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Exsiluisse fretum, quo pignore vindicet urbem; At sibi dat clypeum, dat acutæ cuspidis hastam, 75 Dat galeam capiti, defenditur Ægide pectus,

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Percussamque sua simulat de cuspide terram
Prodere cum baccis fetum canentis olivæ,
Mirarique deos. Operis victoria finis.
Circuit extremas oleis pacalibus oras.

Mæonis elusam designat imagine tauri
Europen: verum taurum, freta vera putares.
Ipsa videbatur terras spectare relictas,
Et comites clamare suas, tactumque vereri
Assilientis aquæ, timidasque reducere plantas.

85 Fecit et Asterien aquila luctante teneri ;
Addidit, ut falsa celatus imagine pulchram
Jupiter et Ledam deceperit Antiopenque,
Amphitryo ut fuerit, cum te, Tirynthia, cepit;
Aureus ut Danaen, Asopida luserit igneus,
90 Mnemosynen pastor, varius Deoïda serpens.
Omnibus his faciemque suam faciemque locorum
Reddidit. Ultima pars, tenui circumdata limbo,
Nexilibus flores hederis habet intertextos.

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Non illud Pallas, non illud carpere livor 95 Possit opus. Doluit successu flava Virago, Et rupit pictas, cœlestia crimina, vestes; Utque Cytoriaco radium de monte tenebat, Ter quater Idmoniæ frontem percussit Arachnes. Non tulit infelix, laqueoque animosa ligavit 100 Guttura. Pendentem Pallas miserata levavit, Atque ita, "Vive quidem, pende tamen, improba," dixit,

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Lexque eadem pœnæ, ne sis secura futuri, Dicta tuo generi serisque nepotibus esto!" Post ea discedens sucis Hecateïdos herbæ 105 Sparsit et extemplo tristi medicamine tactæ Defluxere comæ, cumque his et naris et auris, Fitque caput minimum. Toto quoque corpore parva

est:

In latere exiles digiti pro cruribus hærent,
Cetera venter habet; de quo tamen illa remittit

110 Stamen, et antiquas exercet aranea telas.

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XXV. NIOBE.

(VI. 146-312.)

The report of Arachnê's wondrous punishment not only filled her native country, Lydia, and the neighbouring land of Phrygia, but was the talk of the whole world. Among others Niobê, herself a Lydian by birth (popularis, v. 5) heard of it; but unhappily did not take warning from the example.-Niŏbê, the daughter of Tantălus, had, with her brother Pelops, crossed from Lydia into Greece. She was married to Amphion, king of Thebes, who was a son of Jupiter and Antiope, and had received from the Muses the gift of the lyre. This prince ruled over Thebes, and his playing was so admirable, that the stones for the wall of Thebes collected and compacted themselves together to the notes of his lyre (conjugis artes, v. 7). As the wife of Amphion, Niobê was the mother of many blooming children, in whom she felt herself highly happy, but was bereaved of them all in rapid succession, by sudden, unlooked-for death. There was in the ancient popular belief of the Greeks, which Homer also expresses, a firmly fixed idea, that every one who died without any external visible injury, but in consequence of some inward disorder, which in those times was not understood nor recognized, was slain by the invisible, gentle, archery of Apollo, or, if the person was a female, by the archery of Diana. This ancient popular belief served for the invention and adornment of the fable of Niobê. She was the mother of a numerous progeny, but lost all her children rapidly one after another; and since, according to the popular belief of the Greeks, the godhead was envious, Niobê was thus supposed to have excited the envy and kindled the indignation of Latōna, over whom she vaunted herself by a presumptuous comparison, as richer in children. Upon this the vengeful Latōna caused all the sons of Niŏbê to perish by the arrows of Apollo, and her daughters by the arrows of Diana.-Ovid moreover assigns, as a further motive, that Niŏbê cherished an overweening pride in her genealogy and descent, and wanted to be allowed precedence of Latōna-inasmuch as she (Niobe) was a visible goddess (visa cœlestis, v. 25), while people knew of Latona by hearsay only (auditos cœlestes, ibid): on these grounds she interdicted sacrifice to Latōna. Deep woe fell on Niŏbê, bereaved of all her children and of her husband; through sorrow she hardened into stone, and tears still trickle forth from the stone, and proclaim her grief. Not, however, in Boeotia, but in native country, Lydia, was shown the trickling rock, into which Niobê had been changed (whence; turbine venti in patriam rapta est, v. 164, f.). The fable of Niobê, moreover, was a favourite subject of the ancient sculptors, and we have even now valuable relics of ancient statues, which are known by the name of groups of Niobê.”

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Lydia tota fremit, Phrygiæque per oppida facti 146 Rumor it, et magnum sermonibus occupat orbem. Ante suos Niobe thalamos cognoverat illam, Tunc cum Mæoniam virgo Sipylumque colebat; 5 Nec tamen admonita est pœna popularis Arachnes, 150 Cedere cœlitibus verbisque minoribus uti.

Multa dabant animos: sed enim nec conjugis artes Nec genus amborum magnique potentia regni Sic placuere illi, quamvis ea cuncta placerent,— 10 Ut sua progenies. Et felicissima matrum Dicta foret Niobe, si non sibi visa fuisset.

Nam sata Tiresia, venturi præscia, Manto Per medias fuerat, divino concita motu, Vaticinata vias: "Ismenides, ite frequentes, 15 Et date Latona Latonigenisque duobus

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Cum prece tura pia, lauroque innectite crinem!
Ore meo Latona jubet." Paretur, et omnes
Thebaïdes jussis sua tempora frondibus ornant,
Turaque dant sanctis et verba precantia flammis.
Ecce, venit comitum Niobe celeberrima turba, 165
Vestibus intexto Phrygiis spectabilis auro,
Et, quantum ira sinit, formosa, movensque decoro
Cum capite immissos humerum per utrumque capillos,
Constitit; utque oculos circumtulit alta superbos,

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Quis furor auditos," inquit, " præponere visis 170
Cœlestes? Aut cur colitur Latona per aras ;
Numen adhuc sine ture meum est? Mihi Tantalus
auctor,

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Cui licuit soli Superorum tangere mensas; Pleïadum soror est genitrix mea; maximus Atlas 30 Est avus, ætherium qui fert cervicibus axem ; Jupiter alter avus; socero quoque glorior illo. Me gentes metuunt Phrygiæ; me regia Cadmi Sub domina est, fidibusque mei commissa mariti Moenia cum populis a meque viroque reguntur. 35 In quamcumque domus adverto lumina partem, Immensæ spectantur opes. Accedit eodem Digna dea facies. Huc natas adjice septem Et totidem juvenes, et mox generosque nurusque. Quærite nunc, habeat quam nostra superbia caussam !

40 Quoque modo audetis genitam Titanida Coo

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Latonam præferre mihi, cui maxima quondam
Exiguam sedem parituræ terra negavit?

Nec cœlo nec humo nec aquis dea vestra recepta est ;
Exul erat mundi, donec, miserata vagantem,

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45 "Hospita tu terris erras; ego," dixit, "in undis !" 190
Instabilemque locum Delos dedit. Illa duorum
Facta parens : uteri pars hæc est septima nostri.
Sum felix: quis enim neget hoc? felixque manebo.
Hoc quoque quis dubitet? Tutam me copia fecit:
50 Major sum, quam cui possit Fortuna nocere,
Multaque ut eripiat, multo mihi plura relinquet.
Excessere metum mea jam bona. Fingite demi
Huic aliquid populo natorum posse meorum;
Non tamen ad numerum redigar spoliata duorum.
55 Ite sacris, propere ite sacris, laurumque capillis 200
Ponite!" Deponunt et sacra infecta relinquunt,
Quodque licet, tacito venerantur murmure numen.
Indignata dea est, summoque in vertice Cynthi
Talibus est dictis gemina cum prole locuta :
60 " En ego, vestra parens, vobis animosa creatis,
Et nisi Junoni, nulli cessura dearum,

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An dea sim, dubitor, perque omnia sæcula cultis Arceor, o nati, nisi vos succurritis, aris. Nec dolor hic solus: diro convicia facto 65 Tantalis adjecit, vosque est postponere natis Ausa suis, et me, quod in ipsam recidat, orbam Dixit, et exhibuit linguam scelerata paternam." Adjectura preces erat his Latona relatis; "Desine :" Phœbus ait, " pœnæ mora longa querela

est."

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70 Dixit idem Phoebe ; celerique per aera lapsu Contigerant tecti Cadmeïda nubibus arcem. Planus erat lateque patens prope mœnia campus, Assiduis pulsatus equis, ubi turba rotarum Duraque mollierant subjectas ungula glebas. 75 Pars ibi de septem genitis Amphione fortes Conscendunt in equos, Tyrioque rubentia suco Terga premunt auroque graves moderantur habenas. E quibus Ismenos, qui matri sarcina quondam Prima suæ fuerat, dum certum flectit in orbem 80 Quadrupedis cursus spumantiaque ora coercet,

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"Hei mihi!" conclamat medioque in pectore fixus
Tela gerit, frenisque manu moriente remissis
In latus a dextro paullatim defluit armo.
Proximus, audito sonitu per inane pharetræ,
85 Freną dabat Sipylus, veluti cum præscius imbris
Nube fugit visa pendentiaque undique rector
Carbasa deducit, ne qua levis effluat aura.
Frena tamen dantem non evitabile telum
Consequitur, summaque tremens cervice sagitta 235
90 Hæsit, et exstabat nudum de gutture ferrum.
Ille, ut erat pronus, per colla admissa jubasque
Volvitur, et calido tellurem sanguine fœdat.

Phædimus infelix et aviti nominis heres
Tantalus, ut solito finem imposuere labori,
95 Transierant ad opus nitidæ juvenile palæstræ,
Et jam contulerant arcto luctantia nexu
Pectora pectoribus; cum tento concita nervo,
Sicut erant juncti, trajecit utrumque sagitta.
Ingemuere simul, simul incurvata dolore
100 Membra solo posuere, simul suprema jacentes
Lumina versarunt, animam simul exhalarunt.
Adspicit Alphenor laniataque pectora plangens
Advolat, ut gelidos complexibus allevet artus,
Inque pio cadit officio: nam Delius illi

105 Intima fatifero rupit præcordia ferro;

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Quod simul eductum, pars et pulmonis in hamis Eruta, cumque anima cruor est effusus in auras. At non intonsum simplex Damasichthona vulnus Afficit: ictus erat, qua crus esse incipit et qua 255 110 Mollia nodosus facit internodia poples,

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Dumque manu tentat trahere exitiabile telum, Altera per jugulum pennis tenus acta sagitta est. Expulit hanc sanguis, seque ejaculatus in altum Emicat et longe terebrata prosilit aura. 115 Ultimus Ilioneus non profectura precando Brachia sustulerat, "Dique o communiter omnes," Dixerat, ignarus non omnes esse rogandos, "Parcite!" Motus erat, cum jam revocabile telum Non fuit, Arcitenens; minimo tamen occidit ille 265 120 Vulnere, non alte percusso corde sagitta.

Fama mali populique dolor lacrimæque suorum

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