And now farewell, ye heavenly habitants!

Ye islands, and ye continents of earth!

And thou, oh main! of briny wave profound!

Oh sweet of speech, Olympian Muses! born

From ægis-wielding Jove! sing now the tribe

Of goddesses; whoe’er, by mortals clasp’d

In love, have borne a race resembling gods.

Ceres, divinest goddess, in soft joy

Blends with Iäsius brave, in the rich tract

Of Crete, whose fallow’d glebe thrice-till’d abounds;