What though, a Pontic pine, thy race
Thou canst from lofty lineage trace;
And, a proud forest's daughter, claim
A long-deriv'd, though useless, name :
The timid sailor can discern
No safety in thy painted stern.
Beware, lest thou become at last
The very puppet of the blast.

Oh ! thou, who late didst cause to me
Such wearying anxiety,
But now a source of love alone
And deep solicitude art grown,
Mayst thou avoid the rocky seas
That gird the shining Cyclades!

ODE XV.

NEREUS'S PROPHECY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF TROY.

WHEN the perfidious shepherd o'er
The seas his hostess Helen bore

In Ida's ships along;

Ingrato celeres obruit otio

Ventos, ut caneret fera Nereus fata.

“ Malâ ducis avi domum,

“ Quam multo repetet Græcia milite, “ Conjurata tuas rumpere nuptias,

“ Et regnum Priami vetus.

“ Eheu! quantus equis, quantus adest viris “ Sudor ! quanta moves funera Dardanæ “ Genti ! Jam galeam Pallas et ægida

“ Currusque et rabiem parat.

“ Nequidquàm, Veneris præsidio ferox,
“ Pectes cæsariem, grataque fæminis
66 Imbelli citharâ carmina divides;

Nereus the rapid winds controllid
In tedious calms, while thus he told

Their fates in direful song.

« With evil auspices away
“ That woman dost thou home convey,

“ Whom Greece shall back again,
“ With mighty armaments demand,
“ Sworn to dissolve thy nuptial band,

“ And Priam's ancient reign.

66

“ What sweat for man, what sweat for horse Appears ! alas ! how many a corse

“For Troy dost thou presage! 66 Pallas e'en now her helmet wears, “ E'en now her ægis she prepares,

66 Her chariot and her rage.

“ In vain, embolden'd by the vow “ Of Venus' patronage, shalt thou

“ Those flowing ringlets part, “ And chant on the unmanly lute

Songs such as only women suit; “ In vain avoid the dart

“ Nequidquàm thalamo graves “ Hastas, et calami spicula Cnossii “ Vitabis, strepitumque, et celerem sequi Ajacem ; tamen, heu ! serus adulteros

“ Crines pulvere collines.

“ Non Laërtiaden, exitium tuæ

Gentis, non Pylium Nestora respicis ? “Urguent impavidi te Salaminius

“ Teucer, te Sthenelus sciens

66

Pugnæ ; sive opus est imperitare equis, “Non auriga piger. Merionem quoque “ Nosces. Ecce furit te reperire atrox

“ Tydides, melior patre.

Quem tu, cervus uti vallis in alterâ “ Visum parte lupum graminis immemor, “ That threats your couch, the battle's din, “ The Cnossian's pointed javelin,

“ And Ajax' swift pursuit ; “ The day will come, for come it must, “ When thine adulterous locks in dust

“ Though late shalt thou pollute.

66

“Look, look behind thee, quick upon Thy track is now Laertes' son,

Thy nation's bane; and see, “ There's Pylian Nestor, Teucer bold “ Of Salamis, and close, behold,

66 Soon Sthenelus will be ;

« Well skill'd is he in warlike deeds, “ And should there wanting be the steeds,

“ No sluggish charioteer. Merion, thou shalt know him too. “ Thee is Tydides mad to view,

6 More than his father's peer.

“ As flies the stag, a wolf espied “ Upon a valley's farther side,

“ Nor longer heeds the glade,