The Transformation of Ino and Melicerta to Sea-Gods



4:597 The pow'r of Bacchus now o'er Thebes had flown:
4:598 With awful rev'rence soon the God they own.
4:599 Proud Ino, all around the wonder tells,
4:600 And on her nephew deity still dwells.
4:601 Of num'rous sisters, she alone yet knew
4:602 No grief, but grief, which she from sisters drew.

4:603 Imperial Juno saw her with disdain,
4:604 Vain in her offspring, in her consort vain,
4:605 Who rul'd the trembling Thebans with a nod,
4:606 But saw her vainest in her foster-God.
4:607 Could then (she cry'd) a bastard-boy have pow'r
4:608 To make a mother her own son devour?
4:609 Could he the Tuscan crew to fishes change,
4:610 And now three sisters damn to forms so strange?
4:611 Yet shall the wife of Jove find no relief?
4:612 Shall she, still unreveng'd, disclose her grief?
4:613 Have I the mighty freedom to complain?
4:614 Is that my pow'r? is that to ease my pain?
4:615 A foe has taught me vengeance; and who ought
4:616 To scorn that vengeance, which a foe has taught?
4:617 What sure destruction frantick rage can throw,
4:618 The gaping wounds of slaughter'd Pentheus show.
4:619 Why should not Ino, fir'd with madness, stray,
4:620 Like her mad sisters her own kindred slay?
4:621 Why, she not follow, where they lead the way?

4:622 Down a steep, yawning cave, where yews display'd
4:623 In arches meet, and lend a baleful shade,
4:624 Thro' silent labyrinths a passage lies
4:625 To mournful regions, and infernal skies.
4:626 Here Styx exhales its noisome clouds, and here,
4:627 The fun'ral rites once paid, all souls appear.
4:628 Stiff cold, and horror with a ghastly face
4:629 And staring eyes, infest the dreary place.
4:630 Ghosts, new-arriv'd, and strangers to these plains,
4:631 Know not the palace, where grim Pluto reigns.
4:632 They journey doubtful, nor the road can tell,
4:633 Which leads to the metropolis of Hell.
4:634 A thousand avenues those tow'rs command,
4:635 A thousand gates for ever open stand.
4:636 As all the rivers, disembogu'd, find room
4:637 For all their waters in old Ocean's womb:
4:638 So this vast city worlds of shades receives,
4:639 And space for millions still of worlds she leaves.
4:640 Th' unbody'd spectres freely rove, and show
4:641 Whate'er they lov'd on Earth, they love below.
4:642 The lawyers still, or right, or wrong, support,
4:643 The courtiers smoothly glide to Pluto's court.
4:644 Still airy heroes thoughts of glory fire,
4:645 Still the dead poet strings his deathless lyre,
4:646 And lovers still with fancy'd darts expire.

4:647 The Queen of Heaven, to gratify her hate,
4:648 And sooth immortal wrath, forgets her state.
4:649 Down from the realms of day, to realms of night,
4:650 The Goddess swift precipitates her flight.
4:651 At Hell arriv'd, the noise Hell's porter heard,
4:652 Th' enormous dog his triple head up-rear'd:
4:653 Thrice from three grizly throats he howl'd profound,
4:654 Then suppliant couch'd, and stretch'd along the ground.
4:655 The trembling threshold, which Saturnia prest,
4:656 The weight of such divinity confest.

4:657 Before a lofty, adamantine gate,
4:658 Which clos'd a tow'r of brass, the Furies sate:
4:659 Mis-shapen forms, tremendous to the sight,
4:660 Th' implacable foul daughters of the night.
4:661 A sounding whip each bloody sister shakes,
4:662 Or from her tresses combs the curling snakes.
4:663 But now great Juno's majesty was known;
4:664 Thro' the thick gloom, all heav'nly bright, she shone:
4:665 The hideous monsters their obedience show'd,
4:666 And rising from their seats, submissive bow'd.

4:667 This is the place of woe, here groan the dead;
4:668 Huge Tityus o'er nine acres here is spread.
4:669 Fruitful for pain th' immortal liver breeds,
4:670 Still grows, and still th' insatiate vulture feeds.
4:671 Poor Tantalus to taste the water tries,
4:672 But from his lips the faithless water flies:
4:673 Then thinks the bending tree he can command,
4:674 The tree starts backwards, and eludes his hand.
4:675 The labour too of Sisyphus is vain,
4:676 Up the steep mount he heaves the stone with pain,
4:677 Down from the summet rouls the stone again.
4:678 The Belides their leaky vessels still
4:679 Are ever filling, and yet never fill:
4:680 Doom'd to this punishment for blood they shed,
4:681 For bridegrooms slaughter'd in the bridal bed.
4:682 Stretch'd on the rolling wheel Ixion lies;
4:683 Himself he follows, and himself he flies.
4:684 Ixion, tortur'd, Juno sternly ey'd,
4:685 Then turn'd, and toiling Sisyphus espy'd:
4:686 And why (she said) so wretched is the fate
4:687 Of him, whose brother proudly reigns in state?
4:688 Yet still my altars unador'd have been
4:689 By Athamas, and his presumptuous queen.

4:690 What caus'd her hate, the Goddess thus confest,
4:691 What caus'd her journey now was more than guest.
4:692 That hate, relentless, its revenge did want,
4:693 And that revenge the Furies soon could grant:
4:694 They could the glory of proud Thebes efface,
4:695 And hide in ruin the Cadmean race.
4:696 For this she largely promises, entreats,
4:697 And to intreaties adds imperial threats.

4:698 Then fell Tisiphone with rage was stung,
4:699 And from her mouth th' untwisted serpents flung.
4:700 To gain this trifling boon, there is no need
4:701 (She cry'd) in formal speeches to proceed.
4:702 Whatever thou command'st to do, is done;
4:703 Believe it finish'd, tho' not yet begun.
4:704 But from these melancholly seats repair
4:705 To happier mansions, and to purer air.
4:706 She spoke: the Goddess, darting upwards, flies,
4:707 And joyous re-ascends her native skies:
4:708 Nor enter'd there, till 'round her Iris threw
4:709 Ambrosial sweets, and pour'd celestial dew.

4:710 The faithful Fury, guiltless of delays,
4:711 With cruel haste the dire command obeys.
4:712 Girt in a bloody gown, a torch she shakes,
4:713 And round her neck twines speckled wreaths of snakes.
4:714 Fear, and dismay, and agonizing pain,
4:715 With frantick rage, compleat her loveless train.
4:716 To Thebes her flight she sped, and Hell forsook;
4:717 At her approach the Theban turrets shook:
4:718 The sun shrunk back, thick clouds the day o'er-cast,
4:719 And springing greens were wither'd as she past.

4:720 Now, dismal yellings heard, strange spectres seen,
4:721 Confound as much the monarch as the queen.
4:722 In vain to quit the palace they prepar'd,
4:723 Tisiphone was there, and kept the ward.
4:724 She wide extended her unfriendly arms,
4:725 And all the Fury lavish'd all her harms.
4:726 Part of her tresses loudly hiss, and part
4:727 Spread poyson, as their forky tongues they dart.
4:728 Then from her middle locks two snakes she drew,
4:729 Whose merit from superior mischief grew:
4:730 Th' envenom'd ruin, thrown with spiteful care,
4:731 Clung to the bosoms of the hapless pair.
4:732 The hapless pair soon with wild thoughts were fir'd,
4:733 And madness, by a thousand ways inspir'd.
4:734 'Tis true, th' unwounded body still was sound,
4:735 But 'twas the soul which felt the deadly wound.
4:736 Nor did th' unsated monster here give o'er,
4:737 But dealt of plagues a fresh, unnumber'd store.
4:738 Each baneful juice too well she understood,
4:739 Foam, churn'd by Cerberus, and Hydra's blood.
4:740 Hot hemlock, and cold aconite she chose,
4:741 Delighted in variety of woes.
4:742 Whatever can untune th' harmonious soul,
4:743 And its mild, reas'ning faculties controul,
4:744 Give false ideas, raise desires profane,
4:745 And whirl in eddies the tumultuous brain,
4:746 Mix'd with curs'd art, she direfully around
4:747 Thro' all their nerves diffus'd the sad compound.
4:748 Then toss'd her torch in circles still the same,
4:749 Improv'd their rage, and added flame to flame.
4:750 The grinning Fury her own conquest spy'd,
4:751 And to her rueful shades return'd with pride,
4:752 And threw th' exhausted, useless snakes aside.

4:753 Now Athamas cries out, his reason fled,
4:754 Here, fellow-hunters, let the toils be spread.
4:755 I saw a lioness, in quest of food,
4:756 With her two young, run roaring in this wood.
4:757 Again the fancy'd savages were seen,
4:758 As thro' his palace still he chac'd his queen;
4:759 Then tore Learchus from her breast: the child
4:760 Stretch'd little arms, and on its father smil'd:
4:761 A father now no more, who now begun
4:762 Around his head to whirl his giddy son,
4:763 And, quite insensible to Nature's call,
4:764 The helpless infant flung against the wall.
4:765 The same mad poyson in the mother wrought,
4:766 Young Melicerta in her arms she caught,
4:767 And with disorder'd tresses, howling, flies,
4:768 O! Bacchus, Evoe, Bacchus! loud she cries.
4:769 The name of Bacchus Juno laugh'd to hear,
4:770 And said, Thy foster-God has cost thee dear.

4:771 A rock there stood, whose side the beating waves
4:772 Had long consum'd, and hollow'd into caves.
4:773 The head shot forwards in a bending steep,
4:774 And cast a dreadful covert o'er the deep.
4:775 The wretched Ino, on destruction bent,
4:776 Climb'd up the cliff; such strength her fury lent:
4:777 Thence with her guiltless boy, who wept in vain,
4:778 At one bold spring she plung'd into the main.

4:779 Her neice's fate touch'd Cytherea's breast,
4:780 And in soft sounds she Neptune thus addrest:
4:781 Great God of waters, whose extended sway
4:782 Is next to his, whom Heav'n and Earth obey:
4:783 Let not the suit of Venus thee displease,
4:784 Pity the floaters on th' Ionian seas.
4:785 Encrease thy Subject-Gods, nor yet disdain
4:786 To add my kindred to that glorious train.
4:787 If from the sea I may such honours claim,
4:788 If 'tis desert, that from the sea I came,
4:789 As Grecian poets artfully have sung,
4:790 And in the name confest, from whence I sprung.

4:791 Pleas'd Neptune nodded his assent, and free
4:792 Both soon became from frail mortality.
4:793 He gave them form, and majesty divine,
4:794 And bad them glide along the foamy brine.
4:795 For Melicerta is Palaemon known,
4:796 And Ino once, Leucothoe is grown.