sacrifice to Jove
Preparing, sent his followers to explore
Streams flowing from the living fountain clear.

An ancient forest hallow'd from the axe,
Not far there stood; in whose dark bosom gloom'd
A cavern:--twigs and branches thick inwove
With rocky crags, a low arch'd entrance form'd;
Where pure and copious, gush'd transparent waves.
Deep hid within a monstrous serpent lay,
Sacred to Mars. Bright shone his crested head;
His eyeballs glow'd with fire; his body swell'd
Bloated with poison; o'er a threefold row
Of murderous teeth, three quivering tongues he shook.
This grove the Tyrians with ill-fated feet
Now enter'd; and now in the waters threw,
With noisy dash, their urns. Uprears his head,
The azure serpent from the cavern deep;
And breathes forth hisses dire: their urns they drop;
The blood forsakes their bodies; sudden fear
Chills their astonish'd limbs. He writhing quick,
Forms scaly circles; spiral twisting round,
Bends in an arch immense to leap, and rears
In the thin air erect, 'bove half his height;
All the wide grove o'erlooking. Such his size,
Could all be seen, than that vast snake no less,
Whose huge bulk lies the Arctic bears between.
The Tyrians quick he seizes; some their arms
Vain grasping,--flying some,--and some through fear
To fight or fly unable:--these his jaws
Crash murderous; those his writhing tail surrounds;
Others his breath, with poison loaded, kills.

Now loftiest Phoebus shorten'd shadows gave,
When Cadmus, wondering much why still his friends
Tarried so long, their parting footsteps trac'd.
His robe an hide torn from a lion's back;
A dart and spear of shining steel his arms;
With courage, arms surpassing. Now the grove
He enters, and their breathless limbs beholds;--
Their victor foe's huge bulk upon them stretch'd;
Licking with gory tongue their mournful wounds.
"My faithful friends," he cry'd, "I will avenge
"Your fate,--or perish with you." Straight a rock
His right hand rais'd, and with impetuous force,
Hurl'd it right on. A city's lofty walls
With all its towers, to feel the blow had shook!
Yet lay the beast unwounded; safely sheath'd
With scaly armour, and his harden'd hide:--
His skin alone the furious blow repell'd.
Not so that hardness mocks the javelin,--fixt
Firm in the bending of the pliant spine
His weapon stood,--and all the iron head
Deep in his entrai