Page:Aeneid (Conington 1866).djvu/224

200 Aloeus' sons there met my eyes,

Twin monsters of enormous size,

Who stormed the gate of heaven, and strove

From his high seat to pull down Jove.

Salmoneus too I saw in chains,

The victim of relentless pains,

While Jove's own flame he tries to mock

And emulate the thunder-shock.

By four fleet coursers chariot-borne

And scattering brands in impious scorn

Through Elis' streets he rode,

All Greece assisting at the show,

And claimed of fellow-men below

The honours of a God:

Fond fool! to think that thunderous crash

And heaven's inimitable flash

Man's puny craft could counterfeit

With rattling brass and horsehoofs' beat.

Lo! from the sky the Almighty Sire

The levin-bolt's authentic fire

'Mid thickest darkness sped

(No volley his of pine-wood smoke),

And with the inevitable stroke

Despatched him to the dead.

There too is Tityos the accurst,

By earth's all-fostering bosom nurst:

O'er acres nine from end to end

His vast unmeasured limbs extend:

A vulture on his liver preys:

The liver fails not nor decays:

Still o'er that flesh, which breeds new pangs,

With crooked beak the torturer hangs,

Explores its depth with bloody fangs,

And searches for her food;

Still haunts the cavern of his breast,

Nor lets the filaments have rest,

To endless pain renewed.