Now while the luftful God, with speedy pace,
Jufthought to frain her in a frist embrace, place. }
And while he fighs his ill fuccefs to find,
The tender canes were fhaken by the wind;
And breath'd a mournful air, unheard before;
That, much furprizing Pan, yet pleas'd him more.
Admiring this new mufic, Thou, he faid,
Who can't not be the partner of my bed,
At least fhalt be the confort of my mind;
And often, often, to my lips be join'd.
He form'd the reeds, proportion'd as they are:
Unequal in their length, and wax'd with care,
They fill retain the name of his ungrateful fair.
While Hermes pip'd, and fung, and told his tale,
The keeper's winking eyes began to fail,
And drowsy flumber on the lids to creep;
Till all the watchman was at length afleep.
Then foon the God his voice and fong fuppreft;
And with his powerful rod confirm'd his rest:
Without delay his crooked falchion drew,
And at one fatal ftroke the keeper flew.
Down from the rock fell the diffever'd head,
Opening its eyes in death, and falling bled;
And mark'd the paffage with a crimson trail
Thus Argus lies in pieces, cold and pale;
And all his hundred eyes, with all their light,
Are clos'd at once, in one perpetual night.
These Juno takes, that they no more may fail,
And spreads them in her peacock's gaudy tail.
Impatient to revenge her injur'd bed, She wreaks her anger on her rival's head; With furies frights her from her native home, And drives her gadding round the world to roam : Nor ceas'd her madnefs and her flight, before She touch'd the limits of the Pharian fhore. At length, arriving on the banks of Nile,
Wearied with length of ways, and worn with toil, She laid her down: and, leaning on her knees, Invok'd the caufe of all her miferies:
And caft her languishing regards above,
For help from heaven, and her ungrateful Jove.
She figh'd, fhe wept, fhe low'd; 'twas all the could;
And with unkindness feem'd to tax the God.
Laft, with an humble prayer, the begg'd repose,
Or death at least to finish all her woes.
Jove heard her vows, and, with a flattering look,
In her behalf to jealous Juno fpoke.
He caft his arms about her neck, and said:
Dame, reft fecure; no more thy nuptial bed
This nymph fhall violate; by Styx I swear,
And every oath that binds the Thunderer.
The Goddess was appeas'd: and at the word
Was Io to her former fhape reftor'd.
The rugged hair began to fall away;
The fweetness of her eyes did only stay,
Though not fo large; her crooked horns decrease;
The widenefs of her jaws and noftrils cease:
Her hoofs to hands return, in little space;
The five long taper fingers take their place;
And nothing of the heifer now is seen,
Befide the native whitenefs of her skin.
Erected on her feet she walks again,
And two the duty of the four fuftain..
She tries her tongue, her filence foftly breaks,
And fears her former lowings when she speaks:
A Goddess now through all th' Egyptian state;
And ferv'd by priests, who in white linen wait.
Her fon was Epaphus, at length believ'd
The fon of Jove, and as a God receiv'd.
With facrifice ador'd, and public prayers,
He common temples with his mother shares.
Equal in years, and rival in renown
With Epaphus, the youthful Phaëton,
Like honour claims, and boasts his fire the fun.
His haughty looks, and his affuming air,
The son of Ifis could no longer bear :
Thou tak'st thy mother's word too far, said he,
And haft ufurp'd thy boafted pedigree.
Go, base pretender to a borrow'd name!
Thus tax'd, he blush'd with anger, and with fhame;
But shame reprefs'd his rage: the daunted youth
Soon feeks his mother, and enquires the truth:
Mother, faid he, this infamy was thrown
By Epaphus on you, and me your fon.
He spoke in public, told it to my face;
Nor durft I vindicate the dire disgrace:
Ev'n 1, the bold, the fenfible of wrong,
Reftrain'd by fhame, was forc'd to hold my tongue.
To hear an open flander, is a curfe:
But not to find an answer, is a worse.
If I am heaven-begot, affert your fon
By some fure fign; and make my father known,
To right my honour, and redeem your own.
He said, and saying cast his arms about
Her neck, and begg'd her to resolve the doubt.
Tis hard to judge if Clymené were mov'd
More by his prayer, whom the fo dearly lov'd,
Or more with fury fir'd, to find her name
Traduc'd, and made the sport of common fame.
She ftretch'd her arms to heaven, and fix'd her
eyes
On that fair planet that adorns the skies;
Now by thofe beams, faid fhe, whofe holy fires
Confume my breaft, and kindle my desires;
By him who fees us both, and chears our fight,
By him, the public minifter of light,
I swear that Sun begot thee: if I lye,
Let him his chearful influence deny :
Let him no more this perjur'd creature fee,
And fhine on all the world but only me.
If ftill you doubt your mother's innocence,
His eastern manfion is not far from hence;
With little pains you to his levee go,
And from himself your parentage may know.
With joy th' ambitious youth his mother heard,
And eager
for the journey foon prepar'd.
He longs the world beneath him to survey;
To guide the charict, and to give the day :
From Meroë's burning fands he bends his course,
Nor lefs in India feels his father's force;
His travel urging, till he came in fight,
And faw the palace by the purple light.
To her Grace the Dutchefs of Ormond, with the
Dedication to Lord Radcliffe
The First Book of Övid's Metamorphofes
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