The Dragon's Teeth transform'd to Men



7:143 Impatient for the wonders of the day,
7:144 Aurora drives the loyt'ring stars away.
7:145 Now Mars's mount the pressing people fill,
7:146 The crowd below, the nobles crown the hill;
7:147 The king himself high-thron'd above the rest,
7:148 With iv'ry scepter, and in purple drest.

7:149 Forthwith the brass-hoof'd bulls are set at large,
7:150 Whose furious nostrils sulph'rous flame discharge:
7:151 The blasted herbage by their breath expires;
7:152 As forges rumble with excessive fires,
7:153 And furnaces with fiercer fury glow,
7:154 When water on the panting mass ye throw;
7:155 With such a noise, from their convulsive breast,
7:156 Thro' bellowing throats, the struggling vapour prest.

7:157 Yet Jason marches up without concern,
7:158 While on th' advent'rous youth the monsters turn
7:159 Their glaring eyes, and, eager to engage,
7:160 Brandish their steel-tipt horns in threatning rage:
7:161 With brazen hoofs they beat the ground, and choak
7:162 The ambient air with clouds of dust and smoak:
7:163 Each gazing Graecian for his champion shakes,
7:164 While bold advances he securely makes
7:165 Thro' sindging blasts; such wonders magick art
7:166 Can work, when love conspires, and plays his part.
7:167 The passive savages like statues stand,
7:168 While he their dew-laps stroaks with soothing hand;
7:169 To unknown yokes their brawny necks they yield,
7:170 And, like tame oxen, plow the wond'ring field.
7:171 The Colchians stare; the Graecians shout, and raise
7:172 Their champion's courage with inspiring praise.

7:173 Embolden'd now, on fresh attempts he goes,
7:174 With serpent's teeth the fertile furrows sows;
7:175 The glebe, fermenting with inchanted juice,
7:176 Makes the snake's teeth a human crop produce.
7:177 For as an infant, pris'ner to the womb,
7:178 Contented sleeps, 'till to perfection come,
7:179 Then does the cell's obscure confinement scorn,
7:180 He tosses, throbs, and presses to be born;
7:181 So from the lab'ring Earth no single birth,
7:182 But a whole troop of lusty youths rush forth;
7:183 And, what's more strange, with martial fury warm'd,
7:184 And for encounter all compleatly arm'd;
7:185 In rank and file, as they were sow'd, they stand,
7:186 Impatient for the signal of command.
7:187 No foe but the Aemonian youth appears;
7:188 At him they level their steel-pointed spears;
7:189 His frighted friends, who triumph'd, just before,
7:190 With peals of sighs his desp'rate case deplore:
7:191 And where such hardy warriors are afraid,
7:192 What must the tender, and enamour'd maid?
7:193 Her spirits sink, the blood her cheek forsook;
7:194 She fears, who for his safety undertook:
7:195 She knew the vertue of the spells she gave,
7:196 She knew the force, and knew her lover brave;
7:197 But what's a single champion to an host?
7:198 Yet scorning thus to see him tamely lost,
7:199 Her strong reserve of secret arts she brings,
7:200 And last, her never-failing song she sings.
7:201 Wonders ensue; among his gazing foes
7:202 The massy fragment of a rock he throws;
7:203 This charm in civil war engag'd 'em all;
7:204 By mutual wounds those Earth-born brothers fall.

7:205 The Greeks, transported with the strange success,
7:206 Leap from their seats the conqu'ror to caress;
7:207 Commend, and kiss, and clasp him in their arms:
7:208 So would the kind contriver of the charms;
7:209 But her, who felt the tenderest concern,
7:210 Honour condemns in secret flames to burn;
7:211 Committed to a double guard of fame,
7:212 Aw'd by a virgin's, and a princess' name.
7:213 But thoughts are free, and fancy unconfin'd,
7:214 She kisses, courts, and hugs him in her mind;
7:215 To fav'ring Pow'rs her silent thanks she gives,
7:216 By whose indulgence her lov'd hero lives.

7:217 One labour more remains, and, tho' the last,
7:218 In danger far surmounting all the past;
7:219 That enterprize by Fates in store was kept,
7:220 To make the dragon sleep that never slept,
7:221 Whose crest shoots dreadful lustre; from his jaws
7:222 A tripple tire of forked stings he draws,
7:223 With fangs, and wings of a prodigious size:
7:224 Such was the guardian of the golden prize.
7:225 Yet him, besprinkled with Lethaean dew,
7:226 The fair inchantress into slumber threw;
7:227 And then, to fix him, thrice she did repeat
7:228 The rhyme, that makes the raging winds retreat,
7:229 In stormy seas can halcyon seasons make,
7:230 Turn rapid streams into a standing lake;
7:231 While the soft guest his drowzy eye-lids seals,
7:232 Th' ungarded golden fleece the stranger steals;
7:233 Proud to possess the purchase of his toil,
7:234 Proud of his royal bride, the richer spoil;
7:235 To sea both prize, and patroness he bore,
7:236 And lands triumphant on his native shore.