• Tydeus, son of the king of Calydon, slew Menalippus at the siege of Thebes and was himself mortally wounded. Statius, Thebaid , VIII , thus describes what followed:⁠— “O’ercome with joy and anger, Tydeus tries To raise himself, and meets with eager eyes The deathful object, pleased as he surveyed His own condition in his foe’s portrayed. The severed head impatient he demands, And grasps with fervor in his trembling hands, While he remarks the restless balls of sight That sought and shunned alternately the light. Contented now, his wrath began to cease, And the fierce warrior had expired in peace; But the fell fiend a thought of vengeance bred, Unworthy of himself and of the dead. Meanwhile, her sire unmoved, Tritonia came, To crown her hero with immortal fame; But when she saw his jaws besprinkled o’er With spattered brains, and tinged with living gore, Whilst his imploring friends attempt in vain To calm his fury, and his rage restrain, Again, recoiling from the loathsome view, The sculptur’d target o’er her face she threw.” ↩
• In this Canto the subject of the preceding is continued. ↩