Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/395

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THEBAID, I. 205–231

himself with tranquil hand permit them. Next a crowd of wandering demigods and Rivers, of one kin with the high clouds, and Winds, their clamours hushed by fear, throng the golden halls. The arching vaults of heaven are all agleam with majesty, the heights glow with a fuller radiance, and a light that is not of earth blooms upon the portals. When quiet was commanded and heaven’s orb fell silent, he began from his lofty throne—the sacred words have authority and power immutable, and Destiny waits upon his voice: “Of Earth’s trangressions I complain, and of Man’s mind that no Avenging Powers can satiate. Am I ever to be spent in punishing the wicked? I am weary of venting my anger with the flashing brand, long since are the busy arms of the Cyclopes failing, and the fires droop that serve Aeolian anvils. Yea, I had suffered the Sun’s steeds to run free of their false driver, and heaven to be burned with their straying wheels and earth to be foul with the ashes that once were Phaethon. Yet naught availed it, nor that thou, brother, didst with thy strong spear send the sea flooding wide over the forbidden land. Now am I descending in punishment on two houses, whereof I am myself progenitor. The one branches from the stem to Persean Argos, the other flows from its source to Aonian Thebes. In all the implanted character abides: who knows not Cadmus’ bloodshed[1] and the array of warring Furies so oft summoned from the depths of hell, the mothers’ unhallowed joys and frenzied ranging of the forests, and the reproaches of gods that must be veiled in silence[2]? Scarce would the

  1. ↑ The slaughter of the armed warriors who sprang from the dragon’s teeth.
  2. ↑ The old commentators took this as purposely ambiguous, crimes committed by or against the gods. The latter meaning is the easier one, e.g. Niobe, Pentheus, Semele, and it is difficult to see what the other could refer to.

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