Page:Ovid's Metamorphoses (Vol. 2) - tr Garth, Dryden, et. al. (1727).djvu/162

146 Which, for the Spartan Queen, the Grecians drew T' avenge the Rape; and Asia to subdue. A thousand Ships were mann'd, to sail the Sea: Nor had their just Resentments found Delay, Had not the Winds, and Waves oppos'd their Way. At Aulis, with united Pow'rs they meet, But there, Cross-winds or Calms detain'd the Fleet. Now, while they raise an Altar on the Shore, And Jove with solemn Sacrifice adore; A boding Sign the Priests and People see: A Snake of Size immense ascends a Tree, And, in the leafie Summit, spy'd a Nest, Which o'er her Callow Young, a Sparrow press'd. Eight were the Birds unfledg'd; their Mother flew, And hover'd round her Care; but still in view: Till the fierce Reptile first devour'd the Brood; Then seiz'd the flutt'ring Dam, and drunk her Blood. This dire Ostent, the fearful People view; Calchas alone, by Phœbus taught, foreknew What Heav'n decreed; and with a smiling Glance, Thus gratulates to Greece her happy Chance. O Argives, we shall Conquer: Troy is ours, But long Delays shall first afflict our Pow'rs: Nine Years of Labour, the nine Birds portend; The Tenth shall in the Town's Destruction end. The Serpent, who his Maw obscene had fill'd, The Branches in his curl'd Embraces held: But, as in Spires he stood, he turn'd to Stone: The stony Snake retained the Figure still his own. Yet, not for this, the Wind-bound Navy weigh'd; Slack were their Sails; and Neptune disobey'd. Some thought him loath the Town shou'd be destroy'd, Whose Building had his Hands Divine employ'd: Not so the Seer; who knew, and known foreshow'd, The Virgin Phœbe, with a Virgin's Blood Must