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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=476009" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Thebais - Book One - part III</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Oh race confed’rate into crimes, that prove <br>Triumphant o’er th’ eluded rage of Jove! <br>This wearied arm can scarce the bolt sustain, <br>And unregarded thunder rolls in vain:<br>Th’ o’erlaboured Cyclops from his task retires, <br>Th’ Æolian forge exhausted of its fires. <br>For this, I suffered Phœbus’ steeds to stray, <br>And the mad ruler to misguide the day; <br>When the wide earth to heaps of ashes turned, <br>And heaven itself the wand’ring chariot burned. <br>For this, my brother of the wat’ry reign <br>Released th’ impetuous sluices of the main: <br>But flames consumed, and billows raged in vain. <br>Two races now, allied to Jove, offend; <br>To punish these, see Jove himself descend. <br>The Theban kings their line from Cadmus trace, <br>From godlike Perseus those of Argive race. <br>Unhappy Cadmus’ fate who does not know, <br>And the long series of succeeding woe?<br>How oft the furies, from the deeps of night, <br>Arose, and mixed with men in mortal fight: <br>Th’ exulting mother, stained with filial blood; <br>The savage hunter and the haunted wood; <br>The direful banquet why should I proclaim,<br>And crimes that grieve the trembling gods to name? <br>Ere I recount the sins of these profane, <br>The sun would sink into the western main, <br>And rising, gild the radiant east again. <br>Have we not seen (the blood of Laius shed) <br>The murd’ring son ascend his parent’s bed, <br>Through violated nature force his way, <br>And stain the sacred womb where once lie lay? <br>Yet now in darkness and despair he groans, <br>And for the crimes of guilty fate atones. <br>His sons with scorn their eyeless father view, <br>Insult his wounds, and make them bleed anew. <br>Thy curse, oh Œdipus, just heav’n alarms, <br>And sets th’ avenging thunderer in arms. <br>I from the root thy guilty race will tear,<br>And give the nations to the waste of war. <br>Adrastus soon, with gods averse, shall join <br>In dire alliance with the Theban line <br>Hence strife shall rise, and mortal war succeed; <br>The guilty realms of Tantalus shall bleed; <br>Fixed is their doom; this all-rememb’ring breast <br>Yet harbours vengeance for the tyrant’s feast.” <br>He said; and thus the queen of heav’n returned; <br>(With sudden grief her lab’ring bosom burned) <br>“Must I, whose cares Phoroneus’ tow’rs defend, <br>Must I, oh Jove, in bloody wars contend? <br>Thou know’st those regions my protection claim, <br>Glorious in arms, in riches, and in fame: <br>Though there the fair Egyptian heifer fed, <br>And there deluded Argus slept, and bled; <br>Though there the brazen tower was stormed of old, <br>When Jove descended in almighty gold: <br>Yet I can pardon those obscurer rapes, <br>Those bashful crimes disguised in borrowed shapes; <br>But Thebes, witero shining in colostial charms <br>Thou cam’st triumphant to a mortal’s arms, <br>When all my glories o’er her limbs were spread, <br>And blazing light’nings danced around her bed; <br>Cursed Thebes the vengeance it deserves, may prove: <br>Ah why should Argos feel the rage of Jove? <br>Yet since thou wilt thy sister-queen control, <br>Since still the lust of discord fires thy soul, <br>Go, raze my Samos, let Mycene fall, <br>And level with the dust the Spartan wall; <br>No more let mortals Juno’s pow’r invoke, <br>Her fanes no more with eastern incense smoke, <br>Nor victims sink beneath the sacred stroke; <br>But to your Isis all my rites transfer, <br>Let altars blaze and temples smoke for her; <br>For her, through Egypt’s fruitful clime renowned <br>Let weeping Nilus hear the timbrel sound. <br>But if thou must reform the stubborn times, <br>Avenging on the sons the father’s crimes, <br>And from the long records of distant age <br>Derive incitements to renew thy rage; <br>Say, from what period then has Jove designed <br>To date his vengeance; to what bounds confined? <br>Begin from thence, where first Alpheus hides <br>His wand’ring stream, and through the briny tides <br>Unmixed to his Sicilian river glides. <br>Thy own Arcadians there the thunder claim, <br>Whose impious rites disgrace thy mighty name; <br>Who raise thy temples where the chariot stood <br>Of fierce Œnomaus, defiled with blood: <br>Where once his steeds their savage banquet found,<br>And human bones yet whiten all the ground. <br>Say, can those honours please; and canst thou love <br>Presumptuous Crete that boasts the tomb of Jove? <br>And shall not Tantalus’s kingdoms share <br>Thy wife and sister’s tutelary care? <br>Reverse, O Jove, thy too severe decree, <br>Nor doom to war a race derived from thee; <br>On impious realms and barb’rous kings impose <br>Thy plagues, and curse ‘em with such sons as those.” <br>Thus, in reproach and pray’r, the queen expressed <br>The rage and grief contending in her breast; <br>Unmoved remained the ruler of the sky, <br>And from his throne returned this stern reply: <br>“‘Twas thus I deemed thy haughty soul would bear <br>The dire, though just, revenge which I prepare <br>Against a nation thy peculiar care: <br>No less Dione might for Thebes contend, <br>Nor Ilacehus less his native town defend; <br>Yet these in silence see the fates fulfil <br>Their work, and rev’rence our superior will.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Pablius+Papinius+Statius">Pablius Papinius Statius</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=476009" data-title="Thebais - Book One - part III de Pablius Papinius Statius" data-description="Oh race confed’rate into crimes, that prove 
Triumphant o’er th’ eluded rage of Jove! 
This wearied arm can scarce the bolt sustain, 
And unregarded thunder rolls in vain:
Th’ o’erlaboured Cyclops from his task retires, 
Th’ Æolian fo..."></div>
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