"Why should our band the future voyage
"Full many a skilful mariner is here,
"The helm let any of that number keep.-
"From danger free we navigate the deep."
His words with transport fill'd the warrior's breast. His bold companions soon the chief* addrest. "Why, comrades, cherish unavailing grief?—
Complaints and tears afford us no relief.
"Tho' great our loss, yet, this advent'rous band May glory still in many a pilot's hand.
"No more the time in lamentations waste.-
"Rouse to your tasks, and on the voyage haste.
"Where, Peleus, (Jason cry'd, with doubtful mind)
"Where shall our band these boasted pilots find?-
"For blackest omens with despondence fill
“Those, whom we late extoll'd for naval skill.
"My heart presages some disastrous doon,
"With those that sleep already in the tomb.
"If Heav'ns decree withholds us from the plains,
"And stately walls, where fierce Eetes reigns;
"If this devoted train shall pass no more
"The floating rocks, or view the Grecian shore;
"In dark oblivion sunk, and lost to praise,
"Here shall we pine an useless length of days.".
He ceas'd-Ancaus eagerly replied;
And offered thro' the deep their ship to guide.
Some pow'r divine impell'd.-Th' important task
Erginus, Nauplius, and Euphemus ask.
The crowd repell'd their claim.-The general voice Pronounc'd Anceus object of their choice.
Now, the twelfth morn display'd her radiance fair,Th' assembled Minya to their ship repair.
Full in their stern, loud sang the western blast;
And Acheron with oars they swiftly past.
The breeze they trust; the canvas wide display,
And cut with swelling sails their tranquil way.
Now, past Callichorus, they swiftly drove,
Where fable sings, of old, the son of Jove,
Nysëian call'd from tribes of Indian strain,
Triumphant turning to the Theban plain.
Perform'd his orgies, as he past along,
And round the cavern led the choral throng,-
(The chearless cavern of unbroken night
Where slept the god)-amid the hallow'd rite.
The natives hence impos'd that river's name.
Hence to the cave its appellation came. *
And now the beach the stately barrow shows,
Where the remains of Sthenelus repose.-
Alcides led his youthful steps from far,
With Amazons to wage adventurous war.
Returning, here th' untimely doom he bore.
An arrow pierc'd him, on the fatal shore.
Ere from that spot the Grecian vessel fled,
Persephone, fair empress of the dead,
(The warrior's mournful pray'r such pity mov'd)
Anxious to greet the native bands he lov'd,
Allow'd the shade from Stygian gloom to rise,
With those dear objects to rejoice his eyes.
High on the summit of his tomb he stood,
And view'd the vessel dancing o'er the flood.-
Such, as in life, appear'd th' illustrious shade,
In beauty stern, in panoply array'd.
His graceful head a radiant helmet prest,
The cone of purple wav'd a fourfold crest.
Short space conspicuous, hovering o'er his tomb,
He sunk-he vanish'd, in eternal gloom.-
The band with fear that awful vision fill'd.
When Mopsus thus, (to read the future skill'd,)
*Callichorus.-From two Greek words.
"Repair to land; and let th' advent'rous train "A warrior's favour with libations gain.". Contracted round the mast the sails they drew; And to the shore tenacious cables threw.
Then, busied on the land, the tomb around,
They pour'd libations, and the victims crown'd, 1340
Such victims, as the realms of night demand,
And burn their entrails, with religious hand.-
But, far apart from the funereal rite,
They place an altar to the god of light,
Whose chearing influence mariners desire;
And burn the victims on the hallow'd' pyre.
His lyre upon that altar Orpheus plac'd;
The region hence the name of Lyra grac❜d.
Now, calling them from land, the breeze prevails.
Embarking, from the yard they spread the sails. 1350
The ship impetuous hurried thro' the deeps,
Swift as thro' liquid air the falcon sweeps,
When, to the breeze resign'd, from high she springs,
And darts unmoving on her levell'd wings.-
Where to the shore Parthenius smooth descends,
Gentlest of streams, her course the vessel bends.
Oft will the virgin Artemis repair,
With steps delighted, to those waters fair.
Here bathes the huntress, when the chace she flies,
And hastes, to join the banquet of the skies.
All day, untir'd by Sesamus they steer,
Where Eruthinian hills their summits rear.
Then, past Crobialus,* and Cromnas stood,
And dark Cytorus crown'd with waving wood.
When morning, now, began to dart her ray,
Around Carambis they pursued their way.
Assiduous at their oars the hardy band
Impell'd the vessel past a length of strand.
All day, and the succeeding night they toil;
And soon their labours reach th' Assyrian soil.
There Jove the daughter of Asopus plac'd,
With chastity inviolable grac'd,
Sinope-from the god she won, with art,
That gift unfriendly to th' enamour'd heart.-
The fair deceiver cry'd, "Almighty Jove,
"My wish perform, and I return, thy love."
The god assented.-At her lover's hands,
Virginity the crafty maid demands.-
With equal art she mock'd Apollo's flame,
And unpolluted kept a virgin's name.
Her love in vain the river Halys tried.
Nor god nor mortal won her for a bride.
Here still abode three warriors brave and young,
From fam'd Deimachus in Tricca sprung,
Deilcon, Phlogius, not unknown to fame,
With bold Autolycus, no vulgar name.
In exile here they were content to bide,
Since first they left the godlike hero's side.
With much-enduring Hercules, from far
They came, to share that Amazonian war.-
When now the welcome ship appear'd in view,
With eager footsteps to the beach they flew.-
They hail the Minya, as they gain the shore;
Their names, their leaders, and their course explore.
These known, they wish no longer to remain,
But haste on board, to join the gallant train,—
Louder and louder sounds the western blast;
The mouth of Halys in their course they past.
* Sinope, a city of Pontus. The birth place of Diagenes the cynic.
And Iris, as their gliding course they hold,
Is past, a neighbour stream to Halys roll'd.
They pass Assyria, with alluvions fed,
Encroaching still on ocean's oozy bed.
Now, with a circuit wide, they compass'd round The cliffs of Amazons, where ports abound.
Alcides here by stratagem detain'd
Fair Melanippe,* till the prize he gain'd,
Daughter of Mars, and as a ransom bore
The varied girdle, that her sister wore.
Hippolyta the precious trophy paid;
And from the chief receiv'd the captive maid.
A harbour there Thermodon's outlet forms,
A welcome refuge, from the raging storms.
No river can with this resemblance boast,
Roll'd thro' such numerous channels to the coast.
Let four be added, from its fruitful head,
An hundred streams affiliated spread,
From mountains high the parent spring distils,
That take the name of Amazonian hills.
Que channel first the downward current binds,
Ere
yet
resistance in his course he finds;
But uplands soon, to thwart his progress, swell,
And hills oppos'd the backward flood repel.
Then, as the sloping ground affords a way,.
Now here, now there, the winding currents stray.
Some near, some distant, in meanders creep.
Some perish nameless, ere they gain the deep.
A few their parent to the main attend,
The winding shore, where Euxine billows rend.
There, tho' the band from storms a shelter found;
They bode reluctant near that hostile ground.
* Hippolyta was queen of the Amazons, and Mela
|