Meantime, the leaders their discourse prolong.
Alternate questions croud upon the tongue.
While, from the strangers Cizycus demands
Their destin'd course, and Pelias' stern commands,
And Jason bids his royal host explain,
What various tribes possess th' adjacent plain;
What various nations, in a circle spread,
Around Propontis' wide capacious bed.-
Much more to know, th' advent'rous train require,
Did information second their desire.
When o'er the landscape morning light prevail'd,
The giant heights of Dindymus they scal'd.
The winding bays and shallows to survey;
And, from the station where the vessel lay,
The road of Chytus, Argo came impell'd;
And now the harbour more advanc'd she held.
Long time that arduous mountain path remain'd,
That Jason trod, and still his name retain’d.
Now, from the summits, with impetuous force,
The savage giants urg'd their hostile course.
Beneath the crags of overhanging rock,
The mouth of Chytus they prepare to block,
With stony masses, where it joins the main;
As tho' they sought some monster to restrain,
Within their toils.-But, with the younger band,
The strong Alcides takes his watchful stand.
With nervous arms he bends th' unerring bow,
And heaps on parent earth the gasping foe,
The giant race th' undaunted hero plied,
With massy fragments from the mountain's side,
Hurl'd high in air, destruction of the brave,
Such wond'rous strength vindictive Juno gave.-
To crush Alcides, in th' unequal fight
She crown'd these monsters with stupendous might.-
While thus the heroes in the combat burn'd,
Their brave companions from the heights return'd,
And near them in compacted phalanx stand,
To share the slaughter of that earth-born band.
Then, some their fate from flying arrows found,
And some the spear laid prostrate on the ground.
Nor ceas'd the deadly toil, ere all the brood
Had drench'd their native rocks with caitiff blood.
As when the woodmen, o'er some river's bank,
Dispose the lofty trees in many a rank,
New from their ax, that moisture of the stream 1570 May season for the wedge the brittle beam;
Thus, on the margin of the foamy bay,
A space confin'd, in rows the giants lay.
Some, in the waves immerge the breast and head,
While on the beach the monstrous limbs lie spread;
Some rest their heads upon the sandy shore,
And hide their feet beneath the billow's roar,
To birds and fishes of voracious kind
Expos'd a prey, and welt'ring to the wind.
Their labours freed from danger and from fear,
The vessel to the wind the heroes clear;
With spreading sails her rapid course advanc'd;
All day along the swelling surge she glanc'd.
As day declin'd, the favouring breezes fail,
Too soon succeeded by an adverse gale.
So fierce and sudden that unfriendly blast
The pilot's skill, and rower's strength surpast,
Snatch'd from her track, the lab'ring ship it bore,
Back to the Dolian's hospitable shore.
Wrapt in the shades of night, th' heroic band 1590 Sprung to the shore, nor know that friendly land. Nor could the Dolians, through the gloom, descry Their guests, endear'd by many a social tie; While Argo some Pelasgic vessel seem'd, Her people Macris' hostile sons they deem'd; With armour snatch'd in haste they urg'd their course, To meet th' imagin'd foes with force to force.
The bands conflicting 'gainst each other dash;
And spears encounter spears, and bucklers clash.
Dire was the onset, loud the cry of fear;
As when among the thickets dry and sere,
A conflagration falls, with noisy sway,
And roaring volumes urge their wasteful way.—
Ill-fated king! whom Heav'n no more allows
To reach his home, or clasp his youthful spouse!-
The son of Eson met his bold advance,
And thro' his breast impell'd the fatal lance.
Around the point the crashing bones resound;
And life's warm current issues from the wound.
Roll'd on th' empurpled sand, the youth sustain'd
Th' inevitable doom for man ordain'd.
The fatal barrier burst, that holds confin'd
Within its pale, our weak and fev'rish kind.'
Thus, he, who thought all danger of this band
Far far remov'd, by Heav'n's protecting hand,
By fate entangled, on that fatal night,
So soon succeeding to the social rite,
With many of his brave companions, slain
In conflict dire, lay prostrate on the plain.
Alcides reft brave Telecles of life,
With Megabrontes, in the mortal strife.
Acastus mingles Sphodris with the dead,
By Peleus, Zelys, and Gephyrus bled.
And Telamon, supreme the lance to wield,
Laid Basileus extended on the field.
With Promus, Hyacinthas prest the ground,
Idas and Clytius dealt the mortal wound.
The twins of Leda, with unerring aim,
Stout Megalossaces, and Phlogeus tame.
Itomeneus, from Meleager's arm,
And bold Artaces felt the mortal harm,
Illustrious shades, ye find those tribes among,
The rites, that to th' heroic dead belong.
The scar'd survivors fled, with panic fear,
Like flights of doves, that find the falcon near.
In heaps confus'd, within the gates they croud;
And fill the city with their clamours loud.
Mournful return from that pernicious fight!
But, when the morn display'd her rosy light,
Both parties, then, their cruel error knew,
And anguish fill'd each spirit at the view.
The Minya mourn'd, as breathless on the shore
The youthful king lay welt'ring in his gore.
Three days with grief conjoin'd they mourn'd the dead;
They tore their hair; and on the corses spread;
And thrice in brazen arms they cours'd around
The heroes clos'd in the sepulchral mound;
The tomb they circled in two bands, and paid
All honours suited to the parted shade;
Image of war, along the grassy plain
The games they led, in mem❜ry of the slain;
Where still untouch'd succeeding ages keep,
With pious awe, their monumental heap.
Nor Clité long surviv'd her husband's fate
New horrors rise to swell the doom of hate.
Eager to follow her departed lord,
Around her neck she knit the fatal cord.
The hapless victim of connubial love,
Was mourn'd, by ev'ry nymph of lawn and grove,
The Gods approving mark'd her constant flame, 1660
And bade a prodigy preserve her fame.
The tears, that from her eyes bedew'd the plain,
A fountain rose, and still her name retain.-
Sad, and portentous, harbinger of woes,
That cruel morn on ev'ry Dolian rose;
And all forgot, in deep despairing mood,
The care of being, and the thoughts of food.
When hunger rag'd, it's urgent pangs to heal,
With gloomy haste they snatch'd the casual meal,
On Ceres' gifts, as from the field they came; 1670
And savage food unconscious of the flame.
And still in Cizycus th' Ionian race
To that event a solemn custom trace,
That, when revolving time within their walls,
With annual lapse, th' ill-omen'd day recals,
They homely cakes of coarsest meal prepare,
As emblems of that public grief and care.
Twelve days and nights such stormy blasts prevail,
That ev'n the boldest fear to spread the sail.
The night that follow'd, as the heroes slept,
The watch while Mopsus and Acastus kept,
Near Jason's head with golden tresses crown'd,
The peaceful halcyon wheel'd her airy round;
And, as she wheel'd, foretold in shrilly strain,
A truce with warring winds, that vex'd the main.
That sea-born bird sage Mopsus understood,
And voice presageful of the smiling flood.
Sent by some god the bird return'd again,
With circling flight, and perch'd upon the vane.
Their slumb'ring chief the heapy fleeces prest.
The voice of Mopsus interrupts his rest.
From sleep he shook him-" Son of Æson, wake,
"To rocky Dindymus* thy steps betake.
"Where on its top aspires a temple fair,
"Appease the mother of the Gods by pray'r. "Then shall the tempests cease to vex the main, "So halcyon sings, who never sings in vain. "For, while you slumber'd thro' the shades of night, "Around the bird of prescience wheel'd her flight.— "Know, that on mighty Cybele depend 1700
"The storms that bellow, and the waves that rend.
* A mountain of Phrygia.
For the death of Cyzicus.
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