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Rh But now the jarring portals close,

For ever fix'd in dead repose:

Since the proud demigods by fate

Are urged to cross the narrow strait.

And next the wandering heroes trace

To Phasis' flowing streams their way,

Mingling with Colchis' swarthy race,

And great Æetes in the fray.

Venus, whose darts inflict the sharpest wound,

First to mankind the raging songster bore,

Which to the wheel indissolubly bound,

That from Olympus gain'd its magic round,

Taught wise Æsonides her charmed lore;

That from Medea's raging mind

All shame of parents left behind

Persuasion's lash might take, and prove

Greece the sole object of her love.

The sum of all the labours dire

Enjoin'd him by her cruel sire

She told; and mingled with the oil

Her antidotes to rugged toil,

Given to anoint his manly frame,

Then in sweet Hymen's bands they vow'd to quench their flame.

But when the adamantine plough

Æetes in the midst had set,