THE ARGUMENT.

After the proposition, and invocation, the poet begins the generation of the gods. This poem, besides the genealogy of the deities and heroes, contains the story of Heaven and the conspiracy of his wife and sons against him, the story of Styx and her offsprings, of Saturn and his sons, and of Prometheus and Pandora: hence the poet proceeds to relate the war of the gods, which is the subject of above three hundred verses. The reader is often relieved, from the narrative part of the theogony, with several beautiful descriptions, and other poetical embellishments.

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B REGIN, my song, with the melodious nine
Of Helicon the spacious and divine;
The Muses there, a lovely choir, advance,
With tender feet to form the skilful dance,
Now round the sable font in order move,
Now round the altar of Saturnian Jove;
Or, if the cooling streams to bathe invite,
In thee, Permessus, they awhile delight;
Or now to Hippocrene resort the fair,
Or, Olmius, to thy sacred spring repair.
Veil'd in thick air, they all the night prolong,
In praise of ægis-bearing Jove, the song;
And thou, O Argive Juno, golden shod,
Art join'd in praises with thy consort god;
Thee, goddess, with the azure eyes, they sing,
Minerva, daughter of the heav'nly king;
The sisters to Apollo tune their voice,
And, Artemis, to thee whom darts rejoice;
And Neptune in the pious hymn they sound,
Who girts the Earth, and shakes the solid ground;
A tribute they to Themis chaste allow,
And Venus charming with the bending brow,

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Nor Hebe, crown'd with gold, forget to praise,
Nor fair Dione in their holy lays;
Nor thou, Aurora, nor the day's great light,
Remain unsung, nor the fair lamp of night;
To thee, Latona, next the numbers range;
läpetus, and Saturn, wont to change,
They chant; thee, Ocean, with an ample breast,
They sing, and Earth, and Night in sable dress'd;
Nor cease the virgins here the strain divine;
They celebrate the whole immortal line.
Erewhile as they the shepherd swain behold
Feeding, beneath the sacred mount, his fold,
With love of charming song his breast they fir'd;
There me the heav'nly Muses first inspir'd;
There, when the maids of Jove the silence broke,
To Hesiod thus, the shepherd swain, they spoke.

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Shepherds, attend, your happiness who place In gluttony alone, the swain's disgrace; Strict to your duty in the field you keep, There vigilant by night to watch your sheep: Attend, ye swains on whom the Muses call, Regard the honour not bestow'd on all; 'Tis ours to speak the truth in language plain, Or give the face of truth to what we feign."

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So spoke the maids of Jove, the sacred nine, And pluck'd a sceptre from the tree divine, To me the branch they gave, with look serene, The laurel ensign, never-fading green: I took the gift with holy raptures fir'd, My words flow sweeter, and my soul's inspir'd; Before my eyes appears the various scene Of all that is to come, and what has been. Me have the Muses chose, their bard to grace, To celebrate the bless'd immortal race; To them the honours of my verse belong, To them I first and last devote the song: But where, O where, enchanted do I rove, Or o'er the rocks, or through the vocal grove? 60 Now with th' harmonious nine begin, whose voice Makes their great sire, Olympian Jove, rejoice;

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The present, future, and the past, they sing,
Join'd in sweet concert to delight their king;
Melodious and untir'd their voices flow;
Olympus echoes, ever crown'd with snow.
The heav'nly songsters fill th' ethereal round;
Jove's palace laughs, and all the courts resound:
Soft warbling endless with their voice divine,
They celebrate the whole immortal line:
From Earth, and Heav'n, great parents, first they
The progeny of gods, a bounteous race; [trace
And then to Jove again returns the song,
Of all in empire, and command, most strong;
Whose praises first and last their bosom fire,
Of mortals, and immortal gods, the sire:
Nor to the sons of men deny they praise,
To such as merit of their heav'nly lays;
They sing the giants of puissant arm,

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And with the wond'rous tale their father charm.
Mnemosyne, in the Pierian grove,
The scene of her intrigue with mighty Jove,
The empress of Eleuther, fertile Earth,
Brought to Olympian Jove the Muses forth;
Bless'd offsprings, happy maids, whose pow'rful art
Can banish cares, and ease the painful heart.
Absent from Heav'n, to quench his am'rous flame,
Nine nights the god of gods compress'd the dame.
Now thrice three times the Moon concludes her
race,

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And shows the produce of the god's embrace,
Fair daughters, pledges of immortal Jove,
In number equal to the nights of love;
Bless'd maids, by harmony of temper join'd;
And verse, their only care, employs their mind.
The virgin songsters first beheld the light
Near where Olympus rears his snowy height;
Where to the maids fair stately domes ascend,
Whose steps a constant beauteous choir attend.
Not far from hence the Graces keep their court,
And with the god of love in banquets sport; 100
Meanwhile the nine their heav'nly voices raise,
To the immortal pow'rs, the song of praise;
They tune their voices in a sacred cause,
Their theme the manners of the gods, and laws:
When to Olympus they pursue their way,
Sweet warbling, as they go, the deathless lay,
Measuring to Jove, with gentle steps, the ground,
The sable earth returns the joyful sound.
Great Jove, their sire, who rules th' ethereal plains,
Confirm'd in pow'r, of gods the monarch reigns;
His father Saturn hurl'd from his command, 111
He grasps the thunder with his conqu'ring hand;
He gives the bolts their vigour as they fly,
And bids the red-hot light'ning pierce the sky;
His subject deities obey his nod,

All honours flow from him, of gods the god;
From him the Muses sprung, no less their sire,
Whose attributes the heav'nly maids inspire:
Clio begins the lovely tuneful race,

Melpomene which, and Euterpe, grace,

Terpsichore all joyful in the choir,

And Erato, to love whose lays inspire;

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Him they adorn with every grace of song,
And soft persuasion dwells upon his tongue;
To him, their judge, the people turn their eye,
On him for justice in their cause rely,
Reason alone his upright judgment guides,
He hears impartial, and for truth decides;
Thus he determines from a sense profound,
And of contention heals the pois'nous wound. 159
Wise kings, when subjects grow in faction strong,
First calm their minds, and then redress their
By their good counsels bid the tumult cease,[wrong,
And sooth contending parties into peace;
His aid with duteous rev'rence they implore,
And as a god their virtuous prince adore:
From whom the Muses love such blessings flow,
To them a righteous prince the people owe.
From Jove, great origin, all monarchs spring,
From mighty Jove, of kings himself the king;
From the Pierian maids, the heav'nly nine, 150
And from Apollo, sire of verse divine,
Far-shooting deity, whose beams inspire,
The poets spring, and all who strike the lyre.
Bless'd whom with eyes of love the Muses view,
Sweet flow his words, gentle as falling dew.
Is there a man by rising woes oppress'd,
Who feels the pangs of a distracted breast,
Let but the bard, who serves the nine, rchearse
The acts of heroes pass'd, the theme for verse,
Or if the praise of gods, who pass their days 160
In endless ease above, adorns the lays,
The pow'rful words administer relief,
And from the wounded mind expel the grief;
Such are the charms which to the bard belong,
A gift from gods deriv'd, the pow'r of song.

[king,

Hail, maids celestial, sced of Heav'n's great Hear, nor unaided let the poet sing, Inspire a lovely lay, harmonious nine, My theme th' immortal gods, a race divine, Of Earth, of Heav'n, which lamps of light adorn, And of old sable Night, great parents, born, 171 And, after, nourish'd by the briny Main: Hear, goddesses, and aid the vent'rous strain; Say whence the deathless gods receiv'd their birth, And next relate the origin of Earth, [shore, Whence the wide sea that spreads from shore to Whose surges foam with rage, and billows roar, Whence rivers which in various channels flow, And whence the stars which light the world below, And whence the wide expanse of Heav'n,and whence The gods, to mortals who their good dispense; Isl | Say how from them our honours we receive, And whence the pow'r that they our wants relieve; How they arriv'd to the ethereal plains, And took possession of the fair domains: With these, Olympian maids, my breast inspire, And to the end support the sacred fire, In order all from the beginning trace, From the first parents of the num'rous race. Chaos, of all the origin, gave birth First to her offspring the wide-bosom❜d Earth, The scat secure of all the gods, who now Possess Olympus ever cloth'd with snow; Th' abodes of Hell from the same fountain rise, A gloomy land that subterranean lies; And hence docs Love his ancient lineage trace, Excelling fair of all th' immortal race; At his approach all care is chas'd away, Nor can the wisest pow'r resist his sway; Nor man, nor god, his mighty force restrains, 200 Alike in ev'ry breast the godhead reigns;

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And Erebus, black son, from Chaos came,
Born with his sister Night, a sable dame.

Night bore, the produce of her am'rous play With Erebus, the sky, and cheerful day.

Earth first an equal to herself in fame Brought forth, that covers all, the starry frame, The spacious Heav'n, of gods the safe domain, Who live in endless bliss, exempt from pain; From her the lofty hills, and ev'ry grove, Where nymphs inhabit, goddesses, and rove; Without the mutual joys of love she bore The barren sea, whose whit'ning billows roar.

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At length the Ocean, with his pools profound, Whose whirling streams pursue their rapid round, Of Heav'n and Earth is born; Coeus his birth From them derives, and Creus, sons of Earth; Hyperion and Japhet, brothers, join: Thea, and Rhea, of this ancient line Descend; and Themis boasts the source divine, And thou Mnemosyne, and Phoebe, crown'd 291 With gold, and Tethys, for her charms renown'd: To these successive wily Saturn came,

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As sire and son in each a barb'rous name.
Three sons are sprung from Heav'n and Earth's em-
The Cyclops bold, in heart a haughty race, [brace,
Brontes, and Steropes, and Arges brave,
Who to the hands of Jove the thunder gave;
They for almighty pow'r did light'ning frame,
All equal to the gods themselves in fame;
One eye was plac'l, a large round orb, and bright,
Amidst their forehead to receive the light; [skill,
Hence were they Cyclops call'd; great was their
Their strength, and vigour, to perform their will.
The fruitful Earth by Heav'n conceiv'd again,
And for three mighty sons the rending pain
She suffer'd; Cottus, terrible to name,
Gyges, and Briareus, of equal fame;
Conspicuous above the rest they shin'd,
Of body strong, magnanimous of mind;
Fifty large heads their lusty shoulders bore,
And dang'rous to approach, hands fifty more:
Of all from Heav'n, their sire, who took their birth,
These were most dreadful of the sons of Earth;
Their cruel father, from their natal hour,
With hate pursued them, to his utmost pow'r;
He from the parent womb did all convey
Into some secret cave remote from day:
The tyrant father thus his sons oppress'd,
And evil meditations fill'd his breast.
Earth deeply groan'd for these her sons confin'd,
And vengeance for their wrongs employ'd her
mind;

She yields black iron from her fruitful vein,
Aud of it forms an instrument of pain;
Then to her children thus, the silence broke,
Without reserve she, deeply sighing, spoke.

"My sons, descended from a barb'rous sire,
Whose evil acts our breasts to vengeance fire,
Attentive to my friendly voice incline;
Th' aggressor he, and to revenge be thine."

The bold proposal they astonish'd hear;
Her words possess'd them with a silent fear;
Saturn, at last, whom no deceit can blind,
To her responsive thus declar'd his mind.

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Matron, for us the throeing pangs who bore, Much we have suffer'd, but will bear no more; If such as fathers ought ours will not be, The name of father is no tie to me; Patient of wrongs, if they th' attempt decline, Th' aggressor he, all to revenge be mine."

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Earth greatly joy'd at what his words reveal'd,
And in close ambush him from all conceal'd;
Arm'd with the crooked instrument she made,
She taught him to direct the sharp-tooth'd blade.
Great Heav'n approach'd beneath the veil of Night,
Proposing from his consort, Earth, delight;
As in ful length the god extended lay,

No fraud suspecting in his am'rous play,
Out rush'd his son, complotter with his wife,
His right hand grasp'd the long, the fatal, knife,
His left the channel of the seed of life,
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Which from the roots the rough-tooth'd metal tore,
And bath'd his fingers with his father's gore;
He throw'd behind the source of Heaven's pain,
Nor fell the ruins of the god in vain;
The sanguine drops which from the members fall
The fertile earth receives, and drinks them all:
Hence, at the end of the revolving year,
Sprung mighty Giants, pow'rful with the spear,
Shining in arms; the Furies took their birth 290
Hence, and the Wood-Nymphs of the spacious
Saturn the parts divided from the wound, [earth.
Spoils of his parent god, cast from the ground
Into the sea; long through the watry plain
They journey'd on the surface of the main:
Fruitful at length th' immortal substance grows,
Whit'ning it foams, and in a circle flows:
Behold a nympli arise divinely fair,
Whom to Cythera first the surges bear:
Hence is she borne safe o'er the deeps profound
To Cyprus, water'd by the waves around:
And here she walks endow'd with every grace
To charm, the goddess blooming in her face;
Her looks demand respect; and where she goes,
Beneath her tender fect the herbage blows;
And Aphrodite, from the foam, her name,
Among the race of gods and men the same;
And Cytherea from Cythera came;
Whence, beauteous crown'd, she safely cross'd the
And call'd, O Cyprus, Cypria from thee;
Nor less by Philomedea known on earth,
A name deriv'd immediate from her birth:
Her first attendants to th' immortal choir
Were Love, the oldest god, and fair Desire:
The virgin whisper, and the tempting smile,
The sweet allurement that can hearts beguile,
Soft blandishments which never fail to move,
Friendship, and all the fond deceits in lore,
Constant her steps pursue, or will she go
Among the gods above, or men below.

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[sea, 311

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Great Heav'n was wroth thus by his sons to bleed, And call'd them Titans from the barb'rous deed; He told them all, from a prophetic mind, The hours of his revenge were sure behind.

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Now darksome Night fruitful began to prove, Without the knowledge of connubial love; From her black womb sad Destiny and Fate, Death, Sleep, and num'rous dreams, derive their With Momus the dark goddess teems again, [date: And Care, the mother of a doleful train; Th' Hesperides she bore, far in the seas Guards of the golden fruit, and fertile trees: From the same parent sprung the rig'rous three, The goddesses of fate and destiny, Clotho and Lachesis, whose boundless sway, With Atropos, both men and gods obey; To human race they, from their birth, ordain A life of pleasure or a life of pain; To slav'ry, or to empire, such their pow'r, They fix a mortal at his natal hour;

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