rage, to hear the clangor. Clear'd from trees,
A plain extends, from every part fair seen,
And near the mountain's centre: round its skirt,
Thick groves grow shady. Here his mother saw
His eye unhallow'd view the sacred rites;
And first,--by frantic madness urg'd,--she first
Furious the Thyrsus at her Pentheus flung:
Exclaiming loud;--"Ho, sisters! hither haste!
"Here stands the furious boar that wastes our grounds:
"My hand has smote him." Raging rush the crowd,
In one united body. All close join,
And all pursue the now pale trembling wretch.
No longer fierce he storms; but grieving blames
His rashness, and his obstinacy owns.
Wounded,--"dear aunt, Autonoe!"--he cries,
"Help me!--O, let your own Actaeon's ghost
"Move you to pity!" She, Actaeon's name
Nought heeding, tears his outstretcht arm away;
The other, Ino from his body drags!
And when his arms, unhappy wretch, he tries
To lift unto his mother, arms to lift
Were none;--but stretching forth his mangled trunk
Of limbs bereft;--"look, mother!"--he exclaims.
Loud howl'd Agave at the sight; his neck
Fierce grasping,--toss'd on high his streaming locks,
Her bloody fingers twisted in his hair.
Then clamor'd loudly;--"joy, my comrades, joy!
"The victory is mine!" Not swifter sweep
The winds those leaves which early frosts have nipp'd,
And lightly to the boughs attach'd remain,
Than scatter'd flew his limbs by furious hands.
*The Fourth Book.*
Feast of Bacchus. Impiety and infidelity of Alcithoe and her
sisters. Story of Pyramus and Thisbe. Amour of Mars and Venus.
The lovers caught by Vulcan in a net. Sol's love for Leucothoe,
and her change to a tree of frankincense. Clytie transformed to a
sunflower. Tale of Salmacis and Hermaphroditus. Transformation of
Alcithoe and her sisters to bats. Juno's fury. Madness of
Athamas; and deification of Ino and Melicertes. Change of the
Theban women to rocks and birds. Cadmus and Hermione changed to
serpents. Perseus. Transformation of Atlas to a mountain.
Andromeda saved from the sea monster. Story of Medusa.
THE *Fourth Book* OF THE METAMORPHOSES OF OVID.
Warn'd by the dreadful admonition, all
Of Thebes the new solemnities approve;
Bring incense, and to Bacchus' altars bend.
Alcithoe only, Minyaes' daughter, views
His orgies still with unbelieving eyes.
Boldly, herself and sisters, par
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