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90 Coxerat ære cavo, viridi versata cicuta.

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Dumque pavent illi, vertit furiale venenum Pectus in amborum, præcordiaque intima movit; Tum, face jactata per eundem sæpius orbem, Consequitur motos velociter ignibus ignes. 95 Sic victrix jussique potens ad inania magni Regna redit Ditis, sumtumque recingitur anguem. Protinus Æolides media furibundus in aula Clamat, "Io comites, his retia tendite silvis : Hic modo cum gemina visa est mihi prole leæna." 100 Utque feræ, sequitur vestigia conjugis amens,

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Deque sinu matris ridentem et parva Learchum Brachia tendentem rapit, et bis terque per auras More rotat fundæ, rigidoque infantia saxo Discutit ora ferox. Tum denique concita mater, 105 Seu dolor hoc fecit seu sparsi causa veneni, Exululat, passisque fugit male sana capillis, Teque ferens parvum nudis, Melicerta, lacertis, Evoe, Bacche!" sonat. Bacchi sub nomine Juno Risit et, Hos usus præstet tibi," dixit, “alum

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nus !"

Imminet æquoribus scopulus; pars ima cavatur
Fluctibus, et tectas defendit ab imbribus undas, 526
Summa riget, frontemque in apertum porrigit æquor:
Occupat hunc-vires insania fecerat-Ino,
Seque super pontum, nullo tardata timore,

115 Mittit onusque suum. Percussa recanduit unda. 530
At Venus, immeritæ neptis miserata labores,
Sic patruo blandita suo est: "O numen aquarum,
Proxima cui cœlo cessit, Neptune, potestas,
Magna quidem posco; sed tu miserere meorum,

120 Jactari quos cernis in Ionio immenso,

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Et dîs adde tuis: aliqua et mihi gratia ponto est; Si tamen in medio quondam concreta profundo Spuma fui, Grajumque manet mihi nomen ab illa." Annuit oranti Neptunus, et abstulit illis 125 Quod mortale fuit, majestatemque verendam Imposuit, nomenque simul faciemque novavit, Leucotheêque deum cum matre Palæmona dixit.

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XXI. PERSEUS.

(IV. 615-V. 235.)

Her

Perseus, one of the most famous heroes of the ancient legendary world, was the grandson of Acrisius, a king of Argos. Acrisius had been informed by an oracle that his daughter Danae would give birth to a son, by whose hands he would himself be slain. To avoid this danger, he shut her up under ground, in a brazen chamber; but Jupiter descended through the roof in the shape of a shower of gold ('fecundo auro,' v. 84), and Danaê became the mother of Perseus. When Acrisius received this dreaded intelligence, he enclosed both mother and son in a chest, and ordered it to be thrown into the sea. The chest, however, was carried by the waves to the island of Seriphos, where Danaê and her child met with a friendly reception from Polydectes. When, however, the boy grew up, Polydectes, who had conceived a bitter hatred against him, sent him to slay the famous Gorgon, Medûsa. The Gorgons were three sisters, of whom Medûsa alone was mortal. head, which was surrounded with snakes for hair (whence 'viperei monstri, v. 1), had the wondrous power, that whatever living being she gazed upon, was turned into stone: so that to slay a being so wonderfully endowed there was need, not only of bravery, but also of still higher supernatural means. The young hero was assisted by Minerva, who presented him with a glittering shield, and Mercury both lent him his winged sandals, with which he could move through the air, and gave him a curved or sickle-shaped falchion (harpe Cyllenis, v. 351). But he required, besides, the helmet of Orcus, to make him invisible, and a wallet in which to put the head of Medûsa. Both the helmet and the wallet were in the possession of the sisters of the Gorgons, the Grææ, who moreover alone knew the way to the abode of the Gorgons. These Grææ were two frightful virgins, who had only one tooth and one eye between them. Perseus got possession of this eye as one of them was about to hand it to the other, upon which, being now blind, they fled home in their distress, and thus involuntarily showed him the way to the Gorgons, whom he found asleep. By using the surface of the bright shield of Minerva as a mirror, Perseus beheld the reflexion of Medûsa's head, without looking upon the reality, and cut it off at one blow with the sword given to him by Mercury. He was in the act of hastening away, after putting the head in his wallet mentioned above, when the other Gorgons pursued him; but he saved himself from their pursuit by means of the helmet of Orcus, which rendered him invisible. Then, by aid of the winged sandals, he flew over land and sea (with this begins the tale,

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'referens spolium monstri,' v. 1); and, after being long driven hither and thither by the winds, he sought a resting-place at the abode of the gigantic Atlas on the north-western coast of Africa. Atlas, however, was indisposed to receive him, because, according to an oracle, it was fated that some son of Jupiter (Hercules was meant) should succeed in stealing the golden apples of Atlas. Perseus turned the inhospitable giant into a mountain. After this he arrived at the country of the Cephenians, an Ethiopian people of Asia, whose king, Cepheus, had a wife of extraordinary beauty, Cassiopea, and an equally beautiful daughter, Andromeda. Cassiopea, proud of her beauty, had looked down upon sea-goddesses, the Nereids, and boasted of being more beautiful than they were. Indignant at this presumption, the Nereids applied to Neptune for revenge, who accordingly sent great calamities on the territory of Cepheus, his land being devastated, not only by inundations, but also by a sea monster (pœnas maternæ linguæ,' v. 56). Cepheus, having inquired of the oracle of Jupiter Ammon how he might best obtain relief, was commanded by the god ('jusserat Ammon,' v. 57) to give up his daughter Andromeda as a prey to the monster. The unhappy father was compelled by the Cephenians to obey the decree, and Andromeda was chained to a rock on the sea-shore. Perseus, however, having rescued her by slaying the monster, received the promise of her hand in marriage; but Phineus, the brother of Cepheus, had been previously betrothed to the beautiful princess, and now attempted, at the marriage festival, to take her from Perseus by force; on which Perseus, after a long contest, turned him into stone by means of the Gorgon's head. After these deeds he came, with his spouse Andromeda, into Greece. Here Protus, the founder of the city Tiryns, had dethroned Acrisius, the grandfather of Perseus (he is signified by parens,' v. 142), and was therefore annihilated by Perseus with the petrifying head of Medusa. Polydectes too, who still retained his hatred against Perseus, ridiculed the hero, and pronounced the slaughter of Medusa a fabrication; accordingly, he too had to experience the fatal power of Medusa's head. Afterwards Perseus ruled over Tiryns and Mycenae, and became, through his son Alcæus and his granddaughter Alcmēna, the forefather of Hercules.

The myth of Perseus is probably of oriental origin, and was brought from Persia into Greece; where the Greeks clothed it in a dress of their own and appropriated it to themselves. And as in the case of Io (comp. Introd. VI.), so in that of the traditionary oriental demon, which lies at the foundation of the fable of Perseus, they were led by their national feeling to make him of Greek origin, asserting him to be the son of Danaê, a woman of Argos, and even deriving the name of the Persians from Perses, the son of Perseus.

Viperei referens spolium memorabile monstri, 615 Aera carpebat Perseus stridentibus alis.

Cumque super Libycas victor penderet arenas,
Gorgonei capitis guttæ cecidere cruentæ ;

5 Quas humus exceptas varios animavit in angues :
Unde frequens illa est infestaque terra colubris.

Inde per immensum ventis discordibus actus
Nunc huc, nunc illuc, exemplo nubis aquosæ
Fertur, et ex alto seductas æthere longe
10 Despectat terras, totumque supervolat orbem.
Ter gelidas Arctos, ter Cancri brachia vidit ;
Sæpe sub occasus, sæpe est ablatus in ortus;
Jamque cadente die veritus se credere nocti
Constitit Hesperio, regnis Atlantis, in orbe,
15 Exiguamque petit requiem, dum Lucifer ignes
Evocet Auroræ, cursus Aurora diurnos.

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Hic, hominum cunctos ingenti corpore præstans, Iapetionides Atlas fuit. Ultima tellus

Rege sub hoc et pontus erat, qui Solis anhelis 20 Æquora subdit equis, et fessos excipit axes. Mille greges illi totidemque armenta per herbas 635 Errabant, et humum vicinia nulla premebat; Arboreæ frondes auro radiante nitentes

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Ex auro ramos, ex auro poma tegebant.

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"Hospes," ait Perseus illi, "seu gloria tangit Te generis magni, generis mihi Jupiter auctor; Sive es mirator rerum, mirabere nostras. Hospitium requiemque peto." Memor ille vetustæ Sortis erat: Themis hanc dederat Parnasia sortem : 30 "Tempus, Atla, veniet, tua quo spoliabitur auro Arbor; et hunc prædæ titulum Jove natus habebit."

Id metuens, solidis pomaria clauserat Atlas
Mœnibus et vasto dederat servanda draconi,
Arcebatque suis externos finibus omnes.

35 Huic quoque,

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"Vade procul, ne longe gloria rerum, Quas mentiris," ait, "longe tibi Jupiter absit!" 650 Vimque minis addit, manibusque expellere tentat Cunctantem et placidis miscentem fortia dictis. Viribus inferior-quis enim par esset Atlanti

40 Viribus?" At quoniam parvi tibi gratia nostra est, Accipe munus !" ait, lævaque a parte Medusæ

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Ipse retroversus squalentia protulit ora.

Quantus erat, mons factus Atlas: nam barba comæ

que

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In silvas abeunt, juga sunt humerique manusque, 45 Quod caput ante fuit, summo est in monte cacumen. Ossa lapis fiunt; tum partes auctus in omnes Crevit in immensum,-sic dî statuistis,-et omne Cum tot sideribus cœlum requievit in illo.

Clauserat Hippotades æterno carcere ventos, 50 Admonitorque operum cœlo clarissimus alto Lucifer ortus erat: pennis ligat ille resumtis Parte ab utraque pedes, teloque accingitur unco, Et liquidum motis talaribus aera findit.

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Gentibus innumeris circumque infraque relictis, 55 Æthiopum populos Cephæaque conspicit arva. Illic immeritam maternæ pendere linguæ Andromeden pœnas injustus jusserat Ammon. Quam simul ad duras religatam brachia cautes Vidit Abantiades ;-nisi quod levis aura capillos 60 Moverat, et trepido manabant lumina fletu ; Marmoreum ratus esset opus-trahit inscius ignes 675 Et stupet, et, visæ correptus imagine formæ, Pæne suas quatere est oblitus in aere pennas. Ut stetit, "O," dixit, "non istis digna catenis, 65 Sed quibus inter se cupidi junguntur amantes, Pande requirenti nomen terræque tuumque, Et cur vincla geras.' Primo silet illa, nec audet Appellare virum virgo; manibusque modestos Celasset vultus, si non religata fuisset.

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70 Lumina, quod potuit, lacrimis implevit obortis.
Sæpius instanti, sua ne delicta fateri

Nolle videretur, nomen terræque suumque,
Quantaque maternæ fuerit fiducia formæ,
Indicat; et, nondum memoratis omnibus, unda
75 Insonuit, veniensque immenso bellua ponto
Eminet, et latum sub pectore possidet æquor.
Conclamat virgo: genitor lugubris et una
Mater adest, ambo miseri, sed justius illa;
Nec secum auxilium, sed dignos tempore fletus

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80 Plangoremque ferunt, vinctoque in corpore adhærent.

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