The Daily Odyssey: April 22
Thus serious they; but he who gilds the skies,
The gay Apollo, thus to Hermes cries:
“Wouldst thou enchain’d like Mars, O Hermes, lie
And bear the shame like Mars to share the joy?”
“O envied shame! (the smiling youth rejoin’d;)
And thrice the chains, and thrice more firmly bind;
Gaze all ye gods, and every goddess gaze,
Yet eager would I bless the sweet disgrace.”
Loud laugh the rest, e’en Neptune laughs aloud,
Yet sues importunate to loose the god.
“And free, (he cries) O Vulcan! free from shame
Thy captives; I ensure the penal claim.”
“Will Neptune (Vulcan then) the faithless trust?
He suffers who gives surety for the unjust:
But say, if that lewd scandal of the sky,
To liberty restored, perfidious fly:
Say, wilt thou bear the mulct?” He instant cries,
“The mulct I bear, if Mars perfidious flies.”
To whom appeased: “No more I urge delay;
When Neptune sues, my part is to obey.”
Then to the snares his force the god applies;
They burst; and Mars to Thrace indignant flies:
To the soft Cyprian shores the goddess moves,
To visit Paphos and her blooming groves,
Where to the Power an hundred altars rise,
And breathing odours scent the balmy skies;
Concealed she bathes in consecrated bowers,
The Graces unguents shed, ambrosial showers,
Unguents that charm the gods! she last assumes
Her wondrous robes; and full the goddess blooms.
Thus sung the bard: Ulysses hears with joy,
And loud applauses read the vaulted sky.
Then to the sports his sons the king commands,
Each blooming youth before the monarch stands,
In dance unmatch’d! A wondrous ball is brought
(The work of Polypus, divinely wrought);
This youth with strength enormous bids it fly,
And bending backward whirls it to the sky;
His brother, springing with an active bound,
At distance intercepts it from the ground.
The ball dismissed, in dance they skim the strand,
Turn and return, and scarce imprint the sand.
The assembly gazes with astonished eyes,
And sends in shouts applauses to the skies.
Then thus Ulysses: “Happy king, whose name
The brightest shines in all the rolls of fame!
In subjects happy with surprise I gaze;
Thy praise was just; their skill transcends thy praise.”