Page:Ovid's Metamorphoses (Vol. 1) - tr Garth, Dryden, et. al. (1727).djvu/222

These for affronting Pallas were chastis'd,
And justly met the Death they had despis'd.
But brave Aconteus, Perseus' Friend, by chance
Look'd back, and met the Gorgon's fatal Glance:
A Statue now become, he ghastly stares,
And still the Foe to mortal Combat dares.
Astyages the living Likeness knew,
On the dead Stone with vengeful Fury flew;
But impotent his Rage, the jarring Blade
No Print upon the solid Marble made:
Again, as with redoubled Might he struck,
Himself astonish'd in the Quarry stuck.
The vulgar Deaths 'twere tedious to rehearse,
And Fates below the Dignity of Verse;
Their Safety in their Flight Two Hundred found,
Two Hundred, by Medusa's Head were ston'd.
Fierce Phineus now repents the wrongful Fight,
And views his varied Friends, a dreadful Sight;
He knows their Faces, for their Help he sues,
And thinks, not hearing him, that they refuse:
By Name he begs their Succour, one by one,
Then doubts their Life, and feels the friendly Stone.
Struck with Remorse, and conscious of his Pride,
Convict of Sin, he turn'd his Eyes aside;
With suppliant Mein to Perseus thus he prays,
Hence with the Head, as far as Winds and Seas
Can bear thee; Hence, O quit the Cephen Shore,
And never curse us with Medusa more,
That horrid Head, which stiffens into Stone
Those impious Men who, daring Death, look on:
I warr'd not with thee out of Hate or Strife,
My honest Cause was to defend my Wife,
First pledg'd to me; What Crime cou'd I suppose,
To arm my Friends, and vindicate my Spouse?
But vain, too late, I see was our Design;
Mine was the Title, but the Merit thine.

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