A bashful bride, the daughter of great Jove And Juno golden-sandal’d, on the mount Olympus top’d with snow. Thrice blest who thus, A mighty task accomplish’d, midst the gods Uninjur’d dwells, and free from withering age For evermore. Perseis, ocean-nymph Illustrious, to th’ unwearied Sun produced Circe and king Æetes. By the will Of Heaven, Æetes, boasting for his sire The world-enlightning Sun, Idya led Cheek-blooming, nymph of ocean’s perfect stream: And she, to love by balmy Venus’ aid Subdued, [247]Medea beauteous-ankled bare. And now farewell, ye heavenly habitants! Ye islands, and ye continents of earth! And thou, oh main! of briny wave profound! Oh sweet of speech, Olympian Muses! born From ægis-wielding Jove! sing now the tribe Of goddesses; whoe’er, by mortals clasp’d In love, have borne a race resembling gods. Ceres, divinest goddess, in soft joy Blends with Iäsius brave, in the rich tract Of Crete, whose fallow’d glebe thrice-till’d abounds; And [248]Plutus bare, all-bountiful, who roams Earth, and th’ expanded surface of the sea: And him that meets him on his way, whose hands He grasps, him gifts he with abundant gold, And large felicity. Harmonia, born Of lovely Venus, gave to Cadmus’ love Ino and Semele: and fair of cheek Agave, and Autonöe, the bride Of Aristæus with the clustering locks; And Polydorus, born in towery Thebes. Aurora to Tithonus Memnon bare, The brazen-helm’d, the Æthiopian king, And king Emathion: and to Cephalus Bare she a son illustrious, Phäethon, Gallantly brave, a mortal like to gods: Whom, while a youth, e’en in the tender flower Of glorious prime, a boy, and vers’d alone In what a boy may know, love’s amorous queen Snatch’d with swift rape away: in her blest fane Appointing him her nightly-serving priest; The heavenly dæmon of her sanctuary. [249]Jason Æsonides, by heaven’s high will, Bore from Æetes, foster-son of Jove, His daughter: those afflictive toils achieved, Which Pelias, mighty monarch, bold in wrong, Unrighteous, violent of deed, imposed: And much-enduring reach’d th’ Iolchian coast, Wafting in winged bark the jet-eyed maid, His blooming spouse. She yielding thus in love To Jason, shepherd of his people, bare Medeus, whom the son of Philyra, [250]Sage Chiron, midst the mountain-solitudes Train’d up to man: thus were high Jove’s designs Fulfill’d. Now Psamathe, the goddess famed, Who sprang from ancient Nereus of the sea, Bare Phocus; through the lovely Venus’ aid By Æacus embraced. To Peleus’ arms Resign’d, the silver-footed Thetis bare Achilles lion-hearted: cleaving fierce The ranks of men. Wreath’d Cytherea bare Æneas: blending in ecstatic love With brave Anchises on the verdant top Of Ida, wood-embosom’d, many-valed.