Kitap 6
' Ye awful goddesses, avenging power
1
' Of Hell upon the damned, and Chaos huge
' Who striv'st to mix innumerable worlds,
' And Pluto, king of earth, whose weary soul
' Grieves at his godhead; Styx; and plains of bliss
' We may not enter: and thou, Proserpine,
' Hating thy mother and the skies above,
' My patron goddess, last and lowest formThe mysterious goddess Hecate was identified with Luna in heaven, Diana on earth, and Proserpine in the lower regions. The text is doubtful.
' Of Hecate, through whom the shades and I
' Hold silent converse; warder of the gate
' Who castest human offal to the dog:
' Ye sisters who shall spin the threads again; That is, for the second life of her victim.
' And thou, O boatman of the burning wave,
' Now wearied of the shades from hell to me
' Returning, hear me if with voice I cry
' Abhorred, polluted; if the flesh of man
' Hath ne'er been absent from my proffered song,
Flesh washed with brains still quivering; if the child
Whose severed head I placed upon the dish
But for this hand had lived-a listening ear
Lend to my supplication! From the caves
'Hid in the innermost recess of hell
' I claim no soul long banished from the light.
' For one but now departed, lingering still
' Upon the brink of Orcus, is my prayer.
Grant (for ye may) that listening to the spell
'Once more he seek his dust; and let the shade
Of this our soldier perished (if the war
Well at your hands has merited), proclaim
The destiny of Magnus to his son.'
Such prayers she uttered; then upraised her head
And foaming lips, and present saw the ghost.
Hard by he stood, beside the hated corpse
His ancient prison, and loathed to enter in.
There was the yawning chest where fell the blow
That was his death; and yet the gift supreme
Of death, his right, (Ah, wretch! ) was reft away.
Angered at Death the witch, and at the pause
Conceded by the fates, with living snake
Scourges the nerveless corse; and on the dead
