The Giants' War



1:193 Nor were the Gods themselves more safe above;
1:194 Against beleaguer'd Heav'n the giants move.
1:195 Hills pil'd on hills, on mountains mountains lie,
1:196 To make their mad approaches to the skie.
1:197 'Till Jove, no longer patient, took his time
1:198 T' avenge with thunder their audacious crime:
1:199 Red light'ning plaid along the firmament,
1:200 And their demolish'd works to pieces rent.
1:201 Sing'd with the flames, and with the bolts transfixt,
1:202 With native Earth, their blood the monsters mixt;
1:203 The blood, indu'd with animating heat,
1:204 Did in th' impregnant Earth new sons beget:
1:205 They, like the seed from which they sprung, accurst,
1:206 Against the Gods immortal hatred nurst,
1:207 An impious, arrogant, and cruel brood;
1:208 Expressing their original from blood.

1:209 Which when the king of Gods beheld from high
1:210 (Withal revolving in his memory,
1:211 What he himself had found on Earth of late,
1:212 Lycaon's guilt, and his inhumane treat),
1:213 He sigh'd; nor longer with his pity strove;
1:214 But kindled to a wrath becoming Jove:

1:215 Then call'd a general council of the Gods;
1:216 Who summon'd, issue from their blest abodes,
1:217 And fill th' assembly with a shining train.
1:218 A way there is, in Heav'n's expanded plain,
1:219 Which, when the skies are clear, is seen below,
1:220 And mortals, by the name of Milky, know.
1:221 The ground-work is of stars; through which the road
1:222 Lyes open to the Thunderer's abode:
1:223 The Gods of greater nations dwell around,
1:224 And, on the right and left, the palace bound;
1:225 The commons where they can: the nobler sort
1:226 With winding-doors wide open, front the court.
1:227 This place, as far as Earth with Heav'n may vie,
1:228 I dare to call the Louvre of the skie.
1:229 When all were plac'd, in seats distinctly known,
1:230 And he, their father, had assum'd the throne,
1:231 Upon his iv'ry sceptre first he leant,
1:232 Then shook his head, that shook the firmament:
1:233 Air, Earth, and seas, obey'd th' almighty nod;
1:234 And, with a gen'ral fear, confess'd the God.
1:235 At length, with indignation, thus he broke
1:236 His awful silence, and the Pow'rs bespoke.

1:237 I was not more concern'd in that debate
1:238 Of empire, when our universal state
1:239 Was put to hazard, and the giant race
1:240 Our captive skies were ready to imbrace:
1:241 For tho' the foe was fierce, the seeds of all
1:242 Rebellion, sprung from one original;
1:243 Now, wheresoever ambient waters glide,
1:244 All are corrupt, and all must be destroy'd.
1:245 Let me this holy protestation make,
1:246 By Hell, and Hell's inviolable lake,
1:247 I try'd whatever in the godhead lay:
1:248 But gangren'd members must be lopt away,
1:249 Before the nobler parts are tainted to decay.
1:250 There dwells below, a race of demi-gods,
1:251 Of nymphs in waters, and of fawns in woods:
1:252 Who, tho' not worthy yet, in Heav'n to live,
1:253 Let 'em, at least, enjoy that Earth we give.
1:254 Can these be thought securely lodg'd below,
1:255 When I my self, who no superior know,
1:256 I, who have Heav'n and Earth at my command,
1:257 Have been attempted by Lycaon's hand?

1:258 At this a murmur through the synod went,
1:259 And with one voice they vote his punishment.
1:260 Thus, when conspiring traytors dar'd to doom
1:261 The fall of Caesar, and in him of Rome,
1:262 The nations trembled with a pious fear;
1:263 All anxious for their earthly Thunderer:
1:264 Nor was their care, o Caesar, less esteem'd
1:265 By thee, than that of Heav'n for Jove was deem'd:
1:266 Who with his hand, and voice, did first restrain
1:267 Their murmurs, then resum'd his speech again.
1:268 The Gods to silence were compos'd, and sate
1:269 With reverence, due to his superior state.

1:270 Cancel your pious cares; already he
1:271 Has paid his debt to justice, and to me.
1:272 Yet what his crimes, and what my judgments were,
1:273 Remains for me thus briefly to declare.
1:274 The clamours of this vile degenerate age,
1:275 The cries of orphans, and th' oppressor's rage,
1:276 Had reach'd the stars: I will descend, said I,
1:277 In hope to prove this loud complaint a lye.
1:278 Disguis'd in humane shape, I travell'd round
1:279 The world, and more than what I heard, I found.
1:280 O'er Maenalus I took my steepy way,
1:281 By caverns infamous for beasts of prey:
1:282 Then cross'd Cyllene, and the piny shade
1:283 More infamous, by curst Lycaon made:
1:284 Dark night had cover'd Heaven, and Earth, before
1:285 I enter'd his unhospitable door.
1:286 Just at my entrance, I display'd the sign
1:287 That somewhat was approaching of divine.
1:288 The prostrate people pray; the tyrant grins;
1:289 And, adding prophanation to his sins,
1:290 I'll try, said he, and if a God appear,
1:291 To prove his deity shall cost him dear.
1:292 'Twas late; the graceless wretch my death prepares,
1:293 When I shou'd soundly sleep, opprest with cares:
1:294 This dire experiment he chose, to prove
1:295 If I were mortal, or undoubted Jove:
1:296 But first he had resolv'd to taste my pow'r;
1:297 Not long before, but in a luckless hour,
1:298 Some legates, sent from the Molossian state,
1:299 Were on a peaceful errand come to treat:
1:300 Of these he murders one, he boils the flesh;
1:301 And lays the mangled morsels in a dish:
1:302 Some part he roasts; then serves it up, so drest,
1:303 And bids me welcome to this humane feast.
1:304 Mov'd with disdain, the table I o'er-turn'd;
1:305 And with avenging flames, the palace burn'd.
1:306 The tyrant in a fright, for shelter gains
1:307 The neighb'ring fields, and scours along the plains.
1:308 Howling he fled, and fain he wou'd have spoke;
1:309 But humane voice his brutal tongue forsook.
1:310 About his lips the gather'd foam he churns,
1:311 And, breathing slaughters, still with rage he burns,
1:312 But on the bleating flock his fury turns.
1:313 His mantle, now his hide, with rugged hairs
1:314 Cleaves to his back; a famish'd face he bears;
1:315 His arms descend, his shoulders sink away
1:316 To multiply his legs for chase of prey.
1:317 He grows a wolf, his hoariness remains,
1:318 And the same rage in other members reigns.
1:319 His eyes still sparkle in a narr'wer space:
1:320 His jaws retain the grin, and violence of his face

1:321 This was a single ruin, but not one
1:322 Deserves so just a punishment alone.
1:323 Mankind's a monster, and th' ungodly times
1:324 Confed'rate into guilt, are sworn to crimes.
1:325 All are alike involv'd in ill, and all
1:326 Must by the same relentless fury fall.
1:327 Thus ended he; the greater Gods assent;
1:328 By clamours urging his severe intent;
1:329 The less fill up the cry for punishment.
1:330 Yet still with pity they remember Man;
1:331 And mourn as much as heav'nly spirits can.
1:332 They ask, when those were lost of humane birth,
1:333 What he wou'd do with all this waste of Earth:
1:334 If his dispeopl'd world he would resign
1:335 To beasts, a mute, and more ignoble line;
1:336 Neglected altars must no longer smoke,
1:337 If none were left to worship, and invoke.
1:338 To whom the Father of the Gods reply'd,
1:339 Lay that unnecessary fear aside:
1:340 Mine be the care, new people to provide.
1:341 I will from wondrous principles ordain
1:342 A race unlike the first, and try my skill again.

1:343 Already had he toss'd the flaming brand;
1:344 And roll'd the thunder in his spacious hand;
1:345 Preparing to discharge on seas and land:
1:346 But stopt, for fear, thus violently driv'n,
1:347 The sparks should catch his axle-tree of Heav'n.
1:348 Remembring in the fates, a time when fire
1:349 Shou'd to the battlements of Heaven aspire,
1:350 And all his blazing worlds above shou'd burn;
1:351 And all th' inferior globe to cinders turn.
1:352 His dire artill'ry thus dismist, he bent
1:353 His thoughts to some securer punishment:
1:354 Concludes to pour a watry deluge down;
1:355 And what he durst not burn, resolves to drown.

1:356 The northern breath, that freezes floods, he binds;
1:357 With all the race of cloud-dispelling winds:
1:358 The south he loos'd, who night and horror brings;
1:359 And foggs are shaken from his flaggy wings.
1:360 From his divided beard two streams he pours,
1:361 His head, and rheumy eyes distill in show'rs,
1:362 With rain his robe, and heavy mantle flow:
1:363 And lazy mists are lowring on his brow;
1:364 Still as he swept along, with his clench'd fist
1:365 He squeez'd the clouds, th' imprison'd clouds resist:
1:366 The skies, from pole to pole, with peals resound;
1:367 And show'rs inlarg'd, come pouring on the ground.
1:368 Then, clad in colours of a various dye,
1:369 Junonian Iris breeds a new supply
1:370 To feed the clouds: impetuous rain descends;
1:371 The bearded corn beneath the burden bends:
1:372 Defrauded clowns deplore their perish'd grain;
1:373 And the long labours of the year are vain.

1:374 Nor from his patrimonial Heaven alone
1:375 Is Jove content to pour his vengeance down;
1:376 Aid from his brother of the seas he craves,
1:377 To help him with auxiliary waves.
1:378 The watry tyrant calls his brooks and floods,
1:379 Who rowl from mossie caves (their moist abodes);
1:380 And with perpetual urns his palace fill:
1:381 To whom in brief, he thus imparts his will.

1:382 Small exhortation needs; your pow'rs employ:
1:383 And this bad world, so Jove requires, destroy.
1:384 Let loose the reins to all your watry store:
1:385 Bear down the damms, and open ev'ry door.

1:386 The floods, by Nature enemies to land,
1:387 And proudly swelling with their new command,
1:388 Remove the living stones, that stopt their way,
1:389 And gushing from their source, augment the sea.
1:390 Then, with his mace, their monarch struck the ground;
1:391 With inward trembling Earth receiv'd the wound;
1:392 And rising streams a ready passage found.
1:393 Th' expanded waters gather on the plain:
1:394 They float the fields, and over-top the grain;
1:395 Then rushing onwards, with a sweepy sway,
1:396 Bear flocks, and folds, and lab'ring hinds away.
1:397 Nor safe their dwellings were, for, sap'd by floods,
1:398 Their houses fell upon their houshold Gods.
1:399 The solid piles, too strongly built to fall,
1:400 High o'er their heads, behold a watry wall:
1:401 Now seas and Earth were in confusion lost;
1:402 A world of waters, and without a coast.

1:403 One climbs a cliff; one in his boat is born:
1:404 And ploughs above, where late he sow'd his corn.
1:405 Others o'er chimney-tops and turrets row,
1:406 And drop their anchors on the meads below:
1:407 Or downward driv'n, they bruise the tender vine,
1:408 Or tost aloft, are knock'd against a pine.
1:409 And where of late the kids had cropt the grass,
1:410 The monsters of the deep now take their place.
1:411 Insulting Nereids on the cities ride,
1:412 And wond'ring dolphins o'er the palace glide.
1:413 On leaves, and masts of mighty oaks they brouze;
1:414 And their broad fins entangle in the boughs.
1:415 The frighted wolf now swims amongst the sheep;
1:416 The yellow lion wanders in the deep:
1:417 His rapid force no longer helps the boar:
1:418 The stag swims faster, than he ran before.
1:419 The fowls, long beating on their wings in vain,
1:420 Despair of land, and drop into the main.
1:421 Now hills, and vales no more distinction know;
1:422 And levell'd Nature lies oppress'd below.
1:423 The most of mortals perish in the flood:
1:424 The small remainder dies for want of food.

1:425 A mountain of stupendous height there stands
1:426 Betwixt th' Athenian and Boeotian lands,
1:427 The bound of fruitful fields, while fields they were,
1:428 But then a field of waters did appear:
1:429 Parnassus is its name; whose forky rise
1:430 Mounts thro' the clouds, and mates the lofty skies.
1:431 High on the summit of this dubious cliff,
1:432 Deucalion wafting, moor'd his little skiff.
1:433 He with his wife were only left behind
1:434 Of perish'd Man; they two were human kind.
1:435 The mountain nymphs, and Themis they adore,
1:436 And from her oracles relief implore.
1:437 The most upright of mortal men was he;
1:438 The most sincere, and holy woman, she.

1:439 When Jupiter, surveying Earth from high,
1:440 Beheld it in a lake of water lie,
1:441 That where so many millions lately liv'd,
1:442 But two, the best of either sex, surviv'd;
1:443 He loos'd the northern wind; fierce Boreas flies
1:444 To puff away the clouds, and purge the skies:
1:445 Serenely, while he blows, the vapours driv'n,
1:446 Discover Heav'n to Earth, and Earth to Heav'n.
1:447 The billows fall, while Neptune lays his mace
1:448 On the rough sea, and smooths its furrow'd face.
1:449 Already Triton, at his call, appears
1:450 Above the waves; a Tyrian robe he wears;
1:451 And in his hand a crooked trumpet bears.
1:452 The soveraign bids him peaceful sounds inspire,
1:453 And give the waves the signal to retire.
1:454 His writhen shell he takes; whose narrow vent
1:455 Grows by degrees into a large extent,
1:456 Then gives it breath; the blast with doubling sound,
1:457 Runs the wide circuit of the world around:
1:458 The sun first heard it, in his early east,
1:459 And met the rattling ecchos in the west.
1:460 The waters, listning to the trumpet's roar,
1:461 Obey the summons, and forsake the shore.

1:462 A thin circumference of land appears;
1:463 And Earth, but not at once, her visage rears,
1:464 And peeps upon the seas from upper grounds;
1:465 The streams, but just contain'd within their bounds,
1:466 By slow degrees into their channels crawl;
1:467 And Earth increases, as the waters fall.
1:468 In longer time the tops of trees appear,
1:469 Which mud on their dishonour'd branches bear.

1:470 At length the world was all restor'd to view;
1:471 But desolate, and of a sickly hue:
1:472 Nature beheld her self, and stood aghast,
1:473 A dismal desart, and a silent waste.

1:474 Which when Deucalion, with a piteous look
1:475 Beheld, he wept, and thus to Pyrrha spoke:
1:476 Oh wife, oh sister, oh of all thy kind
1:477 The best, and only creature left behind,
1:478 By kindred, love, and now by dangers joyn'd;
1:479 Of multitudes, who breath'd the common air,
1:480 We two remain; a species in a pair:
1:481 The rest the seas have swallow'd; nor have we
1:482 Ev'n of this wretched life a certainty.
1:483 The clouds are still above; and, while I speak,
1:484 A second deluge o'er our heads may break.
1:485 Shou'd I be snatcht from hence, and thou remain,
1:486 Without relief, or partner of thy pain,
1:487 How cou'dst thou such a wretched life sustain?
1:488 Shou'd I be left, and thou be lost, the sea
1:489 That bury'd her I lov'd, shou'd bury me.
1:490 Oh cou'd our father his old arts inspire,
1:491 And make me heir of his informing fire,
1:492 That so I might abolisht Man retrieve,
1:493 And perisht people in new souls might live.
1:494 But Heav'n is pleas'd, nor ought we to complain,
1:495 That we, th' examples of mankind, remain.
1:496 He said; the careful couple joyn their tears:
1:497 And then invoke the Gods, with pious prayers.
1:498 Thus, in devotion having eas'd their grief,
1:499 From sacred oracles they seek relief;
1:500 And to Cephysus' brook their way pursue:
1:501 The stream was troubled, but the ford they knew;
1:502 With living waters, in the fountain bred,
1:503 They sprinkle first their garments, and their head,
1:504 Then took the way, which to the temple led.
1:505 The roofs were all defil'd with moss, and mire,
1:506 The desart altars void of solemn fire.
1:507 Before the gradual, prostrate they ador'd;
1:508 The pavement kiss'd; and thus the saint implor'd.

1:509 O righteous Themis, if the Pow'rs above
1:510 By pray'rs are bent to pity, and to love;
1:511 If humane miseries can move their mind;
1:512 If yet they can forgive, and yet be kind;
1:513 Tell how we may restore, by second birth,
1:514 Mankind, and people desolated Earth.
1:515 Then thus the gracious Goddess, nodding, said;
1:516 Depart, and with your vestments veil your head:
1:517 And stooping lowly down, with losen'd zones,
1:518 Throw each behind your backs, your mighty mother's bones.
1:519 Amaz'd the pair, and mute with wonder stand,
1:520 'Till Pyrrha first refus'd the dire command.
1:521 Forbid it Heav'n, said she, that I shou'd tear
1:522 Those holy reliques from the sepulcher.
1:523 They ponder'd the mysterious words again,
1:524 For some new sense; and long they sought in vain:
1:525 At length Deucalion clear'd his cloudy brow,
1:526 And said, the dark Aenigma will allow
1:527 A meaning, which, if well I understand,
1:528 From sacrilege will free the God's command:
1:529 This Earth our mighty mother is, the stones
1:530 In her capacious body, are her bones:
1:531 These we must cast behind. With hope, and fear,
1:532 The woman did the new solution hear:
1:533 The man diffides in his own augury,
1:534 And doubts the Gods; yet both resolve to try.
1:535 Descending from the mount, they first unbind
1:536 Their vests, and veil'd, they cast the stones behind:
1:537 The stones (a miracle to mortal view,
1:538 But long tradition makes it pass for true)
1:539 Did first the rigour of their kind expel,
1:540 And suppled into softness, as they fell;
1:541 Then swell'd, and swelling, by degrees grew warm;
1:542 And took the rudiments of human form.
1:543 Imperfect shapes: in marble such are seen,
1:544 When the rude chizzel does the man begin;
1:545 While yet the roughness of the stone remains,
1:546 Without the rising muscles, and the veins.
1:547 The sappy parts, and next resembling juice,
1:548 Were turn'd to moisture, for the body's use:
1:549 Supplying humours, blood, and nourishment;
1:550 The rest, too solid to receive a bent,
1:551 Converts to bones; and what was once a vein,
1:552 Its former name and Nature did retain.
1:553 By help of pow'r divine, in little space,
1:554 What the man threw, assum'd a manly face;
1:555 And what the wife, renew'd the female race.
1:556 Hence we derive our nature; born to bear
1:557 Laborious life; and harden'd into care.

1:558 The rest of animals, from teeming Earth
1:559 Produc'd, in various forms receiv'd their birth.
1:560 The native moisture, in its close retreat,
1:561 Digested by the sun's aetherial heat,
1:562 As in a kindly womb, began to breed:
1:563 Then swell'd, and quicken'd by the vital seed.
1:564 And some in less, and some in longer space,
1:565 Were ripen'd into form, and took a sev'ral face.
1:566 Thus when the Nile from Pharian fields is fled,
1:567 And seeks, with ebbing tides, his ancient bed,
1:568 The fat manure with heav'nly fire is warm'd;
1:569 And crusted creatures, as in wombs, are form'd;
1:570 These, when they turn the glebe, the peasants find;
1:571 Some rude, and yet unfinish'd in their kind:
1:572 Short of their limbs, a lame imperfect birth:
1:573 One half alive; and one of lifeless earth.

1:574 For heat, and moisture, when in bodies join'd,
1:575 The temper that results from either kind
1:576 Conception makes; and fighting 'till they mix,
1:577 Their mingled atoms in each other fix.
1:578 Thus Nature's hand the genial bed prepares
1:579 With friendly discord, and with fruitful wars.

1:580 From hence the surface of the ground, with mud
1:581 And slime besmear'd (the faeces of the flood),
1:582 Receiv'd the rays of Heav'n: and sucking in
1:583 The seeds of heat, new creatures did begin:
1:584 Some were of sev'ral sorts produc'd before,
1:585 But of new monsters, Earth created more.
1:586 Unwillingly, but yet she brought to light
1:587 Thee, Python too, the wondring world to fright,
1:588 And the new nations, with so dire a sight:
1:589 So monstrous was his bulk, so large a space
1:590 Did his vast body, and long train embrace.
1:591 Whom Phoebus basking on a bank espy'd;
1:592 E're now the God his arrows had not try'd
1:593 But on the trembling deer, or mountain goat;
1:594 At this new quarry he prepares to shoot.
1:595 Though ev'ry shaft took place, he spent the store
1:596 Of his full quiver; and 'twas long before
1:597 Th' expiring serpent wallow'd in his gore.
1:598 Then, to preserve the fame of such a deed,
1:599 For Python slain, he Pythian games decred.
1:600 Where noble youths for mastership shou'd strive,
1:601 To quoit, to run, and steeds, and chariots drive.
1:602 The prize was fame: in witness of renown
1:603 An oaken garland did the victor crown.
1:604 The laurel was not yet for triumphs born;
1:605 But every green alike by Phoebus worn,
1:606 Did, with promiscuous grace, his flowing locks adorn.