E’en where they stood, with Saturn in the midst: They heard appall’d the unextinguish’d rage Of tumult, and the din of dreadful war. But now when Jove had gather’d all his strength, And grasp’d his weapons, bolts, and bickering flames, He from the mount Olympus’ topmost ridge Leap’d at a bound, and smote him: hiss’d at once The horrible monster’s heads enormous, scorch’d In one conflagrant blaze. When thus the god Had quell’d him, thunder-smitten, mangled, prone, He fell: earth groan’d and shook beneath his weight. Flame from [229]the lightning-stricken deity Flash’d, midst the mountain-hollows, rugged, dark, Where he fell smitten. Broad earth glow’d intense From that unbounded vapour, and dissolv’d: As fusile tin by art of youths above The wide-brimm’d vase up-bubbling foams with heat; Or iron, hardest of the mine, subdued By burning flame amidst [230]the woody dales Melts in the sacred caves beneath the hands Of Vulcan, so earth melted in the glare Of blazing fire. He down wide Hell’s abyss His victim hurl’d in bitterness of soul. [231]Lo! from Typhœus is the strength of winds Moist-blowing: save the South, North, East, and West: [232]These born from gods, a blessing great to man: Those, unavailing gusts, o’er the waste sea Breathe barren: with sore peril fraught to man: In whirlpool rage fall black upon the deep: Now here, now there, they rush with stormy gale, Scatter the rolling barks, and whelm in death The mariner: an evil succourless To men, who midst the ocean-ways their blast Encounter. They again o’er all th’ expanse Of flowery earth the pleasant works of man Despoil, and fill the blacken’d air with cloud Of eddying dust and hollow rustlings drear. Now had the blessed Powers of Heaven fulfill’d Their toils, for meed of glory ’gainst the gods Titanic striving in their strength: and now, Earth-counsell’d, they exhort Olympian Jove, Of wide beholding eyes, to regal sway And empire o’er immortals: he to them Due honours portion’d with an equal hand. First as a bride the Monarch of the gods [233]Led Metis: her o’er deities and men Vers’d in all knowledge. But when now the time Was full, that she should bear [234]the blue-eyed maid Minerva, he with treacheries of smooth speech Beguiled her thought, and hid his spouse away In his own breast: so Earth and starry Heaven Had counsell’d: him they both advising warn’d Lest, in the place of Jove, another seize The kingly honour o’er immortal gods. For so the Fates had destined, that from her An offspring should be born, of wisest strain. First the Tritonian virgin azure-eyed: Of equal might and prudence with her sire: And then a son, king over gods and men, Had she brought forth, invincible of soul, But Jove in his own breast before that hour