THE

THEBAIS OF STATIUS.

BOOK I.

TRANSLATED IN THE YEAR 1703.

ARGUMENT. @dipus king of Thebes having, by mistake, slain his father

Laius, and married his inother Jocasta, put out his own eyes, and resigned the realm to his sous Eteocles and Polysices. Being neglected by them, he makes his prayer to the fury Ti. siphone to sow debate betwixt the brothers. They agree at last to reign singly, each a year by turns, and the first lot is obtained by Eteocles. Jupiter, in a council of the gods, declares his resolution of punishing the Thebans, and Argives also, by means of a marriage betwixt Polynices and one of the daughters of Adrastus king of Argos. Juno opposes, but to no effect; and Mercury is sent on a ressage to the shades, to the ghost of Laius, who is to appear to Eteocles, and pro. voke bim to break the agreement. Polynices, in the mean time, departs from Thebes by night, is overtaken by a storm, and arrives at Argos : where he meets with Tydeus, who had fled from Calydon, having killed his brother. Adraslu's enter. taius them, baving received an oracle from Apollo that his daughters should be married to a boar and á lion, which be understands to be meant of these strangers, by whom the bides of those heasts were worn, and who arrived at the time when he kept an annual feast in honour of that god. The rise of this solemnity. He relates to his guests the loves of Phoe. buis and Peamathe, and the story of Choræbus : he inquires, and is made acquainted with their descent and quality. The sacrifice is renewed, and the book concludes with a hymo to Apollo.

FRATERNAL rage the guilty Thebes alarms,
The' alternate reigo destroy'd by impious arms,

Demand our song; a sacred fury fires
My ravish'd breast, and all the Muse inspires.
O goddess! say, shall I deduce my rhymes
From the dire pation in its early times,
Europa's rape, Agenor's stern decree,
And Cadmus searching round the spacious sea ?
How with the serpent's teeth he sow'd the soil,
And reap'd an iron harvest of his toil?
Or how from joining stones the city sprung,
While to his harp divine Amphion sung?
Or shall I Juno's hate to Thebes resound,
Whose fatal rage the unhappy monarch found?
The sire against the son bis arrow drew;
O’er the wide fields the furious mother flew,
And while her arms a second hope contain,
Sprung from the rocks, and plung'd into the main.

But wave whate'er to Cadmus may belong,
And fix, O Muse! the barrier of thy song
At dipus-from his disasters trace
The long confusions of his guilty race:
Nor yet attempt to stretch thy bolder wing,
Apd miglity Cæsar's conquering eagles sing;
How twice he tam'd proud Ister's rapid flood,
While Dacian mountains stream'd with barbarous

blood; Twice taught the Rhine beneath his laws to roll, And stretch'd his empire to the frozen pole ; Or, long before, with early valour strove In youthful arms to' assert the cause of Jove. And thou, great heir of all thy father's fame, Increase of glory to the Latian name! O! bless thy Rome with an eternal reign, Nor let desiring worlds entreat in vain. What though the stars contract their heavenly space, And crowd their shining ranks to yield thee place;

Though all the skies, ambitious of thy sway,
Conspire to court thee from our world away;
Though Phæbus longs to mix his rays with thine,
And in thy glories more serenely shine ;
Though Jove himself no less content would be
To part his throne, and share his heaven with thee?
Yet stay, great Cæsar! and vouchsafe to reign
O'er the wide earth, and o'er the watery inain;
Resign to Jove his empire of the skies,
And people heaven with Roman deities.

The time will come when a diviner flame
Shall warm my breast to sing of Cæsar's fame:
Meanwhile permit that my preluding Muse
In Theban wars an humbler theme may choose :
Of furious hate surviving death she sings,
A fatal throne to two contending kings,
And funeral flames that, parting wide in air,
Express the discord of the souls they bear:
Of towns dispeopled, and the wandering ghosts
Of kings unhuried in the wasted coasts;
When Dirce's fountain blush'd with Grecian blood,
And Thetis, near Ismenos' swelling flood,
With dread beheld the rolling surges sweep
In heaps his slaughter'd sons into the deep.

What hero, Clio! wilt thou first relate?
The rage of Tydeus, or the prophet's fate?
Or how, with hills of slain on every side,
Hippomedon repellid the hostile tide?
Or how the youth, with every grace adorn'd,
Untimely fell, to be for ever mourn'd?
Then to fierce Capaneus thy verse extend,
And sing with horror his prodigious end.

Now wretched Edipus, depriv'd of sight,
Led a long death in everlasting night;

But while he dwells where not a cheerful ray
Can pierce the darkness, and abhors the day,
The clear reflecting mind presents his sin
In frightful views, and makes it day within;
Returning thoughts in endless circles roll,
And thousand furies haunt his guilty soul :
The wretch then lifted to the unpitying skies
Those empty orbs from whence he tore his eyes,
Whose wounds, yet fresh, with bloody hands he

strook, While from his breast these dreadful accents

broke: • Ye gods! that o'er the gloomy regions reign, Where guilty spirits feel eternal pain; Thou, sable Styx! whose livid streams are rollid Through dreary coasts, which I though blind behold; Tisiphone ! that oft hast heard my pray'r, Assist if @dipus deserve thy care. If you receiv'd me from Jocasta's womb, And nurs'd the hope of mischiefs yet to come; If, leaving Polybus, I took my way To Cyrrha's temple, on that fatal day When by the son the trembling father died, Where the three roads the Phociap fields divide; If I the Sphynx's riddles durst explain, Taught by thyself to win the promis'd reign ; If wretched I, by baleful furies led, With monstrous mixture stain’d my mother's bed, For hell and thee begot an impious brood, And with full last those horrid joys renew'd; Then self-condemn'd, to shades of endless night, Forc'd from these orbs the bleeding balls of sight; Oh, hear! and aid the vengeance I require, If worthy thee, and what thou might'st inspire.

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My sons their old unhappy sire despise,
Spoild of his kingdom, and depriv'd of eyes;
Guideless I wander, unregarded mourn,
While these exalt their sceptres o'er my urn!
These sons, ye gods! who with flagitious pride
Insult my darkness, and my groans deride.
Art thou a father, unregarding Jove!
And sleeps thy thunder in the realms above?
Thou fury! then some lasting curse entail,
Which o'er their childrens' children shall prevail ;
Place on their heads that crown distain'd with gore,
Which these dire bands from my slain father tore ;
Go! and a parent's heavy curses bear;
Break all the bonds of nature, and prepare
Their kindred souls to mutual hate and war.
Give them to dare, what I might wish to see,
Blind as I am, some glorious villany!
Soon shalt thou tind, if thou but arm their hands,
Their ready guilt preventing thy commands:
Couldst thou some great proportion'd mischief