he seams open wide, and afford a passage to the fatal waves. Behold!
vast showers fall from the dissolving clouds, and you would believe that
the whole of the heavens is descending into the deep, and that the
swelling sea is ascending to the tracts of heaven. The sails are wet
with the rain, and the waves of the ocean are mingled with the waters of
the skies. The firmament is without its fires; {and} the gloomy night is
oppressed both with its own darkness and that of the storm. Yet the
lightnings disperse these, and give light as they flash; the waters are
on fire with the flames of the thunder-bolts. And now, too, the waves
make an inroad into the hollow texture of the ship; and as a soldier,
superior to all the rest of the number, after he has often sprung
forward against the fortifications of a defended city, at length gains
his desires; and, inflamed with the desire of glory, {though but} one
among a thousand more, he still mounts the wall, so, when the violent
waves have beaten against the lofty sides, the fury of the tenth
wave,[41] rising more impetuously {than the rest}, rushes onward; and it
ceases not to attack the wearied ship, before it descends within the
walls, as it were, of the captured bark. Part, then, of the sea is still
attempting to get into the ship, part is within it. All are now in
alarm, with no less intensity than a city is wont to be alarmed, while
some are undermining the walls without, and others within have
possession of the walls. {All} art fails them, and their courage sinks;
and as many {shapes of} death seem to rush and to break in {upon them},
as the waves that approach. One does not refrain from tears; another is
stupefied; another calls those happy[42] whom funeral rites await;
another, in his prayers, addresses the Gods, and lifting up his hands in
vain to that heaven which he sees not, implores their aid. His brothers
and his parent recur to the mind of another; to another, his home, with
his pledges {of affection}, and {so} what has been left behind by each.

{The remembrance of} Halcyone affects Ceyx; on the lips of Ceyx there is
nothing but Halcyone; and though her alone he regrets, still he rejoices
that she is absent. {Gladly}, too, would he look back to the shore of
his native land, and turn his last glance towards his home; but he knows
not where it is. The sea is raging in a hurricane[43] so vast, and all
the sky is concealed beneath the shade brought on by the clouds of
pi