The husband serpent show’d he still had thought, With wonted fondness an embrace he sought, Play’d round her neck in many a harmless twist, And lick’d that bosom which, a man, he kiss’d. The lookers-on (for lookers-on there were), Shock’d at the sight, half died away with fear. The transformation was again renew’d, And, like the husband, changed the wife they view’d. Both serpents now, with fold involved in fold, To the next covert amicably roll’d. There curl’d they lie, or wave along the green, Fearless see men, by men are fearless seen, Still mild, and conscious what they once have been.
Acrisius, the grandfather of Perseus, is at length compelled to acknowledge the divinity of Bacchus, and to commemorate the splendid achievements of his descendant.