s;
Raises his conscious arms and hands oblique,
And suppliant begs;--"go Perseus,--conqueror, go!
"Remove that dreadful monster,--bear away
"That stone-creating visage, Gorgon's head!
"Whate'er it be, I pray thee bear it hence.
"Nor hate, nor lust of empire, rais'd our arms
"Against thee;--for my wife alone we warr'd.
"Thy cause, by merit best; mine, but by time.
"Bravest of men, me much it grieves I e'er,
"Thy claim oppos'd: existence only give,
"All else be thine." To him, as thus he begg'd,
Fearing his eyes, to whom he suppliant spoke
To turn;--"thou dastard, Phineus!" Perseus cry'd,--
"What I can grant, I will; and what I grant
"To souls like thine a mighty boon must seem.
"Dispel thy terror; rest from steel secure.
"Yet must a during monument remain,
"Still in the dwelling of my spouse's sire,
"Conspicuous. So my bride may daily see
"Her imag'd husband." Speaking thus, he held
The Gorgon's head, where pallid, Phineus turn'd;
So turning stiffen'd stood the neck; so turn'd
Appear'd th' inverted eyes; the humid balls
To stone concreted. Still the timid look,
And suppliant face, and tame-petitioning arms,
And guilty awe-struck look, in stone remain'd.

Now victor, Abantiades re-seeks
His soil paternal, with his well-earn'd bride:
And in his undeserving grandsire's aid,
Avenging war on Proetus he declares.
Proetus then all Acrisius' cities held;
From each possession forc'd, his brother fled.
But arms, and battled towns, like ill-possess'd,
The head snake-curl'd, oblig'd at once to stoop.
Yet not the youth's bold valor, amply prov'd,
By all his brave atchievements; nor his toils
Thee, Polydectes, mov'd; who rul'd the isle,
The paltry isle, Seriphus; stubborn still,
Inexorable hatred thou maintain'st:
Endless against him burns thy rage unjust.
Nay, from his true deserts, thou would'st detract;
And swear'st Medusa's death a fiction form'd.
Then Perseus;--"thus if true I speak, or no,
"Experience. Close, my friends, your eyes!"--as forth,
He held the Gorgon;--bloodless stood the face
Of Polydectes, turn'd a marble form.

Thus far, Minerva aided side by side,
Her brother golden-born; then swiftly flew,
Wrapt in a cloud opaque; and distant left
Seriphus. On she flies, to right she leaves
Cythnos, and Gyaros; and cross the main
The shortest route she hastens; speeds to Thebes,
And seeks the Heliconian