Page:Ovid's Metamorphoses (Vol. 1) - tr Garth, Dryden, et. al. (1727).djvu/28

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PREFACE.

Gratus erat Cyparisse tibi, Tupabula cervum
Ad nova, tu liquidi ducebas fontis ad undam.


Tu modo texebas varios per cornua flores:

Nunc, eques in tergo residens, huc latus & illus
Mollia purpureis frænabas ora capistris.

In the following Lines, Ovid describes the watry Court of the River Peneus, which the Reader may compare with Virgil's Subterranean Grott of Cyrene the Naiad, Mother to Aristæus.

Est nemus Hæmoniæ, prærupta quod undique claudit
Silva: vocant Tempe, per quæ Penëus ab imo
Effusus Pindo spumosis volvitur undis:
Dejectuque gravi tenues agitantia fumos
Nubila conducit, summasque aspergine sylvas
Impluit; & sonitu plus quam vicina fatigat.
Hæc domus, hæ sedes, hæc sunt penetralia magni
Amnîs: in hoc residens facto de cautibus antro.
Undis jura dabat, Nymphisque colentibus undas.
Conveniunt illuc popularia flumina primum;
Nescia gratentur, consolent urvé parentem,
Populifer Sperchëos, & irrequietus Enipeus,
Eridanusque senex, lenisque Amphrysos, & Æas.
Moxque amnes alii, qui, quà tulit impetus illos,
In mare deducunt fessas erroribus undas.

Met. B. I.
Tristis