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Flies northward through the polar heights,
Nor stays till he on Cumæ lights.
First landed here, he consecrates
The wings whereon he flew
To Phœbus' power, and dedicates
A fane of stately view.
Androgeos' death the gates portray:
Then Cecrops' sons appear,
Condemned the price of blood to pay,
Seven children year by year;
There, standing by the urn they wait
The drawing of the lots of fate.
Emergent on the other side
The isle of Gnossus crests the tide;
Pasiphae shows her sculptured face,
And Minotaur, of mingled race,
Memorial of her foul disgrace.
There too develops to the gaze
The all inextricable maze;
But Dædalus, with pity moved
For her who desperately loved,
Himself his own dark riddle read,
And gave a clue to guide the tread.
Thou too, poor Icarus, there hadst filled
No narrow room, if grief had willed:
Twice strove the sire thy tale to tell:
Twice the raised hands grew slack and fell.
So had they viewed the sculptures o'er,
But now Achates, sent before,
Returned, his errand done,
And at his side Deiphobe,
Phœbus and Dian's priestess she,
Who thus her speech begun:
'Not this the time, like idle folk,
The hungry gaze to feed: