Page:Aratus The Phenomena and Diosemeia.pdf/67

Rh When  rises with the bright Antar, Orion marks that signal from afar; Nor turns to view the monster form again, But hastens downward to the western main. Pardon, chaste Dian, if I now relate, As ancient bards have sung, Orion's fate. He rashly dar'd, they say, on Chian strand To touch thy virgin vest with impious hand, What time invited by Œnopion came The giant warrior in pursuit of game; And slaughter'd heaps, and vacant forests told The skill and vigour of the hunter bold. A mightier beast, that could his might withstand, From the cleft rock arose at thy command; And this huge Scorpion with the hunter's blood Aveng'd the harmless tenants of the wood. Hence not in heaven unmindful of the fray Orion shuns the Scorpion's blasting ray. With him Andromeda and Cetus merge Their total limbs deep in the briny surge. Within the Arctic circle Cepheus glides— His glittering girdle night from day divides. Each eve his crowned head and breast he laves Down to the waist in ocean's cooling waves. Behind Andromeda her mother queen With head immers'd, and legs aloft is seen, A royal matron and a stately dame, Like to a tumbler at some rustic game!