Minor Latin poets; with introductions and English translations

AETNAThere is this second form of poetic error, diiferentfrom the first. Aetna's furnaces, it is declared, arethose the Cyclopes used, when, employing theirstrength in rhythmic strokes upon the anvil, theyforged the dread thunderbolt beneath their heavyhanuners and so gave Jupiter his panoply—a gracelesstale with ne'er a pledge of truth.Next, there is a sacrilegious legend which molestswith Phlegra's " warfare the ever-living fires ofAetna's summiit. In olden time the giants essayedimpiously to thrust down the stars from thefirmament, then capturing Jove to place hissovereignty elsewhere and impose their laws onvanquished heaven. These monsters have man'snature down to the belly ; below 'tis a scaly serpentthat forms the tortuous windings of their steps.Great mountains are built into a pile for waging thebattle. Ossa weighs down Pelion ; Olympus, topmostof the three, lies heavy on Ossa. Now theystrive to climb the mountain-masses heaped in onethe sacrilegious host challenges to close fight thealarmed stars—challenges in hostile array all the godsto battle : the standards advance through constellationsparalysed. From heaven Jupiter shrinks inalarm ; weaponing his glittering right hand withflame, he withdraws the firmament in gloom. Withmighty outcry the Giants begin their onset; hereatthunders the deep voice of the Sire, and therewithalfrom every quarter the supporting winds with theirdiscordant host redouble the noise. Thick burst the" It was fabled that the Earth-born brood of the Giants, intlieir rebellion against the gods, sought to scale heaven bypiling Mount Ossa on Pelion and then Olympus on Ossa. Theywere discomfited by Jupiter's lightnings on the Phlegraeanplain in Macedonia.