And brings, descending through the silent air, 480 A sweet forgetfulness of human care.[85] 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 scatt'ring shades of night: 485 From the damp earth impervious vapours rise, Encrease the darkness, and involve the skies. At once the rushing winds with roaring sound Burst from th' Æolian caves, and rend the ground, With equal rage their airy quarrel[86] try, 490 And win by turns the kingdom of the sky: But with a thicker night black Auster shrouds The heav'ns, and drives on heaps the rolling clouds, From whose dark womb a rattling tempest pours, Which the cold north congeals to haily show'rs. 495 From pole to pole the thunder roars aloud, And broken lightnings flash from ev'ry cloud. Now smoaks with show'rs[87] the misty mountain-ground, And floated fields lie undistinguished round. Th' Inachian streams with headlong fury run, 500 And Erasinus[88] rolls a deluge on: The foaming Lerna swells above its bounds, And spreads its ancient poisons[89] o'er the grounds: Where late was dust, now rapid torrents play, Rush through the mounds, and bear the dams away: 505 Old limbs of trees from crackling forests torn, Are whirled in air, and on the winds are borne: The storm the dark Lycæan groves displayed, And first to light exposed the sacred shade.[90] Th' intrepid Theban hears the bursting sky, 510 Sees yawning rocks in massy fragments fly,[91] And views astonished, from the hills afar, The floods descending, and the wat'ry war,[92] That, driv'n by storms, and pouring o'er the plain, Swept herds, and hinds, and houses to the main.[93] 515 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.[94] So fares a sailor on the stormy main, 520 When clouds conceal Boötes' golden wain, When not a star its friendly lustre keeps, Nor trembling Cynthia glimmers on the deeps; He dreads the rocks, and shoals, and seas, and skies, While thunder roars, and lightning round him flies. 525 Thus strove the chief, on every side distressed, Thus still his courage, with his toils increased; With his broad shield opposed, he forced his way Through thickest woods, and roused the beasts of prey, Till he beheld, where from Larissa's[95] height 530 The shelving walls reflect a glancing light: Thither with haste the Theban hero flies; }