XXXV. To Diana

The FUMIGATION from MANNA.

Hear me, Jove's daughter, celebrated queen,

Bacchian and Titan, of a noble mien:

In darts rejoicing and on all to shine,

Torch-bearing Goddess, Dictynna divine;

O'er births presiding, and thyself a maid, 5  5

To labour-pangs imparting ready aid:

Dissolver of the zone and wrinkl'd care,

Fierce huntress, glorying in the Sylvan war:

Swift in the course, in dreadful arrows skill'd,

Wandering by night, rejoicing in the field: 10

Of manly form, erect, of bounteous mind,

Illustrious dæmon, nurse of human kind:

Immortal, earthly, bane of monsters fell,

'Tis thine; blest maid, on woody hills to dwell:

Foe of the stag, whom woods and dogs delight, 15

In endless youth who flourish fair and bright.

O, universal queen, august, divine,

A various form, Cydonian pow'r, is thine:

Dread guardian Goddess, with benignant mind

Auspicious, come to mystic rites inclin'd 20

Give earth a store of beauteous fruits to bear,

Send gentle Peace, and Health with lovely hair,

And to the mountains drive Disease and Care.

Footnotes

166:5 Ver. 5.] O'er births presiding. In the original, λοχεία: and Proclus, in Plat. Theol. p. 403. observes that this epithet is given to Diana by theologians, because she is the inspector of natural progression and generation.

XXXVI.