Priam, to whom the story was unknown, As dead, deplor'd his metamorphos'd son: A cenotaph his name, and title kept, And Hector round the tomb, with all his brothers, wept. This pious office Paris did not share; Absent alone; and author of the war, Which, for the Spartan queen, the Grecians drew T' avenge the rape; and Asia to subdue. A thousand ships were mann'd, to sail the sea: Nor had their just resentments found delay, Had not the winds, and waves oppos'd their way. At Aulis, with united pow'rs they meet, But there, cross-winds or calms detain'd the fleet. Now, while they raise an altar on the shore, And Jove with solemn sacrifice adore; A boding sign the priests and people see: A snake of size immense ascends a tree, And, in the leafie summit, spy'd a nest, Which o'er her callow young, a sparrow press'd. Eight were the birds unfledg'd; their mother flew, And hover'd round her care; but still in view: 'Till the fierce reptile first devour'd the brood, Then seiz'd the flutt'ring dam, and drunk her blood. This dire ostent, the fearful people view; Calchas alone, by Phoebus taught, foreknew What Heav'n decreed; and with a smiling glance, Thus gratulates to Greece her happy chance: O Argives, we shall conquer: Troy is ours, But long delays shall first afflict our pow'rs: Nine years of labour, the nine birds portend; The tenth shall in the town's destruction end. The serpent, who his maw obscene had fill'd, The branches in his curl'd embraces held: But, as in spires he stood, he turn'd to stone: The stony snake retain'd the figure still his own. Yet, not for this, the wind-bound navy weigh'd; Slack were their sails; and Neptune disobey'd. Some thought him loth the town should be destroy'd, Whose building had his hands divine employ'd: Not so the seer; who knew, and known foreshow'd, The virgin Phoebe, with a virgin's blood Must first be reconcil'd: the common cause Prevail'd; and pity yielding to the laws, Fair Iphigenia the devoted maid Was, by the weeping priests, in linnen-robes array'd; All mourn her fate; but no relief appear'd; The royal victim bound, the knife already rear'd: When that offended Pow'r, who caus'd their woe, Relenting ceas'd her wrath; and stop'd the coming blow. A mist before the ministers she cast, And, in the virgin's room, a hind she plac'd. Th' oblation slain, and Phoebe, reconcil'd, The storm was hush'd, and dimpled ocean smil'd: A favourable gale arose from shore, Which to the port desir'd, the Graecian gallies bore.