While, as along slow rolls thy sickly car,
Love and amaze the haughtiest bosoms seize.
In Lemnos pining with th' envenom'd wound 105
The son of Poean, Philoctetes,[1] lay:
There, after tedious quest, the heroes found,
And bore the limping archer thence away;
By whom fell Priam's tow'rs (so Fate ordain'd)
And the long harass'd Greeks their wish'd repose obtain'd. 110
May Hiero too, like Poeau's son, receive
Recovered vigor from celestial hands!
And may the healing God proceed to give
The pow'r to gain whate'er his wish demands.
But now, Ο Muse, address thy sounding lays 115
To young Dinomenes, his virtuous heir.
Sing to Dinomenes his father's praise;
His fathers praise shall glad his filial ear.
For him hereafter shalt thou touch the string,
And chant in friendly strains fair Aetna's future king. 120
Hiero for him th' illustrious city rear'd,
And fill'd with sons of Greece her stately tow'rs,
Where by the free-born citizen rever'd
The Spartan laws exert their virtuous pow'rs.
For by the statutes, which their fathers gave, 125
Still must the restive Dorian youth be led;
Who dwelling once on cold Eurotas' wave,[2]
- ↑ The Greeks on their way to Troy abandoned Philoctetes at Lemnos, but were obliged to seek his aid.
- ↑ The Eurotas flows past Sparta, and Mt. Taÿgetus rises high above the city. The Spartans derived their origin from Doris on the slopes of Pindus. Amyclae was the old capital of Lacedaemon. The "Twins of Leda" were Castor and Pollux, whose sanctuary was near Amyclae.
