CHAPTER THE ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-NINTH.

(Such thoughts as these, of lovely Circe's charms so wrought upon my mind that) I disordered my bed by embracing the image, as it were, of my mistress, (but my efforts were all wasted.) This obstinate (affliction finally wore out my patience, and I cursed the hostile deity by whom I was bewitched. I soon recovered my composure, however, and, deriving some consolation from thinking of the heroes of old, who had been persecuted by the anger of the gods, I broke out in these lines:)

Hostile gods and implacable rate not me alone pursue;

Herakles once suffered the weight of heaven's displeasure too

Driven from the Inachian coast: Laomedon of old

Sated two of the heavenly host: in Pelias, behold

Juno's power to avenge an affront; and Telephus took arms

Knowing not he must bear the brunt; Ulysses feared the storms

Angry Neptune decreed as his due. Now, me to overwhelm

Outraged Priapus ever pursues on land and Nereus' realm.