PHOSEON Lib. X.

Laheris 3 Oebalida prima fraudate jwventa,
Phoebus ait: videoque tuum, me a crimina,
'uuinus.

Tu dolor es^facinusque meum. mea dexter a leto
Inferibenda tuo eft. egoJum tibifuneris auffor.
Quae mea culpa tamentnififi lufijfe^ocarilOO
Culpa pot eft, nifi culpa poteft, & amaj[e,<vocari;
At que utinam pro te <vitam3tecumve liceret
Reddere f fed quoniam fatali lege tenemur >•
Semper eris mecum 3 memorique haerebis in ore.
Te Ijra, pulfa manu, te carmina nojlra fo-

nabunt: 205
Flosque novus fcripto gemitus imitabere

noftros.

Tempus & illud eritiquo fe fortijjimus heros
Addat in huncfloremifolioquelegatureodem.
*Talia dum vero memorantur Apollinis ore,
Ecce cruor, qui fufus humi fignaverat her-

bam-, 210
Dejinit effe cruor: Tjrioque nitentior oftro
Flos oritur ,* formamque capit, quam liliaifi non
Purpureus color huic, argenteus effet in Hits.
£Jon fatis hoc Phoebo eft,(is enimfuit auttor

honoris )

Ipfe fuos gemitus foliis inferibit: &aiail\^
Flos habet infcriptumifunefaque liter a dufta eft.
NeegenuifjepudetSpartenHyacinthonihonorque
Durat in hoc aevi, celebrandaque more priorum
Annua praelata redeunt Hjacinthia pompa.

33

33

33

PHOSES. Book X. 337

„ O thou art gone, my Boy, Apollo cry'd,
Defrauded of thy Youth in all it's Pride!
Thou, once my Joy, art all my Sorrow now •>
And to my guilty Hand my Grief I owe.
Yet from my felt I might the Fault remove,
Unlefs to (port, and play a Fault fhould prove, I
Unlefs it too were call'd a Fault to love. J
Oh cou'd I for thee, or but with thee, die!
But cruel Fates to me that Pow'r deny.
Yet on my Tongue thou ihalt for ever dwell;
Thy Name my Lyre mail found, my Verfe
fhall tell;

And to a Flow'r transform'd, unheard of yet,
Stamp'd on thy Leaves my Cries thou Ihalt
repeat,

The time fhall come, prophetick I foreknow,
When, joyn'd to thee, a mighty * Chief fhall
grow, ^
„ And with my Plaints his Name thy Leaf fhall
fhow.

While Phoehus thus the Laws of Fate reveal'd,
Behold , the Blood which flain'd the verdant
Field,

Is Blood no longer; but a Flow'r full blown
Far brighter than the Tynan Scarlet fhonc.
A Lilly's Form it.took-, it's purple Hue
Was all that made a Diff'rence to the View.
Nor ftop'd he here j the God upon it's Leaves
The fad ExpreHion of his Sorrow weaves;
And to this Hour the mournful Purple wears
Ai, Ai, inferib'd in funeral Characters.
Nor are the Spartans, who fo much are fam'd
For Virtue, of their Hyacinth afham'd;
But ftill with pompous Woe, and fblemn State,
The Byacinthian Feafb they yearly celebrate.

* Jjax.

EXPLICATION OF THE VI. FABLE.

HYacinthus, as Paufanias relates was a young
Prince of the City Amycla in Laconia. Hjs
•rather Oebalus, whom the Author juft cited names
Amycles, educated him with fo much Care that he was
looked upon as the Favourite of Apollo and the Mu-
les. As he was one day playing with his Compa-
nions, he unfortunately received a Stroke of a Quoit
°n his Head of which he died fome time after. Some
Poem was very probably compofed on that Adventure,
in which, it was faid, to comfort his Parents and Re-
lations, that Boreas, jealous of the Inclination which
**pollo had for that young Prince turned aflde the
Quoit with which they played ; and, it mull be
confefTed , that Fidion is ingenious enough. The
•kacedazmonians celebrated a folemn Feaft every Year
near the Tomb of that Prince where they offered Sa-
crifices to him j nay they inftituted Games in Honour

(0 In Lacon.

of him which were called after his Name, and cele-
brated three days fucceflively, as we are told by Athe-
nams, who writ a Defcription of them (2). Paufanias
(peaks of the Tomb of that young Prince, upon which,
he fays, was the Figure of Apollo. His Metamorphofis
into a Flower of the fame Name is but a Romantic Epi-
fode. We are not very certain what the Hyacinth is.
Diofcorides believes it to be the Vaccinium, which has
a Flower of a Purple Colour, upon which are feen,
tho' very imperfectly, the two Letters mentioned by
Ovid. Whether it be fo or not, this Fable fliews us
what Idea the Pagans had of their Gods, lince they
did not fcruple to attribute to them the moft in-
famous Vices. The Complaints of Apollo at the
Death of Hyacinthus have often been, amongft the
Pagans themlelves, the Subject of the moft piquant
Railleries againft that God.

(2) Lib. iv.

Tom. II.

L %

F A b.