  
Thy husband's fatal gift, Harmiônes chain.  
This mischief was far-fetched; but I'll discourse  
Whence this new Present, gained such deadly force.  

l Thrown out of heaven ●or his deformity, into the I'll Lemnos, which here denominates him.  Vulcan, long grieved at Mars his stolen 
m With Venus, for whom V●●can made artificial fetters, which could not yet hinder their embraces.  content,  
(As stories say) and finding punishment  
No bar to his delights, nor could his chains  
Chastise the bold adulterer; he feigns  
This bracelet as a Dowry, for his joy  

n The Daughter born to these adulterers.  Harmione, upon her marriage day.  
The skilful 
o Vulcan's forge-men, which make—.  Cyclops hammered it; (and yet  
They'd 
p— Ioves thunderbolts▪  greater work, to which the 
q Envious orcerers, but cunning Artificers in working poisons.  Telchines set  
Their helping hand: But 
r Vulcan himself.  he sweats most; and works  
Bright Em'ralds in't, which shine with hidden sparks:  
And th' Adamant, engraved with charms: The ball  
Of 
s Stones as splendent and as dangerous.  Gorgon's eyes: With cinders, which did fall  
From Ioves last thunderbolt at AEtna: This  
Was thredded with young Serpent's manes: There is  
Some buds beside of the 
t Which bore the golden apples watched by the waking Dragon whom Hercules slew.  Hesperian tree,  
Wrought in with 
u Who swimming o'er the straits to Colchos, on a ram with a golden fleece, sacrificed the ram to Mars, and hung up the fleece in his Temple, from whence I●son fetched it.  Phryxus golden fleece: Then he  
Studs in his several plagues, and th' Captain snake  
Plucked from the Furies head: such power could make  
Venus her 
w This girdle called Ceston, Venus puts on at lawful Nuptials, whereas unlawful wedlock is called encased, which this venomed bracelet in Io●asta did more than threaten.  girdle crack: All these, h'anoints  
With 
x The Moon, mistress of Magicians, was thought to spit her jelly on the most powerful charming herbs. Some please themselves in referring this to Spuma Argenti (the Moon in Minerals being Argent) which is glittering, but venomous.  Moon-froth, and with varnished poison paints.  
'Twas not 
y Lytarge Daughter to jove and Harmione, m●ther to the Graces, Aglaia, Thalia, and Euphrosyne.  Pasiphaes' work, the Grace's Queen,  
Nor 
z Named here from Idalus a hill in Cyprus, where his mother and he were worshipped.  C●pids, nor Aglaia's: But 'twas Spleen,  
Grief, Discord, Sorrow shaped it: The first trial  
Was wrought on poor 
a Who accompanying Cadmus into Illyria (transformed there into a Snake) by kissing him assumes the same shape.  Harmione, who loyal  
To her now creeping husband, with her breast  
Ploughed up th' Illyrian sands, whilst she expressed  
Her plaints by hisses. Semele next venter's  
No sooner of't, but beldame 
b Persuading her to her destruction, to require of jove such embraces as he used to bestow on his own Queen.  juno enters.  
And thou too, cursed jocasta, once didst owe  
This guilded mischief; which adorned thy brow,  
To please strange, oh strange 
c That of her own son.  Love: With more beside,  
Till now Argia shines in't: and does hide  
Her sisters cheaper habit, with this gold,  
Accursed gold. As't chanced, the 
d Eryphile, who afterwards obtained it.  wife of old  
Amphiaraus spied it; and in sight  
Of the God's altars, and the tables dight,  
Durst feed close Envy: Oh! might she inherit  
This prize! Alas! her Lords prophetic spirit  
Could not avail her. What a dismal honour,  
What 
e No less than her Husband's death, her Son's madness, and her own destruction.  mischief the fool strives to bring upon her?  
Let her: but can her husbands cheated Arms,  
Or her sons guiltless rage, deserve such harms?  
After twelve days were spent in royal cheer,  
And public triumphs; the 
f Polynices from Ismenos, a Theban fountain.  Ismenian Peer  
Looks back to Thebes and thinks of's Crown: For now  
That day takes up his soul, when he stood low  
In's brothers eyes; (such was his Fortune then)  
He thinks the Gods deserted him, and men  
Shrunk cowardly back; he naked; but the worst  
Was Fortune's flight: Only one 
g Antigone, who likewise guided her blind Father.  sister durst  
Show him the way to exile, but forbears  
To pass the threshold, wh●re rage stopped his tears.  
Then night and day he meditates, what joy  
His absence brought to some; And who are they  
Which wait on's brother: what moist eyes he saw  
At his departure. Grief and anger gnaw  
Upon his soul, but expectation most,  
The greatest plague that ever mortal crossed.  
Thus plodding in his thoughts, still clouded, he  
Resolves again forbidden T●ebes to see.  
So when a bull, leaves his beloved cow  
I'th' pastures, whence his Conqueror but now  
Has driven him; he stands off, and bellows; till  
He thinks of's lovely mull, and blood does swell  
His wrinkled neck: But then recruiting strength,  
He's mad for t'other push, and gains at length  
His captive herd: With's horns, and hoofs he fights,  
And's conquering mate, with's herdsman too he frights.  
Such anger whets our lusty 
h Named from Ta●messus, a Theban mountain dedicated to B●cch●●  Theban's mind.  
But his dear wife this close design did find;  
And as her soft embraces did enclose  
Her husband, when the pale-faced Morn arose:  
Dissembler, says she, what's this change? what flight  
Dost thou intend? Nought blinds a Lover's sight.  
I feel it: Do not deep-fetched sighs proclaim  
Thy waking cares? How many a startling dream  
Breaks off thy sleep? How often have I found  
This face bedewed with tears? this breast abound  
With sobs, when ere I felt it? 'tis no bond  
Of wedlock breaking moves me, nor the fond  
Despair of widowed youth: (although Loves sweets  
Be newly budded, and the bridal sheets  
Be not yet fully aired:) Thoughts for thy quiet  
And safety trouble me▪ I'll ne'er deny it.  
Wilt thou, without supplies of arms and men,  
Demand thy Crown? Canst thou retreat again,  
Should he deny it? Fame that's nimble eyed  
To trace the lives of Kings, reports his pride  
Raised with usurping; how, his love's diminished  
To thee; nor is his year completely finished.  
And, truth is, some late Prophecies, with all  
Prodigious 
i Misplaced or speckled, which threaten heaven was angry.  entrails, and th'unlucky fall  
Of birds, with startling dreams increase my fear:  
Ha! I remember, 
k The patroness of the Argives, and therefore would not deceive them.  juno don't appear  
In vain: What journey's this? Does 
l Out of jealousy, lest he should have left another wife be●●nd him.  love t'another  
Drawer thee? Can Thebes a nobler stock discover?  
Here 
m Polynices from Echion, one of Cadmus' companions in building of Thebes.  th'Echionian smiled a while, and strove  
With soft embraces t'undeceive his Love.  
He dries her moistened eyes with welcome kisses,  
And with these friendly words her tears represses.  
Take courage, sweet; trust me, blessed peace attends  
The Counsels of my best deserving friends.  
Leave cares for riper years: jove may hereafter  
Behold our wrongs, if Justice be heavn's daughter,  
And daignes to look beneath the clouds, to see  
The right maintained on Earth: The time may be  
Thy husband's palace shall with joy be seen,  
And through two Cities thou saluted Queen.  
This said, he slips out closely, and repairs  
To Tydeus, now copartner in's affairs;  
Whose breast sobbed equal cares: (such love combined  
Their once divided souls) to whom he joined  
Adrastus' counsel, sadly: Here they pause:  
But after long dispute, this sentence was  
Received of all: Best, feel his Brother's mind  
Fairly, and pray the Crown might be resigned.  
Bold Tyd●us freely undertakes the message;  
Yet (brave AEtolian) tears had stopped thy passage,  
Sh●d by Deiphile, had not the name  
Of a commanding Father overcame:  
Besides her sister's prayers▪ and that power  
Which gives safe conduct t'an Ambassador.  
Now traced he rugged paths, through woods and rocks,  
By Lerna's pool, where the scorched 
n See Polynices his journey, lib. 1.  Hydra smokes  
In the still boiling ford; By Nemea's bounds  
Where the blithe 
o As if he sti●l fe●red the Lion which Hercules killed there.  Shepherd's pipe, scarce yet resounds  
Sweet roundelays: By Corinth's Eastern side:  
And the 
p Where Sisyphus formerly had practised his robberies.  Sisyphian port, where 
q Of the AEgaean Sea, which by the Isthmos is divided from the jonick.  th'waves that chide  
Their crooked banks, are parted by the shore  
Of Palaemonian 
r A Po●t of Corinth, under the Lee of a promontery, from which Palaemon with his Mother leaped into the Sea.  Lache: passing o'er  

s Either Megara where Nisus reigned, or rather a Mountain of that nam●, whe●e he was buried.  Nisus from hence; o'th' left he spies the plain  
Of mild 
t Where Ceres first was entertained of King Eleusinus, and afterwards worshipped as a Goddess.  Eleusis, and does strait obtain  
The Mount 
u Where Hercules killed the Lion.  Teumessus; reaching near the towers  
Of 
w Built by Cadmus▪ Agenor's son.  Thebes; where he beholds the royal powers  
Of stem Etheocles, whose lofty state  
Was guarded round with Arms: the Tyrant sat  
To judge the folk, beyond all right, and 
x The year being now expired.  time  
Prescribed, for's brother: Mischief hardened him  
For all adventures: Quarrelling because  
They came so 
y As if angry that he had no occasion to break his faith sooner.  late to prove him. Tydeus draws  
To th' midst o'th' Court: His Olive-boughs discover  
He was a Legate: Who being questioned over  
His name and message; rude of speech and prone  
To choler, mixing threats, thus he begun.  
If any faith possessed thee, or just care  
Of keeping Covenants, now th' haste reigned thy year,  
Thou wouldst have called thy Brother, and in course  
Exchanged thy fortunes, and resigned thy force:  
That he, long wand'ring, tossed with storms unfitting  
Abroad, might find his due, a throne to sit in.  
But since thou'rt thus enamoured of thy Crown  
And courtst thy power; We ask it. 'Tis well known  
The sun has traced the 
Called the girdle of the year.  Zodiac, and the hills  
Have their lost shades restored, since all the ills  
Of banishment through unknown Coasts did seize  
On thy poor Brother: Now's thy time to freeze  
Under heaven's spangled Canopy, and stand  
Tothth' mercy of the cold, and cap-in-hand  
Beg entrance at another's door: Forget  
Thy happy state: Those purple robes, beset  
With plates of gold, have glisterens long: And thou  
Hast sported with thy Brother's ebb: But now  
Unteach thyself, I advise thee, how to reign,  
And by thy patient 
a Let thy voluntary exile merit of thy Brother at the years end, that thou be reinstated in the Throne.  flight deserved again.  
This said, a secret flame was kindled in  
The Tyrant's breast: (so when a Serpent's den  
Is battered, she springs up, who thirsty dwells  
In her close coverts; but now chafed, she fills  
Her gums, and scaly neck with venomed gore)  
Had not I fully known (says he) before,  
My brother's anger; had not's private spleen  
Appeared thus naked; Faith alone had been  
Sufficient pawn for's kingdom: Faith, which swells  
Thy looks so big, that whilst thy fancy dwells  
On him, thou ragest, as if pioneers  
Now mined our walls, or trumpets called to wars.  
Were this thy message to the 
b Called Bistonians from Biston son to Mars and Calirrhoe, who built the Metropolis of the Country after his name.  Thracians done,  
Or the pale Scythians, which know no 
c Which seldom declines so far North as to behold them.  Sun,  
Thou wouldst use fairer language, and begin  
With greater reverence: But 'tis no sin  
Of thy rash soul, I blame: Thy errand's so,  
Now since threats usher all, and faiths let go:  
Nor peace is brought to mediate, but thy sword  
Does rest thy quarr'ling hand; Return this word  
To my brave 
d Enviously not allowing his brother the name of Theban, but intimating he may seek a kingdom where he found a wife.  Grecian Monarch; not so sour  
As thine, yet my full answer: All that power  
Which 
e Because the lots determined it, according to the right of age.  equal fortune, and my birthright gives,  
I hold, and will maintain: Thy wife relieves  
Thy wants with Greece her dowry; Thou may'st heap  
The 
f Either respecting Dana●, courted in a golden shower, or put for Grecian from Danaus the Argive King.  Danaan wealth into thy lap: (I keep  
No envious thoughts to blast thy Fortune) Rule  
Argos successfully, and 
g Said to be made by the stroke of Neptune● spear, in the place where he deflowered Amimone Danaus' daughter.  Lerna's pool.  
Dirces' bare pastures give content to me,  
And the coast straitened with th' 
h The Euripus between Eu●●ia and Boe●tia.  Euboian sea,  
Not shamed with EOdipus my wretched father.  
But thou from th' stock of 
i The son of jupiter and the Nymph Phocis.  Tantalus may'st gather  
Far-fetched Nobility, and 
k Tantal●● his son, both Grecian Kings.  Pelops heir  
Kindred with jove may'st challenge. Can thy fair  
Delicious Queen, endure this homely place?  
For whom our sisters may esteem't a grace  
To spin, forsooth: where 
l jocasta and OEdipus.  Mother's dreary eyes  
And that imprisoned 
l jocasta and OEdipus.  fathers dismal cries,  
If heard, may fright her. And the common folk  
Are now accustomed to endure my yoke.  
Hard were the people's lot, should they submit  
T' I know not whose command, and weeping sit  
Under continual changes; They'll repent  
Of duty, to a doubtful Tyrant lent.  
Short reigns spare none. These loyal subjects view,  
What horror strikes them since this quarrel grew.  
Shall these be left to thy sure lash? Thou art  
Too hot on't, brother: Say, I would depart  
My right, these Senators would scarce approve  
The act, if I have known their purchased love,  
Or find due thanks. Tydeus could brook no more,  
But interrupts him thus: Thou shalt restore,  
Tyrant, thou shalt: If iron rampires guard  
Thy person, or 
m As formerly when his harp drew stones to the work.  Amphion's ditty heard,  
Raise treble walls about thee; 'Tis no arms;  
No fire shall stop me: Thou shalt feel thy harms  
Revenged on thine own head: At thy deaths wound  
Thy Captive Diadem shall beat the ground.  
Thou justly: but I pity 
n He seeks to undeceive the people whom Etheocles had flattered.  these, whose lives  
Thou mak'st (good King) so cheap: snatched from their wives,  
And children to these dismal wars. What blood  
Will slain 
o A Boeotian mountain, with  Cithaeron? What a barbarous flood  
Will fill 
p a river not far distant.  Ismenos banks? This is thy care▪  
This thy much talk'd-of faith. But I forbear  
To wonder at thy Nations crimes: The frame  
Of thy whole 
q Sprung from O Oedipus by incestuous copulation with jocasta.  stock is such, raised from the shame  
Of thy incestuous Parents; yet there's 
r Polynices whose sweet temper makes amends for his native pollution.  one  
Has cleansed the stain of's birth: 'Tis thou alone  
Shalt be O Edipodes; Thy manners here,  
And sins, rash man, deserved; We ask our year.  
But I delay— This he roars out i'th' door,  
Turning himself about; then tumbles o'er  
The crowd in's flight: So 
s Who offended with O Eneus for neglecting her in his sacrifice, sent a monstrous boar, which depopulated most part of AEtolia.  Diana's cursed avenger  
Sets up his bristled neck, and does endanger  
The huntsman, with the stroke of's foaming tusks,  
If 
t Pelopo●nesus sent out troops with Atalanta their King's daughter, to parsue the boar, by whom he was first wounded.  Grecian troops pursue: at all he bushes;  
Rooting up stones and broken shrubs; and ploughs  
The banks with's crooked snout: He overthrows  
Here Telamonius, and there 
u Ixio●s son, under whose name he is here clouded.  Perithoûs: Next  
He sets o● 
w The chief of those alured out with the King's promises.  Meleager, where he's fixed  
With a broad arrow, and does sink their darts  
In's struggling shoulder. Tydeus thus departs  
From this affrighted council, with disdain,  
As if himself were here denied to reign.  
Thus hurries he, and throws away the Crown  
Of's treating 
x The token of an Ambassador.  Olive. The scared matrons run  
To th' roofs to see him; thence their curses fling  
On's rage, and 
y Not daring openly to discover their ill affections.  closely wish as bad to th' King.  
Nor was the Tyrant's quick industrous brain  
In plots less subtle; choosing out a train  
Of hearts resolved to fight: These he prepares  
With money and good words: Then lays his snares  
For an exploit that night, hoping t'invade  
Th' Ambassador, (whose 
z The l●w of Nations giving th●m a civil respect for 〈◊〉 office sake.  sacred name was had  
In reverend esteem) and's person seize.  
What won't ambition plot? should fortune please  
To send thy brother, what new tricks wouldst find,  
What arts to circumvent him? Oh the blind  
Advice of guilty souls! How fearfull's sin!  
This troop goes out combined, as if't had been  
To beat up th' enemy's Quarters, or to storm  
A City walls: Full fifty champions form  
Their ranks; then crowd they through the lofty gate.  
Courage, brave soul! thought worthy of such 
a In their own judgement conceiving Tydeus able to cope with fifty of them.  hate.  
These creep the nearest way, by paths unseen,  
Through shrubs, and cross the woods: Then lay their scene  
For villainy. Two remote hillocks stood,  
Disjoined by a treacherous passage in the wood,  
Shaded by th' neighbour mountain, and the trees  
Which grew o'th' top: Here nature seemed to please  
Herself in wiles, making this place to hide  
Her close deceits. A strait path does divide  
The midst o'th' cliff: Under whose hanging head  
The pleasant fields, and spacious valleys spread.  
Against it, was that deadly cave, in which  
The Theban 
b Sphinx, born of Typhon and Echidna, which destroyed all those that could not expound her rid●le.  monster dwelled: Here used the witch  
To raise up her pale visage: Black gore stood  
About her eyes; her wings were stiff with blood:  
She hug'd men's offals; her bare breasts did cover  
Their half devoured bones, whilst she looks over  
The neighbour fields, to see if any 
c The Oracle counselled the way to quit themselves of her, was to expound her riddle, which 〈…〉  stranger  
Durst ask her riddles, or approach i'th' danger  
Of her stern brow, or entertain discourse:  
But then she whets her claws, and screws the force  
Of her stained hands; and grinds those teeth, she broke  
On some late carcase; fluttering with the stroke  
Of her unlucky wings, before the eyes  
Of her new prey: A while these treacheries  
Were undiscovered, till she met with one  
As 
d 〈…〉  wicked as herself: Then tumbles down  
With closed wings, upon the rock lay under  
Her bloody cav●, and splits her paunch in sunder.  
The wood still shows the mischief; cattle dread  
The neighbour plains; no hungry flocks dare feed  
On that accursed grass; no Nymphs appear  
Within these shades, no Fawns are worshipped there.  
The scrich-owles fly from this 
e Because strewed over with humane bon●● and c●●neige.  prodigious grove:  
Yet hither this 
f Being ●re long to become a sacrifice to Tydeus his rage.  unhappy train does rove  
With silent steps, expecting their proud foe:  
Where leaning on their javelins, they bestow  
Their other weapons scattered on the ground,  
And with thick stations they the woods surround.  
The night had now begun to cloak the Sun  
With her wet mantle; th' earth was overrun  
With a dark shade: When Tyd●us hastening thither  
Spies from the bank, men's shields, with crests and feathers  
Glister, where th' boughs grew thin; from th' adverse hill  
He sees the Moon-beames dance upon their steel.  
This sight amazed him, yet goes forward, and  
Prepares his darts, and grasps his sword in's hand:  
Then calls out first: Whence are you? What d'ye hear  
In this close ambush? Questions void of fear.  
To which no answer's given; this did increase  
The just suspicion of his doubted peace.  
When on a sudden through the dusky air,  
Their Captain 
g The chief of the conspirators.  Chromius le's fly a spear  
With's brawny arm: But fortune did not aid  
This daring blow; yet did it pierce the hide  
Of the 
h Ol●nos was a country and city in AEtolia, where the boar was slain, whose skin Tyd●us wore.  Ol●●●an boar, whose bristled skin  
O'er his left shoulder, gave it entrance in  
To raze his flesh: And the butt-end did light  
Upon his neck. This set his hair upright,  
And freezed his blood: He tosses up and down  
His thoughts and eyes, now pale with anger grown.  
Nor could he think, they had such strength prepared  
●Gainst one. Come out, (says he) come out, y'are dared  
●'th open field. What fear has stopped your rage?  
What cowardice is this? 'Tis I engage  
My single self against you. Nor do these  
Forbear; whose numbers when he saw increase  
From their close Coverts; Some o'th' top o'th' hill  
Some in the valleys; nor a few did fill  
The plains, but's way seemed paved with arms: (As when  
The huntsman's voice calls wild-beasts from their den  
Beset with toils:) His troubled thoughts invent  
No help but this; To climb the steep ascent  
To Sphinx her cave; where, batt'ring's hooked nails  
Against the craggy rock, he at last prevails  
To reach the top; which thus obtained, secures  
His back from fear of danger, and procures  
A way for's just revenge: He tears a stone  
From the main rock, which well-grown steers would groan  
To draw to th' City: Then uniting all  
His strength, with violence he lets it fall.  
Thus mighty 
i One of the Centaurs, who being drunk at P●rithou●'s wedding quarreled with the Lapithae their Thessalian neighbours, and were vanquished.  Pholas heaves a goblet up  
Against the Lapithans. The 
k Falling soon after by the hand of Tydeus▪  dying troop  
Wondering at's height above them, were o'erthrown  
With th'unexpected rock, thus tumbled down.  
Here lay men's mangled faces, hands, and breast,  
With weapons which they wore, together pressed.  
Four groaned beneath this burden, th'other fled  
With terror from their project; for those dead  
Were not a despicable train: There was  
The Kingly spirit of fierce Dorylas▪  
And Theron sprung from Mars, descending from  
The 
l Those borne of the serpent's teeth sown by Calmu●.  Earth-begotten brood, and Halys whom  
No horseman ever conquered, but now falls,  
Overwhelmed on foot; and Phaedimus, who calls  
Pentheus his Grandsire, but with 
m Bacchus' enraged against P●ntheus▪ afflicted all his posterity▪ Ovid.  Libers' anger:  
The rest, affrighted with this sudden danger,  
When Tydeus saw disordered; his whole stock  
Of arms, two darts, stuck on the side o'th' rock,  
Were hurled at's flying foes; then skips tothth' ground:  
And lest his naked breast should catch a wound,  
He snatches up a buckled shield, beside  
Prest Theron; guarding's back and head, with th' 
n That o● the boar.  hide  
Of proof, and fencing's breast with's enemies shield,  
He makes a stand. The 
o Named here from Ogyges, once King of Thebes.  Thebans take the field,  
Joined once more in a body, and march on  
With fixed resolutions. Tydeus soon  
Draws out his 
p Mars, grandfather to O Eneus was worshipped in Thrac●a, and arms dedicated to him, one of whose swords Ty●eus wore.  Thracian sword, the Martial gift  
Of O Eneus, turning him with many a shift  
Of's body; here and there his blows they feel;  
And's buckler wards their darts of glittering steel.  
Their number grows their hindrance, and their Arms  
Fall foul of one another; their own harms  
Are wrought by their own powers; now wanting strength  
T'offend, the crowd overthrows itself at length.  
He was so small a mark, their arrows missed '●m,  
Thus his unconquered arm does still resist●um.  
So, (if the Thraecian 
q There were two Cities, and valleys of that name, one between Macedonia and Thrace, where this battle was pitched, the other in Campai●a, where Hercules overcame the Giants.  Phlegra do not lie)  
Stout 
r A Giant feigned to have a hundred h●nds.  Briareus outbraved the armed sky:  
Despising Phoebus' shafts, and Pallas' 
s Snakes the Symbol of prudence were ascribed to Minerva, and placed under her Image, and reckoned by Virgil, for part of her Arms. AEn●id. 12.  snakes,  
●nd the Thessalian pines, which Mavors shakes  
●or spears; 
t One of the Cyclops, which hammer out Ioves bolt● in AEtna▪  and jove forged thunderbolts, which tired  
● Pyra●mon last: Yet whilst all heaven conspired  
●n vain to batter'im, he complains his hands  
Are idle still: Thus active Tydeus stands,  
Wielding his buckler: now, he does retire,  
And guards himself round; now, advances higher  
Upon their fears; and getting ground, commands  
The darts which stuck in's shield, to arm his hands.  
Some deep wounds he received, none deadly yet:  
Nor could he fear his death: He does o'er set  
Raging Deilochus, and then does send  
Phlegeus to hell, t'accompany his friend,  
As he was threatening death, with's heav'd-up blade;  
Then Lycophon, and Theban Gyas had  
Like fortune. Now the cowards began to seek,  
And count themselves: nor did they so well like  
This kill sport: And grieved to see the throng  
Thus melt away. When Chromis (who was sprung  
From 
u Son to Agenor King of Tyre.  Tyrian Cadmus' stock) (whose mother, height  
Phoeniceaen Dryop forgot the weight  
Of her great belly, when she was possessed  
With fury, father 
w One of the names of Liber, in whose Bacchanals she was enraged.  Evan, of thy Priest:  
And whilst a struggling bull she haled on  
Byth' horns, her 
x Not staying the course of nature, but abortive through his mother's struggling.  pains deliver her of this son:)  
Bold with his darts, and's conquered Lion's skin▪  
He shakes his lusty club of knotty pine:  
Exclaiming thus: Shall one man, Friends, shall one  
Triumph in Greece, o'er your destruction?  
Fame scarce will credit him. Mates, where's our power?  
Where's our prevailing Arms? We promised more  
Cydon! t'our King; Lampus! more bold adventers.  
Whilst he spoke this, a Theban 
y Which he had snatched from his adversaries.  javelin enters  
His open mouth: His jaws in vain withstood:  
But's voice thus stopped, his closed tongue swims in blood.  
And yet he stands, till death had summoned all  
His limbs; then silent, biting th'spear doth fall.  
But why conceal I your deserved praise,  
My noble Thespian pair? Young Periphas  
(The richest mind, i'th' choicest body found)  
Raised up his brothers dying limbs from ground:  
His left hand under-props his drooping neck;  
His right supports his side: Whilst sighs do crack  
His straitened breast: Nor could his helm contain  
Those floods of tears: But in this weeping vain,  
A furious lance pierced his short ribs behind,  
Which through him smote his brother too, and joined  
Their well acquainted breasts: 
z He who was ●irst wounded.  His trembling eyes  
Look up on's brother's death, and then he dies.  
Th'other, not spent yet with his wounds, thus wishes:  
Such be 
a An imprecation on Tydeus.  thy sons embraces, such their kisses.  
Thus both did fall alike: (a wretched prize  
For Death:) and closed up one another's eyes.  
But he pursues his victories, and chases  
M●naetes with his shield and darts; whose paces,  
Trembling, give back, till the unequal sands  
Tripped up his heels: Then spreading both his hands,  
He begs for Quarter; and lays hold o'th' spear  
Charged now against his throat▪ then makes his prayer.  
By these still shades, where stars glide from the skies;  
By heaven; by this thy night of victories;  
Spare me to go, and blaze this dismal news  
In Thebes; and with contempt t'our King, diffuse  
Thy glory amongst the quaking vulgar: So  
Our darts shall fall in vain, and tho● shalt go  
Shot-free through all our Arms, and be i'th' end  
Brought back with triumph to thy longing friend.  
Thus spoke he: Tother clears not up his brow:  
Thou spendest thy tears in vain (says he) 'twas thou  
Mad'st promise of my head tothth' King, if I  
Mistake not: yield up now thy arm●s, and die.  
Why wouldst spin out thy life, when 
b As if present li●e wo●ld not advantage them, which mus● soon after be cut off. I choose to sense the place thus, opposing compendium to dispendium.  war's at hand?  
With that he draws his weapon back, now stained  
With his heart blood: And crows ore's captives thus:  
This is ned the 
c The festival of B●cchus, thus named, because every third year they were performed, with the greater solemnity.  Trieterick night, in use  
Among your Countrymen; nor do you see  
Cadmus his 
d The name of these Sacrifices is fetched ●rom the Priestesses fury, in which ●●ge Agave slew P●ntheus.  Orgies, where your Matrons be  
Enraged by Bacchus: Did you think to wear  
Your buckskin 
e Th● Sacrificers w●re loose garments made of the skins of beasts.  copes, and shake a garnished 
f These Thirsi, dressed about with vineleaves▪ were charged fantastically in the way of foils, at the sound of their Music.  spear,  
At your soft strains? Or (which true valour scorns)  
Meant you, at sound of 
g The place where the piper Mar●●a● challenged Apollo; all wind Instruments were invented there.  Celenean horns,  
To close your wanton 
h The combats of adulterers.  fights? The blows we deal  
Are sharper, like our fury. Sink to hell  
Ye few, ye o'er matched Cowards. Thus he roars:  
But his tired spirits stopped him: All the force  
Of's threatening hand was lost: His footsteps faltered:  
His arm le's fall his shield, whose hue was altered  
With drops of blood: a could sweat trickles down▪  
His panting breast: A bloody dew stands on  
His locks, and flaming eyes; o'er his grim brow,  
Whole streams, which spouted from their wounds, did flow  
Like as a Lion, when the shepherd's fled,  
Preys on Massilian sheep: But when he's fed  
And pampered with their blood, which clots his mane,  
He stands i'th' midst of o'th' flock, which he hath slain,  
Tired, yawning, surfeited; his rage does pause,  
A while, and lashes th'air with's empty jaws:  
Licking, with's loll'd-out tongue, their gentle fleeces.  
Now Tydeus full of blood, and glorious pieces  
Of spoils, had gone to Thebes in pomp tothth' view  
O'th' frighted Court: But thou didst please to show  
Thy counsel, 
i Called T●itonia from the Afric● fountain Triton, where she first appeared.  virgin- Pallas, to his mind  
Inflamed, and with his prosperous fortunes blind.  
Great branch of O Eneus' stock, whom we afford  
To o'ercome Thebes at 
k I● her fifty champions whom thou hast slain.  distance; sheath thy sword:  
Spare heaven that's too propitious: Thou hast done  
Beyond belief already; now be gone  
With fortunes choicest gifts. There did remain  
Only the Theban 
l Named either from Haemon a Boeotian river, o● son to that Haemon who was enamoured of Antigone.  Maeon yet unslain;  
Unwilling to survive them: (he fore-knew  
This fate, being 
m A famous Auspex. i c. fortune-teller, from the flight of birds.  skilled in every bird that flew:)  
Nor feared he to forewarn the King; but they  
Destined to death, neglect what he could say.  
He (wretched creature) was condemned to live:  
To whom grim Tydeus, this harsh charge did give.  
Theban, what e'er thou art, whom the next Sun  
Shall see reprieved, by our compassion;  
Return this to thy King: Entrench thy gates,  
Renew thy arms, view round thy walls defaults:  
But chiefly raise more men, complete again  
Thy shattered troops: See how this spacious plain  
Rea●es from my sword. Such spirits all on's bring  
●o fight. This said, he chose an offering  
●or thee, kind Pallas, from the field of slaughter:  
And makes a heap of carcases; with laughter  
Recounting his own acts: An oak did grow  
I'th' middle trench o'th' field, which did not know  
The age when 'twas first planted: A thick rind  
With crooked twigs, and suckers 'bout it twined.  
Here helmets are hung up, and targets battered  
With many strokes; here broken swords are scattered:  
Here binds he shivered spears, he could recover  
Out of their gaping wounds: Then standing over  
His heap of arms and bodies, he begins:  
Night and the Mountain echo to his Hymns.  
Goddess of power, thy 
Minerva was borne of the brain of jupiter.  Father's brain and pride:  
Great Queen of war, whose cheeks a helm does hide  
With comely terror; whose stern brow is painted  
With 
o Lending her shield to Perseus, in his expedition against Medusa, had the reflection of it there imprinted, which ever afterward she wore.  Gorgon's blood: Mars is not more acquainted  
With battles; nor Bellona shriller blows  
Her trumpets: be propitious to my vows.  
Whether thou leav'st 
p Athens dedicated to Pallas, where Pandion reigned.  Pandions' hill to view  
Our slaughters; or forsakest thy joyful crew  
Of Theban 
q Several Cities of this name, were in Epire, Italy, Boeotia, Lydia, Thessalia; this of Boeotia was devoted to Minerva▪  Ithones Nymphs, or kombst thy hairs  
Bedewed in 
r The Africa river where Trit●n used to bathe.  Trit●ns streams, where two white mares  
Hurry thy warlike Chariot: We present  
These broken spoils now, and this pillage rend  
From our foes shoulders: But if e'er we come  
To see 
s AEtoliae where he was borne.  Parthaons' fields, and find a home  
In 
t An AEtolian City, consecrated to Mars.  Pleur●n, than thy Temples richly gilded  
I'th' loftiest streets o'th' City shall be built.  
Whence 'twill delight, th' jonick waves to spy,  
And boisterous Achelous passing by  
Th' 
u Three Islands of sand wrought up by the Sea, in the mouth of Achelous.  Echinades, where's azure waves do raise  
The Ocean. Here will I paint the 
w The stories of victories atcheiv'd by them.  bays  
Of our forefathers; the majestic brow  
Of puissant Princes. Here will I bestow  
Their Arms fixed to their Scutcheons: What these broils  
Afford me here, with all those other spoils  
Which thou shalt grant, when Thebes is made our prize.  
A hundred Calydonian votaries,  
Shall wait upon thy 
x Pallas, Diana, and Vesta, the three virgin Goddesses.  virgin Altars, with  

y Athens, named here from King Actaeus, brought in the use of lights to the Sacrifices of Pallas.  Athenean torches; binding many a wreath  
From thy 
z Either the Olive Minerva's gift, of which they wrought her garlands: or that tree, which every fifth year was devoted, on which they hung the first fruits of all their increases, like the Roman Verbena.  chaste tree, with white and purple tires.  
Here thy aged Priest shall feed 
a In this, performing the office of the Vestal virgins, who might not suffer their fir● to go out without a prodigy.  eternal fires;  
Not searching thy close 
b Whether that of the Palladium let fall from heaven, which was death to pry into. Or rather that of her Virginity, of which there was a strong suspicion with Vul●an, when Erictho●ius was borne.  mysteries: Thou shalt bear  
The first fruits of our works in peace, and war,  
Without 
c As once when she sent the boat into Calydonia.  Diana's anger. Thus he spoke,  
And to sweet Argos, strait his journey took.  
Finis Lib. II. Statii Thebay.   

Argument. Lib. III. Statii Thebaidos.  
Maeon reports tothth' King his Captain's fall;  
Then dies himself, denied his funeral:  
The howling Matrons run tothth' bloody field  
To weep upon the dead. Mavors does yield  
At Jove's command, tothth' Theban wars; though hindered  
By Venus' prayers. Tydeus returning, tendered  
His aid to Polynices, who's affected  
With's Brothers wrongs: Nor are his wounds neglected.  
On Aphesas, the Prophet's Auguries  
Are taken: Capaneus does them despise.  
Argia does implore her Father's aid  
Tothth' war; he grants the boon for which she prayed.  
BUt the perfidious Theban Prince, forbears  
All rest, this 
a It was not yet discovered which side was worsted.  doubtful night; though the moist stars  
Had a long race to morning: His 
b Of waylay▪ 〈…〉  base act  
Keeps watch about his soul; and does exact  
Just punishment: Whilst fear (which prophesies  
The worst of doubts) all her conjectures tries.  
Alas! says he, why stay they? (he did think  
The task was easy: Tydeus needs must shrink  
At sight of such a power; nor did he weigh  
His courage with their Numbers) did they stray  
Through some wrong path? Is there an army raised  
From Greece to's succour? or's the Rumour blazed  
Through neighbour Cities, of our base attempt?  
Were some few Cowards chose fit for contempt,  
Great Father Mars? Chromis and Dorilas,  
The Thespians too, true champions to our cause,  
Were there: whole Greece could not withstand their arms:  
And sure he brought no guard of hidden charms  
T'oppose our darts; He wore no coat of mail,  
No plates of brass. Ye sluggards! which do fail  
Thus long o'er one! If battle yet be joined.  
Thus various heats of rage distract his mind.  
But above all he blames himself, who spared  
The Legate when's Ambassage was declared  
Ith' Court: and did not quench that fire, in's blood:  
Now he's ashamed, and in another mood  
Reputes. As the Portuguese Pilot ploughs  
Th' 
c That boisterous part of the Mediterranean Sea, which lies about the Adriatic straits.  jonick waves, where every shoal he knows  
And creek; Enticed out from the friendly shore,  
'Cause the 
d A constellation, in honour to the Amalthean goat which nourished jupiter, whose first rising threatens boisterous weather, but clears up before the fall.  Olenean Goat rose clear before:  
But when a winter's storm o'resets him, all  
The ports fly open, 
e The son which jupiter gave OEnopion without a wife, who slain by Diana's Scorpion, was transfigured to a Star, which riseth in the wet month of january.  Orion does let fall  
Huge tempests: Then he longs for land, and rows  
To shore amain: But a strong Southwind blows  
Oth' stern to Sea: When leaving's skill, he grieves,  
And tothth' blind waves, himself he blindly gives:  
Thus troubled lies Eteocles, and blames  
The slow-paced Light's not-yet-approaching beams.  
But lo! when night's black steeds their course had run,  
The stars went out, and 
f In whose lap she sleeps every night.  Tethys roused the Sun,  
Bathing i'th' Eastern Sea: The womb o'th' Earth,  
(As 'twere to give strange prodigies a birth)  
Trembles, the 
g The Globe of the Earth, hanging equally poised in the air, seems to be struck by the Orb in compassing it, when it jars in an Earthquake.  Globe being struck: 
h Bacchus' his mountain covered with snow.  Citharons' top  
Shakes off his snow, the hills seemed lifted up:  
And Thebes seven gates threatened to clash together:  
The cause appeared; 
i Spared in the last book by Tydeus to publish his victories.  Maeon returned thither  
From his could quarters, vexed with 
k Who had showed him a cruel favour.  Fate, and sad  
Because he lived: Nor yet the Dawning had  
Fully discovered him. But's lamentation  
Was a sure token of their desolation.  
And now his stock of tears were spent; As when  
The herdsman comes from's pastures back again,  
Spoiled by the Country wolves, whose Masters herd  
Was fled out of his Grove that night, afeared  
Of storms raised by the 
l Weather was prognosticated by the figure of the Moon after her changes.  blunted horns o'th' Moon:  
Next day their slaughter's seen; Nor dares he run  
To tell this news at home, but strewed with 
m A custom practised by Christians and 〈…〉  sand  
He fills the Vale with's plaints, hating the land  
His 
n 〈…〉  silent folds were pitched on, and does roar  
For his lost bulls, which now he calleth o'er.  
Soon as the crowd of Matrons see him come  
Tothth' gates alone, without his troops, or some  
O'th' valiant Captains with him; They (alas!)  
Dared not to ask, but made an outcry: As  
A City stormed would do, or seamen shout  
Launching a ship tothth' Main. When he found out,  
To his desire, the hated King, says he,  
Stern Tydeus recommends one soul to thee,  
One wretched soul, of all thy train: If this  
Were the gods will, or Fortunes, or (which is  
A shame to speak) the foes unconquered might;  
I, which relate it, scarce can think it right:  
All, all are dead: Witness ye stars above,  
My partner's Ghost, and that 
o Bringing him back only to perish.  ill fate which drove  
Me back again: No craft, nor tears did gain  
This cruel pardon, life's 
p As not worthy to die amongst his confederates.  dishonoured stain:  
But the 
q Which as a Prophet he was best acquainted with.  command of heaven and constant Fate  
Unchanged from her decrees, or Pluto's gate  
Late shut against me, did forbid my death:  
Wouldst know, how prodigal I'm grown of breath,  
How little fearing hell? Then bloodhound hear:  
Thou'st raised a fatal, a forbidden war.  
Whilst in contempt of Laws, and brothers right  
Banished, a sceptre's only thy delight.  
A list of widowed houses filled with cries,  
And fifty 
r Those of his Captains.  Ghosts hovering before thine eyes.  
With horror, night and day, shall fright thy mind,  
And be thy guard; Nor will I stay behind.  
With this the fierce King's breast was swollen with ire:  
His stern brows flamed, his blood was set on fire.  
Strait, Phlegias and Labdacus, prepared  
For all injustice (Captains of his Guard)  
Would force him from the presence. But he had  
With daring courage, now unsheathed his blade:  
And staring on the Tyrant with an eye  
Glancing on's steel; Thou hast not right (quoth he)  
To any blood of mine; Nor shalt thou strike  
That breast which Tydeus spared: I go to seek  
Forbidden death with triumph; and am borne  
With 
s Of his partners which fell before him.  expectation to my partner's Urn.  
Heaven and thy Brother plague thee.— But this sound  
Was stopped with's blade, sunk up to th' hilts in's wound.  
He strives against death's pangs; and doubling all  
His strength t'a second stroke, on's sword does fall.  
His trembling soul thus panteth, whilst his blood  
Streams from his mouth and wounds in a double flood.  
The Nobles minds were struck, and all the round  
Mutt'red their troubled thoughts. Whilst he still frowned,  
With looks unchanged by death; his wife and friends  
(Not long joyed with his company) attends  
On's corpse to's house. The Tyrant sticks not here,  
But interdicts his fun'ralls; and (as 'twere  
To make his sins complete) in vain does turn  
The Ghost that felt it not, from's quiet Urn.  
But thou, whose Fate was great, as was thy soul,  
Who, ne'er to be forgotten, durst control  
Th'imperious King; and pave a way in which  
Blessed liberty might ride! What verse, what speech  
Can raise thy name, as high as thy deserts?  
Thou God-delighting Prophet! Heavenly Arts  
Were not taught thee in vain. Apollo's 
t The tree whence Apollo's Priests had garlands in honour of Daphne.  bays  
Did well become thy brows. 
u Dodona, where jove gave answer by two Doves, sitting on his Oaks.  Dodona's praise,  
That Queen of Groves, dies: 
w Where Apollo's Oracle in the bottom of P●ruassus, was delivered by an ancient maid. But this Prophet being dead, all Oracles would be silent.  Cyrrha's Nymph will dare,  
Now Phoeb' is mute, to unresolve our fear.  
And now far distant from the Stygian coasts,  
Go, take Elysium; which no 
z Because of their last cowardly attempt.  Theban Ghost,  
But thine, may enter: where the Tyrant's name  
Has no command. 
a The Prophet's body exposed now by the King's command.  His shape remains the same,  
His limbs untouched by ravenous beasts, and where  
He lay exposed, the birds with awe forbear.  
But wives, and Orphans, with sad Parents, spread  
Through all the plains, and rocks, run who should feed  
Their eyes first, with their miseries: (It was  
A sad contest:) whilst many thousands pass  
Along to comfort them: And some haste on  
To see what one man, in one night had done.  
The way reeked with their sighs: Their cries were heard  
Through all the fields: But when those rocks appeared  
And that 
b Infamous as well for the monster Sphinx, as for Tydeus his slaughter.  unhallowed wood; (as if their shrieks  
Now first began, and tears first stained their cheeks)  
One general out-cry's made: this sight of blood  
Had kindled all their rage. Black sorrow stood  
In mourning weeds, all torn, and mangled paps  
Inviting on the Matrons. They unclasp  
The beavers from their stiff'ned brows, and show  
The bodies, as they found them, which they knew:  
Falling on friends and strangers. One besmeares  
Her locks with gore: some close the eyes: Her tears  
Are shed to bathe his wounds: This plucks a dart  
With a vain pity, from her husband's heart.  
Part fit the trunk limbs as they grew before,  
And join the shoulders to the head they bore.  
But Ide, mother to the Thespian pair,  
Wand'ring i'th' braky sands, whose scattered hair  
Was tucked up (as her double loss commands)  
In careless manner, having bathed her hands  
I'th' blood of her pale cheeks: Not wretched now,  
Now not unhappy: Fear and dread does flow  
From both her eyes. Thus, through the field of war  
And slaughter, powd'ring her neglected hair  
With dust; she seeks her widowed joys, and moans  
O'er every slaughtered carcase, for her sons.  
As a Thessalian hag, joyed with the news  
Of some late 
c Which might furnish her with store of carcases.  battle; (from whose Countries use  
Shee'has learnt, to charm up, some departed wight)  
With 
d Either to keep light the better, or that there was a spell in the inspication and cleaving of them.  seare-branch'd-Cedar-torch-light 
e Which besides that they be oily, seem to Virgil, and Ovid to be of a magical power. , in the night  
Traces the fields; where every corpse is tossed  
As't welters in its blood, to see what Ghost  
To her commands, freest itself engages,  
Whilst the black Round complains, and 
f That their rest and his dominion is thus disturbed.  Pluto rages.  
Those lay together, underneath the rock;  
Happy, to fall the same day, by th' same stroke:  
Their breasts were pegged together with the spear;  
Which when her eyes saw, (having dropped a tear)  
Sons, is't a Mother (says she) that beholds  
These your close kisses? These your loving folds?  
Has deaths too cruel wit, thus coupled you  
I'th' close of life? Whose wounds first shall I view?  
Whose lips salute? Are you your Mother's glory?  
My wombs best fortune? Which should raise my story  
To heaven, outvying other 
g As Niob●s, &c.  Matron's names;  
Ah! how much happier are those coupled Dames  
Whose barren wombs ne'er called Lucina down  
To ease their pains? my pains my ills may own.  
Nor fell you nobly in the 
h Being slain in a cowardly night skirmish.  day of war,  
The talk of Nations, what things you did dare;  
Leaving a badge of honour to your Mother:  
You died a poor, base death, which night would smother.  
Could so great blood steal without praise to th' grave?  
But I'll not strive to part you, or to have  
Your hands untwined as they lie embraced:  
And break your league of death. Go Brethren, last  
Long, undistinguished; when your bodies burn,  
And may your kind Ghosts mingle in your Urn.  
Thy wife laments no less Chromis for thee,  
And Pentheus' mother, sad Astioche,  
Having prepared the funerals: You might gather  
From Phaedrims' infants, they had lost their Father:  
Phylleus her spouse, Marpissa weeps; alas!  
Whilst sister's bath the bloody Achamas.  
Now they lop'd down the 
i To build funeral piles for their dead friends.  wood, and shaved the head  
O'th' neighbour hill, which witnessed this black deed,  
And saw their tears. But sage Alethes stood  
Before the piles, and whilst no mourner could  
Be drawn from their own fires, his reverend age  
Seeks with these words their sorrows to assuage.  
Our Nation seldom has been free from danger  
Byth' sport of Fate, since the 
k When Cadmus sowed the Dragon's teeth, whence the Giants sprung.  Sidonian stranger  
Threw his cursed seed in our Aonian plains,  
Whence new blades sprung & fields affright their Swains.  
But Thebes ne'er wept so loud, when lightning turned  
Old Cadmus' 
l When juno counselled Semele, to desire Ioves majestic appearance.  court to ashes, where it burned  
By Juno's counsel: Nor when Athamas  
Down from the mount with funeral 
m Of his sons d●ad body.  spoils did pass,  
Shouting for his half-dead Learchus fears.  
Nay Thebes was bathed in no more fruifull tears,  
When tired 
n Who in that fury tore her son Pe●theus piecemeal.  Agave's madness found relief,  
And stood amazed at her companions grief.  
The fate and mischief of this single day  
Is like the time, when Niobe did pay  
For her proud boasts, where overwhelmed with ills,  
She gives so many 
o Making a bold comparison with Latona, she lost in one day fourteen children.  corpses to their piles.  
So left the people than the naked City,  
Whilst aged Sires, and ranks of Matron's pity,  
That heaven should envy thus, and every 
p Thebes the seven gated City, had two corpses carried through every gate.  gate  
Was crowded with two Funerals: My Fate  
Then taught me, like my Parents to lament;  
Although my years knew not what sorrows meant,  
Heaven wrought all this: Nor grieved I more because  
The furious dogs, knew not their 
q Actaeon torn by his hounds, for espying naked Diana.  Master's face  
Wand'ring by Delia's fountains, where he spied  
Forbidden sights: or when thy blood did glide  
Great 
r Dirce dragged by Amphion and Zetus, had her blood changed into a fountain of her name.  Queen, in new-sprung streams: 'Twas the decree  
Of Fate, and Ioves high pleasure. Whereas we  
Are robbed o'th' kingdom's pillars, all our power,  
By one false Tyrants fault. Nor at this hour,  
Greece, how th' Ambassage was rejected, hears:  
And now, we think, we wail the worst of wars.  
How shall the horses foam? what sweaty brows  
Will roll i'th' dust? how red the Current flows?  
Green years will see this: Whilst I may, will I  
Kindle my pile: and in my Country lie.  
Thus spoke th'old Father: and much aggravates  
Etheocles his sin, whilst he relates,  
His cruel, wicked purpose, which ere long  
Just vengeance would pursue. What taught his tongue  
This freedom? He foresaw his end was nigh,  
His days were spent, and he would bravely die.  
The King of heaven from's stately palace, viewed  
These Nations first, in their own blood imbrued.  
And sends post-haste for Mars. Who laying waste  
Some 
s These Nations were so warlike, that Mars was said to be borne there.  Thracian and 
s These Nations were so warlike, that Mars was said to be borne there.  Getick towns, did haste  
And drove his chariot furiously, tothth' sky:  
Lightning did crest his helm; the gold did die  
On's cruel arms; which quickened with the shapes  
Of monstrous beasts, he shook: Whilst thunderclaps  
Crack heaven: a bloody-red light sets upon  
His shield, whose envy strikes the distant Sun.  
When jove beheld him, puffing with his late  
Sarmatick pains, and swelling still with hate,  
And war's huge Tempest; Go, says he, appear  
Through Greece, as th'u'rt: Nor sword, nor anger clear,  
Bid them 
t Or after another edition, bid them disturb their idle league.  scour up the rusty bits, and hate  
All, but thyself: thou, in their lives estate  
And fortunes: Break delays; Cashier that 
u These Nations never quarrelled before.  peace  
We gave them. Thou mayst fire heaven if thou please;  
Thou mayst disturb my quiet. I have sown  
The seed of discord thus: Tydeus does frown  
At his return, reporting the base act  
Attempted by the King, fit to contract  
As base a war; The treacheries which were laid,  
And by his steel revenged: 'Tis thou must add  
Credit to's words. Ye gods, which draw your line  
From me, descent not: Hope not, to decline  
My sentence by your prayers: The black clew  
O'th' sister-Fates has sworn; this day is due  
To Mars, from th' Earth's first fabric; and those are  
A people destined, from their birth to war.  
But should my justice find you her gainesaiers,  
Not to plague old offences in the heirs;  
Witness y'Eternall Towers; Thou Cabinet  
Of mine own thoughts; And what, as heaven, I set  
In mine esteem, Thou clear Elyzian water;  
This hand shall Thebes, and her proud bulwarks batter:  
Whose towers razed to the ground, on Greece I'll pour:  
Or turn them both, to poisoned Lakes, by a shower  
Of blood reigned down: Though 
w Contending so earnestly for them. Lib. 1.  juno in her arms  
Embrace her hills and Temples, midst these harms.  
This said, they trembling, do their speech forbear,  
And quell their thoughts, as if they mortals were.  
As when the winds in league, becalm the seas,  
No waves forbid the shore to sleep at ease;  
The shady leaves, and clouds, are scorched with heat,  
Without a blast to cool them: Then the great  
And roaring lakes contract themselves: The Sun  
Drinks up the streams which now with silence run,  
Mars triumphs at these summons; as he rides  
On's f●ery wheels, tothth' left the reins he guides.  
And having re●ch'd his journey, heavens ascent,  
Venus does boldly 'fore his steeds present  
Herself: They startling back, let fall their manes  
With reverence: She on their harness leans;  
And glancing her moist eyes, makes this complaint:  
(Mean while his, steeds were fed with Adamant  
Which sprung besides her feet:) Preparest thou war  
For Thebes? Dost thou, her lovely 
x Being father to Harmione, the wife of Cadmus▪  Sire, prepare  
So kind a war? And seekest thou to destroy  
Thy offspring? Can't Harmony, nor the joy  
Of heaven, those 
y Where all the gods threw in their offerings.  weddings; Can't my tears be heard  
To stop thy rage? Is this a just reward  
For my 
z Of playing the adulteress.  offence? Left I my bashful spirit▪  
And wore I 
a Which Vulca● forged to ensnare them.  Lemnian chains, that I might merit  
This boon? Proceed. But 'tis another duty  
Wronged Vulcan pays; whose anger serves my beauty.  
He would be glad, eternally to sweat  
In's forge, at my command: And nightly sit  
Watching at's anvil: He would hammer, Thee,  
Even Thee, a suit of arms. Yet Thou— But I  
Think by my tears, to melt a rocky heart,  
A heart of brass. This only this impart:  
I beg it: Why didst cause my child to take  
A Tyrian spouse, and fatal wedlock make?  
Thy boast was, that those champions of Tyre,  
Though sprung from 
b When Cadmus sowed the serpent's teeth.  Vipers, challenged jove, their Sire;  
Brave lively spirits. Oh that my girl had joined  
To a Northern blade, of the 
c The Northern part of Thrice, named from its King Sitho●.  Sithonian kind,  
Beyond thy Thrace. ist not enough disgrace,  
Queen Venus' daughter 
d Harmione when with Cadmus she was transformed into a snake.  creeps upon the grass,  
And spits her poison in th' Illyrian coast?  
But now a Nation undeservings lost.  
The Warrior could no longer bear this waste  
Of tears, but handling's spear, leaps down in haste  
From's lofty Chariot; where his buckler meets her  
With rough embraces, and thus kindly greets her.  
Thou sweet refreshment from my warlike toils.  
My soul's content; whose beauty only foils  
My darts, amongst gods or men; who safely charmest  
My foaming steeds, and this right hand disarm'st:  
I han't forgot th'alliance Cadmus claims,  
Nor thy dear Love: (Let me not bear these blames  
Unjustly:) sooner I'll be drenched in hell,  
And driven disarmed to the pale Furies cell.  
But now the Fates decree, and Ioves command  
I must obey (Thy Vulcan has no hand  
Fit for such service:) How dare I oppose  
Ioves pleasure, or contemn what he'll impose?  
When late he spoke, heaven, earth, and the vast deep  
(Strange power!) stood trembling: Nay the gods did creep,  
And hid themselves, though of his rank: Yet, dear,  
Be not possess't with a despairing fear:  
Since there's no change, I'll an assistant sit  
Tothth' Theban arms, when both their hosts shall meet  
Under the Tyrian walls: Then shalt thou see  
Me, hurry through the field of blood, and be  
A terror to the Grecians, with more joy.  
No law, nor destiny does this deny.  
This said, he whips his horses through the sky:  
Ioves thunderbolts do not more swiftly fly  
To th' distant Earth, when on the snowy head  
Of 
e Two mountains of that eminent height, that their tops are hid within the 〈…〉  Othrys, or cold 
e Two mountains of that eminent height, that their tops are hid within the 〈…〉  Ossa he does tread;  
And arms his hand i'th' clouds: Down fall his darts  
Bearing his sad commands; Their sparkling, starts  
The Universe, should they a drought infer  
Tothth' Earth, or shipwreck to the Mariner.  
Now Tydeus did his wary steps recall  
Tothth' Grecian plains, and sweet Prosymna's dale:  
His looks affright; his hair with dust abounds;  
A shower of sweat falls into's open wounds.  
His eyes look red with watching; thirst contracts  
His drawn-up mouth: his mind feeds on his acts,  
And breathes his lasting fame. Just so, comes back  
The pushing bull to's pastures; with his neck  
And deawlap, and torn shoulders drenched in gore  
Of's own, and's enemy blood: Though tired before,  
His courage rises now: His pride does grow  
From sight of's mangled breast: His conquered foe  
Lies roaring, as he tumbles on the ground,  
Which bids him slight the anguish of his wound.  
Thus he returns; and as he passed, inflames  
The Inland towns, betwixt 
f A river in the utmost borders of Boeotia.  Asopus streams  
And Argos: Every where discoursing, how  
Himself Ambassador from Greece did go,  
To ask for banished Polynices right:  
Where he endured such force, so black a night,  
That craft, those treacherous arms combined together,  
Byth' Tyrant's charge, who'll not resign t●'s brother.  
The people soon believe him; Mars prepares  
Their credulous souls, and Fame does raise their fears.  
He entering on a sudden at the gate,  
What time Adrastus and his Nobles sat  
●n Parliament:) cries out, at th' Palace door:  
●rme, Arm my sparks; and thou great Sovereign power  
●hich rulest Greece; if any grandsires blood  
●oe swell thy veins; to Arms: All that is good  
And right, all thoughts of heaven are fled from men:  
More safely, I a Legate might have been  
To th' greedy Scythians, or that bloody 
g Amycus, who challenged all travellers to combat in the Bithynian woods, and there rifled and murdered them.  thief  
Of the Bebrician wood. Nor do I grieve  
Or check you for commanding: I am glad  
I'm glad I went, and proved what strength they had  
In guilty Thebes. Trust me an Army backed  
With night and craft, besieged me, in a tract  
Of ground I knew not, naked; yet in vain:  
As they had gone some fortress to obtain,  
Or well-fenced town, appointed Cap-a-pe,  
And armed with plots, they came t'encounter me.  
There weltering in their blood, before the wall  
O'th' 
h Which had lost fifty of her best commanders.  empty City. Now's the time to fall  
On our affrighted foes, when they have made  
Their funeral piles, ere I ungraspe my blade:  
Though tired with sending fifty souls tothth' grave,  
My wounds not cleansed, and bleeding, yet I crave,  
Let's march away. Th' amazed Grecians rise,  
But first the Theban meets, with downcast eyes:  
I am accursed of heaven, who guilty view  
Thy wounds, untouched myself: Was this my due  
At my return, dear Brother? was this strife  
Levelled at me! O base desire of life!  
Wretch! that I should deny this crimson 
i Of becoming a parricide in murdering his brother.  stain  
To my false Brother. But, may you remain  
Long blest with peace: A stranger shan't beget  
Your trouble: Neither has my fortune yet  
Swelled me so high, but that I know what smart  
And grief it is, from wife and babes to part,  
And Country: No dismembered family,  
Nor pensive Matron's eye shall squint on me.  
I'll go resolved for death, although my spouse  
And Father-in-law again should stop my vows.  
This life to Thebes, and to my brother's due,  
And Thee, great Tydeus. Thus his speeches screw  
Into their minds, whilst he winds in his 
k Closely imploring assistance which he seemed to pray against.  prayers.  
But these complaints had moved their spleen; In tears  
They boil their grief. One purpose does engage  
The breasts of all; both young, and such whose age  
Had cooled their spirits: All would rise as one,  
And call in neighbours help; and strait be gone.  
But brave Adrastus, who knew well to guide  
A Sceptre, cries, Let 
l It being unlawful to wage war, without consulting the Gods.  heaven and me decide  
This matter. Neither shall th'Usurper live  
Without revenge; nor you too hasty give  
Promise for war. But now let's entertain  
Tydeus, triumphing o'er so many slain:  
Whose gallant soul from rest may find relief:  
Reason shall moderate us in our grief.  
The Peers were struck with this, his wife grew pale:  
Glad Tydeus now surrounded by them all,  
Wearied with's war, and travails, was reposed  
I'th' midst o'th' hall; his back to a pillar closed:  
Whilst 
m Called so from a Grecian City of that name, which bred AEsculapius the inventor of medicine.  Epidaurian Idmon baths him, who  
Was skilled i'th' Surgeon's lance, and simpling too.  
He taken up with lofty thoughts, discourses  
The cause o'th' jar, how they replied in courses;  
In what place they way-layed him; at what hour;  
What Captains came against him, of what power;  
Who put him hardest to't: Then he relates,  
How he spared Maeon, to report their fates.  
The round of Nobles, with the King's amazed,  
To hear't: The banished Thebanes spirit's raised.  
The Sun descending toth' Hesperian shore,  
Had loosed his fiery steeds, and washes o'er  
Their glittering manes i'th' Ocean: He was met  
By Nereus' train, and th' Hours with nimble feet.  
These take the reins off; and th' embroidered crest  
Of's Crown, they unharnesse their chafed back and breast.  
Some lead his steeds to pasture, when they're cool,  
Some set the Chariot up, and mount the pole:  
Night coming on composeth humane care,  
And stops the wilde-beasts ranging; heaven does wear  
A sable robe: All do partake this boon,  
Except Adrastus, and his Theban son.  
For Tydeus slept securely, whilst the Theme  
Of's valour was presented in his dream.  
And now the god of war, this gloomy night  
Clatters his steel; and though he do affright,  
Yet he allures their souls, through all the bounds  
Of Arcady, and the Nemaean towns:  
Tothth' top of Taenarus, and 
n A Lycian City dedicated to Apollo.  Therapne blest  
With Phoeb's great presence. Rage and anger dressed  
His horses manes: Terror his Squire, does use  
The reins; and Fame, which watches every news,  
Collecting various tumults, and driven on  
Byth' horses breath, turns his Postilion:  
And shakes her quivering wings with sounds of fear,  
Forced on byth' bloody whip o'th' Charioteer,  
To speak both truth and falsehood: Th'angry god  
Lashes her backparts with a Scythian rod.  
As winds set by their Captain Neptune free  
From their AEolian gaol, before him flee  
Into th' 
o From AEgeus, an Athenian, who drowned himself here, in despair for his son Theseus.  AEgean sea: whilst storms and clouds  
Sad company, and gloomy winter crowds  
About his wheels; and ugly Tempests, hurled  
From the torn Centre of the scattered world.  
The 
p Fifty three little Islands in the Aegean sea.  Cyclads then feel their foundation shake;  
Delos fears 
q Two of the Cycladeses, encompassing and securing D●los.  Mycone will her forsake,  
And 
q Two of the Cycladeses, encompassing and securing Delos.  Gyarus; and does implore the aid,  
And claims the promise, her great 
r Apollo who in recompense to the Island which brought him up, secured it from winds and tempests.  Nurse-child made.  
Now the seventh morning courted heaven and earth,  
Giving the day from her fair lips a birth;  
When the 
s Adrastus' named here from Perseus, who once ruled over Argos.  old King, from's privy chamber came,  
Much doubtful, much distracted with the name  
Of war, and's fiery sons: He can't resolve,  
Whether to be their General, and involve  
The nations in their quarrel; Or refrain  
His raging breast, and sheathe his sword again.  
This way sweet peace provoked; then he's ashamed  
Of lazy ease, and's subjects all inflamed  
With fresh desires of war: But yet, at last  
His doubts are closed with this; He'll go, and taste  
The Prophet's minds, and try what th' 
t One great part of divination being made, by looking on the sacrifices there slain.  Altars mean,  
Which best discover truth. This was thy Scene  

u Eclus his son, who was both Prophet and Captain in the war, slain afterward.  Amphiarâus, with old Melampus joined  

w But son-in-law to King Praetus, upon compact of restoring his daughters the Praetides to their former shapes.  Amithaons' son, who flourished still in mind,  
And Phoeb's great presence; 'Twas a doubt it seems  
Who best beloved, drunk most of 
x Where Apollo was worshipped, where they drunk in the Art of divination.  Cyrrha's streams.  
They try the Gods, with entrails first, and blood  
Of cattle slain; whose speckled hearts withstood:  
And shrivelled veins spoke mischief to their fear:  
Yet they'll abroad and guess 
y The two other kinds of soothsaying from the flight and chirping of the birds.  i'th' open air.  
There was a mount, whose daring top did pass  
The clouds; the Grecians call it 
z A Cilician mount, whence Perseus took his flight, when he went for the Gorgo●s head.  Aphesas;  
Once sacred to the Argives: Hence 'tis said  
Swift Perseus took his flight, and did invade  
The heavens: His frighted 
a Danae.  mother saw his feet  
Part from the rock, and would have followed it.  
Here came the Prophets, having decked their brows  
And sacred locks, with garlands made o'th' boughs  
Of the white Olive; when th' appearing Sun  
Moistened the fields, and bid the frost be gone.  
And first 
b Amphiaraus.  Oeclides thus invoketh heaven:  
Almighty jove, from whom all power is given  
To th' winged crew, that birds know what's to come,  
Discovering heaven's advice, and secret doom:  
Not 
c Near which Apollo had his speaking Tripos.  Cyrrha's Oracle speaks the God more plain,  
Not the 
d A country of Epirus where Doves on the boughs of oaks, delivered Oracles from jupiter.  Chaonian oaks, which men do feign,  
Do answer thee. Though dusty 
e In the deserts of Africa, jupiter appearing to thirsty Liber in the similitude of a ram, and discovering water, had a temple built, which he honoured with his Oracle.  Hammon fret;  
And th' 
f A Lycian City where Apollo had an oraculous Temple.  Patarean lots contend, or yet  
Nile's 
g Apis a good King, since honoured ●or a God under this shape, who gives them his mute Oracles by the willing acceptance of his meat.  Ox, or 
h Apollo's son, who had a Temple built to him in the City Possideum.  Bronchus equal to his Father,  
Or watery Pisa's 
i The Pisaean rustics, being (as it were) Pa●s Organ-pipes, which nightly he inspires.  swains, when they do gather  
Pan's nightly answers in the dark; Those souls  
Are most enriched, to whom thy lucky fowls  
Great 
k Named Dictaus from that name of ●rete, where he was brought up.  jove, are sent: Strange ● whence this honour came  
To birds: 'tis ancient. Either when the frame  
O'th' world was moulded out o'th' Chaos, than  
The great Creator gave it; Or, once 
l According to the Pythagorean fancy of the transmigration of souls.  men  
They changed their shapes, and chose t' inhabit in  
The air: Or their pure climate, where no sin  
Does nestle, whilst they seldom touch the earth,  
Has taught them truth; Chief power, which gav'st a birth  
To all things, Thou know'st best. Vouchsafe from heaven  
To let us know what pains, what fate is given  
Tothth' Grecian battles: If th'unchanged Powers  
Decree, that we shall force the Theban Towers  
Discovered with 
m All Omens fetched from the heavens and air, looked first to the quarters from whence they came: if from the left it was prosperous, if from the right, unlucky.  a lefthand crack: Let birds  
I'th' air consent to't, chirping hidden words.  
If thou deny't; here stop us: Cloud the day  
With right-hand shoals: This spoken, he does lay  
His limbs o'th' rock; where, to more gods he cries  
Unknown, and looking steadfast 
n So intentive to the divisions of the heavens, that he dazzled his eyes from beholding any thing.  dims his eyes.  
Thus having parted 'twixt them all the sky,  
Their eyes and mind in every Coast do prie:  
At last Melampus calls: dost thou not see,  
Amphiaraus, under heaven's Canopy  
There's no bird makes a prosperous flight? There's none  
Hovers with clear wings in this region?  
There's none flies clapping with a lucky sound?  
Apollo's 
o The Crow changed by Apollo for his Coronis sake, and ever since attending on his Oracle.  black companion can't be found,  
Nor th' 
p Because Ioves messenger.  Eagle bearing lightning, nor the Owl  
Minerva's howling 
q Nyctimene changed to an Owl for incest with her father, was admitted a nightly attendant on Diana. All these were prosperous birds.  bird is in the Shoal.  
The best diviner here's a Vulture▪ or  
Some ravenous Kites, aloft triumphing sore.  
A monstrous flight! hark, what a dismal skritch  
They make i'th' clouds; what groans the night-birds fetch!  
What ill presaging tunes, the Screech-owls holloe!  
Must we, these first portents of mischief follow?  
Shall these impropriate heaven, blest 
r Named here from Thymbra, where he was worshipped.  Phoeb '? see where  
Their hooked claws do their bloody faces tear.  
Their wings do beat the wind, whose clapping sound  
Resembles sobs: Their feathered breasts they wound.  
Then he proceeds, I've oftentimes endured  
heavens ominous tokens, since I went aboard  
In the Thessalian 
s Which ●arried jason and his Argonauts to Colchos.  bark, scarce past a child,  
Among those royal 
t As the Argonauts, all sons to Kings, were afterwards accounted.  demigods, who filled  
Their souls with wonder, when I did declare  
The fate of Sea and Land; jason gave ear  
To mine, as much as 
u Apollo's s●n most exquisite in Sooth-saying, and intimate with jason.  Mopsus' prophecies,  
When doubts arose: But never yet the skies  
Seemed so prodigious: never so great fear:  
Yet more's a coming. Mark, in that bright Sphere  
Of heaven a thousand swans have closed their ranks:  
Whither byth' Northwind blown from 
w A Thracian river abounding with Swans, where they are thought to be coloured with snow.  Strimons' banks,  
Or fruitful Nile has sent them: Here their flight  
Is stopped; think these present Thebes to thy sight.  
For silent in a quiet round they're set,  
As if they were entrenched with walls. But yet  
A stronger troop mounts through the air: I spy  
seven golden 
x The king of birds, Eagles, who attend of jupiter.  Birds of jove, in triumph fly:  
Imagine these are 
For that number went to the Theban w●rs.  Grecian Captains: They  
Have entered the Swans circle, where they prey  
With their hooked talons on their slaughtered foes;  
And clasp their claws, at more. But see, it blows,  
And reins down drops of blood: the day is dressed  
In plumes: How soon Ioves anger has distressed  
The conquering party! 
z Betokening Capaneus, who contesting with jupiter, was slain with lightning.  He, which soared so high,  
Scorched with the Sun's quick beams does fall and die.  

a Parthenopaeus desiring to accomplish things beyond his age.  Tother'sothers forsaken by his tender wings,  
Whilst he mounts after stronger birds: 
b Polynices, who died upon his brother.  This clings  
About his foe, and falls together; 
c Adrastus, who only returned.  He  
Turns back, and flies from's partners destiny.  
There's 
d Hippomedon, overwhelmed in a ●iver.  one, wrapped in a Tempest, falls: And 
e Tydeus cat up Menalippus his brains, who g●ve him his death's wound▪  he  
Dies feeding on his living Enemy.  
Their blood has stained the clouds. Why dost thou 
f Amphiaraus replies to Melampus whose voice was stopped with tears, upon sight of the last Eagle falling, which Amphiaraus interprets of himself.  steal  
Soft tears, Melampus? I discover well,  
Who falleth now. Thus, fearful of th'event,  
And 
g So sure, as if they already felt it.  feeling what their visions did present;  
The Prophets stand affrighted. Now they grieve  
They'ntruded amongst the birds, and without leave  
Screwed into heaven's designs: Anon they hate  
The answ'ring Gods. What fury did create  
This eager Love in mortals, to make known  
Things yet to come? Was't heaven's gift? or their own  
Ambitious thoughts, content with no estate?  
We search the birth, and end of time; what fate  
The highest 
h Called Coelopeus of Mathematicians.  Power, and hardened destinies  
Determine for us. Hence we cast our eyes  
On entrails, listening to the birds discourse;  
We trace the stars, and reckon 
i According to whose increase or decrease, their spells were more or less powerful.  Phoebe's course;  
And use 
k Magic there, was most in practice by the raising of Ghosts.  Thessalian arts. The Golden Age  
Of our forefathers never durst presage  
Thus boldly: 
l When De●calion advised by the Oracle, threw his Mother's bones behind him.  They were borne of stumps of rocks,  
And only laboured to increase their stocks  
In woods or tillage. Mortals may not strive  
To know to morrow's doom: And yet we dive,  
(Poor Vulgars') in heavens secrets: hence our Lies,  
Fears, Anger, Craft, immodest hopes arise.  
The Prophet therefore tearing from his brows  
His garland now discharged, without his boughs  
Of honour, leaves th'unlucky mountain: Where  
The noise of war and trumpets greet his ear:  
For distant Thebes boiled in their breast; He brooks  
Neither the King's discourse, nor People's looks,  
Nor the Peers meetings: Hid in's secret Cell  
The God's acts he refuses to reveal.  
Thy shame, Melampus, and thy cares retained  
Thee in the 
Being both a Physician and a Prophet.  Country. Twelve days 
n Amphiaraus.  he refrained  
His tongue; whose silence, Prince and People holds  
In doubts. But Ioves command now chafes their souls:  
Whole towns and countries strait unpeopled lie;  
Mars pressed a thousand troops: With joy they fly  
From house, and lovely brides, and infants tears,  
At home; The God did so possess their fears.  
They pluck down weapons from their Grandsire's halls,  
And chariots fastened to the Temple walls.  
Then burnish they their rusty darts, and set  
Their cankered swords for slaughter, which they whet  
On stones to glaze them. Some fit their smooth Crests,  
And buckling brass-seamed Corslets on their breasts,  
They try their crackling Coats of mail; these bend  
Their Cretian horns: Some, hooks and ploughshares send▪  
Tothth' forge, with spades and harrows, where they glow:  
Some do not stick, to cut down spears which grow  
In consecrated groves; covering their shields  
With 
o Whence of old a shield was called corium bovis.  skins of Oxen, which have ploughed their fields.  
They break int' Argos next, and roar out war  
At the King's door; their Clamours reach as far  
As Tyrrhene waves: or when 
p One of the Giants who attempting heaven, was o'erwhelmed by jove under this mountain of AEtn●, and there broiled.  Enceladus.  
Desires to change his side: the mountain thus  
Thunders within its fiery caves: the top  
Vomits huge Cinders, which begin to stop  
The channel next 
q A Sicilian promontory, lying over against Scylla's gulf.  Pelorus; th' Island 
r Sicily once joined to the continent of Italy, and rend from it by the violence of the waves.  then  
Divided now, hopes to be joined again.  
And now the hot desire of war did seize  
The soul of Capaneus, long tired with peace;  
Whose blood was streamed from noble veins; but he  
Outstrips his grandsires acts: Long lived he free  
In his contempt of heaven, neglect of right,  
A daring soul, where Anger did excite.  
Like one of shady 
s A woody mountain of Thessaly where the Centaurs inhabited.  Pholoes' tenants, and  
Amongst 
t The Cyclops which work in their shop of AEtna.  th' AEtnean brethren fit to stand.  
Before thy door, Amphiaraus, where  
The crowd of Captains, and mad vulgars' were;  
Argives, he cries, what sluggishness does tame  
Your spirits? And you Grecians; is't not shame  
So many armed, courageous nations wait  
At one poor Citizens oraculous gate?  
Should Phoeb' himself (what ever fears of men  
And fame has made him) from's inspired den  
Within the hollow top of 
u The place where the Oracle was delivered by—  Cyrrha, mutter;  
I'd scorn to stay, till his pale 
w His Enthean Prophetess an aged maid, pale and frantic, whe● she was possessed.  wench could utter  
Her ridd'ling terrors; courage and this steel  
Are all the Deity's to which I'll kneel▪  
Call out the Prophet with his juggle, now:  
Or I'll make trial what his birds can do.  
The Grecian bands do shout for joy, and crown  
His rage with their applause: 
x Amphiaraus the son of O Ecleus.  O Eclides soon  
Was forced to make appearance; but his breast  
Was with another 
y Foreseeing his own destruction occasioned by his wife's pride.  source of cares oppressed.  
I leave not my dark Cell, saith he, for fear  
Of this rash young man's clamours, though he bear  
Mad threatenings in his tongue: another fate  
Must close my life, which cannot take a date  
From 
z Being swallowed up by the earth.  mortal hands. 'Tis your Love, and the God  
Too powerful in me, bids me spread abroad  
These secrets: Sadly▪ I'll discover all,  
You must expect to happen. Neither shall  
My words move thee, fierce 
a Capaneus.  man: Apollo's den  
To thee alone is silent. Wretched Men!  
Why, why d'ye take up arms? the Fates, and heaven  
Resisting. Whither have the Furies driven  
Your blinded souls? Are lives so burdensome?  
Argos so odious? Nothing sweet at home  
'Slight ye heavens signs? Why did ye make me pass,  
With trembling steps tothth' top of 
b Called the Persian mountain, because Perseus took his flight from thence.  Aphesas,  
T'intrude int' heaven? I might have lived like you,  
Not knowing the black days that shall pursue  
Our armies: Nor mine own, nor others doom;  
Nor th' Omens, seen: (Witness thou secret womb  
O'th' world, that counsel'dst me; ye chirping birds  
And thou 
c Apollo, as before.  Thymbraeus, listening to my words  
More gently heretofore) Prodigious signs  
Of ruin, I beheld: men's base designs  
Were seconded byth' Gods 
d As Venus assisting the Thebans, juno the Grecians. : Furies did mock,  
And 
On whose Distaff, the clue of life was feigned to be spun.  Lachesis tore lives off from her rock.  
Lay down your arms: God has your rage withstood▪  
God has withstood. Is't sport, with captive blood  
To water Cadmus' 
f The land where before he had sown his serpent's teeth.  tilth, Aonian plains?  
But why do I lose my song? why take I pains  
To drive back fixed chance? There's no release,  
We 
g It b●ing so determined by the destinies.  must go. Here he sighs and holds his peace.  
But Capaneus replies: Prophet, on thee  
Light all thy madness, and those plagues; to be  
The Governor of 
h When all the men are gone out to war.  naked Argos; where  
May no 
i Called here Tyrrhene, because they were the first inventors of Trumpets.  field-Musick rattle in thy ear.  
Why stoppest thou nobler Spirits? Is't forsooth  
For us, to suffer thee to hug thy sloth  
At home? t'enjoy thy foolish birds, and son▪  
And wife? But unrevenged forget, what's done  
To gallant Tydeus, and the league they break?  
But if the Grecians may not fight, go speak,  
As a new Legate, to the Thebans; sure  
Thy holy 
k Ironically, because he was a Prophet.  Garlands will thy peace secure.  
Shall th' hidden cause, and ground of things, be given  
Byth' stars at thy command? I pity heaven,  
If prayers or charms can move it. Why do'●t fright  
Dull sluggish souls? Fear first, gave Gods their height▪  
Yet now, rage on securely; but when first,  
Th'alarm is given, and we shall quench our thirst  
In helms, full of 
l Theban streams.  Ismene, or 
l Theban streams.  Dirce's water,  
Beware of meeting then, when we breath slaughter  
Harnessed tothth' battle: think not a cross bird,  
Or wind, shall make that battle be deferred.  
This wanton Mitre than were best be gone,  
And terrible Apollo's madness. None  
But I, and such as I am, daring men,  
Shall divine there. A shout was raised again,  
By such as did encourage him: which flies  
With a vast tumult, underneath the skies.  
Like a swift torrent, which does nimblier flow  
With spring-tidings, or the hills dissolving snow,  
When it orespreads the plains, maugre the shores  
Resistance; there tempestuously it roars  
Amongst buildings, corn, flocks, men: At last 'tis stopped  
Against a hill, or with steep banks o'r●top'd.  
These Captain's quarrels here the night did part:  
But poor Argia with a pensive heart  
Bearing her husband's grief, and pitying their  
True Fellowship in sorrow, with her hair  
Dishevelled, as it was; and furrowed cheeks,  
Into her Father's lofty Palace breaks.  
Carrying 
m Polynices' young son.  Thessander at her breast; when night  
Dis-mantled at th'approaching of the light:  
And 
n The North star, once Calisto, Ioves harlot, who is forbid to bathe in the Ocean by Thetis, at Juno's command▪ whose Nurse she was.  Arctos seeing th'other stars decline  
Tothth' Sea, does envy. When sh'had entered in,  
And kneeled before her reverend Sire, she says:  
You know, dear Father, should I hold my peace,  
Why thus with tears, without my spouse, i'th' night  
I come into your presence: By that right  
Our births may challenge: by yourself, I swear,  
He did not bid me: 'twas that waking care,  
And sleep disturbed with sighs, since Hymen plighted  
Our faiths, and Juno's fatal torch was lighted.  
If Tiger's milk had nursed me, or rocks grew  
Beneath my heart, I could not bear't: 'tis you  
Have only means to help: All powers are  
In your own hands: Dear Father, wage a war:  
Pity your son's low fortunes: Pity this  
Poor banish'd-fathers' child: What shame it is?  
He first, was entertained; and heaven, you'll find  
Witnessed the contract, when our hands were joined.  
Sure this is he, foretold ●yth ' Oracle:  
I stole no close heats, no fires unblamable:  
I loved at your command: 'twas your advice.  
Now with what cruelty can I despise  
His sad complaints? Father, you know not yet,  
What Love, a husband's misery can beget.  
Now my sad soul puts up unpleasing wishes,  
That I may 
o Him fight, him departing.  fear and 
o Him fight, him departing.  grieve: But when our kisses  
Shall be divided; at the dismal day,  
When the shrill trumpets call your Arms away,  
When you shall shine in your enamelled steel;  
Alas, dear father, I perhaps shall kneel,  
To ask it back again. Adrastus takes  
Her kisses, watered from his eyes, and speaks:  
I cannot blame thy plaints girl; Lay aside  
Thy fears: Such bones are not to be denied:  
Praiseworthy suits: But heaven, and mine own fear  
The weight o'th' kingdom too, (yet don't forbear  
To hope) suggest much to my soul. Thy cares  
Shall find their due, nor shalt thou lose thy tears.  
Comfort thy husband, daughter: this delay  
Will prove no loss: For great designs we stay.  
This profits much in war. The light appears  
As he spoke thus, and he's called up by's cares.  
Finis Lib. III. Statii Thebay.   

Argument. Lib. IU. Statii Thebaidos.  
Bellona calls to Arms: They part with tears:  
Adrastus first leads on his troops to wars:  
Then follows Polynices his wronged son:  
Stout Tydeus next: and then Hippomedon:  
Then Capaneus: Amphiaraus sixth,  
Betrayed by's wife: Parthenopaeus next;  
Though's fearful mother, would have stopped his heat.  
The Thebans preparations were as great;  
Whom Bacchus' Priest affrights: Tiresias charms  
The Ghosts up: Laius then foretells their harms.  
The Grecians march. Bacchus sends ●routh to grieve 'em:  
Hypsipyle shows Langia to relieve 'um.  
THe winter thrice was thawed with gales, which blow  
From the warm South; short days do longer grow  
In their 
a After the vernal AEquinox the days exceed the nights.  spring-quarters: When cursed fate controls  
Their broken Counsels; tiil They, wretched souls,  
At last heard war proclaimed. Bellona's hand  
Shakes on 
b A tower of the Argives, where they yearly celebrated their feast of Torches, in memory of Hypermnestra.  Larissa's top, a flaming brand  
At first, and darts her massy spears, which glide  
Whizzing i'th' air, and light on t'other side  
On 
c A Theban fountain which by this received an alarm to the war.  Dirces' banks. From thence she takes the field,  
Closing with those, whose guilded arms do yield  
A glittering show. She enrages now the forces;  
Arms the most forward, and claps on the horses;  
Calls them tothth' ports: their valour does prevent  
Her call; even Cowards had some valour lent.  
Th' appointed time was come; whole herds do fall  
To jove and Mavors; but the Priest grew pale  
At the unlucky entrails; yet does frame  
Some shows of hope tothth' Camp. And now there came  
A crowd of boys and girls, and aged Fathers  
About their parting friends; this concourse gathers  
And stops their doors up: tears no measure knew,  
But sad fare-wells their shields and crests bedew.  
The soldiers sigh to leave their home: they kiss  
Through their close beavers: the rough helmet is  
Bowed to embrace. He that i'th' Sword delights  
Or Death but now, breathes out his rage in sighs.  
So th'Mariner for some long voyage bound,  
When's sails do swell, and's anchor's weighed from ground,  
Shakes hands with friends, who strive to cull his limbs,  
Till kisses bathed in tears their eyesight dims;  
So does the fog o'th' Sea: Yet left behind  
They climb a bank, and send their eyes to find  
His sails, they grieve the wind blows fair from land,  
And greeting the known keel on shore they stand.  
Now forward Fame, thou world's 
d For the Theban war was the most ancient.  first Register,  
Since to remember Nobles is thy Care,  
And spin their Lives; these valiant spirits discover:  
And thou Calliope which raignes●-over  
The sounding 
e Pindus or Parnassus where the Muses warbled.  grove, take up thy harp, and tell  
What bands, what Arms Mars raised; how people fell  
From every City: None that tastes the river  
Of 
f Where they drunk in Poetry.  Helicon, can nobler strains deliver.  
The King Adrastus, sad and pressed with cares,  
Now drawing on to his declining years,  
Marches amongst the troops unwillingly,  
Content to gird his sword upon his thigh:  
His Coat of Armour's brought byth' guard i'th' ree●:  
His Steeds were harnessed by the Charioteer  
Ith' gate: 
g Adrastus' his Horse, sprung from Scyphos, out of the Thessalian earth.  Arion does his curb disdain.  
Under his banner march 
h Grec●an Cities accompanying Adrastus.  Larissa's train,  
And tall 
h Grec●an Cities accompanying Adrastus.  Prosymnes, 
h Grec●an Cities accompanying Adrastus.  Media pasture-bearing,  
And 
i The Country of Arcadia famous for pasturage.  Phyllos' stored with Sheep; with 
k A Peloponnesian city, against which Ch●radros beats.  Neris fearing  
Charadrus foaming through her vale: more powers  
Came from 
l A middle City between Corinth and Argos, near which Hercules killed his Lion.  Cleone spired with lofty Towers.  
And 
m A City contested for between th● Argives and I acedemonians, whose Captain Orthiades almost vanquished, dipped his finger in his own blood, and wrote an inscription for a Trophy of his Victory, and then died.  There sprinkled with Laconian blood.  
More Kings descended from the same line, stood  
Associated, which inhabit on  

n A rocky country near C●rinth.  Drepan, or olive-bearing 
o A fruitful City, where Adrastus first reigned.  Sicyon,  
Where slow 
p An Achaean river, making a pool of that name.  Langia's silent waters glide,  
Or crooked 
q An Attic river, filled with the overflowing of Co●ytus, whence the Furies are said to bathe in it.  Helisse his winding banks does chide:  
Sad is this River's honour, whose rough surges,  
The Stygian Furies bathing in them, purges:  
Their snakes are washed here, quitting 
r The river of hell.  Phlegeton:  
Whether the Thracian houses overthrown  
Were their last work, or Mycenae wicked 
s At the bloody Feast which the sun fled from.  Court,  
Or Cadmus' family: When here they sport,  
The river stained with poison, flies their touch.  
Corinth joins company, abating much  
From 
t Building here a Temple to her, and honouring her son Melic●rta with the Isthmian games.  Ino's plaints: 
u The Corinthian haven.  Cenchre sends in her force,  
Listed with those, where the 
w Pegasus sprung from Neptune and the Gorgon Medusa, whose hoof raised the fountain Hippocrene in Helicon.  Gorgonean horse  
Beat up the Poet's spring: And those that be,  
Where 
x Dividing 'twixt the AEgean and Io●ick sea.  Isthmos parts, and beateth back the Sea.  
Adrastus thus was followed with a band  
Three thousand strong, with shouts: Some arm their hand  
With darts▪ and some with smoke-dried clubs; (they come  
From several stocks, with several customs:) some  
Knew better how to use the nimble sling,  
And wheeling round, would make an empty ring.  
He marches, venerable for his years,  
And government. As the stout bull appears  
In his old pastures, though his strength's decayed,  
Yet still he's Captain: all the herd's afraid  
To try his push; they see his horns are broke,  
And's breast is scared with many a former stroke.  
Next old Adrastus, marched the 
y Polynic●s, Adrastus his son-in-law.  Thebans Van  
With banners; for whose sake the war began.  
His troops whet on his courage: Hither came  
His country-voluntiers; whether the shame  
Of's banishment had moved them; or their Love  
Grew with his wrongs; or they were such as strove  
Still to depose the mighty: many a one  
Joined, whom the justness of his cause had won.  
Besides Adrastus gave him for a dowry,  

z Cities of Arcadia.  AEgion, 
z Cities of Arcadia.  Arane, Thesean 
a A Thessalian city, freed by Theseus from thiefs which beset it.  Troezes power:  
Lest his thin troops might prove his shame, or he  
Of's own lost honours too resentive be.  
That dress, those very arms he wore, wherein  
First i'th' black night he came: The Lion's skin  
Covered his back; steel armed his glittering spear:  
The hilt of's sword grim 
b In memory of his father O Oedipus who unriddled her.  Sphinxes' stamp did bear.  
His hopes and wishes now the Crown possessed,  
With's mother's lap, and's sisters faithful breast:  
Yet looking back he sees his heartless 
c Argia disconsolate for his departure.  spouse  
Stretch forward all her limbs, on top o'th' house.  
She, she recalls her husband's eyes, and mind:  
Sweet Thebes within his breast no place can find.  
See, thundering Tydeus in the midst does arm  
His Country troops: Soon as the first alarm  
Was sounded, Courage now; his wounds are cured:  
(As the sleek snake by the spring-sun allured  
Out of his bed, 
d Reported by slipping of th● skin to renew his age.  shakes off his duller age  
I'th' flowery pastures hissing out his rage.  
Alas, poor Swain! against whom at first he comes  
Gaping, on whom he dries his venomed gums)  
Wars trumpet, besides these, had brought him men  
From the AEtolian towns: Rocky 
e An AEtolian City.  Phylene  
Herd it, and 
f A Boeotia● city, where the sisters of Meleager bewailing his untimely death, were transformed to querulous birds.  Ple●ron, where the birds bemoan  
Their Meleager; with steep Calydon;  
And 
g An Arcadian city, where jove was suckled by the Goat, and therefore challenged shares with Ida, where he was born and worshipped.  Olenos, which strives with Ide for jove:  
So Chalcis, which the Mariner does prove  
A secure harbour from th' jonick Seas:  
The 
h Achelous, which putting on divers shapes, was foiled in all by Hercules, his rival by Deianira.  river too, once foiled by Hercules,  
Scarce daring yet to raise his battered 
i Amongst other shapes he became a Bull, when Hercules pulled off one of his horns: on which our Poet reflects.  brow  
From underneath his waters; but below  
He hides his mournful head in slimy caves;  
And sands choke up his panting 
k Achelous flowed in two channels of which Hercules stopped one, whence grew the fiction, of his pulling off one of his horns.  banks and waves.  
Their brazen shield defends their breasts, their hands  
Are armed with cruel javelins: 
l Perhaps to take part with his grandson Tydeus.  Mavors stands  
In's helmet. All the chosen guard surrounds  
Valiant O Enides, graced with former wounds;  
All courage; nothing less in rage and spite  
Then's brother: you would doubt, for whom they fight.  
But greater 
m Under the leading of Hippomedon.  Doric troops in armour shine,  
Which plough upon 
n Two Grecian rivers, upon whose banks he mustered his men.  Lyncaeus banks, or thine  
Old 
n Two Grecian rivers, upon whose banks he mustered his men.  Inachus, the Prince of Grecian rivers;  

o Argos denominated from Perseus once king.  Perseus his land no quicker streams delivers,  
If 
p The sign entered April, 10. when the springtides begin.  Taurus, or the watery 
q Always accompanied with showers.  Pleiads run  
Their course; or he swells, proud of 
r When he accompanied his daughter Io.  jove his son.  
Those which Asterion incircles, join;  

s Inhabitants near Parnassus whose corn is washed away by the overflowing of this river, before it break out in Argos.  Dryopian harvest-spoiling Erasine;  
With th' 
t An Argive city where AEsculapius was worshipped.  Epidaurian tenants: 
u Ceres' the goddess of corn, here named from AEtna, because of the fruitfulness of Sicily, whence her daughter Proserpina was stolen.  Dime too,  
Fruitful for Vines, but stubborn to the 
u Ceres' the goddess of corn, here named from AEtna, because of the fruitfulness of Sicily, whence her daughter Proserpina was stolen.  Blow.  

w From N●leus Nestor's Father.  Neleian Pylos all her forces lent,  
Pylos scarce known, for Nestor had not spent  
His second 
x To the age of thr●escore, after which time he went to the Trojane war.  age: Yet he refused to go  
Tothth' tents destined for a sad overthrow.  
Hardy Hyppomedon leads these, and advances  
Their love to valour: a brass helmet dances  
Upon his head, with three white crests: besides  
His arms, a coat of mail defends his side:  
His breasts and shoulders a guilt shield protects,  
Lively presenting Danaus his night-acts:  
The guilty brides, inflamed byth' Furies, slay  
Their fifty husbands: whilst their Sire does stay  
At th' bloody door, and with applauding words  
Commends their wickedness, and views their swords.  
He's brought from 
y Called the Palladian city from the founder Pallas.  Athens, on a Nemean Steed,  
Who startling, does his clashing armour dread:  
His prancing raises clouds of dust; you'd swear,  
The field itself were flying into th'air.  
So two-shaped 
z The greatest of the Centauris, half man and half horse.  Hyleus hasting from his den,  
With both his breasts bears woods down: 
a The Thessalian mountain where they inhabited.  Ossa then  
Trembles: the savage beasts sink down for fear,  
His brother Centaurs quake, till he appear  
In 
b A Thessalian river, where they bathed themselves.  Peneus streams; where he stops up the river.  
What mortal tongue can all the train deliver?  
Th' Artiliery, nations, strength? the valiant spirits  
Of which 
c The City where jupiter begat Hercules upon Alemena.  Tyrinthe's fruitful, which inherits  
The glory of her Hercules, are called  
By him from thence. Though now their state's enthralled  
By time, their valour can no riches yield.  
The thin inhabitants in th'empty field  
Show where the 
d The founders of this City.  Cyclops built their lofty towers:  
Yet they send out three-hundred striplings; powers  
Tothth' wars 
e Their courage able to overcome the greatest number.  innumerable: without spear  
Or glittering sword. Their heads and shoulders are  
Fenced with their 
f Which triumphs in Herculeses conquest over the Lyon.  nations glory, a 
g To resemble their God Hercules.  Lion's skin;  
Clubs arm their hands, their darts are crowded in  
Their unexhausted quivers; whilst they sing  
Herculean Paeans, how their God and King  
Freed all the earth from monsters: this is heard  
By him in distant 
h The woody mountain where Hercules was burnt.  O Eta's shades interred.  

i The wood, where at Euristheus' command, Hercules slew the Nemeaean Lion.  Nemea pressed some tothth' battle, with what aid  
The sacred vine-yards of 
k A poor man who gave Hercules homely, but wel-accepted entertainment, when he went upon the former service.  Molorchus had:  
The cottage is well known: his 
l Hercules, soon after a God.  divine guest  
Has, on the willow doors, his arms expressed:  
The oak, where's 
m The several editions vary much in rendering this place.  club and bow was laid, is clear  
In gold, and where the prints of's bed appear.  
But Capaneus a footman, yet byth' head  
O'erpeering all the rest, on's shield does spread  
The hides of four wild bulls, besides the weight  
Of brass. There, dying Hydra would affright  
Your sense, branched in a 
n Befitting her many heads.  triple Garland: Part  
Bore living snakes engraved: A new found 
o Hercules' cauterised her fruitful necks.  art  
Stopped up the other: As she does expire,  
You'd think, the sparkling gold wore flames of 
p The only means Hercules found to stop the increase of heads.  fire.  
About her the dull streams of 
q The Lake where the Hydra kept.  Lerna glide,  
With which the Iron seems to Azure died.  
But a most weighty breastplate, such as was  
No 
r They used of old to spin military garments for their sons, whereas this was of brass.  Mother's work, covered with plates of brass,  
Clasped on, defends his sides, and spreading chest:  
A 
s Whose Image was there placed.  Giant dances on his glittering crest:  
And for his spear, a Cypresse-tree was spoiled  
Of all her boughs, which only he could wield.  
The Citizens of 
t A Messenian City.  Amphigenia, and  
Low 
u Built in a valley, through which a river runneth.  Messene, high 
w Built upon the mountains.  Ithone's in his command:  
With 
x near the river Alpheus.  Thrion, hill-built 
y Nestor's City on the top of the hills.  AEpy, 
z Lacovick Cities▪  Ptelion,  
Th'inhabitants of 
z Lacovick Cities▪  Helos; 
z Lacovick Cities▪  Dorion,  
The 
a Thamyris who was here sentenced by the Muses.  Getick Poet's grief; here Thamyris,  
Boasting t'out-sing the learned Aonides,  
Was suddenly struck dumb; For many years  
His voice and Harp were silenced. For who dares  
Challenge the Gods? who knows not 
b With Marsias, who being overcome, was—.  Phoeb's contest  
And 
c— In this City excorinted,  Celoenes same, i'th' Satyr's doom expressed?  
And now the 
d Amphiaraus.  Prophet's mind was overcome,  
And tired; although he saw his dismal doom,  
Yet with a lingering hand the Fates had armed  
Him, and the virtue of his 
e Apollo who forbade him this expedition▪ The Stoics think, the Gods submit to Fate.  God was charmed.  
Nor wants a treacherous 
f Eriphile who sold ●●m into the Grecians hands for Argia's bracelet, of which before she was so much enamoured.  wife; forbidden gold  
Now glisters in her house. The Gods foretold,  
This bracelet would be fatal to a Prophet  
Of th' Argives, and himself had knowledge of it:  
But his perfidious spouse had rather sell  
His bed at such a rate, longing t'excel  
In such a purchased dress, and bear away  
Argia's spoils: who lets it go with joy.  
She saw this war and the Commanders were  
Turned on this hinge, if the divining 
g Amphiaraus a Prophet, yet a Commander.  Peer  
Would take up arms. Thus with a cheerful mind,  
In her dear husband's bosom, she resigned  
Th'accursed chain: And says; this is no time  
For gorgeous dresses: Beauty were a crime  
In her, that's wretched without thee: I'll cheat  
My fears, with 
h A place variously read; with Calatho, then with Coetu.  distaff comforts, and entreat  
At the God's Altars with dishevelled hair:  
May't be, ye Eternal Powers! when thou shalt wear  
Thy threatening steel, and clashing arms, that I  
Put on harmony's chain? Some Deity  
Perhaps more fitly, will indulge it, then,  
And I outshine the Grecian spouses, when  
(At thy return, a Queen) my votive Quires  
Shall fill the Temples: Now let her desires  
Take place, who makes her husband's wars her joy.  
Thus th'execrable Gold did force a way  
Tothth' Prophet's house, and sowed strange mischief in it;  
Tisiphone laughed for joy, when she had seen it.  
He mounted on Tenarian steeds, (begot  
By 
i The famous horse of Castor and Pollux  Cyllarus, when Castor knew it not,  
Upon inferior mares) does shake the ground:  
Prophet-like, with Parnassian garlands crowned:  
His helmet is with branching olives dressed,  
Where a white Mitre does enfold the crest.  
Weapons, and reins he guides at once: his hands  
Are sometimes stayed with darts: in's chariot stands  
An 
k Of spears and darts.  armed wood, brandished: He far off appears  
Dreadful; his shield the conquered 
l In honour to his God Apollo.  Python bears.  
Phoeb's 
m A Laconian city consecrated to Apollo, therefore follows his Prophet.  Amycleans wait on's chariot wheel:  
With 
n A city of Pcloponese, whence Nestor came.  Pylos, 
o A promontory dangerous to seamen.  Malea, which the doubtful keel  
Avoids with terror: so the 
p A Laconian city, where Diana had her Temple.  Carians  
Chanting to pleased Diana; with the bands  
Of 
q A Laconian city.  Pharis, Cythereian 
r A city dedicated to Venus, for the abundance of Doves breeding there.  Mess, where  
The turtles breed: 
s A Laconian mountain dedicated to Bacchus.  Tayget's troops were there;  
And olive-bearing 
t A Laconian river, near whose banks they exercised their bodies with scourge, he being first crowned, that first have whipped themselves to death.  Eurot's; 
u Mercury the precedent of these solemn g●mes.  Arcas trains  
These men i'th' moistened sands, inspires their veins  
With rage, and naked valour: hence their spirits  
Are quickened: 'tis esteemed their greatest merits  
To fall i'th' bed of honour: Parents joy  
At their son's Fates, persuading them to die:  
And when the round bewail the striplings fall,  
Mother's triumph at their crowned funeral.  
Their fingers hold the reins, and two darts, tied  
In a slip knot; they never use to hide  
Their shoulders, in a rough coat-armour dressed:  

w Swans feathers, into which shape Leda was changed.  Ledaean feathers dance upon their crest.  
These were not all the Prophet's troops, a few  
Marched out of wanton 
x A city of Pelopo●ese watered with the river Alpheus.  Elis; with the crew  
Which dwell in 
y The valle●, where the Olympic games were celebrated.  Pisa's vale, and do descry  
(Fair 
z Enamoured of the Nymph or river Arethusa, he creeps through the Sea to Sicily after her, and there springs again.  Alpheus) how thou stealest to Sicily,  
Not tainted with the Ocean: their fields  
Are furrowed with a thousand chariot wheels:  
Their steeds are broke tothth' wars: This is the glory  
O'th' Nation, by long custom: Since the story  
O'th' 
a O Evomaus, whose chariotteer Myrtilus being corrupted by Pelops, he lost his daughter, kingdom, and life.  Tyrants melting axletree. They chew  
Their frothy curbs, foam does ploughed sand bedew.  
And thou, Parthe●opeus, yet unskilled  
In arms, (thy soul's so much with glory filled)  
Leadest on Arcadian troops, though 'twas unknown  
To thy stern 
b Atalanta,  Mother: She by chance was gone  
To hunt in distant chaces, and the bleak  
Lycean deserts; nor might he partake  
Of those rough sports; None venturing to the place  
Of danger, had so sweet a beauteous face.  
Nor is true courage wanting, if his age  
Did lend him strength, and power to engage.  
What sylvan Deity, or Nymph that's named  
From 
c As the Potamides and Napaeae.  spring or 
c As the Potamides and Napaeae.  shrubs, was not by him inflamed?  
When i'th' Maenalian shades, his tender feet  
Pressed down the willing grass, Diana ' did see't  
They say, and pardoned her 
d Atalanta Diana's votary, married to Meleager, to whom she bore Partbe●opaeus: the breach of whose vow Diana would have revenged, if the child's beauty had not stopped her.  companion;  
Fitting 
e Cr●tensian where they were made, as the quivers for the same reason are called Amyclaean.  Dictaean darts, and quivers on  
His shoulders. He inflamed with the bold joys  
Of war, leaps out, burning to hear the noise  
Of arms, and trumpets; to besmear his hair  
With warlike dust; that captive steeds may bear  
Him back; ashamed o'th' wood; ashamed to spy  
His arrows, yet without the guilty die  
Of humane blood. He shines before the rest  
In gold and purple clothes: his loins are dressed  
In loose robes, girt with Spanish belts. He wore  
In's 
f Having never yet seen the wars.  untried shield, the Calydonian boar  
His Mother slew: On's left hand his bow twangs,  
On's back plated with mail, a quiver hangs,  
Filled with Cydonean arrows, beautified  
With amber and with Eastern pearls beside:  
He rides a lofty horse, whose swiftness wins  
O'th' fearful dear, trapped with two Lynx's skins:  
Now startling at the weight of's Masters arms,  
Whose blushing cheeks to all men's eyes are charms.  
You old Arcadians, borne before the 
g They thought the Moon was daughter to Pallas, as the Sun was son to Hyperion, borne 〈…〉  Moon  
Or stars, trooped under him: Fame says, as soon  
As wandering 
h The Goddess of the earth, taken for the earth itself.  Tellus felt men's footsteps, ye  
Fetched from rough stocks of 
i Before the use of cottages they sheltered their young childen in hollow trees, who by that means were conceived to be borne from them.  trees, your progeny:  
Nor bounds of fields, nor house, nor towns were yet,  
Nor ties of wedlock: Oakes and Baytrees get  
Young boys, and girls; the shady ashes breed:  
And Elms drop down a race of humane seed.  
These wondered as they say to see the 
k Being born before the Sun or Moon.  light  
Have changes, and to be eclipsed with night:  
And gazing after Titan's setting ray,  
Wept, and despaired to see another day.  
High 
l All Arcadian Cities, the first is seated very high.  Maenalus has naked streets, they come  
From the 
l All Arcadian Cities, the first is seated very high.  Parthenian grove, 
l All Arcadian Cities, the first is seated very high.  Rhipe gives some,  
And 
l All Arcadian Cities, the first is seated very high.  Rhodope, and cold 
l All Arcadian Cities, the first is seated very high.  Enispe too:  
Not 
m An Arcadian town, where Pan was worshipped.  Tegea, not 
n The Mountain where Maia brought forth Mercury.  Cyllene's absent, who  
Glories i'th' winged God: with these the wood  
Where 
o So named from Aleus the Arcadian King that built it.  Alea Minerva's Temple stood.  
Swift 
p Two Arcadian rivers: the daughter of the last, Daphne, was like to have been ravished by Apollo.  Cliton likewise, and clear 
p Two Arcadian rivers: the daughter of the last, Daphne, was like to have been ravished by Apollo.  Ladon came,  
Almost thy Father-in-law great Phoeb ', the same  
Did they, which on Lampia's white cliffs dwell:  
And 
q The pool that feeds Styx with water.  Pheneus, thought to send black Styx to hell.  

r An Arcadian Mountain, where Cibele had her howling Sacrifices.  Azan, that howls as loud as 
s Where jove had his.  Ida, joins  
With the 
t The Arcadian City, where Lycaon reigned.  Parrhasians; and ye 
u A Mountain of Arcadia, where jove in the shape of Diana ravished Calisto.  Nona●rines,  
Borders beloved of quiver-bearing jove,  
Whilst ye beheld, and smiled to see his Love.  
Sheepstored 
w An Arcadian City full of sheep.  Orchonienos, wild 
x A promontory stored with wild beasts.  Cynosure  
Came to the rendevouz; these heats allure  
Th' 
y The country named from the commander AEphitus.  AEphitian borders; 
z An Arcadian city.  Psophis high; with these  
The mountains join, made known by 
a Where he performed two of his miraculous labours.  Hercules,  
Both monster-bearing 
b Which bred the boar.  Erymanthus, and  
Tinkling 
c Whence the Birds were driven by beating on the brazen Cymbal which Pallas gave him.  Stymphalus. These, were of one land,  
Arcadians all: But differ in their hue:  
Some, their bowed stocks of Paphian Myrtle show,  
And fight with shepherd's crooks: One's armed with's bow,  
Tother with's smoak-dried club: this guards his brow  
With's helmet: Th'other keeps his Country's right  
In his 
d Either because used by Mercury, or by Castor and Pollux.  Arcadian hat. This would affright  
With the stern visage of a yawning Bear,  
Thrown o'er his head; yet though these forces were  
Sworn servants to the God of war, they had  
From neighbouring Mycenae received no aid:  
Their deadly 
e When Atreus feasted Thy●stes with the limbs of his own sons, at which the Sun was said to startle, the revenge of which caused much bloodshed after.  feast▪ and midday's suns affright  
Was then, those brethren too began to fight.  
By this time Atalanta heard, that all  
Arcadia made her son their General  
Tothth' wars: Her knees shake, down her arrows sink  
Beside her: O'er the rocks, and steepest brink  
Of rivers, swifter than the winged wind  
She flies; her clothes girt up, her hair behind  
Dishevelled, scatters with each blast. So when  
A Tiger robbed of's whelps, starts from her den,  
Pursuing th' horseman. When with downcast eyes,  
And pale, he stood before her: Son (she cries)  
What has begot this furious desire?  
How comes thy tender breast thus set on fire?  
Canst thou train men for war? canst thou endure  
The burden of the field, and walk secure  
Through push of pike? Though, would thy strength were such!  
Of late I saw thee, with thy javelin, touch  
An angry boar? (with fear I saw thee) when  
Thou sunk'st upon thy knees half down; and then  
Had not I plied my darts, where had been now  
My Champion for the wars? this polished bow,  
And arrows cannot help thee there, nor yet  
This dappled steed thou trust'st to: They are great  
Achievements: Child, thou scarce canst pay the due  
To a Nymphs bed, as yet. The Omen's true:  
I wondered why Diana's Temple shook  
Of late, and she frowned with a downcast look;  
The offerings fell down from the Temple's roof:  
My bow grew slack upon't, no wound gave proof  
Of skill, from my dull fingers. Stop thy rage  
Till thou art grown to a more settled age:  
Till thy fair cheeks are shaded; and thou'st lost  
Thy woman's face: what thou desirest most,  
A sword, and arms, I'll give thee then; and vow  
A mother's tears shan't stop thee longer: Now  
Uncase at home. Will you his march endure  
Arcadians? Sprung from trees or quarries sure!  
More would she: But her son, and th' Captains spread  
About, speak comfort, and assuage her dread:  
The trumpets sound: whilst her embraces are  
Scarce stopped, she leaves him to Adrastus' care.  
On t'other side Cadmus his 
f The Thebans.  Martial brood  
Vexed with their General's Furies, frighted stood  
With no small outcry: (for they were alarmed,  
That Greece against them all her strength had armed:)  
And though ashamed o'th' King and's cause, prepare  
Slowly their force: None had an edge tothth' war;  
Greedy to clasp on's back his father's shield,  
Or trim his warlike steed: (such joys o'th' field  
The Soldier's use;) dejected they appear,  
Filled with no rage, or valour, but with fear.  
One mourns for's bedrid Parent, whom he leaves  
As discontent as he: Another grieves,  
To part with's tender wife, or wretched son  
In's lap: The 
g Mars.  quarrelling God inflamed none.  

h The Th●ba●● walls raised by him being now decayed.  Amphion's stately towers, burying their pride  
In their own ruins, show a naked side  
Worn out with age: And 
i The wall raised by Music once, was now repaired by inferior workmen, in which respect it is said to be de●f.  base, dull workmanship  
Patches that wall, which once to heaven did skip  
By sacred Music. Yet war breathes his rage  
O'er the Boeotian Cities, who engage  
Not to protect the treacherous King's estate,  
So much, as to assist a neighbour state.  
He's like a ravenous wolf, that preying stood  
O'er well-fed sheep, glutted with clottered blood;  
His bristled chaps with bloody wool besmeared,  
And yawning he returns from's fold, afeared  
Lest th' herdsman, finding it, pursue; he stairs  
About, and flies from his own guilty fears.  
Disturbing fame begets fresh cause of doubt:  
One says, the Grecian horse quarter about  

k A hilly country in Achaia.  Asopis banks; 
l A Boeotian mountain dedicated to Bacchus.  Cithaeron's plund'red, cries  
Another, so's 
m A neighbour mountain to Thebes.  Theumeson a third replies.  
Guarded 
n A Boeotian City, where a continual garrison is kept.  Platea too, last night 'twas told  
Burnt with their watchlights. Every man was bold  
To say, he saw the 
o Several omens, which the affrighted people fancied to themselves.  Tyrian statues sweat;  
Dirce run blood, Sphinx in her craggy seat  
Began to talk again; new monstrous broods:  
Another fright too startled all their bloods.  
Th'inspired 
p His chief Priestesse.  Queen of Bacchus silvane train,  
Runs from Cithaeron's top, down to the plain:  
Scattering her 
q The mystical vans, in which they put his oblations.  baskets; and with sparkling eyes  
Shakes here and there her branched torch. Her cries  
Fill the amazed streets: Powerful 
r Bacchus from Nisa where he was fostered.  Nisaean Father  
Which hat'st thy native Country, and hadst rather  
Shake warlike 
s A Thracian mount, where the Orgies were celebrated.  Ismarus, in the frozen North,  
With headed 
t Wreathed about with Ivy, that they might wound the more closely.  levy Javelins: Or call forth  
Thy spreading vines t'oretop 
u A Thracian King, who to prevent his subjects drunkenness, cut down all the vines: but in a distraction cut off his own legs.  Lycurgus' head:  
Or rage through 
w An Indian river, near which Bacchus●rected ●rected hsi columns.  Ganges, or the latest bed  
Of blushing 
x With a puissant Army of women he conquered all the East.  Tethys; the triumphant King  
O'th' East; or come forth gilded from 
y An Asian river, having golden sands, where Bacchus had a Temple.  Hermus' spring:  
But we thy offspring, whose devotion's paid  
To thee, (our 
z The harmless arms used in the Bacchanals.  Country weapons being laid  
Aside;) now wars, and tears, and frights must own;  
And brethren's madness, for an unjust Crown.  
Let Bacchus fix me, in eternal frost,  
Or beyond 
a A Northern hill parting Thrace from Scythia.  Caucasus where the armed host  
Of 
b These use to fight with a dolorous noise called Barritus.  Amazonians howl, before I'll trace  
The monstrous Generals, and their wicked race.  
Yet thou compel'st— Another 
c Such as the Bacchaes were postest with.  rage to Thee  
Bacchus I 
d When she was initiated into his Orgies.  vowed. Two 
e Parabolically of the two Brethren Etheocles and Polynices.  equal bulls I see  
Push at each other, both of grace alike,  
●oth o'th' same breed: with angry horns they strike  
●t one another's fronts; and cruelly  
●n one another in their rage they die.  
●ut 
f Etheocles who began the quarrel with Tydeus, und refused his brother's copartnership.  thou art worst; thou art most stained with blood,  
Who wouldst alone enjoy thy Grandsires' food,  
●he grass o'th' common field: Ill nurtured cattle!  
●ow fiercely you maintain a bloody battle!  
whilst a new 
g Creon who reigned after the death of the brethren.  Captain gains your pastures by it:  
●his said, she's pale, and Bacchus left her quiet.  
But th' haunted King, now sinking under's fears,  
And ill at ease, to ask advise o'th' years  
And knowing blindness of 
h A Prophet blinded by juno, but enlightened by jove.  Tiresias, went:  
Men doubtful do't:) he seeks the God's intent  
Not by large 
i The several ways of divination.  sacrifices, or the flight  
Of birds, or entrails breathing out the right;  
●ark 
k Of the riddling Tripos.  answers, 
l Casting of Figures used by Mathematicians.  Figures guided by the skies,  
Nor by the 
m By the dividing of which the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prophesied.  smoke which o'er the Altar flies;  
●ut tells them, how the Ghosts called out, appear  
●rom the deep gates of death: and does prepare  
●'th ' royal presence, hellish sacrifice  
And hidden rites; beneath that bank that lies  
Where 
n A Boeotian river emptying his channel ●nto the Ocean.  Ismene meets the sea; torn entrails, grass,  
Sulphur, and many charms do cleanse the place.  
An ancient wood, decayed by age there grew,  
Whose uncroped bough's, the Sunbeams never knew.  
No winter's flaws could blast it, it did fear  
No Southern winds, nor storms from th' Arctic 
o The Northern pole, where the Bear-star is placed.  bear.  
Beneath were quiet shades, which did affright  
With horrid silence, and pale glimpse o'th' light.  
Nor wants this grove a Deity, for there  
Latona's worshipped; every tree does bear  
Her image; pitch-trees, cedars, oaks beside  
With sacred darkness did the Goddess hide.  
Her unseen arrows twang here; dogs resort  
To nightly howl, when she leaves the Court  
Of her 
p Pluto, in whose kingdom she is called Hecate, as here Diana.  infernal Uncle, and in place  
Of what she was, puts on Diana's face.  
But when the hills have tired her, and the height  
O'th' Summer Sun, does pleasant sleep invite;  
Here, round about her, she her darts does stick,  
And on her quiver rests her stretched-out neck.  
Without, extends the pregnant 
q Where Cadmus sowed the Serpent's teeth which converted to Giants.  Martial field  
Of Cadmus; he was daring bold that tilled  
That ground, and furrowed first the putrid filth,  
After the 
r The Giants which slew one another.  Brothers fought, i'th' bloody tilth.  
At noonday still, and i'th' close shades of night  
Th' unhappy Earth strange tumults does excite;  
When the black 
s Their Ghosts would quarrel still.  Giants to vain combats rise,  
The trembling ploughman from his tillage flies;  
And frighted cattle to their stalls do get.  
Here ('cause the place, for Stygian rites was fit,  
And soils made fat with streams of blood, do please)  
Th' old Prophet calls for dark-fleeced sheep; with these  
Black-hided herds: From every flock was sent  
The fairest head: Whilst 
t The fountain where they used to drink.  Dirce did lament,  

u The mountain where the used to feed.  Cithaeron's sad, and 
w Either with the Bacchanalian shouts, or the former lowing of cattle.  th' echoing valleys under  
At their new 
x Hearing no bleating of sheep, nor lowing of oxen as formerly.  silence did begin to wonder.  
Then 
y Being blind of his eyes.  groping with his hand, their horns he crowns  
With flowery garlands, and i'th' noted bounds  
O'th' wood, 
z The manner of infernal sacrifices.  large Cups of wine at first he powers  
●'th ' trenched Earth, nine times; with milk, and showers  
Of honey, mixed with Ghost-alluring gore:  
And fills, till the dry Earth could drink no more.  
Then the sad Priest rolls trunks of trees, and bids  
Three fires be made to Hecate, besides  
As many more tothth' 
a The three Furies.  Sisters borne of Hell.  
Thy heap of pinetrees, Pluto, did excel  
I'th' air from under 
b As all internal sacrifices were placed.  ground: near which there stood  
Proserpina's less pile; boughs of 
c Used at funerals, and Stygian sacrifices, for the weeping boy of that name.  Cypress wood  
Wreathed in on every side. And now they 
d The method in sacrificing.  share  
Their lofty Crowns, and place their 
e From hence called immolation.  salt-cakes there:  
Strait fall the cattle on their 
f Which is the victimation.  knives; whose blood  
Received in chargers, virgin 
g Daughter to the Prophet Tiresias.  Mantho stood  
To offer: then thrice rounding every fire,  
(As she had learned from her religious Sire)  
She brings their quivering Guts, and entrails reaking,  
Kindling the boughs: when flames he felt, were breaking  
Out of the crackling leaves, and the sad pile  
Did blaze (for's cheeks grew hot, and vapours fill  
His hollow eyeholes:) he cries out: (His voice▪  
Made the fire wave, and tremble at the noise.)  
Ye infernal seats, the Court of hungry death,  
Which men do fear, and thou whom Ghosts beneath  
Attend, with plagues for every guilty soul,  
And dost the lower Region control,  
More 
h Pluto brother to jupiter and Neptune.  stern than thy two brothers; At my call▪  
Open the gates tothth' silent groves, and all  

i The same with Proserpi●a, the Queen of Hell.  Persephone's waist: Call out the crew, that's hid  
I'th' hollow night: Send Charon back to guide  
His full boat over Styx. Come 
k Both good and bad.  all together:  
Trace back more paths than one. Let 
l Brother to Mercury, and copartner in that office.  Perseus sever  
The just Elysian souls, and th'hated 
m Mercury.  God  
Conduct them hither with his powerful rod.  
On tother side, tothth' guilty, (which exceed  
In hell, and which are most of Cadmus' breed,)  
Tisiphone, shaking thrice thy snake-haires, show  
The day light, guiding them with flaming 
n Of which venomous tree, the Furies framed their torches.  yew:  
And let not Cerb'rus with his heads affright  
The Ghosts away, so long deprived of light.  
This said, the Sire, and the Phoebeian maid  
Prepare attentive souls; no whit afraid,  
Because inspired; only Etheocles  
Trembling, takes hold o'th' conjuring Prophets fleece  
Sometimes, and sometimes of his hands, or eyes,  
And doubtful would break of the Sacrifice.  
So th' huntsman strengthning's valour, does expect  
A Lion roused with noise, within the tract  
Of the Getulian wood, and grasped his dart  
In's sweaty palm; yet fear congeals his heart;  
His trembling steps look, where, how great he is;  
His roaring marked; blind Care each noise does prize.  
Tiresias now, seeing no Ghost appeared,  
Says; witness Gods, for whom this fire's prepared;  
And we with our 
o The proper instrument for infernal sacrifices.  left hands, full blows did pay  
To the trenched Earth. I cannot brook delay.  
Am I your Priest chasheered? and will you go,  
If a Thessalian hag command you so,  
B'Inchantments? Or shall trembling hell look pale,  
If 
p A Scythian City famous for Medea.  Colchian witches, armed with poison, shall  
Provoke it? we are slighted: if you have  
No mind to raise a body from the grave,  
Or empty Urns of their enclosed bones,  
Polluting 
q By Necromancy.  Gods of heaven, and hell at once:  
Or mangle bloodless faces, taking out  
The putrid nerves of dead men: Do not flout  
My weaker years, I wish you; don't despise  
The cloud that hangs upon my darkened eyes.  
We can be angry too; we know, what e'er  
You dread to hear, or know: Did not I fear  

r Apollo, the sun being their chief deity; the other but like stars, receiving their influence from him.  Thymbraeus, and the World's first 
s Nature taught them there must be one supreme. Some think, they esteemed none other for a God, but expressed his several attributes under the feigned name of their other Deities.  Mover, who  
Must not be 
t His name was ineffable.  known, I could vex Hecate too.  
But I forbear: my quiet age denies.  
For you— Phoebeian Mantho strait replies,  
Father, you're heard: The sapless ghosts do come,  
Elysian deeps are opened; Earth's large womb  
Is rend; dark shades, black hell gapes; 
u Rivers of hell.  Acheron  
Casts sulphurous sands up: smoky 
u Rivers of hell.  Phlegeton  
Vomits black flames, about his ford: And 
w The infernal river dividing hell from the Elysian fields.  Styx  
Flowing between, forbids the Ghosts to mix.  
I see the pale 
x Pluto.  King sitting on his throne;  
About, his servant Furies wait upon  
His dire commands. The dismal bed is seen,  
And severe chambers of th' infernal 
y Proserpina.  Queen:  
Black death sits in the watch-towre, numbering o'er  
The subjects of his silent Master. More  
Appear, whose lots the 
z Minos, named from Gortyna, a Cretian city which he governed.  Cretian Judge does cast  
In's 
a An earthen pot, in which the judges put their effragies.  urn: exacting truth of all that's past,  
Throughout their lives, too strictly; to proclaim  
What plagues they ever gained. Why should I name  
Hell's monsters? Scylla's? Centaurs, which in vain  
Do rage? or th' Gyans fett'red in a chain  
Of solid adamant? or say, where stands  
Aegaeons' lean 
b His vast body is contracted into a thin Ghost.  ghost with his hundred hands?  
No, says her Sire, my age's strength and guide,  
Don't speak of that: Who does not know beside  
Oth' rolling 
c Sisyphus.  stone? or the deceitful 
d Of Tantalus.  flood?  
Or 
e For endeavouring to ravish Latona.  Tytius' whence the Vultures peck their food?  
Or blind 
f For seeking to embrace juno.  Ixion on his restless wheel?  
I led by Hecate, when good blood did swell  
My veins, saw those close seats; ere I was blind,  
Or had my eyes by 
g Who gave him a double proportion of judgement in requital of his eyes, which were struck blind by juno.  jove fixed in my mind.  
Rather the Greek and Theban souls, call hither;  
And sprinkling 
h With which the ghosts were thought to be delighted, because it cooled their torments.  milk four times, command the other  
To leave this dismal shade: then tell th' attire  
And shapes th' appear in, with their hot desire  
Of shedding blood; which nation vaunts it best;  
And teach my blindness daughter, all the rest.  
She does obey, and uses Charms, by which  
The Ghosts are scattered and convened: the Witch  
Medea, 'bate her 
i For they esteemed conjuration of a higher nature, the Virtue proceeding from the Gods.  faults, did so before;  
And 
k Making Ulysses his companions think she had transformed them into swine.  Circe juggling in th' AEaean shore.  
Then to her priestly Father thus she speaks,  
First Cadmus with his ghastly visage breaks  
Through the red lake; near him Harmione keeps,  
From both whose crowns, a double serpent creeps:  
The Giants, 
l Born of the Dragon's teeth which was consecrated to Mars.  Mars his brood, about him stand,  
Whose age was but 
m For instantly they destroyed one another.  one day: Each hath his hand  
Upon his sword, each does regard his arms,  
●pposing, rushing, plotting others harms,  
●ith 
n The ghosts quarrelled as if they were still alive.  Live-mens' rage; Nor is their drink so good  
●'th ' 
o The blood flowing there would not satisfy them.  furrows, they thirst one another's blood.  
●ext come their 
p Autonoc, Ino, Semele, Agave.  daughters, for their 
q Actaeon, Melicerta, P●●theus.  Children crying:  
●ereft 
r Whose son Actaeon was transformed to a hart by Diana.  Autonoe; breathless 
s With which her husband Athamas slew his son Learchus.  Ino, spying  
●he 
s With which her husband Athamas slew his son Learchus.  bow still, offering her sweet babe the teat:  
●nd Semele, with 
t Fearing Ioves lightning she defended her womb although she perished herself.  arms crossed o'er her great  
●nd pregnant womb. Then Agave with tears  
pursues her Pentheus, breaking th' 
u Which she used at the Orgies.  Ivy spears,  
Now dispossessed by th' God; she open lays  
Her bloody breast: He flies through desert ways  
Of Styx and Lethe; where his milder 
w Echion who would recompose his son, torn in pieces by his Mother Agave in her fury.  Father  
Weeps for him, and his s●atter'd limbs does gather.  
● know sad 
x Slain by his ●on Amphion and Zethus in revenge of their mother Au●iopa.  Lycus: 
y Son to AEolus, who supposing his wife and children were a Lioness and her whelps, slew Learchus, whose corpse afterward he bore upon his shoulders.  Athamas I know  
With's hands behind; on's shoulders he does throw  
His dead sons corpse. Nor hath 
z Actaeon transformed for seeing Diana naked.  Aristeus' son  
Changed yet his habit, or ill shape put-on:  
Antlets still arm his brows, and darts his hand;  
He kick's of's dogs, at's wounds which gaping stand.  
See, envious 
a Ta●talus his daughter who compared her off spring with Latona's.  Niobe following with her train,  
Recounts her 
b Her sons and daughters, slain by Apollo's revenge.  losses in a swelling strain:  
And not dejected, joys she has outgone:  
The 
c Who could inflict no more upon her in the grave, where she will curse them freely.  power o'th' Gods; now thinks her tongue's her own.  
While the unspotted maid sung thus t'her Sire,  
His hoary hairs raise up his garland higher  
Standing on end: and some thin blood does flow  
In's withered cheeks: on's staff he leans not now,  
Or's daughters hand, but standing bolt upright;  
Break off thy song, says he; I want no light:  
My clouds begin to scatter, the dark mist  
Breaks from mine eyes. Supreme Apollo, is't  
Thy spirit fills me? What I heard, I see.  
But mark ● the Grecian shadows pensive be,  
With downcast eyes: there frowning 
d Acrifius his tyrannical father.  Abas, and  
Mischievous 
e Who would have slain innocent Bellerophon.  Proetus, mild 
f Juno's first sacrificer  Phoroneus stand:  
With mangled 
g Whose limbs were presented in a fe●st to the Gods.  Pelops, and 
h In whose chariot race, thirteen were slain.  O Enomaus too,  
Besmeared with bloody sand: Their large tears do  
Bedew their cheeks: Hence I conceive, success  
Will crown the Thebans. But, what means this press  
Of fight 
i The Ghosts of the fifty Captains, which Tydeus before had slain.  souls (as arms and wounds discover)  
Showing their heads and breasts all blooded over,  
And hands lift up, with seeming cries? If I  
Mistake not they're those fifty: D'ont you spy  
Chronius, and Chromis, Phegeus, 
k Apollo's priest, as before.  Maeon too  
Graced with our bays? Be not enraged so  
Brave Captains. Think not mortal counsels durst  
Conspire your deaths: Th' hardhearted 
l The Destinies which spi● the thread of life.  sister's first  
Had spun your years: You have overpassed your pain;  
We must feel war, and Tydeus once again.  
This said, he drives away the Ghosts that stood  
With 
m Which shows they were Captains, with which they are appeased.  Chaplets crowned, and shows them offered blood.  
Laius stands on Cocytus' banks alone;  
Brought back to hell by 
n Mercury who by Ioves command had fetched him thence. Lib. 2.  Hermes: he squints on  
His wicked grandson (For he knew his look;)  
No draughts of blood, or other showers he 
o Refusing to be appeased by blood, milk or honey.  took,  
As th'other Ghosts; but breathes immortal hate.  
Tiresias strait leaps out. Thou, whom the State  
Of Thebes called their deserving General,  
Since whose death, no good day did ere befall  

p The founder of Thebes.  Amphion's towers; Thou, whose bloody slaughter  
Is full revenged in 
q The punishment of O Oedipus and his sons.  those which followed after,  
And Ghost appeased; Oh, whither dost thou fly?  

r O Oedipus w●ose eyes were out.  He whom thou hat'st, a lingering death doth die:  
And knocks now at hell's thresholds; daubing o'er  
His empty eye-holes, with black filth, and gore:  
Deprived of day: believe't, no death's so vile.  
Why then dost shun thy harmless Nephew? Smile  
On us: let this blood-offering suffice:  
And set this war's event before our eyes,  

s That so thou mayst affright us.  Angry, or 
t That so thou m●ist prepare us.  pitying. Then I'll make good  
Thy 
u Because he was murdered.  denied passage over Lethe's flood,  
In the desired 
w Charon's ferry-boat.  boat; and holy dust  
Shall cover thy pleased ashes; which I'll trust  
Tothth' care of Stygian Gods. These dignities  
Appease the Ghost, who moistning's 
x Either with the sacrificed blood or with tears.  cheeks, replies:  
Why, coaetanean 
y Tiresias living in L●ius's his time.  Priest, am I, by thee  
Raising the Ghosts, called to this Augury?  
And chosen first, to speak of chance to come?  
When thoughts of what's past, are too burdensome.  
Brave Nephews! (Fie for shame) must our advice  
Be asked? Bring to your hellish sacrifice  

z O Oedipus after he had killed his Father, married his Mother, on whom he begat these sons.  Him, him, whose falchion made his Father bleed,  
And to the womb that bore him, raised up seed.  
Who now the Gods, and the black Furies crew  
Doth 
a With curses on his sons.  tyre, and for the●e wars to us doth sue.  
But if I needs must sing such times as these,  
So far as 
b The Destinies and Furies, interrupted them in the middle of their Oracles.  Lachesis and 
b The Destinies and Furies, interrupted them in the middle of their Oracles.  Megaera please,  
I'll speak. War, war, vast troops on all sides finds:  
And fatal Mars spurs on the Grecian minds.  
These must expect Earth's 
c As Amphi●raus found, who was swallowed up alive.  monsters, darts from 
d As Capaneus did, who was struck dead by lightning.  heaven▪  
Brave deaths, to which, no funerals may be given▪  
byth' 
e Prohibiting any slain corpse to be buried, before the ghost was appeased.  Law: the victory, Thebes, will be thine own;  
Fear not; thy brother shan't enjoy thy Crown.  
But yet the Furies and that 
f Of murder and incest.  double sin,  
Backed with thy 
g Which appeared in both their destructions.  Father's curse, (woes me!) shall win,  
Midst the sharp swords; This said, he disappears,  
And's doubtful riddles left them full of fears.  
Mean, time cold 
h Where Hercules slew the vast Lion.  Nemea, and the thickets where  
Herculeses fame resounds, the quarters were  
Oth' Grecian regiments; who are greedy now  
To get 
i Theban, named from Cadmus the founder, who was a Sidonian.  Sidonian pillage; thinking how  
To rifle battered houses. Phoebus tell,  
Who turned their rage, how stopped, what cross befell  
Them in their journey. The reports of Fame  
Gives little light at first. Tired Bacchus came  
From warfare on tamed 
k Having conquered all the E●st.  AEmus, where he taught  
Armed 
l These with the Thracians were taught by him, the art of dressing a vineyard.  Geteses his Orgies, and two 
m Put for the  winters brought  
The top of snowy 
n Mountains formerly covered with snow now planted with Vines.  Othrys to look green:  
On 
n Mountains formerly covered with snow now planted with Vines.  Rhodope 
o Vines. Icarus was Bacchus' companion, slain by shepherds, who were drunk, with the wine which he had given them.  Icarian shades were seen.  
And now he drives his vine-spread Chariot, to  
His 
p Thebes where Semele lived.  mother's walls: unbridled Lynxes go  
On either hand, and 
q Beasts which use to be harnessed in Mars his chariot.  Tigers lick the foam  
●rom reins long steeped in wine. Behind do come  
Triumphing Priests, with spoils of cattle slain,  
Half slaughtered wolves, torn bears: Nor was this train  
More dull; for 
r The companions of Bacchus.  Anger, 
r The companions of Bacchus.  Fury, 
r The companions of Bacchus.  Courage, 
r The companions of Bacchus.  Fear,  
And fiery 
r The companions of Bacchus.  Heat still in extremes, was there;  
With stumbling 
r The companions of Bacchus.  steps, Tents like their 
s Vnfixed and tottering▪  King beside.  
But when he saw, a cloud of dust did hide  
Traced Nemea; and the sunbeams glistered bright  
Upon their steel, Thebes unprepared to fight:  
Moved at the sight (though pined in face and breast)  
The drums and trumpets, and still pipes he ceased,  
Whose divers tunes filled his astonished ears;  
Then thus he spoke: This Army here prepares:  
My ruin, and my Nations: Cruel Greece,  
(Thus raged he) and my 
t juno who angry with Semele counselled her to her own destruction.  stepdame plotted this.  
Could not my Mother's unjust 
u With which at jupiters' appearance she was burnt.  flames suffice?  
Could not the fires, which at my 
w Being untimely then borne, with the death of his mother.  birth did rise?  
And lightnings, which I felt myself? But must  
Cursed she, strike at the relics too, and dust  
Of Ioves lost Concubine? shall she destroy  
What's left of Thebes? I'll cheat them, to delay:  
Holla, Companions, haste to yonder plains.  
At's word, the harnessed 
x Named in our Poet from 〈…〉  Tigers raise their manes,  
And hurry strait tothth' field. It was the time,  
When the faint day perceived the Sun to climb  
Tothth' height of heaven; whilst little moisture filled  
Earth's chinks, and every grove the sky beheld.  
He calls the water-Nymphs, and thus begins  
Midst of their silent round: Ye rural Queens,  
The River's Deities, chief parts of my train,  
Perform the task we set: A while restrain  
The Grecian streams, and founts, and pools; and stop  
With loser sands, their winding channels, up:  
First Nemea's, whence they 'dvance against our towers:  
Let water fly tothth' bottom: all the powers  
O'th' Sun help on, (if you be willing) now  
In's height: the stars besides assist my vow:  
Erigones 
y The dogstar, once son to Erigone, who challenges a share in Bacchus from her father Icarus.  dog foams still: Go on with mirth,  
Creep cheerfully i'th' caverns of the earth:  
Hereafter to full streams I will invite you,  
And with choice offered presents will requite you:  
Bold hornefoot Satyrs night-thefts I'll forbid,  
And 
z Who being well liquored, used in th● night to ravish the Nymphs.  Fauns hot rapes: This said, a thin foam did  
Seem presently to overspread his mouth:  
And his green garlands moistures parched with drought.  
Strait, a dry thirst drains the 
a Grecian, named from King Inach●●  Inachian land,  
Streams ebb, on founts and lakes a scum does stand:  
Deep rivers now were paved with hardened mud,  
Earth pined; the corne-eares hanging downward, stood  
On withered stalks: The cattle cheated, roar  
On banks of rivers, where they swum before.  
So when 
b The great Egyptian river, whose overflowing makes the whol● Land fruitful.  Nile flows back to his mighty den,  
And's 
c His streams fed by the winter's showers.  winters food within his springs does pen,  
●ry valleys reak, and Aegypts' gaping ground  
●xpects to hear the watery Father's 
d The rivers Cataracts which fill all the land with noise.  sound;  
●ill at their prayer, he feeds the Pharian plain,  
●nd crownes that year with a rich crop again.  

e Rivers in nemea.  Lyrcaeus dries, and poisonous 
e Rivers in nemea.  Lerna, so  
●reat 
e Rivers in nemea.  Inachus, so does 
e Rivers in nemea.  Charadrus too,  
●hich casts up floating stones: and Erasine,  
●hat rests not in his channel; hither join  
smother Asterion: th' others used to creep  
through deserts, and disturb the shepherd's sheep.  
only 
f The fountain which Hysipyle showed to the Grecians▪  Langia feeds her silent waves  
〈◊〉 th' God's appointment, in her secret caves.  
Archimore's loss, had not yet made her own  
●is 
h For Langia was afterwards called Archemorus.  name, nor was the fame o'th' Goddess known:  
●et gliding through the wood in byways, she  
●eserves her streams: Great shall her glory be,  
●hen Grecian Peers in 
i Solemn 〈◊〉 performed b● the Grecians every three years in honour to Ar●morus.  Trieterick games,  
●rowne sad 
k First fled from her Country, and now required as a sa●fice by angry Lycurgus to his son's ghost.  Hysipyles, and 
l Called afterward Arche●rus because he was the first slain in these wars.  Opheltes Names.  
Now, (tortured thus with heat) they could not bear  
●heir burning shields, nor their straight brest-plates wear.  
●or were their mouths, or throats alone inflamed,  
●ut inward heat their panting hearts had tamed.  
〈◊〉 shrivelled veins, no troubled blood did run,  
●ut clots to their dry ribs: Earth parched by th' Sun  
●reaths out hot clouds of dust; no showers of some  
●rop from the horses mouths, which champ upon  
●ry bits, and thrust their curbed tongues out, obeying  
●or law, nor riders; but inflamed, run neighing  
●bout the field. The King sends scouts to spy  
Abroad, if all the Grecian pools were dry;  
If m Ainimone had moisture: But, in vain;  
Heat drunk up all, nor was there hopes of rain.  
Like sunburnt Africks' sandy deserts, and  
Unclouded 
n A City dividing AEthiopia and Egypt where it never raines.  Siene, so appears the land.  
Wand'ring at last (as Bacchus had designed)  
Among the Woods, Hypsipyle they find  
O'th' sudden, sad, yet beauteous: In her face  
Shined Majesty, though none of her own race,  
But young 
o Lycurgus, the Grecian King's son to whom the was nurse.  Opheltes hung upon her breast,  
Lycurg's unhappy son; she poorly dressed,  
With hair neglected, showed a grace beyond  
The power of grief. Adrastus then, astoned,  
Spoke thus: Great Sylvan Goddess, (for thy brow  
Denies thy mortal stock, who pleasant now  
Under heaven's fire, seekest for no waters) aid  
A neighbouring people: Whether once a maid  
Of Diana's train, she bade thee turn a bride;  
Or from the sky, some heavenly Love did slide  
To make thee fruitful: (for to Grecian beds  
The King of heavens no 
x As to Io, Danac, etc.  stranger:) See the heads  
Of fainting troops. We thought by th' sword to raze  
Proud Thebes tothth' ground; but our weak fate gives place  
To tedious thirst now, which infeebles all  
Our spirits, and tired bodies do enthral.  
Help our weak state; if troubled stream thou know,  
Or muddy pool: There's nothing is too low  
For our condition: Thou art sued to, 
y Honoured now, in the place of jove, or AEolus.  for  
The winds and rain: Our scattered strength restore;  
Raise our disheartened breasts with valour; so  
May thy sweet babe, with prosperous fortune grow.  
jove grant a safe return; how great a prey  
Shall be thy offering then? I will repay  
Whole Theban herds; as many 
z Their hopes promising every particular Soldier a spoil.  gifts as men:  
This 
a Honouring it, for the benefit, which they found in it.  grove shall shine with thy great Altar then.  
This said, heat does his speech i'th' midst control,  
And his dry tongue cannot express his soul:  
So gaped they all for breath, and looked aghast.  
The 
b Hypsipile daughter to Thoas King of Lemnos.  Lemnian answers with eyes doweward cast;  
Although from 
c Being grandchild to Bacchus by the father's side.  heaven my pedegrees derived,  
How seem I so to you? Would I had grieved  
No more than mortals. Here, robbed of mine 
d Her two sons, which after in this story find her.  own,  
You see me tend a Nurse-child: 'Tis unknown  
Who dandles mine, or suckles them. Yet I  
Had once a Crown, and royal Sire. But why  
Discourse I this to you? And stop you thus  
Tired, from your wished-for waters? Follow us;  
Come on: perhaps Langia still can show  
Continued streams i'th' ford: she's used to flow,  
When the hot- 
e The summer Tropic.  Crab does entertain the sun,  
And th' dog-star shines. With that, she layeth down  
Her clinging babe on the next turf of grass,  
(So the Fates pleased) lest he might stop her pace,  
As she led on the greeks: And heaping flowers  
Under's unwilling head, she stops his showers  
Of tears, with her sweet Lullabies. Even so  
Did 
f The mother of the Gods.  Cybele, when she bade her Curates go,  
And dance about young jove: they 
g The Priests either feared Satur's anger, or foresented the majesty of jove.  trembling strike  
Their Cymbals; Ide does Echo with the shrike.  
But the young child laid in the lofty grass,  
On earth's green lap, grovelling upon his face,  
Sometimes beats down the willing spires, and then  
Grown hungry, cries for's teat, and laughs again;  
Or prattling words which quarrel with his lips,  
Admires the whistling noise o'th' woods; or eclipse  
What's next his reach, or gapes for air: Thus free  
From unknown harms, securely wandreth he.  
So did young Mars in the 
h Thracian, from whence Mars had his original.  Odrysian snow,  
The 
i Mercury.  winged God on Maenalus did so:  
So young untired Apollo did before  
Tread on 
k The Island where he was borne, since called Delos.  Ortygia, creeping by the shore.  
They break through shrubs and shady byways: som●  
Inclose their guide; the rest behind her come,  
And crowd her on: She treads the middle ground,  
With no small speed. And now the Vale does sound  
With the near stream, which with a warbling noise  
Does fill their ears: There, in the Van, with joys  
The standard-bearer cries; Hark, waters roar;  
The Army Echoes, Waters: So, byth' shore  
O'th' 
l Named from Ambracia, a City of Epire, a Country of Greece.  Grecian Sea, the boatswain shouting stand  
Byth' oars, when th' Master has discovered land:  
And th'Earth against them echoes to their cry,  
When worshipped Phoeb ', shows 
m A promontory o● the Epirotick Sea.  Leucas to their eye.  
All rush into the ford at once: the first  
And last could make no difference; equal thirst  
Could not distingiush any. Steeds do enter  
Harnessed i'th' Chariots; loaden horses venture  
With men and Arms: The whirlpools swallow some,  
Stones trip up others: No respect; or room  
Is made for Kings o'erthrown: No help to save  
A crying friend: The foaming waters have  
No rest far from the fount. Even now the flood  
●as pure, and clear tothth' bottom; now the mud  
stirred up defiles it: Then they break the bank;  
●read down the grass: Their thirst though quenched, they drank  
●his puddle water still. You'd think they are  
●ighting a battle; think, that open war  
●aged now i'th' channel, or some City were  
●aken and sacked by the proud Conqueror.  
And one o'th' Captains in the midst o'th' flood  
Begins thus: Nemea, thou most springing wood,  
● mansion fit for 
n Where he was worshipped, and Lycurgus' father to Archemorus was his Priest.  jove; as dangerous now  
As Herc'les found thee, when he broke in two  
The 
o The Lion which he slew there.  monsters crested neck, and pressed his tough  
●roud soul in his swollen limbs: Be it enough,  
That hitherto malicious winds did blow  
Upon thy people's enterprise. And oh  
Thou 
p See the reason, Lib. 2.  horned spring, of this eternal river,  
●ntam'd by th' Sun, flow joyful, swelling ever;  
●rom whatsoever house thy cold head flows:  
●or neither hoary winter lends thee 
q For those rivers which were fed by rain or snow were dried up.  snows;  
Nor th' 
r The rainbow.  Bow pours streams, stolen from another spring;  
Nor watery Plyads, clouds to feed thee, bring:  
Thou runnest, thine own, unconquered by the stars.  
Not either 
s One in Lycia, the other in Troas.  Xanthus, nor Phoeb's t Ladon dares  
Compare with thee, nor threatening 
u A Thessalian City, near which the Centaurs inhabited.  Sperchius', nor  
Monstrous 
w Where Hercules killed Nessus.  Lycorme: In peace, and clouds of war,  
●le celebrate thy praise at sacred Feasts.  
Next Jove's thy honour. Welcome but thy guests  
From war with joy; open kind streams again  
T'our weary limbs: Own thy defended train.   

Argument. Lib. V. Statii Thebaidos.  
After their thirst was quenched, Hypsip'les story  
Is asked by King Adrastus; She, though sorry,  
Replies: I'm borne a Lemnian, Thoas' daughter;  
Where Venus, by Polixo's mouth, breathed slaughter  
To all our males; and all, but Thoas, feel  
Our swords: Him, Bacchus guides: The Argo keel  
Touch here, in a storm; Their landing's stopped, before  
We knew them; then received: Two sons I bore  
To Jason: They depart: I'm banished. Here  
A serpent killed Opheltes: Cap'neus' spear  
Dispatched him: She laments: Lycurgus tried  
Her death; they guard her: Th'infant's deified.  
THeir thirst now quenced i'th' river, roiled with mud,  
The banks were broke, whilst they drank down the flood:  
The metalled horse prance fiercer, in the plain;  
The foot do shout; men's souls revived again:  
So did their rage, and wishes; as if fire  
Mixed with the stream, had kindled their desire  
To bloody war. In rank and file they're placed,  
And ordered strictly; as they were listed last  
Under their leaders, they are bid advance.  
And now the first dust raised; the sunbeams glance  
Through the thick woods, upon their Arms. So when  
Hoarse shoals of crane's come from 
a A colour made of the spume of the sea baked on the sands.  white 
b On whose warm banks they had wintered.  Nile again,  
When winters over, where warm Egypt had  
Defended them; they crossed the main, and 
c Being so great a shoal.  shade  
Both Sea and Land: The untract air does hear  
Their gagling flight: Now Northern 
d Which in Thrace are usual.  storms they bear;  
Swim in thawed streams, on bleak 
e A Thracian mountain.  Haeme summering.  
Adrastus here, encircled with a ring  
Of Nobles, under an old ash did stand▪  
Resting on Polynices' Spear, his hand,  
And spoke thus: Thou, who hast the glory, that  
So many troops to thee do owe their fate,  
(An honour worthy of heaven's Sovereign King)  
Tell us (since we stand quickened by thy spring)  
Thy stock, or land: derived from what star?  
Thy Father: yet some Godhead can't be far.  
Though fortune's fled, thy blood does Nobler flow,  
And Majesty shines in thy afflicted brow.  
The Lemnian sighs, and shedding modest tears,  
She answers: General, you renew my cares,  
And rub my wounds, to speak o'th' Furies, and  

f Where the women enraged by Venus, who was neglected in their Sacrifices, slew all the Males.  Lemnos, and Genial beds, with weapons stained;  
And all our Males slain with accursed steel:  
The horrid fact strikes terror: now I feel▪  
Cold Furies at my heart. Oh Caitiffs, thus  
Enraged! oh night! oh Sire! 'Twas I, (ne'er 
g As if she were stained with her Nations crimes.  blush  
For your kind guide:) 'Twas 
h She saved her Father Thoas, who alone escaped the destruction.  I alone that freed  
My rescued Father. But these evils need  
No such long Preface: And your arms control,  
With the great resolutions of your soul:  
This may suffice: ay Thoas' daughter, called  
Hypsip'le, 
i The Lemnian women offended at her mercy showed to her Father would have slain her; but she avoiding them fell into the hands of Pirates who sold her to Lycurgus, as appears afterward.  serve Lycurgus now enthralled.  
This does possess their souls: and now she shines  
More glorious, and seems fit for such 
k Of preserving a whole Army from ruin.  designs:  
Then, all would know her chance: Adrastus first  
Exhorts her thus: Come on, report the worst  
Of their base enterprise; thy praise; their grief;  
How there deposed, thou soughtest here for relief;  
(Our Van does march before: for in the wood  
O'regrowne with shrubs and briers, 'tis not good  
To pass in a full body:) 'Tis some rest  
In misery, to have our griefs expressed.  
Th' 
l Named from AEgeus the father of Theseus.  AEgaean waves (says she) beat on the shore  
Of sea-girt Lemnos; Vulcan tired before  
In fiery AEtna, 
m The Island being dedicated to him.  here, taketh breath; the Land  
Is clothed with 
n A mountain of a vast height, between Macedon and Thrace, overshadowing the Isle Lemnos.  Atho's shade, which nigh does stand:  
Darkening the sea with's woods. The Thracians trace  
The other side: That 
o Either occasioning our misery, or by their wicked examples of Progne etc. teaching us.  fatal shore of Thrace,  
Our plague! The Isle was rich in valiant spirits;  
Not Samos, not 
p Famous for Apollo's birth.  resounding Deal inherits  
More buds of Fame; Not all the coasts, are washed  
By foaming AEgeus. But the Gods have dashed  
Our peace: Nor want we guilt: No fires did shine  
On 
q They were so true servants to Vulcan, that they neglected Venus who abused him.  Venus' Altars, nor had she a shrine.  
Thus grief, long since, her heavenly mind controls,  
And slow-paced punishment creeps on our souls.  

The Cyprian city where she was worshipped.  Paphos, and th' hundred Altars, she forsook.  
Careless of face or hair; they say she broke  
Her coupling 
s Of this Ceston, read Lib. 2. with this she honoured lawful marriage's.  girdle, banishing her pair  
Of young Idalian 
t Which drew her Chariot: she neglects all pomp and beauty.  doves: Nay some declare,  
They saw the Goddess, i'th' dark shades of night  
Wear other flames, and with new darts affright.  
Amongst Furies, she into their chambers breaks,  
Filling their closest rooms with twining snakes:  
And terrifies all houses; without pity  
To her poor 
u Who continued constant to her, notwithstanding Mars' adulteries.  faithful husbands wretched City.  
Forthwith all tender Love from Lemnos fled;  
Hymen's displaced, his Torches 
w Alluding to the customs of Renegadoes in an Army, who in this posture, submit to the adverse General.  trailed, the bed,  
The Genial bed grew cold: No joys at night;  
No soft embraces cherished sleep: But spite,  
Rage, hatred, discord fills the sheets. Our men  
Are plotting, how to rout proud Thracians, in  
Th'opposite Coast, and how to triumph over  
That warlike people: and when they discover  
Their house or babes, stand on the adverse shores,  
They chose 
x Named from ● AEgon a Thracian mountain on which they warred.  AEdonian cold, where 
y The constellation next the Northern pole.  Arctos roars:  
Or after battle, in the silent night,  
Loud torrents breaking from the hills, delight.  
The woman sad, drenched night and day in tears,  
(My virgin years were not then ripe for cares:)  
Mixed comfortable words, or gazed upon  
Cursed Thrace on t'other side. The midday Sun  
Poised then his horses in the height of heaven,  
As though they'd stopped: 
z The even number making them the more ominous.  Four thundercracks were given  
From the clear sky: Four times black Vulcan's de●  
Opened its flaming top: Th' AEgaean, when  
The winds were quiet, did work high, and roar,  
And with proud swelling waves did beat the shore.  
When suddenly 
a The frowardest parricide amongst the Lemnians.  Polixo, ripe of age,  
Carried by th' Furies in a horrid rage  
Unusually, flies from her cell abroad;  
Like Theban Thyas, tossed by th' 
b Named from the effect, because in his Bacchanals he made his Priests so.  frantic God;  
When's Orgies call, th' 
c The hill where these feasts were celebrated.  Idaean pipes invite,  
And 
d One of the names of Bacchus there called upon.  Evan sounds down from the mountain's heig●  
Thus, with ghast looks, chilled blood, and roving eyes,  
She frights the 
e Forsaken by the men.  naked City, with mad cries;  
And gathers an assembly; knocking at  
Barred portals; with her sons, the 
f Whom soon after she slew.  wretches, that  
Attended her: They all, enraged no less,  
Break out, and to Minerva's Temples press.  
Thither we crowd with speed, without respect  
To order. Strait, this guide t'our bloody fact,  
With a drawn sword, bids silence; then breaks out  
I'th' midst, to this discourse: I am about  
A brave exploit, which heaven and grief ordains:  
Strengthen your souls, ye widowed Lemnians,  
Forget your sex. If you are grieved to keep  
Your naked walls eternally, and weep  
For withered youth, and barren years spun out  
With lasting tears; I've found a way (no doubt,  
The Gods proposed it) to renew your 
g Lost by the absence of your husbands.  pleasure;  
Let but your sorrows your brave courage measure.  
For tell me; since three winters hoard the ground,  
Who, wedlock bands, or sweets of Love has found?  
●hose breast has warmed his wife? whose travail has  
●ucina eased? whose hopes were swelled to pass  
●he reckoned months? Such peace, as beasts and birds  
Coupling enjoy? Dull souls I shall vengeful swords  
●e put byth' 
h Danaus' persuading his fifty daughters in one night to murder their husbands.  King in his Greek daughters hands;  
whilst he, joyed with their husband's mischief stands,  
●hose secure sleep is bathed in their own blood?  
●ut we're tame fools ●yet, if you think it good  
●o act by nearer precedents; behold,  
●et Thracian 
i Who slew her husband Tereus and her son Itis because her bed was abused by Philom●la.  Proc●e teach you to be bold;  
●hose hands revenged her bed, and feasted on  
Her husband. Neither are you called upon  
●y one that's spotless. See, my family  
●s full, I've travailed oft: These four which lie  
Within my lap, their Father's pride and joy,  
●le slay at once, though tears and kisses stay  
My rage: I'll mix the brother's gore and slaughter;  
And whilst they're gasping, send their father after.  
Dares any kill so many?— More she said;  
When on the Main before them, sails were spread.  
●t was the 
k Returning home after three years' wars with the Thracians.  Lemnian fleet. Polyxo then  
●oy'd, takes th'advantage:— Are we wanting, when  
The Gods call on us? see their navy; heaven,  
Revenging heaven these to our wrath has given;  
And favours our design. Nor are my dreams  
●aine: with a naked weapon Venus seems  
Presented in my sleep; and cries; why lose ye  
Time thus? cast off these husbands that abuse ye.  
●le light new fires: you shall be better wed:  
With that, she lays this sword upon my bed;  
This very sword, believe't. Take counsel then  
Poor wretches, whilst ye may: Behold our men  
Belabour yonder Sea, until it foam;  
Perhaps they bring their 
l Spoken, to inflame their jealousies.  Thracian spouses home.  
This raised their jealous envy, with a shout  
Which struck the stars. An 
m The women fighters; u●der their General Pen●hiselea.  Amazonian rout  
You'd think did rage in Scythia, or a troop  
With 
n Which the Amazonians used as Virgil describes them.  half-moone, Targets roared; when Mars does open  
The gates of 
o Alluding to the Rom●ne Temple of Ian●●.  war, and calls to fight. Nor yet  
Did several cries, or differing humours whet  
Their minds, as th'rabble use. All rage alike,  
All would lay houses desolate, and strike  
At old and young: babes from full teats are pulled,  
And through all ages, shall their swords be dulled.  
A grove then green shaded the ground before  
Minerva's 
p The Temple of Minerva, and its situation.  spires: dark of itself: but more,  
A hill o'rehung it: these two shades benighted  
The Sun: within this place their faith was plighted.  
Martial 
q Bellona sister to Mars.  Enyo thou wast witness: So  
Was 
r The daughter to Ceres.  Proserpina: The Stygian Furies too  
(Hell opening) came 
s Being always officious in mischief.  unasked. But every where  
Venus cheats, mixed 
t Love being but one degree removed from Fury.  amongst them: She does bear  
A brandished sword: She does inflame their strife.  
Nor used they common blood: Carops'es' wife  
Offers her son: the others, strait addressed,  
With swords and hands tear his amazed breast:  
And dipped in's 
u With which they seal their ●ovenant of mischief.  blood they swear their sweet sins over:  
Whilst the young Ghost about her eyes does hover.  
At sight of this what horror seized my breast▪  
How pale I looked! So when a Does distressed  
By bloody wolves, her tender soul commands  
No strength, but in her speed her comfort stands:  
Doubtful she flies, and every step they strain  
She thinks she's caught, and hears their snaps in vain.  
The fleet arrived, and struck upon the sand  
I'th' hav'ns' mouth; they headlong leap to land.  
Poor wretches! whom the rage of Thracian war,  
And th'ocean's boisterous waves thus 
w To perish now more dishonourably by their wife's treacheries.  long did spare.  
And now the temples smoke: vowed Sacrifices  
Are thither drawn: but a 
x The colour being ominous.  dark flame arises  
From every Altar: 
y Luctatius tells us of a sign in the entrails, called Deus, which if it be entire, discovers a propitious heaven; but if absent or mutilated, the contrary: but gratis dicit. The absence or dislocation, or speckling of any part of the entrails is sufficient.  Nor do th'entrails reak  
Entirely, but an angry God they speak.  
jove brought down night more slow, and I conceive  
Out of his mercy, whilst the Fates gave leave,  
He stopped the moving heavens: Nor ever yet  
Darkness forbore so long, when Sun was set.  
At last the stars arose and shed their light  
On 
z Two of the Islands Cycladeses, the last overgrown with woods.  Paros, 
z Two of the Islands Cycladeses, the last overgrown with woods.  Thasos, the thick 
a Fifty three Islands, so called from their form, in the AEgaean sea.  Cyclads: Night  
Only hung heavily o'er Lemnos: here  
Dark clouds which mantled the black sky, appear.  
Lemnos alone, tothth' wand'ring seaman's eye  
Is undiscerned. Now leaving house, they lie  
Spread through their sacred groves: and warm their souls  
With costly banquets; where their deepest bowls  
Are cleansed, with draughts as large. Where they relate  
Their battles fought on 
b A Thracian river, where they had joined battle.  Strimons' banks: their fate  
On 
c Thracian mountains where they fought.  Rhodope: how in cold 
c Thracian mountains where they fought.  AEme they sweat.  
Nay their lewd wives, in gorgeous dress were set  
Among their revels too, and garlands: When  
Venus, i'th' last night, mollifies the 
d Who loathed their wives formerly, for their rank savours.  men,  
After long discontents, and grants them rest  
For a short 
e Being all slain before morning.  time, in vain: kindling their breast  
With dying flames. Now, silent grew the round,  
And made an end of revelling: the sound  
Of nights first whispers ceased: When sleep beset  
With shades of's cousin-german Death, and wet  
With Stygian dew, embraced the dying town,  
And poured from's 
f Out of which he used to pour his blessings.  angry horn, dull slumber down,  
Seizing o'th' males: Wives, Mothers, Sisters watch  
Whetting their steel with joy, and lie at catch  
For mischief; then attempt a deed so foul:  
A proper Fury reigns in every soul.  

g A part of India bordering on Scythia.  Hyrcanian tigers so the herds enclose,  
In Scythian plains, whom morning hunger does  
Rouse up, and th'ravenous whelps roar for their paps.  
Mongst all the shapes of murder, whose mishaps  
Shall I report? Rash Gorge sets upon  

h Which ceremonious habit they used in their sacred festivals.  Crowned Helim, snorting out his liquor, on  
His tapestry cover: She, his garments tears,  
To feel for's wounds; whose wretched sleep forbears  
At death's approach: He, with a roving cast  
Of's heavy eyes embraced her: She with haste  
Stabbed him i'th' back, who grasped her still, and pressed,  
Until the point o'th' poniard razed her breast.  
This stops her rage: He, gentle still and kind,  
Looks up, with trembling eyes and voice, to find  
His Gorge, 
* I read th● pl●ce— non solvit br●bi●—, and not— sol●● sua brac●i●— an agreeing best with the context.  culling her unworthy neck.  
Of none o'th' common people's death, I'll speak,  
●hough cruel too; but weep my kinsman's Fate.  
●aire Cidon why should I thy death relate?  
●r thine, unshaved Crenaeus, with thy locks  
scattered? my foster-brothers, both whose stocks  
sprung from my Father, in a 
i Being the bastard sons of King Thoas.  crooked line.  
Or, whom espoused I 
k As young Virgins use.  feared, brave Gyas, thine?  
〈◊〉 saw him fall byth' bloody Myrmidon.  
●r, how the barbarous mother slew her son  
●popeus, as amongst their Crowns he skips?  
●'re Cydimus, unarmed Lycaste weeps,  
Her brother-twin: viewing her image in  
His falling limbs: She marks his rosy chin,  
And gold-imbraided hair: But her fierce Mother,  
With threats enforced her then upon her brother,  
Having first slain her spouse,) and arms her hand.  
As Lions brought tothth' Keeper's soft command,  
Forget their fierceness: no affront or stroke  
Can their tame souls to wont rage provoke:  
So she fell down upon him; fall'n, she keeps  
His blood, which streamed into her lap: and dips  
Her torn hair in his wounds. But when I saw  
Alcimides', her father's head display,  
Which 
l The lips moving after death.  muttered still, and brandish her 
m The old man not having blood enough to paint it red.  pale steel;  
My hair strait stood on end: My soul did feel  
Strange horror. 'Twas, me thought, my Thoas dead;  
That hand seemed mine. Strait to my Father's bed  
Distraught ay went. He (for what sleep can seize  
On so great thoughts?) long since in's bosom weighs  
What rustling ' 'twas? (Though's palace stood not nigh  
The City:) in the dead of night what cry  
Had frighted rest? I with a trembling tongue  
Relate their guilt; how 
n At their husband's absence.  grieved; whence 
o ●●raged by Venus.  courage sprung;  
How none could stop their rage; Then cried; away,  
Wretched Sir, they're here; They'll intercept your stay;  

o You for your sex, I for revealing their design.  We both perhaps shall rue it: Moved with this  
He rises from his bed. Our passage is  
Through the back-lanes of th' City where we spy  
Muffled in clouds, heaps of night slaughters lie,  
Who fell, that bloody Vesper in the grove:  
Here grovelling faces with their pillows strove;  
The rapiers hilt out o'th' closed wound appears,  
And broken truncheons of their weighty spears:  
Swords pincked their clothes and breasts alike; we viewed  
Goblets o'rthrowne, with's slaughter Feasts imbrued.  
Their wine, like torrents, from their mangled throats,  
Mingled with blood streamed back into their pots.  
Young men lay mixed with old; whose hoary head  
The sword would reverence: Gasping infants spread  
Upon their groaning sires, i'th' dawn of life  
Sob out their trembling souls: With equal strife  
The feasting 
p Whose Kin● Pirithous, slew the Centaurs, who would have ravished his bride a● his marriage feast.  Lapithans do riot, in  
Cold Ossa's top, when with large cups of wine  
The 
q The Centaurs begot by Ixion on a cloud, which was presented in Juno's place to his embraces.  cloud-borne sons are warmed. Scarce angry grown  
They rise and fight, their tables overthrown.  
Then 
r Named here fro● Thyone, or Semele so called, the mother of Bac●hus.  Bacchus first affrights our sense, i'th' night,  
Aiding's distressed son Thoas: glorious light  
Breaks from him suddenly. I knew him well:  
And yet no 
s With which Bacchus is usually adorned.  garlands made his temples swell,  
No yellow grapes did part his hair: He seemed  
Clouded, from's eyes 
t Tears being beneath a God.  unworthy showers streamed:  
And spoke: Whilst Fate made powerful Lemnos thine,  
And feared of other Nations, I did join  
My care with thy just labour, Son; but now  
●he Destinies have cut their thread in two;  
No prayers or tears▪ which I have poured in vain  
●efore Ioves throne, could a reprieve obtain:  
●his dismal honour to his 
Venus, who had obtained their destruction.  daughter's paid,  
●asten your flight; and thou deserving maid,  
●y grandchild, guide thy Father where the shore  
●uns out, byth' double peer. There, where they roar  
●th' gate, unlucky Venus' 
w Forbidding their stage that way.  porter stands,  
Girt with a sword, and whets their rage: (What hands  
●he Goddess wears! whence grew her martial 
x Usually tender, now bloody.  spirit!)  
commit to th' 
y That ●ort only ●ing open.  Deep thy Father: I'll inherit  
●hy cares. This said, he springs i'th' air again;  
●nd though dark shades obstruct our sight, a train  
Of light clears up his path. Those marks I follow,  
●nd recommend my Sire closed in a hollow  
●eele, to the Sea-gods, winds, 
z The Deity of that Sea, in which Lemnos and the other ●tads were seated.  AEgeon too  
●mbracing round the Cyclads. Tears did flow  
●t parting, without measure: Till the day-  
Discovering star, had chased the rest away  
●rom th'eastern heaven. Then I strange doubts did roll,  
●earfulll, i'th' shore; whilst my divided soul  
●urst scarce conside in 
a Whose counsel she had followed.  Bacchus: Walking thence,  
● left my heart there: Nor could I dispense  
●ith rest, till I had viewed from every hill,  
●hat winds arose, or if the seas were still.  
The blushing morn breaks, Titan sheds a ray  
dismantling heav'●, yet cross to Lemnos: Day  
●oes guide her 
b Terrified 〈◊〉 so bloody a spectacle.  frighted steeds into a cloud.  
●hen were their works of darkness seen; their blood  
●●nted their cheeks, fearing the light should peep,  
●hough all were guilty: Strait they buried deep  
Their slaughtered corpse, or with nimble fires  
Consumed them. Glutted Venus now retire●  
With all her Furies, from the Town she'd sacked:  
And then their leisure served to recollect  
Their deeds: to tear their hair; and dew their face.  
Our fruitful Isle was known by th' site, a place  
Once stored with wealth, Arms, Men; enriched of late  
By th' 
c People of Thracia over whom the Lemnians had triumphed.  Getick triumph: Now's an empty state,  
Torn from the world, not byth' Seas breach, nor by  
The enemy's force, or an unlucky sky,  
There's none alive to plough the ground, there's none  
To cut the Seas: Houses are silent grown:  
Blood covers all: black gore the fields does stain:  
We, only 
d The female Sex.  we, i'th' spacious streets remain;  
And th' angry Ghosts hover about the spires.  
I too, did build 
Counterfeiting her father's funeral.  a pile for lofty fires  
I'th' inner Court o'th' Palace, throwing on't  
My Father's Arms, and robes our Kings were wont  
To wear, and's Sceptre: Then I sadly stood  
Nigh the amazed flames: my sword was stained with blood:  
Where I wept o'er the cheat o'th' empty pile,  
Fearing their 
f If they knew her mercy in the close conve●ance of King Thoas.  rage; and prayed, that by this wile  
My Father's Fate, and doubtful fears of death  
Might vanish. For these 
g They supposing ●he had killed her father.  merits, they bequeath  
This punishment, his Kingdom; I must sit  
I'th' royal Throne: Such faith, my craft did get.  
Could I refuse then, thus beset? I went:  
But call the Gods to witness my intent,  
My faith, and my unspotted hands. I gained  
A bloodless Empire: ('twas a dire command:)  
Poor, sad, 
h Having lost all the Males.  beheaded Lemnos. Sorrow tore  
Their waking souls, by this time, more and more:  
They sigh aloud: Polyxo's cursed anon:  
And now they hate the thought of what they'd done:  
Altars tothth' Ghosts they strait decree to rear,  
And by their buried ashes often 
i Swearing by their name, being a chief part of divine worship.  swear.  
So when the trembling heifers see with fear,  
A Mauritanian 
k Lions which abound there.  foe their Captain tear,  
Which 
l The town bull.  served them all, and did command the Chase,  
The pride o'th' herd: They having lost their grace,  
Dismembered droop; because their King is slain,  
The fields, and springs, and the mute drove complain.  
But see, the 
m Called Argo, but named here from the mountain Peliu● in Thessaly, where it was built.  Pesian ship, with stem of brass  
Cutting the waves, through th' 
n Which before this time never bore so great a vessel.  untracked Seas does pass  
With spreading sails: which th' 
o jason and his companions, named from Minyus a Thessalian King, now sailing to fetch the golden fleeces.  Argonauts do guide:  
The clashing waves do foam on every side:  
You'd think. 
p The Isle Delos, which since Apollo's birth, was fixed and apparent.  Ortygia's bottom cracked, and th' hill  
Tumbled i'th' Sea: But, when the Ocean's still▪  
And th' oars laid by, a sweeter voice salutes  
Our ears fro'th ' keel, then dying Swans, or lutes  
Touched by Phoeb's hand: waves danced to th' ship: (At last  
'twas known:) there 
q The son of O Eager, so brave an artist, that he drew the s●as attention after him.  Orpheus leaning to the mast  
Sings, in the midst o'th' mariners, to clear  
Their souls from sense of 
r Forgotten, by his melody.  pains: Their course they steer  
Tothth' 
Where Colchis lay.  Northern coast, and borders straightened by  

t Little scattered Islands called the Symplegades.  Cyanean flats. We judging them by th' eye.  
A Thracian power from house to house do roll  
In troops, like droves, or shoals of winged fowl.  
Where are the Furies now! we climb tothth' peer,  
And walls o'th' harbour, whence our prospect's clear  
To th' Main; and scale our lofty turrets; whither  
They trembling carry stones, and clubs, together  
With their late husband's Arms, and weapons died  
With slaughter: Neither are they shamed, to hide  
Their wanton cheeks in helmets, and put on  
Rough breastplates. Pallas blushed to think upon  
Their boldness, and Mars laughed in distant 
u The Thracian mountain where he kept his Rendezvouz.  AEme.  
Now their rash madness first forsaketh them,  
Nor seems it now a ship, but that the Gods  
By sea sent slow-paced vengeance, armed with rods.  
And now they ride a flightshot from the shore:  
When jove brings clouds, swollen-big with tempests, o'er  
The tackling of the Grecian ship: anon  
The Sea wrought high; The day had lost the Sun,  
Mantled with darkness: Th' water's black as th' Air:  
Whilst labo'ring winds the hollow clouds do tear;  
And roll the Seas up: Moistened gravel heaves  
Out o'th' black whirlpools: all the Ocean's waves  
Hang on the wings o'th' wind; and ready now  
To wash the stars, the billows break in two.  
The tottering Keel, less nimble's, leaky grown;  
And 
w The statue in the beak which named the ship.  Triton placed i'th' stem, dives sometimes down  
To th' bottom of the gulf, then strikes the skies.  
Nor can the strength o'th' 
x jason and his partners with his ship Argo, were afterward translated to the heavens.  Demigods suffice.  
The reeling mast does lash the stream; and tear  
The curling waves, whose unfixt weight they bear.  
The oars are tugged in vain: yet whilst they find  
Such labour to encounter Seas and wind;  
We from the rocks and bulwarks of the wall  
With feeble arms let fly our darts, which gall  

y Some of the Argonauts.  Peleus and 
y Some of the Argonauts.  Tel●mon, (how bold we grow!)  
And 
z Named from Tiryns his native Country.  Hericules is aimed at with a bow.  
Endangered thus by Seas, and darts, together,  
Some guard the ship, some ply the pump: and other  
Prepare to fight; whose joints unwieldy fail  
With 
a The rolling of the ship did hinder their settled courage.  motion, nor can tottering strength prevail.  
We ply our weapons still; our showers of darts  
Equal the clouds: huge stakes, and broken parts  
Of millstones, spears, granadoes, streaming bright,  
Sometimes i'th' Sea, sometimes i'th' ship do light.  
The covered vessel gapes, and the close deck  
Opening the seams does give a mighty crack.  
So jove does batter fields with Northern hail:  
All sorts of cattle droop; drenched wings do fail  
The birds; Cone's lodge byth' bitter storm; there fell  
Streams roaring from the hills, and rivers swell.  
But when his darted fires the clouds did tear,  
And the brave Mariners byth' light appear;  
Our courage shrunk; our husband's Arms fell down  
From trembling hands, and now our 
b Remembering that we were women.  Sex we own.  
We see the sons of 
c Telamonius and Peleus.  AEacus, withal  

d Neptune's son, after King of Samos.  Ansaeus, threatening ruin to our wall:  
And 
e The Champion that afterwards restored the Olympics.  Iphitus with a long spear does stop  
The ship from rocks: then 
f The supposed son of Amphitryo begot on his wife Al●mena ●y jupiter.  hercules does o'ertop  
Th' astonished troop byth' head; and 
g Lest, if with all his weight he should stand on one side, ●e might o'er set it.  straddling keep  
The full bark poised; yet would step down i'th' deep.  
But 
h Well deserving the name because he forsook ●er for Medea, and afterwards Medea for Creusa.  fickle jason, whom I knew not yet,  
Throughout the gall'ries, oars, and crowd, does whet  
Now great 
i Me●eager son to O En●us.  O Enides forward, Ida now,  
Now Taelaus, now 
k Either Castor or Pollux the sons of Tyndar●s.  Tyndarides whose brow  
Lardourd with froth: With hand and voice aloud  
He calls on Calais, hid in's 
l Bore●s who begat Calais and Zethe on Orythia, raises cold storms and clouds.  Father's cloud,  
Striving to fasten sails tothth' mast. The Seas,  
And walls, are shaken with their batteries.  
Yet can they not beat back the foaming Main,  
And from our Towers their spears recoil in vain.  

m The chief Pilot of the Argona●uts.  Tiphys tries all the billows, tiring out  
Th' 
n Not easily guided.  unruly stern, then's pale and tacks about:  
Winding the head, which fain would split upon  
The rocks, to th' right, and left. Till 
o jason.  AEsons son  
I'th' foredeck, holds up a Palladian bough  
Of Olive, which before crowned 
p The Prophet which with Amphiaraus accompanied the Argonauts. Lib. 3.  Mopsus' brow,  
And asks a truce, against his partner's mind:  
But's words are overwhelmed by th' boisterous wind.  
This stopped our Arms: and now some rest was given  
Tothth' breathless winds, & day looked down from heaven.  
Fifty leapt down o'th' sudden, on our shore;  
(The ships being fastened, as they used before:)  
The glory of brave Ancestors; their brow  
Serene; of an attractive feature; now  
Their fear and rage had left them. So they say  
The Deities broke out, a secret way,  
When entering house, or coast, they think it good  
To taste the sunburnt 
q A Nation with whom the Gods were often conversant, because of their justice.  AEthiopians food.  
Rivers and hills make room; their footsteps grace  
The earth, whilst 
r The empty heavens lying now lighter upon his shoulders.  Atlas finds a breathing space.  
Here we spy Theseus, proud of 
s A City infe●ted with a monstrous bull, slain by Theseus.  Marathon's  
Gained liberty: with Boreas his 
t Calais and Zete, begot upon Ismarus a Thracian mountain.  sons  
Th' Ismarian brethren, whose bright 
u Feigned so from their long dangling hair.  wings do beat  
Their temples: and Admetus, once more great  
Then unrepining 
w Who willingly was his herdsman.  Phoeb ': Smooth 
x A most excellent Musician borne in a most barbarous Country.  Orpheus, son  
To rugged Thrace: Thy 
y Meleager son to Calydonian O Eneus.  offspring, Calydon:  
With Nereus' 
z Peleus who married Tethys the daughter of Nereus.  son-in-law: Th' 
a Castor and Pollux borne in O Ebalia a Spartan city.  O Ebalian pair,  
Which tired our doubtful eyes; for both did wear  
Flame-coloured cloaks, both shook their spears, and both  
Had naked cheeks, their shoulders both unclothe;  

b With the glory of the marching Heroes, whose loss made the Arganauts leave his searching master behind in Mysia.  Stars paint their locks alike. The way does c shine.  
Young d Hylas, following after, does decline  
Great Herc'les' steps; for though his weight did make him  
March softly, yet his page could scarce o'ertake him;  
But carrying his 
e With which he killed the Hydra.  Lernaean arms, the boy  
Under his mighty quiver sweats with joy.  
Now Venus once again with Love's cool flames  
Kindles the churlish hearts o'th' Lemnian dames.  
Queen juno then insinuates in their mind  
The Arms, and garb o'th' men; their gallant kind:  
All doors strait opened to them. Then they heat  
Their 
f Having not sacrificed since the last massacre.  Altars first and heinous cares forget:  
They banquet, sleep secure, had quiet nights;  
Nay (heaven designed it sure,) their guilt delights.  
Perhaps you long too Gentlemen, to hear  
My 
g In entertaining jason.  crime-excusing Fate: The Ghosts do bear  
Me record, and my country- Furies, how  
Unwilling, how untainted I did go  
T'a stranger's bed: (Gods answer for me:) yet  
jason by's flat'ries could with toils beset  
Young 
h As he did Medea, and Creusa afterwards.  maids: 
i The river where Medea having slain her brother Absyrtus, cast him piecemeal before her Father.  stained Phasis knows his loose desires;  
You 
k Medea's Country.  Colchians furnished him with other fires.  
Now the thawed 
l Which seem to be frozen in his winter absence.  stars were warmed byth' heightened sun,  
When the swift year, through half the girdle run,  
Gave us new Sons; whose birth did crown our vows,  
And Lemnos with 
m All the males being slain.  unlooked-for offspring flows.  
I likewise, made a mother, brought forth two,  
My forced beds Monument; and did renew  
Their Grandsire's name, from this hardhearted stranger:  
Nor since I left them, have I known their danger.  
If fortune please, a nurse Lycaste bred  
Them safe, full twenty years have passed their head.  
The rage o'th' Sea was fallen, and Southern gales  
Wait with more calmness now upon the sails.  
The ship i'th' quiet harbour hates to ride,  
And draws the cable tight, with which 'tis tied.  
At this the Arganauts will put to Sea;  
Fierce jason calls his comrades: oh, had he  
In smother streams passed by my coast before,  
Who thus neglects his babes, and quits the score  
Of's faith engaged: Fame says at distance, Greece  
Enjoys him now, returned with 
n Who with his sister Helle, avoiding the rage of their Father Athamas, crossed the seas on the back of a ram with a golden fleece, she was drowned, he escaped to Colchos, where he sacrificed the ram to Mars, and offered the fleece in his Temple, which jason afterwards by Medea's help recovered back to Greece.  Phryxus' fleece.  
At the fixed 
o When they had resolved to hoist sails.  time, when 
p The shipmaster who judged of the weather.  Tiphys had discovered  
Th' approaching sky, and fiery 
q Beto●●ening a fair morning.  redness hovered  
About the set suns bed; new sighs, alas!  
Were spent, another farewell 
r Recalling the memory of that when they stew their husbands.  night it was.  
The day scarce dawn'd, when lofty jason urges  
To shipboard, giving the first stroke tothth' surges.  
With longing looks we follow after these,  
Ploughing the foaming back o'th' spacious seas,  
From rocks and tops of mountain: Till the light  
Had tired our wand'ring eyes; and to our sight  
The distant waves appear to touch the 
s The sea and sky appearing conterminous to them that at distance beheld them.  clouds,  
And th'edge of heaven the wa●ry surface crowds.  
A fame was spread, that Thoas cross the Main  
Conveyed in's brothers 
t Another Aegean I●le, whither Thoas fled.  Chios now did reign:  
Whilst I unspotted, kindled 
u Which they conceived were her father's funerals.  empty fires.  
The bloody rabble grudge; guil● whets their ires:  
They call my deed t'account: Close whispers grow  
Between them strait: Was'● she alone, could show  
Pity t'her friends? We triumphed o'er the slain:  
No God nor Fate, which o'er the town does reign,  
Commanded 
w Either upbraiding her disobedience, or rather condemning their own credulity, who were deluded by Polyxo, pretending the gods command.  this. Affrighted at their words  
(For sad revenge drew near: My realm affords  
As little succour:) the crooked shore I trace  
Alone by stealth, leaving th' polluted place:  
And mark which way my Father fled: but now  
I met no 
x As formerly, when Bacchus appeared at her Father's escape.  God: For Pirates which did row  
To shore, seized on me in the silent strand,  
And brought me thus a Captive to your land.  
Thus whilst the Lemnian tothth' Greek Captains speaks,  
And with her plaints, her force of sorrow breaks;  
Her 
y Opheltes, Lycurgus' son to whom she was nurse.  nurse-child is forgot, (so heaven disposed:)  
Whose heavy eyes, and fainting mouth is closed  
Tothth' flowery ground; whilst childish action tires  
Him to a sleep; clasping the grassy 
z With which he sported before.  spires.  
Mean while, an earthborn Serpent in the fields  
Lifts up his crested neck, whose presence yields  
A 
a This creature being always esteemed consecrated to some God.  sacred horror tothth' Achaean groves:  
His monstrous bulk 
* They that fancy not this interpretation of— tractus solutus,— let them call it— wanton folds,— if they like it better. I wish our English tongue could express Traction, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, more properly.  i'th' furrowed sands, he moves  
And drags his tail behind; Fire sparkles from  
His eyes, and on his mouth stands a green foam  
Of swollen venom: His three-forked tongue is darted  
Through his three rows of teeth: His forehead's parted  
With the sad glory of his glistering scales.  
The countryman, this Serpent sacred calls  
To the Inachian 
b jupiter, whose Priest, Lycurgus the child's Fathers was.  thunderer, who protects  
The place, and in these woods his shrine erects,  
An humble honour. Now the Serpent crawls  
In winding folds about his Temple-wals:  
Anon, the oaks o'th' wretched wood are torn,  
And with's embraces the tall beech's worn.  
Oft-times, a rivers banks on either side,  
Stretched out, he presses: Whilst his scaly hide  
Dams up the roaring stream. But when the ground  
Reaks now (as 
c Who in favour of his Countrymen the Thebans, caused this drought before.  Bacchus charged) & th'Nymphs are found  
Panting i'th' dust, upon the earth he glides,  
With his indented back, and winding sides:  
Raging with greater danger, sin●e the fire  
Kindled his poisonous thirst: He rolls i'th' mire  
Of pools, dry lakes, and springs choked up with drought,  
And rivers empty channels. With his mouth  
Turned up, now drinks he liquid Air; and then  
Uncertain what to do, grovels again  
Upon the earth, and shaves the 
d Weary either of the heat, or of his burden.  groaning plain,  
If any moisture in the grass remain;  
Which withers, blasted with's infectious breath;  
And where he creeps, his hisses usher death.  
Such was the 
e Ophiuchus a constellation of that length, that beginning at Charles' wain, it crosses▪ he Tropics.  snake, which from the Northern ear  
Divides the sky, and thence extendeth far  
Within the Southern Zone. Such was the 
f Python, which by Juno's command, persecuted Latona from Farnassus to the sea.  snake,  
Whose circles made th'enfolded 
g The two tops of Parnassus about which he twined.  heads to shake  
O'th' sacred mount: till pierced by 
h Apollo borne in Delos, who to revenge his Mother, slew him.  Del●us's Arts,  
With many wounds, he bore a wood of darts.  
Poor babe, what God allotted thee a Fate  
So great? Dost thou scarce having past the gate  
Of life, beneath a foe so powerful fall?  
Was't, that the Grecians might hereafter call  
Thee sacred? worthy of that tomb? The child  
Byth' tail o'th' Serpent unawares is killed.  
Sleep soon forsakes his tender limbs, and's eyes  
Look up to welcome Fate, and then he dies.  
But when his dying shrieks the air hath struck,  
And plaints half uttered his pale lips forsook,  
(Like those imperfect words, in dreams we speak:)  
Hypsip'le frighted heard him: But her weak  
Knees faltered in her course; her mind foretold  
The mischief: whilst her roving eyes behold  
The ground she searches on: Doubling, in vain  
Those words her infant knew. He's gone; The plain  
Has lost the marks it had; where the dull snake  
In a green knot lies gathered, and does take  
The spacious field up: Resting's neck upon  
His winding paunch. A trembling seizes on  
Th' unhappy soul at sight on't; her shrill cries  
Ring through the wood: Yet still the Serpent lies  
Unterrified. At last the Grecians hear  
Her howl: 
i Parthenop●eus, whom our Poet expresses on horseback.  Artas strait the Cavalliere  
Commanded, flies, and brings the reason: Then  
Moved with their glittering Arms, and noise o'th' men,  
He raised his scaly neck, with visage sour:  
But stout Hippomedon with all his power  
Lifts up a stone, the landmark; which he flings  
Through th' air, with such a force, as warlike slings  
With millstones poised, strong barricadoes shake:  
Yet his strength's disappointed: For the snake  
Having shrunk up his tender neck, to's back,  
Escapes th'approaching blow. The earth does 
k With the violence of the blow which the Serpent escaped.  crack:  
Whilst he in numerous curls hops through the shrubs.  
But, met by Capa●eus with's ashen club,  
My wounds, he cries out, though shalt never flee;  
Whether a fierce inhabitant thou be  
Of this dark grove; or else some God: (and 
l He prosecute▪ his old sacrilegious humour.  oh!  
That Gods took any pleasure in thee.) No:  
Not if a 
m Between whom there is some relation, for the Giant whore's serpent's fe●t.  Giant should thy back bestride.  
Then flies his quivering spear, and does divide  
The monstrous gaping jaws, and cuts in two  
His forked tongues poisonous strings; thence pierces (through  
His standing mane, and glistering forehead; 
n Having so long a race f●om 〈◊〉 he●●  next,  
Daubed with his brains black gore, i'th' earth 'tis fixed.  
Pain had scarce posted through every part,  
When he with many folds twines round the dart:  
And bearing it plucked out, he flies away  
Tothth' Gods dark Temples, measuring, as he say,  
The ground with's bulk: his mourning soul does twine,  
As 'twas hissed out, about his master's shrine.  
The angry pools of Lerna, near 
o Either because the Hydra was like him, or perhaps his progenitor.  of kin,  
And Nymphs, that used with flowers to strew his skin,  

p Where he was bred and lived.  Nemea o'er which he'ad crawled, the Gods of all  
The groves, and Fauns, (their reed's 
q A token of their sad laments; reeds betokening either their garlands or pipes, for both were made of them.  brook) wept his fall.  
Nay 
r To revenge the serpent which implored his aid before.  jove from AEtna's forge had armed his hand,  
And winter storms were gathered o'er the land;  
But that, (the God not 
s As afterwards, when for his Atheism he was thunderstruck.  ceased yet,) Capaneus is  
Reserved to merit greater plagues than this.  
Yet blasts of lightning glanced up and down,  
And 
t By which he wrynecked out for a Sacrifice.  singed the top of's helmet on his crown.  
And now th' unhappy Lemnian wand'ring over  
The field, freed from the serpent, does discover  
Upon a distant hillock, how the grass  
With sprinkled drops of blood discoloured was.  
Hither with bitter moans she bends her pace,  
Raging, and sees the mischief; on the place  
Of guilt, she falls like lightning: neither words  
Nor tea res at first, that fatal sight affords.  
But only doubling wretched kisses, she  
Falls on him, seeking where his soul did flee  
From his warm limbs: Nor's 
u Being bruised together by the ser 〈◊〉  face, nor's breast appear  
I'th' place; his skin's torn; all his bones lie bare:  
With springing showers of blood his joints are drowned;  
And all his body's one continued wound.  
So when a crow's nest, and her young ones, laid  
In a broad oak, by a serpent are destroyed.  
The hen returns, and wondering she don't hear  
Their cawking noise, sits tittering o'er for fear,  
And lets the meat she brought fall from her bill,  
Since only blood, and scattered down does fill  
Her plundered bower. When the poor wretch, dismayed,  
Within her lap his mangled limbs had laid,  
And wrapped them in her locks: Her voice at last  
Broke loose from grief, and found a way: Her waist  
Of sighs dissolved to words: Oh thou that dost  
Break the fair image of the sons I lost  
A●c●emorus! thou comfort of my state,  
And Country left! Grace, to my captived Fate!  
What guilty gods extinguished thee, my joy?  
Whom I left sporting when I went away,  
And tumbling on the grass? Ah! where are found  
T●y starlike eyes, now, and the tonguetied sound  
Of thy half words? Thy smiles, and murmurs soft,  
Which only I could understand? how oft,  
Lemnos, and Argos heard'st thou me recite?  
And with sad lullabies thy sleep invite?  
Thus I cheered up my grief, suckling this child  
As 'twere mine own: But now his mouth is filled  
With showers of milk in vain, which trickle down  
Upon his 
w Either flowing back out of his mouth, or his face itself, being likewise wounded.  wounds. Now, now, the gods are 
x Forewarning her: or rather commanding a general guilt upon the Lemnians, as Polixo informed them.  known▪  
Oh my presaging dreams, and nightly fears!  
Venus at no time unrevenged appears  
I'th' dark, to my affrighted sense. But why  
Accuse I heaven? Why, ready now to die  
Fear I to tell the truth? 'Twas I alone  
Exposed thy life. What madness seized upon  
My soul? Could such a care be so forgot?  
Whilst I proud fool, report my Country's lot,  
And mine own fame; Lemnos, thy 
y In mur 〈…〉  sin I act:  
'Twas wondrous piety sure! Captains, direct  
Me to the fatal snake: If thanks be due  
For my unlucky 
z I● discovering water to them, whilst she lost the 〈…〉  merit; or if you  
Honour my words. Or else dispatch me here:  
Lest my offensive person should appear  
To my sad 
a Lycurgus and Eurydice whose servant now she was.  Princes, and Eurydice  
Bereft. Although in sorrow's combat, she  
Can hardly overcome me. Shall I go  
To her, and this unwelcome burden throw  
Into her lap? Earth sink me first below  
The Centre. With these words, she dawbs her brow  
With dust and blood: And rolls at feet o'th' 
b As all the Generals were called.  Kings,  
Imputing close, to their grieved souls, the 
c Langia, the guidance to which begot this mischief.  springs.  
And now the 
d King of the Country and Priest to jupiter.  royal Priest, Lycurgus hears  
The news, which fills him, and the house with tears.  
From the Persian mountains 
e Where Ioves Temple stood.  sacred top  
He came; slashed inwards there, he'ad offered up  
To threatening jove, and shaking's head returned  
From th' Altar, where the speckled entrails burned.  
Here he secured himself from Grecian wars:  
The Temple stopped him, though not free from cares.  
Nor were the gods oraculous replies.  
And old advice forgot: a voice did rise  
From th' sacred 
f Where the Oracle was delivered.  vault: 
g Which he interpreting of himself, found it accomplished in his son.  Thy blood, Lycurgus shall  
Tothth' Grecian wars bring the first funeral.  
This frights him; since Wars Chariot ●ak'd the ground,  
He's sad, and startles at the trumpets sound:  
Yet 
h Being desirous to accompany them if the 〈…〉  envies the Arms marked out for ruin, See  
The faith of 
i 〈…〉  heaven! Guarded Hipsipyle  
Brings the torn carcase forth; and meets the Mother  
Who brought a train of howling Matrons with her.  
But stout Lycurg's dull piety forbears;  
He's better sp'rited; rage drunk up his tears:  
And measuring with long steps the plains, he cries:  
Where's she, that does loss of my blood despise,  
Or joys in't? Breathes she still? Companions take her,  
And drag her quickly hither: I will make her  
Forget her Lemnian tale, and sire belied,  
And sacred stock, which bolsters up her pride.  
Then he rushed on; and snatched a sword in's rage  
To run her through: But Tydeus does engage  
With's shield against his breast; and gnashing cries,  
Stop, Madman, stop thy furious enterprise,  
Who e'er thou art: Nor Capaneus is slack,  
Nor fierce Hipomedon, with's sword 
k To make a violent thrust as fencers use.  drawn back,  
Nor Arcas with a forward thrust. 
i Parthenopaeus name● from Arymanthus the Arcadian mount where he was bred.  His eyes  
Dazzled with her bright arms. Then's servants rise  
To aid their King. Adrastus, in the rout,  
More calmly, and Amphiaraus, out  
Of reverence to his partner's 
m Whic● one wore as Priest to jupiter, the other as Prophet to Apollo.  garland, cries;  
Forbear I pray, and sheathe your swords: there is,  
One 
n Perseu● whence all the petty Kings of Gr●●ce, united then, were sprung.  Grandsire's blood, which makes us all of kin:  
Don't cherish fury thus: Do thou 
o T● Tydeus, whom Adrastus had most power to command.  begin.  
But Tydeus, discomposed still, thus replies:  
Dar'st thou, upon thy son's tomb sacrifice  
The Grecians guide and their preserver; while  

p Being latel 〈…〉  Ungrateful they look on? (what 
q 〈…〉  funeral pile  
Avenging by't!) A Kingdom is her due;  
Her father Tho●s: from 
r A● 〈…〉  bright Evan too  
Her stocks derived. wil't not content thy pride,  
That all thy Countrymen take arms beside?  
Thou only, amongst the raging troops, hast peace?  
But hug it still: Oh may victorious Greece  
Find thee, lamenting still thy fate, o're's urn.  
This said; He breaking's anger does return  
More modestly: I did not think, that you  
Marching to raze the Theban bulwarks, drew  
●n enemies force on us: Go on, destroy  
●our brethren; (if you think it such a joy:)  
●eason your arms at home: Let impious fires  
For, what 
* Which might demerit at Ioves hand: This Parenthesis is to be re●●rred to what follows. S● vil●m tanti premerent etc.—.  offence has passed?) consume the spires  
Of jove, in 
s Who either saved his son nor protected him.  vain long worshipped. I conceived,  
A Prince and Master, when so justly grieved,  
●ad power o're's servant: But heaven's Sovereign  
●ees this; he sees, and's anger does remain  
●ure though't be late: This spoke; he looks about  
●oth ' Town, where war had raised another rout.  
●resh fame outstrips the horseman's speed, and brings  
A 
t One in the City, the o●●er in the fields where Lycurgus was.  double tumult upon both her wings.  
AEport flies up and down, Hypsipiles led  
●o execution, and by this time dead.  
'tis soon 
* By the Grecian army quarrying in the town, who mutinied upon the news.  believed: nor will they stop their anger,  
●ut fire and sword, their houses strait endanger.  
●hey'●e overthrow the Kingdom, and subdue  
Captived Lycurgs, with jove, and's Altars too:  
●he women shrieks the Echoing houses here,  
●nd 
u Conceived 〈◊〉 for the de●th of Arche●●●●●▪ fli●s now 〈◊〉 the fear of war 〈…〉  grief inverted turns its back to fear.  
●ut high Adrastus, in's swift Chariot, flies  
●'th 'mid'st o'th' troops, and shows before their eyes  
● Thoantis, carried with him: crying thus:  
●old, hold, here's nothing done that's barbarous.  
Lycurgus no such ruin has deserved;  
behold, the foundress of our streame's preserved.  
So when on this side th' East, and Northern wind,  
On that, the gloomy Southern are combined  
●o vex the Seas, with divers storms; the day  
●s banished, and dark winter bears the sway:  
Mounted on's steed comes Neptune o'er the Main,  
A double 
x Either harnessed double in his watery Chariot, or double shape half horse, half fish.  Triton swims with's frothy rain:  
But when the falling waves his signal hear,  

y The Sea-Nymph, daughter to Nereus, p●●●or the Sea.  Thetis looks smooth, the hills, and shores appear.  
What God, in pity to their funeral grief,  
Prospered their vows so much? and did relieve  
Hypsipiles tears, with joys past expectation?  
Thou father 
z Bacchus from whom Thoas sprung.  Evan, founder of the Nation,  
Didst bring to Nemea, from the Lemnian strand,  
The 
a Hypsipyle two sons for whose safety she was so solicitous before.  two young Brethren, and strange fate command.  
They sought their mother then, and did resort  
Unto Lycurgus' hospitable Court:  
When the sad messenger came in, to tell  
The King, how's son byth' stroke o'th' Serpent fell.  
They therefore troop along: (Oh chance! how dim  
men's souls are to foresee!) and favour him.  
But when the sound of Lemnos struck their ears,  
And Thoas' name, they rush through swords and spears;  
And weeping, both with greedy arms enfold  
Their mother, where they ' xchange each others soul.  
She like a rock stands with fixed eyes unmoved,  
And dares not 
b Doub●ing the truth o● what she saw.  trust the Gods, which she had proved.  
But when their face, and th' 
c Impressed upon their Arms.  Argo's stamp she notes  
On their forsaken swords; and on their coats,  

d Left them for a memorial of their father.  Iason● embroidered picture: sighs depart▪  
So great a present does or'echarge her heart,  
And down she sinks: then were her eyes bedewed  
With other tears. Signs from the 
e Which seconded the joy of the 〈…〉  sky were showed:  
And whilst the joyful crowd their shouts do rear,  

f 〈…〉  Bacchus his drums and trumpets rend the air.  
Oiclides then, when first their rage did break  
To silence, and he might be heard to speak,  
Begins: Thou Neman ruler, and the rest  
〈◊〉 Peered of Graece, hear what is plain expressed  
●y 
g Who forbade this war, by this Prophet: Lib. 3.  constant Phoeb ': this grief of late pursues  
●he Grecian Arms; the Destinies do use  
●o 
h Being constant 〈◊〉 occasions of sorrow.  winding paths now. 
i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: For his death foretold his destruction.  Thirst does first destroy  
●he river, than the deadly snake, and boy  
Archemorus, named from our fate: All this  
●y heaven's supreme decrees appointed is.  
●ake off your edge: Quick arms must be delayed:  
●his infant must have lasting honours paid,  
●o's merit: Let 
k By the solemn games offered to his memory, in the next ●ooke.  courageous hands appease  
●is Ghost with fair oblations. Might it please  
Apollo to beget mor● stops, and fright  
Our troops with new mischances fro● the sight▪  
●till may the thought of fatal 
l Which he knew would be destructive to all the Army.  Thebes abate!  
●ut happy 
m His parents' which lived to see their off spring deified, which no●e of their predecessors did before them.  you, that have outstripped the fate  
Of your great Parents: hence, sh●ll ages tell  
●our everlasting name, whilst waters dwell  
〈◊〉 Lerna's pool, and Inachus shall flow,  
●nd Nemeas shades dance on the fields below:  
●et ●ot profaning tears be shed upon  
●is sacred tomb, do not the Gods bemoan:  
●e is enrolled a God: Nor would he rather  
●njoy the fate of 
n Whose thre● ages are famous.  Nestor's age, or gather  
The long experience of 
o Ei●her Pri●mus's, who lived to see Troy sacked, or rather Tit●onus's Auro●●s beloved, who live● to be so waste● wi●h age, that they feigned him 〈◊〉 last to be converted into a grasshopper.  Phrygian years.  
●e ends, and night heavens sable mantle wears.  
Finis Lib. V. Statii Thebay.