Full oft had I the menial train75
To guard that precious gift enjoin'd;
But dull oblivion seized their mind,
And render'd all my caution vain.
Now in this isle is shed before the time
The immortal seed of spacious Libya's clime;80
For when by sacred Tænarus he pass'd,
Whose subterranean mouth to Hades leads,
At home the treasure had Euphemus cast,[1]
Great Neptune's son who rules his potent steeds;
Whom in a former age Europa bore,85
Daughter of Tityus, on Cephisus' shore. 82
His children's fourth succeeding race
Had seized, with Grecian arms to aid,
The continent's extended space;
When, exiles from great Sparta made,90
Mycenæ and the Argive bay,
The wand'ring train pursue their way.
Now will he find that chosen race
Sprung from the Lemnian dames' embrace,
When honour'd by th' immortal host,95
They come to this sea-girded coast,
And there beget the man, whose reign
Shall stretch o'er Libya's clouded plain.
When to the sacred Pythian dome
That glitters with abundant gold,100
Battus in after times shall come,
Phœbus will his decree unfold,
That he in ships should bring a numerous band
Far as Saturnian Nilus' fruitful land."[2] 99
- ↑ Virgil appears to have imitated this passage: (Georg. iv. 467:)—
"Tænarias etiam fauces, alia ostia Ditis,
Et caligantem nigra formidine lucum
Ingressus, Manesque adiit, Regemque tremendum." - ↑ The scholiast says that Pindar here mentions Nilus instead of Jupiter, since this river was by the Egyptians worshipped as a god. He also quotes a hemistich from Parmeno, addressing the Nile as the Egyptian Jove: Αιγυπτις Ζευ Νειλε.
