That heavenly meadow fed from snow,
O'erswept by Typhon's strength,
And by the bale-averting flow
Of Neilos' water;—there, at length,
Frenzied she comes by toils unseemly spent,
And goading pangs by jealous Hera sent.
Antistrophe III.
And mortals who the land possessed,
While pallid terror shook their breast, 560
Amazed a shape unwonted saw,—
Half heifer and half maid,
Mortal and brute, bi-formed. With awe,
The wondrous portent they surveyed.
Whó then was he who gently soothed to rest
Far-roaming Io, brize-stung, sore distrest?
Strophe IV.
Zeus, lord of ceaseless ages, thine,
Oh thine was that unharming might! 570
The breathing of thy love divine
Arrests at length her toilsome flight,
And gently, with the mournful tide
Of modest tears, her woes subside.
Then, as Fame truly tells, receiving there
Thy germ divine, her blameless child she bare,
Antistrophe IV.
From age to age supremely blest.
Hence the whole earth proclaims, "this seed
