ODE XXX.—CUPID TAKEN PRISONER.[1]
Cupid, once, was rambling found
On the Muses' hallow'd ground;
Straight they weave a rosy chain,
And the little god detain.
Him to Beauty soon they gave,
Mighty Love is Beauty's slave.
Cytherea ransoms brought,
To release her son she sought;
But no fee, no ransom now,
The happy captive will allow.
Love hath learn'd his art too well,
And with Beauty still will dwell.
ODE XXXI.—PLEASING PHRENSY.
Yes! let me—let me drain the bowl,
And pour its pleasures on my soul;
Let Bacchus now his reign employ,
Till reason reels, oppress'd with joy.
Orestes, by the furies led,[2]
Barefooted to the mountains fled.
Alcmæon too, in frantic mood,
Like him was stain'd with mother's blood;
But I disclaim such dreadful deeds,
My madness from my joy proceeds.
Then bring the bowl, I cry again,
Who shall that maddening joy restrain?
- ↑ "This ode is very fine, and the fiction extremely ingenious. I believe Anacreon would inculcate that beauty alone cannot long secure a conquest, but that when wit and beauty meet, it is impossible for a lover to disengage himself."—Madame Dacier.
- ↑ Alcmæon's father had been put to death by his mother's contrivance, whom on chat account he slew. Orestes slew his mother Clytemnestra, to revenge the death of his father Agamemnon, who at his return from the Trojan war had been murdered by her and her lover Ægisthus.
