"By slow consumption, thro' the gates of Death 18г' "Prone did you pass? or by Diana's dart "Transfix'd, a sudden fate? My hoary ́sire, "Survives he? Is my bloomy son possess'd "Of my domain?. or groans it now beneath "Usurping pow'rs, who lord it uncontroll'd "Thoughtless of my return? My consort dear, "Abides she with my son, of all his rights "A guardian regent? or, no longer mine, "Hath she been won to plight connubial vows?" 190 The venerable shade thus answer'd mild: "Still in your regal dome your spouse abides "Disconsolate, with ever-flowing eyes "Wailing your absence; and your son, possess'd "Of principality, with his compeers, "Bounteous of soul, free intercourse maintains "Of social love. Beneath a sylvan lodge, "Far from the cheerful steps of men, your sire "Lives inconsolable, on gorgeous beds,

"With rich embroidery spread, and purple palls, 200 "No more indulging sweet repose; but, clad "In coarse attire, couch'd with his village hinds, "On the warm hearth he sleeps when winter reigns "Inclement, till the circling months return "New-rob'd in flow'ring verdure; then the vines "High interwove a green pavilion form,

"Where, pillow'd on the leaves, he mourns for you "Nocturnal, to th' unfriendly damp of age

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" Adding corrosive anguish and despair. "So perish'd I with slow-consuming pine! "Me nor the silver-shafted goddess slew "Nor racking malady; but anxious love "Of my Ulysses on my vitals prey'd, "And sunk my age with sorrow to the grave.” She ceas'd: I thrice with filial fondness strove T'embrace the much-lov'd form, and thrice it fled, Delusive as a dream. Anew with grief Heart-chill'd I spake: "Why, Mother, will you flý "Your son's encircling arms? O here permit "My duteous love, and let our sorrows flow,

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Mingling in one full stream! Or has the queen, "Whose frown the shades revere, to work me woe, "A guileful image form'd?" She thus replies:

"Of all mankind, O most to grief inur'd! "Deem not that aught of guile by phantoms vain "Is here intended; but the essence pure

"Of separate souls is of all living touch

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Impassive: here no gross material frame

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"We wear, with flesh incumber'd, nerves, and bone; "They're calcin'd on the pile: but when we cease "To draw the breath of life, the soul on wing "Fleets like a dream, from elemental dross "Disparted and refin'd. Now to the realms "Illumin'd with the sun's enliv'ning beam, "Hence journeying upward, to your consort dear "Disclose the secrets of our state below."

Thus we alternate, till a beauteous train
Of nobless near advanc'd their steps, enlarg'd
By radiant Proserpine, daughters and wives
To kings and heroes old: the goary pool
The fair assembly thick surround, to sip
The tasteful liquid: I the fates of each
Desirous to hear storied, wave my sword
In airy circles, while they singly sate
Their appetites; then curious ask of each
Her ancestry, which all in order told.

Tyro first audience claim'd, the daughter fair
Of great Salmoneus; she with Cretheus shar'd
Connubial love, but long in virgin bloom
Enamour'd of Enipeus, inly pin'd;
Enipeus, swift from whose reclining urn
Rolls a delicious flood. His lovely form
Neptune assum'd, and the bright nymph beguil'd,
Wand'ring, love-pensive, near his amber stream:
Them plunging in the slopy flood receiv'd
Redounding; and to screen his am'rous theft,
On either side the parted waves up-rear'd
A crystal mound. Potent of rapt'rous joy,
And sated thus he spake: "Hail, royal fair!

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Thy womb shall teem with twins, (agcd's embrace "Is ever fruitful) and those pledges dear

"Of our sweet casual bless nurture and tend

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"With a fond mother's care: hence homeward speed, "And from all human ken our am'rous act

"Conceal: so Neptune bids thee now farewell."
He ceas'd, and diving, sudden was ingulf'd
Deep in the gurgling eddy. Two fair sons
Th' appointed months discharg'd, by supreme Jove
Both scepter'd: Pelias first his empire wide
Stretch'd o'er Iölcos, whose irriguous vales
His gazing folds o'erfleec'd; her younger birth,
Neleus, was honour'd thro' the sandy realm
Of Pylus. She by Cretheus then espous❜d,
A fair increase, Æson and Pheres, bore,
And great Amythaon, who with fiery steeds
Oft' disarray'd the foes in battle rang'd.

The daughter of Asopus next I view'd,
Antiope, boastful that she, by Jove
Impregnate, had the fam'd Amphion born,
And Zethus, founders of imperial Thebes,

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Stately with seven large gates, and bulwark'd strong
Against invading pow'rs. Alcmena fair,

Amphytrion's consort, then advanc'd to view,
To heav'n supreme who bore Alcides, bold
And lion-hearted, next that lovely shade
Stood Megara, of Creon's royal race,
By great Alcides spous'd. To her succeeds
The sheeny form of Epicaste, woo'd
By Oedipus her son, to whom she deign'd
Spousal embraces, thoughtless of misdeed;
He having too (ill-starr'd!) destroy'd his sire,
His lineage with incestuous mixture soil'd,

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Blinded by Destiny; but the just gods

Disclos'd th' unnatʼral scene. In Thebes he sway'd,
With various ills by Heav'n's afflictive rod
Discomfited; but she thro' fell despair,
Self-strangled, from the stings of mortal life
Fled to the shades, and her surviving son
With delegated furies fierce pursu’d.

An amiable image next appear'd,

Bright Chloris, of Amphion's lofty stem
The youngest bud: in sweet attractive pomp
On her the Graces ever waiting smit

+

The heart of Neleus, whom the Pylian tribes
Homag'd with fealty: from their wedded love
Sprung Nestor, Chromius, and the boastful pow'r
Of Periclymenus, besides a nymph,

Pero, of form divine: her virgin vows

By many a prince were sought, but Neleus deign'd
To none her bed but him whose prowess'd arm
Should force from Phylace a furious herd
Of wild Thessalian beeves, t' avenge the dow'r
Which Iphiclus detain'd. This bold emprise
A seer accepted: but, in combat foil'd,
In thrall for twelve revolving moons he lay
Deep in a dungeon close immur'd, till found
Divine of Fate, by solving problems quaint
Which Iphiclus propos'd, who straight dismiss'd
The captive; so was Jove's high will complete.
Then Leda, spous'd by Tyndarus, I saw,
L

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