Cupid and Pan

Cupid one day caught Pan asleep, outstretcht:
He snatcht the goatskin hung about his loins,
And now and then pluckt at a cross-graind hair
Bent inward: yet the God, immovable,
Blew heavy slumbers from his ruddy breast,
Feeling as any corktree's bark might feel.
Behind his neck was laid his favorite pipe,
But this with furtive touch the boy withdrew,
Not quite insensibly, for one sharp ear
Quivered a little.

Cupid now waxt wroth,
Exclaiming, "Zeus above! was ever God
So dull as this? even thy own wife would fail
To rouse him."

Then he clapt the sevenfold reeds
To his own rosy lip and blew them shrill.
Both ears were now rais'd up, and up sprang he,
The God of Arcady, and shook the ground;
But high above it sprang the lighter God,
Laughing his threats to scorn.

"Down with that bow,
Wicked young wretch! down with those arrows!"

cried
The indignant eld, "then see what thou canst do."

"What I can do, Pan, thou shalt also see."
Thus spake he; and the bow lept from the sod
With golden ring, and the young herbs embraced
The quiver.

"What! contend with thee! 'twere shame . .
"Scoff on" said Cupid;" when thy wrath subsides,
Even to be vanquisht will excite no blush.
Come, shamefaced! strike away; thy foe awaits."
The blusterer roll'd his yellow eyes, then caught
(As 'twere a bird he caught at, a rare bird
Whose pretty plumage he would grieve to hurt)
At the slim boy who taunted him too long.
'Tis said the color now first left the face
Of the cow'd child; as when amid a game
Of quoit or hoop suddenly falls the snow,
And that he trembled, fain almost to fly.

"Go, child!" said the grave Arcad: "learn to fear
Thy elders; and from far: check yet awhile
Ferocious beauty. Thou, who challengest
The peaceful, hast seen scarcely thrice-five years.
Off! or beware a touch of willow-twig."

Cupid, ashamed and angered, springing up,
Struck where the goatskin covered ill the breast;
Swift as an eagle or the bolt he bears
The Arcad, quick of sight, perceived the aim
And caught the hand, which burnt like purest fire
Upon the altar: Pan drew back his own
Extended palm, and blew from rounder cheek
A long cold whiff, and then again advanced.
Trembling to intertwine his hairy shank
With that soft thigh and trip him up, nor ceast
To press the yielding marble from above.
He grew less anxious to conclude the fight
Or win it; but false glory urged him on.
Cupid, now faint and desperate, siez'd one horn;
Pan swung him up aloft; but artifice
Faifd not the boy; nay, where the Arcad cried

Conquered at last, and ran both hands about
The dainty limbs, pluckt out from the left wing
Its stiffest feather, and smote both his eyes.
Then loud the rivers and the lakes afar
Resounded, and the vallies and the groves;
Then Ladon with a start and shudder broke
That marsh which had for ages crost his course;
Alpheios and Spercheios heard the shout
Of Maenalos; Cyllene, Pholoe,
Parthenos, Tegea, and Lycaios, calld
Responsively, nor knew they yet the cause.
'Tis said the winged steed sprang from the highths
Of his Parnassus and ran down amid
The murky marshes, his proud spirit gone,
And there abided he, nor once drave back
Castalia's ripples with his neigh and mane.
"Hail, conqueror! " Cupid cried.

In lower tone
The Arcad,

"Never shall my eyes behold
My woodland realms! never the ice afloat
Under the Zephyrs, and whirld round and round.
Or the foam sparkling dasht upon the ford; .
Never the pebbles black and white below,
Smoothen'd and rounded by assiduous plash,
Nor silvery cloud expanded overhead,
Nor Hesper, come to listen to my song.
Ah! for the blind there is one spot alone
Upon the earth, and there alone stand I.
I did not challenge; should I sue? suffice
Thy victory!"

He held forth his hand, nor knew
Whether he held it strait before the boy,

While from both cheeks fell tears: compassionate
Was Cupid.

"Soon" said he " a remedy
Shall be provided."

Soon were gathered flowers,
Nor long ere platted.

"I bestow them all"
Said he " on one condition: that thou wear
These, and these only, til I take them off."
The first was amaranth; too brittle that.
It broke ere well applied; then roses white,
White were all roses in these early days,
Narcissus, violet, open-hearted lily,
And smaller ones, no higher than the grass,
Slender and drooping they, yet fresh and fair;
A spray of myrtle held together these.
But when they toucht his eye he.stampt and yell'd
And laid wide-open his sharp teeth until
The quivering nostril felt the upper lip.

Soon slept he better mid the strawberries.
And more and more he thought of Hamadryads,
Recalling all their names, and linking them
In easy verse, and fancying it was time
To take a little care of form and face:
The goatskin for the fawnskin he exchanged
And stroked complacently the smoother pelt.
And trim'd and drew the ivy round his waist . .
It must not be too full . . too scant were worse . .
Lastly he doft the bandage from the brow.
Then was renewed the series of his woes.
And forced was he to implore again the help

Of his proud conqueror, at the Paphian fane.
There found he Venus in the porch itself.

"So! 'twas thy pleasure" said she " to remove
The flowers we gave thee. No slight chastisement
For this! It was thy duty and thy vow
To wear them til the hands that laid them on
Releast thee from them.

"Goat-foot! he who scorns
Our gifts, scorns never with impunity:
Round that horn'd brow, to ake again ere long,
A wreath less soft and fragrant shalt thou wear."