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His fear-sick Heart with Throbs unusual pants,
Approaching Death his Soul with horror thrills.
To Gods supreme he sends his suppliant Pray'r,
110 Whose unavailing[1] Sounds are 'sperst in idle Air.
Approaching Death his Soul with horror thrills.
To Gods supreme he sends his suppliant Pray'r,
110 Whose unavailing[1] Sounds are 'sperst in idle Air.
XII.
As erst[2] Europa, on Phœnicia's strand,
Was mounted sportive on Saturnian Jove;
When swift th' enamour'd Bull forsook the Land,
Bearing to distant Crete his Freight of Love.
115 She wail'd her Country lost, nor hop'd Return,
For instant Death the rising Surges threat;
With trembling Hand she graspt his bending Horn,
High from the Waves she shrunk her quiv'ring Feet;
Shrieking unheard; nor Object meets her Eyes,
120 Save broad and boundless Seas, and wide expanded skies.
As erst[2] Europa, on Phœnicia's strand,
Was mounted sportive on Saturnian Jove;
When swift th' enamour'd Bull forsook the Land,
Bearing to distant Crete his Freight of Love.
115 She wail'd her Country lost, nor hop'd Return,
For instant Death the rising Surges threat;
With trembling Hand she graspt his bending Horn,
High from the Waves she shrunk her quiv'ring Feet;
Shrieking unheard; nor Object meets her Eyes,
120 Save broad and boundless Seas, and wide expanded skies.
- ↑ v. 110. Whose unavailing.] Prayers of good men are commonly successful in Epick, but Psicharpax had been guilty of great Indiscretion, to hazard his life for meer Curiosity.
- ↑ v. 111. As erst.] Some say Homer has given the Gods such Manners, as turn them into mere swine, Bossu. Here Jupiter is chang'd into a Brute indeed, but into one of a nobler Species, tho' in Manners it must be own'd, inclin'd to lasciviousness.
