Book IV VII

Bella bis quinis operatus annisVltor Atrides Phrygiae ruinisFratris amissos thalamos piauit;Ille dum Graiae dare uela classiOptat et uentos redimit cruore,Exuit patrem miserumque tristisFoederat natae iugulum sacerdos.Fleuit amissos Ithacus sodalesQuos ferus uasto recubans in antroMersit inmani Polyphemus aluo;Sed tamen caeco furibundus oreGaudium maestis lacrimis rependit.Herculem duri celebrant labores.Ille Centauros domuit superbos,Abstulit saeuo spolium leoniFixit et certis uolucres sagittis,Poma cernenti rapuit draconiAureo laeuam grauior metallo,Cerberum traxit triplici catena.Victor immitem posuisse ferturPabulum saeuis dominum quadrigis.Hydra combusto periit ueneno,Fronte turpatus Achelous amnisOra demersit pudibunda ripis.Strauit Antaeum Libycis harenis,Cacus Euandri satiauit irasQuosque pressurus foret altus orbisSaetiger spumis umeros notauit.Vltimus caelum labor inreflexoSustulit collo pretiumque rursusVltimi caelum meruit laboris.Ite nunc fortes ubi celsa magniDucit exempli uia! Cur inertesTerga nudatis? Superata tellusSidera donat."

Revengeful Atreus' son did ten whole years employIn wars, till he his brother's loss repaid with ransacked Troy.He setting forth the fleet of Greece upon the seas,And knowing well that only blood the angry winds would please,Forgot a father's part, and with his cruel knifeUnto the gods did sacrifice his dearest daughter's life.Ulysses wailed the loss of his most faithful men,Whom Polyphemus did devour enclosed in his denBut when his hands by sleight had made the Cyclops blind,Most pleasant joy instead of former tears possessed his mind.Hercules famous is for his laborious toil,Who tamed the Centaurs and did take the dreadful lion's spoil.He the Stymphalian birds with piercing arrows strook,And from the watchful dragon's care the golden apples took.He in a threefold chain the hellish porter led,And with their cruel master's flesh the savage horses fed.He did th' increasing heads of poisonous Hydra burn,And breaking Achelous' horns, did make him back return.*He on the Libyan sands did proud Antaeus kill,And with the mighty Cacus' blood Euander's wrath fulfil.That world-uplifting back the boar's white foam did fleck.To hold on high the sphere of heaven with never bending neckOf all his many toils the last was, and most hard,And for this last and greatest toil the heaven was his reward.You gallant men pursue this way of high renown,Why yield you? Overcome the earth, and you the stars shall crown,"