Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/237

Rh In which I fared. How small a part I tell! Exhausted is the air and can no more Suffice to feed the hatred of thy wife; The earth in fear brings forth no monster more For me to conquer, no wild beasts of prey. These are denied to me, and in the stead Of monster have I come myself to be. How many evils have I overcome, Though all unarmed! Whatever monstrous thing Opposed, these empty hands have overthrown; Nor did there ever live a savage beast Which I as boy or infant feared to meet. My bidden labors have seemed always light, And no day ever dawned that brought to me No strenuous toil. How many monstrous tasks Have I fulfilled which no king set to me! A harder master has my courage been Than ever Juno was. But what avails That I have saved the human race from fear? The gods in consequence have lost their peace. The freed earth sees whatever she has feared Now set in heaven; for Juno thitherward Hath borne the beasts I slew. Restored to life, The Crab fares safely in his torrid path, A constellation now in southern skies, And ripens Libya's waving fields of grain. The Lion to the heavenly Virgin gives The flying year; but he, with beaming mane Upon his wild neck tossing, dries the winds Which drip with moisture, and the clouds devours. Behold, the beasts have all invaded heaven, Forestalling me. Though victor, here I stand Upon the earth, and view my labors there. For Juno to the monsters and the beasts Has given stars, that so the heavenly realm Might be for me a place of terror made. But no! Though in her wrath she fill the skies With monsters, though she make the heavens worse