The Danaides, daughters of Danaus, king of Argos, were also there, who, in
obedience to the cruel advice of their parent, had caused their husbands to
perish; with Tityus, who having had the audacity to attempt the honour of
Latona, was doomed to feel a vulture constantly gnawing his entrails.
[Illustration]
Ulysses sought the realm of Pluto, among his many adventures.
"When lo! appeared along the dusky coasts,
Thin, airy shoals of visionary ghosts:
Fair, pensive youths, and young enamoured maids;
And withered elders, pale and wrinkled shades;
Ghastly with wounds the forms of warriors slain,
Stalked with majestic port, a martial train;
These and a thousand more, swarmed o'er the ground,
And all the dire assembly shrieked around.
Astonished at the sight, aghast I stood,
And a cold fear ran shivering through my blood."
While here he saw the ghosts of all those famed in story, who had descended
to the infernal regions for punishment.
"High on a throne, tremendous to behold,
Stern Minos waves a mace of burnished gold;
Around, ten thousand, thousand spectres stand,
Thro' the wide dome of Dis, a trembling band.
Still as they plead, the fatal lot he rolls,
Absolves the just, and dooms the guilty souls.
There huge Orion, of portentous size,
Swift thro' the gloom, a giant hunter flies;
A ponderous mace of brass with direful sway
Aloft he whirls to crush the savage prey!
Stern beasts in trains that by his truncheon fell,
Now grisly forms, shoot o'er the lawns of hell.
There Tityus, large and long, in fetters bound,
O'erspreads nine acres of infernal ground;
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Two ravenous vultures, furious for their food,
Scream o'er the fiend, and riot in his blood,
Incessant gore the liver in his breast,
Th' immortal liver grows, and gives the immortal feast.
There Tantalus along the Stygian bounds
Pours out deep groans (with groans all hell resounds);
Ev'n in the circling floods refreshment craves,
And pines with thirst amidst a sea of waves;
When to the water he his lip applies,
Back from his lip the treacherous water flies,
Above, beneath, around his hapless head,
Trees of all kinds delicious fruitage spread;
There figs sky-dy'd, a purple hue disclose,
Green looks the olive, the pomegranate grows,
There dangling pears exalting scents unfold,
And yellow apples ripen into gold:
The fruit he strives to seize, but blasts arise,
Toss it on high, and whirl it to the skies.
I turned my eye, and, as I turned, surveyed
A mournful vision! the Sisyphian shade;
With many a weary step, and many a groan,
Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone;
The huge round stone, resulting with a bound,
Thunders impetuous down and smokes along the ground,
Again the restless orb his toil renews,
Dust mounts in clouds, and sweat descends in dews."
[Illustration]
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