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DRYDEN'S TALES

AND

TRANSLATION S.

VOL. XXI.

OUT OF THE EIGHTH BOOK OF

OVID'S METAMORPHOSE S.

CONNECTION to the former STORY.

Ovid, having told how Thefeus had freed Athens from the tribute of children, which was impofed on them by Minos king of Creta, by killing the Minotaur, here makes a digreffion to the story of Meleager and Atalanta, which is one of the most inartificial connections in all the Metamorphofes: for he only fays, that Thefeus obtained fuch honour from that combat, that all Greece had recourfe to him in their neceffities; and, amongst others, Calydon; though the hero of that country, prince Meleager, was then living.

FROM him, the Caledonians fought relief;

Though valiant Meleagrus was their chief.
The cause, a boar, who ravag'd far and near:
Of Cynthia's wrath, th' avenging minifter.
For Oeneus, with autumnal plenty blefs'd,
In gifts to heaven his gratitude express'd:
Cull'd fheaves, to Ceres; to Lyæus, wine;
To Pan, and Pales, offer'd fheep and kine;
And fat of olives, to Minerva's fhrine.

VOL. XXI.

B

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Beginning

Beginning from the rural Gods, his hand
Was liberal to the powers of high command:
Each Deity in every kind was blefs'd,

'Till at Diana's fane th' invidious honour ceas'd.
Wrath touches ev'n the Gods; the queen of night,
Fir'd with difdain, and jealous of her right,
Unhonour'd though I am, at least, said she,
Not unreveng'd that impious act shall be.
Swift as the word, the fped the boar away,
With charge on thofe devoted fields to prey.
No larger bulls th' Ægyptian paftures feed,
And none fo large Sicilian meadows breed:
His eye-balls glare with fire, fuffus'd with blood;
His neck fhoots up a thickset thorny wood;
His briftled back a trench impal'd appears,
And ftands erected, like a field of spears.
Froth fills his chaps, he fends a grunting found,
And part he churns, and part befoams the ground.
For tusks with Indian elephants he ftrove,

And Jove's own thunder from his mouth he drove.
He burns the leaves; the fcorching blaft invades
The tender corn, and fhrivels-up the blades:
Or, fuffering not their yellow beards to rear,
He tramples down the fpikes, and intercepts the year.
In vain the barns expect their promis'd load,
Nor barns at home, nor reeks are heap'd abroad:
In vain the hinds the threshing-floor prepare,

And exercise their flails in empty air.

With olives ever green the ground is ftrow'd,
And grapes ungather'd fhed their generous blood.

Amid the fold he rages, nor the sheep

Their fhepherds, nor the grooms their bulls can keep.
From fields to walls the frighted rabble run,
Nor think themselves fecure within the town:
Till Meleagrus, and his chofen crew,
Contemn the danger, and the praife pursue.
Fair Leda's twins, (in time to stars decreed)
One fought on foot, one curb'd the fiery steed;
Then iffu'd forth fam'd Jafon after these,

Who mann'd the foremost ship that fail'd the seas;
Then Thefeus join'd with bold Pirithous came:
A fingle concord in a double name:

The Theftian fons, Idas who fwiftly ran,
And Ceneus, once a woman, now a man.
Lynceus, with eagle's eyes and lion's heart;
Leucippus, with his never-erring dart;
Acaftus, Phileus, Phænix, Telamon,
Echion, Lelex, and Eurytion,

Achilles' father, and great Phocus' fon;

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Dryas the fierce, and Hippafus the strong;

With twice old Iolas, and Neftor then but young.

Laertes active, and Ancæus bold;

Mopfus the fage, who future things foretold;

And t' other feer yet by his wife unfold.

A thousand others of immortal fame;

Among the rest fair Atalanta came,

Grace of the woods; a diamond buckle bound

Her veft behind, that else had flow'd upon the ground,

And shew'd her buskin'd legs; her head was bare,

But for her native ornament of hair;

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