“‘Press not too far,’ replied the god: ‘but cease To know what, known, will violate thy peace; Too curious of their doom! with friendly woe Thy breast will heave, and tears eternal flow. Part live! the rest, a lamentable train! Range the dark bounds of Pluto’s dreary reign. Two, foremost in the roll of Mars renown’d, Whose arms with conquest in thy cause were crown’d, Fell by disastrous fate: by tempests toss’d, A third lives wretched on a distant coast. “By Neptune rescued from Minerva’s hate, On Gyrae, safe Oilean Ajax sate, His ship o’erwhelm’d; but, frowning on the floods, Impious he roar’d defiance to the gods; To his own prowess all the glory gave: The power defrauding who vouchsafed to save. This heard the raging ruler of the main; His spear, indignant for such high disdain, He launched; dividing with his forky mace The aërial summit from the marble base: The rock rush’d seaward, with impetuous roar Ingulf’d, and to the abyss the boaster bore. “By Juno’s guardian aid, the watery vast, Secure of storms, your royal brother pass’d, Till, coasting nigh the cape where Malen shrouds Her spiry cliffs amid surrounding clouds, A whirling gust tumultuous from the shore Across the deep his labouring vessel bore. In an ill-fated hour the coast he gain’d, Where late in regal pomp Thyestes reigned; But, when his hoary honours bow’d to fate, Ægysthus govern’d in paternal state, The surges now subside, the tempest ends; From his tall ship the king of men descends; There fondly thinks the gods conclude his toil: Far from his own domain salutes the soil; With rapture oft the verge of Greece reviews, And the dear turf with tears of joy bedews. Him, thus exulting on the distant stand, A spy distinguish’d from his airy stand; To bribe whose vigilance, Ægysthus told A mighty sum of ill-persuading gold: There watch’d this guardian of his guilty fear, Till the twelfth moon had wheel’d her pale career; And now, admonish’d by his eye, to court With terror wing’d conveys the dread report. Of deathful arts expert, his lord employs The ministers of blood in dark surprise; And twenty youths, in radiant mail incased, Close ambush’d nigh the spacious hall he placed. Then bids prepare the hospitable treat: Vain shows of love to veil his felon hate! To grace the victor’s welcome from the wars, A train of coursers and triumphal cars Magnificent he leads: the royal guest, Thoughtless of ill, accepts the fraudful feast. The troop forth-issuing from the dark recess, With homicidal rage the king oppress! So, whilst he feeds luxurious in the stall, The sovereign of the herd is doomed to fall, The partners of his fame and toils at Troy, Around their lord, a mighty ruin, lie: Mix’d with the brave, the base invaders bleed; Ægysthus sole survives to boast the deed.’