All, gladdening, hail the rite, And pour libations, and the Gods adore.
'Twas evening, and the Western star once more Sloped towards Olympus.

Forth Potitius came, Leading the priests, girt roughly, as of yore, With skins of beasts, and bearing high the flame.
Fresh, dainty gifts they bring, the second course to frame.
XXXVIII.

Next came the Salians, dancing as they sung Around the blazing altars.

Poplar crowned Their brows; a double chorus, old and young, Chant forth the glories and the deeds renowned Of Hercules; how, potent to confound His stepdame's hate, he crushed the serpents twain; What towns in war he levelled to the ground, Troy and OEchalia; how with infinite pain Eurystheus' tasks he sped, and Juno's fates were vain: XXXIX.

"Oh thou, unconquered, whose resistless hand Smote the twin giants of the cloud-born crew, Pholus, Hylaeus; and the Cretan land Freed from its monster; and in Nemea slew The lion! Styx hath trembled at thy view, And Cerberus, when, smeared with gore, he lay On bones half-mumbled in his darksome mew.
Thee not Typhoeus, when in armed array He towered erect, could daunt, nor grisly shapes dismay.
XL.