The hero then resolves his course to bend Where ancient Danaus' fruitful fields extend; And famed Mycene's lofty towers ascend; (Where late the sun did Atreus' crimes detest, 460 And disappear'd in horror of the feast). And now by chance, by fate, or furies led, From Bacchus' consecrated caves he fled, Where the shrill cries of frantic matrons sound, And Pentheus' blood enrich'd the rising ground; Then sees Cithaeron towering o'er the plain, And thence declining gently to the main; Next to the bounds of Nisus' realm repairs, Where treacherous Scylla cut the purple hairs; The hanging cliffs of Scyron's rock explores, 470 And hears the murmurs of the different shores; Passes the strait that parts the foaming seas, And stately Corinth's pleasing site surveys. 'Twas now the time when Phoebus yields to night, And rising Cynthia sheds her silver light; Wide o'er the world in solemn pomp she drew Her airy chariot, hung with pearly dew: All birds and beasts lie hush'd; sleep steals away The wild desires of men, and toils of day, And brings, descending through the silent air, 480 A sweet forgetfulness of human care. Yet no red clouds, with golden borders gay, Promise the skies the bright return of day; No faint reflections of the distant light Streak with long gleams the scattering shades of night: From the damp earth impervious vapours rise, Increase the darkness, and involve the skies. At once the rushing winds with roaring sound Burst from th' AEolian caves, and rend the ground; With equal rage their airy quarrel try, 490 And win by turns the kingdom of the sky; But with a thicker night black Auster shrouds The heavens, and drives on heaps the rolling clouds, From whose dark womb a rattling tempest pours, Which the cold north congeals to haily showers. From pole to pole the thunder roars aloud, And broken lightnings flash from every cloud. Now smokes with showers the misty mountain-ground, And floated fields lie undistinguish'd round; Th' Inachian streams with headlong fury run, 500 And Erasinus rolls a deluge on; The foaming Lerna swells above its bounds, And spreads its ancient poisons o'er the grounds: Where late was dust, now rapid torrents play, Rush through the mounds, and bear the dams away: Old limbs of trees, from crackling forests torn, Are whirl'd in air, and on the winds are borne: The storm the dark Lycaean groves display'd, And first to light exposed the sacred shade. Th' intrepid Theban hears the bursting sky, Sees yawning rocks in massy fragments fly, And views astonish'd, from the hills afar, The floods descending, and the watery war, 510 That, driven by storms, and pouring o'er the plain, Swept herds, and hinds, and houses to the main. Through the brown horrors of the night he fled, Nor knows, amazed, what doubtful path to tread; His brother's image to his mind appears, Inflames his heart with rage, and wings his feet with fears.