Page:Hesiod, and Theognis.djvu/102

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HESIOD.

less welcome master should this pest attain full development. Zeus, we are told, foresaw the danger:—

"Intuitive and vigilant and strongHe thundered: instantaneous all aroundEarth reeled with horrible crash: the firmamentRoared of high heaven, the ocean streams and seas,And uttermost caverns! While the king in wrathUprose, beneath his everlasting feetTrembled Olympus: groaned the steadfast earth.From either side a burning radiance caughtThe darkly-rolling ocean, from the flashOf lightnings and the monster's darted flame,Hot thunderbolts, and blasts of fiery winds.Glowed earth, air, sea: the billows heaved on highFoamed round the shores, and dashed on every sideBeneath the rush of gods. Concussion wildAnd unappeasable arose: aghastThe gloomy monarch of th' infernal deadTrembled: the sub-Tartarean Titans heardE'en where they stood and Cronus in the midst;They heard appalled the unextinguished rageOf tumult and the din of dreadful war.Now when the god, the fulness of his mightGathering at once, had grasped his radiant arms,The glowing thunderbolt and bickering flame,He from the summit of th' Olympian mountLeapt at a bound, and smote him: hissed at onceThe horrible monster's heads enormous, scorchedIn one conflagrant blaze. When thus the godHad quelled him, thunder-smitten, mangled, prone,He fell: beneath his weight earth groaning shook.Flame from the lightning-stricken prodigyFlashed 'mid the mountain hollows, rugged, dark,Where he fell smitten. Broad earth glowed intenseFrom that unbounded vapour, and dissolved:—
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