Odes 3.11 (Gladstone): Mercuri, Nam Te

Thou teacher of Amphion's song,
That drew the very stones along,
Come, Mercury; and Cittern come,
Once spurned and dumb

But now with sevenfold chord elate,
And dear to fanes, and halls of state,
Teach me some strain I may endear
To Lyde's ear.

Like three-year fillies pasturing wide,
She skips and plays, all touch denied,
A maid whose age not yet allows
The exacting spouse.

Thee tigers and thee woods obeyed
And followed, and swift streams were stayed;
Gate-keeper Cerberus, huge to see,
Was coaxed by thee,

Whose Fury-head doth bear a wreath
Of hundred snakes, and noisome breath
From out the three-tongued mouth doth pour,
And filthy gore.

Then Tityus and Ixion smiled
Ungainly; and, by thee beguiled,
The Danaids with the empty cask
Forgot their task.

The crime, the doom let Lyde learn
Of guilty damsels; how the urn
Ran void of water, and their late
But certain fate,

Which follows guilt, aye down in hell.
Those godless — who of worse could tell?
They dared to murder each her lord
With stroke of sword.

One, worthy of the nuptial flame,
One put her perjured sire to shame,
But one alone: consign her name
To deathless fame!

Her youthful lord she warns 'Arise,
Lest sleep eternal seal thine eyes
Sent whence thou know'st not: foil my sire,
And sisters dire:

'Each, as a lioness that preys
On calves, her doom-struck husband slays
But I nor strike thee, nor detain
In captive's chain.

'Let cruel fetters be my fate
For mercy to my hapless mate;
Let far Numidian home be mine
Beyond the brine:

'While night and Venus aid, and wind
O speed thee: be the omens kind:
And on my tomb a pitying word
Of love record.'