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Rh As from the triple virgin's head,

By dragon locks encompass'd round,

She heard the voice, ere life had fled,

Elaborate a mournful sound;

When Perseus' valiant arm had slain

The third part of the sister train;

And whelm'd beneath her people's grave,

Seriphus bosom'd in the wave;

Obscuring, by the foul disgrace,

Phorcys' imperishable race;

When he to Polydectes brought

The festal gift with ruin fraught:

Who long his mother Danae held

Captive in wedlock's chain compell'd,

Bearing the head that show'd Medusa's beauteous face.

He who is call'd in legends old

The offspring of self-fallen gold.

But when from each laborious deed

Her much-loved hero she had freed,

The virgin goddess made to sigh

The flute's sonorous melody;

That soon as left the mournful note

Euryale's rapacious throat,

Her instrument's shrill sounds might flow

In tones of imitative wo.

But when she deign'd the heavenly art

For mortal pleasure to impart,

She bade the high and glorious strain

The name of many heads retain,

Memorial of that stubborn fight

Which roused the adverse people's might.

Such as with dulcet voice proceeds

From slender brass and vocal reeds;