Page:Ovid's Metamorphoses (Vol. 2) - tr Garth, Dryden, et. al. (1727).djvu/29

Book 8. And now her Eyes, and Cheeks with Fury glow, Now pale her Cheeks, her Eyes with Pity flow: Now low'ring Looks presage approaching Storms, And now prevailing Love her Face reforms: Resolv'd, she doubts again; the Tears she dry'd With burning Rage, are by new Tears supply'd; And as a Ship, which Winds and Waves assail, Now with the Current drives, now with the Gale, Both opposite, and neither long prevail: She feels a double Force, by Turns obeys Th' imperious Tempest, and th' impetuous Seas: So fares Althæa's Mind, she first relents With Pity, of that Pity then repents: Sister, and Mother long the Scales divide, But the Beam nodded on the Sister's Side. Sometimes she softly sigh'd, then roar'd aloud; But Sighs were stifled in the Cries of Blood. The pious, impious Wretch at length decreed, To please her Brothers Ghost, her Son should bleed: And when the fun'ral Flames began to rise, Receive, she said, a Sister's Sacrifice; A Mother's Bowels burn: High in her Hand, Thus while she spoke, she held the fatal Brand; Then thrice before the kindled Pile she bow'd, And the three Furies thrice invok'd aloud: Come, come, revenging Sisters, come, and view A Sister paying her dead Brothers Due: A Crime I punish, and a Crime commit; But Blood for Blood, and Death for Death is fit: Great Crimes must be with greater Crimes repaid, And second Fun'rals on the former laid. Let the whole Houshold in one Ruin fall, And may Diana's Curse o'ertake us all. Shall Fate to happy Oeneus still allow One Son, while Thestius stands depriv'd of two? Better Three lost, than one unpunish'd go. Rh