ODE IV. To CALLIOPE. That every thing goes well with those who are under the protection of the gods. DESCEND from heaven, O' queen Calliope, and come fing with your pipe a lengthened ftrain; or, if you had now rather, with your clear voice, or on the harp or lute of Phoebus. Do ye hear? or does a pleafing frenzy delude me? I feem to hear her, and to expatiate with her along the hallowed groves, thro' which pleasant rivalets and gales make their way.-Me, when a child, and fatigued with play, in fleep the woodland doves, famous in ftory, covered with green leaves in the Apulian mountain Vultur, juft without the limits of plentiful Apulia; fo that it was matter of wonder to all that inhabit the neft* of lofty Acherontia, the Bantine forests, and the rich foil of low Ferentum, how I could fleep with my perfon fecure from deadly vipers and ravenous bears; how I could be covered with facred laurel and myrtle heaped together, never confidering me as a child not fo animated without divine affiftance. Yours, O ye mufes, wholly yours, whether 1 am elevated to the Sabine heights; or whether the cool Praeneite, or the floping Tibur, or the watry Baiae, have en 14 gaged • Acherontia was fituated on the fummit of a moun like a neft in a tall tree. Veftris amicum fontibus et choris, Nec Sicula Palinurus unda. Tentabo, et urentes arenas Litoris Affyrii viator. Vifam Britannos hofpitibus feros, Et lætum equino fanguine Concanum: Et Scythicum inviolatus amnen. Vos Cæfarem altum, militia fimul 25 30 35 Finire qærentem labores Pierio recreatis antro. 40 Vos lene confilium et datis, et dato Gaudetes almae. Scimus ut impios Titanas, immanemque turmam Qui terram inertem, qui mare temperat Divofque, mortalefque turbas Imperio regit unus æquo. 45 Magnum illa terrorum intulerat Jovi Fidens juventus horrida brachiis, 50 Pelion impofuiffe Olympo. Sed quid Typhoeus, et validus Mimas. Aut [a] Feffas cohortes. LAMB. [b] Cohortes reddidit oppidis. [c] Suftulerit corufco. BENTL. [d] Et umbras regnaque. BENTL. gaged me. Me, who am attached to your foun tains and choral fports, not the army put to flight at Philippi, not the execrable tree, nor Palinurus * in the Sicilian fea, have destroyed. Whilft you fhall be with me, with pleasure will I, a failor, dare the raging Bofphorus, or, a traveller, the burning fands of the Affyrian fhore: I will vifit the Britains inhuman to ftrangers, and Concanus, delighted with drinking the blood of horses: I will vifit the quivered Geloni, and the Scythian river Tanais, without a hurt. You entertained the fublime Cæfar, ftudious to put an end to his toils, in the Pierian grotto, foon as he had diftributed in towns his troops, wearied by campaigning: You adminifter to him moderate counfels, and, gracious, rejoice at them when administered. We are aware how he, who rules the inactive earth and the ftormy main, the cities alfo, and the dreary infernal domains, and alone governs, with a righteous fway, both gods and the human multitude; how he took off the impious Titans, and the gigantic troop, by his falling thunderbolts. That horrid youth, trufting to the ftrength of their arms, and the brethren proceeding to place Pelion upon the fhady Olympus, had brought great dread even upon Jupiter. But what could Typhaeus, and the ftrong 15 *A promontory, fe called from a pilot to Æneas, whe was loft there, Aut quid minaci Porphyrion statu, Vulcanus, hinc matrona Juno, et Qui rore puro Caftaliae lavit Vis, confili expers mole ruit fua: Vim temperatam Di quoque provehunt Omne nefas animo moventes. Teftis mearum centimanus Gyas Virginea domitus fagitta. : Pirithoum cohibent catena. CARMEN ftrong Mimas, or what Porphyrion with his me naceing ftature: what Rhaecus, and Enceladus, a fierce darter with trees entire up torn, avail, tho' rufhing with all their fury against the refounding fhield of Pallas? At one part flood the eager Vulgan, at another the matron Juno, and he, who is never defirous to lay afide his bow from his fhoulders, Apollo, the god of Delos and Patara, who bathes his flowing hair in the pure water of Caftalia, and poffeffes the groves of Lycia and his native wood. Force, void of conduct, falls by its own weight: moreover, the gods promote difcreet force to farther advantage; but the fame beings deteft forces that meditate every kind of impiety. The hundred-handed Gyas is an evidence of the juftness of my fentiments, and Orion, the tempter of the fpotlefs Diana, destroyed by a virgin dart. The earth heaped over her own monsters, grieves and laments her offspring fent to dismal hell by a thunder-bolt; nor does the active fire confume Etna that is placed over it, nor does the vultur defert the liver of incontinent Titytus, being ftationed there as an avenger of his bafenefs; and three hundred chains confine the amorous rithous. *Pi ODE For being Pluto's rival. |