Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/48

30 Ino the sea realms holds, the foster mother of Bacchus; Round her the daughters of Nereus dance, Leucothoë singing; Over the mighty deep, though new to its waves, Palaemon, Brother of Bacchus, rules, a mortal changed to a sea-god. When in childhood a band of robbers assailing Bore thee away in their flying vessel a captive, Nereus quickly calmed the billowy ocean; When lo! to rolling meadows the dark sea changes; Here stands in vernal green the flourishing plane-tree, There the groves of laurel dear to Apollo; While resounds the chatter of birds in the branches. Now are the oars enwreathed with the living ivy, While at the masthead hang the clustering grape vines; There on the prow loud roars a lion of Ida, At the stern appears a terrible tiger of Ganges. Filled with terror the pirates leap in the ocean. Straight in their plunging forms new changes appear; For first their arms are seen to shrink and fall, Their bodies' length to shorten; and on their sides The hands appear as fins; with curving back They skim the waves, and, lashing their crescent tails, They dash through the water. Changed to a school of dolphins now, they follow the vessel. Soon did the Lydian stream with its precious waters receive thee, Pouring down its golden waves in a billowy current. Loosed was the vanquished bow and Scythian darts of the savage Massagetan who mingles blood in his milky goblets. The realm of Lycurgus, bearer of axes, submitted to Bacchus; The land of the Dacians untamable felt his dominion, The wandering tribes of the north by Boreas smitten, And whom the Maeotis bathes with its frozen waters. Where the Arcadian star looks down from the zenith, Even there the power of Bacchus extended; Conquered too the scattered Gelonian peoples. From the warlike maidens their arms he wrested; Down to the earth they fell in desperate conflict, The hardy bands of Amazonian maidens. Now, at last, their arrows swift are abandoned,