The tenth again he mingles with the blest Societies, who fill th’ Olympian courts. So great an oath the deities of heaven Decreed the water of eternal Styx, The ancient stream; that sweeps with wandering waves A rugged region: where of dusky Earth, And darksome Tartarus, and Ocean waste, And starry Heaven, the source and boundary Successive rise and end: a dreary wild And ghastly: e’en by deities abhorr’d. There gates resplendent rise; the threshold brass; Immoveable; on deep foundations fix’d; Self-framed. Before them the Titanic gods Abide, without th’ assembly of the Blest, Beyond the gulf of darkness. There beneath The ocean-roots, th’ auxiliaries renown’d Of Jove who rolls the hollow-pealing thunder, Cottus and Gyges in near mansions dwell: But He that shakes the shores with dashing surge Hailing him son, gave Briareus as bride Cymopolía; prize of brave desert. But now when Jupiter from all the heaven Had cast the Titans forth, huge Earth embraced By Tartarus, through balmy Venus’ aid, [227]Her youngest-born Typhœus bore; whose hands Of strength are fitted to stupendous deeds: And indefatigable are the feet Of the strong god: and from his shoulders rise A hundred snaky heads of dragon growth, Horrible, quivering with their blackening tongues: In each amazing head, from eyes that roll’d Within their sockets, fire shone sparkling: fire Blazed from each head, the whilst he roll’d his glance Glaring around him. In those fearful heads Were voices of all sound, miraculous: Now utter’d they distinguishable tones Meet for the ear of gods: now the deep cry Of a wild-bellowing bull untamed in strength: And now the roaring of a lion, fierce In spirit: and anon the yell of whelps Strange to the ear: and now the monster hiss’d, That the high mountains echoed back the sound. Then had a dread event that fatal day Inevitable fall’n, and he had ruled O’er mortals and immortals; but the Sire Of gods and men the peril instant knew Intuitive; and vehement and strong He thunder’d: instantaneous all around Earth reel’d with horrible crash: the firmament Of high heaven roar’d: the streams of Nile, the sea, And uttermost caverns. While the king in wrath Uprose, [228]beneath his everlasting feet The great Olympus trembled, and earth groan’d. From either god a burning radiance caught The darkly azured ocean: from the flash Of lightnings, and that monster’s darted flame, Hot thunderbolts, and blasts of fiery winds. Earth, air, sea, glow’d: the billows, heaved on high, Foam’d round the shores, and dash’d on every side Beneath the rush of gods. Concussion wild And unappeasable uprose: aghast The gloomy monarch of th’ infernal dead Shudder’d: the sub-tartarean Titans heard