Apollonius of Rhodes - Argonautica

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For, lo! descending sudden from the sky,
Round the pil'd banquet shrieking harpies fly.

Apollonius of Rhodes
The gallant band beheld with wondering eyes,
Fierce as Jove's fiery bolt, the radiant prize.

Apollonius of Rhodes
Some bring dry wood, and some in order spread
Soft leaves and herbage for a spacious bed.

Apollonius of Rhodes
Then terror seiz'd them, when with sudden shock
The refluent billows forc'd them on the rock;
With chilling fears was every nerve unstrung,
While o'er their heads impending ruin hung.
Before, behind, they saw the spacious deep,
When instant, lo! a billow, vast and steep,
Still rises higher, and still wider spreads,
And hangs a watery mountain o'er their heads.
The heroes stoop'd, expecting by its fall
That mighty billow would o'erwhelm them all...

Apollonius of Rhodes
Here, in a covert near the reedy flood,
A fell wild boar lay deep immers'd in mud.
With horrid tusks so dreadful he appear'd,
The fountain-nymphs the savage monster fear'd:
No living wight in miry marsh or moor
E'er saw so fierce, so horrible a boar.

Apollonius of Rhodes
His golden locks, that flow'd with grace divine,
Hung clustering like the branches of the vine;
In his left hand, his bow unbent he bore,
His quiver pendant on his back he wore:
The conscious island trembled as he trod,
And the big rolling waves confess'd the God.
Nor dar'd the heroes, seiz'd with dire dismay,
The splendors of his countenance survey,
But on the ground their downward eyes they cast.

Apollonius of Rhodes
When, lo! a Halcyon, of cerulean hue,
O'er the fair head of slumbering Jason flew,
In airy circles, wondrous to behold,
And, screaming loud, the ceasing storm foretold.

Apollonius of Rhodes
Fronting the door, all lovely and alone,
Sat Cytherea on a polish'd throne.
Adown the shoulders of the heavenly fair,
In easy ringlets flow'd her flaxen hair;
And with a golden comb, in matchless grace,
She taught each lock its most becoming place.

Apollonius of Rhodes
The salt-sea spray in clouds began to rise;
Old ocean thunder'd; the cerulean skies
Rebellow'd loudly with the fearful din;
The caves below remurmur'd from within.

Apollonius of Rhodes
A mantle doubly lin'd, of purple hue,
The son of Æson o'er his shoulders threw.
This Pallas gave him, when, with wondrous art,
She plann'd his ship, and measur'd every part.
'Twere safer to survey the radiant globe
Of rising Phoebus, than this splendid robe.
Full in the middle beam'd a crimson blaze,
The verge surrounding darted purple rays.
In every part historic scenes were wrought;
The moving figures seem'd inform'd with thought...

Apollonius of Rhodes
But Lynceus stands renown'd for piercing sight:
So keen his beam, that ancient fables tell,
He saw, thro' earth, the wondrous depths of hell.

Apollonius of Rhodes
They who to prostrate suppliants lend an ear,
The laws of hospitable Jove revere.
All-present he hath listen'd to our pray'r,
And sinking sav'd us with a parent's care.

Apollonius of Rhodes
His corse the bright-arm'd heroes thrice surround,
And raise in seemly form the hallow'd mound.

Apollonius of Rhodes
For Jason beam'd in beauty's charms so bright,
The maid admiring, languish'd with delight.
Thus when the rising sun appears in view,
On the fair rose dissolves the radiant dew.

Apollonius of Rhodes
Where on an oak the fleece, suspended high,
A dragon guards with ever-watchful eye.

Apollonius of Rhodes
Then like an arrow from th' elastic yew,
Swift o'er the foaming waves the vessel flew.

Apollonius of Rhodes
On Argo's keel the impetuous torrent pours,
Which rais'd the ship above the rocks so high,
She seem'd sublimely sailing in the sky.

Apollonius of Rhodes
But friendly Juno shrouds
Her favourite heroes in a veil of clouds.

Apollonius of Rhodes
A hideous dragon of enormous size
Turns all around his circumspective eyes:
O'er the bright spoil the strictest watch he keeps;
He never slumbers, and he never sleeps.

Apollonius of Rhodes
Two bulls in Mars's field your wonder claim,
Their hoofs of brass, their nostrils breathing flame.
These oft I seize, and to the yoke constrain
To plough four acres of the stubborn plain.
No seeds I sow, but scatter o'er the land
A dragon's teeth; when, lo! an armed band
Of chiefs spring up: but soon as they appear,
I slay th' embattled squadrons with my spear.
Each morn I yoke the bulls, at eve resign:
Perform this labour, and the fleece is thine.

Apollonius of Rhodes
Her eyes to earth she bends with modest grace,
And heaven in smiles is open'd on her face.

Apollonius of Rhodes
Know, at Æeta'a court a maiden dwells
Deep skill'd by Hecate in magic spells:
All plants she knows that grow on mountains steep,
On vales, or meads, or in the boundless deep;
By these she quells the fire's relentless force,
Stops the mad torrent in its headlong course,
Retards the planets as they roll on high,
And draws the Moon reluctant from the sky.

Apollonius of Rhodes
Alcimeda embrac'd her son with tears,
Each breast was chill'd with sad presaging fears.

Apollonius of Rhodes
As swains with smoke, of honey studious, strive
From some rock's cleft the swarming bees to drive;
Alarm'd and trembling, with a murmuring sound,
They crowd to all their waxen rooms around;
Put if the fumes prevail, their wings they ply,
And rove uncertain thro' the various sky.

Apollonius of Rhodes
Here the sweet bard his tuneful lyre unstrung,
And ceas'd the heavenly music of his tongue;
But, with the sound entranc'd, the listening ear
Still thought him singing, and still seem'd to hear.

Apollonius of Rhodes
But adverse soon they meet, with rage they glow,
Like bulls fierce fighting for some favourite cow.

Apollonius of Rhodes
At Colchos still this barbarous rite prevails:
They never burn the bodies of the males,
Nor deep in earth their decent limbs compose,
And with sepulchral dust the dead enclose;
But in raw hides they hang them high in air:
And yet, that earth may equal portions share,
Departed females to the grave they doom,
(Such are their rites) and close them in the tomb.

Apollonius of Rhodes
The mother, starting from her bed of rest,
Fears for her babe reclining on her breast,
And closely clasping to her fondling arms,
Protects her trembling infant from alarms.

Apollonius of Rhodes
Thus sees the clown, or thinks he can descry
The new moon breaking through a cloudy sky.

Apollonius of Rhodes
Th' Etesian winds, while forty days they blow,
Refresh with balmy gales the soil below.

Apollonius of Rhodes