What to thy riches have been added now,
Oh god of the mad waves,
To make thy foolish boasting rise so high?"
"Thou hast," said the sea-god, "in thy command,
The flaming sky, where is the burning zone,
In which the heavenly host
Of stars and planets stand within thy sight.[AJ]
"Of these, the world looks most upon the sun,
Which, let me tell you, shineth not so bright,
As she who makes of me,
The god most glorious of the mighty whole.
"And I contain within my bosom vast,
With other lands, that, where the happy Thames
Goes gliding gaily on,
Which has of graceful nymphs a lovely throng.
"There will be found 'mongst those where all are fair,
Will make thee lover more of sea than sky,
Oh Jove, High Thunderer!
Whose sun shines pale beside the starry night."
Then answered Jove, "God of the billowy sea!
That one should ere be found more blest than I
Fate nevermore permits,
My treasures with thine own run parallel.
"The sun is equal to thy chiefest nymph,
By virtue of the everlasting laws,
And pauses alternating,
Amongst my stars she's equal to the sun."
[AJ] Plato says that [Greek: Theos] is derived from the verb [Greek:
Theein], to move, to run, as the first astronomers who observed the
motions of the heavenly bodies called the planets [Greek: Theoi], the
gods.
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