THE EIGHTH NEMEAN ODE.
TO DEINIS, SON OF MEGAS, VICTOR IN THE STADIC COURSE.
ARGUMENT.
This ode opens with an address to the flower of youth, the harbinger of successful as well as calamitous love.—This leads to the happy amour of Jupiter with the nymph Ægina, the fruit of which was the valiant Æacus, from whom he supplicates as great a degree of prosperity for the Æginetans as was enjoyed by Cinyras, king of Cyprus.—Returns from his digression, lest he should excite envy and blame.—This was the cause of the death of Ajax, who by an unjust decree was deprived of the arms of Achilles, and of many other mischiefs.—The poet addresses a prayer to Jupiter that he may never indulge this malevolent disposition.—On the other hand, he delights in celebrating by his verses the valour of Deinis, his father Megas, and the tribe of the Chariadæ; since the framing of poetical encomia has always afforded a pleasing alleviation of the heaviest calamities.
Bless'd prime of youth! the herald sweet
Of Aphrodite's golden joys,
Who on the eyelids hast thy seat
Of tender nymphs and amorous boys;
While one in gentle arms is borne,5
And from th' embrace another torn.
How pleased who in each deed of love
Occasion's fair advantage prove,
Seizing with a successful aim
The objects of their happy flame. 910
Such were the guards of Venus' gifts, who shed
Their genial influence round Ægina's bed;
