Heav'n seems improv'd with a superior ray,
And the bright arch reflects a double day.
The Monarch then his solemn silence broke,
The still creation listen'd while he spoke;
Each sacred accent bears eternal weight,
And each irrevocable word was fate.
'How long shall man the wrath of Heav'n defy, And force unwilling vengeance from the sky ? 301 O race, confed'rate into crimes, that prove Triumphant o'er th' eluded rage of Jove! This weary'd arm can scarce the bolt sustain, And unregarded thunder rolls in vain ; Th' o'erlabor'd Cyclop from his task retires, Th' Eolian forge exhausted of its fires. For this I suffer'd Phoebus' steeds to stray, And the mad ruler to misguide the day,
When the wide earth to heaps of ashes turn'd, 310
And heav'n itself the wand'ring chariot burn'd.
For this, my brother of the wat'ry reign
Releas'd th' impetuous sluices of the main;
But flames consum'd, and billows rag'd in vain.
Two races now, ally'd to Jove, offend;
To punish these, see Jove himself descend.
The Theban kings their line from Cadmus trace,
From godlike Perseus those of Argive race.
Unhappy Cadmus' fate who does not know,
And the long series of succeeding woe?
How oft the Furies from the deeps of night
Arose, and mix'd with men in mortal fight;
Th' exulting mother, stain'd with filial blood;
The savage hunter, and the haunted wood?
The direful banquet why should I proclaim, 325
And crimes that grieve the trembling gods to name?
Ere I recount the sins of these profane,
The sun would sink into the western main,
And, rising, gild the radiant cast again.
Have we not seen (the blood of Laïus shed) 330
The murd'ring son ascend his father's bed,
Through violated nature force his way,
And stain the sacred womb where once he lay ?
Yet now in darkness and despair he groans,
And for the crimes of guilty fate atones;
His sons with scorn their eyeless father view,
Insult his wounds, and make them bleed anew.
Thy curse, O Edipus! just Heav'n alarms,
And sets th' avenging Thunderer in arms.
I from the root thy guilty race will tear,
And give the nations to the waste of war.
Adrastus soon, with gods averse, shall join
In dire alliance with the Theban line;
Hence strife shall rise, and mortal war succeed;
The guilty realms'of Tantalus shall bleed :
Fix'd is their docm. This all-rememb'ring breast
Yet harbors vergeance for the tyrant's feast.'
Te said: and thus the queen of Heav'n return'd;
(With sudden grief her lab'ring bosom burn'd)
Must I, whose cares Phoroneus' tow'rs defend,
Must I, O Jove! in bloody wars contend?
Thou know'st those regions my protection claim,
Glorious in arms, in riches, and in fame :
Though there the fair Egyptian heifer fed,
And there deluded Argus slept and bled;
Though there the brazen tow'r was storm'd of old,
When Jove descended in almighty gold;
Yet I can pardon those obscarer rapes,
Those bashful crimes disguis'd in borrow'd shapes.
But Thebes, where, shining in celestial charms,360
Thou cam'st triumphant to a mortal's arms,
When all my glories o'er her limbs were spread, And blazing lightnings danc'd around her bed; Curs'd Thebes the vengeance it deserves, may prove
Ah! why should Argos feel the rage of Jove? 365
Yet since thou wilt thy sister-queen control,
Since still the lust of discord fires thy soul,
Go, raise my Samos! let Mycenè fall!
And level with the dust the Spartan wall!
Nor more let mortals Juno's pow'r invoke, 370
Her fanes no more with eastern incense smoke,
Nor victims sink beneath the sacred stroke;
But to your Isis all my rights transfer,
Let altars blaze and temples smoke for her;
For her, through Egypt's fruitful clime renown'd, 375
Let weeping Nilus hear the timbrel sound!
But if thou must reform the stubborn times,
Avenging on the sons the father's crimes,
And from the long records of distant age
Derive incitements to renew thy rage;
Say, from what period then has Jove design'd
To date his vengeance; to what bounds confin’d?
Begin from thence, where first Alpheus hides
His wand'ring stream, and through the briny
tides
Unmix'd to his Sicilian river glides.
Thy own Arcadians there the thunder claim,
Whose impious rites disgrace thy mighty name;
Who raise thy temples where the chariot stood
Of fierce Enomaus, defil'd with blood;
Where once his steeds their savage banquet found,
And human bones yet whiten all the ground. 391
Say, can those honors please? and can'st thou love
Presumptuous Crete, that boasts the tomb of Jove?
And shall not Tantalus's kingdoms share
Thy wife and sister's tutelary care?
Reverse, O Jove, thy too severe decree,
Nor doom to war a race deriv'd from thee;
On impious realms and barb'rous kings impose Thy plagues, and curse 'em with such sons as those."
Thus, in reproach and pray'r, the queen exprest The rage and grief contending in her breast; Unmov'd remain'd the ruler of the sky,
And from his throne return'd this stern reply: "Twas thus I deem'd thy haughty soul would bear The dire, though just, revenge which I pre
Against a nation thy peculiar care:
No less Dione might for Thebes contend,
Nor Bacchus less his native town defend;
Yet these in silence see the Fates fulfil
Their work, and rev'rence our superior will: 410
For by the black infernal Styx I swear,
(That dreadful oath which binds the Thunderer)
'Tis fix'd; the irrevocable doom of Jove;
No force can bend me, no persuasion move.
Haste then, Cyllenius, through the liquid air, 415
Go, mount the winds, and to, the shades repair;
Bid hell's black monarch my commands obey,
And give up Laïus to the realms of day,
Whose ghost, yet shiv'ring on Cocytus' sand,
Expects its passage to the farther strand;
Let the pale sire revisit Thebes, and bear
These pleasing orders to the tyrant's ear;
That from his exil'd brother, swell'd with pride
Of foreign forces, and his Argive bride,
Almighty Jove demands him to detain
The promis'd empire, and alternate reign.
Be this the cause of more than mortal hate:
The rest succeeding times shall ripen into fate."
The god obeys, and to his feet applies
Those golden wings that cut the yielding skies. 430
His ample hat his beamy locks o'erspread,
And veil'd the starry glories of his head.
He seiz'd the wand that causes sleep to fly,
Or in soft slumber seals the wakeful eye;
That drives the dead to dark Tartarean coasts, 435
Or back to life compels the wand'ring ghosts.
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