Page:Ovid's Metamorphoses (Vol. 1) - tr Garth, Dryden, et. al. (1727).djvu/198

A Father now no more, who now begun
Around his Head to whirl his giddy Son,
And, quite insensible to Nature's Call,
The helpless Infant flung against the Wall.
The same mad Poyson in the Mother wrought,
Young Melicerta in her Arms she caught,
And with disorder'd Tresses, howling, flies,
O! Bacchus, Evôe, Bacchus! loud she cries.
The Name of Bacchus Juno laugh'd to hear,
And said, thy Foster-God has cost thee dear.
⁠A Rock there stood, whose Side the beating Waves
Had long consum'd, and hollow'd into Caves.
The Head shot forwards in a bending Steep,
And cast a dreadful Covert o'er the Deep.
The wretched Ino, on Destruction bent,
Climb'd up the Cliff; such Strength her Fury lent:
Thence with her guiltless Boy, who wept in vain,
At one bold Spring she plung'd into the Main.
⁠Her Neice's Fate touch'd Cytherëa's Breast,
And in soft Sounds she Neptune thus addrest.
Great God of Waters, whose extended Sway
Is next to his, whom Heav'n and Earth obey:
Let not the Suit of Venus thee displease,
Pity the Floaters on th' Ionian Seas.
Encrease thy Subject-Gods, nor yet disdain
To add my Kindred to that glorious Train.
If from the Sea I may such Honours claim,
If 'tis Desert, that from the Sea I came,
As Grecian Poets artfully have sung,
And in the Name confest, from whence I sprung.
⁠Pleas'd Neptune nodded his Ascent, and free
Both soon became from frail Mortality.
He gave them Form, and Majesty Divine,
And bad them glide along the foamy Brine.
For Melicerta is Palæmon known,
And Ino once, Leucothöe is grown.

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