The Grecian host in speed o'ercame.
Such blessings as the gods impart
Still may I love with tranquil heart, 75
Seeking in life an easy state—
I find the middle ranks endure
In lasting happiness secure,
And blame th' exalted tyrant's fate. 81
The virtues of a common kind 80
Engage my unambitious mind,
Since loss o'er envy still impends.
He who has gain'd the summit fair,
Living remote from anxious care,
Nor to injurious wrong descends, 85
Reaches black death's most wish'd-for bound,
Shedding, to bless a lovely race,
The richest of possessions round
His noble deeds' illustrious grace; 90
Such as in hymns transmits to fame 90
Triumphant Iphiclides' name.
Thee, kingly Pollux, and great Castor's might—
Sons of the gods! who one day dwell [1]
Within Therapne's gloomy cell,
Another on Olympus' towering height. 95
- ↑ This part of the history of Castor and Pollux, who underwent for each other the alternate vicissitudes of life and death, is also related by Homer: (Od., xi., 371, seq.:)—
"By turns they visit this ethereal sky,
And live alternate, and alternate die."—Pope."Si fratrem Pollux alterna morte redemit,
Itque reditque viam toties."Therapne was a town of Laconia, where Castor and Pollux were born. Heyne conjectures, and I think with great probability, that this fable of the Dioscuri owed its origin to some confused notion of the daily rising and setting of Luciferus and Hesperus. Pindar again relates the story: ([[../../Nemean Odes/10|Nem., x.]], 100, et seq. 173, seq.)
