The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Remains of Hesiod the Ascræan, by Charles Abraham Elton.

Of Vulcan, so earth melted in the glare

Of blazing fire. He down wide Hell’s abyss

His victim hurl’d in bitterness of soul.

[231]Lo! from Typhœus is the strength of winds

Moist-blowing: save the South, North, East, and West:

[232]These born from gods, a blessing great to man:

Those, unavailing gusts, o’er the waste sea

Breathe barren: with sore peril fraught to man:

In whirlpool rage fall black upon the deep:

Now here, now there, they rush with stormy gale,

Scatter the rolling barks, and whelm in death

The mariner: an evil succourless

To men, who midst the ocean-ways their blast

Encounter. They again o’er all th’ expanse

Of flowery earth the pleasant works of man

Despoil, and fill the blacken’d air with cloud

Of eddying dust and hollow rustlings drear.

Now had the blessed Powers of Heaven fulfill’d

Their toils, for meed of glory ’gainst the gods

Titanic striving in their strength: and now,

Earth-counsell’d, they exhort Olympian Jove,

Of wide beholding eyes, to regal sway

And empire o’er immortals: he to them

Due honours portion’d with an equal hand.

First as a bride the Monarch of the gods

[233]Led Metis: her o’er deities and men

Vers’d in all knowledge. But when now the time

Was full, that she should bear [234]the blue-eyed maid

Minerva, he with treacheries of smooth speech

Beguiled her thought, and hid his spouse away

In his own breast: so Earth and starry Heaven

Had counsell’d: him they both advising warn’d

Lest, in the place of Jove, another seize

The kingly honour o’er immortal gods.

For so the Fates had destined, that from her

An offspring should be born, of wisest strain.

First the Tritonian virgin azure-eyed:

Of equal might and prudence with her sire:

And then a son, king over gods and men,

Had she brought forth, invincible of soul,

But Jove in his own breast before that hour

Deposited the goddess: evermore

So warning him of evil and of good.

Next led he shining Themis: and she bare

Order, and Justice, and the blooming Peace,

The Hours by name: who perfect all the works

Of human kind: and Destinies, whom Jove

All-wise array’d with honour: Lachesis,

Clotho, and Atropos: who deal to men

The dole of good or ill. To him anon

Old Ocean’s daughter, amiablest of mien,

Eurynome, [235]brought the three Graces forth

Beauteous of cheek: Euphrosyne, Aglaia,

And Thália blithe: their eye-lids, as they gaze,

Drop love, unnerving: and beneath the shade

Of their arch’d brows they steal the sidelong glance

Of sweetness. To the couch anon he came

Of many-nurturing Ceres: Proserpine

The snowy-arm’d she bare: her gloomy Dis

Snatch’d from her mother, and all-prudent Jove

Consign’d the prize. Next loved he the fair-hair’d

Mnemosyne: from her the Muses nine

Are born: their brows with golden fillets wreath’d;

Whom feasts delight, and rapture sweet of song.

In mingled joy with ægis-wielding Jove

Latona bore [236]the arrow-shooting Dian,

And Phœbus, loveliest of the heavenly tribe.

He last the blooming Juno led as bride:

And she, embracing with the king of gods

And men, bore Mars, and [237]Hebe, and Lucina.

He from his head disclosed himself to birth

The blue-eyed maid, Tritonian [238]Pallas; fierce,

Rousing the war-field’s tumult; unsubdued;

Leader of armies; awful: whom delight

The shout of battle and the shock of war.

Without th’ embrace of love did Juno bear

[239]Illustrious Vulcan, o’er celestials graced

With arts: and strove contending with her spouse

Emulous. From the god of sounding waves,

Shaker of earth, and Amphitrite, sprang

[240]Sea-potent Triton huge: beneath the deep

He dwells in golden edifice, a god

Of awful might. Now [241]Venus gave to Mars,

Breaker of shields, a dreadful offspring: Fear,

And Consternation: they confound, in rout

Of horrid war, the phalanx dense of men,

With city-spoiler Mars. [242]Harmonia last

She bare, whom generous Cadmus clasp’d as bride.

Daughter of Atlas, Maia bore to Jove

[243]The glorious Hermes, herald of the gods;

The sacred couch ascending. [244]Semele,

Daughter of Cadmus, melting in embrace

With Jove, gave jocund Bacchus to the light:

A mortal an immortal: now alike

Immortal deities. Alcmena bare

Strong Hercules: dissolving in embrace

With the cloud-gatherer Jove. The crippled god,

In arts illustrious, Vulcan, as his bride

The gay Aglaia led, the youngest Grace.

[245]Bacchus of golden hair, his blooming spouse

Daughter of Minos, Ariadne clasp’d

With yellow tresses. Her Saturnian Jove

Immortal made, and fearless of decay.

Fair-limb’d [246]Alcmena’s valiant son, achieved

His agonizing labours, Hebe led

A bashful bride, the daughter of great Jove

And Juno golden-sandal’d, on the mount

Olympus top’d with snow. Thrice blest who thus,

A mighty task accomplish’d, midst the gods

Uninjur’d dwells, and free from withering age

For evermore. Perseis, ocean-nymph

Illustrious, to th’ unwearied Sun produced

Circe and king Æetes. By the will

Of Heaven, Æetes, boasting for his sire

The world-enlightning Sun, Idya led

Cheek-blooming, nymph of ocean’s perfect stream:

And she, to love by balmy Venus’ aid

Subdued, [247]Medea beauteous-ankled bare.

And now farewell, ye heavenly habitants!

Ye islands, and ye continents of earth!

And thou, oh main! of briny wave profound!

Oh sweet of speech, Olympian Muses! born

From ægis-wielding Jove! sing now the tribe

Of goddesses; whoe’er, by mortals clasp’d

In love, have borne a race resembling gods.

Ceres, divinest goddess, in soft joy

Blends with Iäsius brave, in the rich tract

Of Crete, whose fallow’d glebe thrice-till’d abounds;

And [248]Plutus bare, all-bountiful, who roams

Earth, and th’ expanded surface of the sea:

And him that meets him on his way, whose hands

He grasps, him gifts he with abundant gold,

And large felicity. Harmonia, born

Of lovely Venus, gave to Cadmus’ love

Ino and Semele: and fair of cheek

Agave, and Autonöe, the bride

Of Aristæus with the clustering locks;

And Polydorus, born in towery Thebes.

Aurora to Tithonus Memnon bare,

The brazen-helm’d, the Æthiopian king,

And king Emathion: and to Cephalus

Bare she a son illustrious, Phäethon,

Gallantly brave, a mortal like to gods:

Whom, while a youth, e’en in the tender flower

Of glorious prime, a boy, and vers’d alone

In what a boy may know, love’s amorous queen

Snatch’d with swift rape away: in her blest fane

Appointing him her nightly-serving priest;

The heavenly dæmon of her sanctuary.

[249]Jason Æsonides, by heaven’s high will,

Bore from Æetes, foster-son of Jove,

His daughter: those afflictive toils achieved,

Which Pelias, mighty monarch, bold in wrong,

Unrighteous, violent of deed, imposed:

And much-enduring reach’d th’ Iolchian coast,

Wafting in winged bark the jet-eyed maid,

His blooming spouse. She yielding thus in love

To Jason, shepherd of his people, bare

Medeus, whom the son of Philyra,

[250]Sage Chiron, midst the mountain-solitudes

Train’d up to man: thus were high Jove’s designs

Fulfill’d. Now Psamathe, the goddess famed,

Who sprang from ancient Nereus of the sea,

Bare Phocus; through the lovely Venus’ aid

By Æacus embraced. To Peleus’ arms

Resign’d, the silver-footed Thetis bare

Achilles lion-hearted: cleaving fierce

The ranks of men. Wreath’d Cytherea bare

Æneas: blending in ecstatic love

With brave Anchises on the verdant top

Of Ida, wood-embosom’d, many-valed.

Now [251]Circe, from the Sun Hyperion-born

Descended, with the much-enduring man

Ulysses blending love, Latinus bare,

And Agrius, brave and blameless: far they left

Their native seats in Circe’s hallow’d isles,

And o’er the wide-famed Tyrrhene tribes held sway.

Calypso, noble midst the goddess race,

Clasp’d wise Ulysses: and from rapturous love

Nausithous and Nausinous gave to day.

Lo! these were they, who yielding to embrace

Of mortal men, themselves immortal, gave

A race resembling gods. Oh now the tribe

Of gentle women sing! Olympian maids!

Ye Muses, born from ægis-bearer Jove!