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Canis the bright, was born to high command;
A princess, and a native of thy land,
Divine Achilles: every tongue proclaim'd
Her beauty, and her eyes all hearts inflamed.
Peleus, thy sire, perhaps had sought her bed,
Among the rest; but he had either led
Thy mother then, or was by promise tied :
But she to him, and all, alike her love denied.
"It was her fortune once to take her way
Along the sandy margin of the sea:
The power of ocean view'd her as she pass'd,
And, loved as soon as seen, by force embraced:
Then thus, transported, to the nymph he cried:
'Ask what thou wilt, no prayer shall be denied :' 275
This also fame relates. The haughty fair,

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Who not the rape ev'n of a god could bear,
This answer, proud, return'd: To mighty wrongs
A mighty recompense, of right, belongs:
Give me no more to suffer such a shame,
But change the woman for a better name;
One gift for all:' she said; and while she spoke,
A stern, majestic, manly tone she took :
A man she was: and, as the godhead swore,
To Cæneus turn'd, who Cænis was before.
"To this the lover adds, without request,
No force of steel should violate his breast.
Glad of the gift, the new-made warrior goes,
And arms among the Greeks, and longs for equal foes.

285

SKIRMISH BETWEEN THE CENTAURS AND LAPITHITES.

THE marriage of Pirithous, king of the Lapithe, with Hippodamia, is rendered memorable by a furious contest with their centaur guests, who endeavour to seize the bride, but are defeated.

"Now brave Pirithous, bold Ixion's son, The love of fair Hippodame had won.

290

The cloud begotten race, half men, half beast,
Invited, came to grace the nuptial feast:
In a cool cave's recess the treat was made,
Whose entrance trees with spreading boughs o'er-
shade.

295

They sat; and, summon'd by the bridegroom, came, To mix with those the Lapithæan name:

Nor wanted I. The roofs with joy resound;

And, Hymen, Io Hymen,' rung around.

Raised altars shone with holy fires: the bride, 300
Lovely herself, (and lovely, by her side,

A bevy of bright nymphs, with sober grace,)
Came glittering like a star, and took her place :
Her heavenly form beheld, all wish'd her joy;

And little wanted; but in vain their wishes all employ: "For one, most brutal of the brutal brood,

306

Or whether wine or beauty fired his blood,

Or both at once, beheld with joyful eyes

The bride, at once resolved to make his prize.

Down went the board; and, fastening on her hair,
He seized with sudden force the frighted fair.
'Twas Eurytus began: his bestial kind
His crime pursued; and each, as pleased his mind,
Or her whom chance presented, took; the feast
An image of a taken town express'd.

311

315

320

"The cave resounds with female shrieks; we rise,
Mad with revenge, to make a swift reprise :
And Theseus first: What phrensy has possess'd,
Oh Eurytus,' he cried, 'thy brutal breast,
To wrong Pirithous, and not him alone,
But while I live, two friends conjoin'd in one?'
"To justify his threat, he thrusts aside
The crowd of centaurs, and redeems the bride.
The monster naught replied; for words were vain,
And deeds could only deeds unjust maintain;
But answers with his hand, and forward press'd,

With blows redoubled, on his face and breast.
An ample goblet stood, of antique mould,
And rough with figures of the rising gold;

325

METAMORPHOSES.-BOOK XII.

The hero snatch'd it up, and toss'd in air
Full at the front of the foul ravisher:

He falls, and falling, vomits forth a flood
Of wine, and foam, and brains, and mingled blood.
Half roaring, and half neighing, through the hall,
'Arms! arms!' the double-form'd with fury call;
To wreak their brother's death: a medley flight
Of bowls and jars at first supply the fight;
Once instruments of feasts, but now of fate:
Wine animates their rage, and arms their hate.
"Bold Amycus from the robb'd vestry brings 340
The chalices of heaven, and holy things

Of precious weight: a sconce that hung on high,
With tapers fill'd, to light the sacristy,

Torn from the cord, with his unhallow'd hand,
He threw amid the Lapithæan band.

On Celadon the ruin fell, and left

His face of feature, and of form bereft :

So, when some brawny sacrificer knocks,
Before an altar led, an offer'd ox,

345

His eyeballs, rooted out, are thrown to ground; 350 His nose, dismantled, in his mouth is found;

His jaws, cheeks, front, one undistinguished wound. "This Belates, the avenger, could not brook,

355

But, by the foot, a maple board he took,
And hurl'd at Amycus: his chin it bent
Against his chest, and down the centaur sent;
Whom, sputtering bloody teeth, the second blow
Of his drawn sword despatch'd to shades below.
"Grineus was near, and cast a furious look
On the side altar, censed with sacred smoke, 360
And bright with flaming fires: 'The gods,' he cried,
'Have with their holy trade our hands supplied:
Why use we not their gifts?" Then from the floor
An altar stone he heaved, with all the load it bore:
Altar, and altar's freight, together flew,

Where thickest throng'd the Lapithean crew,
And at once Broteas and Oryus slew.

365

Oryus' mother, Mycale, was known

6

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375

Down from her sphere to draw the labouring moon.
"Exadius cried: Unpunish'd shall not go,
This fact, if arms are found against the foe.
He look'd about, where on a pine were spread
The votive horns of a stag's branching head:
At Grineus these he throws; so just they fly,
That the sharp antlers stuck in either eye:
Breathless and blind he fell, with blood besmear'd;
His eyeballs, beaten out, hung dangling on his beard.
Fierce Rhætus from the hearth a burning brand
Selects, and whirling waves, till from his hand
The fire took flame, then dash'd it on the right, 380
On fair Charaxus' temples, near the sight:

The whistling pest came on, and pierced the bone,
And caught the yellow hair, that shrivell'd while it

shone :

385

Caught, like dry stubble fired, or like seerwood;
Yet from the wound ensued no purple flood,
But look'd a bubbling mass of frying blood.
His blazing locks sent forth a crackling sound,
And hiss'd, like red-hot iron within the smithy
drown'd.

The wounded warrior shook his flaming hair;
Then (what a team of horse could hardly rear) 390
He heaves the threshold stone, but could not throw;
The weight itself forbad the threaten'd blow;
Which, dropping from his lifted arms, came down
Full on Cometes' head, and crush'd his crown.
Nor Rhætus then restrained his joy, but said:
So by their fellows may our foes be sped:'
Then with redoubled strokes he plies his head :
The burning lever not deludes his pains;
But drives the batter'd scull within the brains.

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401

"Thus flush'd, the conqueror, with force renew'd, Evagrus, Dryas, Corythus, pursued. First Corythus, with downy cheeks, he slew, Whose fall when fierce Evagrus had ir view,

prey ?"

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410

He cried: 'What palm is from a beardless
Rhætus prevents what more he had to say,
And drove within his mouth the fiery death,
Which enter'd hissing in, and choked his breath.
At Dryas next he flew : but weary chance
No longer would the same success advance;
For while he whirl'd in fiery circles round
The brand, a sharpen'd stake strong Dryas found,
And in the shoulder's joint inflicts the wound.
The weapon stuck, which, roaring out with pain,'
He drew; nor longer durst the fight maintain,
But turn'd his back, for fear, and filed amain.
With him fled Orneus, with like dread possess'd;
Thaumas, and Medon, wounded in the breast;
And Mermeros, in the late race renown'd,
Now limping ran, and tardy, with his wound.
Pholus and Melaneous from fight withdrew,

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420

And Abas maim'd, who boars encountering slew :

And Augur Astylos, whose art in vain

From fight dissuaded the four-footed train,

Now beat the hoof with Nessus on the plain;

But to his fellow cried: 'Be safely slow;

425

Thy death deferr'd is due to great Alcides' bow.' "Meantime strong Dryas urged his chance so well, That Lycidas, Areos, Imbreus, fell,

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435

All one by one, and fighting face to face :
Crenæus fled, to fall with more disgrace;
For, fearful, while he look'd behind, he bore,
Between his nose and front, the blow before.
Amid the noise and tumult of the fray,
Snoring, and drunk with wine, Aphidas lay;
Ev'n then the bowl within his hand he kept,
And on a bear's rough hide securely slept:
Him Phorbas with his flying dart transfix'd:
'Take thy next draught with Stygian waters mix'd,
And sleep thy fill,' the insulting victor cried :
Surprised with death unfelt, the centaur died :
The ruddy vomit, as he breathed his soul,
Repass'd his throat, and fill'd his empty bowl.
OVID.-II.-G

440