Ovid

“ Through nine Bull-hides, each under other plac'd,
On his broad Shield; and stuck within the last.
Achilles wrench'd it out; and sent again
The hostile Gift: The hostile Gift was vain.
He try'd a third, a tough well-chosen Spear;
Th' inviolable Body stood sincere,
Though Cygnus then did no Defence provide,
But scornful offer'd his unshielded Side.
⁠Not otherwise th' impatient Hero far'd,
Than as a Bull incompass'd with a Guard,
Amid the Circus roars, provok'd from far
By sight of Scarlet, and a sanguine War:
They quit their Ground, his bended Horns elude ”

“ Where Greeks, and Trojans mix'd in mortal Fight;
And found out Paris, lurking where he stood,
And stain'd his Arrows with Plebeian Blood:
Phœbus to him alone the God confess'd,
Then to the recreant Knight, he thus address'd.
Dost thou not blush, to spend thy Shafts in vain
On a degenerate, and ignoble Train?
If Fame, or better Vengeance be thy Care,
There aim: And, with one Arrow, end the War.
⁠He said; and shew'd from far the blazing Sheild
And Sword, which, but Achilles, none cou'd wield
And how he mov'd a God, and mow'd the standing Field. ”

“ To Cæneus turn'd, who Cænis was before.
⁠To this the Lover adds, without Request,
No force of Steel shou'd violate his Breast.
Glad of the Gift, the new-made Warrior goes;
And arms among the Greeks, and longs for equal Foes.
The Skirmish between the Centaurs and
Lapithites.
⁠Now brave Perithous, bold Ixion's Son,
The Love of fair Hippodamè had won.
The Cloud-begotten Race, half Men, half Beast,
Invited, came to grace the Nuptial Feast:
In a cool Cave's Recess the Treat was made,
Whose Entrance, Trees with spreading Boughs o'ershade.
They sate: and summon'd by the Bridegroom, came. ”

“ From out the Piles, and cleave the liquid Skies:
I saw it too, with golden Feathers bright;
Nor e'er before beheld so strange a Sight.
Whom Mopsus viewing, as it soar'd around
Our Troop, and heard the Pinions rattling Sound,
All hail, he cry'd, thy Country's Grace and Love?
Once first of Men below, now first of Birds above.
Its Author to the Story gave Belief:
For us, our Courage was increas'd by Grief:
Asham'd to see a single Man, pursu'd
With odds, to fink beneath a Multitude,
We push'd the Foe: and, forc'd to shameful Flight,
Part fell, and Fart escap'd by Favour of the Night. ”

“ Fame sits aloft, and sees the subject Ground;
And Seas about, and Skies above; enquiring all around.
⁠The Goddess gives th' Alarm; and soon is known
The Grecian Fleet, descending on the Town.
Fix'd on Defence the Trojans are not slow
To guard their Shore, from an expected Foe.
They meet in Fight: By Hector's fatal Hand
Protesilaus falls, and bites the Strand:
Which with Expence of Blood the Grecians won;
And prov'd the Strength unknown of Priam's Son.
And to their Cost the Trojan Leaders felt
The Grecian Heroes; and what Deaths they dealt.
The Story of Cygnus. ”

“ He stood considering, and survey'd his Lance.
Doubts if he wielded not a wooden Spear
Without a Point: He look'd, the Point was there.
This is my Hand, and this my Lance, he said;⁠
By which so many thousand Foes are dead. ”

“ Betwixt the neather Beast, and upper Man:
The Monster mad with Rage, and stung with Smart,
His Lance directed at the Hero's Heart:
It struck; but bounded from his harden'd Breast,
Like Hail from Tiles, which the safe House invest.
Nor seem'd the Stroke with more effect to come,
Than a small Pebble falling on a Drum.
He next his Fauchion try'd, in closer Fight;
But the keen Fauchion had no Pow'r to bite.
He thrust; the blunted Point return'd again:
Since downright Blows, he cry'd, and Thrusts are vain,
I'll prove his Side; in strong Embraces held
He prov'd his Side ”

“ Betwixt Heav'n, Earth, and Skies, there stands a Place,
Confining on all three, with triple Bound;⁠
Whence all Things, tho' remote, are view'd around;
And thither bring their undulating Sound.
The Palace of loud Fame, her Seat of Pow'r,
Plac'd on the Summet of a lofty Tow'r;
A thousand winding Entries long and wide,
Receive of fresh Reports a flowing Tide.
A thousand Crannies in the Walls are made ”

“ The sharp Point enter'd in the Centaur's Side:
Both Hands to wrench it out the Monster join'd;
And wrench'd it out but left the Steel behind.
Stuck in his Lungs it stood: Inrag'd he rears
His Hoofs, and down to Ground thy Father bears.
Thus trampled under Foot, his Shield defends
His Head; his other Hand the Lance protends.
Ev'n while he lay extended on the Dust,
He sped the Centaur, with one single Thrust.
Two more, his Lance before transfix'd from far;
And two, his Sword had slain, in closer War.
To these was added Dorylas, who spread
A Bull's two goring Horns around his Head. ”

“ The Pow'r of Ocean view'd her as she pass'd,
And lov'd as soon as seen, by Force embrac'd.
So Fame reports. Her Virgin-Treasure seiz'd,
And his new Joys, the Ravisher so pleas'd,
That thus, transported, to the Nymph he cry'd!
Ask what thou wilt, no Pray'r shall be deny'd.
This also Fame relates: The haughty Fair,
Who not the Rape ev'n of a God cou'd bear,
This Answer, proud, return'd: To mighty Wrongs
A mighty Recompence, of Right, belongs,
Give me no more to suffer such a Shame ”

“ Or her, whom Chance presented, took: The Feast
An Image of a taken Town express'd.
⁠The Cave resounds with Female Shrieks; we rise,
Mad with Revenge, to make a swift Reprise:
And Theseus first, What Frenzy has possess'd,
O Eurytus, he cry'd, thy brutal Breast,
To wrong Perithous, and not him alone,
But while I live, two Friends conjoin'd in one?
⁠To justifie his Threat, he thrusts aside
The Croud of Centaurs ”

“ Master'd by this half Man. Whole Mountains throw
With Woods at once, and bury him below.
This only way remains. Nor need we doubt
To choak the Soul within; though not to force it out:
Heap Weights, instead of Wounds. He chanc'd to see
Where Southern Storms had rooted up a Tree;
This, rais'd from Earth, against the Foe he threw;
Th' Example shewn, his Fellow-brutes pursue.
With Forest-loads Warrior they invade;⁠
Othrys, and Pelion soon were void of Shade;
And spreading Groves were naked Mountains made.
Press'd with the Burden, Cæneus pants for Breath ”

“ Transfix'd receiv'd the penetrating Spear.
This Dictis saw; and, seiz'd with sudden Fright,⁠
Leapt headlong from the Hill of steepy height;
And crush'd an Ash beneath, that cou'd not bear his Weight.
The shatter'd Tree receives his Fall; and strikes,
Within his full-blown Paunch the sharpen'd Spikes. ”

“ And hiss'd, like red hot Ir'n within the Smithy drown'd.
The wounded Warrior shook his flaming Hair,
Then (what a Team of Horse could hardly rear)
He heaves the Threshold-Stone; but could not throw;
The Weight it self forbad the threaten'd Blow ”