To Dionaean Venus vows are paid,
And all the pow'rs that rising labors aid;
A bull on Jove's imperial altar laid.
Not far, a rising hillock stood in view;
Sharp myrtles on the sides, and cornels grew.
There, while I went to crop the sylvan scenes,
And shade our altar with their leafy greens,
I pull'd a planT'mdash;with horror I relate
A prodigy so strange and full of fate.
The rooted fibers rose, and from the wound
Black bloody drops distill'd upon the ground.
Mute and amaz'd, my hair with terror stood;
Fear shrunk my sinews, and congeal'd my blood.
Mann'd once again, another plant I try:
That other gush'd with the same sanguine dye.
Then, fearing guilt for some offense unknown,
With pray'rs and vows the Dryads I atone,
With all the sisters of the woods, and most
The God of Arms, who rules the Thracian coast,
That they, or he, these omens would avert,
Release our fears, and better signs impart.
Clear'd, as I thought, and fully fix'd at length
To learn the cause, I tugged with all my strength:
I bent my knees against the ground; once more
The violated myrtle ran with gore.
Scarce dare I tell the sequel: from the womb
Of wounded earth, and caverns of the tomb,
A groan, as of a troubled ghost, renew'd
My fright, and then these dreadful words ensued:
‘Why dost thou thus my buried body rend?
O spare the corpse of thy unhappy friend!
Spare to pollute thy pious hands with blood:
The tears distil not from the wounded wood;
But ev'ry drop this living tree contains
Is kindred blood, and ran in Trojan veins.
O fly from this unhospitable shore,
Warn'd by my fate; for I am Polydore!
Here loads of lances, in my blood embrued,
Again shoot upward, by my blood renew'd.’
My falt'ring tongue and shiv'ring limbs declare
My horror, and in bristles rose my hair.
Hide browse bar Your current position in the text is marked in blue. Click anywhere in the line to jump to another position:
card:
lines 1-12lines 13-18lines 19-48lines 49-68lines 69-83lines 84-89lines 90-120lines 121-134lines 135-146lines 147-191lines 192-257lines 258-277lines 278-293lines 294-319lines 320-355lines 356-373lines 374-440lines 441-462lines 463-471lines 472-505lines 506-520lines 521-547lines 548-569lines 570-587lines 588-612lines 613-654lines 655-674lines 675-691lines 692-715lines 716ff.
This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
show
Browse Bar
hide
Places (automatically extracted)
View a map of the most frequently mentioned places in this document.
Download Pleiades ancient places geospacial dataset for this text.
hide
References (2 total)
hide
Search
hideStable Identifiers
hide
Display Preferences