Even then beneath the weltering waters bear
The staggering ship-they suddenly appear,
On yellow wings rushing athwart the sky;
And lull the blasts in mute tranquillity;
And strew the waves on the white ocean's bed,
Fair omen of the voyage. From toil and dread
The sailors rest, rejoicing in the sight,
And plough the quiet sea in safe delight.

TO MINERVA.

I SING the glorious Power with azure eyes,
Athenian Pallas, tameless, chaste, and wise,
Tritogenia, town-preserving`maid,

Revered and mighty; from his awful head

Whom Jove brought forth, in warlike armour dressed, Golden, all radiant. Wonder strange possessed

The everlasting Gods that shape to see,

Shaking a javelin keen, impetuously
Rush from the crest of ægis-bearing Jove.
Fearfully heaven was shaken, and did move
Beneath the might of the cerulean-eyed;
Earth dreadfully resounded, far and wide:
And, lifted from his depths, the sea swelled high

In purple billows; the tide suddenly

Stood still; and great Hyperion's Son long time

Checked his swift steeds: till, where she stood sublime,

Pallas from her immortal shoulders threw

The arms divine. Wise Jove rejoiced to view.

Child of the Ægis-bearer, hail to thee!

Nor thine nor others praise shall unremembered be.

TO THE SUN.

OFFSPRING of Jove, Calliope, once more

To the bright Sun thy hymn of music pour,

Whom to the Child of star-clad Heaven and Earth

Euryphaessa, large-eyed Nymph, brought forth,

Euryphaessa, the famed sister fair

Of great Hyperion, who to him did bear
A race of loveliest children; the young Morn,
Whose arms are like twin roses newly born,
The fair-haired Moon, and the immortal Sun,
Who, borne by heavenly steeds, his race doth run
Unconquerably, illuming the abodes

Of mortal men and the eternal Gods.
Fiercely look forth his awe-inspiring eyes
Beneath his golden helmet, whence arise
And are shot forth afar clear beams of light.
His countenance, with radiant glory bright,
Beneath his graceful locks far shines around;
And the light vest with which his limbs are bound,
Of woof etherial delicately twined,

Glows in the stream of the uplifting wind.
His rapid steeds soon bear him to the west,
Where their steep flight his hands divine arrest,
And the fleet car with yoke of gold, which he
Sends from bright heaven beneath the shadowy sea

TO THE MOON.

DAUGHTERS of Jove, whose voice is melody,
Muses, who know and rule all minstrelsy!
Sing the wide-winged Moon. Around the earth,
From her immortal head in heaven shot forth,
Far light is scattered-boundless glory springs;
Where'er she spreads her many-beaming wings,
The lampless air glows round her golden crown.
But, when the Moon divine from heaven is gone
Under the sea, her beams within abide;
Till, bathing her bright limbs in ocean's tide,
Clothing her form in garments glittering far,
And having yoked to her immortal car
The beam-invested steeds whose necks on high
Curve back, she drives to a remoter sky
A western crescent, borne impetuously.
Then is made full the circle of her light;

And, as she grows, her beams more bright and bright
Are poured from heaven where she is hovering then,
A wonder and a sign to mortal men.

The Son of Saturn with this glorious Power
Mingled in love and sleep-to whom she bore
Pandeia, a bright maid of beauty rare

Among the Gods whose lives eternal are.

Hail, Queen, great Moon, white-armed Divinity,
Fair-haired and favourable! Thus with thee

My song beginning, by its music sweet,
Shall make immortal many a glorious feat
Of Demigods, with lovely lips, so well
Which minstrels, servants of the Muses, tell.

TO THE EARTH, MOTHER OF ALL.
O UNIVERSAL Mother, who dost keep
From everlasting thy foundations deep,
Eldest of things, great Earth, I sing of thee!
All shapes that have their dwelling in the sea,
All things that fly, or on the ground divine

Live, move, and there are nourished-these are thine;
These from thy wealth thou dost sustain; from thee
Fair babes are born, and fruits on every tree
Hang ripe and large, revered Divinity!
The life of mortal men beneath thy sway

Is held; thy power both gives and takes away.
Happy are they whom thy mild favours nourish;
All things unstinted round them grow and flourish.
For them endures the life-sustaining field

Its load of harvest, and their cattle yield

Large increase, and their house with wealth is filled.
Such honoured dwell in cities fair and free,
The homes of lovely women, prosperously.

Their sons exult in youth's new-budding gladness;
And their fresh daughters, free from care or sadness,
With bloom-inwoven dance and happy song,

On the soft flowers the meadow-grass among,

Leap round them sporting. Such delights by thee
Are given, rich Power, revered Divinity.-

Mother of Gods, thou wife of starry Heaven,
Farewell! Be thou propitious, and be given
A happy life for this brief melody!

Nor thou nor other songs shall unremembered be.

Silenus. O BACCHUS, what a world of toil, both now
And ere these limbs were overworn with age,
Have I endured for thee! First, when thou fledst
The mountain nymphs who nursed thee, driven afar
By the strange madness Juno sent upon thee;
Then in the battle of the Sons of Earth,
When I stood foot by foot close to thy side,
No unpropitious fellow combatant,

And, driving through his shield my winged spear,
Slew vast Enceladus. Consider now,

Is it a dream of which I speak to thee?
By Jove it is not, for you have the trophies!
And now I suffer more than all before.
For, when I heard that Juno had devised
A tedious voyage for you, I put to sea
With all my children quaint in search of you,
And I myself stood on the beaked prow,

And fixed the naked mast; and all my boys,
Leaning upon their oars, with splash and strain
Made white with foam the green and purple sea,—
And so we sought you, king. We were sailing
Near Malea, when an eastern wind arose,
And drove us to this wild Ætnean rock.
The one-eyed children of the Ocean God,
The man-destroying Cyclopses, inhabit,
On this wild shore, their solitary caves;

And one of these, named Polypheme, has caught us
To be his slaves; and so, for all delight

Of Bacchic sports, sweet dance and melody,

We keep this lawless giant's wandering flocks.

My son's indeed, on far declivities,

Young things themselves, tend on the youngling sheep;

But I remain to fill the water casks,

Or sweeping the hard floor, or ministering

Some impious and abominable meal

To the fell Cyclops. I am wearied of it!

And now I must scrape up the littered floor
With this great iron rake, so to receive
My absent master and his evening sheep
In a cave neat and clean. Even now I see
My children tending the flocks hitherward.
Ha! what is this? are your Sicinnian measures
Even now the same as when with dance and song
You brought young Bacchus to Athaa's halls?

Silenus.

CHORUS OF SATYRS.

STROPHE.

Where has he of race divine

Wandered in the winding rocks?

Here the air is calm and fine
For the father of the flocks;
Here the grass is soft and sweet,
And the river eddies meet
In the trough beside the cave,
Bright as in their fountain wave.-
Neither here, nor on the dew

Of the lawny uplands feeding?

Oh! you come!—a stone at you

Will I throw to mend your breeding ;

Get along, you horned thing,

Wild, seditious, rambling!

An Iacchic melody

To the golden Aphrodite
Will I lift, as erst did I

Seeking her and her delight

With the Monads, whose white feet
To the music glance and fleet.
Bacchus, O beloved, where,
Shaking wide thy yellow hair,
Wanderest thou alone, afar?

To the one-eyed Cyclops we,
Who by right thy servants are,
Minister in misery,
In these wretched goatskins clad,

Far from thy delights and thee.

Be silent, sons! command the slaves to drive

The gathered flocks into the rock-roofed cave.