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And took them to his bosom. Falsehood met
Her unsuspecting victim, fair of front,
And lovely as [1]Apega's sculptured form,
Like that false image caught his warm embrace
And gored his open breast. The reptile race
Clung round his bosom, and with viper folds
Encircling, stung the fool who fostered them.
His mother was Simplicity, his sire
Benevolence; in earlier days he bore
His father's name; the world who injured him
Call him Misanthropy. I may not chuse
But love him, Household Gods! for we were nurst
In the same school.
Penates! some there are
Who say, that not in the inmost heaven ye dwell,
Her unsuspecting victim, fair of front,
And lovely as [1]Apega's sculptured form,
Like that false image caught his warm embrace
And gored his open breast. The reptile race
Clung round his bosom, and with viper folds
Encircling, stung the fool who fostered them.
His mother was Simplicity, his sire
Benevolence; in earlier days he bore
His father's name; the world who injured him
Call him Misanthropy. I may not chuse
But love him, Household Gods! for we were nurst
In the same school.
Penates! some there are
Who say, that not in the inmost heaven ye dwell,
- ↑ One of the ways and means of the Tyrant Nabis. If one of his subjects refused to lend him money, he commanded him to embrace his Apega; the statue of a beautiful Woman so formed as to clasp the victim to her breast, in which a pointed dagger was concealed.
