Page:Pindar and Anacreon.djvu/111

Rh

There on the deadly circle laid,

Whose fourfold chain himself had made,

His limbs in dreadful torment wound

Th' inevitable wheel around,

The wretch with tardy wisdom fraught,

To all mankind this lesson taught.

Submitting to his strong embrace,

Her proud ungracious son she bore,

Unhonour'd by the heavenly race,

Nor known to mortal birth before.

Centaurus (such the nursling's name)

Mingled in Pelion's shady grove

With the Magnesian mares in love,

And hence a wondrous army came.

Each parent's nature form'd to show—

Bent to the mother's shape below,

While rose the stately sire above.

The god whose speed prevents the eagle's wing,

And moves more swiftly than the dolphins sweep,

Sporting on rapid fin, the watery deep,

Can mortal hopes to prosperous issue bring;

Subdues the pride of one aspiring mind,

And deathless fame to others has assign'd.

But let me not with slanderous tale

Like beast of hostile tooth assail;

For as I saw, though far away,

Archilochus, whose bitter vein

His rancorous spleen could ne'er restrain,

O'erwhelmed in want and misery lay.

Imperial wealth by wisdom graced

In the first lot of bliss is placed;