Who gazes on him, and with wondring eyes
Beholds the new majestic figure rise,
His glowing features, and celestial light,
And all the God difcover'd to her fight.

OVID'S

OVI D'S

METAMORPHOSES,

W

The Story of CAD MUS.

HEN now Agenor had his daughter loft,

He fent his fon to fearch on every coaft;

And fternly bid him to his arms restore

The darling maid, or fee his face no more.
But live an exile in a foreign clime;

Thus was the father pious to a crime.

The restless youth search'd all the world around;
But how can Jove in his amours be found?
When tir'd at length with unsuccessful toil,
To fhun his angry Sire and native soil,
He goes a fuppliant to the Delphic dome;
There afks the God what new-appointed home

Should

Should end his wand'rings, and his toils relieve.
The Delphic oracles this answer give.

"Behold among he fields a lonely Cow,

"Unworn with yokes, unbroken to the plow;

"Mark well the place where first she lays her down,

"There measure out thy walls, and build thy town,
"And from thy guide Boeotia call the land,

"In which the deftin'd walls and town fhall ftand.

No fooner had he left the dark abode,

Big with the promise of the Delphic God,

When in the fields the fatal Cow he view'd,

Nor gall'd with yokes, nor worn with fervitude;
Her gently at a distance he pursu'd;

And, as he walk'd aloof, in filence pray'd

To the great Pow'r whofe counfels he obey'd.

Her way through flow'ry Panopè she took,

And now, Cephifus, crofs'd thy filver brook;
When to the Heav'ns her spacious front she rais'd,
And bellow'd thrice, then backward turning gaz'd
On those behind, 'till on the deftin'd place
She stoop'd, and couch'd amid the rifing grafs.

Cadmus falutes the foil, anl gladly hails
The new-found mountains, and the nameless vales,
And thanks the Gods, and turns about his eye

To fee his new dominions round him lie;

}

Then

Then fends his fervants to a neighb'ring grove
For living ftreams, a facrifice to Jove,

O'er the wide plain there rose a shady wood
Of aged trees; in its dark bosom flood

A bushy thicket, pathlefs and unworn,

O'er-run with brambles, and perplex'd with thorn:
Amidst the brake a hollow den was found,
With rocks and shelving arches vaulted round.

Deep in the dreary Den, conceal'd from day, Sacred to Mars, a mighty Dragon lay, Bloated with poison to a monftrous fize; Fire broke in flashes when he glance'd his eyes : His tow'ring creft was glorious to behold, His shoulders and his fides were scal'd with gold; Three tongues he brandish'd when he charg'd his foes: His teeth stood jaggy in three dreadful rows. The Tyrians in the Den for water fought, And with their urns explor'd the hollow vault: From fide to fide their empty urns rebound, And rouse the fleepy Serpent with the found. Straight he beftirs him, and is feen to rife; And now with dreadful hiffings fills the fkies, And darts his forky tongues, and rolls his glaring eyes. The Tyrians drop their veffels in the fright, All pale and trembling at the hideous fight. Spire above spire uprear'd in air he flood, And gazing round him, over-look'd the wood:

Then

Then floating on the ground, in circles roll'd;
Then leap'd upon them in a mighty fold.
Of fuch a bulk, and fuch a monstrous fize,
The Serpent in the polar circle lies,

That ftretches over half the Northern fkies.
In vain the Tyrians on their arms rely,
In vain attempt to fight, in vain to fly :
All their endeavours and their hopes are vain
Some die intangled in the winding train ;
Some are devour'd; or feel a lothfom death,
Swoln up with blafts of peftilential breath.

;

And now the scorching Sun was mounted high,
In all its luftre, to the noon-day sky;

When, anxious for his friends, and fill'd with cares,
To fearch the woods th'impatient Chief prepares.
A Lion's hide around his loins he wore,
The well-pois'd Javelin to the field he bore
Inur'd to blood; the far-deftroying Dart,
And, the best weapon, an undaunted Heart.

Soon as the youth approach'd the fatal place, He saw his fervants breathless on the grass; The fcaly foe amid their corps he view'd, Basking at ease, and feafting in their blood. "Such Friends, he cries, deferv'd a longer date; "But Cadmus will revenge, or share their fate.

Then