Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50) by William Shakespeare, Homer Read Free Book Online

plunged into the billowy Deep.    300 She pregnant grown, Pelias and Neleus bore,Both, valiant ministers of mighty Jove.In wide-spread Iäolchus Pelias dwelt,Of num’rous flocks possess’d; but his abodeAmid the sands of Pylus Neleus chose.To Cretheus wedded next, the lovely nymphYet other sons, Æson and Pheres bore,And Amythaon of equestrian fame.   I, next, the daughter of Asopus saw,Antiope; she gloried to have known    310 Th’ embrace of Jove himself, to whom she broughtA double progeny, Amphion namedAnd Zethus; they the seven-gated ThebesFounded and girded with strong tow’rs, because,Though puissant Heroes both, in spacious ThebesUnfenced by tow’rs, they could not dwell secure.   Alcmena, next, wife of AmphitryonI saw; she in the arms of sov’reign JoveThe lion-hearted Hercules conceiv’d,And, after, bore to Creon brave in fight    320 His daughter Megara, by the noble sonUnconquer’d of Amphitryon espoused.   The beauteous Epicaste saw I then,Mother of Oedipus, who guilt incurr’dProdigious, wedded, unintentional,To her own son; his father first he slew,Then wedded her, which soon the Gods divulged.He, under vengeance of offended heav’n,In pleasant Thebes dwelt miserable, KingOf the Cadmean race; she to the gates    330 Of Ades brazen-barr’d despairing went,Self-strangled by a cord fasten’d aloftTo her own palace-roof, and woes bequeath’d(Such as the Fury sisters executeInnumerable) to her guilty son.   There also saw I Chloris, loveliest fair,Whom Neleus woo’d and won with spousal giftsInestimable, by her beauty charm’dShe youngest daughter was of Iasus’ son,Amphion, in old time a sov’reign prince    340 In Minuëian Orchomenus,And King of Pylus. Three illustrious sonsShe bore to Neleus, Nestor, Chromius,And Periclymenus the wide-renown’d,And, last, produced a wonder of the earth,Pero, by ev’ry neighbour prince aroundIn marriage sought; but Neleus her on noneDeign’d to bestow, save only on the ChiefWho should from Phylace drive off the beeves(Broad-fronted, and with jealous care secured)    350 Of valiant Iphicles. One undertookThat task alone, a prophet high in fame,Melampus; but the Fates fast bound him thereIn rig’rous bonds by rustic hands imposed.At length (the year, with all its months and daysConcluded, and the new-born year begun)Illustrious Iphicles releas’d the seer,Grateful for all the oracles resolved,Till then obscure. So stood the will of Jove.   Next, Leda, wife of Tyndarus I saw,    360 Who bore to Tyndarus a noble pair,Castor the bold, and Pollux cestus-famed.They pris’ners in the fertile womb of earth,Though living, dwell, and even there from JoveHigh priv’lege gain; alternate they reviveAnd die, and dignity partake divine.   The comfort of Aloëus, next, I view’d,Iphimedeia; she th’ embrace profess’dOf Neptune to have shared, to whom she boreTwo sons; short-lived they were, but godlike both,    370 Otus and Ephialtes far-renown’d.Orion sole except, all-bounteous EarthNe’er nourish’d forms for beauty or for sizeTo be admired as theirs; in his ninth yearEach measur’d, broad, nine cubits, and the heightWas found nine ells of each. Against the GodsThemselves they threaten’d war, and to exciteThe din of battle in the realms above.To the Olympian summit they essay’dTo heave up Ossa, and to Ossa’s crown    380 Branch-waving Pelion; so to climb the heav’ns.Nor had they failed, maturer grown in might,To accomplish that emprize, but them the sonOf radiant-hair’d Latona and of JoveSlew both, ere yet the down of blooming youthThick-sprung, their cheeks or chins had tufted o’er.   Phædra I also there, and Procris saw,And Ariadne for her beauty praised,Whose sire was all-wise Minos. Theseus herFrom Crete toward the fruitful region bore    390 Of sacred Athens, but enjoy’d not there,For, first, she perish’d by Diana’s shaftsIn Dia, Bacchus witnessing her crime.   Mæra and Clymene I saw beside,And odious Eriphyle,