Metamorphoses (Books I-XIV)
The Story of Perseus
4:880 Yet tho' this harsh, inglorious fate they
found,
4:881 Each in the deathless grandson
liv'd renown'd.
4:882 Thro' conquer'd India Bacchus
nobly rode,
4:883 And Greece with temples hail'd
the conqu'ring God.
4:884 In Argos only proud Acrisius
reign'd,
4:885 Who all the consecrated rites
profan'd.
4:886 Audacious wretch! thus Bacchus
to deny,
4:887 And the great Thunderer's great
son defie!
4:888 Nor him alone: thy daughter vainly
strove,
4:889 Brave Perseus of celestial stem
to prove,
4:890 And her self pregnant by a golden
Jove.
4:891 Yet this was true, and truth
in time prevails;
4:892 Acrisius now his unbelief bewails.
4:893 His former thought, an impious
thought he found,
4:894 And both the heroe, and the God
were own'd.
4:895 He saw, already one in Heav'n
was plac'd,
4:896 And one with more than mortal
triumphs grac'd,
4:897 The victor Perseus with the Gorgon-head,
4:898 O'er Libyan sands his airy journey
sped.
4:899 The gory drops distill'd, as
swift he flew,
4:900 And from each drop envenom'd
serpents grew,
4:901 The mischiefs brooded on the
barren plains,
4:902 And still th' unhappy fruitfulness
remains.
Metamorphoses (Books I-XIV)
The Story of Perseus
4:880 Yet tho' this harsh, inglorious fate they
found,
4:881 Each in the deathless grandson
liv'd renown'd.
4:882 Thro' conquer'd India Bacchus
nobly rode,
4:883 And Greece with temples hail'd
the conqu'ring God.
4:884 In Argos only proud Acrisius
reign'd,
4:885 Who all the consecrated rites
profan'd.
4:886 Audacious wretch! thus Bacchus
to deny,
4:887 And the great Thunderer's great
son defie!
4:888 Nor him alone: thy daughter vainly
strove,
4:889 Brave Perseus of celestial stem
to prove,
4:890 And her self pregnant by a golden
Jove.
4:891 Yet this was true, and truth
in time prevails;
4:892 Acrisius now his unbelief bewails.
4:893 His former thought, an impious
thought he found,
4:894 And both the heroe, and the God
were own'd.
4:895 He saw, already one in Heav'n
was plac'd,
4:896 And one with more than mortal
triumphs grac'd,
4:897 The victor Perseus with the Gorgon-head,
4:898 O'er Libyan sands his airy journey
sped.
4:899 The gory drops distill'd, as
swift he flew,
4:900 And from each drop envenom'd
serpents grew,
4:901 The mischiefs brooded on the
barren plains,
4:902 And still th' unhappy fruitfulness
remains.