A new Achilles shall in arms appear, And he, too, goddess-born.Fierce Juno's hate, Added to hostile force, shall urge thy fate.
To what strange nations shalt not thou resort, Driv'n to solicit aid at ev'ry court!
The cause the same which Ilium once oppress'd;A foreign mistress, and a foreign guest.
But thou, secure of soul, unbent with woes, The more thy fortune frowns, the more oppose.
The dawnings of thy safety shall be shown From whence thou least shalt hope, a Grecian town."Thus, from the dark recess, the Sibyl spoke, And the resisting air the thunder broke;The cave rebellow'd, and the temple shook.
Th' ambiguous god, who rul'd her lab'ring breast, In these mysterious words his mind express'd;Some truths reveal'd, in terms involv'd the rest.
At length her fury fell, her foaming ceas'd, And, ebbing in her soul, the god decreas'd.
Then thus the chief: "No terror to my view, No frightful face of danger can be new.
Inur'd to suffer, and resolv'd to dare, The Fates, without my pow'r, shall be without my care.
This let me crave, since near your grove the road To hell lies open, and the dark abode Which Acheron surrounds, th' innavigable flood;Conduct me thro' the regions void of light, And lead me longing to my father's sight.
For him, a thousand dangers I have sought, And, rushing where the thickest Grecians fought, Safe on my back the sacred burthen brought.
He, for my sake, the raging ocean tried, And wrath of Heav'n, my still auspicious guide, And bore beyond the strength decrepid age supplied.
Oft, since he breath'd his last, in dead of night His reverend image stood before my sight;Enjoin'd to seek, below, his holy shade;
Conducted there by your unerring aid.
But you, if pious minds by pray'rs are won, Oblige the father, and protect the son.
Yours is the pow'r; nor Proserpine in vain Has made you priestess of her nightly reign.
If Orpheus, arm'd with his enchanting lyre, The ruthless king with pity could inspire, And from the shades below redeem his wife;If Pollux, off'ring his alternate life, Could free his brother, and can daily go By turns aloft, by turns descend below-Why name I Theseus, or his greater friend, Who trod the downward path, and upward could ascend?