Know then from Cadmus I derive my race, Jocasta's son, and Thebes my native place." To whom the King, (who felt his gen'rous breast Touch'd with concern for his unhappy guest) Replies; "ah! why forbears the son to name His wretched father, known too well by fame? Fame that delights around the world to stray, Scorns not to take her Argos in her way. Ev'n those who dwell where suns at distance roll, In northen wilds, and freeze beneath the pole, And those who tread the burning Lybian lands, The faithless Syrtes, and the moving sands; Who view the western seas extremest bounds, Or drink of Ganges in their eastern grounds; All these the woes of Oedipus have known, Your Fates, your Furies, and your haunted town.
Sanguinis antiqui, piget inter sacra fateri, Sed si præcipiant miserum cognoscere curæ, Cadmus origo patrum tellus Mavortia Thebæ, Et genetrix Jocasta mihi." tum motus Adrastus 805 Hospitiis (agnovit enim) quid nota recondis? Scimus, ait; nec sic aversum fama Mycenis Volvit iter. regnum, et furias, oculosque pudentes Novit, et Arctois si quis de solibus horret, Quique bibet Gangen, aut nigrum occasibus intrat Oceanum, et si quos incerto littore syrtes Destituunt: ne perge queri, casusque priorum Annumerare tibi. nostro quoque sanguine multum
If on the sons the parents' crimes descend,
What prince from those his lineage can defend? Be this thy comfort, that 'tis thine t'efface With virtuous acts thy ancestors' disgrace, And be thyself the honour of thy race. But see! the stars begin to steal away, And shine more faintly at approaching day : Now pour the wine; and in your tuneful lays Once more resound the great Apollo's praise."
"O Father Phoebus! whether Lycia's coast, And snowy mountains, thy bright presence boast; Whether to sweet Castalia thou repair And bathe in silver dews thy yellow hair; Or pleas'd to find fair Delos float no more, Delight in Cynthus and the shady shore;
Erravit pietas; nec culpa nepotibus obstat. Tu modo dissimilis rebus mereare secundis Excusare tuos. Sed jam temone supino Languet Hyperboreæ glacialis portitor ursæ, Fundite vina focis, servatoremque parentum Latoiden votis iterumque iterumque canamus, Phoebe parens, seu te Lycia Pataræa nivosis Exercent dumeta jugis, seu rore pudico Castaliæ flavos amor est tibi mergere crines; Seu Trojam Thymbræeus habes, ubi fama volentem Ingratas Phrygios humeris subisse molares: Seu juvat Egæum feriens Latonius umbra Cynthus, et assiduam pelago non quærere Delon: 835
Or chuse thy seat in Ilion's proud abodes, The shining structures rais'd by lab'ring gods. By thee the bow and mortal shafts are borne; Eternal charms thy blooming youth adorn; Skill'd in the laws of secret Fate above, And the dark councils of Almighty Jove, Tis thine the seeds of future war to know, The change of sceptres, and impending woe; When direful meteors spread thro' glowing air Long trails of light, and shake their blazing hair. Thy rage the Phrygian felt, who durst aspire T'excel the music of thy heav'nly lyre;
Thy shafts aveng'd lewd Tityus' guilty flame, Th' immortal victim of thy mother's fame; Thy hand slew Python, and the dame who lost Her num'rous offspring for a fatal boast;
Tela tibi, longeque feros lentandus in hostes Arcus et ætherii dono cessere parentes
Æternum florere genas. tu doctus iniquas
Parcarum prænosse minas, fatumque quod ultra est, Et summo placitura Jovi. quis letifer annus, Bella quibus populis, mutent quæ sceptra cometæ. Tu Phryga submittis citharæ. tu matris honori Terrigenam Tityon Stygiis extendis arenis.
Te viridis Python, Thebanaque mater ovantem, Horruit in pharetris, ultrix tibi torva Megæra Jejunum Phlegyam subter cava saxa jacentem
In Phlegyas' doom thy just revenge appears, Condemn'd to Furies and eternal fears;
He views his food, but dreads, with lifted eye, The mould'ring rock that trembles from on high." "Propitious, hear our pray'r, O Pow'r divine ! 85% And on thy hospitable Argos shine;
Whether the stile of Titan please thee more, Whose purple rays th' Achæmenes adore ; Or great Osiris, who first taught the swain In Pharian fields to sow the golden grain; Or Mithra, to whose beams the Persian bows, And pays, in hollow rocks, his aweful vows; Mithra! whose head the blaze of light adorns, Who grasps the struggling heifer's lunar horns." 864
Æterno premit accubitu, dapibusque profanis Instimulat: sed mista famem fastidia vincunt. Adsis, O memor Hospitii, Junoniaque arva Dexter ames; seu te roseum Titani vocari Gentis Achæmeniæ ritu, seu præstat Osirin Frugiferem, seu Persei sub rupibus antri, Indignata sequi torquentem cornua Mitram.
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