So spake she with cruel roar and uproused every gaping serpent mouth as she shook her snaky locks and scattered their baneful poison. Of two minds was the band of her sisters. The greater number was for declaring war upon heaven, yet some respected still the ordinances of Dis and the uproar grew by reason of their dissension, even as the sea’s calm is not at once restored, but the deep still thunders when, for all the wind be dropped, the swelling tide yet flows, and the last weary winds of the departing storm play o’er the tossing waves. Thereupon cruel Megaera rose from her funereal seat, mistress she of madness’ howlings and impious ill and wrath bathed in fury’s foam. No blood her drink but that flowing from kindred slaughter and forbidden crime, shed by a father’s, by a brother’s * * * * * Page 32 quem dederint fratres; haec terruit Herculis ora et defensores terrarum polluit arcus, 80 haec Athamanteae direxit spicula dextrae, haec Agamemnonios inter bacchata penates alternis lusit iugulis; hac auspice taedae Oedipoden matri, natae iunxere Thyesten. quae tune horrisonis effatur talia dictis: 85 “Signa quidem, sociae, divos attollere contra nec fas est nec posse reor; sed laedere mundum si libet et populis commune intendere letum. est mihi prodigium cunctis inmanius hydris, tigride mobilius feta, violentius Austris 90 acribus, Euripi fulvis incertius undis Rufinus, quem prima meo de matre cadentem suscepi gremio. parvus reptavit in isto saepe sinu teneroque per ardua colla volutus ubera quaesivit fletu linguisque trisulcis 95 mollia lambentes finxerunt membra cerastae; meque etiam tradente dolos artesque nocendi edidicit: simulare fidem sensusque minaces protegere et blando fraudem praetexere risu, plenus saevitiae lucrique cupidine fervens. 100 non Tartesiacis ilium satiaret harenis tempestas pretiosa Tagi, non stagna rubentis aurea Pactoli; totumque exhauserit Hermum, ardebit maiore siti. quam fallere mentes doctus et unanimos odiis turbare sodales! 105 talem progenies hominum si prisca tulisset, Perithoum fugeret Theseus, offensus Orestem desereret Pylades, odisset Castora Pollux. ipsa quidem fateor vinci rapidoque magistram * * * * * Page 33 sword. ’Twas she made e’en Hercules afraid and brought shame upon that bow that had freed the world of monsters; she aimed the arrow in Athamas’[49] hand: she took her pleasure in murder after murder, a mad fury in Agamemnon’s palace; beneath her auspices wedlock mated Oedipus with his mother and Thyestes with his daughter. Thus then she speaks with dread-sounding words: