Page:Pindar and Anacreon.djvu/126

118 Full oft had I the menial train

To guard that precious gift enjoin'd;

But dull oblivion seized their mind,

And render'd all my caution vain.

Now in this isle is shed before the time

The immortal seed of spacious Libya's clime;

For when by sacred Tænarus he pass'd,

Whose subterranean mouth to Hades leads,

At home the treasure had Euphemus cast,

Great Neptune's son who rules his potent steeds;

Whom in a former age Europa bore,

Daughter of Tityus, on Cephisus' shore.

His children's fourth succeeding race

Had seized, with Grecian arms to aid,

The continent's extended space;

When, exiles from great Sparta made,

Mycenæ and the Argive bay,

The wand'ring train pursue their way.

Now will he find that chosen race

Sprung from the Lemnian dames' embrace,

When honour'd by th' immortal host,

They come to this sea-girded coast,

And there beget the man, whose reign

Shall stretch o'er Libya's clouded plain.

When to the sacred Pythian dome

That glitters with abundant gold,

Battus in after times shall come,

Phœbus will his decree unfold,

That he in ships should bring a numerous band

Far as Saturnian Nilus' fruitful land."