University of Virginia Library

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THE BATTLE OF THE GODS and TITANS:

From the Theogony of Hesiod; with a Description of Tartarus, &c.

Now sounds the Vault of Heav'n with loud alarms,
And Gods by Gods embattling rush to Arms;
Here stalk the Titans of portentous size,
Burst from their Dungeons, and assault the Skies;

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And there, unchain'd from Erebus and Night,
Auxiliar Giants aid the Gods in Fight:
An hundred Arms each tow'r-like Warrior rears,
And stares from fifty Heads amid the Stars;
The dreadful Brotherhood stern-frowning stands,
And hurls an hundred Rocks from hundred Hands:
The Titans rush'd with Fury uncontroul'd,
Gods sunk on Gods, o'er Giant Giant roul'd;
Then roar'd the Ocean with a dreadful Sound,
Heaven shook with all its Thrones, and groan'd the Ground,
Trembled th'eternal Poles at ev'ry stroke,
And frighted Hell from its Foundations shook;
Noise, horrid Noise th'aereal Region fills,
Rocks dash on Rocks, and Hills encounter Hills;
Thro' Earth, Air, Heav'n, tumultuous Clamours rise,
And Shouts of Battle thunder in the Skies:

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Then Jove Omnipotent display'd the God,
And all Olympus trembled as he trod:
He grasps ten thousand Thunders in his Hand,
Bares his red Arm, and wields the forky Brand;
Then aims the Bolts, and bids his Lightnings play,
They flash, and rend thro' Heav'n their flaming way:
Redoubling Blow on Blow, in Wrath he moves,
The sing'd Earth groans, and burns with all her Groves;
The Floods, the Billows boiling hiss with Fires,
And bick'ring Flame, and smouldring Smoke aspires:
A Night of Clouds blots out the golden Day;
Full in their Eyes the writhen Lightnings play,
Ev'n Chaos burns: again Earth groans, Heav'n roars,
As tumbling downward with its shining Tow'rs;
Or burst this Earth, torn from her central Place,
With dire disruption from her deepest Base:
Nor slept the Wind: the Wind new Horrour forms,
Clouds dash on Clouds before th'outrageous Storms;

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While tearing up the Sands, in drifts they rise,
And half the Desarts mount th'encumber'd Skies:
At once the Tempest bellows, Lightnings fly,
The Thunders roar, and Clouds involve the Sky;
Stupendous were the Deeds of heav'nly might;
What less, when Gods conflicting cope in Fight?
Now Heav'n its Foes with horrid inroad gores,
And slow and sow'r recede the Giant Pow'rs;
Here stalks Ægeon, here fierce Gyges moves,
There Cottus rends up Hills with all their Groves;
These hurl'd at once against the Titan Bands
Three hundred Mountains from three hundred Hands;
And overshadowing, overwhelming bound
With Chains infrangible beneath the Ground;
Below this Earth, far as Earth's Confines lie
Thro' Space unmeasur'd, from the starry Sky;
Nine Days an Anvil of enormous weight,
Down rushing headlong from th'aereal height,

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Scarce reaches Earth: Thence tost in giddy rounds
Scarce reaches in nine Days th'infernal Bounds;
A Wall of Iron of stupendous height
Guards the dire Dungeons black with threefold night;
High o'er the Horrours of th'eternal Shade
The stedfast Base of Earth, and Seas is laid,
There in coercive durance Jove detains
The groaning Titans in afflictive Chains.
A Seat of Woe! remote from chearful Day,
Thro' Gulphs impassable, a boundless Way.

Above these Realms, a brazen Structure stands
With brazen Portals fram'd by Neptune's Hands;
Thro' Chaos to the Ocean's Base it swells,
There stern Ægeon with his Giants dwells;
Fierce Guards of Jove! from hence the Fountains rise
That wash the Earth, or wander through the Skies,

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That groaning murmur thro' the Realm of Woes,
Or feed the Channels where the Ocean flows;
Collected Horrours throng the dire Abodes,
Horrid and fell! detested ev'n by Gods!
Enormous Gulph! immense the Bounds appear,
Wasteful and void, the Journey of a Year:
Where beating Storms, as in wild Whirls they fight,
Toss the pale Wand'rer, and retoss thro' Night:
The Pow'rs immortal with affright survey
The hideous Chasm, and seal it up from Day.

Hence thro' the Vault of Heaven huge Atlas rears
His giant Limbs, and props the golden Spheres:
Here sable Night, and here the beamy Day
Lodge and dislodge, alternate in their Sway.
A brazen Port the varying Pow'rs divides,
When Day forth issues, here the Night resides;

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And when Night veils the Skies, obsequious Day,
Re-entring, plunges from the starry way.
She from her Lamp, with beaming Radiance bright,
Pours o'er th'expanded Earth a flood of Light:
But Night, by Sleep attended, rides in Shades,
Brother of Death, and all that breathes invades:
From her foul Womb they sprung, resistless Pow'rs,
Nurs'd in the Horrours of Tartarean Bow'rs,
Remote from Day, when with her flaming Wheels
She mounts the Skies, or paints the Western Hills:
With downy footsteps Sleep in silence glides
O'er the wide Earth, and o'er the spacious Tides;
The Friend of Life! Death unrelenting bears
An iron Heart, and laughs at human Cares;
She makes the mouldring Race of Man her Prey,
And ev'n th'immortal Pow'rs detest her sway.

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Thus fell the Titans from the Realms above,
Beneath the Thunders of Almighty Jove;
Then Earth impregnate, felt maternal Woes,
And shook thro' all her frame with teeming Throes:
Hence rose Typhoeus, a gigantic Birth,
O Monster sprung from Tartarus and Earth,
A Match for Gods in might! on high he spreads
From his huge Trunk an hundred Dragons Heads,
And from an hundred Mouths in vengeance flings
Envenom'd Foam, and darts an hundred Stings;
Horrour, Terrific Frowns from every Brow,
And like a Furnace his red Eye-balls glow;
Fires dart from every Crest, and as he turns
Keen Splendours flash, and all the Giant burns:
Whene'er he speaks, in echoing Thunders rise
An hundred Voices, and affright the Skies,

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Unutterably fierce! the bright Abodes
Frequent they shake, and terrify the Gods:
Now bellowing like a Savage Bull, they roar,
Or angry Lions in the midnight hour;
Now yell like furious Whelps, or hiss like Snakes,
The Rocks rebound, and every Mountain shakes;
He hurl'd defiance 'gainst th'immortal Pow'rs,
And Heav'n had seiz'd with all its shining Tow'rs,
But at the Voice of Jove, from Pole to Pole
Red Lightnings flash, and raging Thunders roul,
Rattling o'er all th'Expansion of the Skies,
Bolt after Bolt o'er Earth and Ocean flies.
Stern frowns the God amidst the Lightnings Blaze,
Olympus shakes from his eternal Base;
Trembles the Earth: fierce Flame involves the Poles,
Devours the Ground, and o'er the Billows rouls,
Fires from Typhoeus flash: with dreadful sound
Storms rattle, Thunder rouls, and groans the Ground;

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Above, below, the Conflagration roars,
Ev'n the Seas kindled burn thro' all their Shores,
Deluge of Fire! Earth rocks her tottering Coasts,
And gloomy Pluto shakes with all his Ghosts;
Ev'n the pale Titans, chain'd on burning Flores,
Start at the Din that rends th'infernal Shores;
Then in full Wrath, Jove all the God applies,
And all his Thunders burst at once the Skies,
And rushing gloomy from th'Olympian Brow,
He blasts the Giant with th'Almighty Blow;
The Giant tumbling sinks beneath the Wound,
And with enormous ruin rocks the Ground:
Nor yet the Lightnings of th'Almighty stay,
Thro' the sing'd Earth they burst their burning way;
Earth kindling inward, melts in all her Caves,
And hissing floats with fierce Metallic Waves;
As Iron fusile from the Furnace flows,
Or molten Ore with keen effulgence glows,

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When the dire Bolts of Jove stern Vulcan frames,
In burning Channels roul the liquid Flames;
Thus melted Earth, and Jove from Realms on high,
Plung'd the huge Gaint to the nether Sky.

Then from Typhoeus sprung the Winds that bear
Storms on their Wings, and Thunder in the Air;
But from the Gods descend of milder kind,
The East, the West, the South and Boreal Wind;
These in soft Whispers breathe a friendly Breeze,
Play thro' the Groves, or sport upon the Seas:
They fan the sultry Air with cooling Gales,
And waft from Realm to Realm the flying Sails;
The rest in Storms of sounding Whirlwinds fly,
Toss the wild Waves, and battle in the Sky;
Fatal to Man! at once all Ocean roars,
And scatter'd Navies bulge on distant Shores.

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Then thundring o'er the Earth they rend their way,
Grass, Herb, and Flow'r, beneath their Rage decay;
While Tow'rs, and Domes, vain Boasts of human Trust!
Torn from their inmost Base, are whelm'd in Dust.