ss draw the unavailing streams!
All Juno view'd with unrelenting brow;
But, view'd Ixion sterner far than all:
And when on Sisyphus again she cast
Her eyes, behind Ixion, angry cry'd;--
"What justice this?--of all the brethren he
"Sharp torture suffers! Shall proud Athamas
"A regal dwelling boast,--whose scornful taunts,
"And scornful spouse have still my power contemn'd?"
Then straight her hatred's cause disclos'd. They see
Her journey's object, and revenge's aim.
This her desire, that Cadmus' regal house
Perish'd should sink; and Athamas, fierce urg'd
By madness should some dreadful vengeance claim.
Commands, solicitations, prayers,--at once
The goddesses besiege: and as she speaks,
Angrily mov'd, Tisiphone replies,--
(Shaking her hoary locks,--the twining snakes
Back from her mouth repelling) hasty thus;--
"A tedious tale we need not; what thou wilt
"Believe accomplish'd. Fly this hateful gloom;--
"Up to the wholesome breeze of heaven repair."
Glad, Juno left the spot;--when near approach'd
Heaven's entrance, there Thaumantian Iris met,
And with her sprinklings purify'd the queen.

Quick now Tisiphone, the savage fiend,
Seizes her torch, with gory droppings wet;
Flings round her limbs a garment, deeply dy'd
With streaming blood; a twisting snake supplies
A girdle:--thus array'd she sallies forth,
Follow'd by loud lament, by terror, fear,
And quivering-featur'd madness. When she press'd
The threshold, fame declares the pillars shook;
The maple doors, with terror mov'd, grew pale:
Back shrunk the sun! Ino, with trembling dread
Beheld these wonders;--Athamas beheld;
And both prepar'd the haunted place to fly.
Escape the fury hinders: fierce she stands,
Blocking the entrance: wide her arms she spreads,
With viperous twistings bound; and threatening shakes
Her tresses: loud the serpents noise, disturb'd;
Sprawl o'er her shoulders some; some, lower fall'n,
Twine hissing round her breasts, with brandish'd tongue,
Black poison vomiting. With furious gripe,
Two from her locks she tore;--her deadly hand
Hurl'd them straight on; the breasts of Athamas,
And Ino, hungry, with their fangs they seiz'd;
Fierce pains infixing, but external wounds
Their limbs betray'd not: mental was the blow,
So direly struck. Venoms most mortal, too,
From Tartarus she bore:--the foam high-churn'd
From jaws of Cerberus; the poisonous