Yet to refuse so slight a gift would be
But more t' increase his consort's jealousy ;
Thus fear and love, by turns, his heart assail'd;
And stronger love had sure, at length, prevail'd :
But some faint hope remain'd, his jealous queen
Had not the mistress through the heifer seen.
The cautious goddess, of her gift possess'd,
Yet harbour'd anxious thoughts within her breast;
As she who knew the falsehood of her Jove,
And justly fear'd some new relapse of love;
Which to prevent, and to secure her care,
To trusty Argus she commits the fair,
The head of Argus (as with stars the skies)
Was compass'd round, and wore an hundred eyes;
But two by turns their lids in slumber steep,
The rest on duty still their station keep;
Nor could the total constellation sleep.
Thus, ever present to his eyes and mind,
His charge was still before him, though behind.
In fields he suffer'd her to feed by day;
But when the setting sun to night gave way,
The captive cow he summon'd with a call,
And drove her back, and tied her to the stall.
On leaves of trees and bitter herbs she fed,
Heaven was her canopy, bare earth her bed;
So hardly lodg'd, and to digest her food,
She drank from troubled streams defil'd with mud.
Her woeful story fain she would have told,
With hands upheld, but had no hands to hold.
Her head to her ungentle keeper bow'd,
She strove to speak; she spoke not, but she low'd:
Affrighted with the noise, she look'd around,
And seem'd to' inquire the author of the sound.
VOL. I.
Once on the banks where often she had play'd,
(Her father's banks) she came, and there survey'd
Her alter'd visage, and her branching head,
And, starting, from herself she would have fled.
Her fellow nymphs, familiar to her eyes,
Beheld, but knew her not in this disguise.
Ev'n Inachus himself was ignorant,
And in his daughter did his daughter want.
She follow'd where her fellows went, as she
Were still a partner of the company:
They stroke her neck; the gentle heifer stands,
And her neck offers to their stroking hands.
Her father gave her grass; the grass she took,
And lick'd his palms, and cast a piteous look;
And in the language of her eyes she spoke.
She would have told her name, and ask'd relief,
But, wanting words, in tears she tells her grief;
Which with her foot she makes him understand,
And prints the name of Iö in the sand.
'Ah, wretched me!' her mournful father cried; She, with a sigh, to wretched me replied: About her milk-white neck his arms he threw, And wept, and then these tender words ensue : 'And art thou she, whom I have sought around The world, and have at length so sadly found? So found, is worse than lost: with mutual words Thou answer'st not, no voir thy tongue affords ; But sighs are deeply drawn from out thy breast, And speech denied, by lowing is express'd. Unknowing, I prepar'd the bridal bed, With empty hopes of happy issue fed : But now the husband of a herd must be Thy mate, and bellowing sons thy progeny.
Oh, were I mortal, death might bring relief;
But now my godhead but extends my grief;
Prolongs my woes, of which no end I see,
And makes me curse my immortality!'
More had he said, but, fearful of her stay,
The starry guardian drove his charge away
To some fresh pasture; on a hilly height
He sat himself, and kept her still in sight.
THE EYES OF ARGUS TRANSFORMED INTO A
PEACOCK'S TRAIN.
Now Jove no longer could her sufferings bear; But call'd in haste his airy messenger,
The son of Maïa, with severe decree
To kill the keeper, and to set her free.
With all his harness soon the god was sped,
His flying hat was fastened on his head;
Wings on his heels were hung, and in his hand
He holds the virtue of the snaky wand.
The liquid air his moving pinions wound,
And, in the moment, shoot him on the ground.
Before he came in sight, the crafty god
His wings dismiss'd, but still retain'd his rod :
That sleep-procuring wand wise Hermes took,
But made it seem to sight a shepherd's hook.
With this, he did a herd of goats control,
Which by the way he met, and slily stole.
Clad like a country swain, he pip'd and sung,
And, playing, drove his jolly troop along.
With pleasure, Argus the musician heeds; But wonders much at those new vocal reeds. "And whosoe'er thou art, my friend,' said he, ❝ Up hither drive thy goats, and play by me: This hill has browse for them, and shade for thee.'
The god, who was with ease induc'd to climb,
Began discourse to pass away the time;
And still betwixt his tuneful pipe he plies,
And watch'd his hour to close the keeper's eyes.
With much ado he partly kept awake,
Not suffering all his eyes repose to take;
And ask'd the stranger, who did reeds inve
And whence began so rare an instrument?
THE TRANSFORMATION OF SYRINX INTO Reeds.
Then Hermes thus: 'A nymph of late there was,
Whose heavenly form her fellows did surpass,
The pride and joy of fair Arcadia's plains,
Belov'd by deities, ador'd by swains:
Syrinx her name, by Sylvans oft pursued,
As oft she did the lustful gods delude:
The rural and the woodland powers disdain'd;
With Cynthia hunted, and her rights maintain'd:
Like Phoebe clad, even Phoebe's self she seems
So tall, so straight, such well-proportion'd limbs:
The nicest eye did no distinction know,
But that the goddess bore a golden bow:
Distinguish'd thus, the sight she cheated too.
Descending from Lycæus, Pan admires
The matchless nymph, and burns with new desires:
A crown of pine upon his head he wore,
And thus began her pity to implore;
But ere he thus began, she took her flight
So swift, she was already out of sight:
Nor stay'd to hear the courtship of the god;
But bent her course to Ladon's gentle flood:
There by the river stop'd, and, tir'd before,
Relief from water-nymphs her prayers implore.
'Now while the lustful god, with speedy pace, Just thought to strain her in a strict embrace, He fills his arms with reeds, new-rising on the place:
And while he sighs, his ill success to find,
The tender canes were shaken by the wind,
And breath'd a mournful air, unheard before,
That much surprising Pan, yet pleas'd him more.
Admiring this new music, "Thou," he said,
"Who canst not be the partner of my bed,
At least shalt be the consort of my mind,
And often, often to my lips be join'd."
He form'd the reeds, proportion'd as they are,
Unequal in their length, and wax'd with care,
They still retain the name of his ungrateful fair.')
While Hermes pip'd, and sung, and told his tale,
The keeper's winking eyes began to fail,
And drowsy slumber on the lids to creep,
Till all the watchman was at length asleep.
Then soon the god his voice and song suppress'd,
And with his powerful rod confirm'd his rest:
Without delay his crooked falchion drew,
And at one fatal stroke the keeper slew.
Down from the rock fell the dissever'd head,
Opening its eyes in death; and, falling, bled,
And mark'd the passage with a crimson trail :
Thus Argus lies in pieces, cold and pale;
And all his hundred eyes, with all their light,
Are clos'd, at once, in one perpetual night.
These Juno takes, that they no more may fail,
And spreads them in her peacock's gaudy tail.
Impatient to revenge her injur'd bed,
She wreaks her anger on her rival's head;
|