Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/417

Rh Her aegis set with stony Gorgon's head, And these her father's thunderbolts, can work. Unconquered by his ills, with daring soul, Bold Ajax struggles on. Him, shortening sail With halyards strained, a falling thunderbolt Smote full; again the goddess poised her bolt With hand far backward drawn, like Jove himself, And hurled it true with shock impetuous. Straight fell the bolt, and, piercing man and ship, It strewed them both in ruin on the sea. Still undismayed, he overtops the waves, All charred and blasted like some rugged cliff, And bravely breasts the wildly raging sea. Still gleaming with the lightning's lurid glare, He shines amid the blackness like a torch Which sheds its beams afar upon the deep. At length a jutting rock he gains, and shouts In madness: "Now have I o'ercome the sea, The flames; 'tis sweet to conquer sky, and waves, The thunderbolts, and her who brandished them. I've braved the terrors of the god of war; With my sole arm I fronted Hector, huge, Nor did the darts of Phoebus frighten me. Those gods, together with their Phrygians,  I set at naught; and shall I quake at thee? Thou hurl'st with weakling's hand another's bolts: But what if Jove himself—" When madly thus he dared blaspheme the gods, Great Neptune with his trident smote the rock, And whelmed its tottering bulk beneath the sea. So, falling with its fall, the madman lies By earth and fire and billows overcome. But us, poor shipwrecked, hopeless mariners, A worse destruction waits. There is a reef, Low lying, treacherous with ragged shoals, Where false Caphereus hides his rocky foot Beneath the whirling waters of the sea. Above this reef the billows heave and dash, And madly seethe with each recurring wave.