10
Mars proffers Rhodope—the bride to gain—
Amyclæ, Delos, and his Clarian fane
Are Phœbus' gift; for him Latona pleads,
And rival Juno vaunts her offspring's deeds:
In vain: for Ceres scorns them both, and, blind
To the sad future, yet with anxious mind
Presaging violence, by secret ways
Her treasure to Sicilia's land conveys,
There safer deem'd; a land with Italy
Erst one, till sever'd by the surging sea,
When Nereus pour'd between his victor tides:
A narrow strait the kindred shores divides;
And, fix'd triangle-wise, its cliffs maintain
Their ceaseless warfare with th' invading main.
Pachynus here Ionian storms repels,
Here Afric's deep round Lilybeum swells.
And, as th' indignant waters howl and rave,
Pelorus trembling stems the Tuscan wave.
Eternal witness of the Giants' doom,
There central Etna rears its rocky tomb—
Of crush'd Enceladus the funeral pyre,
Still breathing sulphur from his lungs of fire.
Oft, as with strugglings fierce, with rebel might,
He shifts his mountain load to left or right,
