Like aged men who, propp'd on crutches, tread Tottering with broken strength and stooping head; So move the beasts of earth; and, creeping low, Shun the white flakes and dread the drifting snow.

From the Theogony.

BATTLE OF THE GIANTS.

ALL on that day stirr'd up th' enormous strife,
Female and male; Titanic Gods, and sons
And daughters of old Saturn; and that band
Of giant brethren, whom from forth th' abyss
Of darkness under earth deliverer Jove

Sent up to light grim forms and strong with force

:

Gigantic; arms of hundred-handed gripe

Burst from their shoulders; fifty heads up-sprang
Cresting their muscular limbs. They thus opposed
In dismal conflict 'gainst the Titans stood,
In all their sinewy hands wielding aloft
Precipitous rocks. On th' other side alert
The Titan phalanx closed; then hands of strength
Join'd prowess and show'd forth the works of war.
Th' immeasurable sea tremendous dash'd
With roaring, earth resounded, the broad Heaven
Groan'd shattering; huge Olympus reel'd through-

out

Down to its rooted base beneath the rush

Of those immortals. The dark chasm of hell

Was shaken with the trembling, with the tramp
Of hollow footsteps and strong battle-strokes,
And measureless uproar of wild pursuit.
So they against each other through the air
Hurl'd intermix'd their weapons, scattering groans
Where'er they fell. The voice of armies rose
With rallying shout through the starr'd firmament,
And with a mighty war-cry both the hosts
Encountering closed. Nor longer then did Jove
Curb down his force, but sudden in his soul
There grew dilated strength, and it was fill'd
With his omnipotence; his whole of might
Broke from him, and the godhead rush'd abroad.
The vaulted sky, the mount Olympus, flash'd
With his continual presence, for he pass'd
Incessant forth and lighten'd where he trod.
Thrown from his nervous grasp the lightnings flew
Reiterated swift, the whirling flash

Cast sacred splendour, and the thunderbolt
Fell. Then on every side the foodful earth
Roar'd in the burning flame, and far and near
The trackless depth of forests crash'd with fire.

Yea, the broad earth burn'd red, the floods of Nile
Glow'd, and the desert waters of the sea.
Round and around the Titans' earthy forms
Roll'd the hot vapour, and on fiery surge
Stream'd upward swathing in one boundless blaze
The purer air of Heaven. Keen rush'd the light
In quivering splendour from the writhen flash;
Strong though they were, intolerable smote
Their orbs of sight, and with bedimming glare
Scorch'd up their blasted vision. Through the gulf
Of yawning Chaos the supernal flame

Spread mingling fire with darkness. But to see
With human eye, and hear with ear of man,
Had been as on a time the Heaven and earth
Met hurtling in mid-air, as nether earth
Crash'd from the centre, and the wreck of Heaven
Fell ruining from high. Not less, when Gods
Grappled with Gods, the shout and clang of arms
Commingled, and the tumult roar'd from Heaven.
The whirlwinds were abroad, and hollow arous'd
A shaking and a gathering dark of dust,
Crushing the thunders from the clouds of air,
Hot thunderbolts and flames, the fiery darts

Of Jove; and in the midst of either host
They bore upon their blast the cry confused
Of battle, and the shouting. For the din
Tumultuous of that sight-appalling strife

Rose without bound. Stern strength of hardy proof
Wreak'd there its deeds till weary sank the war.